"It's huge. I'm not quite used to it."
Li Mengqing's voice was quiet, but Lin Wanyu heard her clearly. She was very satisfied with this answer.
"Hehehe..."
"Time to sleep."
Hugging Li Mengqing, Lin Wanyu gradually drifted off to sleep.
But Li Mengqing couldn't fall asleep for a long, long time.
She had grown up under her family's strict discipline. While she never lacked for anything—whatever other girls had, she only needed to ask, and it would appear in her room the next day—
But when it came to love, what she truly wanted was always just out of reach.
She once had a sweet romance and thought she would live happily ever after with that boy.
Who would have thought that not long after she brought him home to meet her parents for the first time, they forced her to break up with him.
She never dated again after that, not until she was forced to marry a man who could help her family's business.
There were no feelings between them. They were only intimate once, on their wedding night.
And because she didn't bleed on the sheets that night, the man never came home again.
This made Li Mengqing grow to despise men. The reason she hadn't bled was because of her years of dance training, but she never imagined that man would think she was "unclean."
After the divorce, she cut her waist-length hair and left the suffocating home she grew up in. This apartment at No.1 Courtyard was something her parents bought to compensate her.
Her previous teasing of Gao Yuan was partly to test the man her best friend had found, and partly because of a hidden desire she held deep down.
She wanted a child of her own, one who would take her last name.
Last night,
at Lin Wanyu's instigation, she had inexplicably gone out to the living room.
To be honest, she didn't regret it. In fact, after these two "dinners," she'd grown to like this feeling, so full of life and warmth.
It was just that,
Gao Yuan was her best friend's man. She couldn't steal him, so she could only let these thoughts manifest in secret corners of her heart.
Her mind a jumble of thoughts, Li Mengqing eventually drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
She had a dream. In the dream, she had a child of her own...
「The next day, at the No.1 Courtyard gym.」
As usual, Gao Yuan was on the treadmill while Wang Lin diligently coached him from the side.
Gao Yuan figured she was something of a social butterfly, or maybe just a chatterbox. Except for when he was doing weight training, her unpainted lips never stopped moving.
Fortunately, her voice had a mature, feminine quality to it; otherwise, Gao Yuan really wouldn't have been able to stand it.
As he ran, Gao Yuan grew a bit puzzled. 'Why haven't I triggered a single task from Wang Lin after knowing her for so long?'
'This doesn't make any sense!'
'This woman talks so much. Is it all just useless chatter?'
'Has the system's taste gotten this... peculiar?'
After more than an hour, the workout ended.
After Wang Lin carefully helped him with his post-workout recovery stretches, Gao Yuan returned home, feeling a little disappointed.
He checked in with the group chat as usual, a habit he was slowly developing.
The reward for checking in was getting "cheering you on" duck emojis from his two little fans, which added a nice sense of ceremony to it all.
But Gao Yuan didn't know that Lin Wanyu had woken up unusually early today and was currently driving home.
After a brief chat in the group, Gao Yuan eagerly opened his TikTok app and switched to the "Mr. Gao's Dinners" account.
The moment he switched, he was greeted by a sea of red "99+" notifications.
New Friends: 99+.
Interactions: 99+.
Messages from Strangers: 99+.
Official Notices: 3.
He clicked on the "Me" tab and immediately saw the number 13,182 displayed on the short video he had posted yesterday.
That was the number of likes.
He opened the video. Sure enough: 13,182 likes, 879 comments, 117 saves, and 589 shares.
'These stats are fantastic!'
'To get over ten thousand likes, the video must have at least a hundred thousand views.'
He checked the analytics and saw the view count was actually over three hundred thousand, with a 3-second completion rate as high as 57%.
For a first video, before the TikTok algorithm had even figured out his account's niche, achieving these numbers was most likely because Lin Wanyu and Li Mengqing had paid to promote it.
He opened the comments to take a look.
The top-voted comment was completely unexpected.
"Where can I get a husband like this?"
This comment had been upvoted to the very top by the masses, with over two thousand likes.
It was the first time Gao Yuan realized he was this popular.
Gao Yuan scrolled down and chuckled at the replies.
"Sis, have you looked in the mirror today?"
"He's *our* husband, and you want to keep him all to yourself!"
"..."
The second most-liked comment, however, was about Lin Wanyu and Li Mengqing.
"Which one of these two women is the creator's wife? Can I get an introduction to the other one?"
As he scrolled, Gao Yuan saw a comment from an IP address in Hang City: "No.1 Courtyard, huh? A tycoon's life is my dream!"
Gao Yuan casually replied underneath, "It's rented."
He didn't reply to any other comments. After a moment of thought, he went to the kitchen, found yesterday's grocery receipt, took a photo, and posted it in the comments section.
He hadn't spent much on the ingredients; any ordinary family could afford them. As long as you put in a little effort, you could make a sumptuous dinner too.
As for the dining environment and the two beautiful women in the video, well, he couldn't help them with that.
Returning to his profile page, he glanced at the number he cared about most: his follower count. It was already over five hundred.
A sense of satisfaction washed over him.
'At this rate, hitting a thousand followers within a week will be a piece of cake.'
Gao Yuan immediately took a screenshot and sent it to the group chat to share his excitement with the two of them.
"Not bad at all. To get these results on your first video is amazing."
He hadn't expected Li Mengqing to reply the instant he sent it.
"It's mainly thanks to you two. You were not only in it, but you also paid for promotion."
"But replying this fast... you must be slacking off at work! I'm going to report you."
Unexpectedly, Li Mengqing's next message in the chat instantly turned Gao Yuan into a suck-up.
"I was actually planning to get a million-follower influencer to do a collaboration with you. But plans are canceled. I need to get back to work now."
In Li Mengqing's mind, they had already shared the most intimate of acts, so Gao Yuan's business was her business.
That's why after getting to work today, she had sought out Tongtong, an acquaintance of hers, hoping she would agree to appear in a video with him.
It would be a huge help to Gao Yuan.
She had shown Gao Yuan's video from yesterday to Tongtong.
Tongtong recognized him at a glance—it was the man Li Mengqing had brought in for a makeover the other day.
'To be brought in by Li Mengqing, their relationship must be pretty good,' she thought.
Gao Yuan's video was solid in terms of quality, and his on-camera presence was excellent. Tongtong was also quite impressed by his successful-man aura.
Her own short videos were based on a "dominant CEO" persona, and she sometimes needed male actors to collaborate with.
The Mr. Gao that Li Mengqing recommended focused on cooking content, which didn't conflict with her own. A collaboration could work out perfectly.
"No, Sister Qing, I was wrong~"
"You work so hard. How about I make some braised pork belly for you tonight?"
Gao Yuan had shed all his shame and went straight into full-on sucking up.
"Hmph, save the braised pork belly for your dear Wanyu! *angry.jpg*"
Reading Li Mengqing's message, Gao Yuan gave a wry smile. He also noticed that Lin Wanyu hadn't said a word in the group chat all day.
'That's not like her at all.'
Realizing this, Gao Yuan immediately tagged Lin Wanyu in the chat. "@Lin Wanyu, help me!"
「Meanwhile, at Lin Wanyu's house.」
Four people were sitting in front of Lin Wanyu. She sat on the sofa, a wronged expression on her face, tear-streaks still visible on her cheeks.