Chapter 36

Shi Yu felt stressed. After washing his face, he lay on the sofa thinking about life. After a while, he grit his teeth and picked up his phone, which he had thrown aside.

Great. After spending a lot on buying a medical robot, he thought he could save some money now, but that seemed impossible.

He even needed to buy all new clothes!

With his belly like this, Shi Yu couldn’t go out shopping in stores. Luckily, big malls now all offer delivery services.

He opened an app, looked at some popular relaxed-style clothes, and, despite the pain of spending money, ordered a few new outfits.

Then, he wrote a painful lesson in his notebook: lacking energy is bad, but eating too much is also bad — or else he would look like this now.

Shi Yu twitched his mouth, lay flat on the sofa, and waited for the clothes to be delivered.

A few minutes later, his phone, which he was holding, suddenly rang again. He covered his eyes and looked. When he saw the caller was the food section manager, he was surprised.

Huh? Didn’t they just call?

Did they forget to say something?

Since it was his boss, he forced himself to sit up and answer.

“Hello, Brother Zhu.”

Shi Yu immediately got serious, “Don’t worry, I’m not slacking off. I just finished washing my face and will start streaming soon.”

“All the ingredients are ready!”

Before he could finish, the manager interrupted.

“Hey, that’s not why I’m calling.”

Brother Zhu looked a bit strange. “I just got the news too — our Maogu platform has a new boss.”

“I’ll send you a new contract later.”

New boss for Maogu?

Shi Yu was stunned. How did he not notice such a big change affecting his life?

While on the call, he quickly searched online and found the news came out this morning.

“The Maogu platform’s previous owner has left. Now, a mysterious new boss has bought the live streaming platform.”

The world seemed to shake — they lost their boss overnight?

The manager also seemed shocked but said, “The new boss hasn’t changed much yet. They just sent a notice about a meeting. Overall, not much will change.”

“Anyway, remember to stream, Shi Xiao.”

After saying this, someone else came, and the manager quickly hung up.

Shi Yu looked at the news on a search site and saw many people guessing who bought Maogu.

“Maogu must have cost a lot. Who is this big spender?”

The streamers’ chat group exploded with talk. Shi Yu quietly watched. This new boss was really a mystery. Even top streamers who knew the old management didn’t know who it was.

For now, there was nothing to do but wait. No matter what, as a small middle-level streamer, it probably didn’t affect him. He would focus on streaming more hours.

Still, the early morning announcement from Maogu shocked many.

Right after Shi Yu started streaming, fans immediately chatted:

“Yu Bao, did you get a new boss?”

“I saw the notice this morning and was scared. Thought it was a prank.”

Shi Yu rubbed his forehead. He was scared too.

“Probably, yes.”

“Otherwise the manager wouldn’t have told us.”

Fan “Love Eating Lamb Skewers” said, “Hope the new boss is nice and doesn’t make too many demands.”

Shi Yu agreed, nodded, then looked at the time.

“Okay, enough talk. Let’s start cooking.”

“What do you want to see me eat today?”

“I can take your orders.”

Since he hadn’t streamed for days, Shi Yu wanted to give fans a treat today.

As soon as he said this, old fans started joking.

“Yu Bao is nervous.”

“Hehe, I don’t mind, but Yu Bao looking nervous is cute.”

Shi Yu blinked. He wasn’t nervous! He just wanted to try something new.

He cleared his throat, stood up, carefully adjusted the camera, and moved it to the kitchen.

“Let me show you what ingredients we have. You can choose what you want.”

Fans, excited by the food orders, didn’t notice the camera angle had changed.

Before, the camera only showed below his chin, so when he stood up, fans could see his legs.

Now… the camera showed only his upper body.

The back of a masked figure quickly flashed in the camera, but nothing below the belly showed.

Shi Yu quietly turned sideways, hiding his belly from the camera, then pointed the camera at the fridge.

“Chicken wings, pork chops, broccoli, beef…”

“Wuwu, how about tomato beef stew?”

“I heard the streamer talk about that before. Sounds tasty.”

Tomato beef stew? Maybe not bad.

As dish names popped up, Shi Yu was about to decide when a mysterious big spender suddenly donated ten yachts.

“Eat something light. Tomato beef stew is good.”

Huh?

Okay then.

“Thanks to big spender 8836154 for the yachts. Let me check how many tomatoes we have.”

Shi Yu smiled and reached into the fridge, but just then, someone else joined the stream.

He didn’t see them at first, but fans did.

Hmm? Isn’t that the card god Ka?

Ka Han Chu Yi wasn’t there by accident. He had waited days for Shi Yu to stream since Shi Yu hadn’t streamed lately. When he saw the live icon, he jumped on.

Coincidentally, he ran into Shen Yan’s fake account.

Seeing Shen Yan’s small account on the leaderboard made Ka angry. He smirked and said:

“Tomato beef stew? Not tasty at all.”

“I think cola chicken wings are better. Let’s eat those.”

He had checked Shi Yu’s past streams and saw he liked that dish, so he gave a completely different suggestion.

But that wasn’t all. After his comment, Ka threw in twenty yachts, pushing 8836154 down.

Shi Yu turned to see yachts flooding the screen, confused.

Wait, how did ordering tomato stew lead to this? Do Ka and 8836154 have a feud?

He wasn’t the only one wondering. The chat was full of questions.

Why was a simple dish choice turning into a fight?

Both Shen Yan and Ka knew who the other was but ignored it and just typed.

“Eat what you want. Don’t care about others.”

Another thirty yachts appeared on the screen, even the moderators were surprised.

Brother Zhu, just out of the meeting, saw Shi Yu’s rapid rise on the food section’s reward page and was surprised.

“Shi Xiao is really popular?” he muttered.

Unnoticed, the new boss in a suit heard this and looked over.

Sang Huaiyu raised his eyebrow: “Shi Yu is really popular?”

He quickly found Shi Yu on the platform in the food section.

The numbers kept rising on the reward leaderboard. Sang noticed that the two big spenders were Shen Yan and Ka Han Chu Yi.

Had they secretly contacted Shi Yu?

His fingers paused, and for some unknown reason, he felt… unhappy.

Shi Yu finally calmed the two spenders down and held up the tomatoes and cola.

“Stop fighting. I’ll make both dishes.”

“I’m hungry anyway, let’s eat two dishes.”

Honestly, he was happy to get donations, but it felt too much.

Yacht effects flooded the screen and made his eyelids twitch. Worried it might cause trouble, Shi Yu asked them to stop.

After he said this, Shen Yan stopped first.

Ka frowned but saw Shi Yu didn’t want them to keep going, so he reluctantly stopped.

The chat was stunned, then slowly went back to watching the stream.

Cough cough, Fishbao, don’t be afraid.

“Just think of it as if they are in a good mood and like to spend money,” a fan who loves lamb skewers quietly comforted him.

“It’s okay.”

“Thanks to both of you, but everyone should just watch the livestream peacefully.”

Shiyu made a hand sign to the fans. Seeing that no one was arguing, he finally relaxed and turned around to continue cooking.

The familiar steps were pleasant to watch, and with the occasional commentary from the other side, the screen finally became quiet.

When Shiyu finished cooking tomato beef brisket and cola chicken wings and put them on the table, the live chat returned to normal.

But… “Huh, where’s the streamer?”

Fans looked at the livestream and were a bit confused because the streamer usually sat down after cooking. Although they couldn’t see his face, it was nice to see his hands, which looked like they came from a comic—very attractive.

Then, suddenly, a close-up shot right in front of the camera appeared.

After preparing himself mentally, Shiyu took a deep breath and painfully adjusted the camera to show his upper body.

He had no choice because his belly was slightly showing, so he couldn’t livestream as before. Now he had to show only the upper body.

He hoped it wouldn’t scare everyone.

“This view… looks weird?”

As the camera moved, fans were confused.

The streamer said, “Just showing my hands before seemed a bit strange.”

“Now I’ll change it a bit and livestream normally.”

Normally?

Hmm?

Normally?!

The chat froze for a moment, not understanding what “normally” meant, until they saw a hand gently move the camera, and Shiyu’s upper body appeared on screen.

Then… the mask that he always wore—sometimes briefly seen—was taken off?!

Chat exploded: !!!

Wait.

The streamer showed his face?

No, wait, hold on, who is this handsome guy on screen?!

It was Shiyu’s first time showing his face on camera, and he was a bit shy, glancing at the camera.

Ahem.

“Um, I think this is my first time meeting you all.”

“Good afternoon, am I starting a mukbang now?”

After he said this, the chat went silent with no response.

It was the first time Shiyu had experienced this and he wondered if everyone had left.

Hmm?

He’s not ugly, right?

Though after traveling to this world, because of its strange nature, he always wore a mask when he had no protection. But before traveling, his face seemed normal—not weird enough to be ignored.

Shiyu paused. He planned to start eating, but hesitated.

“Is it no good?”

“Is there no eating atmosphere?”

“Should I wear a mask effect while eating?”

After he spoke, the silence in the chat broke.

“Ah no, please don’t!”

“Why cover such a good-looking face? Although the mask look is cool, streamer, please show your face while eating next time. Before, I thought your cooking looked good, now I get why a face makes food even better.”

“Wow, so handsome!”

“Really stunned, so pure. You must have been popular at school.”

The chat flooded more than when they were showing yachts, surprising even those who were quiet before.

Shiyu looked like the kind of school heartthrob who was good at basketball and studies, a pure and refreshing type that made people like him at first sight.

On camera, Shiyu drank some water, making his sharp jawline more obvious.

His lips were a little redder than usual, and the water drinking made viewers focus on his clear, handsome face.

It was the kind of unintentional charm that some straight guys have.

After a while, he lowered his head and ate just like before, with the same calm and natural movements.

Shen Yan was a little surprised when Shiyu took off his mask. He hadn’t expected Shiyu to look like this.

Because he remembered Shiyu’s voice more, Shen Yan hadn’t paid much attention to his looks before.

Today was the first time meeting him in person.

Unexpectedly handsome, but Shen Yan quickly recovered and thought that, based on Han Chuyi’s reaction, this wasn’t surprising.

Han Chuyi had seen Shiyu’s face under the mask before, so he wasn’t shocked, only annoyed that Shen Yan saw it this time too.

What was Shen Yan’s true feeling about Shiyu?

He had listened to Shiyu’s voice a lot privately and now watched the livestream… He frowned, remembering Shen Yan’s earlier “threat” and his dark expression.

His eyes shifted before looking back at the screen.

Shiyu had already eaten quite a lot.

Cough, is it really that tasty?

The tomato beef looked so-so, but the cola chicken wings on screen looked quite delicious.

Han Chuyi watched as Shiyu quickly finished eating.

After wiping his hands with a wet wipe, he lifted the plate.

“All clean.”

“Thanks for your support today. I’ll end the stream now.”

Shiyu looked at the livestream length—it was twice as long as before. He made up for lost time and ended the stream happily.

He ignored the sad comments in the chat.

After the stream ended and the screen went black, Shen Yan came back to his senses, pushed down the image of Shiyu’s face, and after a while, went back to work on the Ability Users Association.

At the CatGu platform headquarters: Sang Huaiyu opened the video of Shiyu’s eating livestream and stared at his lips for a while.

He had to admit, this face was quite good by human standards.

To him, Shiyu was just a “human” symbol, different in small ways because of his special traits. But after memorizing his face, Shiyu’s image became vivid in his mind.

—This is a person who looks very comfortable to look at.

So why, if Shiyu seemed nice and “pure and refreshing” in human words, would he resist him so much?

Did he accidentally do something to make him hate him?

Sang Huaiyu lowered his eyes and watched Shiyu drink water on the video for a while. Then he looked away from the soft red lips and suddenly typed a line.

“Collect all previous streamer contracts.”

The platform manager had just relaxed after a meeting when he saw the big boss’s message.

All streamer contracts?

He was surprised but sent all contracts over, thinking the boss just wanted to check or fill in gaps.

The old contract templates for various levels were sent again. The CatGu platform supervisors finally could relax.

Sang Huaiyu looked at the old contracts and found Shiyu’s, who was ranked as a B-level streamer.

Hmm…

This kind of contract, the split doesn’t seem very high?

Compared to streamers like Shen Yan and Han Chuyi who appear in livestreams, Sang Huaiyu preferred another way of contact.

A few minutes later, after Shiyu finally relaxed for a bit, he got a message from the livestream backend.

Because he showed his face for the first time today, many people followed him, and notifications didn’t stop. Shiyu instinctively picked up his phone to turn off notifications.

When he opened it, he saw a deep-sea-themed avatar who had sent him a message before.

Hmm?

Is this the snake Daddy?

Shiyu was surprised, not sure why he remembered to share again today. Opening the message, he found this pet lover didn’t send the silver snake again but instead congratulated him.

“Congrats on getting to the food section homepage.”

Kind of polite, huh?

Talking like this with a stranger felt a bit awkward, but since he had praised the snake before, this congratulation felt okay, so Shiyu relaxed.

“Thanks.”

After typing, he hesitated, unsure what to say next since they weren’t close.

He didn’t see that after reading his message, Sang Huaiyu thought deeply. He sent the revised contract to the CatGu manager and looked at the chat.

After staring at each other for a while, Shiyu was debating whether to make an excuse to leave for a shower when suddenly the other side sent a file.

“CatGu platform B-level streamer contract” appeared on the screen.

Shiyu blinked, not understanding why the snake Daddy sent this.

He frowned and looked at the plain avatar again. But the next second, the nickname changed to “CatGu platform CEO.”

Shiyu: ???

What the heck?

Why did the snake Daddy change his name to something so misleading?

Shiyu thought it was a joke, but the guy was really funny.

But soon, to his shock, the Maogu platform confirmed his nickname.

Could this really be the boss?!

Shi Yu was confused and kept checking. When he saw the boss’s name staying there clearly, he finally nervously sent a message:

“Hello, boss.”

He couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize the new boss.

Shi Yu wiped his face, took a deep breath, and carefully asked:

“What do you mean by sending me this?”

Was it a way of telling him to leave?

Sang Huaiyu didn’t expect him to think that. After seeing Shi Yu’s question, he smiled softly thinking about him:

“Nothing really.”

“I just think you have potential, so I changed your contract from B-level to A-level.”

Huh? So it’s not to kick him out?

Shi Yu felt relieved but then realized something. His contract was for one year, and there were still a few months before he could change it.

The boss was willing to upgrade his contract early?

Wouldn’t that make the platform lose money?

Shi Yu thought maybe he misunderstood. But when he looked again, the new contract clearly said so.

He was silent for a moment, surprised: Are there really such generous bosses these days?!

Or maybe this was some weird new trick to mark people by their contracts?

And he was the unlucky target?

Shi Yu became a bit cautious and joked:

“The contract looks good.”

“But boss, the time hasn’t come yet, so I’ll think about it.”

To be safe, in case the boss was real and just generously giving out a priority A-level contract, Shi Yu added:

“If I decide, I’ll come find you.”

Sang Huaiyu had already guessed this reaction. When humans get an unexpected gift, they often think carefully. He lowered his eyes and didn’t mind.

“Okay.”

“But give me your answer within a week.”

One week — not too short, not too long — enough for Shi Yu to take it seriously.

Seeing the deadline, Shi Yu’s doubt lessened a bit. Maybe it was just the boss’s sudden idea.

If there was no deadline, that would be really strange.

“Okay.”

“It’s late, boss, you should rest now.”

Shi Yu sent a cute emoji and responsibly logged off.

On the other side, Sang Huaiyu put away his phone, stared at the shark bowing icon for a while, but didn’t plan to rest. He saved it to favorites and took the elevator out of the Maogu building.

Lately, he had sensed something unusual from a few people called the “Gu Jin” group.

At first, it was just a faint sign on a human named Feng Yun Zhen, very subtle, almost unnoticeable.

But these days, all three of them showed the same reaction, making him pay attention.

This feeling was like the wave he sensed by the sea before…

Not strong, but different from the strange powers of known superhumans.

Sang Huaiyu narrowed his eyes, closed them, and appeared at the Superhuman Association.

Shi Yu didn’t know even a faint hidden wave could be detected and unraveled by the evil god.

At that time, he was quietly watching the big platform streamers’ chat groups.

After quietly observing all night, he found the boss seemed to have sent a new contract only to him.

The other streamers showed no reaction or talked about contracts.

After some talks about future developments, nothing else was found out.

Shi Yu sighed in the morning and looked at the contract again, feeling conflicted.

The new contract looked almost like a trick, but he had to admit the terms were really good — much better than before.

If he followed the new contract’s share, he could save enough money to buy a car soon.

He leaned on the sofa, opened the rules again, thinking to himself with doubt:

“Should I sign it or not?”

His little monster who had been worrying with him all night: …wah la.

Shi Yu: …

“Oh right, you don’t understand.”

“Never mind.”

He paused, then looked down at his belly and changed the language to one his little monster could understand:

“Now there is a chance to make money. If we sign the contract, we can earn a lot.”

“But it could also be a trap.”

He couldn’t imagine what kind of trap yet.

“Do you think I should step into it?”

Shi Yu felt that as the one spending his money, the little monster should responsibly join this family discussion and vote on this big money decision.

Wah la?

Sign… contract… money… means mom happy?

The little monster’s slow brain thought it over and chose “mom happy”!

Protect mom from bad people!

After they looked at each other, the little monster sent its feeling to him.

Shi Yu relaxed, surprised the little monster thought the same as him.

No matter what, let’s earn some money first.

He smiled and touched his belly, like high-fiving the little monster inside:

“Okay, it’s decided then?”