Fang Zhirou turned her head and saw a pretty young girl looking at her with glowing enthusiasm.
"Are you also a Stanyan?"
The young girl nodded happily. "Yes, yes! It's so rare to run into Stanyans in real life, and you're the first one I've met."
Through their brief chat, they learned the girl was Wen Xi, a high school student who was still underage.
However, her fan badge level was quite high, which she explained was thanks to her allowance from home, most of which she spent on this.
After consulting Qin Qing, Fang Zhirou decisively invited her over to sit with them.
"Did you hear Brother Yan sing just now? Wasn't it super good?"
Wen Xi said with excitement and pride, "Of course! That's Brother Yan's signature song, it's definitely going to gain him a ton of followers."
"Especially the derivative creations—they should bring in a massive wave of fans. I hope Hanbaiyu can completely dominate Douzi this screen-wise this year."
As the two of them indulged in this pleasant daydream, Wen Xi asked with curiosity, "Is this older sister a Stanyan too?"
Qin Qing had been looking down at her phone, but hearing Wen Xi cue her, she raised her eyes and smiled. "No, I don't fan him."
Fang Zhirou chimed in, "Even though she doesn't fan Zeyan, her favorite streamer is also a Hanbaiyu broadcaster—H. Yiran."
Wen Xi let out an exclamation of surprise. "Oh, so that's how it is! I follow Yiran too, I just rarely visit his stream."
Qin Qing smiled gently. "That's normal. His streaming schedule is rather ghostly, and a lot of the time I can't stay up for his broadcasts either."
Although Wen Xi didn't frequent the stream often, she knew a fair bit.
"I heard it's because he's busy with work. A lot of teachers at Hanbaiyu are like that; aside from streaming, they all seem to have another job."
Fang Zhirou agreed, "That's normal too. Internet money is always unstable, and there's often no income at all in the beginning. Without another source of income, it's hard to keep going."
"Just like Brother Yan half a year ago—he always had to stream after finishing his day job, and things only got better after two months."
Wen Xi nodded. "Yeah, I guess things will look up once next month's salary comes in. With the sponsorship from Sister Qing Ruxu, his pay should be pretty good."
Fang Zhirou held back a laugh and said, "Right, right, right! Thanks to Sister Qing Ruxu's sponsorship, next month we'll finally get to see Yiran stream normally."
As she spoke, she raised an eyebrow at Qin Qing, the amusement in her eyes plain to see as she clearly teased her.
Qin Qing rolled her eyes at her and didn't have the energy to entertain her, because H. Yiran was about to take the stage for the next performance.
"Woohoo, Yiran is singing next! This is my first time hearing him sing a Cantonese song, I'm kind of looking forward to it."
Seeing her expression, Fang Zhirou couldn't help laughing. "With that fickle heart of yours, if Brother Yan finds out, he might just cry."
Wen Xi replied, "No way! Brother Yan isn't that petty. He's said before that we should check out Hanbaiyu's other streamers too."
Fang Zhirou asked, "Did you forget there was a prerequisite attached to that?"
The prerequisite was that when he started his broadcast, they had to remember to come home and not spend too much time at someone else's place and forget the way back (doge face).
"Hehe, that's just because Brother Yan's schedule happens to overlap with Yiran's."
Wen Xi sheepishly rubbed her nose. After all, if the main idol ever found out she was climbing the wall to other streamers, he might actually roast her in his broadcast.
Qin Qing couldn't pay any attention to their banter at the moment. The very second Yiran started singing, her heart and mind were completely captivated.
It was that familiar voice. By this point, her heart had already made up its mind.
He was the boy from her memories.
"It sounds really nice, but why does his accent feel so standard? It's like a native Guangdong accent."
Wen Xi found it a bit strange. Generally speaking, people from Guangdong had a bit of an accent, but H. Yiran's Mandarin was very standard, not much like a local Cantonese speaker.
[Time to give up and die,
When your silence is high-profile,
When I am weathering a low tide,
Why must you still come and disturb me?]
After finishing the song and preparing to thank the gift-givers on her screen, Xu Yiran saw gift effects flying thick and fast across the display.
The fans in the live stream heard the song and chorused that it sounded amazing. In the span of a single song, his follower count skyrocketed directly to five thousand.
Many passersby became fans because of it, and fans with money to spare sent gifts because the song was so good, steadily increasing his earnings bit by bit.
Qin Qing said nothing; she simply tapped on an "Interstellar Rose" gift and decisively sent two of them.
Xu Yiran paused in his thank-you list, then said with a smile, "Thank you to Sister Qingqing for sending the two Interstellar Roses."
Wen Xi chimed in loudly, "Wow, wow, wow! Sister Qing Ruxu sent gifts again, she's so doting."
Fang Zhirou and Qin Qing smiled without a word.
After the companion segment ended, Wen Xi went home. Since she was still a student, it was getting late, and her family worried about her. The two of them watched her get into her car before feeling relieved.
"So, what's the plan now? Are you heading home or...?"
Qin Qing replied, "I'll go home. We can hang out another day."
Having walked around for so long, she was feeling a bit tired.
Fang Zhirou said with a cheeky grin, "Bye-bye, Sister~ Have a safe trip~"
Qin Qing rolled her eyes in speechlessness, whirled around, and walked away.
Fang Zhirou called out from behind with a mischievous giggle, "Farewell, Your Majesty."
That scared Qin Qing into speeding up her pace, terrified that strangers would realize she and the social butterfly behind her were together.
The reason Fang Zhirou was being so obsequious was simply because Qin Qing was in a good mood today and had covered all her expenses.
Can you believe it, fam? She went out for a day of fun and not only spent zero money, she actually came out ahead.
Back home, when Qin Qing unlocked her phone and opened her chat history with Xu Yiran, her finger unconsciously rubbed the screen.
[H. Yiran: I'm from Guangdong, what's wrong?]
Seeing this message, Qin Qing didn't reply. In her heart, there was a sense of "so it was truly as I thought."
Or perhaps a sense of peace, as if a question she had wanted to know the answer to for so long suddenly had one.