Chapter 47: Endless Book Fans

"Wow, so handsome?"

"Is he really Zhongyuan Yidianhui? That's too handsome! I thought the author of this book was a perverted man!"

"Damn! I really suspect now that this guy wrote about his own personal experiences. With a face like that, could he really pick up flight attendants?"

"This bastard must be the most handsome among all writers, right?"

……

While Cao Sheng was busy signing for the "book fans," the queued "book fans" whispered among themselves, eyeing the all-black-clad Cao Sheng with varied expressions.

Today, Cao Sheng wore black suit pants, a black shirt, and black leather shoes; he was as black as a crow, yet incredibly handsome.

This man, sometimes, besides being handsome, truly had nothing else to say about him.

But coincidentally, what the book fans saw today was precisely his handsomeness.

However, with too many people discussing, all the voices mixed together, making it hard to hear clearly what they were saying.

Cao Sheng only vaguely heard words like "handsome" and "this guy."

Hearing these, he felt quite uncomfortable in his heart.

Thinking: These shills, besides criticizing me, can't say anything else.

He didn't hear anyone discussing the plot of his book.

This was very disappointing to him.

Just before getting off the car, he saw a queue over a hundred meters long outside the bookstore and was quite surprised, thinking that more book fans had come today than he expected.

A queue over a hundred meters long, with an average of two book fans per meter, meant roughly two hundred people.

Not particularly many, but not particularly few either.

But the answer from Zhao Ping, the publishing house staff, was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head, instantly giving him a chilling feeling.

Looking again at that hundred-meter-long queue, he noticed that the distance between some people was more than one meter.

That is to say, for such a long queue, there might only be around a hundred people actually queuing.

And judging by Zhao Ping's tone, among these hundred-plus people, most were probably shills.

At most, only a few dozen were real book fans.

A few dozen...

His book, "Days Living with a Flight Attendant," had recently exceeded two million total reads on Rongshu Tree.

And Shanghai is the forefront of domestic fashion, possibly the place with the most internet users in the country currently; the number of young people who have read his novel here might also be the highest.

In such a place, for only a few dozen real book fans to come to his signing event, how could he not be greatly disappointed?

So, his heart grew cold.

He just tried to keep the smile on his face, sped up his signing, hoping to end this signing event sooner.

He had no expectations for the next few signing events in his heart.

Just...

Why haven't I finished signing yet?

I've been signing for over an hour, right? Why are people still constantly coming from outside with new books for me to sign?

Cao Sheng gradually felt something was wrong.

He thought that according to his signing speed over the past hour and a bit, the one or two hundred people outside the bookstore should have finished long ago; why were people still queuing outside? Why wasn't it over yet?

He looked up at the queue before him; there were twenty or thirty people lined up inside the bookstore, and he didn't know how many were queuing outside the door.

What's going on? Did those people who just got their signatures go back to the end of the line?

Playing games like this, huh?

Will there ever be an end to this?

He frowned, turned his face to look at Zhao Ping, wanting to ask her when it would end?

Zhao Ping met his gaze, looking at him with confusion, not knowing what his expression meant.

Cao Sheng: "..."

At this moment, the book fan standing before him, waiting for his signature, spoke up to him.

Previously, quite a few book fans had spoken to him.

Cao Sheng had also tried his best to keep smiling in response.

"Hey! Zhongyuan Yidianhui, are you still together with Ran Jing?"

This question entered his ears, pulling Cao Sheng's attention back.

Cao Sheng raised his eyes to look at the young man before him, smiled, and shook his head, "Ran Jing is a character in the book; I don't have a Ran Jing."

The young man frowned, his eyes showing suspicion, "Really or fake? Isn't what you wrote in this book your real experience?"

Cao Sheng smiled and shook his head.

He casually finished signing for this person and handed the book back to him.

……

At this very moment, from an angle Cao Sheng couldn't see—at the very end of the queue outside the bookstore—people kept running over to join the line.

Some were book fans who had specially rushed over.

Some were passersby who saw so many people queuing here, heard it was a particularly popular novel being signed, and that they could buy an author's autographed book, so they also walked over to queue.

Today was Sunday.

Students and office workers, if they wanted to come today, generally had time to come.

It's just that Shanghai's traffic is congested, and not everyone could rush over early.

Cao Sheng, sitting inside the bookstore signing, couldn't see the situation of the queue outside and still thought that the shills who had already signed went out and then queued at the back again.

……

Besides, there was one situation Cao Sheng was completely unaware of at this moment.

Under the banyan tree, in the book review section of "Living with the Flight Attendant."

Early this morning, new posts began to appear one after another in this review section.

The content of the posts was basically related to today's Shanghai signing event.

Such as:

"Today is the day of the Shanghai signing! Friends in Shanghai are so lucky. Buying a book today, you can not only get the author's autograph and see the author in person, but also read all the remaining plot of this book in one go. If I were in Shanghai, I would definitely go buy a copy today."

"Why is the first stop of the signing event in Shanghai? Do you look down on our great Guangzhou?"

"Friends in Shanghai, when you go to the signing event today, could you bring a camera and take a real photo of Zhongyuan Yidianhui for us to see? Seeing his photo, we should be able to know if this book is written based on his real experiences."

"I just want to know the plot of the rest of this book right now. Friends who bought the physical book today, can you speak up and say how the rest of the book is written? Is it good?"

"Why doesn't this round of signing cities include our great Nanjing? The ancient capital of six dynasties, do you all look down on it? Isn't that a bit excessive?"

"Isn't the time about right? The signing event today should have started, right? Is there anyone on-site who can come out and say what the author actually looks like?"

"Are there many people going to the signing event today?"

"How is the grand finale written? At the grand finale, are Ding Yang and Ran Jing still together?"

Shanghai, the signing event venue.

It was already past 12 noon, and Cao Sheng was still signing. People continued to stream in from outside the bookstore, and Cao Sheng's stomach had long been growling with hunger.

He could only occasionally lift the teacup by his side for a sip, using the tea to stave off hunger.

However, his mood at this moment had improved considerably.

Because he had long felt something was wrong.

Since he began to suspect that those shills had taken his signed books, and then went to queue at the back of the line, he started paying attention to every "book fan" who asked him for a signature.

After paying attention for a long time, he surprisingly did not see a single familiar face.

He never found anyone coming to ask him for a signature a second time.

What does this indicate?

Thinking that those queuing at the back might all be genuine book fans, he felt much more comfortable in his heart.

His heart finally no longer felt ice-cold.

At half past one in the afternoon, the table in front of him where he was signing was finally empty; finally, no one came to ask him for a signature again.

Zhao Ping, the bookstore manager, and the clerks all gathered around.

The manager led the applause with a face full of smiles.

Zhao Ping and the others followed, clapping.

Although the number of people was not large, the applause was very loud.

Everyone looked at Cao Sheng with faces full of smiles.