"IT seemed that your shoot took longer than expected," Duan Yu commented as he took out ingredients from the pantry. 

Song Liuli had a photoshoot today for a popular apparel line that targeted young people.  They lived in the same apartment building. Their apartments were also adjacent to each other. He often cooked for the other. So, Song Liuli was a frequent visitor in his apartment. In fact, besides sleeping here, it's almost like they lived together. She even had her own key to his apartment.

Song Liuli actually wanted for them to live together since their current living arrangement was no different from that. But Duan Yu refused. As much as he wanted to agree, he felt like he shouldn't. 

Others might call him sly and scheming, but he was an old-fashioned guy at heart. He didn't want to take that step unless he and Liuli were officially married. It might take a few years for that since the both of them were still university students. He wanted to have a stable career first before proposing marriage. 

He didn't want to be that kind of guy who depended on his partner's money. Liuli's money was hers while his money belonged to the both of them. He wanted to be someone who could support his family financially without needing to worry about anything. 

The investments he had made in the past two years were already bearing fruit. by next year, he would have ample funds to start his own small company. He just hoped that things would go according to plan. But life always threw a few curve ball to everyone, some received more than others. He had already readied himself for such mishap.

Duan Yu then heard an annoyed sigh from behind. "It's because of that model I have to shoot with today. He's such a drama king. Just because he's a little bit too popular, he made everything hard for everyone in the set. Argh! I almost couldn't hold myself back from punching him!"

His expression dimmed but Song Liuli couldn't see it since his back was facing her. "Did he trouble you?" he asked as he began to chop a cabbage on the chopping board.

Song Liuli glanced at Duan Yu's back because she heard something in the other's tone. They had been together long enough that, at times, it's easy for her to know what the other was thinking. Just like now. 

If she said 'yes', she was sure that Duan Yu would definitely think of a way to deal with that model, no matter how disadvantageous it might be for him. She didn't mind though. It's one of the many reasons why she liked him. Even so, she couldn't just let the other do something careless because of her.

"Nah, I already took care of it. Do you really think I would let someone like that bully me?" she said in a nonchalant tone.

Although she said that to pacify the other, it's true that she had already taken care of that model. It's not in her nature to swallow such a breath when someone was obviously trying to take advantage of her.

She picked up Duan Yu's phone on the couch and opened it. Then, she saw that the screen was on Weibo, meaning that Duan Yu was browsing the site before putting it down. The topic he was browsing was the finals of the Rookie Carnival.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Today was the finals of Rookie Carnival," she said, changing the topic. "Who won?"

"Noctis."

Noctis? Then, the image of a certain white-haired elf flashed in her mind. "Is he that good?"

She was asking out of genuine curiosity. Because she truly had no idea about the other's skills. Since her modelling career took off, the time she spent to play Arcadia became less and less. If not for the fact that Duan Yu and their other friends were still playing, she would have probably quit a long time ago. 

Of course, that didn't mean that she was being half-assed when she's playing. Especially during training for Arcadia Cup. She's the main healer of their team. If she didn't take the game seriously, then it could result to their team losing. She didn't mind losing, what she did mind was if they lost because of her.

Due to this, she wasn't so updated to the things happening in the game. Much less so about the skills of the new players being added every year.

"He got skills. Yunyue would definitely be a tough opponent next year if they join the Arcadia Cup," Duan Yu answered honestly.

Song Liuli raised her brow. "Just his addition and you're sure Yunyue will give us a hard time next year, is he that good?"

"Well, it's not just him. The runner-up in this year's Carnival also happened to be a new member of Yunyue. So…" Duan Yu answered with a shrug.

Song Liuli whistled. "It seems Yunyue is really planning a comeback."

"I don't think they plan it per se," Duan Yu said remembering the expressionless captain of Yunyue. If they ever really participated in the Cup next year, he had a feeling that it wouldn't have anything to do with YUN but everything to do with Noctis.

"If they participate next year, Ah Min would definitely be overjoyed," Song Liuli only commented, referring to their team's captain.

Duan Yu silently agreed on that.

"By the way, I'm planning to ask Noctis to help us in Nirvana's next issue," he said.

Nirvana was a magazine published by team Celestials twice a year – one in June and another in December. They started this magazine about two years ago. It was just a whim at first. But since it was so profitable, Duan Yu decided to continue it. 

It's a magazine that caters to Arcadia's fans. It's full of fan-service and gorgeous photos. One could buy either a digital copy or a hardcopy of the magazine. Now that Noctis won the Rookie Carnival, he was definitely more than qualified to be in the magazine.

"I don't have any opinion on that. But, would that elf even agree?" Song Liuli asked. "I have a feeling he wouldn't."

Duan Yu showed a meaningful smile. "Oh, he will definitely agree."

He had no choice after all.

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