Chapter Six: Xia Qianyi

The guests invited to the program "Making Peace with Life" come from various industries and categories, and they are generally well-classified.

Gu Yin’s category is actually related to automobiles.

Cars, after all, are closely tied to the daily lives of most people. Aside from celebrities and internet influencers, this category naturally carries a significant amount of attention, and its viewership on the show has always been high.

Within this category, there are driving school instructors and rideshare or taxi drivers like Gu Yin, alongside car enthusiasts and reviewers, even some automobile salespeople.

There’s even a renowned entrepreneur, Lei Bus, who successfully transitioned from the smartphone industry to the automotive world.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest draw in this category tends to be the influencer bloggers who talk about luxury cars worth millions or tens of millions, which inherently attract large audiences.

Normally, this category is their domain. Even the lowest-tier car reviewers or salespeople vastly outnumber ordinary drivers in terms of influence.

Yet now, Gu Yin—a mere driving school instructor and rideshare driver—is seeing his viewership surge dramatically. Though he’s still far behind the top influencers, he has surpassed many peers and even a number of popular automotive bloggers.

This was quite unexpected.

Such a phenomenon quickly caught the attention of the program’s production team.

“What’s Gu Yin’s background?” asked Han Chuan, the chief director responsible for the automobile category livestream.

Han Chuan was once a professional racecar driver and a writer; he later shifted to filmmaking and achieved great success, with his work featured in major New Year’s releases. He was now considered a distinguished director.

When the show was first launched, the creative team aimed to make it a program that captivated the entire nation. That’s why the platform spent a fortune to have Han Chuan oversee the automobile category livestream, even though this wasn’t the highest-rated segment of the show—just imagine the caliber of this program.

“He... doesn’t have much of a background,” a staff member said while flipping through the files. “The records show he’s quite ordinary. After graduating from university, he spent a few years racing with a seventh- or eighth-tier team but never achieved much. Later, due to his mother’s poor health, he retired from racing and, through family connections, became a driving school instructor.”

The staff paused briefly before adding, “Oh, and he apparently participated in a college music competition, but was eliminated before the campus finals.”

“A driving school instructor? Why would so many people pay attention to him?” Han Chuan scratched his head and glanced at the data. “His retention rate is pretty high; once people tune in, they don’t leave. Is it because his livestream quality is good?”

“Seems so,” replied the staff member in charge of Gu Yin. “He apparently was involved in a traffic accident—he hit someone who was cutting in.”

“Ah?”

Han Chuan was momentarily stunned, then burst out laughing.

“Oh, then that’s no surprise. If that happened to me on the road, I’d be entertained watching it too.”

Han Chuan took the livestream replay of Gu Yin’s broadcast from that day and fast-forwarded to the moment of the accident at night. After watching the incident unfold, he laughed, especially when Gu Yin floored the accelerator and hit the car that had cut in twice in a row. He inexplicably felt a sense of satisfaction.

“Is this the charm of a male-targeted, feel-good story?” he thought. “This beats those hype videos any day!”

Han Chuan’s name carried weight—an internationally awarded top-tier racer. But no matter how skilled, even he had to obey traffic laws on public roads. In fact, professional racers were expected to set an example by strictly following rules; otherwise, they’d be held up as bad cases.

So even he often encountered drivers cutting in, and though he sometimes wanted to hit them back, he restrained himself. Despite having the means to cover any damage, his public image prevented him from acting rashly.

What Gu Yin did—something Han Chuan himself dared not attempt—naturally drew high viewership and attention.

“We can give him a little extra promotion tomorrow and see if he can take off.”

On the first day of the broadcast, other categories had a few “dark horses,” but this one was bland, and during lunch with several directors, Han Chuan felt somewhat embarrassed. Gu Yin unexpectedly gave him hope for a potential dark horse, which brought him relief.

Interestingly, when closing Gu Yin’s livestream replay, Han Chuan casually glanced at the IP address from which Gu Yin was streaming.

“Spring City?” he frowned. “Is Xia Qianyi there too?”

“Um... it seems so,” the staff replied. “After Xia Qianyi posted that announcement about quitting the industry, she’s stayed home and hasn’t gone out. A while back, paparazzi caught sight of her.”

“Tsk, what a pity...” Han Chuan’s eyes darkened slightly at the mention of Xia Qianyi. “If she were on this show, those flashy and insincere types wouldn’t even have a chance to show off.”

...

As expected, the handling of the traffic accident was straightforward. Despite Wang Lu, the owner of the car that cut in, continually twisting the facts and claiming Gu Yin rear-ended him, the traffic police saw through it. It was clearly a case of illegal lane changing over a solid line—full responsibility lay with Wang Lu.

His license only lost three points, but the fine was 400 yuan.

Wang Lu protested, insisting that for illegal lane changes over a solid line, the penalty was three points and a 200 yuan fine. Why was he fined 400?

An officer glared at him and said bluntly, “This is a major city artery during rush hour. How many left-turn vehicles were blocked because you cut in? Do you think 200 yuan is fair to them? 400 is already cheap for you!”

Traffic regulations clearly state that if an accident causes a traffic jam because the vehicles were not moved promptly, the police can impose a fine of 200 yuan depending on the situation.

In this congested main road, the accident should have been quickly documented and the vehicles moved to a safe area to avoid affecting other traffic. But due to Wang Lu’s road rage and Gu Yin’s reluctance to get out, congestion worsened, hence the heavier fine.

But the fine wasn’t the end.

No!

Wang Lu also had to apologize to Gu Yin for causing the accident by cutting in, cover Gu Yin’s repair costs, lost wages, and, if Gu Yin wished, even pay for emotional distress.

Of course, these matters were handled through negotiations with the insurance company.

The insurance representative arrived promptly—a greasy-looking middle-aged man with a fleshy face and a friendly smile, repeatedly assuring that both vehicles would be taken to their chosen repair shop and returned in perfect condition.

At one point, Wang Lu felt this guy was almost happy about the accident...

And in fact...

He had every reason to be happy!