Chapter 3: First Night & Morning Together
Through their conversation, the initial strangeness between Tang Yu and Hu Tao gradually faded away. And the affection level between them had risen to 1%.
"So once our affection reaches 100%, you can buy someone else over, right?" Hu Tao propped her cheek on her hand, looking up at Tang Yu as she spoke.
Tang Yu nodded. "Yes."
Hu Tao gave a sneaky little grin, her eyes sparkling. "If you do a few more nice things for me, our affection will definitely rise super fast."
Tang Yu didn't confirm or deny it. He just lowered his head and looked at her without saying anything.
"Then… how about you help me open a funeral parlor?"
"What? A funeral parlor?"
Tang Yu felt like the whole world collapsed when he heard that. He shook his head vigorously. "In this world, opening a shop is super expensive."
"Do you know how much it costs to open a store in Shanghai?"
"No idea." Hu Tao rolled her eyes casually. "No matter how much it costs, I'll earn it back for you."
"But I don't have any money right now!" Tang Yu spread his hands helplessly. "I'm just a diaosi."
Hu Tao had only just arrived in this world and didn't quite understand the term. She blinked her big eyes curiously. "What's a diaosi?"
"Diaosi means a poor loser," Tang Yu said with an eye roll, giving his personal definition.
"Oh!" Hu Tao pouted. Seeing Tang Yu's troubled expression, she said, "Fine then. I'll stream with you. Once we earn enough money, you can open a funeral parlor for me."
Hearing that, Tang Yu thought for just a moment before nodding.
"Deal."
"We'll start streaming to make money tomorrow."
He agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Right now, the most important thing was making money. Without money, life in this society was way too hard.
And now that he had the real Hu Tao with him, making money suddenly became much easier.
After all, who doesn't love 2D waifus?
Having Hu Tao appear on stream—going viral was only a matter of time.
He checked the time—it was already past midnight.
Tang Yu glanced around his small rental apartment, feeling a bit awkward. He said to Hu Tao, "There's only one bed here, so we…"
Before he could finish, Hu Tao raised her hand to interrupt him. She spoke softly, "This is your home. I can't let you sleep on the floor. How about you take the bed, and I'll sleep on the ground?"
Tang Yu frowned and looked at the floor. "But the floor is too cold."
"Then what do we do?" Hu Tao's small face flushed red, and she turned her head away.
If not the floor… did that mean sleeping together?
"How about I sleep on the floor?" Tang Yu said quietly.
"No way."
Hu Tao rejected it without hesitation. For some reason, she just didn't want Tang Yu to suffer.
The two stared at each other.
In the end, Tang Yu spoke up. "How about we sleep together, but put a pillow in the middle as a barrier?"
"Sleep together?" Hu Tao lowered her head, her small hands nervously twisting the hem of her clothes.
She was very nervous.
"No." After about two and a half minutes, Hu Tao took a deep breath and looked up at Tang Yu with determination in her eyes.
Even though she really didn't want Tang Yu to suffer, for the sake of passing censorship… she had no choice but to let him sleep on the floor.
"Alright then." Tang Yu nodded, a flash of disappointment crossing his face.
Since Hu Tao wasn't willing, that was that! He naturally wouldn't force her, even though he really wanted to sleep with Hu Tao.
So, Tang Yu grabbed a random blanket, spread it on the floor, and lay down.
Hu Tao lay on the bed, her back facing Tang Yu, curled up into a ball, lost in thought.
Tang Yu pulled out his phone to check the affection meter.
50%.
When he saw the huge jump, he was shocked.
Looks like acting like a gentleman really worked—Hu Tao's affection skyrocketed to 50% just like that?
Way too fast!
From now on, I'll be even more of a gentleman. That way the affection will rise even quicker.
Tang Yu thought to himself.
The night passed without dreams.
The next day!
The moment sunlight poured through the window into the room, he felt like he had been set free.
Sleeping on the floor left his whole body aching—back pain, waist pain, everything hurt.
Just as he was about to get up, Hu Tao, still asleep, suddenly rolled over.
She almost fell off the bed. Tang Yu reacted quickly and caught her with his hands and feet.
At that instant, a unique girlish fragrance drifted into his nose.
And just like that, he was instantly wide awake.
Sleeping Hu Tao had a face as delicate and pure as flawless jade. It made people want to reach out and pinch it!
Tang Yu carefully placed her back on the bed.
At that moment, Hu Tao stirred. She groggily opened her eyes.
When she saw Tang Yu, she froze for a second. Then…
Whoosh!
Her face instantly turned bright red.
She could feel that Tang Yu's gaze on her was… a little off.
Embarrassed to death, she quickly turned her back to him.
Seeing this, Tang Yu let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly ran to the bathroom to wash up.
Only then did Hu Tao turn back around. She stared at the bathroom door, her face flushed and her expression complicated.
"Is he… is he a bad guy?" Hu Tao murmured to herself.
Ten minutes later, Tang Yu came out of the bathroom looking refreshed and saintly. His aura was like that of a wise sage.
"Wait here for a bit. I'll go buy you some toiletries and breakfast." With that, Tang Yu opened the door and went downstairs.
A minute later, he returned carrying a big bag of stuff: fried dough sticks, soy milk, and some basic toiletries.
After washing up, Hu Tao started eating the youtiao (fried dough sticks).
"Mmm, this tastes really good." Hu Tao gave a thumbs-up, full approval for the youtiao.
Seeing her like this, Tang Yu smiled warmly.
Once we make money, I'll take you to eat even better stuff, he thought to himself.
After breakfast, Tang Yu checked the affection meter on his phone.
It was now at 55%.
It wouldn't take long before he and Hu Tao reached 100% affection.
According to Hu Tao's request, the next character he should buy would be Qiqi.
When that time came, Hu Tao might finally fulfill her wish of burying Qiqi in this world.
The thought was kind of amusing!
But that was for later. Right now, the priority was streaming and making money.
{Today: No unboxing. Inviting Director Hu Tao to dance live. Missing it is your loss.}
Nothing too flashy in the title. Tang Yu wrote it straightforwardly, then sat side by side with Hu Tao in front of the computer and officially started the stream.
The moment it went live, Tang Yu was dumbfounded.
Because the live room was instantly flooded with endless danmaku (barrage comments).
This had never happened before.
After all, his total followers were only around a thousand. Real active ones? Maybe a hundred or two at best.
Normally, when he went live, having four or five people watching right away was already a blessing.
But now these comments… what the hell was going on?
Was the system glitching?