Chapter 31
After saying all that, Lin An’an did not continue the topic any further.
There was still nearly an hour left before the finals livestream would officially end, so the little cub tidied up the pharmaceutical worktable a little.
There were still plenty of the herbs he had just stimulated into growth left over. Lin An’an searched through his mind for two potion formulas and decided to use the remaining time to put on another performance for both the livestream audience and the people on-site—his special skill:
brewing two different potions at the same time.
Any more than that would not work. It was not that he lacked the ability, but that this worktable only had two burners.
What a pity, the little cub muttered inwardly. If there had not been only one pharmaceutical station, he would absolutely have shown off even more and given Tong Qiuxia an even harder slap across the face.
Even so, this skill alone was enough to make countless jaws drop.
[What I’m brewing right now are a pain-relief potion and Scar-Clearing Spirit.] Lin An’an said. [Both are potions for exotic beasts. Once they’re finished, I’ll bottle them into small vials, and anyone who has an exotic beast pet at home can come claim one for free to take back.]
[Quantities are limited, first come first served!] The little cub blinked at the virtual camera. [To claim one, show a cute photo or video of your pet, and please remember to keep order—safety first!]
[Help, I’ve melted again and again and again and again. [biting handkerchief with tears in my eyes jpg]]
[As someone who lives in C City, owns a pet, and is already at the plaza right now, I’m ecstatic. [am I proud? Yes, I am! jpg]]
[Aaaahhh I’m already on the way! Cubby wait for me, I’ll be there soon, wuwuwu. [racing over at full speed jpg]]
[An Cub is so generous. Compared with the one next door, the difference is instantly obvious.]
[Waste is shameful. Don’t mention next door, and don’t let that name appear in An Cub’s comment section. [pointing fingers jpg]]
[Exactly! We absolutely can’t let that filth dirty cubby’s livestream room!!!]
The popularity of Lin An’an’s livestream surged upward at a rapid pace. At the same time, a post suddenly shot up the hot-topic rankings on both StarNet and SinNet.
Thread title: [Traditional pharmaceutical arts, passed down for thousands of years—do you really understand them?]
Original post: [I’m sure lots of people haven’t even heard of this craft before, right? Actually, before today, I had never heard of “traditional pharmaceutical arts” either—but that doesn’t stop me from falling in love with it the moment I learned about it! Pharmaceutical arts are seriously magical! I refuse to let anyone not know about them!!!
No more nonsense—here’s the link!
[9 intro images about traditional pharmaceutical arts]
[livestream hyperlink]]
1L: [Front row, paw print claimed!]
3L: [Damn it, OP beat me to it. I was just about to make a post when I saw this one, so I’ll just shamelessly camp the front row instead. [lowest of the low jpg]]
6L: [Aaaahhh I also refuse to let anyone not know! Traditional pharmaceutical arts forever!! An Cub forever!!!]
10L: [Huh, so it’s not that Tong-something’s livestream? I glanced at it a few days ago and thought it was boring, so I left.]
15L: [Isn’t little Qiuxia’s stream pretty fun? Every time the potion he makes ends up some weird, bizarre color hahaha.]
27L: [Don’t mention Tong Qiuxia. Bad luck. [blech jpg]]
31L: [Why not? Is there drama? What did I miss? [curious melon-eater popping head in jpg]]
38L / OP: [If you don’t know what happened, click into my profile and watch the latest video. I hope everyone can view this matter correctly. [heart hands jpg]]
43L: [I went and watched, then came back. I still don’t fully understand traditional pharmaceutical arts, but that cub in the video was absolutely right—you don’t have to understand it or love it, but you shouldn’t casually defile it and play with it. That Tong guy really did seem super disrespectful.]
57L: [Waste is shameful, waste is shameful, waste is shameful! Important things need to be said three times!!!]
69L: [A real pharmacist here to explain. Right now, agriculture across the galaxy is in bad shape. Medicinal herbs are already extremely scarce, and many of them are so rare they’re worth more than gold.
Pharmaceutical practice is an extremely rigorous craft. If even one herb is missing, the potion simply won’t succeed. Even if another herb can substitute for it, the original medicinal properties will definitely be affected. And sometimes those potions are meant to save people. Maybe all that stands between a patient and survival is that one herb—even just one leaf…]**
75L: [Don’t say nonsense like “he bought the herbs with his own money so he can waste them however he wants.” Waste is wrong! Even if you spend ten billion on a single herb, if you waste it, that’s still waste!!!]
88L: [Damn, watching that Tong guy’s stream gave me heart pain. So many herbs were all wasted—my heart was bleeding. [aaahhh jpg]]
96L: [I’ve been influenced. My family runs a farm, and now I’m going to stock some medicinal herb seeds right away. [excitedly rubbing hands jpg]]
104L: [Aaaahhh my hidden-gem streamer has finally been discovered! Cubby go go go, cubby is the absolute best!!! [wild cheering jpg]]
116L: [How does the SinNet livestreaming section even review things? Why was a livestream with such nonexistent morals and such a low bottom line approved? And it even entered the finals?! [my head is falling off from shock jpg]]
134L: [I went and looked—Tong somebody’s livestream popularity has already dropped to rock bottom.]
153L: [Everyone stop derailing the thread. A screen full of Tong-whatever is way too painful on the eyes. [pointing fingers jpg]]
188L: [Here, let me post some proper pictures to cleanse everyone’s eyes. [66 images of An Cub making medicine jpg]]
196L: [The only time I don’t mind being spammed. Saved every single one—every shot is gorgeous, wuwuwuwu.]
222L: [That pink potion looks way too good! And An Cub is way, way, way too cute!!! [licking screen frantically prprprpr jpg]]
243L: [Everyone! Master He promised to start free livestream classes on pharmaceutical arts! Rush in, everybody!!!]
274L: [Confession of love to An Cub, confession of love to Old Master He, and thank you to both of them for letting me understand traditional pharmaceutical arts all over again. I almost got led astray by Tong somebody. [fist hardened jpg]]
…
11111L: [Holy shit, holy shit—someone dug up huge news. Tong somebody used to be Master He’s student!!!]
11133L: [??? I don’t believe it! A person as good as Old Master He, how could the student he taught turn out like such a dog? [I refuse to be fooled! jpg]]
11165L: [It’s true, everyone! A few years ago, Old Master He posted on StarNet saying he had severed the teacher-student relationship with Tong somebody. He deleted it two days later, but insiders saved screenshots and records!!!]
11209L: [Good riddance! Old Master He is wise!!!]
11333L: [My childhood friend used to be part of Old Master He’s traditional pharmaceutical team, but that team was suddenly dissolved a few years ago. The timing lines up exactly with this. Is there some connection? [brain spinning at high speed jpg]]
11456L: [I’ll just say it plainly. The one who dissolved the traditional pharmaceutical team was He Yuanwang, that bastard grandson. The moment He Yuanwang took over the company from Old Master He, the traditional pharmaceutical team got disbanded. And Tong Qiuxia, that bastard, is still doing just fine under He Yuanwang to this day.
Everything above is fact, not malicious speculation. Taste the truth for yourselves. My hands are shaking just thinking about it—that was Old Master He’s life’s work over most of his lifetime!!!]**
11544L: [He Yuanwang? You mean the current head of the He Group?]
11600L: [What He Group? Never heard of it.]
11666L: [Normal if you haven’t. It’s a small company researching new treatment pods. It used to be called He’s Traditional Pharmaceutical Arts. I always wondered why they suddenly changed industries. So there was internal drama too. [tsk tsk jpg]]
12079L: [My heart aches for Old Master He. Raised one ungrateful wolf and taught another ungrateful wolf, and the two wolves even teamed up to bite him back. Absolutely disgusting. [blech blech jpg]]
13425L: [Never thought this thread would turn into an exhibition of biological diversity by the end. What kind of trash are these two? I’m genuinely disgusted. [hetui jpg]]
13569L: [Damn damn damn, I seriously can’t take it anymore. It’s disgusting to the point that disgust itself is opening the door for more disgust. Tong somebody’s stream is still live, right? I’m going over there right now. [smiling jpg]]
…
To make it easy for the system to calculate the final results, none of the five finalists were allowed to end their streams early before the Rising Star finals officially concluded.
At first, all Tong Qiuxia noticed was that the viewer count in his livestream suddenly dropped sharply.
Tong Qiuxia found it a little strange, but did not care too much.
He had become a streamer and joined this competition only to disgust certain people in the first place. He had never intended to genuinely win any prize.
But not long afterward, the online viewer count suddenly rose again quite a bit.
Tong Qiuxia had just begun thinking, See? My popularity’s back now, when the next second, the enlarged screen in front of him was flooded with bullet comments.
[A true white-eyed wolf.]
[Here to admire biodiversity. [throwing up first out of respect jpg]]
[So this fake smile is how the streamer tricked Old Master He? [hugging trash can and vomiting wildly gif]]
[Get out of the Sin Star livestreaming section!!!]
[Wasting medicinal herbs is shameful! You don’t have to love them, but don’t defile them!!!]
[A grown adult, yet you can’t even understand a principle that a cub understands. Truly eye-opening. [greatly astonished jpg]]
[Everyone remember to downvote! Downvotes don’t increase popularity, and this is still a competition—we can’t let human trash pick up a cheap advantage. [cursing nonstop jpg]]
[I’ve been stockpiling ten thousand rotten eggs for just such a chance. Sending them all to the streamer now—no need to thank me. [cute smile jpg]]
There were even more and more comments, so many that some of the harsher ones got turned into strings of [] by the system due to sensitive wording.
Tong Qiuxia’s hands paused mid-motion. A bad feeling rose sharply in his heart.
The rest of the livestream became torment for him.
His content depended heavily on interaction with the audience. But now every single comment was full of people cursing him out. At first, there were still a few confused viewers who tried to interact with him as usual, but gradually even those voices disappeared.
Many people in the comments directed others to the hot threads on SinNet and StarNet. After reading the threads and learning the full story, some immediately switched over to Lin An’an’s livestream, while others joined the army of people cursing Tong Qiuxia in his own room.
Unlike Tong Qiuxia’s livestream, which had become total chaos, Lin An’an’s stream was peaceful and pleasant.
The brewing of the pain-relief potion and Scar-Clearing Spirit was far simpler than Bone-Growing Spirit. Once the two pots had been finished and bottled, there was still a bit of stream time remaining.
Under the guidance of Feng Wu and Xiong Yingjun, the people on-site formed two long lines in an orderly manner and began collecting the free potions.
By the time the very last bottle had been handed out, the livestream was also ending right on time.
The system automatically calculated the comprehensive results, and in less than a minute, the final rankings were released. Streamer “An Cub” won first place without the slightest surprise.
The people in the plaza gradually dispersed. Some were unwilling to leave just like that and stayed until Feng Wu transformed into the giant silver wolf and carried the little cub away through the crowd, only then reluctantly departing.
There was no helping it. A live-stream scene like this was simply too rare. No one knew how long it would be before they got another chance.
He Yinghong also returned home with them.
The moment he stepped through the door, the little cub—who had gotten home ahead of him—came bouncing over.
“Yingji!”
Grandpa He, were you happy today?!
The smile on He Yinghong’s face could not be suppressed at all. He did not even need to answer. Lin An’an already knew.
Seeing that he was in such a good mood, the little cub became happy too, bouncing cheerfully around him.
He Yinghong caught the little cub in his hands. “Thank you, all of you.”
This sudden “surprise” from Lin An’an had practically fulfilled one of the dreams He Yinghong had always carried in his heart.
“I promised them before that I’d start livestreaming,” He Yinghong said. “Help this old man set it up, will you? Open me a livestream room.”
Lin An’an typed rapidly: [Leave it to me! Sister Youyou actually just asked me if I could ask whether you’d like to sign a contract.]
He Yinghong thought for a moment and said, “Let me try it first. If no one comes to watch, I’d only be causing trouble for that little girl.”
He smiled. “But even if very few people come, it doesn’t matter.” Even if there were only one viewer in the room, he could still keep streaming.
The little cub blinked and was about to say something else, but before he could, the sudden ringing of a terminal interrupted him.
He Yinghong glanced at it. The incoming call display showed Tong Qiuxia.
Lin An’an’s heart jumped, and his little tentacle gently rested on the back of He Yinghong’s hand. Nervously, he said, “Yingji!”
He Yinghong’s hand paused slightly, and then he gave a light laugh. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This matter has to come to an end sooner or later.”
If not now, then one day in the future.
The little cub unwillingly withdrew his tentacle, his bean-like eyes glaring fiercely at the name on the screen as though he wanted to burn a hole through it.
The next second, the call connected.
He Yinghong spoke calmly. “Xiao Qiu…”
Before he could finish, Tong Qiuxia cut him off from the other side. “He Yinghong, you really are something, aren’t you!”
He did not even call him “Teacher” anymore, clearly unwilling to keep pretending even a little.
“Tell me,” Tong Qiuxia continued, almost gritting his teeth, “how long have you been planning this? Since the first moment you saw me? Or since the first time you learned I was coming to Sin Star? Or even earlier than that—”
“Xiao Qiu,” He Yinghong interrupted him. His voice remained perfectly steady. “Do you really believe this was done by me?”
Tong Qiuxia’s voice faltered. Did he really believe it was He Yinghong?
No. Of course not.
He knew better than anyone what kind of person He Yinghong was.
He Yinghong had always disdained using this sort of method. He looked cold and stern, but in truth his heart was as soft as cotton.
Tong Qiuxia had been so bold all these years precisely because he knew that He Yinghong would never truly do anything to him or to He Yuanwang. He could not bear it. He could never truly harden his heart.
All this accusation now was simply because Tong Qiuxia’s rage had nowhere to go, and he instinctively grabbed the first person he could find to dump it on.
Tong Qiuxia calmed down slightly and softened his voice again. “Teacher, this time I was wrong.”
He Yinghong responded with an unreadable hum. “And then?”
That attitude made Tong Qiuxia panic. “I really know I was wrong. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have wasted medicinal herbs, and I shouldn’t have said those angry things to you. I promise there won’t be a next time, so… could you—could you forgive me just this once?”
The little cub’s bean-like eyes widened in disbelief, his little tentacles trembling wildly with anger. “Yingji!”
This person had no shame at all!!!
Unfortunately, this time Tong Qiuxia had made only a voice call rather than a video call, so the little cub had no easy way to go wild.
Fortunately, He Yinghong remained perfectly calm. “Xiao Qiu, I gave you chances,” he said. After a few seconds of silence, he repeated, “I gave you chances. More than once.”
“I know, I know, you gave me many chances,” Tong Qiuxia said, keeping his voice soft. “Give me one more. Just one more, alright? Go make a post on StarNet and clarify things. Say that you forgive me. I—”
“But I don’t want to give you any more chances.”
He Yinghong suddenly laughed. The laugh was very light, but to Tong Qiuxia, it hit like thunder.
“Tong Qiuxia, I’m only human too. I get tired.”
Tong Qiuxia’s mind went blank. For a long time, he could not make a sound.
“I’m old now,” He Yinghong said. “As for young people’s affairs, let you young people deal with them yourselves.”
“This old man won’t keep playing with you anymore.”
When the words were done, Tong Qiuxia’s “Teacher—” came through the receiver—
and He Yinghong decisively hung up.
Tong Qiuxia immediately called again. He Yinghong silenced the ringtone, hesitated for two seconds with his fingertip hovering above the screen, then finally let out a long breath and added Tong Qiuxia’s account to the blacklist.
Lin An’an, who had been leaning against his arm the whole time, noticed that another name was added to the blacklist at the same moment.
He Yuanwang.
Lin An’an had already read the hot threads. He knew that this was the other white-eyed wolf who had caused Old Master He pain for so many years.
The little cub felt an immense sense of satisfaction.
Blacklisting them was exactly right! Beautifully done!
After setting up the blacklist, He Yinghong felt his entire body go light, as if the oppressive gloom he had carried in his heart for years had finally been swept away.
He sighed with feeling. “If I had known blacklisting people felt this good, I would’ve done it much earlier.”
The little cub gently patted him with a tentacle, his tone bright and cheerful. “Yingji!”
No problem! It’s not too late even now!
On the other side, unable to get through, Tong Qiuxia hurled his terminal across the room.
It was not “no one answered.” It was “the user you dialed does not exist,” which meant the other side had blacklisted him.
Tong Qiuxia sat by the bed, burying his face deeply in both hands.
He could not understand how He Yinghong had become so utterly decisive this time, refusing to give him even the smallest opening.
This was completely unlike the He Yinghong of the past.
Tong Qiuxia’s hands trembled slightly. He was panicking, but his head felt as though it had been struck by a cudgel, and his thoughts moved sluggishly.
He only knew one thing: he was finished. Completely finished.
The affair had grown this huge. The entire galaxy knew about it now. The name Tong Qiuxia would likely be nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of his life—
Then suddenly, Tong Qiuxia’s eyes lit up.
Right—he was not the only one nailed there! He Yuanwang was tied to the same rope as him!
Tong Qiuxia hurriedly snatched up the terminal and began searching for He Yuanwang’s account.
His inbox was already flooded with countless private messages from strangers, all of them insulting him. Tong Qiuxia did not even dare glance at them.
Brother Yuanwang was Teacher’s adopted son. Teacher had always been extraordinarily tolerant with him. If it was Brother Yuanwang—if Brother Yuanwang went to plead for him, then maybe, maybe there was still a chance!
Tong Qiuxia found He Yuanwang’s account, but before he could make the call, an incoming call notification suddenly appeared on his own screen.
The name on the screen made his heart drop.
It was He Yuanwang.
Tong Qiuxia swallowed hard. An extremely bad feeling rose inside him. After hesitating for a moment, he still answered the call.
“Brother Yuanwang—”
“I really didn’t expect you to be capable of something like this,” the man on the other side interrupted coldly. “Seems I underestimated you.”
Tong Qiuxia’s voice choked. “I-I didn’t expect this either. Brother Yuanwang, help me! Go plead with Teacher for me! He treats you so well—if you beg him, he’ll definitely agree!”
He Yuanwang paused slightly. “…You want me to plead?”
“Yes, yes. Go say a few nice words to him. Let him post a clarification saying the dissolution of the traditional pharmaceutical team had nothing to do with us…”
Tong Qiuxia struggled to think of a plan.
At this point, compared with everything else, wasting herbs could almost be considered a small matter. As long as he apologized sincerely and did not repeat this sort of mistake in the future, sooner or later the public would forget it.
But the matter of the traditional pharmaceutical team being dissolved was different. That had branded him a white-eyed wolf. Without He Yinghong’s clarification and forgiveness, the public would never easily forgive him.
He Yuanwang sounded as though he had just heard something absurd. “Help you? How exactly do you expect me to help you? He blacklisted even me. How am I supposed to go plead for you?”
Tong Qiuxia fell silent instantly.
“And besides…” He Yuanwang gave a light scoff. “What does the dissolution of the traditional pharmaceutical team have to do with me?”
Tong Qiuxia: “…Brother Yuanwang, what do you mean by that?”
What did he mean? He meant he was going to wash his hands clean of the whole affair.
He Yuanwang gave a short laugh and skipped over the topic. “My lord is very dissatisfied with you.”
Tong Qiuxia’s face immediately turned several shades paler.
“The task assigned to you still isn’t completed, and yet you’ve managed to put yourself in a position with such high public visibility,” He Yuanwang said coldly. “The task was supposed to be carried out in secret. In your current state, can it even still be completed?”
Tong Qiuxia answered over and over, “Yes! It can be! I can wear disguise masks, I can move somewhere else, if it really comes to it, I can even go live in the wilderness!”
His voice was nearly panicked. “Brother Yuanwang, help me tell my lord that I can finish the task. I definitely can!”
On the other end of the call, He Yuanwang said nothing for a long while.
Tong Qiuxia did his best to hold back the crying tone in his throat. “Don’t leave me behind on Sin Star—”
He Yuanwang replied flatly, “Then that will depend on your performance.”
A few days later, Lin An’an received the prize for winning first place in Rising Star.
“Five million star coins, and…” Xiong Yingjun’s voice turned strangely complicated, “and… a basin?”
[This is no ordinary basin!] Lin An’an objected immediately.
“A treasure-attracting wealth-gathering basin.” Si Youlin, on the other hand, looked rather interested. “Apparently ancient Earth people used it to attract wealth.”
The little cub nodded eagerly. “Yingji yingji!” Exactly, exactly!
“But isn’t this basin a little too small?” Xiong Yingjun still looked unconvinced. He even held out his hand and compared. “It’s barely bigger than one of my palms.”
Then he froze, his eyes moving back and forth between the glittering golden treasure basin and the little cub. “This size…”
Suddenly, Xiong Yingjun reached out, scooped up the palm-sized little black blob, and dropped him into the basin.
“Wouldn’t this make the perfect bath basin for An Cub!”
The little cub: “……”
Bathed in the golden gleam around him, the little cub’s eyes were nearly blinded. He bounced right back out of the basin and smacked his little tentacle squarely against Xiong Yingjun’s handsome face.
“Apu pu——!!!”
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