Chapter 19: “Mianmian’s Fans… Which Mian?”

Zhu Lin’s specific discussion with Lin Yang’s father remained unknown to Zhu Lexing.

But the next morning at breakfast, Zhu Lin’s expression had clearly softened.

The moment he saw Zhu Lexing, he said to her, “Little Yang mentioned that there was indeed some misunderstanding between her and Little Mian. She’ll come apologize in person tonight and hopes Little Mian won’t hold it against her.”

At the end, he glanced pointedly at Yan Mian, the implication clear in his words: Since Zhu Lexing had stood up for Yan Mian, if Yan Mian said it was fine, then the matter could end there happily for everyone.

Yan Mian had been about to head straight to school when Jiang Yue called her back, making it clear she still had a role to play in this.

She had anticipated this outcome and responded mildly, “It was Lexing who got hurt yesterday.”

The ball was kicked right back to Zhu Lexing.

Zhu Lin could only turn to his daughter, who was proving as unyielding as ever. “You’ve been friends with Little Yang for so long—you know she’s not a bad person, just a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.”

“And… she says she never claimed Little Mian liked you,” Zhu Lin added.

Zhu Lexing got the message. He was playing peacemaker.

She and Little Yang were close, which meant Zhu Lin had a good relationship with the Lin family too—they couldn’t afford to let things sour.

Zhu Lexing knew when to draw the line.

For elders, especially men, saving face always mattered more than anything else. If it had just been a spat between her and Lin Yang, Zhu Lin would have sided with her without hesitation. But with Yan Mian involved, things were a little different.

Zhu Lexing bit into her bread as she stood, mumbling through a full mouth, “Then we’ll see how her apology goes tonight.”

She only hoped Lin Yang would transfer schools and stay as far from Yan Mian as possible. Otherwise, Zhu Lexing wouldn’t mind fighting fire with fire.

Playing dirty? She could do that too!

By the time she arrived at No. 1 High School, banners were already strung up across the campus, celebrating the school’s centennial. Flower baskets lined half the street.

Zhu Lexing figured most of them were from parents.

The teaching building hadn’t changed much in decoration, but it was noticeably cleaner than yesterday—clearly, the students had been roped into a late-night cleaning spree.

When Zhu Lexing entered the classroom, Song Yingying was hunched over, staring at something. Zhu Lexing slipped in quietly and tapped her on the shoulder—

Song Yingying jerked her head up, startled, her face full of bewilderment. Her thumb slipped, canceling the message she was typing and revealing the screen she was scrolling—

【Gossip Chat | Is there a Zhu Lexing event today?

Hahaha don’t mind me let me lose it (Forum OP): Sure, Zhu Lexing’s temper is the absolute worst, her grades are the absolute worst, her personality is the absolute worst—but damn, she’s hot. Where my iXing fans at?】

The post was only a few minutes old, and the three “absolutes” made it obvious the OP was a troll in disguise. Inside the thread, Song Yingying was arguing back and forth with them under her account.

Zhu Lexing never imagined that even after transmigrating, she’d still have to deal with fake fans shitposting at this level.

And people were even defending her.

Tears!

Song Yingying quickly locked her phone and said calmly, “Yesterday… thanks.”

Zhu Lexing set down her bag. “No problem. Just call me anytime you need backup. It’s on my way anyway.”

After that, Song Yingying hesitated, unsure how to continue. She and Zhu Lexing had zero overlap in their daily lives—no common ground for chit-chat.

Zhu Lexing tilted her head. “What was the name of that idiot you were cursing out?”

Song Yingying remembered it clearly. The moment she said it, Zhu Lexing pulled up the forum and searched for the user.

As a new-era celebrity always on the front lines of online drama, Zhu Lexing was undisputed number one at clapbacks.

In under ten minutes, the OP was getting shredded in their verbal sparring match and slunk away without replying.

But the thread had already blown up into a high-rise tower of replies. Plenty of onlookers piled in to watch 【Mianmian’s Fans】 take on the troll single-handedly. Stunned by the savagery, they left precious comments: 【6】.

Zhu Lexing checked the OP’s post history and found they were in the same class as Li Nian, male, with nothing else too revealing.

She didn’t dwell on it and just told the starry-eyed Song Yingying, “For people like that, if they play dead after you roast them, don’t bother next time.”

Song Yingying asked earnestly, “So what should I do?”

Zhu Lexing grinned. “Report them, obviously!”

She slowly tapped the report button on the post, citing verbal abuse as the reason. Minutes later, the site notified her that it had been deleted.

In those few short minutes, Song Yingying’s expression evolved from “!” to “…” to ultimate zen calm.

“Got it?”

Song Yingying gazed at the smug girl in front of her and thought that, aside from the name, she didn’t match the post’s description at all.

With a long sigh, she played along. “Lesson learned.”

They were midway through their chat when Yan Mian entered the classroom. She looked much better today than yesterday—the mark on her face had faded. Zhu Lexing sneaked a few glances to confirm she was okay before looking away.

Yesterday’s +20 affection had extended her lifespan by two whole weeks.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Zhu Lexing cherished this hard-won favor even more.

She resolved inwardly: Time to activate Plan B for protecting the female protagonist.

Starting today, anyone or anything that made Yan Mian feel sad, hurt, unhappy… any negative emotions at all—cut them down on the spot, no mercy!

During morning reading, a crowd spilled out from Class 1. Zhu Lexing glanced sideways—mostly people heading off early to do makeup for the school anniversary events.

But Yan Mian was diligently writing something, so Zhu Lexing hunkered down like a quail, still as a lotus in a pond.

Zhu Xing had come to fetch someone, but with all three of them quietly doing their own thing, he assumed they had plans and didn’t interrupt.

It wasn’t until the bell rang that Yan Mian snapped out of it like she’d woken from the pages. She instinctively glanced out the window.

After a pause, she asked Zhu Lexing, “Not going yet?”

Zhu Lexing: “……!”

Wasn’t it you who hadn’t left yet?

But how could she possibly ask that out loud? She simply replied coolly, “I had something to take care of just now. Let’s head over now.”

Yan Mian breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. She folded up the speech she had written, tucked it away, and quietly followed behind Zhu Lexing and Song Yingying.

On the way to the auditorium, the System couldn’t hold back its curiosity: 【What’s Plan A?】

Zhu Lexing: 【Plan A is, of course, reasoning with them.】

Just like she had with Lin Yang earlier—her attitude had been fairly normal then. A normal refusal, followed by a normal attempt to talk sense into them.

But Lin Yang wouldn’t listen. She had even laid hands on Yan Mian. That had crossed Zhu Lexing’s line.

If Yan Mian hadn’t wanted to cause a scene right then and there, Zhu Lexing would have launched Plan B yesterday. She might have even gone further…

She had already differentiated.

Last night after returning to her room, Zhu Lexing hadn’t forgotten to search online for why her strength had suddenly surged. The answers across the web were unanimous: intense emotions could trigger the differentiation period ahead of schedule.

The differentiation time logged by the System was based on the original host from the original work. It wouldn’t shift just because Zhu Lexing had shown up.

Yesterday’s fiasco guaranteed it would come early now, though. Half a year ahead of time, at least. Exactly when? Zhu Lexing had no idea.

As long as it didn’t happen while Yan Mian was around, any time would do.

By the time they reached the auditorium, backstage was crammed full of people. The main dressing room had been completely taken over by another team. Li Nian called Yan Mian away, while Qiao Qiao dragged Zhu Lexing into a cubicle.

Qiao Qiao had already finished her makeup. She briefed the makeup artist on Zhu Lexing’s role, then kept scrolling through her phone without pause. She didn’t forget to gripe in between: “You’re such a busybody. You only showed up for makeup after morning self-study.”

Zhu Lexing shot back, “How else am I supposed to get into university if I don’t study hard?”

She hadn’t forgotten the System’s directive to spread positive vibes. She sat still as the makeup artist dusted powder over her face and declared stubbornly, “I’m going to attend the best university out there!”

Propping her chin on her hand, Qiao Qiao watched her. “You’ve got dreams, huh.”

Zhu Lexing replied, “No dreams? Might as well be a dead fish.”

Dreams were dreams, after all. Daydreaming about them didn’t cost a dime.

“That’s a good one,” Qiao Qiao said. “Mind if I borrow it for Star Net?”

Zhu Lexing: “……”

Damn it! Even this could get “borrowed”? How trendy!

Qiao Qiao posted it to Star Net, refreshed the comments, and basked in the flood of compliments. Satisfied, she asked, “Got a Star Net account? We should follow each other.”

Zhu Lexing recalled the account she had deleted on her very first day after transmigrating into the book. She answered honestly, “Nope.”

Qiao Qiao gave her a weird look. “Didn’t you used to have one? You posted nothing but lame photos every day, so I unfollowed.”

Zhu Lexing: “……Can’t a person see the error of their ways, wipe the slate clean, and start over?”

Qiao Qiao wouldn’t let up, though. Zhu Lexing ended up registering a new account right there and following her back. But that wasn’t enough for Qiao Qiao. “What about the forum? What’s your username there?”

Zhu Lexing thought of her own handle: “……”

“Can we leave a little privacy for each other?” Zhu Lexing said.

“We’re all students. What’s there to hide?” Qiao Qiao replied. “If you’re not thrilled about it, I’ll post on Star Net after the show to plug it. I’ll @ you, give you and Yan Mian a popularity boost. Sound good?”

Qiao Qiao meant well, of course.

But Zhu Lexing couldn’t get past the sheer embarrassment of it all.

She was still hemming and hawing when Qiao Qiao pulled up the forum app. Casually, she remarked, “Ha? How is Zhou Yang popping up everywhere? Talk about bad luck.”

A moment later, she read the post title aloud: “The full story behind Zhou Yang deleting his account… Why’d he do it? Let’s check.”

Zhu Lexing didn’t overthink it—gossip was gossip. She eagerly opened the forum app too.

The post Qiao Qiao had spotted was right there on the front page, impossible to miss. But the instant Zhu Lexing clicked it open, her smile froze on her lips—

【Cause: Zhou Yang started by provoking someone on the forum, only to get roasted by @Unspoken Tenderness. The two went back and forth…

At 7:15, @Mianmian’s Fan swooped in for the kill—one against one, humiliating Zhou Yang until he was less than trash. The post got deleted twenty minutes later. Same time, Zhou Yang wiped his account…】

“Mianmian’s Fan?” Qiao Qiao scrolled through the comments and snorted. “Who even is that? What a dumb username.”

The next second, she glanced down to see what Zhu Lexing was staring at—and her eyes locked onto Zhu Lexing’s forum ID.

The owner of that “dumb username” was sitting right beside her.

Their eyes met. Qiao Qiao hadn’t even processed it yet, but Zhu Lexing had already died a thousand social deaths inside.

She knew the play: turn defense into offense. Own it first, and she’d be untouchable.

Zhu Lexing drew a deep breath and sneered, “What’s wrong? Mianmian’s Fan is me. Got a problem with that?”

Footsteps got drowned out by the door swinging open.

“Zhu Lexing—”

Xu He pushed the door wide. Song Yingying clung to her arm, with several other stage play members trailing behind.

Their voices synced up perfectly, and in that instant, every face in the room turned profoundly inscrutable.

Zhu Lexing felt like she was suffocating.

She’d thought that was the pinnacle of embarrassment.

Then she looked up.

Straight at Xu He—

And Yan Mian, standing right behind her.

Zhu Lexing: “…………”

Help! Somebody help! Why did every mortifying moment like this have to drag Yan Mian down with her?

At the same moment, Qiao Qiao’s gaze darted between the two of them. She let out a slow whistle.

“Mind if I jump in?”

Her tone was breezy, reveling unapologetically in the drama. “So… which Mianmian are we talking about for Mianmian’s Fan?”