He Qinglan felt that he was more or less full already, but the wise River God also understood that it was foolish not to take a free bargain. So he gladly accepted the bag of soup dumplings and smiled as he offered his blessing. "May the Qinglan River bless you."
Old Master Song laughed again.
With his stomach full, He Qinglan prepared to leave Jade City Snack Street and go back to collecting trash.
But before leaving, he turned to look at the silent Qi Xiaoyuan. He picked up the glass fishbowl beside him and, before Qi Xiaoyuan could react, dipped his fingers lightly into Black Carp's bathwater and flicked several droplets onto Qi Xiaoyuan's forehead.
With that holy bearing, he looked like a bodhisattva sprinkling Willow-Branch Nectar.
Qi Xiaoyuan, whose head had been splashed with fish bathwater: "..."
Even if we took ten thousand steps back, I gave you a deluxe family-style jianbing! Is this how you treat me?
The culprit showed not the slightest shame. "Don't worry. The River God will bless you. You won't die today."
Qi Xiaoyuan forced out a smile. "Oh, then should I thank the River God for his blessing?"
The River God nodded, then shook his head. "No need. Just prepare tomorrow's offerings in advance." After a pause, he made a new request. "Preferably something with a different flavor."
Qi Xiaoyuan: "..."
The only reason he had not thrown the man out directly was the experience he had built up over the past few months dealing with terrible people, along with that face of his.
Qi Xiaoyuan lowered his head and began making jianbing in earnest, refusing to look at that idiot again!
The morning bustle at Bicheng College of Arts quieted down after He Qinglan left, but the excitement online had only just begun.
The first thing posted was a Weibo video from "Sweet Mountain V" at five-thirty in the morning. Sweet Mountain, with five million followers, uploaded a recording of their livestream picking up trash at the Qinglan River.
In the video, Zhang Feng and Meng Tiantian, dressed cleanly and neatly, went to the Qinglan River early in the morning to collect trash. They worked with great care, and Meng Tiantian would occasionally pick up a piece of litter and tell everyone what type of trash it was.
"I couldn't sleep last night, so I was scrolling through Weibo and saw Water God trending. I really never expected the Qinglan River in my hometown to have become like this." Meng Tiantian scratched the tip of her nose, looking a little sad. "When I was little, my grandma told me that although this river's flow was small, its water was very clear. I just felt that I couldn't stand by and watch it continue like this, so I asked A-Feng to come pick up trash with me!"
"A-Feng strongly agreed too."
Zhang Feng, beside her, coolly showed his face. "Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility. All right, stop talking and pick up more. The more we collect, the cleaner it'll be."
Meng Tiantian stuck out her tongue. "Okay, then I won't say too much. We mainly did this livestream to show everyone what the real Qinglan River looks like. Seeing it now really breaks my heart. Forget about Earth as our home—the Qinglan River is the river Bicheng's people have relied on for survival for thousands of years. At the very least, I think Bicheng residents should unite and do their part for the Qinglan River."
"From now on, A-Feng and I will come here every morning to pick up trash and do our part. I hope more people will join us!"
As soon as the video was posted, it attracted a great deal of traffic and attention. After all, when Sweet Mountain made the post, they had specifically @'d the big shot Shui Wuyuan and included the two still-trending tags #EnvironmentalProtection# and #QinglanRiverRunsDry#.
Although some netizens thought the video seemed like a publicity stunt, more people believed they had done something right and good.
Even if it was a publicity stunt, it was still a positive one, wasn't it? At least they had seriously picked up trash for over half an hour.
But very soon, netizens' attention was no longer on Meng Tiantian and Zhang Feng in the video. Those who had woken up early with nothing to do spotted another figure who occasionally appeared in the footage.
Normally, another person appearing in the video would not have been anything remarkable. It was a livestream, not a movie set that needed to be cleared out. But that gray figure seemed to be doing the same thing as Meng Tiantian and Zhang Feng, and moreover, that figure looked rather attractive.
Yes, even though that figure was at least ten meters away from Meng Tiantian and Zhang Feng, even though four out of his five appearances showed only his back rather than his face, and the one time his face appeared was merely a blurry profile, everyone somehow felt that this person... seemed very handsome!
Perhaps they had too much free time, perhaps they had played too much spot-the-difference, or perhaps it was the astonishing intuition of face-lovers, but netizens began digging into the third trash collector who had appeared in the livestream footage.
The power of the masses was limitless and formidable.
Very quickly, all five appearances He Qinglan had made in the livestream were captured in screenshots. And after some work by tech-savvy face-lovers, all five images were enlarged into high definition.
When the screenshot of his lowered-eyed profile was posted, the face-lovers went wild!!
[Ahhhhh, I knew this little brother had to be a peerless beauty!! My titanium-alloy face-lover eyes are never wrong, ahhhh! This profile shot is killing me!]
[I already thought this little brother who appeared in the shot had incredible poise. Even though they're all picking up trash, this little brother gives me the noble feeling that he isn't collecting trash—he's inspecting his territory!]
[That lowered gaze, that charm! I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love! That face, that aura—he's a living Immortal Pretty Boy!]
[Within three minutes! I want every scrap of information on this trash-picking little brother, ahhhh!]
A whole crowd of face-lovers suddenly appeared beneath the Weibo post, catching Zhang Feng and Meng Tiantian, who were reading the comments, completely off guard. Meng Tiantian was helpless but quietly saved the screenshots, while Zhang Feng's face twisted in rage.
His video! His traffic! His popularity! Even his fans!! They were all being stolen by that damned surgically enhanced pretty-boy bastard!!
Zhang Feng could hardly believe it. That person had only appeared in his video five times by accident, and now he was fucking close to trending!!
And those netizens enlarging screenshots—were they all so bored that their balls hurt?! Instead of looking at his face, they were taking screenshots of some fringe character!
Before you continue