After Transmigrating as the Northeast CEO's Pampered Little Husband - Chapter 24

Lunchtime rolled around quickly. It wasn’t until Gu Jiaoyang headed downstairs to eat that he remembered Mr Dai had likely already gone to work. He would be eating at the office, meaning Gu Jiaoyang had temporarily lost the chance to witness the embarrassed expression on Mr Dai’s face as he recalled the events of the previous night.

What a pity.

Gu Jiaoyang sat on his plastic chair, taking a bite of a steamed bun. These reheated buns weren’t quite as fragrant as when they were fresh out of the steamer, but they were certainly enough to whet the appetite of the famished Gu Jiaoyang.

Lunch consisted of the steamed buns which were already filled with meat and vegetables paired with a millet porridge stewed by the kitchen auntie, and some stir-fried bok choy. The flavour was quite light and refreshing. Gu Jiaoyang wasn’t one for heavy, greasy flavours; as long as the food was decent, he could eat happily.

However, looking at the empty chair that belonged to Mr Dai, Gu Jiaoyang still ate a smidgen less than he would have if Mr Dai were present.

Naturally, he didn’t need to do the washing up. After eating, Gu Jiaoyang slumped onto the sofa, suddenly feeling that this was the pinnacle of a wealthy slacker’s life.

The only catch was that a slacker who only eats and never moves tends to get fat. He was only safe from obesity because his energy consumption was usually so high that he could never quite get full.

“This won’t do. How can a salted-fish life be fulfilling without any fun?” Gu Jiaoyang, having a sudden epiphany while patting his belly, stood up from the sofa and clenched his fist. Although he was now a “wealthy idler,” he had to be an idler with goals and ideals!

He needed to make some cash!

The money Mr Dai gave him was different from the money he earned himself. As a man, one must have one’s own private nest egg!

Full of fighting spirit, Gu Jiaoyang shuffled into his bedroom in his slippers, threw on some clothes, and dragged the driver out to buy snacks.

Livestreaming was the way to make money!

Gu Jiaoyang suddenly recalled that Mr Dai was destined to be bankrupted by the main protagonist ‘shou’ receiver. He felt it was his duty as a fiancé to defend Mr Dai’s assets. And if Mr Dai truly had a hole in his head and let himself be scammed into poverty, well, at least Gu Jiaoyang would have his own money to continue living this life of leisure.

Of course, if Mr Dai realised the error of his ways, Gu Jiaoyang would consider investing in him.

“Atchoo!”

Sitting in his study sorting through documents, Dai Gucan rubbed his nose and silently adjusted the air conditioning to a lower setting.

Alas, getting older meant he couldn’t handle the cold air quite as well as before.

The ‘Post-Changjing’ area was actually quite far from the bustling shopping centres of ‘Pre-Changjing’. Consequently, the area had its own shopping district. The items sold there were carefully curated; fewer varieties, but the quality was exquisite.

The driver took Gu Jiaoyang to ‘Jinjin Garden’, a shop in the district specialising in snacks. Whether it was high-end local treats or imported foreign nibbles, you could find them all here.

Dai Gucan had given Gu Jiaoyang a card, but Gu Jiaoyang felt it was better to spend his own money on food. So, he kept swiping his own little blue card.

It was a custom-made children’s bank card from Huazhong Bank, featuring a blue elephant with a rounded rubber casing. When using it, one simply had to pull the elephant’s trunk, and the magnetic strip for swiping would push out from the elephant’s back.

Although swiping a card was far more hassle than mobile payments, Gu Jiaoyang was obsessed with the adorable bank card and didn’t mind using it for a while longer.

He spent a total of 17,000 yuan on bags upon bags of snacks. The price was driven up mainly by several types of imported cured meat treats.

“Which one should I eat first?”

Back at home, Gu Jiaoyang didn’t rush to start the livestream. He lay on his bed, found a few small packets of snacks to nibble on, and scrolled through the thread about him on the Orange Blossom Forum.

[Let’s discuss rationally. Can I offer a conspiracy theory? According to the data-scraping app I wrote, when Gu Sheep-Sheep started streaming, his follower growth was very slow. It was a normal, flat curve right up to the 300,000 mark. I also scraped the comments and found that during this period, the bullet screen comments were normal fans sharing memes and discussing. But once he passed 300,000 followers, based on the comments I grabbed.

Bloody hell, a genius has appeared in the thread!!

Don’t go, OP!!! Finish what you were saying!!

Camping in the front row for fresh gossip!

Camping!

Sorry, I was looking for an image host. Images below: <Link> Link // Link .

From the graphs above, you can clearly see a sudden explosion of malicious comments starting right after 300,000 followers. Based on my years of experience lurking in forums, this looks like a premeditated, organised bot attack. Gu Sheep-Sheep might be the victim of malicious competition from a rival.

Wow, 66666 Awesome.

I’m uncultured, so I can only say ‘bloody hell’ to express my admiration.

It’s true, eh? The difference before and after is too huge. It looks dodgy at a glance. Even when someone gets roasted, there’s usually a process. This sudden spike looks completely unnatural!

BigRedRobes, I’m reporting this! Someone is using malicious competition!

Ha? Is the OP a marketing account? Being hated on with only 300,000 fans? Does Gu Sheep-Sheep even deserve that? It’s just an attention-seeking idiot causing trouble. Maybe he’s so desperate for fame he’s blackening his own name to gain sympathy!

I agree with the comment above. The conspiracy theory is probably him. The idiot is desperate for fame. Just watch, it won’t be long before he comes out to whitewash himself. It’s all for sympathy and clout!

OP is full of it. Creating a program to scrape Orange Blossom’s data casually did you get Orange Blossom’s permission? That’s illegal, isn’t it?

Confirmed idiot. Gu Sheep-Sheep’s fans are here to clean up the mess. Heh.

…

Gu Jiaoyang ate his snacks while reading the various threads on the forum. There were plenty of people digging up old posts to criticise him, but there was also a large contingent of rational netizens fighting back. However, compared to these varied arguments, Gu Jiaoyang was most concerned about a specific issue he had discovered.

Since Gu Mian had committed suicide in junior high school, were these livestream videos recorded in high school made with the help of the Virus System?

“Xiao Zhi? Are you there? Can you explain why this is?”

Hello, respected user. Thank you very much for using the service.

The Virus System needs to use the diffusion of ‘popularity’ as a channel to access and read world data.

“What does that mean? It needs to use other people’s attention, then absorb the fans’ energy and steal their worldly identity data?”

The Virus System’s influence on the world depends on human subjective attention towards the Virus System carrier. Once humans subjectively want to obtain information about the carrier, the Virus System can use those humans to acquire structural information about the world surrounding them.

“Oh, so the more people who actively want to know about the Virus System carrier, the wider the range the virus driver can alter?”

Gu Jiaoyang couldn’t help but think of fan culture. Wasn’t this just the celebrity effect? The Virus System carrier could act as a “star,” guiding fans to do certain things.

The only difference was that this “star” directly endangered the world, and like a hacker, could steal all the information accessible to the fans.

“Isn’t that just cheating? Gu… Xi Chuanbai wants to become someone or learn something, and as long as there are people like that among his fans, he can just steal their information directly!”

This was terrifying if you thought about it too much!

“I’ve already started actively paying attention to Xi Chuanbai’s information. Does that mean he’s learned all my Daoist cultivation stuff?!”

“How am I supposed to fight him? Won’t your Space-Time Administration Bureau issue me some sort of protective measure?! After all, this is your mistake!”

“Also, this body was originally controlled by that Virus System. I came and snatched his body; that bloody Virus System must have noticed! He won’t come crawling down the internet cable to take my life, will he? I’ve only slept with Mr Dai once, I haven’t had enough yet! Arghhh!”

The user is temporarily safe. Because the System Virus is being rejected by the World Consciousness, the primary identity of Xi Chuanbai will suffer the strongest interference from the World Consciousness. Even if the Virus System has powerful regenerative capabilities, it cannot exert its full power.

“Speak plainly. I’m panicking here, alright?” Gu Jiaoyang hurriedly found a bottle of yoghurt, stabbed the straw in, and downed it. Hearing the system’s explanation, he had nearly choked on the snacks he was stuffing into his mouth.

It means that Xi Chuanbai has currently been taken back to the ancestral home by the Xi family. According to the Xi family rules, Xi Chuanbai is not allowed to be a celebrity or an internet streamer. This cuts off the most powerful method for the Virus System to obtain information in one aspect. Furthermore, the Virus System cannot roam the internet or physically interact with reality. User, please be at ease.

“…Oh~ I see. So, because he chose the protagonist ‘shou’, who has a strong connection to the pillar of the world, he gets more interference from the World Consciousness? Luckily, Mr Dai and I are supporting characters. Looking at it that way, we have more freedom…”

“My arse! You rubbish system, you’re just here to pit me against him! I don’t care anymore. Unless that idiot comes over to provoke me first, I won’t go looking for trouble with him! Although I, Brother Yang, like to join in the fun and find novelty, I value my life, alright? Such an evil thing, I’m staying out of it!”

Gu Jiaoyang clutched his little heart and collapsed on the bed. In his heart, however, he was actually quite bold, wishing he could rush in front of Xi Chuanbai and strangle him preemptively.

“Right, shut it for now. Ever since you came back from headquarters, every time I talk to you, I feel like you’re a massive pitfall, specifically designed to trap a beautiful, pitiful soul like me.”

Thank you for using the service.

Feeling thoroughly scammed by the system, Gu Jiaoyang sat up from the bed and went to his desk. He adjusted the angle of his mobile phone and started the livestream.

Regardless of anything else, making his private stash of money was the priority.

As for the rubbish system and the rubbish protagonist ‘shou’, he didn’t want to pay them any attention for the time being.

Placing all the snacks beside the table, Gu Jiaoyang clicked open the livestream room. This time, he couldn’t be bothered to notify the fan group. Besides, from his conversation with the observation system just now, he had discovered something.

If the Virus System could use other people’s attention levels to acquire information, could he use the livestream to diffuse information?

For example, if he injected spiritual energy (Qi) into the mobile phone, would the communication signal carry that portion of spiritual energy to the people watching the stream?

Gu Jiaoyang decided to give it a try.

He would start with the Sleep Spell. The Sleep Spell was the most common spell in his original world, and it consumed very little spiritual energy.

Crunch, crunch…

Gu Jiaoyang ate a biscuit first, then began to form the spiritual seal with his fingers hidden under the table, releasing the Sleep Spell.

Ever since entering Gu Sheep-Sheep’s livestream because of the biscuits on the cover, Wang Lu had become obsessed with consuming this uploader’s drama. Whatever the gossip was, she wanted a bite of it.

However, with the increasing pressure at work recently, Wang Lu found that she was suffering from increasingly irritable insomnia.

Wang Lu was just an ordinary white-collar worker, running around busy with projects alongside her superiors. But after her superior botched a project, all the mess had to be cleaned up by minions like her. Every day, she faced her superior’s shameless shifting of blame, angry scolding, and the burden of salvaging the project.

Her increasingly anxious heart led her to start spraying abuse and venting negative emotions all over the forums. At the same time, insomnia followed close behind. Unable to sleep, she became even more obsessed with online flame wars.

Orange Blossom Entertainment: /Heart/Heart/~ The uploader you follow has started streaming!! ~/Flowers/~ Go and support him!

Seeing Gu Sheep-Sheep’s stream go live, Wang Lu immediately perked up slightly, opened the room, and typed a bullet screen comment.

Pah! Rubbish streamer, ugly mug, disgusting!

Days of chaotic forum battles had made her stop caring about content entirely. She started with abuse; her own satisfaction was all that mattered!

But unexpectedly, when she saw her comment which she had emphasised with underscores flow across the screen, it had turned into!

The streamer had set up a filter again!!!

Wang Lu was furious. Her fingers flew, outputting frantically. She sent over a dozen comments in a row, but no matter what she typed, they all appeared as censored boxes on the screen.

A fierce operation akin to a tiger, but the output was 0.5!

After venting a load of bile only to find no one could see it, Wang Lu sullenly gnawed on the snacks in her hand, wishing she could crawl through the internet cable to the uploader’s house and strangle him until he turned off the filter!

Since her comments were all boxes, Wang Lu had no choice but to shift her excess attention to the content of the livestream, hoping to find something to criticise, then pondering how to type abuse without using dirty words.

Crunch, crunch…

It was another ASMR eating broadcast. No face shown, just the crisp sound of eating biscuits echoing in the livestream room. The crunch crunch sound was like a handful of pearls being scattered in her ears crisp and bright, incredibly comfortable to listen to.

Wang Lu hesitantly touched her ear, subconsciously turning up the volume on her mobile. She gradually became entranced by the chewing sounds coming from the room.

…

To be honest… do you guys feel really sleepy…

Me too. I can’t take it anymore, my eyes won’t open.

Me. Too!

I yawned. What about you guys? Yaaawn~

The person above, don’t go! Seeing you type that; I’ve actually started yawning too.

No good, I’m going to sleep.

Stop right there, the yawner! Are you poisonous? It’s contagious! I can’t… yaawn.

No one is allowed to sleep! Have you forgotten who we came to abuse… yaawn… Cheerio, I’m sleeping first!

…

Wang Lu watched the comments and listened to the uninterrupted chewing sound coming from the phone. Her heavy, slightly oily eyelids began to droop uncontrollably. When she saw the line “Yaaawn” float across the screen, she couldn’t hold back and let out a yawn herself. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, until finally smack the phone hit her face. Before she could even cry out in pain, she was already fast asleep.

Elsewhere.

Xu Yueyue was a final year high school student. With the university entrance exams just a few days away, the immense psychological pressure meant he couldn’t sleep at all. Even though his parents silenced everything in the house at night, keeping the whole home in a state of utter quiet for days, he still suffered, tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep.

His grades were usually excellent, and his revision was going well, but because of the psychological stress, he couldn’t fall asleep. His mental state was deteriorating by the day. If this continued, he might fall asleep during the exam, or simply have a breakdown!

Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~

“Juan’er! I caught a pheasant for Yueyue! Quickly, stew it for Yueyue to build up his strength!”

The house was perfectly quiet when suddenly, his aunt’s high-pitched, piercing voice rang out from the doorway.

Xu Yueyue rolled over irritably and pulled the duvet over his head. Although he knew his aunt meant well, hearing any noise right now was maddening.

“Sister, keep it down! Yueyue is sleeping!” Xu’s mother ran barefoot to open the door, not even daring to put on slippers. She opened the door carefully, hurriedly covered her sister’s mouth, and pointed to the bedroom nearby.

The soundproofing in these small flats was poor; any noise at the door could be heard clearly in the bedroom.

“Oh, is that so? I… I’ll be careful too.” The aunt took off her shoes and, copying Xu’s mother, walked barefoot on the floor, trying not to make a sound.

She had heard the child was sleeping poorly lately, but she hadn’t realised it was this serious.

“Sigh, Sister, you haven’t eaten, have you? I’ll warm up some fish soup for you and boil some noodles. Eat that, then we’ll talk in my room,” Xu’s mother whispered into the aunt’s ear, then crept into the kitchen like a thief to heat the soup and noodles.

“That poor child, how is it this bad…” The aunt hadn’t been to school much, so she didn’t understand exam stress. She could only help by catching a chicken and bringing some meat. Since it would be a while before the food was ready, the aunt decided to open her phone and scroll through short videos to pass the time.

Crunch, crunch…

The sound of chewing biscuits suddenly rang out in the living room. The aunt, leaning on the sofa and scrolling with one hand, had accidentally clicked the wrong button, landing in the livestream section. Seeing the cover image of a box of exquisite snacks, she curiously clicked in.

Crunch, crunch…

The crisp sound echoed in the living room. Xu’s mother, cooking noodles behind the closed kitchen door, was staring at the pot and didn’t notice the noise. But in the bedroom, Xu Yueyue, who was still awake, felt his temper flare up the moment he heard it.

He hadn’t slept properly for days why was his aunt deliberately playing noisy things to provoke him?!

Xu Yueyue sprang from his bed and marched angrily into the living room, wishing he could snatch his aunt’s phone and smash it on the floor.

“Oh, Yueyue, you’re up?” The aunt was drooling over the food the streamer was eating. Looking up, she saw her nephew charging over furiously and remembered he was irritable from lack of sleep. Feeling guilty, she hurriedly shuffled to the side.

“Auntie, what are you watching?” Xu Yueyue glared at her, the irritation in his eyes almost tangible.

Confronted, the aunt was startled by the dark circles under her well-behaved nephew’s eyes.

“An eating broadcast?” Xu Yueyue, who had been furious, paused as he heard the crisp chewing sound coming from his aunt’s phone. The flames of his anger seemed to be covered by a layer of soil, gently cooling down.

“Can I watch, Auntie?” Xu Yueyue sighed, sat down next to his aunt, and stared fixedly at the phone in her hand.

“Yeah, go ahead, just a kid eating stuff.” Startled by Xu Yueyue’s earlier anger, the aunt had frozen and hadn’t turned the phone off. Since her nephew wanted to watch, she simply shoved the phone into his hands.

Rustle…

The streamer wasn’t just eating biscuits, but also some uncommon, evidently expensive snacks. Xu Yueyue held his aunt’s phone, listening to the chewing sounds from the speaker, knowing this was ASMR specifically designed for listening to sounds.

But he hadn’t expected the relaxing effect of this ASMR to be so good.

Xu Yueyue held the phone, listening with rapt attention. He let the sounds—some long, some short, some soft, some hard—burrow into his ears, slowly squeezing out the stuffy sensation in his brain.

It felt lighter and lighter.

That was Xu Yueyue’s sensation. It was as if the rubbish clogging his heavy, sleepless brain was being pushed out by these overly clear sounds. The sound waves seemed to tickle his sleep nerves like an earpick, making him gradually drowsy. He wanted to sleep.

“Zzzzz…”

Within a few minutes of listening, Xu Yueyue lay back on the sofa, clutching the phone, and drifted into dreamland, snoring softly.

When Xu’s mother came out of the kitchen after turning off the noisy extractor fan, she found her little ancestor actually asleep on the sofa!

Actually asleep!!!

And snoring softly!!!

Heaven have mercy! He was finally asleep!!!

Overjoyed, Xu’s mother put down her chopsticks and bowl, tiptoed over to her sister, and planted a big kiss on her cheek.

Xu’s mother thought her sister had some brilliant method for coaxing people to sleep, so she desperately wanted her sister to stay for a few days to help look after Yueyue.

Suddenly kissed, the aunt covered her face, blushing. She wondered why her little sister, at her age, was still biting people’s faces like a little girl.

After the two sisters carefully carried Xu Yueyue back to his bedroom and tucked him in, they went to another room to chat. Only then did they realise it was a certain livestream room that had finally allowed their precious son to sleep.

Xu’s mother’s eyes lit up. She immediately downloaded the app and followed the “Gu Sheep-Sheep” livestream room.

A hypnosis livestream room!

Similarly, a small portion of viewers who couldn’t sleep for various reasons fell into a sweet slumber due to the Sleep Spell Gu Jiaoyang was secretly using. Even the haters who had agreed to spam Gu Sheep-Sheep’s chat with abuse gradually vanished. The dense cloud of bullet comments turned into row after row of onomatopoeic yawns followed by ellipses.

Before Gu Jiaoyang could even finish all his snacks, some of the wealthy viewers, realising the stream helped them sleep quickly, sent gifts and logged off to go to bed. As the big spenders went offline, the viewer count plummeted. Rows of “Goodnight” appeared in the comments—a rare scene of harmony without any flame wars in a livestream.

By the time Gu Jiaoyang finished his snacks, the viewer count had been practically non-existent for quite a while.

Lost traffic!

Gu Jiaoyang had been quite happy when he felt the Sleep Spell effectively impacting the surging crowds of haters, fans, and passersby alike. He felt his livestream had a bright future; it could be unique, a money-making avenue distinct from any other streamer!

The successful diffusion of the small spiritual spell also proved that other spells could affect people through the mobile broadcast. He wondered if he could transmit directionally that way, he could lock onto the people abusing him and give them bad luck directly!

However, towards the end of the stream, Gu Jiaoyang realised that because the Sleep Spell worked too well, it caused a massive drop in traffic. The loss outweighed the gain.

Gu Jiaoyang counted on his fingers. Next time, he would split the Sleep Spell into smaller fragments to use. That way, he could dilute the effect, making the viewers sleepy enough to fall asleep only after they had finished watching his broadcast!

His mental abacus clicked loudly. Finishing his snacks, Gu Jiaoyang wiped his mouth, switched to the backend to check the hourly data, and pondered his plan for the next stream.

“Money, money! Come quickly into Brother Yang’s embrace!”

“Hello? Zhu Zhengwen! I sent you so many messages, why aren’t you replying?! Have you grown a spine or something?!”

Zhou Cheng stood on the balcony smoking a cigarette, roaring into his phone.

“Zhou Cheng?”

A very raspy male voice came from the other end. It sounded like someone who hadn’t drunk water in a lifetime rough and grating, making the listener’s own throat ache.

“It’s me! I’m asking why you didn’t reply! Gu Sheep-Sheep is nearly whitewashed! Some lunatic on the forum dug up the backend data! Fuck it, what have you been doing these last two days?! We agreed to screw him over!!!”

Zhou Cheng was fuming. He had hired a bot farm intending to disgust everyone during this livestream. But after waiting and waiting, all he got was a call from the head of the bot farm saying he wasn’t feeling well and needed to sleep early. He said it was too late and he was too sleepy, so he’d continue the hate campaign tomorrow.

Too late to sleep, my arse! It was all excuses!!! He had never seen such arrogant trolls before. Luckily, he had only paid half the money upfront!

“Zhou Cheng, you just wait for me…”

The man’s voice on the phone was dry and unpleasant. The final few words were almost just breath, whistling like wind through a hole in a chest. It sounded incredibly distorted.

“What? You’re telling me to wait? Heh, Zhu Zhengwen? Have you forgotten that you have…”

Beep beep…

“Hello?? Zhu Zhengwen!?? You dare hang up on me?!!”

Caught off guard by being hung up on, Zhou Cheng violently flung his unfinished cigarette off the balcony. He paced around the balcony in a rage, kicked the balcony door hard, then turned off his phone and walked towards another room.

“Fire! It’s on fire!!! Get out of the way, the fire brigade is here!!!”

“Oh, it’s a sin. How did the house catch fire? I heard the child in that family was burned to death directly…”

“That’s what I said. Even if you don’t want the child going out, don’t lock him in the house alone. At least leave an adult at home to watch him… Now look what’s happened, he couldn’t even run…”

“Tsk, tsk. Sigh…”

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