Published at 12th of August 2023 6:22 pm

Chapter 36 The So Called Meetup

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

His meetup with Chu Fu was scheduled this Friday.

Before Friday came, Bai Yan had already sent her 500 yen little by little, using these cheap gifts to get a few more words out of Chu Fu.

Judging from Chu Fu’s replies, she must have considered him as someone who liked watching local mukbang stars. Chu Fu wasn’t the least cautious and openly shared her birthday, age, current income, city of residence, and other private information. Coincidentally, the two were both from City A.

Bai Yan lived in City A while he was still in university, so he was quite familiar with the places around City A.

Now that Bai Yan knew that they were from the same city, it was much easier for him to carry out certain things. He pretended to be pleasantly surprised that he and Chu Fu were from the same city and excitedly asked Chu Fu for them to meet up there.

Since the place Bai Yan had suggested wasn’t a desolated area in the outskirts of the city, Chu Fu readily agreed.

But before Friday came, Bai Yan prepared something in advance.

When the much-awaited day came, he generously applied a thick layer of sunscreen all over his body, opened a dark umbrella to shield himself from the sun, and put on an oversized coat. He then went to the meetup point an hour early.

The agreed-upon place was a park that had a family-owned cafe nearby.

Since Bai Yan had arrived a bit too early, Chu Fu naturally hadn’t come, which was just as he predicted. And instead of waiting for her, he walked into the coffee shop and ordered a cup of coffee.

He then used a set of newspapers to block the side of his face, occasionally checking if Chu Fu had arrived in the park.&rxs;;

At 12:50 PM, Chu Fu finally showed up ten minutes early and was rushing towards the park’s front gates.

Chu Fu let out a sigh of relief and was glad that she wasn’t late when she saw that her fan still wasn’t here.

After only doing live streams for the past three months, it was the first time she encountered a big-spending fan, who had given her up to one thousand yen already. This visit was something she also decided on. Since her fans were her bread and butter, she believed that it was worth it to have such a magnanimous fan part of her life.

In truth, Chu Fu was someone who had a serious job, and this live broadcast was just her side business.

However, the situation presented was half a month ago. Ever since she loaded this malicious app, her life was instantly thrown into chaos.

To survive, she needed to meticulously study the densely-packed contents in the forum. Chu Fu was well aware that she wasn’t bright, and besides her clinging onto someone else’s thighs, she has to use more time studying the posts compared to other people just so that she could increase her chances of survival.

But under these circumstances, Chu Fu wasn’t in the mood to work nor did she have the time to work. In the end, she simply resigned from her day job and thought that if she held back on spending a little, her savings would be enough to last her for the next three months.

This was not originally the problem, but unfortunately, she overestimated her self-control.

Chu Fu had a hobby, an extremely expensive hobby. She loved to eat food. At first, this doesn’t sound like anything problematic, however, she couldn’t control how much she ate.

The mental strain that the ghost-filled game brought to her was far too much. Every time she came back from the game, she would be in a dazed state with her heart full of fear from almost dying inside the game.

With the pressure being high, she would turn to consume food even more. She would eat until she would throw up, and after she threw up, she would eat again. Under the swift flood of mental stress, she ate much more than she had before, and within a short week, her already small savings came to its end.

To continue living, she had no other choice but to think of new ways to earn money. Finding a new job was a complete utter waste of time. Even if she found one, she wouldn’t be able to clock in and out every day due to her anxiety. Right now, she simply made her side income be her main one. The time spent on live streaming was flexible, and the hours were much less than a normal job. Furthermore, because her food intake had drastically increased, her show’s popularity rose even more.

Even if her popularity soared, a thousand yen was without a doubt, still not a small sum.

“What does this Bai Ge want to meet up with me for? Is it just to meet me? It can’t be that his main goal for this meetup is to hook up, right?”

T/N: Bai Ge, which means White Pigeon, is Bai Yan’s user name.

Chu Fu’s time in this industry hasn’t been long, but she already knew that there were a lot of unspoken rules in this line of work. There were numerous male fans, who had other intentions, that gave female vloggers money in the hopes of claiming their so-called ‘material benefits.’

Because of the constant pressures of life, she had no other choice but to eat from the seeds she sowed, but in any case, she would never sell these material benefits. The most she could do was to sit and chat while enjoying a cup of tea. If this Bai Ge were to use some sort of gratuity and threatened her, she would rather not have this fan around.

Even though she was addicted to eating food and couldn’t stop anymore, she would never go so low as to sell her dignity.

Chu Fu immersed herself in her wild fantasies, and after seeing a point and a half, she realized that Bai Ge had still not arrived, making her become jittery and feel like she’s waiting in vain and wasting her precious studying time for naught.

As a result, Chu Fu opened up the app and began reading posts on how to escape, and inadvertently, she was immediately engrossed in browsing the posts, leading her not to move her head for a long time.

After who knows how long, Chu Fu sensed her neck starting to turn sour.

She felt a person pass by her and sit down next to her.

Chu Fu lifted her head in a muddled state, assuming that the fan had already arrived. She was about to greet the person next to her, only to see a familiar man smiling at her, “Long time no see.”

“It’s been quite a while.” Chu Fu finally reacted, her eyes widening in a flash, “Wait a minute, are you Bai Ge?”

“How unexpected.” Bai Yan replied with a bright smile on his face and with a sweet flowing voice, but Chu Fu interpreted this as something more sinister.

Oh no, what’s this psycho doing here?

She didn’t expect that the fan that kept giving her gifts would be the mental case she was talking about in the forum.

Even if he had dyed his hair to a different color, she could still recognize him with a single glance.

Seeing that Bai Yan’s face was plastered with a smile, Chu Fu thoroughly repented her decisions. Like what the other veteran players had said, exposing a person like that was extremely risky. If she didn’t kill him with this, he would seek her out to get his revenge on her. Well now, the man of the hour has come through the doors.

There was no need to think about it further since Chu Fu already knew that he was here for some payback. She thought of turning around and running for her life, but Bai Yan was one step ahead and seized her waist early on. Their clothes were the only things keeping them apart, and with a sharp-feeling object pressed against her back, she couldn’t do anything but stay silent.

Chu Fu’s body instantly became stiff, and with her legs raised as if she was about to flee but not doing so, the situation as a whole looked rather odd.

Bai Yan tightened his grip on her waist as she struggled a few times. His chin innocently dropped to her shoulder while his other arm was embracing her. His fingertips gently nudged her lips as he whispered into her ear, “You’re a smart woman, but I know that you can’t run away, right?”

“Hahaha you’re overthinking. How could I run away?” Chu Fu gave a hollow laugh. Her eyes drifted elsewhere as they started to frantically blink. She hoped that there was a bystander that could see something wrong in this situation.

“While saying this, can you calm your eyes and not blink like someone who has dry eyes? Also, can you not make any awkward gestures like your crooked lips and squinty eyes? I’m not blind you know. I can still see.”

“…” Chu Fu shifted a bit and finally became more behaved. She miserably realized that she may have to answer for what she had done.

Since she knew early on that she will be a mukbang vlogger, to put it bluntly, she borrowed some money from loan sharks. In any case, after three months, she wasn’t sure that she would survive, and on the bright side, she didn’t need to wait for three months anymore, her life should quickly end by now.

With a rigid face, Chu Fu looked down to see Bai Yan’s hand securely wrapped around her waist, nothing looking wrong about it.

“Act natural, like we’re a pair of lovers.”

Chu Fu secretly scolded him in her heart, as if a basket case like him would have a girlfriend. In the end, she had no choice but to reluctantly acknowledge his instructions. This guy’s actions were extremely natural. From an outsider’s perspective, they would look like two people who were being intimately close with each other, one would even think that they were sweethearts.

There was no doubt in Chu Fu’s mind that if she were to dare scream and make a ruckus, this guy would shamelessly say that she was his girlfriend and that they were merely having a lovers’ quarrel, leading him to drag her away by force.

Of course, with a sharp knife pressed against her side and a psycho that could stab her at any time, she didn’t dare say anything.

Chu Fu gathered her strength and put on a stiff smile. Bai Yan shortly followed suit, and the two entered the park.

On this hot weekday, there weren’t a lot of people who went to the park to play at noon.

The huge park was empty, except for some elderly people that were exercising.

Bai Yan led Chu Fu to an isolated area and sat down, his hand still holding onto Chu Fu’s waist and never letting his grip loosen.

Seeing that Chu Fu was obediently sitting on the stone bench and looked as though she were at God’s mercy, Bai Yan, who had been put in a bad mood by the sun exposure, felt happier.

As expected, if you weren’t happy to begin with but saw someone who was unhappier than you, then you would feel better.

Chu Fu’s expression reflected as if she had nothing left to live for and appeared as if she had already given up hope.

Knowing that she wouldn’t start screaming and shouting, Bai Yan opened the camera on his phone and told her, “You can explain.”

“Explain what?”

“Just explain that you are a bulimic mukbang vlogger.”

Chu Fu was surprised the moment she heard this, “How did you know?”

“Although you put on makeup during your live streams, don’t consider your fans as idiots.” Bai Yan continued, “Don’t ask too many questions. First take off the band-aid on the back of your hand, and I’ll help you record the video.”

“You tried to find me just to make me do this?” Chu Fu muttered while her heart started to fill with wild guesses, but she wasn’t as panicked as she felt at first.

Honestly, Bai Yan didn’t anticipate using this video to blackmail her. Compared to life or death situations, Chu Fu could still survive three more months without being a mukbang star. However, even if the video proved to be useless, he still needed to have it. After Chu Fu described how she made herself vomit after her mukbang shows, Bai Yan put away his phone and breezily changed the topic, “Don’t be nervous. I called you here because I wanted to have a chat with you.”

“Could you get rid of the knife first?”

“No.”

“Fine.” Chu Fu felt more terrified in an instant. “What do you want to discuss?”

“Just about how you exposed me in the forum.”

“…” Chu Fu’s face immediately turned green, she knew that things weren’t that simple.

The muddleheaded Chu Fu waited for a few seconds before asking for a follow-up. On the other hand, Bai Yan greatly appreciated the quick change in her complexion. He curled his lips in a smile and slowly asked, “Actually, you don’t need to worry about this matter. Afterall, I’m not a narrow-minded person.”

‘With you holding a knife right now, do you think I would easily believe your words?’

Chu Fu weakly let out a scoff in her mind, but with a knife in his hands, she couldn’t act freely, so she blankly asked, “I’m also not worried about it.”

“Very good.” Bai Yan sounded delighted, “If ever you match with me in the game, act as if you don’t know me. Since I am a basket case, and a basket case that isn’t in a good mood at that, even I don’t know what I might do to you.”

“Moreover, I’ll be keeping an eye out for the posts in the forum. I don’t want to see anymore posts about me.”

“…” Hearing Bai Yan flatly call himself a mental case, Chu Fu was on the brink of tears and vigorously nodded her head like a small chick pecking at rice, fearing that if she had slowed down for even just a second, Bai Yan’s mood would suddenly turn sour, making him do some unspeakable things to her.

After convincing Chu Fu, Bai Yan’s worries had disappeared.

He finally released the hand situated in Chu Fu’s waist and put on his coat to protect his skin from the glaring sun.

Chu Fu silently watched as Bai Yan quickly departed and looked at the knife that was previously threatening her, causing her expression to change.

The knife that was hidden away inside the coat earlier has finally revealed its true colors.

It was a sharp object wrapped in tin foil. She tore the sharpened tin foil open, only to discover that it was just a harmless mixture of chocolate and hard candy shaped like a knife.

And because of the scorching hot sun, the chocolate inside had melted a bit while the handle of the candy knife, which was made of crispy biscuit, was still in a good condition.

A suffocating sensation suddenly overcame Chu Fu’s heart. She took a bite out of the candy knife and fiercely chewed it to small fragments.

Wang Ze, I remember you.

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