Just after sending out the TT group message, instant messages began chiming nonstop, and in an instant, more than a dozen people applied to join the group.
Huang Yifan clicked to approve them one by one.
"Boss White, is that really you? I'm so excited."
A user named Miaomiao posted a message in the TT group chat.
After that, more than a dozen readers started speaking up one after another.
"Boss White, the poem you wrote today, 'The Song of a Man', was seriously awesome."
"Yeah, Boss White, you have no idea, it's the most heroic poem I've ever read."
"Boss White, I love you."
"Touching Boss White up close."
Seeing so many messages from readers, Huang Yifan was deeply moved.
These were all his fans.
Thinking back to his previous life, when he was a complete flop, Huang Yifan had dreamed of having a group of loyal fans. But his novels had flopped so badly that even though he created a fan group, not a single person joined. That was also why, after starting 'Bad Guy', he hadn't even bothered to open a group. Who would have thought that after starting over, he would receive so much support?
But right now, he didn't have time to reply, because the number of people applying to join kept coming nonstop.
He kept approving them, and only after twenty minutes did he finally stop.
When he returned to the group chat, he saw that White Jade Hall already had more than 700 members.
After thinking for a moment, Huang Yifan sent a message to the group. "Sorry, I was busy handling the join requests just now and didn't speak. Thank you all for your support tonight. Without everyone, this book, 'Bad Guy', might have been buried."
As soon as Huang Yifan spoke, the already lively group exploded even more.
"Boss White, no need to thank us. Just update more often. Especially, can you write a few more poems anytime? Like 'The World Slanders Me' or tonight's 'The Song of a Man'."
"Haha, yeah, Boss White, your talent in poetry is insane. Of course, 'Bad Guy' is also great. I really like that protagonist Xie Wendong."
"Boss White, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Boss White, I want to have your babies."
"Boss White, what does White Jade Hall mean?"
Before he had fans, Huang Yifan often imagined what he would say if he ever had a fan group. But now he realized that once you truly have fans, especially a large group of them, no matter how good you are with words, you can't answer everyone.
Just like now, he had only said one sentence, and the group instantly flooded with hundreds of replies.
In the end, Huang Yifan could only apologize repeatedly and answer a few of the more important questions.
"About that, I don't have a girlfriend for now. And I don't really plan to date at the moment."
"As for White Jade Hall…"
Originally, Huang Yifan had planned to say that White Jade Hall corresponded to his pen name, The Number One White Under Heaven, but after thinking about it, he felt that might be a bit too tacky. So instead, he quoted a line from Dream of the Red Chamber, saying, "The origin of the name White Jade Hall comes from a line of poetry: 'White jade as halls, gold as horses.'"
"'White jade as halls, gold as horses.' Damn, that's dazzling."
"That's seriously brilliant."
"I'm fired up, I'm fired up."
"I can't take this, I can't take this. Boss White, can you not be this talented?"
"So White Jade Hall comes from 'white jade as halls'? I'm crying. I bet our White Jade Hall is the most luxurious hall in the world."
"What a line, 'white jade as halls, gold as horses'. But how come we've never heard this poem before?"
"Are you dumb? Of course you haven't. Boss White wrote it, just like 'The World Slanders Me' and 'The Song of a Man'. Totally original. If you'd heard it before, that'd be weird. Damn, this line alone just raised our group's level to the max."
"Haha, White Jade Hall, I love it. I love the name White Jade Hall. From now on, I'm part of White Jade Hall. Just like Boss White said, enter our hall, and you're all brothers of the White family. From now on, my name will be 'White Jade Hall - Bulv'. Everyone, keep your nicknames consistent. Let's make White Jade Hall famous."
"Good idea. I'll be at White Jade Hall - Summer."
"White Jade Hall - Mingming reporting in."
…
Yesterday's Four Seas battle was intense, and at night, another wave of fans poured in. After all the chaos, it was already past 2 a.m. by the time he went to sleep.
The next day, just after 5 a.m., he had to get up for morning self-study.
As soon as he entered the classroom, Huang Yifan said to his deskmate Zhang Huiping, "Zhang Huiping, I'm going to sleep for a bit. Let me know when the homeroom teacher comes."
Before Zhang Huiping could nod, Huang Yifan picked up a book, opened it to cover his face, and buried his head to sleep.
He didn't know how much time had passed. He vaguely heard someone calling him, but it felt like a dream, so he didn't wake up.
It wasn't until he felt someone touch him that Huang Yifan slowly woke up.
"Zhang Huiping, is the homeroom teacher here?"
He yawned as he spoke.
But Zhang Huiping didn't answer. She only weakly pointed behind him.
Turning around, Huang Yifan saw that the homeroom teacher, Lin Jinfen, was already standing there, glaring at him with anger, then forcing a smile as she said gently, "Huang Yifan, was the desk comfortable to sleep on?"
"Uh… pretty comfortable."
Huang Yifan answered instinctively.
"Pfft."
Hearing his answer, Zhang Huiping burst into laughter, but quickly held it back when she saw the teacher beside her.
"You, come out."
Lin Jinfen also looked like she wanted to laugh, but held it in, then put on a stern face and called Huang Yifan out to the office.
This time, however, it wasn't just the homeroom teacher waiting for him. Huang Yilian and the Chinese teacher, Ye Fei, were also there.
"Ah, Teacher Huang, Teacher Lin, you're here too."
Huang Yifan's heart skipped a beat. Judging from the situation, something seemed off.
His eyes darted around, and he quickly admitted his mistake. "Teacher Lin, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have slept during morning self-study. I promise I won't do it again."
His practiced attitude left all three teachers stunned, but considering his talent, it somehow felt normal.
"Huang Yifan, it's good that you know you were wrong. But we didn't call you here because of that. Teacher Ye, Teacher Huang, and I have a few questions we want to ask you."
Teacher Lin spoke first.
"Go ahead, Teacher Lin. I'll answer honestly."
"Stop being slick."
Teacher Lin glared at him again. "I'm asking you, how did you pass your math exam this time?"
"Reporting to Teacher Lin, because this time the math test was relatively easy, most of the class passed. I was also deeply influenced by your teaching and felt ashamed of failing before, so I worked hard and finally improved."
Huang Yifan had already prepared his answer and delivered it smoothly.
But Teacher Lin shook her head. "Looks like you've memorized your answers. Let me ask you this: why couldn't you do these easy questions?"
She took out a test paper and pointed at several questions.
"Teacher Lin, my grades are bad. Normally, I can't do them."
"Then how do you explain getting these harder questions right?"
"Hard? These are considered hard?"
Huang Yifan blurted out without thinking.
But as soon as he said it, he realized he had slipped up and quickly shut his mouth.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"No wonder I couldn't figure it out. You can't do the easy ones, but you can do the hard ones. So in your eyes, whether easy or hard, they're all the same. Huang Yifan, you're really good at pretending."
Teacher Lin looked at him meaningfully.
"Reporting, teacher, I've seen these questions before, so I could do them."
Caught red-handed, Huang Yifan felt a bit awkward.
"Still talking back. Teacher Huang, you ask him."
Teacher Lin turned to the English teacher.
"Huang Yifan, I won't say much. I have a test paper here. Let's see if you can still get zero points."
"Ah, IELTS."
Seeing the paper, Huang Yifan almost cried.
This was clearly an IELTS test.
In his previous life, even after graduating from college, he had only barely passed CET-4. This level was fine for middle school, but IELTS? Even giving him a CET-6 paper would crush him, let alone asking him to score zero.
"You've got a good eye, recognizing it as IELTS. Come on, Huang Yifan, since you're so lucky, I'm sure you can get another zero."
"Teacher Huang, I can't get zero."
Huang Yifan answered honestly.
"Alright, then we'll skip English. Teacher Ye, anything you want to ask?"
Huang Yilian didn't pursue it further and handed the floor to Ye Fei.
"Huang Yifan, do you know why I gave your essay full marks?"
"Why? I wrote it randomly."
"It's good that you admit it was written by you. Maybe you don't realize what's good about it, because you're judging it by your own standards. If you take a look at your classmates' essays, even your deskmate's, you'll understand why I gave you full marks. Of course, that's not the only reason. That sentence in your essay, 'Those without ambition always make resolutions; those with ambition hold fast to one,' was exceptionally classic. It's hard to believe an ordinary student could write something like that. Also, I studied it for a while and think it has strong literary value. We can discuss it sometime."
"So the three of you called me here today to confirm something."
Huang Yifan looked at the three teachers.
He suddenly understood why they had summoned him.
"Yes. We just want to confirm something. But tell us, do you think our guess is right?"
Teacher Lin asked.
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