Chapter 69
Multiverse Live Stream
The chat was in complete chaos—some were wailing, some were ranting, and even the long-absent “vultures” had come back to jeer.
[This is a disaster! Why are they going off-script?!]
[“Dark River, Bright Light” truly lives up to its reputation as an ultra-hard challenge script. Even though both the protagonist and the love interest have been successfully won over by Jian Boss’s food tactics, the plot still insists on heading toward a BE…]
[This is insane. Do these two really love spicy hot pot and fried chicken so much that they’ll self-destruct if they can’t have it?! (facepalm)]
[Two absolute gluttons.]
[AAAH SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE THEM!]
[Hah! Told you all—street food alone can’t fix a melodramatic novel. But you wouldn’t listen. A bunch of clowns.]
[I analyzed the situation. The reason for the BE is most likely an insufficient affection rating for Fu Changfeng.]
[But Fu Changfeng is already completely obsessed with the food?!]
[Being obsessed with food doesn’t mean he’s been successfully won over! orz]
“Dark River, Bright Light” had remained unconquered for years—for good reason.
Yu Ming was a major obstacle.
But Fu Changfeng’s side of the challenge was just as difficult.
In the original novel, Yu Ming differentiated into an Omega, making him ineligible for military school. Fu Changfeng, however, successfully enrolled—taking Yu Ming’s place and fulfilling his dream of serving the nation.
However, the author had always hinted at a secret, unspoken dream buried deep within Fu Changfeng’s heart. A dream he had never dared to voice to anyone.
This unrealized dream became his lifelong regret, twisting his feelings toward Yu Ming into something dark and complicated. It was one of the key factors leading to the tragic ending.
Most streamers who had entered the “Dark River, Bright Light” storyline had already progressed to the next arc. Many were dedicated to uncovering Fu Changfeng’s true dream—helping him take steps toward it and resolving his regrets.
But Jian Yunlan…
Though he had completely won Fu Changfeng over with fried chicken, that deeply buried dream had only been pushed further and further out of reach.
Beneath Fu Changfeng’s gentle and handsome exterior, there was a bottomless chasm—one no one had ever managed to reach.
[Even Jian Boss can’t make Fu Changfeng open up, huh…]
[Damn, I really thought this time, someone might finally break through “Dark River, Bright Light.” But it looks like it’s all for nothing.]
[But Jian Boss did win over Yu Ming!]
[…Even if Jian Boss wins over Yu Ming, as long as the novel’s ending isn’t rewritten, the moment the challenge ends, everything resets. Last time, Liyue almost cracked the ending too… but in the end, it was all for nothing.]
[What is Fu-ge’s true dream, anyway? Business? Politics? Becoming a life-saving doctor? Sigh…]
Fu Changfeng’s fans, like those of most scumbag protagonists in melodramatic novels, had always quietly watched the live broadcasts, afraid to speak. Because once they did, they would be berated.
But now, they finally found their voices.
—In melodramatic novels, not only do the protagonists (the “shou”) need to be saved, but the “gong” also needs redemption!
Unfortunately…
It seemed that Jian Yunlan’s attempt to conquer the “Dark River, Bright Light” universe was completely hopeless now…
Or was it?
A flickering red light enveloped Jian Yunlan’s live stream.
The countdown at the top of the screen continued coldly:
[5:43], [5:42], [5:41]…
“…”
*
In the Grove
Two flyers for a milk tea shop lease stuck to Fu Changfeng and Yu Ming’s faces.
Yu Ming instinctively tore the flyer off, staring at the words with confusion:
“Prime location for lease, milk tea shop… milk tea shop? What milk tea shop?”
The flyer had appeared out of nowhere.
Yu Ming was about to crumple it and throw it away when he saw Fu Changfeng, who was staring blankly at the flyer, lost in thought.
Even the hand holding the inhibitor syringe had loosened without him realizing it.
The orange-yellow liquid spilled out.
There was still more than half a syringe left.
…A thunderous shock went off in his mind.
His body moved faster than his brain could process. Yu Ming lunged forward, snatching the syringe from Fu Changfeng’s hand.
“Inhibitor! I have the inhibitor! I can go eat spicy hot pot now!” Yu Ming trembled as he held the syringe. “Brother, I’ve won!”
Silence.
All that could be heard in the forest was the sound of the wind.
…Only then did Yu Ming realize something was wrong with Fu Changfeng.
Even though the inhibitor had been taken away, Fu Changfeng seemed completely oblivious.
He was still holding the flyer, reading it intently.
His gentle eyes stared at the words ‘milk tea shop’, ‘fully equipped’, and ‘for lease,’ as if lost in a trance.
“Brother?” Yu Ming grew suspicious and walked up to Fu Changfeng, waving his hand in front of his face. “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Fu Changfeng didn’t answer.
The next moment, Fu Changfeng closed his eyes, brought the flyer to his nose, and took a deep, deliberate breath—
“It smells like fried chicken.” Fu Changfeng’s eyes slowly shimmered with ripples.
Yu Ming: “?”
Upon hearing Fu Changfeng’s words, Yu Ming couldn’t help but sniff the air.
Indeed, there was a familiar smell of spicy hot pot—a rich beef bone broth mixed with a spicy, numbing pepper scent, faint but perceptible.
But… so what?
Fu Changfeng’s voice was hoarse. “This flyer… Jian Boss brought it.”
He carefully held the flyer, unable to stop himself from looking at it again and again.
As if it were some rare treasure.
“He knew. He always knew,” Fu Changfeng closed his eyes, finally unable to suppress the tremor in his voice. “My heart…”
Yu Ming: “???”
Not only the viewers in the Universal Live Stream room.
Even Yu Ming, who had grown up with Fu Changfeng, was confused.
“Jian Boss… knows what?”
Fu Changfeng smiled lightly.
He gently looked at Yu Ming, as if suddenly recalling something from many years ago, asking with a nostalgic tone:
“Xiao Ming, do you remember that autumn outing? That bowl of spicy hot pot?”
Hearing the words “autumn outing” and “spicy hot pot,” Yu Ming shuddered instinctively.
That autumn.
That dark autumn. The terrifying figure of a great-grandmother with devil-like horns seemed to return to him…
No, no, no, not again!
Unlike Yu Ming, who was trapped in fear from a nightmare memory.
Fu Changfeng’s expression was as though he was reminiscing about a beautiful dream, smiling gently as moonlight bathed his face, casting a golden glow on his profile.
“That was such a painful day,” Yu Ming lowered his head, covering his face.
“That was such a beautiful day!” Fu Changfeng cherished the flyer in his hands.
—That day, to Yu Ming, had been pure torment, a memory he couldn’t bear to recall.
But in Fu Changfeng’s mind, it was an entirely different picture.
It was a clear and bright autumn day. Fu Changfeng and Yu Ming had gone on a school-organized outing. Halfway through, Yu Ming had quickly started crying from hunger, so Fu Changfeng, who was a year older, took his hand and secretly bought a bowl of spicy hot pot with his pocket money.
Yu Ming finished the spicy hot pot.
Fu Changfeng remembered that Yu Ming ate slowly, but still managed to finish the whole bowl. He must have really liked it.
The hot pot was incredibly spicy.
It was so spicy that Yu Ming cried all the way, walking and sniffing as he sobbed.
…This memory was so precious that even now, Fu Changfeng would often bring it back up from his memory, revisiting every detail in his mind.
He remembered how Yu Ming’s lips had swollen from the spiciness, his eyes red and teary;
He remembered how Yu Ming, clutching his stomach, went to the bathroom more than ten times that day;
And most importantly, what he would never forget, the moment that shone brightly in his memories—
Was the afternoon they returned home, when Yu Ming tugged at the corner of his shirt and carefully said, “Brother, my mouth is really spicy. I want… I want to drink iced milk tea.”
At that age, most kids preferred carbonated drinks like cola or Sprite.
He wasn’t sure where Yu Ming had come across the words ‘milk tea’.
Maybe it was from passing by a street vendor selling salt-crusted chicken and ‘Taiwan-style’ milk tea, which left an impression on Yu Ming; or maybe it was from the newly emerging, brightly-lit sugary milk tea shops on the streets; perhaps it was even a casual mention by one of the classmates.
The exact cause was no longer traceable.
But when the words “milk tea” escaped Yu Ming’s lips,
Every time Fu Changfeng remembered this moment, he had to pause and calm the excitement in his heart.
It took several seconds before he could recall the events that followed, calmly and peacefully.
—“Milk tea?” Young Fu Changfeng frowned and asked, “What is milk tea?”
This was the first time that this curious word had appeared in Fu Changfeng’s life.
At first, he wasn’t interested.
But as a good brother, Fu Changfeng would do his best to fulfill any of Yu Ming’s requests.
To make his brother’s wish come true, Fu Changfeng opened his computer and searched for the term. At the time, the most popular milk tea was the ‘Taiwan-style’ milk tea, usually sold with salt-crusted chicken. To make the best milk tea, Fu Changfeng first went out and bought a salt-crusted chicken and milk tea set to remember the taste.
Then, following the tutorial on the computer, he went to the supermarket to buy tea bags, tapioca pearls, ice, fresh milk, and even a professional milk tea shaker.
He carefully combined all the ingredients according to the tutorial, mixing the fresh milk and black tea, placing it into the milk tea shaker. Little Fu Changfeng stood on a stool, shaking the milk tea with great effort.
In that instant, like a flash of lightning, a crisp ‘crack’ sound suddenly echoed!
The gears of destiny began to turn.
Perhaps it was the inexplicable sense of relaxation when shaking the milk tea, the crisp sounds of the ice and pearls clashing against the cup’s wall; maybe it was the delicate, sweet scent that wafted when pouring the milk tea into the cup; or maybe it was the joyful smile that appeared when Yu Ming eagerly drank the iced milk tea…
Watching these scenes, young Fu Changfeng didn’t understand what ‘dreams’ were.
He only knew that his heart was pounding, his palms itching slightly, and his brain tingling with a soft, blissful sensation.
So happy…
He felt as though he were wrapped in sweet bubbles, light as air, every step feeling like walking on clouds.
“Mom,” that night, Fu Changfeng looked at his mother and said, “I have a dream.”
His mother was the CEO of a large corporation and was always busy, but that day was one of the rare days she was at home. She bent down and gently patted Fu Changfeng’s head, asking, “What’s your dream, Xiao Feng? An astronaut, an engineer, or a scientist?”
Little Fu Changfeng clenched his fists, blushed, and gathered his courage to say, “Mom, I want to open my own milk tea shop. I want to sell milk tea for my whole life!”
“…”
He thought he would receive praise and encouragement from his mother.
However, the hand she had placed on his head quickly withdrew.
After a long pause, his mother took back her hand and frowned as she started dialing a number: “Hello. Fu Jianguo, how are you raising our child? He’s gone astray! He’s even talking about such disgraceful things…”
Little Fu Changfeng’s smile froze on his face.
His expression gradually turned pale.
“I was just joking, Mom,” he whispered, lowering his head and running back to his room.
Fu Changfeng was an excellent student, and always had been.
He followed the rules, studied, tutored, and trained, excelling at everything he did.
From first grade, he had always been at the top of his class, later entering the best middle school and high school. Whenever anyone mentioned the name ‘Fu Changfeng,’ it was always with admiration and respect.
Everyone had no doubt that Fu Changfeng would become a scientist, a lawyer, a doctor, or perhaps even join the military as Yu Ming had dreamed of, serving the country.
As for shaking milk tea, opening a milk tea shop?
Ridiculous.
How could Fu Changfeng, destined to be an elite, have such a lowly ‘dream’?
But Fu Changfeng could deceive everyone, except himself…
He simply learned to hide it.
Even when walking down the street and seeing those beautiful, cute milk tea shops, he couldn’t help but feel a moment of distraction. But Fu Changfeng had learned to hide the envy in his deep eyes, turning away with a calm smile, chatting lightly with those around him.
Even in school, on the playground, or during summer camp, every minute he spent studying and training felt like he was a prisoner trapped in the body of an elite, while his soul longed to break free and soar into the vast open fields, to those milk tea shops.
Even though he often fantasized about stopping time at the age of eight, when Yu Ming had said, ‘I want iced milk tea,’ and freezing that moment forever…
A dream that couldn’t see the light of day.
An impossible desire to express.
Shaking milk tea had become Fu Changfeng’s darkest, most unreachable secret.
Yu Ming’s words were the root of it all.
So, Fu Changfeng’s obsession with shaking milk tea gradually shifted to Yu Ming. Since he couldn’t realize his dream, couldn’t find true fulfillment, why not go down together, falling into the abyss?
And Yu Ming remained completely unaware.
Yu Ming only knew that every day after school, his brother would bring him a cup of ‘milk tea bought from a roadside shop’ to meet him, and they would slowly walk home together under the streetlights. Each day, the milk tea had a different flavor with different add-ins, but it was always delicious.
Yu Ming had asked the name of the milk tea shop, but Fu Changfeng always gave vague answers.
… But all of these were just insignificant little episodes in life.
Fu Changfeng had already gotten used to these dark, secretive days, silently shaking milk tea in a small room, hidden from the world.
He had thought that this was how his life would always be.
Until that day.
That fated day.
He bought a serving of salt-crusted chicken from Boss Jian, who was setting up shop.
Many people mocked him for picking up the salt-crusted chicken after it had fallen to the ground, but they didn’t understand what that chicken meant to him.
It wasn’t just a simple piece of salt-crusted chicken; it was a key to his childhood, to his memories and dreams.
Until this very moment, in the tranquil moonlit grove, that random flyer for the milk tea shop rental, carrying the scent of fried chicken, hit his face.
Fu Changfeng held the flyer, his eyes slowly beginning to glisten with tears: “Boss Jian… he always knew…”
This flyer was the best evidence.
Boss Jian’s subtle, almost unnoticeable encouragement.
He hadn’t chosen to say anything directly, but instead silently brought the flyer and, at the perfect moment, let it fly in the wind, bringing it to him.
Better than a thousand words.
“He’s encouraging me to chase my dreams… in his own way…”
Yu Ming: “Huh?”
The audience in the Multiverse live room: “Huh…???”
… Not far away, at the snack stall, Jian Yunlan sneezed.
“Ah-choo!” Jian Yunlan rubbed his nose, “Who’s talking bad about me behind my back?”
In the little grove.
Fu Changfeng held the flyer, his gaze gradually calming down.
It seemed he had made some sort of decision, his fist clenched tightly, he looked at Yu Ming: “Xiao Ming, I want to try hard for myself, just this once.”
In the Multiverse live room.
The bright red countdown to the ‘bad ending’.
Suddenly, it stopped.
In the Dark River Bright Light section, to match the intense plot of the forced marking between the main characters, the entire section turned dark red, with a large screen in the center and the live rooms of other book challengers floating like small bubbles around it.
The forced marking was always the most popular time for Dark River Bright Light.
Because — it was exciting!
Who doesn’t like a forced love plot?
Not only was it forced, but the tension was high, and it was incredibly heart-wrenching.
Though most live rooms had similar plots, when this moment came, many viewers would click into the section and pick a live room at random to watch.
Xiao Xuan tore open a bag of popcorn, complaining, but his fingers honestly clicked into the Dark River Bright Light section.
The large screen displayed the original plot of the story.
“Ahhh, it’s starting, it’s starting!” Xiao Xuan screamed, hitting the plush toy a couple of times.
The live rooms of book challengers floating around the large screen, even the one with the big streamer Li Yue, looked almost exactly the same as the large screen.
… The forced marking plot could be altered, and many streamers had indeed successfully changed the plot to increase the storyline’s unlock level.
But strangely, no matter how they altered it, the scene of ‘the main characters marking each other in the small grove’ would still exist, and it was always very similar.
“With so many streamers, there are hardly any who can come up with something new,” Xiao Xuan muttered, casually complaining, “With so many streamers, are they all just copy-paste replicas? All of them just follow the original plot exactly.”
Xiao Xuan couldn’t even be bothered to click into the book challenge live rooms, directly enjoying the view on the large screen.
“This inhibitor… Xiao Ming, I won’t give it to you.”
On the large screen, Fu Changfeng’s expression was cold, his eyes sharp as he firmly grabbed Yu Ming’s wrist. His pupils held a mix of affection, obsession, and even a hint of pleasure.
“Hehe, iconic line!” Xiao Xuan excitedly hit the plush toy again.
The scenes from dozens of live rooms were nearly identical, flashing the same image.
As an experienced Dark River Bright Light reader, Xiao Xuan could almost recite the lines verbatim:
[Fu Changfeng pinned Yu Ming against the tree. The hem of the boy’s shirt was lifted, revealing a slender, pale waist. He lowered his head in agony, letting out a whimper as the familiar scent of cedar completely enveloped him.]
[The sharp canine teeth pierced the back of the neck glands—]
Xiao Xuan nervously held his breath, watching the screen, even pausing his popcorn munching.
Here it comes, the tension-filled marking scene was about to unfold!
Suddenly, a line of text flashed on the screen:
[Detected significant rewrite of the plot for streamer [Jian Yunlan]’s timeline. Displaying on the public screen for five minutes—replacing—]
[Replacement successful!]
Xiao Xuan: “?”
She absentmindedly chewed the popcorn.
The live room footage from the book challengers appeared on the public screen, which usually only happened when challengers were about to proceed with the original plot. She glanced at the top right corner, and noticed that this streamer, ‘Jian Yunlan,’ was a newcomer.
Just like Xiao Xuan, tens of millions of viewers watched in confusion.
They had been enjoying watching Fu Changfeng pin Yu Ming to the tree, his canine teeth against the back of his neck, ready to mark.
But the public screen in the Dark River Bright Light section suddenly changed.
It was still that familiar little grove.
It was still those two familiar people.
It was still the familiar orange-yellow inhibitor…
But what was different this time was that the orange-yellow inhibitor had been evenly split into two mini syringes, each held in Fu Changfeng’s and Yu Ming’s hands, the needle tips now against their own wrists.
Yu Ming’s biceps were particularly pronounced, and when flexed, it looked like he could knock out three Fu Changfengs with one punch.
Audience: “?”
“Bro, are you ready?” Yu Ming asked expectantly.
Fu Changfeng’s phoenix eyes were gentle yet determined, nodding.
Then, side by side, they pressed down with their hands, injecting the orange-yellow liquid into their veins.
Audience: “???”
Their expressions were as resolute as if they were about to join the party.
After the injection, the special inhibitor immediately began to take effect. The restlessness triggered by the Omega pheromones instantly calmed. Both of them exhaled deeply.
Fu Changfeng and Yu Ming looked at each other seriously, their eyes clear.
The moonlight fell on them, shining as brightly as their promising futures.
“Bro, thank you for the inhibitor,” Yu Ming said.
“Xiao Ming,” Fu Changfeng smiled, “I should be the one thanking you for the capsules that helped me with the side effects.”
Their eyes met in the air, everything unsaid but understood.
Yu Ming said with conviction: “For joining the military and serving the country. Of course, also for Boss Jian’s spicy hot pot…”
Fu Changfeng’s eyes sparkled: “For opening my own milk tea shop, forever happily shaking milk tea. And also for Boss Jian’s fried chicken…”
—”We both have bright futures!”
In the next moment, they bumped fists, like comrades in arms.
They supported each other, limping as they walked out of the grove:
“Forward, toward Boss Jian’s snack stall!”
The Multiverse live room: “????????”
