“I’m going to take a shower! And if you’re asleep when I get back, I’m going to wake you up and make you fall asleep all over again.”

“Are you nuts, Jiangg Yao?”

“Sayonara~ I’m off!”

CLICK. Jiangg Yao shut the bedroom door. Without even looking, she could just imagine Jiangg Ning shooting up in bed to yell at her. She skipped lightly toward the bathroom, humming a cheerful little tune.

“Na~ na-na~ na-na! La~ la-laaa—”

Jiangg Yao’s voice was soft and sweet. Even without knowing the song, the melody had a strangely soothing warmth.

She made her way down the dim hallway, then suddenly stopped, feeling she’d gotten a note wrong. She stood there for a long moment, thinking, before starting the song over from the beginning.

This wasn’t just for fun.

Lately, Jiangg Yao had been diligently studying and learning more songs. As a full-time VTuber specializing in otaku songs, her “Yaoyao” account was already among the top streamers on the platform. Thanks to her off-the-charts dedication over the past two months, her follower count had finally surpassed 1.2 million.

The long-time fans in her group chat would get emotional whenever they brought it up. They said it felt like “watching their own kid finally make something of themselves.”

For a niche singing streamer, breaking even 500,000 followers was an incredibly difficult feat. Jiangg Yao used to think that even if she kept at it for several more years, she’d likely just hover around that number.

But ever since she started dating Chen Yuan, she hadn’t neglected her streaming career. In fact, it made her work even harder.

And as she put in the effort, she found she had developed a much deeper understanding of how to sing otaku songs.

Many fans left comments like, “Your performances have been so good lately,” and “You’re singing with so much more emotion now.” The praise made Jiangg Yao a little shy when she read them.

In truth, she was simply channeling the emotional ups and downs of her daily life into her singing.

What’s more, her “Yaoyao” account had a legion of die-hard fans constantly making highlight clips and promoting her. She hardly dared to open her streaming app these days; the influx of new followers was terrifying.

While she felt anxious about the high expectations, Jiangg Yao also felt a sense of accomplishment, like all her hard work was finally paying off.

Growing up, she’d never really succeeded at anything, always living in the shadow of Jiangg Ning’s brilliance. Now, she finally had an achievement she could be proud of. She held on tight to this small, certain happiness…

…and her motivation to charge ahead only grew stronger.

Wrapped in a bath towel with a cartoon print, her bare shoulders exposed, Jiangg Yao closed the bathroom door. The room was still filled with lingering steam from her sister’s shower, and beads of water trickled slowly down the frosted glass.

She turned on the tap for the bathtub, and the sound of gushing water filled the room.

Next, Jiangg Yao stood before the mirror, squeezing out some facial cleanser and carefully lathering it over her face.

Alone in the enclosed space, Jiangg Yao could really let loose. After all, there was no one to peek in on her, and she wouldn’t even have to worry about her sister overhearing.

“And now, the moderately famous otaku-sphere singer, Yaoyao, with a performance of ‘secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~’ for all of you!”

She cupped her hand into a fist, holding it to her lips like a microphone, and bobbed her head to the melody in her mind.

Then, her soothing voice rang out. The delicate hum was enough to instantly pull a listener into the song’s heart-wrenching atmosphere and touch the softest part of their soul.

Jiangg Yao had never attempted to sing this incredibly famous song on stream before. She mostly excelled at lively, cheerful, and catchy songs with electronic music as their foundation, all tinged with a distinct, rebellious flair.

The famous whale in her friends’ group chat—Miss Kawashima Fumie. Fumie loved to bicker with Jiangg Yao, but she was also the most loyal fan of her rebellious otaku songs. If Jiangg Yao went a whole stream without singing one, Fumie would spam donations until she caved.

According to the ever-risqué Miss Kawashima Fumie, “Listening to an otaku song with a good beat is like having a v****-egg shoved in my brain.”

Setting aside that ridiculous description, it was a testament to the incredible, infectious energy of Jiangg Yao’s singing.

In the bathroom, Jiangg Yao watched her own entranced reflection in the mirror, momentarily lost in a daze. She truly felt that when she sang, she was radiant. It was as if she could completely shed the timidity and self-loathing that had plagued her since childhood, instantly filled with a vibrant, growing power.

This classic, soothing song was from Aniplex Company and told the story of a group of teenagers entangled in a web of romance and friendship.

She never used to sing these kinds of ballads, mostly because she hadn’t really tried and wasn’t very good at them.

She was practicing now because as her audience grew, her fanbase became more diverse. Otaku-centric electronic music was a niche genre. If she wanted to broaden her appeal, she had to step out of her comfort zone for a bit and add more to her repertoire.

Jiangg Yao cleared her throat, dropped a cool lychee-scented bath bomb into the tub, then added some solid perfume to balance out the fragrance.

Returning to the mirror, she took a hair clip and twisted her long, shoulder-length hair up into a series of coils, pinning them to the back of her head. With her hair up, her whole appearance seemed neater and more put-together.

Actually, once she was back in Lanjing, Jiangg Yao was thinking of preparing for a niche performance competition her platform was hosting. Many VTubers had already signed up, hoping to use the opportunity to showcase their talents. The competition offered massive exposure, and the prizes for placing were generous. But what truly tempted Jiangg Yao was the promise of three years of promotional support from the platform—that was far more important than any prize money.

She had already selected a few popular, well-known songs and was starting to learn them.

Besides “secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~,” there was also “Blue Bird,” the opening theme from *Naruto Shippuden*, and a more upbeat song called “wishing.”

But thinking about it was one thing. Deep down, she was still hesitant.

No matter what, she much preferred singing in her own stream for her regular audience. The idea of performing on an unfamiliar stage was daunting for her.

Overcoming her stage fright would be the first challenge.

She let the towel drop, the lovely view vanishing in a flash.

SPLASH—

After the soft splash, Jiangg Yao’s body was submerged in the warm water. Her pale, slender arms parted the bubbles on the surface as she hugged her knees, lost in thought.

Both she and Jiangg Ning were in love. Regardless of the outcome, this positive emotion spurred them both on, making them strive to push forward, to run headlong and unhesitatingly toward the future lives they dreamed of.

「Thousands of kilometers away.」

Chen Yuan, with study materials piled by his pillow, was much the same. He spent a long time reviewing the material he needed to learn before finally going to sleep.

Winter break was supposed to be a time for relaxation, but the three of them had formed an unspoken pact.

Time felt fleeting, and they all shared a fear of not working hard enough, of looking back one day with regret… when it was too late to change anything.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep