ACIFITFDB – Chapter 11

Chapter 11: With My Looks, Shouldn’t I Be an Internet Celebrity…

Going to Fanggu Village required a three-hour long-distance bus ride to A City, then a transfer to a town in that prefecture-level city. From the town to the village, there was a shuttle bus that ran only twice a day.

The dilapidated shuttle bus swayed precariously. Half of the air conditioning was broken, but thankfully, it was spring, so it wasn’t stiflingly hot enough to cause heatstroke. A faint sour smell wafted through the cabin, and the seat cushions had long lost their original color.

Despite the environment, Qin Xian slept soundly. Or rather, he had slept through the entire journey, seizing every moment to recover his energy.

“Hey, fellow villager, do you know where to get off for Fanggu Village?”

“This bus’s second-to-last stop is it. There’s a sign by the road, you can see it yourself.”

“Thanks, brother.”

Hearing the keywords, Qin Xian opened his eyes and took a look. In front of him sat a burly middle-aged man with dark skin on the back of his head and hair shaved down to a short stubble. This man was also going to Fanggu Village; Qin Xian wondered what for.

Qin Xian closed his eyes again. When he heard the driver call out “Fanggu Village” in his off-key Mandarin, he picked up his heavy backpack and got off the bus.

The spring mountains were a mix of green with patches of withered yellow from the unresurrected vegetation. Crisp bird songs echoed from the woods. The sun was setting in the west, and wisps of smoke curled from distant farmhouses. By all appearances, it was a peaceful rural scene. This kind of place seemed quite suitable for raising dogs; there was plenty of space, no need for walks. Qin Xian wondered how his new family member was doing. He had already given Lin Qizhi detailed instructions, so there shouldn’t be any major issues.

Qin Xian adjusted the weight of his backpack and started walking forward.

“Hey, little brother.”

The man who had alighted with him called out to him. Qin Xian turned around and stood there silently, waiting for the other man to speak. The man scrutinized Qin Xian. His gaze was open and honest, not at all unpleasant.

“Little brother, my surname is Huang. I’m here to visit relatives. Are you local?”

Qin Xian shook his head.

The man chuckled, “You don’t look like it either. Are you here for… tourism? Sketching?”

Qin Xian replied, “Sorry, I don’t like to talk too much with strangers.”

The man awkwardly scratched his head. Seeing Qin Xian turn and walk away, he still ran up to him, persistently trying to strike up a conversation, “Hey, actually, I’m not here to visit relatives. I know someone here who made over a million yuan in two months streaming! I came to learn from him. I heard that Fanggu Village has a lot of internet celebrities doing live streams, and they make a lot of money.”

Qin Xian ignored him and continued walking forward. The man continued, “That’s great, I want to be an internet celebrity and make money too. Hey, little brother, don’t ignore me. It’s still a ten to twenty-minute walk. I can’t sit still, I just want to talk to someone. What’s your name, little brother?”

“Qin,” Qin Xian finally offered a single character.

The man was overjoyed, “Hello, little brother Qin! Can I call you that? I’m a bit older than you, you can call me Brother Huang. Of course, you can just call me by my name, I’m Huang Quxie.”

Qin Xian casually replied, “Oh, okay.” Then, he fell silent again, observing his surroundings as he walked ahead with his head down.

Huang Quxie scratched his head, still eagerly approaching, “Little brother Qin, are you from the city? Are you also interested in live streaming?”

Qin Xian turned his head, “So what if I am? So what if I’m not? You keep asking me this, what are you trying to say?”

Huang Quxie’s expression became a little more serious, “If you’re interested in live streaming, you’d better not go.”

Qin Xian asked, “Do you want fewer people to compete for a slice of the pie?”

“No,” Huang Quxie quickly denied. “I heard there are some illegal activities in this village, and some live streams are not quite legal. Of course, I’m not afraid. I’m an ex-convict myself and can’t find any good jobs. You look like you just graduated from college. You’re also good-looking. Coming to a place like this mountain village is even riskier. You should find a proper job.”

After hearing this, Qin Xian raised his head and smiled. This was the first time Huang Quxie had seen him smile, and he was stunned. Qin Xian flicked the braid hanging from his shoulder to his back, revealing his fair side neck, and smiled in a way that made people’s eyes go wide. He parted his lips slightly, “With my looks, wouldn’t it be a shame not to be an internet celebrity?”

His appearance was indeed outstanding. Even with a scowl, he had a dangerous and eye-catching aura. When he smiled, it was even more so.

Huang Quxie: “…It’s not illegal. You could just stream and sit there, not saying a word, and people would send you money. Then you wouldn’t need to come to this mountain village at all!”

Qin Xian’s expression returned to its usual blankness. “None of your business, you’re really meddlesome.”

Huang Quxie: “…”

This demeanor could indeed drive someone to their death. Huang Quxie could only grit his teeth, sigh, and give Qin Xian a look of disappointment before falling silent and following behind him.

Fanggu Village wasn’t particularly remote. The cement roads were well-maintained, and utilities like electricity, water, and internet were all connected. Some houses by the roadside had even built small villas. As soon as they entered the village, Qin Xian saw people live-streaming.

A villager was making exaggerated faces in his yard, his fingers in a delicate posture as he touched his chest. His movements were quite disgusting.

“Thank you, brothers, for the gifts. Ah Hua has money for Mommy to buy good food today!”

The voice speaking in that high-pitched tone was clearly a man. But he was wearing a dress and had messy makeup on his face.

Huang Quxie pointed at the villager, “See? With current beauty filters, people like this can pretend to be beautiful women and trick people into tipping. With beauty filters, everyone looks handsome and beautiful. You don’t have a sweet mouth and you don’t like to talk. You should go back and do something serious as soon as possible.”

Qin Xian hadn’t expected him to be so persistent in trying to dissuade him. Upon hearing this, he retorted, “Are you cursing me so I can’t make money? You’d better worry about yourself. There are even fewer people who fall for your persona.”

Huang Quxie: “…”

This time, he was completely silent, possibly successfully attacked by Qin Xian.

There were quite a few people live-streaming in this small village. Passing by several houses, all of them were streaming. Even from a distance, one could hear villagers interacting with netizens.

“Wuwuwuwu! Thank you, all my family members! My family members are too amazing. Yesterday our family was worried about our unsold fruit, and today we’ve sold more than half of it! You are all my reborn parents! Hey, new family members can also take a look. These are juicy peaches, produced by ourselves. Where else can you buy them for 29.9 yuan?”

From over ten meters away, Qin Xian watched this fruit-selling villager crush a peach in his hand, its juice overflowing and looking delicious. But along the way, Qin Xian hadn’t seen anyone planting peaches.

Qin Xian and Huang Quxie continued forward. A young man holding a mobile phone looked at them, then immediately ran over with his phone raised.

“Hey brothers, um!” the young man yelped, holding his phone up to Qin Xian’s face and continuing to speak loudly into the phone, “I was originally planning to show you the traps I set in the river last night. But now there’s something more interesting. A handsome guy has come to our village!”

The phone screen was almost pressed against his face. Qin Xian recoiled in displeasure. The young man’s attention was mostly on his live stream. Seeing this, he chased after Qin Xian, adjusting the angle to show Qin Xian’s face. As a result, when his face was in the same frame as Qin Xian’s, a funny scene unfolded.

Because the young man had maxed out the beauty filters, with functions like face slimming, eye enlargement, skin smoothing, and whitening, even though he looked sallow-skinned with a protruding mouth in reality, on his phone screen, he appeared to be a handsome young man. But Qin Xian was different. His naturally good-looking face, after excessive shaping by the beauty filters, had a chin so sharp it could cut shoes, eyes as big as a frog’s, and skin as white as paper.

Comments immediately popped up in the live stream chat: 【Holy crap, did your village discover an alien!?】 【LOL, how much beauty filter did the streamer use?】 【As expected, another fake handsome guy. I’m really curious what you actually look like ugly.】

The young man’s face darkened. He mumbled something about a poor connection and quickly ended the live stream. He thought he had found good content, but it backfired, and he was sure to lose a lot of fans. The young man stared at Qin Xian’s face with displeasure and said in a very low voice, “I really want to peel your face off.”

Qin Xian asked, “What?”

The young man snorted, “Nothing. Who are you? You look like someone from the city, what are you doing here?”

Qin Xian, without anyone noticing, took out a box of facial cream and said to him, “I sell cosmetics. I know you guys are really good at live streaming, and I want to find someone to discuss business with.”

Although the young man was a bit suspicious, his attitude improved slightly. “Discuss business? This is the first time I’ve seen someone come in person. Who are you looking to talk to?”

Qin Xian retorted, “I contacted someone before, but now I see there are many people doing this line of work in your village. You’re also a big streamer, right? You have quite a lot of fans.”

Flattered by the words “big streamer,” the young man’s expression softened again. “Ah, my fan base isn’t even top-tier in our village. So, are you looking for the one with the most fans?”

“Yes, since I’ve come all this way, I naturally want to choose the best. Can you help me find my way?”

The young man subconsciously glanced towards the depths of the village, but immediately showed a look of resistance. “Go further inside, there are a few families that are really good at selling goods. You can go and see for yourself. I still need to figure out how to explain to my fans. Tsk, it’s all your fault… #&$”

By the end, his malicious complaints gradually became too quiet to hear. After all, it was his own impulsiveness. Even if he caused trouble for this outsider, the lost fans wouldn’t come back. Besides… the young man glanced to the side at the sturdy Huang Quxie, then shut his mouth and walked away. City people are city people, they even bring bodyguards on a trip.

Huang Quxie, completely unaware that he had been mistaken for a bodyguard, caught up with Qin Xian and said, “So now you’re here to discuss business?”

Qin Xian didn’t reply. He walked straight towards the depths of the village for another three hundred meters or so. The houses in this area clearly increased, but what was special was that at a glance, seven or eight of them were newly built villas, looking particularly grand.

Soon, a middle-aged woman ran out of a house. Seeing Qin Xian, she said enthusiastically, “Oh? Little Yang from outside said a big boss has come to discuss business? What’s the boss’s name?”

Qin Xian was direct, “Sorry, rather than discussing business, I’d prefer to learn from you.”

The woman’s expression immediately changed, and her eyeballs rolled upwards. “Tsk, here comes another one.” But soon, her eyeballs rolled back down. She scrutinized Qin Xian and said, “However, you might actually be suited for this. Come on, you can join my live stream selling.”

Author’s Note:

———————-

At this moment, Qin Tangyuan, at home: Dissatisfied with clothes being taken off ing.

This story will not feature the protagonist becoming an internet celebrity. [Noob] It will only appear in this small instance.

A friend asked on Weibo if I could add more updates. Then I hope everyone will add more to their collections. After entering VIP, there will be daily updates of 6,000 characters for two to three weeks. Longer than that is not possible, as it would consume too much of my draft. If my draft falls below thirty chapters, I will become quite anxious. I am not a full-time author and have a lot of work to do. [Pitiful]