Chapter 447: Housekeeping Guarantee Letter.jpg

Time: February 14, 2003, 10:17 AM.

Location: Sun Yanzi's home.

Incident: Related to an internet water army narrative-stirring incident.

Persons involved: Zhou Yi; Sun Yanzi, Sun Yanzi's alt accounts ×3.

Tools used: Computer, network cable, hands, brain…

"…"

Sun Yanzi, caught red-handed, sat obediently on the living room sofa with her hands behind her back, her gaze fixed on the man scribbling furiously directly opposite her. The corners of her eyes twitched involuntarily several times—

"Why are you writing this like a closing statement you're about to submit to the court? Did I break the law? Which statute says what I did is illegal?"

"Not convinced? Later I'll get in touch with the teacher and ask him to put in a word with those bigwigs who can participate in revising laws and issuing legal precedents."

Zhou Yi, who had just finished writing an unequal treaty, lifted his eyes to glance at the woman and said in a sarcastic tone: "Respected Miss Sun Yanzi, you wouldn't want the fact that you run alt accounts to be exposed, would you?"

Sun Yanzi, who vaguely sensed something was off about that remark but couldn't pinpoint exactly what, instinctively shrank her neck. Then, as if realizing that doing so was a sign of guilt, she couldn't help but lift her chin and stretch her neck back up, tilting her head to one side and refusing to look at him, putting on an appearance of having a clear conscience.

Three seconds later, Sun Yanzi turned her head back and asked tentatively: "How did you know it was me?"

"Nonsense. Isn't that exactly what I said?"

Zhou Yi wore a look that said 'what an idiot': "Unless you think Cheng Hao would also be bored enough to go online and stir up narratives, or that Xiao Yaxuan and the others, over in Taiwan, would be so free and bored as to specifically go to Tianya to stir up narratives."

"…"

Sun Yanzi, upon hearing this, immediately widened her eyes: "You never said that online while running your alt account surfing the internet?"

"No."

Damn!

Miscalculated!

Never expecting him to have such a trick up his sleeve, Sun Yanzi, in the face of ironclad facts, could only helplessly lower her proud head in the end, tearfully pressing her fingerprint onto a not-very-equal equality treaty—

"Domestic Helper Sun Yanzi," serialized grandly for one random month before June 2003!

"Why do you make me clean but not let me cook?"

"I'd like to live a few more years. Don't you have any self-awareness about the level of your dark cuisine?"

Zhou Yi disdainfully curled his lip. Sun Yanzi, who felt her cooking skills had been insulted, could not tolerate this. She immediately slapped the sofa and leapt up—

Then Zhou Yi pressed her back down with one hand.

"Ah, I can't live anymore, can't live anymore, can't live anymore…"

Her long, slender legs instinctively clamped the doll's body as she fell sideways onto the sofa, swaying back and forth. At this moment, Sun Yanzi was just like a child who hadn't gotten the maltose candy she was making a fuss for, whimpering nonstop: "Black-hearted boss, unscrupulous capitalist, streetlamp ornament…"

The loose collar of her pajamas slid down considerably from her shoulders as she rolled back and forth, revealing the woman's delicate, eye-catching collarbones.

Zhou Yi instinctively stole a few more glances.

Without the wear and tear of three years, seven albums, two concert tours, and countless commercial engagements, Sun Yanzi, who had been following in his footsteps and using his reputation as a banner, was noticeably plumper compared to early 2000. Her entire temperament and state still maintained the elfin mischief peculiar to this age.

She didn't look tired at all; instead, she was constantly on the move all day like a magical deer darting about the Elven Forest for no reason, brimming with energy.

She still had the square shoulders that many women aspiring to become models yearn for.

The only pity was that she was too well-off.

"What are you looking at?"

"What a pity." Zhou Yi clicked his tongue and shook his head repeatedly.

"?"

Sun Yanzi, who slowly typed out a question mark, followed the man's gaze and glanced down. Then, as if suddenly embarrassed into anger, she hurled the big bear doll she was clutching in her arms at him, sprang up from the sofa with a carp-kick leap as miraculous as a dance miracle, and charged at Zhou Yi with claws and teeth bared.

As everyone knows, as Singapore's famous running diva, setting aside so-called dancing, her running posture had indeed been honed to perfection in various MVs. Although she hadn't managed to practice dance steps, her stamina had been pulled up.

She considered herself very tenacious—she could keep this up with Zhou Yi for an entire day.

Unfortunately, after three minutes she was groaning on the floor, forced to admit the great demon king's formidable strength, and left behind a regretful plea for mercy—

"Ahahaha I'm wrong, I'm wrong, stop tickling me stop tickling me, it tickles it tickles it tickles hahaha…"

Sun Yanzi had never felt that laughing could be something that made her eyes well up.

Thanks to the fact that her body had indeed gotten a bit plumper, the sensitivity of the ticklish flesh at her waist had increased exponentially compared to the past—

This directly caused her, while laughing, to keep kicking her legs vigorously back and forth on the living room carpet, scurrying about like a nimble rabbit, trying to escape the controlling range of the man behind her. The final result was that her whole body was like a pair of compasses, her feet constantly drawing circles on the floor. Even when she was exhausted and panting, she couldn't struggle up a single step, and the tears from laughing had already reached the corners of her eyes without her having time to wipe them away.

"You good? You scrawny dog?"

After several minutes of struggling, Zhou Yi, as the victor, used a toothpick to spear fruit from the coffee table fruit plate and send it into his mouth. He plopped down on the carpet, chewing the apple in his mouth while turning his head to look at Sun Yanzi beside him, whose hair was a complete mess and who looked utterly played out. He teased mockingly: "Want me to take you to work out?"

Sun Yanzi, who was clearly worn out from laughing, spread her not-badly-proportioned legs, raised her arms and rested them on the sofa cushion, and tilted her head back, almost ready to puff out a wisp of soul-leaving white smoke from her mouth—her short hair, which had grown a bit longer, was so messy it slightly covered her eyes, giving her quite a few points of disheveled beauty.

"That's an unfair victory."

After a long while, Sun Yanzi finally came back to her senses. Her right hand rubbed her stomach, which from laughing earlier felt somewhat cramped: "Once you go to America tomorrow, I'll find time to tattle to your uncle and auntie that you bullied me."

Back in the day, when her dad and Zhou Yi's dad were fishing and shrimp-fishing in Taiwan, they had still forged a friendship.

"Times have changed. My dad can't boss me around anymore now either."

Zhou Yi, who didn't care in the slightest, waved that guarantee letter, read it over once more, and with satisfaction folded it neatly and stuffed it into his pocket.

Seeing this, the corners of Sun Yanzi's mouth immediately curled into an unyielding arc. As her brows curved, she smiled into two crescents with extremely strong infectious power, causing Zhou Yi to raise his eyebrows in surprise: "What are you smiling about?"

"For the first half of the year, you'll basically be out running promotions,."

Sun Yanzi, looking smug, raised her chin: "Fooled, didn't I? Is my identity as a top student from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore just for show?"

The Grammys start at the end of the month, and right after that she still has to connect with the English album's promotion. She has to stay in America for at least a month, or, and also has to go to other European and American countries to run promotions.

In this back and forth, the so-called guarantee letter's time period will have long passed. Can it still be of any use?

The advantage is mine!

Zhou Yi smiled without speaking.

"Oh, right."

While Zhou Yi's attention was drawn to a variety show promo playing on the living room TV, Sun Yanzi pushed herself up from the sofa with both hands, stumbled to her feet, walked over to the TV cabinet, bent down to open a drawer, took out a small wooden box, walked back, and tossed it into the man's lap—

The latter opened it to find a string of walnut-colored prayer beads, with a small wooden tag carved with... a deity image tied to the beads.

"May the old gods protect you."

A very standard Teochew phrase slipped out.

Sun Yanzi, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, rested her right forearm on her bent right knee, flicked her messy bangs aside with her left hand, puckered her lips and blew upward, exuding the bossy aura of a big sister who's got your back: "I used to carry this whenever I took exams at school; it always helped me pass, and I even brought home quite a few certificates."

Zhou Yi, holding it and examining it closely, rubbed the wooden beads: "Is that so."

"Of course."

Seeing Zhou Yi's expression, Sun Yanzi reached up and slapped him on the back, then gave the man looking at her a wink, raised her thumb toward him, and grinned with bared teeth: "So, don't worry; the old gods will protect you."

Sun Yanzi's grandmother was from Chaoshan. Under her grandmother's influence, the whole family not only spoke Teochew at home but also preserved many traditional customs from the Chaoshan region.

(End of this chapter)