Chapter 47
Li Meiman stared at her phone with relish, a goofy, star-struck smile plastered on her face. When Gao Yinyin returned to the dorm with takeout and saw her like this, she couldn’t help but look at her with the concern one might show a simpleton.
“Meiman, are you okay?”
“Huh? Yinyin, you’re back.”
“What are you doing? I brought you dinner.”
“Oh, thank you! I’m watching a reality show…” Li Meiman replied. Seeing her friend, she immediately started pitching it. “Yinyin, you have to watch the new show on Mango TV. It’s so good! The baby is so cute I could die. Aaaah—I can’t talk, I have to keep watching!”
Gao Yinyin looked at her, baffled. Seeing her roommate giggling so much piqued her curiosity, so she took out her phone and searched for it too.
“Meiman, is it the Daddy, Where Are We Going? show?”
“Yes, yes!”
Soon, under Li Meiman’s influence, Gao Yinyin was also successfully won over by the “moe” kids, her face beginning to mirror Meiman’s goofy grin.
“This little girl is way too cute! So adorable! What’s her name?”
“Xiang Qingnuan—little Nuannuan, like the sun!”
“Oh man, she’s so sweet I could cry. This show is a scam to make me want kids!”
“Correction: it’s a scam to make us want daughters!”
“If every child were this sensible and cute, who wouldn’t want one?”
“True, true… but I think the prerequisite is having a boyfriend first…”
“Li Meiman, you’re the worst. Don’t you know life is hard enough without you pointing that out?”
“…”
The 90-minute episode played from start to finish. Even when the ending credits rolled, Meiman felt like she hadn’t seen enough.
“Who do you think this ‘Sister Xuening’ Nuannuan keeps talking about is?” Gao Yinyin had almost finished too; she had only watched the segments with the Xiang family, fast-forwarding through the rest, so she caught up quickly.
“I don’t know. The production team hasn’t revealed anything. Xiang Nan only said it was a friend’s child.” Meiman felt like her heart was being clawed at; the suspense was agonizing.
Even though she knew “Sister Xuening” might be reluctant to show her face, the secrecy—combined with Qingnuan’s constant chattering—only made people want to know more.
“But come to think of it, I actually know a ‘Xuening’,” Gao Yinyin said suddenly.
Li Meiman was busy scrolling through Weibo comments. Since there was only one episode, she felt a wave of emptiness and had to discuss it with netizens to alleviate her “hunger” for more content. Hearing Yinyin, she didn’t look up from her phone and gave a perfunctory nod. “Oh? Really?”
“Yeah, don’t you remember?” A trace of sadness appeared on Yinyin’s face. “It’s ‘Little Xuening,’ the one I used to mention all the time…”
Li Meiman’s finger paused on the screen. She looked up at Gao Yinyin, and as the name registered, she remembered.
Gao Yinyin had studied music, and her idols were all related to the field. She used to constantly talk about a genius young pianist named “Little Xuening.” She had mentioned how the girl was a finalist for the junior category of an international piano competition. Yinyin had even booked a flight to go watch her, but then… it seemed the girl’s family had been in a car accident.
“I wonder if Little Xuening can still play the piano…” Yinyin murmured.
Her first idol had actually been Qin Mo, the young, handsome, and highly accomplished musician who had many young fans in China. At one of his concerts, he brought his five-year-old daughter onto the stage. That was when Gao Yinyin became a fan of Little Xuening.
Such a beautiful, ethereal girl—her playing, though slightly immature, possessed a wonderful dynamism that rivaled her father’s. She had extraordinary talent yet worked harder than most. Who wouldn’t love her?
But such a girl had met with heartbreaking misfortune. When she learned that Qin Mo had passed away and his wife’s fate was uncertain, Yinyin had cried for a whole week. She desperately wanted to know how the girl was doing, but after the funeral, the child had completely vanished from the public eye.
People are forgetful. A tragedy that shocked the nation two or three months ago was now forgotten by everyone except true fans. Even Yinyin herself rarely thought about her old idol lately…
“She’ll probably get better…” Meiman sighed. Seeing Yinyin looking depressed again, a lightbulb went off. “Do you think Nuannuan’s ‘Sister Xuening’ could be the Little Xuening?”
Gao Yinyin froze, then instinctively shook her head. “How could there be such a coincidence in this world?”
“Maybe it is that coincidental!” Meiman slapped her hand on the desk, analyzing. “Don’t forget, Qin Mo and Xiang Nan were ‘frenemies.’ After Qin Mo’s accident, Xiang Nan was at the hospital constantly. The media reported on that.”
“And my beautiful Feifei—she was best friends with Qin Mo’s wife. They posted tons of photos together on Weibo. I can find them for you if you don’t believe me!”
“But…”
“And Xiang Nan said ‘Xuening’ is his friend’s daughter. It fits perfectly!” The more Meiman spoke, the more it made sense.
Yinyin shook her head, still finding it hard to believe.
“If you don’t believe me, let’s ask my Feifei.” Meiman was convinced she was right.
She moved quickly. Since she already had Ye Feifei’s Weibo page open, she commented under the latest post:
Meiman-man-man-man: “Feifei, is the ‘Sister Xuening’ Nuannuan keeps talking about actually Mr. Qin Mo’s daughter?”
Gao Yinyin watched her, hesitating. She wanted to know if Little Xuening was okay, but she also feared that exposing her would disrupt the peaceful life the girl might have finally found…
However, looking at the comments under Feifei’s post, she realized Meiman wasn’t the only one who guessed it. Many netizens were asking if “Sister Xuening” was Qin Xuening, alongside a crowd of confused bystanders.
“Who is Qin Xuening? Can someone explain?”
“Holy crap, Qin Mo’s daughter? I love his compositions. So sad he left so young… truly, the heavens are jealous of genius [heartbreak].”
“If you don’t know who she is, Google Qin Mo.”
“Rest in peace, Mr. Qin Mo…”
Consequently, new topics climbed the hot search list: #Qin Mo# #Little Xuening#.
At that very moment, the girl at the center of the storm—the one being cared about by countless people—was nestled in her bed, coaxing a certain “milk-baby” to take a nap.
“Come here,” Qin Xuening said, patting the mattress. She was speaking to Qingnuan, who wouldn’t let go of her tablet.
Xiang Nan had gone out today, and before leaving, he had instructed Xuening to take good care of Qingnuan. Of course, even without his word, she would have. But perhaps because the adults were away, the girl was particularly excited. She wasn’t lying down to sleep like she usually did after a bit of coaxing.
Qingnuan looked up, tilted her head, and suddenly crawled over. Just as Xuening breathed a sigh of relief, the girl giggled and dove into her arms, leaning against her while continuing to play with the tablet.
Xuening: “…”
Seeing the girl’s focus, Xuening felt a bit baffled. Is a tablet really that fun?
“What are you playing?” She gave up on forcing the nap, wrapping her arms around the girl to pull her into her lap. Resting her chin on the girl’s small shoulder, she looked at the screen.
“Hehe! I’m scrolling through Weibo~” Qingnuan leaned back further, smelling the faint fragrance unique to the big sister. It felt very comfortable.
Xuening raised an eyebrow. The girl really seemed to like Weibo.
“Sister Xuening, can you teach me how to reply to comments?” Qingnuan asked suddenly.
“Which one do you want to reply to?”
As Xuening asked, Qingnuan clicked on a specific comment under Ye Feifei’s post. “This one.”
Xuening stared at the text and froze. The comment read:
Gao Yinyin Who Loves Learning and Music: Miss Ye Feifei, may I ask… how is Little Xuening doing now?
In this world, besides the Xiang family and Qin Xinlan, were there actually other people who cared about her? Xuening stared at the line of text, silent for a moment. “Can you understand this sentence?”
“Mhm!” Qingnuan nodded vigorously, a joyful smile on her face. “She’s asking if Sister Xuening is okay.”
“Why do you want to reply to her?” Xuening looked at the comment. No one had replied to it yet, and it only had a few likes.
“Because she’s caring about Sister Xuening,” Qingnuan said with a giggle.
Xuening’s heart stirred. A slight smile touched her lips as she hugged the little “bundle” in her arms tighter. She felt the warmth from the girl travel into the depths of her heart, making her feel as if she were soaking in a hot spring.
“So, does Sister know how to reply?” Qingnuan pressed. Sister was so smart; she surely knew everything.
Being stared at by those worshipful large eyes, Xuening felt a strange sense of satisfaction. She didn’t let it show on her face but began operating the tablet.
“How do you want to reply to her?” she asked while opening the keyboard.
Gao Yinyin had left her comment and moved on; she didn’t expect a reply from a star like Ye Feifei. By the time she finished tidying the dorm and packing her luggage, she picked up her phone and saw several notifications—mostly likes.
But the comment at the bottom made her hand shake so hard she nearly dropped her phone. The reply read:
Nuannuan’s Little Sunny Day: Sister Xuening is very well now. Thank you for caring about her so much O(∩_∩)O
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