After Transmigrating as the Northeast CEO's Pampered Little Husband - Chapter 6

The sofa in the living room was leather, draped with a soft throw. When Gu Jiaoyang sat down, he sank slightly into the cushions; the angle fitted the human body perfectly, making it exceptionally comfortable.

On the coffee table sat a tea set, connected to an electric kettle and a drum of purified water. It looked remarkably like the set he had seen in his Master’s house.

It seemed the technological level of this world was roughly on par with his original one.

Gu Jiaoyang leaned back on the sofa, rubbing his thumb against the tip of his index finger. A wisp of his divine soul drifted out from his fingertip, instinctively circling the villa to sweep the area. Finding nothing peculiar, it returned to his body.

This was a habit among cultivators: whenever they arrived in a new place, they would scan it with their divine soul to avoid stumbling into someone else’s array formation.

After all, in their world, certain methods of killing were legal, especially between cultivators. Killing someone to seize their treasures wasn’t just a tradition passed down for millennia; it was a test that preserved the wild, combative nature of cultivators.

Although the Dai villa bore traces left by a cultivator, they were mostly benevolent embellishments by the builder. Thus, Gu Jiaoyang only placed a very light restriction ward around the villa. Even though he was merely at the Qi Refining stage, the divine soul that had accompanied him was from his original, high-level account. Placing a ward with his soul was as easy as pie.

This way, if anything detrimental to Mr Dai were to happen, he would know immediately. It wasn’t surveillance; rather, a tiny repayment for Mr Dai’s care.

In the kitchen, the auntie had noticed Mr Dai’s “shyness”. However, since they planned to live together in the future, being shy all the time wouldn’t do. So, out of the goodness of her heart, she chased Mr Dai out of the kitchen.

“Mr Dai, I need to cut the fruit and start prepping dinner, so if you wouldn’t mind moving? I need to use the sink and that pot.”

“Mm.”

Fine then. The agreement still counted. Even if the boy truly was a “corporate spy”, keeping him right under his nose would make it easier to glean the opponent’s intentions.

Sighing internally, Dai Gucan put down the spoon, which had grown warm in his grip. He pushed aside the kitchen curtain and walked into the living room.

Faced with a young boy whose age, thoughts, and values were vastly different from his own, Dai Gucan genuinely felt a bit awkward.

After all, he was a thirty-year-old “old man”.

“Mr Dai? Is something wrong?” Gu Jiaoyang saw Dai Gucan emerge from the kitchen and assumed he wanted to finish discussing the agreement they hadn’t concluded upstairs.

“No. This is my house; I can go wherever I please.”

Under Gu Jiaoyang’s soft gaze, Dai Gucan blurted out the words before he could stop himself. The moment they left his mouth, he knew he’d messed up.

He had actually intended to ask the boy what his plans were.

“…” Right then.

Gu Jiaoyang raised an eyebrow at Dai Gucan. If he hadn’t been able to sense the rapid heartbeat thumping within Dai Gucan’s broad chest, he might have taken that remark as a straight man simply being abrasive.

In short, the conversation barely lasted two sentences before descending into a mysterious, awkward silence.

Gu Jiaoyang knew the plot of the original novel, so he didn’t care about the content of the agreement. Dai Gucan wanted to explain the terms, but having never dealt with emotional affairs in his life, he found himself involuntarily tongue-tied.

As the awkward atmosphere hung in the lounge, Gu Jiaoyang decided to close his eyes and begin circulating his Qi, waiting for the auntie’s fruit.

Seeing Gu Jiaoyang’s calm demeanour, Dai Gucan felt again that this boy was truly too simple-minded. To be so relaxed and let his guard down in the home of the man he’d been intimate with, sitting opposite him wearing his clothes without a care wasn’t he afraid Dai would try something?

On one hand, he felt the boy lacked self-respect, or perhaps was just too naive. On the other hand, he felt the boy trusted him too much. He couldn’t say if the feeling was good or bad.

Dai Gucan turned the boy over and over in his mind, completely failing to realise that ever since he took the day off, his mind had been filled with nothing but the boy for the entire day.

If his friends found out, they’d have a field day mocking him.

Compared to the boy’s carefree attitude, Dai Gucan himself wasn’t exactly indifferent after just one night.

Between the two of them, who was truly the more innocent one?

Ding-dong~

A sharp notification sound from a phone broke the brief awkwardness. Gu Jiaoyang emerged from his Qi circulation, fished the phone out of the pyjama pocket, and unlocked it.

Dai Gucan was also distracted by the sound, but he immediately picked up a pair of nail clippers from under the coffee table and started trimming his nails, putting on an air of being very busy.

Orange Blossom Notification: You have a new message~ Heart System Announcement: Little Master hasn’t streamed in a month~ The flowers are wilting while waiting for you!!! Crying face.

Streaming?

Gu Jiaoyang unlocked the phone, pulled down the notification bar, and tapped into the streaming app.

Welcome back Confetti Finally waited for you, glad I didn’t give up.

Gu Jiaoyang looked at the orange-themed app interface. After clicking into the Personal Centre, he was startled by the blue figures under ‘Earnings’.

Your Earnings: 15,682.47 Achievement Points Withdrawable Amount: 14,768.66 Achievement Points.

Over ten thousand yuan enough to buy a talisman! Although not of high rank, for a newbie just entering the Qi Refining stage, a low-level Spirit Gathering Talisman would be enough to boost his cultivation speed slightly.

Having suddenly discovered a source of wealth, he hurriedly switched to his works page. Only then did Gu Jiaoyang realise that the original host was actually an eating broadcaster a mukbang streamer! And his fan base seemed substantial; he even had a fan club.

He had 690,000 followers and 37 uploaded videos. The thumbnails all featured the original host in casual wear, eating home-cooked meals in front of the camera.

No gimmicks, no clickbait yet he had surprisingly many fans.

Gu Jiaoyang was curious, but mostly puzzled.

The original novel hadn’t mentioned this talent, had it? Apart from marrying into the Dai family, Gu Mian didn’t seem to have…

Wait, marrying into the Dai family!

In the original novel, Gu Mian was introduced already as Mrs Dai. So, had the world automatically filled in the backstory?

This worked in his favour.

Gu Jiaoyang, who had already considered streaming, felt a surge of joy. This original host really suited his tastes perfectly!

Clicking on the video with the highest view count, Gu Jiaoyang cheerfully opened the comments section, thinking that for such a simple stream to have such high popularity, his fans must be easy-going middle-aged people.

But with one swipe of his finger, Gu Jiaoyang’s smile cracked. The top comments, bolstered by the special bold, enlarged font privileges of premium members, were scathing.

Trash White Lotus flop Yang, get out of Orange Blossom Entertainment! Simply disgusting! Putting on such heavy makeup every day to play a student, do you have no shame, you 40-year-old uncle?! Plastic surgery freak! Your chin is sharp enough to puncture the bowl! Are you trying to out-beauty a snake spirit with those beauty filters? Nice warped chopsticks effect!

The row of comments below, all with high like counts, were equally red and angry.

Plastic monster, filter freak! Pah, disgusting! You act so pretentious when eating, taking tiny bites like a bird. Do you think this is a beauty pageant? Everyone in the S-Zone eats for real, you’re the only drama queen faking it!

This definitely isn’t real eating! Look how skinny he is! He definitely purges! Fake eater! Trash streamer! Get out of Orange Blossom Entertainment!

…

Ugh, I’m not an S-Zone fan, just passing by, but honestly, how can a mukbang streamer be this thin? It’s not real eating, is it? Even if it’s home cooking, you can’t withstand eating six dishes in one meal, surely?

I think so too. His chin is so sharp, normal people don’t look like that. Reckon he really did get plastic surgery.]

Scrolling further down, most comments were from passersby from other sections who had stumbled upon it because it was trending on the homepage.

The comments were overwhelmingly negative. Occasionally, a legitimate fan with a donor badge would say a word or two, only to be frantically buried. The comments section was completely controlled by trolls.

Orange Blossom calculated creators’ earnings based on unique views. So, the original host had actually earned over ten thousand yuan by being cursed onto the homepage through sheer infamy.

Well then.

Gu Jiaoyang flicked through the other uploaded videos. Sure enough, beneath every video lay a pile of haters leaving frantic, abusive messages.

Pretty disgusting.

In his previous world, Gu Jiaoyang had been a seasoned platform user obsessed with video sections in his early years. He could guess that eighty per cent of this was an organised smear campaign. Even if a streamer was utter rubbish, there would usually be righteous passersby speaking a fair word or two in the comments. But for the abuse to be so uniform, targeting the same few points endlessly he wouldn’t believe for a second that someone wasn’t orchestrating it.

With the original host’s looks? His figure? Even in a novel, he’d be a top-tier, coquettish cannon fodder shou. Were their eyes painted on?

Gu Jiaoyang felt a rare surge of hot-bloodedness. Tch. Calling me a plastic surgery freak, a fake eater, a filter maniac, are you? Sooner or later, I’ll slap you haters in the face so hard it’ll sting!

The original host was just a student. Regardless of anything else, cursing so vilely, dragging in relatives and reproductive organs that was crossing the line.

[@ShepherdYangFanClub Returning in a few days. Mwah~~~]

Gu Jiaoyang switched back to his homepage and manually tagged his fan club. Whether they were real fans or haters posing as fans, since money could be made, they would all bow down before Brother Yang’s pyjamas!

It wasn’t just about proving the original host’s innocence; Gu Jiaoyang’s playful nature simply couldn’t let such a big commotion slip through his fingers, especially when it concerned him.

After a fierce round of operations on the phone, Gu Jiaoyang locked the screen and circulated his Qi for a cycle to suppress his anger.

There was one more issue.

This streaming career did not exist in the memories he had observed from the original host.

Yet with such a massive volume of discussion and a full thirty-seven videos uploaded, it was impossible for the original host to have forgotten about it.

So, the memories he saw matched the novel, but in reality, the actual world was not an exact replica of the book.

This meant Gu Mian had many aspects to him that were missing from the memories, and not written in the novel either.

But how could bodily memories be faked?

Unless… this body had reached the Nascent Soul stage, capable of partitioning memories and leaving only what it wanted him to see.

If that was a targeted design, then his arrival in this world was no coincidence.

Interesting.

Gu Jiaoyang’s fingers twitched slightly. His curiosity about this world grew a little more.

A world that seemed real yet fake, fake yet real.

Author’s Note: Continuing the 10k daily update tomorrow!

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