Chapter 57

The class bell rang urgently. Bai Wei didn’t ask them to hand over their phones at this moment; instead, he walked to the podium with the lecture notes in hand.

However, during the class, he noticed that many students, led by Tang Lin, were secretly watching him. Their expressions, beyond the usual respect and admiration, seemed to carry a hint of curiosity and even admiration?

Bai Wei’s right eyelid kept twitching uncontrollably, as if some disaster was about to happen.

“Give me your phone.”

—–

After class, Tang Lin had intended to sneak away, but Bai Wei stopped him on the spot. Facing Bai Wei’s long, fair hand, Tang Lin was about to make up some excuse: “Before class, I—”

Bai Wei cut him off. “I heard that some students in your grade have been watching explicit videos during breaks. I didn’t expect you to be one of them. I’m really disappointed.”

Tang Lin: …

Tang Lin jumped up like a chicken whose feet had been stepped on. All his previous attempts to cover up had vanished.

“No, no, Teacher Bai, look, I was watching this!” He quickly opened his phone, showing all the videos posted under his account to Bai Wei. “These are videos I edited, not explicit content! And look, it has hundreds of thousands of views!”

Bai Wei had only intended to test him, but he didn’t expect the boy to confess so quickly. At first, he had just glanced at the phone, but when he saw the video preview, he noticed a familiar face.

“What’s this?”

“Teacher Bai! I’m reporting it!” Jin Xin’s voice came from the side, “My cousin edited some footage he shot at the Long family’s house the other day into a little short drama, called Bai Ermos’ Mansion Birthday Party Mystery! He put the whole story, along with a bunch of things he filmed, into it!”

“And that detective, Bai Ermos, is you! Teacher Bai, now you have so many admirers. They all call you the Sherlock Holmes of Xueshan Town!”

“…What?” Bai Wei couldn’t believe his ears.

“No, no! I didn’t just copy everything! And I blurred everyone’s faces!” Tang Lin’s face turned red as he weakly tried to defend himself.

“But you used the original audio…”

The two students ran off just before the second class bell rang. Bai Wei immediately rushed back to his office and quickly opened his computer to search.

However, he didn’t even need to search in detail. The keyword “Bai Ermos” was already trending on the video site’s hot search list. When Bai Wei clicked on the video, he saw that its view count had increased by several tens of thousands compared to just a few minutes ago.

That’s tens of thousands in the middle of a workday afternoon at 3 PM!

It seemed that Tang Lin really had a knack for video production. He had used a classic and mysterious opening, with an enigmatic soundtrack. The 20-minute short drama was edited in such a way that it resembled a thrilling, captivating detective film. Perhaps to avoid being targeted by the residents of Xueshan Town, Tang Lin had blurred the faces of everyone who appeared in the video, altered the names, and applied filters to the story.

Even so, when the blurred, white-suited Bai Wei appeared on screen, a flood of bullet comments filled the screen.

“Ahhh, oh my God! That broad-shouldered, slim-waisted body! Those legs!”

“Such a perfect physique, such a perfect aura… Even with the face blurred, the unparalleled beauty can’t be hidden.”

“Compared to that muscular guy just now, it’s like choosing between round and slim beauties…”

“Wow, who can let me see his real face?! Wow!”

The editing intentionally portrayed Bai Wei as a mysterious, high-level person who appeared out of nowhere. In the video’s narrative, Bai Wei was depicted as a writer who loved to travel. He was proficient in multiple languages, skilled in art, physics, chemistry, biology, and several musical instruments. He also had his own insights into fine dining and wine.

However, he wasn’t working on a new piece; he was using his travels around the world to enrich his writing material, collecting local folklore and strange stories, and exploring various mysterious events. He kept a thick notebook filled with his personal accounts of bizarre incidents.

He had been chased by the pharaoh’s mummy inside the pyramid, experienced the statues’ eyes opening on Easter Island, witnessed a murder in a hot air balloon while skydiving in space, dived in the Three Gorges Reservoir and discovered a bronze city underwater… What are these things? How are they even crazier than what Lu Sen wrote? It’s like a pro max version of the travel content he fabricated.

…Lu Sen!! It’s all your fault!

And he also has an assistant named Rosen, who loves eating convenience store bento boxes.

Watching the video, Bai Wei: …

What is this? Why does he feel like he’s become the OC of this brat, and in the “husband” version of it?

Perhaps only bored students have the highest technical ability. The 20-something-minute video had an endless stream of discussions in the top comments. All the comments erupted like an avalanche when Bai Wei spoke.

Bai Wei was also taken aback.

Tang Lin only made the slightest adjustment to his voice! It was almost his original voice!

“Voice control ecstasy!!”

“What a beautiful voice… A peerlessly cold beauty’s voice.”

“Master, I want to be your dog, prprpr.”

One has to admit, despite the impressive video production, it’s obvious to anyone that the reason this video went viral was entirely due to Bai Wei’s brilliant personal performance.

Whether it was his figure, temperament, appearance (in the imagination), cultivation, or calm analytical ability, all of these made this short drama a personal performance show for Bai Wei. When he arrived at the banquet, he was polite and refined, elegantly engaging with everyone. When the accident occurred, he was unexpectedly calm, uncovering the Long family conspiracy and protecting Vice Principal Liu’s reputation with grace and compassion. Moreover, he looked so affectionate with his assistant and appeared to have a painful past… These all contributed to creating an image that was incredibly attractive to the audience.

What was even more captivating was the short drama’s ending. As he held an umbrella and left with Lu Sen, the subtitles on the screen displayed several pieces of narration.

‘I have a feeling… none of today’s events were coincidental.’

‘Hmm, perhaps this was always aimed at me.’

‘Who in Snow Mountain Town would harbor such malice toward me?’

‘This makes me want to stay here longer. Perhaps, I’ll uncover more secrets here.’

If Tang Lin were here, he would definitely explain that this segment was just to create some mystery for the sake of a sequel. But Bai Wei’s expression suddenly became suspicious.

Could it be that Tang Lin discovered something?

This kid, so young, is this terrifying?

The video’s popularity continued to skyrocket. Countless people rushed into the comment section, asking where this place was and who the lead actors were. At this moment, Bai Wei opened up Tang Lin’s column and started browsing.

Now he finally understood why Tang Lin complained that no one watched his small-town high school boy daily vlog.

…This kid has a talent for turning everything into a horror film!

Even the sunny Baima High School was filmed to look like it was hiding ten murderers. When filming the town’s wishing well, he even suspected someone’s head might pop out the next second. It’s no surprise this style could make a small town daily life video go viral!

His personal works collection folder was even named “Small Town Strange Stories (Most of the Stories are Fiction).”

It’s ridiculous.

The video’s views kept rising, and the comment section not only praised Bai Ermos but also insulted the Long family’s shamelessness. Bai Wei, however, closed the page. He didn’t think this video would have any impact on his life. In his eyes, such kids’ edited videos were just small distractions.

And he didn’t show his face.

As for how the Long family would view these videos, that wasn’t even in his consideration.

The only thing troubling him was the growing pile of packages at home. Since he stopped substituting, Lu Sen seemed to have let loose. He bought souvenirs from all over every day, placing them next to photos he edited of him and Bai Wei, fabricating one piece of evidence after another that they had traveled together.

Recently, he barely mentioned running the homestay. Bai Wei thought it was probably because he was spending all his time buying souvenirs.

However, Bai Wei had underestimated the power of these videos, and Tang Lin’s determination to create follow-up content.

“Bai Wei, teacher, you really don’t want to appear in this script with us?” Tang Lin caught up to him, his eyes full of longing. “We can shoot short dramas together in the future. Teacher, I’ll give you a share of the revenue!”

“Your most important task now is to get into college,” Bai Wei said coldly.

“Oh… Alright, then I’ll go find Lu Sen,” Tang Lin said dejectedly.

Unlike Bai Wei, Lu Sen seemed to enjoy making these videos and was occasionally willing to cooperate with Tang Lin on screen. Bai Wei, on the other hand, reluctantly treated it as a little kids’ dubbing club activity.

Anyway, not many people would watch it.

Compared to this small inconvenience in life, another problem bothered Bai Wei even more.

“Bai Wei, have you decided? The principal hopes you can continue being the art teacher here,” Qiao Min asked him. “What are your thoughts or plans?”

“Before a new substitute teacher arrives, I’ll continue teaching,” Bai Wei finally said.

“So you’re not planning to stay at the school?”

“Let’s see.”

Planning or not?

Or perhaps, staying here was never in Bai Wei’s plans.

“Ah? … Actually, I’m surprised,” Qiao Min said. “I thought you wanted to stay here. It was surprising to me that you would want to stay. I thought you would prefer to write for a living or do something else. Not be a teacher…”

“Who said that?” Bai Wei treated it like a casual remark.

“Lu Sen said that. He even asked the principal. The principal was eager to accommodate. He wanted to know if there were any courses that could attract you more. He said you were also interested in staying here as an art teacher, but if there were something more appealing, that would be even better.” Qiao Min said. “…Bai Wei?”

She suddenly shrank back, afraid to speak. This was because the cold aura that suddenly emanated from Bai Wei overwhelmed everything.

“… It’s nothing. I’ll go back and ask him,” Bai Wei said faintly.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he added, “Did he say anything else? Like, anything I don’t know?”

—-

Lu Sen was at home, tidying up the souvenirs.

He hung the souvenirs and photos from PS in a specific order on the photo wall. The sight of all the intimate and beautiful moments made him feel at ease.

Gradually, he no longer needed to consciously raise the corners of his mouth, as a smile naturally appeared on his face.

However, what Lu Sen didn’t expect was that at that moment, he received a phone call.

A call from an unfamiliar middle-aged man.