Chapter 37 – Birthday Presents

 

As it just happened to coincide with the rest day for the crew, it saved her the trouble of taking a leave. The time for the livestream was really long, from four in the afternoon to eight in the evening.

“Wait first….” Wu Xue hurriedly stopped her. “You’re serious?!”

“What?”

“Link-Up!”

Su Yi said with confusion, “Of course I am.”

Right at the front, Chu Xi who was playing some new online game said slowly, “Didn’t you realise that she was playing Link-Up on her phone recently?”

“Who would look at someone else’s phone!” Wu Xue was so angry she started laughing. “Friendly Link-Up competition, who taught you?”

“Chu Xi.”

“… you haven’t learnt much games but you did learn quite a few online gaming terms.”

Su Yi, who was downloading QQ Games on her laptop, didn’t even look up. “Thanks for the compliment.”

“Not complimenting you.” Wu Xue looked disgusted.

Chu Xi leant out and said, “I think that livestreaming Link-Up is silly, it’s not as good as singing a few songs.”

“Never mind that.” Wu Xue made sure to wave off that suggestion first. “Others sing and you’d give them money, she sings and you’d give her your life.”

“What do you mean!” Su Yi freed a hand to pinch her waist. “That’s an exaggeration.”

Chu Xi said, “Sing something for me.”

Su Yi put down her mouse at once. After clearing her throat, she sang a refrain on the spot.

Once done, she even raised an eyebrow and asked, “How is it?”

Chu Xi retreated to behind her laptop. “… after listening to you, I’ve forgotten what the original sounds like.”

OK, this conversation is dead!

Su Yi ignored them both. The livestream time had yet to start; she used her alias to go around and look at the other livestreams.

Beside her Wu Xue asked, “You say, you don’t want to do a birthday party and want to do this livestream instead, but a party is at most one to two hours, this livestream would take a whole four hours.”

Su Yi’s eyes darkened, but her tone was completely uncaring. “Every year it’s a birthday party. Even if the fans are not sick of it, I am!”

Actually she only intended to livestream for one hour because she had intended to spend this year’s birthday with Chu Ying. It’s a pity this was not the weekend. When she messaged Chu Ying this morning, the other replied after a full two hours, saying he was busy.

After this while together, she had it all figured out. If Chu Ying was not busy, she’d receive a reply or a call back in basically five minutes; if he did not reply for longer than half an hour, then he really was busy.

She never mentioned her birthday to him, since birthdays had never been an important day to her, not as much as those national holidays were.

But there was… still that little, tiny, infinitesimal bit of disappointment.

But there were people who would pick exactly the topic she didn’t want to discuss.

Chu Xi was killed in the game again and was in a bad enough mood that she wanted everyone to be upset together. “It’s your birthday and my brother’s not going to be here with you? It’s the first important day you two would be spending together isn’t it.”

Su Yi tilted her head and flashed a genteel smile. “As long as it’s someone you love, every day is a birthday, these few days don’t matter.”

Chu Xi rolled her eyes. “Then what’s your age this year?”

Su Yi ignored her, patting the person beside and saying, “Little Xue Xue, come see how this special effect is added.”

Wu Xue looked up. On the screen, the host’s face had moustache and glasses.

“Stop fooling around.” She looked at her watch. “It’s five fifty, go to the livestream page first, it’s okay to start a minute or two earlier.”

Su Yi let out an oh and took a last glance at her phone. It was dark, with no notifications.

After setting everything up she opened the livestream, the equipment brought in by Wu Xue last minute. Her agent really was like that Doraemon who could do anything.

On the livestream page was a button for sharing on Weibo. After doing that, people started trickling in.

At the start there weren’t many people around, so she could still finish reading the comments one by one.

[Yi Yi happy birthday!]

[Are you filming recently?]

[I don’t feel anything for her, and keep dissing her every day on the TV show comments, but when I saw that she was hosting a livestream I found myself coming over as soon as I could so why is that…]

[As above, maybe it’s because of her looks.]

Su Yi picked some questions to reply.

[Thanks for the blessing and the presents.]

[Yeah, I’m filming.]

[Then diss me more, add more comments to our TV show.]

Very quickly, the number of people in the audience for the livestream had passed three hundred thousand. This was actually pretty good. For her birthday party the past few years, the location couldn’t even fit a thousand people.

One online friend asked: [Am I the only one who looked at the livestream name? What does ‘Unbeatable on Link-Up / Random lucky draw of fans to hold friendly competition’ mean? Are you going to livestream LOL or something?]

Su Yi opened her QQ game: [As it says, a friendly Link-Up competition.]

The screen was silent for a few seconds. Then the screen was filled with ‘666666’.

She found it hilarious, and looked to her side. “Look, my fans are praising me.”

Wu Xue sneered and replied, “They’re just comforting you, don’t take it seriously.”

[233333 don’t say it even if you see it little (older) sister.]

[She’s saying rubbish, I’m really praising you.]

[That face of yours, you’ve taken quite a lot of botox recently haven’t you?]

“I can’t help it,” Su Yi said as she propped her chin up. “I drank too much water yesterday night before going to bed, so when I woke up my face was swollen. It has lasted till now and is quite ugly, so try your best to deal with it. It’s enough for you to know in your heart what I actually look like, be nice.”

Even Chu Xi couldn’t help it, sticking out a thumb from behind the laptop.

They chatted for a while. Su Yi made sure to read almost every comment, and reply to questions she had some interest in, accepting it regardless of whether it’s a praise or a ridicule.

It was just half an hour in when suddenly a huge bunch of people entered the livestream.

In a short ten minutes, the number of audience went from seventy thousand to seven hundred thousand; never mind the fans, even Su Yi was shocked. She turned around to look at Wu Xue a little blankly.

Wu Xue stopped looking at her phone and waved a finger at her, indicating that she mute the livestream first.

“The news about the livestream has suddenly reached the top spot of trending topics, this commercial blogger is actually rather famous, but the company didn’t buy you an advertisement,” Wu Xue said, looking confused. “The topic was even ‘Su Yi rebuking the haters on livestream, her unbelievable beauty coming out through the screen.”

“…”

What a trashy title, did the screen make you angry. As expected, a huge batch of haters started coming around.

[Let’s come get to know a beauty that can come out through the screen.]

[Fans have a hundred layers of filter on? Unbelievable beauty???]

The fans immediately started attacking back, and in the comments there were fights breaking out. Su Yi found it very fun.

“Who’s always sending me gifts? It’s blocking the screen, I can’t see the comments anymore,” Su Yi said anxiously. “Oh right, how much is that gift worth?”

Wu Xue said, “A hundred each.”

“A hundred each? So expensive?” Su Yi paused and counted mentally. In the hour, she had already received more than a thousand of these gifts. “Please stop sending gifts, I don’t lack the money.”

[666666, may I know how much you earn from each show you film?]

[Not much,] Su Yi said sincerely, looking at the comment, [But it’s enough for me.]

It’s a pity that her words don’t seem to make a difference. There’s still people giving her gifts, and the fights breaking out onscreen are just getting fiercer.

[Stop arguing.] She took a look at the time. [It’s time for the friendly competition, in a moment there’d be a lucky draw page shown on the screen. There are five spots, and if you get one you can participate in our friendly Link-Up competition.]

Once she’d said that, even the haters paused for a few seconds.

[…friendly Link, Link-Up competition?]

[Why are you city people devolving as you move on???]

[Anyone who gets lucky can play? Even haters?]

“Yeah,” Su Yi said. “As long as you have a laptop.”

The first round of lucky draw was about to start.

In less than five minutes, five players were chosen, and in a moment the game moderator sent over the room number and the password.

Su Yi took a long while to finally enter the room.

In there were five players with really high points, some ‘Matching Zodiac’, ‘Extraordinarily Sharp Eyes’, ‘Diamond *XX seat’… with one glance it’s easy to tell they were all experienced players from a bygone era.

As for Su Yi.

Su Yi – Little star.

[Little star and you have the face to open a friendly competition? Resembling a bronze player looking to SOLO with diamond players.]

“What’s wrong with Little star?” Su Yi argued. “I’ve practiced on the phone for a long time.”

The game started soon. Su Yi focused on getting rid of the blocks, and it was surprisingly smooth-sailing. Mid-way, she looked at the competitors with her peripheral vision. One of them was about the same speed as her, and she could see that both were about to reach the countdown.

She settled, calmly dissolving the bricks one by one, and just when she was about to press the last one, the screen darkened – the other ended the game two seconds earlier than her.

This feeling really was… coma-inducing anger.

[Watching a Link-Up competition actually managed to make my blood boil???]

[+1 f***, I’m helping Su Yi look for the blocks to link together on the other side of the screen, there’s something wrong…]

[I, Diamond*Scorpio, must get a spot and stop this little star today.]

[No, game moderator, remember this fan’s name for me,] Su Yi said defiantly. [Let him come again next round!]

The next round started at once, and it started with a more complicated board. She clutched her mouse tightly, preparing to click a block.

The screen suddenly darkened.

In less than five seconds since the start, someone had already finished off all the blocks.

Su Yi looked at the screen dazedly, not quite back to herself just yet.

[Damn, even here there’s hackers!!!]

[Su Yi’s dazed look is so cute, I’ve decided to join the cult and follow her Weibo.]

[To think about those years when I was younger, and was so angry at these hackers I cried, I really cried (lights cigarette)]

[I think I’ve seen enough.] Su Yi sneered. She used her mouse to report this player, and after that she didn’t seem to think it’s enough. [Game Moderator! Kick this person out of the livestream for me at once! I’m not playing with cheaters!]

The friendly competition went on merrily, with so much commotion that even Chu Xi couldn’t help turning off her game to go look at the livestream. She hadn’t watched for that long when the phone dinged. Chu Xi glanced at it off-handedly, and her expression immediately changed.

After an hour of Link-Up, Su Yi decided to pause for a break.

The number of people watching the livestream was shockingly huge – already a million and three hundred thousand.

She looked at the number. After counting the number of zeroes she dismissed it; even a person like her, who hadn’t touched livestream before, knew that the number of audience each livestream on this sort of platform was usually not the truest. The actual number could in fact be just a fraction of the displayed number.

What she didn’t know was that this birthday livestream of hers wasn’t just famous on Weibo. It had plenty of viewers even on Tieba, QQ groups and some famous social media networks from other countries. Zhihu soon followed with a fresh-out-of-the-oven hot topic.

[Question: Why is the marketing for this birthday party of Su Yi’s so successful?]

[Thanks for the invitation, I just finished watching a very exciting Link-Up competition, all I can say is – Link-Up is truly very fun.]

But the person in question knew nothing about this. She drank some water, prepared to say something when both people beside her got up at the same time.

Wu Xue’s expression remained unchanged as she said, “I’m going out for a moment, and bring you something to it.”

Chu Xi stretched and said, “I’m going too.”

Su Yi was a little confused; how could Wu Xue be okay with her sitting and doing the livestream alone? She blinked twice and said, “Then get me longevity noodles, it’d match the mood.”

She had yet to finish speaking when both were out of the door, slamming it loudly.

She took a break, then reopened the game and said, “Game moderator, restart the lucky draw.”

This game, she got the hardest starting board – a square filled with blocks.

Su Yi held her breath, carefully searching.

The doorbell rang twice.

They’re done buying so soon?

There’s a time limit for the game, and she only had thirty blocks left. without looking back she shouted, “Little Xue Xue, give me a moment!”

Only after the game was over and she’d won did she get up. “Wait a moment guys, I’m going to go open the door for my friend.”

After sitting for so long, although she didn’t feel anything strange when getting up, she still stretched her legs out and swivelled her head around habitually, before slowly going to the door.

When opening the door, she had just gotten to the last step of the neck stretch, when she was leaning her head back as far as she could, with her lips parted slightly, if someone was standing right in front, what they’d see would be the ugliest angle possible when taking a selfie.

The person in front froze for barely a second before letting out a short bark of laughter.

Su Yi froze on the spot.

Chu Ying was standing in front of the door, looking at her with an unsmiling smile. He wore a fitted black suit and a tie.

What’s eye-catching was… he had hung branded bags on every part of him that could be hung on. Two around his neck, and quite a few on each hand. The bags were multi-coloured and really bright, but somehow they were completely unassuming when they’re hanging off him.

At least in Su Yi’s eyes, all she could see was the guy in front.

She stuttered, “Yo-you…”

Chu Ying’s voice had some laughter in it. “Sign for your birthday present.”

“…” Su Yi’s lips were a little open. After a long while she said carefully, “Is the gift you or the bags?”

“Both!”

…

The livestream audience realised that the host left for longer than expected. The audience that got lucky were kicked out of their rooms as the system presumed they were holding the seats with ill-intentions, since they still had yet to start the game.

Finally, five minutes later, the new host of the livestream Su Yi showed up late.

Her cheeks were red, her ears were red, her lips were red.

[Redoing her make-up?]

[She really put too much lipstick on, it’s covering more than just her lips.]

[Is it just me or is Su Yi’s lips a little swollen, it can’t be that she put on too much lipstick?]

Everyone was enthusiastically discussing when Su Yi coughed lightly. 

[… excuse me, something delayed this, let’s start.]

The game immediately began. The initial screen was the same as in the previous round, the most complicated one possible.

Su Yi was stuck at the opening.

They saw her lean back, turn her head and said pitifully, [I’m stuck, come help me find a way.]

In the floating comments the fans were worried sick, commenting on how she could get out of this, but she was not looking at it and making everyone even more worried.

“What is it?” The low voice of the person beside sounded in the livestream.

After a moment, a guy in a suit slowly walked into the scene. He walked behind Su Yi, bent over and, with his face against Su Yi’s and gave the screen a cold look. Then he raised his hand somewhere on top of the mouse and put it on Su Yi’s hand, commanding, “Here.”

Two cubes vanished as he spoke.

Su Yi smilingly tilted her head to the side, taking the chance to peck his cheek.

The amount of comments floating across the screen on the livestream immediately hit the highest point.

 

 

this chapter was edited by larkspur!!!

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