64. The Idol Competition Sparks a Fandom Frenzy (Part Four)

This holiday passed by with unexpected speed. Before her relatives had even left, Chen Ruowen found her days split between Bai Jinyan, Guo Jingyuan, and her parents—each taking their turn.

Bai Jinyan’s “date” was the most infuriating of all. He picked Chen Ruowen up and brought her to his house, shut the door, tossed her a copy of “Three Years of College Entrance Exams, Five Years of Mock Tests,” and then abandoned her to do his own set of practice problems.

Chen Ruowen protested several times, reminding him that she’d already been exempted from the entrance exam at Southern University and had no need for the college entrance examination. Bai Jinyan found her argument reasonable, so the next time she visited, he handed her several hefty tomes—“Human Anatomy,” “Fundamentals of Medical Chemistry,” “Embryology and Histology”—all introductory texts for the medical department, under the noble pretext: “You’ll never finish all your university courses anyway, so you might as well start early and avoid failing in the future.”

Chen Ruowen was exasperated. “Bai Jinyan! You call this a date? Dragging me to your house just so we can sit face-to-face and study?”

To her surprise, he nodded earnestly, spouting nonsense about having more motivation when she was beside him.

What else could Chen Ruowen say? She took the books with a sweet smile and obediently started reading.

The holiday calendar quickly turned to its final page. Aunt Feng carried her bag in one hand and her breakfast in the other, escorting Chen Ruowen to the car.

She was alone. Guo Jingyuan wasn’t there. According to Aunt Feng, Guo Jingyuan had gotten up before six, packed her things, and headed to the bus stop by herself.

After eating breakfast in the smoothly moving car, Chen Ruowen finally arrived at the gates of First High School.

Winter camp and winter break together amounted to less than a month, yet Chen Ruowen felt as if ages had passed.

She arrived at school neither early nor late—just in time. Most of her classmates were already there. The driver helped her carry her suitcase into Class Three, Grade Twelve, set out her textbooks and stationery, then left. As soon as he was gone, several classmates who’d been watching her for some time swooped in and surrounded her.

Chen Ruowen, not understanding, nudged aside the boy blocking the way to the back door, irritation in her voice. “You’re in the way.”

The boy immediately moved, leaving her a gap for fresh air.

The group exchanged nervous glances until Ma Yunan, who was on relatively familiar terms with Chen Ruowen, stepped forward. He held out a notebook with both hands, his eyes shining. “Ruowen, could you help us get an autograph?”

“An autograph?” Chen Ruowen was baffled. “What autograph?”

“From the artist in your family!” Ma Yunan bounced excitedly with his notebook. “‘No Retakes Tonight!’ Do you know how popular that show is now? My whole family watches it! My favorite is the actress playing Consort Dong’e—sophisticated, mature, just my type! My mom loves the Empress Xiaohui, my dad likes Li Xiaoxiao, my third uncle—”

“Stop, stop, stop!” The tangle of family relations was enough to give Chen Ruowen a headache.

By her calculations, “No Retakes Tonight!” had just aired its finale yesterday, but she’d been so busy lately she’d forgotten all about it. Judging by her classmates’ excitement... Chen Ruowen glanced around at their eager faces, notebooks clutched to their chests.

It really did seem to be a hit.

“Ruowen?” Ma Yunan waved his notebook in front of her. “Could you help us get an autograph? Please?”

Chen Ruowen found it odd. “Aren’t we in our final year of high school? How do you even have time to chase celebrities? Are you that free?”

Her classmates, caught in the crossfire, were dumbstruck.

A boy at the edge nudged his friend, whispering, “Maybe we should forget it? What if Chen Ruowen gets mad and rips our notebooks?”

The other boy whispered back, “It’s fine. I brought a brand new notebook—no notes inside.”

“You could’ve told me! I would’ve brought a new one too!” He eyed his densely written notebook, then quietly drifted back to his seat to fetch another from his bag.

“I don’t have time to get autographs for you,” Chen Ruowen said, spinning her phone around to face Ma Yunan. “There’s a fan meet-and-greet this Sunday afternoon. If you want one, go yourself.”

Ma Yunan froze for a moment, then quickly grabbed her phone and copied down the event details into his notebook.

“Thank you, Ruowen!”

The others followed suit, some copying the information, others snapping a photo of her phone, and hurriedly forwarding the news to their fellow “No Retakes Tonight!” fans.

“Thank you, Ruowen!”

“She’s not as fierce as people say—actually pretty easy to talk to...” The boy with the new notebook muttered to himself as he returned to his seat. Seeing this, the boy who’d gone back for a different notebook stopped rummaging and looked relieved.

“She’s not really going to tear up our notebooks, right?” he whispered as he glanced back.

The group that had surrounded Chen Ruowen had already dispersed, everyone now cradling their notebooks like treasures, as though the precious information inside had narrowly escaped destruction.

“How could she? Ruowen’s great! She just told us, there’s a fan meet-and-greet this week—you can get an autograph and see the stars in person!”

“Really? Where? Tell me, quick!”

“You want to know? Call me ‘Dad’ first!”

“Call you ‘Uncle’! You idiot, you’re just trying to mess with me!”

...

As for those boys and their crude jokes, Chen Ruowen could only shake her head; at least Bai Jinyan wasn’t as crass as them.

She opened the long-neglected First High School forum and discovered that in the month she’d been away, the entire forum had been overrun by discussions of this new variety show. Especially after each Saturday night’s broadcast of “No Retakes Tonight!”, the number of related threads would explode—everyone discussing plots, contestants, and results.

“Is it really that popular?” Chen Ruowen wondered, logging into her Yibo account, only to find that the top trending topics were all about last night’s championship results. The headline “Apartment Crew Leaves Champion Slot Vacant” dominated the top spot.

Curious, she clicked in, finding clips shared by netizens, all praising the production team’s professionalism and high standards, and expressing excitement for the TV broadcast.

Her Yibo followers had jumped to several hundred thousand, and her comments were flooded with fans wishing for meet-and-greets and hoping for filming to start—making her laugh.

On a whim, she took a screenshot of Zhao Yan’s message confirming the fan event details and posted her first update in half a year.

“Asked for you all—February 12th, Nancheng Restaurant. See you there!”

Barely seconds after she posted, her Yibo exploded—tens of thousands of replies, reposts, and likes in an instant.

“It’s really happening! I have to go, no one can stop me!!”

“The Double Star Princess has answered my prayers!! I’m here to fulfill my wish!!”

“Fulfilling my wish +1.”

“Fulfilling my wish +10086!”

“New wish: ‘Back Palace’ starts filming soon.”

“New wish: I want to marry Chen Ruowen!”

“Why are you trying to steal my wife?!”

“Draw your sword, rival in love!”

...

With a few flicks of her finger, Chen Ruowen blocked several users, stuffed her phone back into her pocket, and shook her head in disbelief.

Why had the style of these comments suddenly gone off the rails?