n

n

n

ntranslator: baumkuchen editors: serefina, glitterypanda

nYang Baihua couldn’t bear having Cheng Yuan appear behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes and couldn’t bear to guess at the endless possibilities of what had happened to him. But Cheng Yuan was staying in his parents’ mansion with the full security absolutely worthy of the incredibly expensive yearly property fees. Furthermore, Cheng Yuan was the type of person who wouldn’t go out the front door nor even take a step out into the yard. If given a piano, he could happily spend an entire month cooped up at home.

nYang Baihua grit his teeth and went to find Cheng Jian.

nOn his way home from work, Cheng Jian was stopped by Yang Baihua.

nUpon hearing his purpose for coming, Cheng Jian used a gaze he would use to look at inorganic compounds to give him a considering look, “You want Xiao Yuan to come back?

nAlthough Cheng Jian and Cheng Yuan’s temperaments were as different as night and day, they had similar features. Having that face stare at him with such contempt, Yang Baihua felt particularly uncomfortable.

nHe took a deep breath and said, “I’ll treat Xiao Cheng well. I……”

nCheng Jian cut him off, “Tell your parents about the relationship between you two, and then I’ll let Xiao Yuan consider it.”

nYang Baihua’s breath got stuck in his throat.

nCheng Jian sneered, “What? Didn’t you say that you would treat Xiao Yuan well?”

nCheng Jian’s aura was too domineering. Facing him, Yang Baihua couldn’t keep his voice from trembling, “Xiao Yuan agreed to…… he said that he would give me some time to deal with this matter, that he will face it together with me……”

nCheng Jian really wanted to say “give you a mother**ing pork leg”, but right now he already couldn’t be bothered to scold Yang Baihua. He’d be better off saving his breath.

nHe waved a hand dismissively, “I don’t have the time to waste on you right now. Whenever you deal with it, come find me. But next time remember to make an appointment. Don’t jump out in front of my car like that. If I run you over then whose fault would that be?”

nHe didn’t give Yang Baihua the chance to argue any further, slamming his foot on the accelerator. It was just too bad that this car was an eco-friendly vehicle, and so he had no way of hitting Yang Baihua with a full face of car exhaust fumes. It was truly regretful.

nAfter he let off some steam, Cheng Jian was slightly worried that Yang Baihua would smash the cracked pot since it was already broken and run over to his company to publicise all the matters between him and Cheng Yuan.

nBut the facts showed that Yang Baihua was not only as quiet as a chicken, but practically as quiet as an egg.

nTo this, Chi Xiaochi, who was cracking melon seeds on the sidelines, was completely calm. He drew blood at the first prick, saying to 061, “Yang Baihua really values saving face, much more than my brother does.”

n061, even after a round of carefully examining this sentence, wasn’t clear for a while on who Chi Xiaochi was actually insulting.

nChi Xiaochi then asked, “Liu-laoshi, Tang Huan’s new album should be coming out soon, right?”

n061 had long since gotten used to this wonderful, “Tony-laoshi”-esque title. After a quick check, he answered, “Yes. The annual anniversary of Tang Huan’s debut is coming up in a week. She’ll be releasing her album then, like in the original timeline.”

n

n

nThe entertainment industry here had developed in a similar way to the one in Chi Xiaochi’s original world.

nBecause of widespread piracy and other such reasons, the record industry had inevitably been on the decline since ten years ago. Singers had no choice but to start up sideline careers, participate in variety shows, or simply go into business. Those focusing only on music were becoming fewer and fewer. A lot of refined EPs containing only 3 to 5 songs had started to appear, gradually replacing albums and becoming the main product of the music market.

nSpecially “changing it up” for the fifth anniversary of her debut and giving it abundant advertising and publicity, Yundu Entertainment made the emphasis it placed on Tang Huan clear for all to see.

nChi Xiaochi logged onto Cheng Yuan’s Weibo.

nWeibo’s loading page was filled with Tang Huan’s sweet, smiling face. He directly skipped the ad and was brought to his homepage.

nHe’d been especially active on Weibo for the past few days, and his fancount had also broken through the ten thousands.

nYesterday night, he’d made a post saying that in order to celebrate reaching ten thousand fans, he was going to have a livestream and would randomly pick three lucky users to send a song each to. These songs were all songs he’d adapted as practice, so they should please keep it to themselves, by no means use it for commercial purposes, and so on.

n25 seconds after he posted, there was immediately a person replying, “Will Yuanyuan show his face in his livestream?”

nChi Xiaochi replied, “Show show show.”

nIn the end, the post got forwarded more than twenty thousand times, mostly for the purposes of ‘licking face’.

nChi Xiaochi was very satisfied with number, “Perfect.”

nHe started the giveaway and picked the winners. He picked a streaming site with relatively high user traffic and opened up a room. At 8pm at night, he started his stream.

n061 asked, “What are you going to name the room?”

nChi XIaochi didn’t need to think about it. He casually typed in a name, “How is it, isn’t it great?”

n061 came up and took a look, “Terrace’s Reflection Enters the Pool”.

n061, “……”

nChi Xiaochi was very proud, “All my social media accounts have this name.”

n061, “……”

nChi Xiaochi asked, “Liu-laoshi, why are you ignoring me?”

n061 thought, what do you want me to say? Should I advise you to not stay so attached to a dead person, or should I bring up the fact that the name is a little dirty?

nIn the end, he still said, “It’s really good.”

nAs they were waiting, Chi Xiaochi played a round of Aircraft Wars. Before he even reached the first boss, he was exploded into a firework by a little soldier.

nOvercome with boredom, he said, “I really miss my card game.”

n061 laughed.

nThe thing Chi Xiaochi liked most about 061 was his voice. His gentle voice had just the right amount of gravel. Especially before he slept, 061 would adjust the voice he used to read to Chi Xiaochi as his mind relaxed, making it hazier with a certain sleepiness to it.

nWith that kind of voice, he was perfectly suited to becoming a midnight radio anchorman.

nEven Chi Xiaochi, this old who had went through ten years of arduous training in the entertainment circles, couldn’t keep his ears from going numb when hearing him laugh.

nHe asked 061, “What are you laughing about?”

n061 said, “Actually two days ago, 023 sent something over to me, but I was just hesitating over whether or not to give it to you. After a lot of thought, I think it’d be best if I gave it to you.”

nChi Xiaochi, “What……”

nHe didn’t finish asking his question, because he noticed a familiar app appear on his phone screen.

n……Summoning Gods and Devils.

nChi Xiaochi opened the app with a tap of his finger. The account was still his own. 507 heroes quietly lay in his storage, just 6 short of a full set.

n061 said gently, “023 spent a lot of effort just to locate your phone. He captured its waveband and directly connected it to the system. Don’t worry, the server is still in your original world. However, the connection isn’t very good, so when battling it might lag a little and the friend function is blocked.”

n

n

nChi Xiaochi was extremely moved, “Liuliu-laoshi, you really are my dear form teacher.”

n061 coughed lightly, “Since entering my class, Chi Xiaochi-tongxue has been performing very well, so this is a reward.”

nEven though in theory, the more unfinished business Chi Xiaochi had left in his original world, the more likely he was to choose to go back, 061 had always believed that with rewards comes progress.

nSure enough, after completing his daily tasks, Chi Xiaochi, now in a good mood, finally raised the subject of his plans to 061.

n“Remember how I told you before, that for breaking the plot I have plans A, B and C?”

n061, “En.”

n“Plan C is to follow the original plotline, letting his younger cousin steal my songs and making Yang Baihua wrong me. Then I’ll act pitiful and make a fuss about committing suicide. Yang Baihua isn’t without his conscience, so like that piecing together one hundred regret points should be relatively easy.”

n061, “……”

nPutting it like that, out of all the ten hosts he had before, all ten of them had used the “worst” plan, C.

nAfter all, this was an unfamiliar world and this was about someone else’s life. The hosts didn’t dare to break away from the original timeline on their own initiative, only wanting stability.

nChi Xiaochi assessed, “You can absolutely complete the task this way, I can also do it. But I wouldn’t feel good about it.”

n061 completely agreed.

nAs a system, having to watch his hosts get pushed around to the breaking point by the scum gongs all day long, and working themselves to the bone to earn goodwill points, just for the few seconds of catharsis of being able to see the scum gongs’ incredible expressions when they finally escaped through death, no matter how you looked at it, it was a loss.

n061 asked, “Then plan B?”

nChi Xiaochi checked his watch, “There’s no rush, we can take it slow.”

nAt eight o’ clock, Chi Xiaochi punctually sat in front of the computer and greeted the audience, “Hello, everyone. Can you guys see me?”

nThe people in the livestream room weren’t very many, but coupled with the traffic brought by the website itself, there were more than two thousand immediate clicks and more than three hundred people online watching. For a new streamer, this was a pretty good number already.

nChi Xiaochi opened up the recording software, picked up his guitar, took a gulp of water to moisten his throat, and started singing.

nJust hearing the opening, 061, who thought that he’d managed to guess Chi Xiaochi’s strategy, was caught by surprise.

nChi Xiaochi wasn’t singing any of the three songs from his demo, but rather the few tunes he had been constantly singing while still staying in Yang Baihua’s rental apartment. With the addition of some lyrics he’d quickly written, his singing was incredibly beautiful.

n……It really was like what he said in his Weibo post about the giveaway, it was just a few practice songs.

n061 was rather perplexed.

nChi Xiaochi having a livestream and asking about when Tang Huan’s new album was being released, was it not to release his music ahead of time and gain the upper hand, catching Tang Huan’s side by surprise??

nNo matter what 061 was thinking, Chi Xiaochi’s mind and hands remained steady. As he sang, he had a slight smile on his face and his instrument-like vocal cords vibrated with ease. Especially in the parts without lyrics, where he was just humming lowly and singing lightly as he pleased, his voice almost perfectly blended with the sound of the guitar.

nEven though 061 didn’t have a physical body, his 360 degree view with no dead angles through his image receiver allowed him to see everything.

nCheng Yuan’s face was naturally handsome, but Chi Xiaochi’s self-confidence truly let his entire person glow with an enchanting brilliance.

nWhat kind of brilliance was it?

n……It was as if he didn’t need anything from anyone and didn’t need to please anyone. He didn’t even need anybody and could live well on his own, depending only on himself.

n061 didn’t dwell on it any longer, just focusing on watching the young man perform in front of the camera.

nThe livestream room was already filled with astounded exclamations.

n“What the **, he’s actually not part of the autotune association!”

n“66666.”

n“I was originally just here to eat watermelons, but right now I’ve just started envying the lucky giveaway winners……”

n“I just came, which singing livestreamer is this? Are they really famous?”

nThere were also quite a few people sending gifts. Though scattered, the number of people who couldn’t resist joining in became greater and greater, and ten minutes later, the number of people watching broke through the eight hundreds.

nChi Xiaochi put down the guitar and drank tho mouthfuls of water. He said calmly, “Everyone’s welcome to pick songs for me.”

n061 felt like Chi Xiaochi was rather strange.

nWhether it was when he went for his audition last time, or now when he was broadcasting, he didn’t speak much, not at all like the thick-skinned, foul-mouthed Chi Xiaochi’s style.

nIf it was because Cheng Jian was there during the audition so he couldn’t go against Cheng Yuan’s shy character settings and let himself go too much, on the internet, no one knew him, so he should’ve been able to let loose a little.

nBut he soon received an answer to his question.

n061 casually scanned the user connections of the people watching, and found that currently watching Chi Xiaochi’s livestream was an IP address belonging to Yang Baihua, as well as one from downstairs.

n061, “……” Ermmmm.

nYang Baihua’s username was “Japanese White Birch”. He hadn’t said anything, but after Chi Xiaochi finished singing three songs, he sent over a yacht.

nUsers who sent gifts of yacht-level or higher would have their usernames appear in the reward information bar above the streamer’s screen. The more high-level gifts they received, the more livestreamers’ experience points and income would rise.

nSome were jealous, “What the **, is it so easy for all new streamers nowadays?”

nAnd there were some who reminded Chi Xiaochi, “The mod position is still empty, why not give it to ‘Japanese White Birch’?”

nJust as this message was posted, the person with the signal originating from downstairs started to act.

n“I Have a Stupid Younger Brother gave Terrace’s Reflection Enters the Pool a mansion x1.”

n“I Have a Stupid Younger Brother gave Terrace’s Reflection Enters the Pool a yacht x1.”

n“I Have a Stupid Younger Brother gave Terrace’s Reflection Enters the Pool a sports car x1.”

nThis wasn’t just once, but ten times each.

nSuddenly, the reward information bar was entirely filled with news about “I Have a Stupid Younger Brother”.

nThe entire livestream room fell into a brief silence.

nFollowing that, rows of question marks and exclamation marks dominated the screen.

nChi Xiaochi sighed at 061, “Cheng Jian’s username is really straightforward.”

n061 laughed lightly, “Ha.”

nJust as Chi Xiaochi was going to ask what 061 was laughing at, he then saw a new round of notifications.

n“061 gave Terrace’s Reflection Enters the Pool super rockets x50.”

n……A yacht was equivalent to 1314 RMB, a mansion 2000, and a super rocket 2222.

nThe question marks and exclamation marks covered Cheng Yuan’s entire face, and covered up Chi Xiaochi’s momentary astonishment.

n061 said, “Even though I don’t know what you’re planning, but since you’ve started this livestream, the more publicity and influence the better, probably.”

nAlthough he said this, 061 just thought Chi Xiaochi’s performance deserved this many gifts.

nChi Xiaochi calmed down, “You’re playing with this much?”

n061 replied honestly, “Either way, to me numbers are just numbers.”

nChi Xiaochi, “……” I give your pretentiousness full marks.

nSystem’s rich now, he can take me to eat my fill and dress warmly.

nFor a while, Cheng Jian was also shaken by this number.

nFor the first time in his life, he felt what it was like to be smashed in the face with money. Big Brother Cheng felt a little complicated.

nChi Xiaochi explained to the audience, “It’s just a friend of mine and my brother messing around. Ge, don’t fuss.”

nCheng Jian’s hands shook.

nWhat the **, how’d he notice?

nCheng Jian immediately exited the livestream room, but felt that since he was already exposed, there was no point in hiding. Soon, he picked up his courage, reentered the livestream room, and officially issued his assessment, “En, your singing isn’t bad.”

nBut with a nickname of “I Have a Stupid Younger Brother” over his head and his sending a big bundle of gifts in one breath, Big Brother Cheng’s cold, aloof image was utterly obliterated.

nLooking at the bullet screen of comments such as “Caught a pampering younger brother devil”, “The anchor really is Ms. Perfect”, “Wait a minute, above, shouldn’t it be Mr. Perfect?”, and “My Tyrannical Older Brother Fell in Love with Me” as far as the eye could see, Cheng Jian couldn’t take it any longer, and slipped away.

nHaving been stirred up by the two men one after another, Yang Baihua, who had been the first to grit his teeth and send a yacht to try to get Cheng Yuan’s attention, had unexpectedly become passerby A.

nHe had already stopped caring about the pain.

nThe number ID of “061” seared Yang Baihua’s eyes, making them twinge with pain.

nWasn’t “61” a homophone for Lou Ying?!

nWhen he wasn’t by Xiao Cheng’s side, what kind of people were accompanying Xiao Cheng?

nAfter ending the livestream, Chi Xiaochi stretched out his body and threw himself into his plush bed. He gave his heartfelt praise, “Liu-laoshi, you really are a good system.”

n061 smiled and said, “Take it as a bribe.”

n“What are you bribing me for?”

n061 said, “How about you explain your plans to me?”

n“Which plan?”

nAs soon as he said that, Chi Xiaochi reacted, sitting up with his legs crossed, his two slender arms propping himself up from behind, “Ask, I’ll see if I want to answer.”

n“50 rockets still aren’t enough to buy a definite answer?”

nChi Xiaochi had seen much of the world. He rested his cheek on a hand and said lazily, “My original appearance fee has a starting price of one million.”

nSince Chi Xiaochi had spoken this way, 061 just casually opened his mouth and asked, “What’s your plan A? I had believed you would be singing 《Innermost Words》today, announcing your new song in advance.”

nChi Xiaochi smiled, “Liu-laoshi, you’re too sweet. I signed a first issue contract. If I were to announce my new songs in advance on another platform, Su Xiulun would rip me to shreds.”

n061, “Then……”

nChi Xiaochi’s mouth was seriously shut so tight that even 50 rockets couldn’t pry it open, “……You’ll understand in a week.”

n

nsere: I CALLED IT LOU YING = 61 ALSO 061 IS SO CUTE I WANT TO STEAL HIM AND CHENG JIAN. side note i read all the comments from the past few weeks and y’all are so cute 😉

nbaum: lmao I want someone like 061 or Cheng Jian too _(:3 」∠ )_ or Chi Xiaochi all these men (other than Trash Yang) are all so good haha

n

n