GSCCO Chapter 3

The older brother’s usefulness was once again evident, securing Yu Yi a backstage pass that allowed him to move around freely behind.

But Yu Yi didn’t really have anywhere to go, nor did he have any intention of going with Yu Ying to find Mu Huai. Unlike ordinary fans; he only participated through the regular channels when Mu Huai held events in the area. Even with his older brother as leader, he had never used this convenient access to get close to Mu Huai.

…The timing wasn’t right yet.

The staff were busy before and after the concert, bustling around nonstop. Yu Yi, tall and seemingly idle, stood out conspicuously in the corridor. Unaware of the situation, someone called him over to help move props.

Yu Yi’s eyebrows arched slightly, and he obediently followed.

A tall person slipped in from among the volunteers. Even with a mask, his refined and elegant aura was undeniable. Not to mention, many of the volunteers who had watched the whole thing recognized him as the handsome guy who had just sat next to Yu Ying.

Yu Yi didn’t move many things, but the number of people trying to talk to him had doubled. He simply used the excuse of going to the restroom to avoid the limelight, and without realizing it, he brought over the remaining two lollipops that the staff had prepared for Mu Huai.

Several female volunteers followed him to the restroom corridor. Yu Yi didn’t turn around, casually stuffing the lollipop into his pocket, and checked the time—heading to the innermost stall to light a cigarette.

The men’s restroom wasn’t as lively as the women’s. Yu Yi felt no guilt about smoking. Closing the toilet seat, he quickly wiped himself and sat down to look at his phone.

Just one day without going live, and Yu Yi’s Weibo private messages were bombarded with messages from fans. Annoyed, Yu Yi habitually cleared them with one click, but then paused as he was about to exit.

He seemed to have noticed something unusual.

The rate of increase in followers wasn’t right either.

Yu Yi’s gaze skipped over the confession messages and clicked on the profile of a fan who was still sending messages. This ID looked familiar—they were very active in the stream, immediately spamming him with pictures.

[Yu-ge, is that you?! You came to the concert too?!]

[I’m in section D, can you see me?!]

[Sorry, Yu-ge! I forgot you don’t recognize me!]

[Yu-ge, you’re famous! All the girls around me are praising your handsomeness! I’m going crazy meeting three idols in one day!]

[Honestly, tell me what your relationship is with Ying-ge! Damn, your names sound so similar!]

[Yu-ge! Ahhhhhh, let’s meet up!]

Yu Yi blinked slowly, clicking on several large-screen photos shared by fans, and stared at himself taking up half the screen. His brain froze for a moment. Although he had expected Mu Huai to find Yu Ying, and the camera would definitely find Yu Ying, he hadn’t expected to appear on camera himself… even if it was just for a fleeting moment.

He frowned slightly and turned to edit his Weibo post. He had prepared a long message, but after editing just one paragraph, he heard the sound of the door being locked from the outside, followed by a somewhat familiar voice.

Throughout history, public restrooms have been the source of countless melodramatic plot twists and dramatic climaxes. And the inner stalls are always overlooked by those who are making cameo appearances in these melodramatic dramas, perhaps because these stalls are often used by cleaning staff to pile up sanitary items. Yu Yi silently stubbed out his cigarette. His thoughts briefly went blank amidst the smoky atmosphere of the stall. Staring at the text editor, he was unable to continue the sentence. Frustrated, he deleted the first half and ended up sending only a single, ambiguous word.

[Shh]

Due to the unusual layout of the venue, the men’s and women’s restrooms were quite far apart. However the hallway outside the men’s restroom was attracting particular attention from the women, with the sound of high heels never stopped.

Lan Sha was furious: “What’s wrong with just saying hello? Didn’t you personally invite Mr. Jin, Mr. Wang, and Mer. Li? Why are you locking the door? Do you think I’m going to follow you into the men’s restroom? You little brat, I’ve spoiled you rotten…”

She cursed at the men’s restroom door for a long time, almost suspecting the person inside had already jumped out the window and escaped. Suspiciously, she pressed closer to the door to listen for any sounds inside and heard her artist’s lazy, low-pitched voice: “… Good luck, Lan-jie.”

Lan Sha was going crazy, completely baffled as to why Mu Huai had suddenly started avoiding people. But Mu Huai’s mental instability wasn’t a recent development. After angrily cursing a few more times, she still had to find the people Mu Huai had stood up.

Before the interview, Lan Sha had mentioned that some people wanted to come backstage to ask Mu Huai for autographs—they were all CEOs of various companies. Mu Huai hadn’t agreed to have dinner with them before, so asking for autographs wasn’t something he would refuse. The problem started when Mu Huai checked his social media during a break in the interview.

His WeChat moments are full of shady friends. The comments under that fortune-telling chart are all nonsense and gossip.

Xiangjiao Zhexue¹: Damn it, please stop causing trouble for humanity!

Mujia Xiaogui: Uncle, aren’t you supposed to have great luck with women every day?

Hengdian hao re: Excuse me, but I’d like to ask what exactly you’re trying to say?

Guixian Ren: I know the answer to this question! I saw the trending topic yesterday! It’s Yu Ying, right? Hahahaha, the Mu Yu CP is hilarious!

Zi Feiyu: Damn, you guys are forming cliques again! Internal group shipping? Wait, I remember Mr. Yin went there too? What are you guys up to?!

Mu Huai directly entered Zi Feiyu’s chat interface.

Mu Mu: Mr. Yin came?

Zi Feiyu: You didn’t know?

Zi Feiyu: Didn’t he post on his WeChat Moments at noon?

Of course not, Mu Huai blocked that person the day their group disbanded.

Mu Huai squinted and opened the picture posted by Zi Feiyu. The faces of Mr. Jin, Mr. Wang, and Mr. Li came into view. Among the group of people in suits, one stood out with a particularly striking presence.

Damn it.

Mu Huai gave a cold smirk and then raced against time to avoid Lan Sha.

He leaned against the door, patiently waiting for a while until Lan Sha left. She probably ran into other men in the corridor, her high heels stomping aggressively.

Luckily, the restroom was empty.

Mu Huai unlocked the door again, not intending to block other men from using the restroom. But the chances of running into that group of people at this point were too high. Mu Huai walked lazily, thinking to himself, “Life is tough, survival is a struggle. I have to be a normal citizen at the restroom.”

The innermost stall was ajar, and Mu Huai hesitated for a moment.

Suddenly, a few voices came from the doorway.

“These days, celebrities are all so arrogant, showing no respect time and time again.”

“… Mr. Jin, I’m a celebrity too.”

“Misunderstanding! I wasn’t talking about you, Mr. Yin!”

“…” What a coincidence!

Mu Huai pushed open the cubicle door without hesitation, then pressed the door shut behind him… only to walk into a cloud of white smoke.

The smell of smoke startled Mu Huai, quickly realizing someone was sitting in front of him. He might have disturbed someone’s private moment. He should have opened the door and left, but the people coming in made him hesitate for a second.

In that very second, Mu Huai saw the aloof, cold face of the boy behind the smoke. Their eyes met, and both felt a little uncomfortable.

Yu Yi silently put away his phone, looking up at Mu Huai quietly, with his back instinctively straightening, his brain buzzing.

This wasn’t exactly a pleasant place to meet someone. And even Mu Huai, with his thick skin, was starting to feel the pressure. He quickly glanced down to make sure the little streamer wasn’t actually in the bathroom before he breathed a sigh of relief.

The little streamer was clearly there to sneak a smoke. He had a broad frame, a black thermal undershirt tucked into his red t-shirt, and a fan badge pinned to his chest. His hand, casually resting on his lap, was hidden by his long sleeve, revealing only half of his pale fingers.

Mu Huai: “I…”

Yu Yi gently put his index finger to his lips, interrupting him: “Shh.”

Mu Huai complied without a word, retracting his bold gaze with an air of composure.

Those people exited the restroom.

After a long while, Yu Yi suddenly spoke, his voice clear and cool: “They’re gone.”

Mu Huai calmly nodded, deftly pushing open the door, and leaned against the wall outside the bathroom before slowly wiping his hands. Not long after, Yu Yi also came out. Mu Huai noticed he was taller than he had imagined.

“…Thanks.”

Mu Huai hadn’t expected Yu Yi to be so tall, thinking to himself that kids these days develop quite well—the little streamer looked slender but was actually quite tall: “You…”

A sliver of clarity cleared Yu Yi’s chaotic mind, and he gently shook his head: “Don’t worry, I won’t go around saying anything.”

He politely stepped back, his lowered eyelashes were perfectly still, just as refined and aloof as he appeared during the live stream.

Mu Huai paused, his rather aggressive gaze sweeping over Yu Yi’s face before settling on the small mole at the corner of Yu Yi’s lip. He suddenly smiled, “Ah… actually, I wanted to ask if we could add each other on WeChat?”

Then, just as he’d hoped, he received a strange look from the streamer.

A popular idol and a streamer exchanged WeChat contacts outside the public restroom, walking one after the other towards the break room. The former, swaying his fox tail with ulterior motives, said, “Sorry about earlier. Come to my break room for a drink of water.”

The latter seemed to step into the clouds, his ears burning.

When Mu Huai looked back, Yu Yi had already removed his fan badge. His calm, detached eyes gazed at him with a calm indifference.

He’d almost forgotten that the streamer was a straight man accompanying his girlfriend to watch the concert.

But it might not necessarily be his girlfriend. Mu Huai frowned, unable to recall whether the person sitting next to Yu Yi earlier was male or female, let alone what they looked like.

“Happy Valentine’s Day. Coming here with your girlfriend?” Mu Huai turned around, his pearly teeth gently biting off a piece of lipstick-stained skin, each word accompanied by a self-reproach for his childish behavior.

“No,” Yu Yi said calmly. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

One spoke with words that were alluring, the other’s every sentence cloaked in restraint. Both remained unmoved by the tension.

Mu Huai’s breath eased slightly, humming softly as he leisurely scrolled through his phone, wanting to calm himself down. He had just noticed the constant stream of WeChat messages, and now, opening them brought up a WeChat call—his forgotten former leader was threatening to go live in the break room for his fans to accuse him of standing him up.

The room was already in front of them.

Mu Huai’s smile faltered, and he unconsciously stopped in his tracks. He couldn’t possibly let Yu Yi go to the break room to watch him and Yu Ying show off their brotherly affection. However, as he turned around, Yu Yi, also looking down at his phone, took a large stride and stopped right next to him.

Yu Yi subconsciously looked up, his pupils contracting slightly.

Mu Huai froze, a barrage of comments typical of his stream viewers flashing through his mind.

[Ahhhhhhhhhh!]

[Damn! A fatal snipe!]

[Amazingly beautiful Yu Yi!]

After those comments, only one thought remained in his mind: to send unedited photos of Yu Yi to those who mocked Yu Yi for using beauty filters.

But Mu Huai quickly realized the streamer was quite frightened. To prevent him from falling backward, Mu Huai steadied his shoulder. In the instant the two parted, Mu Huai’s question, which had been on his mind the whole way, slipped out unexpectedly: “Does your school… not care about student smoking?”

Yu Yi: “…”