124: Your favorite pen is endorsed by someone else

The sun gradually set.

In the evening, Hu Bin returned home, carrying six newly purchased award-winning books.

As he stepped into the study, he heard the sound of the door opening from the entrance, followed by his second daughter, Hu Tingting, who had just entered her second year of high school, excitedly talking, seemingly on the phone with her classmate.

“Ah ah ah! I bought a planner! Next semester, I’m going to use this for my daily plans, hihihihi! Why didn’t I realize he was so handsome before? Even though the movie isn’t finished yet, I already believe the villain definitely has a reason for his actions!”

Hu Bin placed the bag on the desk and walked out of the study.

His daughter froze the moment she saw him, looking guilty, she covered the phone’s microphone and quickly whispered, “Gotta go, bye.”

She hung up the phone, slowly moving the paper bag in her right hand behind her back, and grinned, “Dad, didn’t you have a lecture tonight?”

“Can’t it be rescheduled? What’s that in your hand?” Hu Bin sternly pointed at the exquisite paper bag with cartoon patterns she was holding.

His daughter’s eyes flickered, and she forced a smile, shaking the cartoon-covered paper bag in her hand, “It’s a planner, a schedule book. You can decorate it and write plans and schedules.”

Hu Bin observed her small movements and took a step forward, “From what I just heard you say, it doesn’t sound like an ordinary planner.”

“You’re overthinking it, it’s just a planner with cartoon characters!” His daughter took a step to the side, intending to go back to her room.

Hu Bin raised his hand to stop her, “Hu Tingting, I don’t mind you liking cartoon characters or buying merchandise. But no celebrity worship is allowed in our family! Let me see the planner. As long as it’s a virtual cartoon character, no matter what role, I won’t bother you.”

Hu Tingting lowered her head and bit her lip.

It was indeed a cartoon character, but it was a Q-version Chen Fang. There was also a real person’s card attached to the plastic seal. She had thought that if she removed the plastic seal, her dad wouldn’t notice, and she could just use it casually.

She didn’t expect to be caught like this. Oh no, what should she do?

She fiddled with her fingers, and suddenly a light bulb went off in her head. She remembered a fountain pen endorsement she had just seen today, and suddenly felt confident. She reached out and handed over the bag, “Alright, it’s a Q-version Chen Fang planner. He just clarified the rumors, so he should be the least likely to have problems, right? He even donated money to the disaster area.”

Hu Bin took the bag, pulled out the planner, and saw the face on it. The incident of him talking to students in the classroom and being overheard by Qi Shuya immediately popped into his mind, and his eyelid twitched.

It was him again? How could even his daughter like Chen Fang?

Although he had also heard about Chen Fang’s donation, the entertainment industry was still the entertainment industry. His family members were not allowed to worship celebrities!

Hu Bin stuffed the planner back into the bag, hid it behind him, and sternly said, “How old are you? You’re in high school, why aren’t you studying properly? You’re worshipping a celebrity? The entertainment industry is so chaotic, this disgraces our family!”

Hu Tingting frowned, put her hands on her hips, and protested, “I used to buy this brand of planner before, if you don’t believe me, go check my room. Now that he’s endorsing it, I can’t buy it anymore? You even use things he endorses, and you still have the nerve to lecture me.”

Hu Bin sneered, “Me, using something endorsed by a 20-something celebrity? Does he endorse middle-aged and elderly men’s clothing? Who are you trying to fool?”

Hu Tingting snorted, “I’ll find it for you right now.”

She pulled out her phone, tapped on the keyboard a couple of times, and soon, she shoved the phone in front of Hu Bin, saying triumphantly, “Here, Dad, take a look.”

Hu Bin snorted coldly and took the phone.

The screen showed a poster of Chen Fang endorsing a high-end stationery brand.

Hu Bin blinked.

Last year, his eldest daughter had given him a high-end fountain pen, and it was from this very brand. He even particularly liked it and secretly showed it off.

How come this brand also found Chen Fang to endorse it?

Hu Bin frowned, finding an excuse for himself, “He might not have any problems for now. But how old are you? Your values aren’t fully formed yet, you…”

Hu Bin was a bit speechless.

Forget it. Judging from her phone call just now, there must be a trend of celebrity worship in her school. Forcing her to quit on her own probably wouldn’t work. Even if she quit Chen Fang, she would just go after Li Fang or Wang Fang.

At least Chen Fang was a colleague’s child, and at least better than some unknown celebrity, with lower risk.

Just pick the best of a bad bunch, then.

“Alright, if you like him, then so be it. And you should be loyal, if you like him, then that’s it, don’t go from one to another, okay? And you’re not allowed to spend money on celebrity worship, if I find out…”

“I’m not listening, I’m not listening, you’re just droning on and on, so annoying, so annoying!” Hu Tingting took advantage of his distraction, snatched the paper bag, and darted back into her bedroom.

Hu Bin sighed helplessly, walked into the study, took out the six newly purchased books, and unwrapped the plastic seals one by one.

The world is truly going downhill. Wouldn't it be better for a stationery brand to choose a literary figure or a calligraphy master for endorsement? Sigh.

Hu Bin shook his head, picked up the award-winning book he was most curious about—ghost blows out the light 1: the ancient city of精绝—sat down, and opened it.

...

Two hours later.

“Dad, I’m starving.” Hu Tingting poked her head into the study, complaining, “Can you get me something to eat?”

Hu Bin rubbed his temples, feeling very displeased about being pulled out of his book by his daughter.

Hu Tingting clung to the door and continued to protest, “I’m starving, I’ll tell Mom you abused me, and when she gets back from her business trip, you’re dead.”

“If you’re hungry, why don’t you order takeout?” Hu Bin frowned, not even raising his head.

“Huh?” Hu Tingting was incredulous.

Didn’t he hate takeout? Was he possessed today?

Seeing her dad completely immersed in the book, Hu Tingting didn’t ask any more questions, said “Oh,” and closed the study door.

...

Three days later, 8:30 AM on July 15th.

Chen Fang slapped the alarm clock silent and crawled out of bed.

He had to leave at 9:20 AM and arrive at the legend of fong sai-yuk film crew at 10 AM for action training.

Chen Fang washed up, fed the cat, ate, scooped litter, changed clothes, and got everything ready. He checked his watch; it was only nine o’clock.

After a moment of thought, Chen Fang estimated that Wenyuan Bookstore was open, so he pulled out his phone and sent a message to his editor.

“Hello, can you see the recent sales figures from your end?”

Soon, the other side replied, “The data is very good. Yesterday’s isn’t out yet, but in the comprehensive data from the past two days, you’re ranked fourth. Comprehensive data includes offline and online physical book sales, and online e-books.”

Immediately after, the editor sent the specific numbers.

Chen Fang rolled his eyes.

Good my foot.

He remembered that in his previous world, ghost blows out the light had been published for over ten years, with eight official books, and cumulative sales exceeded ten million copies. Divided by eight, each book sold over a million. And the first volume should have sold even more.

The current sales momentum and growth were a bit lower than he expected.

Wenyuan Bookstore had also put in a lot of effort into promotion. Recently, posters for the Wenxing Cup could be seen in the Tianji Entertainment building.

This was indeed much better than directly submitting to web novel websites. If a website didn’t give enough exposure, one couldn’t even make a name for oneself, let alone how many people would read it.

Now, the name recognition was there, but the problem was that knowing and buying were two different things.

It was like everyone knew about Xiaomi cars, but most people just read the news and wouldn’t actually buy one, or even couldn’t drive in the first place. Moreover, mystery and tomb raiding genres were not popular in this world. So, the number of people who read it was even more limited.

In other words, many people now knew the name of the book, but they had no motivation to read it.

So the most crucial problem now was to give the public motivation. To tell everyone that this book was good and make them believe it was good and curious about it.

Waiting for readers to spread the word? That’s a bit slow.

He still wanted to reveal his identity after the summer vacation, and during the summer vacation, this book had to break out.

Chen Fang pondered for a moment.

Raise fans for a thousand days, use them for a moment. His current fans were mostly middle school and college students. He would subtly hint for them to read the book, and then their classmates would read the book.

How to hint?

Directly posting about the book would be too deliberate, like trying to build a persona.

Chen Fang thought for a while and shouted, “Xiaobai, come here!”

He waited for two seconds with no sound. Chen Fang got up, opened the box containing cat treats, making a clanging sound.

Flap, flap. A furball darted down from upstairs, drifted around the corner, and rushed to his feet.