Chapter 30: An Unexpected Celebrity

Wang Jian suddenly felt a surge of anxiety. Although he had indeed saved the child at the time, the thought of online exposure filled him with dread.

If it came out that he hadn’t properly handled the child, or worse, had ignored them entirely, he could face the scorn of the entire internet. His job, too, might be at risk of suspension.

Recalling countless individuals whose careers were derailed by online exposés, Wang Jian’s tension escalated. While a police officer’s salary wasn’t exorbitant, it offered unparalleled stability.

This was a stable job for life, the iron rice bowl he had envisioned for his entire career. To become a police officer, he had dedicated countless sleepless nights, striving to pass the rigorous police academy entrance exams.

“Comrade Wang Jian, are you still with us?” a voice repeated, cutting through his thoughts.

“Ah? Oh, yes, I’m listening,” Wang Jian stammered, jolting back to reality.

“Comrade Wang Jian, I’d like to ask you a few questions,” the delicate-looking female reporter began, raising her microphone towards his lips. “When you helped that child, what were you feeling, and what thoughts were going through your mind?”

At once, other reporters swiftly followed suit, their microphones, a mix of seven or eight different shapes and brands, all converging on him.

The sight of those seven microphones sent a jolt of panic through Wang Jian’s heart. Despite being in his twenties and a grown man, he felt as helpless and bewildered as a child.

Several minutes crawled by before he managed to somewhat calm his frantic emotions. He tried to feign composure, intending to utter a few casual words, yet his restless, darting gaze betrayed the profound nervousness within him.

It was then that his eyes inadvertently landed on Hao Yang.

The carefully prepared words he’d finally gathered in his mind instantly jammed, leaving him utterly speechless.

He looked at the reporters, their microphones poised, awaiting his response. Then his gaze drifted to the child sitting on the iron stool.

Despite his strenuous efforts, he remained utterly unable to speak. A wave of dizziness washed over him, making him feel as though he might collapse at any moment.

“Excuse me, what exactly are you doing here?” A familiar voice cut through the commotion.

Upon hearing it, Wang Jian’s dizzy, muddled mind instantly snapped to full alertness.

Captain Yan, clad in his crisp police uniform, stood with a furrowed brow, addressing the reporters with their microphones and the cameraman.

“We’re here to interview Comrade Wang Jian,” one of the reporters replied to Captain Yan’s query.

“Interview?” Captain Yan scoffed, a hint of disdain in his tone. “What’s there to interview?”

The delicate-looking female reporter then offered a brief explanation for their presence, detailing why they wished to interview Wang Jian. Finally, she pulled up the video on her phone, showing it to Captain Yan.

Captain Yan watched the short video, noting its nearly ten million likes with a sharp jolt in his chest. His gaze flickered to Wang Jian, who appeared visibly tense.

Then, he quickly spotted the child sitting on the iron stool, observing their every move.

“Comrade Wang Jian is not in a suitable state to be interviewed right now,” Captain Yan stated the very next second. “However, I can provide some answers to your questions.”

He then launched into a fluent discourse, speaking as if he were genuinely being interviewed. Yet, Wang Jian noticed Captain Yan continuously signaling him with his eyes, before shifting his gaze to the child, subtly gesturing towards them.

Wang Jian finally understood Captain Yan’s intention. Seizing a moment when the other officers weren’t looking, he walked over to Hao Yang, took her small hand, and swiftly, before the reporters could react, ducked into Captain Yan’s office.

Once inside Captain Yan’s office, Wang Jian finally exhaled a long breath of relief, releasing Hao Yang’s small hand. He then slumped onto the sofa, irritably running a hand through his hair.

“Police Uncle, you’re famous now,” Hao Yang couldn’t help but exclaim. Although she hadn’t actively participated in the earlier scene, she had witnessed it firsthand.

The sight of all those reporters, whom she rarely ever saw, swarming around Officer Wang, desperate for an interview, had been quite a spectacle.

Hearing Hao Yang’s words, Wang Jian glanced at her, unsure how to respond. He simply felt a wave of awkwardness and speechlessness wash over him.

It was then that Wang Jian suddenly recalled the reporter’s mention of the incident trending online. He promptly opened ‘Douyin,’ tapped the search icon, and there, at the top, were the trending topics.

Police Rescue Child Late at Night.

Who is the Officer Who Rescued a Child Late at Night?

Original Video of Police Rescuing Child Late at Night.

Out of ten trending topics, three were directly about him. He was genuinely trending! Wang Jian exited ‘Douyin,’ then opened his browser and initiated another search.

Police Rescue Child Late at Night.

Sure enough, a trending topic concerning him still appeared at the top.

Wang Jian reopened ‘Douyin’ and searched specifically for the trending topic: “Police Rescue Child Late at Night.”

He clicked on the first video, recognizing it as the exact one the delicate-looking female reporter had shown him earlier. He casually glanced at the like count, and his eyelids began to twitch uncontrollably.

Just half an hour ago, this video had boasted over nine million likes. Now, it had astonishingly surpassed ten million!

This was utterly unbelievable; he had never encountered a video with tens of millions of likes, let alone one where he was the central figure.

Hao Yang, equally curious, leaned closer to peer at the content on Wang Jian’s phone. What she saw left her utterly stunned: a staggering ten million likes.

It was simply too incredible to comprehend.

Though she had been listening intently to the reporters’ conversations, she understood that Wang Jian had rescued a child a few days prior, and the video had gone viral online, prompting their visit for an interview.

Yet, she had never imagined the scale of its virality: over ten million likes, hundreds of thousands of comments, and more than a million shares. It was truly beyond belief.

Wang Jian stared blankly at the video, completely lost in thought. He was famous now, undeniably viral across the internet, but whether this was a blessing or a curse, he couldn’t tell.

He then tapped on the comments section, eager to gauge the public’s reaction.

“A salute to the people’s police!”

“With officers like these, our lives as citizens are truly wonderful.”

“I suddenly feel inspired to become a police officer myself, to join their ranks and serve the people.”

Wang Jian scanned these three top comments, each boasting hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of replies.

He had originally intended to simply leave the child to their own devices, to let them fend for themselves. Now, looking at the glowing praises in the comments, Wang Jian found the situation profoundly ironic.