Mi Zhuzhu had just walked the red carpet and taken her seat when she straightened her back and sat for five minutes. Her back then began to ache, so she relaxed slightly and couldn't help but complain to Liu Chen, who was sitting next to her:
"After so many of us have taken photos and come in, won't it really be eight o'clock by the time we eat?"
Liu Chen reached out and patted Mi Zhuzhu's hand on her lap, comforting her:
"Don't worry, this is our first Weibo Night. If we can eat by nine o'clock, that would be pretty good."
As soon as Liu Chen finished speaking, Mi Zhuzhu's face fell.
It was Sang Ling, sitting to Liu Chen's left, who heard this and silently took two White Rabbit toffees from her bag, handing them to Liu Chen and Mi Zhuzhu beside her:
"Zhuzhu, if you're hungry, have two of these. I used to eat these during my evening study sessions in my third year of high school. Otherwise, when I'm hungry while doing practice papers, I can't concentrate."
Mi Zhuzhu quickly took one of them, tore off the wrapper, and put it in her mouth.
"Mmm~~ So sweet~"
Liu Chen and Sang Ling both smiled as they watched Mi Zhuzhu close her eyes in delight while eating the toffee. They then sat in their chairs, waiting for the bloggers to arrive.
It took an entire hour for all one hundred bloggers to enter, and that was only after the bloggers themselves could no longer wait and insisted on entering in groups of three, which finally sped things up.
Mi Zhuzhu, with the fifth toffee in her mouth, sighed deeply:
"Chenchen, I'm so hungry. If there's another party like this next time, I don't want to come. If it weren't for Sang Ling's toffees, I think I would have fainted from hunger by now."
Just as Liu Chen was about to say something to comfort Mi Zhuzhu, the lights in the entire banquet hall went out.
Liu Chen knew this meant the awards ceremony was about to begin.
...
Meanwhile, a wave of doubt was rising online:
'This Zhuzhu, is she that friend of Liu Chen's? She's also this rich?'
'As expected, rich people only hang out with rich people. Now I finally understand.'
'Wow, I'm waiting for someone to explain who this blogger Zhuzhu is!'
'A junior high classmate here. Her family has always been quite wealthy, but definitely not wealthy enough to buy a six-figure bag. It should be her own money, right?'
Xia Lian, who had once again been rejected in front of hundreds of bloggers today, scoffed when she saw these speculations.
"Anyone can pretend to be rich these days. That bag was clearly bought by Liu Chen last night. This Zhuzhu must have borrowed it."
As she spoke, Xia Lian's eyes rolled. Since that Zhuzhu wanted to pretend to be rich, she would pretend not to understand her little tricks and just expose the real owner of the bag.
Besides, Liu Chen must also be troubled by Zhuzhu carrying her bag and pretending it's hers.
With this thought, Xia Lian replied to the most liked comment on her previous post about the bag.
'It looks like it's the bag from Liu Chen's hotel display cabinet. My CEO Liu is so domineering~~'
This reply immediately attracted a large number of curious netizens.
'How did Liu Chen's bag end up being carried by Zhuzhu?'
'Are you stupid upstairs? Zhuzhu's rise on Weibo was thanks to Liu Chen. She gained her first batch of fans by being the "campus beauty, top student" best friend.'
'So, even though Zhuzhu is carrying this bag, it's actually Liu Chen's?'
'I wish I had a best friend who could lend me a six-figure bag...'
As a result, the grand Weibo Night that Weibo had put so much effort into organizing ended up with only one of its topics in the top five trending on Weibo. The rest were all about:
'Best Best Friend'
'Six-Figure Bag Reveal'
'You Don't Understand the Joys of Being a Rich Woman'
'What is Liu Chen Up To Again?'
Compared to the netizens' cheerful gossip, Hu Xingfa, who had recently become somewhat addicted to browsing Weibo, was completely furious.
"This Zhuzhu, it's obvious she's only friends with Liu Chen for money! Liu Chen is too foolish! Lending such an expensive bag to someone else, what if it gets scratched!"
After saying this, Hu Xingfa zoomed in on the photo of the bag on Weibo and slammed his palm onto his desk.
"Bang!"
"Ouch!"
Hu Xingfa quickly lifted his palm, fanned it rapidly, and then let out a long sigh.
"You prodigal daughter, you have no idea what money is worth. You didn't earn this money, so you truly don't care. If you keep spending like this, and then that Chen Long gets unhappy and cuts off your card, all this money will be gone!"
"No, I can't let her keep spending like this. If she continues, there won't be much money left!"
After saying this, Hu Xingfa skillfully opened Liu Chen's Weibo private messages and began writing on his tablet, word by word.
'Chenchen, I am your father. I don't object to you buying bags, but you are still young and don't have your own savings yet. Buying such an expensive bag is inevitably wasteful. It would be better to leave the money with me for safekeeping. I will give you dividends every year, and when you are older and mature, I will give you the money.'
After sending this message, Hu Xingfa was satisfied as he reviewed his words, checking them over and finding no fault.
"I'll send a few more. When Chenchen comes back for winter break, I'll see her. There are no grudges between father and daughter. When she sees that I've sent her so many touching messages, perhaps her heart will soften, and she'll agree to deposit the money with me."
After admiring his words, Hu Xingfa exited the private messages and clicked on the homepage to refresh. Today's Weibo Night would surely have some bold bloggers dressed quite scantily. Hu Xingfa wanted to see such photos again.
But as soon as the Weibo homepage loaded, Hu Xingfa saw the avatar of Chenchen, whom he had just messaged. He looked closely and saw that Chenchen said that the bag was indeed a birthday gift she had given to Zhuzhu.
"Nonsense!"
"Bang!"
Hu Xingfa once again slammed his hand onto the desk. However, this time, Hu Xingfa was not as lucky. He had used too much force, and the edge of the desk caused his wrist to dislocate.
"Ouch! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! Damn it!"
As Hu Xingfa cursed, he attributed all his pain to Liu Chen:
"As expected, this daughter is a jinx! She dares to give away items worth over a hundred thousand! She's got a screw loose! No, I can't wait any longer! If I wait any longer, all the money will be given away!"
Despite the severe pain in his left wrist, Hu Xingfa, with a grim expression, picked up his phone with his right hand, flipped through his contacts, found the number of the person who had previously claimed to be a TV host, and dialed it.
A long English song came from the other end. Hu Xingfa didn't understand it but felt a sense of admiration. A host, a cultured person!
"Hello? Who is this?"
The call was finally answered, and the hostess's magnetic voice came through. Hu Xingfa hadn't listened carefully last time, but he paid attention this time, blinking his eyes.
"Hello, I am Liu Chen's father, Hu Xingfa, whom you contacted before. It's like this: I saw what Chenchen has been doing on Weibo recently, and I really want to advise her. However, perhaps because my ex-wife took Chenchen when my ex-wife and I divorced a few years ago, and influenced by her ex-wife these past few years, Chenchen has always had some misunderstandings towards me.
But she is my daughter, and I don't want to see her fall into such a degenerate state. I would like to ask your program team to help me and my daughter organize a meeting so that we can resolve the misunderstandings between us father and daughter face-to-face."
Hu Xingfa's words were actually full of loopholes. After all, how would a father who truly cared for his daughter only be able to contact her through external media?
However, none of these were problems for Xu Danli. In fact, hearing these flawed, insincere words, Xu Danli's smile deepened.
She had been doing interview programs for many years. With the rise of computers and videos, many young people no longer liked to wait in front of the television to watch interview programs. Instead, they preferred to watch videos online.
In the past year, her interview program had also been put on the station's official website. And because of Liu Chen's explosion in popularity on Weibo, the episode interviewing Liu Chen had now reached an astonishing 100,000 views.
She thought that if she could create another interview program with 100,000 views, she might have the confidence to persuade the station manager to launch a brand new television program exclusively for the internet.
With this thought, Xu Danli said in a tone of shock and pity:
"Is that so, Mr. Hu? Then, when would you be free to come to the station? We can discuss the specific situation and then contact Ms. Liu Chen, alright?"
Hu Xingfa felt a little nervous hearing that he had to go to the television station to discuss the situation, but when his eyes fell on the hundred-thousand-yuan bag on the screen, which was given to some "Zhu," his heart was immediately filled with anger.
"Deal! Then let's meet tomorrow afternoon!"
...
"Congratulations to Weibo user—Liu Chen, for winning the 2009 Fastest Follower Growth Blogger award!"
Liu Chen, sitting at a round table in the audience, was surprised to hear that she had also won an award. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. Noticing the camera turning towards her, she smiled and gestured, then stood up from her chair and walked towards the award stage.
Liu Chen was wearing a black strapless long dress with a bright red blazer over it. The blazer had a structured cut, adding a touch of toughness to her appearance.
Liu Chen, in her eight-centimeter heels and a structured, festive red blazer, walked onto the first Weibo Night awards stage.
Standing there, looking at the hundred or so bloggers seated below, many of whom would likely be worth tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, or billions, in the future.
With the spotlight on her, Liu Chen held the trophy and smoothly and calmly recited a long list of names she had never prepared but had always held in her heart.
After reciting the names, Liu Chen bowed slightly to the audience in thanks.
Walking off the stage, she saw Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling in the audience, smiling even more happily than she had when receiving her award. Liu Chen smiled too.