Chapter 40 一 Someone started shipping a cold circle1 CP.
The diversification of Bai Ruogu’s fans was an interesting phenomenon. Netizens eagerly watched, and fans from different groups reaped their respective benefits.
The girlfriend fans passionately called him “husband” and plastered movie posters all over their homes.
The mother fans were still immersed in Xingyuan’s story. Whenever they saw Bai Ruogu, they cried their hearts out, feeling deep sympathy for their “son.”
The tech fans were more relaxed, as long as their idol was alive, it’s fine…
However, the CP fans were different. They were numerous and divided into various factions, even managing to pair up characters who had no real connection.
The most popular pairing was the “Bolin2” CP, That is Bai Ruogu and Lin Chen.
Because <Light Years> had a significant impact in the interstellar, many fans got to know Bai Ruogu through this movie, and thus many considered this to be the official CP.
Fans from various experimental groups reluctantly nodded in agreement.
While Group 8 was harmonious, Group 9 was stirring secretly, quietly observing and plotting. They were like unknown beasts in the dark, revealing dark red eyes filled with possessiveness.
Bai Ruogu’s girlfriend fans and CP fans generated the most buzz. The former spent money to boost his rankings, while the latter stayed up all night creating fan art and writing fanfiction.
Numerous streams of data shuttle through the deep blue space, and its master can extract a large amount of information from them in an instant.
Whenever Bai Ruogu’s information passed by, the data would pause briefly before continuing.
Su Mou blinked, and millions of images unfolded in the space. They chatted and laughed, yet most were about Bai Ruogu and Lin Chen…
“Raise the Bolin flag high!” someone seemed to shout invisibly.
Su Mou slowly lifted his head, and the data in the space dispersed into nothingness. However, a few lines of bluish text appeared mid-air.
Bolin topic popularity: 59,963,558
The numbers kept jumping, growing rapidly.
CP? So many people liked Bolin CP?
A certain restlessness made him pace back and forth, and another question arose.
What about his CP with Bai Ruogu?
He looked up and blinked, millions of topics flashed past in the space. Just as the sorting was about to finish, a small stream of data caught his attention and paused.
A subtle change occurred in the space, something seemed to rise and float. Reflected in Su Mou’s pupils were the characters of the data, and a smile unknowingly curved his lips.
The space seemed to become warmer as that data was pulled over and carefully unfolded.
[Xing Gu3: Uh… I’m different from you all, I support the CP of Bai Ruogu and smart brain Ah Miu.]
Passerby: [What kind of niche CP is this? Quite an imagination!]
[Xing Gu: Don’t you think they have great CP chemistry? Both of them are involved in technology, and Bai Ruogu’s endorsement of the signal booster is the most effective!]
The circle in front of him was small and cold, with only a few people braving the metaphorical Arctic winds to silently create content.
There were dozens of stories and five or six pieces of fan art. Some couldn’t stand the cold and left, leaving the cold circle on the verge of collapse. It looks like it won’t survive much longer…
Su Mou tilted his head and opened one of the stories, scanning it at lightning speed.
Hey…
——Emotions detected: joy and excitement, happiness index at 86.
The fan arts were also opened one by one.
There were chibi characters hugging, ancient-style men, and Bai Ruogu playing with smart brain…
Ding! Emotions soared, happiness index rising to 95, 96, 97…
Xing Gu was the pillar of the Bai Ruogu and Ah Miu CP community. Originally, his like-minded companions couldn’t stand the cold and left, leaving him to endure the chill alone, shouting for the few remaining CP fans and updating daily.
Seeing fewer and fewer comments each day, Xing Gu felt his heart sink.
He typed the last word heavily and clicked send.
He scrolled through previous comments, the last one was 24 hours ago…
Sigh.
He couldn’t hold on anymore, feeling like he was entertaining himself.
Xing Gu’s eyes dimmed, and he sighed. Forget it, time to leave the fandom.
Just as he was about to close the page and log out later, he accidentally hit refresh.
…The page seemed different?
His gaze moved down, and sure enough, there was a new comment on the latest chapter.
[Wei Gu4: Keep going! You’re awesome!]
Xing Gu paused his hand, his eyes just brightened, but then dimmed again.
[Author’s reply: Sorry, I’ve decided to quit the circle.]
Message replied immediately: [Why? You’re really talented.], Su Mou’s pupils deepened, and his happiness index dropped.
Xing Gu sighed deeply, [I can’t hold on anymore. It’s too cold. Recently, work hasn’t been good, and I’ve had a pay cut.]
Just when he was about to leave completely, the screen suddenly exploded with fireworks—someone had sent a reward.
[Wei Gu rewarded 100 shooting stars!]
One shooting star cost 188 star coins, the highest reward item on the site.
Xing Gu’s heart exploded like the fireworks, and he was indescribably excited.
At that moment, Wei Gu asked below: [Does this help reduce your work pressure?]
Xing Gu: !!!
Yes! Absolutely yes!
Who is this big shot? So generous!
Xing Gu felt instantly recharged with passion, eager to write several more books.
His hands were trembling as he typed: [Big shot, wait, I’ll finish this book for you tonight!]
Su Mou: ?
So 100 shooting stars can get a book finished?
As Xing Gu opened the writing page, he received another heart-stopping message.
[Wei Gu rewarded you with 10,000 shooting stars.]
Xing Gu almost couldn’t breathe and nearly fell off his chair, his eyes were about to pop out, almost going crazy.
Wei Gu: [So can you finish 100 books for me tonight?]
Xing Gu nearly fainted from shock.
When the reward message popped up, the whole network saw it. Who had ever received such a huge reward since the site was founded?
Everyone got excited and rushed to see what happened, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
Soon the reason was uncovered, and netizens were shocked, then the internet exploded.
Damn! Do rich women like to invest in cold circles?
[Big shot, wait! I’ll write for you! Please follow me.]
[Big shot, although my hands are clumsy, I have good ideas. I’m willing to add a touch to fan art!]
[Oh my god, where did this rich woman come from? Wait for me, I’m already writing the outline.]
The cold circle gradually heated up, and more and more people joined this circle.
Su Mou could scan billions of pieces of information in an instant. As soon as an article was posted, it received feedback.
Very intelligent and aware of these people’s intentions, Su Mou didn’t hesitate to reward them. To avoid affecting the normal operation of the market, he raised his threshold further:
Characters must match the settings, and the plot’s emotional impact must reach a score of 94 or above…
Although the conditions were strict, this circle became a gold mine among peers.
Whenever Wei Gu’s ID appeared, it signaled the arrival of wealth.
Su Mou, with his own power, heated up this circle!
In the space, the big screen changed from data to an expression:
n_n
. . . . .
Over here, Bai Ruogu wanted Xingsu to take the high-quality route next, so he carefully picked scripts.
This time, he became an overnight sensation, with countless top directors offering him roles, including some excellent scripts that even Bai Ruogu himself found tempting.
But his current role wasn’t just an actor, he was also the CEO of a company.
When he was aimless, Su Mou chose the best resources for him.
A major online IP, <Dusty Life Palace.>
This drama had two advantages: first, it had enough roles to help promote other artists in the company. Second, it had a high topic rate and already had considerable traffic.
He specifically read the original novel and found it really good. So he gladly accepted Su Mou’s suggestion and had the whole company prepare for it.
Due to the long plot, it couldn’t be made into a movie, so the initial plan was to make it a web series, released periodically to maintain the heat.
Because there was so much preparation needed for the next play, Bai Ruogu spent a lot of energy socializing with various major platforms. When he returned to his rental house after work, he was so tired that he collapsed directly.
The rental house was very quiet, and all the noises from the outside world were blocked out by Su Mou. He carefully stuck by Bai Ruogu’s side and constantly adjusted the room temperature.
The sky outside the window turned from day to night, and an invisible force massaged his whole body while Bai Ruogu slept soundly.
Bai Ruogu’s features relaxed, and he turned over, kicking off the blanket.
The airflow paused, and then the blanket was pulled up, covering the slender young man.
The invisible force seemed to sense something amiss, so the clothes… were gradually stripped off and pulled out from inside the blanket.
They floated in the air, drifting towards the laundry room.
Bai Ruogu muttered in his dream, while Su Mou floated in the air, staring at the person on the bed without blinking.
Just when everything seemed fine, Su Mou’s gaze suddenly became hollow, as if something was lost.
In the morning, Bai Ruogu opened his blurry eyes and saw his lover in the air when he turned his head.
He smiled, but as he stretched lazily, he sensed something was wrong.
Bai Ruogu instantly looked up at Su Mou’s eyes and noticed they were vacant.
He panicked and quickly exclaimed, “Su Mou, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Su Mou blinked, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. He looked back at Bai Ruogu, but with a slight stiffness.
“What’s wrong?” Bai Ruogu asked anxiously.
Su Mou opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a monotone.
“To put it in the words commonly used by humans, I’m blind.”
Bai Ruogu: ??
“What’s wrong?” Bai Ruogu was getting anxious.
Su Mou blinked, “I just conducted an anti-pornography raid.”
Bai Ruogu: …??
Today’s CP circle was still lively, but some people lacked imagination and sought to attract the attention of wealthy women through unconventional means.
So——
Some articles were born, with a variety of styles. Some vocabulary was quite obscure, to the point where even Su Mou couldn’t understand the meaning right away.
Therefore, he specifically searched for relevant terms.
After that, the entire system froze and experienced a slowdown.
Fortunately, the cyber police arrived in time, quickly shutting down the inappropriate articles and tracing the culprits, imposing certain penalties.
This incident came and went quickly, appearing calm on the surface but causing a significant impact on StarNet.
The StarNet Monitoring Bureau noticed this change, intensifying their anti-pornography efforts. However, some traces were difficult to clean up, especially for Su Mou, who was often active in this circle.
Previously, there were many comments under those articles, and Su Mou mechanically stated the most frequently appearing phrases.
“I’m blind… I’m blind…”
- 冷圈 (lěng quān) It refers to those unpopular circles that are not followed by many people. Although it is called an unpopular circle, it has also formed a circle, proving that there are still some people paying attention to it, just much less than in the popular circle. ↩︎
- 柏林 (bólín) ↩︎
- 星谷 (Xīng gǔ) 星 Xīng = Star; 谷 (gǔ) from Bai Ruogu’s name. ↩︎
- 唯谷 (Wéi gǔ) 唯 Wéi = Only; 谷 (gǔ) from Bai Ruogu’s name. ↩︎