The King's Avatar

The New Year’s Chen Guo wasn’t any different than her usual unrestrained self. Traditional or modern. Decoration or food. Useful or not. As long as she liked something, she wouldn’t haggle over the price and just hand over her money. Afterwards, she pointed towards Ye Xiu and gave her blessings with a big smile, saying “Happy New Years” or “May you be happy and prosperous”. Then, she stuffed her bags into Ye Xiu’s hands.

Chen Guo clasped her hands behind her back, walking forward high and mightily. Hearing Ye Xiu huffing and puffing behind her, she was certain that she had bought a good amount.

“This, this and this one too. How are you selling these, sir?” Chen Guo decided that she would buy a bit more. She arrived at yet another vendor’s booth and without even looking clearly at what items were being sold, she pointed to a few that caught her eye and asked. While she asked, she turned her head around in delight to look behind her.

But…… there was no one there! Ye Xiu, who had been behind her the entire time, had disappeared. When she had paid for the goods just before, Chen Guo still remembered that Ye Xiu was behind her.

Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. There weren’t many people who waited until this day to buy New Year goods, though there weren’t too few people either. Chen Guo stood on her tiptoes to look around, but wasn’t able to find any trace of Ye Xiu. She could only carry the goods she had just bought by herself and search by backtracking.

But after just a few steps, she choked in anger. Ye Xiu had pushed the New Year goods that had just been bought to one side and was sitting on a folding stool, which came from who knew where, sitting and smoking leisurely. The purchased goods that had been pushed to one side looked kind of like he had set up a small vendor booth.

Ye Xiu’s eyes weren’t bad. He quickly found Chen Guo and waved warmly at her.

Chen Guo stomped her way over with a dark expression on her face, but she didn’t know what to say. Seeing the pile on the ground, Chen Guo realized that she really had bought just a tad too much. Telling him that he couldn’t take a rest was a bit mean.

“Is that enough?” Ye Xiu said modestly. All of this was more than enough to last five Spring Festivals. Just duilian alone, she liked this one and that one. In the end, she had bought a total of seven. Ye Xiu calculated. There was Happy Internet Cafe’s main entrance, the restroom, the door leading to his, Chen Guo’s, and Tang Rou’s rooms, the two doors to the two bedrooms, his small storage room, plus the restroom. There were a total of seven doors, so it was the perfect number. It was hard to say if Chen Guo had actually thought of this though……

“Is it too heavy?” Chen Guo asked.

“Obviously.” Ye Xiu wasn’t Tang Rou and conceded. He wasn’t going to carry them all stubbornly.

“Okay, let’s go back then!” Chen Guo said, while picking up a few of the bags.

“Finally.” Ye Xiu heaved a sigh of relief. He picked up the rest and went back home.

By the time they got back to Happy Internet Cafe, the two were soaked with sweat despite the cold winter day. As soon as Chen Guo went through the entrance, she immediately found a nearby seat to sit down and pant. When she looked back, Ye Xiu had already thrown down his stuff, though the person himself wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Where’d he go?” Chen Guo muttered, but then heard a sound from behind her. She looked back and saw that someone had walked into the Internet Cafe. The sunlight was blinding outside, so Chen Guo wasn’t able to see the person clearly. She thought that it was a customer, so she immediately got up to welcome the person. When she got up and saw the person clearly, she blurted out: “What are you doing?”

The person who had come in was Ye Xiu. He was dressed in formal attire. Draped across his arm was an overcoat. His elegant and stylish demeanor was bewildering. When the person heard Chen Guo speak, he was also startled, but he quickly regained his composure and gave a polite smile: “May I ask if Ye Xiu is here or perhaps Ye Qiu?”

Chen Guo was surprised.

The moment she saw Ye Xiu looking like this, she had felt like she had made a mistake. As soon as this person spoke, Chen Guo realized that she really had made an error.

This person, without a doubt, looked like the spitting image of Ye Xiu. His face might look alike, but more importantly, his hair style and build were a bit different.

Ye Xiu quietly slipping away and switching attire to scare her was something she could believe, but switching his hair and his build in that short amount of time definitely wasn’t possible.

“You are…..” Chen Guo already felt like there was no need to ask this question. The two looked practically the same. Who else could he be?

“I’m his younger brother.” The person introduced himself.

“Twins?” Chen Guo asked.

“Yes. Could I ask who you are?”

“Oh, I’m the boss here. Ye Xiu is here.” Chen Guo said, “He was just here, now…… YE XIU!!” Chen Guo shouted.

“RESTROOM!!” A similarly loud shout sounded back.

“Oh, he’s over there…….” Chen Guo pointed to where the restroom was.

“I’ll wait for him.” The person nodded his head.

“You can sit wherever you’d like.” Chen Guo also nodded her head.

The person walked around a few steps and then asked in a casual manner: “So he’s using the name Ye Xiu here?”

“Yeah!” Chen Guo walked to the refrigerator and after opening the door, she indicated for him to look: “What would you like to drink?”

“Fanta, apple. Thank you.”

Chen Guo grabbed a bottle of Fanta and threw it over. She also grabbed a bottle and asked, while twisting the cap: “What do you go by?”

The person had jumped in fright at Chen Guo throwing the bottle over to him. With great difficulty, he was able to catch the bottle and regain his composure. When he heard Chen Guo’s question, he immediately replied: “My name is Ye Qiu.”

“Ah?” Chen Guo was startled, “You’re Ye Qiu?”

“I’ve always been……”

“Then he borrowed your name?” Chen Guo asked.

‘Yes. He even borrowed my credentials.”

Chen Guo was somewhat baffled. Their conversation stopped for a short moment, when they heard the sound of rushing water from the restroom. Soon after, the sound of a door opening and closing could be heard. Ye Xiu walked over sloppily. Seeing Ye Qiu standing near the entrance, he immediately went “Oh?”

“He’s looking for you.” Chen Guo said.

“Clearly.” Ye Xiu nodded his head.

With the two in front of her, Chen Guo could distinguish between the two. Indeed, from only their face, the two looked exactly the same. But apart from that, there wasn’t anything else about them that was alike.

One of them was wearing neat and tidy attire, while the other was wearing the same jacket he had been repeatedly wearing for the past two months. Because their work and rest schedule were different, Chen Guo didn’t even know whether he had ever washed his jacket before.

One of them had an immaculate appearance, while the other had only just gone out to buy some stuff and his face already looked dirty.

Then, she looked at their posture. One of them stood perfectly straight, even the curve of his arm looked as if they had been paid particular attention to. As for the other…… Chen Guo couldn’t help but compare. The guy looked like he hadn’t even worn his pants on properly. When he walked, his head was lowered and his posture was slouched.

“What are you doing here?” Chen Guo saw Ye Xiu walk over unsteadily and greeted his completely different younger brother.

“I’m here to pick you up to go back home and celebrate New Years.”

“Who said I was going to go back?” Ye Xiu asked.

“If you don’t go back, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to work overtime!” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo immediately discovered another difference between the two: their tone of voice.

Ye Xiu’s tone of voice was bold and confident as if everything he said was right. Even though Chen Guo had to admit that he was correct most of the time and everything should be like he said, but his tone of voice still made others want to punch him. In comparison, his younger brother had a very formal tone of voice. It was polite and proper. His tone of voice made it so it was impossible to tell if there was anything wrong. Chatting with such a person wouldn’t be unpleasant.

“Did she introduce herself? This is my boss.” Ye Xiu introduced Chen Guo to Ye Qiu, “She’s the one who told me to work overtime.”

“Is that right?” Ye Qiu looked towards Chen Guo with uncertainty.

“He asked for it. I approved.” Chen Guo wouldn’t be unjustly blamed like that.

Ye Qiu’s gaze immediately switched back to Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu exposed a helpless expression: “I won’t go back. It’ll be the same as always. Why ask why?”

“It’s different now. Didn’t you retire this year? Then what are you doing drifting around outside?” Ye Qiu said.

Chen Guo’s heart thumped. She suddenly recalled the guess she had made with Tang Rou that night. Had Ye Xiu’s retirement been caused by his family pressuring the Club from behind the scenes? If not, why would his family immediately want him to come back after he retired?

“Retiring doesn’t mean anything. You outsiders wouldn’t understand.” Ye Xiu said.

“Retiring….. Even if you want to come back, it will still take a year, no?” Ye Qiu said.

“Oh, you even know of this?”

“It’s not like you have anything to do this year. Why not come back home and take a rest?” Ye Qiu said.

“I can rest anywhere. It’s all the same.” Ye Xiu said.

“Father’s health hasn’t been too good recently……”

“That’s what you always say……”

“Fine! Actually, mother’s…….”

“You’re lying!”

“Little Dot died!”

“It’s about time. He’s already lived long enough!” Ye Xiu said coldly.

Chen Guo couldn’t listen any longer, but she felt like she had to understand something: “Who’s Little Dot?”

“A dog.” Ye Xiu said.

“……” Chen Guo suddenly realized the brother deserved to be the brother. Twins really were twins. These two people had some understand with each other on some areas. The specifics would need more observation. Chen Guo pondered. She retreated two steps and sat in the chair behind her. She took two sips and continued to watch the show.

“Should I record it?” Chen Guo felt the phone in her pocket. She had even thought of doing this.

“You really should come back.” Ye Qiu continued to urge him.

“Heh…….” Ye Xiu chuckled, “If I go back, it’ll make it easy for you to run away. Is that it?”

The very proper Ye Qiu had maintained his poise the entire time. This time, it seemed like his heart had twisted. Chen Guo watched as he suddenly shot forward like an arrow towards Ye Xiu and grabbed Ye Xiu’s clothing with his two hands.

Chen Guo started. She stood up and then heard Ye Qiu say angrily: “You shameful brother! That year, you stole the luggage that I had meticulously prepared. You went too far!”

“It’s more like I promptly discovered that my stupid little brother was about to run away from the family like an immature child and decided to take his place to teach him a lesson by example.” Ye Xiu answered.