Chapter Nineteen: A Warm Heart

Hot pot chicken was truly delicious. It seemed that Lin Ke had never dined out so frequently in her life.

She and Monroe had almost exhausted all the nearby restaurants around the company. At first, Lin Ke still observed each meal's price with cautious restraint, but now she naturally competed to pay the bill.

Hot pot, barbecue, fried chicken, and beer.

Skewers, Japanese cuisine, pizza, and steak.

Amidst the overwhelming scent of various additives, Lin Ke managed to ignore the endless stream of vile and obscene comments online.

The insults were fake; the sympathy was fake.

Criticism was fake; praise even more so.

Only cold, hard cash was real.

People strive to rise higher!

What wrong is there in wanting a better life?

Money has value—who can truly claim to remain unbothered when faced with great profit?

The second phase of the competition still required calculating live stream data. Many seeds had already been secretly nurtured to build fan loyalty.

It was just that she wasn’t yet ready to face the backlash head-on.

The content department of Breaking Cocoon worked with remarkable efficiency, and the company had already prepared her live streaming plan for the second phase.

On the social-emotional track, unlike others who had a particular skill, she only needed to continue doing what she was good at.

Thus, the company’s plan for her was to comment on trending topics—in short, to ride the waves of popularity. As long as she dared to speak, even if contradicting netizens’ opinions, it would spark disputes and gain traction.

Lin Ke sighed; it seemed she was destined to walk further down the path of receiving curses.

In fact, the company had even considered having her verbally spar with netizens. But they soon realized it wasn’t her style—her tongue was clumsy and her skin thin—and so they passed that task to Liu Wanshou.

After all, with her wit and natural comedic talent, even if she engaged in quarrels, she wouldn’t come off as hurtful or cruel.

Lin Ke followed the content department’s plan diligently, almost no longer checking the comments on the app, even turning off messages from strangers. Yet, a few friends remained on her streamer account—her only solace now.

“Ding ding.”

The app’s notification sound rang, and Lin Ke found herself unexpectedly hopeful. Sure enough, it was a message from “Diligent Little Bee.”

Diligent Little Bee was the fan who had once asked Lin Ke why she had suddenly changed her video style. Since then, they had added each other as friends and occasionally exchanged private messages, albeit infrequently.

It was only in the past few days that a sentence or two had been exchanged, yet it somehow made Lin Ke feel an inexplicable anticipation.

“The sunset tonight is beautiful.”

Just a short sentence, with a photo attached. The sky in the picture hadn’t darkened completely, imbued with a cool blue that, shaded by the afterglow, appeared somewhat dimmed yet clearly transparent at its base.

Amber-tinted wisps of clouds drifted westward, layered one upon another, accompanied by a hazy mist. The city streets melted softly into the afterglow, bathed in a warm golden-red hue.

Lin Ke was instantly captivated.

It was amusing—her initial acquaintance with Dou Peng had been through the news agency, where he took photos of her at the broadcast station.

They were both in the journalism department but in different grades. The news agency needed coverage; Dou Peng raised his DSLR and snapped a picture of her sitting before the microphone at the broadcast desk, sunlight warming her side, a faint halo of light filtering through her hair, casting shadows over the papers and pen on the desk. The photo evoked a deep intertwining of the profound loneliness of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and the ethereal beauty of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Lin Ke had immediately been impressed by this senior’s professional skill.

She truly loved such exquisitely beautiful photos, as if they could freeze the most exquisite moments between heaven and earth.

She always felt that behind the camera capturing such beauty, there must be a soul adept at discovering it.

Later, she became Dou Peng’s girlfriend. Yet after graduation, Dou Peng, pressed by life’s hardships, became a food delivery worker. He never picked up the DSLR again, and his eyes no longer saw those eternal moments.

But today, from a complete stranger online, Lin Ke once again saw a scene that moved her deeply.

A pure beauty, untouched by filth or ulterior motives—simply good.

Moreover, through the photo’s pixelation caused by app compression, Lin Ke keenly noticed that at the base of the sunset, the faint silhouette was a corner of the street where the Breaking Cocoon building stood.

“Did you take this?” she couldn’t help but ask.

A swift reply came: “Yes, just took it after work.”

They were in the same city!

Not only the same city, but so close. Among the vast expanse of China’s 34 provinces, a random online chat partner was right beside her—what a remarkable coincidence!

Still immersed in surprise, Lin Ke received another message from Diligent Little Bee: “Watching your earlier videos, you always capture the beautiful skies whenever the weather is good.”

Lin Ke’s breath caught for a moment.

So, someone really had noticed…

Back when she was still a positive energy blogger, she never missed a chance to film a beautiful sky. Whether sunrise or sunset, she tirelessly shared them, encouraging herself.

But since joining Breaking Cocoon, it seemed she hadn’t felt that way for a long time.

Though it had been less than a month.

“I recently changed jobs and have been a bit busy.”

For some reason, a pang of guilt welled up, as if she had betrayed her former self. She even immediately wondered how she would respond if they asked why she was busy or what job she had changed to.

But Diligent Little Bee never pressured her: “It’s okay, I can share it with you.”

Just those few simple words.

No further questions, no personal probing, not even a casual “how are you,” yet Lin Ke felt redeemed.

It was like, in the midst of a survival game, with her consciousness blurred by endless toil, she had suddenly picked up a sanity pack.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Lin Ke closed the app.

Just a few words, yet she felt content.

The shared rental house remained as chaotic as ever—the young man next door still gaming through the night, the elementary school child on the other side still crying heart-wrenchingly. But for the first time, Lin Ke felt she was different from them.

She wanted to move out.

Those who aspire to win must burn their retreat paths to ashes.

She would grow stronger, ignore all insults and contempt, trample over others’ curses to climb to the summit, carve a path through the swirling butterflies and clouds, and break through among countless obscure streamers to forge a heavenly avenue.

Today’s cold water they poured on her would all be boiled and thrown back!

She would stand atop the summit of the gods.

Even if by any means necessary!

After all, a dream just out of reach can only be seized by a leap.