Chapter 10: A Fan Group with a Peculiar Style
[Xiao Chen’s #1 Fan]: Aaaah! Author, you’re finally here!
A wave of melancholy washed over Cheng Xiao Xiao again, one she couldn’t suppress. She typed back helplessly.
[Lazy Xiao Xiao Chen]: Yep, I’m finally here. For a second there, I thought the world had gone madā¦
[Red Bottle]: Hahaha, are you excited, Author?
[Tiger Hunter]: What do you think? Can you feel our undying love?
[Who Am I]: Hahaha, Author, did you get so used to us being calm that you forgot we’re fans who can fight?
[Leaf]: Correction, we don’t fight. We present facts and reason to persuade people!
[Pink Granny]: Hahaha, I have a feeling our author is about to get famous!
Cheng Xiao Xiao sighed and rested her forehead in her hand. Did she really need a feeling for that? The internet was in an uproar; she had already broken out of her niche, hadn’t she?
[Lazy Xiao Xiao Chen]: After keeping a low profile for so long, the one time I break out of my circle, it’s because of a gossip scandalāI have you all to thank for that!
[Red Bottle]: Oh, come on, Author, don’t be so glum. No matter how it happened, you’re now a famous author. The future is boundless!
[Tiger Hunter]: Exactly! Lie low for a long time, then soar to the heavens with a single cry!
[Leaf]: _|| Tiger sis, are you sure you’re using that idiom correctly?
[Tiger Hunter]: As long as you get my meaning, don’t sweat the details!
[Live Another 500 Years]: Hahaha, I just checked the author’s Weibo again. Her follower count is insane, it’s shooting up like a rocket! She’s about to hit the A-list!
[Coffee Lover]: What better time to debut than now? I declare, Author, you can officially enter the entertainment industry! Let’s set a small goalāto crush a certain actress surnamed Song!
[I Love Xiao Chen]: Everyone, calm down! We’re seriously off-topic! Let’s get back to businessāAuthor, what’s your situation? Were you scammed or something? Why haven’t you responded all afternoon? That’s so out of character for you!
[Morning Breeze, Evening Moon]: Right, same question!
[Lazy Person]: Same question +1
[Pink Granny]: Curious face +2
ā¦
Thisā¦ was this really her reader group? Could she leave?
Cheng Xiao Xiao took a deep breath, closed the chat window with a click, opened her Weibo homepage, and started typing furiously. Thirty seconds later, she posted a screenshot of her latest post in the group.
Xiao Chen V: Just a New Year’s blind date. Don’t get so excited!
The moment the image appeared, the boisterous group fell silent for ten seconds. Then, dozens of messages flooded the chat in an instant, a blur of text.
Just as shocked as the young ladies in the reader group were the bewildered netizens. The crowd of drama-watchers, who had just had their worldview corrected by Cheng Xiao Xiao’s fans, hadn’t even recovered when they were stunned again by the “main party’s” simple and direct response.
After the shock, of course, came a new wave of plot speculation. The fans of Song Jie, who had just been silenced and stripped of all dignity, seized the opportunity to clear their idol’s name. Since it was a blind date, that meant the rich tycoon in the photo was currently single! Their idol was single too! He was unmarried, she was unwedāwhat was wrong with a little something happening between them? Besides, they were just a few ordinary photos with no intimate gestures. There was no solid proof. The netizens had been relentlessly attacking their idol, which was going too far!
In response to Song Jie’s fans’ double-standard defense, the members of Cheng Xiao Xiao’s reader group replied with a collective “Heh.” After the initial shock and expressing their disdain for Song Jie’s fans, one of the readers finally steered the topic to a new “key point.”
[Exam Today]: So rich people go on blind dates too! I’ve learned something new!
[Pink Granny]: I guess it depends on the person. Others might not, but someone as talented and beautiful as our author can be treated differently o(āÆā”ā°)o
[Red Bottle]: A blind date! The male lead doesn’t even have a single front-facing photo? What’s wrong with these paparazzi? So unprofessional! Bad review!
[Leaf]: Sigh, after all this drama, the male lead hasn’t even responded. This blind date is probably dead in the water. Our author is going to stay single. How depressingā¦
[Xiao Chen’s #1 Fan]: What’s wrong with being single? Men are fleeting! Author, look at me, my arms are always open for you!
[Tiger Hunter]: Don’t panic! There’s a new development!
When Tiger Hunter’s message appeared, the group went quiet for a moment. As they wondered what was happening, Tiger Hunter posted an incredibly clear screenshot in the group. At the top was the official Weibo profile picture of a certain group, and below it was a simple explanation. It didn’t directly respond to Song Jie or Lin Wan’s rumor-debunking posts, but it did, astoundingly, @ their author’s Weibo!
Dingyuan Group V: Sorry, this is Little Yuan’s first time being dragged into such a large-scale drama, and I’m still a bit slow on the uptake. Let me collect myself for a moment, I need to organize my wordsā¦ And, I’m especially sorry for getting Author Xiao Chen involved. @Xiao Chen, I’m so sorry for all the trouble o(āÆā”ā°)o. P.S., a little secret: Little Yuan just saw the boss preparing to make a phone call. I’m guessing he might be planning to explain things personallyā¦
A dozen seconds later, the young ladies in the group were once again in an uproar!
What did this mean? Why did it feel like they’d been inexplicably fed a spoonful of dog food?
[Who Am I]: Can someone pinch me? Just now, for a split second, I actually imagined a “domineering CEO falls for me” plot! Tell me I’m not alone!
[Red Bottle]: +1, but I imagined a “queen falls for the tsundere CEO” story!
[Pink Granny]: Yes, yes, yes! It has to be the queen!
[Xiao Chen’s #1 Fan]: Why did I imagine a love-hate relationship?
[I Want First Place]: Hahaha, and there has to be a “chasing his wife to the crematorium” scene!
Little Cutie: I’ll give you the pen, please start writing! I promise to follow the story and throw money at it!
[Leaf]: Everyone, calm down! The queen is still online! Why don’t we have her walk us through the plotline? @Lazy Xiao Xiao Chen.
What plot could she possibly walk them through?
Regarding the new round of off-topic discussion sparked by the corporation’s reply, Cheng Xiao Xiao had only two words in her heartāHeh. Heh.
Old tricks always win people over! What phone call? Lu Xiao Shan didn’t even have her number!
Of course, her readers were completely unaware of this. Who could have guessed that the two protagonists had sat through a blind date together without even exchanging phone numbers? Netizens who knew nothing about them had even less of a clue. They had been passively fed a spoonful of dog food, and this reversal had them more and more invested. Pulled back from the brink of a flame war, they looked up to find their screens filled with pink bubbles. It was completely unexpected!
Thisā¦ well, it made one rather look forward to the two main parties responding and sprinkling a little more dog food. As for Song Jie, sorry, wasn’t it better to follow a sweet romance? Why obsess over a female celebrity mired in scandal? Didn’t you see that the certain group’s official Weibo didn’t mention the actress surnamed Song even once?
And so, public opinion was bizarrely led down a 360-degree detour by two Weibo posts, veering off in an unknown direction until it successfully transformed from an exposƩ into a CP fan recruitment drive.
In the fan group, the readers continued to excitedly discuss the various possible versions of the love-hate relationship between Cheng Xiao Xiao and the certain tycoon, until another reader steered the conversation in a new direction.
[Peerless]: I have a very bold theoryādo you guys think that the prototype for Brother Yi could be the male lead at the center of this scandal?
With that one sentence, the crowd was collectively stunned. A strange silence fell over the once-lively group.
[Just Asking]: What do you mean? I don’t get it. @Peerless, what’s the connection between Brother Yi and the tycoon?
[Miss Worry-Free]: I thinkāthat makes a lot of sense!!!
[Who Am I]: Huh? Even the group admin is here! Paging the experts for an explanation!
[Red Bottle]: Oh my god, I feel like we’re on the verge of uncovering the truth!
[Pink Granny]: Awaiting the expert’s explanation!
ā¦
Alright, the online storm had finally subsided, but now the deductions in her group were about to begin. It probably wouldn’t take more than a few days for this group of exceptionally skilled young ladies to dig up the entire history of her relationship with Lu Xiao Shan!
This was the downside of having fans who were too smart! Sigh!
Cheng Xiao Xiao looked at her computer screen in frustration. Forget it, forget it. It’s not like my relationship with Lu Xiao Shan is some shameful secret. Let them dig.
After comforting herself, Cheng Xiao Xiao stood up, exhaled, closed her laptop, turned off the lights, and left work, simultaneously sending a message to Lu Xiao Lin.
“Give me your brother’s number.”
As she sent the message, Lu Xiao Lin’s reply arrived: “?”
Cheng Xiao Xiao raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have it?”
This time, there was no text replyāLu Xiao Lin called her directly.
“Cheng Xiao Xiao, you don’t have my brother’s number?” Lu Xiao Lin’s voice was filled with curiosity, plus a hint of aggrieved confusion. His tone was mournful but failed to hide his desire to gossip. “And your tone is a bit off, a little heatedādid my brother piss you off?”
“What, you want to hear the gossip?” Cheng Xiao Xiao paused at the staircase, pressed the elevator button, and smiled slowly as she held her phone. “Gossip doesn’t come for free. It requires an equal exchange.”
Lu Xiao Lin choked.
Although Cheng Xiao Xiao’s tone was gentle, he felt something was off. He had a gut feeling this gossip might not be pleasant, and to avoid becoming collateral damage, he wisely suppressed his curiosity. He obediently sent Lu Xiao Shan’s number to Cheng Xiao Xiao and lamented, “Forget it, forget it. I’ve never understood you and my brother. You two sort it out yourselvesāone after another, you both come to me for his number, and with such terrible attitudes. I don’t know what’s going on!”
Cheng Xiao Xiao, of course, didn’t miss the “information” Lu Xiao Lin had intentionally or unintentionally revealed. Stepping into the elevator, she asked casually, “Did your brother tell you why he wanted my number?”
“Do you think he would?” Lu Xiao Lin said resentfully. “It’s so strange. You two go on a blind date and don’t even exchange numbers, and only now do you think to ask me. What is all this? I feel so incredibly pathetic stuck between the two of you!”
“Then you could have just not given it to him,” Cheng Xiao Xiao suggested irresponsibly.
“Cheng Xiao Xiao, don’t talk like it’s so easy!” Lu Xiao Lin’s grievance deepened, and he retorted irritably, “Could I refuse? Would I dare refuse? I don’t even dare to say no to you, let alone my brother!”
“Ohā” Cheng Xiao Xiao drew out the sound, her smile tinged with an unreadable meaning. “So compared to your brother, my status in your heart is still a little lower.”
“You two are the bane of my existence!” Lu Xiao Lin ground his teeth in frustration. He took a breath, paused, then softened his tone to ask tentatively, “So why do you want my brother’s number?”
The elevator reached the ground floor. Cheng Xiao Xiao walked out, searching for her parking spot as she replied calmly, “To get money.”
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