6.3 - Livestream room's No. 1 fan

Chapter 112: Livestream room's No. 1 fan

City A, the capital of China, is densely populated and has sky-high real estate prices. In this sprawling metropolis, where skyscrapers dominate the skyline, real estate developers are eager to acquire even the smallest plot of land in prime locations and build structures reaching the sky. However, right in the heart of City A, where land should be most coveted, there stands a large ancient building that appears utterly out of place.

Changping Road, originally called Zhanlong Path^[1], was renamed after the founding of China due to its ominous connotations. Despite the name change, those in the Martial Arts community still refer to it by its original name. But what was beheaded on Zhanlong Path wasn't actually a dragon, but a serpent.

In the time long before modern civilization, when people still believed in gods and ghosts, everyone's thoughts were purer and stronger. Therefore, although the population density was far lower than in today's cities, the higher quality of belief gave rise to mutated creatures that were considerably stronger than those of modern times.

Conversely, communication in ancient times relied solely on word of mouth, nowhere near the reach of modern social networks. However, the faith of the ancients was more sincere and enduring. For powerful Martial Artists who protected the peace of a region, the local people in every household would enshrine their names and sincerely offer prayers every morning and evening. Folklore has it that Martial Artists who had reached the peak of their abilities could even move mountains and overturn seas.

This Zhanlong Path is where a Martial Artist of supreme skill once slayed a mutated serpent that took the form of an evil dragon. According to legend, this evil dragon wreaked havoc in the ancient capital every night, devouring nearly half the city's population, and causing panic among the people. Even many Martial Artists who heard the news and came to vanquish the beast were swallowed by it. Eventually, a Martial Artist surnamed Gu fought the evil dragon for ten days and ten nights, finally slaying it.

However, the evil dragon's overwhelming malice^[2] did not dissipate, so the Martial Artist Gu settled in the city and practiced at the site where the evil dragon died, using his own thoughts to suppress the evil dragon's malice.

That's the origin of the Gu family on Changping Road. Today, the Gu family has grown into a vast and powerful clan, with only the main family still residing on Changping Road, using the thoughts of their Martial Artists to continue suppressing the evil dragon's malice. While the current Gu family is the most low-key of the five major Ancient Martial Clans in China, the fact is their strength is the most inscrutable.

The Gu family has a tradition: each year, they select exceptionally talented young Martial Artists from their various branches, and even from outside the family, to study at the Gu family's main estate. This is not only to cultivate talents, but also to suppress the evil dragon's malice with the thoughts of these prodigies.

In the Gu family's martial arts academy, under a long, intricately carved corridor, two boys, about seventeen or eighteen years old, were huddled together, whispering to each other.

"Let me show you something good," said the boy with dyed yellow hair.

"You actually smuggled your phone in?" replied the other boy, wearing a black wrist guard.

"I have advanced cell phone cancer^[3]. A whole week in this closed training camp without phone access will kill me! Cut the crap. I'm only sharing this with you 'cause we're bros. You wanna see or not?"

"Of course I wanna look! I miss my precious phone so much," said the boy with the wrist guard, equally excited.

"I'm gonna share my goddess with you. My forever love!" The yellow-haired boy had a dreamy, lovestruck expression on his face.

"Come on, you said the exact same thing a month ago."

"It's different this time. I'll be loyal to him 'til death..." The yellow-haired boy rolled his eyes, thinking his friend would understand once he saw the goddess for himself.

"Wait… Isn't this… a guy?!" The boy with the wristguard stared in disbelief.

"Gu Thirteen, Gu Fourteen."

Gu Thirteen and Gu Fourteen were certainly not the real names of the two boys; they were just their code names in the closed training camp.

"Little…little great uncle^[4]!" The two boys jumped up in a panic, and in their rush, they even bumped their heads together. But they didn't even dare rub their heads, instead standing up straight and stiffly turning to face the person who had just arrived.

The person the two boys called "little great uncle" wasn't actually old—he looked about twenty or so. He was Gu Lingjun, the youngest son of the Gu family patriarch, born when the patriarch was already fifty. So even though Gu Lingjun was young, his seniority in the clan was extremely high. The fathers of the two boys, both in their forties or fifties, still had to respectfully call him "little uncle."

In the Ancient Martial Arts world, where seniority was strictly observed, the Gu family patriarch was already a great master of legendary^[5] status. Most high-ranking Martial Artists in the Ancient Martial Arts world would address Gu Lingjun with respect as Gu family's "little martial uncle." And those of lower rank or standing would even have to call him Gu family's "martial great uncle."

Moreover, Gu Lingjun truly lived up to his father's esteemed reputation. Despite his young age, he was already a lower-rank Heaven-tier Martial Artist. The gap between Heaven-tier and Earth-tier is like a vast chasm, and some Martial Artists spend their entire lives stuck at the upper Earth-tier, unable to make any progress.

From a young age, Gu Lingjun had a calm and aloof personality. His chiseled face always carried a serene expression, devoid of any unnecessary emotion. Coupled with his high seniority and exceptional talent, he had left his peers far behind. By the time his family realized this, Gu Lingjun already behaved like a little old man, always calm and composed, no matter the situation.

The Gu family patriarch grew concerned that if his youngest son continued on this path, he might develop social difficulties. To help him break out of his shell, the patriarch assigned Gu Lingjun to the martial training grounds to mentor the talented youth of the family. He hoped that being around others his age might liven up his youngest son's reserved personality.

But things didn't go as planned. These youngsters treated Gu Lingjun like mice before a cat, fearing him even more than any elder in the family. None of them dared to play or joke around with him.

"Bringing a phone into camp—twenty kilometers," came a voice, as melodious as jade striking jade, yet devoid of any emotion.

"Yes!" The two boys responded immediately, too scared to even breathe too loudly.

Gu Lingjun watched them scurry away without any change in expression, then he calmly turned to leave. As he took his first step, his foot hit something—the boy's phone left behind on the ground.

He glanced down, bent over, and picked it up, accidentally touching the replay button on the screen.

What appeared on the screen was a slim back figure of someone between a boy and a young man. His posture was as straight as a poplar. He then moved to adjust the camera, making sure only the graceful curve of his chin was visible.

"Today, I'll show you how to perfectly transform into a young lady."

So inappropriate. Young people nowadays all like playing to the gallery, Gu Lingjun thought to himself, though his hand didn't put the phone down. Instead, he found himself watching intently.

As the video neared its end, a gorgeous yet quite aggressive face appeared on the screen. Gu Lingjun's pupils contracted, and the hand holding the phone trembled ever so slightly.

Gu Thirteen only got his beloved phone back when the closed training camp ended. He took the phone out of the brown paper bag, casually shoved the bag into Gu Fourteen's hands, and immediately logged onto the OhMyMy platform, eager to send a gift to his beloved goddess.

"F*ck me! Laozi's account has been hacked!" Gu Thirteen roared.

"What happened?"

"All my balance is gone! I just topped up my account, and that was two months' worth of pocket money!" Gu Thirteen was so angry his hands were shaking, barely able to hold onto his phone. "Let me check the transaction history. I need to find out which uploader my gifts went to. I'm gonna spam their comment section with hundreds of complaints to show my anger!"

"..." Gu Fourteen was speechless at his misguided wrath.

"Huh? I can't believe all the gifts went to my goddess. The hacker has good taste. But hold on! I was going to give this money to my goddess so that he could kiss me, hug me and lift me high. Damn hacker dog, give me back my goddess' kisses, hugs and high lifts!" Gu Thirteen was so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe when he thought of this scene.

"Hey, there's still money in the envelope." Gu Fourteen felt the brown paper bag in his hand was heavy, so he took a look inside while Thirteen was busy venting.

Gu Thirteen took the bag and counted the money, surprised to find that the amount inside was actually more than what had been spent from his account. "Weird... Could someone have found my phone and been so enchanted by my goddess that they impulsively sent gifts? Then, after realizing they used someone else's account, they put the cash in the bag to return it to me?"

"Hey, do you think it could be our little great uncle?!" Gu Fourteen said.

"Have you become stupid from all that training? It's that little great uncle. Can you even imagine him sending gifts while asking for kisses, hugs, and high lifts?" Gu Thirteen rolled his eyes.

"..." Hearing this, Gu Fourteen also felt that what he just said was moronic.

Lu Heng's streaming career was thriving. With the experience in the previous world, his makeup skills were almost godly. He could transform into any look he wanted with ease. Recently, "Idol^[6]" has practically become the leading actress—bah! I mean—the leading anchor of the OhMyMy streaming platform.

In Idol's livestream room, one fan is particularly eye-catching. In the words of other fans, this fan named SovereignGu^[7] was simply a rich but inhumane loyal tyrant. Some fans even calculated that the total value of the gifts SovereignGu smashed in Idol's livestream had already surpassed a million.

What's even more ridiculous was that this account was just a newly registered alternate account, and all of its gift-giving history was tied solely to the Idol's stream. This led some haters to speculate that Idol was using a second account to hype himself, causing hubbub across the platform.

The situation got so heated that the platform's official team had to step in to clarify. They revealed that the IP addresses of Idol and SovereignGu were not even in the same city, finally quelling the uproar. Despite all the accusations flying around, SovereignGu never stopped his gift-smashing spree, even during the height of the controversy.

One day, Lu Heng received a call from the Zhou family when he was halfway through his livestream. Apologizing briefly to his fans, he got up to take the call, unaware that the indicator light on the microphone was still on.

On the other end of the call was Mother Zhou. She said tenderly that she had been missing Lu Heng and asked him to come home for dinner over the weekend.

Lu Heng agreed politely, but inside, he was wondering what kind of trouble the Zhou family might be stirring up this time. It had been nearly three months since he had moved out, and the Zhou family had ignored him, so why were they suddenly inviting him home for dinner?

After hanging up the phone, Lu Heng returned to his study. The moment he sat down in front of his computer, he found that the barrage was crowding the screen.

"Oh~ Idol is from S city! His soft accent is so cute~"

"When Idol speaks in his hometown dialect, it's totally different from his super aggressive female attire~"

"I am also a native of City S. Idol, please grace me with your presence^[8]."

Suddenly, all the chatter was wiped away by a long stream of gifts flooding the screen, followed by a single message:

SovereignGu: You're in S City?

Thinking that admitting it wasn't a big deal since S City had millions of residents and there was no real risk of being exposed, Lu Heng calmly replied to his No. 1 fan's question: "That's right, I'm a native of S City."

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Footnotes:

[1] 斩龙道: Zhan means beheading/chopping. Zhanlong Path = Beheading Dragon Path. Dragons are a big deal in Chinese culture, a symbol of strength and magnanimity. China is often referred to as “red dragon,” so it's obvious why the street was renamed.

[2] 戾气: murderous aura; evil energy.

[3] Phone addiction.

[4] 叔公: great uncle; little great uncle sounds hilarious but that's what it is.

[5] 泰山北斗: as weighty as Mt Tai, as brilliant as the Big Dipper. Meaning: a giant among men; eminent and accomplished figure in a field.

[6] 教主: Jiaozhu is the head of a religious sect (modern title: cult leader). It's also a title for a pop or film star worshiped by fans. I'm translating "jiaozhu daren" simply as Idol.  

[7] 君临一顾 roughly means "a single glance that commands the world" or "a glance from the sovereign." I'm using SovereignGu as it's easy to remember.

[8] 临幸: (of emperor) to spend the night with (a concubine) and also (of emperor) to visit (a place) personally. It's a double meaning.

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Translator:

A certain Gu is gonna dash to S city~

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