At eight o’clock in the evening, “Blue Tears,” the largest high-end club in Jincheng, was bustling with activity and boiling over with noise. The lights in the public hall on the first floor were dim and blurry, and countless scantily clad men and women were dancing passionately in the center of the dance floor.
“Pfft, ” Someone popped a bottle of champagne, causing the wine to splatter and triggering a chorus of screams. No matter where you cast your gaze, you could see figures embracing and kissing passionately.
Ji Jinghan stood in the second-floor corridor, leaning casually against the carved railing with a bored expression, the spark of a burning cigarette between his fingers flickering between light and dark.
The door of the private room behind him was pushed open, and someone walked up to his side, laughing as he threw an arm around his shoulder: “What’s wrong? In a bad mood today?”
“Get those filthy things of yours out, and I’ll be in a good mood,” Ji Jinghan said, casting his eyes down and giving him a cold look.
“Why are you like this?” Lu Ming laughed. “It wasn’t easy for me to return to the country, and you were the first person I looked up to. Is this how you treat me?”
Seeing that Ji Jinghan still wasn’t buying it, Lu Ming had no choice but to surrender: “Alright, fine, fine, I’ll have them all leave, okay?… We haven’t seen each other in a year, and I thought you might finally indulge yourself a little, but who knew you’d still be so lacking in romantic appreciation.”
Several heavily made-up young masters and ladies in the private room were shown out by Lu Ming. Each of them had a pitiful, delicate expression, their eyes constantly sweeping over Ji Jinghan.
Ji Jinghan paid no attention to them. He walked straight over to sit by the sofa and stubbed out the cigarette in his hand into the ashtray.
“I say, Old Ji, just who are you keeping your chastity for?” Lu Ming closed the private room door, opened a bottle of red wine, poured a glass for Ji Jinghan, and said, “At an age where you’re full of vigor and vitality, aren’t you afraid of bottling yourself up too much?”
“Get lost.” Ji Jinghan was too lazy to bother with him.
“I don’t recall you ever liking anyone since we were kids either…” Lu Ming pondered to himself for a moment, then abruptly jumped to a new topic. “Hey, speaking of which, do you know about the Wen family going bankrupt?”
Ji Jinghan paused for a moment, then casually said, “I know. What about it?”
“I just didn’t expect a family as large and established as the Wens to run into trouble. I heard that Wen Lin has already absconded with the money?” Lu Ming gestured with the wine in his hand with a gloating face, “Didn’t you use to hate Wen Qiyu? Now you can finally vent your frustration, right? Hey, I have a bit of gossip about him; do you want to hear it?”
Ji Jinghan raised his eyes to look at him, the light shifting and floating in his light-colored pupils, revealing a trace of dark moodiness: “Let’s hear it.”
Lu Ming unlocked his phone, opened a certain video app, found a video he had previously liked, and then pushed the phone in front of Ji Jinghan with an impish, malicious smile: “Take a look, and you’ll see.”
Ji Jinghan picked up his phone, and the video on the screen automatically began to play.
Abundant sunlight poured in from outside the window, with countless motes of dust dancing in the light. Beside a wooden table covered with a white tablecloth, a tall “young girl” in a white dress leaned across the table with arms crossed, her raven-black hair falling loose. She revealed only half of her pure and innocent face, her smooth hair falling over her shoulders like a waterfall, cascading down the slender waist silhouetted by the dress.
The fingers holding the phone instantly tightened, gripping it so hard that the veins bulged on the back of his hand.
“How about it? Did you recognize him?” Seeing Ji Jinghan’s silence, Lu Ming pressed on, “When I first scrolled onto it, I couldn’t believe it either. I only confirmed it was him after clicking into his homepage. I didn’t expect the Wen family’s downfall would force him to go down this road, but don’t say, Wen Qiyu really looks stunning…”
“Shut up.” Ji Jinghan’s voice sounded somewhat gritted, and that glare that looked ready to murder someone scared Lu Ming into shutting his mouth in an instant.
“…W-what’s wrong?”
Ji Jinghan said nothing more. He clicked into the homepage of this blogger named “CatCat Yu” and began watching his videos one by one.
Ji Jinghan had a Douyin account, but he rarely looked at such video apps, and his likes and bookmarks were few and far between. In contrast to him, Lu Ming loved scrolling through them and often liked all kinds of beauties, which was probably how this video ended up being pushed onto his feed.
After watching all the videos, Ji Jinghan returned to the most popular cross-dressing video and opened the comment section.
【You actually cross-dressed!! Wife, you’re so beautiful, I hate that I’m not a guy [crying]】
【It gives off the feeling of a white moonlight school beauty… It makes me think of my first love goddess…】
【What? I finally scrolled to a beauty to my taste, and you’re telling me it’s a guy?】
【Wife, wife, can you wear a dress for today’s livestream?】
With a clack, Lu Ming watched in horror as his phone was forcefully slammed onto the marble tabletop, saying with heart-pounding fear, “Can you be a bit gentler? That’s the 17 Pro I just bought…”
Before he could finish his words, Ji Jinghan scooped the phone back up. Lu Ming watched helplessly as he seamlessly canceled the like, blocked the blogger, and then uninstalled his Douyin altogether.
Lu Ming: “?”
Ji Jinghan threw the phone back to him, stood up, and walked straight out.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Lu Ming shouted behind him.
“I have something to do.” Dropping these four words, Ji Jinghan disappeared beyond the door of the private room.
“What is it, so out of nowhere…” Lu Ming blew on his phone screen with heartache, “He couldn’t be rushing off to go laugh at Wen Qiyu, could he?”
Having made an agreement with his fans to stream today, Wen Qiyu returned to his apartment early after class ended.
Probably because that cross-dressing video had gone viral, quite a few more viewers had joined the livestream room, but a lot of strange people had also entered, persistently sending bullet comments to harass him.
【Streamer, are you actually male or female? Or a ladyboy?】
【Why aren’t you wearing a dress? I came just for the dress, how disappointing】
【Streamer, how much money do I have to tip you to meet up?】
At first, Wen Qiyu wanted to explain, but later he realized these people simply wanted to be disgusting. He cooled his expression and had the room moderators kick out anyone trying to stir up trouble.
“The streamer is male. Wearing women’s clothing is just fan welfare. Anyone who can’t speak properly, get out of here,” he said in a gentle tone, yet his words were entirely unceremonious. “As for asking how much money to tip to meet up, looking at how miserably poor you are, you probably can’t even afford a one-cent fan badge.”
【Streamer is so spicy, love it love it】
【Can all the guys just get out? Being stingy is one thing, but making sexual jokes all the time, don’t ruin my next cross-dressing welfare】
【Wife, ignore them, let’s play games】
【When are we hitting 300k followers? I still want to see Xiao Yu wear a dress】
The fans in the livestream room with badges all began spamming comforting words one after another, and soon those disgusting comments could no longer be seen. Wen Qiyu took a deep breath, told himself not to bother with idiots, and launched his game.
Just as he logged into his account, Wen Qiyu received a message from a sect member saying they were gathering at eight o’clock to do a dungeon run, asking him to head over to the sect once he came online.
He replied with an “okay”, found a nearby teleportation array, and teleported back to the sect.
The sect Wen Qiyu had joined was one of the four most famous top sects on the server, named Frosty Sky Horn. The sect leader was someone he met when he first started playing this game, making him a very good online friend.
When he first joined Frosty Sky Horn, there were only a few people inside. Now it had become one of the most popular sects; strictly speaking, he could be considered a veteran of the guild, though unfortunately his strength hadn’t grown much over the years.
Wen Qiyu walked into the sect’s main hall. A crowd of people had already gathered inside, and the sect leader, “A Sword Frost Cold,” was also present.
Wen Qiyu walked forward to greet them, only to discover there was suddenly someone he didn’t know; the avatar was a small flower fairy wearing a pink long dress, holding a spray of peach blossom branches in hand, a healer class.
【Sect】Zhizhi Taotao: Hello Xiao Yu~ I’m a new player, just joined the sect today; you can just call me Taotao
A new player? Wen Qiyu froze slightly. Frosty Sky Horn was a famous top sect, and the requirements to join were extremely strict, making it virtually impossible for new players to enter.
However, he didn’t ask further and simply replied with a hello in the channel.
【Sect】A Sword Frost Cold: Taotao is my real-life friend, so I made an exception to let him in this time. Nothing like this will happen again in the future.
So that was why. Wen Qiyu had known A Sword Frost Cold for quite a while; the other party was a top player ranked near the very top of the leaderboards, possessing immense wealth and capability. Bringing a new player into the guild was something no one would object to.
At eight o’clock sharp, the sect team finished assembling. Everyone entered the voice channel one after another and began running the dungeon.
To Wen Qiyu’s surprise, when Zhizhi Taotao opened his mouth to speak, his voice was actually quite a cute male voice, though since he himself was playing a female character, he naturally didn’t find it strange.
“Xiao Yu, why are you wearing last year’s limited-time cosmetic?” As they chatted along, the highly active Zhizhi Taotao noticed Wen Qiyu hadn’t spoken for a while and took the initiative to cue him, “This set of cosmetic skin doesn’t match your attributes, right? The one currently being sold in the shop happens to be water-attributed, and the buff is really strong. Aren’t you going to buy it?”
Wen Qiyu didn’t really like chatting with strangers. Hearing this, he merely said indifferently, “I don’t want to buy it.”
“Is that so?” Zhizhi Taotao laughed, “I thought it was because it was too expensive. But this set of cosmetics really is very pretty; I bought it as soon as it went live. Too bad it doesn’t match my attributes, so it’s just sitting at the bottom of my storage trunk.”
“…” Wen Qiyu sensitively picked up on the subtle, veiled hostility and passive-aggressiveness in the other party’s words, frowning slightly. If it had been a few years earlier, he probably would have opened fire without care or hesitation, but now he merely muted his microphone silently and paid the person no further mind.
The viewers in the livestream room also noticed something off, and the stream of bullet comments instantly surged.
【Wait, what does this guy mean by saying that】
【The smell of green tea is wafting through the screen, I’m practically suffocating】
【So hilarious, it’s just a two-thousand-yuan skin in a game, is that really worth flexing?】
【Streamer, why don’t you buy a set to slap his face hard? It’s so disgusting】
In between attacking monsters, Wen Qiyu glanced at the bullet comments, all of which were telling him to buy the cosmetic, making him both amused and exasperated.
“I’m not buying it… Are you guys primary schoolers, throwing a tantrum with someone else?” The corners of his lips curved up slightly, his tone carrying a laugh. “Streamer really isn’t buying it. Why not? Because I’ve got no money.”
Wen Qiyu’s statement of having no money was delivered with exceptional candor, choking up the entire comment section.
【Streamer, how did you become so poor? I can be considered a day-one fan, and I’ve watched the streamer go from a nobody to a big nobody】
【Brings tears to my eyes, tipped the streamer ten fresh flowers, a modest gift with deep feelings [rose] [rose]】
【In that case, why don’t you put on a dress and rake in some more cash!】
【Take it from someone who’s been there: no matter how poor a man gets, he can’t sell himself out】
Glancing at the bullet comments that had turned into a complete mess, Wen Qiyu almost laughed out of anger. However, a few people actually did tip him gifts. Since he happened to be knocked unconscious and was waiting to revive, he stared at the screen and thanked them one by one.
“Thank you ‘Goodnight’ for sending ‘Drink More Hot Water’, thank you ‘Be Happy Today’ for sending the sports car, thank you…”
Right at that moment, a dazzling gift effect suddenly exploded in the center of the screen. The three large characters for “Carnival” slowly surfaced, occupying more than half of the livestream room and nearly dazzling the eyes of all the viewers.
【User “Rain” sent “Carnival” x1】
【User “Rain” sent “Carnival” x1】
After this user, who had no fan badge and was level 0, sent five Carnivals in a row in Wen Qiyu’s livestream room, they swiftly became the number one fan among the online viewers, and then sent a succinct bullet comment.
【Rain: What skin? Go buy it now.】