Chapter 428: Cui Suling: Huh?!

The Qidian Weibo official account posted fifty to sixty signed-wall photos all at once.

This official account had always had few followers, totaling just over a hundred thousand.

Especially since so many photos were posted at once, almost no one paid attention to this Weibo post.

Only Li Guoru, retired and bored with his leisurely life, now directing all his energy and interest toward Chongran Culture, bothered to follow Qidian's Weibo updates.

If not for him, Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong wouldn't even have known about the WenYue annual meeting livestream, let alone seen this photo on Qidian's Weibo account.

In the office.

Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong crowded in front of the computer, zooming in on the photo to confirm it was indeed Xu Youyu herself.

"How could Youyu be at the annual meeting?" Lin Xiuhong was utterly confused, unable to grasp the logic, "Didn't we agree to go on the first? Why did she go ahead of us?"

"Cough… look at her chest," Li Guoru, standing behind them, coughed and reminded, "There's an ID badge—apparently every author has one."

"Huh?" Li Guohong paused, leaned closer, read it aloud, "Sleep Early to Grow Taller? Is that a pen name?"

"Youyu writes novels too?" Lin Xiuhong exclaimed in shock.

"I don't know," Li Guohong said, pulling out his phone, opening the Qidian app, and searching the pen name—soon the title "Literary Era" appeared, "Is this it? Over two million words already."

"Let me see," Lin Xiuhong leaned over, confirmed the pen name was indeed that, "So this book was written by Youyu?"

"She started writing it back in June last year," Li Guohong glanced at the publication date and added, "About the same time as Li Luo."

"No wonder I always saw her locked in her room," Lin Xiuhong suddenly understood, "I thought this kid just slept too much—turns out she was secretly writing novels?"

"And her performance isn't bad," Li Guohong said, "If she's invited to the annual meeting, even if she's slightly behind Li Luo, she's nowhere near low-tier."

"Urban category, top ten on the bestseller list," Li Guoru also pulled out his phone to check, then said, "This is after her recent slow updates—yesterday she took a day off. Normally her numbers are probably even higher; being invited to the annual meeting makes perfect sense."

"Then why did she say she'd go to Qiongzhou City with us on the first?" Lin Xiuhong was baffled, "Why hide this from us?"

"Probably doesn't want anyone to know," Li Guohong said, "I just wonder if her parents know."

"Of course they know," Lin Xiuhong said, "Minors need parental consent to sign contracts."

"That's true," Li Guohong nodded, "So the girl just doesn't want others to know—pretty normal."

"I'll ask Suling," Lin Xiuhong pulled out her phone and dialed immediately.

At that moment, Cui Suling, just finished hanging washed clothes on the balcony and was about to return indoors to sleep, received Lin Xiuhong's call and was taken aback.

"Hello? Xiuhong?" Cui Suling answered, "Why are you calling at this hour?"

"I need to ask you something," Lin Xiuhong laughed, "About Youru."

"Huh? What about Youru?" Cui Suling asked, puzzled.

"Do you know… that Youru writes novels?"

These words left Cui Suling stunned, momentarily speechless: "W-what novels?"

"You don't know?" Lin Xiuhong was surprised by her reaction, "The kind of Online Novel Li Luo writes—Youru writes them too."

"How is that possible?" Cui Suling looked utterly bewildered, stunned by Lin Xiuhong's words, "When did she start writing this? I didn't know!"

"How could you not know?" Lin Xiuhong pressed, "Signing with the site requires parental consent—if you didn't know, then your husband Xu must have."

"Wait… tell me clearly first," Cui Suling interrupted quickly, "Where did you find out Youru writes novels?"

"It's a long story," Lin Xiuhong said, then swiftly explained the entire sequence of events.

After hearing Lin Xiuhong's account, Cui Suling fell silent for a long while, then said: "I'll hang up now—I'll ask my husband, then call you back."

Next second.

Cui Suling hung up the phone, walked straight to the bedroom, flung open the door, frowned, and confronted Xu Rongsheng, who was lying in bed reading: "Do you know Youru writes novels?"

…

The annual meeting continued.

But it had little to do with Li Luo and Xu Youyu.

Until past ten at night, the annual meeting ended.

Li Luo and Xu Youyu followed the crowd out of the conference hall.

Along the way, Qianzhou approached them and whispered, "Qidian's Weibo operations team just posted the signed-wall photos taken during entry."

"Some authors didn't want to be photographed, so they contacted editors to ask for removal."

"I figured Youyu probably didn't want exposure either, so I added your names to the removal list—those photos should be deleted by now."

Hearing this, Xu Youyu was startled, her back chilled, and she hurriedly asked: "What photos? The ones taken at the entrance?"

"Yes," Qianzhou nodded, "The operations team was thoughtless—they posted without your consent. All photos have now been retracted; only those with author approval remain posted."

"What do the photos look like?" Li Luo asked.

"I'll send them to you," Qianzhou said, pulling out his phone, "Even though they were retracted, you can keep them—they're quite nice."

Xu Youyu didn't care whether they were nice or not—she frantically opened her phone and checked the comments section of "Literary Era."

After confirming no readers had posted the photo in the comments, she exhaled deeply.

After all, Qidian's Weibo had few followers, and the photos were all crammed into one single post.

To find Li Luo and Xu Youyu's photo, one would have to specifically click in and scroll through each one individually.

Combined with Qianzhou's prompt removal, very few people actually saw the signed-wall photo collection.

Thinking of this, Xu Youyu finally relaxed.

"You scared me…" Xu Youyu patted her chest, relieved, "I thought I was done for."

"Good thing it's fine," Li Luo said, then briefly opened his own comments section—and immediately turned grim, "Damn!"

"What's wrong?" Xu Youyu leaned over curiously, then burst out laughing, "Why so many livestream screenshots?"

Clearly.

Although both Li Luo and Xu Youyu were invited to the annual meeting, their reader bases were not on the same level.

As the main site's average subscription exceeded fifty thousand, with explosive channel traffic and the most favored pirated content on websites over the past few months, plus the recent original song collaboration with Yuan Wanqing, the real readership of "I Am Really Not a Star" was at least several million.

A few readers who discovered the New Year's Eve livestream spread the word, and the effect became completely different.

Fortunately, Xu Youyu covered her face the entire time, and the readers' attention was entirely focused on Li Luo himself.

So most screenshots were of Li Luo speaking on stage.

But various screenshots of Li Luo were turned into memes by devoted readers and spread rapidly in the comments section, leaving Li Luo struggling to maintain composure.

Xu Youyu, however, watched with great delight, laughing heartily, and casually scrolled through the newly added comments in Li Luo's comment section.

【This bastard deserves to die! He makes so much money writing novels, and he's just a high school student besides, and he sits next to Yuan Wanqing's daughter, and on top of it all, he's stupidly handsome! Is there no justice left?】

【Though you're handsome, your meme version is hilarious】

【I know you're young, but this is too young! It's hard to believe a brat like this wrote this book!】

【You look kinda hot in that suit—damn it!】

【All other authors are fat, but you're completely out of place—laughed me to death】

【I saw a comment asking if this was some celebrity—I thought you were a bit good-looking, but not celebrity-level good-looking! Spill it! Did you post that comment yourself?】

【Wait, is this the early-to-bed one? (screenshot) Wait, she's actually a girl?】

When Xu Youyu saw this comment, her expression froze, then she opened the screenshot and took a slight breath of relief.

The screenshot captured Li Luo standing up, and the camera panned to the audience, accidentally including Xu Youyu beside him.

But Xu Youyu had covered her face the whole time, so her face was completely unrecognizable—only the nameplate on the table with her pen name identified her.

All it revealed was that she was a girl; her real identity remained hidden, so Xu Youyu didn't think much of it.

After reading the comments, Xu Youyu and Li Luo bid farewell to Qianzhou in the elevator and returned to their room on the fifth floor of the hotel.

After entering the room, Xu Youyu stretched and sighed deeply: "What a heart-stopping day—thankfully, it ended without disaster."

"What if we really got exposed?" Li Luo walked in, closed the door, and chuckled, "Sis, you'd be better off accepting it now than stressing yourself out like this. Look at me—I've completely stopped caring."

"Hmph, I don't have your thick skin," Xu Youyu shot him a glare. "If I get exposed, I'll just quit school and stay locked in my room forever—nowhere else!"

"That's not that extreme," Li Luo stepped forward and gently hugged her, whispering in her ear, "It's really not that big a deal. The more you try to hide it, the more people will want to tease you once they find out."

"But if you don't care at all, then others will find it boring too."

"So I think there's no point in stressing over this—let them know. Short pain is better than long suffering."

"Get lost!" Xu Youyu shoved him away irritably. "No way! I'll hide it as long as I can!"

Seeing Xu Youyu's attitude, Li Luo stopped trying to persuade her.

After all, given Xu Youyu's grades, once her next book takes off, she'll surely become a Grandmaster.

At that point, exposure would be inevitable.

From social death to accepting reality to enjoying the moment, Li Luo had already achieved spiritual transcendence.

Unfortunately, Xu Youyu couldn't empathize—otherwise she wouldn't be so resistant to this.

Right now, Li Luo felt fine—even when classmates mentioned I Am Really Not a Star right in front of him, he could face it calmly, without a ripple.

Maybe this is what growing up feels like?

"Alright, alright! The New Year's Eve event is over! Let's forget about all this~" Xu Youyu kicked off her shoes, walked barefoot across the carpet to the desk, and picked up the room's menu. "I remember they let you order food here."

"Didn't you eat enough at the banquet?" Li Luo laughed. "And aren't you writing tonight? You already took a day off yesterday."

"Take another day off today," Xu Youyu shrugged. "Attending the gala was exhausting—just send another leave request later. You've got drafts saved, so why write?"

"But it's not even ten yet—why order late-night snacks?"

"It's not for snacks," Xu Youyu flipped through the menu. "Let me see… got it!"

Li Luo walked behind Xu Youyu and peered curiously—only to realize she had flipped to the alcohol section, specifically cocktails.

"How about we order a few cocktails? It's been ages since we drank," Xu Youyu looked up at Li Luo with hopeful eyes, blinking sweetly.

Li Luo couldn't resist her pleading gaze and nodded. "Don't order too many—add two small snacks too. Don't just drink."

"Peanuts, smashed cucumber, braised beef?"

"Fine."

"Then I'll order," Xu Youyu said, picked up the room's landline, called the hotel's ordering service, and placed an order for several snacks and four cocktails.

"It'll take a while for them to deliver," Li Luo said, preparing to take off his suit jacket and sit at the desk to write a bit.

But Xu Youyu grabbed his arm and laughed. "Hey, don't be so boring—I'm leaving tomorrow, and you still want to write?"

"Won't you be back the day after tomorrow?"

"Then I'll be coming back with Chanxi and Zhusheng," Xu Youyu leaned close, her fingers tracing the fabric of Li Luo's suit, whispering, "Our time alone is down to just this little bit."

Li Luo, easily stirred by her teasing, immediately forgot about writing, naturally wrapping his arms around her slender waist and lowering his head to kiss her.

But Xu Youyu slipped free with ease, giggling as she darted to the other side of the desk, pulling out her phone. "Some people really lack romance."

Watching the deliciousness slip away, Li Luo turned to face her across the desk and sighed. "Then what do you want to do, sis?"

"Don't rush," Xu Youyu winked at him, smiled seductively, then opened QQ Music on her phone, searched for a few slow English songs suitable for dancing, and hit play.

Then she ran to the bedside and turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only a small lamp beside the bed on.

A warm golden glow lit up the immediate area.

The rest of the room sank into soft, hazy darkness.

Xu Youyu stepped forward through the dimness toward Li Luo.

She still wore the elegant blue-pink evening gown, barefoot—giving off a sense of purity mixed with subtle decadence as she drew near.

In the dim light, Xu Youyu stood with her back to the lamp, so Li Luo couldn't clearly see her face.

Yet in this dimness, an intimate atmosphere spread like moss in damp air, growing from within his chest.

Even without seeing her face clearly, Li Luo felt she was breathtakingly beautiful, as if radiating a force that pulled his gaze and body closer to her.

Xu Youyu stepped barefoot before Li Luo, her hands gliding up his chest, finally resting on his shoulders.

Her entire body pressed fully against him, nestled in his arms.

Li Luo felt a pressure in his chest and instinctively wrapped his left arm around her slender waist.

The next moment, Xu Youyu's left hand slid down again, taking hold of Li Luo's right hand and lifting it to one side.

Her other hand remained resting on Li Luo's shoulder.

Accompanied by the music playing from Xu Youyu's phone on the desk, she leaned half against Li Luo.

Then, just as they had on the night of Xu Youyu's birthday, they began to dance lightly under the dim room lights.

Their steps were slow and gentle, the music soft, the beauty in his arms radiant and captivating, her eyes conveying emotion.

They did not kiss as fiercely as they had in the afternoon; merely leaning together in this light dance, a certain trembling emotion stirred like a feather brushing lightly against the heart.

When the song ended and the intro of the next began, Xu Youyu paused briefly, tiptoeing slightly to press a light kiss to Li Luo's lips, then laughed softly in his arms: "Isn't this more romantic?"

"Mmm…" Li Luo savored the tenderness of the kiss, restraining his inner restlessness, tightening his left arm around Xu Youyu as if he could melt her into his body.

The two enjoyed the moment in the room until the hotel server brought cocktails, forcing them to briefly separate.

Xu Youyu picked up a cocktail and clinked her glass lightly against Li Luo's.

Sipping their drinks, they pulled close again, moving to the music's rhythm, occasionally kissing when their eyes met, savoring the faint alcohol scent on each other's lips.

When the cocktail was finished and they were slightly drunk, Xu Youyu's gaze fell on the outdoor bathtub on the balcony, and she smiled softly: "Want something more thrilling?"

"What kind of thrilling?"

"Hmm… first, you… do this."

Saying this, Xu Youyu took Li Luo's hand and placed it on the zipper of her evening gown, guiding him to pull it down gently.

At the same time, she whispered softly in his ear: "The view from the balcony bathtub is wonderful—I want you to come with me."