My Two Dads

Yang Han went to the refrigerator to get some drinks and fruits for her classmates. The clock was almost pointing at twelve so she acquired some opinions before making a call to order takeout for seven people.

Once she was done with everything and returned, two of the five artists with over a million followers had been unlocked. They were from the daily life category. One was a young girl whose travel vlogs were known for being chic and interesting. The other one became famous due to the endless golden phrases said during his livestream where he sold agricultural products.

The production team invited these two was not simply for fun. Instead, it was to do preliminary publicity for their ‘internet + poverty alleviation’ plans. Liu Zuo Ye saw her hometown in the list and froze a little.

Shang Xue said, “This livestream is on quite a big scale. I thought it was just a small variety show at first.” He took the yogurt Yang Han handed over and said thanks.

Han Shi Yu continuously lost in the interactive game corner with the guests. The live comments continued to pray for the host’s annual bonus. After Han Shi Yu sighed about the adversity he faced today, he took them to visit the technical department.

The technical department took up an entire floor in the Ji Xun building.

The leisure and entertainment equipment here were complete, with a few cats being raised too. In the centre of the lobby was a huge square aquarium glass tank with all sorts of fishes in it. When the group walked past, many employees were leaning on the single, round couches, typing away on their keyboards. When they got tired, they would rest their eyes by looking at the fishes or play with the cats.

Live comments:

“The hell, this is an office?”

“Ji Xun’s technical staffs have always been treated really well. Even the branch offices are like this.”

“And here I was, thinking what we saw earlier were good enough. Seems like I knew too little.”

“Uwaah I’m going to work at Ji Xun after graduating—”

Han Shi Yu personally looked at the live comments to pick a question. One of the user IDs, “I’m not a programmer” asked, “Can you show us Starry…”

Someone behind them added, “I want to see the legend +1”

Han Shi Yu pretended to look over to the side and ask, “Is the legend here.”

In reality, Yang Mo had been around since earlier on. All of them knew but did not answer back to create an effect for the show. The secretary said, “It seems like he’s not in.”

“Heh,” Han Shi Yu smiled at the screen, “Not letting you guys see him.”

Live comments:

“Tsk.”

“Zhou Yi.”

“Tsk tsk.”

“Tsk tsk tsk.”

They met the third big artist for the day, Chen Chu 1 Studio – Han Shi Yu’s enemies in the autotuned remixes and video category.

The studio leader, Xie Chen Min, smiled kindly at Han Shi Yu, “Hello, President Han.”

Han Shi Yu pointed at his archenemy and said, “Who invited him.”

The crew following them burst into laughter. It was a funny gimmick for Han Shi Yu to meet the autotuned remixes editor in the first place. Seeing the hilarity that ensued, the live comments started spamming, “Warning: wage deduction incoming”.

As they moved another floor up, reaching the president’s office, the fourth artist had been waiting there for a long time already. He was the one who roamed between the game category, music category and daily life category, Mu Liu Su.

The corner of Liu Mu’s eyes curved up a little. He had only just taken off his cosplay outfit, the corners of his eyes still sparkled a little. He smiled, “Good day, President Han.”

As though someone stepped into the chicken coop, the live comments went wild with all sorts of screaming from mom fans and girlfriend fans. Six people in front of the TV could truly feel the explosion from the live comments, because among them, Xu Jia was spamming ‘ahhh’ while screaming it ‘live’ as well.

As the secretary watched the third and fourth guest interact with President Han, the dusty memories locked away in her mind seemed to have been lifted up a little. She muttered, a little nostalgically, “Still short of President Zhou, or we would have the F4 all together.”

The livestream had been going on for an hour now but the hype had not died down at all. It seemed the production team arranged for the main event to be shouldered by the last guest.

However, from the moment they recognized Yang Mo, the seven of them in front of the TV had guessed it was probably Yang Mo who would make an appearance at the end. As expected, they were right.

Towards the end of the show, the host said her closing remarks as the camera crew finished up on their end too. Han Shi Yu got into the business car but the livestream hadn’t been switched off yet. Netizens started to pick up on the fact that there was a guest missing, so they typed out their doubts in the comments.

“Actually, the fifth guest is not an artist with over a million followers, “Han Shi Yu said solemnly towards his phone, “He has been following us all along.”

The live comments were flooded with question marks and exclamation marks.

“???”

“What’s with the atmosphere. It’s like you’re about to announce a secret office romance.”

“It seems I can no longer hide my relationship with Han Very Fast.”

Han Shi Yu tilted the camera and Yang Mo who was beside him entered the frame. They sat right next to each other, but his hat and borrowed work permit card had been taken off. Though, his mask was still covering half his face.

Yang Mo stared at the camera, unmoving like a still picture.

Yang Mo: “……”

Han Shi Yu broke the silence and laughed, “Say something.”

Live comments:

“Hahahaha.’

“Hahaha I thought my internet lagged.”

“This gege’s eyes are so pretty.”

“Who is this.”

Han Shi Yu coughed a few times and introduced, “This is the legendary Starry that you guys have been demanding throughout the livestream.”

Yang Mo’s voice was muffled behind his mask. He spat out two words with no emotions attached to them, “Hello, everyone.”

All the ‘hahaha’ and teasing comments instantly stopped.

“What the fuck.”

“What the fuck?”

“What the fuck!”

Somehow, as Han Shi Yu uttered the name Starry, Yang Han who was watching through the TV screen felt her breathing stop for a second. Then, her heart started beating faster.

Due to the fact that all of them knew about Yang Mo and Han Shi Yu’s relationship, this scene instantly became clouded with a sour taste. Fang Jia felt like the takeout in his hands didn’t taste good anymore as he sighed, “It’s really popular these days to lure the dog in before killing it 2, huh.”

The live comments reached another new peak.

“Ahhhhhh—”

“Legend, please grant your blessings so my exams go well. My wish is to enter Shou Cheng University.”

“Han Very Fast is finally willing to show us the Starry he hid for so long.”

“You actually let our god stand next to you for nearly an hour?”

“Oh my god, I originally thought the CTO of Ji Xun would be a middle-aged uncle who was balding and chubby…I was wrong, let me kneel and kowtow in apology.”

“Willing to exchange my life to see our god take off his mask—”

“Sobs I want to see gege’s real appearance…”

Like a puppy defending its food, Han Shi Yu turned the camera back to himself and said, “Enough, enough. I’m only letting you guys take a look.”

Live comments:

“Tsk.”

“Tsk tsk.”

“Tsk tsk tsk.”

Yang Mo only took off his mask after the livestream was turned off.

He straightened his collar and said, “Return to the hotel and pack up. We’re heading directly to the airport.”

The livestream today caused a delay in their return by one whole week. The ones taking over from here onwards were the publicity and operation team.

Han Shi Yu seemed to be in a bright mood. After explaining some follow-up instructions to the secretary driving in front, he started humming while posting something on his personal Weibo account.

Yang Mo sent a message to Yang Han, letting her know they were heading home tonight. Han Shi Yu asked, “Are you tired?”

Yang Mo shook his head.

Then, he felt his body dip on one side.

Han Shi Yu wrapped an arm around Yang Mo’s waist, resting his chin on top of his shoulder and said, “Ge, I’m really happy today.”

Han Shi Yu was a really confident person and it became a natural instinct to express himself. Especially when it came to his favourite things, Han Shi Yu always felt like lifting them up, spin them around in 360 degrees for the whole world to see. However, not everyone liked letting him show them off like that. And Yang Mo was one of those people.

The main purpose of the livestream today was to promote their company’s culture. It was beneficial in increasing the hype if Yang Mo appeared, so Han Shi Yu took advantage of this reason and finally got a chance to show Yang Mo off in a subtle way.

Furthermore, leaving Yang Mo’s appearance to the very last segment as an easter egg was meant to attract the viewers into checking out their post-edited program later on.

Yang Mo let Han Shi Yu hug him as he stared at the scenery outside the car window. He couldn’t help but reach a hand out to pat his head, lightly saying, “Silly dog.”

 

Footnotes

 

Chen Chu is a mix of the names Xie [Chen] Min and Lin [Chu]. Can also mean the beginning of an early morning.This is a saying that means a couple ‘lured’ you in with a normal sight/incident, but then starts showing off how sweet they are. So you’re caught off guard, it’s too late when you realized what’s going on.