Chapter 552: Most Beautiful Campus Belle Competition! Lu Fan Mobilizes the Entire Group’s Employees to Vote!

Jiang Silu’s face flushed even redder as she lowered her head to shovel rice into her mouth.

During their afternoon classes, Lu Yao constantly refreshed the voting page. Jiang Silu’s votes rose from a dozen or so to several dozen, and then past a hundred. By the time classes ended for the day, she had broken the five-hundred-vote mark and was sitting in third place.

“Silu, you’re in third!” Lu Yao held up her phone to show her.

Jiang Silu took a look. She didn’t say anything, but she felt a flutter of joy. It wasn’t vanity; it was simply the feeling of being acknowledged.

That night, after returning to the dorm, Jiang Silu finished her shower and sat on her bed to towel-dry her hair. Lu Yao stared at her phone, her expression dark.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Silu asked.

“Look,” Lu Yao said, handing over her phone.

On the voting page, the first-place contestant was a girl from the art department named Zhou Yutong. Last night, she only had eight hundred votes. Now, she was past forty thousand. In just one night, her count had surged by over thirty thousand.

“That’s impossible.” Song Miaomiao leaned over to take a look, frowning. “Over thirty thousand votes in one night? How many people are even in the whole school? She’s definitely botting.”

“She definitely used some shady tech.” Lu Yao’s face turned red with anger. “What’s the point of a competition like this? Anyone can bot their way to first place!”

Looking at the number, Jiang Silu felt a bit uncomfortable, but she brushed it off. “Forget it. It’s just a contest, there’s no need to take it so seriously.”

“No way,” Lu Yao retorted indignantly. “Why should they get away with cheating? We worked so hard to canvas for votes, and she overtakes us by this much in a single night?”

Sitting on her bed, Liu Shiting calmly chimed in, “Reporting this kind of thing is useless. She’s definitely using the kind of software that can’t be traced.”

Lu Yao slammed her phone onto the bed in frustration and cursed.

The next afternoon.

Lu Fan arrived. He had Chen He drive him over with several boxes of pastries, dropping him off directly downstairs at Jiang Silu’s dormitory.

When Jiang Silu came downstairs, she saw Lu Fan standing next to the car. He was wearing a light gray jacket and carrying two bags in his hands.

“Dad, why are you here?” she asked, jogging over.

“Just coming to see you,” Lu Fan said cheerfully. “I heard you won an award. Shouldn’t we celebrate?”

Jiang Silu blushed and smiled. “It’s just a second prize, not a first.”

“Second prize is still very impressive.” Lu Fan handed her the bags. “Here are some pastries for your roommates. You can share them.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Jiang Silu took the bags.

Lu Yao came running out of the building. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. “Uncle Lu, you’re here!”

“I’m here,” Lu Fan said with a smile.

Lu Yao hesitated for a moment before speaking up, “Uncle Lu, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” Lu Fan asked.

Lu Yao recounted the incident with the campus belle contest. She detailed everything—from signing Jiang Silu up and watching her votes steadily climb, to the art department girl’s sudden spike of over thirty thousand votes in a single night. She spoke quickly, getting angrier by the second.

“Uncle Lu, do you have any of that shady tech? The kind that can bot votes?” Lu Yao asked.

Beside her, Jiang Silu tugged at Lu Yao’s sleeve and whispered, “Lu Yao, stop. Don’t bother my dad with something this trivial.”

“How is this trivial?” Lu Yao grumbled. “It’s not right for them to manipulate the votes.”

Lu Fan looked at Jiang Silu. “You entered a campus belle contest?”

“Lu Yao signed me up,” Jiang Silu said, her face flushing again. “It’s just for fun, I didn’t take it seriously. Dad, don’t worry about it, you’re so busy with the company.”

“I can’t just ignore it,” Lu Fan said, shaking his head. “Either you don’t participate, or you participate and demand fair competition. If someone is using dirty tricks, then we fight them to the bitter end.”

Jiang Silu was stunned.

Lu Fan took out his phone, scrolled to Jiali’s number, and dialed. The call connected after a single ring.

“Jiali, do something for me,” Lu Fan said evenly. “Silu is participating in a campus belle contest at school, and someone is botting votes. Mobilize all the employees in the group to vote for Silu. Don’t use any shady tech, just cast normal votes. Fair competition.”

“Understood, Mr. Lu,” Jiali replied over the phone.

Hanging up, Lu Fan looked at Jiang Silu and smiled. “Don’t worry. I don’t use dirty tricks; we’re going to win with sheer strength.”

Jiang Silu opened her mouth, not knowing what to say. Her eyes grew red. She lowered her head, her voice slightly choked. “Dad… thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” Lu Fan laughed. “I’m your dad. If I don’t help you, who will I help?”

Lu Yao jumped up and down in excitement. “Uncle Lu, you’re amazing! Let’s see how arrogant that Zhou Yutong can be now!”

Jiali worked fast. Within an hour, every employee of the Lu Fan Group had received a notice. In the group chats of every major department, messages flooded in one after another.

“The Chairman’s daughter is in a campus belle contest! Everyone, please vote for Number 12!”

“Number 12, Jiang Silu from the Jinling University landscape architecture department! Please lend your support!”

“Brothers, just move your fingers and help vote for the Chairman’s daughter!”

“Everyone can cast one vote per day, for seven consecutive days!”

“Share it on your Moments and ask your family and friends to help vote, too!”

Jiang Silu’s votes began to climb. From five hundred to one thousand, from one thousand to five thousand, and from five thousand to ten thousand. The numbers jumped rapidly, changing almost every second.

“Silu, you’re in second place!” Song Miaomiao shouted, holding up her phone.

Over ten minutes later, she shouted again, “Silu, you’re first!”

Jiang Silu leaned over to look. Her votes had already surpassed the girl from the art department, putting her in first place. And the gap was continuing to widen.

Looking at the numbers, Lu Yao was grinning from ear to ear. “Now this is what I call fair competition! What’s thirty-something thousand votes in one night? We got forty thousand in a single day, and they’re all from real people.”

Liu Shiting looked at Jiang Silu with a gentle smile. “Silu, your dad is so good to you.”

Jiang Silu nodded silently. Taking her phone, she opened her chat with Lu Fan and typed a single line: “Dad, thank you.”

After hitting send, she placed her phone on the desk as tears rolled down her cheeks. They weren’t tears of grievance, but of being deeply moved.

That evening, Jiang Yixia called.

“Silu, your dad told me.” Jiang Yixia’s voice came through the phone, carrying a hint of exasperation and a touch of amusement. “He mobilized the entire group to vote for you?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Silu murmured, lying on her bed with a muffled voice. “Mom, do you think Dad is making too big a deal out of this?”

“A little bit,” Jiang Yixia chuckled. “But he’s right. Either you don’t participate, or you participate and demand fair competition.”

“Mom, you aren’t mad, are you?” Jiang Silu asked cautiously.

“Why would I be mad?” Jiang Yixia sighed. “You know how your dad is. That’s just his temper.”

Jiang Silu smiled, feeling genuinely happy.

“Mom, I won an award, and you haven’t even congratulated me yet,” Jiang Silu playfully whined.

“Congratulations, congratulations,” Jiang Yixia said with a smile. “When you come back, Mom will make you something delicious.”

“Okay,” Jiang Silu agreed.

Meanwhile, in the art department’s girls’ dormitory.

Zhou Yutong stared at her phone screen, her face livid. Her vote count was still lingering at just over forty thousand; it hadn’t risen much all day. However, that girl from the landscape architecture department, Jiang Silu, had already broken sixty thousand votes and was still climbing.

“That’s impossible,” she muttered through gritted teeth, refreshing the page.

Jiang Silu’s votes jumped by another few hundred. She picked up her phone and sent a message to the person helping her bot votes: “What’s going on? How did that Jiang Silu suddenly get so many?”

The other party quickly replied: “It looks like real people are voting for her. They aren’t using software.”

Zhou Yutong’s fingers froze over the screen. She tossed her phone onto the bed and leaned back in her chair.

Over the next few days.

Jiang Silu’s votes continued to soar. The employees of the Lu Fan Group voted punctually every day, and some even roped in their friends and family. By the seventh day, when the competition finally ended, Jiang Silu’s vote count stopped at a whopping one hundred and fifty thousand, beating second place by a hundred thousand votes.

In the dorm room, Lu Yao let out a cheer, hugging Jiang Silu and spinning her around.

“Silu, you’re the campus belle! The undisputed campus belle!” Lu Yao laughed.

“Stop talking nonsense,” Jiang Silu said, her face flushed. “It’s all because my dad helped canvas for votes. It’s not like I’m actually that pretty.”

“You are already pretty,” Song Miaomiao said seriously. “The votes might be a numbers game, but your face is the real deal.”

The girls all burst into laughter.

Jiang Silu picked up her phone and sent a message to Lu Fan: “Dad, the competition is over. I won first place. Thank you.”

Lu Fan quickly replied: “You’re welcome. You’re pretty to begin with; I just made sure more people saw it.”

Reading the message, Jiang Silu smiled. She placed her phone by her pillow and lay down.

She thought, “It feels so good to have a dad.”