Chapter 8: Newfound internet popularity
Lu Chen’s family originally lived in Binhai City, it was a beautiful seaside city on the eastern part of Zhejiang province.
His father, Lu Qingsheng, started a company at a very young age, and during the time when Lu Chen was still in elementary school, Lu Qingsheng was already quite a famous entrepreneur in the local area, even though Lu Chen still couldn’t be considered as having grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth, he could still be barely considered as a rich young master.
However, there came a day of unforeseen disaster, Lu Chen was in his second year of college at Jianghai University when a global financial crisis broke out, the local trade companies in Binhai City were greatly affected and Lu Qingsheng’s business suffered enormous losses and was faced with the danger of bankruptcy.
Massive amounts of money couldn’t be withdrew, banks and suppliers closed one after another which finally lead to his chain of funds being broken!
The company’s assets were liquidated, their own villa was auctioned, and even their car was towed away.
Even though Lu Qingsheng did his best to survive, his efforts were fruitless. The mental and physical strain caused him to fall gravely ill, and he died soon after, leaving behind his wife Fang Yun, and their three children, Lu Xi, Lu Chen, and Lu Xue.
Lu Chen’s life changed enormously as a result, the wealthy family that everybody admired became a broken family and even his girlfriend abandoned him and left, in the end he was left with no choice but to work in order to survive.
Ever since they had lost the pillar of their family, his mother Fang Yun, a gentle, kind, yet strong woman, stood up bravely and shouldered all of the responsibility.
Fang Yun sold all of their family property including her wedding ring and rented an apartment with the children, then she and her creditors signed a repayment contract and thus she began to work hard for their new life.
After the initial pain and misery, Lu Chen didn’t sink into despair, in order to help his family pay off their enormous debt, he applied for work when he was a fourth-year college student, then he took his savings of 800 Yuan so he could travel alone to Beijing for better work.
Up until now....
As the water flowed down, the water cleansed Lu Chen’s body and splashed down the floor tiles.
Within Lu Chen’s heart, incomprehensible memories frantically surfaced one after another as though they were trying to seize his mind!
“You said, that i cry like a child.”
“That you didn’t love me at all!”
Suddenly, a banshee like voice sounded through the walls, the demonic sound rushed into Lu Chen’s ears and mind.
What the hell!
He was scared as he involuntarily trembled in fear, he quickly turned off the faucet and dried himself with the bath towel.
The voice next door continued to sing, giving Lu Chen the urge to cry!
But compared to the sadness he felt while reminiscing, he actually felt a bit better.
After combing his hair, Lu Chen hurriedly put on clean clothes and ran next door.
He knocked on the door but no one answered, however the door wasn’t completely closed so people could still hear the steady flow of howling inside the room.
“Brother Li, what are you doing?”
Lu Chen abruptly opened the door and entered, as he entered he shouted: “You are under penalty for noise pollution!”
This was Li Feiyu’s room, the 4S car salesman, he and Lu Chen had a good relationship.
Lu Chen knew that Li Feiyu liked pop music a lot and would often sing with his tone deaf howling voice, but he had never felt this kind of ‘excitement’ from him —— he simply didn’t want to let other people live.
If he allow him to continue singing, the other tenants would definitely come to protest.
As he stared at the scene in front of him, Lu Chen froze.
Even though they lived in the same basement and lived in the same rooms, Li Feiyu’s room was undoubtedly a lot more luxurious than Lu Chen’s room. The ground was covered in laminate flooring, the walls were completely covered with posters, and the bed and furnitures were basically brand new, there was even a small refrigerator by the corner.
However, he saw Li Feiyu sitting in front of a computer, he had headphones on his head as he absorbedly sang with a microphone, the 24 inch LCD screen showed the real time webcam feed with a few rows of flashing subtitles.
What was he doing?
Lu Chen curiously walked towards him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Wao!”
Unwary, Li Feiyu jumped in fright and almost sent the microphone flying.
After seeing Lu Chen, Li Feiyu was greatly relieved, he quickly took off his headphones, patted his chest and said: “You scared me, Little Lu why are you here? Did my voice attract you?”
He laughed with a proud expression.
Lu Chen disgustedly said: “Attract? I came over to prevent people from killing you!”
At this time, he noticed that his image also appeared in the LCD screen and the flood of comments suddenly increased!
“Wow! Come here handsome!”
“Brother Fei, Brother Fei, can you give us that handsome guy’s number, length size, and real photos!”
“Has the zookeeper come to feed?”
“What zookeeper? He’s obviously the oilman, the broadcaster’s oilman.”
“I want to hear a song, I don’t want a handsome guy, I want to hear a song, I don’t want a handsome guy!”
“23333333333～”
“……”
Following the flood of comments, a twinkling star suddenly appeared on the screen, the shiny star looked very pretty.
There was a notification box on the right side of the screen which subsequently became filled with rows of system messages.
System Notification: Crystal Jelly (Bronze II) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: Crystal Jelly (Bronze II) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: No Fapping Tonight (Black Iron V) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: ……
Lu Chen looked a bit silly, but he could still understand.
In the last couple of years, a new style of popular entertainment had appeared on the internet, which was the internet live public broadcast.
Initially, the live broadcast was only intended to be used for online games, many expert players broadcasted live to showcase their gameplay and earn popularity and money.
Due to the success of public broadcasts in fulfilling the netizens’ demands, it flourished very quickly and numerous platforms such as Sky Live, Whale TV, Star Dream Romance, and other famous live platforms, and as well as a large number of broadcasters, began to appear.
Furthermore, live broadcasting content was no longer limited to games. Singing, dancing, performing, talk shows, outdoor activities, and various other type of content began to appear one after another, attracting a large number of netizens.
Lu Chen was studying computer science in college, even though he rarely connected to the internet since he had been very busy with work during the past two years, he still had some understanding of the popular live broadcasting, but he just didn’t have any time to check it out.
Li Feiyu was undoubtedly in the middle of a live broadcast, he was one of the so called net idol!
However, Lu Chen was puzzled, this Li Feiyu could scare away an entire street full of people with his voice, how could anyone want to listen to his singing? Furthermore there also seems to be a lot of people?
The notification box on the screen displayed, “Little Brother Fei ABC” ‘s star count is 1425, his online popularity had actually reached 287—— it was more than the number of customers who listened to Lu Chen sing at Nepenthes Bar the previous night!
Lu Chen couldn’t understand, the internet world was truly changing too fast.
“Ha ha ha…”
As Lu Chen stared in a daze, Li Feiyu laughed and said to the microphone: “Thank you for the gifts everyone, let me introduce, this is my close brother, Little Lu!”
“Little Lu, say hello to everyone!”
Lu Chen still hasn’t woken up from his daze, he subconsciously nodded and said: “Hello everyone!”
The screen was immediately filled with new comments.
“Hello handsome guy, i’m looking for a homosexual relationship!”
“Little Deer? cute name, i like it!” (TL Note: “he used the character 鹿 which means deer, but pronounced as Lu.”)
“Little Deer! Little Deer! Little Deer! Little Deer! Little Deer! Little Deer! Little Deer!”
“……”
Lu Chen’s forehead was immediately covered with three black lines.
Li Feiyu laughed mischievously and said: “It’s not Little Deer, it’s the Lu from land, and the Lu from army. Even though Little Lu is not as handsome as Brother Fei, his singing level has already reached one tenth of Brother Fei’s, does everyone want to hear him sing? Then everyone should donate more stars!”
Just as he finished speaking, comments and stars immediately flooded the screen.
“Want!”
"Do not want! Do not want! Do not want! Do not want! Do not want!
“Brother Fei is trying to swindle stars!”
“The broadcaster should sell engine oil, you’ll make millions in a month!”
“I want to hear the handsome guy singing!”
“……”
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: New Yorker (Silver IV) has gifted you with 100 stars!
System Notification: ……
The ID New Yorker was probably a rich person, he actually breathed out a hundred stars continuously and gifted them with a total of 10,000 stars.
Li Feiyu was unable to conceal his happiness, he grabbed Lu Chen’s shoulders and then sat him on his place, then he said with a smile: “Little Lu, stay here, i’ll get you a guitar!”
Li Feiyu immediately ran out after he finished speaking.
Lu Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, but he didn’t have really dislike it, this was the first time he had tried a live broadcast, he was thinking that his image was now in hundreds of computer screens and that he was now communicating with several hundreds of people, it was a completely new feeling for him.
As he waited for Li Feiyu to return, he simply studied the broadcasting platform named 【Star Stage Show】, he discovered that there were a lot of functions.
He still hasn’t finished studying the platform yet when Li Feiyu came back and hurriedly handed him a guitar.
This brother, Little Fei, was trying hard to curry favor as he moved to assist Lu Chen, first he adjusted the microphone, then he turned off the accompaniment from the computer, then he gave Lu Chen a bottle of mineral water, and finally he attentively laid a pile of bedding and even gave Lu Chen a leg and back massage!
Lu Chen held the guitar as he sat in front of the computer, and as he faced the microphone and the camera, his mind slowly became tranquil.
His plan was very simple, it was to help Li Feiyu, and to experience being an internet broadcaster to satisfy his curiosity.
At this moment, Lu Chen truly didn’t know that his life would take a different path!