Chapter 469 - 234: Good night Mom, see you tomorrow.

Chapter 469: Chapter 234: Good night Mom, see you tomorrow.

On top of that, the number of hateful comments in the live chat had exploded today. Things like, "Braindead vegetable," "So ugly and disgusting, why didn’t the fall kill you?" and "Fucking streamer, you liar, hope your whole family drops dead," were just some of the bottom-of-the-barrel insults flooding the screen. It was impossible to keep up with the bans.

They were obviously hired trolls sent by Big Bro Bi.

There was no low the chat wouldn’t sink to; the insults were as nasty as they could possibly get. Wang Yibing wore a grim expression as he furiously banned users, but it was useless.

As a streamer who once had tens of thousands of fans, he was no stranger to abusive comments and had developed a thick skin. But the sheer volume of filth flooding the screen now outnumbered all the comments he’d ever received, even at his peak. Worse, many of them were direct attacks on Xie Yuan’s accident, and that was a line he couldn’t let them cross.

When he saw one comment spamming "DROP DEAD DROP DEAD DROP DEAD," Wang Yibing finally snapped. Flushed with anger, he roared:

"You motherfucking idiots! I hope your whole family falls off a building and dies tomorrow!"

"Lmao, the streamer’s triggered."

"Dumbass streamer flaming his own viewers. Unfollowed."

"What a classy streamer. Everyone, go ahead and report him."

The chat erupted with a new wave of spam. Many of his actual fans sensed something was wrong and asked:

"Are there hired trolls trying to cause trouble?"

But the comments from regular viewers were completely drowned out. Between the toxic environment and Wang Yibing’s outburst, many of his normal viewers grew fed up and left the stream. The channel’s popularity plummeted.

A moment later, a message popped up directly on the screen: "For violating platform regulations, this channel has been suspended for 24 hours."

The stream was forcibly shut down.

Wang Yibing took several ragged breaths. SLAM! He slammed his hand hard on the table.

"They’ve gone too far!"

Xie Yuan quietly poured Wang Yibing a glass of water and patted his back, helping him catch his breath.

Wang Yibing downed the water in one gulp, set the glass down hard, and wiped his mouth. Then he asked, a bit puzzled:

"Xie Yuan, aren’t you angry?"

"I’m a vegetable. I don’t get angry."

Xie Yuan said calmly.

"...You really are a natural-born streamer."

It wasn’t that Xie Yuan wasn’t angry. But after he’d figured out the true nature of the situation a couple of days ago, he had anticipated something like this would happen.

Getting angry was pointless. Besides, compared to some of the things he had seen, this was all rather civilized.

A battle of wits is a gentle blade, but a gentle blade never draws real blood.

Just as Wang Yibing was about to say more, his phone suddenly started vibrating.

He picked it up. It was an unknown number. He frowned as he answered.

"Hello? Who is this? I’m not looking for a loan... Big Bro Bi?!"

He shot up straight in his seat, his expression turning serious and his tone becoming much more polite.

"Yes... uh, I’m considering it. What happened today..."

Wang Yibing’s brow furrowed as a flashy, arrogant voice came from the other end of the line:

"What happened today had nothing to do with me, alright? I’ve got too many streamers under me to keep an eye on all of them. Just come work for me. I guarantee I’ll make you number one in your category! After that, you can transition into selling merch, and the money will pour in like a river! What’s there to even think about?"

’Nothing to do with him? He just happened to call the moment the stream was shut down...’

Wang Yibing pursed his lips.

"Big Bro Bi, I do want to work under you. But how come I heard your brother-in-law say that if we join, we’ll get absolutely zero traffic? He’s in the same niche as us, isn’t he? Are you really going to choose business over family?"

"..."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by a soft chuckle.

"Kids just run their mouths, you know? Take the next couple of days to think it over. I’ll make the terms very favorable. But if you wait too much longer... well, my time is valuable, and my patience is limited."

"BEEP. BEEP. BEEP."

The line went dead. Wang Yibing slowly lowered his phone.

Xie Yuan shook his head.

"I heard all of that. What an arrogant bastard."

"He’s always been full of himself, constantly flaunting his wealth. The authorities cracked down on him once, which made him tone it down for a while, but it was useless. He’s one of the city’s biggest taxpayers. Even his dog livestreams itself eating Wagyu beef every day. It has its own dedicated account with over ten million followers."

"A dog has over ten million followers?"

Xie Yuan was genuinely stunned.

"So you’re not even as popular as a dog?"

"...Did you forget to brush your teeth after you woke up? Your breath stinks. His main account has over fifty million followers. All he has to do is give a little promotion, and that’s how many followers you get."

Wang Yibing said helplessly,

"An arm can’t out-wrestle a thigh..."

Xie Yuan nodded silently, then suddenly said:

"Why don’t you just take his offer, then? With all the popularity we have, he’s bound to leave us a little something, right? He wouldn’t just turn his nose up at money."

"’Take his offer’... the way you say that..."

Wang Yibing shook his head.

"There was another streamer in a situation just like ours. He also blew up overnight, but after he was acquired, he basically vanished. Now, he has fewer followers than I did back in the day.

"I’ve been looking into it the past couple of days. Big Bro Bi has too many streamers under his thumb. Even though we’re hot right now, the money we could earn is nothing to him.

"He doesn’t want our money. He wants a monopoly. He wants status. As long as he controls the market, he couldn’t care less about this little bit of cash. This is especially true since we’re in the same niche as his brother-in-law. Plus, his personal life with his wife is a complete mess... Anyway, if we go over there, it’s almost certain that our careers will be over."

Xie Yuan fell silent after hearing this. He didn’t understand this market as well as Wang Yibing and hadn’t realized the situation was like this.

His fingers twitched, but in the end, he just shook his head.

"Then, Brother Bing, what do you think we should do?"

Wang Yibing remained silent, scrolling through the stream’s backend for a long time before finally letting out a breath.

"I just looked. We still got a decent amount of gifts today. The daily earnings will definitely drop sharply from now on, but if we add it to what we’ve already made, streaming for another month should get us close to 500,000! That’s enough for you to pay off the loan sharks.

"Let’s just keep this up for as long as we can. Every little bit helps..."

Xie Yuan nodded, hoping things would really be that simple.

Wang Yibing, on the other hand, ran straight to the Buddha statue in his living room, pressed his palms together, and began muttering a prayer.