Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Youth Who Chases Dreams

“Huh? You want me to draw?” Dai Xinhua accepted the brush, a little uneasy. Was it really okay for her to draw herself? The girl glanced at the characters on the table, all of whom she had already reimagined as girls, and hesitated.

“Yes, just like before—I’ll describe, you draw,” Luo Chen noticed her awkward gestures and offered encouragement.

Feeling the trust in Luo Chen’s gaze, Dai Xinhua steadied herself, recalling the courage she’d once had when drawing her old artbooks, and quietly made up her mind.

“First, Sun Quan. Use Tianyi’s appearance. The first image should be in ceremonial attire with a crown... As for Zhou Yu, just use Le Zhengling’s look...” Luo Chen described each character from his memory of “Sovereign Over the World,” and Dai Xinhua drew them one by one.

Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, and Zhang Zhao were manageable—their character designs were based on Luo Tianyi, Le Zhengling, and Yan He, so with Luo Chen’s descriptions and real-life references, she drew them easily. The other characters were more challenging, but Dai Xinhua’s solid artistic foundation, paired with Luo Chen’s detailed instructions, ensured she brought them all to life.

Luo Chen took the completed drawings from her, satisfied—they were nearly identical to the images in his mind.

“Luo Chen, do you usually think about things like this? Dress-up?” The girls, who had witnessed the entire process, looked at him with odd expressions. Apart from Luo Tianyi, who was thoughtfully examining her own image, the rest all turned their gazes toward Luo Chen.

Luo Tianyi and Yan He were understandable, since they were familiar with each other and it wasn’t surprising that he could picture them. But how could Luo Chen be so familiar with the way Le Zhengling would look as Zhou Yu—even down to the exact details of her attire? Had he imagined it in secret?

“No, no, you’re misunderstanding! I just have a vivid imagination, really! You can look at the other characters too—I came up with them all in my head!” Luo Chen hurriedly explained as the girls’ expressions grew more dangerous. He wasn’t that indecent, no need to get the wrong idea.

“How do we know you only imagined it? Maybe you met the real person behind our backs?” Although she reluctantly accepted his explanation, Le Zhengling wasn’t so quick to let Luo Chen off the hook. Secretly fantasizing about girls in different outfits—was this guy obsessed with uniforms?

“That’s impossible. I know every girl Luo Chen has met,” Luo Tianyi stated, turning around. In her memory, unless they were at school, Luo Chen was always within her or Yan He’s line of sight. There was no way he could have met those people.

As for at school?

If even Yan He didn’t know, that meant there simply weren’t any similar students.

Seeing his sister’s firm conviction, Luo Chen sighed helplessly. How tragic. Still, with Luo Tianyi’s reassurance, the misunderstanding would naturally dissolve.

Having set aside the misunderstanding, now that everything was ready, once the music video was finished, it could be uploaded.

Luo Chen logged skillfully into the Stardust platform. On his personal page, the fan wars between the two sides hadn’t ceased; in fact, the situation seemed to be escalating. What surprised Luo Chen was that, for once, the comments were no longer one-sided but rather a chaotic mess.

“Shadow fans, get lost! What’s wrong with supporting the newcomer? Can’t they fight for their own interests?”

“Interests? Just a new kid who doesn’t know their place.”

“Huang Ying is about to become irrelevant and is still so arrogant, suppressing newcomers?”

“Who said our Shadow is fading? She can fight on for another ten years!”

“Dirty fans are here again. Is it just because that jerk Huang Ying dared insult our king?”

“What king? She’s an angel! Why are dirty fans even here?”

“Down with the dirty faction!”

“Down with the dirty faction 1!”

“Down with the dirty faction 2!”

...

Seeing this completely off-topic comment thread, Luo Chen understood why things had turned out this way. Last time, when Huang Ying insulted him, Luo Chen’s fans naturally retaliated, joining forces with Luo Tianyi’s fans to suppress the ones incited by Huang Ying.

After skimming the situation, Luo Chen didn’t bother to reply. The quality and performance of the video would be the most effective response.

After uploading the music piece that everyone had poured their efforts into, Luo Chen ignored the now warzone-like comment section.

All that remained was to wait for “Sovereign Over the World” to gain momentum. The so-called suppression of newcomers was nothing but a joke.

...

Late at night, in the Stardust platform’s conference room, more than ten men and women sat in a circle, their expressions varied but all silent. The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.

Originally, meetings like this happened only once every ten days or half a month, but this time, only a day had passed.

“Let’s hear what happened,” Yuan Feng said, frowning as he stared at Han Yinglan, who was responsible for outreach. Today, he had received news that the main creator, Innocent Little Angel, had actually rejected his offer—refusing a platinum contract!

So, what exactly did he want?

Han Yinglan, under the scrutiny of the senior executives around her, recounted the sequence of events, then waited quietly for Yuan Feng’s response.

“So, Manager Han, you botched the job?” The glamorous woman at the next table, Wu Qing, couldn’t wait for Yuan Feng to speak before she began to mock.

All because a teenager claimed it was his dream, Han Yinglan had simply given up? Ridiculous!

In Wu Qing’s eyes, young people just didn’t know the ways of the world. She should have persisted, thick-skinned, and hammered in some hard truths. Make him understand the harshness of society, and he would naturally fall in line.

“Wu Qing, haven’t you failed to secure Qiu Shuihan as well? Why are you mocking others?” said a nearby executive who couldn’t stand it any longer.

At the mention of Qiu Shuihan, Wu Qing’s good mood instantly evaporated. That infuriating Qiu Shuihan was completely unyielding—no matter how she tried for weeks, she didn’t persuade him even a little. He was a true oddity.

“All right, that’s enough.” Yuan Feng was already annoyed by these matters and had no patience for the executives’ bickering.

“So, the main creator, Innocent Little Angel, was dissatisfied with the platinum contract’s terms, refused to sign, and decided to give up tangible benefits for the sake of some so-called dream?”

“That’s about right.” Han Yinglan answered with a bitter smile. She’d encountered things like this before, but aside from Qiu Shuihan in the gaming section, only this dream-chasing youth had ever refused a platinum contract.

Special thanks to the reader “The Color of the Starry Sky I’ve Long Since Forgotten” for the reward of 700 Qidian coins; to “Tang Family Style” for the 500 Qidian coins; and to “Brother Hui Walking the Mule,” “Tonggu Lans,” and “Sedorle Apandragon” for 100 Qidian coins each—flowers to you! Finally, rolling around cutely—please add to your collections and recommend!