Chapter 1

1 a.m., CY's live stream room.

A warm, orange glow shone from overhead, illuminating a slender, thin figure. The white curtains fluttered in the wind, making a whooshing sound. The television emitted a glaring green light, and the image on the screen was paused, frozen on the actor's wide-eyed expression of terror. A half-finished glass of water sat on the coffee table. The night was eerily quiet, broken only by the occasional scratching of a pen on paper.

A canvas stood on a wooden stand. A girl in front of it held a paintbrush, a 2B pencil tucked behind her ear, her hair casually tied in a bun, dressed simply and neatly. As she sketched with her paintbrush, she explained, "These are blue and white porcelain cups with twelve floral patterns representing the twelve months. They were made in the Kangxi imperial kiln during the Qing Dynasty. There are twelve in total, each representing a month..."

He glanced at his phone as he spoke, only to find it completely blank.

This is Yu Xia's thirtieth day of live streaming.

As usual, the number of viewers in the live stream was a pitiful "0".

Yu Xia remained unmoved, stubbornly persisting in her duties as a broadcaster, and continued to focus her attention on the canvas.

While drawing, he explained and talked to himself in the live stream, which had no viewers at all, sharing his tips for drawing blue and white porcelain.

"Using a thin layer of burnt brown acrylic paint for the initial sketch can avoid the oil-based paint from clashing with the underlying material."

"The most important thing about blue and white porcelain is the color of its body. For example, for the floral pattern cup I painted, I used titanium white and a small amount of Maas black as the base color, which can better present the texture of the porcelain body."

"As for the middle management..." Yu Xia paused here, then looked at the screen again, still unwilling to give up, but it was still "0".

With a snap.

She finally couldn't take it anymore and slammed her paintbrush heavily onto the wooden board.

With this level of viewership, even Oscar-winning actors would struggle to keep up the performance in such a tragic and pitiful scene!

Yu Xia sighed. She simply didn't have the strong and optimistic mindset to continue her presentation in front of an empty live stream room without any impact.

Why is it that everyone else has traffic and everyone else's live stream is bustling with activity, but she's all alone, guarding this zero-person live stream, like a concubine who's gone mad in the cold palace!

On what grounds?!

Just as Yu Xia was hanging her head in frustration, thinking about how to smash this damned "cold palace", the "0" on the screen suddenly changed to "1".

A user with the ID 【Bai and Bye】entered the live stream.

!!

It seems that even the cold palace can see the light of day again!

Haha! She knew God hadn't abandoned her!

Yu Xia's eyes immediately lit up with an unprecedented light, like a concubine who had regained favor. She raised her long neck high and almost immediately read out the ID: "Welcome Bai and Bye to the live stream."

At this moment, on the other side of the screen.

Gu Yubai's fingertip paused on the screen, his face showing an unexpected look of confusion.

He was surfing on a secondary account when he accidentally clicked on the wrong button and entered this live stream.

Just as he was about to log out, he heard a cheerful voice accurately pronounce his alternate account ID, abruptly cutting him off from his next move.

His fingertip hovered over the exit button in the upper left corner.

The girl's voice was very clear, and her tone was full of surprise and delight, as if she was extremely happy about his arrival.

Gu Yubai was still wondering why his ID was accurately called out when he randomly entered a live stream, until he saw the number of viewers in the upper right corner of the live stream: "1".

Gu Yubai: "..."

Then, looking down, he found himself staring at the anchor on the screen.

The streamer, who had seemed listless just moments before, suddenly brightened up. His beautiful almond-shaped eyes sparkled as he stared intently at the screen, as if looking at a savior, filled with anticipation, seemingly waiting for a response.

Gu Yubai: "..."

He suddenly had the illusion that if he turned around and left now, he would be a scumbag who started something and then abandoned it.

Under the gaze of those eyes, Gu Yubai's eyebrows twitched, and he silently withdrew the hand that was about to click "exit".

Then, upholding good morals, and out of politeness, he posted a message in the live chat:

[Hello. ]

Sure enough, when the streamer on the other end saw the only comment that lit up in the live stream, his eyes lit up even more, and his joy was clearly even greater.

Yu Xia leaned closer to the camera, making no attempt to hide her emotions. A wide smile spread across her face as she cheerfully said, "Hello! Welcome to my live stream."

For Yu Yuxia, the only viewer to enter her live stream in the past month was of extraordinary significance.

If it's one now, then it'll be ten, a hundred, a thousand! At this rate, how far are we from becoming a top-tier streamer with over ten thousand followers? It's practically just around the corner!

So this is just a matter for the audience?! This is clearly the most important turning point in her revolutionary victory!

Thinking of this, Yu Xia's eyes became even more excited as she looked at the screen, as if she were looking not at the screen, but at a microcosm of her wonderful future life.

Gu Yubai on the other side was obviously unaware that because of his appearance, the small streamer had become so excited that he was envisioning his bright future as a big streamer.

Seeing the young streamer's excited expression, he had a subtle feeling.

It seems... my current actions are very important? It seems to determine whether the market will have one more person crying for their dreams or one more streamer chasing their dreams.

Besides, the message has already been sent, the door has been opened, and now there's no way to leave. Embracing the Chinese mentality of "since we're already here," Gu Yubai thought for a while before typing the second sentence:

Are you drawing?

To be honest, Gu Yubai wasn't really good at these kinds of social situations. Usually, aside from conversations with important figures, he only talked business with the people around him and didn't chat much; everyone would close the door and do their own thing. And even when they did talk, it was usually others who initiated the conversation; he rarely took the initiative to find topics.

This was the first time he had ever taken on the role of initiating a conversation. He really didn't know what to say to keep the atmosphere from getting awkward, and after racking his brains looking at the canvas next to the junior anchor, he finally came up with this sentence.

Nonsense, with paintbrushes and canvas next to him, what else could he be doing but painting?

Gu Yubai was speechless at the thought he had come up with to make conversation.

But the young anchor clearly didn't have that thought. When she saw Gu Yubai ask, she immediately took a few steps back to make the screen show a wider field of view. Then she moved the canvas in this direction so that he could see it more clearly. Still in high spirits, she smiled with her eyes crinkling and said, "Yes, I'm painting. I'm painting Qing Dynasty blue and white porcelain."

When Gu Yubai saw the painting, he paused for a moment, recognizing it.

[Blue and white porcelain cup with floral design of the twelve months.]

Upon seeing this, Yu Xia's expression brightened with even more surprise: "Yes! You recognized me."

Gu Yubai's studio has animation production projects, so he has a certain understanding of painting.

He was stunned for a moment because when Yu Xia turned the painting over, he was surprised to find that it was very well drawn.

The use of color, the handling of lines, and the composition are all handled perfectly, with great precision and delicacy.

[You drew it very well; anyone with eyes can see that.]

Gu Yubai spoke without thinking, completely unaware of how obnoxious his last sentence was.

"Really?" Yu Xia turned the painting back, not minding his second half of the sentence at all, and readily accepted the praise. "I also think I painted quite well, it's just that not many people may have noticed it yet, but they definitely will in the future."

She's actually quite optimistic.

Gu Yubai considered the current market situation for small-time livestreamers' paintings, and after some analysis, he wrote down his conclusions:

[Perhaps, but the possibility is not very high.]

But after sending it, Gu Yubai belatedly realized that what he said seemed to be a word he had recently learned online, the word that everyone hates the most: "disappointment."

Thinking of this, Gu Yubai pondered whether he should add something to salvage the young streamer's fragile spirit. Unexpectedly, the young streamer did not show any signs of being disappointed or dejected. Instead, she stared at the screen with a sincere and inquisitive expression, asking, "Really? Then what should I do to make the possibility greater?"

Gu Yubai looked at the young anchor's humble and eager expression, his eyes filled with a hint of longing, as if he valued what the anchor was about to say.

Gu Yubai deleted the words he was about to use to make amends, since with his social skills, it seemed that making amends or not wouldn't make much difference.

He retyped a line, sharply pointing out the lack of small-scale livestreamers' paintings in the market.

I thought that after he finished speaking, the young streamer would be a little embarrassed and angry, or at least a little frustrated. But to my surprise, after looking at the painting and thinking seriously for a while, the young streamer nodded heavily and said, "I think you are right. Without operations, without a unique sales method, and without an irreplaceable personal style, it is indeed difficult to survive in the market."

After listening to his analysis and thinking it over, Yu Xia realized he was right. She was also looking for the reason; after all, the live stream had been completely silent for over a month, which meant there was a problem.

Yu Xia faced the camera, looked at the other side of the screen through the screen, smiled, and said sincerely, "You are really amazing, you know so much."

Gu Yubai raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised. He had thought the young streamer would be discouraged. Thankfully not, otherwise the world would have another person crying over their dreams, and wouldn't he have become a sinner?

Although he felt that there was nothing wrong with the conclusion he had just drawn through rational analysis, for some reason, he still didn't want to see the little streamer looking disappointed.

If we had to pinpoint the reason, perhaps it was because his sense of justice and morality prevented him from creating another person in the world whose heart had been broken by their dreams.

Do you still draw?

Gu Yubai asked.

"I'm still drawing, there's a little bit left to finish," Yu Xia said.

[Oh, then you can draw it.]

So, Yu Xia started painting.

The live stream was quiet; there seemed to be no difference between having zero viewers and having one viewer.

When Yu Xia was drawing, she would occasionally look at the screen after drawing for a while.

Gu Yubai didn't say much. When Yu Xia turned to look at the screen, there was no change. If it weren't for the fact that the number of viewers was still showing "1", she would have mistakenly thought that he had already left.

The two remained quietly in the live stream room, neither of them speaking.

After Yu Xia finished the last part, she put away her paintbrush, clapped her hands, and habitually said, "Done!"

Gu Yubai then realized that he had been watching for more than an hour without realizing it.

Yu Xia packed up her things and was about to go and take her phone down to end the live stream when she realized that the netizen 【Bai and Bye】 was still there.

She was a little surprised: "You're still here? I thought you got bored later and left."

Hearing what she said, Gu Yubai finally realized what was happening, and he was a little surprised.

I stumbled upon this live stream by chance, but out of a sense of morality, I didn't want to see the streamer being so pitiful, so I stayed to help someone striving for their dreams—it's a good deed, I suppose.

He thought he had done enough on the surface and was ready to slip away when the streamer wasn't looking. But when he saw the young streamer pick up a paintbrush, he was surprised to find that the young streamer had a unique and interesting style of drawing.

It's as if the young anchor is holding not a paintbrush, but a magic paintbrush like Ma Liang's. Her nimble hands are like the embellishment of Nuwa, lightly waving two strokes on the canvas, and a vivid, precise, and lifelike image leaps onto the paper.

So he was drawn to the young livestreamer's drawing skills.

His hand, which had been trying to quit, remained suspended above his head until the streamer spoke again, pulling him back to reality. Only then did he realize that he had unknowingly watched the entire remaining live stream.

[Not boring at all, the drawing is quite good.]

He finally said the only thing that was pleasing to the ear today.

Upon seeing this message, Yu Xia's almond-shaped eyes curved into crescent moons with a happy smile: "Thank you. That concludes today's live stream. I hope we'll have the chance to meet again next time."

[Um. ]

The live stream ended, and Gu Yubai automatically appeared on the screen.

As the circle above was about to disappear, Gu Yubai hesitated for a moment, and finally clicked the small plus sign next to the pink rabbit icon.

A short while later, a message popped up at the top of the software system.

Summer has followed you back; you're now friends and can start chatting.