Chapter 170 - The Nation’s Little Sister: Deeny!
Chapter 170: The Nation’s Little Sister: Deeny!
Su Yang grabbed the glass on the table and passed it to Deeny.
Deeny obediently poured a glass of water for him and then squatted down beside him. She smiled in a silly way and said, “Water, my boss.”
“Mm-hmm…” Su Yang took the cup for a sip though it was a little hotter than expected. He put the cup down and acted like some gangster boss. “So, tell me, what do you want?”
“Master, can you become Iron Man for me again?” Deeny said shyly.
Confused, Su Yang glanced at her. “Deeny, you should be a smart girl. Why are you playing dumb this time?”
Deeny was confused by his words. “What do you mean, Master?”
Su Yang took another sip of water. It was still a little hot, but as a ‘boss’, he must drink while he spoke. He said, “The Iron Man suit is just a…suit. You can wear it yourself and synthesize my voice into the video. Whether or not I’m inside the suit, it’s the same.”
She awkwardly cleared her throat to conceal the embarrassment. “I…actually already did that because you’re a little too expensive to hire as an actor.”
‘My, my, Deeny is really getting smarter.’
She then said, “It’s because…I’m going live the next time, and my fans said they want to see you and talk to you in person. Since I have to be there during the live show, I can’t be you.” She also revealed something that Su Yang did not know, “I actually tried to get Pool’s help and he originally agreed, but…”
Deeny did not finish, but Su Yang already knew what she was going to say: Pool had his own milk tea business to take care of, so he did not have the time to help her.
Other than Pool, Su Yang was the only one in the house who could wear the Iron Man suit, thus Deeny’s request.
‘I didn’t realize I’m such a rare commodity. If I don’t demand a higher price, I won’t be worthy of the name Scrooge McSu Yang!’
Su Yang showed a bright smile and said in a heavy tone, “Deeny…”
Before he even stated his mind, she lowered her head and nervously said, “I’ll transfer half of what I’ve made from Tiktok recently!”
‘Good grace, Deeny sure is getting smarter.’
A moment later, Su Yang received a transfer notification from WeChat. He had a quick glance at the notification and he almost spat the water out.
‘Get the hell out! 27K?!’ He was astonished. ‘Can a KOL[1] make this much money?! It’s only been half a month and Deeny has made more than 50K!?’
Shocked, he sized up Deeny carefully. ‘Good grief, I didn’t expect to live with a rich lass. For other people, having a mobile pet is a waste of money whereas my mobile pet can earn money to keep herself alive, subscribe to server services, and automatically pay the bills every month. I guess this is because she has a great master with a great business mindset!’
Su Yang patted Deeny’s head and said, “Well, since you are asking nicely, I’ll help you out again.”
Exalted, she cheered loudly and hugged his neck as she said like a pampered child, “Thank you, Master! You are the best!” Deeny hopped away after she was done flattering him.
Su Yang happily took another sip of water. ‘Finally, it’s not that hot anymore.’
For the rest of the day, he started to rehearse for the live stream under Deeny’s instructions.
Deeny obviously did not want her live stream to be boring, so she came up with a lot of skits like the daily life of Iron Man and his sister, the roasting banter between Iron Man and his sister, Iron Man flying with his sister, etc.
When he realized he had to rehearse for all those skits, he was completely defeated by Deeny’s talent.
Upon seeing all the skits that she came up with, he was fully impressed by her talents. ‘She’s not just a normal mobile pet! Where did she come up with all these? But…how long will it take to remember all these lines?’ He was also defeated by the number of lines that he had to remember.
Fortunately, Deeny was able to multitask. She spared a portion of her attention and read the lines to him so that he could follow what she said.
The live stream started on Sunday night. Maybe because Su Yang’s reputation had skyrocketed lately, the audience for the live stream reached an astonishing 600,000 unique viewers!
Su Yang was like a string puppet controlled by Deeny throughout the entire live stream.
To him, the outcome was horrible, but to the fans and Deeny, it was great. Maybe because it was Su Yang’s first time facing 600,000 fans online, so he was too nervous to even act naturally. Even though he switched on the air-con inside the suit, he still sweat nervously.
Thankfully, judging from Deeny’s reaction, the live stream probably went well. She was so thrilled after the live stream and tirelessly bragged about it all night, maybe because she made a lot of money from the live stream.
At the end of the exhausting day, Su Yang retained the last bit of his humanity and did not ask Deeny for a higher commission.
‘I really think Deeny is getting smarter and smarter, and she must have gotten a hold of my personality. She always baits me with the slightest benefit, and when I get hooked, she uses me to make even more money…
‘I guess I have to be more careful when I negotiate with her the next time! This girl is getting more and more cunning. I might not even realize it when she decides to sell me away one day. Geez, being a parent to the little monsters is really hard, even more so to a smart little monster…’
The next morning, Su Yang politely rejected Deeny’s ‘happy fried egg’ breakfast. He simply grabbed a bun from the refrigerator and then headed to campus.
When he arrived at the lecture hall, there were already a number of students there. Many of them were milling in groups of two to three, and judging from their expressions, they must be talking about something fun.
The students smiled and greeted Su Yang when they saw him while he replied with a polite smile.
Su Yang headed to the last row of the lecture hall as usual and took his phone out. However, before he could start tapping on his phone, he overheard his classmates’ conversation and the topic caught his attention.
“Did you guys see that Iron Man last night?”
“You are talking about Deeny’s brother, right? Yeah, I saw it! He’s so cool! Even his tone sounds as cool as ice!”
Su Yang was slightly surprised when he heard it. ‘Are they talking about me? I was cool? I think I was more nervous than cool last night. I was probably stiffer than an icicle!’
The other student said, “I didn’t watch the live stream last night, but I heard about it. That’s probably the hottest thing on the internet lately. Someone said it’s CGI, but someone said some rich guy spent a fortune to make it.”
“It’s definitely not CGI. It was a live stream last night, so how did they come up with such realistic CGI for a live stream?”
Then, another student said in a mysterious tone, “Do you think that Iron Man is the real deal? Like he came out from the movies?”
Before his words even subsided, his friends looked askance at him. “Come on, you must’ve been reading too many novels lately. The Iron Man that came out from the movies? Why don’t you say that Deeny is a spirit or a monster?”
Then, the topic started to stray further as they started to discuss monster appearances throughout the history of China. Young people nowadays were easily distracted by the hottest trend. They might focus on something for a long time, but they also forget about something in the blink of an eye.
In the modern era, where people could access information at the tip of their fingers, the explosive amount of information could barely adhere. Even news that shook the entire society would not last for a few days in people’s memories.
Su Yang’s classmates might not have noticed it, but as the one in the suit, he paid a little more attention than usual. He went onto Baidu and searched for related news. He realized that Deeny’s live stream attracted a lot of attention and discussion.
A lot of netizens were speculating Deeny’s brother might be a master engineer or a scientist. The Iron Man suit was not only skillfully crafted, but it could even fly.
On top of that, Deeny’s quirky personality and cute looks granted her the title of ‘The Nation’s Little Sister’.
Everyone was also speculating Deeny and Su Yang’s real identities.
[1] KOL : Key opinion leader. Also means influencers. China’s way of calling someone an influencer