Chapter 196 - 4.22

The esteemed President Tang came and left like a storm, his momentum fast and furious.

Xu Jiaqi was not bothered by it at all, but she was still a bit confused.

'Why do I feel like.. Hm, I must be overthinking all of it.. right?'

Tang Yixiu quickly returned to the frontlines, apologizing for his absence and explaining that his brother had quite a peculiar case and he just didn't want to upset the other party.

Of course, the party did not voice out any discomfort at all because they were genuine extroverts that had no problem with a new person mingling with them out of nowhere. In fact, they praised Tang Yizhou for his skills and appreciated him although his actions could've been seen as distasteful to some.

After that, things returned back to normal and they continued their journey in gaming.. Xu Jiaqi was helped to soar through the levels, to the point that her level was already in the fourties by the end of the stream.

______

"Ah.. Really.. I had fun today!! I didn't expect the Goddess to be so good! Are you sure that you are a beginner and not some pro player that decided to use a smurf account to shit on all of us?" Feng Qin stretched his sore body after all the rounds of gaming.

"Mhm. Why would I lie about that? If I am truly skillful, then rather than going back and becoming a smurf, it would be much more fun to beat others that are in my level range." Xu Jiaqi shrugged. She never understood why people wanted to regress their skills and make new accounts, just to climb back to the range they were in originally.

"Well.. It's just for casual fun..." Coming from someone who did make a smurf account in the past, Feng Qin laughed awkwardly. "A-ah! Goddess, what will you do after this?" He changed the question, tryin gto avert the topic away.

"Now that you mention it, it is getting a bit late. It's dinner time, hm? Then.. today's streaming ends here." Xu Jiaqi clapped and fanned herself with her signature Qiyue Fan. "I appreciate you two for guiding me through the game and staying throughout the whole stream. Do have a great weekend. I will be back here tomorrow if fate calls for it."

Nice and simple, an ending message accompanied by the appearance of a signal that Xu Jiaqi had prepared beforehand. With just one snap of her fingers, she turned the entire channel theme upside down, making the sets completely different from before. The lights dimmed down, and albeit her remaining as the beauty that she was, the previous atmosphere was torn apart.

Xu Jiaqi held a candlestick that already had a lit candle stuck on it. "The ending scenes. Until this candle completely melts down, it will be considered our farewell session. Do you have anything to say before I leave?" 

"Ah! Goddess, save the stream video so that it can be left as history! You can turn on the autosave feature right now, it will help you a lot!" Feng Qin almost forgot to mention this part and panicked.

He didn't know anything, this goodbye scene just popped out of nowhere and threw his momentum off.

It appeared to him that Xu Jiaqi was actually a complete newcomer in this business, as if she had entered the community wearing blindfolds. When he questioned her about some random things while they were playing earlier, Xu Jiaqi did not know how to answer him. It made sense inside his head, perhaps the Goddess did not intentionally want to hide her traces, but rather didn't know the complete set of features Heaven's Chaos offered?

She didn't even know who the most popular streamers in the platform were!

If she was truly unaware of all this, then it would be quite pitiful! As a good person, as her senior in knowledge, he must guide this lost lamb to the chosen ones' heaven!

"Yes, Goddess. Wouldn't it be better if you saved the video? Newcomers might come and take a look at them when you aren't streaming, attracting new viewers to your place." For once, Tang Yixiu actually agreed to Feng Qin's words and nodded.

Xu Jiaqi thought for a few seconds to come up with a satisfactory answer that would align with her motives as 'Xu Jiaqi', the recuperating girl.

"..No, I won't. This place is not meant to be a flaunting show, I'm not chasing vanity or anything like that. It's meant to be something I do.. because of special reasons. If someone comes across my stream, then it is their luck to have joined my audience. If not, then I don't mind. Do you two really think that I'm here to earn money?" Xu Jiaqi spoke in a softer tone, like she was holding back for something that the other two couldn't comprehend.

"..Well, obviously not, seeing as to how your so.. you know, professional and all that.. Or how you spent hundreds of dollars in one go without batting an eye.." Feng Qin stumbled while speaking, not able to dispute her claims.

This mysterious woman was full of surprises.

"Anyway, I don't intend on openly leaving my content around. If someone in the future saves the records, then so be it, that is their decision. I would prefer it if no one recorded anything, though." Xu Jiaqi let out a gentle sigh, having a melancholic look on her face.

Feng Qin, who had been recording the entire stream this whole time felt like a knife had stabbed itself deeply into his heart upon hearing her words. It was poking into his conscience. Without pause, he immediately stopped the recording and did not save the file. Gulping a mouthful of his own saliva, he tightly shut his eyes and clicked the discard button, exiting the recording app right away.

A displeased groan came out of Feng Qin's mouth unintentionally.

It was a sign that the pitiful little rat had been lured in using the bait set on the trap.

Snap!

Silence ensued.

"..Bro~ther Angry, don't tell me, you saved the stream?" Tang Yixiu was quick to catch on things and pointed it out.

"Ahh.. No- not really.." Feng Qin raised his voice, scared that he would be found out.

"Going by your words, you're not even fully denying it. How cute." Xu Jiaqi burst into small giggles. Being honest was not a great gift.

..Yeah, totally not. People regularly said that honesty was a virtue, but in truth, how would that benefit somebody? What does virtue mean in the eyes of life and survival?

Xu Jiaqi, for a long time, lived by an ideology. A set of rules that she abided with, ones that let her disobey the actual rules of a society. Her own theorem, the one she came up with and believed in.

In life, you have to lie. Lie so good until it becomes your truth. Hide the weak side of you behind a sturdy wall, in a place no one will ever find or enter. Use deceit as your friend, and not something you loathe. Only then will you be able to become a pathological liar.

Humans actually adapt to being such a liar in a short time. After a session of repetition, then they would not even feel a shred of remorse anymore. It would all be dissolved, and they would find any possible means to deceive even themselves. They would use anything to make them stand on the righteous side.

After you've gone too deep, then there was no return in sight. Deception was a road with no return. And she had willingly walked on the path right from the start.

What does that make her, in the lines of morality?

That was why, meeting someone like Feng Qin both amused and disgusted her. It brought a sweet and sour taste to her mouth.

Knowing that there was still someone like him, who found it hard to lie..

And comparing it to herself, who was already absorbed into this world of neverending chaos and lost all of her good moral values.

She did not feel inferior because of the subject. It was just a matter of self doubt. Endless thoughts of trying to figure out whether where she was standing right now, her choices, and her ideals..

Was it right?

Her expression warped ever so slightly, to the point that it was unnoticeable except for a certain someone who had joined into the stream just a few moments ago.

He, who had been paying close attention to every single movement she made, noticed the shift.

This man was the one and only President Tang Yizhou, the man plagued by a series of uncanny conditions that prevented him from living a liberated life.

This man found something in Xu Jiaqi that allowed him to actually see light in his moments of pain.

A potential medicine that popped out of nowhere, like a saving grace from a Goddess.