I Won Over My Best Friend’s Idol - Chapter 6

At home, Kong Yinmeng was the definition of a couch potato. Her daily routine consisted entirely of eating and sleeping. She had even tried to help her mom wash the dishes, only to be shooed out of the kitchen for “getting in the way.”

Time flew, and before she knew it, it was the next day. As she was preparing to head out, Mama Kong launched into another round of lectures, and Yinmeng listened dutifully to every word.

The trunk of her car was crammed so full of things it barely latched, and the back seats hadn’t been spared either. Anyone passing by would think she had just ransacked her own family home.

“Mom, seriously, that’s enough,” Yinmeng protested. “It’s only a thirty-minute drive back to my place. You’re making it look like I’m moving away for a year.”

Her family lived in a small town just half an hour outside Hong City. Honestly, if she wasn’t so terrified of being constantly nagged, she could easily commute back and forth every single day.

“How am I supposed to know when you’ll be back next?” Mama Kong shot back. “You’re wilder than a boy, wild child. You’re getting older, Yinmeng…it’s time to settle down. Find a stable desk job so you don’t starve. What’s so great about being out there day in and day out, exposed to the elements?”

While Mama Kong hadn’t explicitly forbidden her from being a travel blogger, she still firmly believed that a comfortable office job was much better suited for a young woman.

“Right, Mom, got it. I’ll definitely think about it. I’m taking off now, go on back inside!” Yinmeng promised smoothly. No matter what her mother threw at her, her strategy was always the same: agree first, figure it out later. At least for now, she was absolutely head-over-heels in love with her current career.

Once she made it back to her cozy little apartment, she had to make multiple trips just to haul all the bags up. Thank goodness her constant traveling kept her in great physical shape; otherwise, she would have collapsed from exhaustion halfway through.

It took her a full hour just to get everything organized. From fresh food to daily necessities, her mom had covered absolutely every base. Yinmeng truly had no idea when her mother had managed to secretly hoard all of this.

Plumping herself down onto the sofa, Yinmeng pulled out her phone and opened Weibo. She scrolled through her direct messages and casually accepted a quick sponsored post. Having negotiated the price and ad copy with the client with practiced ease, she collected her deposit, finalized the post, and hit publish.

With the fresh funds safely in her account, she began booking her flight. She had already double-checked the terms of her travel voucher…it covered food and lodging, but transit costs were entirely on her.

The suitcase she always took on her trips stayed permanently packed with her travel gear, so all she needed to do was pick out her clothes.

Taking another break a short while later, she logged back into Weibo. Because the buzz from a few days ago hadn’t died down yet, the comment section under her new ad was popping off way more than expected. She casually replied to ten comments in a row, dropping hints that she was about to jet off again.

Yinmeng never revealed her exact destination before a trip. She always waited until after she had already left the location to post on Weibo, purely for her own personal safety.

With the sudden boom of the livestreaming industry, several agencies had recently reached out, hoping to sign her. They wanted her to manage her Weibo while simultaneously launching a livestreaming channel, but she turned them all down.

She hated the idea of being recognized while she was out exploring; it completely ruined the joy of traveling. To put it simply, she viewed travel blogging more as a passionate hobby…she just happened to get lucky enough to make good money from it.

With her flight booked for the following day, she gave Lu Fangcao a call, inviting her out for dinner that evening. After all, Fangcao was the one who had gifted her the travel voucher, so a proper thank-you dinner was definitely in order.

What Yinmeng didn’t expect, however, was that while Lu Fangcao did show up, she brought a tag-along with her. Yinmeng could only count her blessings that she hadn’t hosted this dinner at home.

“Hi there, I’m Xi Pingzhi. You can just call me Xiao Xi or Xiao Zhi,” the young man introduced himself flawlessly, showing zero stage fright as he offered a warm, polite smile.

Yinmeng shot a knowing look at Lu Fangcao before sliding the menu into the hands of the pretty boy. “Take a look and see what you like. Tonight’s my treat…consider it a welcome dinner for a new friend.”

The number of boyfriends Lu Fangcao had actually brought around to meet Yinmeng could be counted on one hand. Most of them usually got dumped before they ever got the chance. This particular “puppy-dog” type clearly had some skills if he had managed to secure an introduction so early on.

“Don’t you need to rest for a few more days? You’re usually not in such a rush to leave again. Did something happen back home?” Lu Fangcao asked, finally tearing a fraction of her attention away from her boyfriend.

It was no secret to their inner circle that Yinmeng used to have a massive crush on Hao Bin, and Fangcao knew all about it.

“I ran into him when I went home,” Yinmeng sighed. “Can you believe that after all these years, the first time he actually approaches me is to borrow money? Is he out of his mind, or does he think I am? He actually had the nerve to say I make money too easily!”

Sure, compared to traditional jobs, her income might look like easy money from the outside, but she worked her tail off for every penny. How on earth was that easy?

“Him? Who… oh, wait, you mean Hao Bin? Did a donkey kick him in the head? He used to actively avoid you like the plague, and now he’s suddenly striking up conversations?!”

Yinmeng raised her purse, playfully threatening to swat her friend. “Hey, watch your phrasing! What do you mean ‘like the plague’? He just didn’t know how to handle my feelings back then.”

“Oh, please. Keep living in your little fantasy land,” Fangcao scoffed. “The guy just doesn’t like you, period, but you insist on romanticizing him. Honestly, you’re so weird. There are so many great guys chasing you, yet you’re utterly fixated on the one man who couldn’t care less. Talk about a glutton for punishment.”

“Zip it and just order the food!” Yinmeng grumbled. Matters of the heart were never that black and white. Hao Bin had never given her a real chance, leaving her without even the right to properly curse him out.

Xi Pingzhi proved to be excellent at reading the room. He didn’t utter a single word while the two women bickered, waiting until they finished before handing the menu back to Lu Fangcao. He then watched with an amused smile as she unhesitantly selected several of the most expensive dishes.

“Fangcao, are you trying to bankrupt me? Are we really going to finish all of this?” Yinmeng gasped. Talk about a true best friend…this spread was going to cost at least two thousand yuan, and Fangcao hadn’t held back in the slightest.

Lu Fangcao pulled out her phone to open a mobile game, looking completely unbothered. “Oh, come on, look who’s talking. I have you on ‘Close Friends’ notifications on Weibo, okay? I know that little ad you just posted made you a pretty penny. And a portion of that traffic came from my guy here, so I’m just eating back our share. Even if we can’t finish, we can always pack it to go. Right, Xiao Zhi?”

Xi Pingzhi didn’t explicitly agree or disagree. He simply offered a sweet, compliant smile, letting her know he was listening without actually taking sides.

Yep, a total fox disguised as a puppy, Yinmeng thought to herself. She had a strong feeling that her notoriously fickle best friend had finally met her match this time.

After a perfectly smooth flight, Yinmeng dragged her luggage into her hotel. Once she checked in and dropped off her things, she grabbed her phone and room card to head out and scout the local food scene.

By the time she returned that evening, she found a massive crowd blockading the hotel entrance. The sea of long-lens cameras and flashing brackets was honestly terrifying. Lingering near the edge of the crowd, she caught snatches of conversation…turns out, the mob was a mix of passionate fans and ruthless paparazzi, all waiting to ambush Zheng Yi.

Yinmeng rolled her eyes to the heavens. Seriously, what kind of twisted fate is this?!

Granted, being dragged onto the trending charts with Zheng Yi last time had helped her score a massive payday from her ad sponsors, but she was absolutely not looking for a repeat performance.

Thinking fast, she reached into her bag and pulled out the gift she had bought for Lu Fangcao…a traditional Japanese fox mask. Slipping it over her face, she began squeezing her way through the thinnest part of the crowd.

A security guard tried to block her path, but she flashed her hotel room card, loudly declaring that she was a registered guest who was only wearing the mask to avoid being caught on the media’s cameras.

Inside, seeing the hotel staff desperately holding back the barrier, the assistant, Xiao Huang, immediately dialed Zheng Yi’s number. “Brother Yi, you need to come down right now! This hotel is completely compromised. We need to evacuate immediately and find a new place to stay.”

Their itinerary had leaked somehow. Not only had it attracted obsessive sasaeng stalkers, but a whole pack of paparazzi had caught wind of it too. Standard protocol dictated a swift relocation before things got even more out of hand.

Zheng Yi packed his personal belongings back into his suitcase with lightning speed. Zipping it shut, he wheeled his luggage out of the room, stepping into the hallway just as Kong Yinmeng successfully made it up the stairs and slipped off her mask.

An agonizing silence fell over the corridor. To be specific, the agonizing awkwardness was entirely on Yinmeng’s end. From the sheer, icy look in his eyes, she could practically read his mind: You’re a stalker who followed me here.

“Look, I don’t even know how to explain this cosmic joke of a coincidence,” Yinmeng began defensively. “But I swear to you, I had zero clue you were in this city, let alone staying at this exact hotel. This is purely accidental. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Zheng Yi didn’t say a word. Instead, he pulled out his phone right in front of her face and called Xiao Huang, telling him to come up and handle a situation.

“Hey! Big star! I am not a stalker,” she snapped, losing her patience. “You are completely free to leave right now, I won’t stand in your way. Look, this is my room card, I’m just trying to go inside…hey! Give that back! Why did you snatch my room card?! Zheng Yi, are you out of your mind? There are millions of women out there, not every single one of us is obsessed with you! Hand it over!”

She wasn’t short by any means, but Zheng Yi was exceptionally tall. He held the room card directly over his head, and no matter how high she jumped, her fingers couldn’t reach it.

After a few futile hops, she realized she was making a fool of herself. She planted her feet, took a deep breath, and tried a different tactic. “Okay. Look, I get that you have security concerns, I really do. But we are both consenting adults here. Can you please be rational? If I were actually a crazed fan, and you were standing right in front of me like this, shouldn’t I be throwing myself at you? But from the moment I got up here, I haven’t even touched a thread of your clothes. Doesn’t that prove my innocence? I’ve said my piece. Can you please just give me my card back? I’m exhausted, and I want to sleep!”

“Throwing yourself at me…” Zheng Yi murmured. Suddenly, he leaned forward, narrowing the distance between them. They were standing so close that if either of them had bad breath, the other would have known instantly. Fortunately, as a celebrity, he had the habit of wearing a face mask, sparing them from ultimate embarrassment. “And how exactly were you planning on throwing yourself at me?”

“Ugh! I now have excellent reason to believe you don’t speak human language. If—” Before she could finish her sentence, Xiao Huang let out a dramatic warrior cry and came sprinting down the hall, throwing himself like a human shield right in front of Zheng Yi.

“Miss, please step back and cease your actions immediately!” Xiao Huang barked, firing off his words like a well-rehearsed script. “It is completely understandable that you admire Zheng Yi given his status as one of the top stars in the country. However, you must maintain appropriate boundaries! Do not cross legal lines. If he suffers any form of harm…whether physical or psychological…you won’t be able to pay for the damages!”

The speech flowed out of him flawlessly, without a single pause for breath, giving no one else a chance to interrupt.

Yinmeng was so thoroughly infuriated that a hysterical laugh actually escaped her lips. She was completely speechless. Did I forget to check my horoscope before leaving the house today?

“Xiao Huang, step inside with me,” Zheng Yi commanded quietly, cutting through the tension. He turned his gaze back to her. “Miss Kong, please wait out here for a moment. Your room card will be returned to you shortly.”

He practically dragged the fiercely defensive assistant into his room, shutting the door behind them. It took about ten minutes before the door clicked open, and the two men stepped back out into the hallway.

Support