The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal a.s.sistant
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
Chapter One Hundred and Six
Su Yuyang pushed Ling Miao to the dining table and pressed him into a seat. He explained, "If I give him the 15 million, he might want 20 million next time. You think it"s easy for me to earn money by writing? I get a few dozen million so easily?"
Su Yuyang got Ling Miao a bowl of rice. Seeing that Ling Miao was still unhappy, he continued, "Yan Li…"
"Call the police." Ling Miao slammed the table. "If we can"t do this, we"d better hand it over to the police."
"Call the police?" Su Yuyang"s face went dark. He looked at Ling Miao and sighed, "Xiao Miao, this matter involves Yan Li. She"s a public figure. I don"t want this to become something people can use against her in the future."
"You saw Tang Xuan"s att.i.tude…" Ling Miao felt as though he was going to explode. He slammed down so hard on the table that the dishes and chopsticks jumped.
Su Yuyang took advantage of Ling Miao"s open mouth to stuff a steamed bun into his mouth. The steamed bun blocked Ling Miao from saying more. Ling Miao bit down harshly on the steamed bun, his resentful gaze locked on Su Yuyang"s face.
Su Yuyang lowered his head and ate his breakfast. He didn"t meet Ling Miao"s eyes.
Ling Miao let out a cold huff. "Once Tang Xuan posts that thread, won"t this matter be spilled either way? When that happens…"
"When that happens it"s Yan Li"s headache," Su Yuyang started laughing heartlessly.
Su Yuyang got Yang Lin"s telephone number from Feng Ji. After breakfast, he contacted Yang Lin again, but he"d only spoken a few sentences when Yang Lin hung up again.
Su Yuyang wrote what he was going to say into a text message and sent it to Yang Lin, whose reply was: Don"t take a joke too far.
"Ah." Su Yuyang lay down on the bed and sighed.
Ling Miao was currently writing. Hearing Su Yuyang"s sigh, he turned his head and said, "Tang Xuan?"
"Yang Lin." Su Yuyang rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I told her everything and asked her to tell Yan Li and tell the management company to make official preparations, but she thought I was joking." At the last bit, Su Yuyang smiled helplessly.
"When it happens, they"ll know if it"s real or fake," Ling Miao said full of anger.
Su Yuyang lay spread-eagled on the bed, watching the ceiling with blank eyes. In his ears was a pattering sound. Tang Xuan"s vicious smile lay before his eyes, and he considered how to stop Tang Xuan from making another thread.
Out of nowhere, his phone rang. Su Yuyang rolled over and picked up his phone from his nightstand. When he saw the display, he almost dropped the phone.
"f.u.c.k!" Su Yuyang cursed in surprise. "Xiao Miao, Yan Li actually called me."
"You"re sure?" Ling Miao asked worriedly. He feared that Su Yuyang had thought too much about Yan Li and started imagining things. Su Yuyang put the phone on speaker mode, then took the call.
"Just now, Lin-jie asked me if I had any illicit relations.h.i.+ps with a man in university and let someone get dirt on it. I thought about it and the only person I liked in university was you. So there"s no way I could"ve gotten into a relations.h.i.+p with a man. Then Yan-jie showed me your text message and I was so shocked I"m not feeling well." Yan Li lowered her voice, as if not wanting the people next to her to hear.
Su Yuyang rubbed his temple, feeling a headache coming on, and said, "You remember Tang Xuan, right?"
"Him? Haven"t you two been broken up for many years? Why suddenly bring him up? Is he the one who"s going to post the thread?" Yan Li asked in surprise.
Su Yuyang said, "Mm," gathered his thoughts, and continued speaking. "After he found out I was Shu Yang, he looked for me and wanted to reconcile. I rejected him and he made a forum post accusing me of plagiarism. Although I"ve averted the plagiarism issue, he still threatened me saying that if I didn"t give him 15 million, he"d spill the beans on our history. Of course, that"s with the events reversed—I pursued you and made you fall for me then told you I was gay…"
"I bought a watch last year!"¹
Eh… these words were violently whispered. Yan Li definitely didn"t want the person behind her to hear them.
But she did cut Su Yuyang off.
Yan Li said, "Tang Xuan escaped from a psychiatric ward, did he? He wants to exchange a forum post for 15 million? We just have to explain the matter first and then it"ll be fine, won"t it?"
"Sounds like you have an idea." Su Yuyang"s heart was lighter than before and his tone of voice grew much more carefree.
"Just wait to be mentioned!" Yan Li smiled with satisfaction. "Ah, Old Su, thank you for your message. I haven"t touched my phone in three days."
"Ah… is the isolation training still going fine?"
Their business concluded, they began chatting. Finally, when Yang Lin coughed, Yan Li wistfully hung up the phone.
Hearing Yan Li"s last sob, Su Yuyang"s smile grew even more radiant. Ling Miao glared at Su Yuyang and thought, Look at you delighting in someone else"s misfortune!
Now that the worrying matter had been concluded, the dark clouds over Su Yuyang"s face had disappeared, but he still felt that Ling Miao wasn"t very happy. Su Yuyang lay face down on the bed then propped himself up with his arms and raised his head slightly to look at Ling Miao. "Xiao Miao, the matter with Tang Xuan is about to be solved. What"s still worrying you?"
"I don"t know, either." Ling Miao frustratedly ruffled his hair. "My chest feels heavy. Sometimes it feels like I"ll suffocate."
"Can"t breathe?" Su Yuyang got up and opened the window. Cool raindrops fell on Su Yuyang"s face and he complained, "Ah, it rains every day."
Ling Miao breathed in the fresh air outside the window and his breathing eased. His chest still felt heavy, but he didn"t tell Su Yuyang that.
"Ah!" Ling Miao suddenly yelled out. Su Yuyang"s heart clenched and he asked hurriedly, "What happened?"
"I forgot to cook!" Ling Miao left these words and ran to the kitchen.
Su Yuyang glanced at the time. It was 11:30 a.m.
After lunch, Su Yuyang kept refres.h.i.+ng Yan Li"s microblog. Two hours of refres.h.i.+ng later, he still hadn"t seen a post in which Yan Li mentioned him.
Just as Su Yuyang was considering whether to call Yan Li and ask, her microblog finally updated.
Yan Li: To the person I loved then and the person I love now. @ShuYang, @JiLinxi. Text version…
Su Yuyang was glad from the bottom of his heart: This is definitely it!
The blog post was accompanied by an image, which Su Yuyang clicked into.
The first line of text on the image was, "About Shu Yang—a person I once loved."
In the post, Yan Li described her and Su Yuyang"s history without holding anything back. Su Yuyang gave three great guffaws and then suddenly very much wanted to see Tang Xuan"s expression.
Ling Miao had also seen Yan Li"s post. He exclaimed with surprise, "This move of Yan-jie"s is brilliant!"
Su Yuyang laughed. "We can settle this without calling the police. Now, even if Tang Xuan makes a forum post, I"m not going to stop him." As Su Yuyang spoke, he clicked reblog, then tossed Tang Xuan the link to the post.
"Heh." Tang Xuan finished reading Yan Li"s long post and a hoa.r.s.e sneer emanated from his dry throat. Thinking about the post that was halfway written, he tamped down on the dissatisfaction br.i.m.m.i.n.g in his heart. A terrifyingly cold laugh echoed through the pitch-black room: "Su Yuyang, you think you can beat me like this? Aren"t you and Ling Miao in love? Let"s see how you love each other when one of you is dead!"
Translation notes:
[1] an expression that sounds like a string of curses.