Volume 1, Chapter 56: A Purely Platonic Relationship Between a Man and a Woman

I quickly interrupted Lin Feifei's thought. Wushuang and the others also felt it was inappropriate, but Lin Feifei was already swaying her hips and walking toward the bar counter.

I wanted to snatch her phone away, but ended up having my own phone snatched by her instead. After settling the bill—she spent over a thousand on this meal—I felt rather guilty about it.

As if seeing right through my thoughts, Lin Feifei rolled her eyes at me and said ungratefully, "If you really consider me a friend, don't fuss over this with me. If you really feel bad about it, just treat me to a meal another day, that's all."

I smiled and nodded, reaching out a hand toward her. "Can you give my phone back to me now? Next time you rush to pay the bill, can you please not grab my phone? There's literally no money in it."

"..."

When the two of us came out of the bar, Lin Feifei tossed her car keys to me. I paused, looking at her suspiciously.

"Aren't you going straight home?"

Lin Feifei blinked with a smiling gaze. "At this hour, trying to hail a cab around the bar street would take until the Year of the Monkey. Let's go!"

I smiled, opened the car door, and jokingly teased her, "Fair enough, though going to my place works just as well."

Lin Feifei let out a scoff and didn't answer my question.

I had asked Zhou Shutong to end her livestream early. There was still some time before midnight, so I told her to rest for a while. While driving, I pondered matters regarding the livestream. Seeing that I was deep in thought, Lin Feifei turned her face away, gazing at the bustling traffic outside, lost in her own thoughts.

The drive took only twenty minutes, as it was not far from where I lived. When I stepped out of the car, Lin Feifei looked at me with a playful smile and asked:

"According to international convention, shouldn't you invite me up for a sit-down?"

Looking at that bright, lovely face under the night sky, the blood throughout my body seemed ignited by some inexplicable emotion.

I smiled meaningfully and said, "Usually, 'inviting someone up for a sit-down' is actually a verb!"

"Despicable!"

Lin Feifei rolled her eyes at me and scolded with a smile, "Am I that kind of person?"

"You might not be, but I am."

Lin Feifei shot me another glance. "It's because Tang Qin and the other one asked me to get online for a game of *PUBG*. You surely didn't expect me to sit in the car and play by myself, did you? If you don't believe me, check the group chat."

I glanced at WeChat and sure enough, it was true; those two beauties were summoning both of us online. I had declined due to work, but once upstairs, Lin Feifei joined them to play.

I fetched a bottle of cola for Lin Feifei and casually glanced at her screen. Xue Qiuyun and Tang Qin had already been eliminated, leaving only Lin Feifei hiding in the grass, trembling with fear.

Lin Feifei stayed hidden in the grass without being discovered, and she actually waited for a destined encounter.

[My Hair is Bald eliminated Wolf Dog Maiden.]

Lin Feifei looked at me with a triumphant smile. "How about that? Am I awesome?"

I nodded and smiled. "With your skills, if you entered the market, anyone who saw you would have to praise you a few times."

Lin Feifei looked puzzled. "What would they praise me for?"

"What a total noob! Such a total noob!"

"Detestable!" Lin Feifei kicked her leg out at me angrily.

While Lin Feifei curled up in my apartment to play games, I went over to knock on Zhou Shutong's bedroom door.

The door opened, revealing her delicate face tinged with a sickly pallor, devoid of a trace of rosiness.

She let me in, and as she walked back inside, she asked me listlessly, "Why are you here?"

"You're sick, of course I had to come and take a look. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to rest easy!"

Hearing me say that, a trace of a smile finally appeared on Zhou Shutong's pale face.

"What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

Zhou Shutong bit her lip. "Stomachache. It's an old issue."

"Do you want to go to the hospital?"

Zhou Shutong shook her head. "I'm fine, let me rest a bit, and I'll continue the livestream at midnight."

I pondered for a moment and said, "Never mind, you should rest! Tonight's midnight new product promotional event, I'll host the livestream for you."

Zhou Shutong was stunned, her watery eyes filled with complete shock. "You're going to host? You've never livestreamed before, will you be okay?"

"You can never say a man isn't okay."

Zhou Shutong pressed a hand to her forehead and smiled bitterly. "It's not that you've never done it, I'm just worried you'll be too nervous."

I smiled mischievously and said quite shamelessly, "It's fine, everyone is nervous the first time."

Actually, after co-hosting a few livestreams with Zhou Shutong, I felt that having only one host was a bit stretched. If she got sick or had to take a sudden leave, absolutely no one could fill in. However, I had reservations and hadn't mentioned this situation to Mei Xueyan.

Zhou Shutong blinked her watery apricot eyes. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

I laughed bitterly. "No choice, gotta force it!"

I managed to persuade Zhou Shutong. If she weren't genuinely unwell, I wouldn't have bothered "exposing myself to the public."

Zhou Shutong didn't go to rest; instead, she hugged a hot water mug and watched me livestream from the side. During my very first livestream, I was somewhat at a loss, initially not even daring to look at the camera, my ears burning red like a blazing fire.

Fortunately, most of the viewers tuning in were Zhou Shutong's fans. Knowing that she was sick, they were quite understanding, though they were undeniably curious about the nature of our relationship.

[Little anchor brother, are you an operations staff member? Your voice was heard in previous livestreams.]

[What exactly is your relationship with Tongtong?]

At first, I usually pretended not to see such questions, but later on, there were simply too many of them, so I decided to just let go and embrace it.

"To be honest, the two of us have a purely romantic relationship."

When I said that, not only did it fail to dispel the rumors, but it made them even more excited.

[You're already in a romantic relationship, and you call that pure?]

[In the dead of night, a lonely man and a solitary woman sharing a single room—is it normal not to generate some friction and sparks?]

Zhou Shutong was sitting right across from me. When I glanced up at her, she also wore a helpless, wry smile.

At that moment, a fan successfully steered the topic elsewhere.

[Anchor, anchor! Give us a talent show!]

I paused, looked blankly at Zhou Shutong, and asked in confusion, "Do you have to perform talents during livestreams too?"

Zhou Shutong nodded, the corners of her lips curling up into a light smile as she said, "Yes, I sing for everyone every day. I sing a song for every ten thousand viewers, and dance for a hundred thousand."

I was dumbfounded. It turned out that being a livestreamer was this fiercely competitive too. Hearing Zhou Shutong say that, the fans in the chatroom went even wilder, all calling online for me to perform a talent.

I smiled wryly and said with a tearful expression, "Does performing the art of devouring a meal count? With my 128G stomach capacity, should I perform inhaling food in one go?"

Regrettably, the comment section refused to let me off that easily, and someone even asked for a martial arts demonstration.

Zhou Shutong joined in on the mischief as well, asking me with a beaming smile, "Are you good at martial arts? How about doing the splits?"

I laughed in exasperation and simply threw caution to the wind.

"Is doing the splits considered martial arts? Who are you looking down on? To tell you the truth, I was born into a martial arts family."

Zhou Shutong was amused by my swaying, bobbing head. "You, a martial arts family? Then tell me, what can you do?"

"I know the Fiery Palm of Passionate Devouring!"

"..."

"Why are you looking at me like that? I also know the Saber of Mutual Affection and the Sword of Exchange of Glances!"