Chapter 190: The Two-Person World of the Piano Room

On New Year's Eve, Li Luo and Ying Chanxi returned home, and Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong prepared a lavish dinner to reward the two children.

Because Ying Zhicheng had many urgent matters at work, he couldn't return for New Year's Day, so Ying Chanxi naturally stayed at Li Luo's house for dinner.

At the dinner table, Lin Xiuhong gave Ying Chanxi a chicken leg and asked about their recent studies.

To be honest, Lin Xiuhong, who only had a junior high school diploma, already struggled to understand the current junior high curriculum.

By high school, she was completely lost, and could only judge their progress by their grades.

Fortunately, both of their grades were impressive.

Ying Chanxi, of course, was outstanding, but Li Luo had improved even faster.

After Li Luo ranked 15th in the entire grade on the last monthly exam, Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong finally felt at ease about his academic performance.

They rarely mentioned his novel-writing anymore.

After all, with Li Luo now ranking first in his class and among the top in the entire school, according to the mindset of Chinese parents, whatever the child did was right.

When his grades were poor, novel-writing was a bad habit that distracted from studies.

Now that his grades were good, novel-writing was a beneficial habit that improved his Chinese scores.

Especially since Li Luo's Chinese essay score on the monthly exam was two points higher than Ying Chanxi's, the couple became even more convinced of this belief.

Not to mention that writing a novel could actually earn money—his royalty income reached twenty to thirty thousand yuan a month, and after paying the mortgage, there was still plenty left.

Such a life was something Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong had never dared to dream of before.

So when Li Luo said he was going out to play basketball with Zhao Rongjun the next day, Lin Xiuhong immediately agreed, adding, "You should exercise more regularly—you can't just focus on studying; you need to take care of your body."

In the past,

Li Luo had to sneak out secretly just to play basketball.

Now, he only had to mention it, and his parents not only approved but also supported and encouraged him.

There was nothing special about New Year's Eve at Li Luo's home—after the good meal, Ying Chanxi joined Lin Xiuhong in the kitchen to wash the dishes.

In the evening, they watched TV in the living room, then the couple went to bed early, as they needed to wake up early the next morning to open their shop.

Before returning to her apartment across the hall, Ying Chanxi reminded him, "Remember to call me when you go play basketball tomorrow."

"You're really coming?" Li Luo chuckled helplessly. "I'm playing with Zhao Rongjun—you'll be bored all by yourself."

"I'll ask Senior Yan to come with me."

"Yan Zhusheng?"

"Won't three people be too many?" Ying Chanxi asked kindly. "I noticed Zhao Rongjun doesn't seem to like being around too many girls."

"It's fine—adding one more won't hurt."

"Then should I invite Xin Yan too?"

"Sure," Li Luo nodded. "Why not buy some extra groceries and have a gathering at Bihai Lanting?"

"That's a great idea," Ying Chanxi said, her eyes lighting up. "I'll ask Xin Yan and the others if they can stay overnight—New Year's Day can be a longer celebration."

"Whatever you say," Li Luo agreed, though he silently mourned for Zhao Rongjun in his heart.

After seeing Ying Chanxi home, Li Luo returned to his room, took out the notebook Yan Zhusheng had lent him, and began typing.

He had used up all one hundred thousand words of his draft today, and he felt a slight pang of regret.

Fortunately, winter break was only about a month away, and he'd have much more time to write—he aimed to rebuild his draft back to two hundred thousand words.

Otherwise, he always felt uneasy.

Late at night, he wrote another ten thousand words, then opened his author backend and checked—his average subscription count had risen to over eleven thousand.

It should have risen even more.

But he'd updated forty or fifty chapters today, which dragged down the growth rate of his average subscriptions.

Still, it didn't matter.

Li Luo opened Qidian's website, navigated to the monthly vote and bestseller rankings, took a screenshot of the #1 position on both lists, and saved it as a keepsake.

This achievement, though temporarily boosted by a surge of traffic, was still an extraordinary feat.

Even Xu Youyu in his previous life had never reached such heights.

Thinking of this, Li Luo felt quite proud and immediately found Zao Shui Hui Chang Gao on QQ, sending him the screenshot.

【Zao Shui Hui Chang Gao】: What the hell?!

Xu Youyu had only woken up at ten that morning, had lunch with Li Luo and the others, dropped them off, then returned to Bihai Lanting to write.

He wrote until evening, packed up, went home for dinner, chatted with his parents on the living room sofa, and was just done showering, lying in bed ready to read some novels.

But before he could open a novel, he received a shock from Li Luo.

【Chongran】: Why are you reacting so strongly? I thought you already knew.

【Zao Shui Hui Chang Gao】: Know what?! Are you on drugs? Or did Qidian have a bug?

【Chongran】: Obviously, this is pure skill.

Qianjiang University faculty building.

Xu Youyu lay in bed, and upon seeing Li Luo's screenshot, sat bolt upright in disbelief, staring at it again and again.

She quickly opened the Qidian Reading app and, upon confirming that I Am Really Not a Star was truly ranked #1 on both lists, was left speechless.

Only then did she notice the reading event tag, clicked on it, and understood what had happened.

Xu Youyu checked two author QQ groups and found many discussions about I Am Really Not a Star.

Some called it amazing, declaring another masterpiece had been born.

Others mocked and sneered, claiming Qidian was deliberately creating a god-tier author.

More conspiracy theorists even began suspecting whether Li Luo himself had written the song "Nianlun."

They seriously speculated it was Tencent's new marketing strategy—directly linking with the entertainment industry to crush competitors through traffic dominance, elevating whoever they wanted.

After reading all this, Xu Youyu only found it amusing.

But she thought again, and could somewhat understand these people's thoughts.

After all, I Am Really Not a Star had previously performed quite well, but only reached premium-level results.

To suddenly leap to number one on both charts, overshadowing a host of big-name white-gold authors, was a bit absurd.

Then Xu Youyu discovered… Li Luo had updated over forty chapters today!

【Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller】: Why did you update so much today???

【Chongran】: I had stockpiled drafts—I showed you before, and this is only half of what I released.

As soon as he said this, the other side fell silent.

Only then did Xu Youyu remember that back when she first went live, she had shown Li Luo her own stockpiled drafts.

And she'd been utterly outshone by his stockpile.

【Chongran】: Take a look at this.

Li Luo sent another screenshot.

Xu Youyu stared closely and saw it was the average subscription screenshot of I Am Really Not a Star.

—11,238!

【Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller】: Already ten thousand subscriptions this fast???

Xu Youyu glanced at her author backend—her current average subscription was 2,957; after a few more days of grinding, she'd likely reach premium status.

She'd originally planned to screenshot her premium achievement and show it off to Li Luo.

Now it felt utterly dull.

Seeing Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller's shocked tone, Li Luo felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

He vaguely remembered that in his past life, when chatting with her, he'd finally written a book with premium-level results and couldn't wait to screenshot it and share it with her.

But this bitch was truly despicable—she'd sent him screenshots of two books hitting ten thousand subscriptions, nearly shattering his Dao heart.

In this life, having a second chance, Li Luo finally got to reclaim some dignity on this point—it felt pretty satisfying.

After all, she was the future Qidian grandmaster.

Thinking of this, Li Luo became even happier.

But then he immediately opened his author backend, found the chapter scheduled for midnight update that hadn't been posted yet, and added a line at the end of the main text.

【Recommend a Huayu novel: Literary Era—those running out of books can check it out; it's slow-burning but extremely good】.

Honestly, in his past life, Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller had suffered precisely because of its slow burn.

That's why her first book's momentum started so slowly.

In his memory, Literary Era's initial subscriptions were low, and it barely reached premium status around June or July 2015.

In this life, for some reason, the timeline had shifted—Xu Youyu had reached this milestone nearly half a year earlier.

Given this, Li Luo wondered: if he could offer her more recommendation support, perhaps she'd gain attention sooner.

After all, in his past life, Literary Era only exploded due to long-term word-of-mouth by the end of 2015, and only hit ten thousand subscriptions by mid-2016.

But judging from this life's trajectory, this progress could be accelerated.

【Chongran】: I'll recommend your book at the end of my midnight chapter—let's see how it goes.

【Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller】: Huh? Really?

【Chongran】: Do you think I'd lie to you?

【Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller】: Thanks so much! I'll treat you to dinner sometime!

Hmph… Li Luo smiled, thinking: you've already eaten at my place how many times?

【Chongran】: Fine, I'll log it in my account.

【Early Sleep Will Make You Grow Taller】: Hehe, I'll remember—it won't be shortchanged.

Xu Youyu lay in bed, scrolling through the chat log, her mood buoyant.

A chapter recommendation from Li Luo was no longer what it used to be.

After all, it carried the traffic boost of being number one on both charts.

Under these circumstances, with both Literary Era and I Am Really Not a Star being Huayu novels, the effect might be truly excellent.

At the very least, helping her break through to premium status was definitely assured.

Thinking of this, Xu Youyu grew excited, kicking her legs around on the bed, her two pale, delicate feet swinging wildly in the air.

Not long after, another message popped up on QQ.

Xu Youyu had originally thought it was Li Luo sending something else.

But when she looked closely, she saw it was Ying Chanxi.

【Ying Chanxi】: Senior, are you going to play basketball tomorrow? With Li Luo and Zhao Rongjun, and then we can gather again at Bihai Lanting like yesterday.