Chapter 143: Grand Prospects and Resounding Success

Is this really Zhang Wuyong?

Liu Qi sat in her room, watching the young magician on her laptop’s live stream.

She had known this boy since childhood.

Though they were distant relatives, they were at least acquaintances.

When they were little, they would greet each other.

But by middle school, she had already looked down on him.

Poor grades, prone to fighting, and for a long time, he didn’t study—just wasted time outside.

His parents owned a shop, but it sold things she thought were improper.

By high school, it was even worse; she heard he was at the bottom of his grade at No. 2 High School.

Yet unexpectedly, without her noticing, he seemed to have become a lofty deity.

She had to raise her head just to see him clearly.

When he was involved in street life, he could take on ten at once and was unbeatable in Rongyang.

Feeling bored with that life, he went back to school, and within one semester, he had far surpassed her.

Now that exams were over, he was idling and practicing magic tricks, streaming live?

This feeling—that someone so ordinary from her childhood suddenly became an idol far beyond her reach—made her heart inexplicably sour.

Her whole heart felt empty.

...

Elsewhere, a female teacher was also watching the handsome magician who was no longer her student streaming live.

She had changed into a beautiful white floral nightgown.

The old, plainly dated silver robe she once wore had long been discarded.

At this moment, watching the handsome young man on the stream, her heart surged with emotion, and her whole being was stirred.

She hadn’t seen him since the day the college entrance exam results came out.

She knew their fate was over... though perhaps there had never been much to begin with.

To cope, she took a trip alone.

But walking alone outside was truly lonely and desolate.

She tried to forget him, reminding herself that he was just her student.

He had a bright future; to him, she was no longer important.

After traveling alone in solitude, she returned home and began making videos, trying to capture the last moments of her youth… because soon she would turn thirty.

---

She unexpectedly stumbled upon “Cult Leader Zhang Wuqi,” becoming one of the many young female fans following him.

At this moment, she knelt on the big bed placed in the center of her bedroom, phone in hand.

Her heart screamed internally: “No... I can’t stay like this... Our fate is over... I absolutely cannot stay like this...”

Yet her other hand had already...

...

On the sixth floor of a certain apartment building, a girl named Yao Xueqin was far purer in her feelings.

She used a phone stand to prop up her horizontally placed phone, enlarging the live stream on her desk.

Then, she rested her cheek gently against her folded hands.

Her eyes seemed to glow, as if she had found the light that illuminated her life.

There was no complicated reasoning, no distracting thoughts.

Liking him... was simply liking him...

She couldn’t even say exactly when she began to like him.

If she had to recall, it was probably the moment after she failed the first mock exam, when he said to her, “Keep it up.”

Before that, she had been very afraid of him.

So afraid that she didn’t even dare to look at him.

But those words, “Keep it up,” felt like they entered her very being, filling her rapidly and igniting a warmth inside.

Since then, he had been her light.

For Yao Xueqin, she wasn’t thinking about anything unhealthy at this moment.

Though she had once thought she understood love and had done some foolish things, after graduating high school, she had truly begun to reflect on herself.

She didn’t know what the future held.

But for now, she was content just to look at him like this.

If only she could see him closer, a bit closer...

...

Song Ling, Song Xiaoyan, and Liu Zhu, three leaders of the local Cult Leader Brother fan club, watched the video while enthusiastically promoting and inviting others.

Their parents had given them summer allowance, which they unknowingly spent all on gifts in the live stream.

In the coming days, they would have to live frugally.

But there was no choice—after all, the Cult Leader was their beloved brother.

“Cult Leader Brother! Cult Leader Brother!” they shouted wildly along with everyone else in the chat.

---

Zhang Wuyong performed several close-up magic tricks under the camera.

This time, there was only one magic lesson; the rest were his masterful techniques.

To the viewers in the stream, the magic without teaching was mysterious to the point of awe.

His handsomeness stirred their hearts.

He streamed from three in the afternoon until nine at night before ending.

Lian Jie and Yan Yan approached to congratulate him.

“We checked, and tonight we received over two hundred thousand yuan in gifts, though we still have to share with the platform…”

“Over two hundred thousand?” Zhang Wuyong was a little surprised.

Just a few hours, and the income was calculated in the tens of thousands?

He found it incredible.

Lian Jie smiled, “Like I said, these young girls are willing to spend, and surprisingly, many have money. The key is to attract them.”

Though the two hundred thousand in income, after platform fees and excluding initial promotion costs, wasn’t too much for this show.

The crucial part was that the large influx of fans stayed, and the initial investment was fixed.

Every future stream would basically be pure profit.

Lian Jie and Yan Yan were also amazed at the follower count of the “Cult Leader Zhang Wuqi.”

They had many “little sisters” here, but combined, they didn’t have as many fans as he did.

Actually, the platform’s base income from streaming wasn’t much—about ten thousand followers might yield around ten thousand yuan a month.

The main income came from gifts.

But gifts alone weren’t everything.

Once the fan base grew large enough to start selling merchandise, that was when the real money came in.

Of course, that required genuine fans.

There were plenty of cases where people bought fake followers to deceive suppliers, yet couldn’t sell much in just a few hours.

“Alright, clean up, we’re going to the celebration banquet,” Lian Jie clapped her hands. “My treat!”

Though it was only the first live stream, its success basically heralded a flood of income to come.

For Zhang Wuyong, the most important thing was earning system points.

After all, his original goal was to “establish a sect” and accumulate system points; making money was secondary.

But normally, wiping out nearly five thousand negative points immediately wasn’t too...

Damn, system, could you be a bit more reasonable?