10: Chapter 10: Xiaoyu Signs a Contract, and My Brother Doesn't Have to Work Anymore

Watching Jiang Zhe leave, Jiang Xiaoyu hurried forward and called out goodnight to him.

Then, she stealthily closed the door and pressed her ear against it to listen for a while, only letting out a sigh of relief once the footsteps faded away. "Phew, luckily I wasn't caught!"

Little did she know!

Outside the door, Jiang Zhe was marching in place, his footsteps becoming lighter and lighter.

"Strange!"

"Xiaoyu has been acting so secretive these past two days. She couldn't be doing something bad at home, could she?"

"Even though this is a bit unethical, don't blame your brother!"

And so, he stealthily pressed his ear against the wooden door to eavesdrop.

After listening for a bit, he realized the soundproofing was incredibly good and he couldn't hear a thing, so he gave up. "Forget it!"

...

Xiaoyu leaned against the back of the door, and only after confirming Jiang Zhe had completely left did she breathe a sigh of relief.

She felt like she was in a spy movie whenever she was around Jiang Zhe!

Stinky big brother!

Don't even think about finding out I'm livestreaming!!!

"I wonder what the peak number of online viewers will be tonight?" Jiang Xiaoyu excitedly turned and jumped onto the bed, flopping down and pulling her phone out from beside a teddy bear's belly.

As soon as the phone screen lit up!

"Wow!"

Almost instantly, she was stunned by the sight on the livestream screen!

In the top right corner was a full six-digit number: 100,471 people. Although it was decreasing, the rate was extremely slow!

The camera was pointed right at Xiaoyu's face, a 360-degree view with no blind spots; she wasn't the least bit afraid of people taking ugly screenshots.

"Holy crap, this 33rd hexagram [The Yellow River runs clear, when the Qi is smooth there is order] is a direct metaphor for the Great Qing's [National Title] and [Era Name]. And then meeting Puyi of the Qing later... damn, how did Li Chunfeng, a Taoist from the early Tang Dynasty, calculate the Great Qing of later generations? It's like he saw it with his own eyes!"

"Xiaoyu, your brother—get your brother to come back! His interpretation was too mind-blowing!"

"I'm bowing down to your brother. Not even mentioning how mind-blowing his interpretation was, he straight up leaked the secrets of heaven!"

She glanced at the dense wall of bullet comments, her eyes aching from the sight, but then she was drawn in by the constant flurry of gifts—

From small hearts to cars and rockets, the gifts almost never stopped. The total amount for this livestream had actually reached a staggering 30,000 yuan after the platform's cut!!!

"Hiss~~ That's so much money. Big brother doesn't have to go to work anymore!"

Jiang Xiaoyu's face instantly broke into a grin.

On second thought, her expression immediately collapsed. Not grinning anymore!

She hadn't signed a contract with the platform yet, so she couldn't withdraw the gift money at all!

Suddenly!

A staff member wearing a suit appeared in the backend: [Dougu Operations].

When Xiaoyu clicked it, she found it was the operator who had offered her a B-level contract yesterday.

"Xiaoyu, are you there? Say something!"

"My little ancestor, why haven't you picked up your phone yet? The cumulative amount from last night and tonight has already reached 38,000 yuan!"

"Yesterday's B-level contract is void, void! I'm sending you an A-level contract instead!"

"Nearly a third of our Dougu Platform's operations department is watching your brother's livestream interpretation—the interpretation is simply too brilliant!"

"The operations supervisor just found me, and seeing that I hadn't signed you yet, he gave me a proper earful and authorized an A-level contract directly!"

"My little ancestor, yesterday was my mistake!"

It was Operator Wang, his tone filled with humility.

These messages were all from ten minutes ago.

"Sister Xiaoyu, tell Brother Wang the truth, what kind of sacred being is your brother?"

"His terrifying reserve of knowledge and his subversive way of thinking have made even someone like me, who doesn't like national studies, fall in love with it!"

"Xiaoyu, I'm begging you, please sign. As long as your brother keeps producing this kind of occult, metaphysical, and national studies content, our Dougu platform won't be stingy with featured spots!"

"Don't be afraid of anyone reporting you. Whoever dares to report, we'll clear everything out for you!"

After making these grand promises, the other party sent a PDF.

Xiaoyu opened it to see a 50/50 split, A-level contract!

"This!!!"

This was something that even streamers who had been on the Dougu Platform for a year might not achieve.

Before, she couldn't even get a contract, and she couldn't even withdraw gift money—who would have thought that after her big brother showed up for two days and one night, he would blow the traffic up to a hundred thousand people!!!

Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoyu swallowed hard, her heart swelling with emotion.

All of this was her brother's influence!

She thought about how her big brother used to work himself to exhaustion every day, working during the day and doing food delivery at night, earning every penny to support her schooling.

She thought about her own consistently failing grades, and the warm but poor little house they shared after losing their parents...

In an instant, countless thoughts came surging into her mind!

Now, she could finally help out, and it was all thanks to her big brother's wisdom and talent!

And of course, her own... gimmick!

"With this money, I can buy big brother some nice clothes for the winter!"

Jiang Xiaoyu took a deep breath and used her thumb to quickly complete the electronic signature.

After signing, her heart finally settled. Soon, she shifted her attention back to the livestream, took off her black eye mask, switched back to the livestream view, and said with a calm face:

"Good evening, family!"

The viewers in the livestream immediately responded.

"Holy crap, Sister Xiaoyu, is this your real face?"

"Xiaoyu, don't tempt me. Even if you take off your eye mask and remove your mask, this man won't fall in love with you. Right now, I only like your brother!"

"Xiaoyu, where's your brother? I want to have his babies!"

"Xiaoyu, express my love to your brother for me. If he doesn't want to work hard anymore, he can come to me!"

"It's fake, right? How could it be so accurate? The tui bei tu must be a revised version, it's not accurate!"

The originally emotional atmosphere turned into an awkward yet happy smile after she saw these improper bullet comments.

"My brother went to sleep. He just quit his job recently and is very tired, so I won't disturb him!"

"And I can swear—my brother really doesn't know I secretly livestreamed him."

"You have to know, my own brother wouldn't lie to me."

Her words weren't very convincing, but they still made many viewers nod their heads in frantic agreement.

Suddenly!

[Wang Defa, a graduate student from the Sichuan Province History Academy, gifted a Rocket and left a message: By the way, Xiaoyu, can you see which version of the tui bei tu book your brother left for you?]

Since large gifts had a pinning feature, the appearance of this five-hundred-yuan rocket immediately caught Xiaoyu's attention.

"Thank you for the rocket, Brother Defa!" Xiaoyu excitedly picked up that somewhat ancient-looking tui bei tu and flipped to the first page: "It's the Jin Shengtan version. Who is he?"

As soon as she said this, the bullet comments in the livestream instantly thinned out.

Soon, the comments exploded!

[Wang Defa]: "Oh boy, we're doomed!"

"Brother Fa, what do you mean doomed?"

"Why are we doomed?"

"Xiaoyu's brother is for real. This version of tui bei tu is the one annotated by Jin Shengtan during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Do you know what that means?"

???

"It means... by the transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties, this version of tui bei tu already had all 60 hexagrams. Later generations couldn't have added to it even if they wanted to."

As the words fell, many netizens hadn't reacted yet, but soon, everyone's scalp went numb!

"Holy crap, this directly implies—the most authentic Li Chunfeng in this version of tui bei tu calculated all the way to the late Ming and early Qing, even the later Republic of China, modern times, and even our future. There's no possibility of it being a forgery?"

"Unfortunately, yes, the person above is right! So Xiaoyu's brother is for real!"

"Hiss~~~ My damn worldview is about to shatter!"

They originally thought this was just a fun story livestream, but they didn't expect...

Damn it, an insider from the national studies circle actually stepped forward and completely killed the viewers' originally playful mood!

This is too terrifying, someone can actually foresee the future!!!

...

Inside an office.

After confirming that Xiaoyu was indeed this streamer, Teacher Wang from the history department quietly put down his phone.

"I'll give her some face. Maybe she has her reasons; I shouldn't intrude on her privacy!"

"It's so tantalizing, I don't even know if Jiang Zhe will talk about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Republic of China's hexagrams next!"

Then, he got up, packed his briefcase, and was the last one to leave the office.

Jiang Zhe had no idea that tonight was a sleepless night!

Those who had watched Jiang Zhe's interpretation were lying in their beds, on their sofas, or in their bathrooms, all pondering one question.

If the tui bei tu is real, then what is the meaning of its end?

Is it really the end of the world?