Chapter 7: Discovery — As if the red scarf around his chest had become even more vivid.?
The blogger who"d sent the private message was called "Professor, Please Take Medicine," while their profile picture was a Q-version of a girl with beautiful, curly hair that inexplicably caused him to think of Yang Wei. He stared at the profile picture for several seconds before opening their Weibo. Their location was listed as A City, and they had listed "art teacher" as their profession. Fang Cheng Ran"s eyes lit up as he continued to browse the Weibo.
Posts where they roasted their students, complained about their princ.i.p.al, shared ill.u.s.trations… Fang Cheng Ran unconsciously skimmed through the entire first page of posts. When he opened the next one, the first post immediately captured his attention.
The post had been sent during Christmas last year and had a group photo attached of two people in front of an extremely large Christmas tree. There was a man and a woman, one of whom was Yang Wei, while the other was…
Fang Cheng Ran"s brow slightly wrinkled; the man in the photo"s face was one that could easily be remembered. In his opinion, such a man could easily attract the gazes of countless women. In the photo, Yang Wei was holding onto his arm and happily laughing. However, the man was expressionlessly staring at the camera, a faint trace of impatience clearly visible in his slightly furrowed forehead.
Who was this, Yang Wei"s boyfriend? It wouldn"t be strange for someone as cute as her to have a boyfriend… Fang Cheng Ran pursed his lips and seriously thought about calling Liang Ming Hao over to ask and clear things up.
However, he ultimately chose to first look at the private message Yang Wei had sent him.
「h.e.l.lo, great G.o.d. I"m the Pu Jiang author, "Wing Blows Through the South Door." However, due to me posting a negative review on your novel, 《Guard Against Marriage》, yesterday, your readers are giving my novel a negative rating. Even though I truly didn"t agree with how your plot progressed, your readers posting negative reviews on my works is a purely malicious retaliation. Could you please stop their actions? I"ll trouble you to do so!」
Fang Cheng Ran: "…"
Indeed, he"d published novels on Pu Jiang Network…but they had merely been small works of his—small works that he"d specifically written to retaliate against society.
Back when he was in university, he"d registered on Zhong Dian XS Network under a penname and begun writing novels on a whim. To his surprise, he"d accidentally become popular. A signed contract, a publication, and a game adaption later, Fang Cheng Ran had dropped out of university and was instead dependent on the several million yuan he"d earned from his novel, 《Death Row Party》.
Regardless of how much he earned, however, he still wasn"t doing honest work in his family"s eyes. Fang Cheng Ran hadn"t ever cared about their way of thinking, but when Yang Wei had asked him what he did earlier, he"d unexpectedly subconsciously agreed with their point of view and claimed that he worked in his family"s hotel.
He ruffled his hair and then opened his novel to take a look at the comment in question. The comment had been pushed to the very top and indeed had score of -2; his readers had also cursed the commenter out quite viciously too. Fang Cheng Ran stared at the comment in distress, copied the owner"s name, and entered it into the search bar for authors.
The author "Wind Blows Through the South Door" only had a pitiful twenty-two sponsors and only a single line in her biography: In the world of martial arts, only cuteness is invincible.
Fang Cheng Ran chuckled lightly when he saw this and then looked at her works. She had a total of three, all of which were wuxia novels. He hadn"t expected Yang Wei to love wuxia so much.
He opened her most recently completed novel and then stared in surprise at the comment page full of negative ratings.
He skimmed through them and went to post an update on his Weibo.
Wait For Three More Minutes 【V】: 「I discovered that an author who gave me a negative score is being negatively rated for her opinion by my readers today. I understand that you"re venting your anger on my behalf, but I"m going to give this author reparations. Therefore, today"s update will be withheld.『doge』」
Readers who were waiting for an update: "…"
Great G.o.d, come back! We"ll give reparation points, you go write, okay?!
Fang Cheng Ran really did start giving Yang Wei tips too. He left his hardworking footprint—a total of 180,000 characters—on each and every one of her chapters.
It was already midnight by the time he"d finished. He yawned, shut off his computer, and went to bed.
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The next day, Yang Wei woke up to her alarm clock at six-forty in the morning on time, but she once again remained nestled in her coc.o.o.n of blankets for two minutes before reluctantly rubbing her eyes and crawling out of bed. She walked over to her wardrobe, chose a white blouse with a small turndown collar and a sapphire rabbit-fur sweater, and then sleepily changed into them. Twenty minutes later, she had a cup of milk in her hands and was munching on a piece of bread as she ran to the bus stop.
She hadn"t yet reached the bus station when the route 33 bus sped past her. Yang Wei"s eyes instantly widened when it did, and she sprinted toward the bus stop. Three people were already waiting at the bus stop and quickly got on when the doors opened. Luckily, the bus driver saw Yang Wei sprinting toward the bus and waited for her. Yang Wei was gasping for air as she stepped on. She paid the fare and walked down the aisle to find a seat.
However, there weren"t any seats left; thus, she could only hold onto one of the ring handles. She then fished out her phone to look at the time: seven-ten. She estimated that she"d be able to reach school at about seven-thirty; it looked like she"d be able to wake up ten minutes later than she had today tomorrow. She lifted her cup to sip a bit of her cooled milk, but the bus suddenly braked. Yang Wei spun a complete three hundred and sixty degrees while holding on to the ring handle before she was able to steady herself.
The man seated nearby revealed a regretful expression when he saw this; he"d been prepared for the beauty in front of him to fall into his lap. How could she stand so firmly?!
Yang Wei choked on her milk and decided to opt for a handrail instead of a ring handle. The man nearby, who"d been hoping for the driver to hit the emergency brake again, silently sighed in his heart when he saw the beautiful Yang Wei move further away.
As there was a small traffic jam, Yang Wei reached the school six minutes later than she"d estimated. Her brows twitched as she concluded that she"d only be able to get five more minutes of sleep tomorrow.
She entered the school with a smile on her face, the students continuously greeting her as per usual. Once she reached the office, the mathematics teacher, Teacher Luo, politely said like always, "Teacher Yang, you"re very pretty today too!"
"Thanks." Yang Wei smiled at him and nodded. She then walked over and sat down at her seat. Teacher Dai glanced at her from across her desk and said with annoyance, "Teacher Yang, your cla.s.s" Gu Lei still hasn"t turned in his literature a.s.signment today. This is already the third time!"
Yang Wei set down her bag, stood up from her seat, and said with a smile, "There are still a couple minutes left, no? I"m sure that he"ll be able to finish it and turn it in right away." Once she"d finished speaking, she headed to her homeroom cla.s.sroom. In the cla.s.sroom, Student Gu Lei was currently bitterly engrossed in copying the a.s.signment.
She entered the cla.s.sroom, walked over to his desk, bent down, and softly tapped two of her fingers on his desk. Disturbed from his frantic copying, Gu Lei impatiently raised his head, only to see Teacher Yang"s smiling face in front of him. He immediately flashed an innocent smile and said, "Teacher Yang, good morning."
"Good morning." Yang Wei"s lips curved into a faint smile. She picked up his homework and glanced over it; it belonged to Liang Ming Hao. Her gaze smoothly transitioned to Liang Ming Hao, who was seated in the back row, causing him to subconsciously straighten his back. He met Yang Wei"s gaze and righteously said, "Teacher Yang, Gu Lei is my brother. If he wants to copy my homework, how can I refuse such a small wish. How would I be his brother if I refused?!"
He had an extremely proud expression on his face, as if the red scarf around his chest had become even more vivid. (1)
Yang Wei curled her lips even more as she restrained her urge to to curse at him. She smiled as she remarked, "Indeed, you two are good brothers."
"Of course." Liang Ming Hao proudly stuck out his chest.
"Since you are such good brothers, there"s no need for you to make Gu Lei painstakingly copy your homework. In the future, you can just help him do the work from the start. I"ll go ahead and tell the cla.s.s leader that you"ll be doing two cla.s.s a.s.signments from now on."
Liang Ming Hao: "…"
Gu Lei happily exclaimed, "This idea"s great!"
Liang Ming Hao: "…"
Liang Ming Hao immediately retrieved his a.s.signment and then smiled at Gu Lei and said, "True brothers shouldn"t harm one another. Instead, I feel it would be best for you to do your own work."
Gu Lei: "…"
Yang Wei walked up to the podium and smiled as she declared, "If I find another student letting someone else copy their homework, that person will be in charge of completing the other"s portion of homework for an entire year." Once she finished, she walked out of the cla.s.sroom. She paused at the door though, turned around, and added, "You"re welcome to actively report offenders as well. Each report will cancel out an offense of your own."
Liang Ming Hao"s mouth slanted as he watched her leave as he thought, Teacher Yang really is too savage. The t.i.tle "femme fatale beauty" really was tailor made for her!
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Meanwhile, the Imperial Capital University"s campus was bustling with noise and excitement.
The cast for the popular 《Youthful Era》 movie was currently present on campus, as the majority of the movie occured while the lead was in university. As such, the cast and crew would be on campus for quite a while.
With the rare opportunity to see celebrities up close and personal presented to them, the students surrounded the cast and crew, incessantly taking photos of them with their phones. Song Jin"s a.s.sistant looked at the surrounding students with a frown and asked Song Jin as she was getting her makeup down, "How come I feel like they"re watching monkeys at a zoo?"
Song Jin"s brows twitched when she heard this. Without turning her head, she replied, "If you want to be a monkey, that"s your problem; don"t act on my behalf."
The a.s.sistant"s lips curled before she curiously asked, "Miss Song, I heard that you graduated from this school. Do you feel excited to return to your alma mater?"
Song Jin closed her powder case, then glanced at her. "You can read about my answer to this question in the news once《Star News 30 Minutes》"s press conference asks me it in their interview."
Song Jin"s a.s.sistant: "…"
She stood straight behind Song Jin, but she didn"t continue to try talking with her. Even though Song Jin"s image was very sweet and pleasant, her nature was a far cry from her image. Even if her haughty behavior was justified—as there were few celebrities with academic qualifications as high as her in the entertainment circle—constantly having an expression that everyone else was an idiot was still too much.
The school quickly sent people to prevent the students from spectating in order to ensure that the film shooting was able to proceed smoothly. Song Jin was drinking a gla.s.s of warm water that her a.s.sistant had prepared for her when she turned her head and caught sight of a tall, well-postured man walking by.
Long, naturally curly hair…a light gray suit…grace akin to that of a swan…
The man had walked by so quickly that Song Jin wasn"t able to clearly catch what his face looked like. The female students called out Professor Qi" when he pa.s.sed them, to which he merely nodded without slowing down a bit.
Song Jin suddenly stood up and stared at his back as he walked further and further away.
Was it him? She"d heard that, after he"d returned to the country, he"d chosen to stay and teach at Imperial Capital University. She"d also been faintly looking forward to potentially encountering him when she returned to her alma mater this time.
"What"s wrong, Miss Song?" Her a.s.sistant looked at her strangely.
"I"m heading to the restroom." Song Jin shrugged off her coat and shoved it into her a.s.sistant"s hands. She then rapidly ran off in Qi Xiao Yan"s direction. Her a.s.sistant held onto her coat and thought about calling out for her to stay, but she was afraid that making a loud racket would instead have a detrimental effect.
Song Jin followed chased Qi Xiao Yan around a corner and then called out for him to stop. "Senior Qi?"
Qi Xiao Yan stopped and furrowed his brows, slightly suspicious. None of the people currently at the school should call "Senior Qi."
When he turned to see who"d called him, a trace of surprise crossed his face.
The person before his eyes had curled, flaxen hair; from this alone, the person had a 40% resemblance to Yang Wei. The golden sunshine was reflected off of and flowed down her hair just like the first time he"d seen Yang Wei.
Song Jin gazed at him as she stood there, her lips curving into a happy smile. "Senior Qi, it really is you. Do you still remember me? I"m Song Xiao Fang!"
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Author"s Note:
The famous actress, whose name popped up in the marital fight back in the first chapter, finally appears on stage. ?
Lastly, expressing thanks to the sponsors!
Muah~!
Footnotes:
(1) Referring to the Young Pioneers; in China, the scarf is emblematic of blood of revolutionary martyrs, as recalled in Red Scarf Park and the t.i.tle of Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang about her experiences during the Cultural Revolution.
Translator’s Note:
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