Only someone like Zhu Yao, who has absolutely no temper, could tolerate Yu Nan's antics.
Speaking of being good-natured... Lang Xi seemed to have discovered something new: "Your birthday is in early November, Zhu Yao. Are you a Scorpio? But you don't hold grudges."
Zhu Yao shrugged: "I don't really believe in astrology; I feel it's not universally applicable."
Lang Xi nodded in agreement: "If only you held a grudge, you could teach Yu Nan a lesson and stop her from being naughty."
Zhu Yao looked at Yu Nan with deep affection: "I'm too heartbroken to even think about cleaning up."
Yu Nan chuckled inwardly.
Before they got together, she also thought Zhu Yao was gentle, virtuous, and had no temper.
It's all an illusion!!
This person has a sweet exterior, but inside is a black sesame filling—a cunning and sweet girl.
After the lights are turned off at night, I not only play big games, but also play elaborate ones, always finding new ways to torment her—last night was no exception, as I whispered in her ear about my recent antics while firmly maintaining control.
I wanted to cry but couldn't.
At this moment, Zhu Yao maintained her outwardly gentle demeanor and waved to Yu Nan.
Lang Xi started flipping through the documents and didn't notice the two of them.
Yu Nan leaned closer, and Zhu Yao placed her hand on her waist, pulling her into her arms.
The next second, warm breath sprayed on Yu Nan's ear, and she heard Zhu Yao's low, husky voice, which only the two of them could hear: "You think your sister is too old?"
She could feel warm breath on her ear, and Yu Nan felt Zhu Yao's hand slip under the hem of her shirt, her fingers lightly circling below her navel.
It was early winter, and the heating in Binhai City was very strong, making the indoors very warm. Everyone was wearing only a single layer of clothing, but Yu Nan shivered as she walked around the circle.
That was Zhu Yao's code for her—to deal with her tonight.
Yu Nan grasped Zhu Yao's hand through her clothes, leaned her weight against Zhu Yao's chest, and wondered wildly—was the heating on too high?
Tomorrow, I'll ask the plumber to turn the heating down a bit, so I can wear more clothes indoors and won't be caught off guard by Zhu Yao's sneak attacks...
And she needs to get rid of Lang Xi as soon as possible.
Without Lang Xi's gossiping, Yu Nan wouldn't have said so much and made so many mistakes.
Tsk, it was clearly Lang Xi who started the conversation, asking if they were having birthdays soon, otherwise she wouldn't have been so cheeky as to say her sister was old! That's right, it's all Lang Xi's fault!
Lang Xi, who was completely unaware: I feel like I've been unfairly blamed.
"I'm telling you, you two are so clingy!"
After flipping through the documents, Lang Xi looked up and saw a scene of public displays of affection.
Yu Nan sat sprawled on top of him, like a landlord oppressing the people. Zhu Yao, on the other hand, sat properly in the chair, supporting Yu Nan's weight—her hand, which was under Yu Nan's clothes, was hidden by the table.
Lang Xi thought to herself: "I'm afraid Yu Nan is bullying me again, taking advantage of my easygoing nature." So she looked at Yu Nan with disdain, and just then her eyes met Yu Nan's angry glare. For a moment, their eyes locked, neither of them willing to back down.
What? Yu Nan thinks she's right to bully and harass women? And she's even glaring at her?
Not to be outdone, Yu Nan simply told him to leave: "Give me a legitimate reason for coming here, and I will forgive your great disrespect."
Lang Xi flicked the page she had just flipped through: "I was just delivering documents, and I saw you bullying Zhu Yao as soon as I turned the page out.
Yu Nan got angry: "What did you say? Who's bullying whom?"
Zhu Yao's hand was still drawing circles on her belly, the places where her fingertips touched felt itchy and tingly, so comfortable that she wanted to shiver.
Zhu Yao is bullying Yu Nan, taking advantage of the fact that she won't lose her composure in front of Lang Xi.
Lang Xi sneered: "You're practically paralyzed on him. Don't you have any bones of your own? You just have to be carried by someone else. It's only because Zhu Yao has a good temper."
Zhu Yao smiled, revealing dimples: "It's alright, I like holding Yu Nan like this."
Lang Xi's contemptuous gaze deepened, making Yu Nan want to explode and throw this third wheel outside.
Seemingly sensing Yu Nan's impatience, Lang Xi finally got down to business.
"Would you like to work for me?"
"Huh? Haven't we been working for your company's games all along?" Even though the projects we've been working on are our own...
"That's not what I meant. I meant going to the office, not working from home... After all, working from home makes communication inconvenient and less efficient."
Yu Nan began to wail: "It's impossible for me to work! I'll never work in my life!"
After graduating from university, Yu Nan went directly to Yu Hua's studio. That "working" experience made her extremely miserable—Yu Hua really exploited people.
Lang Xi crossed her arms and looked at Yu Nan leisurely: "Then tell me, what new technologies have emerged recently? How is your project progressing?"
"Uh...it's alright."
Yu Nan was so happy to be living with Zhu Yao after so long that she didn't want to go back home. When she wasn't sleeping, she would play games with Zhu Yao on live stream, and when she was sleeping... she would just stick close to her.
Even when she was working on a game, Zhu Yao would call her to bed at the appointed time, interrupting her game development—you know, development requires getting into the zone.
Zhu Yao finally stopped circling and slowly said, "We're doing fine working from home, let's take it slow."
Lang Xi was unaware of Yu Nan's physical condition, but she was well aware of it and naturally couldn't bear to see Yu Nan suffer even the slightest bit of fatigue.
It's secondary that the game can't be made; people must be okay.
Since Zhu Yao had spoken, Lang Xi felt it would be impolite to invite them to work there again: "How about this, you two can just contact me directly if you need anything. For example, you can contact me about the instrument Yu Nan plays, and I'll just pay for an outsourced one!"
There's absolutely no need to create your own background music! Yu Nan is a planner, not a musician.
"Can your outsourcing meet my requirements?"
Good music can be the soul of a game, such as "Bones" in Death Stranding and "for river" in To the Moon.
Background music (BGM) that fits the game's context is also crucial, such as the BGM in NieR: Automata and NieR: android.
Yu Nan is a person who pays attention to the senses, and is also someone who can exhaust herself to the point of being hospitalized due to perfectionism, so her requirements for music are naturally extremely high.
Lang Xi shrugged: "You can have them revise it over and over again."
“If you do it all by yourself, the workload is too great.”
Zhu Yao also started to persuade Yu Nan, saying that if there were outsourcing, Yu Nan would have a much easier time.
"Ah... I'll think about it. Let's outsource one piece of music first to test the waters."
Yu Nan took out a piece of paper, wrote a few words, and handed it to Lang Xi: "Here, this is my scene, and I need a background music."
Lang Xi glanced at it; the paper read: Aurora, wilderness, land covered in ice and snow.
Chapter 64 Zhu Qiong
After Lang Xi left, Zhu Yao asked casually, "Are you making a new scene?"
These days, she and Yu Nan are building the background music for the underground world in "Lost Garden," a dark, oppressive, and eerie world that has nothing to do with the aurora and wilderness that Yu Nan proposed.
Yu Nan stuck out her tongue: "It's a secret~"
Zhu Yao didn't think too much about it and wanted to continue adjusting the background music with Yu Nan.
Yu Nan refused her, saying, "Let's call it a day for now. I need to go to my study to continue playing games."
"Did Lang Xi just ask you about your game progress and make you anxious?"
Yu Nan entered the study, only showing half her head, and nodded: "It's all Lang Xi's fault!"
Immediately afterwards, the study door closed, leaving Zhu Yao outside.
Zhu Yao shook her head helplessly and went back inside to continue writing the script.
She had never entered Yu Nan's study; the two seemed to have reached a subtle consensus—Zhu Yao would not enter Yu Nan's study.
Zhu Yao thought to herself, "We should always have some private space."
Time flies, and before long, Yu Nan's birthday arrived. Zhu Yao gave her a record player and several sets of vinyl records.
"It's a rare collector's edition vinyl record from the NieR series! Aren't these supposed to be discontinued?!"
"And Death Stranding, Hollow Knight, The Legend of Zelda, and Fire Emblem!"
"Holy crap! They even have VA-11 Hall-A!"
Yu Nan set up a cabinet in the game room, put the exquisite record player on it, and carefully took out a vinyl record and put it on the cabinet as well.
Yu Nan couldn't hide the surprise on her face: "Sister, how did you come up with this!"
You should know that Lang Xi and the others just randomly picked games from the pre-sale to give to her, so there was no sense of surprise at all.
"It's just a vague feeling."
Yu Nan usually loves these original game tracks and listens to them repeatedly... Her strict requirements for background music show her love for music.
In addition, Zhu Yao also observed that Yu Nan had a bit of a collecting habit, with his cabinets filled with game-related merchandise—but no record player or vinyl records.
While the two of them were playing "Layers of Fear," Yu Nan's interest in the record player was also noticed by Zhu Yao.
Zhu Yao simply bought all the vinyl records of the games that Yu Nan had praised, and also carefully selected a retro record player.
Judging from Yu Nan's delighted expression, it seems her careful selection was successful.
Yu Nan started fiddling with her new favorite record player, while Zhu Yao rested her chin on her hand and watched Yu Nan.
The warm orange light inside the room blocked out the chill from outside, and the melodious vinyl record music filled the room. Time seemed to stand still, and everything was frozen in this moment...
This warm atmosphere lasted for several more days, until—the tranquility was broken.
"Is this good news or bad news?"
Yu Nan remained silent, simply holding Zhu Yao quietly from behind.
Zhu Yao touched Yu Nan's hand, drawing strength from its warmth. After a while, she finally spoke: "I have to go back to Qin Island."
Yu Nan quickly said, "Sister, I want to go too!"
Zhu Guorong has had an accident and is currently lying unconscious in the ICU. As his immediate family member, Zhu Yao has received a critical condition notice.
Whether she wanted to go or not, she had no choice but to go. Even though Zhu Yao hated that city and didn't want to face the past, she had no other option at this moment.
They rushed to Qingdao overnight and hurried to the hospital.
A middle-aged woman was wailing outside the ward, her voice deafening, yet not a single tear was shed.