Chapter Thirty-Five: The Young Know Not the Boundaries of Heaven and Earth

"Dinner's ready!"

Evening.

Bai Qingming was roused from sleep by someone knocking on his bedroom door.

When he reached the kitchen, Bai Qingming was honestly surprised.

On the dining table were braised spare ribs, cola chicken wings, chopped chili fish head, and several stir-fried dishes and hot and sour soup. Each dish was bursting with color, aroma, and flavor—enough to make Bai Qingming's stomach growl.

"Did you make all this?" Bai Qingming asked the silly girl, hardly able to believe it.

An old woman who can cook?

To be honest, he was skeptical.

"Who else?" The silly girl replied smugly.

Bai Qingming didn’t say another word and strode into the kitchen.

Sure enough, the trash bin was filled with takeout containers.

"Hey, hey, hey! What’s your problem, you dog? Isn’t it enough there’s food to eat?" The silly girl’s cheeks flushed, but she pressed on.

Normally, she wouldn’t care, but she happened to be streaming live, and Bai Qingming’s exposure of her was witnessed by all her viewers.

Wasn’t this utter embarrassment?

But the silly girl had miscalculated—the viewers weren’t fixated on her lie being exposed. What caught their attention was Bai Qingming’s appearance on camera.

"Holy crap, why is the Bachelor God together with the old woman?"

"Wait, wait, this background, the décor—isn’t this the spiritual leader’s multimillion-dollar penthouse?"

"Whoa, are these two actually together?"

"Isn’t it obvious? They’re living together!"

"That’s a fast development. Does Zhixun know?"

"@Dark Sword Master Zhixun, your girl’s been snatched."

The barrage of comments exploded.

Late at night.

A single man and a single woman, and it was the old woman at Bai Qingming’s home. It’s no wonder the viewers let their imaginations run wild.

Anyone would suspect something.

At that moment, the tagged Dark Sword Master Zhixun was in the middle of a League of Legends match.

He hadn’t secured the mid lane, so he was filling in as jungler.

Before Zhixun could decide which champion to play, the chat was flooded with requests for Zac.

No need to think—since the viewers wanted it, Zhixun locked in Zac.

But for some reason, the viewers asked him not to use a skin, saying the original green was more appealing.

After a flawless gank and a double kill on low health, Zhixun glanced at the camera and asked, "Brothers, am I awesome or what?"

But the viewers responded in a strangely unified way, filling the chat with the same sentence.

"Zhixun, look, the champion’s color—doesn’t it look like your new hat?"

Zhixun: "???"

Elsewhere—

The silly girl was earnestly explaining to her viewers.

"Everyone, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m only here because I lost a bet last time and agreed to be this dog’s housekeeper for a month. That’s why I’m at his place."

She spoke the truth, but who would take her words seriously? The viewers kept teasing her.

Even several famous female streamers were drawn in—Aunt Zhou Shu, Feng Timo, Little Ball, and others.

They were still waiting for the platform to arrange a fake romance with Bai Qingming, but no one expected the silly girl to make a move first and actually live at his place.

It wasn’t just them who were anxious—even Li Sanjiang, Doyu’s operations manager, was summoned to the office by a phone call.

Originally, the silly girl and Zhixun were the most promising streaming couple in the company’s eyes. But suddenly things changed, and the fans responded fiercely.

Some liked the old pairing, others wanted to see the silly girl and Bai Qingming as a new couple.

If handled poorly, this could lead to massive user loss, with Doyu losing that segment of its audience.

After a tense, high-stakes meeting, Li Sanjiang dialed Zhixun.

Still puzzled, Zhixun was wondering what the "new hat" reference meant—when had he ever gotten a new hat?

He answered the operations manager’s call and finally snapped out of his daze.

"Hello, Brother Li, is there another event you need me for?"

In Zhixun’s mind, every time Li Sanjiang called, it was to ask him to participate in a platform-organized event.

But this time he was wrong.

"Zhixun, there’s no event this time. I’m calling to inform you of something." Li Sanjiang’s tone turned serious. "After a unanimous decision from above, your fake couple status with the silly girl is officially terminated. We won’t promote you two together anymore."

With that, Li Sanjiang hung up.

Zhixun was completely stunned.

What was going on?

He wasn’t alone. After hanging up, Li Sanjiang called Feng Timo and others on the shortlist of female streamers considered for a romance with Bai Qingming, informing them the final choice had been made—future promotions would use the "Silly-Bai" couple.

Even the silly girl received a message from Li Sanjiang during her live stream, informing her of the platform’s decision.

Truthfully, this news was exactly what she expected.

She could have chosen not to stream today, or to avoid Bai Qingming, but she didn’t—precisely for this outcome.

As she predicted, the fake couple slot with Bai Qingming was hers!

She was thrilled—delighted beyond words!

Little Ball had snatched the title of Doyu’s top female streamer ever since joining, but now, being tied to Bai Qingming, what was Little Ball compared to her?

Sooner or later, the title of Doyu’s number one female streamer would be hers!

…

Meanwhile, Bai Qingming finished his meal.

"I’m heading out for a walk. You clean up," he said.

He had no idea that so much had happened while he was simply eating.

Out for a stroll, Bai Qingming started his own live stream.

The moment he turned it on, he was startled by the flood of chat messages.

Viewers were pouring in with well wishes, congratulating Bai Qingming and the silly girl on being together.

Bai Qingming was dumbfounded.

In an instant, he understood exactly what had happened.

But he didn’t bother to explain, only saying two sentences.

"Don’t believe rumors, don’t spread rumors!"

That was all he could say.

On one hand, the viewers wouldn’t listen even if he explained—what’s the point?

On the other, Bai Qingming didn’t mind the situation.

His popularity wasn’t high yet, and the silly girl could help boost his numbers. Besides, he enjoyed teasing the old woman.

Not to mention, she was actually quite pretty.

With that, Bai Qingming relaxed.

He walked a long way, arriving at a square.

Here, elderly men and women were doing the yangge dance after dinner, while uncles and aunts danced in groups.

But soon, a crowd gathered beneath a tree caught Bai Qingming’s attention.

Still streaming, he walked over.

It turned out to be two elderly men playing chess, with a circle of spectators.

Seeing this, Bai Qingming couldn’t resist boasting.

"Viewers, you may not know, but your host is a chess master. They call me the Chess Sage!"

His words drew a collective sigh from the viewers.

Yet at that moment, Bai Qingming noticed something else.

Under another tree nearby sat an old man with a chessboard in front of him, but no one was playing with him, nor was anyone watching.

But the old man kept glancing over, his gaze full of disdain.

Driven by curiosity, Bai Qingming walked over.

"Grandpa, what are you doing here all by yourself?"

He asked kindly.

But the old man didn’t reply. Instead, he pulled out a banner from behind him, bearing four large characters:

"Unrivaled in the World!"

Bai Qingming’s knee-jerk reaction was two words.

Showoff!

This was just too much!

It’s the twenty-first century, and people still show off like this?

While Bai Qingming was stunned, the old man spoke. "Do you play chess? If not, stay out of the way."

Hearing this, Bai Qingming was taken aback.

He was annoyed.

He was just asking out of kindness—what kind of attitude was this?

Acting superior just because of age?

A spectator came over and explained, "Young man, don’t mind his bad temper. He’s the acknowledged chess king around here. No one’s beaten him, so he’s grown a bit contemptuous of other players. He talks to everyone like that."

Just then, the cranky old man looked up and said to Bai Qingming and the man beside him, "If you’re not playing, step back. Don’t get in the way!"

This time, Bai Qingming was genuinely angry.

He had never encountered such an arrogant old man.

Sure, he had been boasting about being the Chess Sage, but Bai Qingming wanted to teach this old man a lesson.

With that thought, Bai Qingming sat down opposite the old man and placed his streaming phone at his side.

The viewers were surprised.

"The host’s had enough—he’s sitting down!"

"No way, are you really the Chess Sage?"

"Don’t fall for his bluff, everyone knows what kind of person he is. If he’s the Chess Sage, I’m the Chess God!"

At that moment, everyone was wondering what Bai Qingming was up to.

No one took his previous boasts seriously.

Seeing Bai Qingming sit, the old man grew impatient.

In his eyes, a youngster who could play chess was impressive enough, but to actually sit across from him—what a waste of his time.

"Move along, don’t cause trouble," the old man said.

"What’s wrong? Afraid, Grandpa?" Bai Qingming tried provoking him.

"Afraid?" The taunt worked—the old man took the bait. "You youngsters don’t know your limits. Fine, I’ll show you what a real beating feels like!"

Anyone would be triggered by such provocation. The old man was determined to teach Bai Qingming a lesson.

"That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! You’re older, you go first!"

Bai Qingming’s aura was undiminished.

The old man was even angrier.

As the chess king, being allowed to go first was practically an insult. If he won, word would spread and he'd be laughed at.

But he didn’t bother arguing further—the youngster was even cockier than he was, and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Central cannon!" The old man made his opening move and looked at Bai Qingming. "Your turn!"

Bai Qingming nodded.

He wasn’t in a hurry. Under the watchful eyes of his viewers, he took out another phone.

Then,

He opened the Chess Master app he had just downloaded.

Selected man vs. machine.

And immediately chose the hardest difficulty.