Chapter 21

The next day, Fang Xinghe boarded the train home. After a bumpy journey, he finally returned to that small county town, throwing himself back into the current main battlefield.

Having been away for a week, the campus seemed not to have changed in the slightest; time felt as if it had frozen here.

Yet, certain changes were quietly becoming part of daily life.

Du Yu was obsessed with practicing Wu Gong, shooting up in height and becoming increasingly steady.

Bao Fu was all over campus grabbing people to brag; anyone he caught had to listen to the story of how awesome his "brother" was, followed by mandatory applause.

Tao Dang finally stopped "digging," and thus, with great sorrow, discovered that when he went to pester Lu Tingting to chat, she indeed no longer blushed.

Little Lu’s studies had improved significantly, nearly catching up to Fang Yuting, which made "Bold Fang" very nervous.

However, between grades and a man, she resolutely chose the man—as soon as Fang Xinghe returned, she went back to hovering around him, laughing and joking, chatting all day about this and that.

Fang Xinghe specifically set aside time to have a talk with Old Fang.

"If a child doesn't listen, you have to discipline them. She's so young and her head is full of dating; aren't you afraid she'll give you a grandson as soon as she starts high school?

If you really can't bring yourself to do it, just quietly tell my Master's wife; she definitely will."

Old Fang shuddered, broken into a cold sweat by the little brat.

He frowned and pondered for a while, a look of determination flashing in his eyes...

The next day, Fang Yuting, eyes brimming with tears, kicked Fang Xinghe hard: "You bastard! You're not human!"

Fang Xinghe only dodged twice, then let her be.

Mostly because he was laughing so hard his body went limp, his mind filled with the image of her being chased and whipped by the Master's wife with a belt.

The surrounding students were all laughing, which quickly spread to the whole class, and the laughter grew louder and louder.

From that day on, "Bold Fang" started giving him the cold shoulder.

So good~ Finally some peace and quiet~

In truth, Fang Xinghe cherished these times, because he knew that before long, he would never be able to find this tranquility again.

That day came extremely fast.

Just a few days after his 14th birthday, on a Wednesday in mid-April, Bao Fu rushed into the classroom holding a copy of *Sprout* magazine, shouting: "It's in print! Brother, you're in the magazine!"

And then, Bao Fu received the only treatment of being surrounded and fawned over in his entire life.

"Brother Fu, Brother Fu, let me see!"

Bao Fu was so dizzy with excitement that he let go, and never saw that magazine—which originally belonged to him—ever again.

But how could one copy be enough to go around?

That afternoon, there were over 20 extra copies of the April issue of *Sprout* in the class; almost every girl had one.

The reason was simple: the cover of this issue of *Sprout* was none other than Fang Xinghe.

In the afternoon, the cover star finally borrowed a copy from Lu Tingting in exchange for an autograph, seeing the true face of the April *Sprout* with his own eyes.

The cover was a half-body shot of him, a moment captured by a reporter just as he looked up.

In the image, the youth was half-turned, as if suddenly called by someone, and was slightly turning his head to look forward.

Beneath flame-like red hair was a face that revealed almost no expression, and a pair of eyes, clear and calm.

The pupils had a gray base with brown membranes; the irises were light brown like amber, highly translucent, while the base was light gray with strong reflection, so in natural light, they diffused a highly layered iridescence.

This resulted in a not-too-strong exotic feel, but an exceptionally strong sense of stunning beauty.

The exotic feel wasn't strong because it was a typical Chinese appearance; anyone who saw it knew this was definitely not a Japanese, nor a Korean, nor a Southeast Asian—he was definitely one of their own, the ancient noble young master from their imagination.

But the stunning impact was very strong, because embedding such unique eyes into a perfect bone structure created an indescribable shock and awe.

On the cover, the youth looked at the lens, neither curious nor excited, just calm.

That calmness brought a sense of aloofness—"I know you're taking a picture, but I don't care at all"—as if he were separated from the real world, living alone in another dimension.

Would this coldness bring rejection?

No, it would bring an even stronger attraction.

In fact, many young girls couldn't move their feet the moment they saw this face.

The specific adjective "aloof and cold" hadn't been coined yet, so "Bold Fang," excited beyond control, exclaimed: "So lonely and arrogant!"

Her deskmate whispered a rebuttal: "It's cold and arrogant!"

The girl in front suddenly turned around: "I feel like a prince should be like this."

The girl in front's deskmate joined in: "What kind of prince?"

"Like the European royal family? Anyway, he has a very noble temperament."

"Hey, hey, hey, Leon Lai is the one with the noble air, okay? Someone like Fang Xinghe, hmm, cool and cocky, that's called rebellious."

"Yeah, yeah! Even Xie Tingfeng is outclassed!"

"After seeing him, the guys from HOT don't seem that handsome anymore. My KangTa, I think I'm about to have a change of heart, wuwuwu..."

A group of young girls chattered, a class of young girls chattered, a school of young girls chattered...

Today, young girls all over the country were chattering.

And Fang Xinghe, watching his fans and Starlight Points soar crazily, felt wonderful.

*Sprout* used a large amount of space to tell the story of the New Concept competition. Li Qigang, as a *Sprout* editor and the general director of the New Concept, served as the main narrator, focusing on two contestants.

One was the "good big brother" Han Han, from the staff's mistake to rushing over for a make-up exam, to the difficult special topic, then writing a stunning article in just one hour and winning the first prize...

In short, it was a good story with high drama, extremely captivating.

And right after the commentary, *Sprout* released the full text of "Peering at People in a Cup."

For the first time in two lifetimes, Fang Xinghe saw this legendary article, so he read it carefully from beginning to end.

After reading it, he had only one feeling: it was indeed awesome.

You have to know that Han Han was not a reincarnator; he was a truly 16-year-old boy, so this sense of language, this accumulation, this train of thought, was truly strong.

As a result, Bao Fu scanned it with patience and muttered: "What kind of bullshit is this? And how can you have a make-up exam? There must be some shady business, right?"

This was one of the sources of the controversy and discussion surrounding Han Han; those who couldn't understand the value of the article focused their attention on the issue of fairness.

"It doesn't reach the level of shady business."

Fang Xinghe thought for a moment and found the exact description: "At most, there was a little bit of personal favor."

"What's up, what's up?"

The ears of his brothers all perked up.

Fang Xinghe replied casually: "The make-up opportunity was definitely partly due to Han's father's influence; he's very familiar with the *Sprout* editors, so giving face in such a small matter is very normal.

But there was no direct competition in this year's contest; there was no limit on the number of first prizes, and anyone who wrote well could get one.

And Han Han wasn't a graduating student, so he wasn't competing for a guaranteed admission spot, so overall, it didn't affect fairness.

So being able to write a good article with such a temporary topic, that's his real ability."

As a professional internet troll, Fang Xinghe was actually the one who believed in ability the most—everyone in the entertainment industry buys marketing, but the few who buy the least and win in the end, how is that not a form of proof?

The more you mingle in this circle, the more you should respect real ability, rather than so-called backers and backgrounds.

Background can only win you opportunities; whether you can grasp them depends entirely on yourself. There are plenty of princes and princesses in the entertainment industry, but I haven't seen any of them become a hit.

Chen Feiyu, Dong Zijian, Guan Xiaotong, Prince Fang, Prince Zhang, Prince Xiang...

Fang Xinghe had taken a marketing order from one of the above, and that was truly a weight that couldn't be lifted; even "descending to the mortal world" to act in a boys' love drama didn't make a splash, not even as much as Prince Xiang, at least he had real viral memes.

So Fang Xinghe didn't envy Han Han's resources and preferential treatment; he deserved it, and... we definitely have them too.

It was just that the fledgling eagles weren't convinced, the key point being—

"Why was only his article published, what about yours, Big Brother?!"

Fang Xinghe flipped to the back and soon saw the "reflections" or "pre-heat" written specifically for him by Li Qigang.

It was a piece of sycophantic praise that looked quite cheesy, no different from the marketing press releases of later generations.

So he understood as soon as he thought about it.

"It will probably be released in the next issue, right? They're whetting people's appetites."

"Sigh..."

Lu Tingting and a few girls instantly slumped over, their faces full of despair.

"We have to wait a month, that's so long!"

Fang Xinghe didn't want to continue the conversation, just smiled, which made the hearts of the girls tremble.

"Ahhh! Go away, you're not allowed to charm me anymore!"

"???"

Are women so inexplicable from a young age?