Volume 4 Chapter 66: I Like Ari-chan More!
“Ah… huh?”
Hearing her rival suddenly ask that question, Lin Lin froze.
A few seconds later, she felt cold sweat running down her back.
“Y-You were actually watching that live stream? Hahaha… I saw Yi Xiao was there, so I left early. I’m not very sure about it.”
“Oh, I noticed her too. But I didn’t leave. I stayed and watched for a while. So… do you think those three girls might really be Yi Xiao’s friends?”
Gao Liang asked in a testing tone.
How could Lin Lin admit that? She immediately shook her head. “N-No way?”
“But Yi Xiao said they were,” Gao Liang replied.
That made Lin Lin feel awkward.
Uh…
Who knows what she was thinking? How could we be friends? We’re more like enemies.
“I’m not really sure… I just… um, I did see those virtual idols, I think? But I didn’t see Yi Xiao talk to them.”
Lin Lin scratched her head, trying to fix her story. She remembered that she had just made up a story about wearing a cosplay outfit and working for someone, so she continued:
“When I went to get my pay just now, I found out that the people who hired me were actually… um… the team behind the Demi-Human Girl Trio. So I saw the three girls there.”
“I see,” Gao Liang nodded. Then he looked up and said casually,
“I think those three are pretty cute. They worked really hard on stage. You can tell they put in a lot of effort. I realized I kind of like this… what do you call it? Virtual streamer?”
“Huh?”
Lin Lin blinked and suddenly panicked.
Oh no… looking at Gao Liang’s shining eyes right now…
Don’t tell me he got pulled into the virtual streamer world just because he saw her live performance at the convention?
Th-This is absolutely not okay!
Who knows who he might start liking in the future? Actually… anyone is fine, just not her!
Lin Lin puffed her cheeks.
The most important thing now was to stop him from developing this terrible idea. But… how? She had no idea.
So she could only pout and say, “Y-You shouldn’t just stare at other girls like that, okay? You’re such a flirt.”
“Well, I really do like it~ And I don’t even have a girlfriend. That doesn’t count as being flirty, right?”
Gao Liang grinned mischievously as he said that in front of her.
Lin Lin was stunned. She got so annoyed that she turned her head away and glared at him.
Hmph…
Thinking about it carefully… he kind of had a point.
She couldn’t really control what her rival liked.
“By the way,” Gao Liang continued, “since you saw the three girls in real life, what do you think? Which one do you think is the cutest?”
“Are you picking a concubine or something?!”
Lin Lin was speechless.
This feeling was just like in a dating game, where the male lead asks his good buddy for advice about which girl to choose. And she—
She definitely didn’t want to play that role. If she kept helping like this, she might… accidentally fall deeper.
“I’m just curious,” Gao Liang said, still trying to get more information from her.
“Well… if you really want to know, I think… um… Miss Princess Hydrogen and the blonde cat girl’s real-life person are cuter. Yeah… Miss Princess Hydrogen looks the best! She’s a big beauty!”
Lin Lin nodded seriously.
Hah, what a joke.
She had no choice but to say that!
She absolutely couldn’t let Gao Liang pay attention to her. Letting him focus on Xiao Ye was also risky, since he was Xiao Ye’s older brother.
In the end… only Sister Wenmei was someone Gao Liang didn’t know well.
“Oh, I see.” Gao Liang nodded to himself, then suddenly asked, “Eh, but I think the one called… Ari-chan? She’s pretty cute too! On stage, she danced the cutest and tried the hardest.”
“Uh… th-this… no, no, that’s not it. Ari-chan’s real person…”
Lin Lin was stunned. Why did her rival end up liking her the most while watching from the audience? No, no, that’s absolutely not okay!
“She, she, she… she’s actually a cross-dresser! Um, she’s a boy! He just has a very good fake voice, that’s all. Really, really, I’m not lying! Don’t tell anyone, okay? This is top secret. I even signed a confidentiality agreement!”
“A… a boy?”
Gao Liang’s mouth twitched.
At that moment, the phone Lin Lin was waving in her hand suddenly rang.
She froze for a second, then quickly picked up her phone to check the message. Gao Liang leaned over, trying to look at her screen. Lin Lin noticed and quickly moved it away.
【Du Wenmei: Xiao Lin, are you done over there? The car is coming soon. Come back quickly!】
Ah, it’s… it’s time.
【Lin Lin: Okay, I’m coming back now!】
After replying, the girl put down her phone. She looked at her rival, whose expression seemed a little strange, and said goodbye:
“Um, I have something to do, so I’m leaving first. You should go home too. See you on Monday. Bye.”
“Yeah, see you on Monday.”
Gao Liang watched her walk away and couldn’t say anything for a while.
He scratched his head and carefully thought about what she had just said.
Fake voice…
Come to think of it, when Lin Lin met him today in her cosplay outfit, the first words she said didn’t sound like… her normal voice.
Did she… learn voice acting?
Hmm…
Maybe later, he should find a chance to look at Lin Lin’s phone.
He still needed… to confirm it.
………………
“Cheers~!”
At the celebration party, Sister Wenmei and Xiao Ye were drinking happily.
Lin Lin stood nearby, watching Chao Mian eat a lot of food, while Sister Wenmei, an adult, was letting underage Xiao Ye drink alcohol. The scene didn’t feel very right to her.
“Sister Lin Lin, y-you should drink a little too~ You were amazing today~ So great~!”
The slightly drunk little devil leaned on the girl’s shoulder and handed her a glass. Lin Lin pushed it away, saying she couldn’t drink anymore. She had already eaten enough.
“Hehehe, don’t make that face. What’s wrong?”
“I ran into Gao Liang again… at the anime convention.”
Lin Lin stared sadly at her drink bottle as she spoke.
“Hmm?” Gao Ye smiled slightly. “So what? It doesn’t matter. Cheers!”
“Seriously, you’re not scared at all about being found out!”
Lin Lin sighed, pushed the little devil away, and let her lean back toward Sister Wenmei. She took out her phone and suddenly saw a private message on P-site.
【Watching VTubers Makes Me a Dog: I’m leaving. See you next time.】
Seeing the other person’s slightly sad tone, Lin Lin quickly typed:
【Ari-chan: Sorry, Dog Bro. We didn’t get to meet again this time.】
【Watching VTubers Makes Me a Dog: It’s okay. I think… I may have already seen you?】
Huh?
Lin Lin froze. Wh… what does that mean?
Did Dog Bro see her messing around with Gao Liang?
Uh…
Just as she was still confused, a new text message suddenly came in.
【This is Yi Xiao, Let’s find some time to talk again. Ari-chan… or should I say, Lin Lin?】
….………………….
End of Volume 4