Chapter Eighteen: The Internet-Famous Classmate

After Wang Dazhuang left, Lin Bei thought life would return to its old routine—lying around, cooking, filming videos, and bickering with Su Chen.

But she was wrong.

On Monday morning, her phone exploded.

Not literally—there were just so many messages that the phone froze. According to Douyin’s backend, the view count for her fourth video had skyrocketed from 1,200 to 38,000.

Thirty-eight thousand.

Lin Bei rubbed her eyes, thinking she must have misread it.

She refreshed the page—and there it was: 42,000.

Another refresh, and it was 46,000!

“Su Chen!” She dashed out of her room barefoot. “Su Chen, come quick and look!”

Su Chen was having breakfast at the dining table when she startled him. He took the phone and glanced at it, his brow slightly furrowed.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know either! Yesterday it was only a little over 3,000, but this morning it shot up to 40,000!”

Su Chen scrolled through the comment section and quickly found the reason.

There was a pinned comment with over 2,000 likes, posted by a user named “Tang Tang Bu Tang”: “This is my high school deskmate! Her spare ribs are absolutely delicious! Everyone, follow her now!”

Su Chen tapped on “Tang Tang Bu Tang’s” profile.

Followers: 520,000.

“That internet-famous classmate of yours,” Su Chen said, handing the phone back to Lin Bei. “She retweeted you.”

Lin Bei stared at Tang Tang’s profile—520,000 followers. Each video racked up tens of thousands of likes. The comment section was filled with “wife,” “goddess,” and “so beautiful today.”

Lin Bei suddenly felt a bit dazed.

“Are you close with her?” Su Chen asked.

“We were pretty good in high school. We sat at the same desk for two years, eating together, going to the bathroom together, passing notes. Then she went to an arts school, and I went to a regular university, and we gradually lost touch.”

“So why did she retweet you?”

Lin Bei thought for a moment and sent Tang Tang a direct message: “Tang Tang, thanks for retweeting me. Long time no see.”

Less than thirty seconds after she hit send, Tang Tang replied.

Tang Tang: “Lin Bei!!! You finally got in touch with me!!! I’ve missed you so much!!!”

Then came a string of crying emojis.

Tang Tang: “What’s your phone number? Let me call you.”

Lin Bei sent her the number, and ten seconds later, the phone rang.

“Lin Bei!!!” The voice on the other end was sharp and bright, radiating energy even through the screen. “Where have you been all these years? I’ve been looking for you forever and couldn’t find you!”

“I changed my phone number; I’m not using the old one anymore.”

“But you didn’t even contact me! Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you!”

Lin Bei smiled. Tang Tang was still the same Tang Tang—speaking nonstop, never letting the conversation lag.

“I saw you retweeted me. Thanks so much. My video already has 40,000 views.”

“Only 40,000? Just you wait—I’ll retweet it again. No, I’ll promote you live in my livestream instead!”

“No, no, no—that’s too much trouble—”

“It’s not trouble at all! I’m streaming tonight at eight. Come watch! I’ll tell my fans you’re my deskmate and get them all to follow you!”

Before Lin Bei could refuse, Tang Tang hung up.

She stared at the phone screen, a little stunned.

“What did she say?” Su Chen asked.

“She said she’d promote me in her livestream tonight.”

Su Chen thought for a moment: “That’s a good thing. She’s got half a million followers—just sharing a little bit with you will be more effective than six months of filming videos.”

“But… I don’t want to rely on others.”

“It’s not about relying on others. It’s about a classmate helping out. Didn’t you pass notes for her back in high school?”

Lin Bei paused. “I did.”

“Then think of it as returning the favor.”

Lin Bei agreed that Su Chen made sense, but she still felt a bit uneasy. It had been years since she last saw Tang Tang, and to ask her for help right away felt somehow inappropriate.

At eight o’clock that evening, Tang Tang started her livestream on time.

Lin Bei opened Douyin and entered her livestream room. On the screen, Tang Tang wore a floral dress, her hair curled into big waves, and her makeup was so polished it looked like she was heading to the red carpet.

“Welcome everyone to Tang Tang’s livestream!” Tang Tang waved to the camera. “Today I want to introduce someone special—my high school deskmate, someone I was super close with!”

End of Chapter 18: The Internet-Famous Best Friend