Chapter 70: How Do You Prove You're a Boy?
The anime convention was still going on, and near the end, Ye Ziming told Lin Muqing that they had won an "Excellence Award."
This award was kind of like a consolation prize, just a bit lower than third place, but it still came with some prize money.
To Ye Ziming, it was just a little, but for Lin Muqing, it was actually a decent amount. She could have fun with it for a while.
As for the people who did better than them, some were really skilled, and others won thanks to being lewd fans favorites or having a lot of fan support.
“This first-place winner is just ridiculous.”
Looking at the winners list on her phone, Lin Muqing’s eye twitched. She really wanted to complain about it.
According to backstage info Ye Ziming had heard, there were originally two contestants competing for first place. But once it was revealed that one of them was actually a guy crossdressing as a girl, the 50-50 competition quickly became 70-30 in his favor, and he won perfectly.
“A crossdressing guy? Isn’t that even more exciting?”
That was one viewer’s comment at the time. And when he said it, everyone around him totally agreed, it was great.
“You’ll get used to it.”
Ye Ziming didn’t give any opinion, he just smiled and said this while leading Lin Muqing out of the venue early.
Honestly, when she saw the first-place winner, Lin Muqing was a little tempted. She wondered, “If I played that card too, could I win a better prize?”
“You’re not thinking… of telling them you’re a crossdressing guy, are you?”
After walking a bit and seeing that she was still staring at the winners list, Ye Ziming broke out in a cold sweat.
After hesitating for a moment, he gave her a meaningful look and asked softly.
“Cough cough…”
Caught red-handed, Lin Muqing quickly turned off her phone screen and guiltily looked away.
She felt a little awkward and thought, ‘Wow, my buddy really knows me too well.’
She really had thought about doing that, but she didn’t bring her jade pendant with her today. Without it, she couldn’t prove that she was actually a boy.
So, yeah—it was just a passing thought. Really, just a tiny one.
“How would you prove it?”
Seeing her reaction, Ye Ziming couldn’t help but laugh. He tried to hold it in as he asked her the question.
His look was very teasing, and he even glanced down at her chest. Not big, but definitely not flat.
“Brother, what are you even saying?”
Her eyelid twitched, and she glanced at him, feeling something bad was coming.
“I’m just curious, how would you prove you’re a boy?”
He squinted his eyes slightly and dragged out the words “you’re a boy,” watching her with a grin.
That look didn’t feel like he was asking. It felt more like he was examining her.
His lips curled up in a smile as he quietly waited for her answer, genuinely curious.
“I…”
Faced with this soul-crushing question, Lin Muqing couldn’t say a thing, because she literally had no way to prove it!
Without the jade pendant, her body was just like any other girl’s. There wasn’t a single feature left that could show she was a boy.
“I’d just… prove it like this.”
She mumbled something vague, then nervously looked away. Honestly, she wanted to make an excuse and run away.
“Like this? What do you mean like this?”
There was more and more laughter in his voice. Ye Ziming threw out another question, clearly not planning to let Lin Muqing off the hook so easily.
“That’s all,” she said, playing dumb.
When unsure what to do, just act clueless.
At that moment, Lin Muqing was extremely nervous and a little embarrassed. Could it be that my good buddy really noticed something?
That can’t be, right? She thought her disguise was perfect. There shouldn’t be any flaws!
“Alright then.”
With a soft laugh, Ye Ziming looked away and got into Uncle Liu’s car with Lin Muqing.
By now, Lin Muqing was already so nervous she could barely sit still. Ye Ziming figured that if he kept asking, she might snap.
So he decided to let her off for now.
After getting in the car, Lin Muqing let out a quiet sigh of relief. She secretly glanced at her best friend sitting beside her, feeling a bit suspicious.
But no matter how she looked, Ye Ziming’s face seemed totally normal. No unusual expression at all.
What she didn’t know was that while she was secretly watching Ye Ziming, he was secretly watching her too.
Only Ye Ziming’s acting was better. His face and body language were completely calm, giving nothing away.
………………………………
“We’re here.”
The car came to a smooth stop outside Lin Muqing’s apartment complex. Ye Ziming gently reminded her and poked her arm while she was playing on her phone.
Her face was soft and smooth, so it felt nice to poke. After two pokes, Ye Ziming kind of wanted to squish it too.
“Huh? Oh! Bye then, boss.”
Suddenly realizing they had arrived, Lin Muqing looked out the window and saw she was home.
So she quickly said goodbye to her best bro, stuffed her phone into her pocket, opened the door, and headed home.
As he watched her leave, Ye Ziming thought back on today’s convention and felt that makeup was actually a pretty useful skill.
He figured it wouldn’t hurt for Lin Muqing to practice more.
So, after checking today’s cafe income, he sent Sister Yu another payment, and added a message: ‘Make sure to teach Lin Muqing well.’
“Girls, our dear cafe boss has gotten a taste of success~”
After receiving the message, Sister Yu immediately shared the “good news” with the other maids.
So all the maids gave each other knowing smiles, secretly imagining the next steps of the “romance story” between the boss and Lin Muqing.
While chatting, Sister Yu opened her chat with Lin Muqing and sent her a transfer.
It was Lin Muqing’s share of the extra money they had made today using her post-makeup photos for promotions, photo books, and so on.
[Lin Muqing: I didn’t do anything and I still get money?]
When she saw the message, Lin Muqing had just gotten home and sat on the couch. She opened her phone and froze.
To her, this was a huge amount of money, way more than what Sister Yu had promised earlier.
She was so excited she didn’t even dare to hit the “Accept” button right away. So she sent a message to ask, along with a sticker of someone trembling.
[Sister Yu: This is the distribution everyone agreed on. Each person gets a share. This is what you deserve.]
Sister Yu chuckled softly after sending the message. She could already imagine Lin Muqing drooling at the sight of that money.
After all, everyone in the cafe knew that Lin Muqing was a cute little money-lover.
[Sister Yu: Of course, if you think it’s too much, you can send it back. Or we can just have the boss transfer it to you later. doge face.jpg]
After thinking for a second, Sister Yu sent that extra message.
Sure enough, as soon as the message was sent, Lin Muqing clicked “Accept” in record time.
[Lin Muqing: No need to trouble you, Sister Yu. I’ll talk to him directly~ wink.jpg]
“Look at you, no backbone at all.”
Seeing that, Sister Yu couldn’t help but laugh and playfully scold the phone screen.