By the time Gu Ting stepped out of the police station and arrived at the door of the apartment rented by the fake Gu Ting, over an hour had passed, and her phone battery was completely drained.
The hallway was pitch black. It took her quite a bit of fumbling to open the door, and once inside, she had to grope around for a good while before locating the switch to turn on the lights. Under the illumination, everything in the room lay exposed. The interior decor was simple to the point of being shabby, featuring outdated doors and windows, and a mismatched assortment of tables, chairs, and other furniture. The only redeeming quality was probably its size, which wasn’t small. After all, very few people lived in this entire residential compound, so the landlord was lucky enough just to rent it out.
Faced with this scene, even Gu Ting, who had suffered her fair share of life’s hardships, couldn’t help but sigh. Indeed, wealthy lives come in all shapes and sizes, but poverty always looks exactly the same—it was the familiar look, the familiar formula of a poor person.
However, a year ago, she at least had a few thousand yuan in savings; a year later, she was left with nothing but millions in debt. At this thought, she couldn’t help but close her eyes, spreading her arms wide in a posture of grievance. “Heavens, when will money ever fall from the sky?”
Before her voice could even fade, something suddenly rained down all over her face. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt. Gu Ting opened her eyes only to see pink silhouettes flying, spinning, and finally drifting down gracefully around her like flurries of snow. Frame by frame, the picture was as beautiful as a scene from a movie.
She couldn’t help but reach out to catch one and bring it before her eyes. Then, her eyes widened in disbelief. She tried closing her eyes tightly and shaking her head, but when she looked again, the outline of the banknote became even clearer!
It was actually real currency, not a hallucination brought on by her extreme poverty!
Not only was it not a hallucination, but beneath the hanging ceiling light, thousands of pink banknotes were scattering lavishly around her as the center, like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers. It was excessively abundant and excessively aesthetic.
Surrounded by money, Gu Ting: “!!!”
The moment I mentioned raining money, money actually fell. What kind of New Age miracle is this? Could it be that I, Gu Ting, am an existence radiating such boundless light and sky-rocketing financial fortune?
Gu Ting looked up above her head, but she didn’t see any divine miracle. She only saw a cabinet suspended from the ceiling. Its door was wide open, and an open, tattered burlap sack was dangling precariously, on the verge of falling. The money had spilled out right from the mouth of this torn sack.
At the sight of the money, Gu Ting’s exhaustion vanished instantly. She immediately brought over a stool to reach the sack. Possessing a tall stature and a long reach, she yanked the burlap sack down in one go. When she saw the remaining amount of cash inside the sack, Gu Ting couldn’t help but gasp, her hands trembling so much she almost couldn’t hold it steady.
No matter how many zeros there were on a bank card, it could never match the visual impact of cold, hard cash.
She composed herself, squatted down to gather the bills scattered across the floor, and once that was done, she simply sat on the floor and began counting the money.
She steadily improved her counting speed through practice, taking a significant amount of time to finish. It was exactly two million yuan—not a single bill more, not a single bill less.
As her excitement gradually subsided, Gu Ting couldn’t help but fall into deep thought. Two million yuan in cash hidden away in a dilapidated rental apartment? It was bizarre, far too bizarre. Did this exist before the fake Gu Ting moved in? Or was it the fake Gu Ting’s own money? Hadn’t they said the fake Gu Ting was swindled out of all her property by her ex-boyfriend? How could there still be two million yuan in savings? Where on earth did this money come from?
Gu Ting racked her brains to no avail and simply decided to stop thinking about it, because this had already exceeded the imagination of her 24-year identity as a poor person.
Regardless of whether she thought about it or not, the two million yuan was right there, neither increasing nor decreasing. It was better to fill her stomach first.
She found some dried noodles and eggs in the refrigerator, lit the stove to boil water, and used her free time to plug her phone in to charge.
Once power was restored, the phone turned on automatically. While Gu Ting was in the kitchen, the message notification tone in the bedroom rang out a dozen or twenty times consecutively. Gu Ting returned to the bedroom to take a look; her WeChat calls had been completely bombarded by Luo Yuan.
“The premiere of XX is at midnight tonight. It was scheduled last week, so don’t you dare forget it!”
“I already reported this to President Wan, and people from the company are keeping an eye on it. Don’t you dare back out at the last minute!”
“It’s 12:10 AM already. Why hasn’t the stream started yet? What’s going on?”
“The streaming contract is a bit difficult because the company values your potential and wants to groom you, while also trying to push you to your limits. It’s actually for your own good. You need to learn to be grateful.”
“You’re so beautiful and have such a great figure. If you dress up a bit on stream, talk in a sweet, coquettish voice, and act cute, won’t rich older guys be lined up by the dozen? As long as you find ways to keep those older guys happy, a casual tip from them will be enough to ensure you never have to worry about food or clothes again! If you work a bit harder, let alone your medical expenses, even the five-million-yuan debt isn’t impossible to pay off.”
“The internet is all virtual anyway; it’s just putting on a show. Once you turn off the computer, who knows you offline? You don’t know how to play games, and you don’t know how to sing or dance, so this is the fastest shortcut to make money. Trust Brother Luo. I look at you like a younger sister. I genuinely want to help you and would never trick you.”
“…” What followed was a pile of similar nonsense, which could be summarized in one sentence: urging Gu Ting to enter the adult entertainment industry… no, to do suggestive streaming.
Luo Yuan’s words sounded like complete garbage to Gu Ting. Out of the vast amount of information, she extracted only one key point: failing to stream meant paying a penalty.
Gu Ting: “WTF?” Why did it feel like the fake Gu Ting’s life was surrounded by traps at every turn? The company trapped her, the management trapped her, the agent trapped her, the ex-boyfriend trapped her, and even her residence was a trap. The fake Gu Ting’s luck was truly one of a kind.
Gu Ting couldn’t help but feel a wave of self-pity, since all these traps were now inherited and fully taken over by her.
She checked the time; it was 12:30 AM. It wasn’t considered too late past the agreed time. She swiftly stepped into her role as a working stiff, found an old desktop computer in the utility room, and turned it on. The computer’s response speed was considerably faster than she expected.
Once it booted up, she figured it out: the computer must be a second-hand piece used by the scumbag Li Xingzhou. Because he had coaxed the fake Gu Ting into buying him a brand-new model, this phased-out machine had been given to the fake Gu Ting.
The streaming software had been installed beforehand, presumably by the fake Gu Ting. Gu Ting found the account and login password in the message history, and after confirming a successful login, she dropped the mouse and ran back to the kitchen to cook her noodles and fry the eggs.
She was truly enamored with the bowl she had picked up from the roadside tonight. Gu Ting washed it thoroughly several times, and once its beauty was restored, the bowl looked even more radiant and dazzling. Gu Ting joyfully used it to hold her noodles.
Ten minutes later, Gu Ting brought over a large bowl of noodles and began buried her head in devouring the food. She hadn’t eaten a home-cooked meal of her own making in a long time, and added to the fact that she was truly starving, she ate with complete abandon for a moment, finding it incredibly delicious.
People began entering and leaving the streaming room. Some clicked in only to see a steaming large bowl and the round top of a head, leaving quickly. In the end, the only ones who stayed were four or five genuine foodies—people who didn’t care about looks at all and were purely drawn in by Gu Ting’s vigorous eating momentum.
“Streamer, the first bite of food should always be tasted by the family members first, don’t you understand that?”
“Gourmand girl, you have successfully triggered my appetite. Tell me, woman, what will you use to repay me?”
“Woman, seeing me tear open packages of spicy strips and potato chips, pour water to steep my instant noodles, and order milk tea which is currently on the way—are you happy now? You don’t actually want to stream to make me happy; you just want to empty my wallet! Fatten my body! Numb my spirit! You are so wicked!”
“…”
Leaving those comments aside, in the streaming room with its scant viewers, less than twenty minutes after the broadcast began, the screen suddenly burst into full bloom with the special effects of a gift.
“Having suffered from anorexia for three years, watching the streamer eat noodles tonight somehow gave me a bit of an appetite. Thank you, streamer. Heading out for a midnight snack.” Leaving this message, a user named ‘Don’t Like Eating’ left the streaming room.
“If I saw correctly, ‘Don’t Like Eating’ only entered the streaming room three minutes ago. Three minutes cured the anorexia?”
“I believe it, because I would absolutely never tip 1,000 yuan just for these three minutes. Damn it, if someone tipped me 1,000 yuan, let alone one bowl, I could eat down ten bowls!”
Gu Ting was eating to the point of sweating a little, and she finally spared a glance upward at the screen. Seeing the numerous bullet comments, she was actually startled for a moment. “Whoa, there are actually live humans here?”
The previous second: “Can the streamer speak like a human?”
After seeing the streamer’s face clearly: “A fairy naturally speaks the language of fairies; it was our presumption.”
“Holy crap, I told my mom that the reason I don’t sleep at midnight every day is to wait for a fairy, and she didn’t believe me. Now she has no choice but to believe it!”
“I’m drunk. Even though I didn’t drink any alcohol, beauty is intoxicating. Streamer, you have to take responsibility!”
Gu Ting used the computer screen to examine herself left and right. “Beautiful? I just have somewhat delicate features, somewhat large eyes, somewhat fair skin, a somewhat tall height, and a somewhat good figure. There isn’t really anything else outstanding, is there?”
The viewers: “…”
“To be honest, the streamer’s thick skin is a step above her beauty.”
“+1”
“+2”
“…”
Due to her outstanding appearance, a great number of new viewers flooded into the streaming room within a short period, and the bullet comments became increasingly varied.
“How old is the streamer? C or D? (winking and smirking)”
“Streamer, take a look at your private messages to understand this brother’s financial strength.”
“Does the streamer need a boyfriend? The kind with an eight-pack. You’re welcome to slide down this brother’s abs anytime.”
Gu Ting took it all in and let out a chuckle. “I don’t lack a boyfriend; I only lack a grandson—the kind with all-around development in morals, intelligence, physical fitness, and aesthetics. Oh, unfortunately, you haven’t met the standard on any of them.”
“I looked at the private message. You dare to send something the size of eye crust? I couldn’t tell your quality was so lacking, but your confidence is quite high. I truly admire people like you!”
After a brief silence, the number of viewers in the streaming room dropped by half, while the remaining half were frantically typing “Hahahahaha.”
Gu Ting had watched live streams back when she was in university and knew that a stream needed to have its own content; it was very difficult to build an account relying solely on casual chatting. Seeing fewer and fewer bullet comments, she simply decided to tend to her own business, searching for streaming rooms of interest on the homepage to click into and learn from their experience.
After all, barring any unexpected events, she would have to stay at Cheng Gong Entertainment until her contract expired, and might even have to rely on streaming to make a living. Since she had to do it anyway, she might as well find a way to do it well.
She firmly believed: I am the main character, and in my world, I can shine brightly wherever I go!
Gu Ting clicked open the homepage and saw that the streaming room ranked first had a popularity score that was leagues ahead of the rest, higher than the combined popularity of the next eight streaming rooms below it—high to an absurd degree. She immediately clicked in; she wanted to see what special charm this streamer possessed.
One minute later, she, along with the dozens of foodies and face-admirers in her streaming room, all grew excited! This wasn’t a case of the streamer having charm; it was clearly the invincible charm radiated by money—the wealthy second-generation heir in the number one streaming room was so rich that he was actually holding a lucky draw for a house on the platform!
People have seen lucky draws for cash, lucky draws for phones, lucky draws for limited editions, and lucky draws for various gifts, but have you ever seen a live stream holding a lucky draw for a house?
A house! A house that many families could only afford after emptying six bank accounts! Although the streamer didn’t clearly state the location of the house, seeing this wealthy second-generation streamer wearing luxury watches worth tens of millions in total, the house he was giving away certainly wouldn’t be too bad, right?
Gu Ting marveled repeatedly. “No father, no mother, no one to rely on, no savings, no house… isn’t this lucky draw tailor-made for me? Since Heaven has brought the food right to my mouth, how could I not eat it?”
While speaking, she had already completed the account recharge, swiftly secured a fan badge, and clicked to participate in the lucky draw. Her speed was so fast it left people dumbfounded, as if delaying for a single second would cause her to miss out on millions.
The only dozens of viewers left in her streaming room took note of this and began flooding the bullet comments again.
“The serious look on the streamer’s face makes it seem like she really thinks she can win the house. Dying of laughter.”
“On the first day of work, didn’t earn a single penny, tossed the fans aside, and rushed to the lucky draw first. I won’t say who it is.”
“Beautiful women love lucky draws, and I love lucky draws too. Beautiful woman = me. No objections from those present, right?”
“The streamer could clearly rely on her face to make a living, yet she still chooses to rely on herself. What right do you have to judge her? I’m going to join the draw right now to support the streamer with my actions.”
“Streamer, you won’t get a word of thanks for buying a one-yuan badge for someone else, but I am different. If you add me as a friend and send me one yuan, I will thank you once every day!”
Gu Ting rested her face on one hand and let out a particularly arrogant, wicked snort. “Ignorant mortals, you know absolutely nothing about this streamer’s financial luck!”