Chapter 40

The assistant had noticed that around the end of the workday, the CEO liked to slack off.

Several times, he had gone in and found the CEO playing on his phone. Occasionally, he could even hear sounds coming from it. It seemed like he was watching a livestream.

Like today. The assistant had come in to deliver documents and once again heard the streamer talking. That quirky voice effect sounded familiar. If he was not mistaken, it should have been the streamer Gu Lin had asked him to find, because he had gone through quite a few of the other party's videos when searching for him.

Gu Lin, who had been staring at the screen, frowned. A private message? What private message?

He exited the livestream and opened his account's private messages, only to find that Su Yu had indeed sent him messages, and more than one. Su Yu had asked whether he needed help in the game and what his game account was. That message had been sent the first time he had tipped gifts, quite a while ago.

Just as Gu Lin was about to exit the private messages, another message came in.

[The Landlord's Foolish Son: Hello? Boss, are you online? What kind of help do you need?]

[The Landlord's Foolish Son: How about adding my WeChat so you can explain your specific requirements?]

Add WeChat?

Gu Lin pondered for a moment, then used another phone number to create a new WeChat account and sent it to Su Yu. Su Yu had not replied yet; he might have gotten busy.

The alpha put his phone back on the desk. Catching sight of the assistant still standing there from the corner of his eye, he asked in a low voice, "What? Is there something else?"

Gu Lin remained perfectly composed, as if the person watching livestreams during work hours had not been him.

The assistant hurriedly came back to his senses. "Those documents need your signature."

And Gu Lin had messaged him to bring them over half an hour ago, yet he had forgotten about them himself. It seemed their boss really had been slacking off so hard that he had forgotten about work.

"Got it."

*

After ending his stream, Su Yu checked his private messages and discovered that the top gifter in his livestream had unexpectedly sent him a message and left a WeChat ID.

He searched the WeChat ID and sent a friend request. He always felt that this WeChat account looked fake too. The other party did not even have a profile picture, just as bare-bones as his platform account. The nickname... Aaa Building Materials Wholesale?

It sounded like someone selling things.

Could it be... rich people were all this eccentric?

Or was it some recent internet meme he had missed?

The account owner did not approve him, so Su Yu temporarily exited the cloned app and opened QQ. After not checking QQ for one night, his account—which had not received a single message in ages—suddenly showed 99+ notifications.

Su Yu took a look. Oh, it was a discussion group Lu Chengfei had pulled him into.

[Su Yu: You asked for my QQ just to drag me into a discussion group?]

[Lu Chengfei: What else would it be for? What normal person uses WeChat? That's for talking to your parents. We all use QQ.]

Su Yu had once thought the same way. Later, after he started working, everyone used WeChat. Hardly anyone chatted on QQ anymore.

Sooner or later, Lu Chengfei would be using WeChat all the time too.

[Lu Chengfei: Why doesn't Yun Shang have a QQ account? I wanted to add him too. Does he not have one, or does he just not want to tell me? Ask him for me.]

Yun Shang did not just lack a QQ account. He had only applied for his WeChat account not long ago.

[Su Yu: He doesn't have one.]

[Lu Chengfei: So he really doesn't have one. Then why is he ignoring me? His replies are all like a broken record. Does he reply to you like that too?]

Was it not perfectly normal for Yun Shang to ignore him? Who would want to talk to someone who had picked a fight with him before? Su Yu replied with a single "Oh," sounding extremely cold.

Yun Shang was not like a broken record when replying to him. He replied instantly.

Lu Chengfei replied furiously: Is that all you're going to say? I asked you for advice. Advice!

[Su Yu: No time. Go sit somewhere else. I'm writing the guidelines. Make sure everyone reads them, and if any one of you causes trouble at Yun Shang's place, I'll twist your head off.]

Lu Chengfei ended the conversation with three dots. Su Yu found the discussion group too noisy and muted it directly. After that, he reminded Yun Shang to tell him if they caused trouble. Yun Shang replied with a simple "Okay."

A little after ten, Su Yu went downstairs for some water and ran into Gu Lin, who had just come back. They merely looked at each other, exchanged no words, then turned away to do their own things.

After seeing him go upstairs, Su Yu took an ice cream bar from the refrigerator and went upstairs as well.

The top gifter had approved his friend request but had not sent him a message. Su Yu was too lazy to type while eating ice cream, so he copied and pasted the exact same words from the platform. To keep it from seeming too stiff, he even sent an emoji.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I don't play games. I don't need help.]

So cold.

Then why had he tipped gifts? Surely no one was so charitable that they would just throw money at a stranger.

Su Yu was about to ask when the other party quickly retracted the message.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I only have one request. Don't stream after nine thirty.]

[Su Yu: ?]

As they chatted, Su Yu noticed that he had changed his profile picture to a blue-sky background.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: You're too loud.]

[Su Yu: May I ask how old you are, sir? What should I call you—uncle?]

The person on the other end had to be a middle-aged man, right? That profile picture looked like something only someone of a certain age would use.

The other party sent a string of ellipses.

[Su Yu: No? Then... grandpa? If you don't need help, why are you tipping gifts? Paying to avoid disaster? It's not easy making money these days. Which branch of the building materials business are you in, if you don't mind sharing?]

Considering the other party was older, Su Yu used honorifics and spoke politely. Yet he received another string of ellipses.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: LED lights.]

[Su Yu: I've heard that industry is developing quite well. At least it sounds like it has a bright future.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Mm. Are you interested in learning about it?]

Su Yu: "???"

No way. Was he really selling lights?

So was he about to start selling him lights now?

How many was he trying to sell? If it was a lot, Su Yu could not afford them.

No, wait. He had heard that salespeople were very persuasive. He needed to stand firm and not buy even one.

He had expected the other party to pitch LED lights to him, but instead, the man directly began discussing the development prospects and future trends of LED lights in the building materials market. Su Yu nearly fell asleep reading that huge block of text. He knew nothing about this field and could not understand it.

If he had not graduated yet, he would have written his thesis on this.

Once he was done, the other party asked whether Su Yu had any thoughts.

Su Yu had long since lain down on his bed after finishing his ice cream. When he saw the message, he nearly dropped his phone on his face. Why was he asking for thoughts too? What thoughts could he possibly have?

[Su Yu: Could it be... you want me to invest?]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: ...]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I asked what insights you had.]

[Su Yu: I have no insights. What you said is right, and your analysis is excellent. You're clearly an educated person. But I'm not really interested in this kind of thing, so I can't really understand it.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Casting pearls before swine.]

What was with the way this person spoke? Even through the screen, Su Yu could sense an impolitely aloof air from him, with a touch of sharp-tongued sarcasm.

If not for the fact that he was older, Su Yu would have snapped back at him.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Then what are you interested in?]

[Su Yu: Games, of course. Aren't I a gaming streamer? I also edit videos sometimes.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Mm. I'll analyze the current state and development prospects of the gaming streamer industry for you.]

Su Yu was baffled again. "???"

Was this person in building materials wholesale or industry analysis? Could he be an academic?

[Su Yu: Uncle, you really know your stuff. If I hadn't graduated, I'd discuss my thesis with you. Are you actually in building materials wholesale? I'm not very educated, so don't fool me.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I can tell.]

[Su Yu: ?]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: You're not very educated.]

Su Yu: "..."

That was so blunt.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: My business spans many fields. Building materials is just something I recently got involved in.]

[Su Yu: Then why call yourself Building Materials Wholesale? I thought you were a salesperson.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I was processing documents at the time, saw the phrase, and picked it casually.]

[Su Yu: Uncle, you're pretty trendy. This kind of username has been popular lately.]

The other party sent another string of ellipses but said nothing. Su Yu did not understand what he was speechless about.

At eleven, the other party said he was going to sleep. Su Yu had chatted so much with him that he had forgotten to ask why he had tipped gifts. The man neither liked playing the game nor was a fan of his. Could it really be that he had nowhere else to spend his money?

Forget it. He would ask tomorrow. The man was old; he needed to sleep early.

Gu Lin did not work over the weekend, and Su Yu felt miserable. Staying at home made him feel uncomfortable no matter what. From morning until lunchtime, Su Yu's messages never stopped because he was constantly checking on how things were going with Yun Shang and the others.

[Su Yu: What are they doing? Have they caused any trouble?]

[Yun Shang: No. They're eating.]

Su Yu then asked whether Lu Chengfei had done anything to upset him. Yun Shang still answered no, but added: Lu Chengfei talks a lot. He's very noisy.

There was nothing Su Yu could do about that.

He knew it could not be helped, because he was pretty much the same as Lu Chengfei—talkative and noisy. Not talking made him uncomfortable.

Just like now, he felt extremely uncomfortable.

Because he felt so uncomfortable from not being able to talk, Su Yu streamed more frequently than before. At least while streaming, he could answer questions in the comments and talk to other people.

[Su Yu: Bear with it. It'll be quiet once he leaves.]

[Yun Shang: Mm. I'm bearing with it.]

After chatting with Yun Shang, Su Yu suddenly remembered last night's building materials salesman. He was easy to find because he was at the very top of his contacts list. Now Su Yu finally understood why sellers put an "a" in front of their names—it was far too conspicuous.

After he sent the message, Gu Lin's phone, sitting across from him, suddenly vibrated. Su Yu could not help looking up. However, the alpha merely glanced at the lit-up screen without picking up his phone. He did not raise his eyes to look at Su Yu either, only saying, "Don't play with your phone while eating."

Su Yu did not become suspicious. He only complained internally that Gu Lin was old-fashioned—he would not use his phone himself and would not let Su Yu use his either.

But as soon as Su Yu lowered his head to eat, the alpha turned off his phone's vibration.

Fortunately, he was not very smart.