Distorted Fairy Tale - Chapter 12

Hearing Fu Yuting seeing the doctor out, Song Zhen opened his eyes a crack. To his surprise, Fu Yuting came right back, forcing Song Zhen to squeeze his eyes shut again.

Footsteps approached steadily, finally coming to a halt right beside the bed.

Song Zhen felt a hand stroking his face tracing from his eyebrows to his eyes, down his nose, and finally resting on his lips.

“Fainting after just a few words,” Fu Yuting’s voice drifted down from above. He pressed his thumb with moderate pressure against the peak of Song Zhen’s upper lip. “Fragile.”

Song Zhen nearly fainted again out of pure indignation.

He thought: You call that “a few words”? You said at least four sentences! And were any of them something a decent human being would say!?

When Song Zhen finished washing up and went downstairs, he was shocked to find Fu Yuting actually sitting at the dining table eating breakfast. Usually, the man would have left for work by now.

Seeing Song Zhen arrive, the butler signaled for the kitchen to bring out his prepared meal.

Song Zhen ate distractedly, instinctively glancing up at Fu Yuting.

As Fu Yuting turned to reach for a slice of bagel, his left cheek was directly facing Song Zhen. There, clear as day, was a faint but unmistakable handprint.

“Cough, cough-cough-cough!” Song Zhen was caught off guard, choking on his food and falling into a fit of violent coughing.

He finally understood why Fu Yuting hadn’t gone to the office today.

One simply cannot walk into a corporate headquarters with a “slap-face.”

Fu Yuting picked up the milk beside him and held it to Song Zhen’s lips. Song Zhen leaned into his hand, taking several large gulps.

“Cough, cough-cough!”

Song Zhen accidentally caught another glimpse of the handprint and choked again, spraying milk all over Fu Yuting’s hand.

Fu Yuting’s expression turned terrifyingly dark.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

The two spoke almost simultaneously. Fu Yuting slammed the milk glass onto the table with a heavy thud and marched toward the first-floor washroom with a thunderous face. Soon, the sound of running water echoed from within.

Fu Yuting worked from home, but instead of going to his study, he sat right there in the living room.

This put Song Zhen in a difficult position.

It was almost time for his scheduled livestream. He usually broadcasted his cake-making sessions from the island in the Western-style kitchen on the first floor.

The island was positioned diagonally across from the living room sofa; Fu Yuting only had to lift his head to see him.

Since he had started showing his face, Song Zhen had been able to withdraw a decent amount of money after every stream. On good days, he made seven or eight hundred yuan; even on slow days, he walked away with two or three hundred.

While he had started livestreaming just to kill time, he was now taking it quite seriously. He was no longer just making standard desserts; he had begun designing and creating his own original treats.

At 1:30 PM sharp, Song Zhen started his broadcast.

Perhaps because Fu Yuting was home, Song Zhen was unusually quiet today. He mostly kept his head down and focused on the task at hand, occasionally answering questions from the chat in a low voice.

He generally only replied to inquiries regarding recipes or ingredients, selectively ignoring all the flattery and insults.

While Song Zhen’s stream was in full swing, Fu Yuting was reviewing a PDF file sent by Lin Ze. It detailed the entire history of how Song Zhen and Ji Qinglin had met.

This guy really does love saving people, Fu Yuting thought.

Most of the time, he found Song Zhen’s personality to be timid and frail. Yet, occasionally, the man would do things that caught him completely off guard.

Like having the nerve to save a strange Alpha and bring him home. Or this time, daring to save Ji Qinglin’s grandmother.

If he had been a dangerous person, or if the grandmother had been part of an extortion scam, the consequences would have been far beyond what Song Zhen could handle.

Yet, he did it anyway.

He did a great many brave things in his own timid way.

Fu Yuting looked up toward the far end of the hall. There stood the Beta in his apron, a faint smile on his lips as he spoke to his audience.

They were too far apart for Fu Yuting to hear his voice.

Fu Yuting put on his Bluetooth earbuds, opened the livestreaming app, and clicked into “Dessert Xiao Song’s” room.

Among the frantically scrolling comments, no one noticed a user named “AAA Seafood Wholesale Brother Wang” enter the room.

Lin Ze had chosen the name.

Fu Yuting had instructed Lin Ze to pick something that felt like a typical “internet” handle something common and inconspicuous.

When Lin Ze asked what he had used before, Fu Yuting told him “Wang Xing.”

Lin Ze then typed “AAA Seafood Wholesale Brother Wang” into the username field.

The look Fu Yuting gave Lin Ze at that moment suggested he viewed his assistant as an utter moron.

Lin Ze had defended himself: “President Fu, if you don’t believe me, just look at the IDs in the chat. You’ll see that this name is practically invisible in the crowd.”

After spending less than five minutes in the room and seeing the “AAA” family—including “AAA Construction Materials Wholesale Sister Zhang,” “AAA Professional Soda Cracker Hole-Puncher,” “AAA Fruit Wholesale Brother Zhao,” and “AAA AC Repair Master Liu”—Fu Yuting fell silent.

Fine. Seafood wholesale it was.

Fu Yuting kept the stream running while he handled his business. Song Zhen’s voice was gentle and melodic in his ear, accompanied by the whirring of the cream mixer and the hum of the oven.

Suddenly, the stream became very noisy. Fu Yuting looked down at his phone.

The screen was now split into two.

Song Zhen looked panicked; he must have accidentally clicked a PK (Player Kill) challenge invitation.

His opponent was a middle-aged man with a greasy face and small, greedy eyes. Seeing Song Zhen, the man’s eyes lit up. He waved. “Hello there, little beauty.”

Song Zhen asked frantically, “How do I turn this off? I clicked accept by mistake.”

“Oh, come on, we’re already connected! Let’s play a round, beauty!”

The chat was buzzing with excitement:

Yeah, yeah! Play one round! I’ve never seen the streamer do a PK!

Don’t be scared, streamer! I’m topping up my account to vote for you right now!

 Just do it. The other guy has a huge following; even if you lose, the exposure is worth it.

Song Zhen nodded helplessly. “Alright.”

“Then let’s set the punishment first,” the middle-aged man said.

Song Zhen blinked. “There are punishments?”

“Of course there are.”

“What kind of punishment?”

“If you lose, how about you stream in a maid outfit for a whole day? If I lose, you name the price.”

The moment the words were out, the entire chat erupted.

 Holy crap, a maid outfit!

-Streamer, say yes! Say yes!

 I can’t even imagine how beautiful he’d look in a maid outfit with that face.

Song Zhen frowned and said nothing.

“Hey, streamer, you aren’t a sore loser, are you?” the man taunted, raising an eyebrow.

The chat reacted even more fiercely:

Seriously!? Who are you calling a sore loser? Go for it, streamer!

A man can be killed but not insulted! How can you take that?

Just accept it, streamer! we’ll vote for you!

After much hesitation, Song Zhen accepted.

However, despite their earlier bravado, when it came time to actually vote, the viewers only sent small, cheap gifts. His progress bar was being completely crushed by the opponent.

Song Zhen had his own reasons for accepting. He knew the other streamer had a massive following and had seen clips of his broadcasts before. He was a professional; every PK he did was recorded, edited, and reposted.

Win or lose, the exposure would benefit Song Zhen.

He had learned that in this world, traffic equaled money. He had seen other streamers in his niche selling kitchenware and food through links on their profiles and had been envious for a while.

Song Zhen prepared to accept his defeat gracefully, making only half-hearted attempts to ask for votes.

He thought that if he truly lost, wearing the outfit for a day wouldn’t be the end of the world. He knew what they looked like—they were just cute, not necessarily revealing.

With only ten seconds left in the PK, Song Zhen accidentally dropped his chopsticks on the floor. He bent down to pick them up. When he stood back up in front of the camera, his progress bar had completely obliterated the opponent’s. The word “VICTORY” flashed brightly across the center of the screen.

The entire chat was flooded with “666,” “Brother Wang is a legend,” and “Big boss alert.”

Song Zhen was bewildered. “What happened?”

Someone explained it to him: during the ten seconds he was bent over, someone had sent him 100 “Angel Hearts.”

The Angel Heart was the most expensive gift on the platform, costing five thousand yuan each.

One hundred of them was half a million yuan.

Five hundred thousand!!!

Song Zhen was stunned. He covered his mouth in shock and checked the top of his contributor list. The number one spot belonged to a user named “AAA Seafood Wholesale Brother Wang.”

Is seafood wholesale really that profitable these days? Song Zhen couldn’t help but wonder.

His voice trembled. “Th-thank you, Brother Wang!”

Not only was his own chat exploding, but viewers from the opponent’s room were flooding in as well. Whenever someone sent an Angel Heart, a site-wide notification appeared on every stream.

Song Zhen’s popularity skyrocketed in an instant.

The mysterious Brother Wang remained silent. Song Zhen clicked on his profile, only to see the man’s follower count surging.

Fu Yuting frowned at his notification bar, which was pinging incessantly. His private messages were already at 99+. After some fiddling, he changed his settings so that only people he followed could message him.

He returned to the stream and saw Song Zhen looking completely dazed, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. He looked incredibly silly, so Fu Yuting took a screenshot.

He glanced at the real Song Zhen across the room, who was also standing frozen like a statue. Then, he began to type.

AAA Seafood Wholesale Brother Wang: Going back to wholesaling seafood. If you want to do a PK in the future, DM me.

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