Chapter Thirty-Three: My Conscience Forbids Me

"???"
The viewers.
"???"
The head moderator.
"???"
Brother Wang.

It was Bai Qingming who ended the video call.

For a moment, everyone except him was dumbfounded.

"What the hell just happened?"
"Streamer, come out and explain why you hung up! It was just getting to the best part!"
"I'm giving you ten seconds. In ten seconds, you better call her back."
"Reporting, reporting!"
"Unfollow, unfollow!"

The viewers began to complain.

At that moment, Bai Qingming wore a solemn expression as he set down his phone and looked into the camera.

"A true man stands upright and honest. How could I possibly take advantage of someone in such a despicable way?"
"This is a live broadcast. It's fine to watch for some fun, but to exploit someone’s unguarded moment and see everything—that’s not something a decent person would do."
"My conscience simply wouldn’t allow me to do something so disgraceful."
"Of course, I trust that even though I ended the video call, all of you in the chat would have closed your eyes and refused to take advantage. After all, everyone here is a person of integrity."
"But as for you, the newly arrived head moderator, I must say, as an enforcer of the rules, breaking them yourself—don’t you feel ashamed?"

Bai Qingming spoke with righteous fervor, his words pouring out in a torrent.

At that moment, he felt truly noble. He was moved by his own integrity.

As a streamer, setting the right example for his viewers was his duty.

Bai Qingming finished, his face earnest.

In an instant, everyone was stunned.

What the hell?

Is that really what you’re supposed to say?

Did you pick up the wrong script?

Honestly, if they didn’t already know that the so-called “Celibate Godfather” was the most shameless veteran here, they might have almost believed him.

In truth, no one was actually angry.

The fact of the matter was, everyone knew that Bai Qingming’s stream was on a legitimate platform; there was no way anything truly indecent would ever be broadcast.

If it ever did happen, wouldn’t that be a bad influence on young viewers?

So, while everyone mouthed threats about unfollowing and reporting, no one actually did anything.

But no one expected Bai Qingming to play such a trick.

He was the one who made the video call.

He was the one who put it on display for the audience.

And now, he was the one pretending to be the paragon of virtue.

To cap it off, he was standing on the moral high ground, lecturing them.

Remarkable.

This move was just brilliant.

“That was on me. I didn’t see it coming.”
“The streamer isn’t playing by the rules. Young man, you’re too cunning.”

"You’re such a bad, bad person!"
"Big Brother is awesome!"
"What’s up with the guy above? Are you in the wrong chat?"

The viewers quickly reverted to their usual cheeky banter.

Meanwhile, Wang Meili, the head moderator, was about to explode from anger at Bai Qingming.

To be honest, her earlier remarks were designed to bait him, a little sting operation.

Wang Meili had only just become a head moderator. Her performance stats were at the bottom. She had no choice but to resort to these tactics.

She’d already used this trick to take down several other streamers.

Her plan was to watch until the juicy part, then shut down Bai Qingming’s stream.

That way, she’d get a thrill and boost her stats—a win-win.

But who could have guessed that Bai Qingming wouldn’t take the bait?

And, at the critical moment, would turn around and lecture her.

She’d even gotten a moral lesson from him and couldn’t do a thing about it.

Infuriating.

Now, Wang Meili had no face to stay; she silently left the stream.

…

“Alright folks, that’s it for today’s stream. See you next time!”

With his usual brisk efficiency, Bai Qingming ended the broadcast and swiftly shut down the stream.

Thankfully, he’d managed to keep things from going off the rails.

To his surprise, the stream had gone exceptionally well; his follower count soared to five million.

“These old pervs…”

He had to admit, the video call had done wonders for his numbers.

Sometimes, not seeing is even more tantalizing than seeing.

This is exactly what his viewers loved.

Lesson done, Bai Qingming said goodbye to Brother Wang and left.

He’d barely been gone five minutes when Brother Wang received a message on WeChat.

It was from the woman who had been showering during Bai Qingming’s livestream.

She asked, “Did you see everything just now?”

…

Liu Wei was a recent college graduate.

Back in school, she was the campus belle, and guys were always asking for her WeChat on the street.

Just like today, random people nearby would greet her, always in the same unoriginal ways.

Pretending to add her by mistake, or saying she looked like their ex—those tired excuses.

She didn’t even bother replying to such lines.

Usually, when someone tried to hit on her, she’d say she was married, and they’d back off. But the guy today seemed crazy—after hearing she was married, he got even more excited.

Especially after she said she was about to shower, this idiot still didn’t give up and even made a video call—no sense of boundaries at all.

What made Liu Wei really frustrated was that she thought she’d declined the call, but after her shower, she found her phone showed a call had lasted half an hour.

Thinking back on how she had admired her own figure in front of the full-length mirror, phone in hand, she felt mortified.

Did this mean, without knowing it, a stranger had seen her entire body?

The thought filled Liu Wei with anger.

But soon, she relaxed a little.

Fortunately, her weekly self-care ritual took place during the shower, with her phone face-down on the table.

So, at least he didn’t see her doing that—just her naked body.

That was a relief, at least.

Still, it was hard to forgive.

Liu Wei was itching to curse someone out.

So she took out her phone and sent a message to that WeChat contact.

“Did you see everything just now?”

…

At this point, Brother Wang was the one chatting with her.

Seeing her message, he rushed to explain.

“I didn’t see anything,” he replied.

Liu Wei was furious, convinced he was lying.

"You watched for half an hour and claim you saw nothing? Who are you fooling?"

She snapped, "A grown man, can’t even admit what he saw?"

Brother Wang was baffled, replying, "What did I see?"

Liu Wei: "You know damn well what you saw!"

Brother Wang: "I really didn’t see anything!"

Liu Wei was exasperated.

But thinking it over, she figured he must be afraid she’d cause trouble, so he wouldn’t dare admit it.

In the end, if this shameless man denied it, there was nothing she could do.

If he claimed he hadn’t seen anything, she’d have to accept it and just hope he hadn’t recorded it and spread it around.

She’d have to swallow her anger.

So, Liu Wei fell silent.

But then, Brother Wang got a surge of bravado.

As if he’d suddenly figured something out, he typed out a line and sent it.

"How about we meet tonight? I’ll take you to a movie and explain everything."

He waited, and she replied with three simple words:

"Go to hell!"

At that moment, Brother Wang was still live streaming.

Seeing the reply, he suddenly grew excited.

“Brothers, did you see that? That’s how much charm I have! No need for a movie—she wants to meet my family already!”

The viewers: "???"