The Complete Guide to the Use and Care of a Personal a.s.sistant
Translator: Jury
Editor: NomNom
First Published on Chaleuria
Chapter Eighty
"Linxi"s calling," Ling Miao quickly explained, then went to a corner to take the call.
Yan Li"s head shot up when she heard Ji Linxi"s name. She continued watching Ling Miao"s back.
Ling Miao and Ji Linxi"s conversation didn"t last long before Ling Miao turned around and walked to Yan Li. He handed her the phone and said, "Linxi"s looking for you, but your line was busy so he called me instead."
Yan Li took the phone with trepidation. Ling Miao looked at her and started walking away, though he was still worried.
After Ling Miao left Yan Li"s room he didn"t know what to do. He looked at the tablet on the ottoman and had the sudden impulse to draw. He hadn"t picked up a stylus in very long—not because he was refraining from drawing, but because he thought it was too troublesome. His parents had forced him to take cla.s.ses in the first place.
Su Yuyang walked out of his room and saw Ling Miao drawing furiously. Su Yuyang walked stealthily behind him and saw him intent on his drawing. It was a chibi-style drawing, and there were two people in it: two men kissing. In that instant, Su Yuyang felt that Ling Miao was drawing the two of them.
"What are you drawing?" Su Yuyang suddenly bent close to Ling Miao"s ear and said gently. Ling Miao"s hand jerked and his pen shot across the board. His heart hurt for his drawing.
"Drawing avatars," Ling Miao said aggrievedly. "When I"m done, I"ll send one to you to use." Ling Miao looked at Su Yuyang with a grin and Su Yuyang felt a sense of foreboding, but looking at the drawing on the screen, he concluded he hadn"t anything to worry about. He decided that even if Ling Miao drew a pile of p.o.o.p, he"d use it.
Su Yuyang went back to his room and continued refres.h.i.+ng Yan Li"s forum topic. He ignored all the new replies, mentions, and private messages in his inbox. Before Ling Miao replied to the message, he wasn"t going to bother with these messages whether they were well-wishes or antagonistic.
About an hour later, Su Yuyang"s QQ lit up. He didn"t recognize the icon.
He moused over the flas.h.i.+ng icon and a familiar ID reached his eyes—the message was from Ling Miao.
Xiao Miao: Matching icons. Change yours.
3000WPH: …why does my icon have "submissive" written over it?
Xiao Miao: Because I"m the dominant one! [Smirk]
3000WPH: [Black lines] You have a lot of free time.
Xiao Miao: Are you changing yours or not?
3000WPH: I"ll change it! Of course I"ll change it. Even if you drew a pile of p.o.o.p I"d change it. Since it"s a chibi of me, of course I will!
Su Yuyang changed his avatar and reminded Ling Miao to change the icons for his microblog and IM.
Ling Miao said, "Alright," and rushed off, but Su Yuyang smiled to himself from the side. I hope you"re not too shocked when you see the number of mentions you have.
Su Yuyang hadn"t finished the thought when Ling Miao"s surprised shout came: "d.a.m.n, so many mentions?!" Ling Miao had gone onto his own account, not his a.s.sistant-to-Su-Yuyang account, so the hundred-odd notifications gave him a huge shock.
Ling Miao opened the first page of his notifications list and immediately realized what had happened. He picked up his laptop and threw open Su Yuyang"s room door, yelling: "If you"re gonna make a post, tell me first! Let me make mental preparations!"
Su Yuyang looked at Ling Miao with total calm. He shrugged to indicate his indifference. "I"m used to it."
"Yeah, yeah. You"re a Great Author and you"re used to hundreds of notes and reblogs on every blog post, but I"m just a no-name writer! If I get ten notes, I"m happy. Getting a hundred notes just gives me a fright!" Ling Miao said agitatedly.
As Ling Miao spoke he navigated to Su Yuyang"s microblog and found the post Su Yuyang had made about coming out of the closet.
"Many of you will have seen, in my latest chapter, my confession to a certain someone. Now I"m announcing who I was confessing to—my a.s.sistant, @WriterZeroSecondsAgo. Yes, the person I like is a man. I am gay. I made this post to tell Xiao Miao: Xiao Miao, we can openly be in a relations.h.i.+p now!"
There were no pa.s.sionate words in the post, nothing that evoked deep feeling—in fact, it was somewhat comedic. But Ling Miao felt its warmth and affection. He clicked reblog. Su Yuyang tried to see what he was adding to the post but Ling Miao stopped him. "Scram, go to one side. You can see it later."
"You can look now." Two or three minutes later, Ling Miao called Su Yuyang to look at the blog. Su Yuyang"s curiosity intensified. He opened his mentions and immediately saw the one from Ling Miao.
"Yu."¹
Ling Miao"s reblog contained only the single word. Other people might not read much into it, but it dealt a shocking 500-tonne blow to Su Yuyang"s heart. He joyfully turned around, only to see Ling Miao"s completely blank face. His joy was swiftly replaced by worry.
"What is it, Xiao Miao?"
"I didn"t know what to say to you, so I just sent you one word, a word from your name." Ling Miao looked at Su Yuyang with trepidation, like a child who"d done something wrong.
Su Yuyang hugged Ling Miao and said, "So what if people know? Xiao Miao, when I hid myself away in the past, it was partly because I didn"t want my h.o.m.os.e.xuality to bring me trouble and partly because I wasn"t sure I could do it alone. But now, I think that my previous worries were just me giving up on myself. So what if I"m h.o.m.os.e.xual? I can still live my life well. I want to speak up for myself, and besides, I have you now. I know it"ll make you angry, but I still have to say it. If you"re at my side bearing this burden with me, then even if it"s a road paved with broken gla.s.s, I"ll still walk it and not look back."
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Ling Miao laughed and raised his head to kiss Su Yuyang"s face. "Su Yuyang, I"m not coming out of the closet to my parents for now. They"re different from your parents—they definitely won"t accept that I"ve fallen for a man."
"That"s all right," Su Yuyang said understandingly. "If it"s like you say, then even if we go all the way, they still won"t approve of us being together."
"Tcheh, before my parents agree, don"t even think about doing anything to me!" Ling Miao backed away hurriedly.
Su Yuyang walked slowly toward Ling Miao.
For every step Su Yuyang took, Ling Miao backed away a step. Finally, Ling Miao"s back came into contact with something cold and hard and he was forced to stop.
Su Yuyang took an open stance and bent down to look Ling Miao in the eye.
Panic flashed in Ling Miao"s eyes. His eyes darted in all directions to avoid looking directly at Su Yuyang.
"Xiao Miao, you think too much." Su Yuyang jabbed Ling Miao"s forehead. "Some things have to be consensual on both sides. I don"t like using force."
"Tcheh." Ling Miao hadn"t a leg to stand on but he put on a strong front: "Be careful I don"t step on you!"
Ling Miao raised his fist, pride in his face. Su Yuyang rolled his eyes at him and said in surprise, "So that raised thing is your foot?"
"f.u.c.k you…" Ling Miao was about to punch Su Yuyang when the door opened.
Translation notes:
[1] This is the "Yu" from Su Yuyang"s name, which Su Yuyang asked Ling Miao to call him before