Chapter 46: The Rising Star Who Died from Cyberbullying (2)

Xie Hui had once been among those who worshipped good food. When he received a commission from an emperor, he even made three personal visits to persuade a chef to come out of retirement.

After searching carefully for a shopfront and failing to find a suitable one, he happened to see a young man watching a live stream on his way back to the village. This sparked an idea.

At this stage in this world, short videos had just started to gain traction, and live streaming was beginning to emerge.

Having experienced highly developed eras, Xie Hui knew well how low the entry barrier for the streaming and video industry was—one smartphone was all it took to start.

While entry was easy, making a name for oneself required effort.

On the way home, numerous ideas popped into Xie Hui’s mind. However, when he returned and saw his old phone wrapped in plastic tape, he had to put those thoughts aside for now.

He sought out a young man in the village and, using the excuse of wanting to video call his son, paid him to buy a smartphone on his behalf.

At the beginning, Xie Hui planned to make do with whatever was available.

Even though the client had given him permission to use the money he had saved, Xie Hui couldn’t bring himself to spend it carelessly after learning how painstakingly it had been accumulated.

The client, a simple farmer who had spent his entire life tending to crops, had poured all his efforts into his child. He had used the same old phone for five or six years, patching it with plastic tape repeatedly because he couldn’t bear to spend 200 yuan on a new one.

Every penny counted. Unless absolutely necessary, Xie Hui felt an odd sense of guilt whenever he spent the money.

After the young man in the village agreed to help, Xie Hui began tidying up the yard.

Since he planned to shoot videos, he couldn’t have a messy background, even if it was a rural setting.

The client had been keeping free-range chickens in the yard, and the smell of chicken droppings wasn’t pleasant.

Xie Hui did a rough clean-up first. In recent years, many families in the village had paved their courtyards with concrete. The client had considered it too, but ultimately decided against it due to the cost.

That night, lying in bed, Xie Hui decided that paving the yard was a must. Otherwise, when it rained, the muddy mess would be a headache.

With a plan in mind, he finally slept soundly.

Initially, when Xie Hui took on this task, he didn’t have a good impression of the client. He felt the man had been too rash and impulsive, ultimately ruining his son’s life—an inescapable responsibility.

But after just a single day living in the mission world, he had nothing left to say. No amount of words could hold up against reality.

The original host had single-handedly managed several acres of land, saving nearly 500,000 yuan through farming and doing odd jobs—the slowest, most arduous way to accumulate wealth.

Yet at home, he hadn’t even paved his courtyard. He slept on a bed propped up with straw. Every penny was stretched to its limit. He wore the same clothes for over a decade.

He had placed all his hopes and love into his son, never realizing that such an overwhelming love could also become a burden.

He might not have been perfect, but as a father, he had done his best.

The next day, Xie Hui spent the entire day working on the courtyard. He caged the free-range chickens and re-leveled the ground. Seeing the small pool where the original host used to wash vegetables, he decided to convert it into a fish pond.

A few days later, once the yard was tidied up, the phone he had ordered through the young man in the village arrived. When he went to pick it up, he noticed that the village chief’s dog had recently given birth, so he took two puppies home with him.

With the smartphone in hand, sending money to Xie Xingzhou became much more convenient. During meal times, he often asked his son to send him photos of what he was eating and occasionally sent him red envelopes.

He also browsed online stores for clothes, purchasing items in Xie Xingzhou’s size and having them delivered to his university address.

After dealing with all the miscellaneous items in the yard, Xie Hui paid a fellow villager to take him to buy some concrete.

There weren’t many skilled concrete workers in the village. Most people had arranged for their yards to be paved when the village roads were being constructed.

After estimating the workload, Xie Hui hired workers to pave the yard and build the fish pond simultaneously. Once the concrete dried, he made a trip to the county and bought some flowers to plant in the yard.

Buying flower seeds or propagating cuttings wouldn’t be practical—especially for climbing roses or monthly roses, which required several years to grow into proper wall-covering plants. Fortunately, mature saplings were available in flower shops.

It took Xie Hui a long time to clear out all the old belongings of the original host.

The client had lived frugally his entire life. He never patched up torn clothes; he simply wore them as they were. He used towels until they turned stiff. With the client’s permission, Xie Hui discarded everything.

Since he planned to shoot short videos, he couldn’t just document the original host’s daily life. Farming and vegetable-growing might be interesting at first, but they’d quickly lose appeal.

Xie Hui wasn’t aiming to recreate rural life. Instead of an authentic countryside experience, he wanted to evoke the serene, idyllic charm of reclusive living often depicted in ancient works.

Once everything was in place, the university summer break arrived.

When Xie Xingzhou returned to the village carrying his luggage, he seriously wondered if he had walked into the wrong house.

Was this really his home?

Just then, out of nowhere, a large goose charged at him and pecked his bare leg.

“…Ah!!!”

Hearing the commotion, Xie Hui stepped out and saw his son, who had returned with a woven sack slung over his back. He took the luggage from him and said,

“Why didn’t you call ahead? I could’ve picked you up.”

Looking at the man before him, Xie Xingzhou hesitated for a moment, almost unable to recognize him.

Was this really his father?

In Xie Xingzhou’s memory, his father had always worn a face full of worry, his features deeply etched with lines, every wrinkle telling the story of a hard life.

But now, while his appearance hadn’t changed, his entire demeanor was completely different.

Lately, after hearing more novel content from his roommate, the first thought that popped into Xie Xingzhou’s head was that his dad was just like one of those hidden experts in the novels!

“Dad, you finally decided to throw away your precious old clothes?”

Seeing that his dad was clearly wearing new clothes, Xie Xingzhou grinned happily.

He had been trying to convince his dad to throw out those old, hole-ridden clothes that had been around for who knows how many years. He even secretly bought new clothes for him, but every time, his dad would retrieve the old ones and give the new ones to him instead.

“Yeah, I’m getting older and wanted to find something else to do, so I threw them out.”

Xie Hui helped him carry the snakeskin bag up to the second-floor room. Renovating this place was still too difficult—mostly because money was tight—so he could only tidy it up as best as he could.

After throwing out the old furniture, he replaced everything with pieces he had crafted himself. At this moment, he was glad that, in one of his past worlds, the person he had taken over was a carpenter—he had learned quite a bit from that experience.

“Dad, did we suddenly get rich?”

After putting down his luggage, Xie Xingzhou flopped onto the bed, rolling around twice before looking up at his dad.

“Hurry up and help me cook!”

Xie Hui tried his best to act according to the original host’s personality when interacting with his kid, keeping a stern face as he gave orders. He did want to change, but it would have to be done gradually.

“Oh.”

Seeing his dad’s serious expression, Xie Xingzhou immediately dropped his playful tone, climbed off the bed, put on his shoes, and followed behind his dad as they walked out together.

It wasn’t until after meeting Xie Xingzhou in person that Xie Hui understood why, in the original world, he had managed to catch people’s attention just by taking on a minor role for money.

His facial features were perfectly proportioned—thick eyebrows, bright eyes, and a warm, scholarly aura. Today, he had returned home wearing only a simple white shirt and a pair of shorts that looked like they came from a bargain-bin deal, yet he still carried the aura of a high-end brand model.

That evening, after Xie Xingzhou returned home, the system finally transmitted the long-overdue storyline of this world to Xie Hui.

This world was based on an old-school melodramatic “Runaway Pregnant Wife” trope. In this setting, Xie Xingzhou wasn’t even considered a supporting male lead—just a disposable character used to make the male protagonist jealous for a short time.

These types of worlds were products of an earlier era, filled with extreme and exaggerated plots that prioritized the protagonist’s satisfaction. Back then, the so-called “protagonist is always right” mindset was prevalent, which often led to highly problematic narratives.

The female lead once claimed to like the character played by Xie Xingzhou. At the time, the male lead was entangled with his fiancée, and in a fit of anger, the female lead declared that she would make Xie Xingzhou the father of her unborn child.

Consumed by jealousy and rage, the male lead ordered his secretary to “take care” of Xie Xingzhou. Meanwhile, the female lead, upset that the male lead was still involved with his fiancée yet trying to control her love life, fled abroad once again.

In their world, Xie Xingzhou wasn’t even a real character. Yet, because of a fleeting decision made by the main characters, his life was utterly destroyed.

As the story progressed, the male and female leads continued their cycle of toxic love, where one would love the other at the wrong time. Meanwhile, Xie Xingzhou—the man who had once stunned the female lead for a fleeting moment—was completely forgotten, leaving no trace in her heart.

There was a time when Xie Hui would obediently complete his missions without unnecessary interference. That was until he encountered a world like this—and from then on, he had never looked back, fully embracing the path of defiance.

“Does the Lord God have any additional requirements?”

After finishing the storyline, Xie Hui asked the system just in case. If the Lord God required him not to disrupt this world, then he would have to handle things a little more subtly.

“No, Host.”

In other words, the Lord God had given implicit approval for Xie Hui to handle the mission however he saw fit.

“Not bad.”

Xie Hui praised the response before picking up his phone to check the delivery status. The kudzu root he had ordered online was set to arrive tomorrow, and he planned to take his son along to pick it up.

The original host had always been frugal with himself but never hesitated to spend on his son. As soon as his son entered college, he bought him the best computer he could afford.

Since video editing was more convenient on a computer, Xie Hui figured that, until he made some money, he might as well borrow his son’s for now.

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—The “Runaway Pregnant Wife” trope is a melodramatic romance plot where the heroine gets pregnant, leaves due to a misunderstanding or betrayal, and returns years later with a secret child. The male lead then discovers the truth, leading to angst, drama, and eventual reconciliation.

—Kudzu root is the starchy root of the kudzu plant (Pueraria lobata), commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and cuisine. It is believed to have cooling and detoxifying properties, often used to treat fever, hangovers, high blood pressure, and digestive issues. Kudzu root can be consumed as a tea, herbal supplement, or thickening agent in cooking.