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Shen Baili thought he had done it to keep the attention off her, then wondered if she was flattering herself.

"No," Xie Tingsi said bluntly. "I was going to ask how you wanted to handle it, but someone else got there first."

Xie Tingsi knew Shen Baili did not want too much attention. He would not act first and claim afterward that he had done it for her own good.

"Oh, I see." Shen Baili understood. Someone had buried one trending topic with another.

Plenty of Haicheng No. 1 High School students had parents who did not want their children getting too much exposure. They could have used this method to cool things down.

Shen Baili did not overlook Xie Tingsi's thoughtfulness. "Thank you, Second Brother."

Xie Tingsi rubbed his nose. "I didn't do anything. What are you thanking me for?"

"Invite me to the next snowball fight. I'm a snowball-fighting champion." He changed the subject awkwardly.

They chatted a little longer before hanging up. Xie Tingsi was busy; making a movie was far more complicated than he had imagined.

The students reacted differently to making the trending list.

Zhu Zhitao bragged to her parents, while Qiao Yi was busy reporting the snide comments aimed at Shen Baili. There were not many, but they were unpleasant to see.

Lu Mingqian sat upright in the study, listening without expression as his father lectured him about wasting time on frivolous things. He felt nothing.

He was used to it.

"Are you confident you can come first this time?" After finishing his lecture, Lu's Father seemed to remember something. "Your older siblings were always first in school. How did you end up stuck in second place?"

"Stop thinking about playing all the time. Our branch of the family already gets fewer resources, and