╰(°▽°)╯
Lin Mi’s heart skipped violently.
This must be the three-million-yuan inkstone.
At that moment, she finally understood why no one cared about it.
Because it looked far too ordinary.
If she didn’t have the “Wealth-Boost System,” even if someone handed this inkstone to her, she wouldn’t recognize its value.
She carefully picked it up and casually asked, “Boss, what’s the story behind this inkstone? It looks pretty old, even has some patina. Are you sure you didn’t pick it up from some junk pile?”
“Sigh! Girl, listen to yourself. Our shop doesn’t sell fakes. Although I can’t pinpoint the exact era, this inkstone definitely has a few years on it. If you like it, you can have it for a thousand.”
Hearing her comment, the shop owner hurried over, explaining with a pained expression as if he had already given her the biggest discount possible.
“A thousand? That’s expensive. Can’t it go any lower? I’m spending my family’s allowance, you know.” Lin Mi put on her best bargaining act.
Compared to its true value, a thousand was nothing.
But she couldn’t look too eager.
The shop owner sighed helplessly. “Young lady, that price is already low. Our shop is overloaded with inventory, so I urgently need to clear out old items. If you really want it, how about 888? Nice lucky number—let’s both ‘get rich’!”
“…”
Lin Mi’s mouth twitched. The boss really cared about symbolism.
Honestly, even if he didn’t lower the price at all, she would’ve bought it.
She had already gotten the biggest bargain of all.
Lin Mi scanned the code and paid, then walked out of the shop carrying the very simply packaged inkstone.
Once she stepped out of Elegant Rhyme Studio, she let out a long breath and gently put the inkstone into her bag.
She wasn’t short on money now, so she wasn’t in a hurry to sell it. Still, she needed a real expert to authenticate it. If she could get an appraisal certificate, even better—much easier to sell later.
**
After finishing her business, it was only around ten in the morning. She told the sales office she’d come in the afternoon, so with time to spare, she found a quiet café and sat down.
She had rushed out early to catch this treasure and hadn’t even done today’s system task yet.
“What’s going on?”
Seeing the glaring red 99+ in her notification bar, Lin Mi froze.
What happened?
Did her messages explode?
“How does someone like me suddenly have so many messages? I’m not… Internet-flamed, right? I didn’t do anything!”
Her heart tightened. With trembling fingers, she opened her “interaction messages.”
Seeing the long list of red dots, she swallowed hard.
“Eh? Miss is so pretty!”
“@QiuQiu is this her?”
“Oh my god! She’s even prettier than in the surveillance footage.”
“Is this a goddess?”
“She looks like a college student. You’re so brave! Like, like, like!”
“Heroic young lady! Liking!”
“Ahhh my goddess! Love you~”
Lin Mi frowned as she skimmed through a few comments.
The content was completely baffling.
She scrolled faster. The comments were all praising her, mixed with tons of new followers and likes on her previous videos.
“Phew—scared me to death. Thank goodness it’s not cyberbullying.”
She patted her chest in relief. That explosion of notifications had terrified her.
Her videos usually got barely two hundred views. When had she ever experienced a sudden surge like this?
Her first instinct was naturally to assume she was being doxxed or attacked.
“What is happening…”
Calming herself, she finally examined the comments carefully.
A few minutes later, she understood everything.
Everyone had come from a trending video.
The video was footage of her guiding and calming people in the hallway and conference room of Starshine International Hotel during the fire incident.
Although the footage wasn’t very clear, several frames showed her face clearly.
In the video, the hotel manager repeatedly announced that they wanted to thank the young woman who had helped save countless lives.
He hoped she would contact them after seeing the video.
Since the scene had been chaotic yesterday, all hotel staff were busy with rescue efforts and comforting guests. No one had time to investigate what exactly happened.
And Lin Mi had left immediately after confirming that there were no casualties, without leaving any information behind.
The hotel received numerous guest reports afterward and only then learned about the young girl who appeared at the right moment. This prompted them to pull surveillance footage.
And that led to the public search video.
The video went viral because Starshine International Hotel publicly posted an “urgent search for the young heroine” online.
They included surveillance clips and a heartwarming message.
In less than half a day, it hit the trending list.
Countless enthusiastic and curious netizens joined the search.
Experts truly hide among the people— the Internet creates geniuses!
And finally, netizens managed to track her down in the vast online world.
She had to admit—they were amazing.
Her “SoundNote” account only had about ten videos, and just two showed her face.
Yet, they still pinpointed her accurately.
No wonder her first thought was that she’d been doxxed and attacked.
“So this is going viral overnight?”
Her account originally had only 117 followers.
After this trending event, her followers skyrocketed to seventy thousand!
Lin Mi couldn’t help smiling.
She didn’t expect things to develop like this.
It was a pleasant surprise.
Her “Wealth-Boost System” required popularity to convert into energy. She originally thought she’d have to rely on likes and comments, but after trying these past few days, the efficiency was low.
She never imagined yesterday’s rescue mission would bring such a bonus reward.
With this surge of attention, her energy value would surely jump too!
As for becoming popular? She didn’t care.
She had no interest in being an influencer.
But if she could occasionally gain a burst of popularity to boost her energy value, that would be great.
“Today is such a good day~”
She found a three-million-yuan inkstone first thing in the morning, and now she just harvested a wave of popularity.
Her smile bloomed even brighter.
Happily, she switched to the system panel and completed today’s sign-in task.
With the familiar notification sound, her balance jumped again.
Seeing the several new zeros behind the number, she couldn’t help grinning.
It really was over 160 million!
She finally had a “small goal” of her own.
(End of chapter)