Chapter 25: Rich Queen

This was a long and difficult day for the Weibo programmer, Xiao Wang.

From the moment he started his workday, Weibo was flooded with trending topics about Gu Family’s banquet. It was nothing unusual, after all, it was Weibo, and even though Xiao Wang hadn’t finished his breakfast yet, he had to dive straight into urgent server expansion work. However, it still felt mentally satisfying to scroll through the daily life of a wealthy woman.

On top of that, he even had the chance to leave a comment on Su Shiyi’s account, calling her “mommy,” and shamelessly boosted his account’s ranking in the comments section by secretly liking hundreds of posts, hoping that Su Shiyi would spot his comment when she scrolled through them.

While harboring such unrealistic and hopeful fantasies, he continued working. That’s when Su Shiyi, the wealthy woman, started her million-follower giveaway. She was giving away 11,111 yuan to 100 lucky winners, and who wouldn’t say that the wealthy woman was generous? Who wouldn’t drop everything and try their luck as one of the lucky participants? After all, what if they actually won?

Just a few hours ago, Su Shiyi had trended on Weibo, and the heat from her popularity hadn’t even faded. A massive wave of people poured in from all directions and platforms, causing the newly expanded servers to crash again.

Xiao Wang: …

It’s okay. The server can handle it, but the refresh is a bit slow. Wealthy woman, look at me! I want to win too!

Unfortunately, the odds of winning couldn’t be adjusted, and who doesn’t wish for an unrealistic fantasy of getting lucky? (sigh)

Xiao Wang, full of hope, retweeted the post and then diligently typed code to help fix the overburdened Weibo servers. Before they could apply the patch, Su Shiyi launched her second round of giveaways, this time offering huge gift packages.

Xiao Wang: …

Although he was also tempted by the gift package, couldn’t the wealthy woman space things out? Why did everything have to happen today? Was there some performance requirement tied to trending topics?

More enthusiastic netizens, already pushing the server to its limits, only made things worse. Xiao Wang felt his hair thinning. He and his colleagues didn’t even have time to retweet the giveaway or post lucky charms. They rushed to conduct emergency maintenance to keep Weibo running, barely preventing it from crashing. At this point, the site could not afford any more strain.

Millions were being poured out. Grandmother, please take a break! Give me a break already!

Of course, Su Shiyi posted her third round of fan giveaways, and as expected, her events got bigger each time. The netizens, always eager for a bit of fun, were still excited to join in.

— Of course, even though it’s all about participation, if you win, it’s an absolute bargain! If you don’t join, you’re effectively losing millions!

If Xiao Wang weren’t a poor programmer, he’d be crying out loud too—“Mommy, more! More!”

Great, now Weibo was truly unmanageable. Not only were Weibo’s users furious about being unable to repost, but latecomers couldn’t even access the “More Fresh Things” page, no matter how hard they tried.

As expected, Weibo received low ratings across all user stores.

Xiao Wang: …

I’m so tired. I don’t want to work anymore. I just want to give up. Why don’t you just shut me down? (singing)

These netizens, all they do is complain about Weibo, but they have no idea how hard Weibo is working. It’s a small beach, facing a storm of traffic from users, and Weibo has done its best! Even insiders like him couldn’t retweet the giveaway posts!

Su Shiyi, the true nemesis of Weibo programmers, more terrifying than top-tier celebrities.

Xiao Wang ran his hand through what little hair he had left and reluctantly dove into his futile attempts to keep the servers running. Perhaps heaven heard his prayers, as Su Shiyi finally stopped stirring up trouble. After posting those three Weibo updates, she quieted down—she was finally silent!

Xiao Wang: A weary smile written on his tired face.jpg

With the source of all the chaos finally calming down, the discussion on Weibo was still hot, but at least the servers were now in a somewhat stable condition, although still sluggish. Xiao Wang didn’t even have time for lunch, grabbing a quick bite of bread before getting back to his arduous work.

After hours of effort from the whole department, the server was stable by lunchtime, and Xiao Wang’s takeaway arrived. He sighed with relief as he picked up his dry-fried beef ho fun with chopsticks. Just as he was about to take a bite, he heard his colleague wailing:

“Damn, Su Shiyi’s giving away five villas in her next giveaway!”

Xiao Wang: ?

Xiao Wang: ???

#The dry-fried beef ho fun suddenly doesn’t taste as good.

#Rich woman, sponsor me, I don’t want to work anymore!

Compared to the complicated procedures other variety shows go through, like script changes and endless meetings, Su Shiyi, as the sole investor of Return to Senior Year, had absolute control.

If she wanted to add a new segment, it was added immediately. Whether it would affect the show’s quality or the audience’s reception? Please, the whole purpose of the show was to make her happy, the audience’s enjoyment was just secondary!

Su Shiyi only had to express her ideas, and Kevin contacted the KuaYin platform, hammering out the details in no time.

In the next three days, every netizen could choose to activate a unique guest fan badge, but they could only select one. Once selected, it couldn’t be changed or canceled. Before the official recording of the campus segment began, fans who had the badge had to watch the guest’s livestream for a total of 30 sessions, with each session lasting at least 15 minutes, in order to qualify for the final giveaway.

To determine who the “hardest-working guest” was, they would use an intelligent detection system to track the daily effective study time of each guest. Every day at 8 a.m., the rankings would be posted, and fans could monitor (and urge) the guests accordingly.

Su Shiyi was pleased. The production team was happy with the insane increase in traffic, the fans excited about the chance to win a riverside villa, and the agents of the guests were overjoyed with the rising fan numbers.

If anyone wasn’t happy, and even felt despair…

Well, that would be the guests themselves.

Why? Even though they had long graduated and didn’t really have a summer vacation, the study livestream was still a form of work. But why did they have to endure such high-cost supervision? They were allowed to slack off a bit at work, weren’t they?

And these fans, they weren’t even fully aware of what was happening. The number of badge recipients was growing fast, breaking 10,000, then 100,000, and now rapidly approaching a million! The chances of winning were so small, did they really think they’d win? They shouldn’t forget all their happy memories just for something as unattainable as this!

Before this announcement, they were each other’s only angels, and the fans saw their idols as eternal soft spots in their hearts. But after the announcement, those bonds dissipated in the wind. They were now just tools to help the fans win a villa. TAT

The pressure from the fans wasn’t even the worst part—the real backstabbing came from the intense internal competition among the eight guests. KuaYin’s two hosts had already declared that they would stop all other content and focus solely on studying, all day, every day, in order to win the grand villa for their fans.

The other celebrity guests, who could only be considered “^[1]“Lesser stars” here refers to the other guests who aren’t as dedicated or extreme as the full-time live streamers. They’re celebrities, but they’re not as willing to go … Continue readinglesser stars”: …

What else can be done? It’s the same job, but this one has much higher heat, so the agents, who are smiling ear to ear, had to cancel all the irrelevant schedules and make use of every available moment to study furiously.

At the 505 apartment of Dream Chaser Youth, Xia Gaofei sighed heavily during a brief moment when he stepped out to grab a cup of coffee, away from the phone camera.

“Gaofei, you shouldn’t be sighing,” said Captain Yan Hongfang, his tone filled with schadenfreude. “This show is too hot. Your Weibo follower count is already more than the sum of ours. Do you know how many people rejected this variety show before? Now they’re green with envy and regretting it to the point of wanting to spit blood.”

Is participating in this variety show difficult? Extremely difficult. Is it worth it?

Of course, it’s worth it!

Su Shiyi is undoubtedly the new top-tier influencer on the internet, and any other traffic star has to step aside when they see her. Anything even remotely connected to her blows up, like her milk candy and plush cat topics, which trended three times on Weibo. And her personally invested, and wildly manipulated, variety show? You can imagine how popular it became.

Forget about Xia Gaofei, even their entire group had risen to fame. Idols need the most loyal and dedicated fans, but what they lack is national recognition and general public approval. Although this is still ultimately dependent on their works, under Xu Jie’s guidance, Xia Gaofei’s current image was “an idol who learns with his fans, a positive role model that parents love to see.”

There’s nothing to be done—this isn’t something everyone can pull off. Not everyone can host a livestream and share tips on solving the last question of the math exam.

So, Xia Gaofei could only briefly catch his breath, still feeling grateful to Su Shiyi. As long as he put in effort, his popularity would continue to rise. In this industry where everything depends on connections and opportunities, that was a huge “shortcut.”

He gulped down half a cup of American coffee and asked Li Deyuan, who was playing games on the sofa, “Xiao Yuan, does President Su have any plans for you?”

Yes, now they referred to Su Shiyi as “President Su” instead of “Miss Su,” as calling her that was a sign of respect and reverence.

Li Deyuan didn’t stop playing: “She said she’s going to give me an album. We’re still in the songwriting phase. I told them I wanted to write myself and asked if that was okay. Kevin said it was fine.”

“Then why haven’t you started writing yet?”

“Ah, creating requires inspiration,” Li Deyuan’s tone sounded a bit guilty. “I said I’ve been stuck recently and needed something fun to get my creativity going. Kevin asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him playing games would help me get inspired.”

“And then he recharged my account to v10, unlocked all the heroes and skins, and even got a pro player to play with me and help me rank up. He said I could just have fun, however I liked.”

Xia Gaofei: ???

Everyone else: ???

How come you, of all people, get to ride the fast lane with a rich woman, and you don’t even appreciate it? You’re still here playing games?

And Kevin is indulging you, even arranging a pro player to help you level up?

Xia Gaofei trembled as he held his coffee cup. He silently walked back to the study, where the comments were full of “Brother, hurry back, you’ve been away for over five minutes!” and “Study for one more minute, and you’ll beat thousands of people”…

Sigh, the disparity in the world is so overwhelming, it’s almost despairing.

—

Unaware of the tremendous impact she was having on the internet, Su Shiyi continued to play with milk candy and plush cats on the carpet with Wu Feifei. Under the guidance of the cat nanny, they were feeding the little plush cat its milk.

Excitedly rubbing her hands, Wu Feifei recorded a short video and posted it in the roommates’ group, and as expected, it was met with a chorus of people ^[2]“eating lemons” (吃檸檬) is Chinese internet slang that means feeling jealous or envious. It comes from the idea that lemons are sour, just like the feeling of envy.“eating lemons.” Xu Wenwen and Lin Jiayan both strongly insisted that when school starts, Su Shiyi must bring milk candy to G City, and they would go to Billion Island to see her on weekends. QAQ

There was nothing to be done, Milk Candy’s charm was too great. Even through the screen, it could melt people’s hearts. Who could resist her cute little ears and beautiful blue eyes?

Su Shiyi thought it was a good idea, so she agreed to their request. Both Weibo and Kuaishou were lagging terribly, so she headed to Lujiang Literature City—coincidentally, there were many others who shared the same thoughts. A large influx of Weibo refugees arrived, and as a chain reaction, Lujiang, which had nothing to do with the matter, crashed as well.

Ah, well, not being able to browse Weibo or Kuaishou wasn’t a huge problem, but right now, Su Shiyi really wanted to read novels.

“Lujiang always lags, that’s nothing new,” Wu Feifei remarked beside her. “Not just in situations like this, even on normal days, it crashes a few times, and there are all kinds of bugs. Maybe their server is plugged into a potato. You haven’t run into it yet because you haven’t been using it for long, but you’ll encounter it more often after a while.”

Huh? How could this be? Su Shiyi furrowed her brows.

When Lujiang was mentioned, Wu Feifei’s venting was unleashed: “Countless times, especially late at night, when people are reading and getting into it, the site crashes and ruins the mood. I know an author named Strawberry Pearl Cake. One time, she posted around 11:50 p.m., but the backend crashed and the post didn’t go through until after midnight. On Wednesday, she couldn’t post, not only because she didn’t have enough words to hit the list, but her full attendance was instantly gone, almost making her cry…”

“I know this author is at fault, she shouldn’t have waited until the last minute, but why does the site have to crash at that moment?”

So tragic, just hearing this description made Su Shiyi imagine the author sitting in a corner, crying.

Su Shiyi thought this wasn’t acceptable. She called Kevin: “Is there any way to solve the Lujiang server issue? I want to read novels, but it keeps crashing, what can be done? It’s so annoying.”

Kevin’s voice was calm: “Miss Shiyi, don’t worry. Within seven days, I’ll purchase Lujiang for you.”

“Alright, thanks, and make sure to get them the best servers.”

Wu Feifei, who had witnessed all of this: ???

Wait, you two are really one to make suggestions, and the other to accept them!

Su Shiyi didn’t think there was anything wrong, “Sister Fei, why are you looking at me like that?”

Looking at you, this big benefactor… no, no, looking at you, the beautiful and kind-hearted rich lady.

Wu Feifei gave her a thumbs-up: “Look at you, you’re a great person benefiting the masses.”

“Too kind, too kind,” Su Shiyi humbly waved her hand, “I’ve only done a small thing.”

Wu Feifei: …

Shocked by the rich lady, she pale-faced shifted the topic: “There’s nothing fun in the room, how about we go shopping?”

Su Shiyi: ?

She was confused, “Sister Fei, aren’t you usually too lazy to go out? You’re the one who stays at home the most in our dorm.”

“That’s when I’m at school,” Wu Feifei smiled with a perfect expression. “Look at me today, I did my hair before we left and even picked out the prettiest dress from the wardrobe. If I don’t go out, who’s going to see my beauty?”

And you’re always staying at home, how could you possibly encounter other side characters? You wouldn’t even know how to advance the plot of the author’s story!

Please, Shiyi the rich lady, even if you’re just a salted fish, please go out once in a while, just like the female protagonists in other wealthy romance novels on Lujiang, and occasionally give the other side characters a chance to try to humiliate you, only to be slapped in the face by you.

Oh, forget it, now the entire internet knows that she’s wealthy, a top-tier rich lady.

“…Alright then,” Su Shiyi nodded, agreeing, “Shall we go to ^[3]SKP is a high-end luxury shopping mall in China, with locations in major cities like Beijing and Xi’an. The most famous one is Beijing SKP, known as one of the world’s top luxury malls, often … Continue readingSKP?”

“Sure, hope there’s no traffic jam during the summer.”

Su Shiyi: “No traffic, we’ll fly there. By the way, you’re not afraid of heights, right?”

Wu Feifei: ???

Crap, she almost forgot, SKP is located in the Chaoyang District on the third ring, and theoretically, low-altitude flights are allowed there, as long as you submit an application to the air traffic control department in advance.

But usually, others fly for sightseeing purposes, who would use a helicopter just to go shopping? Do they think fuel is free? Who can afford to burn it all day long?

But it’s Su Shiyi… So it’s fine.

Fear of heights? Not possible. Wu Feifei is actually a hidden bungee jumping enthusiast. She happily accepted the invitation from the rich lady and then heard Su Shiyi explain that it was because she received so many helicopters at a banquet, and she was curious why people would give that as a gift. It was only because of Kevin that she found out the true meaning behind it.

“So, which helicopter should we take today?” Su Shiyi said with a bit of distress, “Should we take the Dream Sakura edition, the Tech Cool edition, the Deep Ocean edition, the Anime Collaboration edition, the Tiger Painted edition, or the Cute Kitty edition? It’s so hard to choose. Let’s roll a dice.”

Wu Feifei: …

If you really can’t make up your mind, you can give me the extra five, and I’ll never have to worry about being indecisive again!

Su Shiyi continued, “These are the nicer looking ones. The rest are too plain and take up space. Don’t they need maintenance? So troublesome.”

Wu Feifei: …

Thank you for the invite, but I’m now numb after living with the richest lady.

#From Amazement to Habit

#Do rich ladies also have such trivial worries? Why didn’t you ask me to help solve them!

During the application process, Wu Feifei also took advantage of Su Shiyi’s personal stylist to touch up her makeup. In the end, they chose the Deep Ocean edition because Su Shiyi said the blue sky outside was nice, and this color would be more low-key for the outing.

Wu Feifei: ?

You must be mistaken, flying a helicopter to the mall and bringing assistants and four bodyguards doesn’t exactly scream “low-key”!

To be fair, helicopter flights are indeed fast. Looking down at the city from above the capital, even the congested traffic wasn’t as frustrating. They landed on the top floor of SKP, where someone was waving a small flag, and a suited man with white gloves and black sunglasses was waiting.

Su Shiyi didn’t book the whole venue, she didn’t think it was necessary. After all, shopping in a mall is supposed to be about fun and excitement. If she really wanted to avoid being disturbed, she could just have the brands deliver the goods to her door and have them select items for her.

She and Wu Feifei linked arms and entered the mall through a special passage. Lucy followed half a step behind them, followed by two bodyguards in uniform, while the other two bodyguards, dressed in plain clothes, didn’t walk directly behind.

At this moment, the kind of wealthy family drama scene from a novel occurred—while they were casually strolling through the mall, just about to turn the corner into a luggage store, they ran into a few girls dressed in beautiful skirts, carrying many designer brand shopping bags.

The leader of the group had an aggressively beautiful face, paired with bright red lipstick, large round earrings, a white furry shawl, a sparkling sequin dress, and ten-centimeter high heels. The aura of a domineering older sister hit them head-on.

With her eyebrows raised and lips slightly parted, she asked, “Are you Su Shiyi?”

Su Shiyi was still trying to figure out who she was when the girl next to the beauty, who seemed to be her fan, spoke up first: “Yes, Sister Yiyao, how could you not recognize her? Didn’t you just retweet her Weibo this morning, three posts?”

Su Shiyi: …

So, she’s a fan of mine? And now that the fan is meeting the actual person, her attitude is this arrogant?

The beauty, called “Yiyao,” tried to show off but failed. Su Shiyi wanted to roll her eyes at the girl behind her but managed to hold it in. She lifted her chin and introduced herself like a proud peacock: “You must know me, right?”

Su Shiyi: ?

She turned to Lucy and asked, “Who is this?”

“I can hear you!” The beauty across from them was getting frustrated, “Su Shiyi, I’m Meng Yiyao! You… you don’t recognize me? That’s too much!”

Oh, her name is Meng Yiyao.

Su Shiyi finally understood and then asked Lucy, “That name sounds familiar. So, who is she?”

Meng Yiyao: ???

She clearly heard everything, but why was Su Shiyi speaking so loudly? Does she have no sense of face?

Finally, with a subtle hint from Lucy, Su Shiyi remembered the name “Meng Yiyao.” She was the Meng family’s daughter who had been relentlessly pursuing Gu Chen, as Gu Pan had mentioned to her before.

The Meng family had been male-dominated for several generations, so their only daughter, Meng Yiyao, was greatly pampered. They gave her whatever she wanted, and she grew up with a spoiled, domineering attitude in the capital.

Su Shiyi had always been very laid-back in her approach to life, especially when it came to the plot of the original story, which she was wary of getting involved in. She shrugged indifferently, nodded at Meng Yiyao, and then led Wu Feifei and her bodyguards into the store to look around.

Since the other side had the numbers, Meng Yiyao didn’t force her way in first. But as soon as she saw Su Shiyi’s gaze fall on a small handbag in a display case, she smiled with satisfaction.

Noticing the sales assistant’s awkward expression, she deliberately said loudly, “Sorry, this handbag is one of only two in the world. I specifically requested it, and the brand had it sent here for me. I’m just here to pick it up today. I heard the other one has already been claimed, so Su Shiyi, you’ll have to regretfully miss out.”

Su Shiyi’s expression was a bit strange: “Meng Yiyao, do you really like this bag?”

“Of course! Its design is simply perfect.”

Meng Yiyao automatically interpreted the unwilling expression on Su Shiyi’s face, “The Gu family and the Meng family are old friends. Su Shiyi, even though you’re not a Gu, you should have the grace of a Gu family member. You wouldn’t want to fight with me over this bag, right? That would be too embarrassing. That’s not how a lady of the capital’s high society behaves.”

Su Shiyi nodded: “Hmm, you’re right. Don’t worry, I won’t do that.”

Meng Yiyao felt pleased, and just as she was about to grab the bag to pay, she heard Su Shiyi say:

“The other bag is in my wardrobe. When the brand sent it to me, I didn’t really like it, and returning it seemed a bit awkward. Since you like it, there’s no need to waste money buying it. I’ll just give you mine, it’s gathering dust in my place.”

“Even if it’s just a few million, it’s still money saved, right? Like you said, our families are old friends, so you don’t need to be polite.”

Meng Yiyao: ???