Chapter 2

Yet the deity within the rain curtain heard it. He glanced down at the ugly black fish, his gaze cold and utterly without pity.

As he lowered his eyes, atop mountains far away, in the deep lake where the waters began, another sleeping deity suddenly... opened his eyes beneath the icy blue lakebed.

They were sapphire-blue eyes, jewel-like, seeming to carry the shimmering light of stars.

Then towering waves rose, and boundless rain and snow fell.

Amid those waves, rain, and snow, a pale blue figure soared into the air, walking upon the waves as he followed the winding river eastward.

Wherever he passed, moisture filled the air, rivers surged onward, the grasses and trees along the banks swayed in celebration, and the creatures in the water swam and leapt with delight, as though welcoming the grandest festival.

Within those towering waves and heavy rain, the two deities in the sky "saw" one another.

Azure-blue and pale gray eyes collided—the former cool and indifferent, the latter cold and wickedly unrestrained.

Then they parted at a touch.

In the downpour, the deity in the sky lowered his head once more toward the black, dying ugly fish. His pale gray eyes gazed into the distance along the dried-up riverbed.

At last, he seemed to recognize and recall something. A strange light flashed through his eyes, and after a moment of silence, a low, deep voice rang out with a hint of cold mockery.

"...Rippling blue waves, Clear Ripple River stirred by wind... drifting like flowing clouds across the nine heavens, tinkling like jade pearls falling upon a platter..."

"River's Clear Ripple... to think you had fallen this far."

As he spoke, he walked down step by step. When his feet touched the ground, he became a man.

Yet the raging wind and rain still could not touch him. Though heaven and earth were dark and murky, the man seemed to be the sovereign of this rain curtain, untouched by the slightest ripple.

Then he took a brand-new phone from his outrageously expensive black suit. With a touch of schadenfreude, his long fingers tapped the screen and posted a late-night Weibo update.

Shui Wuyuan V: [Passed by Qinglan River late at night. Fallen this far, tsk tsk. #Photo of trash in the riverbed# #Photo of the river running dry# #Photo of a black fish with dead eyes#.]

The instant this late-night Weibo post went up, it drew countless late-night gossip-hungry netizens. Before long, more than a hundred comments had exploded beneath Shui Wuyuan's post.

[First!!]

[First!! Rich Daddy, look at me! Please give me a seafood gift pack red envelope!]

[Tsk, I was a step too slow. Trash-Talk King posted again—let me see who he's roasting this time? Why is it a river?]

[The person above, watch your mouth! Trash-Talk King is my Rain God, my rich hubby! Sure enough, his setting of raining wherever he goes remains unbroken today! So, Rain God hubby, did you specially go to Bicheng to make it rain because you couldn't stand the river drying up?]

[Boss Water's Rain God setting remains unbroken +1, Trash-Talk King +1, daily being frantically claimed as husband by men and women +1. Three bows a day to Boss Water √.]

[As a Bicheng local, the rain is even heavier than in the photos—it's like the sky has sprung a leak. But speaking of Qinglan River, has that river really completely dried up? Although, well... I heard from my grandma that when she was little, Qinglan River was still beautiful, and boats could sail and row on it.]

[Time is a blade that cuts rivers dry! Thousands of years ago, Qinglan River was still the birthplace of Clear Ripple River culture, a "mighty river whose blessings spread in all directions."

Our professor said that back then, Qinglan River was hardly any worse than our present Mother River. Many ancient poems wrote about Qinglan River, praising it as Huazhou's most beautiful river. There's even a "Rhapsody of the Clear Ripples River God" in high school elective textbooks now—the wording is incredibly beautiful.]

["Rhapsody of the Clear Ripples River God"! Fuck, I just memorized it recently. The River God inside was practically described like an immortal! That gorgeous beauty's river is the one in the photo?! I'm cracking apart.]

[Cracking apart +1. I saw photos my great-grandpa took of Qinglan River a hundred years ago—absolutely gorgeous! I simply can't imagine it has become like this.]

[At the end of the day, Qinglan River becoming what it is now has little to do with time. Isn't the biggest problem humanity itself? Just along Qinglan River, I know of three factories discharging wastewater and four garbage gathering spots that somehow turned into dumps. I've heard that people living by the river have even privately dug channels to divert water, and in the early days people crazily excavated river mud, destroying the ecological balance...]

[Tsk, so is Rain God roasting all of humanity for polluting the environment this time? Does he have absolutely no qualms about mocking people now?]

[What a joke. When have you ever seen Rain God show any qualms while trash-talking? Remember that hit-and-run driver Rain God grabbed by the collar and called an idiot? One heavy rain sent him straight into a sewer. He couldn't even run away. Laughing-crying.jpg.]

[But Rain God's mockery this time is entirely justified. Qinglan River falling to this state really makes one's heart ache.]

[Protecting the environment starts with me! Tomorrow, I'm going to Qinglan River to pick up trash! Anyone coming?]

[Save it, person above. What the fuck can you accomplish picking up trash alone? @Jade City Municipal Government @Jade City Environmental Protection Bureau, let's see what they've been doing!]

A wave of "late-night environmental protection" discussion arose on Weibo because of one statement from seafood tycoon Shui Wuyuan. The discussion ranged from Qinglan River running dry to environmental issues such as global desertification, global warming, and melting glaciers, even reaching the top ten trending searches for several hours.

This showed just how well-known and influential "Shui Wuyuan" was on information platforms. He truly deserved to be called the number one top influencer outside the industry.

And even at midnight, there were still countless idle people staying up late.

Yet compared to the bustling discussions online, the banks of the dried-up Qinglan River were exceptionally quiet at this moment.

Though all of Bicheng was drenched in a torrential downpour, with wind, rain, and thunder crashing together deafeningly, within the stretch of Qinglan River that flowed through Bicheng, the violent storm seemed to fear something and restrained its force. It did not smash fiercely against the earth or let the gales run rampant, but obediently seeped into the soil and flowed into the river.

The fine rain and gentle wind carefully curved around the deity who had come walking upon the waves, terrified of touching him in the slightest.

The Qinglan River, which had already run dry, began to flow again with this deity's arrival. But after being dry for so long, the stream was thin and murmuring, on the verge of breaking off again.

Perhaps the water containing the source essence had brought life with it. After the black ugly fish, which had not moved since earlier, was washed by the current, its snow-white belly actually began to rise and fall once more.