Chapter 63: When Followers Rise Faster Than the Sun
"That’s it! I usually follow a ten-step skincare routine, but if you think that’s too much, you can always skip a few steps," I said brightly, smiling as I waved at the camera. "See you again for my daytime skincare routine!"
Before posting, I quickly typed out a caption: "If I get 15k followers, I’ll dress up as a dragon with my cats."
Honestly, I was only joking when I wrote that. I mean ... let’s be real, most people would probably be more interested if a grown woman said she wanted to dress up as a sexy cat lady, not a dragon.
But still, it was worth a try. And if my little joke-bait didn’t work, that was fine too because getting four thousand more followers didn’t seem like such a difficult thing. I still had two days left, after all.
I stretched my arms above my head after uploading the video, then scooped up Lingo and Luna. Too lazy to take them back to the unfinished cat room, I just let them curl up on my bed. The moment my head touched the pillow, I was out like a light.
When I woke up, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. I had forgotten to switch it to night mode. At first, I thought someone was calling me nonstop, but when I picked it up, my screen was flooded with endless notifications from Zentra+.
Not long after that, I also received a notification from Penny.
[Congratulations, Host! You have successfully completed your mission: Gain 10k followers on Zentra+!]
[Reward: $6,000 has been credited to your account.]
[Bonus: $15,000 has been credited to your account.]
[Remaining Balance: $113,915]
My whole body froze. Then, in the next second, I jumped up and stood on top of my bed with my phone clutched in my hands. My eyes went wide, and I didn’t even blink. For a moment, I honestly thought I was seeing things.
20,000 followers.
I had gained two thousand followers in just a few hours! And it wasn’t even noon yet, it was only seven in the morning, but My skincare routine video had already crossed one million views, and the number just kept climbing higher and higher!
"What the hell ...?" I whispered, my heart racing. "How can someone like me get this many followers?!"
It had only been three days since I first made the account. Three days! There was no way this should even be possible.
I swore I hadn’t told Lando anything about it, so there was no way he could have secretly boosted my videos. Besides, Penny would have flagged me as a cheater if he had helped, right?
[You’re right, Host.]
[You reached 20k followers thanks to the natural algorithm. Lando has nothing to do with it.]
Still standing on my bed, I quickly scrolled down to the comments section—my hands trembling with excitement—and there they were. Hundreds, no, thousands of comments.
Almost all of them was positive comments about me, but also about my cats.
[Okay but ... the cats are cute, sure. Still, the owner? She’s even cuter!]
[I can’t get over how beautiful she is! Like, how does someone look this good while just doing skincare??]
[She doesn’t just have pretty looks, but her vibe is so bright and warm! I feel happy just watching her <3]
[The cats are lucky to have such a lovely mom]
Not only that, people also started talking about the dragon costume I had mentioned in the caption.
[Forget cat lady, I’m here for DRAGON QUEEN HELCIA!]
[15k followers? Say less. Everyone follow NOW, I need to see this dragon photoshoot.]
[Girl, don’t joke about this, you’d actually slay as a dragon!]
I honestly couldn’t believe my silly joke had actually pushed people to follow my account. Sure, there were also a few who hated me, saying my personality was annoying or "too much," but hey! We can’t expect everyone to like us, right?
Besides, the hate comments I used to get before were far crueler than these ones, so I just ignored them and replied to as many positive comments as I could.
When my followers suddenly jumped to 21k, I screamed so loud and started bouncing on my bed like a child who had just gotten candy.
Apparently, I was too loud, because I made people panic. Henry even rushed to my door and knocked furiously.
"Young Madam! Is something wrong?!" His voice sounded alarmed. "I’ll break down the door if I have to!"
Before Henry could actually damage my door, I quickly jumped off the bed and opened it. "No, no, I’m sorry!" I blurted out, waving my hands in panic. "Nothing bad happened, I was just celebrating something!"
Henry took a deep breath and let out a long sigh of relief. After a moment, he asked, "Then what made you scream first thing in the morning, Young Madam?"
I lowered my gaze and noticed his hair was still messy, and his clothes weren’t even properly buttoned, which told me just how badly I’d startled him.
But wait ... how did he get here so fast? Was his room right next to mine or something?
"I just hit twenty thousand followers on Zentra+!" I squealed, shoving my phone right up to his face with a huge grin. "Can you believe it?! Three days, Henry! I’ve only been posting for three days! We should celebrate this!"
"Zentra?" Henry raised one eyebrow, his expression caught somewhere between confusion and amusement. "I had no idea you wanted to be a celebrity there."
"Celebrity on Zentra?" I laughed, waving my hands. "Oh, no. I just want people to know me a little before I try to become a real celebrity." I grinned. "So ... should we invite Young Master to eat cake with us?"
"Ah, unfortunately, Young Master left before sunrise," Henry said with a small shake of his head. "He’ll probably return late tonight."
"What?" My smile dropped. "Why did he leave so early? We only got home at midnight yesterday."
Henry cleared his throat. "I heard you went to the beach with Young Master last night."
"Yes! We went to Azure Beach, ate seafood, and then walked along the shore ...."
I told Henry the whole story of our trip to the beach yesterday, but carefully left out the part about the stray kids who insulted my husband.
When I finished, Henry gave me a gentle smile. "I’m glad you had fun, Young Madam. But ... it would be better if you didn’t stay out too late. You can’t trust young men these days."
I blinked, staring at him in disbelief. Then I said slowly, "Henry ... you do realize that ... Mr. Brixton is my husband, right?"