Chapter 63

Translator: Abo Dammen

Chen Lu was instantly furious. He slapped the table and said to the people who were all expressing agreement with that classmate’s words, “Look at this face! I’m giving you a chance to rephrase that!!” 

Although Chen Lu always felt the world’s filter made his face a bit exaggerated, there was no doubt it was undeniably good-looking.

His classmates were all art students, naturally possessing eyes that could appreciate beauty. Under the guidance of Chen Lu’s words, they couldn’t help but collectively start admiring this beauty for a few seconds, ultimately expressing sincere approval.

“Xiao Lulu’s face is indeed cheating. With this face, a rich person could probably keep him for three days without returning him,” a classmate said in a very appreciative tone.

Immediately, someone expressed a slight opinion about this classmate’s words, “Three days is a bit long. I think two days is the limit.” 

Chen Lu felt his veins bulging listening to this. What he found even more absurd was that after these controversial statements, most of the classmates very tacitly made thoughtful expressions, then nodded one by one in agreement, accompanied by long sighs.

Looking at his classmates’ particularly synchronized actions, Chen Lu felt outraged and said in disbelief, “Don’t any of you have the impulse to want to keep me?”

The classmates fell silent together. Then, one of them, seeing Chen Lu’s shocked and aggrieved expression, took a one-yuan coin out of his pocket. “Then I’ll keep you for an hour and a half.”

Chen Lu looked at the one-yuan coin glinting in the sunlight, as if seeing his own shining dignity. He walked solemnly up to that classmate, accepted the huge sum with both hands, and said in a sweet voice, “Okay, what service does the gentleman require?” 

The classmate was struck silent by the sweet voice for a few seconds, ultimately saying in a heavy tone, “You should just shut up.”

Chen Lu: “…”

Chen Lu: “……..”

Thus, when the creative arts teacher stepped into the Monet Building, she could clearly locate the classroom she was supposed to teach by the miserable screams of the students upstairs. 

Creative Arts Teacher: “…”

Even before going up, she already felt a headache coming on.

Since Chen Lu returned, this student had become harder and harder to manage.

Walking heavily to the classroom door, the creative arts teacher was actually mentally prepared for a chickens-flying-dogs-jumping scene where she’d have to catch the troublemaker Chen Lu. However, she didn’t expect the situation she saw to be completely different from what she imagined. 

Chen Lu was being very quiet.

Very quiet, sitting at the very front of the classroom, sitting peacefully and properly. There was even a sort of ‘God loves all’ benevolence on his face.

It’s just that if this peaceful and serene Chen Lu weren’t so determinedly holding his own painting, which, due to his upright sitting posture, was facing all the other students, it would be better.

Listening to the students’ spiritually tormented screams, the creative arts teacher: “…” 

Theoretically, she should speak up to stop Chen Lu’s acts of persecution. But the moment she thought about speaking up and Chen Lu turning around to face her with that painting, the creative arts teacher found she still had difficulty summoning the courage.

In the end, the teacher slowed her steps and walked quietly to behind Chen Lu before tapping the back of his head with her book. “Stop bullying your classmates! Is that what your own painting is for?! Don’t go too far. Get back to your own seat. If you do this again, I’ll give you a zero directly.”

Chen Lu turned his head and looked aggrievedly at the teacher. Without a word, he hugged his painting and followed the instruction back to his seat. He didn’t say a word the entire time and silently began painting.

Seeing Chen Lu so well-behaved, the creative arts teacher instead felt a bit uneasy, feeling something was off. She asked the other students, “What’s going on?” 

Once they no longer had to face the mental pollution directly, the other students returned to normal and briefly explained what happened during the break.

The creative arts teacher listened, her mouth twitching. She picked up her book again and similarly tapped the head of the classmate who gave the one yuan. “No bullying classmates. If I find out again, I’ll deduct your participation points.”

“I’ll have the school administration handle the forum post issue. It’s not easy for Chen Lu to earn money on his own for his mother’s medical treatment and debts. Don’t joke about this matter casually,” the creative arts teacher said seriously and earnestly. “Don’t think just because Classmate Chen Lu is usually all jokes and laughter that he won’t get hurt.”

Originally, Chen Lu wanted to uphold his contractual spirit—since he took the money, he should keep his mouth shut. But seeing the apologetic expressions on his classmates’ faces after the teacher’s words, he immediately raised his hand and spoke up, “Teacher, that’s not it. Everyone was speaking up for me. I didn’t want everyone discussing this unhappy matter, so I led it astray.” 

The creative arts teacher looked at Chen Lu, somewhat surprised by his response. But thinking about how, although Chen Lu was wild in his livestreams, the atmosphere in his stream was always very pleasant, she suddenly realized Chen Lu probably had a good sense of measure. She didn’t say much more on the topic, just nodded at Chen Lu and said, as if advising, “Your family situation is special right now, so focusing more on streaming to earn money is understandable. But don’t neglect your studies too much.”

The teacher’s words weren’t actually meant to warn or criticize Chen Lu. Knowing Chen Lu was involved in a kept-man rumor, she was worried other classmates might half-believe it, so she was subtly clarifying and explaining the actual source of Chen Lu’s income.

Chen Lu was stunned for a moment, then completely cracked. “Teacher, how do you know about my streaming??? Do you play games too???”

Fang Qizhi’s discovery was one thing—Chen Lu always suspected world guidance was involved so Fang Qizhi could storm the Qin residence and start the plot. But his school classmates and teachers? How??? 

Chen Lu had memorized the data. None of his classmates or teachers had hobbies related to games or streaming.

Faced with Chen Lu’s genuinely shocked question, both the teacher and the classmates fell silent. They all turned to look at Chen Lu, their faces full of “Are you seriously asking this question?”

Chen Lu might not have been aware of it, but he was actually quite famous within the school.

With a face like that, it was almost impossible not to be somewhat famous. Add his tragic family background and previously consistently excellent grades, the three elements of beauty, strength, and tragedy combined, of course people would talk about him with great interest. 

As Chen Lu’s classmates, since his return to school, they had all been asked, to varying degrees, by people from other classes or even other departments, questions like “How is your class’s Chen Lu?”

The creative arts teacher was in a similar situation.

Who said teachers couldn’t gossip among themselves?

So, even if Chen Lu’s teachers and classmates indeed, as recorded in the data, paid no attention to games or streaming, as long as one person in the entire school was interested and stumbled into Chen Lu’s livestream while watching, the news would without a doubt spread to Chen Lu’s teachers and classmates. 

After learning about the income Chen Lu could earn in a single day from streaming, Chen Lu’s teachers and classmates all chose to fiercely hammer out countless ‘6’s.

No wonder Chen Lu had managed to handle his mother’s medical fees and even return to attend a few classes in just a few months.

Although Chen Lu still missed many classes, surely, just like students needing to preview lessons or teachers needing to prepare lesson plans beforehand, Chen Lu must also need to do a lot of preparatory work before streaming.

After all, some “Passing By’s Streamer Upgrade Plan” document had leaked from somewhere before. 

According to the content of that plan, one could say Chen Lu barely had time for proper sleep, getting only six hours of rest, most of which was snatched during transit.

Life’s tough for everyone.

Chen Lu’s behavior of selectively attending classes and occasionally disappearing had unknowingly gained a perfect justification within the school.

Not getting recognition for being “kept” didn’t discourage Chen Lu, but the fact that all his classmates and teachers knew about his streaming deeply shook him. 

If future plot characters learned from Fang Qizhi’s example and said the same things Fang Qizhi did, it would literally be the death of him!!!

Chen Lu suddenly felt grateful that Dr. Zhu Yi had been sent abroad. He deeply suspected that if Dr. Zhu Yi were still in the country, he would eventually see how his “poor little thing” acted wildly in the livestreams, leading to a heaven-collapsing, world-ending, utterly irreparable catastrophe.

Taking a deep breath, after returning home from class, Chen Lu expressed his concern to Qin Guchuan.

After hearing Chen Lu’s worries, Qin Guchuan checked the subsequent plot and felt the problem wasn’t too big. 

Because the next plot character, also the final plot character, the white moonlight Ling Weiyu, wasn’t bankrupt. Being incredibly busy, it was highly unlikely she would, like the bankrupt and idle Fang Qizhi, suddenly take an interest in playing games or watching streams to kill time.

Moreover, if Chen Lu stopped streaming, then even disregarding Fang Qizhi (who knew this world was a book), he wouldn’t be able to explain it to his teachers and classmates at school.

Chen Lu was convinced by Qin Guchuan, but a doubt also popped into his mind. “How do you know Ling Weiyu is the last character?”

Qin Guchuan’s plot indeed had much more follow-up than Chen Lu’s. According to Qin Guchuan, it stopped around the part where Chen Lu fakes his death. After the time skip, there was only one line like “Two years later, ‘Chen Lu’ was walking on a road in X country,” and nothing else had appeared yet. 

Not knowing when the actual ending was, Chen Lu felt it was unlikely one could determine the status of the final character.

Facing Chen Lu’s skepticism, Qin Guchuan remained calm.

“Since the next plot point is two years later, based on my analysis of this type of book, it must be the start of the story’s conclusion. At this stage, it’s mostly just previously exited characters making a final appearance. We’ve been following the plot for so long now, and aside from Ling Weiyu, no other characters have had any setup for introduction. So, it’s highly unlikely new characters would appear now,” Qin Guchuan said, laying out facts and reasoning.

Chen Lu felt persuaded, but then he suddenly remembered how he was also so resolutely convinced by Qin Guchuan back when he started streaming. 

So, in the end, Chen Lu still looked at Qin Guchuan with a bit of mistrust in his eyes, practically writing “I’ll just watch you talk nonsense” all over his face. This look made Qin Guchuan unable to resist rubbing Chen Lu’s little troublemaker face.

Chen Lu felt that since the plot hadn’t transmitted further information, it was hard to say what would happen. But after Qin Guchuan’s analysis, he still agreed with Qin Guchuan’s suggestion to continue maintaining his stream.

After the serious business was discussed, the two started messing around because Qin Guchuan had been rubbing Chen Lu’s face. With Qin Guchuan deliberately acting weak, Chen Lu achieved a small victory and successfully played with Qin Guchuan’s face in return.

As the victor, Chen Lu openly leaned his back against Qin Guchuan’s shoulder, as if enjoying the glory of triumph. Suddenly, he remembered the nonsense he had discussed with his classmates during the break. 

So, Chen Lu turned around, cupped his own face, and said to Qin Guchuan in a very cute, affected tone, “Oh, very wealthy Mr. Qin~ Given the chance, if there were no plot involved, would you choose to keep me?”