52: Chapter 52 Seven Days of Live Streaming
When Lin Feng said he wanted to livestream for seven days, everyone thought he was crazy.
Seven days.
Twenty-four hours, non-stop.
Let the whole world see Xinfeng Town.
Alex was the first to ask: "What are we broadcasting?"
Lin Feng said: "Broadcasting how they laugh."
Rachel was the second to ask: "Who's filming?"
Lin Feng pointed at Xiao Su.
Xiao Su was stunned—she was in Los Angeles, editing footage when she got the call.
"Me? Right now?"
Lin Feng said: "Right now. The ticket is already bought."
Xiao Su was silent for three seconds, then started packing her luggage.
-
Day one, Xiao Su's lens was aimed at the farm.
At six in the morning, the sky wasn't fully bright yet.
Chris led the old miners down the shaft—no, down to the mine. The vertical farm converted from an abandoned coal mine.
The elevator creaked as it went down.
In the lens, those sixty- and seventy-year-old men had faces full of wrinkles and hands full of calluses.
But they were laughing.
George said to the lens: "I dug coal for forty-five years. Going down before was to dig black stuff. Going down now is to grow white stuff."
He lifted the mushroom basket in his hand:
"White is worth more than black."
In the livestream chat, the comments started scrolling.
"Is this the United States???"
"I thought this was Northern Europe."
"These old men are laughing way too happily."
"Are the mushrooms in their hands real?"
Xiao Su zoomed the lens in, giving the mushrooms a close-up.
They were snow-white, still with soil on them.
Someone asked: "Are these mushrooms for sale?"
Chris leaned in and said to the lens: "For sale. The link is at the bottom."
The livestream chat exploded.
--
Day two, the lens was aimed at the church.
Jenny sat beside the "Ear" sculpture, waiting.
An old lady walked in, leaning on a cane, over eighty years old.
She started speaking to the iron ear.
"My name is Edna. My husband died twenty years ago. I haven't remarried. It's not because nobody wanted me, it's because I didn't want to."
Her voice was amplified by the "Ear," and the whole church could hear it.
"But sometimes, I do want someone to talk to."
After she finished speaking, she walked to the cushions and sat down.
The chat went quiet.
Then a young man walked in and sat next to her.
Not an actor, a tourist.
He said to Edna: "My grandma is also over eighty. I'm alone in New York, and I haven't been back in a long time."
Edna looked at him, reached out, and patted the back of his hand.
"Then go back."
The young man's eyes turned red.
In the livestream, people started crying.
---
Day three, the lens was aimed at the bar.
Friday night, "The Last One" was packed with people.
Sam hugged his guitar and led those old men in singing.
They sang the same miners' songs—going down the shaft, digging coal, surviving and coming up, marrying a wife, having kids, getting old, sitting down.
George stopped halfway through singing.
He looked at the lens and said:
"My son never came back before. Now, he comes every weekend."
He pointed to Tom in the corner.
Tom was holding a camera, filming him.
The chat started scrolling again.
"Teary-eyed."
"I miss my dad too."
"This town is toxic."
"I've already bought a ticket."
--- ---
Day four, day five, day six.
The lens swept across every corner of Xinfeng Town.
The mushrooms in the farm grew better and better;
more and more people spoke in the church;
the singing in the bar got louder and louder.
Three new shops opened on the main street—a Coffee Shop, a craft shop, and a mushroom specialty store.
Those tourists from Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky held the "Xinfeng Town Renovation Manual" and stood at the town entrance to take photos.
Someone asked Lin Feng: "Can we take this manual with us?"
Lin Feng squatted at the restaurant entrance, chewing on a straw: "Take it. Take it back and use it yourself."
On the night of the seventh day, Xiao Su aimed the lens at the entrance of the church.
Four hundred and forty-nine people stood there.
The sunlight shone on their faces.
Lin Feng squatted at the very front, chewing on a straw, not looking at the lens.
Xiao Su called out to him: "Boss, say a few words."
Lin Feng turned back, thought for a moment, and said:
"Just one sentence."
He stood up and faced the lens:
"Real laughter doesn't need 'electricity'."
---
When the livestream ended, the data came out.
Seven days.
Total views across the network: 370 million.
Peak concurrent viewers: 8 million.
Visits to the Xinfeng Town official website: increased four hundred times.
Website visits for seventeen other towns: all broke records.
Mushroom orders: booked until next year.
Margaret stood at the restaurant entrance, looking at those numbers, her hands trembling.
She turned to look at Lin Feng:
"Is this real?"
Lin Feng nodded.
Margaret asked again: "Then what about V Company..."
Lin Feng laughed.
"Them not being able to sleep is their business. As long as we can sleep, that's enough."
--
That night, Lin Feng received a message.
It was sent by Yuki—a screenshot.
The screenshot was the headline of a press release from the official website of V Digital Entertainment:
[V World daily active users exceed 50 million. Virtual happiness is becoming mainstream]
Lin Feng stared at that number and was silent for three seconds.
50 million.
The Xinfeng Town livestream had 370 million views.
But that was view count.
They were daily active users.
He squatted at the restaurant entrance, looking at the stars, and didn't speak.
Margaret walked over and squatted beside him.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Feng handed her the phone.
Margaret finished reading and also fell silent.
After a long time, she asked: "Are you afraid?"
Lin Feng thought about it and shook his head.
"Not afraid."
Margaret asked: "Why?"
Lin Feng pointed at the stars in the sky:
"No matter how many of them there are, they are just one person smiling at a screen. Here, we have over four hundred people smiling at real people."
He paused:
"Fake, no matter how lively, is still fake. Real, no matter how few, is still real."
Margaret stared at him for three seconds.
Then she smiled.
[Chapter 52 End]