Chapter 283

While Li Luo and Ying Chanxi were cooking in the kitchen, Xu Youyu had already returned to her bedroom and, taking advantage of the time before dinner, began typing for a while.

Her book, Literary Era, had maintained a very stable and rapid growth in performance over the month following the Lunar New Year.

From reaching an average subscription level of just 5,000 right before school started, to now, over a month later, the average subscription had risen to nearly 7,000.

While this was related to her own good writing, the greater factor lay in the exposure Li Luo provided for her, helping her results snowball.

Not only did Li Luo give her a chapter recommendation during the New Year's Day period when his own exposure was extremely high.

Subsequently, whenever Li Luo released a new chapter, he would occasionally mention the book Literary Era in his author's note.

It must be known that I Am Really Not a Star has now become the top hit in the urban category under current circumstances.

His 24-hour read-through data for every chapter now exceeds ten thousand people.

That is to say, every time Li Luo releases a chapter, at least ten thousand Qidian readers will click on his latest chapter to take a look within the following day.

Furthermore, since I Am Really Not a Star and Literary Era both belong to the urban entertainment genre, the reader overlap is significant, making the recommendation effect naturally even better.

Under such circumstances, the better Literary Era's performance becomes, the easier it is for the website to provide better recommendation slots, leading to even more exposure.

With more exposure, readers naturally increase, and performance rises rapidly; combined with Literary Era's inherent literary style, which holds a natural advantage in reputation, it quickly spread through various reader groups, forming a wave of positive reviews from organic readers.

It was through such a virtuous cycle that Literary Era's performance improved so noticeably.

From an initial first-order subscription of just over 1,000 in the early days, writing all the way to nearly 7,000 average subscriptions now, Xu Youyu felt quite a sense of accomplishment.

And thinking that a large portion of this credit belonged to someone, Xu Youyu smiled, touched the wooden wrist rest on the table, and then continued typing on the keyboard, writing seriously.

Just before dinner time, Xu Youyu received a private message from her editor, Qianzhou.

【Qianzhou】: April 30th, Best-Seller Selection. Make sure not to miss an update then.

【Qianzhou】: You're getting a recommendation. The recent growth has been very good. I will arrange a recommendation slot for you here and strive to push for ten thousand subscriptions.

Ten thousand subscriptions...

When Xu Youyu saw the editor say this, she was momentarily dazed.

When she first entered the industry last year, the editor had pulled her into the Qianzhou signed authors' QQ group. Filled with curiosity, she lurked inside, learning various knowledge about online novels.

At that time, for her, and even for most authors in the entire signed authors group, ten thousand subscriptions was a mysterious existence, like a divine dragon showing its head but not its tail.

Big shots with premium-level results might occasionally show their faces in the group.

But as for the ten-thousand-subscription giants, Xu Youyu truly hadn't seen anyone in the group speak.

They probably had their own small groups and simply wouldn't speak in a large group like the signed authors group.

But now, in less than a single year, was she actually about to become the kind of ten-thousand-subscription big shot that was a mysterious, divine-dragon-like figure in her past understanding?

Thinking of this, Xu Youyu suddenly laughed.

She thought to herself that there was already a twenty-thousand-subscription big shot at home cooking for her; ten thousand subscriptions was just so-so.

She had seen them before at the symposium.

Actually, they were all just ordinary people.

【SleepEarlyGrowTall】: Received~ Thanks, editor~

【Qianzhou】: You should thank Chongran more.

【Qianzhou】: This guy keeps telling me how good and awesome Literary Era is, and why I don't give it more recommendation slots and such.

【Qianzhou】: My ears are about to grow calluses from listening.

【Qianzhou】: I even suspect you kidnapped him.

【SleepEarlyGrowTall】: How could that be!

【SleepEarlyGrowTall】: But did he really say that?

【Qianzhou】: He's said it several times. However, recommendations are arranged based on performance and updates. This isn't cutting corners for you; it's just the normal recommendation process.

【SleepEarlyGrowTall】: Mm-hmm! I know.

After chatting with the editor, Xu Youyu also laughed and shook her head.

Thinking of the image of Li Luo sitting in front of the computer, passionately recommending her book to the editor, she propped her chin and smiled, suddenly feeling an urge to tease the junior again.

"Senior, come eat."

Just then, dinner was ready outside. Ying Chanxi came over, knocked on the door, and called her to eat.

Xu Youyu responded, closed the typing interface, stood up, and walked out of the room.

During dinner, seven people sat around in a circle.

While eating vegetables, Li Luo pondered for a moment, then finally spoke: "I don't know if your teachers mentioned this privately, but I have received some new information from Teacher Kong regarding the college entrance exam reform."

"Teacher Sun seemed to mention it," Qiao Xinyan recalled, "He mentioned it briefly during class in the competition class, saying we would know the specific details by the end of the month."

"Mm." Li Luo nodded, then said, "You have probably all heard about the matter of freely choosing subjects."

"Huh?" Xu Yinghuan blinked her eyes, looking a bit confused. "What, what? I haven't heard of that."

The other six people present looked at Xu Yinghuan as if watching a monkey in a zoo.

But thinking about it, it made sense.

Xu Yinghuan was, after all, not a top student.

Li Luo and the others were the outstanding students in the class, so the homeroom teacher had privately given a reminder in advance, but actually, the difference wasn't that great.

Before the formal reform measures were issued, any situation could change, so the teachers didn't dare to guarantee anything.

But Li Luo, viewing the problem from the perspective of the future, naturally could be more certain.

So he continued: "Starting with our grade, when we are divided into classes in Gao Er, it might not be simply divided into science and arts, but rather choosing any three subjects from several elective subjects that you like or are good at."

"Eh?" Xu Yinghuan, clearly hearing this for the first time, immediately widened her eyes. "Really or fake?"

"It should be true. The teachers have mentioned it privately several times," Ying Chanxi nodded and said. "We just don't know exactly how it will change."

"Will this really work?" Xu Yinghuan frowned. "I think there are huge problems with this."

"For example, I mean for example," Xu Yinghuan raised a finger.

"If I had chosen Physics, Chemistry, and History."

"Li Luo, you chose Physics, Chemistry, and Geography."

"Then during the Gaokao, our Physics and Chemistry papers would be the same, but History and Geography would differ."

"What if the History paper is harder while the Geography paper is easier?"

"Then wouldn't I be at a huge disadvantage?"

"Hmm." Li Luo nodded. "So the issue with free subject selection lies here; it's hard to balance fairness in the Gaokao."

"So what Teacher Kong said is that, aside from Chinese, Math, and English, all other minor subjects might adopt a scaled scoring system, not using raw paper scores directly."

"Simply put, you take the History paper, and I take the Geography paper."

"No matter how well or poorly we do, we must compare ourselves against all students taking History or Geography."

"If the History paper is harder and you only score 89, but rank in the top 1% among all History takers, then your actual score becomes 100."

"And if I take the Geography paper, even though the paper is easy and I score a raw 91, but my rank is only in the top 3% among all Geography takers, then my actual score is only 97."

Upon hearing this, everyone else wore expressions of sudden realization, then immediately fell into thoughtful silence.

"Did Teacher Kong tell you even these details?" Ying Chanxi asked in confusion. "Why didn't Teacher Sun mention it to me?"

"After all, I am the only one in the parallel classes who can consistently stay within the top 40 in the whole school." Li Luo raised an eyebrow. "Moreover, the only impact this scaled scoring system has on you is that you can only rely on Chinese, Math, and English to create a score gap with others."

In fact, among the seven people present.

Except for Gao Er's Xu Youyu, who didn't need to consider this issue, top students like Ying Chanxi, Li Luo, and Qiao Xinyan, with their academic levels, would basically score 100 in all three minor subjects under the scaled system, as long as they didn't mess up too badly.

And for someone like Zhao Rongjun, as long as he took it seriously and planned his exam time and review preparation well, there was hope to secure three 100s.

So the ones who truly needed to take this matter seriously were mainly Yan Zhusheng and Xu Yinghuan.

"Anyway, the specific situation still depends on the school's subsequent arrangements," Li Luo said. "I'm just reminding you so you have some preparation in mind."

If possible, Li Luo really hoped that everyone could get into the same university in the future.

Qiao Xinyan and Zhao Rongjun should have no problems.

Yan Zhusheng is following the art student path, and her current grades should be fine too.

It's just that Xu Yinghuan's grades are a bit too poor. Li Luo wasn't clear on how her Gaokao scores were in his previous life, but judging by the current situation, she is still quite far from Qianjiang University.

At the very least, her regular grades need to stabilize within the top 150 in the whole school to have even a slight chance to strive for it during the Gaokao.

After eating and clearing the table.

The seven people sat around the desk.

Before, Li Luo felt that his mom buying such a large desk was a bit unnecessary.

Now seeing it, it was just right; even the seven of them felt a bit cramped.

Perhaps the topic discussed during the meal had stimulated Xu Yinghuan a bit.

Or perhaps facing so many top students finally sparked her competitive desire to study.

So when they studied together that evening, Xu Yinghuan would occasionally ask those around her for help with questions.

And Yan Zhusheng, sitting next to Li Luo, was much the same, constantly pulling Li Luo to explain problems.

From six in the evening until nine at night, everyone felt the fulfillment of studying.

After Qiao Xinyan and the others stood up and tidied up a bit, they prepared to take their leave and go home.

Li Luo walked them to the door, but Zhao Rongjun suddenly stopped, turned back, leaned close to Li Luo, and whispered, "Can I discuss something with you?"

"What is it?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow and asked in confusion.

"It's just... that novel of yours." Zhao Rongjun complained, somewhat speechless. "The Zhao Xiaorong you wrote is completely modeled after me, right?"

"And you wrote me so miserably, cheated out of money by an online girlfriend, secretly crushing on a desk mate in high school, and acting as a simp in university, having one relationship only to be treated as an ATM, never even holding hands!"

"I felt terrible reading it. Would it kill you to arrange a better girlfriend for me in the book? Torturing me like this!"

"Ahem..." Li Luo, hearing him say this, immediately felt a bit embarrassed but still whispered a reminder, "The one who cheated online wasn't a girl; you probably didn't read carefully, right? She was actually a guy."

"You damn..." Zhao Rongjun was speechless, thinking that seeing such a plot made him feel terrible enough; where would he have the mind to read carefully!

"This is part of the material gathering; just don't project yourself into it, okay?" Li Luo said with a forced smile. "Others project themselves into the protagonist when reading; why do you project yourself into a supporting character?"

"The protagonist is obviously you, so how am I supposed to project myself?" Zhao Rongjun spat, speaking in a bad mood. "Anyway, can you write me better later? Is it so hard to arrange a normal girlfriend?"

"It's not hard." Li Luo shook his head and said. "But the female supporting characters with names are basically all drawn from reality."

"So if you really want it..."

Li Luo grinned and pointed at Qiao Xinyan and Xu Yinghuan waiting for the elevator not far away, whispering sneakily, "Which one of the two do you like more? We can't just randomly set you up in reality, but in the book, we can satisfy that."

Hearing him say such things, Zhao Rongjun immediately had a black line on his face, instinctively glanced toward the elevator entrance, and accidentally locked eyes with Qiao Xinyan. Terrified, he quickly turned his head back, his face flushing red, finally managing to squeeze out only two words.

"... Get lost!"

"Tsk, really taking kindness for ingratitude." Li Luo shook his head and sighed. "Not daring in reality is one thing, but being this cowardly even when written into a novel proves that the character I created is indeed very close to reality."

"You have a whole set of twisted logic." Zhao Rongjun, unable to argue with him, could only sulk, turn, and leave. "I won't talk to you anymore."

"Hey! Really not choosing one?" Li Luo hurriedly asked. "Or anyone else is fine; just pick one."

"What is he asking you to choose?" Xu Yinghuan looked at Zhao Rongjun as he walked over and asked curiously.

"N-nothing..." Zhao Rongjun, following the two girls into the elevator, stammered, lowered his head heavily, with Li Luo's tempting voice still swirling in his mind, not daring to even look at either of them.

"Li Luo."

"What is it?" After seeing the others off and returning to the living room, Li Luo saw Yan Zhusheng sitting alone on the sofa.

Seeing him enter, Yan Zhusheng stood up, walked toward him, and pointed to the piano room: "It's time for class."

"Where are the two of them?" Li Luo looked left and right but didn't see Xu Youyu or Ying Chanxi.

"Xixi went to take a shower." Yan Zhusheng said. "Senior went back to her room."

"What about you?"

"I'm here to give you a lesson."

"Fine." Li Luo chuckled, "Then I'm in your hands, Professor Yan. What are we learning today?"

"Piano lesson." Yan Zhusheng pulled Li Luo into the piano room, pushed him into the chair in front of the piano, "Student Li, pay attention. Today I'll teach you a new piece."

"Professor Yan, why are you wearing the school uniform?" Li Luo teased, "Could it be fake?"

"Don't say unnecessary things during class." Yan Zhusheng said sternly, her face tight, "Put your hand out."

"What's wrong?" Li Luo extended one hand.

Yan Zhusheng looked down at Li Luo's hand, gripped it with one hand, and lightly tapped his palm with the other: "That's your punishment for not paying attention."

"Then this punishment is pretty comfortable."

"Pay attention in class. Don't flirt with your teacher."

……

On the other side, in the bathroom.

Ying Chanxi hummed a tune, her hair wrapped in a towel, standing under the shower to rinse off.

After bathing, she picked up a bath towel, dried her body, then wrapped herself in it, stepped to the sink, and put on the bracelet Li Luo had given her.

She glanced at the bracelet on her wrist in the mirror, smiled cutely, then began washing her face—cleansed with facial foam, then moisturized with toner.

After finishing these, she took out body lotion, untied the bath towel, poured some onto her palm, and smeared it over her smooth skin.

By the time all this was done, nearly half an hour had passed.

This was still because she hadn't washed her hair today—otherwise it would've taken even longer.

After bathing and putting on her pajamas, Ying Chanxi walked instinctively toward Li Luo's bedroom.

She knocked, opened the door, and saw Li Luo wasn't writing. Her brow furrowed immediately, and she turned toward the piano room.

Sure enough, as she reached the piano room's door, she heard faint piano music drifting from inside.

Ying Chanxi opened the piano room door directly and saw Yan Zhusheng standing behind Li Luo, leaning half against his back, guiding his fingers as he played.

Yan Zhusheng, seeing Ying Chanxi, slowly withdrew her hand and asked curiously, "Xixi, is something wrong?"

"... Nothing." Ying Chanxi took a deep breath, smiled, then stepped out of the piano room and gently closed the door.

But she didn't return to her own bedroom—instead, she went to the kitchen, took some fruit, washed and sliced it, carried the tray back to the piano room door, knocked, and opened it.

"Have some fruit." Ying Chanxi set the tray on the small table beside her, then sat down on the chair against the wall, "I'll listen for a while. You don't mind, right?"

"Thanks, Xixi." Yan Zhusheng picked up a grape and popped it into her mouth, then thought for a moment and took another for Li Luo, "You too."

Li Luo reached out to take it, but Yan Zhusheng had already brought it to his lips—he had no choice but to open his mouth and accept it.

Watching this, Ying Chanxi puffed out her cheeks slightly, then couldn't bear it anymore and blurted out, "Zhusheng, I'm done bathing. Senior probably won't shower until later—why don't you go first? Otherwise you'll clash with her timing."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded at this, "Then I'll go shower first."

"Alright." Li Luo nodded, stretched out on the piano bench, and as Yan Zhusheng walked out, he rose too, saying, "Then I'll go back to write—"

"Wait." Ying Chanxi grabbed him without expression, pushed him back into the chair, "What did Zhusheng just teach you? Play it again. Let me see how well you learned."

"Just those few songs—you've heard them all."

"I want to hear them."

"Fine, fine." Li Luo raised his hands in surrender, "How about I play and sing for you?"

Ying Chanxi nodded, slightly satisfied: "Hurry up."

The piano room filled again with melodious music, mingling with Li Luo's singing.

After about ten minutes of playing and singing, Ying Chanxi finally let Li Luo off the hook, picked up the fruit tray, and followed him back to his bedroom to supervise his writing, occasionally slipping him a grape.

By eleven at night, Li Luo finished his work.

Ying Chanxi washed the fruit tray, wished Li Luo goodnight, and returned to her own bedroom.

Lying on the bed, she reached out without opening her eyes, grabbed Pikachu and Doraemon, pulled them close, and punched them twice firmly.

Then she remembered the scene in the piano room, and gave Pikachu two extra punches.

Meanwhile, as Ying Chanxi hugged her plushies to vent, then drifted off to sleep clutching the panda doll,

Xu Youyu, just finished writing, stretched and checked her author backend—her average subscription count had just reached the 7,000 benchmark. She burst into a happy smile.

She took a screenshot and sent it to Li Luo on QQ.

But remembering they'd already exposed their pen names, Xu Youyu got up, wandered out of her bedroom, and pushed open Li Luo's door.

"Li Luo, I've got some great news—uh…" Seeing Li Luo, freshly out of the shower, Xu Youyu blinked, then her gaze dropped, and she couldn't help but glance twice, "Is this… Pikachu outfit fitting you?"

Li Luo: "..."

Looking at this scene, Li Luo felt a strange sense of déjà vu—as if something almost identical had happened not long ago.

But unlike Ying Chanxi, Xu Youyu was far more bold—she wasn't shy at all, and even looked a few more times.

Li Luo hurried to the bed, pulled on his pajamas, and said with exasperation, "You two come into my room in the middle of the night—can't you learn to knock?"

"I was too excited, forgot!" Xu Youyu pouted, then raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "And what do you mean 'you two'? Did Xixi and Zhusheng sneak into your room late at night too?"

"Don't ask so much." Li Luo's face darkened, immediately changing the subject, "What were you going to say when you came in?"

"Nothing much." Xu Youyu huffed, walked to Li Luo's computer, opened his QQ, and showed him the screenshot, "Look! 7,000 average subscriptions! Impressive, right?"

"It jumped that fast?" Li Luo leaned over, surprised, "At this rate, we might hit 10,000 by midyear?"

"Hehe." Xu Youyu grinned proudly, "Of course. There's a recommendation slot coming at month-end—I think it'll happen soon."

"Congratulations." Li Luo clapped for her, then smiled, "Do you remember, we made a bet before? If you hit 10,000, you have to agree to anything I ask—no conditions."

"You remember so clearly?" Xu Youyu smiled slyly at Li Luo, then chuckled, "No wonder you've been pushing my book hard on the editor—thought you were being nice. Turns out you had this in mind all along."

"Huh? Did Qianzhou tell you?"

"Mmm~" Xu Youyu stood up from the chair, pushed against Li Luo's chest, and playfully shoved him onto the bed, her knee pressing between his legs, "You really want me to lose to you?"

"If there's truly something you want me to do, you really don't need to go around in such a big circle."

"Junior, if you want to do something, just say it now; Senior can satisfy you~"

Saying this, Xu Youyu leaned down, lifted Li Luo's chin, and winked at him in a very ambiguous manner.

Her hair fell down, landing on Li Luo's face, ticklish.

Her body, due to leaning down and because the pajamas were loose, lightly rested on Li Luo's chest, yet carrying a heavy weight.

Li Luo took a deep breath, turned his head away, and barely managed to keep himself awake.

"I have only one request now: go back to your room and sleep immediately."

"So boring," Xu Youyu said with a laugh as she moved off him, "At least play along a bit; I'm not really going to do anything."

"You should have some awareness of your own charm before saying that," Li Luo said helplessly, sitting up on the bed with a headache.

"I thought you weren't falling for my act," Xu Youyu chuckled, "So it actually works a little?"

"Alright, alright, don't let Xixi hear the noise again," Li Luo said, waving his hand, "Go to sleep early."

"Got it~" Xu Youyu turned and walked toward the door, waving at him, but before closing the door, she still poked her head in and gave him an ambiguous smile, "However, when I reach ten thousand orders, you can really consider asking me to do one thing for you~ Anything at all."