Chapter 52: First Pot of Gold

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: First Pot of Gold

Over the past month, the time Lin Zhengran spent with Han Wenwen and Jiang Xueli wasn’t split evenly.

Out of a week, he spent about four days with the Little Fox and three days with Jiang Xueli. After all, Han Wenwen had just entered the industry and had far too much to learn.

As for Xiao Heqing, they only talked on the phone at night, which hardly counted as spending time together.

Fortunately, hard work paid off. Han Wenwen’s gaming skills evolved from initially losing to bots to completely dominating casual matches. She then started climbing the ranked ladder. In just one month, under Lin Zhengran’s guidance, she reached the Emerald tier.

Ten-player competitive games were divided into ranks: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger.

Above Challenger lay a new apex server. It was a gathering place for top streamers and the best place to find highly entertaining unranked matches.

Although Han Wenwen’s current skills weren’t quite at the level to enter that apex server, reaching Emerald in the regular server within a month was more than enough.

Lin Zhengran had her create a video channel account.

"Although your skills aren’t at an exaggerated level right now, making a few videos will definitely work. After all, in this industry, entertainment value is just as important as mechanical skill," he explained. He looked at the highly emotionally intelligent Han Wenwen sitting beside him and realized he probably didn’t even need to say that.

After creating her account, Han Wenwen sat at the computer desk and asked, "So next, I just need to edit the footage from the past few days, add a voiceover, and post it?"

Lin Zhengran nodded. "Streaming requires time to build an audience. Even the best streamers can only continuously gain popularity by putting in the hours. So for now, just post edited videos instead of streaming live. Build up a certain fanbase to prepare for your future streams."

Han Wenwen acknowledged this and recorded voiceovers for a few videos under Lin Zhengran’s supervision.

The Little Fox wasn’t great at singing, but when she chatted, her voice was charming, captivating, and highly entertaining. After listening to her, Lin Zhengran felt certain that this fox was going to blow up in popularity in the future. Making money was only a matter of time.

As the two were talking, his mom, Lin Xiaoli, knocked on the door and walked in carrying two glasses of juice. "Wenwen, Ranran, I squeezed some juice for you two. Have a taste."

Using her high emotional intelligence, Han Wenwen politely stood up to take the glasses. To her, the game was important, but making a good impression on Lin Zhengran’s parents was even more crucial. "Thank you, Auntie. I’ve really been intruding on you and Uncle these days."

Lin Xiaoli smiled and placed the drinks in her hands. "Not at all, not at all. Your uncle and I are very happy to have you here. By the way, Wenwen, which face mask did you say was good last time?"

"Oh! It’s one I’ve used before. Let me find it to show you."

Han Wenwen put down her juice, unlocked her phone to find the beauty product, and chatted merrily with Lin Xiaoli. Standing to the side, Lin Zhengran watched them, feeling slightly bored. He wondered why they had suddenly started talking about face masks.

Han Wenwen held onto Lin Xiaoli’s arm and said, "Auntie, you are already incredibly beautiful, and your skin is so good. If you just take care of it a little bit more, you will definitely be even more stunning..."

Lin Xiaoli shyly covered her face. "Wenwen, you are too sweet. The one you brought for Auntie last time worked so well. Just these past couple of days, your uncle was even praising my skin for looking so much better."

Lin Zhengran marveled at how this fox possessed a natural advantage when it came to winning over elders.

Thinking back, He Qing and Jiang Xueli had known him for so long, and his mom had asked things like, "Why haven’t they come to hang out with you lately?" but very rarely.

In stark contrast, with Han Wenwen, his mom had legitimately asked him no less than ten times in just one month: "How come Wenwen hasn’t come over to play games with you these past two days?" "She hasn’t been here for a few days, and I kind of miss her." "Have you noticed Mom’s skin getting better lately?"

The two of them had basically become best friends despite the age gap.

As for Jiang Xueli, nothing particularly special had happened recently. She had been constantly practicing her singing, as there were simply too few entertainment programs in the small town.

Most of the time, when Lin Zhengran went to her house to teach her, he practically used the time to catch up on sleep. He would lie on the bed in her bedroom, listening to Jiang Xueli play the guitar and sing beside him.

"Big dummy, how was my practice just now?"

Lin Zhengran rolled over on the bed and pulled the blanket tighter.

Jiang Xueli blushed and complained, "Are you treating my place like a hotel?!"

Lin Zhengran gave his assessment. "What’s the rush? I haven’t even spoken yet. You’ve been practicing quite well lately. It’s just that we are currently in the preparation phase. We need a small opportunity for you to make your mark. So until then, you just need to completely master everything I taught you."

Angry, Jiang Xueli punched him on the butt. "So perfunctory! When are you going to teach me something new?"

"After you participate in an official program. Also, stop interrupting. Keep practicing. I’m going to take a quick nap."

Jiang Xueli snorted. But despite her words, she thought about how she would be left sleeping under the blanket he had slept in tonight.

Jiang Xueli happily strummed the guitar. "Big dummy, so annoying. I really don’t know what’s so great about my bed that he has to sleep on it every day," she mumbled playfully.

One week before the start of the new school term.

This morning, Han Wenwen opened the app’s backend and saw that the videos she had posted had unexpectedly gained a lot of comments.

There hadn’t been much of a reaction over the past few days, but today it seemed the platform’s algorithm had pushed it to the front page. Since morning, the likes and follows had been pouring in endlessly.

She scrolled through the comments in the backend:

[Is your voice really this beautiful, Sis?]

[Holy crap, a girl with such good gaming skills?! And her voice is so nice. Followed!]

[When are you starting live streams? This can’t be a voice changer, right? I suspect this is a crossdresser.]

[The videos are so interesting, leaving a tip to support! Love watching, post more. If I follow now, I’ll be an OG fan.]

Beneath the overwhelming flood of comments, her follower count had increased by over four thousand overnight. The total number had astonishingly surpassed five thousand!

Sitting on her bed, Han Wenwen looked at the tipping and video playback data in the backend. She widened her fox-like eyes, counting the digits one by one. "One thousand six hundred and thirteen! There’s nearly two thousand yuan! This is equivalent to me staying up late doing seven or eight part-time jobs before."

Han Wenwen grinned from ear to ear and immediately called Lin Zhengran to share the good news. She also invited him out to eat, saying with a bright smile, "Lin Zhengran, I can finally clear that hotpot debt I owe you!" She got out of bed to change her clothes. "I’m going downstairs to buy groceries now. How about you come over to my place to eat tonight? Let’s properly celebrate!"

There was no reason to refuse a meal hosted by the fox. After all, in the eyes of the system, this was all an opportunity of serendipity.

That evening, Han Wenwen bought an abundant spread of beef, mutton, tripe, and two cans of beer.

When Lin Zhengran saw this, he was curious. It was one thing to have so many ingredients, but why did she buy beer?

Han Wenwen sat beside him and replied, "I’m happy today, so I’ll just drink a tiny bit. Besides, I have you here with me, Lin Zhengran." She looked at him with a smile. "Right?"

Seeing how happy she was today, Lin Zhengran let her do as she pleased. That night, Han Wenwen drank beer and ate hotpot. She chatted excitedly about her feelings upon seeing the amount of money and her expressions while reading the comments. Who knew that after downing just one can of beer, her cheeks would flush red and she would become utterly dazed.

Furthermore, fueled by that slight buzz, she said some things that were largely irrelevant to today’s theme: "Lin Zhengran, did you know? The happiest days of my life were, first, those few days when I just met Qingqing, and second, this summer vacation when you accompanied me to make money."

"It’s only over a thousand yuan. Also, why are you holding my arm? Are you drunk after just one can?"

Han Wenwen rested her head on Lin Zhengran’s arm, her expression groggy. "I’m happy not just because of the money. It’s mainly because when I was at my lowest, you pulled me up. You were always by my side." Her voice lowered a little as she closed her eyes. "It’s just that... school is starting soon. When that happens, I’ll have to help Qingqing chase you again."

Lin Zhengran saw that she seemed to have fallen asleep on his shoulder after saying that. He called out to her a few times, but Han Wenwen didn’t respond. She even slowly tightened her grip on his arm.

"Hey? Han Wenwen? Are you asleep?"

Lin Zhengran let out a long sigh. He figured she was already exhausted from constantly busying herself with studying videos recently, compounded by the effects of the beer. Thus, he continued eating his hotpot, choosing not to disturb her any further.

However, Han Wenwen, who had seemingly fallen fast asleep, quietly opened her eyes just a fraction. Her pupils trembled slightly as she forcefully clung to Lin Zhengran’s arm.

She thought, "Lin Zhengran... I kind of don’t want to give you to anyone else."