39: Do you want to be the female lead?

For the next four days, Jiang Ye's life was what you'd call simple, unadorned, and boring.

He woke up naturally, and the first thing he did upon opening his eyes was grab his phone to check his balance. He'd stare at that five-digit number and giggle foolishly for a while, then leisurely open Meituan to pick out today's first 'feast'.

Crab roe rice bowls, Japanese set meals, premium barbecue... all the things he used to only dare to drool over in pictures were now all arranged!

Although each meal only cost around a hundred yuan, far from luxurious, the feeling of freedom—'eat what you want, no need to look at the price'—made him ecstatic.

After eating and drinking his fill, it was time for happy gaming.

The only time he went out was to go to Bubble Forest for a bath. Over three days, he unwittingly spent over 1500 yuan, feeling incredibly carefree.

In contrast, the two important cashback targets made no substantial progress.

On Ye Cheng's side, she completely ignored his daily WeChat moments that subtly hinted at 'cold legs,' 'recently tasteless mouth,' or 'wanting new socks,' even making Jiang Ye suspect she had blocked him.

She just occasionally sent photos of classroom corners secretly taken during class, cafeteria food after class, or silly cats and dogs encountered on campus, sticking to a theme of 'sharing life, but never engaging.'

Following Jiang Ye's 'friendly suggestion,' this Girl didn't go back to Taian Building for part-time work, claiming 'finances are comfortable now, temporarily returning to boring campus life.'

But judging from her statement that 'at least I don't need to go for a week,' clearly, Miss Ye's psychological price for 'waiting for sugar daddy fees' was temporarily set at around 20,000 yuan a month, with this pocket money only enough for her to laze around for a week.

As for Yaoyao, it was a different story.

Every day, she bombarded him with over a dozen WeChat messages without fail, from 'Good morning, brother' to 'Good night, brother,' interspersed with 'Have you eaten?,' 'What are you doing?,' 'The voice chat room is so boring,' 'I miss you,' and various other inquiries and life updates, doing her utmost to maintain the heat, with a dedication comparable to loan collection agents.

But precisely, aside from verbal concern, there was no substantial 'gesture.'

Jiang Ye's attitude toward this was to occasionally reply with 'Hmm,' 'Oh,' or 'Got it' during game respawns or queue gaps, extremely perfunctory.

This near-cold-shoulder approach clearly made Yaoyao somewhat panicked.

In the middle, she even mustered the courage to make a voice call, cautiously asking, 'Brother, are you... dissatisfied with that 'gift' I sent last time?'

At the time, Jiang Ye was controlling Yasuo, dashing forward recklessly. Hearing this, his hand shook, almost dashing under the enemy tower.

He glanced at that beige underwear hanging on the clothes rack, which he had 'inspected' once, said nothing, and directly hung up.

Sticking to the theme: leaving it hanging.

————

Unlike Jiang Ye's leisure, as the day of the first Hall Battle for the 'wen yu's girlfriend' voice chat room drew closer, Su Ning's anxiety grew daily.

At the pre-battle mobilization meeting held in the voice chat room on Thursday night, listening to the other sisters report their task progress—Zhi Xia 2000, Minnie 2000, July 1200, Dudu 1000... even the newcomer Xiao Meng confidently said her big brother could come, at least handling 800 in turnover.

Looking at her own lonely 5000 turnover task hanging at the top, and the persistently low response heat from 'Brother Ye' in the WeChat chat, Su Ning's mentality completely collapsed.

A huge sense of loss and panic—'the whole world is moving forward, only I'm stuck in place or even regressing'—completely overwhelmed her.

Why are other people's big brothers so reliable?

Why is it so hard for her? Could it be she's really not cut out for this streamer life?

First, that 'Brother Chu' ran off inexplicably, now this 'Brother Ye' is like this... The more she thought, the angrier and more desperate she became. Looking at the pitiful balance in her credit card app and the upcoming repayment date, an impulse to give up and let things fall apart made her lose her senses.

In a fit of rage, she did something extremely risky.

————

'Holy shit! It's finally here!'

On Thursday night, Jiang Ye had just finished a tense and exciting 'manual stress relief' activity, tossed that underwear with increased battle damage into the trash, and lay back on the bed, feeling physically and mentally relaxed.

He casually glanced at WeChat, his gaze sweeping past that long string of unread messages from Yaoyao. At first, he didn't pay attention, but then he suddenly leaped up from the bed, his just-cooled blood instantly boiling again!

On WeChat, among that long stream of daily greetings and ramblings from Yaoyao, there was shockingly a transfer message mixed in!

And the amount was—5000 yuan!

Jiang Ye's heart rate instantly spiked to 180. He quickly swiped the screen with his finger, carefully checking the context.

The earlier parts were mostly Yaoyao's daily inquiries, until around 8 PM. Yaoyao first sent some boring talk as usual, then suddenly changed the topic, sending a JD.com link:

'Brother, it's been getting colder lately. I think this jacket is pretty nice. I want to buy it for you as a gift, but I don't know your specific size and address. I'll transfer the money to you, you buy it yourself~'

With an excited heart and trembling hands, Jiang Ye clicked on that link.

The page redirected to a black short down jacket. He hadn't heard of the brand, called VDJ. The product details said it was a British light luxury brand, with a price of 4928.7 yuan.

'Hiss...'

Jiang Ye gasped sharply.

This Girl... not only actively giving gifts but going straight for high-end ones!

This understanding! This boldness!

Are you fucking trying to be the female lead of this book?

He closed JD.com, returned to the WeChat transfer interface, looked at that glaring 5000 yuan, swallowed hard, and with a pious heart, clicked 'Confirm Receipt.'

His WeChat balance instantly jumped.

He immediately focused a sliver of consciousness into the system interface.

'Ding! Detected host received active gift from Su Ning: 4928.7 yuan shopping funds. Triggered 1000% cashback, obtained 49287 yuan!'

'System account balance: 49287 yuan!'

'Holy shit! Awesome!!'

Jiang Ye hugged his phone, fiercely kissed the screen, his face beaming with joy.

He had deliberately left Yaoyao hanging these days, calculating that with the Hall Battle approaching, she'd definitely get anxious and might make some gesture.

But he never expected Yaoyao's 'gesture' to be so fierce!

Without any hint or guidance from him, she actively defined this money as a 'gift'!

Considerate!

So considerate!

Jiang Ye's satisfaction and admiration for Yaoyao reached its peak at this moment.