Chapter 556

After the selection exam ended and the concert was over, the next half-month returned to ordinary life.

Every morning, he woke up and went jogging with Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng on the school track, then headed to the cafeteria for breakfast.

After arriving at the classroom, he began his daily study routine.

Calling it a "study routine" was misleading—Li Luo now had little left to learn.

He didn't need to pay attention to any of the three elective subjects; among the three core subjects—Chinese, math, and English—he barely needed to listen to English, and even Chinese offered little benefit.

Simple questions could be solved with his Memory Palace alone; for things like reading comprehension or essays, his Chinese teacher couldn't significantly improve him.

Many Chinese teachers, armed with model answers, explained reading comprehension with flawless logic.

But if he tried solving them himself without the answers, he didn't know how many points he'd even get from the examiners.

So Li Luo now mainly focused on math problems to keep his touch sharp.

He targeted the final one or two difficult multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.

Or the last big problem type, expanding his internal database.

He also reviewed the content of the college entrance exam papers from his past life, just to be prepared.

Due to the butterfly effect of his rebirth, this lifetime's exam papers would likely differ in some ways.

But if some questions remained unchanged, that would be ideal.

Still, doing only math problems didn't take much time.

So during idle moments in class, Li Luo organized information in his Memory Palace and worked on the setting and framework for his new novel.

When Xu Youyu was free on weekends, they'd discuss the new book together.

Not just Li Luo's novel—of course, they also talked about Xu Youyu's current one.

Xu Youyu had started publishing her novel in mid-October, and it had now been over a month.

It would go live with paid chapters in early November.

At over 130,000 words, the plot had entered its prime phase; the protagonist had achieved cultivation and occasionally showed off to supporting characters.

But Xu Youyu's show-off technique wasn't as clumsy as new writers'—she preferred subtle, indirect descriptions.

This better matched the protagonist's image as a reclusive master beginning cultivation after the return of spiritual energy.

The metrics for "Gu Dao Changqing" were steadily rising.

Thanks to Xu Youyu's accumulated fanbase from her previous novel and Li Luo's chapter promotion support.

Added to that, the novelty of the spiritual energy revival theme, combined with high-quality content, easily kept her in the top three of the new book rankings for a full month.

She even reached number one for nearly a week, and the follow-up readership steadily climbed to around six thousand.

Compared to her previous novel's launch metrics, this one represented a leap forward.

At this point, Xu Youyu's lingering doubts had fully vanished, and she maintained her regular updates without hesitation.

…

At the end of October, the mid-term exam at Fuyi High ended.

Li Luo stood before the notice board on the first floor of the Gao San teaching building, staring at the mid-term exam rankings, and sighed helplessly.

Beside him, Ying Chanxi bit her lip and smiled, then whispered, "You've improved again—this time only three points behind."

"Why does your tone sound almost proud?" Li Luo turned, squinting at her.

"I'm not." Ying Chanxi averted her gaze guiltily, but her lips curled slightly, revealing her delight.

On ordinary days, Li Luo always liked to tease her, especially enjoying pinning her down completely to do mischievous things.

But when it came to exams, she had always stayed ahead of him.

This gave Ying Chanxi a small sense of regained dignity.

"Parent-teacher conference is next Saturday," Li Luo changed the subject. "Will Uncle Ying come?"

"Mm." Ying Chanxi nodded lightly. "Dad said he's free next Saturday and can come."

"My mom said she's coming too," Yan Zhusheng suddenly spoke up.

At this, Li Luo's mouth twitched. He dared not look at either girl's eyes, afraid he'd give something away.

But he didn't notice Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng exchange a glance—both understood exactly what this meant.

With Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng's current grades, Ying Zhicheng and Yuan Wanqing didn't even need to attend the parent-teacher conference.

Yet both were coming this time.

Attending the conference was probably just an excuse; the real purpose was for them to meet.

After all, Yuan Wanqing was traveling nationwide for concerts—why would she make a special trip back to Yuhang City otherwise?

Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng both knew this, but their attitudes toward it differed slightly.

Yan Zhusheng was happy about it and had little opposition.

In comparison, Ying Chanxi felt more conflicted.

On one hand, she remembered how deeply her parents loved each other since childhood, and how her father had always been a dependable, caring dad.

Their family visited graves three times a year—Qingming Festival, her mother's anniversary, and Lunar New Year—never once missed.

Ying Chanxi had always believed her father still loved her mother, and therefore could never love another woman.

But on the other hand, reason told her her mother had been dead for over a decade.

And she herself was about to become an adult, enter university, and eventually marry and leave her father's household.

When her father grew old, he'd need someone by his side to avoid loneliness.

Finding a suitable partner after more than ten years of widowhood was actually a good thing.

Yet emotionally, Ying Chanxi felt sadness.

Especially since she couldn't imagine when her father and Yuan Wanqing had begun their relationship.

And how long had they been hiding it from her?

This gave her an inexplicable sense of betrayal, leaving her heart heavy and suffocated.

Since discovering this during the summer vacation, Ying Chanxi had deliberately tried to forget it, doing her best to ignore it.

But this parent-teacher meeting, her father had again said he would attend, instantly making Ying Chanxi aware of it once more.

Her mood instantly soured.

Yet Ying Chanxi did not show her emotions on her face; after slightly pressing her lips, she returned to normal.

Li Luo then said, "I'll tell my mom. Since Uncle Ying and Aunt Yuan are coming, we can have dinner together at home."

"Sure," Ying Chanxi nodded calmly, "I'll tell my dad."

Yan Zhusheng also nodded. Though she felt her mother would learn about it from Ying Zhicheng anyway, she still thought she should pretend to inform her.

On the way back to the classroom, Li Luo remembered this matter and reminded Yan Zhusheng, "Your provincial exam registration should be starting too, don't forget."

"Mm," Yan Zhusheng nodded, "I remember. The teacher will remind me too."

After returning to the classroom, Li Luo went up to the fifth-floor office again.

As soon as he entered, he saw Kong Junxiang fiddling with a small box.

Li Luo leaned closer and saw a diamond ring inside; he immediately raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

Kong Junxiang was startled, quickly tucked the box away, glanced around, confirmed no one else had noticed, then let out a faint breath of relief.

"How come you didn't knock when you came in?" Kong Junxiang grumbled.

"I saw the door was open, and Teacher Kong looked so serious, I didn't want to disturb you," Li Luo smiled. "When are you planning to use this diamond ring on Teacher Ding?"

"Cough… don't spread this around," Kong Junxiang nervously raised a finger, warning him not to talk, then after thinking it over, added, "I was going to tell you anyway."

"Since you saw it, I'll tell you ahead of time."

"But after you know, don't tell anyone else."

Hearing this, Li Luo immediately gave an OK sign, indicating it was fine: "It's just a proposal, go ahead, say it."

"It's like this…" Kong Junxiang paused, weighed his words carefully, then finally whispered, "There are still two months until New Year's Eve. I plan to propose during the party—what do you think?"

"That's great," Li Luo nodded in agreement, but added, "Still, I have one thing to remind you, Teacher Kong."

"What's that?"

"Confession isn't the battle cry to charge forward—it's the gong signaling victory after the fight," Li Luo said logically. "The same goes for a proposal."

Kong Junxiang, being a Chinese language teacher, immediately understood Li Luo's meaning.

"You little rascal," Kong Junxiang laughed and shook his head. "Actually, privately, I've already met Ding's parents, and hers mine—we've both tacitly accepted it. It's just the ceremony left."

"Oh, then I'm relieved," Li Luo grinned. "So, how are you planning to propose? I've got a good idea."

Kong Junxiang knew this guy had plenty of ideas; hearing this, his eyes lit up: "Tell me."

…

October 31st, near midnight.

As October was about to end, Xu Youyu sat at her bedroom desk, staring at her computer screen, nervously rubbing her small hands.

Since school was tomorrow, Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng had gone to bed early.

But Xu Youyu, because her new book was about to be released, was still awake.

Li Luo accompanied her, having cooked two portions of fried noodles and a dish of cola chicken wings as a side, bringing them into Xu Youyu's room.

Along with two cocktails already mixed, Li Luo placed everything on the empty space of the desk and smiled: "Eat something first to fill your stomach. The release isn't urgent—just upload when the time comes."

"It's not your book, so of course you're not in a hurry," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes, but still picked up the plate happily and began eating the noodles.

She picked up a piece of cola chicken wing, sipped her cocktail—this midnight snack was quite delicious.

Her total word count was now 180,000 words; at midnight, she would gain access to unlock paid chapters.

She was now waiting for midnight to arrive.

Li Luo had timed the midnight snack perfectly; halfway through eating, the clock struck 0:00 on November 1st.

Xu Youyu refreshed the author backend page several times, confirmed the paid chapter access was open, then immediately uploaded the three pre-written chapters totaling 6,000 words.

"I saw in your release note you said you'd post 10,000 words on the first day—why only 6,000?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"These 6,000 words are already all the reserves I've squeezed out these past few days," Xu Youyu said, squinting. "Besides, if I write another 4,000 tonight, won't that make exactly 10,000?"

"You're good at math."

"Hmph!" Xu Youyu kept eating, then kicked Li Luo. "Do you think everyone's you? A tentacle monster!"

"I just promoted your chapter again and made you midnight snacks—this is how you treat me?" Li Luo said, looking innocent.

"You dare say that?" Xu Youyu couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Readers who came from your side keep joking and asking when I'll do a 50-chapter explosion in one day—don't treat authors like humans!"

"They're just joking," Li Luo chuckled.

Honestly, with his current 300,000-word backlog, replicating the feat of 50 chapters and 100,000 words in a single day was still effortless.

But there was no need.

A steady, slow flow was the right path.

His current 5–6 million word epic still had plenty of planned plotlines—he felt he could write it all the way to ten million words.

Maybe someday it could even become a family heirloom.

"Check the stats," Li Luo said after both had finished their snack, about ten minutes later.

Xu Youyu eagerly refreshed the backend data; the three newly uploaded paid chapters now showed subscription numbers.

Within just ten minutes, the first chapter's subscriptions had already surpassed three hundred.

As time passed, by around 1:00 a. m., the original three hundred had broken past one thousand.

Based on this trend, Xu Youyu's new book's first-day subscriptions would very likely surpass five thousand.

To be fair, this was far stronger than their own previous book launches.

Even Li Luo's I Am Really Not a Star had only reached a little over two thousand first-day subscriptions when it launched.

His breakthrough in popularity mainly came from the initial breakout of the song "Annual Rings," and the subsequent song collaboration with Yuan Wanqing, which brought extra traffic.

This time, Xu Youyu's new book climbed to the top purely through genuine talent.

Although Li Luo's chapter promotion and the creative boost from the Qi restoration theme helped, it still clearly demonstrates Xu Youyu's own ability.

"Looks like it's settled," Li Luo said, smiling at the data and clapping Xu Youyu on the shoulder. "Five thousand subscriptions—keep writing hard for two or three months, you'll hit ten thousand soon. Maybe I'll soon be calling you 'Sleep Early God.'"

"That's such a dumb nickname," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes, but seeing the numbers on her writer's assistant, her mood brightened.

Xu Youyu picked up the cocktail glass on her desk, opened QQ Music, found a suitable track, then stood up, turned to Li Luo, and gestured for him to raise his glass.

Li Luo also picked up his glass; the two clinked lightly and drained the remaining cocktail.

Then Xu Youyu tiptoed slightly, wrapped her arms around Li Luo's neck, and pressed her lips to his.

"Don't go back tonight?" Xu Youyu whispered with a smile.

(End of Chapter)