A live stream that dramatically transformed a depressed schoolgirl shocked netizens across the count

"Of course, go wherever you want to go."

Chen Lang shoved the wooden guitar back into Bai Weiwei's arms.

He turned sideways, grabbed a celadon teacup from the edge of the table, and smashed it heavily against the rim of Shen Qingci's cup.

Tea spilled from the cup, dripping onto the rough wooden table and creating a few water stains.

The live stream chat paused for a moment, then the barrage of comments filled the entire projection screen.

[The Langci Group departs from Fenghuang Ancient Town!]

[Xiangxi Travel Guide Team Assemble!]

What time do I depart in three days? I need to check accommodations first!

Stilted houses, the Tuojiang River, cured pork, and rice noodles—you can't miss any of them!

[Navigator Shen is personally leading the team; the route map is already being rolled up!]

The number of online users has surpassed 500,000.

The platform's backend continuously displayed dark red popularity alerts, with a large influx of viewers into the travel, racing, and emotional sections.

Several accounts bearing official local cultural and tourism certification displayed golden welcome banners on the public screen.

Chen Lang leaned back in his rattan chair, his gaze passing over the floating sphere camera and landing on the rolling barrage of comments.

"The route is decided by the navigator, and the strategy is your responsibility. Anyone who dares to include me in a hiking trip will be blacklisted tomorrow."

[Brother Lang, there's no racetrack in Fenghuang Ancient Town.]

【Then let's turn the stilted house into a departure area!】

[We suggest including navigation driver and co-driver testing in the winding, circuitous route!]

Su Niannian slammed the beer bottle down on the table, making the empty bowls clang loudly.

"You guys are really daring to make arrangements. Chen Lang's arm was just bandaged up. Whoever mentioned climbing mountains, send him back to the clinic to register first."

Bai Weiwei pressed her thumb against the guitar string, and the buzzing sound stopped completely.

Outside the gate, only a few streetlights cast a yellow glow on the winding mountain road. After three days, the convoy will leave Dali along that road.

"Fenghuang Ancient Town is quite far."

Su Niannian stopped holding the wine bottle at the corner of the table.

"Yes, it's far."

The night wind swept over the low courtyard wall, carrying away the previous laughter and chatter, while the firewood in the brazier crackled and popped.

Ye Xingyu lowered her head, her thumb fiddling with the red string on her wrist, pressing the silver bell into her palm.

Will you come back?

Chen Lang's hand, which was holding a teacup, froze in mid-air.

Su Niannian leaned back, her back against the hospital wall, her gaze fixed on the flickering fire pit.

"The courtyard had just started to get a little lively when the guests wanted to move out. Bai Weiwei's breakfast plan hadn't even been finalized yet, and we'd only gone halfway down that mushroom-hunting route."

Bai Weiwei lowered her head and plucked the thickest string.

"I've placed three orders for roasted milk fan for tomorrow morning."

Shen Qingci turned around, placed his palm on Su Niannian's wrist, and pressed down.

"I promised Sister Weiwei that we would have breakfast together tomorrow, and I can't go back on my word."

Su Niannian blinked twice.

"There are three days left."

Shen Qingci looked at the people across the long table and added a sentence.

"Departure time is set for three days from now."

Chen Lang turned his head to meet her gaze.

"Seventy-two hours?"

"The complete seventy-two hours."

Shen Qingci shifted her gaze to Gu Qingshang.

"Sister Qingshang is going to pick up Mr. Cheng in three days to go to Shanghai. After this period, everyone can pack their bags."

Gu Qingshang had just lifted the purple clay teapot when the water flow stopped in mid-air.

Do you remember my schedule?

"We talked about it during a casual chat last night."

Shen Qingci smoothed out the wrinkles in Su Niannian's sleeve that were wrapped around her forearm.

"I want to finish this breakfast before I leave."

Su Niannian looked down at her neatly trimmed sleeves and let out a soft hum.

"The champion navigator made some excellent arrangements."

Bai Weiwei put down her wooden guitar, pushed back her wooden chair, and brought out five freshly washed teacups from the inner room, placing them one by one on the table.

"Then let's rewrite the menu. Tomorrow morning we'll roast milk fan, in the afternoon we'll stroll around the ancient city, in the evening we'll film a new video for Ye Xingyu, the day after tomorrow we'll go to Erhai Lake to enjoy the breeze, and on the third day we'll pack our bags."

Ye Xingyu raised her right hand high.

"Can I choose a booth?"

Shen Qingci nodded in agreement.

"You choose."

"Then I want to eat sticky rice."

"It's in my notes."

Ye Xingyu turned on her phone screen and typed out a long menu in the notes app.

In the past, decisions were made entirely by the agent's word, but now no one sets rules, and no one scrutinizes her decisions.

Chen Lang leaned over, took the teapot, and filled everyone's cups with warm tea.

"The itinerary is finalized. No one is allowed to interfere with anyone else's decision within three days."

Shen Qingci stared at him.

"the same as you."

"receive."

Five teacups were raised above the brazier.

[Respect to life!]

【To the future! 】

[A 72-hour non-stop event!]

The sound of porcelain cups clashing echoed, and the firewood in the brazier burned through, collapsing into a section of black charcoal.

Su Niannian tilted her head back and gulped down half a glass of beer. Bai Weiwei smiled and started plucking the strings again, and the laughter in the courtyard returned.

By dawn the next day, online public opinion had completely shifted.

The top trending topic was #TheOrdinaryRoadLiveVersion#, followed closely by #ShenQingciLooksAtChenLang#.

Short video platforms are dominated by clips of cars soaring over winding roads, with the footage of race cars taking off, landing, and crossing the finish line all cut into slow-motion videos.

Professional racing teams analyzed the suspension stress frame by frame, while ordinary viewers flocked to the comments section to give their thumbs up.

Last night I was watching racing games, and today I'm listening to music on repeat.

These two people filmed their travel livestream with the quality of a TV drama.

[Xingyao Interactive Entertainment has finally been shut down; the air feels so much cleaner today.]

The individuals involved in the case have been successively placed under investigation, the contract dispute has entered the liquidation stage, and all previously suppressed recordings and account books of the artists have been exposed online.

Ye Xingyu's name was removed from the old contract and placed directly on the newly established trending search list.

She sat on the bluestone threshold of the courtyard, holding a worn-out cell phone in her hand, with several cracks appearing on the lower left corner of the screen.

"Will this be okay for recording video?"

Chen Lang glanced at the screen.

"Just make sure you can record, don't fall into the soup pot by the roadside."

"Then I'll get ready to film the first recording."

Shen Qingci lifted the bamboo curtain of the inner room and came out clutching two hand-drawn breakfast route maps.

"Let's go eat some roasted milk fan first."

Ye Xingyu held up the old cell phone, pointing the camera at Shen Qingci.

Will you appear on camera?

"Can."

"Smile."

Shen Qingci raised the corners of her mouth slightly, and Ye Xingyu pressed the record button.

On the screen, Shen Qingci stood by the wooden gate of the courtyard, the morning sunlight falling on her shoulders.

She held up a hand-drawn route map and pointed out the first stop.

"Roasted milk fan at nine o'clock today."

Ye Xingyu cleared her throat and added a voice-over.

"I bought the red string with my own money and filmed the video myself."

The two stepped out of the courtyard gate.

The video has no filters and no background music.

The microphone swallowed the footsteps on the bluestone slabs, the shouts of roadside vendors, and Ye Xingyu's barely suppressed laughter.

Less than two hours after the video was uploaded, it was forwarded more than 100,000 times, and just after noon, Ye Xingyu's number of followers exceeded one million.

The comment section was flooded with messages.

This is the taste of freedom.

[Xingyao said she was only suitable as a posed puppet, but now she's used a broken phone to wake up the entire internet.]

[No retouched faces, no script, the laughter is more genuine than in adult films.]

[Ye Xingyu, welcome back to your own life.]

On the side of the ancient city street, Ye Xingyu stood guard by a stall.

New notifications kept popping up in the background, and her hand holding the bamboo skewer froze in mid-air, the glutinous rice grain at the end of the skewer teetering precariously.

"I have one million followers?"

Shen Qingci pushed aside the bamboo tube blocking her way and moved a plate of roasted milk fan to her side.

"Eat it first, it'll be too tough to chew once it gets cold."

Ye Xingyu lowered her head and used her teeth to bite open the crispy outer skin of the milk fan.

Tears splashed onto the edge of the porcelain plate, leaving two specks of oil. She raised her hand to wipe her cheeks and continued filming with her phone.

At the street corner, Chen Lang stood by the roadside when his phone beeped.

Titan has compiled the latest updates into a document and sent it to his phone.

[Thirty-seven MCNs, twelve professional racing teams, and nine car brands have sent collaboration offers.]

Total offer: 176 million yuan.

Chen Lang opened the file, his gaze lingering on the string of numbers.

"Reject all."

A new notification then popped up on the phone screen.

Should long-term isolation rules be established?

"Establishment. From now on, all documents containing exorbitant prices, exclusivity, bundled packages, or endorsement deals will be added to the rejection list."

The rule has been enforced.

The densely packed price notifications disappeared one by one from the screen.

Su Niannian walked around from the side of the street and tapped Chen Lang's phone with her chin.

"Over 100 million, and you didn't even bother to read through the contract details?"

"Reading the contract is a waste of time."

"Are you short on time?"

Chen Lang put away his phone and turned to point to the jewelry stall a hundred meters away.

Shen Qingci was helping Ye Xingyu pick out the red rope.

The stall owner laid out various colored woven ropes on the wooden board. Ye Xingyu picked one up, glanced at it a few times, then put it back and turned to ask Shen Qingci for his opinion.

Shen Qingci stood beside her with his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to make a choice.

"Take whichever one you like."

Ye Xingyu fiddled with it for a while and found a red string that was the same as the one before.

A five-yuan bill was handed to the stall owner. She grinned, clutching the red string, her entire face captured on the old phone.

Chen Lang looked away and put his phone in his pocket.

"Four hundred million can't buy these three days."

Su Niannian crossed her arms and leaned against the car parked on the side of the road.

"You can't even buy itineraries planned by navigators."

"That's why I'm not selling."

As the sun began to set, a layer of golden light spread across the surface of Erhai Lake.

Shen Qingci led Ye Xingyu to the abandoned ferry crossing to prepare for filming the second segment. The equipment bag was slung over her shoulder, and she arranged the route and timing step by step.

Holding her old phone, Ye Xingyu took pictures of food stalls, moss-covered stone bridges, and an old man tending a dried flower stall along the way.

The two turned side by side into a narrow stone-paved alley.

Shen Qingci stopped and adjusted the angle of Ye Xingyu's phone.

"Don't make the shot too neat; leave the corners slightly crooked."

Why?

"Life itself is full of twists and turns."

Ye Xingyu stood still for a few seconds before turning her wrist to point the camera at her face.

"Then I'll record another segment."

With her back to the afterglow, she raised her arm. Her sleeve slipped down, and a silver bell struck the red string, its clear sound entering the microphone.

"I bought five dollars' worth of happiness today, and I'll do the same tomorrow."

She pressed the publish button, and the upload progress bar quickly reached the end.

Chen Lang stood at the entrance of the alley, one hand in his pocket, waiting for her to finish recording the last line of her closing remarks.

Shen Qingci looked down at the hand-drawn route map. The old ferry crossing, the stilted houses, the bluestone streets—every location was circled with lines.

She opened the map app, ready to view the street scene, when her phone suddenly vibrated.

An unread text message pops up at the top of the screen.

The sender did not leave a note, and the phone number belongs to Jiangcheng.

Shen Qingci, have you made enough of a scene?

Shen Qingci stopped in the middle of the stone-paved road.

The shouts of the potato vendor came from the alley entrance, and the silver bells on the red rope bumped against her wrist, the sound echoing back and forth along the brick wall.

She stared at the words, her thumb pressing against the edge of the phone, her knuckles tense.

Chen Lang turned his head to look at her.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Qingci raised her hand and turned her phone screen towards him.

A text message from a Jiangcheng number lay between the two of them, its white background and black text staring right in front of their eyes.

Chen Lang snatched the travel guidebook from her hand and flattened the rolled-up pages.

"Planning to go back?"

Shen Qingci looked at the screen again.

The reply box was empty, and the typing cursor bounced below. The shouts, footsteps, and bells in the alley gradually faded away. She swallowed hard, her throat tightening into a thin line.

Half a minute later, she pressed the power button.

The screen went dark.

"I won't reply."

She turned on her phone again, switched back to the map interface, marked the old ferry crossing on the route to Fenghuang Ancient Town, and pressed save.

"Next stop as usual."

Chen Lang looked at her straight back.

"Are you sure?"

Shen Qingci put her phone into her windbreaker pocket, raised her chin, and looked past the alleyway towards the surface of Erhai Lake.

The evening breeze swept through the stone path, ruffling the stray hairs on her forehead.

"I choose the destination."

She walked against the wind, her shoes treading on the bluestone slabs.

"No one can change it."