◎It’s exploding!◎
Daily Life Arc
006
The news that the famous gaming streamer “I Love Eating Vegetables” had fallen in love and publicly come out created quite a stir online.
After a brief moment of shock, her fans dove headfirst into detective mode.
Everyone was guessing: Just who was Vegetable Sister’s girlfriend?
Thanks to that live-stream mishap, everyone had heard the girlfriend’s voice.
Idle fans went so far as to extract the audio track of her speech and compare it across the entire internet.
They found no matches among the streamers known to be close to Vegetable Sister.
Could she be outside the streaming circle altogether?
The fan group buzzed with discussion.
[Isn’t it that online romance partner Vegetable Sister mentioned before?]
[Huh? Didn’t that fizzle out? I saw her sharing all those sad emo playlists on Weibo for days. I thought it hadn’t worked out.]
[If it’s the online romance partner, doesn’t that mean they’ve already met up IRL and are shacking up? Damn, that’s lightning fast!]
[Aaaah, who is it?! I’m so jealous! How does everyone else game their way into dating Vegetable Sister? Me? Heh, I just get matched with total noobs.]
As Vegetable Sister’s diehard fan, Xu Yixiao had of course joined the fan group.
Every day, she watched them endlessly debating Vegetable Sister’s love life, inwardly cracking up, practically itching to throw her head back and cackle with her hands on her hips as obnoxiously as possible.
Hahahahaha!
She was the one chosen few who knew the truth!
She was the legendary child of destiny!
While other fans racked their brains guessing the details of Vegetable Sister’s romance, Xu Yixiao was already living the daily life of sitting at home, watching Vegetable Sister shower PDA right in front of her eyes.
Woo-hoo~
Xu Yixiao was still basking in her smug pride when the discussion in the fan group started veering off course, missing the point entirely.
[Vegetable Sister’s girlfriend has such a beautiful voice!]
[+1, so lovely! I love it too!]
[Tch, so what if the voice is nice? Who knows what she looks like.] The one who said this looked familiar to Xu Yixiao—it was one of Vegetable Sister’s rabid fangirls. Lately, she’d been spouting acidic comments all over the group.
Xu Yixiao always got annoyed whenever she saw them.
Sure, her little aunt had a wicked personality, but her looks were beyond reproach!
Damn it!
If Vegetable Sister hadn’t kept her true face hidden so well without ever slipping up, Xu Yixiao would have been tempted to grab any sneaky photo from her phone, toss it into the group, and show them what “match made in heaven” really looked like.
Xu Yixiao couldn’t let it slide. Even though she was abroad, she secretly snitched to Xu Yan over the internet.
[Little Aunt! Look at this! These people are way out of line!]
Xu Yan glanced at it, arching a brow slightly, and told Xu Yixiao to pull her into the group.
Xu Yixiao panicked. [Little Aunt, are you about to stir up trouble?]
Xu Yan: [No.]
She added: [Just curious. Gonna lurk for a bit.]
Xu Yixiao didn’t buy it for a second.
But for her own safety, she decided to sacrifice the group members instead. And so, she added Xu Yan to the group.
Three days passed after that, and the group remained perfectly peaceful.
Xu Yan really didn’t cause any trouble. She just quietly watched as the members dug into Vegetable Sister’s girlfriend’s info everywhere, randomly shipping Vegetable Sister with all sorts of people, and let the girlfriend stans strut around arrogantly, spewing their trash-talk.
Seeing this, Xu Yixiao was a bit surprised.
Had her little aunt been so thoroughly tamed by Vegetable Sister into this gentle, pure-hearted version in the short time she’d been abroad?
Weird!
That very evening, Xu Yixiao got pinged by a fan admin.
[Vegetable Sister’s dropping into the Game Voice Podcast as a guest today!! Everyone, heads up!!]
Xu Yixiao was stunned.
Chen Yi had never participated in events like this before.
Forget being an interview guest—she didn’t even do collabs. She was one of the rare internet lone wolves who could carry an entire stream on her skills and style alone.
And now, suddenly, she was changing.
Xu Yixiao’s instincts prickled; something was up. She rushed off to grill her little aunt.
[Little Aunt, spill! Did you put her up to it?]
Xu Yan replied: [Xu Yixiao, you’re too young to talk like that. How can you be so rude?]
What did she mean by “put her up to it”?
She’d merely helped Chen Yi map out her future career path: If Chen Yi wanted to pivot later into investing in a women’s esports warband, she’d have to step into the spotlight eventually. This was to create a halo effect, leveraging Chen Yi’s existing fame in the gaming scene to build hype for any future team.
As preparation for that, Xu Yan suggested Chen Yi gradually step out of her comfort zone and show more sides of herself to fans and the public.
Joining the podcast interview was the first step.
Of course, she’d casually added: “Yixiao says your fans are pretty curious about your personal love life. If you don’t mind, you could share a bit.”
Chen Yi wasn’t the type to air her private life online, especially not on the “I Love Eating Vegetables” account. She always felt people followed her for the gaming, and she didn’t want to divert attention with other stuff.
But some things couldn’t be kept from veering off no matter how much she tried.
Human nature’s thirst for gossip guaranteed the fans’ focus would shift.
After a moment’s thought, Chen Yi asked Xu Yan if she minded her sharing their love story with the world. Of course, it would be a sanitized, beautified version. All the overly tangled or adult bits? Chen Yi was dead set on keeping those under wraps.
Xu Yan agreed readily.
As someone in the fashion industry, Xu Yan dealt with the spotlight constantly. And after being named Chen Nanyun’s successor, she’d be in the public eye even more.
Sure, Xu Yan’s fame was limited to fashion insiders or fans chasing idol fashion collabs who might know her a little.
She wasn’t like front-stage celebrities drawing constant attention.
But she wasn’t afraid of it either.
With Xu Yan’s go-ahead, Chen Yi started prepping for the interview.
On the day of the podcast live stream, she unusually opened up about her romance.
“We met in Miracle,” Chen Yi said. “I was on a smurf, running a random dungeon, and she got matched into my team.”
“Then she became my in-game master.”
“She didn’t seem like much of a gamer at first. Turns out, her account was bought. She was just playing to experience it for the kid in her family.” Chen Yi’s voice carried an unconscious smile as she recounted it. “But she took the game seriously, held herself to high standards—practicing in the sniper room solo for over ten hours straight.”
“When issues popped up in-game, she was always the calmest one, quickly soothing the team’s nerves. Even though she was panicking inside too.”
“Back then, she had no idea about my main account. She’d always try to protect me during matches.”
“Online romance to IRL meetup? Uh… kinda. But actually, we knew each other in real life before that.”
“I’ll skip the specifics, heh, I’m a bit shy. Anyway, thanks for the support—we’re doing great now.”
At the end of the stream, at the host’s request, Chen Yi shared a photo.
The photo quickly made its way into Vegetable Sister’s fan group.
It had a cozy, homey vibe. Chen Yi sat at her computer, gaming. Her slim back view showed long hair tied back neatly, giving off a cool edge. The woman in pajamas sat beside her, a fashion magazine open in front of her. She was turned sideways, a thick scarf wrapped around her neck, gazing at Chen Yi’s gaming form with eyes full of affection. She reached out a cherry to Chen Yi, who turned her head to take it in her mouth.
The photo froze that moment.
It was blurry, like a shot from afar. Chen Yi’s face wasn’t visible, and the woman showed only a partial profile—her features smudged, but enough to glimpse her allure.
The group blew up instantly.
[Holy crap!! Vegetable Sister, what kind of goddess did you snag?!]
[Aaaah, sis’s hand is so pretty too!!]
[I always thought Vegetable Sister was some otaku slob… sorry… Guess there’s a hierarchy even among us hermits.]
Xu Yixiao was dumbfounded.
She immediately grilled Xu Yan.
[Little Aunt! So that’s why you asked me for photos a couple days ago!!]
No wonder! No wonder!!
Her little aunt had suddenly gone off the rails, asking if she’d snapped any sneaky shots back then—ideally blurry but kinda discernible.
Damn, wasn’t that just ‘posting unflattering photos’?
Xu Yan smiled faintly and wired Xu Yixiao two thousand bucks.
Xu Yixiao shut up.
Unflattering photos are supposed to be high-def! The photo was supposed to be clear yet blurry! Little Aunt did nothing wrong!
That same evening, Xu Yan’s identity got dug up.
And it wasn’t even Xu Yan who’d orchestrated it.
Some of Chen Yi’s fans were also idol stans, including fans of rising star Jiang Nanxi. Since Jiang Nanxi had shot for Shine magazine before, and her partner, Shadow Queen Xia Zhiyan, had long been on friendly terms with Xu Yan, those fans were quite familiar with her.
The fans took one look at the photo Vegetable Sister had posted and immediately felt a sense of familiarity. They unleashed their fangirl internet sleuthing skills and quickly dug up the picture of Xu Yan from her last appearance at a fashion event.
A simple side-by-side comparison of the two photos, and everyone had their answer in no time.
[Holly crap! Vegetable Sister! You’ve really made it! You actually snagged a total babe!]
[Aaaah! Why! Why!!]
[Some people online date their way into the arms of a fashion editor-in-chief, while others just get hit up by scammers asking for cash… Why is life so unfair?!]
[How the hell did a total shut-in like Vegetable Sister meet the editor-in-chief in real life? Damn it! She must be a fake otaku!]
The netizens’ burning question wouldn’t get an answer until sometime later.
And that answer was all thanks to Ms. Chen Nanyun.
During one interview, she was asked, “What are your thoughts on your successor Xu Yan dating a web game streamer?”
Chen Nanyun’s lips twitched. She shot back sharply, “When did journalists get so damn gossipy? Besides, professional skills aren’t passed down through dating. She can date whoever the hell she wants.”
“And that web streamer you’re talking about? Turns out, she’s my daughter.”
The reporter: ……?????
Ah!!!!!!!!
The internet exploded.
