At noon that day, Xu Yiran started his live stream ahead of schedule.
Starlight received the notification that he was live and clicked into the streaming room in utter surprise.
"What! Did I read that wrong? Who is streaming at this time of day? (Let me see)"
"What's going on? Does Big Brother not have to go to work today?"
"Is Big Brother going to change his streaming time from now on? (Expectant little eyes)"
"Is my wish finally coming true? (Screaming)"
Seeing the barrage of comments, Xu Yiran couldn't help laughing. "For today, this is the time slot, but I'll adjust it to a suitable time later on. It definitely won't be that graveyard shift after midnight anymore, though."
The student fans were overjoyed.
"That's so great! I always had to go to sleep halfway through before and could only watch the VODs. Now I can finally watch the whole thing from start to finish."
"Aw, aw, aw! Today is a good day. I'm so glad to receive this good news!"
"All that aside, Big Brother, why did you suddenly start streaming? None of us were mentally prepared. (Dog head)"
Xu Yiran explained it to Starlight.
"I didn't go to work today. I took my mom to the hospital and just got back."
"Ah? What's wrong with Auntie? Is everything alright?"
Starlight all knew about his family situation. Back when he had no viewers, he used to chat with them about things in his everyday life. So the veteran fans knew more or less about his circumstances.
"Nothing's wrong, just went for a follow-up checkup. No problems at all."
Xu Yiran didn't want them to worry, so he glossed over it.
"I mainly came on today to chat with you guys, and incidentally celebrate a birthday for some of you."
"!!! So lucky, today happens to be my birthday! (Excited)"
"Score! Total score!"
"Big Brother, go out and do PK!"
"Gotta spend some money to support him today no matter what."
As soon as one fan spoke up, others immediately stood up in opposition.
"Hahaha, Big Brother, you must definitely not do PK. Don't believe her sweet talk!"
"We don't have the horsepower, don't mess around. (Covering face)"
"Big Brother, you'd better wait until Sister Qingqing is around to do PK, hahahahaha."
Xu Yiran thought about it and gave a carefree laugh. "It shouldn't cost that much for me to battle in PK, right?"
"Pink Mengmengda: No, Brother Ran, did you forget the PK the day you met Sister Qing?"
As soon as she said that, the fans in the streaming room remembered as well.
"Hahahahaha, so true."
"All of us fans present combined couldn't send that many sound waves."
"What a pity, there's no way to replicate our previous glory. (Dog head)"
Xu Yiran chuckled in amusement. "It's fine. If we can't win, we just take the penalty."
What's wrong with taking penalties? Among today's top streamers, which one didn't have to do plenty of penalties when they first started out? Only through PK could they grow their traffic and gain more fans.
"No way! Most streamers out looking for PK nowadays are just out to make people do penalties, and their penalties are brutal."
"Most importantly, if we lose, they get to dictate the penalties, and they deliberately set some really excessive ones."
"Some streamers are awful; seeing that you have fewer fans, they'll deliberately mess with you."
Xu Yiran knew about these things too. Seeing his fans being so considerate of him, he smiled and agreed.
"Alright, I'll listen to you guys. No going out for PKs today; let's just clear off some of the song debt first."
The so-called song debt referred to when he was doing solo streams previously and had ignorantly set a song-request price of [Heart-Penetrating Bunny (299 diamonds)]. As a result, the song requests exploded that very day. Since he couldn't finish them all, he had to let the moderators write them down first and pay off the songs whenever he had time.
"Let's start with our first song today, 'Accompany Me Through the Winter', requested by Indecent Susu."
Indecent Susu was a Starlight veteran who had already become a fan back in the audition room days.
"Hahaha, Susu requested a song. Susu is right here in the streaming room! Sing quickly, Big Brother, and let our Susu give a review. (Dog head)"
"Indecent Susu: ??? A review? Are you guys all serious?"
"Hahaha, no way, Brother Ran is pretty gentle. (Dog head)"
"Indecent Susu: That's only because you guys aren't the ones in this position!!!"
Xu Yiran couldn't help laughing. "Huh? What are you afraid of, Susu? You guys are my meal ticket! Be bolder."
"Pink Mengmengda: (Dog head) True. Brother Ran, you've never cursed at us, but you're rather skilled at cursing people out with your facial expressions."
Although he was still just a rough little electric-avatar streamer at the moment, and mobile phone facial capture wasn't very sensitive, the fans could still perceive his emotions.
"And shading people to their faces. (Dog head)"
"Indecent Susu: The most important thing is! Brother Ran can be quite scary when he speaks in a serious tone."
"I remember that. Previously, some anti-fan tried to stir up drama and got chewed out by Brother Ran."
Xu Yiran's linguistic sharp knife that time didn't contain a single swear word from start to finish, but every single word pierced straight to the heart. It was also that particular stream that made many fans fall head over heels for him.
"Hahaha, what a coincidence. I'm also a fan of the linguistic sharp knife. (Shy)"
Xu Yiran was left speechless, slowly spitting out a sentence, "I really am getting old. I can't understand these trendy hobbies."
"coco: That's just how Big Brother is, considering there's a nearly ten-year gap between us anyway. (Dog head)"
"Hahahahaha, Starlight's linguistic sharp knives aren't half bad either, family members."
Xu Yiran widened his eyes in shock and said, "How much? Ten years?"
He was just saying he was old, but that didn't mean he actually wanted to admit he was old!
Now it was the fans' turn to be stunned.
"What do you mean? Why does that sound a bit wrong to me?"
"If I remember correctly, Brother Ran is only in his early twenties..."
"Twenty-eight is still the early twenties. (Dog head)"
Xu Yiran protested, "Cut it out. I'm only twenty-four this year, alright? Don't make me sound so old."
"Indecent Susu: ??? Bro, your profile says twenty-eight..."
Only then did Xu Yiran realize where the misunderstanding lay—that was just something he had filled in casually.
"So Brother Ran is only twenty-four? That means you came straight to streaming after graduating from college?"
"That's pretty good. You saved ten years of detours right off the bat, right, H. Xiaoguo?"
"Hahahahaha, Xiaoguo says you are truly twisting the knife in his heart."
"Well then, Bro, you're only a few years older than me. There's no generational gap at all. (Suppressed laughter)"
Xu Yiran was furious, but facing his meal tickets, he could only swallow his anger and seethe inwardly.
"I'm mad. What's this talk about a generational gap? Aren't we the best family?"
Qin Qing walked into the streaming room just in time to hear this and couldn't help laughing.
"Qing Ruxu:? Is being twenty-four already considered old nowadays?"
"Hahahahaha, Sister Qingqing is here. Oh ho, someone got implicated by association."
"Qing Ruxu: Here on Douyin, is twenty considered old???"
Qin Qing definitely refused to admit that she was old. At her age, whatever you did was done in the prime of your youth.
Xu Yiran said helplessly, "No, what I meant by that sentence was that compared to a lot of the students in the streaming room, I can be considered relatively older."
"Indecent Susu: So, is age your sore spot? (Dog head)"
Starlight burst into laughter.
"It is! How could it not be? One sentence and his defense was completely shattered."
"We've found the way to make you mad in the future."
Xu Yiran: ...
"Would you all please act like human beings."
"Does Sister Qingqing not have classes today?"
"Qing Ruxu: I'm preparing for a competition, don't have many classes lately."
"!!! A competition!"
"Good grief, so it turns out I'm the only freeloader here."
"I'm dying of laughter. There are so many outstanding people in Starlight, it makes me too embarrassed to freeload anymore."
The song debt was practically cleared. Seeing that quite a few people were online in the connection queue, he said, "Let's go play around and get to know some new friends."
"Big Brother, are you serious?"
"Big Brother, are you already prepared to take penalties?"
Xu Yiran was caught between laughter and tears. "Do you have that little confidence in yourselves?"
"Qing Ruxu: It's fine, battle!"