Pandora’s Box

After playing a game that day, DV asked me, “Would you like to open a live streaming channel?”

I didn’t take it seriously.

“What are you talking about? No one wants to see that.”

I had come and go with DV, and we eventually became good friends. I stopped accepting red envelopes from him a long time ago. He also pulled me into his own group of close friends, and we’d chat and joke from time to time.

DV said, “How come? I think you’ll be very popular. When we are not gaming together, people always ask me about you. You can just play for fun, and it doesn’t take much effort. This is not a performance on a stage, what are you afraid of?”

DV encouraged me so much but I still felt unconfident. “Well, if no one really wants to watch it, wouldn’t it be lonely and sad?”

“If people watch it, of course it’ll be lively. If no one watches it, no one will make a special trip to laugh at your deserted chat room, right? You don’t need this earning to eat, so there’s no pressure. Just casually stream.”

It made sense when I thought about it. As long as the computer and network could support it, it didn’t seem like a bad idea for me to start a live broadcasting channel.

Also, sometimes, Zhuo Wenyang would ask me, “What are you doing?” I really wanted Zhuo Wenyang to see what I was playing, but I could only ask him to go to DV’s streaming platform. However, if DV was not online, there was no way.

So I quickly registered an account and opened up a channel nervously.

Anyways, as soon as the game started, I completely forgot about the existence of the channel. Like DV said, it would be embarrassing and lonely to game on a stage without an audience, but even if no one watched me stream, it wouldn’t affect my gaming experience at all.

As long as Zhuo Wenyang watched, it was fine.

I was being coquettish in my mic while robbing the car with DV until I suddenly received a message from Zhuo Wenyang on WeChat. He said, “Give me authority to manage your platform.”

“Ah?”

When the match ended, I looked at the channel in the live broadcast room. I didn’t realize that there were already a lot of comments.

I quickly gave permissions to access to Zhuo Wenyang and asked DV, “How do I deal with these messages in the game? Or do you ignore them?”

“I’ll teach you how to set up an assistant account later, and you can set up an administrator to help you handle the messages?” DV came over and looked, “Yo, you already have a streaming housekeeper? Looks pretty professional.”

“…..”

Zhuo Wenyang was personally helping me as the streaming manager. This was too good.

My dispensable live broadcast business suddenly became popular. In fact, most of these viewers were from DV helping me attract them enthusiastically. They were old viewers who watched me team up with DV to eat chicken.

My streaming platform was buzzing one night and I even received some gifts.

I was a little happy.

I didn’t pay attention to the minuscule payment I received, but this was the first time I had been recognized by so many people.

Although there were inevitably negative comments mixed in, they were much too childish for me to make mention of. Such praises and criticisms were foreign to me and evoked unfamiliar waves in my heart.

I enjoyed this for several days while the popularity of my streaming platform rose steadily. Of course, the numbers were not drastic but it was already enough for me to be happy about. I also thought it was suitable for me to be a streamer.

I played really well. Although I could not be compared to professionals, my level was better than most amateurs and I also chitchatted quite a lot. I was always able to amuse my old buddies in the live broadcast room. If you wanted to observe technical gaming, then technical gaming there was. However, if you merely came to have fun, then there was fun. Everyone had something to enjoy.

As Zhuo Wenyang said, I played well, reacted appropriately, had funny commentaries, and cursed well ^^

He missed one of my advantages though, in which I was thick skinned.

As long as one had viewers, there would eventually be those who were angry and bitter. I knew some streamers could not withstand this, but I was not afraid. Ordinary gangsters couldn’t intimidate me, and with unusual trolls, I had no qualms arguing. After all, I was quite adept at swearing.

Unfortunately, the streaming manager, Zhuo Wenyang, would eradicate them quicker than I was able to respond.

“My followers exceeded 10,000!”

As soon as I saw that the number of followers reached past 10,000, I immediately rushed to Zhuo Wenyang to share the news. Although it was not incredible, it was still worthy of being happy over.

“So happy?”

“That’s right,” I agreed happily, “I also have fans!”

Zhuo Wenyang gave me a smile and said, “I’m happy for you.”

He added, “But I think it’s not so strange for everyone to like you, right?”

That was true. Since I was a child, it was easy for me to socially get along with others and I was considered the life of a party as well. I didn’t need to be excessively overjoyed about a few additional fans on the internet.

I scratched my head and explained, “But it’s different. They don’t know what I do, how old I am, or what I look like at all. I mean, what they approve of, what they like, and what they think is my truest self. Unlike those people before, what they like is me…”

I suddenly stopped.

Face? Youth? Body?

The elation in my heart instantly solidified into a heavy piece of lead, and dropped rapidly.

In front of Zhuo Wenyang, I didn’t have the courage to bring up the past. I only said the first half and Zhuo Wenyang didn’t ask any further. He said, “You have an interesting mindset, Lin Jing.”

“…..”

He looked at me, “There will be more people who like you.”

One day, I was scrolling through Weibo until I found myself on a homepage. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it. All I saw was a comedic blogger that I followed posting a video that was supposedly submitted by his fans. It was quite popular. There were a lot of comments of “what the hell,” “hahahahaha,” and “laughing to death” so I had to join the fun, taking a look.

The more I watched, the more familiar it became to me. The more I was watching, the wider my eyes became. Was this me?

I didn’t know who edited it. Someone put together a five minute video of the funniest scenes of my recent streams. To be honest, the editing was done quite well. With subtitles, special effects, sound effects, and commentary timing, I couldn’t help laughing along.

I never thought that my live broadcasts were this silly.

“Oh crap, I saw it in the toilet and this shit made me laugh.”

“Are you trying to make me laugh to death?”

“Is this game that entertaining?”

“His mouth is more toxic than his playing skills. I love it.”

“I laughed like crazy with my roommate. My roommate became a fan.”

“When will this channel start broadcasting?”

Only then did I react. I hurried to open my live broadcasting app. As soon as I clicked it open, a bunch of notifications populated, causing my pupils to tremble in awe.

I knew this would increase my fanbase, but I didn’t expect the numbers to rapidly rise like this!

I danced ecstatically and sent a message to Zhuo Wenyang. “Ahhhhhhhh! My fanbase skyrocketed today! I don’t know who made and edited a video of me, but it’s so freaking savage. It’s so epic! I’ll send it to you!”

Zhuo Wenyang replied, “Oh, I’ve seen it.”

His reaction was too flat and I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. “Why didn’t you tell me when you saw it? It’s entertaining. Besides, why are you so calm? Don’t you want to praise me?”

Zhuo Wenyang clarified, “I made it.”

“?????????”