Alex took the live chicken to Grandma and, on his way back, bought the Chinese food for the girls. He also bought a portion of egg-fried rice for himself.
When he entered the villa, he saw Minnie and Hannah sitting in the living room deep in conversation. When they saw him, they welcomed him immediately.
"Here's your food," he said, thinking they were happy to see him because they were hungry.
"We'll eat that later," Minnie replied, taking the carry-out bag from him. Then she said in surprise, "You bought food for yourself too?"
"It's my own food," he replied.
"Don't worry, we won't eat yours. It looks really boring." Minnie glanced at him and said, "Alex, will you take a video for me?"
"A video?" he asked in surprise.
"Yes. Will you please?" Minnie pleaded as she took his arm.
"You should help Minnie," Hannah advised him. "Can't you see that live broadcasting is also hard work, no less than cleaning?"
Alex often looked at live broadcasts and video platforms, and he knew that a lot of the featured videos were filmed by the general public. He understood that Minnie wanted a video of herself to post.
"Okay, I can help you with that," he agreed. He couldn't see any reason not to help.
"Great, thank you so much," Minnie said, and then she continued setting up her live broadcast.
Later, Minnie pulled Alex out of the villa and asked him to sit on the steps outside.
"Where's your life jacket from this morning?" she asked him.
"It's here," he replied as he grabbed the life jacket.
"Put it on, quickly," she ordered him. He did as she asked.
She then picked up some dirt from the ground and rubbed it into his face and hair. "What are you doing?" Alex was disgusted by her rude behavior.
Minnie looked at him with satisfaction. She turned to Hannah and asked, "Well, what do you think?" Hannah smiled in response.
She turned back to Alex and said, "I'll need your help a bit later. If you do everything I ask, I'll give you two hundred dollars. Don't screw it up for me, okay?" Then she turned and walked into the villa with Hannah.
A few minutes later, Minnie started the live broadcast. This time, instead of sitting in front of a camera, Hannah was filming her on her cellphone. Requests started to appear on the screen.
[Minnie, are you singing live today? I want to request a song.]
[I'd like to request a dance. I want to watch you dance "little apple."]
[Hey, something's different today. The background has changed.]
Minnie still had plenty of seasoned fans.
She announced, "Viewers, I'm doing a live broadcast from my relative's villa today and I have a new anchor, Hannah from Trist, helping me shoot." Minnie went on to describe her location as a villa belonging to her rich relatives, hoping that this would impress her viewers and raise her status in their eyes. She continued, "Let me show you around this luxurious villa. I think you'll be impressed."
She then proceeded with a live-streamed video tour of the entire house. This resulted in a barrage of admiring messages saying that she must be from a super-rich family and that the villa was comparable to the White House. All of this satisfied her vanity greatly.
"Viewers, I'm not singing and dancing live today. We have something more meaningful to do." She finally moved on to explain the main theme of her show. "My relatives told me that there is a homeless man who they've seen around their home. Apparently, he came to New York from Montana, and he only has the skills to do very menial work. He has nowhere to sleep and only earns enough for a tiny bit of food."
She looked anxiously at the screen and was moved by the barrage of comments that she saw there.
[But it's 2019. How can anyone still be homeless?]
[It's too sad. My heart aches for him.]
[There are still so many poor people in the world. The media want us to believe that everyone is prosperous now, but it's not true.]
Minnie continued, "It's nearly nine o'clock. My relatives said that he usually comes around this time. Let's go and see if he's around." Then she looked directly at the camera and said, "By the way, when I heard about the plight of this poor man, like you, I felt very sorry for him. I cooked dinner for him tonight so that at least he can have one decent meal."
"Let's go and find him." She had already tipped Alex's egg fried rice onto a plate. She grabbed this and walked out of the villa, holding her mobile phone in front of her.
Alex saw Minnie and Hannah come out of the house. They went in the opposite direction, which confused him. What are they doing?
Minnie was murmuring into her phone in a low voice, "I don't know if he'll come tonight. Let's go and have a look." She looked like she was eager to find the man, and her viewers were riveted and very moved. They desperately hoped that she would find the poor homeless man and give him the food that she had cooked.
"It seems that he didn't come tonight," Minnie said, walking around most of the villa. Alex was still sitting on the stone steps only seven yards away, but Hannah didn't point the phone in his direction.
Hearing that Minnie couldn't find the poor man, the viewers were disappointed. They hated to think that he was starving in a ditch somewhere.
Minnie could sense that her viewers were starting to despair and felt that the time was right for the next part of her plan.
"Wait a minute," she said suddenly, "I think I see him. Yes, he's there." She looked over to where Alex was sitting and rushed toward him. Hannah followed her, filming everything. The viewers exploded with joy and a barrage of messages appeared on the screen.
Alex saw Minnie suddenly rushing toward him and frowned slightly. He asked himself, what is she doing?
Minnie pretended to be overjoyed to see him. She said to her audience, "It's really him, everyone." Hannah aimed the camera directly at them and captured everything.
Watching Minnie find the poor homeless man, the viewers were elated. Positive messages and gifts poured in for her.
[She's found the poor man.]
[The life jacket he's wearing is his work clothes. He clearly has no other clothes to wear, so he has to wear work clothes all the time. You can see his hair is messy, and his face is filthy. It looks like he's only in his twenties. Why is his life so bad?]
[I want to cry. I'm the same age as him, but I have so much more than him. Can I give him some money?]
Minnie approached Alex and said, "Hello, my name's Minnie, and I'm the owner here. May I sit next to you?" She was pretending to herself that she wasn't now speaking to Alex, but to the poor homeless man that she had just invented. She knew that the more respect she showed him, the more her viewers would like her.
"What?" Alex asked in confusion. He wanted to ask her what she was doing, but as soon as he started to speak, she glared at him.
She sat next to him and said to the camera, "Look, everyone. My relatives told me that he collects garbage nearby and sometimes cleans out the lake. The life jacket he wears is his work clothes. You can see how dirty his hair is and there is grime on his face. You can't tell from the video, but he smells terrible. It's probably months since he last washed. He often sleeps on these very steps."
Alex suddenly understood what she was doing. She was pretending that he was a poor homeless man, and she was helping him to impress her viewers. He felt angry and glared at her. She looked him directly in the eye and glared back. Her meaning was obvious—she was not happy with him.
"You haven't eaten yet, have you?" she asked him. To her viewers, she appeared to be a genuinely kind-hearted girl trying to help him. She took the rice in her hand and said, "I cooked this fried rice for you. If you're hungry, please eat it."
Alex looked at the rice. It was obviously the egg fried rice that he had bought himself earlier. Of course, she hadn't cooked it herself. He raised his eyebrows and fixed his eyes on her.
Minnie was angry. She gestured to Alex that he should eat the rice, but he didn't move.
"He's too shy," she said to the camera and winked at Hannah. Hannah stood behind Alex so that the viewers could only see the back of his head. They could see Minnie scoop up a spoonful of fried rice and move it toward Alex's mouth. She said gently, "Don't be afraid. I'll feed you."
She was trying to demonstrate her kindness to the viewers.
Alex refused to open his mouth. Minnie frowned for a moment but quickly recovered her smile, determined not to let her viewers notice that anything was wrong. She used her wrist to secretly pry his mouth open and forced in a spoonful of rice.
"Chew it," she ordered him quietly, and he began to chew.
Using this method, she proceeded to feed him the whole dishful of fried rice.
"He's eaten it all," she said sweetly to the camera. Seeing Hannah nodding to herself, Minnie knew that there had been a good response from her viewers. She pulled out her purse, took out a wad of twenty-dollar notes, and handed them to Alex, saying, "Take this money. Find yourself a bed for the next few nights."
Alex didn't take the money, so she forced it into his hand.
She continued tenderly, "You haven't taken a bath in a long time, have you? Look, your hair is filthy. Why don't you come and take a bath in my villa?" With Hannah focusing the camera on her, she appeared to help him stand up and supported him as they walked toward the villa.
"Viewers, I'm going to show him where he can take a bath. After that, I'll buy him two sets of clean clothes. I'll pause the live broadcast for now, but when all this is done, I'll be back on air. If you like my live broadcast, make sure you come back and join us. That's all for now. Goodbye." Hannah filmed for another ten seconds so that the viewers could see Minnie helping Alex slowly walk up the steps. Then she turned off the live broadcast. "Minnie, the live broadcast is off," she said as she walked quickly over to her friend.
Hearing that the live broadcast was off, Minnie shoved Alex away. She stood still and stared at him angrily.
Hannah went to her side and started to say, "Minnie—"
Minnie glared at Alex and complained angrily, "Hannah, look at this lousy loser. He almost ruined my live broadcast. Everyone watched me trying to feed him decent food, and what did he do? He shut his mouth tightly and glared at me as if he wanted to kill me. I gave him money, but he refused to take it. He looked at me as if I was trying to hurt him. He tried to make me look bad in front of all my viewers when I was only trying to help him."