Chapter 43
"Aunt, the room is on the sixth floor. There's no elevator, so we'll have to walk up."
"Okay~"
After the meal, Ye Lan still wanted to see the apartment Yan Huan was renting, and he couldn’t really refuse.
So he agreed and drove them to the building where his apartment was located.
Despite wearing high heels, both Ye Lan and Ye Shiyu were in great shape. Climbing six flights of stairs was no trouble at all.
They didn’t even break a sweat—it must’ve been thanks to regular exercise.
If Vice President Yinggong ever came here, she’d probably be panting before reaching the second floor.
Meanwhile, Ye Lan glanced around the area. The surroundings were decent, and the building’s facilities weren’t too old or run-down—nothing like the more questionable parts of the southern district.
Raising her brows in mild surprise, she asked Yan Huan,
"The environment here is pretty nice, Xiaohuan."
"Ah, well, it’s public rental housing. The rent’s not expensive, but it’s a bit tricky to apply for."
Public rental housing was a government-supported initiative launched by Linmen. It had specific standards for rent and living conditions.
The housing was managed directly by the government and required applicants to meet special criteria.
As an orphan, Yan Huan happened to qualify.
The environment was pleasant and the rent affordable, so Yan Huan didn’t feel much pressure there.
What truly strained his finances was paying for school tuition.
When Principal Hermis spoke with Ye Lan, he mentioned that the most a scholarship at Yuanyue Academy could cover was two-thirds of the tuition fees.
At first glance, it might seem strange that even someone like Yan Huan—the top student and Student Council President at one of Linmen’s two elite schools—couldn’t get full tuition coverage.
But that wasn’t entirely accurate.
Technically, a scholarship could cover all tuition. The real issue was the many other costs tied to studying at Yuanyue Academy.
School bus fees were high—just one academic year could cost thousands.
Then there were the costs of custom school uniforms for two seasons, various supplies, and health insurance.
Textbooks, in particular, were a heavy burden.
Printed materials in Linmen were outrageously expensive. One math textbook Yan Huan used cost several hundred yuan.
And that was just for math—there were still four more core subjects, plus electives that sometimes needed their own materials.
Altogether, the cost was enough to make Yan Huan feel like coughing up blood!
These extra fees weren’t covered by the scholarship. In fact, they made up about a third of the total cost, and had to be paid upfront before the school year began.
Still, maybe these penny-pinching worries wouldn’t matter much anymore.
After all, Yan Huan had now pledged himself to the loving Church of Ye Lan.
"This is it."
Yan Huan smiled, turned to Ye Lan, took out his key, and opened the door, revealing the 40-square-meter interior.
"Aunt, Shiyu-sis, come in. No one else really comes over, so I didn’t prepare slippers or shoe covers or anything."
"Then we’ll intrude~"
"......"
Yan Huan turned on the lights and walked in first.
Ye Lan and Ye Shiyu followed closely behind, looking around the tidy apartment. Meow-chan also came out to greet them.
Earlier, during the hands-on class, Yan Huan had asked Ye Shiyu to make a little scarf for Meow-chan. The cat food and canned goods on the shelf made it clear he was keeping a cat.
Cute animals always caught girls’ attention easily. Once Meow-chan’s name was introduced, Ye Lan couldn’t resist scooping her up and rubbing her affectionately.
At first, she thought the fur was just fluffy, making the cat look like a black puffball.
But the moment she touched it, she realized—the black cat was completely solid.
"What a chonky cat!"
Ye Lan covered her mouth in amazement.
"Meow?!"
Meow-chan was stunned.
But her expression completely gave her away!
"Such a cute little kitty. But Xiaohuan, how come there’s no litter box here?"
While still rubbing Meow-chan, Ye Lan suddenly asked.
Hearing her mother, Ye Shiyu also glanced over curiously.
"Ah, that."
Yan Huan looked at Meow-chan, who blinked up at him adorably from Ye Lan’s arms, and explained,
"Meow-chan usually goes out to play on her own, so she takes care of that outside."
"I see. Still a bit wild, huh? What a cute kitty."
Ye Lan patted Meow-chan’s chubby cheek, then set her down and continued exploring the small apartment.
But with only 40 square meters, there wasn’t much to see. Soon, Ye Lan and Ye Shiyu got ready to return to the Jinghe District.
"Alright, Xiaohuan, Aunt and Sis will head off for now. If anything comes up, contact me anytime. And come home for meals often."
At the entrance, Ye Lan turned back to say goodbye.
"Definitely, Aunt."
As always, Ye Shiyu wore a calm expression. But in truth, her eyes hadn’t missed a single detail in Yan Huan’s small apartment.
It wasn’t until she was about to step out that she finally withdrew her lingering gaze and said goodbye.
"See you next week at school, Xiaohuan."
"Got it, Shiyu-sis."
Yan Huan didn’t walk them out—after all, the car was just downstairs.
After he closed the door, Ye Lan and Ye Shiyu walked toward the stairwell.
As they went, Ye Shiyu looked at her mother, who was softly humming and seemed to be in a good mood. Then she suddenly asked,
"...Is it really okay, Mama?"
Ye Lan turned back with a puzzled look.
"What’s okay?"
"Mama, you obviously really want Xiaohuan to come back home, don’t you?"
"Mm, that’s true."
"Then... just leaving Xiaohuan in the southern district like this—is that really okay?"
Ye Lan paused for a moment, then smiled and replied,
"I really do feel that way, but—"
"But?"
Ye Shiyu tilted her head in confusion.
"Mmm... It might be a bit early for you, Shiyu, but think of this as a little life lesson from Mama~"
"..."
Ye Lan gently reached out and touched Ye Shiyu’s black hair, speaking softly,
"People tend to treat those they care about as their own possessions, and then attach expectations to them.
"Parents see their children as theirs, so they expect obedience and for them to follow a path they’ve set.
"Children view their parents as theirs, so they expect selfless devotion and unconditional support.
"Lovers, friends—it’s the same. Most close relationships are like this.
"But people often don’t realize this, because we’re used to seeing things from our own point of view."
Ye Shiyu blinked, stayed quiet for a moment, then asked,
"Is that... wrong?"
Ye Lan shook her head and continued walking as she replied,
"Of course not. In fact, it’s only natural.
"It’s because we care that we pin our hopes on others, wanting them to act a certain way, to not disappoint us."
Her steps slowed as she reached the stairwell.
She turned around and looked at her daughter, who was still standing in place.
"But Shiyu, you also need to understand—people belong to themselves first, and only then do they belong to you.
"You have to respect that, or you’ll both end up hurt.
"If you expect too much and try to treat someone like they’re yours, you’ll only be disappointed when they don’t give you what you want."
Ye Shiyu’s eyes narrowed slightly, and her lips parted.
"Xiaohuan—he’s himself first, then he’s Yulu’s child... and the one I hope to share feelings with."
"Shiyu, it’s the same with you. You’re you first, and then you’re my daughter~"
Standing in the shadows, Ye Shiyu looked at her smiling mother, confused.
She didn’t understand.
She couldn’t understand what her mother was thinking at all.
But in that moment, Ye Shiyu suddenly remembered the confusion that had been weighing on her all week.
(*) Note for line 13: Public rental housing refers to government-subsidized housing made available at lower rental prices for eligible residents.
Every time she saw someone at school showing interest in Xiaohuan, a wave of unease surged within her.
'This must be the disappointment Mom was talking about, right?'
'Because when you realize someone doesn’t belong to you alone, that they might be taken by someone else, it shatters your expectations.'
'But... what’s so wrong with that?'
'Wanting everything to go your way, wanting someone to belong to you forever, never betraying or leaving you—'
'Is there really something wrong with thinking like that?'
As for disappointment, she wasn’t afraid to face it.
After all, she had the Hypnosis APP.
At that thought, the daze in Ye Shiyu’s eyes was shattered by the fear lurking in her heart, and her face returned to its usual emotionless state.
It was nighttime, and the southern district’s wind carried a complicated, indescribable mood.
Ye Lan’s gentle voice melted into the neon-lit air like bubbles, swirling into a mix of colors as if dipped in paint.
The multicolored glow from a billboard across the public rental building spread through the shadows where Ye Shiyu stood, illuminating the purple screen in her hand.
It felt as though that screen had always been a part of this flashy, chaotic world.
And it also felt like this gaudy world now rested in Ye Shiyu’s hand.
"Alright, Shiyu, stop overthinking. I'm so tired today—let’s just go home and rest~"
"Okay."
Ye Shiyu nodded, finally stepping out of the shadows and walking toward the stairwell.
Before leaving, she glanced once more at Yan Huan’s rented apartment and silently memorized his room number.
Only then did she follow Ye Lan downstairs.
Let’s just say Ye Shiyu wasn’t the only one confused tonight.
"Why... why is it like this..."
Somewhere in a Western-style house in the Jinghe district...
Yinggong Tong, wearing a nightgown, widened her eyes, paused in silence, then quietly pressed the bell on the corner of the desk.
*Ding ding~*
*Click.*
The next moment, the door opened, revealing a seductive black-haired woman in a black suit standing outside.
Upon seeing the motionless girl in the nightgown sitting in front of the computer screen at the far end of the spacious bedroom, her expression shifted to one of "just as expected."
She tapped a button on her phone, and the [Emergency Situation] warning on the screen disappeared silently.
"My dear Miss Yinggong, haven’t you heard the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'?"
Then, the mature woman gave a teasing smile and added,
"Even though I knew this would happen, as your personal bodyguard, I still have to remind you—don’t press that bell unless it’s a real emergency."
"It already is an emergency, Nara!!" Yinggong Tong’s face flushed red as she turned to glare at her.
"Ehh~"
Nara responded lazily, closed the door behind her, and walked to Yinggong Tong’s side.
"So, what exactly is so urgent?"
"Look!"
Yinggong Tong turned back, clicked the mouse to enlarge one of the countless surveillance feeds, and dragged the progress bar.
On screen, in the stairwell of a public rental unit in the southern district, a smiling Yan Huan was seen leading Ye Lan and Ye Shiyu inside.
Nara looked at the screen, then glanced at Yinggong Tong, who was puffing her cheeks and hugging her arms, clearly fuming.
After a second of silence, she repeated her question,
"So, what exactly is the emergency?"
"Can’t you see?! And you dare call yourself a 'virgin slayer'?!"
Yinggong Tong clenched her fists and stared at Nara with growing contempt, leaving Nara even more bewildered.
"Huh? What does this have to do with me?"
"Isn't it obvious? The President’s apartment never had guests before! But today... today Ye Shiyu actually went in?! His first time was—was actually—"
"Can you not phrase it so weirdly?"
Nara’s serious expression cracked, but Yinggong Tong remained oblivious.
"Besides, Ye Shiyu wasn’t alone. There was an elder with her too. How is this an emergency?"
"She’s still a woman, isn’t she?!"
Yinggong Tong bit her thumbnail, visibly anxious.
"I was the first to meet the President, the first to stay by his side, the first to notice him! He even made pudding for me once—she’s probably never even tasted it! Why does she get to go inside his house when I haven’t?!"
"Then why not just tell Yan Huan you want to visit his place?"
"Like it’s that easy! Are you stupid?!"
Yinggong Tong shot a look at Nara and explained rationally,
"I’ve already studied the layout of the President’s apartment. It’s only forty square meters. If I come up with an excuse to visit, the other student council members will want to come too."
"Forty square meters—how can five people visit at once? It’d make the President uncomfortable, and the whole thing would fall apart."
Nara, now lying bored on Yinggong Tong’s bed, pulled out her phone and started watching cute pet videos.
While scrolling, she glanced at Yinggong Tong and asked,
"What I meant was, why not just ask Yan Huan if you can visit alone?"
"Wha—"
Yinggong Tong’s face flushed crimson. She waved her hands in a panic.
"That would... that would be way too obvious!"
"What’s wrong with being obvious? What’s wrong with being honest? You really do like him, don’t you?"
"Of course I do, but..."
Yinggong Tong turned to the computer screen filled with surveillance feeds, surrounded by dozens of photos of Yan Huan and notebooks recording his every move.
"That would ruin the persona I’ve built! Acting so forward would be too sudden—he’d definitely think something’s off..."
The more she looked, the paler she became.
"What if, after that, the President starts noticing I’m strange? Even if we got together, what if he slowly gets disappointed and ends up being scared away... I’d totally want to die!"
"...Ah, whatever. I still don’t want to lose my job. Miss Yinggong, at least wait until I resign before you go die, okay."
"What are you even talking about, Nara?!"
Nara sat up, yawning. Her usual seductive air was tinged with frustration.
"Then why don’t you stop doing stuff like this? Making me install all these cameras, monitoring him 24/7—now it’s all backfiring when you were so close to actually getting somewhere with him."
But Yinggong Tong blinked and looked at her like she was the idiot.
"Are you stupid? If I didn’t install the cameras, how else would I know everything about the President’s daily life?"
"..."
Nara felt like dying—but only after someone else did first.
She flopped onto the bed in an X shape, looking ready to be buried, and muttered,
"You win, Miss Yinggong."
"I win?"
Yinggong Tong marched to the bed, hands on her hips, staring down at Nara who was now chatting flirtatiously with someone on her phone.
"Isn’t the real point that you’re supposed to help me?"
"So, how exactly am I supposed to help?"
Yinggong Tong stroked her chin, clearly already having a plan.
She returned to her desk and pulled out a stack of pamphlets.
"Here, look at this."
"What are these?"
"Product brochures. This one’s for TV cable, this one’s for Wi-Fi, this one’s for air conditioning, this one’s for water heater replacement, and this one’s for a purifier."
"Wait, wait, wait—what are you planning?"
Nara sat up, watching as Yinggong Tong laid the flyers out.
Yinggong Tong picked up one and pointed it at Nara like a commander giving orders.
"Just pick an excuse. Say it's free installation for something—TV, air conditioner, whatever. Use that to get inside the President’s place and secretly install a camera. One in the living room, one in the bedroom... and the bathroom too—"
"Have you completely lost your mind?!"
*Smack!*
Nara slapped the flyer from her hand and flicked her forehead with a finger.
*Flick~*
It was a light flick, but the delicate Yinggong Tong clutched her forehead and whined in pain.
"Oww, Nara!"
"Miss Yinggong, if you keep this up, you’re going to crash and burn. Forget dating Yan Huan—if you get caught, your entire reputation will be shot."
Yinggong Tong was such a softie, she looked like she might cry from a simple flick.
Her face turned red, eyes welling up with tears as she looked up anxiously and exclaimed,
(*) Note for line 129: "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is a classic fable warning against raising false alarms.
(*) Note for line 142: "Virgin slayer" is likely a slang term referring to someone with a seductive reputation—used humorously here.
"Then what should I do?! That awful Ye Shiyu... how dare she, how dare she—"
"Weren’t you all calm this afternoon? Saying 'it’s no big deal' in front of me—so how did you end up getting completely wiped out by the other side tonight?"
As her personal bodyguard, Nara helped Yinggong Tong with a lot of things, like installing surveillance cameras.
There were over a hundred cameras, many set up in sneaky, professional voyeur angles that required regular maintenance.
Just think about it—even with Yinggong Tong’s frail physique, there was no way she could handle all that by herself. It was all thanks to Nara.
Having been involved from the start, Nara—an otherwise bored adult—had even begun watching the progress of their relationship for fun.
It was like watching an electronic cricket fight—nonstop entertainment every day.
When they got back from school that afternoon, Yinggong Tong had still been making sarcastic remarks about her "potential rival in love," Ye Shiyu, and her performance at lunch.
"EZ," "taking a disciple," "switching to AI."
(*) "EZ" is gamer slang for "easy"; "taking a disciple" and "switching to AI" are gaming metaphors mocking someone’s poor performance.
But by nightfall, after seeing the other side "sneak across Yinping, heading straight for Shu Han," she completely lost it.
(*) "Sneak across Yinping, heading straight for Shu Han" is a reference to a historical or strategic maneuver, likely metaphorical here.
Seriously, where does Miss Yinggong get all this energy in a single day?
Still, Miss Yinggong’s flustered private side was actually kind of cute.
Honestly, if she didn’t act so prim and logical in front of Yan Huan—if she showed this side of herself earlier—she’d probably have already won him over.
Fuming, Yinggong Tong tried to punch Nara with clenched fists, but her punches were so slow, Nara blocked them with one hand.
With one hand fending off Yinggong Tong’s flurry of soft pink fists, Nara rested her cheek on the other hand and yawned.
"Miss Yinggong, instead of sneaking into someone’s house to install cameras, maybe you should think about what you’re going to do at Sunday’s Game Expo."
"Game... Expo?"
Yinggong Tong blinked in surprise before it suddenly clicked.
Oh right—the student council had a group outing planned for the weekend!
That meant she and the President would be going together!!
"Yeah, I still need to think about what kind of events there’ll be at the Game Expo on Sunday. If there’s a chance..."
Seeing that Yinggong Tong had finally calmed down, Nara gently took her fist in one hand.
With a light push, she actually made Yinggong Tong stumble up from the bed.
"But before you start thinking about the Game Expo, Miss, I really think you need to consider how you're going to deal with your feelings for President Yan."
"What do you mean?"
Nara sat up, rested her chin in her hand, and gave a playful smile.
"You want to be with President Yan, right?"
"Well of course."
"But you're using a carefully crafted persona to attract him, hoping he'll confess to you. Even if that works, is the person he falls for really you—or just the version you’re pretending to be?"
Yinggong Tong paused, then gave Nara a look like she was an idiot.
"Are you stupid?
"If I can create a persona the President likes, then being with me will make him feel completely satisfied. And in return, I get to be with him, know his every move, and the real me will be satisfied too.
"It’s a win-win. As long as it continues, what’s the problem? The persona is me. The real me is also me. There’s no difference at all."
At this point, Yinggong Tong had fully recovered from her emotional breakdown and returned to her usual rational self.
After a short pause, she suddenly looked at Nara with a chilling gaze and asked,
"Nara, you’re the person I trust most in this world. That’s why I let you know everything about me.
"And you, who knows all of this, would never reveal my secrets to anyone, right?"
Hearing that, Nara raised an eyebrow.
With a mischievous smile, she raised her hand to her lips and made a *zip* motion.
"Of course, I’ll keep your secrets, Miss Yinggong.
"In return, you must keep mine too. Don’t let the main family find out anything about me, okay?"
(*) "Main family" refers to the core or ruling branch of a traditional or influential family, often used in hierarchical family systems.
Yinggong Tong gave a subtle smile and a knowing look as she reached out her hand to Nara.
"Ah, I won’t let the family know you’re just impersonating my personal bodyguard~"
"Good, Miss."
Nara reached out and held Yinggong’s small hand.
Then she stood up and asked,
"Shall we start preparing for the Game Expo this weekend? I brought the materials. After that... you’ll need to figure out what to do on your own."
"Okay, I’ll think about it."
Nara nodded, turned around, and began to leave.
But just as she was about to go, Yinggong Tong suddenly tugged at her sleeve, making her turn around in confusion.
Yinggong Tong’s cheeks were slightly red as she shyly pointed at the installation orders for indoor equipment lying on the bed.
*...*
The meaning was obvious.
She still wanted Nara to use that as an excuse to sneak a camera into Yan Huan’s room.
*...*
Nara was silent for a moment, then gave a sly smile.
"No way~"
"Eh?! Why not?"
"It’s for your own good. Be good."
"Ahhh, but I really want to see what the President’s room looks like!! How he eats, sleeps, studies, showers—"
"I’m leaving now, Miss."
Nara quickly covered her ears—clearly a grown-up, yet terrified of hearing anything inappropriate—and dashed out of the room.
Left alone in her boudoir, Yinggong Tong shouted in frustration,
"Nara! Seriously!"
[End of Chapter]