Chapter 12: Fan Account
Xi Leng rolled over, waking up amidst a messy pile of scrap paper.
The scent of pencil wood, the pungent turpentine, and the smell of oil paints filled his lungs.
He brushed aside the long hair covering his eyes, waiting for his mind to slowly clear, then turned his head to look at the scattered mess on the floor, strange yet familiar, all his paintings from three years ago.
He had once naively dreamed of becoming a painter, painting day and night, forgetting to eat or sleep.
The sketches alone were enough to drown him.
Not long after returning from Luo Jiayan’s birthday party in his past life, due to the irreversible damage to his hand, he impulsively called a junk collector and cleared out all these once-treasured possessions.
He rolled off the sofa, almost stepping on a painting.
He seemed to freeze, looking down in thought for a long while, finally bending down to pick up these three-year-old works and stacking them to the side.
Messy as they were, at least they looked less like trash now.
At this moment, the TV blared the majestic and passionate hunting theme song. He looked up to see the vast and magnificent grasslands, a mighty lion relentlessly chasing an antelope.
He didn’t know when he turned on the TV, it had been playing Animal World all night.
He was used to headaches, so the aftereffects of being drunk felt trivial. It wasn’t until now that he realized he had gotten drunk last night. Because he would watch Animal World when he drank too much.
The primal laws of survival in nature, simple and pure, calmed his mind. He had slept soundly, without dreams, waking up naturally.
He vaguely remembered encountering Min Zhi last night. It had been raining heavily, and Min Zhi drove him home. This time, Min Zhi didn’t ask to come upstairs, and he, being drunk, naturally didn’t invite him either.
Being drunk didn’t make him lose his sense of boundaries and become clingy. Such a thing didn’t exist in his soul.
The old residential complex didn’t have underground parking. Min Zhi drove into the maze-like complex, going around and around, finally parking on the first floor, still some distance from the entrance.
Xi Leng pushed open the door and walked into the rain, seemingly oblivious, then slowly turned back, a faint smile on his lips: “Thank you, Min-shen.”
“…Just go inside.”
Then Min Zhi left.
His head was a little dizzy from the hangover, but Xi Leng still remembered one thing, something Min Zhi had reminded him of the second time he drove him home.
If he wasn’t Min Zhi’s fan, then Min Zhi wouldn’t have anything to do with him, wouldn’t drive him home, and wouldn’t invite him on the variety show. Everything wouldn’t have happened.
He took out his phone and logged into his dust-covered Weibo account.
His Weibo was purely for sharing. Even though he was indifferent to fame and fortune and wouldn’t bow to money, he still hoped his works would be appreciated by kindred spirits, so he occasionally showcased his paintings on Weibo.
His style was niche, and he didn’t like painting people, so after three or four years, he had only accumulated a little over a thousand followers.
Now, when he opened Weibo, he found that he had almost ten thousand followers. Unread private messages from people he didn’t follow exceeded a hundred, mainly due to the photo taken at the airport pickup. Some asked if he was Min Zhi’s fan, some wanted to commission him to paint Min Zhi, and some questioned why he didn’t even follow his idol.
Not only did he not follow him, there wasn’t a single trace of fan activity on his Weibo, because he was a complete fake fan.
Min Zhi had tens of millions of fans and had debuted for seven years. He searched for keywords on Xianyu and, as expected, found sellers offering fan accounts. A high-ranking account with over a year of continuous check-ins in the super topic, the seller was short of money and preparing for the college entrance exam, hence the urgent sale.
The earlier he prepared a fan account, the better, prevention was key. Xi Leng gritted his teeth and bought it.
It happened to be the weekend, and the pre-college student replied quickly.
After a brief exchange, an unexpected problem arose before sending the account information. The girl suddenly became wary, asking: 【Sis, can I ask why you’re buying my account? You’re not an anti-fan planning to use my account to cause trouble, are you?】
Xi Leng replied speechlessly: 【Don’t worry, I’m Min Zhi’s fan】
The other side stopped replying.
Xi Leng wasn’t very familiar with fan terminology and guessed that something about his tone was off, so he added: 【I’m a guy】
The girl then replied: 【Whoa! A male fan! Hello, little brother~】
【If you really want to buy it, then I’ll pass my account on to you】
【I’ve been nurturing this account for years, if you’re not busy in real life, remember to contribute to Min-shen’s data, just checking in, liking and commenting… Although Min-shen doesn’t ask for data, we still want to do more for him, it’s just a small effort】
After some twists and turns, the young seller asked again, puzzled: 【Little brother, do you really love Min-shen? Even buying a secondhand fan account…………】
Xi Leng had no other choice, and typed out three words coldly.
【I super love】
As if having gone through some solemn life-or-death ritual, Xi Leng finally secured the girl’s fan account.
He quickly changed the password and linked phone number, the Weibo account successfully changing hands.
He originally planned to glance at the Weibo and go back to sleep, but this account, occasionally used by a high school student, had a surprising thirty thousand posts.
Xi Leng fell silent.
He spent the entire day deleting. The number of reposts was too daunting, so he filtered by “original posts,” carefully deleting all content unrelated to fan activity.
In his daze, he saw another post: Calling you friend is too casual, calling you netizen is too distant, calling you soulmate is too much, so let’s just call you hubby, slightly aloof, slightly warm, a network cable connecting you and me. Good evening, hubby @MinZhiV
His tired hand swiped across the screen. Xi Leng silently filtered by the keyword “hubby,” deleting over a hundred posts, checking several times to make sure nothing was missed.
…This should be fine now.
He casually took a picture of the pencil sketch of Min Zhi he had drawn and shared it on the fan account named “WinterSunshineForZhi.”
The little male fan probably had an introverted personality, not good at expressing himself. Such a person wasn’t necessarily truly indifferent, but all the excitement and passion were suppressed deep down, only occasionally leaking out.
Min Zhi had seen it several times.
“Hey, right.” Min Zhi casually asked Zhu Minglang, “Seeing their idol in person and talking to them for a while should make them very happy, right?”
“Of course, they might even be ecstatic.”
“I drove him home again last night…”
Zhu Minglang’s face was full of disbelief, as if saying: Boss, are you alright?
Min Zhi glared at him, then pushed his phone across the table, continuing the previous topic: “But look at his Weibo.”
Zhu Minglang hesitated, then finally chose to lower his head and look at Min Zhi’s phone screen.
It was Xi Leng’s Weibo, Teacher X.L.’s Weibo.
The Weibo homepage was the same as before, the latest post from two months ago, a slightly grotesque and terrifying oil painting on canvas.
Min Zhi’s fingers tapped lightly on the table. Those who knew him well understood that this was a sign of his waning patience.
Zhu Minglang quickly replied: “No reaction on the main account, then he must have a separate fan account.”
Min Zhi raised his eyes: “Hm?”
“Think about it, you know those cheesy lines fans use, so exaggerated and embarrassing, sometimes I can’t even bear to look.” Zhu Minglang explained logically, “They’re afraid their colleagues and family in real life will find out, so many people create separate fan accounts, so they can go crazy on those accounts without worrying.”
Min Zhi pondered, putting away his phone thoughtfully: “That makes sense.”
