Chapter 47

Who else did you want to send it to—

Ji Wei wanted to say Cui Jiu, but after spending this time with Lu Shenxing, he realized his idol wasn’t as nonchalant as he appeared in news interviews. Sometimes, his possessiveness was quite strong.

He quickly denied it.

[Ji Wei]I wasn’t going to send it to anyone. I just wanted to study human anatomy myself.

He regretted it as soon as he sent it. Although he genuinely wanted to study human anatomy, such an excuse probably… wouldn’t be believed by anyone, right?

As he was feeling uneasy, the culprit himself poked his arm. “How’s this website? It’s great, right? It has all kinds of films, whether from Europe, America, or Japan. They even have Tanzanian ones if you want.”

Ji Wei was speechless.

Soon, Lu Shenxing replied.

[Lu Shenxing]Your big brother wants to study with you.

Distracted by Chen Yan, the moment Ji Wei saw the message, his first reaction was to wonder which country his idol wanted to study, and how the two of them would study together.

When he came to his senses, a wave of heat rushed to his face, so hot it felt like it was steaming. Sigh, he really had no face to see anyone anymore.

He was even considering not going back to Hua Ting today, preferring to sleep on the floor in the dorm or squeeze into one bed with Chen Yan.

In short, it was just very embarrassing.

He took a short nap at his desk in the dorm, then went to class in Teaching Building 2 with Chen Yan and the others.

When he got to the classroom, the vice class president excitedly waved at him.

Ji Wei walked over in confusion. “Is something wrong?”

The vice class president handed him his phone, saying excitedly, “You’re in The New York Times!”

Ji Wei took the phone. Chen Yan pulled up a chair next to him and casually took out his sketchbook. “Is The New York Times very famous? I feel like it’s not as good as the People’s Daily.”

The vice class president was speechless. “Do you think you can get into the People’s Daily just because you want to?”

Another classmate chimed in, “The New York Times is already very impressive. It’s an internationally famous newspaper.”

Ji Wei read the news article in The New York Times. To say he was in the paper was an overstatement; it was just a very small section, and his name appeared no more than five times.

The article mainly discussed the development of Chinese variety shows going global, analyzing overseas variety show models like the Palace Museum Little Shop. It only mentioned his painting battle with Mora at the very end, praising him as a rising star in the New York art scene.

The comments under this news were mostly supportive and appreciative.

[Grilled Pork Belly]Wow, a rising star in the New York art scene? This praise, Ji Wei is too amazing.

[Spicy Pepper and Egg]Is this the first influencer to be reported by The New York Times! Ooh, today I’m a career fan for Weiwei.

[Octopus Balls]Ahhhhhhhhh, a Ji Wei fan is here! Praising my Cub Wei to the skies, he’s got so much prestige!

But a small number of people expressed different opinions. For example, a senior media professional posted on Weibo.

[Media Person Ning Fan]Fans, don’t come at me. I’ll post the data later. From a professional’s perspective, Ji Wei’s development is undoubtedly a failure.

It had only been a day since the live stream of The Forbidden City’s Little Shop ended, and Ji Wei’s name was still on the trending topics. Someone immediately retorted.

[Moon River Island]A professional? The moment I hear that word, I know the rest is not worth listening to. It’s all nonsense.

[Doomsday Train]He only has seventy thousand followers on Weibo. He’s just trying to get attention, right? Don’t give him comments and heat.

[Mango Crepe Cake]Ji Wei’s Weibo followers are almost at ten million. Please let me be this much of a failure, okay?

The person didn’t argue, but directly posted a set of data.

[Media Person Ning Fan]The latest influencer ranking list is out. Ji Wei’s popularity ranks 9th. It seems he’s famous, but his income ranking isn’t even on the list, falling far behind others. He also only has one endorsement, Fanzhou Games. His fame is only on the surface.

At the end, he asked a very sharp question. Although he knew Ji Wei was Lu Shenxing’s partner, could a relationship with such a mismatch in income and strength really last long?

His evaluation could be said to be very harsh. There were many voices of criticism, but also many voices of agreement. They were more curious about the state of Ji Wei and Lu Shenxing’s marriage than about Ji Wei’s career development.

[Farmhouse Stir-fry]I remember Ji Wei said in an interview once that his partner was average-looking, from a poor family, and had a bad temper. If that’s his view of his partner, can such a marriage last long?

[Cured Meat Rice]Right, right, I remember that too. They were very sweet when they were on the variety show, but I didn’t feel like they were like partners. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

[Sir, Don’t Panic]Film Emperor Lu hasn’t posted about their marriage on Weibo either. Isn’t that something people usually do… Weiwei still can’t give up his career. This marital status is quite worrying.

Ji Wei didn’t know that the internet was already in an uproar. The teacher wasn’t lecturing, but instead let them freely draw a small landscape painting.

The classroom was very quiet.

No one dared to speak.

Because the teacher for this class was Professor Gao Cheng, who was extremely skilled in freehand landscape painting. Although he was the main lecturer for this course, it was usually his graduate students who taught in his place. Opportunities for his direct guidance were rare.

Ji Wei painted very quickly.

But as he looked at his painting, he saw a snow-covered mountain, with layers upon layers of withered branches and dead wood piled with clumps of snow, cold and lifeless.

He put down his brush, feeling that something was wrong, as if something was missing, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

He thought quietly.

One by one, the students in the class handed in their assignments and left. After Chen Yan and the others said goodbye to him, they also left. He remained in the classroom.

Gao Cheng glanced at his watch, then looked up at Ji Wei, his brow furrowed. He was unwilling to waste time teaching, and Ji Wei had already wasted too much of his time.

He walked over. Ji Wei had switched to a new sheet of paper and picked up his brush again.

Gao Cheng looked at the painting Ji Wei had set aside. Both the colors and the lines were impeccable. But painting was not industrial production. His evaluation could only be “not bad,” not yet “stunning.”

He didn’t have the habit of interrupting people while they were painting. He stood behind Ji Wei and watched. This time, Ji Wei was still painting a snow-covered mountain, but compared to the previous overlapping and intersecting trees, he only drew a few sparse, withered trees.

Beneath the withered trees were the rocks of the snowy mountain.

It was still a lonely and ethereal snow scene, but Ji Wei dipped his brush in azurite blue and brought forth a touch of green from under the sharp, cold rocks.

In an instant, life filled the air.

Gao Cheng’s originally nonchalant eyes turned to deep shock. He knew Ji Wei had talent, but he had always felt that his talent was very limited.

At twenty, he was not as good as Ji Wei.

However, he was certain that when Ji Wei was forty, he would not be as good as he was now. But now, he couldn’t be so sure.

After Ji Wei finished painting, he handed the assignment to Gao Cheng. “Teacher Gao, do you think there are any problems?”

When he was painting this picture, he felt he had entered a very wonderful state, as if his entire being was in his brush. He didn’t know if this state was right, but he just felt that what he was painting seemed different from before.

“This added stroke is too abrupt. It doesn’t fit with the whole picture. Didn’t you feel it when you were painting?” Gao Cheng took the painting and shook his head. “Give me the previous painting. You still need to work hard.”

Out of place…

Ji Wei really didn’t see it, but Professor Gao was a famous landscape painter, so what he said probably wasn’t wrong. He would have to go back and think about it carefully.

He nodded and handed the previous painting to Gao Cheng.

Gao Cheng took the assignment and turned to leave.

It was almost nine o’clock. Ji Wei had been painting for nearly seven hours. He was both hungry and tired. As he was packing his things, he received a message.

—Your Alipay account has received a transfer of 100,000.00 yuan.

For a moment, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him from painting for too long. Why did he suddenly have an extra hundred thousand yuan?

As he was wondering, Qu Wei from Fanzhou Games sent him a message. Although it was just a text message, Ji Wei could completely feel her excitement on the other side of the screen.

[Fanzhou Qu Wei]The sales of The Age of Great Contention have increased by 300% compared to the projected sales, all thanks to your endorsement.

[Ji Wei]The game is also very good.

He didn’t know how much a 300% increase in sales was, but Ji Wei guessed the amount must be huge, otherwise they wouldn’t have paid him an extra 100,000 yuan.

Qu Wei was indeed very excited. Director Wang had publicly praised their marketing department at a meeting and given them an eighteen-month bonus.

For a long time, the user base of Fanzhou Studio had been young men. But this time, with the sales of The Age of Great Contention, the proportion of female players had greatly increased.

There were even many overseas users, even though they hadn’t done any overseas promotion yet.

All of this was brought by Ji Wei.

Qu Wei found the online doubts about Ji Wei’s career development ridiculous. Only those who had worked with Ji Wei knew how terrifying his sales influence was.

Countless studios wanted to get Ji Wei’s endorsement, but he had turned them all down.

Director Wang felt that it wasn’t enough for just the company to know. He also had the official Fanzhou Games Weibo account post the sales figures, wishing the whole world knew how popular The Age of Great Contention was.

***

After packing up his art supplies, Ji Wei received a Weibo notification.

He clicked on it.

[Fanzhou Games]Congratulations to The Age of Great Contention for breaking one million in sales, and now sprinting towards two million! Special thanks to @Ji Wei.

The comments below exploded.

[Cherry Bomb]The Age of Great Contention is too awesome. How many days has it been? It’s already number one on the bestseller list.

[Parsnip]An employee from a rival game company here to say, our boss deeply regrets not hiring Ji Wei for an endorsement. Now Ji Wei’s endorsement fee has skyrocketed to one million, but he doesn’t lack money and isn’t accepting offers.

[Radishes and Cabbages]That Ning Fan was saying this afternoon that Cub Wei isn’t famous and can’t make money. If he doesn’t lack money, why would he be in a hurry to cash in on his fame? Honestly, his logic is really confusing.

[Lu Wei is Real]He’s just projecting. He himself started a new media training class to make money when he had less than a hundred thousand followers.

Who was Ning Fan?

As Ji Wei was thinking, he suddenly received a WeChat message.

[Lu Shenxing]Is class over?

Ji Wei’s hand, which was scrolling through his phone, froze. Even after half a day, he still didn’t have the courage to face his idol.

[Ji Wei]Still in class. I’m planning to pull an all-nighter at the library to review, so I won’t be back.

[Lu Shenxing]Is that so?

[Ji Wei]Yes.

Ji Wei guiltily closed WeChat, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and walked out. As he reached the door, he suddenly heard his idol’s gentle voice, “This is what you call ‘still in class’?”

Word by word—

Ji Wei’s face turned pale, and his heart pounded like a drum. He was scared to death. He forced himself to remain calm and asked, “Class just ended. Why are you here?”

The man didn’t expose him, but lowered his eyes. “You didn’t come back for a long time.”

“Remember to report in next time.”

His idol handed him the bread he was carrying, then turned his wheelchair around. Ji Wei took the bread.

It was still warm.

Ji Wei felt a little ashamed. While he was too embarrassed to go back, his idol had come to bring him bread in a wheelchair. In comparison, he was really not a qualified partner.

He took a few steps forward and pushed Lu Shenxing’s wheelchair.

The man suddenly asked, “Not going to the library anymore?”

Ji Wei hummed in affirmation.

Then he heard the man seem to let out a very faint laugh, so light it was like his imagination.

“Weiwei.”

As Ji Wei pushed Lu Shenxing towards the school gate, he suddenly heard his name being called and his heart panicked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

The man’s voice was low. “I just wanted to call your name.”

For some reason, Ji Wei felt his face burning. He quickly lowered his head, took a deep breath, and then looked up again. It seemed he had no resistance to this version of Lu Shenxing.

***

Back home, Ji Wei turned on the lights.

He carried his backpack to the study. The mural assignment from last time was still unfinished. He pulled out a chair, sat down, and started painting. He painted until twelve o’clock, still not feeling the slightest bit sleepy. Lu Shenxing came and knocked on the door twice to remind him to rest. He said he would go to sleep right away, but his brush never stopped.

Suddenly, the study door opened.

Ji Wei looked up. Lu Shenxing had entered the study.

His heart tightened. He thought he was going to be urged to go to sleep and was thinking of an excuse, but the man said nothing and wheeled himself towards the computer.

It looked like he was going to use the computer.

It was so late at night, why not use a laptop?

Ji Wei looked over in confusion.

After the computer booted up, he saw the man click on a video. In the video, an expert in a white coat said in a heartfelt tone, “A long-term lack of sexual activity can lead to physical weakness and a lack of resistance…”