Having lived together for so long, he had a rough idea of her working habits.
Normally, after finishing a live stream, she would do some simple editing on the recorded footage and upload it to some well-known video sharing websites.
This way, she could earn click-through ad revenue while also increasing her subscribers and gaining popularity, which might attract even more viewers to her future streams. It was considered a positive cycle.
Lately, however, business didn't seem to be doing so well.
Just as he pushed the door open and walked in, he happened to hear her complaining to a friend during a co-streaming session: "Why are viewership numbers dropping lower and lower? How am I supposed to keep going like this..."
"There are no explosive highlights in the streams either. It's just impossible to get any traction!"
"And it's so hard to find good locations nowadays... Especially that hospital from a couple of days ago. We snuck inside to secretly film something exciting, only to get caught and chewed out. If we get reported and my streaming room gets banned next time, it'll really be over..."
Realizing midway that Lu Chen had probably returned, she lowered her voice a little. After locking eyes with him for a moment, she gave an embarrassed nod, then swaying her fair, slender legs, she jogged back into her own room.
Lu Chen didn't pay much mind to it. Returning to his own room, he hesitated for a moment before sending a WeChat request to Zhou Manyin.
She didn't accept it right away, though—she was probably busy.
Instead, he turned on his computer and began meticulously planning his upcoming flashback operation.
Suddenly, however, he remembered what he had just heard. Wasn't that streamer named Yu Yiyi the one who had gone to the hospital?
He opened a video website, searched, and quickly found the recorded broadcast she had recently uploaded.
It only had a few thousand views, and the comments were sparse.
Clicking on it to watch, he saw that the hospital she visited happened to be First Hospital.
The time was around two in the morning. At a glance, most of the hospital building was pitch dark, with only a few rooms showing lights.
The young woman and her accompanying cameraman certainly weren't lacking in courage, sneaking right in and wandering around the inpatient building.
Though their motives and actions were wrong, that level of boldness alone was genuinely worthy of respect.
It was just a pity they hadn't managed to film anything shocking. They had simply wandered around pointlessly before being discovered and chased out by a patrolling nurse.
Good thing they slipped away fast, or they would have ended up detained.
Still, thanks to her, Lu Chen had a general sense of the hospital's interior layout.
For the next several hours, he focused entirely on refining his plan.
Naturally, he also needed to put effort into his appearance.
He opened a local shopping app and ordered a "vampire" cosplay set.
It included a black cape, a vintage tailcoat suit, a silver-white brooch, red colored contacts, and so on.
He wasn't worried at all about these clues leading back to him or exposing his identity, seeing as he was traveling three days into the past, completely disconnected from the present.
Besides, nobody would ever suspect a vampire of wearing red colored contacts.
After placing the order, he paid for same-city express delivery, and it arrived right on schedule at around four in the afternoon.
As soon as he got his hands on the clothes, he tried them on.
The fit was snug, and aside from a slight awkwardness when putting in the colored contacts for the first time, everything went smoothly.
After that, he began sculpting his face to match his mental image of a member of the Blood Clan.
As everyone knows, a very significant portion of the fun in certain games lies in character creation.
To ensure realism, he also referenced the appearance of vampires from various movies and television shows.
What he finally settled on was a young Blood Clan man with Eurasian-like facial features, a handsome appearance but a sickly, pale complexion, messy dark red hair, and a hint of evil qi lurking in his eyes.
"I have to admit, it really is quite handsome."
Lu Chen looked himself over carefully and nodded in satisfaction, feeling it was practically on par with his real-life self.
Then, he packed everything he needed to bring back into his portable space, allowing him to—
With everything prepared, all that remained was to wait for the flashback time to arrive.
Closing his eyes to rest and preserve his energy, he waited like that until two in the morning.
The familiar beep suddenly sounded in his ear.
His spirits lifted.
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Flashback begins!]
Everything in his field of vision stretched into infinitely long lines of mixed colors, resembling a gorgeous oil painting.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it returned to normal.
It was the exact same motion sickness-like dizziness as before.
After adapting slightly, he quickly opened his eyes.
Sure enough, it was still his own room.
However, his past self was already lying in bed soundly asleep. The room was dark, and the glowing alarm clock read two in the morning.
[Flashback end countdown: 59 minutes]
"Time to go to work!"
With an excited kip-up, he sprang to his feet.
Taking the prepared clothing and props out from his portable space, in the blink of an eye he transformed himself through makeup into a Eurasian-looking Blood Clan member.
He carefully adjusted the details in the mirror, nodded with satisfaction upon confirming there were no issues,
As a member of the Blood Clan, naturally he couldn't just walk out the front door; moreover, he had to carefully avoid security cameras—without a doubt, flying out was a great idea.
Opening the window, he poked his head out to survey the height of the tenth floor. The vehicles down below looked like matchboxes, making his heart race with a bit of fright.
"What... what if I don't manage to fly and fall to my death?"
"Here goes nothing!"
He leaped out.
In an instant, his entire body transformed into hundreds of tiny bats. After a brief pause, they rapidly beat their wings and soared high into the air, instantly filling midair with the noisy squeaking sounds of bats.
The sensation was miraculous; his body felt as though it had turned into liquid and split into countless tiny fragments.
Yet there was no pain whatsoever, and he could even sense that his control over his body had reached a level far surpassing his physical form.
He could precisely control the flight movements of any single one of those hundreds of little bats—turning left, turning right, rolling, diving...
They were as nimble as his own fingers.
Though he couldn't control all the bats to do completely different actions simultaneously just yet like multitasking.
"So this is what flying feels like."
With a sudden dive, the hundreds of little bats swept past at an angle close to the ground.
His vision wasn't restricted by the bodies of the bats either; it was like having a panoramic, dead-angle-free security camera formed by countless pairs of eyes observing from all directions.
The flying speed was even faster than he had imagined. Free from the constraints of traffic rules and able to fly freely, he quickly reached the roof of the inpatient building at First Hospital.
All the little bats rapidly gathered together.
A few breaths later, beneath the cold moonlight, the figure of a young man with a pale complexion, a black cape, and a Western-style tailcoat materialized.
The night wind on the rooftop was rather strong, causing his cape to flutter continuously.
"A bit earlier than expected."
He coughed lightly, adjusting his voice to be slightly hoarse to better fit the traits of his current identity.
He picked up his phone and checked the live stream of his roommate, Yu Yiyi.
Sure enough, she had already started broadcasting.
Right now, she was just outside the hospital, introducing today's plan to the viewers while observing the surroundings, intending to sneak into the hospital.
"Viewers and friends, today we're going to have some exciting fun..."