My Idol Turns Out To Be My Ex-Girlfriend - Chapter 44

Qiao Lian turned with a smile. “Even if Professor Tang isn’t a man, this whole situation is still very much like a romance novel.”

“Hey…” Sanyuan exhaled weakly.

“So, do you want to get back together with her?” Qiao Lian asked softly.

“How am I supposed to do that in this state? My brain is empty, I have no memories at all…”

Besides, she had never once imagined she would like a woman.

Tang Hengzhi had suddenly skimmed across her world like a dragonfly touching water, luring her with a raw, unadorned love. But Sanyuan knew very well that this wasn’t a love she could simply cling to. Tang Hengzhi was the distant mountains and seas, the high-hanging moon, a beautiful blue whale encountered by chance in the deep ocean.

Sanyuan didn’t want her to become a dream characterized by the fear of loss. She wasn’t a particularly great or outstanding person; she couldn’t promise to give tenderly or respond with deep affection to everything.

Dead wood rarely sees a second spring.

Man’s greatest troubles stem from being unwilling to let go, from wanting too many things that don’t match one’s abilities. That kind of feeling is called a pipe dream. It’s much easier to be a “salted fish” with simple material and emotional needs.

Yet, Tang Hengzhi was proving to her through sheer force of presence that as long as Sanyuan was willing to step a little closer and stay a little longer, she really might break her long-standing, hedgehog-like defensive habits. An unsettled greed was beginning to grow.

Sanyuan knew her role in this society was that of an NPC. If this continued, things would spiral out of control, and Tang Hengzhi would become a destination she could never reach in a lifetime. Chasing after someone like that, spending a whole life running toward her… it was too exhausting.

She was a useless person to begin with. If she were chosen and then abandoned halfway, she would never find her way back.

She had worked so hard to toughen up her “salted fish” body. If she let the fires of love simmer and steam her, the protective layer of salt would fall away, and her flesh would become loose and scattered. She wouldn’t get far before she was nothing but a skeleton.

Sigh, people who write and draw for a living just love being melodramatic.

Qiao Lian glanced at her with a meaningful look. “You’re distressed because you have no memory and don’t know how to reconcile, so it’s not that you don’t want to?”

Wait… How did Qiao Lian manage to lead her into that trap?

Sanyuan narrowed her eyes. “I’m not distressed, and I’m not thinking about reconciling.”

Qiao Lian nodded, reaching a conclusion. “Duo-plicity. You’re saying the opposite of what you feel.”

Sanyuan: “…”

The second half of the movie was utterly pointless. After that conversation, Sanyuan had no idea what she had even watched, so she wasn’t that scared anymore. She went back to her small room to sleep.

Troubles aside, one of Sanyuan’s few virtues was that she was a coward who knew how to let things go. Better to focus on her career and save money, right?

As the end of the year approached, things at the company gradually picked up. Sanyuan couldn’t continue working from home. As an LED car light designer, her generous salary was closely tied to the business of the design department. Although she didn’t like the rigid 9-to-5 office routine, there was no denying that as the company’s workload increased, the rewards grew as well.

Sanyuan didn’t know if this counted as her career finally trending upward. While her main job was getting busy, her stagnant side hustle was also undergoing a major upgrade following a system purge by the “Puka-Nyang” platform.

Because Puka-Nyang was a free comic platform, it lived off traffic. The owner was said to be a college student who started the app, but with limited funds, they couldn’t retain many original creators. Furthermore, in this internet age where you have to pay just to hear a song, being an outlier doesn’t make people think you’re noble, it just makes them want to squash you.

To Sanyuan’s surprise, after a frantic reshuffling, Puka-Nyang wasn’t bought out by a giant platform. It had suddenly come back to life during this critical period, having somehow secured a sponsor.

When she logged back into the author’s dashboard, the entire interface was clean and smooth. It looked like after getting a “sugar daddy” backer, they had even replaced the platform’s maintenance programmers with some real heavy hitters.

Looking at the new site announcements, in such a short time, the internal staff had expanded to include multiple planners, editors, lead character artists, content operators, and even a full legal team for rights protection. This tiny sparrow had truly grown all its vital organs.

Just as Sanyuan was marveling at how Puka-Nyang was finally thriving under the nourishment of capital, she received an internal system message.

Reading the notification, Sanyuan rubbed her eyes and checked it three times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. She had received a publication notice!

Sanyuan let out a soft, “Holy crap!”

Puka-Nyang was really moving up in the world! It had just been fed a big mouthful of investment, and it was already starting to feed the hungry little creators underneath it.

Sanyuan opened the author chat group, which was already exploding. Sure enough, the head editor had posted a group announcement regarding the pre-order for published works, and her work, The National Preceptor, was right there on the list.

This was the rhythm of a “heavenly ascension.” Her heart went thumping. Sanyuan was about to @ the editor with a “kowtow” emoji to show her gratitude.

Amidst the chaotic flood of messages, the editor invited a new member, “Qiu Feng,” into the group.

Seeing those two glaringly obvious words, Sanyuan’s brain felt like it was popping with fireworks.

Qiu Feng? Is it the Qiu Feng I know? Or just a fan?

As an original comic blogger, Qiu Feng had tens of millions of followers. Even in this group, Sanyuan saw several IDs containing the name “Qiu Feng.”

As the newcomer received a warm welcome from the group members, many Qiu Feng fans joked, asking if she followed the same “Great Master.”

But for some reason, Sanyuan’s frantically beating heart suggested things weren’t that simple.

The editor spoke up in the chat. “This is our newly recruited lead artist for Puka-Nyang. For those of you whose works have reached publication standards, if you need customized character promotional art, you can look for Great Master Qiu Feng. It’s the! Real! Qiu! Feng! Oh!”

The Puka-Nyang editors were usually cold and strictly professional. Since when were they this playful?

“Hahaha! Editor-da is so cute, there are even four exclamation marks! Key point, it couldn’t really be the real Qiu Feng, could it?”

“No way, what kind of background does Puka-Nyang have to be able to hire Qiu Feng to draw promo art for us ‘little cabbages’?”

“If they’re just using Qiu Feng’s name for hype, won’t Puka-Nyang get sued for infringement?”

Despite the joking and the noise, no one in the group seemed to believe they had actually hired Qiu Feng. After all, Qiu Feng was incredibly expensive, especially after her “mask” as a manga artist dropped and she was revealed to be the even bigger name, Tang Hengzhi. The name “Qiu Feng” alone smelled like super-expensive gold. Puka-Nyang was so niche; hiring Qiu Feng for a single day would probably cost their entire annual revenue.

Sanyuan’s palms began to sweat. She kept hypnotizing herself: It’s a coincidence, it must be a coincidence.

Then, the user “Qiu Feng,” whose avatar was a seascape with a Klein Blue background, sent a voice message.

“Please look after me, everyone.” The voice was clear and cool, naturally indifferent. As the audio played through the speakers, the phone seemed to be soaked in the chill of a gentle night.

A number of “voice-obsessed” creators in the group started posting frantically. “Crap! This Qiu Feng No. N’s voice sounds so good!”

“Has no one noticed that this person’s voice sounds exactly like the real one during her livestreams?”

“A die-hard fan, clearly. To chase an idol to this extent, isn’t that a kind of success in itself?”

“Wait, it’s way too similar. Could it really be the real one descending upon us?”

Sanyuan stared numbly at the constantly scrolling chat logs. It felt like she was back in Qiu Feng’s livestream room. Just as she was about to exit the group to calm down, the editor @-ed her.

Ye Ye-jun, the draft for your lead character promo art is ready. Take a look and see if anything needs correcting.

Draft? What draft?

She had only received the publication notice today. she hadn’t even had time to commission a lead artist!

Her messaging app chimed with a private notification. The group stranger “Qiu Feng” had sent a high-definition character illustration. The background was crabapple blossoms under the moon, in a traditional style. The female Preceptor, in white robes with dark hair, held a lamp while gazing at the moon. The cool moonlight illuminated the frost-covered ground, conveying a sense of timeless elegance. It was a stunning piece of character art.

Sanyuan was blinded by the quality!

You call this meticulously crafted masterpiece a ‘draft’?

“What does Great Master Yuan Xiao think? Is there anything that needs changing?” The Qiu Feng with the Klein Blue avatar sent a voice message below the image.

Sanyuan took a deep breath and tapped the “add friend” button. The request was accepted instantly. She typed rapidly: “Professor… Tang?”

The reply came back: “Hello, Teacher Lin.”

It was followed by a very “old person” rose emoji.

That “Teacher Lin” explained everything.

Sanyuan’s heart surged like a wave. Her fingers hovered over the screen for a long time, unsure how to handle this. In moments like this, playing dumb or being vague was a good coping mechanism. But for some reason, because she knew it was Tang Hengzhi, her cowardly and evasive nature didn’t want to use her usual methods on her.

She tapped her head to calm herself down, then typed directly: “Did Professor Tang come to Puka because of me?”

Sanyuan often had these narcissistic thoughts, but they usually stayed in her head. If the other person denied it or made an excuse, it would be incredibly embarrassing. So now, it wasn’t narcissism, it was self-torture, a way of hurting herself.

The chat window showed “typing…” for a long time, but no new message appeared.

Tang Hengzhi stared at her screen in silence. The light from the phone hit her face, lending her a surreal quality, outlining her exquisite lashes, the bridge of her nose, and the thin silhouette of her jaw.

After a long while, she let out a soft sigh, flipped her phone over, and leaned back into the sofa, resting her arm over her eyes.

He Wenyu, seeing this, looked on with wonder. “What? Did you hit a wall with your big ‘straight’ girl again?”

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