Xianzhou Luofu, Exalting Sanctum, Aurum Alley.
The street bustled with life.
"—This little sister has only just arrived in your fine land,
showing a few tricks and earning a few coins by her art.
A handful of nuts, a couple of dates—I won't complain if it's small,
but if you toss down gold by the handful, that's true generosity.
No need for idle chatter, no need for stray remarks—
let me show you my signature act!"
Guinaifen finished her rhythmic street chant with gong and drum in hand, then prepared to move on to breathing fire, swallowing swords, balancing parasols, stacking bowls, and the like...
Only for the few scattered spectators to walk away.
"..."
"Aiya..."
She let out a quiet sigh.
After performing her one-woman show to empty air for quite a while,
Guinaifen pulled out a folding stool, sat down, and pressed her legs together—
They were long, supple legs wrapped in the kind of dark black pantyhose rarely seen on the Xianzhou. Paired with her flowing dress and vivid little heeled boots, they showed off the elegant lines of her legs to perfection.
The faintly sheer black stockings hugged the softness of her thighs beautifully, giving them a slightly plush, tactile fullness. Beneath the fabric, one could just make out the fair, rosy skin of her upper thighs after her acrobatics, as though a fine sheen of sweat lingered there, lending her an oddly sultry air...
...But.
Guinaifen herself had no such awareness. She merely pinched the soft flesh of her thigh with her fingertips and frowned in distress.
"My tights got a hole?"
"Wow, these stockings were seriously expensive..."
Burying her face between her knees, she closed her eyes and muttered softly,
"The weather's lovely, and I've got almost no money."
"Mmm..."
"There've been so few spectators lately. Even Sister You's acrobatics troupe has gotten kind of dead... If I can't get the livestream thing going, I won't even be able to afford a new pair of stockings..."
"..."
Guinaifen's fine brows drew tightly together.
She was debating whether she ought to go ask her good friend for help again...
Just then,
her jade abacus lit up.
The message on the screen made her eyes widen.
"!"
[Hey, streamer, why hasn't your livestream been unbanned yet?]
It was Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero.
Guinaifen bit down on her lip, her brows turning fierce.
All the pent-up gloom in her chest vanished in an instant. In a fit of outrage, she jabbed viciously at the screen!
Little Guizi Guinevere:Xianzhou profanityLuofu auspicious phraseCamelot poetry!!!
Little Guizi Guinevere: [This message violated community guidelines and has been automatically optimized. Entering revised content for you now...]
Little Guizi Guinevere: Oh, for treasure's sake!
Little Guizi Guinevere: You little menace! You darling pest!
Little Guizi Guinevere: Love you! Really love you!!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: ...
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Right. I love you too.
Little Guizi Guinevere: ...
Little Guizi Guinevere: !!!
Guinaifen froze.
Her eyes went wide, and even her full lips parted slightly.
Then, belatedly, as she looked at those disgustingly sweet words she had just sent, her face turned red—
the heat in a young girl's cheeks said more than any words could!
Luofu Miscellany, what kind of bizarre new feature did you secretly update!?
Originally...
Guinaifen had furiously hammered out a whole barrage of text, venting her frustration to the fullest. After letting it all out, she had even felt a little guilty...
She had lost control of her temper and exploded at someone she had never even met—and that someone was her stream's biggest patron, no less. How completely improper of her...
And then this happened!!
Guinaifen's entire face burned scarlet, so embarrassed and agitated her chest felt tight. Flushed and breathing hard, she sent Caelus another message with a face that would have been very easy to misread.
Little Guizi Guinevere: Add my private account!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: That doesn't seem like a good idea...
Little Guizi Guinevere: If I say add it, then add it!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Streamer, you're awfully domineering.
—Domineering my foot!
If I don't add you on my private account, how am I supposed to curse you out properly!?
Guinaifen clenched her teeth so hard that faint veins stood out on her smooth forehead.
She stared fixedly at her jade abacus. After what felt like ages, the friend request finally came through, and she accepted it at the very first instant.
And then, transforming into a radiant pressure-point masseuse of fury—
Guinaifen:Aurum Alley slangCamelot banterLuofu classical poetry!!!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: ...
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Seeing that you're still this lively really puts my mind at ease.
Guinaifen: ...
Guinaifen: At ease about what?
Guinaifen: My livestream got banned for a whole month, and it's all your fault!
Guinaifen: I prepared for so long—spent days posting updates to build hype, rehearsed all kinds of acrobatics and performances... and in the end, all my hard work was wasted!
Guinaifen: And the lighter's gone too! Account banned for a month, over seven hundred Strales deducted! I didn't earn a single feather, and still lost seven hundred-plus!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: LMAO.
Guinaifen: !!!
Guinaifen: !!!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Don't be upset. Let me show you something funny.
Guinaifen: What?
"...Huh?"
Guinaifen blinked.
A screenshot came through from the other side.
She tapped it open—and her pupils immediately widened.
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: ["Little Guizi Guinevere's Livestream Room".jpg]
Guinaifen: You bastard!
Guinaifen: I never should've bitten that lighter—I should've bitten you to death instead!
At that moment, whatever tiny shred of respect and restraint Guinaifen still had left for "Boss Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero" was completely exhausted.
Her cheeks were red—
with anger.
Guinaifen: I'm so mad!
Guinaifen: You did that on purpose, didn't you!? You deliberately baited me into biting the lighter so I'd get banned!?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: How could I?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: I just genuinely wanted to see a cute girl bite a lighter.
"..."
Guinaifen bit her lip.
Under normal circumstances, she might have gotten hung up on phrases like cute girl.
But not now. Now it only made her angrier. Her black-clad legs began trembling unconsciously, and her whole body radiated an intimidating aura.
Even a few passersby in Aurum Alley, who had been thinking of taking a look at the rumored "acrobatic beauty," immediately gave her a wide berth.
Guinaifen: Hah?
Guinaifen: What are you trying to do, hit on me?
Guinaifen: Sorry, I'm not interested. Long-distance online romance is not my thing.
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: That's not what I meant.
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: I just genuinely think you're very cute.
Guinaifen: ...
Guinaifen: You really are doing this on purpose, aren't you!?
Guinaifen: Pay me back for my account! Pay me back for my stream!
Guinaifen: That much traffic, that many comments and gifts—I've never had such a glorious opening in my life!... And now my private messages are full of people coming to laugh at me!!!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Check your DMs.
Guinaifen: I'm not showing you!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: ...
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Fine, fine. Don't be angry. I'll compensate you.
Guinaifen: Hm?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Streamer, I have three strategies: best, middle, and worst.
Guinaifen: Let's hear them.
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: The best strategy is to retire on the spot, head to the space station orbiting the Blue—Lady Herta's homeworld—near low orbit around the planet, find a gray-haired young man there, go on a date with him, and make him blush.
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: The middle strategy is tactical indirection: go to the Strategic Investment Department of the Interastral Peace Corporation and find one of the Ten Stonehearts—Topaz, nicknamed "Miss Buy-the-Rankings"...
Guinaifen's slender brows knit together.
She stared at the messages with a face full of question marks, like an old man on a starskiff squinting at his jade abacus.
Guinaifen: What kind of nonsense is this?
Guinaifen: Then what's the worst strategy?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: The worst strategy...
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: ...is to honestly livestream like a proper person.
Guinaifen: ?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: I'll personally teach you how to create good stream content. I'll pass down to you my treasured Flame Mantra.
Guinaifen: ...
Guinaifen: Does that involve biting a lighter again?
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Well... if you want to bite one, there's no problem with that.
Guinaifen:Xianzhou profanityLuofu auspicious phraseCamelot poetry!!!
Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero: Streamer, even the way you curse is kind of cute. Next time you could try livestreaming yourself insulting your fans.
Guinaifen: Cute!?
Guinaifen: Y-you-you-you just wait, I'm calling my bestie over to curse you out!
Furious, Guinaifen glared at her jade abacus, jabbing at it wildly. After sending Caelus more than ten enraged Diting reaction stickers in one breath, she tossed the device aside and looked left and right—
Only to find no trace of her "bestie."
Where was she?
Guinaifen searched high and low, darting through streets and alleys, even knocking on the head of a Skill Bird loafing in a corner to ask whether it had seen a cute brown-haired girl with twin-tails...
The answer was no.
The Skill Bird fluttered its wings and flew away.
"..."
Guinaifen let out a quiet sigh and pulled out her little stool to sit down again. Her snagged, torn stockings clung to her full, shapely thighs, and in that crouched seated posture they looked even plumper. The patch of exposed white flesh showing through the tear was like sugar-white frosting peeking out from torn chocolate wrapping—indecently tempting.
She poked at the torn spot in her tights with one finger.
Now that her head had cooled down a little... unexpectedly, she felt somewhat embarrassed.
She really had taken out her anger on a stranger. To be fair, it wasn't entirely Galaxy Baseball Bat Hero's fault. All he had done was joke about an underage refund, tell her to bite a lighter and get her stream banned, then come back the next day to provoke and tease her some more...
"...Tch."
Why did reviewing the whole thing only make her angrier?
That guy... he wasn't actually doing all this just to provoke me, was he!?
"So annoying..."
Guinaifen lowered her face until it rested against her stocking-clad thigh, looking unusually dejected.
At that moment—
"Sorry, sorry! I ran into someone who was hurt on the way here, so I got delayed... Ah, Little Guizi, are you already done performing?"
It was the sweet voice of a young girl.
She wore a plain white outfit embroidered with cloud motifs, layered beneath an apricot-yellow outer robe. Her slender waist was cinched with a dark sash accented by red ribbons, and her black hair was tied into twin-tails with matching apricot silk ribbons. She had a pure, lovely temperament, a graceful figure, and a face as charming and delicate as blooming peach blossoms.
The one who had finally arrived was Li Sushang.
"Little Guizi, why'd you come perform over here today..."
She blinked, saw that her good friend had her face buried and wasn't speaking, then pursed her lips and quietly crouched beside her, leaning close to whisper into Guinaifen's ear:
"Mmm... what's wrong? Did you pick up some Strales?... If you tell me in secret, we can fence it together and not report it!"