"Gan Lan, are you alright? I’m sorry we’re late." Chu Yuanyi pushed through the crowd and hurried over to her. As he spoke, he carefully checked her for any injuries.
"What do you think you’re doing, you old fart!" Gulu snapped, swatting away Chu Yuanyi’s hand as it reached out to pat Gan Lan’s head. "With me protecting her, how could anything happen? How do you people do your jobs? You can’t even protect a single student and have to rely on a robot like me! If you had come any later, you’d be preparing for Gan Lan’s funeral!"
Chu Yuanyi did not take offense. Seeing that Gan Lan was unharmed, he let out a long sigh of relief. The precious treasure of Mingzong absolutely could not be allowed to come to harm!
"Dean, I’m fine, but how did you get hurt?" Gan Lan exclaimed in shock, noticing the bloodstains on his arm.
"It’s nothing. I’ve already treated it with a Healing Device. You should go back and rest first; leave the rest to me," Chu Yuanyi said, waving off her concern. He turned his head and looked at the fans who had protected Gan Lan one by one, his voice softening. "Thank you all. You are all good kids."
"No, no, there’s no need to thank us. We did this voluntarily, and we’re very happy to be able to protect Gan Lan!" Qingtuan, the fan representative, waved her hands in embarrassment. Still, receiving praise from an elder—especially the Dean of Mingzong—filled her with delight.
***
Upon returning to her residence, Gan Lan finally let out a massive sigh of relief. It had been an incredibly exhausting day. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that she was still a little dazed. She wondered how things had escalated to this point.
This world really was a bit terrifying. After lamenting for a moment, she was urged by Gulu to go take a shower.
Gan Lan was left speechless. She thought, "It’s not that smelly, is it?" She lowered her head and sniffed her own clothes. In the end, she decided to just go take a shower.
[Foodie Group]
Blooming Beauty: [Which one of you paid the Super V bigshot to advertise for our junior? That was a beautiful move!]
Sky Blue: [How did I not think of that! Someone beat me to it. Junior, are you okay now? I saw on the general Star Network that you were surrounded. I wished I could teleport to your side immediately and clear out all those obstacles for you! It makes me so mad. I never expected Banlan Star to have such a group of unreasonable people!]
Binbin: [Our junior is fine now. She has so many Protectors, as well as Knight Gulu protecting her. The dean arrived at the end, too. She’s probably safely back by now.]
Hot Pot Balls: [I only saw a few short clips, but the videos were deleted shortly after. I don’t know the aftermath. How did you know? What happened after that?]
Blooming Beauty: [It’s on the Mingzong forum. Since a lot of people in the school were worried about her situation, the vice principal came out to clarify things. You guys don’t need to worry too much either. So, who among you actually paid for that Super V ad? That’s seriously a generous move!]
Feiran: [It was me ^^]
Feiran: [And I didn’t spend a single Credit Point! I compiled all of Gan Lan’s info and cooking videos into a file and sent it to this Super V. We even negotiated the price, but after reading through the materials, the Super V refunded my Credit Points. I was actually planning to find someone else, but then I saw her post. It even made it to the tail end of the general Star Network trending searches~]
Hot Pot Balls: [So it really is just like the post said—she didn’t take any advertising fees and did it voluntarily!? It seems our junior’s charm is simply unstoppable! Still, it was our captain who had the brains to think of this!]
Feiran: [Heh.]
Handsome Mingyu: [Heh! What’s there to be so proud of? I’m going to buy one too, just you wait! I’m going to buy a superstar for our junior. A big V is still too amateur!]
Feiran: [I’ll be waiting~]
***
After taking her shower, Gan Lan finally stepped out feeling completely refreshed. She had finally gotten rid of that depressing Yao Yu stench!
"Thank you for today, Gulu. Is there anything you want, or anything you’d like to eat?" Gan Lan sat down next to Gulu, who was currently gritting his teeth as he played a game.
Gulu didn’t even look up. "Can I eat whatever I want?"
"Yeah, as long as it isn’t beyond my capabilities. But it can’t be more than three items!" Gan Lan held up three fingers. She was worried that Gulu might not play by the rules. What if he asked her to prepare a massive royal banquet?
"You’re not sincere at all! Only three? I worked so hard to protect you, and those people even messed up my hairstyle. Even my shiny clothes were soiled!" Gulu set down his gaming console and complained.
"Then I’ll buy you a few new outfits. Just don’t pick anything too expensive; I’m super broke right now~ So, what do you want to eat tomorrow?" Gan Lan pleaded poverty, praying that Gulu wouldn’t pick out overly expensive clothes, otherwise she might actually cry out loud.
"Hmph! That’s more like it! I want to eat something shiny, with pretty colors, and it has to be delicious!" Gulu sat on the sofa with his arms crossed as he laid out his demands.
Gan Lan fell silent. She thought, "You’re even trickier than the competition’s prompt!" Even though she was grumbling internally, she still nodded her head.
"I’m going to sleep first. I’m a bit tired today." As for the shiny food, she would think about it when she woke up tomorrow.
Lying in bed with her eyes closed, Gan Lan mentally summarized everything that had happened today. Before the competition, there was her conflict with Ge Feng. During the competition, she had to endure the suffocating smells of ten special types of fish, followed by her struggle against the Yao Yu, which resulted in her getting contaminated by its stench.
She had been left in a completely wretched state. After that, she still had to butcher the fish, and by the time she finished cooking that stinky Yao Yu, she was physically and mentally exhausted.
Then, right after leaving the competition venue, she was mobbed again.
The events of a single day here were worth twenty-five years of her life in her original world. It was truly thrilling and exciting. However, she didn’t like this kind of thrilling life. Experiences like these were simply too much to handle.
Gan Lan slept exceptionally well. She had originally thought she would suffer from insomnia after so many incidents, but she had only mulled things over for a little while before falling into a deep sleep.
She had gone to bed just as it got dark yesterday, and when she woke up, the sky was just starting to brighten. She decided to stay in bed for a little longer.
Gan Lan turned on her Light Brain, suddenly realizing that she had turned it off before the competition yesterday and had only just turned it back on. No wonder her Light Brain had been so quiet yesterday. She hadn’t thought about it at all; too many things had happened, causing her to completely forget that this device even existed.
The moment she opened her private messages, she froze at the sight of the bright red "9999+" notification. Yesterday, Qingtuan had told her that she was trending and drawing people’s jealousy, but she hadn’t taken it seriously.
She then opened her backstage dashboard to check her follower count and found that it had grown by two whole digits compared to her previous numbers!
Scrolling through a comment section that was practically paralyzing the servers, Gan Lan was so shocked that she sat bolt upright in bed.
Following the directions mentioned in the comments, she logged onto the general Star Network forum’s trending searches. Her eyes immediately locked onto the search ranked ninth. Coincidentally, her contestant number in the cooking competition was also nine, and she had competed in Arena Ninety-Nine. Meanwhile, the main post for the cooking competition was ranked sixth.
She clicked on the trending search that contained the post written about her and carefully read through the text, paying special attention to the original poster’s words. When she reached the end and read that the poster was willing to act as a stepping stone to send her to the top of the world, she was filled with overwhelming emotion. Even though this had never been her intention, she resolved to find an opportunity to thank this person; their words were simply too heartwarming.