Chapter 51: I Want to See You Every Day

The fan meet-and-greet came to an end, and all kinds of data were tallied on the spot.

Just as Lin Xiyue had expected, she and Jinnian ranked at the very top in sales, with a total of over eighteen thousand signed photos sold.

Because the event limited purchases to one per person on-site, although some extremely enthusiastic fans managed to buy multiple copies by lining up several times, they were only a small minority, so it could roughly be assumed that more than eighteen thousand fans had come specifically to support them offline.

This number was absolutely astonishing. By the end, not only was Lin Xiyue unable to personally sign anything, even stamped signatures couldn’t keep up, and eventually even the stock of signed photos was completely sold out, forcing them to adopt a system of scanning QR codes for registration on the spot and mailing the photos later to appease the remaining fans.

Such a grand scene even left many of Lin Entertainment’s veteran employees feeling dazed, because this kind of situation had only occurred back when Lin Ziyu was still around.

By comparison, the booths of the other artists appeared somewhat deserted.

However, no one felt even the slightest bit of jealousy, because even a fool knew that the higher Miss Lin’s popularity rose, the stronger the company would become as well, and with President Xu’s nostalgic temperament, those artists who had stayed loyal all along would also get to enjoy some of the benefits.

Letting out a long breath, Lin Xiyue stood up and stretched, only to feel her head spin. Her steps staggered and she nearly fell, but luckily Xia Jinnian caught her in time.

“Ah—”

Hearing the other girl’s voice, Lin Xiyue subconsciously opened her mouth, and a piece of sweet chocolate was stuffed right in. Immediately after came Xia Jinnian’s slightly reproachful tone.

“What’s going on? You forgot about your hypoglycemia again, didn’t you?”

“Hehehe, the fans were just too enthusiastic, I couldn’t get away~”

With chocolate in her mouth, Lin Xiyue replied indistinctly.

She really had only hastily eaten a small bread roll at noon today, which was obviously not enough, but she still held out until the end, because the feeling of being liked, acknowledged, and adored by so many people was truly wonderful.

“Sigh, fine, you win~”

Xia Jinnian sighed and pulled another bar of chocolate out of her bag.

“I’ve got more. Want some?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

Lin Xiyue snatched the chocolate right away. This was from Jinnian—how could she possibly refuse it?

In fact, because of Lin Xiyue’s hypoglycemia, almost everyone around her carried chocolate or candy on them at all times, ready to “feed” her whenever needed. Xu Wei did this, Xia Jinnian did this, and Bai Lulu did as well.

Although it wasn’t entirely accurate, to a certain extent it did let Lin Xiyue see who truly cared about her.

“Alright, get ready to clock out on the spot. Aunt Xu is waiting for you at the entrance.”

Watching her best friend’s cheeks puff as she chewed, Xia Jinnian couldn’t help reaching out and pinching her face, only for Lin Xiyue to refuse to leave.

“Nope, I’m too dizzy to walk. I need Jinnian to help me to the car~”

“That serious?!”

Xia Jinnian was startled, because she had seen her best friend’s hypoglycemia episodes before, but usually it didn’t get to the point where she couldn’t walk at all.

“Mhm~”

Lin Xiyue nodded and blinked at the same time, though this little gesture went unnoticed by the worried Xia Jinnian.

At this point, Xia Jinnian had no choice but to half-support and half-hold Lin Xiyue as they left the convention center.

Along the way, Lin Xiyue deliberately walked very slowly, because she wanted to savor the feeling of leaning against Xia Jinnian’s embrace just a little longer.

This feeling was quite strange, because in her previous life, their roles should have been reversed. As a man, even at his most vulnerable moments, Young Master Lin would have felt embarrassed to cry in the arms of a girl like Xia Jinnian.

But now, she had a perfectly legitimate reason to cling to Xia Jinnian, and no longer had to worry about issues of identity.

Maybe becoming a girl wasn’t entirely a bad thing? From everything she had experienced so far, it even seemed like the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

Lost in these random thoughts, she was finally ushered into her mother’s car by Xia Jinnian, then waved goodbye.

“See you tomorrow—”

Before the car started, she stuck her head out of the window and shouted to Xia Jinnian.

Back when they were in high school, this had been how they parted as well. It seemed like nothing had ever changed.

Today she wanted to see you, tomorrow she still wanted to see you, and the day after that as well. Being with you never seemed to get old.

“What’s with you? You’re acting like some dramatic life-and-death farewell. You two girls are acting kind of strange.”

Xu Wei complained from the driver’s seat.

She hadn’t never been young, and she’d had close girlfriends too, but she’d never heard of best friends being this inseparable before.

“Ah, Mom, you wouldn’t get it. Stay out of young people’s business~”

Lin Xiyue coughed lightly and brushed it off with a random excuse, while Xu Wei curled her lips.

Fine then. Maybe times were different now, and girls these days were just generally more affectionate.

After returning home and briefly reviewing how things had gone at the fan meet-and-greet, Lin Xiyue went to bed early. Today was probably the most exhausting day she had had since starting work.

———————

“Tomorrow’s the college entrance exam. Are you nervous?”

Xia Jinnian, in a rare move, struck up a conversation with Lin Xi during a self-study class. As she grew closer to Lin Xi, her personality had actually changed a little.

She became less rigid, less harsh on herself, and no longer kept her nerves perpetually taut.

Although she often joked that being around bad influences corrupts you, and that she had been led astray by Young Master Lin, in truth she was quite grateful to Lin Xi.

“I guess I’m fine. I don’t really care either way.”

Lin Xi stretched lazily. Over these three years, if Xia Jinnian was a case of “getting tainted by ink,” then he probably counted as “turning red from vermilion.”

Whether actively or passively, his grades had steadily improved, from being at the very bottom at the start, to average, and now even showing faint signs of ranking near the top.

The relationship between the two of them also became somewhat ambiguous, mainly reflected in how they couldn’t help wanting to spend more time together.

During lunch breaks, they would unconsciously stay in the classroom a bit longer, and after evening self-study, they would always wait until even the old security guard came to turn off the lights and lock the doors before leaving.

On the surface, it was supposedly to study a bit more, but Lin Xi knew that, at least for him, that wasn’t the real reason.

He had no experience with romance, so he wasn’t quite sure whether this feeling should be called “liking.”

Later, when the exam results came out, Xia Jinnian’s outcome went without saying, and Lin Xi somehow barely scraped past the cutoff score for Guangnan University.

The day after the results were released, he asked Xia Jinnian out.

“Which school are you going to?”

“Guangnan University.”

“Then I’ll go there too.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know why, I just want to keep staying by your side.”

“Idiot. Even though we’ve been desk mates for three years, saying something like that to a girl might be mistaken for a confession.”

“Maybe it’s not a misunderstanding.”

“Eh?!”

Xia Jinnian froze, then realized her hand had been taken…

“I want to see you every day.”