Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Sihwa was aware of Pi, and she had heard of its magical book that included things about life, the universe, and everything else. From what she knew, there were even records of things that had not yet happened in the book… To go through those records was very cumbersome and time consuming, and it was also not necessarily accurate because the future was not fixed and could change at any time.
So, how was it so sure that Watermelon would come to her broadcast room that day? It didn’t even go through its book.
Sihwa suspected that Pi was just trying to brush her off, but just as she was about to inquire further, Pi had already left the bathroom.
However, after exchanging a few words with Pi, she had temporarily gotten out of her unpleasant memories.
Taking the opportunity since Zhang Zian was not back yet, she decided to fulfill her promise and started the live broadcast app. She planned to conduct her last live broadcast and she didn’t want the cheapskate to see it. She always felt ridiculed by him. After that, he would also ask from her the electricity bill and other payment.
After the live broadcast room was opened, she squinted her eyes and looked at the number of fans. She expected the number of fans to have dropped drastically after she had not broadcasted for so many days. She didn’t even expect the number to reach 3,000 fans.
She was dumbfounded with what she saw. Not only did her number of fans not reduce, but it seemed to have increased by two or three hundred more.
[Mr. Grape] entered the broadcast room.
[F*ck The Wildest Dog] entered the broadcast room.
[Mr. Grape]: “Welcome!”
[killme] entered the broadcast room.
[Mr. Grape]: “Welcome!”
[killme]: “D*mn! So early in the morning and the robot’s already on duty!”
[F*ck The Wildest Dog]: “Isn’t that why he’s a robot? I entered the room immediately when I saw the anchor go live, but I was still a step too late.”
These familiar IDs were like familiar faces. They entered the room every time Sihwa went live, and although Sihwa had never met them, she had already designed a face for each of them in her heart. [killme] was an undergraduate who was still studying. His face was one that had just shaken off its immaturity, with a sparse amount of stubble on his chin. He was sitting in the classroom, looking down at his mobile phone. [F*ck The Wildest Dog] on the other hand, was a working adult, nearly 30 years old, had a dark complexion, and often smoked as he tuned in to the live broadcasts. As for [Mr. Grape]… maybe he was really a robot.
[killme]: “So what is the anchor intending to broadcast today? Sleeping again?”
Sihwa frowned and asked, “Let me ask all of you––I haven’t broadcasted live for a few days. Why haven’t you guys unsubscribed by now? Why did the number of fans increase, not decrease?”
[F*ck The Wildest Dog]: “I don’t know why others watch live broadcasts, but for me, I just use it to pass the time. I just watch whichever anchor looks the most pleasing in my eyes, and you’re currently the most pleasing.”
[killme]: “You probably don’t know about this, but the app has a replay function. So, even if you’ve not gone live, some viewers can watch your live broadcast through the video playback. If they find you interesting, they would subscribe to your channel! Anyway, subscribing doesn’t cost any money. That might be why there was an increase in your number of fans.”
Sihwa was amazed. She really didn’t know that there was such a feature.
More and more IDs started to enter her room. Some were familiar and some weren’t. The new fans were all first welcomed by [Mr. Grape] and then shocked by Sihwa’s perfect appearance. They started a heated discussion about if she had gone through plastic surgery or if she was utilizing some form of beauty filter. The level of excitement was comparable to those large broadcast rooms with over tens of thousands of viewers. As for her old fans, they were already used to the phenomenon.
[Radish]: “Wuwu. I used to only watch replays, and today I’ve finally caught up with a live anchor! Why do you always broadcast during the morning? Many people are either sleeping or on their way to work!”
There were not just a few fans who shared the same opinion. Except for those individuals who wanted to keep the live broadcast time unchanged, most agreed to have her change the next live broadcast time to the evening, which was more suitable for bringing in the crowd.
It was very rare for the people in the broadcast room to use really uncommon words. Although they would occasionally use some homophonic numbers to replace some Chinese characters, Sihwa was still able to understand them.
There were several times where she had wanted to tell them that it was her last live broadcast, but after they suggested the best time to broadcast live, and there were even some people who volunteered to advertise for her, she could no longer utter the words that were on the tip of her tongue… It was a huge change for someone like Sihwa, as she was the type of person who would say whatever she wanted without any considerations about if her words would hurt others.
The heated discussion temporarily came to a standstill. The plastic surgery party and non-plastic surgery party weren’t able to convince anyone, so the focus of attention shifted to another issue.
[killme]: “What’s the anchor going to broadcast? Sleeping again?”
The number of bullet screens reduced for the moment. It was evident that everyone was looking forward to her answer.
Shihua vaguely felt that if she gave a positive answer, many viewers would exit out of the broadcast room. If they wanted to sleep, they could always watch the playback of her previous videos at any time.
In fact, it wasn’t too bad. Anyway, she had decided that it would be her last live broadcast. So, she was going to take the opportunity to say her goodbyes, and when everyone wanted to see her, they could always playback her previous videos.
Sihwa noticed that [Mr. Grape] was still sending the “welcome” bullet screens over and over again. Any ID that entered the broadcast room would have a “welcome” waiting for them. Although many of them were laughing at [Mr. Grape] for being a robot, he wasn’t the least bit affected and continued, as always, with his “welcome” messages. Sihwa felt even more conflicted inside.
Of course, [Mr. Grape] wasn’t a robot. When he entered the broadcast room on the first day, Sihwa had seen him say one or two other words. He might have also wanted to say something else, but he was just too busy sending “welcome” messages.
He was only one of her few loyal fans. She didn’t ask him to do it, nor did she ever thank him. So, why was he willing to go so far for her?
There were also other familiar IDs. There were also those that took advantage of her being a foreigner, using obscure, abusive words to communicate with her. Since she was new to the Chinese language, she didn’t understand the meaning of those words; she thought that the comments were compliments to her. It was at those moments that the familiar IDs would retaliate on behalf of her and assist her with reporting them.
Looking at these fans who were not familiar with each other, she just couldn’t bring herself to say the goodbyes that she had long prepared in her heart.
Moreover, the hateful [Watermelon] had yet to make his appearance, and if she didn’t take the chance to get back at him, she would not be willing to leave.
That day’s weather wasn’t very good; it was dark and cloudy, and looked like it might rain at any time. The temperature was also much lower as compared to the previous days, but her skin was hot as she was surrounded by warmth. It was just like when the white whale had brought her to the bottom of the sea near the lava.
Everyone was still waiting––waiting for her to reveal the contents of the broadcast for that day.
But if she didn’t broadcast herself sleeping, then she was really at a loss on what to broadcast. After all, there was nothing that she knew.
She swept her gaze around the small bathroom and finally laid eyes on the cover of the fairy tale book that was on the bathroom cabinet.
“About that… Actually, I really don’t know anything. I can’t play games, I don’t have any special talents, I can’t even do a split, and I’ve just started learning the Chinese characters… If you don’t mind, I would like to read fairy tale stories to all of you. I know that’s boring, but this is the only thing I can do,” she said, bowing her head.
After she was done speaking, Sihwa did not dare to look up at the screen. She felt that there would be many people laughing at her, and many who would unsubscribe and quit the broadcast room because she had never seen or heard of any anchor who would broadcast themselves reading fairy tales. Even she felt that it would be super boring.
She had never confessed like that before, and she was even regretting it a little now. She thought that it would be better if she had just announced that it was her last live broadcast.
Two to three minutes later, with her face flushed red, Sihwa looked up at the screen uneasily. To her surprise, there were none of the expected ridicules. Instead, there were many who were looking forward to it, and her number of fans did not decrease, either.
She picked up a fairy tale book and mustered up her courage. Just as she was about to start, she noticed that another person had entered the broadcast room.
[Watermelon] entered the broadcast room.
[Mr. Grape]: “Welcome!”
[Watermelon]: “Yo? What’s this anchor gonna do? Read a fairy tale? Now that’s rare.”
Gnashing her teeth as she stared at this ID, Sihwa said, “It’s you!”
[Watermelon]: “It’s me. Now let’s see if you can make me stay and willingly subscribe to you.”
