Can't Hide My Love for You - Chapter 102

The first episode of Heart was playing on the phone screen.

Cheng Yixin remembered that on the third day of filming, she had work and had left the dormitory immediately after recording to rush to her next job. Consequently, she didn’t know that the girls in the dorm had eaten dinner together after she left.

It started with someone boiling noodles in the kitchen; another person saw this and joined in, and a third person suggested buying groceries to cook a proper meal themselves. Thus, when Chi Yi appeared in the footage, she was naturally invited to eat with them. The girls were frantic in the kitchen, clearly not used to cooking, so Chi Yi simply took the spatula and became the head chef.

As the four sat around the table eating Chi Yi’s cooking and chatting, Cheng Yixin felt something was a bit off. She nudged Chi Yi’s arm. “Have you noticed? The way Yi’er looks at Hannah is a bit strange.”

“Not really,” Chi Yi replied. “Don’t be too sensitive. Aren’t there plenty of people online shipping Yi’er and the doctor? Their date atmosphere was pretty good, too.”

“Is that so? Maybe I’m just overthinking it.” Cheng Yixin waved her hand. “Aya, there are five guests in a dating show; it’s impossible for four of them to be gay.”

The production team had only agreed on a “Bad Ending” (BE) script; as for which CP would eventually emerge, no one knew—it was even possible that none would form. Although only the first episode had aired, they had already recorded several in reality. Cheng Yixin had basically dated all five male guests; after the New Year, the next recording might change the gameplay, but the details were still unknown.

After finishing the show, Cheng Yixin put down her phone and fell into a hazy sleep while hugging Chi Yi. The winter sunlight shone through the window, making everything feel warm and cozy—perfect for sleeping.

Cheng Yixin slept until evening. Outside the window, the sun was almost setting, leaving just a sliver of the moon. Chi Yi was no longer beside her; she touched the spot next to her and found it cold, meaning Chi Yi had been up for quite a while.

Just as she was about to message Chi Yi to ask where she was, she vaguely heard voices downstairs. Looking out the window, she saw a large open space in the courtyard covered with finished New Year couplets. It seemed Baby Chi Yi had done a great job following through with the idea of letting her parents set up a stall to sell them. Father Cheng had followed along to copy the “Fortune” (Fu) character and had finally moved past his “dog-scratch” handwriting.

“Dad, you still dare to write?” Cheng Yixin teased as she came out of the house.

“Why wouldn’t I? My writing is much better now.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Chi Yi nodded supportively. “Uncle’s progress is incredibly fast.”

You’re just humoring him.

All the red paper bought during the day had been used up. Father Cheng gathered the dry couplets and said, “Your mom went to buy groceries. Dinner will be ready in two hours. If you’re bored, you can wander around the village; just come back on time.”

“Alright!” Cheng Yixin winked at Chi Yi. “I want milk tea; let’s go buy some.”

For the sake of a cup of milk tea, the two drove to a commercial plaza five kilometers away. Whether they actually drank it was secondary; the main goal was to have some “world for two” time. To avoid being recognized, both wore masks, which actually made them look a bit conspicuous among the crowd.

“They actually opened an arcade here.”

“Want to go in and play?”

Cheng Yixin’s last memory of an arcade was the game consoles from her childhood. Back then, they weren’t dedicated arcade shops like now but were usually just a few machines placed in a specific section of a supermarket. Chi Yi, on the other hand, had never been to one at all.

The two were complete novices. They exchanged ten tokens at the front desk and entered. They couldn’t understand the rules of the nearest machines, so they walked further in to the fighting games. Those familiar characters brought Cheng Yixin back twenty years.

“Eh, why isn’t it moving?” Cheng Yixin inserted one token, then another, but the screen still showed the standby interface.

“Is it broken?” Chi Yi asked, puzzled.

Just as they were about to find a staff member, someone sitting at the next machine saw their confusion and said, “First time here? The machines here require 3 tokens at once.”

“Oh, oh, thank you.”

After inserting one more token, the characters on the screen moved, entering the character selection screen. “You play; pick a character.” Cheng Yixin let Chi Yi sit down to experience a bit of childhood fun. She watched as Chi Yi chose a hulking character with a red headband.

“Why did you pick him?”

“He looks like he can fight. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing, I’m just a bit surprised. When I was a kid, I often chose this character too. There were some combos, but I’ve forgotten them; I don’t know if they’re still there.”

The game began. Chi Yi controlled the big guy, but since it was her first time, she was clumsy, missing several hits and getting KO’d by the opponent’s combo. A man watching nearby couldn’t stand it anymore and taught her how to use skills more easily and how to perform combos. In the end, she played a 1-to-2 match; she’d played three rounds and found it quite interesting, so she inserted more tokens for a new round.

“Not bad, you learn fast. The updated version is a bit harder to play,” the man next to them comforted.

Cheng Yixin asked him which machines in the arcade were more fun, and the man recommended a few, saving them from looking for them one by one. As they were talking, the man’s girlfriend returned from the restroom. “I’m ready, let’s go eat.” She linked her arm with his and asked, “Taking the chance while I’m in the restroom to hit on girls behind my back?”

“No, no,” Cheng Yixin hurriedly explained for the man. “We don’t know each other; we just spoke a few words to ask which machines are fun.”

“I was just kidding,” the girlfriend laughed. “If you want to play, I recommend that motorcycle one. You can lean left and right—it’s very fun, just expensive: 8 tokens a turn.”

“Alright, we’ll head over in a bit.”

The girlfriend nodded and was about to pull her boyfriend away when she looked down and saw the variety show playing on his screen. She said, “Your voice sounds very familiar. Have you been on this show?”

Cheng Yixin glanced over; the man was watching Heart. She nodded.

“Oh, oh, oh! This is my first time meeting a celebrity. Is that Chi Yi? I have a deep impression of her. Are you here to record a show?”

“No,” Cheng Yixin said. “We’re back for the New Year.”

The girlfriend was a complete “passerby”—besides knowing they were celebrities, she wasn’t familiar with them at all. After a few more words, she left with her boyfriend to eat. While eating, she didn’t forget to post her experience of running into celebrities online.

The little couple in the arcade had a great time and bought 50 more tokens. Near the exit were several empty dancing machines, with 3D avatars dancing to upbeat music on the screens. Cheng Yixin saw a double-player machine and said on a whim, “Shall we try the dancing machine?”

“Can you dance?” Chi Yi maintained a skeptical attitude.

“It’s just stepping up, down, left, and right; anyone with feet can play.”

Chi Yi remembered these words when Cheng Yixin nearly tripped herself at the start; Chi Yi had to catch her from behind to stabilize her. The dancing machine area was deserted, so they were a bit more uninhibited, thinking no one was watching.

“I asked if you could dance, and now you’ve fallen.”

“Tch.” Cheng Yixin stuck out her tongue, though it was hidden by her mask. “I didn’t actually fall, because you’re here.”

Chi Yi curled her index finger and tapped her forehead. “It’s about time; we should go home for dinner.”

Cheng Yixin felt her pockets. “What about these leftover tokens?” Returning them would likely incur a fee. Chi Yi replied, “We’ll come next time.”

“Okay.” Cheng Yixin found them heavy in her pockets, so she pulled open Chi Yi’s coat pocket and poured a handful of tokens inside.

The two walked out of the arcade hand-in-hand. When they got home, Mother Cheng was just about to call them for dinner—the timing was perfect.

The village aunties and uncles loved to drop by when they were idle. Cheng Yixin didn’t want to spend time fake-smiling with guests, so she pulled Chi Yi out to walk the dog and take her around the village. The temperature was lower at night; the village paths were lined with trees, and the air smelled like fresh grass.

“The air here is quite good.” Chi Yi took a few deep breaths. The village was quiet, free from the exhaust pollution of the city center; it felt much fresher.

“We moved to the city center before, but we found the square dancing downstairs too noisy, so we moved back.”

Dahuang, on a leash, walked ahead with his ears pricked and tail wagging, observing the surroundings like a majestic guardian. After walking a short distance, Cheng Yixin was approached by two passing aunties. Seeing her back, they teased that no matter how much money she made, she should come back more to accompany her parents. Likely, by the time she got home, the news of the celebrity returning to the village would have spread to the end of the street.

In the middle of the village was a square, next to a pond finished just last year. At night, the light strips on the pond railings lit up, looking quite beautiful. On the other side of the pond was a green belt also finished this year. Cheng Yixin hadn’t been there yet, but Dahuang was already familiar with it, leading the way like a guide.

Perhaps because of the cold, the elderly didn’t want to move around, and the young people hadn’t fully returned to the village yet; there wasn’t a single person in sight in the green belt. Cheng Yixin unclipped the leash to let Dahuang frolic in the grass, and the two sat on a nearby bench. The bench was made of stone; the icy winter temperature seeped through their pants.

“So cold, so cold.” Cheng Yixin shivered and took out her phone. No matter how cold it was, she couldn’t forget to play with her phone. As soon as she turned it on, she saw that Li Wenjing had sent her a message twenty minutes ago.

It was a screenshot from an app focused on life-sharing. The title: I saw someone in my hometown who looks just like Cheng Yixin; did I see wrong?

Without looking for the original post, Cheng Yixin knew the blogger was talking about her because the static image captured her and Chi Yi at the dancing machine—exactly when she stumbled and Chi Yi caught her by the waist. Guiltily, Cheng Yixin sent a meme of a panda holding a bowl.

Li Wenjing was likely exhausted. she sent another screenshot. It was another blogger—the girlfriend of the man from the arcade—sharing her encounter with celebrities and mentioning they were back for the New Year. Netizens were asking if Cheng Yixin personally said she brought Chi Yi back for the New Year and what their relationship was. The blogger didn’t know their relationship and simply replied “Yes,” ignoring other questions.

Cheng Yixin sent a meme of a panda dropping its bowl. Li Wenjing only sent three words: Be careful.

[Cheng Yixin]: Is this okay?

[Li Wenjing]: You’re already on a dating show together. Public relations will lead the public opinion toward ‘best friends.’

[Cheng Yixin]: But people are shipping me and Chi Yi!

[Li Wenjing]: So what? Can you two even choose each other?

No, I feel like I can still make a comeback against the wind.

Dahuang finished “watering the flowers,” shook his short fur, barked at them twice, and hopped around.

“He wants to play.” Cheng Yixin handed a frisbee to Chi Yi. “Play with him for a bit.”

The warm yellow streetlight shone on Chi Yi, stretching her shadow long. Chi Yi threw the frisbee, and Dahuang quickly caught it and ran back.

“Good boy.” Chi Yi stroked Dahuang’s head, her face clearly showing more tenderness. “I’ll throw another one for you.”

Cheng Yixin found a good angle, took a photo of the heartwarming scene of the person and the dog, and posted it on Weibo. Fans knew Cheng Yixin’s parents had a big yellow dog and that she would update photos of him whenever she went home, so long-time fans were familiar with Dahuang.

@MaoRongRongFlyFlyFly: Wait, the person taking a photo with Dahuang is Chi Yi, which means Chi Yi is at Yixin’s house right now? Rounded up, that’s meeting the parents! Can I understand it this way? Are they really dating?

@YixinYiyiSZD: Ahhhh I’ve caught the real thing again! The couple is shoving dog food in my face! I’m going to furiously write a fanfic tonight!

@mggrr: Good! I’m shipping it! Who would have thought they’d already meet the parents and spend the Spring Festival together!!

@MinErxx: Is the comments section for real? I feel like they’re just very ordinary friends; why does it become ‘dating’ as soon as you guys talk…

@XianQueQiuQianSuoZZ: Everyone calm down, ship rationally. First, they went on a dating show together, so it’s impossible for them to be a CP. Secondly, don’t you think there are too many articles lately saying they’re dating? It’s clearly to hype up ‘Heart’; it might even be a trending topic bought by the production team. So, Yixin is intentionally posting stuff with Chi Yi—it’s normal promotion for the show, hinting for us to watch and vote for her and her favorite male guest. I’m playing 4D chess on this one. [Cool]

To her surprise, there were actually people agreeing with this comment and starting to guess Cheng Yixin’s favorite male guest.

…Ridiculous.

Great analysis; don’t analyze ever again.

Cheng Yixin complained in her heart. To her surprise, her hand followed her brain. By the time she snapped out of it, she had already replied to @XianQueQiuQianSuoZZ.

Looking closely—she hadn’t switched to her burner account!

@ChengYixin: Great analysis; don’t analyze ever again. // Reply @XianQueQiuQianSuoZZ: Everyone calm down, ship rationally. First, they went on a dating show together, so it’s impossible for them to be a CP. Secondly, don’t you think there are too many articles lately saying they’re dating…

Well, isn’t this awkward.