On her way to the classroom, Gan Lan noticed that some of her schoolmates were looking at her strangely! As they passed by, they would even say encouraging words like, "Keep it up! We believe in you!" Of course, there was no shortage of coldness, disdain, mockery, and finger-pointing. But she wasn’t Credit Points; it was impossible for everyone to love her. She responded to those who encouraged her with a smile and a nod, and chose to ignore the unfriendly ones.
Although she was a bit baffled, it felt pretty good to receive encouragement while walking. Well... those unfriendly gazes didn’t affect her good mood either. She smiled and nodded all the way to the classroom until her face grew a bit stiff. Rubbing her cheeks, she calmly walked inside.
The originally noisy classroom instantly fell quiet upon Gan Lan’s arrival. The students all turned as one to watch her walk in. Gan Lan’s expression stiffened. She remembered that she had gone straight back to sleep after closing her stall yesterday and hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. She wondered what was going on today, as everyone seemed a bit abnormal. Taking her seat, Gan Lan propped her chin on one hand, lost in thought. Right, she seemed to have forgotten something—Senior Wen’s message from that morning about the Star Network forum.
With some time left before class, Gan Lan planned to turn on her Light Brain and log onto the Star Network, but she was stopped by a short-haired girl who hurried over. "Gan Lan, could I ask you a few questions about heat control for barbecue?"
Gan Lan’s hand paused halfway through opening the Star Network. She looked up at the girl in front of her and recognized her as the first person who had apologized to her. She closed the interface she had just logged into. Having quite a good impression of this short-haired girl who loved to learn and was willing to correct her mistakes, Gan Lan nodded and replied gently, "Sure, ask away."
The short-haired girl breathed a sigh of relief and directly listed out all the problems she had encountered during her cooking process, to which Gan Lan provided the answers.
The rest of the classmates breathed a collective sigh of relief at this sight. That was too close; she had almost discovered the articles and comments online. Fearing she would feel upset or take it too hard if she saw them, they had come up with this idea. Mainly, the comments and articles on the Star Network were written far too maliciously. It was better not to pollute Gan Lan’s eyes with them; her current peaceful and quiet state was just fine.
The crowd exchanged glances and dove back into the Star Network to fight! Mingyang Comprehensive University would never yield! On this matter, Mingzong University displayed unprecedented unity.
Some had even come up with a method, launching a poll on the school forum: [What should we do if someone in our school is maliciously smeared and slandered by uninformed people?] The Teleportation Gate linked straight to the scene of the incident. There were already over four million replies, all uniformly shouting, "Screw him!" Row after row, the thread was filled with these two words, and the number of participants was rapidly climbing. Students across the entire school gradually joined the battle, pushing the article published by Wei Donghe to fifth place on the trending searches.
Another article titled [Does a mere Culinary Master really think so little of Mingyang Comprehensive University now?] was pushed straight to third place on the trending list! That’s right, this article was co-written by Wen Ningyue and her friends from the same department as a counterattack against Wei Donghe’s post. As soon as this article was published, it won widespread praise from their fellow schoolmates. The over eight million comments beneath it were all from students of the same school; outsiders couldn’t comment at all. The content of the article first laid out the evidence of Zhao Mengru’s actions toward Gan Lan. Following the evidence, it read:
"We at Mingzong University disdain photoshopping. Fake images can never become real.
"If you don’t believe us, there’s a video below. Given that both main characters are from Mingzong School, their faces have been pixelated.
"We are not like certain people who, despite their old age, come out to point fingers at the younger generation. You dare to act like a boss with your petty little achievements, but you aren’t worthy!
"Trying to step on Mingzong University to climb the ladder?! You’ve lived to such an old age entirely in vain!
"And to the uninformed onlookers, please use your brains and don’t just blindly follow the herd. We young people truly worry for your future lives!"
Meanwhile, the main character of the story, who had caused a storm of blood on the Star Network, was still attending class, completely unaware of any of this.
After class, Gan Lan declined the enthusiastic invitations from her classmates and headed straight back to her dorm.
Browsing through the ingredient store, she decided that since she was already making seafood, she might as well make some grilled squid. After buying the squid and necessary seasonings, Gan Lan went to browse the traditional Chinese medicine shops on Amazom. She had bought the spices she needed previously at a traditional Chinese medicine shop. Seeing that her frequently visited herbal medicine shop had new arrivals, she casually clicked in for a look. Her eyes widened, surprisingly spotting jelly fig seeds!
What a pleasant surprise! She had thought they didn’t exist in this world, but it turned out they were hidden in the herbal medicine shops. If she hadn’t frequently made them to eat in her past life and remained utterly devoted to the taste, browsing the shop every day, she would have missed it. The ice jelly made from jelly fig seeds was different from that made with regular ice jelly seeds. The former was tenderer, while the latter was slightly firmer than the former. There was a distinct difference in texture, and Gan Lan strongly preferred jelly fig seeds. She quickly bought a large pack, then went to buy some limewater.
Holding the delivery box, Gan Lan felt incredibly sweet inside, wishing she could jump three feet into the air. She opened her streaming room and greeted the incoming viewers with a bright smile. However, a swarm of true fans and anti-fans entered the stream simultaneously. The viewer count skyrocketed, reaching over ten million in just a few minutes. Gan Lan’s eyes went wide. When did she become so famous? Her streams usually hovered around five or six million viewers, yet it had hit over ten million in just a matter of minutes. But the content of the barrage comments was not so pleasant.
Stinky Bug Gan Lan: [This bitch! She actually has the nerve to stream!]
Garbage Get Lost: [I’m here to see just how shameless this Mingzong celebrity is.]
Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale: [Get lost, you stinky bugs!]
Trash Gan Ugly Freak Lan: [She’s ugly indeed. Short, ugly, and with a black heart. Her smile is an absolute eyesore.]
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ has received ten Cosmic Starships from ’Feiran’.] Accompanied by a network-wide broadcast.
Network-Wide Broadcast: [’Feiran’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: You are the best looking!] X10
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ has received ten Cosmic Starships from ’Sky Blue’.] Accompanied by a network-wide broadcast.
Network-Wide Broadcast: [’Sky Blue’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: Goddess, you will always be the most beautiful in my heart! They are all mad dogs!] X10
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ has received ten Cosmic Starships from ’Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale’.] Accompanied by a network-wide broadcast.
Network-Wide Broadcast: [’Love Ugly Shellfish, Love Kale’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: Goddess, you will forever be the goddess in my heart! You are the most beautiful and the best! Ignore what the mad dogs say!] X10
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ has received five Cosmic Starships from ’Blooming Beauty, Moonlit Grace’.] Accompanied by a network-wide broadcast.
Network-Wide Broadcast: [’Blooming Beauty, Moonlit Grace’ says to ’Come and have some barbecue!’: Although I can’t afford to send ten, five is still doable. You are the most beautiful! You are the best! I’ll always support you! Love you!]
System Notification: [Streamer ’Come and have some barbecue!’ has received from...]
Gan Lan was left utterly speechless. Expressionless, she truly didn’t know what to say. The screen had been completely overtaken by Cosmic Starships, leaving nothing visible but the network-wide broadcasts in large, bold, golden fonts. Due to the overwhelming number of viewers and the sheer volume of gifts, everyone was blasted right out of Gan Lan’s stream. Simply put, it seemed the stream had crashed...
Staring at the black screen, Gan Lan choked on her speechlessness. She tried to log back in several times, but couldn’t get through.