Chapter 23: The Long-Awaited Glow

Seeing how popular this post was, Wang Mingyuan felt a bit nervous. He pulled the post back to the homepage and studied the appearance of the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata in the picture more carefully.

However, he couldn’t be completely sure whether the picture was Photoshopped or not. He looked at the list of online moderators and sent private messages to some experienced ones, asking for their opinions.

These moderators mostly gave similar views. They believed that this mature Pan Deng Yulu Variegata was not Photoshopped. But there was one doubtful point: the veteran user who posted this had logged off right after making the post and hadn’t come back online yet.

After discussing, they thought they should notify the head moderator, who was also the creator of this forum—Flower Fairy.

From the name, it seemed like a woman. But none of the moderators on the forum had ever met Flower Fairy in person, nor had they seen any photos of her. All her information was mysterious.

After deciding, the moderator of the section where Wang Mingyuan’s post was located sent a private message to Flower Fairy. From the backend, Flower Fairy’s status showed as offline, but she might also be using the invisible mode.

Less than a minute later, Wang Mingyuan heard the notification sound for a message. He quickly opened it and saw it was from Flower Fairy. The content was very brief: “The picture is real. Pay attention and contact the poster to confirm.”

Wang Mingyuan quickly replied and agreed. But Flower Fairy didn’t send any more messages. He looked at the poster’s still grayed-out avatar and couldn’t help feeling annoyed. This guy posted and then just left it there. What was going on?

Meanwhile, Zhou Yu, after his experiment succeeded, suddenly remembered the post he had made. He quickly took out his mobile phone and entered the Xianrouyuan Forum. As soon as he logged in and saw the message notifications on the screen, his eyes widened. This was about to blow up.

In just over three hours, his account had received 1,500 notifications. He opened the notification inbox and looked. About 1,300 of them were replies to his post, and the other 200 were private messages.

Zhou Yu first opened the post replies and clicked on the post he had published. When he saw the view count, he could hardly believe it. It had only been three hours, yet the views had reached an amazing 5,000. Normally, the average number of daily online users on the Xianrouyuan Forum was only around 2,000 to 3,000.

He kept scrolling on the screen and read some replies. Some were analyses and comments about the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata. Some were requests to pre-order and buy. More were comments asking for cuttings or leaves.

Seeing these comments, Zhou Yu suddenly felt a surge of pride and satisfaction. After growing this jade dew for so many days, he finally had some results.

Once upon a time, he had also begged for cuttings and leaves like this on the forum. Now, he had become the object of others’ envy.

Right at that moment, another notification sound appeared on the forum page. Zhou Yu clicked to look and immediately smiled. It was from the moderator of the Agave section, Wine Pool and Meat Forest: “Flower Not Flower, are you there? If so, please reply.”

Flower Not Flower was Zhou Yu’s username on the Xianrouyuan Forum. As someone who used to hang around the forum often, he was quite familiar with this Agave section moderator, Wine Pool and Meat Forest.

His Pan Deng Yulu Variegata had also caught the attention of a moderator. He smiled and clicked reply: “Moderator Wine and Meat, I’m here.”

Seeing that this guy had finally come online and replied, Wang Mingyuan felt excitement rise inside him. “Do you have a QQ or WeChat ID? Some things need to be discussed with you.”

If this Pan Deng Yulu Variegata really belonged to Zhou Yu, and if it was truly going to be auctioned on the Xianrouyuan Forum, it would be of great help to the entire forum’s development.

Zhou Yu thought for a moment and sent his WeChat ID to Wine Pool and Meat Forest. Then he opened WeChat. Soon, he received a friend request. The name was also Wine Pool and Meat Forest.

After accepting, Wine Pool and Meat Forest sent a message directly: “Flower Not Flower, I’m Wine Pool and Meat Forest.”

“Haha, Moderator Wine and Meat, your name says it all,” Zhou Yu typed with a laugh.

Seeing Zhou Yu’s reply, Wang Mingyuan felt somewhat relieved. Although Flower Not Flower’s avatar wasn’t a real photo, from the words, he could tell this person wasn’t old and should be quite easy to talk to.

“The post you made about the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata has exploded the whole forum,” Wang Mingyuan got straight to the point.

Zhou Yu looked at the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata beside him and replied: “I didn’t expect that either. I just wanted to show off some pictures before selling, to attract some attention.”

“Yeah, we warmly welcome you auctioning this perfect Pan Deng Yulu Variegata on the forum. It’s a big help to the forum. However, as a moderator, I need to confirm some things. It might cause you some inconvenience.” Wang Mingyuan thought for a bit, typed word by word on WeChat, and made some changes in between.

Zhou Yu smiled lightly. This was probably to confirm whether he really owned the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata. “Moderator Wine and Meat, just say what you need me to help with.”

“Okay. I need to confirm whether you really own this Pan Deng Yulu Variegata, and whether you really plan to auction it on the forum two days later…” Wang Mingyuan explained some methods that required Zhou Yu’s cooperation.

Zhou Yu said there was no problem at all. He would auction this Pan Deng Yulu Variegata on the forum. Next, he had a video call with Wang Mingyuan, pointing the camera at the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata beside him.

They used this real-time video method to confirm whether Zhou Yu really owned the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata.

When Wang Mingyuan saw the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata in the camera, exactly the same as in the post, he was filled with excitement. It was real. At this moment, he really wanted to go to the other side of the screen and see this beautiful Pan Deng Yulu Variegata with his own eyes.

While filming this Pan Deng Yulu Variegata, Zhou Yu’s hand shook a little, accidentally pointing the camera at the Black Muscle Jade Dew next to it, but he quickly turned it back.

Wang Mingyuan, who was watching the video carefully, saw this fleeting glimpse of the Black Muscle Jade Dew. His face showed shock. After ending the video call, he asked Zhou Yu: “Flower Not Flower, I think I just saw a mature Black Muscle Jade Dew.”

“It is indeed a Black Muscle Jade Dew. Too bad it didn’t become variegated,” Zhou Yu replied, not revealing any intention to sell it.

Wang Mingyuan felt a bit desperate. Even though it was just a fleeting glimpse, he could see that this Black Muscle Jade Dew was in very good overall condition and looked mature. To own a mature Black Muscle Jade Dew was something many people dreamed of, yet this guy was still complaining that it didn’t become variegated.

If he knew that earlier, Zhou Yu had been troubled because every jade dew became variegated, he might feel like jumping off a building.

After verifying the truth of the Pan Deng Yulu Variegata and catching that fleeting glimpse of the Black Muscle Jade Dew, Wang Mingyuan truly had no doubts left. He chatted a bit more with Zhou Yu and temporarily ended the conversation.

Zhou Yu closed WeChat and opened the Xianrouyuan Forum again. He looked at the private messages. The previous 200 messages had now increased to over 300.

He opened them and skimmed a few. He couldn’t help shaking his head with a smile. Some asked for his private contact info. Some asked him not to auction it and offered to buy it at a high price. Others were simply people begging for cuttings or leaves.

For a variegated jade dew, when its leaves are planted, there’s a high chance they might also become variegated. So, people usually don’t sell them easily. You could say a leaf was hard to come by.

Then, he clicked on his post and looked at the comments one by one. He couldn’t help but laugh. The strategy of showing pictures before the auction had already succeeded. It had attracted a lot of attention. Now he just had to wait for the auction the day after tomorrow.

After a while, Zhou Yu turned off his phone. Without realizing it, it was already evening. He moved the two pots of jade dew he planned to auction under the cherry tree. Then he picked up his fishing rod, walked out of the old family house, and caught some fish in the sea.

Then he returned to the old family house. He cleaned the fish with tools, placed them on the barbecue grill, and started grilling. Looking at the sea, while eating sweet and refreshing grapes and delicious grilled fish, there was nothing more pleasant than this.

The day passed, and night gradually arrived. In his room, Zhou Yu looked at the radio on the table and sighed softly. It had been six or seven days since the radio last turned on. He occasionally thought of Uncle-Master Wu from another world. Of course, he missed the various treasures in his hands.

Lying in bed, he opened the Xianrouyuan Forum again and looked at his increasingly popular post. Then, with a hopeful smile on his face, he drifted into sleep.

Near midnight, Zhou Yu was awakened by the sound of thunder. He sat up and looked out the window. In the distant sky, streaks of lightning were weaving through the clouds.

Seeing this, he quickly turned his head and looked toward the table. Instantly, a hint of joy appeared on his face. On the radio, that long-awaited glow had reappeared.