Chapter 14｜ “Foodie Group” gain its visibility

One evening, Xu Zhiyi was invited by Yin's grandparents to stay for dinner. Sitting at the table, her grandparents reminisced about Yin's childhood antics and marvelled at the changes they had seen in her over the past two years. 

"Grandma..." Yin softened her voice and raised her tone slightly, interrupting her grandmother who was about to continue speaking, "Please save me some dignity and pride..." It had been a while since her grandmother had seen Yin act so coquettishly, which made her happy. She responded with a smile, saying, "OK, I know." 

Zhiyi smiled, his gaze slipping away from Yin as he remarked, "This is the first time I've seen this side of her." 

"Xu Zhiyi, eat more!" Yin picked up a large chicken leg and placed it on his plate, with a hint of a threat but it had no effect, only earning a smiling "Okay" in response. 

Yin thought to herself, "Focus on eating is the best strategy."

At that awkward moment, Xipei's phone call came. "Meng Yin darling!!!" Yin's eardrums vibrated, "Our foodie group has gone viral!" 

"What?" Yin quickly finished her meal and put Xipei on speakerphone to hear the news.

Xipei's first Vlog about the school sports event had already exceeded 450,000 views on the L platform within two and a half days. Taking advantage of the momentum, she had released the second and third Vlogs in the morning. The two new videos were quickly promoted to the popular section, showing a significant and steady increase in views. 

In the second Vlog, the most commonly asked question was about Xu Zhiyi, followed by the "Zhiyin CP". In the third Vlog, Xipei made her first appearance, combining the boring yet interesting daily school life of their group and the exciting moments of the school sports event, netizens expressed their hope for more content from them in the future.

"Go check out my videos and the comments section, hurry!" Xipei eagerly urged Yin to see the enthusiastic responses and curiosity of the viewers. 

"Got it, I'll check it out right away."

The video automatically transitioned to Xipei's second Vlog - the entrance of Class 2's opening ceremony. 

In contrast to the fleeting moments of the first video, Xu Zhiyi in the second video, with Yin's cooperation, smiled with exposed white teeth under the sunlight and cheered around him. Like everyone his age, he also experienced normal emotions, but his expressions were rarely as rich. Many events unfolded naturally after his efforts, as expected. The last time he revealed such a look was in the ninth grade. On New Year's Day that year, instead of a New Year's performance, the school organized a school-wide choir competition where each class formed a choir and competed with self-selected songs. Their class chose the song "Young Battlefield," with Xu Zhiyi and Meng Yin both being members of the choir, he positioned behind Yin. 

The song was difficult to practice and choreograph, especially during the chorus "Please applaud for me proudly," where the back row had to harmonize. Amidst the mixed tones, he could always distinctly hear Yin's voice. Her voice held a kind of conviction, standing behind her, he could see her shining. At the end of the choir performance, Meng Yin turned around, and he smiled like that. 

At that moment, he couldn't see his own expression, and Yin asked him, "Xu Zhiyi, are you smiling so happily that your teeth are showing?" 

Later at home, he smiled at himself in the mirror, splashing a cup of water on it. How could this be Xu Zhiyi?

In Xipei's third Vlog, she switched from a DSLR camera to a GoPro. She first appeared in front of the camera, greeting the viewers, "Hello, everyone, I'm Peppa. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the school sports day at FHS, I'm here on camera to be the MC for everyone. First, let me introduce my 'foodie group.'" It was the first day of the sports day at noon, and they were having lunch in the cafeteria. Xipei turned the camera to three people sitting across from her, "Come on, introduce yourselves." There was no hint of the typical loli tone in her speech. 

"Hello, I am the back table behind your Peppa," Hai exaggeratedly shook his head. The camera moved to Xing Xiuze, and Xipei pointed and said, "Guys, this is the brother who deceived me as a senior brother back then, his conscience still doesn't hurt!" 

Xing Xiuze: "??? He knew Xipei had a video account but had never watched it. Now it seemed she was going all out to destroy his pure heart. 

He decided to play along, giving a brilliant smile and earnestly saying, "Hello, everyone, I am indeed this blogger's senior brother." 

Lin Xipei: "..." 

Xipei pursed her lips, the camera smoothly shifted, and Zhiyi and Yin were framed in the same shot. In the video, Xipei annotated a line below — "Let me introduce, this is Bro Yi and Sister Meng!" 

"Say hello!" Xipei suppressed his aunt-like laugh, cueing the process. 

"Hello, everyone." Zhiyi politely smiled at the camera and greeted. 

Xipei jokingly muttered behind the camera, "The Bro Yi is indeed the Bro Yi." But that doesn't stop me from shipping them! 

"Hello, I'm a friend of Peppa, also her fan." Yin followed Xu Zhiyi to greet the camera. 

The scene shifted again, cutting to their daily bickering during meals, the "foodie group" playing on the playground, sitting seriously in the audience seats watching the competition, the jumping hug after their home team won, several boys' exciting moments and slick moves on the field... 

In the shot, Yin laughed happily, her eyes shining brightly. This was the her she hadn't seen in a long time, the self she missed. Since childhood, she has always been someone who loves to smile. Even though her parents were often absent, during her growth, she always felt a lot of love, always growing vibrantly towards the sun. Of course, there were times when she faced difficulties and setbacks, times when she doubted herself and wanted to give up, but most of the time, she managed to overcome them. 

The video continued playing, and Yin suddenly felt that those two years at THS, it taught her an important lesson — you must always run towards the light, no matter where you are, because there is empathy and acceptance there. 

Although there may still be some shadows, she was no longer afraid.

Lin Xipei shared all three Vlogs in the "Foodie Group" small group. 

Hai and Xiuze started to banter again, one said there were too few shots, and the other retorted with "Even if there were more, it wouldn't help, not enough face to look at," then openly discussed the shortcomings of Xipei's videos. 

Xipei exclaimed, "Do you think I'm dead?!" 

The "duet" between the two showed no signs of ending, and Xipei pretended not to see, mentioning Xu Zhiyi in the group. "Bro Yi, I want to ask you, where did you customize your previous keychain?" 

Xipei didn't mention it, and everyone had almost forgotten that Xu Zhiyi had a keychain with him. 

Hai and Xiuze, who enjoyed watching the fun, suddenly united again. 

「Xing Xiuze」Lin Xipei, did you customize the keychain to make up for Senior's mistake?

「Nie Hai」 Bro, I haven't seen your keychain for a long time.

Xu Zhiyi always carried a keychain with him, playing with it when idle, which was not a secret in Class Two. The keychain was customized by someone on behalf of him, not a secret either. 

「Lin Xipei」 I'll give you a big ghost head.

「Lin Xipei」I have over 500,000 followers on L Station and plan to draw prizes for fans!!!

The word "keychain" caught Yin's attention. Xu ZhiYiyi's keychain? She seemed to have heard someone mention it before? Curious, Meng Yin tentatively asked in the group, 

「Keychain?」

The group fell silent for three seconds. Apologies, in a moment of excitement, forgot that there were still people in the group who didn't know about "Xu Zhiyi's keychain." 

「Xing Xiuze」 Xu Zhiyi's keychain and his three rows of six tables are a CP pair.

God knows Hai was passionately narrating the story of "Xu Zhiyi's keychain" in the chat box when his bro sent him two words - "Shut up." 

What else could he do but painstakingly delete the text he had typed? It was so hard to hold back. 

Xu Zhiyi responded to Xipei in the group, then sent a private message to Meng Yin, summarizing the story of "Xu Zhiyi's keychain" in one sentence - he received it from a like-minded friend during a foreign competition, kept it with him all the time, and later thought it was easy to lose, so he kept it.