April's temperatures were just right for traveling.
Early in the morning, while the sky was only just beginning to brighten, Chen Mo's home welcomed two special guests.
One of them was the square-faced young man wearing black-rimmed glasses—Professor Zhou's prized student.
"Brother Liang, I'll be leaving Magikarp in your care. Here's the villa key. You just need to come by once a day to check on things."
Hu Chengliang accepted the key Chen Mo handed over, pushed up his glasses, and asked,
"Once a day feels like too little. How about I just stay at your place for now?"
"Uh… that's not a problem, of course. It's just that the guest rooms haven't been tidied up yet. If you don't mind, Brother Liang, you can sleep in my bedroom."
"No need. I'll sleep in the living room. I've already prepared everything."
"…As long as you're happy."
After learning that Chen Mo was about to begin a new livestream science expedition—and that Magikarp wasn't suited to traveling along—Hu Chengliang had volunteered on his own initiative to help look after Magikarp.
Chen Mo glanced at Hu Chengliang, who had already pulled over a small stool by the pond and was sitting there with a paper notebook, diligently recording something.
He silently muttered to himself,
"There shouldn't be any problems… right?"
Once Magikarp's arrangements were settled, Chen Mo walked out of the villa. Beside a brand-new off-road vehicle stood a short-haired man.
Still dressed in the same familiar black sportswear, his expression steady and emotionless.
This man was the official photographer assigned to Chen Mo's livestreams going forward. Under normal circumstances, Chen Mo simply called him "Brother Yi."
It had to be said—
Ever since reaching a cooperation agreement with the authorities, Chen Mo's life had improved dramatically.
When Professor Zhou learned that Chen Mo had even rented a car just to go out during his last livestream, he waved his hand without hesitation and directly allocated a new vehicle to Chen Mo for future travel—no money required from Chen Mo at all.
And more importantly, this Brother Yi not only came early in the morning to help Chen Mo prepare the equipment needed for the trip, but also demonstrated extremely solid professional filming skills, perfectly matching Chen Mo's expectations.
"Brother Yi, how's it going?"
"Mm. Everything's adjusted. We can go live at any time."
"Impressive!"
Chen Mo praised him sincerely. In the past, his livestream setup had basically been just a stand and a few phones. Some of those phones even had slightly worse cameras, leading to frequent complaints from viewers. How could that compare to having a dedicated camera and a professional photographer like this?
"Brother Mo!"
A familiar voice called out from not far away.
Chen Mo turned his head and saw a young man in a light gray hoodie walking over at a quick pace, carrying large and small packs all over his body. In his arms, he was holding a green, insect-type Pokémon.
"Sorry, Brother Mo. I'm late. Preparing the camping gear took a bit of time."
"No worries. I only just finished here too."
Chen Mo looked at the Caterpie that was slowly crawling up onto Ah Hui's shoulder and smiled.
"Looks like Caterpie's recovering pretty well."
"Yeah."
Ah Hui gently patted Caterpie's back, then looked at Chen Mo again and said gratefully,
"Thanks to your help, Brother Mo."
For the human who had treated it and fed it, Caterpie still had a clear impression and plenty of affection. It slightly raised the front half of its body and let out a series of soft chirring sounds to express its thanks.
But just then—
A crisp, pleasant ringing sound came from the front. Chen Mo felt something quickly climbing up his back with agile movements.
"Pichu~"
A small yellow head suddenly popped out over Chen Mo's shoulder, startling the Caterpie on Ah Hui's shoulder.
But when it saw Pichu smiling and extending a little paw in a friendly greeting, the fear in Caterpie's heart gradually faded.
It curiously looked at the yellow Pokémon in front of it.
Then, it also let out a series of chirring sounds in friendly response.
Watching this scene, Chen Mo and Ah Hui exchanged a glance and both smiled.
"I remember last time the stream started from the moment we set off. Same this time?"
The usually silent Brother Yi spoke up at this moment.
Chen Mo checked the time, felt it was about right, and nodded toward him.
"Then I'll be counting on you, Brother Yi."
At the very same time—
Having long received instructions from above, Bilibili immediately featured Chen Mo's livestream on the homepage, giving it maximum exposure.
Meanwhile, countless fans who had followed Chen Mo and enabled automatic reminders the moment he announced the stream last night flooded into the livestream the instant it went live.
[Grandpa, the streamer you followed finally went live!]
[I'm here, I'm here! These days without Mo-baby's stream, I couldn't eat well or sleep well. My parents even thought I'd gone through a breakup.]
[Sleep? Ever since I saw the livestream notice last night, I haven't slept at all. I stayed up the whole time just waiting for Mo-baby to go live.]
[Holy crap, genuine question—is this really Mo-baby's stream? Why is the video quality suddenly so good?!]
[Looks like Mo-baby finally listened to us and upgraded his gear. Hmm… now that I look at it, Mo-baby seems even more handsome, and Pichu is even cuter.]
[Since there aren't many people yet, I'm claiming Mo-baby and Pichu!]
...
After such a long break between streams, the fans who entered were unusually excited, and the chat exploded with messages.
After briefly greeting the viewers, Chen Mo quickly noticed something unusual.
The livestream's popularity kept climbing, and the increase in real-time viewers was astonishing. In just a few minutes, it surpassed ten thousand viewers—far exceeding his previous two streams.
And among the many chat messages, besides Chen Mo's original fans, more and more different voices began to appear.
[Came from the homepage. Science popularization of magical beasts—damn, this stream title is bold. Has Uncle completely lost his mind to dare put this on the homepage?]
[You think Uncle's gone mad, but actually Uncle's making a killing.]
[The official account of the Magical Beast Research and Countermeasures Bureau and multiple major official media outlets are promoting this together. Holy crap, what kind of god-tier stream is this?]
[Something big is coming!]
[I remember now—this streamer isn't he that Anping City hero all those official media were sharing recently?]
[As a longtime Bilibili user, I've actually passed by this stream several times before. I always thought the streamer was just using "science popularization of magical beasts" as a gimmick for attention, so I never watched. But I didn't expect that the streamer is actually someone sent by the authorities. I have to watch properly now.]
[Honestly speaking, since the magical beast invasion half a year ago, the authorities haven't really done any systematic science popularization. Is this finally them getting serious?]
[Eh, what's that thing on the streamer's shoulder? Why does it look like it's moving?!]
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