Chapter 47: Drawn by Reputation

The night passed without incident.

At six o'clock in the morning, Chen Fan opened his eyes right on time, changed his clothes, and headed to the gym.

The advantage of having a private gym at home showed itself at this moment. Chen Fan could practice whatever he wanted without anyone fighting him for equipment!

At seven o'clock, Peng Jiaxin walked into the gym wearing a sports vest and yoga pants.

Seeing Peng Jiaxin arrive, Chen Fan was somewhat surprised.

"What? Not even allowed to work out now, are we?"

Blushing slightly under Chen Fan's gaze, Peng Jiaxin subconsciously touched her stomach. Had she gained weight?

"How could that be? What do you want to work out, Wife? I'll help you."

Pulling his gaze away from her impossibly slender A4 waist, Chen Fan wiped away his drool and quickly stepped forward.

What excuse could be better suited for taking advantage of a little skinship than assisting with a workout?

No, wait, what taking advantage of skinship?

This is just me reasonably fostering affection with my wife!

Peng Jiaxin rolled her eyes at him and stepped onto the treadmill.

"Such a smooth talker."

Feeling somewhat disappointed, Chen Fan nevertheless walked over to the treadmill beside Peng Jiaxin and began running with her.

Don't ask why there were two treadmills in a private gym; he didn't know.

Not to mention that Peng Jiaxin's gym had a full five of them.

Well... perhaps it was to accommodate friends who enjoyed working out?

If you're friends, you run together!

Having intended to stop there, Chen Fan ended up jogging slowly with his wife for another half hour before they returned to their respective rooms, washed up, and went downstairs.

Aunt Xu had already prepared breakfast.

Peng Jiaxin's breakfast was specially designed by a nutritionist, emphasizing health and nutrition while completely lacking in flavor.

Chen Fan was different; his philosophy was to make it as delicious as possible.

"By the way, Chen Mengting slept with you last night. She didn't inconvenience you, did she?"

Chen Fan's tone was full of envy.

Peng Jiaxin chuckled softly.

"How could she inconvenience me? Hugging Mengting to sleep is so comfortable. I remember you agreed that after she gets accepted into Soochow University, she can live with us, right? I'm going to cuddle with her every single day then~"

Chen Fan's gaze grew increasingly resentful, but Peng Jiaxin acted as if she hadn't noticed, leisurely eating her breakfast.

Why did today's eggs feel so much more flavorful?

After eating his fill, Peng Jiaxin prepared to leave for work.

"Do you want me to drive you?"

"No need, Uncle Li is already waiting downstairs. There should be cleaning staff coming to tidy up today, remember to help them with the elevator."

"Alright."

"I'm leaving now."

Peng Jiaxin walked to the doorway, put on her shoes, and suddenly dropped those words out of nowhere.

"Uh... right, be careful on the way."

Peng Jiaxin still stood in place without moving. They were now a couple recognized by both sets of parents; shouldn't leaving the house come with a little sense of ritual?

"My dear husband, aren't you going to do something for your wife who is about to step out the door?"

Peng Jiaxin was not the type to hide her feelings. Although shy, she stared very directly at Chen Fan's lips as she spoke.

Chen Fan took a deep breath and gently kissed Peng Jiaxin on her fair forehead.

Peng Jiaxin gave him a dissatisfied look.

"Coward."

Chen Fan licked his exceptionally dry lips.

"Peng Jiaxin, if you keep teasing me, don't even think about going to work today."

"Hmph~ I'm leaving then."

"Mm, be careful on the way."

Watching Peng Jiaxin enter the elevator, Chen Fan slouched back into his room.

He lay on the bed and took out his phone, thinking about lurking in the book club chat to watch the silly book fans chat and distract himself.

"Huh? Why are so many people mentioning me?"

Not looking is one thing, but taking a look gave him a fright.

There were countless people in the book club chat frantically mentioning Chen Fan, saying that someone had criticized his plan to publish a new sci-fi book and telling him to hurry over to Weibo to take a look.

Some fans even thoughtfully sent a Weibo link.

Let me see what's going on.

Holding the intention of distracting himself, Chen Fan clicked on the link.

Pinduoduo, let's slash the price together, bro!

Chen Fan: "......"

Many bewildered book fans were also curious about what had happened, so they clicked on the link, and then they very cordially mentioned the guy who posted it.

"Bro, where do you live? Don't get me wrong, I just want to mail you some local specialties from my end."

"Brother, you really understand Pinduoduo."

Chen Fan stopped lurking and directly came out to issue a 24-hour mute package to this good brother.

"Damn, it flushed out the real person."

"Let me guess, Ziyu clicked that link too."

"Hahahahaha."

"Ziyu, hurry up and check Weibo, the video that guy posted is almost trending."

"Alright."

Chen Fan went to Weibo. It was even livelier here than in the book club chat, and as soon as he clicked in, he saw 999+ notifications in the backend.

Chen Fan became increasingly curious about which big shot had stepped in to review him to generate such high traffic.

Soon, Chen Fan found the original video. The person who mentioned him was a former sci-fi heavyweight—Prodigal, with the note: a heavyweight in the true sense of the word, the kind of person whose works had won literary awards.

Appearing in the video was a slightly balding middle-aged man around forty years old. He maintained a serious expression throughout, and his words essentially urged entertainment novel authors like Ziyu not to dabble in science fiction.

"It's precisely because there are too many people like this that the popularity of science fiction is getting lower and lower. I'm making an appeal here: please don't let just anyone come and meddle in science fiction, thank you."

Chen Fan: "?"

Excuse me?

Please don't pin every single blame on me, alright? Science fiction isn't being read—what does that have to do with me?!

"Finally, I will bring out my own swan song, Blue Star, to show this ignorant and arrogant young man what true science fiction is. The release time is the same as Ziyu's, also next Monday, the 17th. Please look forward to it."

The netizens' comments below were naturally a mix of praise and criticism.

Some said this heavyweight was just latching onto Ziyu's traffic to publish a book, calling him truly shameless.

Others said that to be able to see the master's work in this lifetime meant they could die without regrets.

Chen Fan scrolled through. Some of Ziyu's book fans went to scold Prodigal for being shameless and chasing clout, but surprisingly, not a single person questioned him or said he couldn't write sci-fi?

At least have a little confidence in me, you guys!

Chen Fan was hopping mad and replied with two words under the video:

"Heh."

"Damn, look what I caught?"

"Isn't this the musician who collaborated with ZJ?!"

"Ahhh! Big ZJ!"

"Could it be that ZJ found it inconvenient, so he sent this person out to campaign for Ziyu? Damn, do these two know each other offline?"

"Hard to say, maybe just a book fan."

"ZJ reads Flame Emperor, I read Flame Emperor too. By transitive property, I = ZJ!"

"Applying formulas is really fast, bro."

"......"

Oh no, he forgot to remain anonymous.

It was only at this moment that Chen Fan realized the 999+ notifications in the Weibo backend weren't meant for Ziyu, but for ZJ.

Sure enough, the next second, the news of ZJ dispatching Chen Fan to campaign for Ziyu spread with lightning speed onto the trending searches.

Originally, this video was only circulating among book fans, but now it had broken out of its circle entirely.

Countless netizens came rushing in by name recognition.