Chapter 46

Xu Qing'an's smile froze on his face when he heard that.

After Shen Tianyi helped him set up the livestream, Xu Qingran placed Shen Tingyu's Asteroid on a small kitchen cabinet, where the camera could capture both him and the cooking process. The little ball could also display the viewer count, scrolling comments, gifts, and other information in real time, which was very convenient.

Once he had put it in place, Xu Qingran donned an apron and turned to deal with the ingredients he had managed to scrounge from the fridge. He was a newcomer with a new account, after all, so he didn't expect viewers who knew him to show up and argue with him right away.

So he didn't notice the viewer count shooting up the moment his stream went live.

The count quickly passed a million, but strangely, not a single comment appeared.

It wasn't until a minute later that one popped up.

[?]

It was followed immediately by another from the same account.

[Am I in the wrong place? Isn't this Admiral Shen's livestream?]

After those two comments appeared, more viewers gradually began to speak up. A flood of white text exploded across the screen, full of questions, agreement, and shock.

[Right?! Isn't this my idol's livestream?! Who's that in there?!]

[I thought my stream was lagging!!]

[That scared me to death. When the admiral suddenly went live, I thought he had something serious to report! Like the Devils breaking through another star system's defenses or something...]

And instead?

The livestream showed a lovely, peaceful scene, with a handsome young stranger cooking?

It shocked Golden Wing fans everywhere.

They would rather believe the platform was bugged than accept that this really was the livestream of Admiral Shen—the man who never went live unless something major had happened.

In the gray-and-white kitchen, the man in a white shirt swept diced chili peppers into a glass bowl. The sugar in the pot had begun to bubble and caramelize, so he picked up the blanched pig trotters beside him and poured them all in.

Wisps of steam billowed up, making the tall figure by the stove flicker in and out of view.

After stir-frying for a while and putting the dish on to simmer, the man began slicing an apple on the cutting board. His head was slightly lowered, his neck tilted to one side, revealing an alluring Adam's apple and curve. His light brown hair was a little messy, but it did nothing to detract from his delicate good looks.

The viewers watched in a daze. The comments filling the screen slowly shifted from initial confusion to discussion of the food and the man, as though they had forgotten this was supposed to be Shen Tingyu's livestream.

[Can someone tell me why he's cutting an apple to make red-braised pig trotters?]

[I just want to know if he washed the knife he used to cut the chilies!]

[Huff, huff, the streamer's pig trotters look so good. They must be delicious.]

[Sis, you'd better actually be talking about the pig trotters!]

The man cooking did indeed have a pair of beautiful hands, with clearly defined joints. Even his smallest movements made it hard to look away. He also wore a black glove on his left hand, which contrasted with his fair skin and gave him an air of mystery and charm.

The harmony in the comments ended when the man added the sliced apple and the washed grapes beside it to the pot.

[?]

[Huh??]

[What normal person puts apples and grapes in red-braised pig trotters!!!]

[Groundhog scream!! Is he cracking raw eggs straight into it?!]

[Help! What kind of top-tier dark cuisine is this?!]

Only after Xu Qingran had added all the usable ingredients to the pot did he find time to glance at the Asteroid, and the viewer count floating above it startled him. He tried roughly counting the digits and was even more shocked to find there were at least hundreds of millions.

"?"

He knew he was pretty good-looking, but not enough to draw that many people as soon as he started streaming.

Xu Qingran looked for the comments for a while without finding them, then called over his little nephew, who was watching videos. "Tianyi, can you check if the livestream is bugged? It says there are a lot of people here, but why can't I see any comments?"

When Xu Qingran picked up the Asteroid and brought it over to the counter, Shen Tianyi leaned in beside him. Then he said, "Oh. I think I forgot to turn them on."

The viewers exploded the moment Shen Tianyi came close to the camera.

Most of them didn't know what Xu Qingran looked like, but as Golden Wing citizens, they definitely knew what Shen Tingyu's little nephew, Shen Tianyi, looked like!

...So this was Shen Tingyu's home?

Shen Tingyu's kitchen?!

A moment later, a viewer posted a comment with trembling hands:

[...Is anyone from Silver Dragon lurking here? Could you tell us if your famous Xu Family eldest young master looks like this?]

When Shen Tianyi turned on the comments for Xu Qingran, he was startled by the wall of text. Xu Qingran was just as surprised. The comments were scrolling so fast that he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Shen Tianyi stared blankly at the words streaming past their eyes for half a minute, then suddenly clutched his face in horror.

They were screwed!

He had been so focused on setting up Xu Qingran's stream that he had forgotten his younger uncle also had a dedicated livestream account for issuing important announcements to Golden Wing Camp. He hadn't switched accounts before going live!!

At the same time, at Golden Wing Military Headquarters in Golden Crow City on Jade Star, Sirius.

The atmosphere in the third-floor conference room was rather solemn.

The black-haired, blue-eyed man in the most luxurious attire sat at the front, his expression cold, with none of his usual gentleness for once. His eyes were lowered, and he said nothing for the moment. The others in the conference room drew their heads in slightly, not daring to speak.

At last, the man in the head seat spoke in a low voice. "What happened to the power stations on the two planets in northern Aquila?"

In this era, power stations were the most important things in the empire, especially while war was raging against the Devils. Electricity was the Devils' greatest weakness, and the star systems that were still safe remained so because their powerful electricity supply generated intense protective shields that kept the Devils from approaching.

For star systems that had already come under attack, every power station that could be saved mattered all the more. Areas forced to go without power could easily become the Devils' next targets.

AQ Aquila was one of the star systems under Golden Wing's jurisdiction that had already been invaded by the Devils. More than half its planets had been forcibly abandoned, and now two main power-generating planets responsible for supplying electricity to the other safe planets had been destroyed. It was an extremely serious incident.