Ch 169: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

The little boy nodded, his eyes sparkling.

The camera was right there, but with a flick of Mu Xing’s hand, no one could see what he had done. The bright green little spider simply vanished.

It was already summer vacation, and everyone was in short sleeves.

How did that spider just disappear?

The boy’s eyes widened. He craned his neck, trying hard to peek at Mu Xing’s hand.

Mu Xing spread out both palms—clean and empty, nothing there.

With a smug look, he said to the boy: “If you want the little spider, you’ll have to trade with me. You know what I mean, right?”

The boy’s eyes rolled as he thought, then he turned to his little stall and said, “I’ve got loads of snacks, a whole cabinet full. One little spider isn’t enough.”

Mu Xing burst out laughing.

This kid was sharp.

They started bargaining, and in the end decided: Mu Xing would weave a full set of the twelve zodiac animals in exchange for free snacks for three days.

Mu Xing had originally wanted to solve a whole week’s worth of snacks at once, but the kid was not so easy to fool.

【Hahahahaha I didn’t expect this to be so funny when I first clicked in】
【Half an hour ago I thought Mu Xing was a clueless brat, now I think he’s an airheaded elementary school sweetheart. How can a person have so many sides?】
【Do these two even add up to ten years old? lol】
【He’s so cute! And the little boy too!】
【Is it just me, or does Mu Xing seem way more patient with kids than with the guests?】
【Fu Chen’s dumbfounded face cracked me up, yet another route nobody predicted】

By the time the auntie’s granddaughter came over with her little schoolbag, Mu Xing had already woven four or five little grass animals with his nimble fingers.

The boy carefully took a candy tin from his snack cabinet, dumped out the candies, and treasured those grass animals by putting them inside.

Having won the right to pick snacks freely, Mu Xing grabbed a few bottles of drinks and handed them to Fu Chen.

Fu Chen felt oddly flattered. “So polite? I can’t drink this much by myself…”

Mu Xing replied, “Who said it’s for you? It’s a hot day, everyone’s working hard to earn money at their stalls. Take them to those uncles and aunties.”

Fu Chen: “…Oh.”

【Fu Chen: Turns out I was just overthinking it.】
【Haha these two are kind of interesting, I’m starting to ship it】
【Meanwhile, Gu Jiani and her group are already washing crawfish, and Qin the movie king’s team is even wilder—they got dragged off to herd cattle.】
【And Mu Xing? He’s already sitting under an umbrella, sipping a cold drink, fan blowing, and started teaching.】

Viewers could switch between three different scenes of the guests.

At first, Qin Song’s side had overwhelming ratings.

But once Mu Xing revealed his education background and started weaving crafts, their livestream numbers began steadily rising.

After all, while watching celebrities herd cows was novel, it got boring after ten minutes.

But Mu Xing’s stream was different.

Fourth-grade content was easy for him, but he quickly noticed that the little girl, Tian Tian, really had a weak foundation.

It wasn’t her fault. This poor mountain village was simply too underdeveloped; kids here couldn’t access the same quality of education as children in big cities.

Fortunately, in his previous world he had already tutored kids at the orphanage. He’d seen all kinds of students, so this kind of after-school tutoring was effortless.

Netizens were originally just curious how Mu Xing would tutor kids.

But the more they listened, the more fun they found it.

Some parents even pulled their own kids over to watch the program.

And surprisingly, it worked.

【Same questions, same content—why can he explain it in such an interesting way?】
【Yesterday I lost my temper tutoring my sister and smacked her, then my mom beat me. Now we’re both sitting quietly in front of the screen watching Mu Xing teach (:з」∠)】
【LOL I dragged my little brother over to watch the show too】
【So jealous of little Tian Tian. If I’d had such a smart, handsome tutor back then, would I have ended up hauling bricks at a construction site?】

“Director, our show is trending again!”

The director wasn’t surprised. “Let me guess, Mu Xing?”

The assistant nodded. “Not just Mu Xing. Qin Song’s cattle-herding and Gu Jiani’s crawfish-washing too. There’s even a trending tag with ‘Dream Pastoral’.”

The director beamed. “Good, good. Looks like this season’s prize money is basically in the bag.”

The livestream heat was especially high. When the director checked the backend, Qin Song’s team was still number one.

But their numbers had been high from the start and then leveled out.

Meanwhile, Mu Xing’s side kept climbing steadily.

At that moment—

Qin Song’s fan forum, Jiang Shengyu’s fan forum, and even their CP supertopic “QinSheng Like the Sea” were all buzzing.

【Our livestream is still the hottest, keep pushing!】
【Do we even need to prove our idol’s popularity? No way some knockoff can catch up】
【Girls, Mu Xing’s side is trending again, their viewer count is climbing too fast. They must have bought bots】
【I’ve got the livestream open on my computer, phone, and tablet, everyone keep it up!】
【I even downloaded the Fruit app on my mom’s phone, QinSheng Forever!】

Not only Qin Song and Jiang Shengyu—the supertopics of the other three guests were also bustling with activity, fans working hard to boost their idols’ data. They couldn’t afford to look bad.

Only Mu Xing’s side was different. He had a few followers on Weibo, but no major fan accounts and no one managing things. His fans wandered aimlessly around the supertopic, then gave up.

They simply squatted quietly in the livestream room, watching.

Whatever happens, happens.

Mu Xing knew nothing about these invisible battlefields of fandom. He was seriously tutoring little Zhang Tiantian with her homework, giving her a pack of candy or a piece of chocolate whenever she did well.

The vegetable-seller auntie nearby chuckled happily.

The little boy beside them looked displeased. “That’s my stuff, how can you just give it to Zhang Tiantian?”

Even he wasn’t allowed to eat it freely—he was only the stallkeeper for hire!

Jealousy!

Mu Xing said, “Didn’t you agree? For these three days I can take whatever snacks I want. Once I take them, they’re mine. I can give them to whoever I want.”

The boy opened his mouth, and after a long moment muttered, “Then why don’t you give them to me to eat?”

【Pfft!】
【Hahahaha Zhao Song and Mu Xing’s daily banter—I could watch it for a year!】
【Finally said what you really wanted, Zhao Song—you’re just greedy, you want snacks!】

Hearing this, Zhang Tiantian looked up from her homework and retorted seriously, “Because I’m studying hard. If I do it right, I get rewarded. You don’t study, why should you get snacks?”

Zhao Song blurted out, “I can study too!”

Even he was shocked by his own words, staring blankly for a while. Then his eyes shifted to the little bag of snacks Zhang Tiantian’s grandma had packed for her—it had already filled up after just over an hour!

He made up his mind, turned to Mu Xing, and said, “I want to study too. Can I study with you?”

Mu Xing pointed out an error in Zhang Tiantian’s work, asked her to rethink it, then stood up and asked Zhao Song, “Do you want to study, or do you want to eat?”

Zhang Tiantian shouted, “Of course Zhao Song just wants snacks! He doesn’t like studying at all!”

Zhao Song glared at her, then tried to argue with Mu Xing: “Why can’t I want both?”

Mu Xing replied, “You can. But let me tell you—if you study well and achieve something, you’ll get a great job and earn lots of money. Then you’ll be able to eat as many snacks as you like.”

He pointed at the huge cabinet. “Snacks like those—you could eat until you never wanted them again.”

Zhao Song said, “But when I grow up a little more, I can just go out to work. I can still earn money to buy snacks.”

The boy’s world was simple. To him, the best life was growing up without school or parental control, just working and buying food for himself—that would be real freedom.

Mu Xing thought for a moment and asked, “Your parents are working outside, aren’t they?”

Zhao Song nodded.

“Do you see them buying snacks every day?”

Zhao Song froze.

“No…” he answered in confusion.

Mu Xing spread his hands. “See? Your parents work hard, but instead of buying snacks, they pay your tuition and living costs. Don’t you think that means they want you to study well? What does that tell you?”

Zhao Song, nearly tangled up by the reasoning, asked blankly, “What does it tell me?”

“It tells you that studying is better than snacks. Adults are smart, they know what’s best, don’t they?”

Zhao Song looked doubtful. “Is that really true?”

Mu Xing, confident: “Think about it yourself—isn’t it?”

Zhang Tiantian stopped writing and added, “My grandma always tells me to study hard. If I get into college, I can leave the mountains and live a better life. That’s why I have to study—to take my grandma out to see the world one day.”

Her grandmother smiled so hard her eyes turned into slits.

Zhao Song lowered his head and thought seriously for a while.

Then he asked, “Can I come and do homework with Zhang Tiantian tomorrow?”

Mu Xing nodded. “Of course.”

Zhao Song remembered that Zhang Tiantian’s tutoring had cost her grandma a week’s worth of vegetables in trade.

He felt like he was making a huge bargain. “Then I don’t need you to weave me animals anymore. You can have all the snacks this week.”

【I don’t even know what to say… quietly went and followed Mu Xing on Weibo】
【As a mountain village teacher, this conversation really moved me. Many families here don’t value education, but they’re the ones who need it most to escape poverty.】
【Watching with my mom—she just asked me who this young man is, said he’s really good.】
【After seeing this, no matter what Mu Xing has done before, I won’t curse him again.】

The director, sitting in his office, fell silent watching this scene.

He didn’t deny he was touched.

But for a soulless wage-earner, that kind of sentiment was cheap and only lasted ten seconds.

He immediately realized this was a golden chance to push the show to another level.

He called staff right away: “Buy a trending spot! Not the previous one, change it!”

Soon, a brand-new hashtag shot onto the top of the trending list.

#Dream Pastoral Mu Xing Advocates Learning#

❣╰(⸝⸝⸝꒳⸝⸝⸝)╯❣