"Still watching the live stream?"
Sitting by the second-floor window, Bai Tao teased their colleague, who was lounging on a sofa float:
"If you had any free time, you should spend it exercising instead of rolling around on the sofa. Then you wouldn’t have to beg me on your knees to go to the pharmacy to buy hemorrhoid suppositories for you..."
As Bai Tao spoke, their gaze remained fixed on the doorway of Yu Xueqing’s house.
A Five Spirits Plate scooter slowly made its way into the yard of the self-built house. Yu Xueqing and the white fox sitting in the passenger seat both entered the house.
"What do you know? This is an honorable injury!"
"It’s a symbol of a hero. If it weren’t for my diligence in drone control courses and missions, how would I have ended up like this?"
Su Qiyuan looked disdainfully at Bai Tao and reflexively attempted to cross his legs to show his senior demeanor. However, the movement inadvertently tugged at an old injury, making him wince.
"Hiss..."
"I think it’s from all the hotpot you’ve been eating." Bai Tao looked at Su Qiyuan with disdain.
As a new ’forest ranger,’ Bai Tao initially had a lot of respect for Su Qiyuan.
In the Security Bureau’s ’forest patrol group,’ the main task was to make contact with spirit beasts on the frontline, using technology and traps to suppress and capture ordinary spirit beasts.
Back then, Su Qiyuan was an unsung hero in Bai Tao’s eyes, a predecessor worthy of song and respect!
She would address Su Qiyuan as Mr. Su.
But that one night, when Su Qiyuan covered his backside and collapsed in front of his door, shakily transferring her thirty-eight yuan via mobile,
asking her to go to the county pharmacy to buy a box of Niuyinglong hemorrhoid cream, all the admiration for her predecessor vanished like smoke.
In Bai Tao’s mind, the only impression of Su Qiyuan left was one thing:
A fist-sized hemorrhoid... dropping out.
Of course, Bai Tao didn’t know the severity of Su Qiyuan’s condition, but according to Baidu, doctors said hemorrhoids could get as big as a baby’s fist at their worst.
"Hmph! Nine out of ten men, ten out of ten women have hemorrhoids. You’re just not there yet, so you can gloat, but when you find yourself struggling in the future, don’t ask me for medicine."
Su Qiyuan sensed Bai Tao’s veiled disdain and couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
There’s some pain you won’t understand until it’s yours.
Once you go into the forest and sit on the ground for long periods controlling drones to search for small spirit beasts, you’ll understand what it means not to heed your elders and pay the price before your eyes.
"Do you think I don’t want to exercise?"
"My backside really hurts, okay?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Bai Tao’s face was resolute as she firmly declared:
"My name has ’Bai’ in it, I’m born fair and clean, and my backside will never degenerate like that!"
"Pfft... stop babbling, the target mission’s live stream has already started. Let’s keep an eye on it, that overlord-level fox spirit beast is no joke."
Su Qiyuan didn’t argue with Bai Tao’s words, quietly laughing in his heart instead.
She hasn’t lived in the forest for half a month, munching on compressed biscuits every day, feeling the pain like pulling iron.
The pain from his backside... can even be claimed as a work injury!
As the two chatted, they received a notification pop-up on their tablet and computer.
[Ah Qing’s Tea Story Show is now live.]
As Yu Xueqing started the live stream, both Su Qiyun and Bai Tao stayed quiet, focusing intently on the stream.
But their attention wasn’t on Yu Xueqing or the folklore stories; they were scanning the edges of the stream video, looking for the fox’s trace.
That white fox was the target creature they needed to observe closely.
They were well aware of how terrifying the destructive power of that seemingly juvenile fox could be if it erupted.
To say it politely, judging by the satellite capture of the fox paw-stomping a wild boar at Skinny Dog Creek.
If you put the fox in the city, without deploying heavy artillery, it would be a land god.
As long as the fox harbors no malice towards humans, fattening it up to a pig is a fairly safe strategy.
Some things can’t be a case of wanting it all.
Anyway, all fox subspecies in Xia Country are notorious for getting fed until they’re so fat they can’t walk.
"Why haven’t I seen the fox?" Su Qiyuan wondered why half an hour into the live stream he hadn’t seen the overlord-level fox spirit beast appear yet.
They’d watched Yu Xueqing’s previous streams, and although the fox rarely showed up, at least it would mewl once or twice or flick its tail behind Yu Xueqing.
But today, it was eerily quiet, so much so that Su Qiyuan felt a twinge of fear.
As Su Qiyuan spoke, his fingers selected a reward from the list, gifting a sports car to the live stream.
An eye-catching red sports car suddenly slid out from the live stream’s screen.
"Hey? A luxury car reward?"
Yu Xueqing, who was telling stories, was momentarily stunned, then shook her head in surprise and repeatedly waved her hands: "No, no, no, I don’t accept large rewards in my stream. I don’t have Weixin, QQ numbers, or photoshoot collections. Big brother, you should apply for a minor refund!"
"Everyone, please don’t send rewards. If you feel my story is good, check out the small yellow car, the tea leaves there are all from our own garden."
"They really are from our own garden, all produced by Jiule Mountain Tea, not stirred by my grandfather."
"???"
Su Qiyuan slowly typed a question mark. Yu Xueqing’s use of ’big brother’ and ’minor refund’ almost made his brain smoke with confusion.
"Reply to her. Stream rewards need to go through platform deductions to reach the streamer. If she asks you to apply for a minor refund, you can directly claw back the reward money from the platform..."
"The target’s stream usually doesn’t have rewards, your amount might be a bit too large." Bai Tao turned to Su Qiyuan: "Say something, if she closes reward channels later, it’ll be even more troublesome."
"Money in the target’s hands and in her parents’ have different effects, even if 50% is deducted through the platform. If you buy goods to fatten the pig mission, her parents might take a bigger cut."
"A stream reward can still be closed?" To someone who never watches streams, the idea of closing the reward channel was a novel and strange term to Su Qiyuan.
Is there really anyone who wouldn’t take free money?
"Since no streamers usually close it, not knowing is normal for someone unfamiliar with streaming," Bai Tao explained.
"Alright then!"
Su Qiyuan thought for a moment, typing out a line of text that floated across the screen as a bullet comment.
[The story’s pretty good, but I’m not interested in tea leaves— I usually drink soda, so I’ll just reward you! I noticed the stream is empty, hope you won’t starve, streamer...]
While Su Qiyuan spoke, he swiped two more sports cars as a subtle part of his feeding the pig mission.
"Meow?"
As soon as the third sports car went out, the soft mew of a fox came from the stream.
"Soda isn’t tasty! Drink tea instead! Little Fox strongly recommends good tea! Three grades available: eighty, one hundred thirty, and two hundred seventy per pound, choose freely. Master Hu endorses the good tea!"
Seeing Ah Qing’s top fan, suspected to be a spy couple, post such a bullet comment, Ansheng couldn’t hold back and crawled out from under the table, climbed onto the tea table, and began tapping the surface continuously with its forelimbs.
What the *bleep*, you’re really daring! Persuading someone to buy soda instead in a tea-selling stream.
If everyone buys soda, how will my Ah Qing make money selling tea to buy me iced cola?
Come here, I’ll let you experience spirit beast kneading.
"Huh? What happened among us?"
Still not grasping the context from the comments, Yu Xueqing looked at the little fox in surprise.
The little fox mewled, persistently declaring something about a bad guy, rotten backside among them.
"Is that overlord-level fox... cursing me?"
"They’re selling tea in the stream, and you’re there saying you don’t drink tea but soda. Do you expect them not to curse you?"