I really didn't intend to make a living based on my looks.

"But what?"

"But it's also quite interesting."

"Only you can talk about playing visual novels so seriously, like you're discussing life philosophy. Unlike the people in my club, who just keep calling him 'Child Prince' all day long, and we can't keep up with anything they say."

The three teenagers standing nearby went from shocked to questioning their own existence.

Ichigo Kurosaki: "She...she smiled?"

Sasuke: "She smiled at a strange older man?"

The boy from an obscure anime: "Are we still standing here?"

Chen Duling waved her hand without turning her head, "Stop fooling around! Can't you see that I'm meeting with a top-tier big shot? You guys go over there and grab a spot, don't disturb my serious conversation!"

Jiang Chen glanced at the time and suddenly decided not to leave.

"I bumped into you earlier, can I apologize?"

"what?"

"There's a maid café over there," he pointed to the side, "Would you like a coffee?"

Chen Duling was stunned for a moment.

The three boys exchanged a glance and breathed a sigh of relief.

Kurosaki Ichigo muttered to himself, "It's alright, Princess Child never goes to places like that. She said it's a trap for otaku..."

"OK!"

"Wh...what?!" The three of them looked up in unison.

Chen Duling looked at Jiang Chen, her ear tips slightly red, but her eyes were bright: "I've never been before. I've always wanted to go, but no one goes with me..."

She paused, then added, "They don't understand; they say it's just pretentious..."

"Then I'll go, I understand."

"Um!"

She turned to leave, but seeing the three boys still there, she waved to them, "You guys go grab a spot! I'll be back later!"

"Your Highness..." Kurosaki Ichigo reached out his hand, his voice trembling, "You...you really want to go?"

"Yes!"

"But didn't you say," Sasuke's face turned pale, "that maid cafes are capitalist sugar-coated bullets, a stain on anime culture, and pathetic places only friendless otaku would go to?"

Chen Duling paused for a moment.

Then she puffed out her chest and declared confidently, "I've changed my mind!"

She tugged at Jiang Chen's sleeve, "Let's go, let's go!"

The three boys watched helplessly as their Prince Child grabbed the sleeve of a strange middle-aged man and walked towards the maid café.

Ichigo Kurosaki: "She's changed..."

Sasuke: "She's no longer that innocent princess..."

The boy from an obscure anime: "She didn't even ask us if we wanted to come along..."

A gust of cold wind blew by, and the wigs of all three people fluttered up at the same time.

Ichigo Kurosaki slowly crouched down, hugging his knees: "Have we... been abandoned?"

"When have we ever been owned?" Sasuke asked with a wry smile.

"Stop talking," the boy from the obscure anime looked up at the sky, "I want to change clubs... no, I want to live on a different planet."

The maid café is located on the other side of the exhibition hall.

Two girls dressed in black and white maid outfits stood at the stall, calling out in unison, "Welcome back, Master!"

There were no seats inside the stall, only a long bar counter with a few bar stools in front of it.

The maid led them to a corner and handed them a handwritten menu with a few crooked cat paw prints drawn on it.

"I want this!" Chen Duling pointed to the menu, "Strawberry milk! Pink, like Lanka's hair color!"

"A strawberry milk and an iced Americano," Jiang Chen said.

"Yes, Master!"

When the drink was served, her strawberry milk was in a clear plastic cup with a heart-shaped marshmallow floating on top and a pink straw inserted.

"Oh, by the way," she said, biting her straw, "I still don't know your name."

"Jiang Chen".

"Jiang Chen..." she repeated, as if trying to memorize the name.

Jiang Chen asked, "Are you a senior in high school?"

How did you know?

"I'm guessing," Jiang Chen said. "It's a rare weekend for him to get some fresh air, and he still looks so tense. He must be a senior in high school."

"A feeling of tightness?"

"Yeah, it feels like I've finally escaped and can get some fresh air."

Chen Duling paused for a moment, then leaned on the bar and laughed, "Right, right! My dad insists I apply to China Southern Airlines, saying aircraft manufacturing is a stable field, but I only want to study animation design..."

She looked up, her expression pitiful: "I do practice tests until the early hours of the morning every day, and I have to go to tutoring classes on weekends. I had to beg my family for a long time before I could come out today."

"Is it difficult to get into China Southern Airlines?"

"It's alright," she said, biting her straw. "My grades are good enough, it's just... I just don't want to study aircraft manufacturing. I want to study design, but they say that has no future..."

"Lanka Lee's journey hasn't been smooth sailing either," Jiang Chen said. "She was almost blacklisted after that concert."

"You know too?" Her eyes lit up again. "She sings so well, but the company insists on promoting Sheryl..."

"So in the end, she turned things around," Jiang Chen said, "in her own way. You can too."

Chen Duling, biting her straw, looked at him and asked, "Jiang Chen, what do you do? Are you a student too?"

"I guess so," Jiang Chen said. "I'm from Beijing Film Academy, studying acting."

"An actress?!" She nearly choked on her milk. "You? An actress?"

"Doesn't look like it?"

"Now that you mention it, it does look quite similar."

The two had only exchanged a few words when the three teenagers reappeared.

"Your Highness, the competition is about to begin!"

"Coming, coming!" Chen Duling quickly finished the rest of her strawberry milk, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her bag, and said, "Um... this is my club's flyer, it has my QQ number on it. You... if you're free, you can ask me to play games with you!"

She shoved the flyer into Jiang Chen's hand, turned and ran, her bright green wig bouncing in the crowd.

Jiang Chen watched her figure disappear into the crowd, then looked down at the flyer in his hand.

Xiamen Anime & Comics Club, Vice President: Prince Child.

There was also a simple, crooked rabbit drawn after the QQ number, like a primary school student's drawing.

He smiled, folded the flyer, and put it in his pocket.

The aloof and distant superstar known as the campus belle of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in later generations was just an ordinary high school student obsessed with anime and galgames at this moment.

……

In April, willow catkins began to drift in Yanjing (Beijing).

Jiang Chen returned to the Beijing Film Academy and stopped pursuing music.

He started writing screenplays.

In the rented room, Yang Zi sat cross-legged on his bed, holding half a bag of Weilong spicy strips in his hands, his greasy fingers pinching a strip and putting it into his mouth.

"Xiao Chenzi," she asked indistinctly, "what are you writing again?"

Jiang Chen didn't even look up, his keyboard clattering away: "Script."

"A script?" Yang Zi tossed the bag of spicy snacks onto the bedside, sidled over to look at it, and exclaimed, "What script? Let me see!"

"Zimei," Jiang Chen finally looked up and glanced at her, "Can't you go on a date with your boyfriend if you have nothing to do? Is it appropriate for you to hang around here all day? And you should eat less, your face is getting round!"

Yang Zi rolled her eyes: "I don't have a boyfriend. Don't make things up."

She paused, then suddenly realized, "Wait, what did you just say about me?"

"Didn't you notice that your face has gotten rounder?"

"Pah!" Yang Zi grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "You're the one who's gotten fat! I'm a big star, you know! What if someone takes pictures of me like this?"

"So what if they took the picture?" Jiang Chen caught the pillow. "Netizens will say, 'Look how real Yang Zi is, unlike some female celebrities who are as thin as a paper doll from hunger.'"

"You!" Yang Zi jumped off the bed in anger, stomping her feet. "That's just baby fat! Don't you understand?!"

"I understand," Jiang Chen nodded, "Baby fat at twenty."

"I'm only 18, Jiang Chen!"

Yang Zi lunged forward to pinch him, but he held his forehead with one hand, making it impossible for him to reach him.

She struggled for a long time before finally giving up, collapsing back onto the bed breathlessly, and grabbing the pillow back to hug it to her chest.

"I'm not arguing with you anymore," she said breathlessly. "What did you write? Let me see it!"

Jiang Chen didn't stop her.

Yang Zi leaned closer to the computer, squinting as he read the title aloud: "Gu Jian Qi Tan... Isn't this a game?"

"Yes," Jiang Chen said, "I adapted the script from the game."

Yang Zi paused for a moment, then turned to look at him, her expression shifting from curiosity to suspicion: "You write screenplays?"

"no?"

"It's not that it's impossible," she scratched her head, "but you...you're going to film it yourself? You don't have the game's film and television adaptation rights, you don't have money, you don't have a team, and who are you going to hire to act?"

"I have a brilliant plan..."

……