Bai Youwei thought for a moment, then stepped closer to him and asked, “An escape room — do you know what that is?”

The tattooed man frowned.

“Imagine the welfare home as one enormous escape room. Tonight, let two or three of your more timid brothers know you need rescuing. If they can escape the welfare home before dawn tomorrow, then the escape counts as a success, and I’ll split half of all my points with you.”

The tattooed man’s eyes lit up!

Bai Youwei had just effortlessly raked in over thirty thousand points in gifts. Even if she got nothing at all tonight, half of what she already had would still be over ten thousand points — equivalent to several months of his income!

The tattooed man immediately said, “Just split it with me alone — my brothers are only making cameo appearances, a few hundred points each is plenty.”

Bai Youwei nodded. “That works. After all, you’re their boss — you call the shots.”

The tattooed man asked again, “But why specifically pick the timid ones?”

“Because timid people make for better content~” Bai Youwei said with a smile. “Flailing around, screaming and shouting, lots of physical expression, emotions running high.”

If someone was cold and impassive like Shen Mo, they’d probably go the entire time without their expression changing once — what would be worth watching in that?

…Though, that might not be entirely accurate.

At least Shen Mo was handsome. Just admiring his face alone was enough.

And there were those abs too.

As Bai Youwei’s thoughts drifted further and further away—

“Tonight you’re not going to use chili water and pepper powder again, are you?”

The tattooed man’s voice snapped her out of it.

Bai Youwei looked at him and said with complete seriousness, “Of course not. Using the same trick twice would bore the audience. You should also keep this in mind — don’t come in screaming for blood right away. Use your heads, think things through, figure out how to get everyone out safely.”

“Get out safely…” The tattooed man latched onto those words and asked carefully, “So, there will be some degree of danger?”

“Since we’ve reached an agreement, I naturally won’t actually hurt you.” Bai Youwei said. “At most it’ll just be some scaring, creating some visual effect for the audience.”

As she spoke, she added with a cheerful smile, “You know as well as I do — better content means more gifts. So when it’s time to be scared, don’t hold back.”

The tattooed man frowned, gave a nod, and asked, “Alright, I understand. So now… should I notify them?”

“It’s still early. Open your stream first.” Bai Youwei said.

The tattooed man did as she said and opened his stream. “It’s open — and then what…”

He looked up, and saw Bai Youwei pull out an electric baton.

Before the tattooed man could react, the baton had already swung at him! Sparks flashed before his eyes! His mind buzzed and he immediately collapsed, losing consciousness—

…

Ning Yao watched the man on the ground with worry. “He’s not dead, is he…?”

“It’s not that easy to die from that. He just passed out.” Bai Youwei said carelessly. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

The three little ones heard “eat” and bolted excitedly for the door. “Yay! Food! Food!”

Ning Yao hurriedly called out, “Take the right staircase going down! The glass marbles are still on the left staircase!”

“We know!”

…

By the time the tattooed man opened his eyes again, the sky had gone completely dark. Stars twinkled in the night, like countless prying camera lenses.

The tattooed man rubbed the back of his head and sat up, unable to suppress a low curse.

“This woman… hits so damn hard…”

After cursing, he noticed his follower count had gone up by more than two hundred, and the frustration in his chest eased a little.

A reputation worthy of the top of the Rising Star chart, indeed. He’d done nothing but lie here motionless, and he’d still gained followers. A pity there were no gifts.

The tattooed man got up and walked to the door, turned the handle, and found it locked tight.

“She’s really doing the escape room thing…” he muttered under his breath. Remembering his agreement with Bai Youwei, he fished a phone out of his pocket.

In this world, everything was roughly the same as before except currency had been replaced with points — so phones worked just fine.

“Hello? A’Ping, take Little Seven with you and get over to the welfare home. I’ve been locked up!”

—