Song Yunshen went to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks, and he and Xia Kening each got one. They each cut a piece of cake and enjoyed it at the table.
While eating the cake, Song Yunshen took out his phone, glanced at the time, and saw that there were still more than ten minutes until 6:30. So he sent a message to Xu Zhuoyue and Zhong Long, reminding them to log on at 6:30 sharp.
Then, Song Yunshen remembered something, opened Bilibili and Douyin on his phone, and showed Xia Kening the backend revenue of the two websites over the past month or so.
"It's over 400 on Bilibili and over 600 on Douyin, totaling less than 1100. If we split it 50/50, you'll get 540. Add the 250 you paid me for grinding Genshin Impact, and that's 790. I'll round it up to 800 for you. Can I transfer it to your WeChat?"
While eating her cake, Xia Kening peeked over to Song Yunshen. Hearing him mention it, her little face lit up with excitement. Upon hearing that she could get eight hundred yuan, she cheered joyfully, "Wow! Eight hundred? That's a lot!"
In the past, her monthly food expenses were only about three or four hundred yuan. This eight hundred yuan is enough for her food expenses for two months during her school years!
Besides, this was just money she earned casually while playing games. She didn't have to put in much effort at all. She just happily played games with Song Yunshen every day, without having to do anything else, and earned 800 yuan while lying down. It couldn't be easier.
Xia Kening hadn't really expected this before; she simply wanted to earn the 250 yuan she'd earned from Genshin Impact Impact's grinding service. She never imagined that making Genshin Impact beginner videos and PUBG beginner videos would bring her this much income.
To be honest, a normal video creator who could only earn a thousand yuan a month would probably have starved to death long ago.
But for students, this is a huge sum of money, and they can enjoy it no matter how they spend it.
At this moment, Xia Kening happily accepted the 800 yuan WeChat transfer from Song Yunshen. She ate her cake, hummed a little tune, and swayed her body back and forth, in a very good mood.
Seeing her happy expression, Song Yunshen chuckled and teased, "You've made a lot of money, shouldn't you treat us to a meal to celebrate?" Xia Kening immediately snorted, "I earned this with my own hard work, okay? If I treat everyone to a meal, almost two hundred yuan will be gone in an instant. Wouldn't that mean I earned all that money for nothing?"
"Quite the boast, asking for two hundred yuan for a meal." Song Yunshen chuckled. "It's not like we have to go to Wanda Plaza; any roadside stall will do."
"Come on, when would you have time to eat with me? We're only going to have breakfast together on the weekend." Xia Kening pouted. "Are you free for lunch or dinner?"
Hearing her say that, Song Yunshen coughed awkwardly, pretending not to hear, since his schedule was indeed packed every day.
I have to have lunch with Xia Yunuo, and dinner is cooked by Xia Jinshu. If I want to go out for a meal with Xia Kening, I have to give up an opportunity to have dinner with either Xia Yunuo or Xia Jinshu.
Seeing that he couldn't speak, Xia Kening clicked her tongue, clearly annoyed.
Song Yunshen changed the subject, not wanting to continue talking about that, and instead asked, "How's your summer homework going?"
"It's alright, I'll definitely finish it before school starts." Xia Kening calculated for a moment, then asked suspiciously, "Why are you asking this? Have you finished writing it?"
"No," Song Yunshen said calmly, "It hasn't been touched yet."
"What? You haven't touched it?" Xia Kening looked surprised. "Then when do you plan to write it?"
"I was just about to discuss a business deal with you," Song Yunshen Shen chuckled twice, rubbed his fingers together, and then said, "Look, besides the money I'll give you from Bilibili and Douyin, there's still over five hundred left. I'll give you one hundred for each of your three main subjects (Chinese, Math, and English) and fifty for each of your elective subjects. How about that?"
"What do you mean?" Xia Kening looked at him suspiciously, then realized what he meant and shouted, "You want me to do your homework for you?! I'm a middle school student, okay! Humanities is one thing, but how can I help you with science?" "Who asked you to do my homework for me?" Song Yunshen said speechlessly, "It's obviously about copying for me. When Xia Yunuo finishes her homework, she'll lend me all her summer homework. You can just copy it."
Hearing him say that, Xia Kening immediately realized what he meant. "You're so lazy! You can't even be bothered to copy."
"Isn't this a chance for you to make money?" Song Yunshen chuckled. "You can earn six hundred yuan from both your main subject and minor subject. That's quite a lot of money. Aren't you tempted?"
Upon hearing that it was a full six hundred yuan, Xia Kening's face immediately showed hesitation. She was very tempted, but she couldn't help but say, "You guys have a lot of homework in high school, right? It'll take me forever to copy this."
"Not much," Song Yunshen said seriously. "Back then, I finished copying it the night before school started. Just think about it, six hundred in one night, where else can you find such a good opportunity? It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance."
Xia Kening's heart pounded as she listened to him. She thought to herself, "I earned 800 last month, another 600 from copying homework, and next month when school starts, I can also get a share of the earnings from the videos. If I keep doing this, won't I be able to save more than 2,000 yuan by the time school starts?"
That's probably about all the food I'll spend in a semester.
Upon thinking of this, Xia Kening's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but say, "Then you can't play tricks on me! We agreed on six hundred yuan, so you can't go back on your word."
"Would I lie to you about this?" Seeing that he had a chance, Song Yunshen immediately patted his chest and assured him, "I'm always a man of my word, I've never lied to you about this before, you have to trust my reputation."
"Alright, I'll agree then." Xia Kening licked her lips and asked, "When do we start copying?"
"She's already given me the English one, you can start copying it anytime you want," Song Yunshen said. "And it seems she's finished the math and Chinese ones too, but hasn't given them to me yet. I'll go ask her for them after you finish copying the English one. How about it, you finish one subject, I'll give you the money for that subject, cash on delivery, fair and square, no cheating."
"Deal!" Xia Kening extended a hand and gave Song Yunshen a high five. After the deal was struck, the two of them had almost finished eating the birthday cake, and it was already 6:30.
Just as Song Yunshen was about to get up and walk towards the study, his phone vibrated. He took it out and saw that it was WeChat call from Xu Zhuoyue.
"Hello?"
"Where is he? Where is he?! It's 6:30, damn it!!" Xu Zhuoyue's loud voice came from the other end of the phone. "I gave up sleeping in to get up early and play games with you, and you're still late? Don't you have any sense of time?!"
"They're here, what's the rush?" Song Yunshen chuckled and led Xia Kening into the study. "They'll be up soon. Where's Fat Dragon?"
"What do you think? We've been waiting for you two, hurry up!" Xu Zhuoyue had a resentful morning grumpiness, like a widow left alone in her empty room.
After hanging up the phone, Song Yunshen logged into the game with Xia Kening and began their enjoyable PUBG journey.
The time spent playing games always seems short. We played from 6:30 to 9:30, three hours in total, but it felt like it just flew by.
When Xia Yunuo arrived at Song Yunshen's door, she looked at the messages she had sent to Song Yunshen on her phone, which she still hadn't received a reply to. She pursed her lips, stepped forward, entered her personal password, and then pushed the door open and went inside.
"Smoke! Smoke! Pull people out first! Lao Xu, what the hell are you doing charging in?! Set up your guns first! Do you even know how to play? Can't you follow orders?! On the battlefield, you'd be the number one person to disobey orders, the kind who gets dragged out and beheaded as a warning!"
Hearing the loud noise coming from the study, Xia Yunuo looked somewhat bewildered. She quietly walked to the study door and saw Song Yunshen and Xia Kening playing PUBG. Glancing at the teammate information in the lower left corner, she realized they were in a squad of four. Judging from what Song Yunshen had said, one of them was probably Xu Zhuoyue.
Since both of them were wearing headphones, they didn't hear her open the door at all, so Xia Yunuo simply leaned against the door and quietly watched them play games.
"Behind us! There's another one coming from behind! Lao Xu, where are you? Stop just shooting! Do you even know how to use throwables? Throw a grenade! You're hopelessly stupid."
Xia Yunuo blinked, looking at Song Yunshen sitting in the chair, passionately giving instructions. For a moment, she was in a daze and almost didn't recognize him.
After all, compared to the Song Yunshen who used to play games with her, the current Song Yunshen was a completely different person in her eyes.
When they played games together, Song Yunshen was always very gentle and attentive, never this excited. He spoke softly and never used any foul language.
As a result, when playing games with Xu Zhuoyue, even with Xia Kening involved, he didn't hide anything at all, and was very excited, speaking in a particularly loud voice.
Xia Yunuo pursed her lips, leaned close behind her younger sister, and carefully watched her movements, finding that she was quite skilled.
The same game character, in Xia Yunuo's hands, seemed to have dementia, but in Xia Kening's hands, it was very flexible and skillful, with all kinds of techniques already very proficient.
So that's how the game is played. Xia Yunuo watched the four of them charging into battle in the game, feeling a little dazed. Recalling how Song Yunshen used to hide and crawl around the edge of the circle when they played duo, she scratched her cheek a little embarrassedly, thinking that she had indeed dragged the team down.
After the game ended, while checking the results, Xia Kening noticed a figure in the flash and shadow of the computer screen. Turning her head, she saw Xia Yunuo standing behind her and was immediately startled. "Second... Sister, you're here."
Xia Kening almost let it slip, but thankfully she realized her mistake and quickly corrected herself, calling her "sister."
Upon Song Yunshen Shen immediately turned to look at Xia Yunuo. Just as he was about to say something, Xia Yunuo spoke first, "You can play one more round; the time should be about right."
"Huh? Why is there another girl's voice?" Zhong Long asked, puzzled, in the team voice chat.
"Can't you fucking tell? It's obviously Xia Yunuo's voice." Xu Zhuoyue said speechlessly, "That son of a bitch, he spent every day with Xia Yunuo during summer vacation, and he's probably here to hang out with him again. Otherwise, why do you think he said he'd stop playing at 9:30? Would he have gotten up at 6:30 to call us to play games before?"
"You're such a chatterbox." Song Yunshen was speechless. "Let's play another game quickly, we need to leave before ten o'clock."
"It's open, it's open, what are you rushing me for?"
We started another four-player match. All four of us parachuted into the wilderness to farm and focused on strategic gameplay.
Xia Yunuo brought in a chair and sat between the two of them, closer to Song Yunshen, watching his game gameplay with curiosity.
Song Yunshen felt a little nervous under her gaze, and his performance was not very good. He failed to snipe anyone in both sniper duels, and his helmet was blown off.
Xu Zhuoyue laughed wildly in the voice chat, "Trying to show off, huh? Hahaha! Xia Yunuo was just trying to act tough, huh? Are you even cut out to be a sniper?"
Song Yunshen's lips twitched.
Xia Kening, on the other side, suppressed a laugh. Xia Yunuo, however, was completely unaware of what was going on, since they were both wearing headphones and she couldn't hear the game's voice chat.
After the last round, the four of them happily received a chicken butt.
Song Yunshen took off his headphones, stretched, and stood up, saying to Xia Yunuo, "Let's go, let's go, it's time for a big meal."
Xia Yunuo also stood up, her gaze falling on Xia Kening on the other side. She smiled politely and said, "I didn't expect your cousin to be here too. Ningning, would you like to have lunch together?"
Upon hearing this, Xia Kening turned to meet her second sister's gaze and saw her smiling face, but with a threatening look in her eyes. She secretly curled her lip, thinking to herself that her second sister was really hypocritical!
He clearly didn't want her to go, but he still pretended to be understanding and invited her.
Hmph! What a pretentious, wicked woman.
"No need, you guys go ahead." After exiting the game, Xia Kening opened Genshin Impact again and said to Xia Yunuo, "I still need to help my brother grind the game, so I won't go with you."
Upon hearing this, Xia Yunuo's eyes widened immediately. "Are you going to stay here alone?"
"Yeah, right." Xia Kening blinked. "What does it have to do with anything?"
"Let's go, don't worry about her." Song Yunshen patted Xia Yunuo's shoulder. "She'll be home for lunch before noon, let's go now."
Xia Yunuo stood there, speechless, unable to think of an excuse to stop them. After all, all three of them had now tacitly agreed that Xia Kening was Song Yunshen's cousin.
Since she's my cousin, it's perfectly reasonable for her to stay at her brother's house alone and play computer games, right?
After all, the older brother had agreed, so what reason did he, as an "outsider," have to refuse?
Xia Yunuo fell silent, glanced at the grinning Xia Kening, and immediately looked away, not wanting to look at her anymore.
"Have a safe trip, brother and sister! Have fun!" Xia Kening waved to the two of them and watched them leave the study.
Only after hearing the sound of the front door closing did Xia Kening's smile gradually fade, leaving her expressionless.
She took a deep breath, stood up from the chair, walked to Song Yunshen's bedroom, leaned over to his window and looked down, where she could see the charging shed on this side of the building.
A short while later, she saw Song Yunshen and Xia Yunuo come out from inside.
They got on an electric scooter together. Xia Yunuo sat on the back and hugged Song Yunshen's waist. From above, it was clear that there was almost no gap between them.
Xia Kening gently bit her lip, thinking to herself, "This is the good friend my second sister was talking about, right?"
She gave a slightly disgruntled hum, then turned to look at Song Yunshen's bed, blinked, and suddenly, as if possessed, walked over, lay down on Song Yunshen's bed, buried her head in the pillow, and gently sniffed the familiar scent.
On the way to Wanda Plaza, Xia Yunuo hugged Song Yunshen from behind and chatted with him.
"Auntie ate the braised pork with bamboo shoots I made yesterday. What did you think of the taste?" Xia Yunuo whispered in Song Yunshen's ear while they were waiting at a traffic light.
Song Yunshen smiled, turned to her and said, "My mom said it was delicious and asked you to make it for her again next time. I tried it last night too, and the taste was truly exceptional."
Xia Yunuo smiled happily upon hearing his praise.
The two chatted for a while and soon arrived at the entrance of Wanda Plaza.
Song Yunshen parked his electric scooter and led Xia Yunuo through the gate. He then glanced at the time and asked her, "It's still early for lunch. Is there any shop you'd like to visit?"
"Let's just browse around for now," Xia Yunuo said. As long as she was with Song Yunshen, it didn't matter which store they went to.
So the two of them walked side by side, strolling from the first floor all the way to the fourth floor, stopping and starting along the way, until they arrived at the cat café they had seen before. Xia Yunuo was immediately attracted by the kittens in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, and couldn't help but squat down in front of the window and tease the kittens through the glass.
Seeing how interested she seemed, Song Yunshen couldn't help but suggest, "Why don't we go inside and take a look?"
"No need, just looking at it is fine." Xia Yunuo glanced at the ticket prices of this store: 49 yuan for a single person and 88 yuan for a double person. In short, it was definitely not cheap for her, so it was better not to waste her money.
Song Yunshen didn't mind, so he squatted down next to Xia Yunuo and played with the kittens inside through the glass with her.
The two of them squatted there, shoulder to shoulder, pointing at the cats inside and commenting on each one. "This one is so cute."
"That's so pretty."
"Huh? This is so ugly."
When the topic turned to kittens, Xia Yunuo immediately started chattering away, becoming much more talkative than usual.
But just as the two were squatting in front of the floor-to-ceiling window watching the cat, a figure suddenly walked out of the store, leaned down through the window, looked at the two squatting outside, and knocked on the glass.
Xia Yunuo was startled and looked a little embarrassed, thinking that the cat cafe staff had come to kick her out.
But when Song Yunshen saw the familiar face of the girl inside, he was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed in surprise, "Sister Xuanxuan? What are you doing here?"
Song Jiaxuan smiled slightly, pointed to the entrance of the cat cafe, and then waved to the two of them, her meaning quite clear.
Xia Yunuo looked at the woman inside with some surprise, then turned to Song Yunshen and asked, "You know her?"
"This is my aunt's eldest daughter." Song Yunshen rubbed his nose and said somewhat helplessly, " Sister Yaoyao from the bubble tea shop is her younger sister, you should remember her, right?"
"Oh... I see." Xia Yunuo looked enlightened, then couldn't help but give him a strange look, and whispered, "Could it be that this cat cafe is owned by your sister?"
"How could that be?" Song Yunshen immediately shook his head. "She's opening a cat café, of course I know! I would have brought you here to freeload already." "Then what do we do now? She seems to be calling us in."
"Let's go, she's already waving, so she must be asking for money." Song Yunshen chuckled and said bluntly, "Sister Xuanxuan is rich, no need to be polite with her, let's go, let's go inside."