vstars Ch. 164 - Now I Want to Be a Good Person
Ch. 164 - Now I Want to Be a Good Person
Chen Shu turned to look at Wang Yu, flashing a friendly smile — while internally reaching for the urea bag.Do I LOOK like I need you to point that out?
Wang Yu lowered his head, too frightened to meet Chen Shu's eyes. He just sat there in silence.
The chat erupted with bullet comments.
"Classic fabricated chat segment!"
"Nobody understands livestreaming better than you! I actually thought you had shills at first!"
"A light-year is a unit of TIME, fight me!"[1]
"Fight your ass! A light-year is a unit of RHYTHM!"
"..."
Chen Shu looked at the actual comments and addressed the audience: "Play all you want, joke all you want — Bandit potions, rock-solid and reliable!"
"Plus it's free! If it fails, I'll compensate double the materials on the spot! No line right now — get in here!"
He continued promoting his shop through the stream while Wang Tianbao and crew handled the black market entrances.
Before long, someone walked into the shop.
A young man asked: "These potions you're making — are they legit?"
"Obviously! You think I, Chen Shu, would make you a fake potion?"
"Do you... have a pharmacist's license?"
"Uh... not yet... but I guarantee the quality. You can rest easy!"
The young man thought it over, then nodded.
He'd bought High-Grade Strength Potions from Chen Shu's shop before — good prices, genuine product.
He opened his backpack and pulled out two Jumping Fruits along with some ordinary ingredients.
"I want two Jump Potions!"
"No problem!"
Chen Shu grabbed the materials and trotted off to the toilet...
"..."
The livestream audience saw this too.
"That's the Toilet Potion Master for you — staying true to the original heart!"
Everyone — the customer, the viewers — watched with bated breath, waiting to see if this was a scam.
If it was real, this would be a genuine public service.
Ten minutes later.
Chen Shu emerged from the toilet holding four Jump Potions.
"Go ahead and have your contract spirit test one. Guaranteed authentic!"
The Jump Potion recipe yielded two to three bottles per batch. Chen Shu had already pocketed the extra two.
The young man nodded and summoned his contract spirit, feeding it one bottle.
"Holy crap — it's real!"
His words detonated the chat.
Wang Yu was equally dumbstruck. It was actually legitimate?
He'd assumed there had to be some kind of catch. After all, no businessman does business at a loss.
But Chen Shu really hadn't charged the guy a single yuan.
Also — how was his brewing speed so fast? Did the toilet actually provide some kind of buff?
"As you can all see — seeing is believing! If you still don't trust it, come by my shop anytime and try it yourself!"
Through Wang Yu's stream, Chen Shu's fame spread across Nanjiang City and the surrounding region in an instant.
The Nanjiang Bandit and the Public Toilet Potion Master being the same person — two absurd identities colliding — somehow made both of them feel MORE believable!
Before long, more customers started arriving.
Chen Shu got busy and stopped paying attention to the stream.
Wang Yu, however, didn't leave. He kept promoting enthusiastically.
The shop's popularity skyrocketed, and his stream's numbers climbed right alongside it.
Potion after potion rolled out of Chen Shu's toilet laboratory, and his proficiency levels surged.
Each batch took less than ten minutes. Ingredients were no longer a concern.
The word "free" alone was enough of a hook. Combined with the advertising, plus the dual identities of Public Toilet Potion Master and Nanjiang Bandit...
In a single day, the Strength Potion Shop had earned itself a serious reputation.
Eight o'clock that evening.
Chen Shu finally emerged from the toilet.
He gazed at his skyrocketing potion proficiency and the dozens of assorted potions stored in his System Space. A grin spread across his face.
It'd been tiring, sure — but the harvest was enormous!
"Tianbao, tomorrow I need you guys to renovate the toilet door. Cut a window into it so I can just hand the potions out from inside."
Wang Tianbao's eyes went wide, his mouth twitching. Your imagination is really something else.
"Is there a problem?"
Chen Shu looked genuinely puzzled. "Lots of restaurants have serving windows like that."
"Boss Chen... you said it yourself — restaurants..."
"Same difference. Renovate the toilet door tomorrow — I need to improve efficiency!"
Chen Shu waved it off dismissively.
Today was only day one and business was already booming. It was bound to get even busier.
"Hey, why are you still here?"
Chen Shu turned to Wang Yu, who'd already ended his stream.
"Boss, I want to ask — why are you doing this?"
Compounding potions for free was a complete waste of time with zero benefit.
"For love and peace!"
Chen Shu declared with an aura of absolute righteousness.
"..."
Wang Yu looked him up and down, then left the shop in a daze of utter confusion.
Chen Shu took up permanent residence in the potion shop. He didn't even bother going back to school.
Shen Wushuang breathed a massive sigh of relief. The air felt fresher somehow.
Tang Lie and the others were laughing in their dreams. Days without Chen Shu were absolute bliss.
The Strength Potion Shop's popularity kept climbing. Ten bottles of High-Grade Strength Potion sold out the moment they were stocked.
But Chen Shu didn't increase the supply. A slow, steady stream was the way to go!
The top priority right now was grinding potion proficiency.
Over the next ten days, four different potion recipes all reached Mastery Level.
Then one day, a familiar face walked into the Strength Potion Shop.
"Is your boss in?"
Zhou Cheng from 666 Potion Company arrived — the brother of 666 Beast Taming Corps leader Zhou Shi.
Wang Tianbao pointed. "He's in the toilet!"
Zhou Cheng's mouth twitched. So the internet rumors were true. Someone really was compounding potions in a toilet.
"Little Chen, it's me!"
Zhou Cheng walked up to the toilet door, about to knock.
"Uncle Zhou, what's up?"
Chen Shu stuck his head through the gap in the door.
"WHAT THE — Are you filming a horror movie?!"
Zhou Cheng executed a tactical backwards leap. The toilet door looked like it had a severed head dangling from it.
Chen Shu flashed a grin but said nothing.
"Our company's pharmacist is on leave. I was hoping you could help compound some Body-type Potions."
"No problem! Just leave the materials outside."
Zhou Cheng leaned in closer, lowering his voice. "Be honest with your Uncle Zhou — what are you really after?"
"It's truly for the people!"
"Cut the crap!"
Zhou Cheng knew Chen Shu's personality well enough. The idea of this kid doing something selflessly altruistic? That was pure bullshit.
He definitely had ulterior motives!
"It really IS for the people! I just want to rehabilitate my image!"
Chen Shu sighed.
"I didn't have a choice back then. Now I want to be a good person."[2]
[1] "光年是时间单位" (Light-year is a unit of time): A classic bait-argument meme on Chinese streaming platforms. Trolls pretend to believe a light-year measures time, provoking pedantic corrections that spiral into circular debates. The phrase is called a "节奏单位" (rhythm unit) because it's used to "带节奏" (lead the rhythm) of the chat.
[2] "我以前没得选，现在我想做个好人": Iconic quote from Andy Lau's character Lau Kin Ming in the 2002 Hong Kong crime film Infernal Affairs (无间道). A triad mole embedded in the police force, cornered on a rooftop, pleads to the undercover cop who's discovered his identity: "I had no choice before. Now I want to be a good person." On Chinese internet, the line is a go-to meme for bad-faith redemption arcs. Here, Chen Shu deploys it while running an unlicensed toilet pharmacy as a proficiency grind — the irony is considerable.