Chapter Forty: The Diva Plans to Grant Benefits to the Entire Company?

“What is this thing? It looks so wicked—let me see, come on, let me see.” The young nurse was brimming with curiosity. Earlier, when Ren Qian had posted his “apology to Wei Bo,” she had already been itching to snatch his phone, but his stern expression had intimidated her into remaining still.

Only after Ren Qian finished did she, in a fit of pique, snatch the phone from his hand and begin scrolling through the stickers with wide, sparkling eyes. At the very first image, she burst into such laughter she could barely straighten up.

“This guy’s grin is so sleazy! Did you come up with these captions? Ha ha ha… This one’s hilarious—‘I love that you can’t stand me, but you simply can’t get rid of me.’ And this one… And what does ‘why...don’t..you..fly....the...sky’ mean? Why is this face so funny? It keeps popping up. I’m laughing so hard my stomach aches.”

The young nurse tucked a stray lock behind her ear, pointing excitedly at the phone screen. She was laughing so hard she was trembling, a fine sheen of sweat beading on her forehead.

Ren Qian gave a cool, aloof smile. What a joke—these are the distilled genius of billions of Celestial Empire netizens, one of Asia’s Four Great Meme Emperors. How could they not be funny?

Meanwhile, the comments beneath Ren Qian’s “Wei Bo” post were exploding.

“Warning: High-level content ahead. Those with low laughter thresholds, please watch under the supervision of a family member!”

“Message from the fallen on the front lines: don’t open these images! They’re toxic! Toxic! Toxic!”

“I’ve laughed myself insane—every single image hits my funny bone. I can’t take it anymore, I’m headed to the hospital. My jaw’s fallen off from laughing.”

“I can sense Qian God’s intense malice toward Wan Feng. No wonder he apologized. I’ve decided, from now on, I’ll only send these stickers in chats.”

“Yesterday, over twenty million of us crushed Wan Feng’s fan army. His fans could still put up a fight then, but now, I bet they’re dumbfounded—this is totally off script!”

“Stickers saved. I’m going to follow Qian God’s example, become a meme maniac, and take on millions alone—seven charges in, seven charges out, until Wan Feng’s troops are utterly routed.”

“Converting from passerby to fan.”

“+1”

“+1”

“Just now, I was laughing at these stickers on the bus, and the bald guy behind me turned out to be a Wan Feng fan. He smacked me right away! I lost my temper—threw my phone, gave him a good beating. No more details, I have to go give my statement.”

“Ran into a pretty girl just now. She saw me doubled over laughing at my phone, came over to watch with me—and guess what? She instantly became a Qian God fan, made me her boyfriend, said I was a man of taste.”

“Just left a print shop and bumped into a scammer. My temper flared—I flung all my Wan Feng stickers in his face. He laughed so hard he gave up the act, rolling on the ground.”

“Qian God, show yourself! It’s Old Wang. I was hiding in the cabinet just now; your Wei Bo post made me burst out laughing. Got caught and am now tied up, being whacked. Come over, let’s talk about life.”

The comments were a treasure trove, but the young nurse still hadn’t finished going through all sixty stickers. She clutched the phone, giggling uncontrollably.

“Still laughing? You really have a low laughter threshold. Doesn’t your stomach hurt? Here, let me rub it for you.”

Ren Qian pinched her smooth, delicate chin, teasing her playfully. The nurse’s dimples were shallow, never appearing when she kept a cool, aloof face. Only when she pursed her lips in a smile did the dimples spring to life, appearing and vanishing in the most beguiling way. This meant she could slide between being cool, cute, and virtuous at will.

As he watched, Ren Qian felt a dangerous heat stir within him.

“Heehee~”

The young nurse slipped free of his mischievous grasp, flashed a sweet smile, but then suddenly switched expressions as Ren Qian grinned back knowingly.

“What are you looking at! What are you touching! What are you laughing at! Next time you get handsy, I’ll chop your hand off!”

…

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed. The Wan Feng meme pack took the internet by storm. Inspired by Ren Qian, more and more netizens started making their own memes, and Ren Qian’s Wei Bo followers skyrocketed.

It’s no exaggeration to say: as long as you were a netizen of the Celestial Charter Empire and had been online in the last few days, you had seen—and shared—these memes. Wan Feng’s devilish grin was everywhere in chat groups!

Alas, poor Heavenly King Wan Feng. At this moment, there were no new meme emperors—he alone bore the brunt of the internet’s meme craze, and it was a miserable fate.

Even Wan Feng’s own fans started messing around with the memes—using their idol’s earth-shattering, world-shaking smile as the punchline!

Some of Ren Qian’s fans even infiltrated Wan Feng’s fan groups, spreading memes to win them over.

As a result, most of Wan Feng’s fan groups were in utter chaos, his infernal grin shattering their worldview.

Many began to waver: should they become Ren Qian’s fans instead?

Talented, handsome, and so young…

Exit the group, exit the group, I must exit! Maybe in Ren Qian’s fan group there are even funnier, better memes. If I don’t download them, I’ll lose face.

Since uploading the meme pack, Ren Qian hadn’t touched Wei Bo again. But today, he planned to go to Rolling Verse Entertainment to record his song—Wenrun wanted to buy a house, and he needed to earn some extra cash to help out. Uploading the song for download on Wangyi would be a good start.

The square outside Rolling Verse Entertainment was as crowded as ever.

After getting out of the cab, Ren Qian called his mother-in-law to ask if he could borrow the diva’s exclusive studio.

“Haha! It’s my dear son-in-law! When are you coming back to sample your mother-in-law’s cooking again? I’m not busy with any albums lately, I’m free anytime.”

Uh…

“Oh ho ho, your cooking is truly unforgettable, but I have to prepare my own album. You know, I have a bet with Heavenly King Wan Feng. If I don’t hit my sales target, I’ll have to retire from showbiz forever. So, regretfully, I can’t make it.”

“I see…”

The diva seemed oblivious to any hidden meaning, happily hanging up.

Good grief, she didn’t even answer my question before hanging up. How unreliable! I’d better go up myself. Judging by her tone, my mother-in-law is quite idle these days—if she’s not recording, the studio must be free.

At the entrance, the security guards recognized the handsome young man at once and let him in.

“Don’t go up there, Ren Qian, my friend—don’t let the diva know you’re here, or you’re dead! Turn back now, run as far as you can!”

Ren Qian was baffled. What’s got Old Niu acting so weird today? He looked unsteady on his feet, staggering and sticking out his tongue, as if he’d just eaten something vile.

“You don’t know,” the guard said, “just now, the diva went mad and brought her kitchenware to the office! She’s upstairs cooking for everyone, offering her ‘specialties’ to the whole company. But those charred dishes are impossible to swallow. Run, before it’s too late!”

What!!

Oh no, oh no, oh no—Ren Qian was on the verge of tears. Why had he been so stupid as to call first?! Why?! Why?!