Chapter 3

When the first ray of morning light shone on the thin waters of the Qinglan River and reflected a glimmer, the beautiful, poor, miserable River God who scavenged for trash saw the first wave of humans arriving at the riverbank.

Author's Note:

What was the most painful thing in the world?

He Qinglan: Max level, no mana, ugly. Fake smile.jpg.

Black Carp: My deity became beautiful, poor, and miserable! Boohoo!!

Shui Wuyuan: Mocking his wife for being miserable, then possibly continuing to mock him and getting slapped in the face himself.

Chasing his wife

like that...

Chapter 3

They were called the "first wave" of humans because more than one person had arrived.

Four people approached the riverbank from different directions.

The first to appear was an elderly woman coming from the eleven o'clock direction. She wore tattered, overly worn clothes and tightly clutched a broken sack in her hand, looking hopefully at the trash by the river. She was probably a scavenger.

But she was much slower than the three young people approaching from the eight o'clock direction.

There were two men and a woman among them. Their outfits had clearly been carefully prepared. The man and woman walking in front even held long grabbers similar to He Qinglan's and wore gloves, looking like environmentally conscious young people who loved picking up trash. But the tall, burly young man behind them held a phone mounted on a tripod. That made them seem less like people who had come solely to collect trash.

The three had been chatting and laughing as they walked over, but the moment they saw He Qinglan picking up trash on the little dirt slope, all their expressions changed.

In that instant, He Qinglan sensed a trace of malice and fixed his gaze on the three of them.

Although He Qinglan was watching them, the distance between them kept the three from being too cautious with their conversation. They merely lowered their voices a little. Even so, the River God could still hear them clearly.

"Tch! What's with that guy? Why is he picking up trash too? Is he some kind of scavenger?" The tallest and biggest young man frowned deeply.

"How could he be a scavenger? His clothes aren't great, sure, but look at his face, then look at his bearing. A handsome guy like that could start a

livestream

and get donations from face-obsessed fans without doing anything, okay? I think he might be in the same business as us." After getting a clear look at He Qinglan's face, the girl among the three exclaimed "Holy shit" three times before speaking excitedly. "Boss Water is way too popular right now. We can't be the only ones trying to ride his traffic."

"But is he a new streamer? I'd never forget a gorgeous man like that if I'd seen him even once, so why don't I remember him?"

The girl's reaction darkened the face of the other, slightly shorter but fairly decent-looking young man beside her. His gaze toward He Qinglan carried a hint of jealousy and mockery. "If you haven't seen him before, that just means he got his work done recently. These days, who knows how many people desperate for fame are willing to pay any price for plastic surgery? He was probably waiting for this opportunity all along, or he wouldn't have come so early."

This male streamer absolutely refused to believe that someone could naturally look like that. The young man was clearly only wearing a dull gray T-shirt and trousers, yet somehow gave off the air of a poor young nobleman. Meanwhile, the genuine luxury brands on his own body had been made to look ugly and tacky.

"Enough, forget about him. Let's hurry up and shoot the video. No matter what, we have to be the first to ride the popularity of Boss Water's Weibo post! There'll definitely be plenty of people following the trend and coming here to pick up trash afterward. Once too many people start copying it, it'll look fake!"

The shorter young man ground his teeth at He Qinglan's excessively handsome face, then quickly pulled his two companions toward the nearby trash-filled area to film their video.

He Qinglan listened to everything while picking up trash. Though he did not quite understand words like "livestream," "video," "face-obsessed fans," "donations," and "Weibo," after connecting them with the way the three spoke to their phone camera while collecting trash, he roughly understood what they meant.

The three really had not come to pick up trash seriously. They had come to... attract other people's attention?

But what was the use of attracting attention? After several thousand years, human behavior had truly become stranger and stranger.

The River God merely glanced at them before quietly continuing to collect trash. Though the three were only putting on a show, they were at least genuinely picking up trash, so there was no need to bother with them.

At that moment, the Black Carp in the fruit canning jar violently flicked his tail and blew a bubble. "Boohoo!"

River God! Black Carp knows what they're doing! Black Carp will explain it to you!

And so, the River God, who had only just awakened and come to the human world, was taught all kinds of new-age knowledge by a fish that had become a spirit—things like "phones," "Weibo," "short videos," and "streamers."

Only then did he understand why these three humans had come to pick up trash—

It was for a living.

When the River God compared their behavior to that of ancient humans, it was probably like how opera stages and street acrobatic troupes were no longer restricted by location. They could broadcast directly through those phone videos or livestreams and receive donations.

The River God looked toward the man and woman, who were earnestly picking up trash and had even sorted it into separate piles, and found it fairly acceptable.

Whether they were putting on an act or earning a living, as long as they picked up trash seriously, there was nothing wrong with making a living from it.

The River God even thought that if such "performances" could lead more people to care about the environment and living things, and bring more people to pick up trash, then they would have some benefit after all.

So, for the first half hour, He Qinglan was in a fairly good mood.

He even helped the elderly scavenger collect several dozen more plastic bottles. From her, He Qinglan learned that some trash could be exchanged for money. But the River God had no need for money at all, so he gave those several dozen plastic bottles to her.

After the elderly woman had collected all the plastic bottles in the area, the three people filming videos nearby also seemed to have finished their work and prepared to leave.

There had originally been nothing wrong with that.

However, when He Qinglan looked up, he saw the young man who had just been carrying a huge bag of trash and telling the phone camera, "I hope everyone will cherish the environment and protect our home," raise his hand and toss that entire bag of trash away.