As expected, before the Sunday evening broadcast, Bai Xing sent an overly presumptuous invitation—
"Senior, you must be somewhat satisfied with my performance from the day before yesterday, right? I didn’t dare disturb you yesterday or this morning… But, but I’m about to go live again, and I’ve kind of forgotten how to do it. What should I do, huh?"
"..."
Seeing the little thing boldly advancing in the "work group," Lu Qing felt a headache coming on.
Sure enough, within 10 seconds, Tang Hua chimed in:
"What did you two do? What did you do last time? You and the boss didn’t do anything behind my back that wasn’t work-related, did you? Why do you look so happy? Why?"
Bai Xing: "We didn’t do anything. It was just a normal livestream, but Senior stayed by my side to supervise me, that’s all."
Tang Hua: "!"
Bragging.
Straight-up bragging.
Not even in private, but deliberately showing off in the group.
What Tang Hua envied the most was Bai Xing’s proximity to the boss—just "a wall apart."
If she had such geographical advantage, she would have exploited it to an outrageous extent—every inch of that wall would have served its purpose.
Unlike Bai Xing, who only knew how to sneak around.
"Hmph… No big deal. You already got good results last time, so you don’t need to cling to the boss this time, right? He’s got a lot on his plate. He even asked me to draft a new book. He’s about to start writing and won’t have time to babysit you."
Bai Xing: "!"
The young girl was utterly shocked by Tang Hua’s counterattack!
"What! You two actually have something going on behind the scenes! Senior, how could you! You’re not really going to focus on your writing and leave me hanging, are you?!"
The girl pitifully sent a teary-eyed Ragdoll cat emoji in the group, making it seem like she was a streamer abandoned by her top patron. Lu Qing could only facepalm in exasperation.
"Come on, you two..."
He had every reason to suspect that if he stayed silent and let Tang Hua and Bai Xing continue their back-and-forth, they would eventually spill everything in their probing, exposing all his plans like a naked traveler on the beach.
Bai Xing: "Senior, say something, Senior!"
Tang Hua: "Boss, you’ll come see me soon, right? Without your visits, I feel like I can’t even breathe properly. Ugh… My chest feels so tight."
"..."
This was the first—no, the second time Lu Qing had experienced what could be called a "battlefield of love" in real life.
He had come to understand that such battles never gave warnings; they simply enjoyed stirring up drama.
Although the two girls were just playfully bantering, the situation was clearly problematic and needed to be resolved in a reasonable way.
"Alright then."
Nothing could stump Lu Qing.
In the blink of an eye, he had a stroke of genius.
He decided to deploy a top-tier move—the "Secret Technique: Fight Poison with Poison."
Without answering either of their questions or refuting anything, he executed a masterstroke while the two girls stared at their screens waiting for his response—
[You have invited "Ling" to join the group chat.]
[Group Notification: "Ling" is not friends with anyone else in the group. Please be mindful of privacy.]
"..."
"..."
Silence.
A silence as thick as the fog in Silent Hill.
"Ahem."
Seeing that the two girls were completely distracted by Su Ling’s arrival, Lu Qing smirked triumphantly and typed in the group:
"This is my sister. You’ve probably met her before. Starting today, I’ll take some time to teach her about sound editing and some planning-related stuff. If I’m busy in the future, I’ll ask her to help out with work matters. I hope you all get along and communicate well."
—"Fight Poison with Poison."
The effect was "dropping a nuclear bomb on a chaotic scene, leveling all the mess in one go."
Clearly, it worked like a charm.
Su Ling: "Hello there, Bai Xing, and… uh, Senior Tang Hua. You can call me Su Ling. By the way, my brother has been under your care for a while now. I’ll take this opportunity to study hard and help him out more in the future~"
Bai Xing: "..."
Tang Hua: "..."
Silence.
A silence as if something massive had been shoved into their mouths.
Watching the two girls rendered speechless, Lu Qing chuckled to himself and glanced back at his sister, who was sitting in the room with her fair legs crossed, holding her "black cat" plushie and scrolling through her phone.
No matter how she spoke online, her face remained expressionless—
Completely devoid of emotion.
As if she were operating on autopilot.
"..."
Lu Qing silently gave his sister a thumbs-up.
He thought to himself that in situations like this, bringing her out to calm the storm was indeed effective.
With Su Ling around, the two girls wouldn’t be able to continue their arguments in front of an "outsider." At the very least, the atmosphere would prevent them from directing their grievances at him like before.
Hmm.
It had to be said, Lu Qing’s move instantly cooled the tension in the "work group."
At that moment, Bai Xing was thinking: [This group is ruined. We can’t say anything now. Whatever we say will be dissected by her, so we’d better watch our words.]
Meanwhile, Tang Hua was thinking: [Is she the sister who gets to live in the same house as the boss every day? Now, not only does she monopolize the boss’s private space, but she’s also intruding into our secret chats with him in the group?]
Strangely enough, the external force brought Bai Xing and Tang Hua together.
On the surface, since Lu Qing was watching, they couldn’t afford to lose face.
Bai Xing: [Oh my, it’s Su Ling! How nice! Please take care of me in the future. I heard from Senior that you’re really smart! And so pretty too—it’s so enviable! Hehe.]
Privately, however...
Bai Xing messaged Tang Hua on WeChat: "Tang Hua, did you see that? That’s the boss’s sister. She’s terrifying. With her around, you’d better watch what you say, or she’ll crawl through the internet and eat you alive."
Tang Hua: "? That scary?"
Bai Xing: "Of course. Anyway, I’m being generous by sharing this with you. Just be mentally prepared. Don’t ask me how I know."
Tang Hua: "Oh."
Although Tang Hua considered herself slow on the uptake, she could still glean from Bai Xing’s words that she had crossed paths with Su Ling before.
And she was the "loser."
—The defeated maiden.
"Hmm..."
Tang Hua guessed that since they lived so close, they must have met face-to-face as neighbors.
And since Bai Xing had voluntarily shared this intel, it meant she no longer intended to target her, which was great.
"No matter what she says or does, I just need to focus on my own tasks. The boss promised to take me out for a meal this week. If I prepare a little surprise for him when he comes to see me…
Maybe I’ll have a chance to keep him at my place a bit longer?"
In her little dark room, Tang Hua sucked on her banana milk straw and pondered earnestly.
...
...