Chapter 469: Maturity

"I always thought that people grow old slowly,

but in fact, it is not so; people grow old in an instant.

———Haruki Murakami"

In the dead of night, after everything has quieted down, one's emotions always tend to settle and become more profound.

At such times, the mind engages in more reflection, and one can usually arrive at many great truths about life in this world.

To put it colloquially, it is "Wangyiyun time."

Although Miss Luo Quan does not suffer from depression, she often likes to quote famous sayings to make her own words seem deeper; simply put, she is playing the intellectual.

Of course, this time it was not for show; she posted this quote to help her fans prepare themselves mentally.

After the charity ball ended, Miss Luo Quan flew back to the castle and had been keeping a low profile ever since, even stopping her livestreams, using the excuse of needing to lose weight and rest for a few days.

After five days had passed, Miss Luo Quan felt that if she continued to disappear, the fans would likely start attacking her again, so before restarting her livestream, she posted this update.

Then, the comedy ensued, because London's time zone is seven hours behind Jingcheng, and Miss Luo Quan's "Wangyiyun time" was 12:30 AM local time.

"Why are you posting this stuff in broad daylight?"

"Are you going to turn dark too?"

"I looked out the window and thought it was Wangyiyun time."

"She's in the Western Hemisphere, we're in the Eastern Hemisphere; there's a time difference."

"Are you not used to it without my company?"

"What's this about being old at twenty? We are in the prime of our youth, full of vigor!"

"Some people die at twenty and are only buried at seventy."

"Good heavens, are you really doing Wangyiyun quotes?"

"It's not a quote, just some personal insights. Those who understand will naturally understand; those who don't, it just means your life is very happy and joyful."

………………

To be honest, Miss Luo Quan didn't expect that a single quote of hers would flush out so many "philosophers," but considering the general mental state of young people today, it seemed to make sense.

Of course, these negative social conditions were not something she should worry about or could solve. If such topics were to be discussed, it might lead to intense debate across the entire internet, and she had no intention of touching that.

After posting the quote, Miss Luo Quan put down her phone and went to bed. When she woke up, it was already afternoon in Huaxia, and her own day had just begun.

After a simple wash, Miss Luo Quan put on the same T-shirt she usually wore and started the livestream.

Actually, livestreaming from London is quite good; when she wakes up, it happens to be around the time fans are getting off work or school. The time difference works out perfectly; she can start the stream full of energy, and the fans have time to watch.

Today's livestream started as unexpectedly as usual, but when everyone happily entered the livestream room, they found that this stream was a bit different from the usual ones.

"Is my vision failing? I feel like Miss Luo Quan has become prettier."

"My wife gets prettier every day~~"

"So I'm not the only one who feels this way."

"Did she put on makeup?"

"Do you see any makeup on her face?"

"Livestreams are basically bare-faced, but she really is prettier today, yet I don't know where the change happened."

"Her brows and eyes have opened up; doesn't this mean…………"

"！！！！！！！！"

"Don't scare me, damn it!"

"Don't spread rumors, don't believe rumors."

"My mindset is completely shattered."

"No, this isn't true, wuwuwu…………"

I swear to heaven, Miss Luo Quan was truly impressed by the imagination of these people.

She had been curious about what fans would guess caused her change—she had even accounted for plastic surgery or disguise—but she hadn't expected these people to be more outrageous than she imagined.

And damn it, "brows and eyes opened up"—doesn't that just mean she's no longer a virgin?

But thinking about it carefully, although this explanation is outrageous, it doesn't seem entirely unreasonable.

After all, this is a traditional Huaxia saying, and it still holds considerable authority among the folk. Although it has been proven that there is no inevitable connection between the two, it has been around for a long time, and it's not like no one believes this view.

And for the fans, who are confused by their concern, their minds couldn't distinguish between science and non-science at this moment. I fear that seeing those four words, "brows and eyes opened up," and associating them with the meaning they represent, their mental state would instantly shatter.

In the livestream room, questions were increasing at a geometric rate.

Here, a single rebuttal should have solved the problem, and Miss Luo Quan was just about to do that.

"Opened your sister, stop talking nonsense, okay…………" Before Miss Luo Quan could finish, the "Network connection interrupted" displayed on the computer screen left her stunned.

"The internet is down!" Miss Luo Quan jumped up, then scrambled to pick up her phone while restarting the computer.

Neither of her two phones had a signal, and restarting them didn't help.

It wasn't a device issue, but a local network problem.

"Damn it!" Miss Luo Quan couldn't help but curse, "The internet couldn't have gone down earlier or later, it had to happen right at this moment!"

After cursing, Miss Luo Quan looked at the screen helplessly, having the thought for the first time that things might be spiraling out of control.

Even with her good mindset, she couldn't help but feel worried at this moment.

Compared to Miss Luo Quan's worry, the fans in the livestream room could be said to have suffered a bolt from the blue.

Originally, everyone was waiting for Miss Luo Quan's answer, waiting for her to laughingly deny it as usual, and then this matter would be forgotten like those other jokes.

But this time, she actually ended the stream directly.

What does this mean? Does this mean she doesn't intend to deny or explain?

Some things cannot withstand careful thought, and once people start letting their imaginations run wild, no one can predict how far those thoughts will spread.

"I knew it, there would be such a day sooner or later."

"I thought I could let it go, but when I truly faced it, I still couldn't hold it together."

"God, why are you treating me like this, wuwuwu…………"

"She would rather be silent than lie to me; it seems she still loves me."

"I should have thought of it earlier; there were so many handsome gentlemen at the charity ball, maybe she found one she liked."

"No wonder she hasn't livestreamed for so many days; it all adds up."

"Everyone, don't be so pessimistic; it's not like you have to find a boyfriend to make that happen."

………………

It was rare for rational fans to speak in the livestream room, but in this prevailing pessimistic atmosphere, the few rational comments were quickly drowned out by wailing.

On the internet, rumors always spread faster than the truth, especially such explosive rumors.

While Miss Luo Quan was anxiously waiting for the shitty London internet provider to fix the outage, the six words "Miss Luo Quan's brows and eyes opened up" climbed to the top of the hot searches on Weibo and Zhihu.

At first, everyone thought Miss Luo Quan had suffered a facial injury or a bruised eye socket, and they were all worried about whether it would affect her beauty.

However, after clicking in, they realized it wasn't like that at all.

To summarize simply: Miss Luo Quan started a livestream after many days, fans noticed some changes in her appearance, some fans mentioned her "brows and eyes opened up" with hidden meaning, and then Miss Luo Quan ended the stream at light speed, with no explanation on her personal updates.

Whether fans or passersby, everyone knows Miss Luo Quan is not someone who likes to play dead; if there's anything to say, she always says it to everyone on her updates immediately.

But this time, she was uncharacteristically silent, and what this meant was self-evident.

Although it was just a matter of hearsay, after so many coincidences appeared, it suddenly became reasonable, and some even found various related signs to corroborate it.

Haters feared the world wouldn't be chaotic enough, passersby watched aggressively, true fans cried out that the sky was falling, and the few comments calling for everyone to be calm were labeled as self-deception by others.

For everyone, today was a day of eating melons to their heart's content.

Actually, this is a relatively private topic that shouldn't have been brought to the table; discussing this would make people seem tacky and disrespectful.

But when it involves the four words "World's Most Beautiful," everything changes.

Everyone wants to know how this peak of human beauty, who claimed not to consider emotional issues before the age of thirty, completed the transformation from girl to woman.

Everyone wants to know which bastard, whose ancestors' graves smoked with good fortune for eighteen generations, managed to trick Miss Luo Quan.

With such thoughts, many people were constantly refreshing Miss Luo Quan's personal updates on major platforms, hoping to see how she would explain this…………

Miss Luo Quan rested her head on her left hand, while her right hand refreshed the computer desktop at a frequency of once every five seconds.

More than half an hour had passed since the internet went down. From the initial foot-stomping anxiety to helplessness, and finally to resignation, Miss Luo Quan's mindset had undergone multiple changes.

Miss Luo Quan felt this was a test of her stress-resistance ability; heaven will place a great burden on a person, and it must arrange a whole bunch of shitty accidents to torment her body and mind.

The past two years had been too smooth, so being unlucky once in a while fits the law of conservation of character.

After all, being unlucky in this kind of matter is better than being unlucky at other more critical times.

After thinking it through, Miss Luo Quan's mood seemed much better, if you didn't look at her ten toes constantly curling against her slippers.

Just kidding, how could she not be nervous about this kind of thing?

What is most important for a female celebrity? Reputation!

Being a little fatter or shorter doesn't matter, being a little less popular or "cool" doesn't matter, but if her reputation is ruined, that would be the end of her.

Miss Luo Quan had always been working hard to maintain her good reputation; since her debut, apart from taking a set of swimsuit photos because of a flag she set, she had never done anything out of line.

Even those were at most just a sexy style, which is a very normal choice.

But if this matter today isn't handled quickly, it will be very troublesome; she doesn't want to be labeled as a "rotten crotch."

After refreshing I don't know how many times, the internet finally reconnected. Miss Luo Quan's spirit was instantly lifted; she hurriedly opened Bilibili, first changed the livestream title to "Internet was down just now," and then started the stream.

Although she hadn't livestreamed for half an hour, the number of people in the livestream room was several times higher than when she started, with popularity approaching ten million, and the barrage was also intensely discussing the topic of "brows and eyes opened up."

"Hiya, the internet suddenly went down just now, and it took half an hour to get back up." Miss Luo Quan explained the reason for her sudden departure. After watching the barrage for a while, she said in a very serious tone:

"What 'brows and eyes opened up,' that's a matter with absolutely no scientific basis. Don't listen to the wind and believe the rain; I've been staying in my room these past few days."

"I don't believe it, unless you can prove it to us." The shaken fans demanded that Miss Luo Quan provide proof; after all, in a society ruled by law, everything must be based on evidence.

"I'll spray a mouthful of salt soda in your faces!" Miss Luo Quan's face flushed red, "How is this supposed to be proven!"

The barrage also started discussing in a jumble:

"I heard the 'gecko cinnabar' can test this?"

"Look at the arm, if you can still see the veins, then it's no problem."

"Shouldn't we look at the closure of the two thighs?"

"Shouldn't it be looking at the soles of the feet?"

………………

The more Miss Luo Quan looked, the darker her face became: "Where did you learn these folk remedies? They are simply the culmination of feudal dross. Why didn't the 'Destroy the Four Olds' campaign deal with you back then?"

She couldn't help but feel angry and cold; can this society still be saved?

"No wonder there are girls on Douban and Weibo who want to 'punch the patriarchy'; if it were me, I'd punch too." In the barrage, there were clearly female fans who couldn't stand it anymore and complained.

Most of the rational comments from before actually came from Miss Luo Quan's female fans.

They were actually very resistant to this behavior of objectifying their idol.

As girls themselves, they could better empathize with Miss Luo Quan's mood at this moment.

"Alright, this matter ends here. Things that have no basis can be spread so wildly; sometimes I really am impressed by you all." As Miss Luo Quan said this, she typed and posted an update: "People should have the ability to think independently and distinguish right from wrong. Blindly following the crowd will only blind your vision."

After the update was posted, as the news of "internet outages in multiple regions of the UK" reached the country, everything became clear.

This was just a simple rumor that happened to coincide with an internet outage, causing a misunderstanding that Miss Luo Quan didn't explain in time.

Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, the situation instantly reversed.

All the previously confident statements were now slapped in the face.

It is worth mentioning that there are too many such face-slapping reversals on the internet now.

People only see the first layer and think they have insight into everything, not knowing that they are merely followers who repeat what others say.

Without the right to investigate, there is no right to speak, and some people just want to have the right to speak.

Although such face-slapping reversals have appeared too many times, netizens don't seem to have learned their lesson at all.

However, for Miss Luo Quan, the only good news this time was that the internet outage didn't last too long; it reconnected in just over half an hour, allowing her to provide an explanation that wasn't too late.

If it had been cut off for 24 hours, letting public opinion ferment on its own, that would have been true chaos.

It was already this chaotic after just half an hour, with rumors flying everywhere; if it had been 24 hours, she couldn't imagine what the situation on the internet would have been like.

One can only say that the infrastructure of this British Empire is truly too poor.

PS: Thanks to book friend "Duchongchengchuan" for the book coins, thank you very much! ===== CHAPTER 470 =====