Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Returning home, Xu Qingfan habitually turned on his computer. Xia Xiaoxiao, still visibly annoyed about Xu Qingfan's earlier unreliable words, sat huffily beside him. As soon as he logged onto QQ, the speakers seemed to catch a Trojan virus, incessantly coughing and beeping. Clicking the icon, Xu Qingfan saw he had somehow gotten requests from over twenty people to add him as a friend. Two of which even invited him to join groups. The group chat feature on QQ had not been available very long, with only esteemed QQ members eligible to apply for two groups. He first clicked on the two group invitations; one was a jumble of random English letters inviting him to join. Seeing the group name, Xu Qingfan couldn't help but smile bashfully. "Experimental Primary School Brother Fan Fan Group? You really have no shame, Xu Qingfan!" Xia Xiaoxiao said disdainfully looking at the group name. "It's not like I created it. Go talk to the group owner!" Xu Qingfan then clicked on another group invitation: Hilarious Daily Fan Interactions Group. [This one's a bit more normal,] Xu Qingfan thought to himself. The person who invited him into the group was none other than Zhao Wumian, whom he had met during a riddle guessing game the other day. Once the first wave of messages was clicked through, the chat box still relentlessly "beeped". Xu Qingfan saw that Zhao Wumian had sent him 99+ messages. After clicking on his chat box, before he could fully read the earlier messages, a lengthy series of "are you there's" caught his eye. Xu Qingfan thought to himself that he had to maintain the aloof persona of an idol, replying with fewer words to seem more impressive. [What's up?] he typed back in the chat box. Zhao Wumian's avatar was gray, and Xu Qingfan scrolled up to see the messages he had sent before. 8:32 [Brother Fan, I bought fifty comic books!] [Image.JPG] [Image.JPG] 8:55 [Hahahahaha] [Brother Fan, the comics inside are really hilarious!] [Brother Fan, I told them that buying more than twenty-five Hilarious Daily issues at once entitles them to ask you for an autograph!] [Brother Fan, I've already helped you check and register everyone!] [Brother Fan, these are all the people who bought more than twenty-five issues!] [Image.JPG] [Brother Fan, are you there Brother Fan!] [Brother Fan, I just signed up for membership, I'll pull you into the group!] Then followed a long string of "are you there's" Xu Qingfan and Xia Xiaoxiao, heads together, read through the entire chat box and subconsciously looked at each other. "Bang!" "Hiss!" Xia Xiaoxiao winced, clutching her head that was just bumped by that jerk. "Hahaha— I was wondering why so many newsstands were out of stock, turns out it's the fan economy!" Xu Qingfan also held the spot he'd just bumped, laughing. "What's the fan economy?" "It's irrational consumption, like if you really love Zhou Binglun's Sunny Day, then you go out and buy a hundred CDs of Sunny Day to take home," Xu Qingfan explained, thinking himself quite clear and straightforward. "Why would I buy a hundred CDs? Can't I just listen to MP3s? Why spend the money?" Xia Xiaoxiao didn't understand. "Well, it's just irrational consumption." "Who is this?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked again, pointing at the black avatar on the screen. "A guy, from the first-grade class ten, named Zhao Wumian. Remember last Friday? Someone was promoting my comics over the school broadcast, that was him!" Xu Qingfan pointed at the chat box, laughing. "Oh!" Hearing it was a boy, Xia Xiaoxiao instantly lost interest. Xu Qingfan opened the two group chats; the five-hundred-member group already had over a hundred people, quite a massive scale. The computer beeped again within seconds, still Zhao Wumian looking for him. [Brother Fan, Brother Fan, you finally came online!] [Brother Fan, remember to sign those autographs; I promised on your behalf!] [Brother Fan, many more have agreed to buy over twenty-five issues, but Li City is out of stock now, we gotta wait till tomorrow!] Xu Qingfan: [...] [==] [Nice.] Zhao Wumian: [Brother Fan, remember to copy the form I sent you, I've already talked to them, they'll use their school cards to find you for signatures tomorrow!] [Brother Fan, you must treat everyone equally, you absolutely can't sign if they're not on the list!] [Don't ruin my reputation!!!] Xu Qingfan: [...] [Okay] "Is this the head of the fans?" Xu Qingfan chuckled as he closed the chat box. "Why do they buy so many copies of the same comic book, isn't that a waste!" Xia Xiaoxiao still couldn't comprehend. "How could it be a waste, buying twenty-five copies includes my autograph," Xu Qingfan said, turning his head to look at Xia Xiaoxiao. "Your autograph isn't worth two hundred bucks!" Xia Xiaoxiao silently did the math in her heart and retorted. "Two hundred bucks?" Xu Qingfan was reminded by Xia Xiaoxiao and realized that his signature was actually worth that much! Two hundred bucks wasn't a small amount at this time; even his favorite fast-food restaurant offered a meal of three meats, one vegetable, and a bowl of soup for just four bucks. "Two hundred bucks can buy more than a hundred Five-Ram ice creams!" "Why worry about what they do? It's just over a hundred Five-Ram ice creams, maybe in ten years a comic book with my signature will worth ten thousand Five-Ram ice creams!" Xu Qingfan thought that the students from Experimental Primary School could afford those two hundred bucks, unlikely there would be any stealing from home to buy comic books. "Show-off!" Neither of them could have imagined that over ten years later, one winter, a recent university graduate unable to find a suitable job would make over ten thousand bucks by selling a comic book with three signatures from "Hilarious Daily," helping him get through a few tough months. Xu Qingfan wanted to say more, but suddenly the phone in the living room rang. "I'll answer it." Xu Qingfan got up and left, and Xia Xiaoxiao followed him out. "Hello? I'm Xu Qingfan!" "Brother Qing Fan! Aunt Zhang told us that our comics sold over fifteen thousand copies this morning!" Lin Wanning's excited voice came through the receiver. "That many!?" Xu Qingfan thought selling over three thousand copies by the morning would be pretty good, but it turned out to be five times that! "Yep, yep! I asked Aunt Zhang to tell you!!" Just by hearing her voice, Xu Qingfan could imagine the adorable way Wanning was nodding her head vigorously on the other end of the phone. "It's Xiao Fan, congratulations, I just received the news and called you right away," said Aunt Zhang. "Yeah, thank you, Auntie. We couldn't have published the book without your help!" Xu Qingfan put the phone on speaker so he and Xia Xiaoxiao could share the joy. "You kid, I've told you no need to thank me. The publisher told me that the comics are already sold out here in Li City; over three thousand this morning. It seems that the super-large poster is working really well! I'll help you put one up in the other areas too!" "Uh... Auntie, that's not... it's like this..." Xu Qingfan explained to Zhang Chunxue with a laugh about the fan leader organizing a group purchase. "Hahaha~ you have fans now, you're going to be big stars soon, Auntie has to keep the books you gave her!" "Brother Qing Fan~ quick, add Ningning and Yiyi to the fan group!" "What are you doing~" Xu Qingfan brushed off Xia Xiaoxiao's mischievous twist on his arm, then said, "Auntie, you must have spent a lot of money on the advertisement, we'll pay you back first with the comic book sales, and the rest we owe we'll pay after the next batch is sold!" "Right! First pay back Auntie!!" "Mommy, pay back!" The two kids each clung to one of Zhang Chunxue's arms, acting spoiled. "Where would I need so much money, Auntie used just a few ten thousands for the advertisements, you've made three hundred thousand from selling these hundred thousand comic books, I'll just take thirty thousand of it," Zhang Chunxue said tenderly as she ruffled their heads. "Auntie, you're underestimating, I checked online, even a bus stop poster costs more than thirty thousand!!" "Auntie, you're lying!!" Lin Wanning also supported Xu Qingfan from the other end of the phone. "Alright, alright, then Auntie will take a hundred thousand," Zhang Chunxue put on a helpless expression. "No way! Auntie, you take two hundred and ninety thousand, and we three will split the remaining ten thousand, as compensation for our time spent on the comics!" Xu Qingfan said decisively. "Yes! Auntie takes two hundred and ninety thousand" "Not listening, right? If you're not good, next time don't ask Auntie for help!" Zhang Chunxue pretended to be stern, although she was already overjoyed inside. "Alright~" Xu Qingfan waved a white flag of surrender. "That's more like it! Come over this afternoon, Xiaoxiao and Ruan Wen, I have prepared gifts for Children's Day!" "Brother Qing Fan, come and play!" "Okay!" Long after hanging up the phone, Xu Qingfan still had a smile on his face. "What's up with you?" Seeing Xia Xiaoxiao looking downcast, he nudged the little girl with his arm, puzzled. "It's nothing!" Xia Xiaoxiao got up and left for her own home. [Women.] Xu Qingfan shook his head helplessly. [Xu Qingfan, you are such a big dumb dog! I wish I had a shared venture with you too...]