That morning, Yi Xing, who had climbed out of bed, quickly washed up, stuffed the clothes he had taken off into his suitcase, and, pulling it behind him, left the hotel.
He hailed a taxi on the side of the road and returned to his home in Xing City, where he began washing the dirty clothes inside the suitcase.
As he was washing, he was distracted by his phone, which was lying nearby.
Once the thought of focusing on one task popped into his head, various factors would always appear to interfere.
(Just like someone typing, with a phone next to them, playing with it after a few dozen words, then continuing to write, off and on.)
He wiped his hands with a tissue and looked at the year-end stage recaps from various TV stations on a certain platform, which happened to make up for the performances he had missed.
Most of the content talked about trending celebrities, and he found it uninteresting, so he exited.
He clicked on Wei Bo, wanting to see what his dear fans had said on his post.
As soon as he opened his homepage and saw his follower count, he rubbed his eyes, suspecting he had misread, perhaps seeing a '2' instead of a '1'.
He opened his eyes again, and the first digit was still '2'.
He was so excited he almost jumped up.
He thought that to achieve this goal, it would at least require a new drama or variety show to air, but he reached it with just this one stage performance.
Indeed, exposure was necessary for follower growth.
Now that he had over two million followers, he had a legitimate reason to go home next time—to fulfill the bet.
But the sooner he went back, the better, because he didn't know how long this traffic could be maintained.
What if it reverted to its original state in a few days?
Then he turned his head and looked at the clothes soaking in the sink.
Yi Xing was a bit conflicted: should he finish washing the clothes before going back, or take them back for the maid to wash?
Undecided, he took a coin from his wallet.
He decided to let fate make the decision for him: heads, take them back to wash; tails, wash them here.
He flicked it up with force, and as the coin spun in the air, he already had an answer in his heart.
He hoped it would land on heads, so he could save some trouble.
But don't forget, a certain person had bad luck; any game involving probability always veered in a negative direction.
It was the same this time; the coin landed on the ground, bounced a few times, and ultimately landed tails up.
Yi Xing bent down, picked up the coin from the ground, washed it in his palm with water, and spoke like an old father giving advice to his son.
“Listen to me, this time we'll get heads.
They won once just now; it's best two out of three, so we still have a chance.”
He instructed the coin in his hand and, full of anticipation, tossed it into the air again.
He watched it spin continuously on the floor, softly muttering, “Tails, tails, tails.”
Knowing his luck was bad, he decided to do the opposite.
This time, he said he wanted tails up, so it should be heads, right?
He could deceive his mouth but not his heart; it was still tails up.
“Alright, it seems even heaven wants me to finish washing clothes here before I leave.”
He shook his head helplessly and walked to the sink resignedly.
Although he was very unwilling in his heart, he had proposed it himself, so he had to accept the result, even if he cried.
He first scrubbed the clothes by hand to remove oil stains, rinsed off all the soap bubbles with water, then threw them into the washing machine to spin dry, and then took them out and put them in a bag.
Since he had decided to return to the Magic City, how could he leave them here to dry?
He didn't want to come back here next time and find several stiff clothes hanging.
Next, he turned and walked into the room, putting all the clothes from the wardrobe into another empty suitcase.
After checking and finding nothing left behind, he pushed the suitcases into the living room and sat on the sofa, waiting for his takeout to arrive.
During the wait, Yi Xing wasn't idle; he checked for available flight tickets.
Goodness, they were all sold out, so he immediately switched to high-speed rail.
There were really a lot of people traveling for New Year's Day, and with the previous two days being a weekend, it made for a perfect three-day break.
There were many trains from Xing City to Magic City, but very few tickets.
Several train numbers required waiting in line, and as he scrolled down, most of the trains required waiting.
Some trips were too long, lasting over ten hours, which he couldn't endure.
After searching for a long time, he finally found a connecting train and immediately bought a ticket.
The train was at 3 PM, the journey would be nearly five hours, arriving in Magic City at 8 PM.
After securing his ticket home, Yi Xing stretched, lay on the sofa, and imagined his father's expression when he learned that he had fulfilled the bet in just half a year.
It would definitely be very amusing.
He wished a portal would appear right now to take him home.
He was in the middle of scripting their meeting when he was interrupted by the sudden ringing of his phone.
He answered, and the voice of the delivery driver came from the other end.
“Hello, please open the door, your takeout has arrived.”
“Okay, I'm coming.”
He put on his shoes, walked to the door, opened it, took his takeout from the person in front of him, and said, “Thank you!”
“You're welcome.”
Yi Xing closed the door and returned to the sofa, placing the takeout on the table.
He opened the packaging and began to eat heartily.
He hadn't eaten anything since waking up, and his stomach had been rumbling for a long time.
He finished everything on the table in no time.
He subconsciously rubbed his stomach; the feeling of hunger had disappeared, and he felt full of energy again.
He checked the time; there was still some time before 3 PM, so he picked up his phone, and with the familiar sound of “Timi,” he became engrossed in the game.
After a busy period, his game rank reached Platinum.
He temporarily put away his phone; it was time to head to the station.
He pushed a suitcase with each hand and got into the car he had called online.
The traffic was relatively smooth along the way, without any particularly bad congestion.
Ten minutes before departure, Yi Xing appeared in the queue at the ticket gate, wearing a mask and standing at the very end.
His hairstyle and face were too easily recognizable, so to avoid unnecessary trouble, he learned to wear a mask and even put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses without lenses, purely for decoration.
At this moment, the station broadcast announced that the train he was about to board had begun boarding, asking passengers to queue in order.
He followed the crowd to find his carriage, and in a moment, the train stopped in front of him.
Luckily, he bought a business class ticket, which had enough space for his suitcases; otherwise, in second class, he wouldn't know where to put them.
He sat in his seat, took off his glasses, picked up the blanket next to him, covered himself, and played on his phone.
“Yi Xing: I'm also planning to return to Magic City today.”
“Ju Jingyi: Didn't you tell me yesterday you weren't going back?”
Ju Jingyi, who had flown back to Magic City that morning, was a bit confused.
This man was truly fickle; last night, he said he wasn't going back, so why had he changed his mind today?
“Yi Xing: I can't help it; plans can't keep up with changes.
Something came up temporarily that I need to go back and handle.”
“Ju Jingyi: Is it a very tricky matter? Do you need my help?”
“Yi Xing: I can handle it myself.
If I really can't solve it, I'll ask you for help, and you can't refuse me then.”
“Ju Jingyi: Absolutely not.”
“Yi Xing: Do you have a public performance tonight?”
“Ju Jingyi: No, our team has a day off today; other teams do.”
It was actually quite nice to have someone to chat with constantly; at least Yi Xing felt it added a lot of fun to him.
They chatted back and forth like this, and time passed exceptionally quickly.
It was soon dinnertime, and the conversation ended with Ju Jingyi saying, “Xiaosi is calling me to eat; talk later.”
(Xiaosi is Lin Shiyi / Lin Siyi from before.)