The Family-Run Fan Sites

The forum buzz had come full circle, affecting both of them.

As expected, people always look better by comparison. Surrounded by a bunch of misfits and only a handful of trainees with ‘regular features’, it was easy to imagine how Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu were being hailed as celestial beings—after all, theirs were faces that no one could find fault with.

Ling Tinglan, an avid internet surfer, had been secretly scrolling through the forum on his alt-account, cackling at the posts.

‘Being handsome feels this good? I’ve never been praised so much in my life that I feel embarrassed. Hehehe.’

Of course, the most discussed topics on the forum were still the hot picks from the big companies. There had been plenty of pre-show marketing since the preparation stage.

These two nobodies, who had no prior buzz, were only being brought up because their official photos looked good. They were just being used as tools to compare appearances. In reality, their popularity couldn’t even compare to those big shots.

But even so, it made the two of them very happy.

“What the—!”

Suddenly, Ling Tinglan held up his phone in astonishment, as if he had discovered something incredible. “We both have fansites now?!”

“Huh?”

“What fansites?”

Jiao Wangshu was equally incredulous. He had followed celebrities before, so of course he knew what fansites and fansite masters were. He just never thought he would one day receive that kind of ‘star treatment’.

He leaned over to look. Sure enough, two opening posts appeared one after another on the screen, whether by coincidence or the platform’s layout.

Jiao Wangshu’s site was called “Bright as the Moon”, and Ling Tinglan’s was “Clear as a Spring”. Aside from that, the names were quite catchy, weren’t they?

“It really is true.”

Jiao Wangshu clicked into the homepage of both sites. There wasn’t much content—just an opening announcement, each accompanied by a candid shot of them heading to the set for their official photos.

—Wait!

They had only found out one day in advance that they needed to take those photos. Where had the fansite masters been lurking to snap them? They hadn’t noticed a thing.

“No wonder they say fansite masters are like special forces. The angle was practically right in our faces, and neither of us noticed.”

As the two marveled, Fu Donghai came over holding a cup of instant noodles.

“What are you two looking at?”

Perhaps because the biggest breach-of-contract crisis had passed, Fu Donghai, who had looked haggard and thin, had visibly perked up these days. The steaming noodles puffed up his round face, making him look radiant.

He glanced at the phone. “You saw them as soon as I posted them?”

“Those are the fansites I set up for you.”

“Huh?”

Ling Tinglan and Jiao Wangshu were stunned. There was such an operation?

“So it was all for nothing,” Ling Tinglan pouted. “Uncle, didn’t you say we were just here as fillers and would slip away? Why set up fansites and make it so formal?”

Fu Donghai rubbed his hands together. “My dear nephews, let me ask you a question, okay?”

“Do you want to be famous?”

“What does that mean?” Ling Tinglan was puzzled. “We aren’t debuting, so how can we be famous?”

Before Fu Donghai could explain, Jiao Wangshu instantly caught on.

“I think Uncle Donghai means we should first get some recognition on the show. After we’re eliminated, we’ll go back to the company and keep working. Treat ‘Super Star’ as a springboard into the entertainment industry.”

Fu Donghai nodded. “Exactly! That’s it!”

“So that’s it…” Ling Tinglan looked a bit worried. “That’s not impossible. Jobs are so hard to find now. Besides, I haven’t even secured an offer from the fall campus recruitment yet.”

Mentioning that made him want to sigh. The job market was terrible; he couldn’t find a job anyway. And now his uncle’s company had gone bankrupt, drowning in debt. They didn’t even know when they could pay it off. The already bad situation had gotten even worse.

“That’s why I’ve been thinking for several nights, and finally came up with a plan—”

Fu Donghai was decisive. “You need to become famous.”

“Only by becoming famous will you have influence. Then you can take gigs, start livestreaming—the prospects are huge.”

“Then why did you teach us to avoid the cameras? And told us to get eliminated in the first round?”

Ling Tinglan was increasingly baffled by his uncle’s mysterious way of thinking.

“Oh, what do you know?” Fu Donghai explained. “The debut slots were already divided before the show even started recording. And it’s not just us who want to be famous. Small fry like us can’t afford to make enemies. Just getting some face time is enough.”

He said this with great confidence. “Besides, with faces like yours, even a second of screen time will make you famous! Look, people on the forum are already talking about you. Fame is just around the corner. Even if you’ve never practiced singing or dancing a day in your life, it doesn’t matter. You’ll get eliminated early, come home, and become ‘handsome livestreamers’ with me!”

“So after all that brainstorming, this is the only solution you came up with?”

Jiao Wangshu was completely at a loss after hearing his idea.

Fu Donghai waved his hand helplessly. “I’m forced into this, aren’t I? Other trainees at least have a fansite master. You two have nothing. I just set up your fan clubs and support groups.”

“Wait, where did we get fans to form groups?” Ling Tinglan spotted the flaw.

“I hired two group moderators.”

“Huh?”

Fu Donghai shrugged. “What’s so surprising? Think about it. You were complete nobodies. Even your own uncle didn’t think you two could replace those ingrates as trainees for the show.”

“You’ve never been in the public eye. Even if a fansite master wanted to open a site for you, they’d have to know you first. So there was no choice but for me to do it myself.”

He was proud of his operation. “I specially studied under the big fansite masters in the entertainment circle. Based on my observations, most of them use long, high-end English names that I can’t even understand. So I took a different route—classic and poetic!”

What kind of ancient-style rising star was this?

Ling Tinglan was speechless. Jiao Wangshu was silent.

Never in their wildest dreams did they think their first fansites would come from their own uncle. This was a literal family-run site.

No wonder the angle was so close. It was literally right in their faces.

“Uncle Donghai, maybe you should go back to studying?”

Jiao Wangshu pointed at his photos, frustrated. “These two pictures have the exact same style. You didn’t even add a filter. And the angle is so ‘exclusive’—won’t people find you out immediately?”

Different fansites have different styles. Many fansite masters become famous for their unique photo styles, sometimes even gaining fame outside the fandom.

Although Jiao Wangshu had never been a fansite master himself when he seriously followed celebrities, his following list was full of them.

“You can’t do it like this.”

He took the phone and quickly deleted both opening posts. Luckily, they had no followers yet. Apart from someone like Ling Tinglan who was always online, probably few had seen them.

Then he opened a photo-editing app. He blurred it, cropped it, adjusted lighting, contrast, desaturation, applied a filter, and stacked two more filters. In an instant, the ordinary candid shot transformed into a standard, atmospheric fansite photo.

But he wasn’t done. Jiao Wangshu opened the other photo and repeated the process, but this time the resulting style and feeling were completely different.

If the first photo was cool and ethereal, like the moon incarnate, perfectly matching the image of a ‘white moonlight’, the one he made for Ling Tinglan was sharper—like a turbulent wave, like sea fog—a deep, watery chill pressing down.

“Like this, and then… that’s it?”

Such a few simple steps brought such a big change, leaving Fu Donghai bewildered.

Jiao Wangshu shrugged it off. “It’s standard stuff. From now on, I’ll run these two fansites. Uncle Donghai, you just take the photos and send them to me.”

“Will that work?”

Fu Donghai looked a bit discouraged. “My photography skills are limited to capturing a human figure.”

Jiao Wangshu patted his chest. “Don’t worry, I can fix it.”