Shaoyao was placed in the room, and everyone continued chatting while eating for a while longer, marking the end of dinner.
"I'll wash the dishes. Xu Lin and Sister Chu, you can keep Ms. Ye company," Ji Yun said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. This time, Chu Qingchan obediently stayed seated on the sofa, not rushing to do the dishes.
It seemed that a few days ago, she had made instant noodles when she was hungry at night. Everything went smoothly until she was washing the bowl. Her hands were quite wet, and the bowl was quite large, resulting in the instant noodle bowl meeting its untimely end.
"Ji Yun is your girlfriend?" Ye Fanleng asked casually upon seeing Ji Yun enter the kitchen, emphasizing a word to test the waters.
Just as Xu Lin was about to answer "no," Chu Qingchan interjected, "Ji Yun is my girlfriend."
"So that's... the relationship?" Ye Fanleng's eyes widened slightly. This was something she hadn't anticipated.
She indeed knew of quite a few same-sex relationships, but she had never actually met anyone who was lesbian.
However, she immediately realized that Chu Qingchan was definitely joking, as her earlier hints towards Xu Lin had been quite obvious.
Just as Ye Fanleng was about to delve deeper into the relationship between the three of them, the door clicked open.
Xu Lin's parents walked in from outside, carrying two bags with the logo of a well-known bakery chain.
"Hello, President Ye."
Although Ye Fanleng was dressed in a very girlish manner, her demeanor and aura still made the couple feel a bit reserved.
It was similar to the first time Chu Qingchan came over; Xu Lin's parents were also a bit nervous then, but this time it was much better.
"Uncle, Auntie, please don't call me President Ye, just call me Fanleng."
She slightly lowered her body, her face full of smiles, making her appear even more like the girl next door.
"Xu Lin, isn't her smile beautiful?"
"Yes."
"Hmm?!"
Xu Lin didn't even look at Chu Qingchan, but he could feel the sour aura she was emitting.
"What's with the jealousy? You're much cuter than her," Xu Lin gently squeezed her small hand.
"I'm not jealous, but as a flirtatious scumbag, don't make any mistakes, okay?"
"What mistakes could I make? What are you talking about? Ms. Ye has a child and just sees me as a little brother, you're overthinking it."
"Oh, as a little brother? I wonder which kind of little brother."
"Chu Qingchan, there are so many people around, you're going too far with this conversation!"
However, they didn't notice that Li Yuan, the "diplomat," was also sitting next to Ye Fanleng and started chatting.
"Where's the little girl? You didn't bring her?"
"She just ate and fell asleep at the dining table. I put her in Xu Lin's room. I'm relying on Miss Chu Qingchan to take care of her tonight."
"Why doesn't Miss Ye stay over as well?" Li Yuan suggested, making Xu Lin and Chu Qingchan realize something.
That's right, Ms. Ye staying over to take care of the child would be better. If the child wakes up at night, a mother is more comforting. Even with the father around, the child would still cry for a while.
"That wouldn't be appropriate, we had agreed that Miss Chu Qingchan would take care of her."
"It just so happens that I'm going back to sleep with Sister Ji Yun. Xu Lin will sleep on the sofa, and you two can have the room. Actually, I've never taken care of a child either, and I'm worried I won't do a good job with things like getting up at night."
Chu Qingchan quickly said. Although she had planned to hold Shaoyao like a pillow, she wondered what she would do if Shaoyao woke up and couldn't be coaxed back to sleep.
"The sports event is tomorrow morning, and it doesn't start until 9 o'clock. Ms. Ye can sleep a bit longer and then take the girl back to the hotel to freshen up."
"Alright then." Hearing Xu Lin say this, she nodded. After all, there was no work-related matter, and she rarely slept with her child.
"By the way, we bought some snacks for the child while we were out for a walk. But since she's asleep, let's eat them. They won't be fresh overnight."
Li Yuan took the bag and placed the snacks on the table one by one.
"But they don't have much sugar. Too much sweet stuff is bad for children's teeth. We were afraid Miss Ye wouldn't allow it, so we also bought some sugar-free yogurt."
"That's very considerate of you."
Ye Fanleng felt a warmth in her heart. It was rare for someone to be so thoughtful upon their first meeting.
Chu Qingchan, on the other hand, felt a bit jealous, recalling her conversation with Ji Yun and wishing she could have a child right away.
Everyone waited for half a minute. Ji Yun finished washing the dishes and joined them, and they all started eating the snacks. Xu Lin watched the happy faces of everyone enjoying the snacks.
He immediately felt that girls indeed liked sweets more than boys. He got tired of the taste after just one piece of cake, and that was even with low sugar content.
As for the sweetness of tiramisu, he couldn't even finish one piece; half of it was already too much for him. But Chu Qingchan and the others could eat quite a lot.
While everyone was eating and chatting, Xu Lin picked up his phone to check the status of his video, wondering if it had broken through 500 views.
He opened Bilibili, glanced at his video, and was stunned.
It was five digits!
The views had surpassed 10,000?!
"How did it blow up all of a sudden?"
It wasn't just the view count; the number of coins and favorites was also astonishing—9,000 coins and 10,000 favorites, with just 90,000 views.
This conversion rate was also excellent. Could it be that his video was featured?
Xu Lin scrolled down, and there were over 700 comments. After reading a dozen or so, he understood.
Bilibili hadn't featured his video; instead, another content creator had shared it. And it was a major creator with 800,000 followers.
Although 800,000 followers might not be a lot in the future on Bilibili, and far less compared to the tens of millions on short video platforms.
But for now, 800,000 followers was already a lot. He clicked into the creator's profile.
Name is Chen Youmi, a game streamer, and also a girl. However, she doesn't show her face, she's a technical streamer, mainly focusing on live gameplay and tutorials.
Xu Lin clicked on a video and heard a very cute voice, but he didn't dare to confirm that the person was definitely a girl.
After all, there's still the possibility of someone like Qiao Jiaozhu not revealing their true appearance and causing a stir online. But since they kindly retweeted, he must thank them properly.
So he left a thank-you message under his own video and tagged her.
Then he watched his video again, mainly to check the barrage to see if there were any comments.
Overall, he summarized a few points:
1. People hope he can provide more explanations. Even though he records his voice, they want subtitles.
2. The music is nice, but it sometimes drowns out his voice.
3. The visuals, although not heavily commented on, could be improved.
"The visuals will need updated equipment, subtitles can be added, but I don't have that much time. The novel hasn't been updated today, it's so troublesome."
Just as he was about to close the video, he casually refreshed the page and found that his comment had been replied to, by the user Chen Youmi.
She replied with a very familiar smiling face emoji, and Xu Lin frowned when he saw the "mi" character at the end of her name.
He opened QQ and glanced at his book friends, seeing a conversation with someone who seemed to be his fellow native, Xing Mimi.
Sure enough, there were a dozen of those emojis, but this still couldn't be completely confirmed. Should he ask again? Last time he asked if she was from the same hometown, she didn't reply.
However, with a mindset of trying, he sent another message over, saying 'Thank you for sharing it for me.'
"No need to thank."
Before he could react, the other party replied, then immediately retracted the message.
"F*ck, it's really her! But how did she know I was the one who filmed this video?"