Chapter Forty-Three: Trending? I’m on the trending list every single day.

Not far from Bai Qingming’s side, the influencer called Xiaoyue stopped in her tracks. As she glanced at the barrage of comments in her livestream, excitement and astonishment mingled inside her—a thrilling sense of having stumbled upon a shocking secret. The recently popular “Single’s Godfather” had such a peculiar habit, and she just happened to catch it on her stream.

How could this be described? It felt like destiny itself had chosen her to rise to fame! If this livestream recording were uploaded online, she’d gain at least a million or two new followers, no question.

Thinking of this, Xiaoyue wasted no time; she walked over and gently tapped Bai Qingming on the shoulder.

Startled, Bai Qingming turned around, but quickly collected himself. Damn, he hadn’t stolen anything, wasn’t a thief—what was there to be afraid of?

At once, Bai Qingming regained his composure and looked at the girl standing before him. Seeing her holding up a phone, he immediately understood. Ha, another peer trying to piggyback on his popularity.

But before Bai Qingming could speak, the girl thrust her phone—still streaming—right in his face.

“Everyone, look! Turns out the so-called spiritual leader is a pervert who likes to sniff women’s sanitary pads in the supermarket!” she declared.

Though Bai Qingming hadn’t done anything of the sort—he’d only glanced at the instructions—her words took on a life of their own, and Xiaoyue embellished the story with gusto.

As soon as she spoke, Bai Qingming was dumbfounded.

How did he become a pervert? And when had he ever sniffed anything? He’d been reading the packaging, nothing more.

Did this girl have a grudge against him? She was quite pretty, so why was she attacking him right off the bat?

“Idiot!” Bai Qingming spat, not bothering to explain. He picked up a pack of “Seven Degree Space” pads and strode off.

Behind him, the little influencer continued streaming, filming Bai Qingming’s departing figure.

…

Back home, Bai Qingming tossed a black plastic bag to the dazed little sister.

“This is what you wanted—because of this, I got livestreamed and labeled a pervert,” Bai Qingming said, curling his lip.

Meanwhile, online, a certain livestream clip was spreading like wildfire. Everyone who watched it couldn’t help but exclaim in disbelief, feeling their worldview shaken.

The comment section already boasted nearly a million messages.

“My god, how could the Single’s Godfather do something like this? Is this video fake?”

“I think it’s possible. He’s so popular now, jealous people are bound to make trouble.”

“Even if it’s true, what’s the big deal? Maybe he bought pads for his girlfriend. Is that really something to use against him?”

“Hey, anyone want ‘authentic’ used pads? Twenty-one each.”

“Twenty’s too expensive—ten bucks.”

“Shut up, here’s my price: five bucks, ten pads!”

…

Within a single day, the person who posted the video gained two million followers. The explosive story shot straight to the top of Weibo’s trending list, knocking Bai Qingming’s previous hot topics aside.

In less than half a month, Bai Qingming had pulled off all sorts of antics. Now, finally, some negative press emerged—but instead of losing followers, his popularity doubled.

Even before it was time to start his evening livestream, a notification sounded in Bai Qingming’s ear.

Ding~

[Popularity has reached 15 million—reward: top-tier gaming talent.]

The system’s voice rang out.

Bai Qingming was stunned. What the hell? He hadn’t done anything, yet he already had 15 million followers.

Thinking this, Bai Qingming hurriedly opened his livestream. Sure enough, the chat was filled with viewers waiting for him, and the follower count in the corner had jumped from yesterday’s eight million to fifteen million.

Gaining followers this fast in a single day—it was terrifying.

“Guys, don’t you have jobs? How are you all so free, hanging out in my stream?” Bai Qingming still didn’t know what was going on.

“No way, streamer, you haven’t heard what happened today?” someone wrote.

“What happened?” Bai Qingming replied, utterly confused.

Soon, the chat was flooded with URLs.

“Hey hey, guys, don’t post those shady links. This is a wholesome stream—keep it civilized, or we’ll get banned,” Bai Qingming warned.

Viewers: “……”

“Streamer, just click and you’ll see,” someone urged.

“I won’t. I’m a decent person—I wouldn’t look at stuff like that,” Bai Qingming said, righteously.

“Streamer, those links aren’t what you think!” The viewers were speechless.

“You’re trying to get my stream banned, aren’t you? You’re too wicked,” Bai Qingming remained unmoved.

He completely mistook the URLs for something only adults should watch, with parental supervision.

“Streamer, you’re trending!” The viewers weren’t giving up, trying to wake the sleeper.

“Trending? That’s standard procedure—I’m on the trending list every day.” Bai Qingming’s face showed no emotion; his words were casual.

What’s so special? They were making a fuss over nothing.

The viewers were exasperated.

Listen to him—is that even human talk? Other influencers and celebrities struggled to trend, some even after divorcing. But for Bai Qingming, trending was as ordinary as eating or drinking water.

It was infuriating.

Despite his words, Bai Qingming opened Weibo.

“Damn!”

Suddenly, he understood why his popularity had exploded.

“Streamer, can you explain whether the video is fake?”

“Streamer, honestly, I have this habit too. Glad I found a fellow enthusiast today.”

“Where’s the one selling ‘authentic’ pads? Come on, I’ll pay—give the spiritual leader two. These are even more fragrant than pads, and sniffing them gets you high.”

“Did you know? Uruguay has a population of 3.457 million, and Australia has 40 million kangaroos. If the kangaroos decided to invade Uruguay, every Uruguayan would have to fight fourteen kangaroos. You don’t know anything—you only care about how much ‘authentic’ pads cost.”

“What’s up with the comment above?”

…

Facing all these questions in the chat, Bai Qingming remained calm and smiled lightly.

“I really don’t think this needs explaining. I just wanted to buy pads for… well, my girlfriend, and got filmed by accident.”

He’d meant to say the little sister, but decided that wouldn’t sound right, so he randomly claimed it was for his girlfriend.

If the girlfriend needs them, the boyfriend goes and buys them—very reasonable.

“Besides, look: I live in a massive penthouse worth hundreds of millions, drive a limited edition Bugatti Veyron. If I had such a habit, I could just buy the whole supermarket—why bother going out to sniff?”

Bai Qingming continued.

His words immediately sent the chat into a frenzy.

“Damn, I suspect the streamer is showing off, but I have no proof.”

“No proof needed—this is blatant flexing.”

“Streamer must be a master of humblebragging.”

…

In just a few sentences, Bai Qingming easily resolved the crisis of his public image.

He made sense, after all.

Even if Bai Qingming had such a peculiar habit, he had no need to indulge it outside.

Soon, someone noticed—the influencer account that originally posted the video had been banned.

The Douyin platform had intervened.

Messing with Bai Qingming like this, clearly someone desperate for fame—who else should be banned?

All things considered, Bai Qingming didn’t even sue her for slander or damaging his reputation.

Yet, at this moment, another issue arose.

Did the Single’s Godfather have a girlfriend?

Who was she?

And so, overnight, Douyin was flooded with countless “Single’s Godfather’s girlfriend” accounts, all eager to ride Bai Qingming’s wave and frantically gain followers.

Each claimed to be the official girlfriend for whom Bai Qingming bought pads.

To prove their identity, some posted duet videos with Bai Qingming, others uploaded photos together.

But after watching, netizens unanimously agreed that these posters were insulting their intelligence.

“Made me laugh—didn’t even bother to remove the watermark. Isn’t this just a photoshopped head of the spiritual leader?”

“Hey, the one who swapped in the lead actor’s face from ‘One Road’ is overdoing it.”

“‘One Road’? What’s that?”

“Keep it down, upstairs. Everyone, lend me a movie for a word.”

…