CH 7

Yu Le had no idea that he was exposed when he dressed as a woman for the first time.

Moreover, he was exposed by the green tea he was trying to catch.

When he got home, he was exhausted, like a candle that had been burnt out. Dropping the camera to the ground, he fell asleep quickly.

In this fan meeting, apart from hundreds of messy pictures, he had gained nothing. Despite having gone with confidence of learning more about Yu Youzhi, all he had done was wear himself out.

The next day, he got up early in the morning to edit some pictures for An An.

Because he had work later in the convenience store, he had to finish what he’d promised her before he forgot.

After much thought, he had decided on the part-time job with the relatively lower salary for the flexible hours and was considerably happy with his choice. Time was money, after all.

And in this way, he also had more time for his own affairs.

Looking through the hundreds of pictures in the camera, he picked out the best of both the ugly and the good-looking ones before throwing the rest into the discard folder.

He was particularly satisfied with one photo taken from an unusually tricky angle. He had managed to capture Yu Youzhi’s face in the middle of a wink as his face was squinted up; it had a unique sense of black humour and irony.

He admired it for a while and began to make an emoticon packaged—[Smile.jpg].

Thinking about it, he even went so far as to set it as his phone’s screen saver.

Moving on to the good-looking photos, he began to refine them routinely, working hard in front of the computer for two consecutive days. Finally finishing the film, he sent it to An An with no expectations.

[the finest old lady in the world: !!!]

[Yu Beiman: How are they?]

[the finest old lady in the world: !!!!]

He looked at the rows of exclamation points and frowned.

[Yu Beiman: Is the photo editing too much?]

[the finest old lady in the world: No, no, no, they’re perfect! There’s no better way to express how happy I am than with exclamation points! Manman, you’re such a treasure!!]

[the finest old lady in the world: Manman! From now on, I declare that you are my biggest treasure! …besides the sky, the Earth, my brother, my parents, and my dog!]

[Yu Beiman: …Then don’t I have the lowest position in your heart?]

[Yu Beiman: Wronged.jpg]

He was expressionless as he typed the following words.

[Yu Beiman: As long as you like them, it’s okay. Sister An An, thank you so much for the ticket! I was really happy to see my brother in person this time!]

[the finest old lady in the world: Manman, can I print out these [Star eyes.jpg]? I have to hug my brother to sleep! My brother is so handsome in your camera!]

Hearing such praise, Yu Le didn’t feel happy at all. Of course, he didn’t show it.

[Yu Beiman: Of course! These pictures are for you!]

[the finest old lady in the world: But Manman, will you post these pictures? They’re all so good; it’s such a pity that no one else can lick them!]

[the finest old lady in the world: If you post them online, I must go to the comment area and go crazy ahhhhhhhh!]

Post them online?

Thinking about it, there shouldn’t be a problem doing that.

After all, he spent two days editing these pictures; if they are only shown to one person, it is indeed a bit of a waste.

[Yu Beiman: Yeah, I’ll post them right away! Sister An An, remember to give me a thumbs up~]

[the finest old lady in the world: You can count on me!]

Let’s do it then!

In the next second, he dug out Yu Beiman’s dedicated star-chasing account, downloaded the pictures, and quickly sent them to Yu Youzhi’s Weibo page.

Putting some more thought into it, he also added some tags such as [Celebrity handsome guy].

Before transmigrating into this book, Yu Le wasn’t familiar with Weibo at all. He only occasionally checked Weibo hot searches and was completely unfamiliar with super topics.

But now, all his movements were smooth and well practised because of the habits of the third personality that had been almost engraved into his body.

After posting to Weibo, he turned off the computer and began to think about his part-time job at the convenience store.

He was going to work tomorrow.

The work had been going smoothly so far.

A senior employee named Qi Dongyi was in charge of guiding him and showing him the ropes, and he thought he had been doing well. He studied hard for two days, and now it only took very little effort compared to when he was unfamiliar with the products and instruments in the beginning.

Now that he was permanently hired, Qi Dongyi was his fixed-time colleague, and they got along well at work together.

Three nights later, as Yu Le returned home from work, he remembered the post he had shoved to the back of his head.

Logging into his account to look, he was immediately shocked by the overwhelming number of message prompts.

Over ninety-nine likes, over ninety-nine comments, over ninety-nine private messages, and even over a thousand new followers.

And all this data came from the post he had made on a whim.

Clicking into the comment area, a wide variety of things were being discussed.

An An had used her account to send several messages in a row, most of them resembling this, [Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!] or [No, I can’t give up! I must find a way to make brother fuck me!] and so on.

Following her lead, more fanatic followers of Yu Youzhi appeared, commenting things like [I need him so bad!] and [Brother, marry me!].

Yu Le was dumbfounded.

…This group of people is really not simple.

In addition to these shocking comments, his private messages held phrases like [God descended down to Earth!], [Treasure blogger!], and [Followed, followed!].

He flipped through his comments with trembling fingers before stopping at one of the private messages to read it thoroughly.

[Madam! Madam! Do you have any unpublished pictures of Brother Yu Youzhi? Your pictures are really good! Even better than those on magazines! If you want, I can pay you for the pictures…if you agree you can contact me with this number: xxxxxxx!!]

Seeing this message, Yu Le blinked.

He was very short of money right now.

After having paid the next quarter’s rent, the number in his bank account was terrifyingly close to a deficiency, and the salary at the convenience store could barely support him.

It would be great if he could make some money from those pictures he took, but he still ended up deleting the message as he pretended not to have seen it.

Selling photos of celebrities privately could involve portrait rights, and if he ended up being pursued because of something so interpretive, it would be incredibly troublesome to deal with.

But looking at the enthusiastic fans begging for more, his heart came alive.

In order to prevent Yu Youzhi from breaking up Huo Annong and Zhu Luo, he has to monitor his movements at all times, so why not open a small sockpuppet account, gain some fans, and maybe even earn some promotions to make money?!

It’s the best of both worlds!

As soon as he had the idea, he immediately started to create another account, and with a wave of his hand, he named it [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine].

Then, opening some of his unused folders, he picked some of the discarded photos to edit.

This time, he was much more liberal with his photoshop.

After talking about his ideas with An An, she also supported him fully.

He was incredibly excited to ask for Yu Youzho’s detailed activity schedule from her, though perhaps she was more excited to share it with him.

[Yu Beiman: Sister An An, you have to remember to call me for the next event, I will even crawl there if I have to!]

After that, Yu Le started a busy life.

He goes to the convenience store to work part-time in the morning and goes home to edit pictures in the afternoon. If Yu Youzhi has something going on that day, he either transfers shifts or asks for leave to go to the scene and snap away with his camera.

Because of his continued practice, he became increasingly skilled in photography, retouching his makeup, and even dressing in women’s clothing.

On weekdays, he was somewhat more free and chatted with the star-chasing little sisters on the internet, and within a few weeks, he had already gotten to know them well.

Moreover, Yu Youzhi’s fans, who were normally unable to get even a single selfie from their idol, followed him around with red faces online.

As for his newly opened Weibo account, he interspersed it with the common fan activity he had seen from others, such as calling out for him, rebutting black fans, etc., and was constantly at the forefront of all the waves made online.

Occasionally he posted the edited pictures he made, but really, this account was no longer purely for them. Instead, it was his number one mode of surveillance for Yu Youzhi.

Of course, he didn’t completely abandon his original account, but from the very beginning, his new account was not as explosive as the previous one. Fortunately, he was not in a hurry as he watched his fans slowly from dozens to tens of thousands.

While all this was happening, Yu Le still worked as usual.

Today, he was on shift at night and still on duty with Qi Dongyi. After the busiest time around dinner had passed, the other man started to count the goods in the back as he slowly relaxed.

Adding some grilled sausages and cuttlefish balls to the near-empty sausage machine, he stood with his back to the camera as he swiped through his phone.

“Welcome…”

As the door’s prompt sounded, several high school girls walked in, still in their school uniforms.

Yu Le noticed at a glance that one of the girls with longer hair had Yu Youzhi’s fan keychain hanging on her bag.

They were talking about something between themselves, and their cheerful voices echoed throughout the small store.

“Did you know? The studio has finally announced Yu Bao’s latest itinerary! Next week he will attend a shopping mall event for new luxury products in H City! That’s right next door!! Last time I had to miss the fan meeting, so now matter what you say, this time I am definitely going!”

Yu Bao…Among Yu Youzhi’s fans, that was a common nickname to hear shouted out.

So Yu Youzhi has a new activity?

Yu Le pricked up his ears.

The other two girls with her became excited as well, “Go, for sure, we have to go! Let’s go see Yu Bao!”

In the enthusiasm, the short-haired girl took out her mobile phone and clicked on a blogger’s picture to show them, “Do you guys know [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine]? They’re a treasure I found recently, they always post the most handsome pictures of Yu Bao!”

The first girl responded quickly, “I know, I know! All the photos she takes are amazing! She feels like a professional!”

“Exactly!” The short-haired girl nodded her head in agreement, but the third girl tilted her head in doubt.

“I have also seen the photos she took on Yu Bao’s Weibo page, but why is her ID called [Fully Automatic Green Tea Machine]?”

Yu Le stood in front of the cash register as he listened silently, “…”.

It was obviously called that way because Yu Youzhi is a green tea!!

Speaking of this, the girl who asked the question suddenly thought of something with a disgusted expression on her face, “When I think about green tea, it has to be Mu Yuxing! Have you seen how his side has started to run their mouths again?”

When the other two heard this, they frowned as they looked at her to continue.

“Isn’t there a photographer named Tao Feng who won the new photographer award from Feng En or Feng Lien abroad? It’s been said that he was invited by Martha Magazine to return to China and take pictures of literary style for Mu Yuxing’s newest blockbuster.” She paused for a breath, “I have a classmate who happens to be a fan of Mu Yuxing and they’re constantly praising how powerful Tao Feng is, stepping on our Yu Bai every day, saying things like how their fan material is nowhere near as tacky as ours now that they have a professional helping take the pictures! I’m going to go mad listening to them!”

The long-haired girl beside her sneered, “Sure, that photography award or whatever is amazing, but he just won a newcomer’s award, didn’t he? There are so many people in the world; he should be careful not to slap his face, heh!”

The hostile air between the two girls grew until the silent short haired girl finally spoke up to interrupt them, “Forget it, let’s not talk about this any more, it’s bad luck!”

Yu Le listened to them argue from across the store as he recalled Mu Yuxing.

In the original book, he was a young actor who debuted as a child star and focused on acting in his career. Because he was around the same age as Yu Youzhi and they had nearly the same popularity levels, they were often compared to each other.

He used to be Yu Youzhi’s opponent on the surface, but some scandals appeared later, and he retreated from the spotlight, only continuing some early film and television works.

In the novel, not much was written about him, so Yu Le hadn’t paid much attention to him in this world either.

The three students dropped the subject and headed over to the beverage aisle to concentrate on choosing drinks.

Through the gaps in the shelves, the long-haired girl noticed the young man standing behind the cash register, pretending to calculate the turnover.

Looking around secretly, she beckoned her friends over with a low voice, “Come here! Don’t you think…that brother at the cash register is super handsome?!”

“Yeah… he’s so tall and white. His eyes are also good looking and there’s even a mole near the corner of his mouth! Although he isn’t anywhere near as good as our Yu Bao, we can’t normally see such a handsome guy in real life!”

“Should we…ask for a WeChat?!”

As soon as one of them spoke the words aloud, they all burst into laughter.

There weren’t any other customers in the store, but Yu Le had no choice but to lower his eyes and pretend he couldn’t hear anything.

Each girl finally decided on a drink and brought over their things to pay the bill. Two of them kept secretly glancing at the long-haired girl as she fidgeted with embarrassment.

Yu Le put his phone aside naturally and took their things skillfully as he scanned the QR code to check them out.

At this time, there was a “ding dong” as a piece of news popped up on his phone, and the screen lit up with light—revealing the emoticon package of the green tea star he had saved as his background.

Looking back from the phone screen to Yu Le, the long-haired girl opened her eyes wide.

She looked surprised and asked, “Brother, are you also Yu Bao’s…fan?”

Seeing her expectant and excited expression, Yu Le immediately shook his head in denial, “Ah…Yu Youzhi? I’m not his fan.” He smiled sheepishly, “I don’t chase stars; this picture just made me laugh, so I took it and used it.”

He lowered his eyes as he spoke coldly, but his tone was gentle so as not to embarrass the girl further. However, he still felt it wasn’t enough and continued, “Actually, I like Mu Yuxing more than Yu Youzhi. After all, Yu Youzhi became an idol halfway through his career, and his acting skills still aren’t as good.” 

As soon as these words came out, the girls fell silent immediately, especially the long-haired girl; her complexion worsened quite a bit.

He raised his head to look into her eyes, “…Sorry, can you pay the bill?”

They quickly settled the cost of their things and left without saying another word or asking him for his contact information.

Yu Le thought to himself, this is good.

After the girls left, Qi Dongyi came out of the storage room and looked at him, puzzled, “Yu Le, you hate Yu Youzhi?” Obviously, he had heard the conversation just now.

“No, I can’t say I hate him, I just can’t say that I don’t hate him.” He smiled, “He’s simply a stranger to me.”

In real life, he doesn’t want to have any connection to Yu Youzhi.

Qi Dongyi didn’t believe him, “Then why didn’t you tell those girls the truth just now? I’ve seen your phone screen change every now and then, replacing the background with a different ugly picture of Yu Youzhi. If I didn’t know any better I would certainly think you were his black fan.”

Yu Le looked at him with a start, “Brother Qi, you still know black fans?”

Qi Dongyi put down the goods in his hands and scratched his head, “Don’t look at me like that…my niece actually really likes Yu Youzhi, my ears are almost numb to his name now.” He stared at him some more, “So, Yu Le, do you know Yu Youzhi?”

Yu Le wasn’t sure how to respond, “…Why would you think I’d know such a famous star?”

Blinking, Qi Dongyi replied, “Well, you look like a star. When I saw you for the first time, I thought you were the young master of a rich family coming to experience life. I really didn’t expect you would fight for so many more shifts.”

Yu Le really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Brother Qi, I’m just an ordinary person….”

Looking at Qi Dongyi’s face, sure not to give up on this topic, he could only think of an excuse, “It’s not that I hate Yu Youzhi; I just don’t have a good impression of small traffic stars. And besides that, just now, that little girl was planning to ask me for my WeChat. If she really spoke up, it would be so embarrassing if I didn’t give it.”

Hearing this, Qi Dongyi’s attention was transferred as he turned sour, “…You really have so many problems. How come I never had girls throwing themselves into my arms at your age?”

Yu Le could only stand to the side and smile wryly.

As Yu Le finished his morning shift and got home for lunch, An An sent him a message.

[the finest old lady in the world: Manman, look at Weibo! Your Weibo has been overwhelmed by Mu Yuxing’s stupid fans!!]

His Weibo?

What did she mean?

He clicked into his Weibo and immediately saw a row of bright ninety-nine-plus message reminders; it was extremely dazzling.

Opening a private message casually, it turned out to be cursing at him.

[Stupid bastard, go die!]

[You want to be popular just from this? Just setting up a small account to take some pictures and step on my baby, fuck you!]

[Apologise to Mu Yuxing! Apologise!]

[Come out and apologise to my Yuxing!! What, do you think we can’t see through your thoughts?! You should be sent to hell, fuck your family!!

Yu Le was taken aback, had he accidentally dug out their ancestral grave?