Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 135 Snack Street

The next afternoon, Luo Jinnian stood at the school gate waiting for Gu Yanxi to finish school. After the bell rang, students in school uniforms walked out of the corridor one after another. Gu Yanxi strolled slowly out of the crowd, her schoolbag strap slung over only one shoulder, her other hand in her pocket. When she reached the door, she glanced at him: "Why are you so early?" Luo Jinnian said, "We made plans to go to the snack street, remember?"

Gu Yanxi said "Oh" without saying anything more, then pulled the other backpack strap onto her shoulder and walked with him to the bus stop.

Chu Qingning was already waiting at the bus stop, holding three bottles of water. She handed one to each of them and kept one for herself, taking a sip. "Where's Sister Yuxi? Isn't she coming?" Luo Jinnian took out his phone and glanced at it. Fei Yuxi had sent a message ten minutes ago: "I'm already over there. Let me know when you get there." Luo Jinnian turned his phone screen to show them. Chu Qingning nodded, while Gu Yanxi took a sip of water, not looking at the screen, her gaze fixed on the bus slowly approaching in the distance.

The bus swayed for about twenty minutes, and by the time we arrived at the station, the sky was already beginning to set. The food street was located on a newly renovated old street paved with bluestone slabs. On both sides were two-story buildings in an antique style, with shops on the ground floor and residences or warehouses on the second floor. Evening was the busiest time for this street, as stalls were gradually set up. The sounds of oil sizzling on the hot griddles, the clanging of spatulas, and the vendors' calls to customers mingled together, echoing and dispersing in the narrow alley.

Fei Yuxi stood under an old locust tree at the street corner, wearing a light blue light jacket and with her hair tied in a ponytail. The moment she saw them, she waved to them and then smiled slightly at Luo Jinnian, who was walking ahead.

Luo Jinnian walked over and stopped in front of her: "Have you been waiting long?" Fei Yuxi said, "I just arrived," and then her gaze went over his shoulder and landed on the two girls behind him. "Let's go, I can smell the barbecue skewers."

The food street was laid out in a T-shape, with food stalls lining both sides of the main road. The variety was richer than Luo Jinnian remembered, with grilled skewers, spicy hot pot, fried chicken strips, grilled squid, takoyaki, candied hawthorn, and an old shop selling handmade plum juice. He walked in front, Fei Yuxi and Gu Yanxi followed side by side behind him, and Chu Qingning walked at the very back, taking pictures of the street scene with her phone. She wasn't taking pictures of the stalls, but of the lettering on the signs and the reflections of the lights on the cobblestones, as if she was silently checking something in her mind.

The four of them stopped in front of a barbecue stall. The stall owner, a middle-aged woman, deftly placed the skewered meat on the hot griddle and flipped it over. The oil on the griddle danced in the high heat, filling the air with a fragrant aroma. Luo Jinnian ordered a few skewers of lamb and chicken wings. Fei Yuxi peeked at the stall and then added a skewer of grilled gluten and two skewers of potato slices. Gu Yanxi said, "I want that rice cake." Chu Qingning thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll have a skewer of rice cake too."

The skewers were still hot when she held them in her hand. Fei Yuxi blew on them twice before taking a bite, then squinted her eyes and said, "Delicious, better than the old snack street." Luo Jinnian took a bite of a chicken wing and said, "That's because you haven't eaten for too long and you're hungry." Fei Yuxi glanced at him, didn't refute him, and took another bite.

They ate as they walked, passing a takoyaki stall. Luo Jinnian glanced at the sign and slowed his pace, but no one said they would stop. Gu Yanxi turned her head and glanced at him, taking in his gaze without saying a word.

At the end of the T-junction, there was a stall selling handmade ice jelly. Luo Jinnian stopped and ordered a bowl for everyone. When the stall owner added the toppings, he asked if they wanted an extra spoonful of brown sugar. Fei Yuxi said "yes," Gu Yanxi said "no sugar, just fruit," and Chu Qingning thought for a moment and said, "I'll have the same as him." Luo Jinnian carried the ice jelly to a long table next to them and sat down. The group sat together, enjoying the evening breeze and eating the translucent ice jelly sprinkled with crushed peanuts and raisins.

Fei Yuxi took a bite, looked up at the streetlights gradually lighting up in the distance, and said softly, "I used to think that Xinjie wouldn't have this flavor, but I didn't expect it to still be there." Chu Qingning buried her head in her ice jelly and replied in a muffled voice, "Because its location has changed, but the shops are still the same, so the taste must be the same."

Fei Yuxi's lips curved slightly as she finished the remaining half bowl of ice jelly, placed it on the table, and turned to look at Luo Jinnian sitting in the chair next to her.

Luo Jinnian was also looking at the lights that had come on in the distance. The row of lights stretched along the street, and the warm yellow light shone through each window, spreading across the stone pavement like a slowly flowing river.

Fei Yuxi spoke softly, "Will you come again next time?" Luo Jinnian turned his gaze back to her and said, "Yes."

"It's not far from the school, so I can come whenever I have time on weekends." Fei Yuxi nodded: "Then I'll come next time too."

Gu Yanxi didn't say anything. She finished the last bite of the ice jelly and put the empty bowl back on the table.

A gentle evening breeze blew in from the alleyway, ruffling the stray hairs on her forehead. She tucked her hair behind her ear, stood up, and said, "Let's go, it's getting dark."

Luo Jinnian stood up, and Chu Qingning followed, walking in the middle. Gu Yanxi and Fei Yuxi walked behind, about an arm's length apart, neither too close nor too far, leaving just enough space for each of them.

The time spent together is always beautiful yet fleeting.

A month after the airing of "Low IQ Crime", the comments section was quite different from other works by Early Spring Culture.

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The comment sections of those suspense dramas are mostly filled with long reviews, analysis posts, and plot breakdowns; you can find in-depth interpretations of tens of thousands of words by flipping through a few pages.

In the comments section of "Low IQ Crime", the top short reviews all praise the show's humorous style in its multi-narrative structure.

Luo Jinnian saw these comments during a break in the filming of "The Magpie Murder Case".

He sat on a folding chair next to the set, scrolled through the comments section for a while, then put down his phone and looked at Zhang Li, who was adjusting the lighting in the distance. Zhang Li was bending over and gesturing something next to the camera. Light shone from his side and behind, casting his slightly hunched profile in front of the monitor onto the wall of the set.

Several comments repeatedly discussed the same detail: the few seconds Ye Jun hesitated at the gold shop entrance. "A character who was foolish throughout the entire series made a not-so-foolish decision at the last moment."

That comment said that the author probably didn't think too much when writing that detail; they just felt that Ye Jun should be touched by something at some point, not become smarter, otherwise the character wouldn't fit.

Luo Jinnian wasn't sure if this approach was right or wrong for the audience, but he knew that in that instant, Ye Jun gained some additional weight beyond being synonymous with "stupid" and "humorous."

One statistic was more significant than he had anticipated. The platform's analysis report showed a marked difference in audience demographics between *Low IQ Crime* and Early Spring Culture's previous works—the proportion of female viewers was nearly 20% higher than for suspense dramas, and the student demographic was also more prevalent, with many viewers commenting, "I watched this show with my mom." These two groups did not entirely overlap with the core audience of previous suspense dramas.

Zhao Bo called one weekend. He had just come from the editing room, his voice weary from a long day in the studio. "Recently, some people online have been comparing *Low IQ Crime* and *Crazy Stone*, saying both are comedies about fools." Luo Jinnian asked, "What do you think?" Zhao Bo thought for a moment, "I think they're different. In *Crazy Stone*, everyone's luck was just one step off, while in this one, one person's luck is bad throughout the entire film. Their foolishness is different in its way, and their final moments are different too." Luo Jinnian didn't refute him. He thought about Zhao Bo's words and felt that he was indeed right. "The foolishness in *Low IQ Crime* isn't just something added to the characters' personalities; it's ingrained in the very bones of every character."

During that period, some new directions of discussion began to emerge in the industry. Some interpreted the emergence of "Low IQ Crime" as "Early Spring Culture starting to expand its product line," seeing Early Spring Culture as a brand that could accommodate multiple styles, rather than a single brand that only produced suspense dramas. "Suspense dramas and comedy dramas are two completely different tracks," they wrote in an article. "The former grabs the audience with suspense and a sense of oppression, while the latter retains the audience with pacing and a sense of resonance. Content companies that can stand firm in both tracks at the same time are rare in the domestic market."

Luo Jinnian felt that the phrase "two tracks" in that sentence should be changed to "multiple tracks," and then a parenthesis should be added after it, which read: "The level of detail of each track needs to be checked regularly."

On Sunday afternoon, Luo Jinnian passed by the old bookstore near the school gate and saw a poster for "Low IQ Crime" in the glass window. It wasn't a formal, official poster; the bookstore owner had printed it out on his computer and pasted it on the inside of the window, next to a stack of back issues of "Story Club," covers facing outwards, the top one's corners slightly curled. He paused in front of the window but didn't go in, continuing on his way.

"What are you thinking about?"

A ghostly girl appeared, her hands behind her back, leaning forward with curious eyes fixed on Luo Jinnian.

"I miss you," Luo Jinnian said, suddenly struck by a sudden inspiration.

Fei Yuxi liked the answer. She took the boy's hand and said, "Let's go together."

"Where to?"

"I'll go wherever I end up."