Chapter 73

Chapter 73

Shen Dongqing glanced at the trees beside him, feeling they looked really tempting, but this hiking route was quite popular with people passing by constantly, everyone walking on the ground. If he climbed up a tree, it would be a bit too strange, so he suppressed the urge to climb a tree.

He could always find a less crowded spot to climb later. For now, at the base of the mountain, there were just too many people.

Shen Dongqing hiked while sharing fun historical facts about the mountain with his viewers, along with some plant and animal trivia.

The historical facts were stuff he'd researched before coming, meant to share some niche trivia with his fans. As for the plant and animal facts, those came from the plant identification skill he'd gotten from a draw earlier.

Shen Dongqing hadn't used this skill much because, compared to his other abilities, it was only truly useful in the wild. Since his last trip back from Huilong Valley, he hadn't been out in the wild since, so using it would've been a waste. Now was the perfect time to finally use it.

Before, when Shen Dongqing looked at various plants, he felt a lot of them looked pretty much the same—some differences, but not many. Unless a plant was super common or had something unique about it, he couldn't identify most of them. But now...

Shen Dongqing felt like he'd fallen into a plant paradise. Whatever he looked at, information about the plant immediately surfaced in his mind, like he'd suddenly got a plant encyclopedia in his head.

But a normal encyclopedia only had one or two pictures of a plant. If the plant looked even a little different, he wouldn't recognize it. Now, though, it felt like he'd memorized what each plant looked like in every season, from sprout to full growth. It was truly remarkable.

This huge amount of knowledge also blew his fans' minds. Knowing plants wasn't that rare, but the fact that Shen Dongqing could talk about every plant he saw—and he wasn't even a pro—was pretty impressive.

"Wait, streamer, how do you know every plant? Did you major in botany or something?"

"Didn't think I'd be out of school and suddenly in class during a livestream"

"I thought these plants were boring and plain, but with the streamer explaining them, they're way more interesting"

"I've taken classes like this and my head was spinning, but the streamer explains it really well"

Shen Dongqing knew he could only identify these plants because of his skill. To keep his fans from thinking he knew everything, he made an excuse: "I did some research before coming, so I kinda know what these plants are."

Shen Dongqing started off hiking at a slow pace, since he was walking and explaining plants at the same time. A single meter of trail could have seven or eight different plants, and explaining them might take five or six minutes.

But the plants on the mountain were pretty similar within a certain area. Once he'd talked about a plant, he wouldn't bring it up again, and his pace picked up.

Shen Dongqing followed his planned route, heading up step by step. As he walked, he noticed there were way fewer people around him. At this point, the crowds couldn't be as thick as they were at the entrance.

But at this point on the trail, there were no more paved paths—just trails worn down by people who'd come before.

Shen Dongqing used his hiking pole to check the path ahead, also using it to scare off any snakes.

"Ling Lin, should we take a break? I'm so tired." A sweet, whiny female voice came from up ahead.

"Ugh, those shoes of yours—wearing those to hike, even on an easy trail, isn't gonna work." Another female voice chimed in. "Whatever, let's just take a break."

"Maybe we should skip the Golden Summit. Let's walk a bit more and then just take the cable car down." A male voice chimed in.

"No way, I need to get good photos for content. I already told my fans I was gonna do it. All the other influencers have done it, so I have to too." The sweet, whiny voice sounded determined.

"Fine, fine, but don't whine about being tired later." The male voice spoke again.

Shen Dongqing rounded the corner and finally saw the three people who'd been talking—two women and one man. The two women seemed to be close friends, sitting together and holding hands. As for the guy, he was probably one of their boyfriends.

Shen Dongqing glanced over and determined that the taller woman was likely the Ling Lin mentioned earlier. She had a sharp short haircut and looked really energetic.

The other woman was small and cute, wearing light makeup even for a hike. Her face was like a pretty doll—super adorable.

As for the guy, well, he was just... there.

When they noticed Shen Dongqing approaching, all three looked over. Ling Lin didn't react to him, just treating him like another random hiker.

The cute woman, though, glanced at Shen Dongqing's face, then quickly spotted the Flying Camera next to him. Her eyes locked onto the camera, clearly interested.

"Hey there, are you recording your hike?" the woman asked, her voice sweet.

Hearing her words, the man shot Shen Dongqing a less-than-friendly look, especially after seeing his face. His gaze carried an unmistakable hint of jealousy.

"Sort of. I'm a streamer, doing a livestream," Shen Dongqing replied politely, surprised the woman had struck up a conversation.

"I'm a streamer too—a beauty streamer. You can call me Xiao Tao," she said with a smile, introducing herself. She then gestured to her companions. "This is my best friend Ling Lin, and this is my boyfriend Zhan Peng."

Since she'd been so forthcoming, Shen Dongqing could only introduce himself in return: "I'm Shen Dongqing."

"Is that your name or your account name?" Xiao Tao asked, a bit puzzled. Streamers usually picked somewhat distinctive account names. This name sounded nice, but it seemed very much like a real name.

"Both," Shen Dongqing replied. He'd thought of many options when choosing his account name, but after going back and forth, he decided to just use his real name.

Xiao Tao was about to say more when she saw Shen Dongqing move aside with his Flying Camera, explaining a new plant to his fans. She decided not to interrupt.

She'd only struck up a conversation because she'd randomly encountered another streamer during her hike and found it novel. But since he was live-streaming—and seemed to be doing a very educational stream—it was better not to disturb him.

Xiao Tao didn't interrupt, but Shen Dongqing's livestream viewers were still discussing her.

"What a coincidence, the streamer ran into Taozi. Didn't expect Xiao Tao really doesn't use beauty filters on her streams—she actually looks like that"

"With that face, she could totally move to the looks category"

"But Xiao Tao's personality is pretty soft. Going to the looks category without a big spender backing her might get her bullied"

"Mainly she has a boyfriend. Having a boyfriend in the looks category is too much of a disadvantage"

"That boyfriend of hers, seriously—Taozi even brought him on stream before. I really can't understand why she'd pick a guy like that"

"Apparently Xiao Tao was bullied in high school, and this guy saved her. Later, when she ran into him again while streaming, they slowly got together. Because people kept saying he wasn't good enough for her, Xiao Tao explained it once"

"Honestly, Xiao Tao has more chemistry with her best friend than with her boyfriend. Standing next to him, I just feel like my aesthetic sense is being assaulted"

"Wow, once the gossip starts, everyone's focused on the tea and no one's listening to the educational content"

"I can confirm, the streamer is secretly enjoying the gossip too"

Shen Dongqing coughed awkwardly. While one shouldn't judge people by appearance, a couple with such a large gap in looks always made people want to dig into the story.

Shen Dongqing composed himself and focused on his explanations, but less than a minute later, he heard voices from nearby.

"Taotao, don't rest too long. We should get going, or we won't have the energy to climb later," Zhan Peng urged.

"But I'm still really tired. Let's rest a bit more," Xiao Tao said reluctantly. Her stamina wasn't great, and she was already exhausted from climbing this far. She hadn't rested nearly enough in such a short time.

"But—" Zhan Peng started to say more but was cut off by Ling Lin. "If Xiao Tao wants to rest more, let her rest more. We're out to have fun; there's no need to rush."

"Hehe, Ling Lin's the best!" Xiao Tao hugged Ling Lin's arm and cooed.

Ling Lin looked at her helplessly and patted her head. She glanced at the shoes Xiao Tao was wearing. For hiking, it was best to wear proper footwear, but Xiao Tao had on a pair of ordinary white sneakers with thin soles. Walking on this kind of mountain trail would definitely hurt her feet.

If their shoe sizes matched, Ling Lin would have offered to swap. She hiked often and had thick calluses on her feet, so even thin soles wouldn't bother her much. But for someone like Xiao Tao, Ling Lin suspected she'd end up with blisters.

Luckily, she'd thought ahead—knowing this was Xiao Tao's first hike, she'd brought medicine. Otherwise, things would really be...

Ling Lin couldn't help but pinch Xiao Tao's cheek, not noticing the strange look in Zhan Peng's eyes.

Xiao Tao didn't want to slow them down either. Once the discomfort in her legs had mostly faded, she stood up and continued walking.

Shen Dongqing assumed it was just a one-time encounter, but he didn't expect to keep running into the three of them. Even though he kept stopping and starting, he always seemed to cross paths with them.

After bumping into each other several times in a row, Xiao Tao was surprised to see Shen Dongqing too. She'd secretly looked him up earlier and found that he was a fairly well-known outdoor streamer with a lot of popularity, but his edited clips were seriously weird.

In the streaming game, people usually stick to one type of content—like food streamers sticking to food, where trying out restaurants and cooking can mix together, but things like educational content don't fit well with that. Mixing them just scatters your audience and isn't great for the channel's stats.

But when she looked at Shen Dongqing's channel, the content was all over the place—one minute it was about criminals, then suddenly recipes, food quality assessments, and even a whole deep dive on drugs. Yet every clip pulled huge views, like his fans loved whatever he put out. It made no sense.

And today, he was back to hiking and plant education, which was technically his original outdoor lane, but it still felt off.

Curious, Xiao Tao couldn't help sneaking a few looks at Shen Dongqing, and both people next to her noticed.

Ling Lin was pumped. She couldn't stand Xiao Tao's boyfriend, Zhan Peng. It wasn't about his looks—though the looks mismatch was definitely a bit annoying—but if Zhan Peng treated Xiao Tao well and made her happy, she could accept and bless them.

But Zhan Peng, probably insecure about his own looks, was always tearing Xiao Tao down, saying this or that part of her wasn't pretty. Xiao Tao was a streamer, and even if she was a beauty-focused one, she still relied somewhat on her looks, often being compared to others and criticized for her facial features.

Hearing that, Xiao Tao would easily lose confidence, but as a pro streamer, she could usually push those feelings down with some effort.

But Zhan Peng had to chime in with the comments, saying she wasn't good enough. Xiao Tao could brush off netizens' comments, but when her boyfriend said it, she'd start thinking about going under the knife.

Zhan Peng would say on one hand her natural face was best, and on the other, for her career, she needed to be willing to make hard calls. If Ling Lin hadn't kept talking her out of it, Xiao Tao might've actually done it.

Besides that, Ling Lin noticed Zhan Peng would sometimes say weird, shady things to her. She wanted to tell Xiao Tao, but his words were so wishy-washy—could be flirting, or could just be him being cluelessly blunt.

She did some digging and found that Zhan Peng had a poor reputation at school. He'd hit on girls, and if they turned him down, he'd start spreading rumors and trashing them. Apparently, he'd also paid for sex, but the proof wasn't solid enough to send Xiao Tao, so she could only keep an eye on him.

She hadn't planned to go out these days, but when she learned that Xiao Tao and Zhan Peng were going hiking together and might stay overnight on the mountain, she immediately insisted on tagging along.

Otherwise, with the couple alone up there, a guy and a girl alone together, something might happen.

She shared a dorm with Xiao Tao and knew her personality well—somewhat timid, and raised to be quite traditional by her family. If they actually slept together, Xiao Tao would basically never be able to shake Zhan Peng.

And a man who paid for sex might have picked up some disease—if he passed it to Xiao Tao, that would be disastrous.

With that in mind, Ling Lin grabbed Xiao Tao's hand, pulled her closer to her side, shot a wary look at Zhan Peng, and glanced at Shen Dongqing with a hint of hope.

If Xiao Tao could take an interest in someone else, as long as Shen Dongqing's character wasn't too bad and he wasn't a sex buyer, he'd still be better than Zhan Peng. Not to mention Shen Dongqing was so handsome and quite a match for Xiao Tao.

As for Zhan Peng, his face was much darker than before. He was very dissatisfied with Xiao Tao's behavior today.

She was his girlfriend, yet the moment she saw a handsome guy, her eyes stuck to him, and she even went over to flirt.

And that pretty boy took the bait too, flexing his plant knowledge on purpose. What "educating his audience"—he'd watched plenty of streams, and nobody actually liked listening to that. People got enough of lessons in school; who would want to keep learning during their leisure time?

What's more, the guy kept running into them. Whether they left first or he did, they always ended up crossing paths. If this wasn't Shen Dongqing deliberately staging these encounters, he'd jump off the mountain.

After several such run-ins, Xiao Tao had stopped paying attention to him entirely, openly staring at Shen Dongqing.

Zhan Peng took a deep breath, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He couldn't hold it in and snapped, "That's my girlfriend. What are you looking at?"

"Come on, let's go. You've rested enough. The guy's stalking you and you're not scared? You're blinded by a handsome face." With that, Zhan Peng grabbed Xiao Tao and dragged her forward.

Xiao Tao hadn't expected Zhan Peng to explode like that, and she didn't know what she'd done wrong. She wanted to apologize to Shen Dongqing, but Zhan Peng was pulling her too hard for her to break free, so she could only be dragged along.