277: Chapter 277: Shock from the Reader

"No idea. He only stayed in the dorm for about ten days; he moved out right after military training," Wang Lei said helplessly.

"Do you think Chen Fan will come back to class?" a classmate nearby chimed in.

"Who knows? He should be back at school for exams," Wang Lei said.

"If he comes to class later, I'm definitely going to grill him," Zhao Zitong joked.

Chen Fan was naturally unaware of what was happening at school. He had long since muted his class QQ group; he would occasionally click in to take a look, but he never spoke.

At that moment, he was leaning back in his office chair, holding his phone and talking to someone.

"Hello, Xinghe."

"Big Boss Pen name, you've kept me in the dark for so long," the voice of his Qidian editor, Xinghe, came from the other end of the line. "I thought you were advertising for someone else before; I never expected it was for your own company."

Chen Fan chuckled: "I didn't hide it from you; you just didn't ask."

"How was I supposed to ask if you didn't tell me?" Xinghe's tone held a hint of helplessness. "At the time, I was wondering which web game company had such a good eye to hire you for ads. I never imagined it was your own company. You're the first Qidian author to pull this off."

"So, are you here to hold me accountable?"

"Of course not. I just wanted to confirm with you: are you still going to continue writing this book?"

"I will finish this book, but I'm not sure if I'll start a new one after that."

"I figured as much. You're a big boss with hundreds of millions in revenue now; you probably don't care about the money from writing novels anymore."

Chen Fan indeed didn't care for it anymore, even though he still had a few future hit novels in his mind, each of which could easily earn tens of millions.

But compared to his company's revenue, this amount of money was insignificant, and it was time-consuming and exhausting.

"My energy is limited. If I try to do both, I won't do either well in the end. It's better to focus on one," Chen Fan replied, making up an excuse.

"That's true, too." Xinghe paused. "Then I won't disturb you any further."

"Alright, let's stay in touch."

"Okay."

After hanging up, Chen Fan leaned back in his office chair, a flash of surprise in his eyes. He hadn't expected Xinghe to find out so soon after the interview was released.

Could it be that even his readers knew?

He first opened the QQ group to check, and sure enough, the reader group he had muted had 999+ unread messages.

[Yijian Fenghou: Is Big Boss Pen name really this handsome? I thought he was someone in his thirties.]

[Gu Zhibai: He is indeed handsome; his looks are almost on par with mine.]

[Yujian Chengfeng: @Gu Zhibai, have some shame.]

[Little Tipping Expert: Speaking of which, Big Boss Pen name used the money he earned from writing books to start a company. Does that make us readers his angel investors?]

[Yijian Fenghou: That makes sense! We should all count as his angel investors.]

[Cherry Not Sweet: Does Big Boss Pen name need a girlfriend? How about me?]

[Rational Reader Is Not Rational: Forget it, girl above. With Big Boss Pen name's conditions, do you think he'd lack a girlfriend? He's probably drowning in them.]

[Cherry Not Sweet: Hmph, do you think Big Boss Pen name is like you?]

[Chasing Updates Until Dawn: Speaking of which, will Pen name's book get canned?]

Chen Fan just smiled and scrolled past most of the chat, but when he saw someone asking if the book would be abandoned, he thought for a moment and typed out a reply.

[Pen name: I will finish this book. I'm not sure if I'll start a new one after that.]

After sending it, Chen Fan didn't bother with the turmoil in the group and exited QQ directly.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

The popularity of Chen Fan's interview video continued to rise, and the related topic even made it to the Weibo hot search list.

A college freshman under twenty who earned his first pot of gold by writing novels and then founded a game company with hundreds of millions in revenue—this story was even more outrageous than anything on TV.

But TV shows are fake, while Chen Fan's story was real.

Regarding this, even a local TV station contacted him for an interview, but he declined.

Now that he was already on the hot search list, there was no need to accept interviews from other media; he didn't want to be in the public eye all the time either.

Today was Monday, July 4th. Early in the morning, Chen Fan drove to school. These two days were final exams, and he had to come to take them.

He drove into the school parking lot, parked the car, and then walked toward the teaching building with his exam supplies.

On the way, he felt that a good portion of the students passing by were looking at him and whispering about something.

Just then, a girl wearing a white dress walked up to Chen Fan.

The girl was pretty, the kind who would be a class beauty. She stood in front of him, her tone tinged with a bit of nervousness and shyness: "Excuse me, are you junior Chen Fan?"

Chen Fan glanced at her: "Yes, is there something you need?"

"I'm a sophomore, my name is [xxx]. Could I add you as a contact?"

Chen Fan hadn't expected that a girl would want his contact information as soon as he arrived at school.

Although the girl in front of him was indeed quite pretty, he had absolutely no interest, so he had to decline.

"Sorry, I have to go take my exam." After saying that, he walked away without looking back.

Watching Chen Fan's retreating figure, the girl stood there stunned for two seconds, a flash of disappointment in her eyes, before turning and leaving helplessly.

When he arrived at the classroom, it was already full of people. As Chen Fan walked in, everyone present looked at him.

The boys' eyes were filled with envy and excitement, and some even had a trace of jealousy mixed in.

Being able to get into Jiao Tong University, they considered themselves quite outstanding, but compared to Chen Fan, they were far behind.

Chen Fan not only had higher college entrance exam scores than them, but even in university, despite not attending classes, his grades were ranked first. He had even founded a company with hundreds of millions in revenue, like a legendary prodigy.

The girls' eyes, on the other hand, were filled with curiosity and admiration as they looked at Chen Fan.

Since the military training last semester, Chen Fan, this tall and handsome boy, had caught the eye of all the girls in the class. Many girls had a crush on Chen Fan.

But Chen Fan hadn't attended many classes at all throughout the year; he was the type who was rarely seen. When he occasionally appeared in the classroom, he would sit in the last row and leave as soon as class ended, making it hard to find a chance to talk to him. They didn't even have the opportunity to confess their feelings.

They hadn't expected that when they met again, Chen Fan's status would have already changed to that of a big boss worth hundreds of millions.