Chapter 167

You came for my fame?

Where would I get fame?

But when the woman removed the tightly wrapped hat, mask, and sunglasses from her head all at once, I froze.

I know this woman; her name is Jiang Yingxue, and she has been a very popular internet celebrity over the past two years.

In college I had a roommate who really liked her; at the beginning of the term, she almost every day was watching Jiang Yingxue's videos and livestreams.

Jiang Yingxue started out as a food streamer, cooking and eating her own dishes.

Her cooking skills are superb; the dishes she makes are complete in color, fragrance, and flavor, and they are all home-style.

Moreover, her eating manner is also good; even with soupy dishes, she eats neither hastily nor slowly, and cleanly.

But there are far too many food streamers online; after a while, her traffic plummeted severely, and she fell silent for a time.

When she reappeared online, she shifted her focus and began to engage with intangible cultural heritage topics.

Intangible cultural heritage topics have indeed been very popular in recent years; she also seized the traffic code, and with her good looks, hardworking nature, and high-quality shooting and editing, she quickly succeeded in her transition, and her follower count surged in a short time.

My roommate became a fan of hers during that transition period.

Through constant exposure, I also watched many of Jiang Yingxue's videos during that time; I really liked this pretty and capable girl.

She has big, watery eyes like a deer's; when she smiles, two shallow dimples appear at the corners of her mouth; her figure is tall, with a prominent front and curved back, very eye-catching.

But when I saw her again today, she had become emaciated, her eye sockets sunk, the area under her eyes dark bluish, especially her eyes, which looked dazed.

When our eyes first met, Jiang Yingxue's gaze was still focused; the next moment, she seemed to have her mind wandering elsewhere.

But she likely held some belief in her heart, and soon she pulled her gaze back.

At first I didn't speak to startle her; I observed her demeanor and behavior, and my brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

When she became dazed again, I called out to her: 'Jiang Yingxue!'

My voice was a bit loud; suddenly, it startled everyone present into a jump.

Jin Wuya and Li Qingying both looked at me at the same time, very surprised that I also knew the woman before us.

And Jiang Yingxue's reaction can be described as over-the-top.

First her whole body trembled, then her gaze went blank, and afterward she actually started laughing foolishly.

Hehe... hehe...

That state is no different from that of a simpleton.

Jin Wuya immediately became anxious: 'Her soul... her soul was frightened away.'

I calmly slapped a talisman onto Jiang Yingxue's forehead, shouting repeatedly: 'Jiang Yingxue, your soul has returned!'

Her soul had just been frightened away and hadn't drifted far; at this moment, timely summoning makes it easy to call it back.

Sure enough, soon her gaze became clear again.

Li Qingying muttered: 'Isn't this courage too small? Just shouting loudly like that could frighten away a soul? That's too exaggerated.'

'Not exaggerated,' I said, 'because her soul itself is not whole.'

Li Qingying exclaimed in surprise: 'Eh? What's going on?'

Looking at Jiang Yingxue, I asked: 'Tell me, what has happened to you recently?'

That talisman can support the stability of her soul for a period of time.

'I... I've encountered something.' Jiang Yingxue glanced toward the door, being very cautious.

We are currently sitting in the living room of the rear house, a short distance from the gate and the Nan Shu Fang, relatively private.

After confirming there were no outsiders, Jiang Yingxue took out from her down jacket pocket something wrapped in yellow paper and placed it on the coffee table: 'Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, before coming I made a detailed plan, knowing the pawnshop's rules; I want to pawn this item with you, please help me.'

Li Qingying reached out and opened the yellow paper, revealing what was inside.

It was a bronze bell, palm-sized, looking very antiquated.

The top of the bronze bell was tied with a piece of red cloth; the cloth's color is dark, showing it's been around for a while.

At a glance we could tell this bronze bell is an antique.

Could it be that Jiang Yingxue is also an antique collector who acquired something unclean, thus bringing misfortune upon herself?

But immediately afterward, Jiang Yingxue opened a video, pushed her phone toward me, and had me watch.

It is a well-edited, high-quality short video.

In the video, Jiang Yingxue goes deep into Xiangxi, visits the Xiangxi Corpse Drivers, and passes on the content of the Corpse-Driving Technique.

In this video, besides the Corpse-Driving Technique—an ancient corpse-moving art—being full of gimmicks, Jiang Yingxue's hardworking, fearless, meticulous spirit of inheritance also moved the audience.

'This is a video I filmed at the beginning of this year,' Jiang Yingxue said. 'In lunar July, riding the Zhongyuan Festival hype, this video was uploaded to my account; in just half a day it gained over eight million likes and over a million comments, but just as I thought my video would go viral again, it was taken down.'

I understand this; after all, the topic of inheriting the Corpse-Driving Technique is too sensitive.

'We repeatedly cut content, trying to avoid sensitive parts, and kept darkening the visuals, but no matter how we changed it, we could not escape being taken down; in the end I could only give up, so on my account this video can no longer be found.'

'Although the video can't be posted, the Xiangxi Corpse Drivers I originally collaborated with were still thoughtful; they mailed this bronze bell to me as a keepsake; this bronze bell is the one I used in Xiangxi.'

'The bronze bell was received at the end of lunar July, but at that time I was filming another video in the north, and I only returned home at the beginning of August; my assistant placed this bronze bell on my display shelf, and I didn't think of it.'

Li Qingying clicked her tongue: 'You really have guts, daring to film such a grim and sensitive topic—truly wanting money without regard for life.'

Jiang Yingxue gave a bitter smile: 'In the martial world, one is not free; I blame my momentary greed for dragging me in, making it hard to turn back.'

She told us that when she initially made food videos, she did everything herself—cooking, eating, filming—and after her traffic surged then plummeted, she fell into a predicament, becoming so anxious that her hair fell out in clumps.

At that moment, a domestic professional filming team approached her, saying they wanted to cooperate and guaranteed to help her regain popularity.

Jiang Yingxue, with the mindset of treating a dead horse as a living one, signed a contract with them.

After the professional filming team moved in, they handled everything—finding topics, writing scripts, and all subsequent work.

'I did regain popularity, but I also completely became a performance tool.' Jiang Yingxue said, 'I have no personal freedom, no say; they tell me what to film and I must film it; even the slightest resistance could be crushed by astronomical breach-of-contract penalties.'

'I am very unhappy, because many topics are ones I do not want to touch, such as going deep into snowy mountains to gather medicinal herbs, or going to Xiangxi to inherit the Corpse-Driving Technique; I truly regret it.'