Chapter 87: Yan Zhusheng

Standing alone in the cold autumn.

The Xiang River flows northward.

At the head of Orange Isle.

……

Do you still remember?

Swimming against the current in the river's center.

Did the waves halt the flying boats?

"Hmm, class monitor, you've passed." Zhu Huiyan adjusted her round glasses and checked a box next to Li Luo's name on the form.

Zhu Huiyan sat in front of Li Luo and was the Chinese class representative; any text studied in Chinese class that required memorization had to be passed by her within one week after learning it.

"I've never seen you recite texts at school," Yan Zhusheng glanced at him. "You always read other books during morning self-study."

"Because I've already finished reading the Chinese textbook," Li Luo glanced at his desk partner and added, "I've memorized everything that needed memorizing."

"You memorized the ones we haven't studied yet too?"

"Of course," Li Luo nodded, looking ahead at Zhu Huiyan. "I'll memorize the next few passages too."

Because the midterm exam would come soon after National Day, the Chinese class didn't follow the textbook's order strictly—it first covered all the texts required for memorization in the first semester of Gao Yi, then moved on to others.

So over the past four Chinese lessons last week, they had studied three poems.

Including "Qinyuanchun·Snow," "Short Song," and "Returning to Garden and Fields."

But just as Li Luo was about to finish memorizing all three texts, the bell for morning self-study rang.

Since it was Monday, the "Athletic March" followed, and each class had to line up and go downstairs for the Monday flag-raising ceremony.

This was the first time the Gao Yi students had attended the flag-raising ceremony at Fu Yi High School.

But this time, Li Luo found something familiar from his past high school life.

Everyone lined up and gathered in the center of the playground, baked under the blazing sun, then listened to the principal speak, followed by the vice principal, and finally the student representative.

Li Luo had been daydreaming, standing in line while his mind wandered through his Memory Palace, playing the downloaded Ultraman Tiga episodes he'd downloaded out of boredom, basking in the sun and believing in light.

Then he saw Ying Chanxi ascend the stage as the Gao Yi student representative to speak.

Well then.

In middle school it was like this, and now in high school, nothing changed.

Li Luo always saw his outstanding childhood friend shining brightly on stage in public settings.

But this time, Ying Chanxi wasn't the only one shining.

After she finished speaking and stepped down, Xu Youyu ascended the stage as the Gao Er student representative.

Li Luo watched, sighed inwardly, and thought: living under the same roof as these two freaks was truly overwhelming.

If not for his rebirth and the Memory Palace, he'd have been crushed into utter self-loathing.

Thinking this, Li Luo suddenly began to understand his past self a little better.

Back then, facing Ying Chanxi, he really had been pathetically insecure.

When he first returned, at age thirty-five, he'd had little sense of the academic pressure from high school—it felt distant, and he could calmly accept someone like Ying Chanxi, a genius student.

But now, as he slowly re-experienced high school life, Li Luo began to truly grasp it—he realized Ying Chanxi was truly insane.

And besides Ying Chanxi, there was another insane person: Xu Youyu.

Ying Chanxi was impressive only because of her academic excellence—even if she ranked first in every subject, which was incredible, it was still confined to academics.

But Xu Youyu not only maintained the top rank in the grade, held positions in the Student Union and the Literature Club, and was simultaneously writing an Online Novel.

Although "Literary Era" currently had mediocre success, with only a thousand average subscriptions.

In Li Luo's memory, by the time the book reached its second year, it broke into the Elite tier; by its third year, nearing completion, it surpassed ten thousand subscriptions.

Had the "Twelve Heavenly Kings" of Qidian not required new serials to start publishing that year, Xu Youyu would have become a Heavenly King with a single book.

She was only in Gao San then.

She truly balanced academics and a side job perfectly.

Remember, her "Literary Era" wasn't like Li Luo's "I Am Really Not a Star"—a pure beginner's trope novel—but leaned toward literary youth and plot-driven content.

To write something like that, she must have read widely across genres and watched many films and TV dramas from that era.

He couldn't fathom how she managed it.

She was clearly a master of time management.

As Li Luo sighed inwardly, the Gao San student representative ascended the stage.

It was a boy named Xue Yongbin, tall and handsome—clearly the top student of Gao San.

After finishing his speech, Xue Yongbin didn't leave the stage; instead, holding the microphone as Student Union president, he continued to announce a series of trivial matters, such as last week's Civilized Class awards.

After standing on the playground for about twenty minutes, the flag-raising ceremony finally ended.

Returning in line to the air-conditioned classroom, everyone sighed with relief, feeling revived.

Zhu Yufei walked back to his seat; before entering the classroom, he confirmed that Teacher Kong had gone upstairs, so while there were still a few minutes left in morning self-study, he stealthily pulled out his phone from his desk drawer.

"Last week's update had a harem scene—insanely intense," Zhu Yufei whispered to Zhang Guohuang.

"I read it," Zhang Guohuang grinned. "This bastard writes so well—he completely controlled both heroines and got away with it."

"And there's more," Zhu Yufei flipped to Wednesday's update. "Remember that song 'Year Rings' I told you about? I said there was no such song, but the author just wrote it herself."

"Huh? Where'd you see it?" Zhang Guohuang leaned over, then exclaimed, "Wait, this costs money?"

"It's the official version," Zhu Yufei said. "I saw people discussing it in the QQ group—they said the author uploaded 'Year Rings' to music platforms, so I checked out that chapter out of curiosity."

"Since I couldn't see the author's notes on the pirated version, I subscribed to the official version."

"Look, here you can see what the author wrote."

Zhang Guohuang blinked, looking confused: "Aren't all Online Novels free to read? Why is this paid?"

"You didn't know?" Zhu Yufei was even more surprised, "Free ones are all pirated—I thought you knew that. Otherwise, how would the authors make money? Even our textbooks cost money to buy."

"I never thought about it that much," Zhang Guohuang scratched his head; he'd never really considered it before. "So you're planning to read the official version?"

"How could I?" Zhu Yufei shook his head vigorously. "How much pocket money do I even have? I'm just curious—I'll subscribe to one chapter, see what the author wrote. One chapter is only ten cents; I don't mind spending it."

"That's true," Zhang Guohuang nodded in agreement, then asked curiously, "So, how's this song 'Year Rings'? I finished reading this book this weekend and didn't even know there was a song."

"It's pretty good. This author's got some talent," Zhu Yufei chuckled. "I'll play it for you when we get back to the dorm tonight."

As the two were talking, a hand suddenly shot in from the middle and snatched Zhu Yufei's phone away.

The grab nearly scared Zhu Yufei out of his wits—he hadn't even turned his head yet when he blurted out, "Teacher Kong, I'm sorry… uh… wait—Class Monitor, are you trying to scare me to death?"

"Oh, I was just curious," Li Luo glanced at the reading page and saw it was indeed the official Qidian Reading app; he felt a flicker of relief. "Aren't you supposed to be reading on Some Pavilion? Why are you reading the official version?"

"I'm only subscribing to this one chapter to see what the author wrote," Zhu Yufei quickly snatched his phone back. "Don't you dare tap the wrong button—if you accidentally subscribe more, I'll lose money."

Li Luo: "..."

Damn it, I thought this kid had finally woken up.

Li Luo, just back from the restroom, grimaced and sat back down at his seat with a look of utter disbelief.

At that moment, Yan Zhusheng turned to him and asked curiously, "What are they reading?"

"Nothing much. Just an Online Novel," Li Luo waved his hand, telling Yan Zhusheng not to dig deeper.

But Yan Zhusheng frowned and said, "But I just heard them talking about 'Year Rings'—isn't that your song?"

At those words, Li Luo broke into a cold sweat and quickly soothed and redirected: "Probably just happened to hear it—they're all praising how well it's sung."

"Oh, I see," Yan Zhusheng nodded, not thinking much of it.

But after evening self-study ended, as she returned to the dorm with the crowd, took a quick shower, and lay down on her bed, she pulled out her phone and logged into QQ Music.

Thinking of Li Luo's words—"everyone's praising how well it's sung"—Yan Zhusheng put on her headphones, tapped 'Year Rings' to play, then opened the song's comment section to see what they were saying.

But when she clicked into the comments, Yan Zhusheng froze.

【Came here out of curiosity】

【I Am Really Not a Star sightseeing group, here to check in!】

【Chongran is awesome—he actually made a song】

【Why is it a girl's voice? Is Chongran female?】

【Didn't you read what the author said? He asked a friend to sing it for him】

【Holy crap, just from the voice I know it's a hot girl. What a scumbag author—he's not even pretending this is a normal friend!】

【Could this guy be writing his autobiography? Involving three female stars? Is this 'Bensheng Bu Xi' one of them?】

【If this is his autobiography, I'll eat my computer right now】

【But it's probably just the scumbag author's dying fantasy—maybe he's secretly in love with this singer? Look at how tragic this ballad is—it's clearly unrequited love】

Seeing the comment section's tone, completely unlike what she'd imagined, Yan Zhusheng fell into deep thought.

What is 'I Am Really Not a Star'?

These people call Li Luo a scumbag author… so is this book actually written by Li Luo?

But what's the connection between the book and the song?

Yan Zhusheng looked utterly confused, wondering whether she should call Li Luo and ask.

But just then, Zhu Huiyan in the dorm suddenly brought up Li Luo: "I'm amazed at how insane the Class Monitor's memory is—he just learned two poems today and recited them back to me right after class."

Someone started the topic—again about Class Monitor Li Luo—and the others quickly joined in.

"Didn't we all know that since the start of term? Are you just noticing now?"

"When they recommended the physics rep, he immediately named the three people who scored over 170 in their middle school science exam—I was stunned. He remembers stuff like that for years."

"Then you better be careful—don't tell him what color your underwear is, or Li Luo will remember it for life."

"Hahaha~ You're so mean. Only you'd say something like that."

Hearing this, Yan Zhusheng immediately abandoned the idea of calling Li Luo right then and instead searched for 'I Am Really Not a Star.'

And then, she realized she had just opened a door to a whole new world.