Chapter 23

When the words "Last year, today" came out, Cheng Yi’s expression changed.

In an instant, the thing he had purposely tried to forget flashed through his mind—the faint shadow of a tree, the frantic heartbeat, and heavy breathing... These things passed before his eyes like a carousel, making him break into a cold sweat.

However, Ke Xingzhou didn’t give him time to process or respond. He suddenly changed the subject: “You’re not from here. Your hometown is in the north. You followed your mother to remarry into your current family, and you have a younger sister, much younger than you, who is the child of your mother and stepfather.”

“When you were 15, that is, in the fifth year after your mother remarried, she brought a... friend home. While they were chatting happily, your stepfather suddenly came back. A conflict broke out between the three, one dead and two injured. The one who died was your stepfather. After that, your mother disappeared and never came back, leaving her elderly mother and younger daughter with you.”

Cheng Yi was stunned, staring blankly at Ke Xingzhou.

He didn’t quite know what had just happened. He had just seen people online talking about some fake young master stuff, and even though he had been abandoned, he had money to stir trouble. Thinking about his messed-up life, he followed the links they posted to vent his frustration.

He was jealous that Ke Xingzhou, by some twist of fate, had lived in a wealthy family for over twenty years and couldn’t believe that he could learn fortune-telling in such a “luxurious and decadent” life, so he was particularly unrestrained.

But what Ke Xingzhou said shocked him—he was describing his own life before the age of 15!

The bitter memories from his childhood were still vivid in his mind. After his mother ran away with her ex-husband, she left behind his paralyzed grandmother and his five-year-old sister, and the entire burden of the family fell onto his shoulders at the age of fifteen. Even though he now had a relatively stable life, thinking about the situation back then, he couldn’t help but want to cry.

But how did Ke Xingzhou know this?

He couldn’t help but think wildly, staring at Ke Xingzhou’s exceptionally handsome face, unable to believe that the person in front of him could really do fortune-telling.

But he was just an ordinary person. Even if Ke Xingzhou had great abilities, it was impossible for him to know his past in just a few seconds after he sent a message, right?

Moreover, the event Ke Xingzhou first mentioned, it was something he was the only one involved in—there was absolutely no way anyone else could know about it!

Had big data become that terrifying?

The audience in the live stream, who had initially watched Ke Xingzhou stubbornly continue to offer fortune-telling even after being criticized, were now starting to become suspicious as they saw Cheng Yi’s expression.

[Wait, looking at his expression, it seems like he’s really a bit guilty? Could it be that Ke Xingzhou hit the nail on the head?!]

[I've formally studied face reading for a few years. This person has low eyebrows and heavy eyelids, the angle of his parents’ palace is concave—he really does have the appearance of someone who would harm their father. And the low eyebrows and heavy eyelids also indicate a lack of familial affection, someone who might abandon their family for their own benefit!]

But more people still didn’t believe it—

[You guys believe this? It’s been trending for so long, and there’s been no movement from the production team or Ke Xingzhou’s side. As soon as the broadcast starts, they suddenly pull someone up to do fortune-telling—who would believe this isn’t staged?!]

[We don’t even know this person. He can say whatever he wants. And what’s with this time—2:15 AM? Just making things up! He’s treating us like fools!]

[Just report him! Openly promoting feudal superstitions—I don’t believe the Internet Information Office won’t do something about this!]

[Report! Report!]The screen quickly filled with comments doubting Cheng Yi was a plant. His inbox was flooded with messages, and the people who had previously insulted Ke Xingzhou now all turned their attention towards him.

Some even recognized his ID and called him an undercover agent:

“I knew it, how could a random guy care so much about a man’s talent show? Turns out he’s an undercover sent by Ke Xingzhou! Shameless, pfft!”

“Hey, bro, if there’s money to be made, why didn’t you say so earlier? How much for being your lapdog? Take me with you!”

“…” Cheng Yi’s face turned pale, feeling like he had eaten a bitter pill.

—He really wasn’t a plant!

He had just stumbled upon the topic of “All Idol” online and followed some angry netizens to vent about his unsatisfactory life. How did things end up like this?

If he were really a plant, would he be staying in this shabby rented room?

But if he said that, not only would the audience not believe him, even he couldn’t convince himself. After all, if he believed it, wouldn’t that mean everything Ke Xingzhou had predicted was true?

He absolutely could not admit it!

Cheng Yi cursed in his heart and badmouthed Ke Xingzhou’s ancestors for several generations. But Ke Xingzhou didn’t stop:

“Up until now, your life trajectory has been quite normal. If you had a good heart, you wouldn’t have a hard time. But you are someone who can’t settle for the status quo, and so after you became an adult, your life became complicated.”

His mother’s affair leading to his stepfather’s death seemed normal—what could be worse?

Ke Xingzhou’s words piqued many people’s curiosity, and the bullet comments paused for a moment, eager to hear what he would say next.

Cheng Yi’s expression subtly changed, but it was already too late to stop it—

“At the age of sixteen, unable to bear the weight of life, you began your first theft. Since you weren’t caught, you quickly became addicted to the act, until one day, during a burglary, you were caught by the homeowner and beaten badly.”

Bullet comments: [......]

Though stealing was illegal, from what Ke Xingzhou had said before, it seemed this person did it out of desperation, not out of malice.

At least, it wasn’t as explosive as the affair that led to someone’s death.

The audience in the livestream was speechless and flooded the comments with: [I took my pants off, and this is all you show me?]

But soon, Ke Xingzhou continued:

“This beating left you bruised all over, and the frustration in your heart reached its peak. You spent the last of your savings on a few bottles of beer and got drunk. When you returned home drunk, you discovered the family you had stolen from had caused a scene at your place. Your paralyzed grandmother had died from the shock, and your younger sister was starving, lying next to her corpse, burning with a high fever.”

“At this point, you had hit rock bottom. You searched your body but couldn’t find a single coin. Eventually, you turned your gaze to the two people lying on the bed—”

Cheng Yi’s scalp went numb, and he looked up in a daze, only to meet Ke Xingzhou’s calm gaze.

He saw Ke Xingzhou’s lips moving, and the words that left his perfectly shaped lips sent a chill down his spine:

“You suddenly remembered that your stepfather and mother had once mentioned they had bought insurance for your grandmother before she became paralyzed.”

“You thought, they were about to die, about to be freed from their miserable lives. Why stop this from happening? It’s fate, your fate, and theirs. So you took a pillow and pressed it over your sister’s face.”

“This is the first life you took.”

As soon as Ke Xingzhou finished speaking, the bullet comments exploded:

[What the hell, is this real?]

[But if it is, this guy is inhuman! That’s his own sister! And if he hadn’t gone out to steal, his grandmother wouldn’t have died!]

[Is this a script? If someone believes this, they’ll be sent to prison!]【Wait a minute, didn’t he just say this was the first life he took? What does that mean? Does he have a second one?】

Cheng Yi could no longer see the comments. When Ke Xingzhou mentioned the “pillow,” he immediately jumped up, hair standing on end: “Stop talking nonsense! Spreading rumors is illegal, I can sue you!”

Ke Xingzhou looked at him meaningfully, his expression showing little change: “Let’s go back to what we were talking about earlier.”

“Last year, on this day, December 17th, around 7:30 in the morning, you dug a hole under the locust tree at the southwest corner of your house. It was for burying someone, right?”

Cheng Yi’s heart skipped a beat.

Although earlier, when Ke Xingzhou brought it up, he had instinctively felt a moment of fear, but after Ke Xingzhou changed the topic, he thought the other person didn’t know much and was just trying to trick him.

But now… did he really figure it out?

Cheng Yi stared at those pure black eyes and couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.

But soon, he forced himself to calm down.

No matter how Ke Xingzhou knew, whether by fortune-telling or investigation, there was no way he could make Cheng Yi admit it over the internet.

He had already seen people reporting the livestream; as long as he refused to admit it, and held out until the moderators arrived to shut it down, no one would believe Ke Xingzhou’s crazy words!

With this thought, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind, and he found a suitable excuse: “I did bury someone last year, but that was because a relative passed away. Is it illegal to bury someone I know?”

【You scared me, it was just a burial. That really isn’t much! Ke Xingzhou is a liar, if this guy didn’t get scared and explained it, I’d have called the police!】

【But, wait, people usually bury the dead somewhere more open, right? Burying under a locust tree seems a bit off…】

【No, I really feel like this guy’s reaction isn’t normal. Who brings up burying someone, first hesitates, and then remembers it was a relative’s burial? Maybe we should report it?】

Seeing someone mention calling the police, Cheng Yi panicked and his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

He couldn’t let them report it! Absolutely not!

The past could be explained—after all, his grandmother and sister, one old, one young, in such a poor situation, dying from illness or cold wasn’t unusual. Moreover, it had been a long time, and even if someone suspected him, after all this time, no one would find concrete evidence.

But last year’s incident was different. He hadn’t had time to erase all the traces. It would be easy to investigate!

The more he thought about it, the more restless he became. He couldn’t resist the urge to disconnect the call, but when he looked up, he saw Ke Xingzhou staring at him with a half-smile: “Are you sure the ‘relative’ you buried really died?”

Cheng Yi’s mind went blank, instinctively swallowing.

He really couldn’t be sure.

A year had passed, and with his deliberate attempts to forget, now it was hard for him to recall the details of that time. He only remembered the panic and confusion he felt.

He began to doubt, wondering if that person might still have been alive at the time.

Cheng Yi’s pupils contracted, his whole body going dazed—if what Ke Xingzhou said was true, then didn’t that mean…

“You buried someone alive,” Ke Xingzhou said firmly, his voice suddenly chilling.

As soon as those words fell, the livestream exploded.Not just because of Ke Xingzhou's words, but also because of a super-long comment pinned by the moderator in the livestream chat:

【This is no joke, everyone, call the police now!! I have a coworker from the same village as that person, I asked him, and everything matches!!

That person’s grandmother was brought over by his mother when she remarried. When he was in his teens, his biological mother ran away with someone. Not long after, both his grandmother and sister died. Interestingly, his grandmother’s death happened right at the last payout deadline for the insurance! Everyone in the village said his luck was incredible, he suddenly became rich!

Here’s the important part! Last year, when he went home for the New Year, his mom came back too at the end of December, but left before the New Year. The key is, no one in the village saw when she left—meaning, the ‘relative’ buried under the locust tree could very well be his mom!】

The chat exploded with 【Huh???】 as everyone seemed to lose their ability to speak.

Just as everyone was in shock, someone said they had already reported it to the police, but the police responded that the matter was already under investigation and advised them to stay calm and stop repeatedly reporting.

Cheng Yi stared at the comment, which seemed to be a detailed account of his life, and felt a deafening ringing in his ears, his mind going blank.

Panicking, he immediately cut the connection, not even daring to look at the comments in the livestream. He shut off his phone, then, feeling as if his backbone had been ripped out, collapsed to the ground along the wall.

The winter sun was dry and blinding, shining into his eyes, making him squint involuntarily.

It was over, everything was over.

Ke Xingzhou’s livestream was never shut down.

The livestream platform's management had already contacted the “All Idol” production team when Ke Xingzhou mentioned Cheng Yi’s past experiences before he turned 15.

Normally, the protocol for situations like this would be to immediately suspend the account and then investigate whether any rules were truly violated and how long the suspension should last.

Although the platform and the “All Idol” team were in a partnership, the platform’s regulations were strict and couldn’t be easily changed. Moreover, Ke Xingzhou wasn’t a popular contestant on “All Idol”—in fact, he had been heavily criticized, and it didn’t seem like he had any backstage support.

However, the platform learned from somewhere that Nie Chen from the Wanli Group was personally overseeing the “All Idol” production, so they gave him face and made a call to inquire about the situation.

To their surprise, they had truly encountered something.

The platform’s manager was caught off guard when Nie Chen’s emotionless voice came through: “Call the police.”

The manager was stunned. “Mr. Nie?”

His first reaction was that they should call the police to arrest Ke Xingzhou, since promoting superstitions and openly fortune-telling in a livestream was already illegal.

But Ke Xingzhou had just started his broadcast and hadn’t made any profits yet. The most likely outcome was a few days of detention and a small fine.

If they called the police, the impact on the show could be...

Before the manager could think further, Nie Chen’s voice came through again, this time much closer.

“Sorry, this livestream cannot be suspended for now. I’ve already had Wanli’s lawyers secure the evidence chain. You might need to provide the user’s identification information shortly.”

Only then did the manager realize that Nie Chen wasn’t speaking to him.

And from the sound of it, Nie Chen seemed to be planning to arrest the user connected to the livestream?

At this point, Ke Xingzhou had just revealed that Cheng Yi had killed his own sister. Although there were comments suggesting calling the police to verify the truth, the manager didn’t think calling the police would help.

Setting aside whether what Ke Xingzhou said was true, the events had happened a long time ago, and the window for proper investigation had long passed. Furthermore, since the deceased were Cheng Yi’s own family members, even if the police were called, the matter might be true, but the person might not face proper punishment.Why do something thankless and difficult?

He was still hesitating whether to advise Nie Chen when Assistant Liu had already efficiently called the police, briefly explaining the situation to them.

At this point, any further persuasion would seem ungrateful, so the manager wisely kept silent, indicating that he would actively cooperate with the police investigation, “...but we also hope that your company can manage the contestant and avoid making things too difficult for us.”

Nie Chen responded with a simple “Mm,” and instructed the staff from the show team, “Add a line to the livestream, ‘For entertainment purposes, please don’t take it seriously,’ and also ‘Believe in science, reject superstition.’”

The manager: “...”

So you’re not planning to stop Ke Xingzhou from continuing to tell fortunes, are you?!

On the livestream side, after Cheng Yi disconnected, Ke Xingzhou didn’t connect with the next viewer.

He finished eating the pomelo in his hand, leisurely wiped his fingers, and when he looked up again, the sharp, imposing aura from before had completely faded. He suddenly appeared lazy and fatigued.

It was as if the aggressive stance he had taken with Cheng Yi earlier was just an illusion for the viewers.

This change caused the chat to slow down, and the number of comments cursing Ke Xingzhou seemed to have decreased a lot.

In fact, after someone had come forward to confirm that what Ke Xingzhou said was true, most of the negative comments had disappeared.

Some were simply confused by the strange situation, others were rushing to report it to the police, and the remaining viewers included a few like Cheng Yi, who were just venting their emotions without understanding what had truly happened.

Through Ke Xingzhou’s actions, they had somehow turned the livestream into a kind of metaphysical show.

For a while, no one was speaking. Ke Xingzhou couldn’t be bothered by the comments from those who had watched the entire stream and were now mindlessly claiming he was setting up a persona. He just closed his eyes to rest.

【Why isn’t he speaking all of a sudden? Keep going! I still want to watch the fortune-telling!】

【Maybe the time was too short, and he didn’t have time to prepare the second “plant”? As expected, it’s all just a setup, pretending to be mysterious! The one who said the police were already investigating, that must be another plant too, right?】

【Who cares if they’re plants or not, I’m here for entertainment, not to judge anyone. It’s interesting, I want to watch him tell fortunes!】

【Stop arguing, don’t you think Ke Xingzhou is waiting for some news?】

It seemed as though Ke Xingzhou was responding to this viewer’s guess, because just after this comment was posted, the number of viewers in his livestream suddenly surged to several thousand, followed by a flurry of gossip from the audience.

【Help!! Is this the idol trainee who catches criminals live? My god, he’s too handsome! Can you also tell my fortune, I want to know about my love life!】

【What’s he selling? Where’s the fortune-telling link, what’s the contact info, where does he live?】

The original viewers in the livestream were completely confused. After asking around in the comments, they found out that the person who had just connected with Ke Xingzhou, Cheng Yi, had already been arrested.

Just a few minutes after disconnecting, the police had contacted the livestream platform, asking them to cooperate by providing Cheng Yi’s personal information and IP address. They then proceeded to Cheng Yi’s rented house to make the arrest.

At first, the chat was full of doubts, asking how it was possible to catch him so quickly. It hadn’t even been a few minutes since Ke Xingzhou’s revelation, and they had already arrested him. The speed of the arrest was almost like lightning!

Then a new viewer shared a link with them—it was a police report from Cheng Yi’s hometown.

It turned out that several months ago, the neighbors of Cheng Yi’s family had been bothered by a strange stench but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Last month, they had bought a dog, and for some reason, the dog kept running to Cheng Yi’s backyard. After a few incidents, the neighbors grew suspicious. Recently, it had rained, and the rain had washed away much of the soil that had been dug up by the dog, exposing the shallow grave beneath the locust tree.The police's preliminary autopsy revealed that the body was that of a woman in her fifties, whose age matched that of Cheng Yi's mother. Moreover, she was not murdered and then buried, but rather suffocated to death by being buried alive.

In such a small town, it's extremely rare to encounter a violent crime like this, which immediately drew the police's heightened attention. They had been investigating Cheng Yi's whereabouts for some time, but since the incident occurred over a year ago, and Cheng Yi had worked in multiple places during that period, they hadn't been able to apprehend him.

However, when the Beijing police received the report and uploaded the details to the public security system, they were quickly noticed by the police from Cheng Yi's hometown.

After the two sides made contact and with the help of the IP address provided by the platform, they were able to pinpoint Cheng Yi's location. Just before he could pack up and attempt to escape again, they apprehended him.

Cheng Yi had already been terrified by Ke Xingzhou's words and knew that he had not only killed his biological mother, but also buried her alive while she was still alive. He was completely disoriented.

When the police interrogated him, he immediately confessed to everything, spilling all the details of his crimes without hesitation.

【The criminal process doesn’t need to be investigated, my relative works at the police station and is in charge of this case. All the details match exactly with what this young man said! Even the position where the body was buried is the same! Cheng Yi himself didn’t even recognize the directions, he had to identify the scene using photos!】

Once these words were posted, the livestream room was completely in an uproar.

Some people were still skeptical, wondering if this was just another way of building a persona. But now that the police were involved, it seemed there was no room for any fabrication.

The most critical point was—if the platform had already provided Cheng Yi's personal information and IP address to the police, how could they have not banned Ke Xingzhou's livestream yet?!

At that moment, many viewers were starting to get excited.

As they were still hesitating, they opened Ke Xingzhou's sales list and found that the 100 boxes of pomelos had all been sold out in an instant.

A few deep-water broadcasts were still floating at the top of the livestream:

"Xie Baiqiu: The water in Jinjiang Tan is a thousand feet deep, but it’s not as deep as the love I have for you~"

"Xie Baiqiu: Throw a deep-water bomb, my love for you is like the endless river, like the Yellow River flooding!"

...

Ten colorful broadcasts passed by, and the chat paused for a moment before quickly rolling again.

【Rich lady! She’s a real rich lady! Ahhh, one deep-water bomb costs 100 yuan, ten bombs would be 1,000 yuan! Rich lady, look at me, don’t be too rigid about the gender thing!】

【Where did this rich lady come from, so willing to spend money? We’ve been family for hundreds of years, come look at our family’s Xie An ahhh!】

【Wait, Xie Baiqiu? Is it the Xie Baiqiu I know... Xie An’s real sister, the general manager of Zhiwen Trading?】

Amid the excitement, the ID that had just sent ten deep-water bombs posted a comment:

"Xie Baiqiu: Even I, I have something important to ask."

Ke Xingzhou glanced at the connection requests and accepted the request from the other party.

As the video call connected, a face that resembled Xie An by about seventy percent appeared on the screen.

It was clear that the person on the screen was indeed Xie Baiqiu, Xie An’s real sister, as mentioned in the comments.

However, unlike her younger brother Xie An, who appeared simple and open, Xie Baiqiu looked much more professional. She wore a smart business suit, had frameless glasses on her nose, and her gaze was sharp and deep, not the kind of person you would expect to seek out an online fortune teller.

While Ke Xingzhou was observing her, Xie Baiqiu was also observing him.

Her gaze lingered on his unusually handsome face for a moment, and a flicker of surprise flashed in her eyes, as if she hadn’t expected the fortune teller, whose name had been all over the internet, to be such a young and good-looking man.

But in just a moment, she withdrew her gaze, and the time she spent looking at him was perfectly measured—not too long to seem dismissive, yet not too short to appear critical.

Before she could speak, Ke Xingzhou said, “Cancel all the pomelo orders.”Everyone was stunned.

【Wait, what’s he doing? His sister bought out all the stock for him, isn’t it better to end the competition early?】

【Is he pretending now?】

Xie Baiqiu hadn’t expected Ke Xingzhou to say this and frowned: “I’m not Xie An’s helper, I really need you to help me with a fortune-telling.”

She thought Ke Xingzhou might mind what she had done and feel that it interfered with Xie An’s plans.

But before the connection, she hadn’t realized that the host was the fortune-teller Xie An had mentioned before, nor had she intended to cause any friction between Ke Xingzhou and Xie An.

Ke Xingzhou, however, shook his head: “One reading costs a thousand, the rules are set. If you want a fortune-telling, you have to follow my rules.”

Xie Baiqiu stared at him for a moment, not understanding why someone would push away money that was already in their hands.

However, when the family had hired other masters before, there were indeed many rules, and if you didn’t follow them, they wouldn’t read for you. So she pondered for a moment and decided to refund the money.

Only then did Ke Xingzhou speak and get to the point: “What do you want to ask?”

When it came to the main issue, Xie Baiqiu’s expression involuntarily showed her anxiety, and her tone became more urgent: “I want you to help me find out where my best friend is and if she’s safe.”

Xie Baiqiu hadn’t been able to contact her best friend since a few days ago.

The two of them had busy jobs and didn’t usually stay in touch often, so a few days of silence was nothing unusual. But what made Xie Baiqiu uneasy was that her best friend, who had always been very firm in her belief against marriage, had suddenly become obsessed with getting married and having children after meeting a man at a bar last month. Later, she even went to the man’s hometown to chase after him, defying her family’s objections, wanting to marry him and have children.

This strange change in behavior already made Xie Baiqiu suspicious. What made it worse was that after her best friend followed the man and left, she completely cut off contact with everyone.

Now, it wasn’t just Xie Baiqiu; her best friend’s family, colleagues, and friends couldn’t contact her either.

Even the man her friend had chased after had vanished without a trace.

“I even contacted the bar owner, but the owner said he was just filling in for a friend for a few days and had never actually worked at the bar. They didn’t even know where he was from, and the only contact details left were not his own.”

That’s why Xie Baiqiu was so anxious.

Her mind was filled with recent news about young men and women being trafficked, and every time she closed her eyes, she imagined her best friend, covered in blood, crying for help.

Xie Baiqiu had already tried all known methods but still couldn’t reach her friend and was nearly driven to madness.

In fact, before connecting with Ke Xingzhou, she had already tried contacting the master the Xie family had hired before, but that level of master was often wandering for most of the year. Recently, they had a lot of ceremonies, and it was not easy for someone of her status to find them at short notice.

After making several calls and getting no response, Xie Baiqiu, desperate, decided to turn to the hot search gossip and found her way to this livestream.

By the time she came here, she already understood the details of Cheng Yi’s case, and although she had some doubts about Ke Xingzhou’s age, she still chose to believe him, thinking about how her brother was saved with his help and how he had even reminded their parents to avoid a deadly car accident.

Even if her brother had trusted the wrong person, it was just over ten thousand yuan. She could always confirm with another master later.

A series of thoughts flashed through Xie Baiqiu’s mind when she heard Ke Xingzhou ask her: “How do you plan to investigate?”

Xie Baiqiu was stunned.

Wasn’t it supposed to be him figuring it out?"You want to investigate your best friend, who has no blood relation to you, so it's impossible to calculate her life and death or specific whereabouts," Ke Xingzhou said. "Even if it's a reading based on her social circle, there are other people's fortunes that could interfere."

In other words, if Xie Baiqiu wanted to know about her best friend, she either needed to provide her friend's birth date and time, or have someone with a blood relation present.

Xie Baiqiu hesitated immediately.

Her best friend’s family had already scattered all over the world searching for her. She had acted on a whim and couldn’t contact them at the moment. As for the birth date and time, Xie Baiqiu was somewhat familiar with it because the Xie family had hired a master to do fortune-telling for her and her brother before, so she understood that it wasn’t something one could just casually give out.

There were tens of thousands of people in the livestream. If a few of them had bad intentions and used her best friend's birth details for something, it would be even more troublesome.

"A photo will do as well," Ke Xingzhou paused. "If you only want to know whether she is alive or dead, there’s a simple method."

"What method?" Xie Baiqiu quickly asked.

Ke Xingzhou raised his eyes and glanced at her, then casually said one word: "Burn."

"Burn?" Xie Baiqiu hesitated for a moment. "Burn what?"

"Gold ingots, paper people, paper houses, all of them work," Ke Xingzhou said. "If she’s already dead, and you don’t know her birth date and time, you can burn things like that based on her photo and the approximate time of death. If she’s still alive, these things will be without an owner and can’t be sent."

Xie Baiqiu froze, her face turning pale. "What if they are sent?"

Ke Xingzhou raised his eyes and gave her a casual glance. "It means the person is truly dead and cannot be revived. You can change your investigation direction now."

"…"

Xie Baiqiu’s lips trembled, her expression extremely unpleasant.

Even the barrage, which had been rapidly refreshing, fell silent. Clearly, everyone realized that if Xie Baiqiu’s best friend was really fine, she wouldn’t have been unreachable for so long, and Xie Baiqiu wouldn’t have needed to turn to a small online idol in a livestream for help.

Her best friend was probably... in serious danger.

Just as everyone was thinking this, Xie Baiqiu suddenly took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "Alright, I’ll send you her photo. Please help me check."

Ke Xingzhou wasn’t managing the backend himself. He glanced at the program staff and said, "Could you print the photo out for me and grab some gold foil paper from the prop storage?"

Earlier, when the staff had moved things, he had seen gold foil paper inside.

The staff had already been confused by this surreal livestream. Upon hearing this, they instinctively nodded, printed the photo from the backend, and then went to the prop storage to grab a stack of gold foil paper, handing it over to Ke Xingzhou.

After finishing all this, the staff returned to their seat and met the surprised gazes of their colleagues. Only then did they suddenly realize something.

Wait, this was a talent show, not a fortune-telling show! Why were they helping Ke Xingzhou with this?!

But it was too late to say anything now, because Ke Xingzhou was already folding gold ingots.

His fingers were long and elegant, and no matter what he did, it looked pleasing to the eye. When he bent his head to fold the paper ingots, he had a unique aura that seemed to calm the viewer's mind. In just a few seconds, the audience in the livestream, who had been feeling restless, suddenly felt more relaxed, and for a moment, they couldn’t remember why they had originally come to criticize such a handsome young man.

But it was only for a few seconds.

Ke Xingzhou quickly finished folding the gold ingots and reached into his pocket—

And pulled out a small black-and-white kitten.

Barrage: [......]Ke Xingzhou didn’t feel at all confused by his actions. He first checked the talisman paper on the kitten, noting that the cinnabar color was still bright, indicating it hadn’t expired. He let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief.

It was finally saved.

He reached out and rubbed the kitten’s head. As the kitten purred in comfort, Ke Xingzhou flipped it over, belly up, and placed the printed photo of Xie Baiqiu's best friend on top of it.

The kitten didn’t even open its eyes. It was suddenly picked up, feeling a bit disoriented, wobbling and shaking its neck, and mewing a few times. Sensing the extra weight on its body, it instinctively gripped the edge of the printed photo.

Ke Xingzhou pulled another talisman paper from his pocket. In front of tens of thousands of viewers in the livestream, he pressed his thumb and middle finger on both sides of the talisman.

With a gentle rub, the talisman spontaneously ignited.

In an instant, all the light in the livestream seemed to be overshadowed by the faint glow of this small flame. The surrounding images became dim and blurry.

Ke Xingzhou lowered his gaze, his long eyelashes casting a shadow over the glimmer in his eyes.

Where no one could see, the golden light around his iris gradually faded and soon completed a full circle.

At the same time, he picked up the paper ingots and tossed them into the flame.

A burst of purple light suddenly shot up, and soon, both the paper ingots and the talisman disappeared from the livestream.