Lin Fan blinked in confusion. Was his brother referring to how many followers they'd gained? He honestly replied, "About a million."
Song Shi'an felt like the sky had fallen. He slowly took two steps back, plopped down on the bed, and leaned back as if his bones had been removed. He sighed, "Are you still going to be my assistant? You're not just leaving like this, are you?"
No way!! He just got to know Lin Fan's assistant, and he's such a nice guy. He orders breakfast for him, fends off fans for him, and helps him communicate with the director. Where else can he find such a versatile assistant who even braids his hair in a little bun? He's so sad...
Lin Fan then realized that his brother had been chatting with him across channels for a while, and quickly held up the bag in his hand. "Brother, you misunderstood! I just went to buy you breakfast, I didn't mean to switch jobs!"
Song Shi'an smelled the aroma from the bag, took it, and started eating immediately, instantly forgetting the little incident from earlier.
Of all things in the world, only good food should not be missed; as long as my assistant is still here, everything will be fine.
While he was eating, Lin Fan squatted down to help him pack his suitcase when his phone beeped.
Song Shi'an clicked on it and exclaimed, "Holy crap! The company finally paid the salary, but the taxes they deducted were way too much!"
Song Shi'an bit his chopsticks as he paid off the loan in one go. When the screen displayed the words "Paid in full," a weight was finally lifted from his heart.
They even thoughtfully sent a text message: Wishing you a happy life ahead.
He put down his phone and happily continued eating. Lin Fan keenly sensed that his brother's mood had suddenly improved. He was almost scared to death when he saw his brother pick up his phone earlier, fearing that his brother would see some bad comments. Now he could breathe a sigh of relief.
After packing up, the two took a car back to Capital.
Song Shi'an leaned against the car window, bored. He opened his phone and saw a message from Ji Shuyao: "I promised you I'd give you a break. Catch up on the lessons you missed. You can't let your 'top student' image crumble."
Song Shi'an replied with a cat nodding emoji, haha, he can finally rest for a while.
We've made it to five cannon fodder figures, and the progress is decent; one-twentieth of the work is done, isn't it? Ten billion is beckoning to him.
The car drove directly to the villa area. Song Shi'an waved and said, " Lin Fan, go back and get some rest! You've worked hard these past few days. I've already asked Brother Yao for a raise for you!"
Lin Fan was deeply moved. It was worth it for him to fight three hundred rounds with three different accounts last night; his brother actually remembered to give him a raise.
As soon as he entered the door, he pushed his suitcase aside. "My dear sofa, my dear bed, he's finally back."
Before he could even lie down and relax, his phone vibrated. It was an unexpected message from Zhu Tao: "Boss, you're back!"
Song Shi'an stared at the screen and slowly typed out a question mark.
No, how do they all know his itinerary so well? I can understand Lin Fan, but how did Zhu Tao know?
It took a while for the other end to reply, "Boss, you've been gone for ten days to half a month, and almost all the customers have left. Recently, someone popped up at the night market, I don't know how, but he learned to cook clam vermicelli and sell braised food like you, the taste is just so-so, I don't know how he suddenly became popular."
Song Shi'an's eyes widened. Someone actually plagiarized this?
He checked his bank account; after paying off his debts, he wouldn't have much left. His life was so miserable.
After thinking for a moment, he replied, "We'll be opening tomorrow night."
Zhu Tao replied instantly, "Okay, boss! I'll tell them right away that I've disliked that person for a long time!"
After resting for a while in the afternoon, Song Shi'an dragged a suitcase full of local specialties and gifts back to school.
He pushed open the dormitory door and shouted, "Your god is back!"
The dormitory curtains were drawn tightly, making it dimly lit, with only a few computer screens casting a faint glow.
Pei Zhiyan, sitting at the table, turned to look at him upon hearing the noise, her voice a few decibels lower than usual. "They're sleeping."
Song Shi'an was a little confused. It was already past four o'clock, why was he sleeping? It would be dark in a little while.
Jiang Ye and Chi Xun awakened by the shout and poked their messy heads out from the top bunk.
It took a while for my eyes to focus, and then I recognized who was standing at the door. "Big star, you're finally back..."
Pei Zhiyan got up and turned on the light. "Alright, you've slept for most of the day, wake up, Shi'an is back."
Only when the lights came on could Song Shi'an make out the faces of the people.
Jiang Ye's red hair was curled up in a ball while he slept, Chi Xun's dark circles under his eyes were very obvious, Pei Zhiyan didn't seem to have changed much, but there were also two faint dark circles under his eyes.
All three looked like they had stayed up all night; their energy and spirits were so low that it seemed as if something had drained their vitality.
He put down his suitcase. "Went out partying last night? You all look completely drained."
Chi Xun scratched his head and yawned. "As the person involved, shouldn't we be asking you that?"
He pulled his phone from under his pillow and showed it to him on Weibo: "Last night, your fan site admin posted wrap-up photos and got attacked. The three of us spent the whole night helping you defend her. Old Pei even wrote code to automatically report those abusive comments, with a 90% success rate."
Song Shi'an took the phone and scrolled through it for a while; the battle in the comments section was far more fierce than he had imagined.
So, last night the whole world was fighting for him, but he himself missed the whole battle, sleeping soundly in his hotel.
He handed the phone back to Chi Xun: "Thanks, brothers. The suitcase is full of things I brought for you guys."
After saying that, he took out his phone, sat down in the chair, and opened Weibo to take a look.
Sure enough, the account gained over a million followers; it turns out that's what Lin Fan was talking about this morning.
He scrolled through the comments section, which was filled with comments like "I got hooked just from watching the drama," "The fan site admin has great taste," and "Protecting the best An'an in the world."
After looking around, Song Shi'an could only say "good job." If he had the same eloquence as these netizens, he could dominate everything.
I turned around and saw that the guys had already opened their suitcases.
Jiang Ye, his mouth stuffed full and clutching two packets of dried meat in his hands, mumbled, "This... this is delicious..."
Chi Xun reached out to snatch the bag from his hand.
Jiang Ye stuffed the rest of the stuff into his mouth, his cheeks puffed out like a squirrel's, and protected his prize with both hands. "The totem is mine!"
Song Shi'an sighed, "Weren't we just having a touching scene of brotherly love? How did the tone change so quickly?"
Pei Zhiyan suddenly spoke up at this moment, "Looking at other websites, River has been bombarded with news."
Chi Xun quickly bypassed the Great Firewall and accessed the international internet. The next second, he burst out laughing, slapping his thigh and laughing so hard he almost fell over, "How can this guy be so shameless, hahaha! Little pepper, hahahaha! He even has fans willing to follow him, these fans are really good at enduring."
Song Shi'an leaned closer curiously. "What's wrong? Let me see."
Pei Zhiyan put her phone away. "You don't need to look at it anymore, it's bad for your eyes."
Song Shi'an became increasingly itchy to get his hands on it. What exactly is a millet pepper?