Chapter 150: The Duality of Sister and Girlfriend

In the following days, Zhang Wuyong filmed several more magic tutorial videos. The main focus was to perform and explain the tricks he hadn’t broken down during his live stream. These videos quickly gained an overwhelming number of views.

The websites hadn’t yet reached their settlement period, but Sister Lian helped him calculate. After deducting the platform’s share and their studio’s cut, his personal earnings were already close to fifty thousand yuan. Sister Lian transferred thirty thousand yuan to him in advance under the studio's name and told him firmly that this was just the beginning.

On Tongtong’s side, Zhang Wuyong noticed that after being nervous for two days, she had become happy again. He didn’t know exactly what she was up to; it was rather mysterious.

At this time, the college entrance exam admission process for the undergraduate batch had begun.

One day, Zhang Wuyong and Qian Shu, along with some other boys, agreed to go to an internet café together. When the topic turned to college choices, Zhang Wuyong shared the preferences he and Tongtong had submitted.

Qian Shu said to him, “Your Zhao Yutong is really too good to you. The two major programs at Lujing University — one is a reach for you, and the other fits your score pretty well. The other universities you chose are all safe bets; getting in wouldn’t be a loss.

“But the way she filled out the form, if she doesn’t get into the best major group, she’ll immediately fall to your score bracket. She scored over ten points higher than you. Do you know how many people get eliminated with just one point difference in college admissions?

“She’s thousands of ranks ahead of you.”

Zhang Wuyong wasn’t very familiar with this process. Hearing Qian Shu’s explanation, he realized that from a practical standpoint, Tongtong’s choice really was a huge sacrifice on her part. She essentially gave up the chance to aim for better schools in other cities, and at the same time risked falling out of the major groups that matched her own score.

Of course, at this point, the applications had already been submitted, so it was too late to change anything.

On the way home, the more Zhang Wuyong thought about it, the warmer his heart felt. He truly believed that Tongtong had been unbelievably kind to him.

Back home, since he had to go to Honglian’s place for a rehearsal of the upcoming live stream in an hour, he quickly showered and tidied up.

As he was leaving, he happened to see Tongtong holding an ice cream in her right hand and a plastic trash bag in her left, ready to go downstairs to throw it away.

“Going to throw out the trash?” Zhang Wuyong approached her. “I’m heading down too; I’ll help you.”

“Aren’t you going to Honglian’s?” Tongtong asked. “I thought after you went to the internet café with Qian Shu and the others, you’d go straight there.”

“I’m coming back to change clothes,” Zhang Wuyong said as he took the trash bag from her.

While waiting for the elevator, Tongtong turned back at the doorway and called softly, “Wuyong.”

He looked back at her.

There she stood in the half-open door, sticking out her tongue and gently licking the ice cream in a slow circle. Then she put the ice cream into her mouth and slowly savored it.

Zhang Wuyong was captivated, feeling a warm surge deep within his heart that spread through every cell of his body with tender affection.

Suddenly, Tongtong bit into the ice cream, cracking off a big chunk. She grinned, showing her pristine, even teeth, smugly pursed her lips, flicked her hand, and wobbled as she turned and went inside.

As Zhang Wuyong stepped into the elevator, he felt a sudden chill on his body.

“Oh, Tongtong, you scared me stiff. That’s not good for your future happiness, you know?”

The next two days were packed with a tight schedule.

Because the first live stream had been a success, Honglian’s team prepared more extensively and invested more heavily this time.

Zhang Wuyong was inevitably going to university, and he didn’t even know which city he would be going to.

Honglian’s side hoped to maintain a long-term collaboration with him.

They also wanted to multiply their investment during the summer break.

The success of the first live stream, combined with the steadily rising attention, gave them great hope.

Zhang Wuyong himself felt the same way. Streaming was just a side job; he didn’t want to make it his main career. He planned to earn some money over the summer and then see what to do once he started university.

Both sides shared this intention, so their cooperation was seamless. Of course, they weren’t planning to exploit the summer by overcharging young girls.

They simply aimed to hold more live streams during the break.

During this period, Zhang Wuyong also went to the traffic management office and passed the theory test.

For recent high school graduates like them, this was an easy task—just a half-day’s casual review and some practice questions on the app, and they passed straight away.

The second live stream arrived quickly.

This time, it was not just close-up magic.

In a room specially set up for him by Sister Lian, Zhang Wuyong performed mystical magic tricks as if at home, all while casually chatting with an imaginary audience.

The conversation was also pre-designed.

Most of it was scripted lines combined with his own improvisation.

Sister Lian said he had to treat every girl watching the live stream like a sister he was close to every day.

Zhang Wuyong didn’t have sisters, only two cousins, Song Ling and Song Xiaoyan, and Liu Zhu, who often hung out with them, was like a younger relative.

But they weren’t close enough to share everyday moments.

He wasn’t sure how to capture that sense of closeness, so he asked Sister Lian if she had any examples.

Sister Lian explained it was roughly the ambiguous feeling between a sister and a girlfriend—the dual nature of being sometimes a sister, sometimes a girlfriend, and sometimes both at once.

After thinking it over, he decided it was probably similar to the closeness he had with the three little cousins by blood, but emotionally a bit closer, like his relationship with Tongtong.

That should be about right.

So during the live stream, he wore a warm smile. He was no longer aloof like last time.

Instead, he was like a relative who had seen the other's private side but never really taken care of them—chatting freely, friendly and engaging.

At times, he threw in teasing remarks that sounded serious but were playful on closer inspection, or seemingly earnest comments that didn’t hold up under scrutiny.

The entire chat room was filled with messages calling him “big brother,” occasionally dotted with flirtatious remarks.

Countless girls, enchanted by his mysterious sleight of hand, grew more and more excited, flooding the chat with gifts that poured in like a never-ending stream.