Salty Fish Fans

Chapter Seventeen

After finishing her evening class, Cheng Shuangshuang returned to the dorm with her books and lay comfortably on her bed. She had originally planned to wash up later, but once she lay down, she did not want to move and started scrolling through her phone.

She aimlessly browsed through Moments when she suddenly received a message from a friend:

"Shuangshuang, hurry and check the trending searches!"

"???"

"Hurry up! Look up Li Wenchuan. He's so damn hilarious, hahahahaha."

"..."

Yes, Cheng Shuangshuang was a Li Wenchuan anti-fan. She thoroughly disliked that man who had nothing but a face. In her view, even artists should have some sort of skill, but Li Wenchuan could do nothing except look good.

All he did was step on others to lift himself up, buy trending searches, and ride other people's popularity. He could not even act well. These past few days, he had kept riding Film Emperor Jiang Hansheng's popularity, and it disgusted her to no end.

"...You know I don't like him."

"Hey, don't say that so absolutely. You'll know once you see it." The other person directly shared the relevant link.

Cheng Shuangshuang had not wanted to click it, but when she saw Jiang Hansheng on the cover, she still tapped it instinctively.

Perhaps the essence of humanity was simply enjoying a spectacle.

#Li Wenchuan's Identity Exposed: He's Actually the Nephew of an African Tycoon#, the production team was truly expert at stirring up topics. This ridiculous trending topic drew in hordes of idle gossip-loving netizens.

Then Cheng Shuangshuang saw what her friend had wanted her to see.

The production team had edited it in reverse chronological order. It opened with Li Wenchuan practicing tai chi with the elderly men in the square. Everyone had seen this scene before, so no one found it surprising.

Some people also said Li Wenchuan was deliberately hyping things up. Wasn't he just crafting a persona? Anyone could do that. He really was committed to it.

The beginning was steady. Then the screen went black for a moment, and subtitles appeared—Please enjoy this pure and unpretentious young handsome man.

The face of a bleary-eyed, confused young man suddenly filled the entire screen. He looked utterly bewildered without any pretense, completely unlike the polished celebrities in the previous behind-the-scenes clips.

Jiang Hansheng appeared first in this edit. His day was conventional and pleasing to watch, and everyone enjoyed it. No one had expected the style to take such a sudden turn when it came to Li Wenchuan.

The number of comments instantly surged:

"Hahahaha, Wenchuan really has no idol baggage at all."

"He looks exactly like my cat when I pet it awake."

"You guys actually believe this? Interviews like this usually have scripts."

"I also think Li Wenchuan was putting on an act."

"We're all old foxes here, so why play ghost stories?"

"I think the people above are just jealous."

"Exactly. He looks good even without dressing up."

The camera had zoomed in incredibly close, yet not a single pore could be seen. His skin was so delicate that countless girls instantly turned green with envy.

Then everyone heard the cameraman ask whether they should cut that part, only for Li Wenchuan to say no. He even bluntly said he wanted to shatter his fans' illusions. The comments immediately filled with laughter. What kind of ridiculous boy was this?

Fans: No, we love you even more now QAQ.

Anti-fans: Trash. Persona-building. Cheap tricks.

Passersby: His skin is so good. I'm so jealous.

Everyone thought Li Wenchuan would take the program staff around to see something, but instead they watched them go downstairs to an ordinary breakfast shop in the residential complex.

After all, some celebrities shared their skincare routines or showed people their home gardens and studies, displaying their daily lives to close the distance with fans.

But Li Wenchuan simply ordered food without any self-awareness, then even moved stools over and invited the staff to eat with him. The whole scene was warm and everyday, with greetings exchanged with elderly uncles and aunties. That ordinary simplicity moved quite a few people.

"That looks so delicious. Damn, I'm hungry."

"Wuwuwu, he makes it look so good."

"Is it really that fluffy and soft? Let me try some QAQ."

But there were also some less friendly comments:

"Do you think Li Wenchuan might be really poor?"

"Yeah, the place he lives in looks pretty small."

"It's probably rented, gosh."

"He even eats breakfast in places like this."

"Maybe he's deliberately building a poor-but-hardworking persona."

"Could be. I can't even tell what brands he wears."

Almost immediately, #Li Wenchuan Is Very Poor# lived up to expectations and made the trending searches. Quite a few people began mocking him, saying he had neither education nor ability, was probably from the countryside, had poor social skills, and clearly lacked manners and culture.

They never expected that a new storm was about to arrive, as six imposing, burly thugs in suits stopped Li Wenchuan.

The video did an excellent job building the atmosphere, giving every person present a close-up and even thoughtfully depicting their inner thoughts.

—Could they be debt collectors?

—Whoa, is someone looking for trouble?

Li Wenchuan's face in particular was visibly bewildered, his eyes even turning vacant.

The next moment, the suited men dropped to one knee, saluted, and shouted, "Young Master, the six-year term has ended. It is time for you to return home and inherit the family business!"

Comments:

"..."

The entire screen fell silent, then was instantly flooded with "Hahahahaha," "233333," and "I'm dying of laughter."

What family business inheritance? What commoner game? This was way too embarrassing!

"Li Wenchuan was set up by someone, wasn't he? Hahaha."

"If it were me, I'd die of embarrassment, but I really want to laugh."

"Li Wenchuan: Human joys and sorrows are not shared."

Especially when they saw Li Wenchuan being surrounded and taken away, his eyes full of Save me, the comments nearly laughed themselves to death.

Netizens did not know what happened in the car. They only knew that after Li Wenchuan came out, he soullessly told a story so shocking it could make heaven and earth weep.

"An African uncle, hahahahaha!"

"Noble African bloodline [doge]."

"This is incredible. Which friend came up with this? So badass."

Since that Rolls-Royce could not have been faked, they reasonably suspected that some program had happened to prank Li Wenchuan and did not think much more of it. Before long, #Awaken My African Bloodline# reached the trending searches, and the entire internet was in high spirits.

Without realizing it, Li Wenchuan gained quite a few fans and even acquired a fan group called "Sandy River," derived from "ridiculous boy Li Wenchuan."

Since the character for "ridiculous" was not easy to work into a name, and they did not want to make themselves seem overly clever, they simply chose "Sandy River." From then on, they were the flowing river in the vast ocean of ridiculousness OwO.

Once the fanbase grew, some major fans took the lead in making group chats and began preliminarily establishing Li Wenchuan's fan support club. Who could have imagined that an artist who had debuted years ago would need such ridiculous news to gain fans?

Truly, those who heard it were saddened, and those who saw it wept.

Back in the dorm, Cheng Shuangshuang had long since laughed so hard on her bed that her stomach hurt. She had received professional training, but—pfft—she really could not hold it in.

Her roommates grew curious and asked why she was laughing, so she immediately forwarded the link to the dorm group chat. "Hurry and watch this. This guy named Li Wenchuan is seriously too funny."

"Didn't you hate him?" Her roommate pulled open her bed curtain and widened her eyes.

"No, I've been proven wrong." Cheng Shuangshuang shamelessly admitted.

Loving something after mocking it was the ultimate law no human could escape.

As she replied to the friend who had first sent her the link, she changed her Weibo username to "Wenchuan's Cutest Baby" and reposted the production team's Weibo post.

Who would have thought that just yesterday, she had liked several Weibo posts criticizing Li Wenchuan?

Meanwhile, Li Wenchuan had also packed his luggage and headed for the recording location of this program—Shangyang Village.