Chapter 28: Graveyard Fright — “Shen Yunqian!”
Last time, he just scared the System a little. Who knew it would actually go offline? Although… it didn’t come online often anyway.
Lu Xunye glanced at the crowd queuing for entry in the distance and pulled up the mask on his face.
He had been leisurely admiring the cosplayers taking photos and gathering in groups in the distance. While waiting for the staff, he played on his phone and accidentally scrolled to the organizer’s voting post on Weibo… and the comments below it.
As a result… he kind of wanted to die right now.
If time could turn back, he absolutely would not have agreed to such a ridiculous request. The reason was simple: he was being scolded too miserably.
Lu Xunye swore he had never seen ordinary words combined to have such a venomous effect in his life.
As for the original owner’s books, to be honest, the first few were quite good. But for the later ones, Lu Xunye suspected he had been traumatized.
Probably the product of being kicked out of the Lu family and then ignored by his so-called “Goddess” during that time.
In short, Lu Xunye was severely traumatized by the malicious plot. Unexpectedly, the readers’ reactions were even stronger than his.
From initially scolding with a “hate iron for not becoming steel” attitude, to finally cursing his ancestors for eight generations. It was the kind of resentment that could make an author transmigrate directly into the book as a villain.
Lu Xunye felt he was at risk of being stabbed if he stayed any longer. Just as he was contemplating whether to slip away, someone tapped him on the back.
His breath hitched. He turned around stiffly and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was a staff member.
“That is Yi Die Da Da (Great/Big Yi Die). She’s a very popular cosplayer recently and also an invited guest this time.”
The staff member saw Lu Xunye staring in a certain direction after coming out of the passage and thought he was curious, so they explained.
“Yi Die (A stack)?” Lu Xunye turned back to see a glamorous woman surrounded by the crowd.
Bright purple wig, exaggerated makeup, revealing dress, plus a voluptuous figure and slender legs. Strangely, when these traits appeared on one person, it was excessively… good-looking?
Lu Xunye felt this woman looked a bit familiar but couldn’t recall who it was at the moment. Before he could remember, the staff member guided him inside.
As for the signing area inside, the booths for invited authors, manga artists, and cosplayers were separate this time.
Lu Xunye had just entered and gone on stage when the noisy crowd outside the barrier instantly fell silent. He stiffened his steps and walked to the seat in the center of the platform to sit down.
There was a row of empty seats next to him, a long table in front, and a giant banner behind him reading “Wen Zhou Book Signing.”
His hanging heart finally settled when the signing began. Basically, the readers were… quite polite. Forget it, it’s only half a day anyway.
Lu Xunye tried his best to satisfy the readers’ requests, which were nothing more than making heart gestures or taking photos together. So far, he accepted it well.
After holding on for half a day, just as it was finally about to end, the style suddenly changed.
This one said: “Teacher, can you sign ‘If I stop updating again, I’m a dog’?”
Lu Xunye: “…”
His ears might be broken.
Ask him to sign “If I stop updating again, I’m a dog” on his book? Hah?!
That one said: “Teacher, did you make the protagonist go from renowned fame to utter despair, then be humiliated by the villain and finally fall into becoming a cultivation vessel because you were jealous of him? Did you write from the villain’s perspective? Does your heart really not ache?”
The people who were lining up properly began to shove. Lu Xunye was stunned. At this moment, a book was slapped onto the table in front of him. The person said in a bossy tone: “Sign this.”
The voice was low and impatient. Then, as if realizing something was wrong, they pinched their throat and made a sweet, cloying sound: “Teacher, can you sign this?”
Lu Xunye was thunderstruck. He looked up—good lord! Wasn’t this the person from outside: “Yi Die?”
As he voiced his confusion, someone took advantage of the chaos to rip the mask off his face. Flashlights clicked and flashed at him.
The white light made Lu Xunye close his eyes. When he looked up again, the few people in front who saw his face clearly were stunned.
Especially Yi Die in front of him. That expression was as weird as someone whose father died, only to find out he resurrected as the Auntie Wang next door.
The two locked eyes and simultaneously cursed out of bad luck: “F*ck, why is it you?!”
The staff nearby had just managed to calm the others down. Turning around, they saw the two heavyweight guests facing off and quickly tried to smooth things over: “Do the two teachers know each other?”
The next second, Yi Die crossed arms over chest disdainfully. “Tch, who knows this kind of person? You probably found the wrong guy. He is Lu Mmph Mmph Mmph!”
Before he could finish, his mouth was firmly covered by Lu Xunye.
“Shut up.” Lu Xunye whispered close to his ear, “You don’t want your dad and your uncle to know you’re playing this kind of thing, right? Young Master Qin.”
Qin Zhuoyu glared at him viciously. Lu Xunye borrowed the staff’s microphone and said, “If everyone has more questions, you can continue to private message me in the backend. I will read them. For those who didn’t get a turn, I will mail the signatures to everyone with free shipping after I finish signing.”
After speaking, he returned the microphone to the staff. He intended to grab Qin Zhuoyu’s collar and drag him away, but who knew this person was wearing a strapless dress? The chest area was empty.
Lu Xunye: “…” From this distance, Qin Zhuoyu’s fake boobs are really too obvious.
After the two left—seemingly “arms around shoulders, intimate,” but actually “undercurrents surging, guarding against each other”—the silent crowd exploded with noise.
A hot search term quietly climbed up the list.
“How was it?” A person approached with a cheap grin.
Qin Zhuoyu slapped a book onto his face. “Satisfied? Get lost!”
“Why are you angry?” The person pretended to be serious. “Surely the dignified Young Master of the Qin family has the spirit to accept defeat in a bet?”
It would have been fine if he hadn’t said anything. Once he did, Qin Zhuoyu threw the wig and clothes in his bag heavily at the man. “Only you have the guts! Next time, I’ll make you strip naked and be a gigolo at a night club! Do you dare?”
“Don’t,” the man begged for mercy. “It was Young Master Feng who made you cross-dress to ask that ‘Wen Zhou’ for a signature! It’s none of my business.”
“Besides, didn’t you like this kind of thing anyway? I even hired the best makeup artist for you. What’s the difference between men’s and women’s clothing?” He took out his phone to show Qin Zhuoyu a photo. “Doesn’t this look pretty good?”
Young Master Feng? Lu Xunye remembered Feng Chengyu, whom he hadn’t seen for a few days. Sure enough, the next second, a WeChat message popped up on his phone.
【Feng: This Young Master vented for you. How was it, feels good? Smirk.jpg】
Lu Xunye: “…” Really unnecessary.
“Alright, don’t be angry.” The boy came over and familiarly put his arm around Qin Zhuoyu’s shoulder. “Going racing in the eastern suburbs this afternoon? We know your driving skills are unmatched. Give us some face and show them a thing or two?”
Perhaps touching on Qin Zhuoyu’s soft spot, his expression improved. Then, remembering something, his face crumpled again. “But I promised my mom to visit the cemetery to pay respects to Auntie this afternoon. I have to take photos to report to my mom.”
“What are you afraid of? Your mom isn’t in the country anyway. Just find someone to go for you.”
The person said indifferently, “Isn’t it just someone who saved your mom before? She’s been dead for over twenty years. Is there a need to pay respects every year?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. My mom and Auntie were very close.” Qin Zhuoyu was a bit tempted by his suggestion, but the people around him were all his mother’s “spies” who would snitch. He definitely couldn’t use them.
As if just noticing Lu Xunye, the two asked simultaneously: “Who are you? / Why haven’t you left yet?!”
But one was polite, and the other was fierce.
Lu Xunye raised an eyebrow. “How can I rest easy without watching you, the Young Master, leave with my own eyes? What if you go back and leak my personal information?”
“Who is this guy?” Qin Zhuoyu ignored his friend’s question. He looked Lu Xunye up and down. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off, and he made a decision on the spot.
“You go for me!” Qin Zhuoyu took a step closer, gritting his teeth to threaten him. “Otherwise, I’ll expose your identity as the illegitimate son who licks and fantasizes about small celebrities.”
“Oh,” Lu Xunye said flatly. “Expose it then. Do you need me to write the press release for you?”
Qin Zhuoyu: “…” Why is this different from what he thought?
Cemetery
Lu Xunye came anyway because he suddenly remembered a plot point. The turning point for the Protagonist Gong and Shou’s relationship happened because they discovered something in this cemetery.
Following the location sent by his new friend, “qin,” he found the tombstone. A man was paying respects in front of the stone tablet.
The man stroked the bright smiling face of the woman in the photo on the stone tablet, muttering to himself, “You only smile at me at times like this.”
This sounded a bit creepy. Lu Xunye shivered.
Hearing footsteps, the man turned to look at him, surprise flashing in his eyes.
Only then did Lu Xunye see the man’s appearance. His eyes were bloodshot, with a lingering paranoia in his gaze. His aura of authority without anger made it easy to overlook his handsome face that had not yet faded with age.
Looking about forty, the moment Lu Xunye saw him, he thought of the description of an older domineering CEO in novels. It was probably exactly like this.
Conflicting emotions of dominance and restraint, unwillingness and humbleness clashed within him. Lu Xunye nodded at him. “Please continue.”
The man’s voice was low and hoarse. “Are you… her family?”
“No,” Lu Xunye said. “Entrusted by a friend.”
Whether it was his illusion or not, the man seemed delighted at first hearing this, then became depressed again.
Afterward, the man looked back lingeringly at the woman in the photo, stood up, walked past Lu Xunye, and left directly.
Lu Xunye watched his lonely receding figure. He looked down at the bouquet of roses in front of the tombstone, then at the chrysanthemums he had bought.
The fact that the man asked if he was the deceased’s family meant the man didn’t know the deceased’s family either. He probably didn’t even count as a close friend, yet he coincidentally came to pay respects on the anniversary of her death…
He knelt and bowed, then swept away the dust that had fallen on the stone tablet.
At this moment, a breeze blew past, blowing a withered yellow leaf from the tree to land steadily on the tablet.
Lu Xunye looked at the name carved on the tombstone: Jiang Qingran.
On his way back, Lu Xunye was bumped into by a young man. The man pulled his hat low, obscuring his features, and hurriedly dropped a “Sorry.”
He disappeared quickly. Lu Xunye didn’t think much of it. Just as he turned the corner, he saw a familiar person standing under a tree.
There was almost no one in the cemetery. He was a bit surprised. “Weren’t you resting at home? Why did you come out? Did you… remember?”
Shen Yunqian looked around. “Did you see a man just now?”
“He left.” Lu Xunye asked, “What’s wrong? Do you know him?”
“I don’t know.” Shen Yunqian lowered his eyes.
“Why are you here?” Lu Xunye expertly touched the bump on the back of the other’s head.
It’s been several days, why hasn’t it gone down yet?
Shen Yunqian was accustomed to his actions. He was just about to ask him why he was here.
Looking up, he saw a man with a ferocious face suddenly dart out from behind Lu Xunye, clutching a knife and stabbing viciously, shouting in anger.
“Ruining my business, go to hell, both of you!”
Too late to react, he shoved Lu Xunye away.
“Shen Yunqian!”
Recommended Reads
![[Esports] I Started an Online Romance with a Big Shot After Retiring](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/esports.jpg)