Love Apartment: Yifei is my junior aunt

Chapter 704 Soaring Ratings

"Where is Lü Ziqiao? Where is he?"

"I'm going to kill him!!!"

The next morning, Zeng Xiaoxian, having searched the entire apartment without finding Ziqiao, stormed into the Sunny Day Bar.

He glared menacingly at Guan Gu, Nan Feng, You You, and Zhang Wei, and growled, "Where the hell is Lu Ziqiao?"

"Let him out here! I'm going to kill him!"

Youyou, clutching the script, leaned on Guan Gu's shoulder with a look of helplessness and exhaustion: "Ziqiao, it's normal for him to be away from the apartment sometimes. Who knows where he's off galloping around again?"

"Galloping on horseback? This time I'll make sure he can never ride a horse again!"

Zeng Xiaoxian, seething with anger, plopped down on the bar sofa.

"If you see him in the next couple of days, remember to let me know. I'm going to kill him!"

"oh."

Guan Gu and Youyou nodded perfunctorily.

Don't be fooled by how fierce Teacher Zeng sounds; his fighting ability is probably only good enough to chop melons and vegetables.

Want to kill Zi Qiao?

He could be killed if he's not careful!

"Never mind, I'll just order a drink first, I'm dying of thirst."

As Zeng Xiaoxian spoke, he turned his head and asked the waiter for a bottle of wine. Only then did he notice Nanfeng sitting in a wheelchair to the side.

"Holy crap!"

Zeng Xiaoxian was shocked by Nanfeng's miserable state: "Nanfeng, what happened to you? Did Yu Mo abuse you?"

"Do you think I'm the kind of coward who wouldn't fight back if a woman hits me?"

"Too."

Xiao Xian carefully examined Nan Feng and saw that he looked calm and the others around him didn't seem worried. He figured that his injuries only looked scary, but were actually not serious.

"So how did you get yourself into this state?"

Nanfeng sighed, not explaining much to Zeng Xiaoxian: "I don't want to recall it now."

"All right."

Xiao Xian shrugged, then couldn't help but chuckle, "Well, another one in a wheelchair."

"Now it seems that this Flying Star wheelchair is probably the most useful of Xiao Hei's inventions for us. Sooner or later, we'll have to worship it."

He looked at Zhang Wei with a sad expression and unfocused eyes, who was hugging a sofa cushion and looking up at the sky.

"Zhang Wei, what's wrong with you again?"

"Isn't today a workday? Don't you have to go to the law firm?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wei mechanically and slowly turned his head. For a moment, Xiao Xian seemed to hear the sound of rusting gears as his neck turned.

Zhang Wei said in a low voice, "I took the day off today. I'm going to the police station this afternoon to reissue my ID card."

"Oh?"

Xiaoxian asked in surprise, "Did you lose your ID card?"

Zhang Wei, his face expressionless, gave Zeng Xiaoxian a bitter smile: "I don't want to remember."

"hiss……"

Zeng Xiaoxian was so frightened by Zhang Wei's strange expression that his hair stood on end and he got goosebumps all over.

He turned to look at the south wind: "Did Zhang Wei miss out on the big prize again yesterday afternoon?"

Nanfeng nodded: "Not only did he not win the lottery, he also damaged his ID card."

"Considering the deductions from full attendance and performance bonuses for taking leave, I estimate I'll end up losing 250 yuan."

Xiao Xian grinned upon hearing this, and the resentment he felt for being tricked by Zi Qiao dissipated considerably because of Zhang Wei's misfortune.

"Zhang Wei, you really are a fool to lose 250 yuan by scratching a lottery ticket that costs nothing."

Zhang Wei's eye twitched, and he glared at Xiao Xian with annoyance: "So you lost five hundred yuan, isn't that just two idiots?"

"When did I ever lose five hundred...?"

Xiao Xian paused, remembering that he had bought the scratch-off lottery tickets that Zi Qiao and Zhang Wei had bought himself.

Now that I think about it, it seems I did lose 500.

So, that scratch-off ticket wasn't a misprint, but rather a warning to myself.

"See, I wasn't wrong."

Zhang Wei stared at Zeng Xiaoxian with his dead fish eyes: "Alright, I'm going to continue being sad now. Don't bother me unless it's absolutely necessary."

After he finished speaking, he resumed his previous melancholic expression of looking up at the sky.

As a good man, Xiaoxian couldn't help but worry when he saw Zhang Wei like this: "Is Zhang Wei alright?"

"fine."

Youyou leaned against Guan Gu's chest, flipping through the script, and said in a lifeless tone, "Zhang Wei was crying and shouting in his sleep last night that he never wanted to play scratch-off lottery tickets again."

Nanfeng added, "It's inevitable to be heartbroken, so we brought him to the bar for a drink."

"oh."

Xiao Xian nodded, then glanced at Youyou, who seemed even more suicidal than Zhang Wei: "What's wrong with you now?"

With a forced smile, Youyou said, "I don't want to remember."

"Don't want to remember?"

Xiao Xian immediately felt uncomfortable: "No, you're making me seem superfluous here, don't you understand?"

"Let me explain."

Guan Gu, who was standing nearby, explained, "Youyou's agent got her a role in a stage play, saying they wanted to see if acting in a stage play could cure Youyou's bad habit of always wanting to change the script."

Guan Gu pointed to Youyou, who was closing her eyes and slapping her head hard with the script: "The lines in this play are really too difficult to pronounce, and she's memorizing them right now."

"Are you sure Youyou is memorizing her lines?"

Xiaoxian exclaimed in horror, "I feel like she's trying to force the lines into my head!"

Youyou wailed, "Don't even mention memorizing the lines; as long as I can remember them, I'd even gouge a hole in my head and stuff the script inside!"

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Xiao Xian sighed, "Youyou, you're really pitiful."

"By the way, when is your play going on?"

"One o'clock in the afternoon on the 29th."

"oh."

Everyone nodded, and they continued drinking, memorizing scripts, and drinking lemonade.

Suddenly, Xiaoxian spoke up: "Isn't today the 29th?"

Upon hearing this, Youyou was taken aback. In an instant, the silence of the five people in the apartment seemed out of place with the surrounding liveliness.

"We're doomed!"

Youyou jumped up from the sofa in a flash. She took out her phone, which she had silenced to memorize her lines, and sure enough, it showed a bunch of missed calls.

"We're doomed! We're doomed!"

Yu-Yu clutched her phone and wailed, "Teacher Zeng, you weren't faking it when you said you were going to kill someone, but my manager is really going to kill me this time!"

"The performance starts at 1 p.m., I need to get there now to prepare!"

Youyou didn't even have time to say goodbye to everyone before running towards the bar's entrance without looking back.

"Honey, wait for me, I'll go with you!"

Guan Gu quickly grabbed Youyou's bag, which she had left at the bar, and rushed out after her.

Watching the two figures hastily depart, Zeng Xiaoxian rubbed his chin and said, "I was just about to ask, Youyou, why did you come to a bar to memorize your script?"

Nanfeng let out a helpless chuckle: "Otherwise, why do you think Youyou can't memorize it?"

"……Too."

Xiao Xian raised his glass and clinked it against Nan Feng's lemonade: "Good luck to her."

After they finished their drinks, Nanfeng blinked and asked, "Teacher Zeng, you've been asking so many questions just now, so what's going on between you and Ziqiao?"

Zeng Xiaoxian was taken aback upon hearing this. His lips twitched as he said, "I don't want to go back either..."

"Um?"

Nanfeng's gaze sharpened: "Stop joking around. Zhang Wei is just a speechless grief machine right now. If you don't want to remember, we'll just be sitting here drinking our sorrows away."

"That's true."

Zeng Xiaoxian pursed his lips and told Nanfeng everything about his bet with Ziqiao and what happened yesterday.

"Pretending to be an audience member and confessing his feelings to the host?"

Nanfeng sighed upon hearing this.

Just when he thought he knew Ziqiao well enough, this guy always managed to unexpectedly lower the bar in his mind.

"Hey, you three are all drinking? Can I join you?"

Speak of the devil, and he appears. Zi Qiao, whom Xiao Xian had been searching for for a long time without success, strolled over slowly, carrying a wine bottle.

"Lu! Zi! Qiao!"

Zeng Xiaoxian's eyes turned red at the sight of his enemy. He stood up abruptly and lunged at Ziqiao viciously.

"Eh."

Ziqiao had already spotted Zeng Xiaoxian from a great distance; how could he not be on guard at all?

"Teacher Zeng, calm down! Calm down!"

He led Zeng Xiaoxian around the bar sofa, reassuring him, "This is a bar. Losing your composure here could damage your image as a public figure."

"I have no image left to maintain!"

Zeng Xiaoxian said angrily, "Do you know how much you embarrassed me yesterday? All the calls I received in the middle of the night were from people asking me gossip and laughing at me!"

Ziqiao looked puzzled: "It's a good thing that someone likes you, how could it be embarrassing?"

"But you're a fucking man!!!"

Zeng Xiaoxian's roar immediately attracted the attention of all the busybodies in the bar. They all turned their heads to look, their eyes filled with curiosity and gossip.

Nanfeng turned her wheelchair around and helped explain, "Don't misunderstand, they're rehearsing a play."

"Tch~~~"

A chorus of disdainful snorts rippled through the crowd, and some sharp-eyed observers noticed that one of the two men was Lu Ziqiao, the playboy.

To be fair, Ziqiao's credibility in this regard is comparable to that of Duan Zhengchun of Dali. Everyone confirmed in the shortest amount of time that there would definitely be no plot twists that would please them.

So the busybodies all turned their attention away.

Ziqiao sighed at Zeng Xiaoxian, "Teacher Zeng, you're such an old-fashioned person, so conservative. What's wrong with men liking you? As long as you're straight, you can't be forced to be gay, can you?"

"But you've ruined my reputation and my show's reputation!"

"I swear to God."

Ziqiao retorted, "When did I tarnish your or your show's reputation? Were you disciplined by your superiors, or was your show criticized for having distorted values?"

Xiao Xian's voice lowered slightly upon hearing this: "...No, not at all."

Although male-male relationships don't align with the station's values, if the station could punish a host and a program because of a passionate gay listener's confession, then all hosts would be out of a job.

"That's right."

Ziqiao chuckled: "Don't worry, I'm the most reliable person."

"Cough cough cough."

Nanfeng reminded them, "Keep your voices down, aren't you two afraid of being found out?"

"Yes, yes, yes."

Ziqiao smiled and said, "Teacher Zeng, why don't we sit down and talk?"

Xiaoxian snorted, but was also worried that if others found out about this, it would become a farce he had directed and acted in himself.

He took a few steps back and plopped back down in his original spot.

Seeing this, Ziqiao smiled and sat down next to Zhang Wei: "Teacher Zeng, don't just remember my bad points and forget my good ones."

"My method may be unethical, but tell me, did the listenership increase or not?"

Xiao Xian rolled her eyes at Zi Qiao: "How would I know if the ratings went up or not last night?"

"You can call Lisa, she'll definitely know."

Ziqiao held up three fingers and swore, "I guarantee you, the ratings skyrocketed last night."

"If not, I'll work like a slave for you this month and do whatever you want to me to make up for your loss."

"That's more like human speech."

Xiao Xian nodded in satisfaction at first, then realized, "Lu Ziqiao, you bastard! There are only twenty-nine days in this month!"

Ziqiao blinked: "So, are you going to make this call or not?"

Xiaoxian snorted and then dialed Lisa's number.

"Lisa~~~"

Whenever Nanfeng and Ziqiao heard Xiaoxian's fawning cries, they would feel nauseous and tremble all over. Even Zhang Wei, who was in the midst of grief, shuddered, his face filled with disgust.

"Zeng Xiaoxian? I was just about to call you."

Lisa, being straightforward, said directly, "I know about what happened during last night's live stream."

"Let me tell you, Zeng Xiaoxian, this matter is extremely serious!"

"Boss, please listen to me..."

Xiaoxian glared at Ziqiao, then lowered his head and said to Lisa with a wronged expression, "This has nothing to do with me, I..."

Even if it's not your fault, you still broke the record.

"Breaking, breaking the record?"

"Yes," Lisa said excitedly. "Last night's ratings and listener activity were the highest you've had in all these years, and I estimate that tonight's initial ratings will at least double."

"Zeng Xiaoxian, seize this opportunity, you are the foundation of tomorrow..."

"Pah, rising stars!"

(End of this chapter)