Chapter 186: Stealing a Snack

After scrolling through the computer for a long time, the three of them found the movie Interstellar, which had just been released this year.

Li Luo originally thought the two girls would prefer a romance film, but for these two top students, Interstellar, a sci-fi movie, probably had more appeal.

But then another problem arose.

The three of them crowded in front of the computer desk to watch the movie, and it felt a bit awkward.

Ying Chanxi glanced at Li Luo's bed and asked softly, "Can we move the computer desk? Let's watch lying on the bed—it'd be more comfortable."

"You've got high standards," Li Luo shot her a look. "Isn't sitting like this fine?"

"It's fine, but sitting too long gets tiring," Ying Chanxi said, sitting on the chair she'd just brought from the living room; leaning back against it was nowhere near as comfortable as in a theater.

Li Luo had no choice but to pull out the laptop Yan Zhusheng had lent him, climb onto the bed with the laptop in his arms, and say to the two, "Let's use this one."

Ying Chanxi's eyes lit up, but she still hesitated and acted shy.

But Xu Youyu didn't mind at all—she simply walked around to the other side of the bed and plopped down right beside Li Luo.

Seeing this, Ying Chanxi hurriedly scrambled onto Li Luo's bed, secretly regretting she hadn't acted sooner.

She should've climbed into bed first and then invited Senior Yan to sit beside her.

But it was too late now; she didn't dare say anything more, just leaned back against the headboard half-reclining, her cheeks already slightly flushed.

Xu Youyu, however, remained calm, looking thoroughly delighted as she excitedly pulled back Li Luo's blanket and slid her lower body underneath:

"Hehe~ I've always fantasized about watching a movie curled up in bed with a friend—today I finally got to do it."

"Wait… who let you in?" Li Luo stared at Xu Youyu's utterly oblivious actions, utterly speechless.

But the next second, Ying Chanxi on his right side also stubbornly slipped under the blanket.

Sandwiched between the two, Li Luo was completely immobilized.

Especially now that the two girls, freshly changed into their pajamas, lay beside him with their graceful figures so close—he dared not move at all.

"Watch the movie," Xu Youyu urged, tearing open a bag of chips.

Li Luo took a deep breath, opened Yan Zhusheng's laptop, re-searched for Interstellar, and clicked play.

At that moment, Ying Chanxi reached out and turned off the bedroom light.

"Why'd you turn off the light?" Li Luo's eye twitched—he had a bad feeling about how this was going.

But Ying Chanxi looked perfectly reasonable: "Of course you turn off the light to watch a movie—otherwise you can't see anything."

The movie's opening credits had already passed; Li Luo had no choice but to turn back and focus intently on the screen.

Xu Youyu and Ying Chanxi leaned against the headboard on either side of him, quietly watching alongside him.

Time passed like this.

Interstellar, over two hours and forty minutes long, kept the three of them watching from midnight until past three in the morning.

Because Li Luo had already seen it once in his past life, he grew drowsy halfway through and simply closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When he half-woke in his dream, sensing something was off, and suddenly jolted awake, Li Luo looked at the laptop on his legs—its screen now black—and then at the clock on the wall…

It was already past five in the morning.

In a daze, Li Luo turned his head, glancing left and right, then sighed and rubbed his forehead.

Xu Youyu and Ying Chanxi were both sleeping peacefully.

Xu Youyu's sleeping posture was especially extreme—she'd laid one leg fully across Li Luo.

Ying Chanxi had a habit of unconsciously pulling the blanket during sleep, and now, halfway through, Xu Youyu's side had no blanket left.

As a result, Xu Youyu had rolled onto her side, pressed tightly against Li Luo, her brow slightly furrowed—clearly cold.

Li Luo took a deep breath, instantly fully awake, sat upright on the bed, and gently moved Xu Youyu's leg aside.

Then he slowly pulled back the blanket, shifted his buttocks along the sheet, slid all the way to the foot of the bed, and finally got off.

He found his slippers, put them on, and originally intended to cover Xu Youyu with the blanket.

But fearing Ying Chanxi would snatch it back, Li Luo went to Xu Youyu's bedroom, fetched her blanket, and brought it back to cover her.

As her body warmed up, Xu Youyu's furrowed brow relaxed in her sleep, and she sank deeper into slumber.

Li Luo stood beside the bed, looking at the two girls lying on his bed, and a helpless smile appeared on his face.

This New Year's Eve was truly unforgettable.

But he couldn't sleep in this bed anymore.

He'd only fallen asleep last night because he was so exhausted; now, trapped between them, he definitely wouldn't be able to sleep again.

So Li Luo simply changed his clothes, grabbed his phone, stepped out of the bedroom, closed the door, walked into the living room, and stretched.

Though he'd only slept a little over three hours, he felt surprisingly alert.

Li Luo thought for a moment, checked the time, and decided to go downstairs for a morning run.

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator on the first floor, his phone vibrated.

Li Luo thought it might be Xu Youyu or Ying Chanxi waking up.

But when he pulled out his phone, he saw it was a message from Yan Zhusheng.

【Yan Zhusheng】: What's the earliest time I can come over today?

【Li Luo】: Why are you awake so early?

【Yan Zhusheng】: You're awake too?

【Li Luo】: I'm going for a morning run downstairs.

【Yan Zhusheng】: Can you wait for me at the school gate? I'm coming down right away.

【Li Luo】: Aren't you going back to sleep?

【Yan Zhusheng】: I've slept enough.

【Li Luo】: Alright, I'll wait for you at the gate.

After texting Yan Zhusheng, Li Luo walked toward the dormitory entrance of Fu Yi High School, opening the Qidian Reading app as he went.

When he opened the app, the splash ad directly led to the promotional page for "I Am Really Not a Star"'s exclusive interview with Yuan Wanqing.

Clicking in, readers were redirected to a reading event page.

The first thing displayed was an exclusive interview video.

Below the video were themed activities related to "I Am Really Not a Star."

These included reading recommendations, subscription discounts, and a text version of the interview's highlights.

Li Luo raised an eyebrow—he never expected, in his lifetime, to land a splash ad slot on Qidian.

Usually, only top-tier authors had the privilege to secure such a position.

In his past life, Li Luo would never have dreamed of it.

In this life, though his new book was performing well, according to its original trajectory, he was still far from reaching this ad slot.

But Li Luo never imagined that, because of the song "Nianlun," his book had been lifted to a height it never rightfully belonged to.

According to what he'd once heard from a legendary author in his past life:

Once an Online Novel reached a certain quality threshold, its success became less tied to quality itself.

An 80-point Online Novel, if exposed to enough traffic, could easily outperform a 90-point one that failed to attract attention.

Li Luo was now exactly in this situation.

If asked to judge how amazing his book was, he himself didn't think it was that great.

He'd simply transplanted the entire entertainment genre formula, already distilled and codified by authors over the next decade.

In essence, he just strung together a few career plotlines, used well-known music and film works to plagiarize, and let the protagonist show off, humiliate rivals, and flirt.

But as long as the quality met standards, had few toxic points, and kept readers engaged,

then when traffic finally hit this book, the momentum became unstoppable.

Li Luo glanced at today's rankings and couldn't help raising his eyebrows in shock.

"I Am Really Not a Star"

Monthly Vote Rank: Fifth.

Sales Rank: First!

Li Luo immediately opened his author backend and checked the data.

Average Subscription: 10,495!

What the hell?!

Li Luo vaguely remembered that when he got home last night, the average subscription was only around eight thousand.

Just a few hours later, it had jumped by two thousand!

This surprised Li Luo somewhat, but upon reflection, he realized it was unexpected yet perfectly logical.

After all, readers' ways of finding books were limited; when a previously unseen title suddenly appeared high on monthly vote or sales rankings, it naturally drew attention.

With the splash ad boosting it further, Li Luo's book shot up like a rocket.

But soon, Li Luo realized another factor.

He logged onto Weibo and found Yuan Wanqing's account.

As expected.

From midnight until now, Yuan Wanqing had posted two updates.

One was her post celebrating the successful conclusion of the Qianjiang TV New Year's Eve show.

The other was a repost of Qidian's exclusive interview event.

Compared to the Qianjiang TV collaboration post, this repost felt much more down-to-earth.

【Yuan Wanqing】: After singing, when I got home, the first thing I did was open my phone and start reading a novel.

Below it, she reposted Qidian's promotional event for "I Am Really Not a Star," along with links to the Qidian Reading app and website.

The comments underneath were fascinating.

【Wait, sis—you're in the entertainment circle and you actually read this kind of novel? Hahaha】

【It feels like Sister Qing just went from a distant idol to a neighborly big sister (laughing crying)】

【Sis, you're serious? You actually read this book? Is it good?】

【The book's pretty good—Sister Qing's hit song "Nianlun" was originally written by this author】

【I'll go check it out—want to see what kind of novel makes Sister Qing so obsessed】

【Stayed up all night, back to report—it's actually great! Damn, once you start, you can't stop. Luckily it's New Year's Day, so I'll sleep and pick it up again!】

Watching this flood of traffic, Li Luo smiled faintly—he was certain his decision last night to release his ten-thousand-word backlog had been absolutely right.

From midnight last night until just past five this morning, "I Am Really Not a Star" had released eleven chapters—over twenty thousand words!

This was also why "I Am Really Not a Star" had claimed the top spot on the sales chart.

These days, most authors weren't this intense; posting ten thousand words a day wasn't normal.

Even for established big-name authors, daily ten-thousand-word updates were rare.

Suddenly appearing Chongran had caught everyone off guard.

In his comment section, readers who'd stayed up all night reading had already exploded with excitement.

From initial surprise at seeing an update at midnight, to ecstatic joy at a new chapter every half-hour, to disbelief when another chapter popped up past three a. m., readers were starting to feel afraid.

【Bro, stop writing—I'm scared I'll drop dead if I keep reading!】

【Dude, are you trying to kill yourself? Are you really pushing this hard for an event?】

【I usually complain you're short and watered-down, but your life matters more—take a break, write tomorrow】

【Wait, something feels off… it's already four a. m.! Are you just releasing pre-scheduled drafts?】

【One chapter every half-hour? Go ahead and post all day—I'll see if you can write faster than I can read】

Looking at the comments section, Li Luo couldn't help but laugh out loud.

By the time he finished reading, he had already arrived at the dormitory entrance of Fuyi Middle School.

He didn't have to wait long before Yan Zhusheng, dressed in her school uniform, appeared running into Li Luo's view and soon reached him.

"Good morning," Yan Zhusheng said, stopping to tidy her hair.

"Morning."

Li Luo watched as Yan Zhusheng raised both hands, gathered her long hair, and skillfully tied it into a high ponytail with the elastic band on her wrist.

When she finished, Li Luo said, "Let's go, run."

"Mm," Yan Zhusheng nodded and matched Li Luo's pace, asking as they ran, "How was the publicity effect?"

"Better than expected."

"Oh, that's good. The fireworks last night were beautiful."

"You're beautiful today too."

"... Did you eat breakfast?"

"Not yet."

"Then I want soup dumplings."

"Alright, we'll get some after we finish running."

"What about Xi Xi and the senior?"

"They're still asleep. They went to bed late last night, so they'll probably wake up very late."

"Oh."

Yan Zhusheng ran beside Li Luo, her figure slender and her steps light; her ponytail swayed against her waist, her eyes filled with a joyful smile.

"Li Luo, Happy New Year."

"Didn't you say it yesterday?"

"Saying it in person is better."

"Then... Happy New Year."

"Mm."