06

It rains a lot in the mountains, especially in the spring, when the raindrops feel like an endless ball of yarn, tangled and continuous with no end in sight.

Finally, the rain stopped one day. Yao Jiu watched as Lin You busied herself, attaching a sports camera to her chest and adding a microphone to the collar.

“To be honest, I still can’t understand why you’re doing this.”

Lin You returned to her hometown. Although she claimed she was just here to relax, Yao Jiu wasn’t like the older folks in the village who struggled with smartphones. As soon as she searched online, she could find topics related to Lin You.

Online, they were calling Lin You a “scheming woman,” saying she “bullied small and insignificant people,” and that she had attached herself to a rich man. Her recent posts on Weibo seemed to be preparing for some future attempt to clear her name.

Yao Jiu watched as the fans of Mu Qingqing cried and comforted each other, swearing that even if Lin You used her wealth to crush Mu Qingqing and keep her down for good, they would never leave Mu Qingqing’s side and would fight Lin You, this “evil resource-rich person,” to the end.

Yao Jiu: …

What could she say? After Lin You came back, the wealthiest person she had interacted with in the village was probably Aunt Chunling, the “richest” person in Lianhua Village. After all, Aunt Chunling owned so many cows and a few calves, making her the wealthiest in the area.

Apart from that, Lin You’s daily routine consisted of things like growing seedlings, fertilizing, finding seeds, and buying farming tools…

Oh, and eating.

Before Lin You came back, Yao Jiu hadn’t realized there was anything wrong with her father’s cooking—he only ever made food to go with the wine. But after tasting Lin You’s cooking, Yao Jiu instantly thought her drunk father didn’t have any advantages at all.

Lin You’s meat? Delicious!

Lin You’s dishes? Delicious!

Even Lin You’s rice was delicious!

If Yao Jiu had to compare Lin You, the great cook, with the infamous Lin You online, she was much more inclined to trust her own eyes.

Therefore, Yao Jiu still couldn’t understand why Lin You would put herself in others’ misunderstandings. Since she came back to her hometown, why not just live a peaceful life?

Lin You adjusted the wheat, tested the equipment, and explained absentmindedly, “Because I don’t want people to misunderstand me.”

This simple explanation was also why Lin You didn’t want to reveal everything. For Yao Jiu, the fact that she needed to maintain exposure for the sake of legal proceedings might be hard for her to understand. And the fact that Lin You had been exploited by a malicious manager and had her salary withheld would only make Yao Jiu angry.

This was a long battle. Why drag others into worrying?

Yao Jiu: “That’s true.”

People online were so harsh. When Yao Jiu read some of the comments, she almost couldn’t stop herself from arguing with them.

Some people didn’t even understand Lin You, yet they were using such vicious words against her. It made Yao Jiu feel uncomfortable.

Lin You finished adjusting the equipment, checked that she hadn’t forgotten anything, and then picked up her hoe to head out to the fields.

“Xiao Jiu, keep an eye on the barrage comments for me, I’m starting.”

She wasn’t worried about ^[1]“Black fans” (黑粉, hēi fěn) is a Chinese term referring to people who follow a celebrity, influencer, or public figure not because they like them, but because they dislike them. … Continue readingblack fans coming in to cause trouble, what she feared was people intentionally posting nonsense, which might get her live stream banned.

Yao Jiu made an “OK” gesture, watching Lin You tuck her dark blue shirt into her pants and throw on a simple linen jacket. She wore a straw hat on her head. The simple combination looked fresh and beautiful, not like she was farming but like she was attending some kind of show.

“Hello everyone, I’m your old friend, Lin You. I’ve been back in my hometown for a while now. For the next period, I plan to farm here, and I’ll occasionally take you all to the mountains to find wild goods, fish, and cook. Interested friends can follow my live stream. I’ll be broadcasting for two hours every day, but the time is not fixed.”

Lin You was still using her old account, so as soon as she started the live stream, many people who had followed her but hadn’t unfollowed immediately received notifications. Therefore, as soon as she said hello, the number of people in the live stream room quickly started rising.

By the time she finished her introduction, the number of viewers had already climbed to thousands.

【Qingfeng Baizhou: Who understands this, family? Just opened the app and saw that annoying person live streaming. Really unlucky, how did I forget to unfollow?】

【I’m Baobaobao: Thanks for reminding me to unfollow, bye~】

【User54678: What kind of live stream is this? Is this a celebrity account?】

【The Universe Knows How Aggrieved I Am: LOL, the entertainment industry’s domineering route isn’t working out, so now she’s pretending to retire and setting up a farming persona. Why not? Who says the entertainment industry isn’t competitive? Now it’s competitive, isn’t it? This kind of hype is refreshingly unique, I’ve never seen anything like it.】

【Three McChicken Leg Burgers: I knew there was something off about those trending topics recently! Every time, it’s deliberately up for a while and then taken down, always testing everyone. So annoying, just a hype machine!】

【BBQ with Small Biscuits, The Best in the World: ^[2]“Hype machine” refers to a person, group, or entity that creates excessive publicity, excitement, or exaggerated promotion, often to generate interest or attention for something like a … Continue readingHype machine, get out of the entertainment industry! Hype machine, get out of the entertainment industry! Hype machine, get out of the entertainment industry!】

—

Yao Jiu quickly set “hype” as a forbidden word and looked anxiously at Lin You, who was holding her phone and live streaming.

But Lin You seemed to not notice the chaos in the bullet comments and continued to explain her plans.

“The land in front of me is mine. It’s about two acres. Earlier, I asked everyone what they wanted me to plant, and the most common suggestion was watermelon.”

Actually, the most liked comment had been a sarcastic “Plant yourself in it,” but Lin You clearly ignored that one and instead chose to mention the second most liked suggestion: watermelon.

Lin You stuck out her tongue. “Although I like watermelon too, I have to tell you that watermelon is best grown on sandy soil or soil that is loose and breathable. This piece of land isn’t really suitable for it, so in a few days, I’ll pick a slope to plant them.”

In reality, Lin You had calculated and decided that it would be a waste to plant watermelon on the fertile land…

Watermelons are labor-intensive and can’t be continuously grown in the same place. If she plants them this year, she’ll have to put in effort again next year to prepare the land. The mountain has plenty of vacant land, so she’ll just pick a spot up there.

“So today, we’re planting… drumroll… today we’ll plant a few vegetables: mainly baby bok choy, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, and chili peppers.”

Unlike most people in the village, Lin You planted vegetables for herself, so she wasn’t concerned about mass planting. She only needed to divide the land into a few plots and get to work.

While Lin You was explaining her vegetable garden on her phone, the black fans, who were late to notice, quickly joined in.

【Mu Qingqing, The Most Beautiful in the World: How can this kind of person still show her face?】

【QingTian78954: Exactly, how can such a morally corrupt person make a comeback? What’s the justification for this?】

【April, Please Be Kinder to Me: Family, I’ve already reported the live stream. Everyone, please take a moment to report and get this resource-hungry person offline.】

With such a lively barrage of comments, Lin You’s live stream quickly reached 20,000 viewers.

Lin You breathed a sigh of relief. In her past life, she had made a living in this way, and in this life, she had planned to study the rules of the live stream platform in depth after starting her broadcasts.

Overall, the rules of the two platforms were quite similar.

That is to say, the live stream platform, just like her world, had a rule where if more than 20,000 people were watching, it would automatically push a certain proportion of traffic across the platform.

Lin You raised an eyebrow. What she cared about wasn’t the black or ^[3]“White fans” can mean literal white-colored fans or loyal followers who ignore faults.white fans, but the people the platform would push to her after surpassing the 20,000 mark.

And she knew that once the platform successfully pushed the traffic, other platforms would pick up the heat, meaning there was a good chance she’d trend again.

And not just any trend, but one that would be hard to remove.

Over the past few days, Lin You had already noticed that every time she posted on Weibo, her topic would briefly rise, but it never made it to the top trending spots, it always hovered at the very bottom before quickly dropping off.

It was definitely being taken down by someone who paid to remove it.

Lin You didn’t need to think to know who was behind it.

Thinking about this, Lin You couldn’t help but smile.

From her first post until now, she had posted about a dozen times.

That meant Zhang Kai had probably spent at least seven figures by now.

What could be more delightful than watching your rival waste money?

Thinking about today’s trending topic, which wouldn’t come down without a few hundred thousand views, Lin You’s hand swinging the hoe became even more energized.

The barrage was full of curses, but Lin You didn’t care. She switched the camera to the mobile camera in front of her chest. This way, the camera turned into a first-person perspective.

Lin You slowly took out the seeds, introducing them one by one and planting them into the soil.

The tomatoes and peppers were pre-grown from seedlings. Lin You carefully placed the little seedlings swaying in the wind into the soil. She meticulously planted the cabbage and bean seeds.

Using white stones, Lin You drew a simple boundary on the ground, working hard for the entire morning.

Farming, of course, wasn’t an easy task. Lin You was meticulous and often explained the process.

“Tomato seeds need to be soaked in water before planting, and then sterilized with streptomycin. The tomato seedlings also need to have the extra side branches pruned. And as you can see, the tender buds at the very top of the branches need to be removed. After removing them, it helps the tomato plant bear fruit.”

“With baby bok choy, we need to pay attention to the planting density. Since baby bok choy has a short growing period, we also need to be careful with fertilization.”

Lin You’s serious demeanor, though not many paid attention, had garnered a lot of positive feedback from the 20,000 new viewers who had been drawn in.

【Waiting for the Flower to Bloom: This little girl is pretty good, she looks like she knows what she’s doing with the farming.】

【Fishing Man Never Leaves the Air: Truly, if baby bok choy isn’t fertilized enough, it’ll grow weak and yellow. The plot outside my house was ruined last year, and I’m planning to plant some new bok choy this year.】

【User4567: Followed, thanks for sharing farming knowledge, blogger.】

This group of older viewers didn’t care about the frantic cursing and blackmailing in the barrage, so the live stream room actually became oddly peaceful for a while.

When Lin You finished and looked up, she found the barrage had quieted down considerably.

Yao Jiu had been watching the drama all morning and had long gone from angry—numb—speechless to a “Whatever, let them do as they please” attitude.

Seeing Lin You was done, she casually typed on her phone and showed Lin You.

“They can’t report the live stream, so they’re angry. They said they didn’t want to give you more attention and have blocked you.”

Even though they were her haters, Lin You couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

They were kind of cute, these people.

The black fans had left, but the people who were pushed by the live stream algorithm stayed behind. The number of viewers remained above 10,000, and surprisingly, Lin You even received several 99-yuan fireworks gifts.

This amount made Lin You quite satisfied.

Since it was her first live stream, she couldn’t ask for too much. She sincerely greeted the audience, “Thank you all for your support. I will continue to bring you my life in the countryside. I will post the daily live stream schedule in the description, so feel free to follow.”

After finishing the live stream, Yao Jiu dusted off her pants and asked, “What should we have for lunch?”

Lin You had invited Yao Jiu to temporarily help manage the live stream room, with the promise of some perks.

The perk was that she would take care of lunch and dinner.

The first day of the live stream had been quite successful, and Lin You was in a good mood as she cleaned the mud off the farming tools. “How about spring pancakes?”

She had used the leftover dough from steaming buns the night before to make dozens of spring pancakes, which were now in the fridge, perfect for today.

Fresh green onions, cucumber cut into pieces, dried chili peppers stir-fried with sour and spicy shredded potatoes, and a stir-fried pot of mung bean sprouts, eggs, and fresh chives, along with homemade sweet potato noodles. Finally, she stir-fried some pork tenderloin with Beijing-style soy sauce.

Once the side dishes were ready and the sauce and dishes were arranged, a vibrant red and green spread was set out.

Yao Jiu couldn’t wait to start wrapping the spring rolls.

The pancake skin was fragrant and chewy, and the side dishes were delicious and savory.

Lin You had been busy all morning, so the sauce turned out a bit saltier than usual, but after taking a big bite of the spring pancake and then sipping some cornmeal porridge, she didn’t find it salty anymore.

It felt like her stomach had finally gotten exactly what it needed.

After eating, Yao Jiu and Lin You devoured the side dishes and spring pancakes, and soon fell asleep for an afternoon nap.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a storm was brewing.

Zhang Kai’s face was as dark as if someone owed him five million.

Xiao Zhuo nervously reported, “The heat is too high, our usual methods aren’t working anymore. Now, we either raise the price, or let the heat grow naturally.”

Zhang Kai was so angry he almost laughed. “Raise the price? How do we do that? Do you expect me to raise it every time she live streams? Didn’t you hear her say? She plans to live stream every day from now on!”

Lately, Zhang Kai had been feeling increasingly frustrated. He had to monitor Lin You’s posts every day, trying to suppress the heat, and at the same time, gather information about her whereabouts.

But oddly enough, after Lin You “retired” from the industry, no one knew where she had gone.

She claimed to have returned home, but Zhang Kai didn’t believe it.

With how developed the internet is these days, how could Lin You return to her hometown without being spotted?

But in fact, Lin You wasn’t trying to hide. She knew she’d be caught eventually.

The reason she hadn’t been filmed was simply that she lived in a remote area, Lianhua Village, where there weren’t many young people. As for the town, Lin You only visited a few places: small food stalls, seed shops, and a courier station.

In this situation, unless Lin You wore oversized sunglasses to deliberately attract attention, no one would think to film her.

Zhang Kai didn’t know this, and his chest was filled with frustration.

All he could do now was hire online trolls to stir up trouble for Lin You and flood the internet with negative rumors, trying to sabotage her live stream success.

Xiao Zhuo listened to the plan, but secretly thought to himself.

Lin You wasn’t trying to be a celebrity, she was live streaming.

By hiring trolls to spread ^[4]“Black rumors” refers to negative, often untrue or exaggerated information spread about a person to damage their reputation. It’s similar to “smear campaigns” or … Continue readingblack rumors, weren’t they just giving her more attention?