81: 500 ml of water per hour

Zhou Mengqi's improvisational performance ended, and she looked at the interviewers expectantly.

"Very good," Ning Yutong spoke first, her smile sincere. "Your voice is indeed very infectious."

"Thank you, Senior!" Zhou Mengqi bowed happily.

Only then did Yu Heng take his hand off Qin Lu's leg and place it back on the table.

Qin Lu breathed a sigh of relief, but the sensation of his fingers remained on her leg.

It felt tingly and numbing.

"Next," Yu Heng signaled to Hao Junran, his tone as casual as usual.

Hao Junran glanced at the list. "Liu Hewei!"

A tall, thin boy walked in, wearing sportswear and looking quite bright and cheerful.

"Hello, teachers! I'm Liu Hewei from the Directing major!!" he said loudly. "I want to join the club because I think the Virtual Streamer industry has great potential for future development!"

Yu Heng raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

"Although the live streaming industry is booming right now, and TikTok has also launched its streaming feature, the competition is fierce. It's not like a few years ago when people would watch as soon as you started a broadcast," Liu Hewei explained logically. "But Virtual Streamers are different. It's an emerging industry domestically, with a stable audience for ACG culture, high fan loyalty, and a strong willingness to pay."

While Liu Hewei was still talking, Yu Heng's hand dropped down again.

This time, it landed directly on Qin Lu's knee.

Qin Lu glared at him.

"So, what do you think you can do?" Ning Yutong asked.

"I can handle operations!" Liu Hewei said confidently. "I've watched many live streams, so I know how to generate hype!"

"Alright, go back and wait for the notification." Yu Heng ticked a box on the list.

Liu Hewei thanked them and left.

The interviews continued.

The next few students were all mediocre; some were just there to join the fun, while others had only a superficial understanding of Virtual Streamers.

Yu Heng's hand remained on Qin Lu's leg the entire time.

Sometimes he just left it there, and sometimes he would gently stroke it.

From her initial nervousness to later numbness, and finally... Qin Lu discovered she was actually getting a bit used to this touch.

Even when Yu Heng took his hand away to write, her leg felt a sense of emptiness.

Yu Heng pulled out his phone under the table with his other hand.

With the screen brightness set very low, he opened WeChat and found Bai Xinran's profile picture.

Yu Heng typed quickly.

Yu Heng: [First task.]

Yu Heng: [From now on, drink 500 milliliters of water every hour.]

Yu Heng: [The condition is that you cannot go to the bathroom until you finish your stream at 9 PM.]

He thought for a moment and added another sentence.

Yu Heng: [This is to keep your throat moist and maintain a good state during the stream. Of course, it's also a task.]

He clicked send.

Yu Heng turned off the phone screen and put it back in his pocket.

Meanwhile, in the Villa, Bai Xinran was streaming.

Her phone vibrated on the desk.

She had just finished a team fight in the game and was bantering with the bullet chat during the death respawn timer.

"Ah~ dead again. Do these teammates even know how to play?" she complained lazily. "Forget it, forget it. Even if you're bad, Mommy loves you."

The bullet chat was filled with "Hahaha" and "Stop scolding them, dog."

As she spoke, Bai Xinran glanced at her phone.

She pretended to adjust her headset and quickly unlocked the screen.

500 milliliters per hour? Until 9 PM... It's 5:30 now, so there's three and a half hours left. That's nearly two liters?

No bathroom breaks before finishing the stream?!

She instinctively pressed her legs together.

What kind of task is this?!

This was too... clearly tinged with mischief and a sense of control.

The bullet chat was still scrolling, asking why she had stopped moving.

Bai Xinran took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound normal: "Cough, it's nothing. It just lagged for a second. Wait while I grab a drink of water, guys."

She picked up the cup she usually used for water and gave it a rough estimate.

It was only about 300 milliliters.

Not enough.

She got up, walked to the kitchen, and took a 1.5-liter bottle of mineral water out of the fridge.

She carried it back upstairs and twisted it open: "It's a bit dry today, so I'll drink more water to cool down."

She drank from the bottle in small but continuous gulps.

Before she had finished even a third of it, she already felt a slight bloating in her lower abdomen.

Bai Xinran put the bottle down. She didn't know what Yu Heng was doing right now, or if he was watching her stream and calculating how much she drank.

This feeling of being monitored remotely made her feel both ashamed and excited.

"Alright, continuing, continuing!" She gripped her mouse again, forcing her attention back to the game.

But the bloating and pressure in her lower abdomen made her a bit distracted... "Next one, Zhang Tingting!"

The one who came up was a quiet girl who spoke very softly.

However, her timbre was quite good—the "Royal Sister" type of voice.

It was quite a contrast to her appearance.

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhang Tingting from the Directing major..." She pushed up her glasses. "I want to join the club because I like to write things..."

"Write things?" Ning Yutong asked gently. "Is it novels?"

"Yes." Zhang Tingting nodded. "I write Fan fiction and have a few hundred followers on LOFTER... I think Virtual Streamers also need personas and stories..."

Yu Heng looked at Zhang Tingting with a serious face. "Fan fiction? What genres do you write?"

As he spoke, he gave the inside of Qin Lu's thigh a squeeze.

Not too hard, not too soft.

But it was enough to make Qin Lu almost cry out.

She turned her head sharply, her eyes wide and round.

What are you doing!

"I mainly write BL..." Zhang Tingting's voice got even softer. "Which is Boy's Love..."

Students in the back rows whispered among themselves.

Hao Junran's face turned red from holding back his laughter.

Ning Yutong blinked and maintained her smile. "That's good. Creative ability is very important."

Qin Lu also reached out and gave his thigh a hard pinch.

Yu Heng's expression stiffened for a moment, but he quickly returned to normal.

His hand on Qin Lu's leg gave another retaliatory squeeze.

The two of them were secretly competing under the table.

"Alright, go back and wait for the notification," Yu Heng said to Zhang Tingting.

After Zhang Tingting left, Qin Lu lowered her voice and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: "Know when to stop."

Yu Heng turned his head, his lips almost touching her ear: "Counselor, that pinch really hurt."

His warm breath brushed against her ear.

Qin Lu's ears instantly turned red.

"You deserve it," she turned her face away.

Ning Yutong turned her head at this moment, frowning slightly, but she didn't notice anything unusual between the two.

As the interviews reached the latter half, fewer and fewer people came.

Yu Heng's hand became increasingly bold.

"Counselor," Yu Heng suddenly leaned in and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "your legs are shaking."

Qin Lu bit her lower lip.

How could they not be shaking?

She felt like she could hardly stay seated.

"The last one!" Hao Junran called out the name. "Wang Luyu!"

She was a rather ordinary-looking girl, a bit shy.

"Hello, teachers. I'm Wang Luyu from the Vocal Music major..." She scratched her head. "I want to join the club because I want to be a Streamer and learn how to do live broadcasts."

"Learn live streaming?" Ning Yutong asked. "Have you never done it before?"

"No," Wang Luyu said honestly. "But I learn things fast! And since I'm a Vocal Music major, I can sing basically any pop song."