Volume One, Chapter Ninety-One: Sinking Awake into Desire and Vanity

Qin Yu’s gaze was cold, making the girl feel uneasy. She pouted, unwilling to concede, and muttered, “Fine, I’ll send you the gift. Look at how impatient you are. The brothers and sisters in the livestream are all watching—if you’re not accurate, you’ll have to refund me.”

Reluctantly, the girl sent the “True Love Arrives” gift.

“Now, can I leave?” she asked.

Qin Yu studied her face, focused for a moment, then spoke seven words in an indifferent tone: “Those who do evil will meet their end.”

The girl had already been grumbling while sending the gift, and now, hearing Qin Yu utter such ominous words, her expression soured instantly.

She slapped the table in anger. “What are you saying? I’m a young girl—are you cursing me?”

Qin Yu watched her performance quietly, calm as if observing a clown.

“I smell a juicy scandal brewing.”

“With my years of watching palace dramas, I’d bet Little Bird has been exposed and is now embarrassed and angry.”

“But she looks barely twenty—what could she possibly have done wrong?”

“Newcomer upstairs? Don’t speak too soon. In Master Autumn Mat’s livestream, you don’t comment until the very last second.”

“??? Is it really this mysterious?”

“Refund me! You online scammer!” The girl, unnerved by Qin Yu’s icy gaze, put one hand on her hip and slammed the table with the other, shouting.

Qin Yu had intended to leave her some dignity, but since the girl didn’t want it, Qin Yu would not hold back.

Qin Yu said, “Half a year ago, you borrowed twenty thousand yuan from your best friend.”

The girl’s eyes widened. The viewers in the livestream instantly understood—she’d been exposed!

Qin Yu continued, “You promised to pay her back within a month. Six months have passed—have you returned it?”

“None of your business! That’s between me and my friend! We’re close—she wouldn’t care whether I pay her back or not!”

Qin Yu sneered, “She treats you as a friend, you treat her as a fool.”

“That twenty thousand was the money her mother, who suffers from kidney failure, needed for dialysis. Because she lent you the money, her mother’s condition worsened. Not wanting to burden her daughter, her mother jumped from a building and took her own life just last week.”

“Damn! That’s not a friend, that’s a living devil!”

“Isn’t this indirect murder? Can I call the police and have her executed?”

“Poor girl’s friend—she trusted the wrong person!”

“You’re a healthy young woman, and you took someone’s lifesaving money. Doesn’t your conscience ache? Do you not dream at night of ghosts seeking vengeance?”

“……”

Little Bird had merely wanted some entertainment from the livestream, but she never imagined her secrets would be dragged out so suddenly.

“She was never going to get better! By doing this, I actually helped relieve her of a burden! What did I do wrong?”

“And besides, that twenty thousand was barely a drop in the bucket for her mother, but for me, it was the real lifesaving money!”

“I’m still young—saving my life is far more worthwhile than saving someone who’s about to die!”

Little Bird spoke with righteous indignation, utterly convinced she’d done nothing wrong.

“I thought you were just greedy for a bit of money, but now I see you’re rotten to the core!”

“Are you saying your life is worth more than anyone else’s?”

“You claim it was all for their own good, but you spent the money, and all the benefits went to you.”

“If you need lifesaving money, earn it yourself. Using someone else’s lifesaving funds to save yourself—what kind of logic is that? Does your friend owe you?”

“Question: What terminal illness do you have? When are you going to die? Where do you plan to be buried? We livestream viewers can organize a disco at your grave, and as compensation, we’ll burn you some paper offerings. Smiley face.”

“Girl upstairs, your wit is divine!”

Little Bird glared at the screen and cursed, “You’re the one dying! Your whole family is dying!”

Qin Yu’s brows tightened slightly as she formed a spell with her fingers.

On camera, Little Bird, who’d been passionately arguing, suddenly had her face jerked to the side with a loud slap.

She clutched her burning cheek, stunned. “Who? Who hit me?”

Qin Yu tapped the coffee table with her elegant nails. “I did.”

With that, another loud slap landed on Little Bird’s right side.

Qin Yu used her spiritual power—far harsher than a physical slap. Little Bird’s face visibly swelled, and in just three seconds, she looked like a swollen pig’s head.

“Is this the legendary ‘beating the cow through the mountain’? No, beating the pig? Amazing!”

“Those two slaps were so satisfying!”

“I’m reminded of that friend who never repays borrowed money—acts humble when borrowing, but arrogant and self-righteous when it’s time to repay. Just thinking about that face disgusts me.”

“Streamer, do you offer a slap-by-proxy service? I’d like to order one for my ex-boyfriend. Shy face.”

“Sister, you’re a genius! I need this too!”

“Business opportunity group, score big!”

Little Bird’s face was so swollen she couldn’t speak. She tried to hang up the video, but couldn’t; tried to leave, but couldn’t move…

She could only watch helplessly as Qin Yu’s lips moved, exposing all her shameful secrets.

“You’re just an ordinary middle-class worker, earning eight thousand a month. But you’re obsessed with luxury goods to a pathological degree.”

“You relish the envy and admiration from colleagues when you carry the latest LV handbag.”

“That feeds your vanity immensely.”

“Gradually, your savings run dry, your credit cards max out, debt collectors call at your door… To maintain your glamorous façade, you start borrowing online, patching holes with loans. But the holes grow too large, and eventually you turn to your friends…”

Although Little Bird couldn’t speak, her eyes reddened.

Whether from anger, shame, or regret, who could say?

As soon as she regained control of her legs, her first act was to shut the livestream and flee in panic.

“Are there really people who ruin their own lives for luxury goods?”

“The world is full of strange things.”

“But—eight thousand a month! That’s my dream salary!”

“If she worked hard, she’d surely do well.”

Qin Yu’s gaze was sharp as she read the comments in the livestream.

“In life, there are many people just like her,” Qin Yu said, closing her eyes for a moment.

“She was once a diligent, earnest girl.”

“Now, in this age of big data, the videos you stumble upon are likely carefully selected by algorithms.”

“For young women like Little Bird, the platforms push high-sounding concepts—‘high-quality women,’ ‘a life with rituals…’”

“Then, they target these concepts with precise marketing. The advertising messages are always similar: ‘High-quality women deserve to love themselves, reward their hard work with a genuine designer bag…’”

Once you take that first step, you dig yourself into a pit of desire.

More and more ads encourage you to buy, until, without realizing it, you’ve bought far too much.

By the time you notice, your bills are beyond what you can afford.

And so, step by step, you plunge into the abyss.

Qin Yu had seen the struggle and pain in Little Bird’s past, but in the end, she willingly sank into her vanity and desires.