Enough with the Magic!

Still, he found the chat's theory that some wealthy woman nursing a broken heart was using him as a voice substitute for her ex-boyfriend just as implausible.

Yu Nian stopped speculating about the other person's identity and simply replied, "Thanks for looking out for me. I'll stream a little longer before bed. You should get some rest too."

He really was sleepy, but he had admittedly been slacking off at work lately, canceling on his fans several times. He wanted to make it up to them however he could.

After that, "Y" went quiet.

Of course Yu Nian was happy to receive so many gifts, but he still had a stream to run. He couldn't dwell on the subject forever.

The viewers were there to watch Yu Nian play games. Although some were still discussing Y's outrageously lavish spending, new messages soon buried the topic.

A few minutes passed like that.

Then another wave of gift animations flooded Yu Nian's stream. Everyone took a look-it was the same big spender.

Yu Nian began to believe that he really might be drunk and tried to talk some sense into him. "Hey, are you drunk? Get some rest. Please stop sending me gifts."

[Y: I haven't been drinking.]

[Ooh, ooh, ooh, he hasn't been drinking. He just wants to send you gifts. /peek]

[Why do I feel like something's going on here? Tsk, tsk, tsk...]

[Singles' Day is already over, and you're still rubbing your romance in my face? I'll fight you lovey-dovey couples!]

[Streamer, danger!]

Yu Nian was genuinely getting a little scared. From his rough estimate, this person had sent him at least twenty or thirty thousand yuan's worth of gifts in just a few short minutes.

"Even so, you don't have to send any more. Thank you, really. No matter how much you spend, it's the thought that counts. That's enough."

It wasn't that Yu Nian didn't love money. If one of his longtime fans struck it rich and sent him hundreds of thousands of yuan's worth of gifts, he would laugh himself awake.

But this Y had appeared out of nowhere, said inexplicable things, and chosen the middle of the night to do it. It made him uneasy.

After he said that, though, some viewers spontaneously started sending him gifts. None cost much, but everyone was enthusiastic.

[Nian Bao really never asks us for gifts. This freeloader is crying.]

[If I had money, I'd send the streamer gifts too. No other reason—I just really like Nian Bao's character.]

Even the chat was getting sentimental.

Yu Nian covered his face and muttered, "What exactly have you all misunderstood about my character? I'd love for every one of you to get filthy rich and give me a few hundred thousand each. Then I'd be set for the rest of my life."

[Hahahaha, Nian Bao: can't keep up the act for even a second.]

[Damn it, my tears of gratitude just dried right up.]

[Waaah, if I could get rich overnight, I'd even be willing to eat fancy food and drink the good stuff every day.]

[Y: Is that enough for tonight?]

Yu Nian froze. "Enough for what?"

Y said nothing. Y sent him another Carnival.

Yu Nian said, "Enough, enough! Boss, enough with the magic!"

[Y: You should get some rest.]

Yu Nian said, "..."

He understood now. Y thought he was streaming this late because he hadn't earned enough for the night, so he was sending gifts to get him to bed earlier.

Once he understood that logic, Yu Nian suddenly found him rather cute.

[Oh my god, what is this domineering sugar daddy's forced love? I ship it so hard!]

[Boss, you should've said so! We'll help make sure he goes to bed!]

[Now I understand why I stay up late. It's because nobody suddenly hands me tens of thousands just to get me to sleep earlier QAQ]

[It really is pretty late. The streamer's still in school, right? Going to bed early is a good idea.]

[As much as I still want to watch Nian Bao, I'm siding with Boss Y this time.]

[Why doesn't he stream himself sleeping? That way he gets his streaming hours in, Boss Y is happy, and we can keep watching.]

[Hahaha, the person above is a genius!]

Seeing so many viewers urging him to sleep touched Yu Nian. He was also afraid that if he stayed up any longer, Y would unleash his money-powered superpowers again, so he said, "All right, I'll go to bed now. I'll start the stream earlier tomorrow. Good night."

Yu Nian finally ended the stream and rubbed his slightly sore eyes.

A moment ago, he had thought he could hold out. Now he could barely keep his eyes open. He hurriedly washed up, didn't even remember to bring his phone, and fell asleep as soon as he returned and lay down.

"Hey, when did you buy that brooch?"

Bian Yan spotted the jasmine flower on his jacket at once and leaned closer in curiosity. "It's pretty nice. It looks so real."

Yu Nian had hurriedly thrown on his jacket before coming to class that day without paying attention. Only now did he remember that the jasmine flower Qin Yuheng had given him was still clipped to his collar.

Yu Nian's expression stiffened slightly. Before he could say anything, Bian Yan gave another surprised sound. "Huh? This doesn't look like a brooch. Isn't it a hair clip?"

Yu Nian gave an awkward smile. "It is."

"Tsk, tsk." Bian Yan slung an arm over his shoulders, his eyes eager for gossip. "Yu Nian, you're keeping secrets. Something's going on, and you didn't even tell your buddy."

"Whose hair clip did you take?"

Yu Nian gave him a strange look. "?"

Meeting that hard-to-describe look, Bian Yan suddenly remembered something. "Shit, I forgot you're..."

Yu Nian clapped a hand over his mouth and glanced around in alarm.

Luckily, the class was in a large lecture hall, and hardly anyone was sitting nearby.

Bian Yan pulled his hand down and lowered his voice. "I know, I know. I won't say anything."

"But now I'm confused. You don't even like girls, so why do you have a girl's hair clip pinned to your clothes?"

Yu Nian knew that if he said a friend had given it to him, Bian Yan would keep asking questions. Anything involving Qin Yuheng was a little complicated, so he merely said, "After my interview yesterday, I wandered around nearby for a bit. I thought it looked nice and went well with this outfit, so I bought it."

Although Bian Yan couldn't understand why he would buy a girl's hair clip to use as a brooch, he had to admit that it did look good.

He gave Yu Nian a thumbs-up. "You're something else. A bunch of clueless straight guys like us could rack our brains forever and never come up with that."

Isn't Qin Yuheng straight too? He thought of it, Yu Nian thought.

But the jasmine hair clip inevitably made him think of Qin Yuheng again.

Qin Yuheng must have found his behavior baffling. One moment, Yu Nian was treating him as a friend, eating and shopping with him; the next, he was avoiding him like the plague.

He might even think Yu Nian had only approached him to use him to get into Sea Star or something.

But perhaps... Qin Yuheng would soon forget him altogether.

That thought left Yu Nian feeling a little down.

But he couldn't exactly tell Qin Yuheng outright, "I dated your younger brother," could he?

He unclipped the hair clip from his collar, gently stroked its soft petals, and sighed silently.

"What are you thinking about?" Bian Yan gave him a light nudge. "The instructor's about to randomly pick someone to answer a question."

Yu Nian instantly felt the pressure. He stopped letting his thoughts wander and hurriedly looked up at the question on the slides.