Chapter 36: The So-Called Meetup (1/2)

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.

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.