8 - The Eighth Flavor

Translator: tarararawr

One week later, Xian Bei packed her bags and moved to Yuan Yuan’s place.

Finding a place to live was difficult and took a while. Her editor was anxious that she would become a corpse across the road, so she temporarily took Xian Bei in to live in her second bedroom.

A few days ago, Xian Bei smoothly fixed Zhou Yuanshan’s storyline with the support of milk tea. She brought him back from the dead after making him struggle on death’s doors so that he reappears in the storyline. Then, she added new parts for him.

Yuan Yuan was so satisfied that on the day she came to pick up Xian Bei, she said plausibly, “Did you know that if you didn’t change the draft, then I wouldn’t have let you stay with me?”

The girl was wearing a cap as she was dragging a suitcase and wearing a backpack. She silently walked next to Yuan Yuan.

Her heart silently expressed gratitude and muttered that in the future, it would be convenient for her editor to remind her about it later…….

Xian Bei became startled while waiting to bring her luggage into Yuan Yuan’s home.

It was not because this was her first time in the house; on the contrary, as this was her second time staying over.

More than a year ago when Xian Bei arrived in Ning City, Yuan Yuan was working as the editor in charge of her and took her in.

Yuan Yuan was an example of someone having a sharp tongue and a soft heart.

It was during those days that she got to know Xian Bei’s unusual personality pretty well.

Thus, Yuan Yuan gives Xian Bei more support and consideration for work and life matters.

This time, Xian Bei was startled because at the entryway she saw a young man.

He was tall and had a pretty face.

She had never seen this man before.

The young man was extremely polite and enthusiastically had slippers for them.

“Please come in, come in.”

Moving her eyes away, Xian Bei immediately lowered her head. She hid her eyes behind the brim of her hat.

To have a stranger suddenly come out……

It made her afraid to go in.

“My boyfriend.” Yuan Yuan introduced him and pushed her through the door. “He lives with me now.”

Xian Bei under the brim of her hat: “……………………” She didn’t even know.

“This is Xian Bei.” Yuan Yuan gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“Madam 1 Xian Bei, hello. I am your fan!” The young man excessively fawned with a smug smile. “I follow 《Qi Xie 2 》.”

She was rubbing her heels on the carpet and wanted to take off her shoes. Xian Bei stopped. I’m done for. How do I respond?

Th-thanks?

The girl moved her lips twice to speak, but no one heard.

Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend didn’t notice and continued fawning. “So it turns out Madam Xian Bei is a cute girl 3 …….”

He scratched his cheek and was unable to associate her with the rough and wild drawing style. “I always thought you were a male artist. Hahahahaha.”

Xian Bei’s eyebrows scrunched together tightly. Could it be that her appearance……would disappoint the readers?

“Come on you.” In between them, Yuan Yuan was putting on her slippers.

She seemed to have given her boyfriend a punch. “Don’t be so flirtatious and go cut some fruit for your madam.”

The boyfriend jumped in surprise. “Do you want to eat fruit?”

Yuan Yuan: “I’m talking about your Madam Xian Bei.”

Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend: “Don’t talk nonsense, my wife 4 is only Miss Yuan.”

Yuan Yuan chuckled, “Oh, hurry up and go!”

Xian Bei felt lighter after seeing the topic change to something that is not about her. She couldn’t help but smile while secretly listening to their banter.

She was presently ignorant to her own situation and wondered with jealousy when she would have the ability to communicate with someone without any obstacles……

——

After the next few days, Xian Bei’s desire to find a new place to live became more urgent.

Three people lived together: A pair of witty young lovers and a silent single dog 5 . It was not convenient for her.

Especially Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend……

He was four years younger than Yuan Yuan and he was still in school.

His personality was too cheerful and he had somewhat of a hooligan spirit.

He normally did things without paying attention to the details.

Xian Bei kept to her old lifestyle. She usually stayed in the bedroom with the door locked, completely sealed off from the world as she was working on coloring her drawings.

Occasionally, she would come out to use the bathroom or get some water from the kitchen.

Several times she would accidentally meet Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend coming out of the bathroom. He would be topless and greeted her with a smile.

Or, she would see the two lovers on the sofa boldly kiss intimately as though no one else was there.

Xian Bei’s face would burst with heat and she would abruptly turn around and walk away.

She was back in her room under the small orange light.

Xian Bei’s thoughts on moving out as quickly as possible grew each day.

She opened the home searching software and continued to search for rentals.

It’s not like she wasn’t trying——it’s just that communicating on the phone with people was difficult.

Sometimes she would stammer for a long time and never got to the main point. The person on the other side would lash out a “psycho” and hung up the phone.

Xian Bei was very distressed.

She didn’t know how to cope with a life of living with other people. All kinds of suddenly stressful situations would occur……

But it’s impossible for her to never step out of her room for the rest of her life……

Thinking of this, Xian Bei raised her hands and patted her cheeks.

Cheer up Xian Bei!

The bottom of her heart gave a low sigh and she saved the contact information of a few landlords.

Xian Bei switched back to her contact list and came across Chen Zhuo’s name.

Sure enough, the last cup of milk tea was not delivered by him. The tiny bit of hope she had was crushed.

Xian Bei felt embarrassed to contact him again since moving away.

Chen Zhuo would send her a few text messages and she would only send a short reply back.

Xian Bei opened the delivery app. [Zhong Yi] was still at the top of the list, but it was 4.4 km and 40 minutes away.

Maybe in the next few days this distance would increase; or maybe if she clicked again, the app would coldly remind her with a line that she was out of the delivery area……

Besides time, distance was the biggest factor in affecting personal relationships. There was also how the two people’s worlds differ in thousands of ways.

It would be very difficult to be intertwined again……

Would she ever see him again……

Xian Bei turned off her cell phone and looked towards the window. It was a deep, dark night as far as the eye can see.

——

This kind of discomfort felt like minesweeper and continued until the tenth day.

Yuan Yuan suddenly entered and rushed into the room. She pulled Xian Bei up and shook her hard.

“My boyfriend found you a good place to live!”

Xian Bei rubbed her eyes.“Huh……?”

Yuan Yuan stopped moving. “It’s a good place. You will be happy with it.”

Xian Bei blinked. “What?”

Yuan Yuan snapped her fingers. “He said it’s his friend’s place. Originally, he didn’t have a lot of hope because this friend doesn’t rent his place out. He asked anyways to look into the situation and he talked about your circumstances. Unexpectedly, his friend agreed.”

Xian Bei: “??”

Yuan Yuan clutched her shoulder, and spoke as if she was happy for her. “It’s near your old place! Downtown! Milk tea shops everywhere! You can rent at suburban standards! Hey, it’s like this place fell into your lap!”

Xian Bei was still in shock.

Not waiting for her to digest the news, Yuan Yuan let go of her hand. “You can go pack up and move tomorrow.”

——

She had not seen the place or communicated with the landlord. So how could she leave so soon??

Xian Bei had packed up her things and was sitting on her knees in the room waiting patiently.

But she was still…….foggy and confused.

…….Forget it. It’s not the first time someone arranged something for her, so she needed to push forward.

Because it was a workday, Yuan Yuan was at the manga agency working.

Near noon, Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend returned. He opened the door and immediately went to Xian Bei’s room to help her carry the luggage.

Xian Bei quickly put on the cap from the bedside cabinet.

Oh, it seemed like her bangs have grown longer…….

After pressing it down, a little bit pricked her eyes.

Xian Bei tried to smooth out her hair with her fingers. Then she put her head down as usual, stuffed her hands back into her pockets, and followed Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend downstairs.

Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend walked in front of her and chattered, “Don’t worry. My friend is very nice. He said you probably have a lot of luggage, so he said he would come over to pick you up. Yuan Yuan entrusted your matters to me, and I have to do my best if I’m hanging on the cliff, right……”

One after the other, they walked out of the corridor and a Land Rover was parked there.

The sun was intensely bright. Xian Bei pulled back her chin and hid most of her face in the brim of her hat as much as possible.

Bang. It was the sound of a car door closing.

Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend put the suitcase next to Xian Bei and she was about to push the handle lever——

A hand was already faster than hers by a step, and it rested there.

The bones of the hand were distinct, and the veins on the back of the hand were full of manliness.

Male landlord?!

In a moment of shock, she suddenly heard him call her name.

“Xian Bei.”

It was a long forgotten and familiar voice.

Huh?

HUH?!

Xian Bei froze and involuntarily lifted her eyes.

!

It was an extremely quick look, but it already confirmed everything.

This face was engraved in her every thought like a painting.

She once felt lonely thinking that she would never see him again.

“Do you guys know each other?! Huh?” This time it was Yuan Yuan’s boyfriend to be surprised. “You already knew it was her?!”

Above her head was a very light laugh from the man as if he could not deny it.

Ohhh myyy godddd…….

Xian Bei got goosebumps.

What should she do?

Was it a dream?

No, why did she say it was a dream? What was she thinking?

Who could tell her why it’s him?

Xian Bei’s fingers curled up. Not knowing what to do, she forcefully pinched the palm of her hands.

Her heart was beating so fast it was deafening.

Despite this, she still heard the man’s voice.

Using that low and deep voice combined with a happy tone, he asked her, as if deliberately letting only the two of them hear,

“Did you forget me? Hm?”

Footnotes

太太 (tàitài) – madam or wife 奇邪 (qí xié) – Strange Evil 萌妹子 (méng mèizi) – girl who is very pure and can arouse the desire to protect her He’s joking by using the double meaning of the word 太太 (tàitài). 单身狗 (dānshēn gǒu) – Internet slang for someone who is neither married nor in a relationship (used self-deprecatingly)