A little over a month ago, she first entered my dreams. When she introduced herself, she said her name was "Yaoyao," the Ya from Jade Pool, the Yao from... no, that’s an insult.
"I just said it casually," Yaoyao chuckled. "My real name is Aisin Gioro Mujige, but I heard that most descendants of the Aisin Gioro clan have changed their surnames now?"
I nodded. "That's right. Right after your Great Qing dynasty fell, the Han people retaliated against the Aisin Gioro imperial descendants, so many families changed their surnames. Some became Zhao, some became Ai, some became Luo, but the most common was Jin."
"Then I'll follow suit," Yaoyao tilted her head in thought. "Your Han names are usually two or three characters, what would be a nice surname for me to take, Jin?"
"Jin Yao," I said.
"Jin Yao. I know 'Yao' means beautiful jade. I'm beautiful on the outside... and on the inside, hahaha! Alright, I'll go with this!" Yaoyao forcefully embellished her own name.
It was mainly easier to remember. I couldn't recall such complicated names. Mujige, I easily confused it with "Jimu Ge," the Cantonese pronunciation of NBA star "Alphabet Bro."
"Promise me one thing!" Jin Yao suddenly turned serious.
"I promise," I said without hesitation.
Yaoyao smiled, but immediately became serious again. "From now on, no matter who you sleep with, when you get excited, you're not allowed to call their names. You can only call mine—no objections, you promised!"
"...I'm not going back on my word." My face remained calm, but a ripple of thought stirred within me. What did she mean by that? Could it be that I would still have the chance to sleep with other people? And this chance was given by Yaoyao?
Ah, I soon understood. Although Yaoyao had come to life, some of her ingrained traditional thoughts were still from four hundred years ago, those of the Manchu people. A hunting and gathering society, quite backward. The strong ruled, men were paramount, and the strong could have more female companionship. It seemed this system had been in place for the entire Qing Dynasty, over three hundred years, and even after the fall of the Qing, in the "Gang Ao" region, Qing laws were still followed until reunification. Only then did things like "King Du" having several wives emerge.
After a bit more intimacy, Chen Lu messaged me, telling me to get up and prepare to continue training the streamers.
I glanced at the time; it was almost nine o'clock, and I was still a bit hungry.
After a quick rinse, I left the room first and waited for Yaoyao in the dining room. Zheng Bingbing and Chen Lu were already there, along with the fox demon, who had transformed back into his male form.
Chen Lu and I chatted idly about streamer entrepreneurship. Before long, Yaoyao made a dazzling appearance. Since she was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, Zheng Bingbing and Chen Lu recognized her immediately.
"Wow, Sister Yaoyao, I didn't expect you to be so radiant!" Bingbing loved admiring beautiful women. She clapped her hands. "You wore a mask because you were afraid of being taken away, right, hahaha!"
Chen Lu, now accompanied by the fox demon, was no longer jealous of other women and also gave Yaoyao a few objective compliments.
After breakfast, everyone gathered in the conference room (the demons had already eaten in their rooms, claiming to be on a diet and not eating anymore) to receive live streaming guidance from the two mentors.
When the theoretical course ended and it was time for practical application, a serious problem arose.
The management of various streaming platforms was very strict now, requiring real-name authentication. Real-name authentication meant they had to upload ID photos. The problem was, they didn't have identities, so how could they have ID cards!
Bingbing cleverly concocted a lie, saying that our streamer team had previously collaborated with an MCN agency, which had scammed them, absconding with their deposit and ID information.
Chen Lu, not understanding the full picture, said, "That's easy. My uncle is in the Shengjing police bureau. I'll go to him to get new ones issued. If we go this morning, we'll have the certificates this afternoon."
Having an insider versus not having one made all the difference. The process for ordinary people to get this done would take at least two weeks.
But I had reapplied for an ID card before and knew one thing: reapplying also required retrieving the original personal information from their system database to reissue the card. The demons lacked this "original information." If they wanted ID cards, it would probably require tampering within the system. This system recorded information from birth, with nationwide unified authentication. It wasn't something a single city could handle on its own by fabricating a person's information—unless they were unregistered individuals who were never entered into the system from birth. But if that were the case, one or two might be manageable, but suddenly registering nine people (including Yaoyao) would be hard not to notice.
Moreover, we were currently under Shakespeare's scrutiny, so the matter of ID cards was best put aside for now...