Chi Li shot him a glare, then lowered his head to straighten his disheveled clothes.
He had only felt Shen Xunye's waist once, and he had nearly had his clothes stripped off.
...What a vindictive bastard.
"I'll get going, then?" The corners of Shen Xunye's eyes curved in satisfaction. "Message me if you need anything."
Chi Li resisted the urge to say "get lost" and said expressionlessly, "See you tomorrow."
After seeing Shen Xunye off, he straightened his collar and returned to his room.
Only after putting on a sheet mask did Chi Li have time to pick up his phone, which he had neglected for quite a while.
The moment he unlocked it, the first thing he noticed was the dozens of unread messages from Gu Nan.
He opened the chat and scrolled to the beginning. The first messages were Gu Nan's ramblings as he watched the livestream, or notes on some shippy moments between him and Shen Xunye.
The messages after ten that evening were summaries of public opinion Gu Nan had collected.
Those who welcomed his arrival and those who disliked it were split half and half.
Those who welcomed him were all new viewers, or former viewers who had once enjoyed the Raising House but later dropped it because they found it boring.
Those who disliked him were basically all Xie Weishui's fans and "Jinshui" CP fans.
Gu Nan had even specifically reassured him that a large proportion of the welcoming viewers had yet to join the community discussions, so the figures were inaccurate.
Chi Li did not care about that.
He had been prepared to be disliked by plenty of people ever since he bought those gifts.
At 10:30 p.m., Gu Nan had sent him his ship-promotion post—"'Night Ashes Dawn': a CP every shipper girl should get on board with, guaranteed to be worth your investment."
Night Ashes Dawn... That was a pretty good CP name.
After that, sometime past eleven, Gu Nan had forwarded two highly popular clips.
The first was the gift-giving clip, which already had 630,000 likes.
The second was the clip of him showing his cross-dressing photos, with 590,000 likes.
The first video had been posted three hours before the second, yet the second was already close to catching up in likes...
Did that make sense?
He kept scrolling down to Gu Nan's last "report," sent ten minutes ago-a screenshot of a trending topic.
#A hot girl arrives at the Raising House#
Chi Li: ?
Gu Nan replied instantly: You finally have time for me TAT
Gu Nan: May I ask what that ? is about?
Chi Li: The last one.
Gu Nan: ?
Gu Nan: What's there to ? about?
Gu Nan: You ARE a hot girl! [Affirmative]
Chi Li: ...
He certainly had not expected that, despite such blatant provocation as using gifts to take veiled shots at the existing members, the audience would care more about his cross-dressing.
That was far too strange.
As though he knew what Chi Li was thinking, Gu Nan sent another message: Viewers have very bizarre tastes.
Gu Nan: If they were easy to predict~ capital would've started mass-producing this stuff ages ago.
Chi Li tapped lightly on the keyboard: Mm.
Chi Li: Thanks for all your work today.
Gu Nan: No trouble at all! (shakes head wildly
Gu Nan: I was thoroughly entertained, hehe.
Gu Nan: If you have no objections to this report, I'll send them like this every day from now on.
Gu Nan: Until things settle down.
Chi Li dispensed with the empty pleasantries: You get a 10% cut.
Gu Nan: Oooooooooh!
Gu Nan: My hot-girl bro, I will forever be your most loyal servant! [Knight's kneel]
Chi Li: 1
Leaving his chat with Gu Nan, Chi Li finished reading Li Ming's fussing, casually replied to a few congratulatory messages from trainees in his cohort, then removed his sheet mask and opened his music app, planning to listen to a few songs before bed.
He slept well all night.
The next day.
Chi Li stepped out of his room one minute before the livestream began.
He planned to head downstairs to forage for food first.
[Wifey, I'm here! Good morning, wifey!]
[Wifey wifey wifey wifey wifey!]
[Wifey, could you get up later next time? I want to see something exciting. [Nosebleed]]
[Wifey, I want a fresh hot-girl outfit. [Leering]]
Chi Li had no idea that, thanks to a single cross-dressing photo, his personal livestream channel was now full of people calling him their wife.
He currently had a piece of bread supplied by Gao Yuan in his mouth and was pouring himself some milk.
"The Raising House doesn't supply daily necessities, including food," Gao Yuan explained to Chi Li beside him. "The existing members also have to split the costs of events like the welcome party."
"Oh." Chi Li swallowed his bread. "Then if I want to cook, do I have to buy a whole new set of seasonings?"
Gao Yuan said, "Not that. The people who use them just take turns buying them."
"Okay, then I'll ask Shen Xunye to come out with me later to stock up on some food."
"I think he's already gone out. When I came downstairs this morning, I happened to see him heading out." Gao Yuan pointed at the villa's front door.
"So early." Chi Li pulled his phone from his pocket. "Then I'll ask if he can pick up a few things for me."
Gao Yuan craned his neck for a curious look. "You've already added each other?"
"Mm... yeah," Chi Li answered vaguely.
"Then let me add you too." Gao Yuan used his lyric notebook to block the nearest camera and held his friend code in front of Chi Li. "I'll add you to the show's group chat... but there's no chatting in that group, just announcements and group payment requests."
Chi Li scanned the code and added Gao Yuan, remarking offhandedly, "Aw, so the relationships in our big family are actually this cold?"
Gao Yuan nodded along. "Tell me about it."
[You see each other's faces every day. If you want to talk, just knock on their door... there's not really much need to chat on your phones.]
[My sister and I still chat on WeChat even though one of us is upstairs and the other's downstairs.]
[It's fine. I believe this cold family will get hot♂ once my wife joins.]
[Don't go into heat in the main livestream.]
[More like a living hell.]
"Is this the new person you've taken a fancy to?"
Shen Wei looked at Chi Li in the center of her phone screen, then raised an eyebrow at Shen Xunye, who sat across from her.
"Yep." Shen Xunye kept his head down, replying to Chi Li's messages. "Pretty good, right?"
Shen Xunye had "taken a fancy to" all sorts of people, and Shen Wei was not interested in getting to know every one of them.
This time, she had specifically asked her troublesome younger brother out for a talk purely because he was on a variety show, and she was worried he would damage the Shen family's public image.
"He is pretty good, but... why are so many people calling him their wife? Doesn't that make him a shared wife?" Shen Wei asked, puzzled.
Shen Xunye said, "Can we ban all these people?"
"You'll have to talk to our eldest brother about that." Shen Wei exited the livestream. "Don't forget what I just told you."
"I won't." Shen Xunye picked his ear with his little finger. "I sent you a shopping list. Have your assistant buy it for me."
"For Chi Li?"
Shen Wei opened her phone, glanced at the items on the list, then forwarded it to her assistant, who was waiting nearby.
"Mm." Shen Xunye looked out the window. "Tell him to hurry."
Anywhere without Chi Li was so boring.