Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 89: The Start of Junior High School, the Start of "Story Collection"

In September, the town was sweltering, with heat waves rising from the asphalt roads and making the distant school buildings tremble slightly.

Luo Jinnian stood in front of the class assignment notice board, his backpack strap slipping halfway off his shoulder, and he forgot to pull it back up.

His gaze was fixed on the third line of the A3 paper—the three names listed side by side below "Class 3, Grade 7".

Gu Yanxi.

Chu Qingning.

Luo Jinnian.

Gu Yanxi and Luo Jinnian skipped a grade, allowing the three of them to attend the same school.

However, due to special circumstances—well, it was Gu Yanxi's incredibly resourceful mother who managed to put all three children in the same class.

The bulletin board was crowded with students and parents from the score-checking class.

Luo Jinnian was jostled forward and stumbled a step, almost hitting the back of her head on the backpack of the boy in front of her.

Over the years, they've gotten used to working together, and Gu Yanxi has settled down in this small town to attend school. Her mother has also bought several houses to rent out in her spare time.

In Gu Yanxi's words, "My mom said you're a reliable kid, and you won't regret following you." Luo Jinnian was silent for three seconds after hearing this, then asked, "Is that really what your mom said?"

Gu Yanxi could only manage an awkward chuckle.

The classroom was on the third floor, and there were already people in the hallway. Before Luo Jinnian even reached the door, she heard a voice drift out from inside: "Why isn't he here yet? Did he go to the wrong campus?"

He paused for a moment; he knew Gu Yanxi's voice all too well.

"If he goes the wrong way, I'll laugh at him for three years."

This is the voice of a short-haired girl.

Gu Yanxi sat in the third row by the window, wearing her school uniform neatly with the top button fastened, but her hair was loose and hanging down her shoulders.

She held a stack of printed manuscripts, face down on the table. Luo Jinnian glanced at them and vaguely saw the words "Story Club"—the magazine's achievements so far are really impressive.

I'd seen this book before on the way here.

The girl looked up at him and smiled slightly.

"You're here?" she said. "Five minutes earlier than I expected."

Luo Jinnian didn't reply. His gaze went past Gu Yanxi's shoulder and landed on the last row of the classroom.

My sister was sitting there.

Her posture was completely different from Gu Yanxi's—Chu Qingning sat upright, her back straight, her legs together, and her hands clasped on the table. There was a bottle of yogurt in front of her, with the straw already inserted, but she didn't drink it because she was still immersed in "Laughing Cat Diary".

"How many times have you read this book?" Luo Jinnian knew that Chu Qingning was happy to be involved in the book, but there was no need to go to such extremes.

"younger brother?"

Chu Qingning's voice wasn't loud, but the surrounding area suddenly fell silent for a moment because that "little brother" was truly captivating.

Chu Qingning put down the book, looked up, her eyes sparkling: "I'm looking for inspiration. Look at this chapter, Laughing Cat is waiting for Tiger-Striped Cat in the ginkgo tree. I drew it as a sunset, but now I think I should draw it as a rainy night. The atmosphere of a rainy night is more—"

Several girls in the front row who were passing notes turned around at the same time, their eyes scanning back and forth between Luo Jinnian and Chu Qingning... Although they were both very pretty, they didn't look alike.

The boy walked to the third row without stopping and sat down in the empty seat next to Gu Yanxi—his name was pasted on the corner of the desk, and it was a seating chart arranged in advance by the homeroom teacher. He had just stuffed his schoolbag into the desk drawer when something gently poked the back of his head.

It was Chu Qingning's finger. She was sitting in the last row, two rows away from him, but that distance was no problem for her. She leaned forward, stretched out her arm, and precisely poked the back of his head with her index finger, then pulled back, her movements as fast as a cat's.

Originally, Luo Jinnian thought the girl would ask him why he didn't sit with her, and he was still thinking about how to tell her about the promise he made with the short-haired girl.

But he was overthinking it. "We'll be sitting together from now on," a voice drifted from the back row, accompanied by a silly grin. His sister was just happy that everyone was together.

"Yes." Luo Jinnian zipped up his backpack, his face full of confidence.

"Hey, where did you buy your book cover?" A pretty girl came over.

Gu Yanxi and Chu Qingning exchanged a glance across two rows of seats, and Luo Jinnian caught that moment—the two exchanged a subtle, tacit look.

"Ah, this, this is..." Luo Jinnian was about to answer when the girl's gaze drifted away from him and landed on the "Story Collection" on the corner of his desk.

"Wow, this magazine! My brother buys every single issue!" the girl exclaimed in surprise, reaching out to grab it.

Gu Yanxi quickly pressed the magazine down, looked up at the girl and smiled: "This is mine."

The girl then noticed Gu Yanxi's face, paused for a moment, then said "Oh," awkwardly withdrew her hand, and turned back to her seat.

When Luo Jinnian turned his gaze back, he saw Gu Yanxi's meaningful smile.

"You seem to be very popular."

"?"

He was just asking about the book cover. Although Luo Jinnian wasn't interested in such things, he would ask about it if he saw a classmate with a nice notebook.

"hehe."

Luo Jinnian felt that his brother's masculinity was fading and that his youth had passed.

Gu Yanxi noticed her deskmate sighing inexplicably, sounding old-fashioned. She shook her head and continued reading her copy of "Story Collection".

Chu Qingning finished her yogurt in the back row and gently placed the empty bottle into the trash bag in her desk drawer. Then she opened her backpack, took out a notebook, and flipped through it to find drawings of her best friends and her younger brother surrounded by them.

Finally, her deskmate was her best friend from elementary school. When that girl arrived, she hadn't even put her schoolbag down yet, and her gaze swept back and forth between Luo Jinnian, Gu Yanxi, and Chu Qingning several times. Her gossipy mood was written all over her face, and she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips—she was so lucky to be born into such a gossip-filled world, she was sure to have endless gossip to enjoy in the future.

Looking at her, Luo Jinnian could only sigh. He pulled a new math book from his desk drawer, opened the first page, and pretended to be looking at the definition of rational numbers.

The circulation of "Story Collection" has exceeded 300,000 copies. The seventh volume of "Laughing Cat Diary" has just been printed, with an initial print run of 200,000 copies, and the publisher says it's "not enough to meet demand." Chu Qingning's illustrations have improved noticeably from the first volume to the latest one, and recently other publishers have approached her about publishing her own art books.

And all of this is just the beginning.

The noise in the classroom gradually subsided, and the homeroom teacher's footsteps echoed from the corridor. Luo Jinnian closed his math book and sat up straight. Gu Yanxi neatly stuffed her "Story Collection" into her desk drawer. Chu Qingning closed her notebook and tucked it into the deepest part of her backpack.