Chapter 34

Lin Si was momentarily thrown off by the nickname.

He looked at Y a beat later but couldn’t discern any emotion from the model’s face. However, he somehow felt that Y was a bit unnatural as he turned his face away during their eye contact.

With someone more flustered beside him, Lin Si relaxed, grinning mischievously. “Oh, gotcha.”

He pressed the payment button on the table and entered the amount. Watching his balance drop from 1500 to 1400, he felt a pang of heartache.

On the way to their rental, Lin Si gently grabbed Y’s hand. Y glanced down at their joined hands, but Lin Si moved closer and hid their hands behind his back, not letting Y inspect them.

“There are so many people. I was afraid I’d lose you,” Lin Si said.

Y responded with a simple “Mm” and didn’t let go of his hand.

“Are you getting used to it today?” Lin Si asked. “Calling me…baby, I mean.”

Y: “…A little more used to it.”

Lin Si swayed their joined hands. “Or, is there a name you want me to call you? I’ll call it out for you.”

Y cleared his throat. “This is fine.”

“What does Y stand for? Is it a surname? Or your name? Or your lucky letter?” Lin Si asked curiously.

Y: “It doesn’t have any special meaning, just a name change.”

“Oh, okay.” Lin Si was briefly disappointed but soon forgot about it.

When they arrived at the rental, Lin Si peeked inside after opening the door.

Perhaps because it was a virtual world, the place was clean, bright, and fully furnished. Lin Si switched to touch mode and wandered around the living room, exploring.

“Can this TV actually work?” Lin Si pointed to it.

Y tapped the base, and the TV turned on, surprisingly broadcasting the latest hit drama.

Lin Si moved to the kitchen. “It’s a bit small…”

“The kitchen system isn’t online yet. You just need to buy ingredients, put them in the processor, and the system will automatically generate food,” Y explained.

Lin Si returned to the living room. “So it’s completely useless. You can’t even eat what it makes?”

“In the future, it will be closer to reality. But since smell and taste are highly personal and difficult to simulate, this module won’t be equivalent to reality for the foreseeable years,” Y said.

“True. We can’t expect it to be identical to reality. Even with gaming pods, it’s impossible to actually eat in a virtual world.”

Lin Si opened the bedroom he was most looking forward to. As expected, it looked just like the preview—spacious with a bay window. When the night lamp lit up, a warm, dreamy glow filled the room.

He walked a couple of steps and sat at the edge of the bed.

“It doesn’t feel like anything. I can only sense the firmness of my bed at home,” Lin Si said, patting the bed. “Want to sit here?”

Y stood in place for a couple of seconds before silently sitting next to Lin Si.

Once Y was close, Lin Si suddenly felt awkward. For some reason, the atmosphere was reminiscent of a newlywed couple’s wedding night—sitting shyly on the edge of the bed without speaking.

“Uh…” Lin Si broke the silence. “The time here seems to match the real world, right?”

“Yeah.”

Lin Si did some quick math. “Does that mean I can sleep here at night?”

“Sleeping with glasses and headphones on is uncomfortable,” Y said. “It’s better to take them off when you sleep.”

“But if I take them off, I won’t be here…”

“As long as a player enters a residence, it counts as rest time, and stamina will recover,” Y explained.

Lin Si sighed in disappointment. “I don’t have to sleep in the bed?”

“No.”

“Seriously, I don’t need to sleep on the bed?”

Y sighed and leaned back. “Fine. Yes, lie down.”

Lin Si grinned triumphantly and lay down beside Y, their shoulders touching. After a few seconds, he asked, “Should we use a blanket?”

“…Sure.” Y got up, grabbed the corners of the blanket, and gently spread it over Lin Si, covering him entirely.

Lin Si’s vision went dark. He wriggled out from under the blanket and playfully scolded Y, “What are you doing?! At least give me a heads-up!”

Y’s lips curved into a rare smile. “Didn’t you say to use the blanket?”

“Yeah, but don’t wrap me up like that!” Lin Si knelt on the bed, grabbed the blanket, and pounced at Y, only to have Y catch his raised wrist through the blanket.

A not-too-thick but not-too-thin layer separated them.

They couldn’t see each other or feel each other’s warmth. Yet somehow, through the divide of virtual and real worlds, their hands were still together.

Lin Si blinked under the blanket, stunned for a long time. Suddenly, he pressed down on the blanket and “crashed” onto Y.

Y, who was hit, froze at the edge of the bed, stiff like a robot that had suddenly powered down.

Lin Si’s heart raced; his chest heaved intensely from nervousness and panic. Yet, he stubbornly maintained this position, lying on top of Y.

After a moment, he awkwardly explained, “My arms are sore.”

The blanket slipped onto Lin Si’s head. Y lowered his head, seeing a small head wrapped in the fabric. He let go of Lin Si’s wrist and gently patted his hair.

In a soft voice, Y said, “Mm, sit up.”

Lin Si quickly let go of the blanket, his face burning hot. He turned his back and pretended to tidy the blanket to hide his embarrassment.

After fumbling for a while, Y helped smooth out the blanket. Lin Si slipped under it and lifted a corner. “Okay, come in.”

They lay under the blanket, their arms barely touching.

Neither spoke. At that moment, the virtual world and reality seemed to blur together. Lin Si had the fleeting illusion that Y was truly lying beside him.

“Are you sleepy? Want to sleep?” Y asked.

Lin Si turned his head to look at Y, scooting a little closer. In a whisper, he asked, “Can we hold hands?”

Under the blanket, Y reached for his hand.

Lin Si’s lips curved into a smile. His heart raced, and the words he’d wanted to say for a long time leaped out. He held Y’s hand and softly said, “I like—”

The word “you” lingered in the air.

Suddenly, his vision went black.

Startled, Lin Si sat up, took off his glasses, and was hit by a wave of dizziness. Pressing his forehead, it took him a while to realize that a phone call had interrupted the virtual connection.

He answered just as the call was about to end. “Hello?”

“Were you asleep?” Liao Ji’s voice was urgent. “Why didn’t you reply to my messages?”

Lin Si sighed. “Almost. What’s the matter? You had to call?”

“I sent it in the messages,” Liao Ji said. “Check it out.”

Keeping the call connected, Lin Si rubbed his temples and opened Liao Ji’s messages.

[Breaking! Lin Si spotted in a late-night rendezvous with an Omega—caught sharing an intimate kiss in a car!]
[Lin Si seen on the street, possibly escorting the Omega home!]
[Lin Si and Bai Fan enter and exit the same apartment complex—suspected overnight stay!]
[Scandal Alert! Lin Si and Bai Fan photographed holding hands!]
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Lin Si flipped through the pictures, his face darkening with each one.

“Did you see it all?” Liao Ji asked.

Though the screenshots didn’t show the comments, Lin Si could easily imagine the chaos among fans and gossipers.

Since his differentiation, Lin Si had been known for being scandal-free—a celebrity who was impossible to “catch.” He tried to piece the timeline together to debunk the rumors but found himself too unsettled to think straight.

“Don’t log into your social media accounts,” Liao Ji warned. “You can’t access them right now.”

Lin Si took a deep breath. “Wait, wait… let me think for a second.”

“I’ve already contacted Zhang Tingxi. He’s looking for Bai Fan,” Liao Ji said. “If this isn’t his self-directed drama, I’ll eat my hat!”

Lin Si’s phone vibrated near his ear. He saw a message from Y: [What’s wrong?]

He clenched his fist, then switched out of the app to reply to Y: [Some work-related issues. I probably won’t have time tonight.]

Y: [Don’t worry, it’ll get resolved.]

For some reason, Y’s simple response calmed Lin Si down, making the problem seem less daunting and solvable.

Lin Si sat at his desk, picked up a pen, and took a deep breath. He tore a sheet from his draft notebook.

The earliest image appeared to be from the Shengshi Annual Gala. Bai Fan had “accidentally” bumped into him at the dinner table, resulting in a close moment that was caught on camera.

Next came the photo when Lin Si attended a performance class until late night and was seen outside his teacher’s apartment. The gossip accounts spun it as a secret meeting with Bai Fan.

Then there was the incident during the New Year. In Xijiang’s garage, he leaned into a car to tell Liao Ji “Happy New Year.” The media twisted it into an “intimate moment” with Bai Fan. Coincidentally, photos surfaced showing Bai Fan entering and leaving Xijiang shortly after.

This was compounded by the trending topic of Lin Si dozing off at an event the following day, which painted him as unprofessional.

The final and most damning set of photos was from the first day back at work. Lin Si had gone to Shengshi to hand out red envelopes. Bai Fan had insisted on pulling him into the corridor to talk, resulting in a photo with misleading body language due to awkward angles.

“It’s obvious that I’m being linked to Bai Fan,” Lin Si told Liao Ji. “But for so many different incidents from separate times to surface all at once, there’s no way Bai Fan could have pulled it off alone. This probably wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing either.”

Liao Ji was frazzled but tried to reassure Lin Si. “Don’t worry. I’ll have the team release a statement—ugh! The server’s crashed! What’s going on? We can’t even log into the accounts…”

Lin Si didn’t listen carefully, instead focusing on drawing a few lines on the draft paper. He analyzed with Liao Ji, “At the annual gala, there were many people at the table. Someone from Shengshi who sat with us might have seen what actually happened. Try reaching out to them, but it’s fine if no one is willing to speak up—that set of photos doesn’t have much weight. For the late-night incident, call the performance teacher to see if she’d be willing to clarify. But if it bothers her, let it go. The biggest problem is the Xijiang photos…”

The Xijiang photos should have only involved Lin Si himself. But strangely, besides the picture of him leaning into the car, there were also photos of Bai Fan entering and exiting the parking lot. Most incriminating was the photo of them seemingly entering the same elevator.

“This can only mean he went out of his way to stage those shots,” Lin Si said. “I’ll head to Xijiang’s property management office to check the surveillance footage and see if we can trace their previous movements.”

“I’ll contact the people you mentioned. Zhang Tingxi said he’s also checking the company corridor’s surveillance footage,” Liao Ji said. He paused briefly. “Don’t check your phone or open social media for now.”

Lin Si put on his jacket. “Got it.”

He opened the bedroom door and walked out, only to run into Lu Wei sitting calmly on the sofa, scrolling on his phone. In a hurry, Lin Si greeted him.

“Where are you going?” Lu Wei asked.

“To the property management office,” Lin Si replied while putting on his shoes at the entryway.

“To check the surveillance footage?” Lu Wei asked.

Lin Si was surprised. “You know?”

“Hard not to—social media’s already down,” Lu Wei said as he stood up. “I’ll come with you. It’ll be easier to talk with them if I’m there.”

Lin Si opened his mouth to speak but suddenly realized that Lu Wei was fully dressed, as if he’d been waiting for him.

Looking at Lu Wei, Lin Si nodded. “Okay.”

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T/n : That Bai Fan villain is really doing his duty of being a small canon fodder villain humph😤 Stay tuned guys🎊🎉 If you can buy me a Ko-Fi or go to my paypal page. Happy Reading 🎇🥳🥰