ACDCOF Chapter 7 – Xu Ye: I feel nauseous

Xu Ye glanced at Liu Hao’s confident smile as he lifted one side of his lips. She quickly picked up her phone to cancel the ride, but the driver had already arrived at her door, and canceling would count as her breaching the agreement.

She had impulsively blocked Liu Hao the day before, and now facing him in person, it was inevitably awkward. However, seeing Liu Hao’s still confident expression, it seemed like only she was uncomfortable.

Xu Ye had chosen a carpool, and there was already a young girl sitting in the back seat. After opening the door, Xu Ye sat down beside her and hid her face behind the front seats, trying to act like an ostrich: “The last four digits are 9988.”

“Yeah, yeah, how could I not know your number?” Liu Hao climbed up from his seat and half-rose to glance at her in the rearview mirror. He casually continued, one hand on the steering wheel, speaking earnestly: “Staying up late is bad for your health, you know? Women are different from us men.”

His tone was so oily and casual, as if he hadn’t noticed that Xu Ye had blocked him.

“If your hormones get unbalanced…”

The young girl beside her couldn’t help but interrupt, furrowing her brow: “It’s endocrine imbalance.”

“Ah, right, I read on a WeChat public account that if your endocrine system gets off-balance, hormones can affect you… It can make it difficult to get pregnant,” Liu Hao rambled on, analyzing the dangers of hormonal imbalance to women’s health, even going as far as to claim that “not being able to have kids is irresponsible to your husband.”

After making his grand speech about human reproduction, Liu Hao suddenly switched topics: “Hey, Xu Ye, it was pretty rude of you not to reply to my messages yesterday. Luckily, another girl took me out, otherwise, you wouldn’t have been ditching me, huh?”

So he had already made plans. No wonder he hadn’t realized he’d been blocked.

Xu Ye couldn’t help but admire the girl who had agreed to go out with Liu Hao. She lowered her head and quietly unblocked him, then set his messages to “Do Not Disturb.”

She’d have to face him in the office for the next month, so she decided to just pretend he didn’t exist.

But just glancing at her phone made Xu Ye feel dizzy, the strong scent of perfume in the car making her feel nauseous. She had to roll down the window for fresh air.

She closed her eyes, propped her head with one hand, pretending to sleep. Liu Hao’s incessant chatter made her feel like she was back in the game last night, when she was being criticized by the opposing player for her Monkey King skills.

Liu Hao’s “lecture” continued, from “the top ten dangers of staying up late for women” to “the importance of passing on the family bloodline,” all while criticizing Xu Ye for staying in bed too long. She felt like her head was being squeezed tighter and tighter.

Especially since, for some reason, she was having the worst luck today—traffic jams, red lights, and getting to work felt harder than going to the Western Heavens.

Finally, after passing the third red light, the girl next to her couldn’t take it anymore. Curious how someone could have such a good temper, she gently nudged the half-asleep Xu Ye: “Why aren’t you yelling at him? How can you stand not telling him off?”

Xu Ye felt like her brain was scrambled, her face turning pale. She shakily reached out her hand: “Ugh…”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to argue, she just couldn’t muster the strength to say anything.

The girl was startled, leaning away from her, but still kindly rummaged through her bag and pulled out a plastic bag, handing it to Xu Ye. “Maybe you should hold on for now…”

Liu Hao didn’t catch what the girl had said because Xu Ye’s “Ugh” immediately drew all his attention.

Panicking, he turned around, glancing at the countdown for the red light and at Xu Ye, his voice trembling: “Xu Ye, you have to hold on… this car is brand new, I just got it two days ago!”

Liu Hao was terrified. He was afraid Xu Ye might ruin his new car, so he immediately stopped lecturing her and kept checking the rearview mirror, keeping an eye on her condition.

Finally, the car became quieter without Liu Hao’s constant talking. The nausea that had been overwhelming her started to lessen.

Once they arrived at the office, Xu Ye struggled to get out of the car. Liu Hao, holding no grudges, walked over with a smile and rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go, Xu Ye.”

Xu Ye turned her head with a blank expression, almost losing her sense of smell from the overpowering scent of his cologne. She couldn’t keep her composure anymore and forced the word out of her throat: “Ugh…”

Liu Hao stiffened, quickly backing away, glancing at his nonexistent watch. “I’m about to be late, so I’ll head out first. You take your time.”

Xu Ye patted her chest to calm herself and couldn’t help but laugh a little as she watched Liu Hao’s retreating figure.

She tugged at the collar of her shirt. She had been so groggy this morning, she hadn’t realized she’d put her sweater on backward. Luckily, the front and back looked identical, so no one would notice.

Still fighting dizziness, Xu Ye made her way to the bathroom on the first floor to change.

As she slowly turned her sweater around, she faintly heard someone mention her name. She perked up her ears, trying to catch the conversation.

“Women these days are so hard to chase. They don’t even respond when I show concern. I’ve been so caring toward Xu Ye, what more could she want?” It was Liu Hao’s voice rising in confusion.

Xu Ye had been wondering why Liu Hao suddenly started bombarding her with messages. Was he actually pursuing her?

He complained that she woke up too late on weekends, wanted her to treat him to a movie, and fantasized about her cooking even though they weren’t even close. Xu Ye felt that Liu Hao wasn’t trying to pursue her; he was trying to trap her.

“How do you care for her?” The voice sounded a bit like the front desk guy named Zhang. Xu Ye didn’t know his name, but she knew he seemed to treat his girlfriend quite well.

Liu Hao replied, “I ask her if she wants to watch a movie, tell her to sleep early, wake up early, and stuff like that.”

The front desk guy was confused. “That seems normal, right?” He added, “Let me see your chat.”

After a while, the guy’s voice grew louder with shock. “Wait, is this how you pursue someone? You’re asking her to treat you to a meal! Is that appropriate?”

Liu Hao, in his usual manner, said confidently, “It’s a shared cost system! I put in the effort, she pays the money. If she wants to spend my money before we’re even married, what will she want when we’re married? My life?”

The front desk guy was speechless, clearly rethinking the shared cost system that he knew.

After chatting for a while, hearing their footsteps fade, Xu Ye pinched her nose and came out of the bathroom. She ran to a spot near the door to get some fresh air.

Xu Ye thought to herself that quitting was definitely the right choice.

Due to the weekend’s pile-up of client proposals, the whole team was especially busy on Monday.

She hadn’t been disturbed by Liu Hao again, spending the whole morning in a tug-of-war with a stubborn client.

As lunchtime approached, the two sides wrapped up their seemingly friendly but actually disdainful conversation, and an unpleasant deal was made.

She decided to order some yellow braised chicken rice downstairs. Since it was still early, she opened the forum first.

There were two unread messages from David. Opening them, she realized she had forgotten to reply to his private messages last night.

[David: Your monkey gameplay was pretty good. I heard my little bro praise you.]

[David: Are you asleep? Goodnight.]

She must have fallen asleep right after David said, “I’m done playing,” and then in the morning, she was too dazed to remember replying, especially after the bumpy ride with Liu Hao made her feel nauseous.

[Good Ye: Sorry, I was so tired I fell asleep. What did he say about me?]

David, probably bored, replied almost instantly:

[David: I couldn’t understand, but he stood up excitedly, slapped the table, and said two words. I guess he was praising you.]

Xu Ye thought back to her spectacular moves last night and felt that David’s owner yelling out those two words probably weren’t praise. Only David thought she played well.

What exactly had David gone through before he started to team up with her?

[Good Ye: …Haha. How did you two add each other as friends?]

[David: We matched in the same game yesterday morning. I took the jungler, and he didn’t like it, so I challenged him to see who was better at the jungle.]

[Good Ye: And then? Who was better?]

[David: Not sure, maybe your monkey is better. ^o^]

[Good Ye: …]

David and his little bro had planned a rematch at night.

David asked Xu Ye to join them for a trio and be a witness to see who performed better in the jungle.

[David: I’m done for now, I’ll definitely beat this guy tonight. I’m going to review the match and will look for you later.]

[Good Ye: You’re so diligent! I won’t watch KPL next year if you’re not in it.]

David focused on reviewing his game, while Xu Ye continued to scroll through the posts. Her efforts paid off, and she finally figured out who the esports dogs were.

Those two seemed to live together, and they’d posted about how they’d been insulted by their teammates.

[Now people are really getting too much. I picked the concubine hero, and my teammates said dogs don’t play this hero. People really look down on dogs.]

Their game IDs were quite cute — one was called “Little Dog Cake Hand,” and the other was “Big Dog Cake Hand.”

[2F: How are you so good? I only played one game, and my teammates cursed me the whole time.]

[3F: This is the difference between us dogs.]

Xu Ye wanted to play with the two Cake Hands, but since she had already agreed to team up with David, and David didn’t seem to like dogs, she reluctantly left the Cake Hands’ post. Before leaving, she took a note of their forum IDs.

Even though the game didn’t work out, she’d keep an eye on their posts from now on.

After becoming a little famous because of Snowball’s post, Xu Ye didn’t dare casually reply to posts. She’d give up on commenting, even on interesting ones.

By the time she finished scrolling, it was already past noon. She quickly selected her meal and placed the order, but before she could return to the page, Liu Hao walked over and peeked at her phone.

“Xu Ye, you’re ordering takeaway again? Eating takeout all the time is bad for your health. You need to learn how to cook.” Liu Hao said, holding a bowl of takeaway rice noodles and looking serious.

Xu Ye gave him a look, pointing at the takeaway bag with the receipt. “And what’s that you’re eating?”

Liu Hao smiled and took a huge bite of his noodles, saying loudly, “Once you learn how to cook, I won’t need to eat takeout anymore.”

He said this while smirking, and the mix of his cologne and the spicy noodles overwhelmed Xu Ye’s already fragile sense of smell.

She finally couldn’t take it anymore and stood up, dry heaving twice. She flashed a sweet smile at Liu Hao’s horrified look: “Sorry, I feel a little nauseous.”

Liu Hao, disturbed by Xu Ye’s reaction, couldn’t finish his noodles. He wanted to say something to her but was afraid she might actually throw up on his clothes.

In the end, he said nothing and left with the half-eaten noodles.

Xu Ye felt great after making Liu Hao lose his appetite. She continued to browse posts, waiting for her takeaway.

With the office windows open, the wind made her hands cold. She scrolled with one hand and stuffed the other into her sweater pocket. Her fingers suddenly stopped when she felt something hard in the right pocket.

She squeezed it for a moment, confirming it wasn’t just a crumpled piece of paper from the laundry. Sitting up straight, she pulled the object out of her pocket.

It was a round pink bead, lying in her palm like some kind of gemstone.

 

The author’s note at the end:

Buns Girl: Enduring harsh words from others, suffering in silence.

Xu Ye: Let it all slide past her.

Don’t criticize the female protagonist from a God’s perspective. She doesn’t curse, and Liu Hao’s role is small. This story is mostly about the daily lives of the protagonist and her pets.

As some readers in the comment section said, when you get into an argument with others in the office, your boss won’t care who’s right or wrong; they’ll just think Xu Ye is being unreasonable — because to everyone else, Liu Hao always speaks politely, and if the protagonist speaks sarcastically or argues back, she’s the one in the wrong.

 

Tl’s note: Anyone who think Greasy Hao’s arrogant way of speaking is polite must be deaf. Also, David is sooo cute ^o^

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