Chapter 26

By the time Bai Siyi returned to the Pink House, it was already late, and the other three female guests had also come back.

When they saw Bai Siyi, their expressions were a little surprised.

Because the outfit Bai Siyi was wearing was really strange—he was even holding a pink wig.

Qiu Bo walked over with a smile. “Wow, looks like you had quite an interesting date today.”

Bai Siyi: “…”

Feeling a bit awkward, Bai Siyi greeted the female guests briefly before saying, “I’m going to take a shower first.”

Qiu Bo nodded but still found the sight of the wig in Bai Siyi’s hand amusing. She just couldn’t figure out—what kind of date would require a wig like that? It was hilarious.

There was no way Bai Siyi was going to tell them what happened tonight. Just thinking about it made him feel embarrassed.

After taking a shower and changing into comfortable loungewear, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

He neatly folded the clothes he had worn for dancing and packed them, along with the wig, into a bag. He planned to return them to the bar tomorrow. His own clothes were still in the dressing room there—he needed to pick them up, too.

By the time he lay down on his bed, it was already past eleven. Bai Siyi wasn’t fond of socializing, and being around the female guests always made him feel out of place. So he simply went straight to bed, pulled up the covers, and prepared to sleep.

Just then, Huo Xingming sent him a message: 【Xiao Bai, I’m home.】

Bai Siyi replied coldly: 【Okay. Good night.】

Ending the conversation perfectly, Bai Siyi peacefully lay back down, closed his eyes, and got ready to sleep.

But obviously, Huo Xingming was a night owl—and a chatterbox:

【Xiao Bai, after coming home, I deeply reflected on myself. I sincerely apologize for my actions. I hope you’re not mad at me.】

【I really didn’t mean to deceive you, I swear!】

Bai Siyi: “…”

He sighed. To be honest, he wasn’t even that angry. After all, he had deceived Huo Xingming, too. To this day, Huo Xingming still thought he was a woman.

If anyone needed to apologize, it should be him.

Just thinking about how he had dressed as a woman to join a romance reality show for the sake of earning 500,000 yuan made him feel guilty.

Before he could even reply, Huo Xingming sent another message:

【Oh, right, Xiao Bai, do you have any place in mind for tomorrow’s date? How about I take you to an amusement park?】

【This time, I swear it’s a real amusement park!】

Bai Siyi: “…”

【The ticket is 260 yuan. Do you have money?】

Huo Xingming went silent for over ten seconds—who knew what he was doing—before finally replying:

【Xiao Bai! I have money! I just got paid for my work at the construction site! I’ll take you!】

Of course, this was complete nonsense. But he did have money—his small company had just paid his salary.

Without even thinking about it, Bai Siyi refused outright.

How could he possibly keep spending Huo Xingming’s money?

That one million was already more than enough for him to handle.

Bai Siyi refused and didn’t want to continue the conversation: 【It’s late. I’m going to sleep. Good night.】

Huo Xingming sighed. He really did want to take Bai Siyi to the amusement park. Back when they were chatting online, their conversations hadn’t always been pleasant, which was why he had played that prank on Bai Siyi.

But after spending time together, he found Bai Siyi to be a great person—easy to get along with. Now, looking back, he felt that his actions had been a bit too much.

Since Bai Siyi wasn’t responding to him, he lay in bed with nothing to do and logged into a video site on his phone. Checking his private messages, he noticed that “Xiaoyang Baibai” still hadn’t replied.

Previously, he had tipped one million and then privately messaged Xiaoyang Baibai, asking if they were signed to a company, if they were a professional voice actor, and if they were open to business collaborations.

But he never got a response.

Why was that?

Huo Xingming couldn’t figure it out. Could it be that Xiaoyang Baibai hadn’t seen the message?

Switching to the homepage, he went to the latest video from Xiaoyang Baibai and tipped another 200 yuan, leaving a comment:

“Xiaoyang, please check your private messages~ Rose.jpg”

This was just a habitual action for Huo Xingming. He had tipped several voice-acting creators he liked before, though the amounts varied and it wasn’t something he did often. However, since he was interested in signing Xiaoyang Baibai, he had been paying extra attention lately.

For him, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

But for Bai Siyi, this was a whole other story.

Just as Bai Siyi was about to fall asleep, the staff member in charge of holding his phone sent him a screenshot on WeChat.

In the screenshot, the phone was locked, but a notification from a certain video platform had popped up:

【Congratulations! “hxm” has tipped you 20,000 gold beans! Their message: “Xiaoyang, please check your private messages~ Rose.jpg”】

The staff member had no idea Bai Siyi had a voice-acting account. Their job was simply to hold onto the phone and ensure no messages were missed.

The staff member asked on WeChat: 【Xiao Bai, do you need to check WeChat? I can bring your phone over.】

Bai Siyi: “…”

He replied: 【No need.】

Then, he immediately switched to his chat with Huo Xingming. The last messages were still their brief exchange of goodnights.

Bai Siyi: 【Are you asleep?】

Huo Xingming replied almost instantly: 【About to sleep!】

Bai Siyi sneered internally. “About to sleep?” Yeah right. He had clearly been surfing the internet just now. Not only that—he had just received his so-called construction site payment and immediately tipped an uploader!

Even though that money had technically gone to him, Bai Siyi didn’t feel happy about it at all.

If he didn’t know Huo Xingming, it wouldn’t matter. A few hundred yuan was nothing, and he wouldn’t feel guilty accepting it.

But now that he did know him and understood his situation, seeing him spend money so carelessly and tip people left and right made his blood boil.

More importantly, who else had Huo Xingming tipped? Did he not save any money at all?!

Grinding his teeth, Bai Siyi typed:

【I just thought about it and… I really do want to go to the amusement park. Does your offer still stand?】

Huo Xingming had no idea why Bai Siyi suddenly changed his mind, but since he wanted to go, of course, he had to take him.

Huo Xingming: 【Of course! I’ll buy the tickets right now! How about 2 o’clock tomorrow?】

Bai Siyi: 【Of course not! Those tickets are expensive, so we have to make the most of them! Be there by 10 AM!】

As soon as Bai Siyi sent the message, Huo Xingming quickly bought two full-price tickets—each costing 350!

Bai Siyi was shocked. How much do construction workers even make? Just how many days of wages did Huo Xingming spend on this?!

At this rate, did he even have any money left?

Bai Siyi immediately regretted his impulsiveness.

The anger he’d felt from seeing Huo Xingming casually tipping others had completely disappeared, replaced by exasperation at himself.

What was he even getting mad about?

What was his relationship with Huo Xingming anyway? It was his money—he could spend it however he wanted!

Even if he did care about him… that was even worse!

Besides everything else, Huo Xingming was straight!

Bai Siyi sighed and lay in bed. Normally, he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but tonight, he was wide awake.

His mind was a mess, though he didn’t even know what exactly was bothering him. He tossed and turned until midnight, then started calculating his own nearly empty wallet.

With interest included, he had to repay 8,000 this month. After that, he’d be left with less than 300 in total. If the factory didn’t cover his meals and housing, he’d probably be starving.

He originally planned to pay Huo Xingming back for the amusement park tickets, but it was clear he had no money to do so.

Still, he figured he could probably get the show’s production team to reimburse the tickets. That way, Huo Xingming wouldn’t have to spend so much. After all, a single ticket was over 300, and two cost more than 700…

Wait, why did this idiot buy full-price tickets?

Some of the rides weren’t even necessary!

Bai Siyi sighed. So when Huo Xingming said he used to be rich, he wasn’t lying. The way he spent money showed that he probably hadn’t been poor for even half a year.

The next day, Bai Siyi asked his supervisor for leave. At this rate, he’d probably need to take more days off in the future. A one-time or two-time leave request might slide because of the show, but frequent absences weren’t realistic.

He checked the calendar and realized there were still two weeks left until the “confession segment”—half a month.

That’s way too long!

Huo Xingming showed up dressed in the same cheap clothes he had bought, but today was sunny, so he habitually grabbed a baseball cap to wear.

The moment he appeared, the live stream audience was speechless:

【If you’re going to play the “poor guy” role, at least commit to it! Why are you wearing a cap that costs hundreds?!】

【LMAO, I just realized something—aside from his clothes, nothing else about “Piupiustar” looks cheap.】

【Exactly! Just look at his hands. There’s no way he’s a construction worker. How has Xiao Bai not noticed yet?!】

Of course, Bai Siyi didn’t notice. He had no time to compare Huo Xingming’s cap with his own.

When he saw Huo Xingming walking over, he lowered his voice and asked, “Why did you buy full-price tickets? They’re so expensive. Do you still have money?”

Huo Xingming felt a little guilty. “It’s a rare chance to come, so might as well have fun! If I run out of money, I’ll just earn more. ‘A thousand pieces of gold may be spent, but they will return again.’“

Bai Siyi was speechless. “You can’t even pronounce Mandarin properly, but you sure can recite poetry fluently.”

Huo Xingming grinned and pulled out his phone. “Come on, Bai Siyi, let’s take a photo together!”

It wasn’t his first time at an amusement park, but it was the first time as an adult. He found it exciting and wanted a keepsake to post on his social media.

Bai Siyi stepped closer. Both of them were wearing black caps and white T-shirts. They leaned in and took a selfie together.

Looking at the photo, Huo Xingming beamed. “Xiao Bai, look! We’re practically ‘^[1]“弯摸弯样” (wan mo wan yang) is a mispronunciation of “一模一样” (yī mó yī yàng), which means “exactly the same” or “identical.” … Continue readingwan mo wan yang’!”

Bai Siyi: “!!!”

His entire body stiffened as he stared at Huo Xingming, panicked and guilty. “W-what did you just say?”

Live Stream Comments:

【’Wan mo wan yang’? What does that mean? Did he figure out that Xiao Bai is in the ‘contacts’?!】

【AAAAHHH so he’s in the ‘contacts’ too, and he just realized Xiao Bai is as well?? So this means…????】

【Look at Xiao Bai’s face—he was almost scared to death on the spot, LOL.】

【Wuhu! Family, has the day finally come?! I’ve been waiting for Xiao Bai’s cover to be blown for so long!】

—

After the initial panic, Bai Siyi felt guilty. But after the guilt passed, he actually let out a sigh of relief.

This was good. It was best if Huo Xingming figured it out on his own. Because of the contract, he wasn’t allowed to reveal his real gender until the confession segment. Keeping up the act every day was exhausting.

Besides, looking at how dumbly happy Huo Xingming was, Bai Siyi almost couldn’t bear to keep deceiving him.

He sighed. “You’re right, I really—”

Before he could finish, Huo Xingming had already posted the selfie on Twitter, happily typing out a caption:

【Matching outfits at the amusement park! Ghost face.jpg】

Bai Siyi glanced at the post—and instantly lost it.

So… ‘wan mo wan yang’ = ‘identical’?!

Bai Siyi: “……”

Expression darkening, he turned around and walked away.

He couldn’t be bothered with that idiot.