Chapter 92: Challenging the World Signing Record!

At noon, Jiang Lun was given only twenty minutes for lunch. Seeing the fans still waiting, he no longer had time to eat his fill; he hurriedly swallowed a few bites, drank a bottle of water, and then went back to signing autographs.

Many fans, seeing this, ran off to buy food for him, and two girls even took out their own boxed lunches and fed him by hand.

At one in the afternoon, Wu Chaoyang arrived on the scene. Glancing at the signing event figures handed to him by the staff, he could only shake his head. Then he made a phone call, though no one knew to whom.

Less than half an hour later, a car drove up. Behind its windshield was a placard that read: World Records Filing Center, Capital Station.

Jiang Lun was signing with his head lowered when he suddenly heard a voice from the loudspeaker beside him.

“Everyone, we have some wonderful news to announce. To commemorate this first signing session and to thank all the fans who came here today, the company has specially applied for a world-record challenge for Jiang Lun. At present, the signing record in the world is held by a foreign singer, who signed 2,852 albums in eight hours. Can our Jiang Lun break that record?”

“Yes!”

The fans were instantly stirred and shouted back with great confidence.

“Since everyone is so confident, our challenge will begin at two o’clock sharp. We ask for your full cooperation. After the challenge succeeds, we will also invite Jiang Lun to sing for everyone. Do you want to hear him?”

“Yes!”

The fans roared again.

Jiang Lun was dumbfounded. What challenge? What world record?

How did I not know about this?

While he was still in a daze, someone lightly tapped his shoulder. He turned around and saw Wu Chaoyang, and immediately asked in confusion, “Brother Wu, this is...”

Wu Chaoyang said, “Arun, I came up with this challenge on the spot. Would you be willing to accept it? If you succeed, it will be another major headline, and it will also help your album sales.”

“This...” Jiang Lun frowned, feeling as if he had been ambushed. “Why wasn’t this discussed with me beforehand?”

“I saw so many fans here, and some of them had already waited all morning without getting an autograph, so I came up with this idea,” Wu Chaoyang said. “It lets everyone interact together, completes the challenge, and saves everyone’s time. A solution that kills two birds with one stone!”

Jiang Lun glanced at the eager, spirited fans. It was not the time to complain, so he said, “I’ll do my best. But if anything like this happens again, you have to discuss it with me in advance!”

“Oh, right!” Wu Chaoyang said with a teasing smile. “You should put on a diaper first. If you suddenly need the restroom after the challenge starts...”

“Uh...”

Jiang Lun’s face darkened, but the consideration was indeed necessary. Everyone has urgent needs, and once the challenge began, who knew how long it would last? The foreign guy had gone for eight hours without eating, drinking, or using the bathroom. In the end, Jiang Lun simply followed Wu Chaoyang’s advice.

The small problem was easy enough to handle; the big one was not. So from that moment on, Jiang Lun did not eat a single bite. The snacks and boxed meals fans brought over could only be set aside for the time being.

At two o’clock sharp, the signing challenge officially began. The signing position moved from below the stage to the stage itself. The fans’ line stretched from below the stage all the way up onto it, and the certification official from World Records Headquarters, along with three witnessing attorneys, were invited out and seated beside Jiang Lun.

The fans were extremely supportive. Some of them had already made up their minds that after getting their albums signed, they would simply line up again. They were determined to help Jiang Lun complete this challenge.

“Quick, count the heads. Are there three thousand people?”

“What three thousand? Everyone here together probably doesn’t even make a thousand.”

“What? Then hurry and contact the students!”

“On it!”

“Post to the microblog, post to the microblog! Call everyone nearby to come!”

“I’ll say something on the forum! Whoever can get here, come quickly!”

“I’ll send a notice in the group. This is the Beijing fan group, and there are more than three hundred people in it!”

“Fast! It’s Saturday today, so everyone should probably be off class. And those who are working should ditch work too!”

“...I can’t handle that. I’ll just say something. Whether they can come or not is another matter!”

Ten albums, twenty albums, fifty albums...

One after another, the albums flew past Jiang Lun. His signing speed grew faster and faster, and soon his wrist began to feel numb and sore. Fortunately, when he had learned the drums, he had trained his wrists, and with a traditional medicine masseur by his side, he would stop every half hour for a few minutes of massage.

Traditional Chinese medicine was profound and marvelous. After a good press along a few acupoints, Jiang Lun would immediately feel somewhat better. But the clock never stopped. Even if he asked to rest, the challenge time kept on running.

Wu Chaoyang stood nearby, tense and sweating on his behalf. Every now and then he would hand over a straw to let Jiang Lun drink a little water, but he still tried to keep it to a minimum.

A female fan came up and, seeing how desperately he was working, could not help saying, “Just sign one character of Lun for me. You don’t have to sign the full name!”

But Jiang Lun only smiled and still signed his full name, thanking her with every autograph.

A male fan walked up and laid down six albums in a row. “A few friends in the group are away and couldn’t come, so I brought these for them!”

“Thank you! Thank them for me too!” Jiang Lun said, then lowered his head and kept signing.

...

When the timer on the table showed that two hours had already passed, Jiang Lun glanced at the counter. In those two hours, he had signed 1,267 albums. It seemed breaking that foreign singer’s record should not be a problem. But his arm was now sore, numb, swollen, and aching to the extreme; the signing was happening almost entirely by muscle memory.

Still, there was one advantage: he had already found a way to sign in a single stroke.

The fans did not decrease; on the contrary, more and more kept arriving through all kinds of channels.

“Where’s the forum moderator? We’re here!”

“Who’s the group owner? Which one is the group owner of the Beijing fan group?”

“So many people? You guys all came?”

“Huh? Those three cars are from Tianjing? Someone came all the way from there?”

“What’s so strange about that? We came by high-speed train from Tangshan!”

“...”

The news that Jiang Lun was holding a signing event and had applied for a world-record challenge spread to all the major media at the first possible moment, and reporters from nearby outlets hurried over with long lenses and heavy cameras.

Capital TV even came to shoot a news video. They had originally wanted to interview Jiang Lun a few times, but seeing him drenched in sweat and signing nonstop, not even able to lift his head, they finally gave up.

When the fans saw the media, they were astonishingly proud, especially those in line. Whenever a camera came near, they immediately straightened their backs and wore expressions of honor. This was a world-record challenge they were taking part in together. It would be something to brag about later!

“Hello, Jiang Lun! I came all the way from Baoding!”

A bespectacled female fan handed him an album and said shyly.

“A cross-province trip?” Jiang Lun looked at her in surprise. “Then I’ll have my assistant send you back later!”

“No need! The high-speed train only takes forty or fifty minutes, less than an hour!”

That was only the train time; the ride from the station to New World had not even been counted yet.

“Then let him take you to the station!”

“That’s not necessary either. Several of us came together!”

“Then... I’ll have them reimburse your travel expenses!”

As he spoke, Jiang Lun signaled to Wu Chaoyang and Mai Le beside him.

The two could not help turning their heads and rolling their eyes. With the price of a single high-speed train ticket, the round-trip fare could buy two albums.

But the girl still shook her head. “No, no need! There are still so many people behind me. I’m already very happy just to have seen you in person today. Goodbye, Jiang Lun! I hope that if you ever have the chance, you’ll come to Baoding!”

“I definitely will!” Jiang Lun nodded.

After saying that, the girl left the signing table and gave her place to the next person.

At first Jiang Lun had felt somewhat tired and burdened, but hearing those words and seeing fans arriving from all directions, all the hardship in his heart vanished in an instant. He regained his strength and signed the next album.

Time passed minute by minute. Soon, four hours had gone by.

Jiang Lun felt as though his arm no longer belonged to him. He could not even feel the soreness and numbness anymore, and even the traditional medicine doctor’s massage had no effect.

He could only hold his arm with his left hand while his right hand relied entirely on the slightest bit of momentum from his wrist to keep signing.

“Take a break! You’ve already reached two thousand albums!” Wu Chaoyang urged him.

Jiang Lun raised his head. Even his smile had stiffened. This afternoon was not just about signing; he also had to keep a smile on his face for the fans.

“Heh, so this is the work you dumped on me.”

“Uh...” Wu Chaoyang’s old face reddened. “Hey, don’t blame me! If we had planned ahead, it wouldn’t have turned into this. Arun, if you really can’t hold on, then let’s pause the challenge. It’s no big deal!”

“No!”

Jiang Lun shook his head. Although he had earlier felt somewhat like he had been taken hostage, now that he saw the fans still stubbornly standing in line, his feelings changed.

Just for the sake of the fans who had kept on going with him all this time, he had to finish every last autograph.

Nearby, the certification official and the three attorneys were also sweating on his behalf.

Especially the three lawyers, who had already taken turns dozing off. When they opened their eyes and saw that Jiang Lun was still signing, they could not help but admire him from the bottom of their hearts, while also feeling guilty for their own negligence.

Five hours later.

“Two thousand six hundred albums! Three hundred more and the record is broken!” Mai Le said excitedly.

Jiang Lun looked at the line of fans behind him and asked, “Do we still have enough people?”

“Enough, enough!” Wu Chaoyang said hurriedly. “How about taking another break?”

“All right.” After saying that, Jiang Lun tried to raise his hand and shake it out, only to discover that his right arm seemed paralyzed and would not lift at all. By now it had truly gone completely numb.

“Can you still move it?”

Wu Chaoyang noticed something was wrong with him and looked panicked, immediately calling the Chinese medicine doctor over.

The doctor came up, kneading as he asked, “Any sensation?”

“No.” Jiang Lun shook his head.

The doctor frowned. “If this keeps up, it won’t do. We have to stop.”

“No need.” Jiang Lun gritted his teeth and took the pen with his left hand. “I’ll sign with my left hand!”