Chapter 12 — Debt Collection

The screen of the phone was still lit up. Lin Xiaowen’s WeChat profile picture was a photo of Ranran holding a lollipop, her face beaming with a brilliant smile.

“Transfer 3,200 to Little Mosquito… Confirm…”

Slender fingers hesitated for ages on the “Confirm” button, but ultimately withdrew. After switching off the phone, he leaned back and collapsed onto the large bed.

Cheng Yishu adamantly refused to add Su Nian on WeChat, shamelessly declaring, “If you won’t add me, we’ll just keep a tab and settle up next time…”

How could Lin Xiaowen possibly agree to that? Even if she wasn’t the boss, that bottle of wine—nearly a month’s living expenses for her—was opened on her account. If he skipped out on the bill, she’d have to pay for it herself.

So, after much internal struggle, Lin Xiaowen reluctantly presented her payment code. After verifying face to face, she didn’t forget to remind him, “You’d better transfer the money soon, or I’ll ‘remind’ you thirty times a day… And don’t worry, the moment I receive the money, I’ll block you. I have absolutely no interest in leaking any of your private information…”

Lying on his bed, Cheng Yishu recalled Lin Xiaowen’s agonized, toothache-like reluctance as she was forced to add him as a friend. He couldn’t help but laugh.

Interesting.

She clearly needed the money and had the chance to interact with people like him and Chen Kai—members of what ordinary folk would call high society.

But Lin Xiaowen didn’t care in the slightest. She even turned on Chen Kai immediately when she realized he was testing her, giving him not an inch of leeway.

Thinking back to that day when he woke up in Lin Xiaowen’s home, Cheng Yishu had taken stock of that impossibly small, impossibly shabby apartment.

The fabric sofa was so over-washed that its original color could no longer be discerned, the stuffing already poking out. The wooden coffee table’s brown paint had peeled away in several patches.

The curtain in the living room was adorned with cartoon SpongeBob—a passable design, but certainly not to Cheng Yishu’s taste. Most likely, Ranran had requested it; if Lin Xiaowen had chosen it herself…

Tsk, tsk, Cheng Yishu might have to question her intelligence all over again.

After all, a woman who lets a man grab her hand without resisting can’t possibly be in her right mind.

Unless, unless she and that so-called “Nianshu” had… that kind of relationship.

What was certain was that “Nianshu” was definitely not Ranran’s father. In that minuscule room, Cheng Yishu hadn’t found a single trace of a man’s belongings.

Well, apart from his own still-damp clothes, that is…

At this thought, Cheng Yishu’s face suddenly felt a little warm. He reached up to touch his slightly hot cheek, then, with a start, his eyes widened and he sat bolt upright.

“What on earth am I thinking? What a mess… What does it matter to me whether she has a man in her life or what her relationship with that ‘Nianshu’ is?”

After muttering to himself like a madman, he was met only by the dim glow of the bedside lamp and the handful of silly, endearing plushies—gifts from fans—propped up beside his pillow.

SpongeBob?

Cheng Yishu reached for the grinning SpongeBob plush, pinching its square, one-piece head and body.

How had he never noticed before—this thing was actually rather cute!

“All right then. Tonight, I’ll favor you with my presence. Sleep well.”

Cradled in his arms, SpongeBob continued to grin silently, and Cheng Yishu, quite satisfied, settled back down.

The soft, golden light smoothed the sharp lines of his usually rebellious, handsome face, giving him an uncharacteristically gentle look.

Hunan Province, a certain recording studio—

Because it was an entertainment variety show, and for the convenience of playing games, the stylist had chosen a red hoodie paired with black ripped jeans. On his feet were the latest white AJs, which matched everything. Add in the hair he’d styled early that morning…

On camera, Cheng Yishu’s entire appearance radiated both street fashion and a wild, youthful charm.

Perfect idol. Even several of the female guests on set couldn’t help sneaking glances at him.

“Okay, let’s take a short break, then the host will bring a few new guests to record their segment first…”

The assistant director, walkie-talkie in hand, informed the two main guests—Cheng Yishu and Wu Xiaofei—to go rest backstage. Since it was a taped show, the recording was done segment by segment.

The music from the main studio was so loud that even the closed doors couldn’t keep it out.

The resting rooms were separate. After touching up his makeup, Cheng Yishu had just seen the makeup artist out when he called Dalinzi to bring him his phone.

Dalinzi held the phone to her chest with both hands, her expression full of worry as she looked at Cheng Yishu. After a moment’s hesitation, she finally spoke.

“Brother Cheng, have you run into some trouble lately?”

“What trouble?” Cheng Yishu was puzzled, his tone calm. “No, why do you ask?”

Dalinzi looked at him with a complicated expression and replied quietly,

“Brother Cheng, I know you haven’t been happy lately, but you have to remember, you’re a top celebrity right now. You can’t just go making all sorts of random friends to escape your troubles… And whatever you do, don’t go down those movie paths—loan sharks, gambling, looking for a thrill. That’s all misleading nonsense. If you really fell that far, you’d be…”

Dalinzi, full of passionate exasperation, pounded her chest and stamped her feet, growing more agitated as she spoke.

But the more Cheng Yishu listened, the more confused he became. He narrowed his eyes, unable to make heads or tails of it.

“Stop…”

Dalinzi was struggling to find the right words, bent on dragging Cheng Yishu back from the brink on her own. She didn’t even hear his first “stop.”

“Dalinzi… stop!”

Raising his voice, Cheng Yishu exhaled and looked at her with unruffled composure.

“What exactly happened?”

Dalinzi’s imagination had clearly run wild. There had to be some shocking misunderstanding. Since he was in a good mood today, he decided to let her run with it and see just how far she’d go.

“Your WeChat, Brother Cheng… All morning, someone named Mosquito has been messaging you, urging you to pay back money!”

Dalinzi’s brows furrowed in worry, her face pale with alarm.

“Brother Cheng, did you borrow from loan sharks? ‘Mosquito’—isn’t that just another word for ‘bloodsucker’? And…”

Cheng Yishu nearly burst out laughing. Hadn’t he always said Dalinzi’s imagination was in a league of its own? But what exactly had Lin Xiaowen sent to frighten the strapping Dalinzi like this?

“And what?” Cheng Yishu, fighting back laughter, watched her nervous face. Worried he might disrupt her ‘performance,’ he propped his hand on his knee, using it to hide the smile tugging at his lips.

“And, the person said if you don’t pay up soon, they’ll have no choice but to reluctantly part with that maternity dress of yours that still carries your scent—they’ll auction it online…”

The more Dalinzi spoke, the colder her spine felt. She wrinkled her nose at Cheng Yishu. Seeing him frozen in place, she thought to herself,

“It’s over… Looks like Brother Cheng not only got mixed up with loan sharks, he might have been forced into some kind of indecent video… And as for that maternity dress? Ugh… What a lowbrow fetish…”

Cheng Yishu didn’t know what wild scenes Dalinzi had conjured up in her mind in just a minute, but he did know that Lin Xiaowen was more than capable of doing such a thing.