My Straight Girlfriend with Skin Hunger Syndrome - Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Qi Hongyue watched Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan walk hand-in-hand toward her, feeling utterly indifferent.

The Project Team members, meanwhile, found their constant closeness perfectly natural.

Ying Yuan let go of all her worries and, in this idyllic haven under the bright sun, reveled in the rare moments of ease and joy.

The first game was tug-of-war.

Teams were formed on a voluntary basis. As a result, all the team members rushed to the left side, leaving Qi Hongyue standing alone on the right.

Staring at the thick rope in front of her, Qi Hongyue remained silent.

Everyone burst into laughter. Since Qi Hongyue never showed any signs of vulnerability, their laughter carried no guilt.

Ying Yuan stepped forward. “Maybe we should…”

Yi Shanshan pulled her back. “No way! I’m staying on this side.”

Ying Yuan: “……”

Yi Shanshan: “Do you think the Team Leader will be upset about this?”

Ying Yuan: “……No.”

Yi Shanshan: “Exactly! Everyone knows she won’t mind, so it’s fine.”

Ying Yuan: “For fairness…”

Yi Shanshan: “Who comes out to play for fairness? We’re here for fun!”

Someone overheard Yi Shanshan’s words and immediately joined in, shouting, “For fun!”

The slogan resonated instantly. The crowd on the left quickly gathered, picked up the thick rope, and lined up in a row, their faces beaming with radiant smiles. “For fun!!!” they roared in unison.

Ying Yuan realized they were right.

She completely abandoned Qi Hongyue and grabbed the rope herself.

Yi Shanshan remained on the sidelines, directing the others. “Hey, watch the center line! Don’t win before we even start—gotta save some face for the Team Leader.”

Qi Hongyue: “……”

Yi Shanshan: “Team Leader, Team Leader, grab the rope! Strive valiantly—it’s in adversity that miracles are forged!”

Qi Hongyue: “……”

Though speechless, Qi Hongyue picked up the rope, wrapped it around her hand, and gripped it tightly.

Yi Shanshan: “Look at our Team Leader’s stance—professional! Powerful! Focused! Unyielding!”

Yi Shanshan: “So, no more saving face for the Team Leader! Is that saving face? It’s an insult to her professional capabilities!”

“Exactly! An insult!”

“Insult her!”

“We won’t let her be insulted!”

“Forget it, charge!!!”

Yi Shanshan hadn’t even given the signal to start before the crowd, fired up with righteous indignation, began to pull with all their might.

What kind of effort does it take to have a whole group pull against just one person? No matter how strong Qi Hongyue usually was, she was still just an ordinary person.

In an instant, the rope’s center knot was yanked across the line. Qi Hongyue stumbled forward a few steps, the rope slipping from her grasp, barely managing to keep her balance.

Meanwhile, the victorious side collapsed into a tangled heap, bodies piled atop one another, all sprawled out on the ground.

The soft grass cushioned their fall, not even a twinge of pain.

Only the triumphant, unsporting cheers and uproarious laughter echoed across the field.

Nearby calves, startled by the commotion, scattered. Qi Hongyue watched the jubilant crowd, a wry smile tugging at her lips.

Ying Yuan lay buried beneath the pile, each attempt to stand met with someone tugging her back down. Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she laughed until her stomach ached.

Yi Shanshan came to her side, extending a hand. “Ying Yuan, the powerhouse who carried me during training and guaranteed our win, want Big Sister to pull you up?”

Ying Yuan’s audacious thoughts surged upward. She grabbed Yi Shanshan’s hand and, in the dazzling sunlight, yanked her over.

Yi Shanshan stumbled, falling onto Ying Yuan.

Their chests collided with a muffled thud.

Beautiful, vibrant eyes locked, cheeks flushed crimson—a breathtaking tableau.

“You’re hugging me…” Yi Shanshan whispered.

“It’s just a game, what’s the big deal?” Ying Yuan’s mind had drifted to an ethereal realm beyond all accountability. “Everyone’s hugging. It’s normal.”

“Mmm…” Yi Shanshan pressed herself even closer, burying her face in the crook of Ying Yuan’s neck and inhaling deeply.

The warm, moist fragrance bloomed like a flower rooted in the depths of her being.

Ying Yuan couldn’t help but let out a soft “hmm,” a low murmur that vanished into the noisy crowd, swallowed by the vast expanse of the world.

Having teased Qi Hongyue in the first round, everyone was jubilant.

The subsequent rounds were much more normal, with equal numbers of people on each side. Everyone put their heart and soul into it, celebrating victory with joy and accepting defeat with equal enthusiasm.

The second game was charades.

Two-person teams acted out words or phrases, and the team with the most correct guesses won, while the team with the fewest faced a penalty.

Yi Shanshan was absolutely perfect for this game. Her expressive physicality allowed her to effortlessly mimic any subject with uncanny precision. Meanwhile, Ying Yuan’s quick mind and exceptional information processing skills made them an unstoppable combination.

For simple nouns and verbs, Yi Shanshan would glance at the prompt, make a gesture or two, and Ying Yuan would immediately shout out the answer.

For complex idioms and abstract concepts, Yi Shanshan would shift her approach, conveying the meaning in simpler terms through her movements. And Ying Yuan, as always, understood her intentions with uncanny precision.

They breezed through the rounds, their score skyrocketing.

At first, the crowd cheered for their victories. But as their dominance became clear, the cheers faded, replaced by shocked, angry glares tinged with fear, jealousy, and resentment from their opponents.

As the number of answered questions approached thirty, someone couldn’t contain themselves any longer. They bounded up to Qi Hongyue, the question setter, and shouted, “Are they going to drain the entire question bank dry?”

Qi Hongyue, holding her phone, replied, “No, the questions can be generated indefinitely.”

“So they’re just going to keep showing off like this forever, without any limit?”

Yi Shanshan threw her arms wide and cried out, “We can keep going for three days and three nights straight!”

Their seamless teamwork and exceptional results had her practically vibrating with excitement.

Yi Shanshan’s eyes sparkled as she gazed at Ying Yuan. “Best partners ever! Star Wish Combo! Twinkle, twinkle, little star! We’ll grant every wish you make! Yay!”

Ying Yuan, though less flamboyant, couldn’t resist raising her hand with a smile and echoing, “Yay!”

Too arrogant.

Utterly, brazenly arrogant.

So arrogant, in fact, that it stirred public resentment.

The crowd swarmed around them, voices rising in a clamor.

“We need to set a limit! Any answers beyond that shouldn’t count!”

“They’re from the same hometown and so close! Born and raised in the same place—how can anyone match their teamwork?”

“Exactly! Hometown friends are practically twins from different parents. They’ve got a stacked buff!”

“Let’s just deduct half the points for the home team!”

“Hey, hey, hey, Team Leader, where did you get that program that generates the questions?”

Qi Hongyue: “Ying Yuan found it. She’s the one who arranged all the game planning.”

“Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!”

The crowd erupted in screams.

“Finally caught you red-handed! Isn’t this just stealing from the till?!”

“How dare the question-setter answer the questions! This is outrageous!”

“Deduct all their points! Deduct all their points!”

Ying Yuan: “……”

Ying Yuan flushed slightly, knowing she had indeed taken a shortcut, just as she had promised Yi Shanshan from the start. She was intimately familiar with the game’s mechanics and flow.

But she still felt compelled to explain: “It’s a big data model. The questions are randomly generated from the internet.”

The crowd shook their heads wildly, stubbornly refusing to listen. “I won’t listen! I won’t listen! I don’t trust a word programmers say!”

Ying Yuan: “……”

She now understood the helplessness Qi Hongyue had felt during that tug-of-war match.

Meanwhile, Qi Hongyue smiled, watching Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan, and drawled leisurely:

“Well, there’s no helping it. The will of the people speaks, and today is all about keeping everyone happy. Since you two made them unhappy, your scores are reset to zero.”

Ying Yuan: “……”

Yi Shanshan charged into the crowd, screaming, “Aaaah! I’m gonna slay you all! You bunch of rotten jerks! Aaaah!”

Chaos erupted once more.

When the game ended, Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan, the “super combo,” were declared dead last by popular vote, much to their utter dismay.

The crowd clamored for them to perform a skit. Ying Yuan felt awkward, unsure what to do.

For Yi Shanshan, this was a piece of cake. But for Ying Yuan, it was the most daunting challenge.

She was no good at singing or dancing, not even at telling jokes or tongue-twisters.

As she frowned in thought, Yi Shanshan sidled up, tugged on her arm, and whispered in her ear right in front of everyone.

“I have a brilliant idea…”

After hearing the plan, Ying Yuan’s face lit up. She nodded eagerly at Yi Shanshan. “Mm-hmm!”

With Yi Shanshan by her side, with Yi Shanshan coming up with the ideas, Ying Yuan felt like she had nothing left to worry about.

The two stood confidently before the crowd, center stage, bowing to acknowledge the audience.

“We’re going to perform a song and dance for you all,” Yi Shanshan announced. “I, Yi Shanshan, will sing.”

“And I, Ying Yuan, will dance.”

“Wow!!!” The crowd erupted in excitement, clapping enthusiastically.

“Shanshan’s singing is amazing! I’ve never heard her live before!”

“A professional-level performance! I’m so lucky! Turns out, you really do have to trick your teammates to get good fortune.”

“Ying Yuan can dance? My god! She’s so talented!”

“Camera’s ready! I’m recording this to watch again and again!”

“Music!” Yi Shanshan grinned, waving to Qi Hongyue.

Qi Hongyue, expressionless, pressed play.

The background music started—familiar and instantly recognizable.

The crowd below looked confused.

Then Yi Shanshan began to sing, her pronunciation impeccable, nearly broadcast-quality.

“Ninth set of national morning exercises, let’s begin! March in place, go!”

Ying Yuan moved, her posture straight, her movements precise and textbook perfect.

Yi Shanshan: “Stretching exercises, ready, begin! One, two, three, four…”

The crowd:

“?”

“???”

“???????”

Heads full of question marks turned into stunned, speechless silence.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at Yi Shanshan and Ying Yuan.

Yi Shanshan’s melodious announcer’s voice now carried a smug grin, reveling in her successful prank.

Meanwhile, Ying Yuan, amidst the vigorous rhythm of the radio exercise music, stretched out her hand to the crowd. “For everyone’s health and well-being, let’s all move together!”

“Damn it…” Murmurs began to ripple through the crowd.

“The trickster gets tricked in turn.”

“They’re treating their own classmates like Japanese enemies!”

“I’m disabled. I can’t do this. Unsubscribe.”

“I don’t know why, but jumping to radio exercises against this backdrop of blue skies, white clouds, green fields, and verdant mountains… it actually feels… kind of right?”

“It’s like we were always meant to do this here. Doing it here is like breathing fresh air and strengthening our bodies, isn’t it?”

“Big Sister, the altitude’s high here. Completing this is truly impressive.”

“Now you’ve got me itching to try it!”

Yi Shanshan naturally wouldn’t let eager students slip through her fingers.

Her instructions continued without pause as she waded into the crowd, giving a tug here, a kick there, herding them onto the stage like stubborn mules to join Ying Yuan.

But the people who climbed onto the stage didn’t have the thick skin of leaders like Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan. They blushed shyly at every movement, their bodies contorting into shrimp-like shapes, making for hilariously awkward entertainment.

The audience erupted in laughter. Yi Shanshan scanned the crowd for the loudest laughers, dragging them onstage without regard for fairness, acting purely on personal grudges.

Qi Hongyue turned her head away, refusing to watch the spectacle. But Yi Shanshan caught her sneaking a smile, and adding this fresh offense to old resentments, shoved Qi Hongyue into the crowd.

How utterly bizarre.

A group of young, vibrant female college students doing broadcast calisthenics on a high-altitude grassland.

It wasn’t just the distant tourists staring. Even the grazing cattle and sheep paused mid-chew to take a second look.

Before the routine was even halfway through, most of the participants were beet-red, either panting for breath or collapsed in fits of laughter.

Only two or three managed to complete the set. And surprisingly, the one who performed flawlessly from start to finish was none other than Ying Yuan.

For the final commands, Yi Shanshan stood directly in front of Ying Yuan.

Her gaze lingered on Ying Yuan’s body, scrutinizing her from head to toe with intense scrutiny. As she gave the commands, her voice softened, becoming gentle, barely a shout. It was as if she were whispering a secret only to Ying Yuan.

“…Three two three four, four two three four, halt~”

Ying Yuan obeyed instantly.

Yi Shanshan smiled with satisfaction.

Ying Yuan was equally delighted with their performance. She stepped forward and returned Yi Shanshan’s knowing smile.

Sunlight streamed between them, creating a narrow, golden-edged slit filled with warmth.

Yi Shanshan gazed at Ying Yuan, her long lashes fluttering, and suddenly said, “Ying Yuan, there’s something I really want to do right now.”

“Hmm? What is it?” Ying Yuan asked.

“Promise you won’t get mad first,” Yi Shanshan replied.

In this joyous moment, with her heart pounding with excitement, Ying Yuan felt nothing could dampen her spirits. Especially when the request came from Yi Shanshan herself.

“Okay,” Ying Yuan said. “I promise.”

“Then lean down,” Yi Shanshan instructed.

Ying Yuan tilted her head in confusion but complied.

As she bowed her head, Yi Shanshan’s palm gently rested on her crown, patting it lightly.

“Good girl,” Yi Shanshan cooed, her eyes crinkling with pure delight.