Chapter 607: Chanxi, Use Your Head

Ying Chanxi watched the locked partition door as Qiao Xinyan secured the lock, her confusion deepening.

"So what are you trying to say?"

"It's like this…"

Qiao Xinyan weighed her words carefully, then listened closely to the sounds outside the partition.

After confirming no one was eavesdropping, she leaned close to Ying Chanxi's ear and whispered about what had happened last night, emphasizing her shock upon learning Li Luo was Xu Youyu's boyfriend.

"All of this happened at the concert—Xu Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun were there too; they can vouch for me, I'm not making this up."

Qiao Xinyan looked at Ying Chanxi with serious concern, then whispered, "Chanxi, shouldn't you ask Li Luo to confirm this?"

In Qiao Xinyan's view, it was better to clear up such matters early.

But Ying Chanxi merely shook her head and reassured Qiao Xinyan: "It's fine, Xinyan—it was just that senior sister asked Li Luo to pretend to be her boyfriend."

"Because many guys at university keep pursuing her, and she feared the harassment would disrupt her studies."

"So she asked Li Luo to help out, pretending to be her boyfriend—I already knew about this."

"Huh?" Qiao Xinyan froze, stunned. "So… that's really it? But you're not even jealous?"

"Jealous? Jealous?" Ying Chanxi also paused, and with Qiao Xinyan's reminder, she suddenly recalled her own reactions last night.

How to put it…

When she learned Xu Youyu had used Li Luo as a pretend boyfriend, she had felt a slight twinge of envy—but she'd quickly accepted it.

It felt as if… this sort of thing wasn't entirely unacceptable.

After all, she'd already accepted Li Luo and the senior sister kissing—even witnessed it several times—so just pretending to be a boyfriend didn't seem like such a big deal.

She was still a little jealous, of course.

But it wasn't enough to make her truly upset.

Still, Ying Chanxi realized her thoughts were strange, so she now only insisted: "I—I'm not jealous! He's not mine; let whoever wants to be jealous, be jealous."

Qiao Xinyan: "..."

Their Chanxi was clearly a genius at studying, but why was she so clueless when it came to feelings…

Qiao Xinyan sighed helplessly, rubbing her temple, not knowing what else to say.

But now that she knew Ying Chanxi had already been aware of the situation, Qiao Xinyan felt slightly relieved.

If Chanxi already knew, then she didn't need to worry so much.

After all, Li Luo juggling three people was nothing unusual to Qiao Xinyan, who frequently attended study groups at Bihai Lanting.

She'd merely assumed the four of them hadn't yet broken through that invisible barrier—so when she learned Li Luo and Xu Youyu had already confirmed their relationship, she hesitated over whether to tell Chanxi.

Now it seemed she'd overthought it.

But before leaving, Qiao Xinyan couldn't help saying: "Chanxi, you've got to use your head—you can't let people lead you around by the nose."

"I know, I know…" Ying Chanxi blushed slightly. "I'm not stupid."

She felt she was quite smart—where had she been led around by the nose?

For instance, she'd just realized: yesterday, when the senior sister and Zhusheng suddenly brought up how guys pursued students in university, they'd been giving her a heads-up!

They must've known about what happened at the concert with the senior sister's roommate.

Thinking of this, after returning to class, Ying Chanxi sat down and, sensing Li Luo's sneaky hand playing with her braid again, immediately leaned forward, blocking his touch.

She turned to look at Li Luo, who was momentarily stunned, then huffed softly, giving him a little tantrum to show she could get mad too.

But by lunchtime at the cafeteria, Ying Chanxi had nearly forgotten the whole thing, still instinctively pulling out her meal card to pay for Li Luo's food.

"Chanxi, swipe my card too," Li Luo said, placing his tray down. "I promised to treat Rongjun to lunch yesterday."

"Oh." Ying Chanxi nodded obediently and placed her card on Zhao Rongjun's card reader.

Soon, the group found an empty table and sat down.

Eating in the school cafeteria had a strange phenomenon.

For example, Li Luo and his group always ate on the second floor, at the long window-side table.

Other students from Class Eight often joined them there.

Over time, that table became Class Eight's territory, crowded every lunchtime.

After Li Luo and his group sat down, within minutes, the table was filled with classmates from Class Eight.

Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang even squeezed over with their trays, demanding to know what happened next in his new novel.

Li Luo told them to scram, citing spoiler avoidance.

The next second, the school's midday broadcast played a familiar tune.

"Rowing through the sea of knowledge~ Riding the wind and waves~"

"Sails raised high~ Determined to sail far~"

"Huh?" Xu Yinghuan suddenly paused her chopsticks and asked Yan Zhusheng beside her, "Zhusheng, isn't this the song you sang at the concert yesterday?"

"Mm." Yan Zhusheng nodded, then added specifically, "'Unwasting the Prime of Life'—written by Li Luo."

"It's quite nice," Hua Xiuxiu commented after listening. "Do you have the lyrics? It was sung too fast—I couldn't catch the words."

"The audio's already uploaded online," Li Luo said. "You can find it on any music platform."

"I've got it! I've got it!" Lin Yuan quickly said. "I downloaded it last night—I'll play it for you during nap time."

"You snuck your phone again?" Hua Xiuxiu glanced at Lin Yuan. "Didn't you get caught last time?"

"I only take it out if you want to hear the song—I never use it in class," Lin Yuan muttered.

"So the senior sister sang this song at the concert?" Ren Zheng asked curiously. "I didn't catch the lyrics—what exactly was it singing?"

"It's a college entrance exam pep song—the lyrics are great," Zhu Yufei said immediately. "You guys probably haven't followed the class monitor's novel—this is exactly how book and real life sync up."

"Then why did the broadcast room react so fast?" Ren Zheng looked puzzled. "Don't they follow Li Luo's novel too?"

"Maybe they just got lucky," Zhu Yufei said.

"Cough… it's promotion," Li Luo coughed and explained simply, "Not just Fuyi High, but starting today, many high schools will play this song."

This is also one of Huayue Film and Television's promotional strategies.

Ying Zhicheng used Xu Rongsheng's connections to get in touch with people at the Ministry of Education.

After being given an advance viewing of "Little Joy," it received official approval.

Especially since the original novel of "Little Joy" had won first prize in a realism-themed writing contest.

This contest was originally launched jointly by Wenxue Group and the Changning Municipal Government.

With this political backing, Ying Zhicheng leveraged these connections to reach out to major high schools nationwide.

The goal was merely to get their broadcast rooms to play the music during lunchtime.

Added to this, with the college entrance exam approaching, the lyrics of "Do Not Waste Your Prime" were also excellent—catchy and uplifting in tone.

Thus, thanks to Ying Zhicheng's early distribution of audio USB drives and CDs to major high schools, not only Fuyi High but also schools across Qianjiang Province began playing the song during lunch.

Even high schools in other provinces, thanks to Huayue Film and Television's efforts during this period, reluctantly promoted "Do Not Waste Your Prime."

So from now until the college entrance exam, this song will continuously echo in the ears of countless Gao Zhongsheng across the country.

…

The days of May, amid the daily, repetitive playback of "Do Not Waste Your Prime," crawled forward slowly.

Saying it was difficult was only relative to Gao San.

As the countdown to the college entrance exam dwindled, June drew ever closer.

Books and exam papers on desks piled higher and higher; entering the classroom, one saw nothing but towering skyscrapers of paper on every desk.

Thanks to Huayue Film and Television's operations, Yuan Wanqing's influence, and Li Luo's promotion in "I Am Really Not a Star," "Do Not Waste Your Prime" became a nationwide sensation.

Even high schools that had not received Huayue Film and Television's promotional materials gradually added the song to their broadcast playlists.

Coupled with relentless marketing and promotion on Weibo, the three concepts—"Little Joy," "Do Not Waste Your Prime," and the college entrance exam—gradually merged together.

Soon, "Little Joy," a TV drama about the college entrance exam and family, became widely known to the public.

As the saying goes: before airing, it was already hot.

This was exactly the situation of "Little Joy" now.

And at this stage, Ying Zhicheng had fully immersed himself in his work.

For him now, "Little Joy" was the last lifeline he could grasp.

Because during April and May, another TV drama adaptation at Huayue Film and Television, filmed alongside "Little Joy," … flopped again.

How to put it?

It wasn't that the performance was bad, but it simply failed to meet internal expectations.

A mediocre performance could not justify Ying Zhicheng's report to the board.

If "Little Joy" also failed to break through, Huayue Film and Television's board would very likely consider replacing the company's leader.

Although Ying Zhicheng wouldn't necessarily be completely ousted, his status within the company and his income would certainly be drastically reduced.

And just as Ying Zhicheng was pouring every company resource into boosting "Little Joy's" traffic,

Li Luo's new novel, "Night Watch of Great Qian," was also gaining momentum, approaching its release.

Over nearly a month and a half, Li Luo had been writing three updates of 6,000 characters daily; by the time of release, the word count had approached 300,000.

And the entire framework of the fictional dynasty of Great Qian had, through Li Luo's setup, taken initial shape.

"So you're not writing a pure leveling-up novel."

One evening, while chatting about the release, Xu Youyu lay on his bed flipping through Li Luo's latest chapter and suddenly realized something: "You didn't even mention this world's cultivation system until over seventy chapters in…"

"And I just noticed something else."

"You hardly ever write about the protagonist's cultivation—it's all just brushed over."

Li Luo had just finished typing and was organizing the novel's outline in his memory palace.

Hearing Xu Youyu's words, he smiled: "That's right."

"Leveling up creates satisfaction because it grants the protagonist greater power."

"Power brings higher status and authority, which shifts how others perceive and relate to the protagonist, creating new conflicts of interest and information gaps."

"That's where the satisfaction comes from."

"So when I have the protagonist quote poems, use modern physics and chemistry to deceive people, or solve cases with uncanny insight, I achieve the same effect."

"Cultivation leveling is just one of many ways to create satisfaction."

"As long as satisfaction is achieved, the methods in between can vary greatly."

After hearing this, Xu Youyu seemed to grasp something, then said: "So your Seven Stars Pavilion is also designed for the same reason? Providing information gaps through relationships and interests?"

"Something like that," Li Luo nodded.

The Seven Stars Pavilion in his new novel isn't a place name—it's something like the Tarot Club in "The Master of Mysteriousness."

In "Great Qian," it's the Earth Book.

The concepts are nearly identical.

Li Luo designed seven divine swords forged in the previous dynasty; their bearers can enter a void realm called the Seven Stars Sword Domain and interact across distances with other sword bearers.

The effect is essentially the same.

It's just a variant of the chat group trope.

Wumou's Tarot Club was inspired by the then-popular chat-group power-up trope.

But he's better at packaging power-ups, giving them a beautiful shell and integrating them into the worldbuilding, so most readers rarely notice.

"Your new novel's releasing tomorrow, right?" Xu Youyu rolled over on his bed. "How many readers are following now?"

"Just over twenty thousand," Li Luo said. "There'll be a launch event—first-subscription numbers won't be low."

"How could it be low?" Xu Youyu rolled his eyes at him. "My book only got five thousand first subscriptions. With your event, twenty thousand is guaranteed."

"One should be humble and modest in life," Li Luo smiled. "By the way, what's your current average subscription count?"

"Fifteen thousand~" Xu Youyu chuckled. "But lately it's been growing very slowly—I feel like I've hit the ceiling."

"That should be enough," Li Luo raised an eyebrow. "You'll be a Grandmaster this year, right?"

"Thanks for the good wishes," Xu Youyu said, no longer particularly caring about the title. "But you still need to burst with updates when the book launches at the start of the month. Your gaokao is in a week—can your backlog handle it?"

"Are you doubting something?" Li Luo glanced at her sideways. "I already have 150,000 words in reserve for my new book. One ten thousand words per day after launch—even if the gaokao lasts a full week, it's more than enough."

"Tsk." Xu Youyu immediately scowled at the number of reserved words. "Get lost! I don't want to talk to you anymore!"

(End of Chapter)