Though worried, the fan light badge was after all what the little female had requested, so Leona sent it first. Then he pulled down the gift list and selected the most expensive Carnival.
Afraid that sending too much might startle this little female living in such difficult conditions, Leona clicked on ten.
His balance, so long it stretched beyond sight, decreased by only a negligible amount. On Xia Zhi’s screen, however, the space was instantly flooded by the magnificent special effects of the Carnival.
It was actually a gift worth 3,000 RMB on the Shanyin platform!
Xia Zhi was just about to thank the sender for the Carnival when the next moment, a message popped up below: [Leona has sent 100 Carnivals!]
She had thought there was only one, but unexpectedly, the other party had sent a hundred in a row. Converted to RMB, Leona had spent three hundred thousand, and she would receive one hundred and fifty thousand.
That happened to be exactly the tuition for the classical dance private lessons Xia Zhi had wanted to enroll in.
Just by singing one song, she had earned this much money?
Xia Zhi’s hand trembled shamelessly. Had she, just like that, encountered a big spender who appreciated her singing?
For a fresh graduate with no job who wanted to pursue her dreams, this money really mattered!
“Thank you, Mr. Leona, for your generosity.” Xia Zhi’s eyes sparkled. “Let me sing another song for you—what would you like to hear?”
As Xia Zhi’s words fell, the number of viewers in the livestream instantly jumped from 1 to 5,000.
A gift worth 300,000 RMB had brought a huge wave of traffic to the stream.
[A new streamer? Only seven fans and already noticed by some unknown big spender? I’ve never seen an account starting with that before.]
[I just scrolled past this streamer earlier. Eyes that big, features that perfect—clearly one of those with beauty filter settings cranked way up. Who knows how ugly she really is? Don’t let yourselves be fooled, gentlemen!]
[I agree. Previously I spent over a hundred thousand on a girl just to add her on WeChat. Once she video-called me without turning on her beauty filter, and I was so shocked I almost threw up.]
[Why is it set to private? Open up the permissions and let me see who this fool is who dropped 300k on a beauty-filtered streamer.]
Xia Zhi had set her livestream to private accounts, so no one but herself could see the full names of the viewers in the room.
The audience was all curious about Leona’s account.
Xia Zhi was happy that the stream finally had more viewers, but at the same time, she became troubled. The content of the comments wasn’t friendly toward her—everyone was actually trying to talk Leona out of staying.
This was the important viewer who had brought her the first wave of traffic. According to the guide, to keep growing followers, you couldn’t afford to lose the big spenders willing to pay.
Would Leona really leave?
Xia Zhi stared at the screen, troubled.
Leona was looking up the meanings of “beauty filter” and “special effects” one by one, discovering they were methods of adjusting one’s appearance on virtual platforms. He felt puzzled.
If her singing could lower the Pollution Value, why would she still need to rely on such effects to please viewers? This little female called Zhizhi—how harsh must her living environment be?
But in the end, they were only strangers. Leona didn’t say anything more. He simply stared at the meaning of the word “girl” that had popped up, lost in thought.
In ancient times, beastmen had tried using “girl” and “boy” to distinguish between sexes. Later, they felt it lacked a certain primitive natural beauty, so they completely changed it to use only “female” and “male.”
The impoverished planet where this little female named Zhizhi lived must have been so backward that they still used such ancient terms of address.
Moreover, these males who called themselves “brothers” were far too impolite toward a noble female. Not only had they interrupted the little female’s singing, but they had also made her wear an unhappy expression.
Instinctively, Leona came to Xia Zhi’s defense: “Don’t be sad, Zhizhi. You are the most beautiful girl in this world.”
Afraid that Xia Zhi might not be accustomed to it, Leona kept the same gender titles used in the livestream room.
Seeing that Leona was still speaking, Xia Zhi felt reassured.
So she boldly said to the camera: “I’m glad to see so many viewers in my livestream room, but I haven’t turned on beauty filters.”
With that, Xia Zhi reached her hand in front of the camera, covering her face and waving it back and forth repeatedly.
If beauty filters had been on, such frequent covering and revealing of her face would have caused the filter to glitch for a moment.
The viewers in the livestream room were astonished.
“No way? There really are beauties in this world with small faces and big eyes without beauty filters?”
“Sorry, little miss, I spoke too harshly earlier. I’ll send you a little heart as an apology.”
“I think it’s the work of that Asian trick makeup technique. Even if it’s not a beauty filter, her makeup skills must be superb. Otherwise, with looks like that, she should have become famous long ago, right?”
Seeing that some still doubted her appearance, Xia Zhi furrowed her brow slightly but let it go.
She had promised Leona earlier that she would sing for him, and these netizens had delayed her for quite a while.
“I promised earlier… um, may I continue to call you by your livestream room name? The gentleman who sent me a gift earlier?” Xia Zhi didn’t want to directly expose Leona’s privacy.
Leona was propping his head up with his fluffy right lion paw, while his left arm, which bore an old injury, was arranged in a stiff posture that wouldn’t cause him pain.
Hearing Xia Zhi ask him so politely, a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.
He hadn’t sensed it wrong—this little female named Zhizhi truly treated males with great courtesy.
This was completely different from the females Leona knew.
Enjoying the atmosphere of conversing with Xia Zhi, Leona’s golden eyes brimmed with amusement, and he sent a message in the bullet comments: “Of course, you may address me however you wish.”
With Leona’s permission, Xia Zhi opened her song list, read through it, and asked: “Mr. Leona, which one would you like to hear?”
Hearing the name Leona, the live audience curiously used the Shanyin software’s account search function, but couldn’t find Leona’s account at all.
“The big shot has search blocking enabled too? Not very confident at all.”
“Big shot, listen to some opera-style songs. I like listening to Lingren.”
“Jay Chou’s Sunny Day sounds better!”
Everyone was requesting songs, but Leona alone said: “Just sing whatever you like.”
Xia Zhi smiled. “Then I’ll sing ‘Writing a Poem for You’ for you.”
When she had been studying earlier, a blogger had mentioned that songs were a way to express one’s true feelings. She was very grateful for Leona’s appearance, so singing this song seemed fitting for the occasion.
In the original version of “Writing a Poem for You,” male low notes and high notes were mixed together. When Xia Zhi sang it with her own voice, the low notes became more gentle and soft, and the high notes carried a different charm—an entirely different feeling.
After finishing the song, before Xia Zhi could carefully read through the bullet comments, a PK request popped up on her screen.
[Streamer Dou Dou requests a PK connection with you. Accept?]
Seeing Dou Dou’s avatar and ID, Xia Zhi guessed that Dou Dou was also a female streamer in the beauty category.
The bullet comments in her livestream room were quickly flooded out by this female streamer’s fans.
[Accept it, accept it, accept it—our Dou Dou loves taking down fake-authentic streamers like you.]
[That big spender of this newbie’s is definitely acting, it’s scripted. Everyone support her accepting Dou Dou’s PK—if she loses, make her remove her makeup on stream!]
[Remove makeup? I want to see that, hahaha.]
For a moment, the bullet comments were all urging Xia Zhi to accept the PK.
Xia Zhi knew the rules of PK.
Two streamers video-connect, and within a set time limit, fans on both sides send gifts. The losing streamer has to agree to one request from the winning streamer.
Whether she won or lost the PK, she could still gain followers.
“Alright, then I’ll accept the PK.”
Just as Xia Zhi finished speaking, a notification popped up at the bottom of the screen.
[Marshal Leona of the Nado Empire has left your livestream room!]
Leona left? Why?
Xia Zhi tapped open her following list, trying to click into Leona’s account, but it had already been set to private.
[Why did the big spender suddenly leave? The song the streamer just sang was pretty nice.]
[Maybe he already has someone else he likes, and just dropped by Zhizhi’s room for a change of pace?]
[Heh heh, who knows? Maybe he actually listened to what we said—that Zhizhi’s beauty comes from makeup sorcery, and she’s actually ugly without it?]
Xia Zhi was reflecting on whether she’d used her singing technique poorly just now when Leona left, but hearing the viewers say Leona was afraid she’d be too ugly after removing her makeup, she sighed a little inwardly.
Even if she removed today’s makeup, there wouldn’t be much difference from her real appearance.
If Leona had only followed her because of her looks, then he’d inevitably follow someone else for their looks in the future. In that case, she shouldn’t be too bothered about Leona leaving.
After comforting herself, Xia Zhi decided not to waste the popularity that Leona’s gifts had brought, and accepted the PK.
Who knows—maybe she’d still gain followers?
Xia Zhi moved her mouse to the accept PK option, singing a song called “Love You” to try to rally votes.
What Xia Zhi didn’t know was that after she finished singing “Writing a Poem for You,” Leona had already completely lost the ability to think.
The song “Writing a Poem for You” sounded like it was written for a lover. Not only did his heart pound wildly as he listened, but the Pollution Value on the monitor had actually dropped directly to 10%.