“Worship?” Fang Qiu’s words brought Jiang Mengjie to a hearty laugh and then she said, “Do you remember that it was you who worshipped me during high school?”
“That was just because I let you.” At the thought of his high school life, Fang Qiu couldn’t help sighing softly, adopting a deliberately arrogant tone. “Alas, as a saying goes, ‘To be known as early as possible.’ What do you think I would have been like now if I had become so open-minded since high school?”
“If you could choose again,” smiling sweetly, Jiang Mengjie asked, “would you still choose Chinese Medicine?”
“Yes, of course, I would.” Fang Qiu nodded affirmatively and said, “That’s for sure. No matter how many chances I would have, Chinese Medicine is the only option that I’ve ever considered. It is for sure.”
“Therefore, even if you had been as open as you are now in high school, you would have been studying Chinese Medicine now as well. You would have also been a very famous Chinese Medicine doctor.” Jiang Mengjie said, “As for me, maybe I wouldn’t be who I am now.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Raising his eyebrows, Fang Qiu asked with a smile, “When did you start to speak in such an esoteric manner?”
“You made me to.” Jiang Mengjie rolled her eyes and said, “You’re growing up to such an extent that I can’t catch up with you. The sole approach for me is to read more inspiring passages to console myself. As a result, my words naturally grow esoteric.”
“How can it have anything to do with me?” Fang Qiu gave a wry smile speechlessly, quickly changed the subject, and asked, “You’ve performed well both in the first and second rounds, haven’t you?”
“Not bad.” Jiang Mengjie nodded and said, “I’m still not as good as you.”
“I’ve already checked.” Fang Qiu said with his mouth pursed, “You’ve finished top in the first and second rounds of the examination. You’re the only contestant from Jingbei University of Chinese Medicine who has made it to the next round with full scores, just like me last year.”
Chuckling, Jiang Mengjie did not deny it.
This time, she did pull out all the stops in this show, struggling to take first place in the case of several tough opponents from the same school.
On the table were served the dishes.
“Come on.” Fang Qiu cheered Jiang Mengjie up and said, “I believe you can do it. Your gaining full marks in the previous rounds promises a good result finally.”
“Okay.” Jiang Mengjie nodded, smiling gently.
“By the way, I have a question.” Fang Qiu grinned and asked, “Which place do you think you can take in the competition?”
“I’m striving for the first place,” Jiang Mengjie said, her eyes suffused with determination.
“Let me tell you something. I am the one who sets questions in the first episode. Do you want me to tell you those questions and pull strings for you?” Fang Qiu asked with a smile.
“Sure.” Jiang Mengjie’s eyes lit up at once. She immediately smiled and said, “Quick, tell me all the questions in the first episode so that I can prepare well and get the first place.”
“You really want them?” Fang Qiu was stunned. He gazed at Jiang Mengjie, saying, “I’m always regarding you as a righteous person who will never cheat in any case.”
“It’s forgivable to get the first place through the back door.” Jiang Mengjie answered and urged him. “Hurry up, tell me the questions.”
“Uh, I…” Awkward, Fang Qiu felt his face burning. “I haven’t set the questions yet. And at least for your sake, I can’t reveal the questions to you, can I?”
“I knew you were a coward.” Jiang Mengjie covered her mouth, chuckling.
Knowing it was merely a joke, Fang Qiu could only smile awkwardly by himself.
Throughout the meal, the two chatted merrily, seeming very close to and intimate with each other.
Perhaps because they chatted so joyfully, they didn’t pay attention to the surroundings. As a guru, Fang Qiu failed to notice that someone outside the cafe was aiming the camera at Jiang Mengjie and him furtively.
While the two people finished the meal and left the cafe, the Internet was blowing up in the blink of an eye!
“Fang Qiu’s Girlfriend Appears!” A marketing account that often released entertainment news online suddenly published such a piece of news. A number of photos were attached there along with assorted speculations.
In the photo, it could be clearly seen that Fang Qiu was sitting in a cafe and eating with a girl. Both of them were laughing very pleasedly.
These photos beguiled countless eyes the instant they were exposed to the public.
“Fang Qiu actually has a girlfriend?”
“What the fuck. Is it real? How could Fang Qiu have a girlfriend?”
“What the hell? It is not true. I won’t admit it!”
“Fang Qiu is my husband!”
For a time, the relentless netizens were on the boil.
Amid netizens’ heated debate, a hot topic arose on Weibo soon—Fang Qiu’s Girlfriend.
No sooner did the topic appear than it rushed to the first place on the Weibo topic list just like a rocket soaring up, and its popularity index still kept surging.
It even turned out that the Weibo servers almost got crashed. Many Weibo users could not log in or refresh their feed!
Even so, Fang Qiu’s fans still opened Fang Qiu’s Weibo page in the first place, leaving comments and inquiries madly.
“Like me if you think it’s fake.”
“I don’t want them to be together. Master Fang Qiu is mine.”
“How can Fang Qiu have a girlfriend? No one except me can be his girlfriend.”
“I’ve been your fan for so long, but you’re with another woman. I’ve had enough. I’d like to cancel you!”
Soon, on Fang Qiu’s Weibo page started a good show where the male fans were looking on while the female fans were losing their temper.
Heretofore, no one had thought that Fang Qiu would have internal fans, much less such crazy female fans. But nowadays, the appearance of these female fans in this incident staggered the whole Internet off hand.
These female fans had made a variety of statements. Some of them had even been ready to check up on the woman in the photos!
And more people threatened him in succession—If it was true, they would cancel him promptly!
The whole Weibo fell into chaos.
Almost everyone was discussing this matter.
As far as Fang Qiu was concerned, he had just returned to the hotel.
“Beep…” The phone in his trouser pocket suddenly rang.
“Director Li?” Glancing at the caller ID, Fang Qiu immediately picked up the phone.
“Boy, you’ll feel uncomfortable if you don’t do something, won’t you?” Director Li Huawen’s voice came from the other end of the line. He said, “What are you doing at this critical moment? Are you trying to help us promote the show?”
“What? What have I done?” Fang Qiu said at a loss, “I didn’t do anything!”
“Hurry up and check Weibo. It’s going to explode because of you,” said Director Li Huawen.
On hearing that, Fang Qiu logged in to Weibo through his mobile phone to check at once.
As a result, he found that the photos of him eating with Jiang Mengjie had been spread all over Weibo. Then at the sight of the top one topic on the list, he was dumbfounded all of a sudden.
“Damn! Who is mean enough to do that?” Seeing the lively discussion of netizens and the fierce comments of his fans, Fang Qiu couldn’t help smiling bitterly, saying to himself, “A man dreads fame as a pig dreads being fat.”
As a matter of fact, the reason why Fang Qiu had always been used to keeping low-keyed was that he fretted about being pestered in private life. Hence, he would endeavor to keep a low profile in whatever he did.
Much to his surprise, this kind of thing still overtook him.
Though Fang Qiu was unwilling to respond to these rumors, after all, it had caused a big deal out of it. His fans were left incredibly thrilled, and even Director Li Huawen had phoned him on account of it. Therefore, he really had to squash the rumors.
Without the least hesitation, Fang Qiu promptly posted with his mobile phone. “This is my deskmate in high school for the past three years. What’s wrong with having a meal with my old classmate? Besides, I heard that gossipers ought to be convicted of spreading rumors in the case of over 500 forwarded numbers. I hope this is the first and also the last time.”
Once it came out, the fans, who had become emotional originally, celebrated with joy forthwith.
“So they’re deskmates?”
“I knew it. I knew Master Fang must have no girlfriend.”
“It’s too normal for old classmates to get some grub together.”
“Are they really deskmates?”
“Could it be that there’s something more between the two classmates?”
For a few minutes, the winds of popular opinion had shifted a lot. Many female fans of Fang Qiu calmed down and opted to trust Fang Qiu.
The male fans also gave up and ceased chasing after this matter.
After all, Fang Qiu was their idol. If any star had undergone such an experience, it would have impacted him badly. Therefore, the fans who took Fang Qiu’s image into consideration began to do their utmost to play down this accident.
Nevertheless, the fans were apt to play this down while other netizens were reluctant. Many of them initiated various speculations.
“It’s normal for old classmates to have a meal, but it’s not normal to eat so happily, is it?”
“A man and a woman ate together alone. Can they just get away after claiming they’re ‘old classmates’?”
“Who exactly knows if they’re old classmates?”
However, just as the netizens were stirring things up, Fang Qiu’s classmates and even the head teacher and other teachers of his high school stood out to refute the rumors one after another, confirming Fang Qiu and Jiang Mengjie were classmates and deskmates.
“They were both my classmates who were on good terms with each other in high school, and they were once the top two students in our school!”
“All the students in our class got along well. What’s wrong with a meal between old classmates?”
“Jiang Mengjie was ranked first in our class. At that time, she had a good relationship with all of us. If I were in the capital, I would have a meal with her as well. She and Fang Qiu were both admitted to the University of Chinese Medicine in the end, but the two were in different schools. Moreover, both the two are studying Chinese Medicine. Is there any problem with their eating and chatting together?”
With the appearance of his high school classmates and teachers, netizens had no choice but to give up making trouble one by one.
As soon as the important information emerged, some busybodies commenced investigating. Consequently, following the detail of Fang Qiu’s high school class, they immediately figured out that the girl in the photo was named Jiang Mengjie.
Quite soon, Jiang Mengjie’s superficial information was dug out. An entertainment blogger who was the first to scent its newsworthiness released Jiang Mengjie’s personal information on the Internet as soon as possible.
