178: Sunrise - 1 (Bonus Chapter)

At 2:00 PM, Lin Wanxing, carrying several shopping bags, pushed open the door to Room 1601.

Just as she stepped into the entryway, she heard a rhythmic "thud, thud, thud" coming from inside the house, mixed with some indistinct mumbling.

"Is the upstairs being renovated? It's quite loud..."

She walked into the living room with the bags and froze on the spot the next second.

She saw Su Ning with her back to her, sitting cross-legged on the rug in the middle of the living room, holding a small stainless steel basin and hitting it against her own head one strike at a time, chanting under her breath:

"Clang~! Thank you for your generosity, Brother~! Clang~! Yaoyao knows she was wrong~! Clang~! I won't do it again~!"

Lin Wanxing: "???"

Was this... some new type of stress relief? Had she hallucinated from the exhaustion of shopping?

Before she could even ask, Su Ning suddenly put down the iron basin and raised her hand, slapping her thigh with a "smack":

"I left home young and return old!"

Then another "smack" as she switched to the other thigh:

"My accent is unchanged, but my hair has turned gray!"

Lin Wanxing watched in total confusion, completely unable to grasp the situation.

Has this girl, Xiao Su... gone crazy?

What on earth had happened at home during the few hours she was out?

Before she could react, Su Ning opened her mouth wide, making strange "wa-wa-wa-wa" sounds by quickly tapping her lips with her palm while imitating Tarzan's posture. Hunching her back, she trotted into the master bedroom with a "woo-wa-wa-wa-wa~~~".

Lin Wanxing: "???"

A few seconds later, Su Ning rushed back out with a "woo-wa-wa-wa-wa~", heading toward her own secondary bedroom.

Just as she passed through the living room, she locked eyes with Lin Wanxing, who was frozen at the entryway with a face full of question marks.

"..."

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

Looking into Lin Wanxing's eyes, which were filled with shock and confusion, a sense of shame ten thousand times stronger than before washed over Su Ning like a tsunami.

It's over!

She saw everything!

It was bad enough to have a social death online, but now her roommate had witnessed the whole thing offline too!

Su Ning felt like her toes could instantly curl enough to carve out the Potala Palace inside her slippers. Her cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg, and her entire being was swallowed by invisible black lines as she stood there petrified.

"..."

Looking at her roommate, whose posture was bizarre and expression distorted as if she had just escaped from a primitive tribe, Lin Wanxing swallowed hard. She instinctively turned her gaze toward the only person on the living room sofa who might know what was going on—Jiang Ye.

She pointed a finger at the petrified Su Ning, her eyes conveying a silent question: What... is the situation here?

Jiang Ye blinked his eyes and spread his hands innocently, his body language fully expressing the core idea of "I don't know anything, I'm shocked too."

"..."

Watching the silent exchange between the two, especially Jiang Ye's "it has nothing to do with me" look, Su Ning's feelings of grievance and shame instantly reached their peak.

She gave Jiang Ye a resentful glance, her eyes filled with the accusation, "It's all your fault!"

Being glared at, Jiang Ye rubbed his nose, coughed lightly, and stood up:

"Well... you guys talk, I'm going to the bathroom."

With that, he slipped into the bathroom with his phone and closed the door.

Su Ning quickly picked up her phone and looked at the public screen. Sure enough, a bullet message floated across the room.

Brother Ye (Lv43): [Yaoyao, have you had enough fun?]

Looking at this line of text, Su Ning was absolutely fuming.

Fun? Who's playing with you! You're clearly the one toying with me!

She gave a heavy snort, held up her phone toward the bathroom, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Enough—!"

Brother Ye (Lv43): [Alright, that's it for today then. I'm leaving.]

Seeing that familiar ID disappear from the livestream room, Su Ning finally let out a long sigh of relief.

Glancing at the score of 226,000 at the bottom, she said weakly into the microphone, "I'm going off-mic, sisters," then tossed her phone aside. With a slumped face and a look of despair, she turned to the still-bewildered Lin Wanxing.

"Sister! Wanxing! Why did you just get back now!"

Lin Wanxing blinked, completely confused, and asked cautiously, "Uh... what's wrong? What happened? Was that... a livestream just now?"

"It was more than just a livestream!"

Su Ning rolled up her sleeves, intending to vent about today's inhumane, shame-filled ordeal and recount "Brother Ye's" crimes in detail... *Click.*

The bathroom door was pushed open again.

Jiang Ye stood at the door, smacked his lips, made a fist with his right hand, slammed it into his left palm with a "smack," and stomped his foot:

"Ah! That sushi yesterday was really good! Thinking about it makes me crave it again. I want another round tonight!"

After saying that, he didn't even look at Su Ning's reaction and turned right back into the master bedroom.

Su Ning: "..."

Fine, fine! You're even ordering food now?!!

Bullying me online is one thing... Cough, although making money is indeed great, this guy's motives are definitely impure! He's just out to tease people!

Offline... No way! I have to maintain my status offline! I can't let him think I'm a pushover!

Lin Wanxing looked at the closed door of the master bedroom, then back at Su Ning's teeth-gritting, fire-breathing expression, and scratched her head in confusion:

"Xiao Su, what's wrong with you? Do you need something from me?"

Su Ning gave a cold snort, her eyes turning determined as she clenched her fists tightly:

"Sister Wanxing! Order some takeout for yourself tonight. I... I'm going to war with that guy tonight!"

...6:00 PM, at the dining table.

Lin Wanxing was unwrapping a light salad. She turned to look at the "busy" Su Ning next to her, and the corner of her mouth couldn't help but twitch.

In front of Comrade Xiao Su were several boxes of exquisite sushi, and she was holding two large tubes of wasabi, gritting her teeth with a "ferocious" expression as she frantically added extra "seasoning" into the rice layers of every single piece of sushi.

Especially those dark-colored, hard-to-notice sashimi sushi pieces, which received special attention.

"Xiao Su, what are you... doing?"

Without looking up, Su Ning continued her "project" and said viciously:

"Nothing! Doesn't he want to eat sushi? I'll treat him! I'll give him a meal that's 'unforgettable'!"

Looking at the terrifying amount of wasabi, Lin Wanxing felt like her own nose was already starting to ache:

"You want to prank him... I don't know why, but... well... it's understandable. But if you've spiked all the sushi, what about you?"

Su Ning looked up, a tragic and solemn expression on her face, like someone ready to die for a cause:

"Sister Wanxing, that guy is very shrewd. If I don't do this, I won't be able to trick him! Don't worry, you eat first! Once I 'take him out,' I'll order something else for myself!"

With that, she rubbed her forehead, which still ached slightly from being hit by the small iron basin, took a deep breath, walked to the master bedroom door, and knocked gently.

"Little Brother, time to eat~ The sushi is here!"

From inside the room came Jiang Ye's lazy response: "Oh, coming."