Chapter 33: The Rival's Mental State Is Starting to Fall Apart
Xia Changyu had always seen himself as a gentle and polite person.
He usually had a very good temper. But this time, he was really so angry he almost felt like coughing up blood.
He had already said, “Go back first. We’ll deal with everything in private. Got it?”
But looking at Gu Xiaoxue, she still thought she could act cute and get him to take her side and fight back for her. Seriously, do you have no brain at all?
Or maybe...
If Gu Xiaoxue and her friends had even a tiny bit of reason to stand on, he would’ve still stepped up to protect her. After all, no matter what, she was still his girlfriend.
But seeing how things were going, Gu Xiaoxue suddenly started crying loudly.
“Yuyu... you... you’re yelling at me?! Waaah! My whole life, even my parents have never scolded me! And now... now you’re yelling at me because of another girl? Waaah!”
Xia Changyu's head was about to explode: “!?”
“Waaah~!”
Would her crying make him give in?
Even if he gave up his principles, of course he’d want to comfort his girlfriend. Lin Yibai thought that once Gu Xiaoxue started crying, the ending was already clear.
She just felt, how boring!
Xia Changyu said, “You’re still crying?”
That only made Gu Xiaoxue cry even louder. “Waaah waaah waaaaah!”
After all, who could really stand up against a crying girl?
Lin Yibai turned around, feeling a bit sad.
She didn’t know what to do anymore. That girl, crying, being unreasonable, saying hurtful things... Was this really the girl she had once liked so much?
Suddenly, a loud voice shouted behind her:
“Shut up!!”
Xia Changyu had finally had enough. He had tried to talk nicely to her, to give her advice. He was trying to save her pride.
Not to let her keep pushing him further. Got it?
“Yuyu?”
Gu Xiaoxue was truly shocked.
Her normally gentle boyfriend, why was he being so strict and harsh?
Xia Changyu took a deep breath and said,
“I’ll say it one last time. Wipe your fake tears and go home first. Stop playing the victim here. Stop embarrassing me. If not, then just get lost. Okay?”
He had almost reached his limit with this silly, foolish girlfriend.
Gu Xiaoxue sniffled. “B-but...”
Then she looked at Lin Yibai with eyes full of resentment.
“But what?” Xia Changyu snapped. “The first person you should apologize to is her.”
He pointed at Lin Yibai and continued, “She was helping me promote our booth, and the results were great. And no, I’m not the type of person who only cares about money. What really made me angry was you causing trouble here. And don’t forget, you’re my girlfriend. The money she helped me earn, it would’ve been spent on you in the end. So what were you even thinking?”
Still not satisfied, Xia Changyu snorted and added,
“And you even tried to bully her online? The Gu Xiaoxue I liked was never a mean girl like that. Doing that, what do you even get out of it?”
He was also blaming Gu Xiaoxue’s roommates, thinking they had influenced her in a bad way.
Or maybe, she and her roommate were already this kind of people from the start?
Gu Xiaoxue knew she was in the wrong and didn’t dare say anything else. She left the exhibition with her roommates, feeling ashamed.
Lin Yibai stood with her back to Xia Changyu and the group that had just left.
She felt her whole body go a little stiff.
She opened her mouth a few times, but in the end only sighed quietly.
“He... actually yelled at Xiaoxue?”
As a love rival, she should have been happy. Or if it were the old version of herself, she probably would’ve already stood up and tried to defend Xiaoxue.
Lin Yibai thought that seeing her love rival and ex-girlfriend have a fight would make her feel really happy, that she’d enjoy their drama.
But...
Why couldn’t she smile?
Right now should’ve been the perfect chance to hurt her rival and win back her ex. Maybe if she had never known what “light” was like, she could’ve stayed in the dark?
Lin Yibai had never expected that, after ending her relationship and stepping back as an outsider, she would notice so many scary things. She slowly started to see that the person she once liked so much... maybe wasn’t as great as she thought.
“Sigh~~”
She let out a soft sigh and slowly walked away.
Meanwhile, standing at the front desk of the expo, Xia Changyu didn’t look over at her. Maybe it was because he felt guilty, or maybe he just had too many problems to deal with. Either way, he seemed nervous and didn’t dare look her way.
For Lin Yibai, there was both good news and bad news.
The good news was that a famous streamer, Cai Cai, had praised her and gave her a very high review.
The bad news was, she got a complaint letter.
“I knew it, that complaint must’ve come from her roommates!”
Gu Xiaoxue’s roommates were so petty!
She earned a 500 yuan bonus for helping the streamer Cai Cai. But after the complaint, some money was taken away. She was left with 100 yuan.
“Well... still not a loss!”
Suddenly, Lin Yibai felt a lot better.
In the evening, sunlight from the setting sun came through the entrance of Area E.
Lin Yibai stretched lazily and made a little summary of her part-time experience as a girl:
“Overall, I’m really happy. If I were still a boy, even if I had three more years, I probably wouldn’t find a better part-time job than this.”
She thought, So what if I enjoyed the perks of being a girl? No need to hide it!
The expo only lasted two days. Now it was coming to an end.
Most of the girls doing part-time work chose to return to their schools.
But Lin Yibai couldn’t. She couldn’t go back as a girl, so she decided to stay at the hotel for one more night.
After work, the buses came and went. But she stayed behind.
Inside the expo hall, the sounds of tools and people echoed as the booths were being taken down.
She waited a long time until she finally saw a tired-looking boy walk out.
Then, she called out, “Yo, Yuyu?”
She was copying Gu Xiaoxue’s tone on purpose, planning to tease her rival hard. But when the words came out, they didn’t sound as sharp as she expected.
Lin Yibai only wanted to joke around, she didn’t actually feel mean inside.
So it came out more like a light tease than an insult, a way to shift the mood.
Xia Changyu could tell right away.
He knew Lin Yibai meant no harm, and in order to keep the conversation going, he even gave a bitter smile and replied, “Even you are here to make fun of me, huh?”
“Hehe!”
“What are you laughing at?”
“I’m laughing at how full of yourself you are.”
She stood up and walked with him as they chatted. “The buses left over half an hour ago. You really think I waited just to make fun of you? That’s giving yourself too much credit!”
Xia Changyu gave a bitter laugh. “Fair enough.”
Lin Yibai continued, “But don’t look down on yourself either.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“I can help you get what you want.”
“??”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to be made fun of? I can help with that! Like today, what were you even doing? Your behavior was just terrible. And your girlfriend, also not great, honestly. And also—”
“Okay, okay! Please stop!!” Xia Changyu quickly raised his hands in surrender, laughing and begging, “Alright, I was wrong, okay? Please, just stop, I’m begging you! Hahaha!!”
Even though she was teasing him and it was a bit awkward...
Xia Changyu suddenly felt much better. All the stress and gloom from the day disappeared.
Was this her charm?
She really had a way of making people feel at ease.