My Idol Secretly Loves Me: Chapter 10

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Chapter 10:

That morning, an incident disturbed Luo Tang's mind, causing her to make little progress in her work all day. Her desk was cluttered with sketches, but she ended up getting nowhere.

She did, however, watch the cult propaganda video numerous times. 

It must be said that the uploader was definitely a veteran in this field, having edited countless similar videos with skilled craftsmanship. The background music was perfectly matched, and with the expertly chosen filters, shot composition, and original dialogue, the video was transformed into a school romance drama featuring a cold male and sweet female lead. The brainwashing power was immense.

Originally, Luo Tang intended to share this link with Cheng Cheng. When she saw Cheng Cheng again, she expressed her love for the propaganda video with exuberant enthusiasm, proudly declaring, "We're evil in the right way! We're an openly shameless b*tch!"

Indeed, Luo Tang found this slogan increasingly catchy.

But dreams are beautiful, and reality is cruel. No matter how she fantasized, a cult remained a cult. In the crew, she, Luo Tong, was still the third female shit-stirrer who was despised by the male and female leads together.

Regarding her frequent nominations in hot searches as the shitty female supporting character, there were numerous online comments like "Luo Xiao Tang is definitely hyping herself," "Waiting for Luo Xiao Tang to be exposed," "How can her face be hyped like this? Definitely bought the hot search spot" and so on. However, visiting their profiles revealed a dramatic change in tone:

[Our baby Yueyue is too precious, sobsobsob!]

[Such elegance! Yueyue mama loves you!]

[When will Yueyue's solo album be released? I'm so anxious, my wallet can't wait any longer.]

This "Yueyue" referred to the popular second-tier singer and dancer Liang Zi Yue.

It wasn't Luo Tang who discovered this, but Luo Zhou, who casually asked her, "Do you have a feud with your drama's female lead?"

After some thought, Luo Tang realized that since Liang Zi Yue made a small mistake on the first day and ended up owing her, there hadn't been any further issues. A feud was even less likely.

So she replied honestly, "No, why?"

Luo Zhou, with a sour expression, loosened his bow tie and said, "Then how come all her fucking fans are cursing you?"

Luo Tang didn't think much of it. "It's not her responsibility to control her fans' actions. Think about it, she's the female lead but hasn't made it to the hot search. I've occupied it so many times for no reason, so it's natural for her fans to be upset and suspect me of buying the hot search."

You, an unknown, suddenly stole our darling's spotlight. Why?

Although Luo Tang hadn't been in the fan circle for long, if Su Yan were overshadowed by someone else, she could understand the twists and turns.

Unexpectedly, Luo Zhou smirked darkly. "Impressive, Luo Tang, acting all saintly."

After speaking, he stood up gracefully, his suit jacket creating a breeze as he passed by her, as if even his departing figure was calling her a "fool."

Luo Tang: "..."

What exactly is this rare and silly species of tsundere? Why do people express their care in such a convoluted way???

Regardless, despite some minor conflicts online, the novel "Our Youthful Days," led by book fans and Su God's fiery fans, remained unquestionably at the top of traffic.

The drama crew, seeing this positive trend, was full of vigor. Now, there was one thing different from before.

Luo Tang noticed that the crew seemed to have arranged for several cameramen to film the actors' daily lives on set. It took her a while to get used to the sudden appearance of cameras around her.

In mid-July, the students of Mingxi Middle School's high school division were experiencing a hellish period: art classes were replaced by math, music by English, and physical education by Chinese.

For the drama crew, filming on the playground was incredibly easy. There were no students in physical education classes, and occasionally the school team's training could serve as a background.

The only annoyance was the increasingly high temperature. What was worse, in such heat, they still had to wear autumn school uniforms.

In the morning, Luo Tang played a minor role, with most of the scenes focusing on Su Yan and Liang Zi Yue.

Seeing them constantly touch up their makeup due to sweating, Luo Tang couldn't help but sympathize. At one point, Liang Zi Yue's assistant was busy, so she helped bring water.

Liang Zi Yue took a sip and weakly said, "Luo Xiao Tang, can you check the time for me?"

Luo Tang habitually looked at her wrist, only to find it empty.

She remembered Su Yan's advice not to wear a watch to work anymore, so she unlocked her phone in front of Liang Zi Yue.

The moment she saw the wallpaper.

A thought flashed through her mind—

"F*ck!" Liang Zi Yue suddenly changed from her listless demeanor, exclaiming loudly, "Luo Xiao Tang, who's in your wallpaper!?"

"!!!" Luo Tang quickly glanced around and widened her eyes: "...Keep your voice down!"

"You're actually a Su Yan fan?!"

Luo Tang: "I—” Before she could finish, she was interrupted.

"Let me be honest with you, I am a career fan of Su God," Liang Zi Yue declared righteously.

"...Career fan?"

"Yes, it means everything revolves around his career. If he gets good resources, I could be happy enough to go clubbing."

"..."

Damn, are we sisters, ah? Such upright values?

Liang Zi Yue suddenly became very serious. "Tell me the truth, are you a girlfriend fan?"

Luo Tang, a bit scared by her seriousness, quickly said, "No, no! I'm a mother fan! The caring kind!!"

Liang Zi Yue's expression immediately relaxed. "I see."

"Let's add each other on WeChat, you scan me." She said timidly, "Send me the original of that wallpaper."

"..."

Liang Zi Yue chattered with Luo Tang for the whole afternoon.

Everyone quickly noticed that Liang Zi Yue and Luo Xiao Tang, who usually had no interaction outside of acting, seemed to have grown closer after lunch.

At 1:30 pm, after lunch, no one wanted to start work due to the scorching temperature.

Director Chen generously proposed, "Let's send someone unlucky to the school's snack bar to buy ice cream for everyone. How about it?"

Everyone cheered in agreement, and several young actors took up the task. "Let's settle it with rock-paper-scissors! You guys rest!"

These six were basically the main actors of the drama, all featured on the promotional posters.

Luo Tang was among them.

In the first round, there were people who chose rock, paper, and scissors.

"Again, again!"

"Rock—Paper—Scissors!"

This time, four chose rock and two scissors—including Luo Tang.

She recognized the other pair of scissors-holding hands at a glance.

Who else could have such perfect hands?

The other four stepped back, egging on, "Come on! A decisive battle between Su God and Luo Xiao Tang!"

Luo Tang raised her hand, ready to play, but Su Yan showed no intention of moving.

She looked at him puzzled, and he indifferently said, "I'll go with her."

Luo Tang froze. "...What?"

Everyone was stunned.

"I don't mind losing," Su Yan looked around nonchalantly, "But if she loses, would you really make her carry something so heavy back alone?"

The crowd: "...?"

Su God, let's be honest, is a dozen ice creams really that heavy? You're making us look like we don't care about women!

There was a brief silence. However, having gotten used to each other over the past month, the young people quickly reacted.

Zhang Yun, who played the female lead's friend in the drama, exaggeratedly said, "Wow~ Su God is such a gentleman and so charming~"

Xiao Ying, Gu Yu's silly male friend, was even more dramatic. "Damn! I'm a die-hard fan of Su God! If I had known this, I would've chosen scissors too!"

"Pfft—" Zhang Yun burst out laughing, "Shut up, Xiao Ying. Su God is taking care of a girl, and you, a grown man, should have some shame!"

As they joked around, watching the two perfectly matched figures walk away, someone sensed something odd.

"Wait, wasn't there something strange about Su God's logic just now?"

"Strange how?"

"Think about it. The way he put it, whether he won or lost, he would go buy it."

"Then why didn't he just go himself?"

"..."

Right, that does make sense.

...

With the noisy chatter fading behind them, it was the students' nap time, so the journey was quiet. Luo Tang chatted with the person beside her, eventually bringing up Mingxi Middle School.

After all, it was her alma mater, filled with memories.

When they reached the snack bar, Luo Tang suddenly turned back and, following her memory, looked at a certain spot. Her eyes lit up. "Wow! That tree is still there!"

Su Yan had been mostly silent throughout the walk.

Perhaps due to their past interactions, he loved this feeling of her chattering away by his side, and it had been a long time since he had done so.

He followed Luo Tang's gaze, pausing for a few seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Yeah, it's still there."

"Su Yan," before Su Yan could turn to look at her, she spoke with a smile in her voice. "Suddenly, I feel like the most embarrassing moments of my life have all been witnessed by you."

"..."

—The most embarrassing time Luo Tang ever cried was under that tree the year she skipped a grade to high school.

She had been Su Yan's deskmate for about a month then.

Although teenage Su Yan appeared gloomy, causing classmates to avoid him, the teachers only cared about students' grades.

So Su Yan was the English class representative.

Luo Tang remembered, Su Yan was assigned by the teacher to grade papers and homework with the English class rep from the next class, doing it day after day. He would leave for grading during the fourth period of self-study in the afternoon and only return after school.

Moreover, Luo Tang noticed that every time he returned, his mood seemed to improve.

This didn't seem unusual at first.

Until one day, Luo Tang realized that the other English class representative was actually very pretty. With brown curly hair, she was both an unconventional, rebellious beauty and a good student.

This continued for about a week, and when Luo Tang asked him what he was up to recently, Su Yan always said the same thing: grading papers or homework, as the English teacher was continuously busy with family matters.

The teacher's office was in a different building from the students' classrooms. To return to the classroom from the office, one would inevitably pass the snack bar.

Luo Tang chose a day to wait near a tree opposite the snack bar at school dismissal time, like a thief in hiding.

Surprisingly, she indeed caught them.

That day, Luo Tang realized that the English class representative was especially good-looking. Long brown curly hair, school uniform not properly worn—an unconventional rebellious beauty and a good student??

Su Yan lowered his head so that he couldn't see his expression, but the girl beside him was laughing and swaying.

She said something, Su Yan extended his hand to hand her something, and the shampoo-commercial-worthy girl laughed again.

Luo Tang couldn't hold back anymore.

She had rarely cried since childhood. She was well-behaved and loved by her family. Except when her mother watched her during ballet class, she hardly ever cried.

Perhaps teenagers were always too fragile and sensitive. Watching them approach, her nose tingled, and tears started falling.

She felt Su Yan wasn't hers anymore.

Even though they'd only been desk mates for a month, he'd submit homework with her name on it when she forgot to do it, then take the scolding himself. He'd buy her a candy bar after she mentioned wanting one, pretending to go to the bathroom to get it. When she asked why he brought back candy from the bathroom, he'd immediately turn sour, saying, "If you don't want it, I'll throw it away."

That boy who seemed aloof but was actually very kind to her,

That boy with long lashes and a beautifully delicate sleeping face seemed to no longer belong to her.

He wouldn’t be kind to her anymore.

He would be kind to someone else.

He’d buy her candy!

In a young girl's world, such things were akin to an apocalyptic catastrophe.

Luo Tang, disregarding her image as a little princess from junior high, didn't care if anyone saw her and cried unabashedly on the spot.

She didn't even notice when Su Yan approached.

"Luo Xiao Tang."

Luo Tang's crying was interrupted. Recognizing the voice, she refused to lift her head, her voice muffled. "What do you want?"

Su Yan sounded puzzled and helpless. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? Why aren't you in class? What are you doing here?"

Luo Tang felt like crying again.

He was scolding her.

But he had just accompanied that girl to the supermarket! And now he was scolding her!

The little girl felt wronged to death. "I don't know you anymore, just go away. I'll change seats with someone else tomorrow."

"..." Su Yan was patient. "What's wrong with you?"

Luo Tang thought it over. Crying wouldn't help, so she decided to clarify if he really bought candy. "Su Yan, I saw everything just now. What did you buy for the English class rep from class nine?"

"We ran out of red pens in the teacher's office. I bought two."

Red pens...

Luo Tang's heart untangled a bit.

—But only a bit.

Many more doubts remained.

Still hiding her face, she asked, "Then why do you always return together just as school ends?"

"Grading papers."

"Why do you always go and return with her?"

"Our class ends at the same time."

"Why do you always seem happy when you return?"

Su Yan paused: "...Because I finished grading papers."

"..."

Luo Tang felt much better.

“So…” She remembered the girl's soft and flowing brown hair, rubbed her eyes, and asked, “Do you think girls look better with brown hair or black hair?”

The topic changed too abruptly, and Su Yan was momentarily startled.

After a pause, he said, “Black.”

The little girl sniffed, thought of the girl's beautiful big curls, and asked again, “Then, do you think curly hair looks better, or straight hair?”

He replied, “Straight.”

Teenage Luo Tang was quite satisfied.

But she still felt somewhat uneasy.

Because that girl was only half a head shorter than him, with long legs, but she was much shorter than him.

Worried about being too obvious, Luo Tang vaguely asked again, “Then, do you think tall girls look better, or…” She didn’t want to describe herself as “short,” so she changed her wording: “—not so tall girls?”

Su Yan: “…”

Teenage Su Yan was very troubled.

What’s this about looking good? He didn’t understand these intricate and roundabout thoughts of teenage girls, and he never knew how to please them, but he vaguely felt that her behavior had something to do with him.

He didn’t want to see her squatting here with red eyes, crying.

He reached out, took out a candy he had just bought from his pocket, and tapped the little girl's head. “Hey, get up and eat candy.”

She rubbed her face and didn’t move while squatting.

The boy awkwardly tried to coax her. “Don’t cry.”

She was still sniffing.

About ten seconds passed.

The boy's voice finally softened, somewhat awkwardly, but clear and pleasant: “...Hmm, you look good.”

The sobbing abruptly stopped.

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