Monroe Anne sat quietly in her chair, lost in thought.
After about ten minutes, she let out a soft sigh and ultimately chose to endure.
I'll just pretend I didn't understand his innuendo, she thought to herself.
If he comes to eat tomorrow, I'll try to get him drunk and see if I can set him up with a couple of girls to get him off my back.
I WON'T return this money if I can help it.
After running a business for several years, she had picked up a few tricks on how to handle men.
Having made up her mind, she turned off her phone, composed herself, and touched up her clothes and makeup.
She was getting ready to go out for her appointment.
The person she was meeting tonight was her boyfriend of two years.
He had recently returned to the country and said he had something important to discuss with her.
His tone on the phone had been somber, leading Monroe Anne to suspect what the conversation would be about.
When it rains, it poursâespecially when you're already down on your luck.
She was used to it.
...
In the internet cafe, James, wearing the complimentary Bluetooth headset, opened TikTok Live and began searching for girls rated 90 or above.
He wanted to see how much affection he could gain by showering a streamer with $300,000.
Surely it couldn't be negative, right?
He scrolled through one live stream after another.
All the female streamers were strikingly beautiful; not a single one was unattractive.
Each face was stunningly gorgeous, and their outfits were incredibly alluring.
Some wore qipaos slit up to their waists, others sported tight yoga pants, and still others donned miniskirts with various colored stockings or had red garters around their smooth, bare legs.
They flirted and preened, unabashedly showcasing their feminine charms.
The multi-person dance streams were particularly captivating.
Five slender and curvy girls took turns dancing, each one more dazzling, charming, and graceful than the last.
If you sent gifts, they would continuously loop their dance performance.
The stage backdrop featured a giant moon, making the girls appear as if they were celestial beings, bestowing upon mere mortals a feast for the eyes and ears with their singing and dancing.
James's heart raced, and his eyes were glued to the screen.
No wonder there weren't many beauties to be found on the streetsâthey were all hiding in live streams.
With so many beauties here, he thought he could surely find some rated 90.
But activating his scanning ability was like using a monster-revealing mirror; their true forms began to show.
In one of the top ten most popular multi-person dance streams, the first girl on the left had a charm rating of 68.
Whether it was due to skilled makeup or heavy filters, this girl, who was less attractive than the internet cafe's cashier, appeared on stream as an exquisite beauty capable of causing the downfall of nations.
Wearing a light blue qipao, her graceful movements, the gentle sway of her slender waist, so delicate it seemed unable to support the weight of her chest, made viewers instinctively want to reach out and help her.
But seeing her rating below 70, James felt a sense of trepidation, both attracted and repelled.
The second girl, rated 79, wore the same style of qipao but managed to make it look even more seductive. She occasionally turned sideways, revealing the edge of her thigh, subtly adjusting the hem of her qipao around her hips to accentuate her curves intentionally.
The third girl, standing in the center, had an impressive system ratingâin terms of relationship experience, which was close to 100.
Her actual charm was only 82.
She was attractive enough and photogenic, but upon closer inspection, her face seemed somewhat artificial.
If one had to describe it, her features looked as if they had been meticulously sculpted, so perfect she resembled a wax figure of a celebrity.
Beautiful, yes, but not suitable for prolonged staring.
It gave the unsettling feeling of looking at a robot.
None of the five girls scored 90 or above.
The audience, however, was substantial, with over ten thousand viewers online.
James marveled at this.
He moved on from that stream, continuing his search for a true goddess worthy of his investment.
After several minutes of scrolling, all he found were heavily filtered and overly whitened streamers.
With the increasing number of people joining the live-streaming world, anyone could apply beauty filters, put on a wig, and transform into a vision of beauty.
Imagine, then, what girls with a bit of natural beauty could achieve.
They applied thick layers of makeup, using various shades of powder to highlight, contour, and create a three-dimensional effect.
They added vibrant lip color, applied double eyelid tape, and wore heavy false eyelashes.
They dolled themselves up like fairies in front of the camera, flirting and teasing to swindle money and affection.
Meanwhile, genuinely beautiful girls often found themselves lacking in the art of smooth-talking or were accustomed to being aloof.
As such, they couldn't compete in popularity with the more passionate girls who weren't shy about using risqué language.
They ended up earning only a hundred or two a day while enduring the audience's vulgar comments.
This discouraged them from streaming, making them increasingly rare.
Scanning through the streams, James grew weary.
He clicked through dozens of streams but found none that met his standards.
They were all in the 60-80 range.
His spirits began to sink.
Just as he was about to give up, a youthful, adorable round face suddenly appeared on his screen.
She had a small mouth, a small nose, but disproportionately large eyes.
A beauty mark near the corner of her eye added to her charm.
Her shiny black hair fell casually over her shoulders, and long bangs covered her eyebrows.
She looked sweet, innocent, and a bit dazed.
She wore a simple white crew-neck t-shirt that revealed nothing of her figure's contours.
Her lower half was covered by a blue skirt that reached her knees, exposing only a glimpse of her fair, tender calves.
Her conservative style was a stark contrast to the other flamboyant streamers.
Name: Shirley Taylor
Age: 21
Charm: 95
Romantic Relationships: 0
???
It's 0!!
A miracle.
Holy crap.
James was ecstatic.
Not only had he found a goddess, but her relationship count was also zero.
All his efforts had been worth it.
Perseverance truly paid off.
Shirley Taylor, in a daze, noticed a new viewer enter her stream and said, "Welcome, 'Public Enemy of Love,' to my stream. Please follow to show your support."
James, surprised that even his level-one account was acknowledged by the streamer, obediently clicked "Follow."
He rarely played on live streams and had never been acknowledged by a streamer. He had also never spent money, choosing to purely be a lurker, and had thus named himself 'Public Enemy of Love'. He was determined to remain a freeloader to the end.
"Would you like to join my fan club, dear? It's only ten cents."
Seeing someone follow her, Shirley Taylor's eyes lit up.
Recalling the streaming tips she had learned yesterday, she managed a shy smile.
James was too busy to reply.
He was in the middle of topping up his account.
Topping up on TikTok was a bit of a hassle, requiring multiple transactions of $50,000 each.
For such a rare beauty, ten cents was hardly enough.
He was going to go all out.
Seeing that the new viewer neither spoke nor sent gifts and had a name that screamed "freeloader," Shirley Taylor's smile faded slightly.
Many viewers were rational and wouldn't spend money recklessly, even if they had it.
A follow was already a good sign.
She said nothing more, though her eyes dimmed a little.