21: A family with great looks

Nguyen Thi Linh, full of sweetness, was enjoying her happy time.

Li Qinghe handed her an egg coffee: "A Ling, after we finish our coffee, I'll take you somewhere."

"Okay, big brother, are we going to another district?"

Nguyen Thi Linh, feeling their relationship had changed, spoke with a liveliness she hadn't even noticed herself.

Before, she would have simply replied, "Okay, big brother."

But now, not only did she reply "Okay, big brother," she also asked a follow-up question.

She was much more proactive than before.

Li Qinghe gently rubbed the smooth shoulder of the beautiful girl beside him: "Not far, it's near Hoan Kiem Lake."

Feeling Li Qinghe's strong fingers massaging her shoulder, Nguyen Thi Linh cupped the coffee with both hands to her lips and sipped it slowly.

She wasn't worried that Li Qinghe would take her somewhere bad; this was her intuitive trust in him.

"A Ling, what's your family situation? I think I heard you mention you have younger siblings last time."

The two of them couldn't just sit there drinking coffee in silence; they had already broken through the ambiguous quiet that existed before their relationship was confirmed.

Li Qinghe brought up a topic, hoping to learn more about Nguyen Thi Linh's situation.

"I have my mother, a younger brother, and a younger sister at home..."

After taking another sip of coffee, Nguyen Thi Linh slowly told Li Qinghe about her family's situation.

Her younger brother was 17, and her younger sister was 16; both were in high school, and her brother was about to take university entrance exams next year.

Now, Nguyen Thi Linh was fully confident she could earn enough money for her brother's university tuition.

Based on the salary Li Qinghe offered her, she was considered an office worker with an annual income of over a hundred million vietnamese dong, which was enough not only for her brother but also for her sister's tuition.

According to Nguyen Thi Linh's account and the photos on her phone, Li Qinghe discovered that her home was merely a tin shack, with only one side made of mud brick.

Nguyen Thi Linh's phone also had a few photos of her family, and at a glance, the entire family was remarkably good-looking.

Her younger brother and sister looked as if they were carved from the same mold as Nguyen Thi Linh, and their mother also appeared quite young.

Nguyen Thi Linh mentioned that her mother had given birth to her at a very young age.

It was a mystery how such an outstandingly good-looking family could have grown up in such harsh conditions.

Nguyen Thi Linh carefully held her phone, scrolling through the photos in her album to show Li Qinghe.

Fortunately, although the screen of her old phone was completely shattered, the rear camera was still intact, and with Nguyen Thi Linh's careful wiping, it could take very clear photos.

On her old phone, she could only see blurry photos, but on this brand-new fruit phone, she could clearly see the smiling faces of her mother and younger siblings.

Li Qinghe also learned from Nguyen Thi Linh's narration that ever since their father passed away, his relatives not only didn't help the family but instead tried to seize the few plots of land their father had left behind.

It was her mother's desperate struggle, coupled with the villagers' disapproval, that saved their small plot of land and the homestead where their shack now stood.

Embracing the soft Nguyen Thi Linh, Li Qinghe realized that the predecessors who settled in Vietnam were not wrong: Vietnamese women often had a large family behind them waiting for support.

However, the worries of ordinary people didn't seem to apply to Li Qinghe; as long as his fan base continued to grow, supporting Nguyen Thi Linh's family, or even several more families, would be no problem.

"A Ling, have you ever thought about bringing your mother and younger siblings to live in Hanoi?"

Li Qinghe twirled a shiny braided pigtail, casually asking Nguyen Thi Linh in his arms.

"Big brother, is that possible? I've never imagined such a day could come."

"As long as we make good videos, that day won't be too far away."

Li Qinghe took out his old domestic phone and glanced at the backend of Kuaishou: 10,372 followers.

This meant that after reaching ten thousand followers just now, he had gained another 372 followers in just over an hour.

It seemed one of his previous videos had caught a small wave of traffic, was distributed by the platform, and brought in a good number of new followers.

The backend showed that the video Li Qinghe posted later, challenging a 500-kilogram deadlift, had already received over 10,000 likes.

Nearly half of the people who liked it also followed the account.

According to the backend data analysis, male and female followers were roughly split equally.

Male followers' comments were mostly: "Holy crap, brother, you're awesome," and "Big shot, you're awesome, proud to be Dragon Country People."

While female followers' comments were: "Brother's side profile is killing me," and "Which lucky woman will end up with such a strong man?" or "Coach, step aside, let me do it."

It just goes to show that when it comes to being lustful, there's really no difference between men and women.

Some expressed it subtly, others directly, but the core idea remained the same: "Good-looking, love to watch, even if I can't have it, I'll save it to watch."

For Li Qinghe, every fan who was willing to follow him was the best fan in the world.

Once he saved some money, he would hold a lottery for his fans under the videos and give out some Vietnamese specialties as gifts.

To make his fans happy and let them experience how much joy there was in following him, a fan-loving UP host on the Kuaishou platform.

This was genuine gratitude and feedback, with no fakes involved.

Li Qinghe conceptualized future video operations while slowly drinking coffee with Nguyen Thi Linh.

This shop not only had a large facade and well-done interior decoration, but its coffee was also excellent; it was the best egg coffee Li Qinghe had tasted in two months in Hanoi.

He secretly noted the location, planning to visit often in the future.

As Nguyen Thi Linh finished her last sip of coffee, the two sat for a while before getting up; they had arrived holding hands, and now they left with their fingers intertwined.

They got on the motorcycle, and Nguyen Thi Linh instinctively wrapped her arms around Li Qinghe's waist, looking no different from other young couples on the street.

They rode out from the archway of the Old Quarter, heading straight for Hoan Kiem Lake.

Along the way, the roaring sound of motorcycle engines drowned out the sparse car noises.

Amidst the surging tide of motorcycles, Li Qinghe rode the bike to Dinh Tien Hoang Street, next to Hoan Kiem Lake. To its left, it bordered Hoan Kiem Lake, and to its right, it was adjacent to Cau Go Street.

There was also a Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square nearby.

This street was one of the most famous streets in the early twentieth century and one of the core historical, cultural, and tourist streets in Hanoi.

More than a century ago, this road was called Boulevard Francis Garnier by the French. After Vietnam's independence, it was renamed Dinh Tien Hoang Street. As the name suggests, Dinh Tien Hoang was a certain feudal king in Vietnamese history.

The name Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square sounds strange, but in Hanoi, both internally in Vietnam and during the French rule, this place was called Dong Kinh (meaning 'Eastern Capital').

And in Vietnam, there are many Japanese izakayas and supermarkets on the commercial streets of many cities.

The most famous are Jiaopen Street in Saigon and Jiaopen Street in Hanoi.

Although Dragon Country People enterprises are continuously moving south into Vietnam, in fact, a large part of Vietnam's economy is currently supported by Japanese and Korean enterprises.

Especially among the top ten foreign enterprises in Vietnam by operating scale, Japan accounts for three-fifths, Korea accounts for more than one-fifth, and the rest are American enterprises.

Not a single Dragon Country People enterprise was selected.

Especially Honda motorcycles from Japan, which basically occupy 70% of Vietnam's domestic motorcycle market.

In the past, China's motorcycle enterprises also extensively moved south, almost taking over the entire motorcycle sales in Vietnam.

However, a few years later, due to quality and after-sales issues, they ultimately suffered a crushing defeat in the Vietnamese motorcycle market.

Honda easily reclaimed the top spot.

So, in Vietnam, you can see many Japanese elements, just like this square.

And the house Li Qinghe won in the lottery was near Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, with the address Dinh Tien Hoang Street 1-3-11.

The main entrance faced Hoan Kiem Lake, allowing for enjoyment of the beautiful scenery from upstairs.

Li Qinghe slowly parked the motorcycle in front of a closed storefront. Judging by the sign, it used to be a cosmetics shop.

He didn't know if it closed because the system reclaimed ownership or for some other reason, but while the surrounding shops were bustling, only this 8-meter-wide storefront remained locked.

To Nguyen Thi Linh's surprise, he reached into his backpack, pulled out a string of keys, and unlocked the tightly closed rolling shutter door in front of them.