"The ghost story you wrote wasn't copied, right?"
Her desk mate tugged lightly at the corner of his clothes again.
Zhang Huiping asked softly.
"No, it was copied."
"I don't believe you."
"Believe it or not, it's up to you."
After being stirred up by Jiang Weiwei earlier, Huang Yifan was in low spirits and replied casually.
Perhaps his tone irritated Zhang Huiping, already somewhat insecure, so she lowered her head again. "Sorry."
"Why are you apologizing again?"
"Because all of this is because of me. I was the one who wanted to read the ghost story you wrote, so you wrote it for me. You also told me not to tell Weiwei, but I still did. In the end, because of me, you were called in by Teacher Lin for a lecture. Even Weiwei misunderstands you because of me."
"Stop! None of this has anything to do with you. Also, Teacher Lin really didn't lecture me just now; she was just chatting with me. As for Jiang Weiwei misunderstanding me, hehe, I really don't care about that proud little peacock."
"Then… can you not blame Weiwei?"
"Why are you speaking up for her?"
"Because Weiwei is my good friend. And actually, she's not like what you think, she just likes…"
Jiang Weiwei and Zhang Huiping were truly two extremes.
One was so proud that she felt the whole world revolved around her.
The other was innocent and kind, but lacking in confidence.
"Alright, I promise I won't blame Weiwei."
Although Huang Yifan wasn't fond of Jiang Weiwei, he wasn't narrow-minded either.
Besides, having lived two lives, he viewed all this lightly.
…
Another day of classes ended, and after evening self-study, Huang Yifan returned home.
Naturally, the first thing he did upon getting home was type.
Although ninth grade wasn't as intense as twelfth grade, there was still the pressure of the entrance exam.
At school, Huang Yifan had no time to type. Only after evening self-study could he squeeze out some time.
He quickly typed three more chapters, then entered the backend to check his favorites.
150.
Based on yesterday's 40 favorites, it had increased by another 110.
That meant that within 24 hours, another 110 people had followed and were reading Bad Guy.
This result filled Huang Yifan with confidence.
Yesterday, he had specifically looked it up. On Lingdian Chinese Web, most new books, without contracts, recommendations, or ads, only gained 10-20 favorites a day; gaining 30-50 already counts as having great potential. As for gaining more than 50, most novels would see a small boom.
Today alone, it gained 110.
This already proved that Bad Guy was actually quite good.
You have a new message, please check.
The mail icon in the top-right corner of the backend suddenly flashed, reminding Huang Yifan.
He'd been so focused on checking favorites that he forgot to look at new messages.
Moving the mouse to the top-right message window, Huang Yifan felt a bit excited.
If nothing unexpected happened, this message was very likely a contract notification.
He clicked it to open the email.
[Your work has been submitted for contract signing. Please add your editor, Wuyue, TT ID: ****.]
Signed.
It was actually signed.
After being heavily criticized on Feilong, Huang Yifan had always thought it might not get signed.
Or even if it did, it would probably take writing hundreds of thousands of words first.
He hadn't expected that right after reaching 20,000 words, a contract message would arrive.
It seemed Lingdian's editors really did have professional judgment.
Even with Feilong full of criticism, Lingdian's editors still chose to submit a contract to him.
Suppressing his excitement, Huang Yifan logged into TT and sent a friend request to Wuyue.
Just after sending it, the other side accepted almost immediately.
This pleasantly surprised Huang Yifan, and he quickly sent Wuyue a message.
"Hello, Wuyue. I'm the Number One White Under Heaven. I didn't expect you to still be online this late."
"Heh, editors are night owls, we usually sleep late. We've read your work, and it's well written. We think it can be signed, I'll send you a contract for you to take a look first."
"Okay."
Huang Yifan received the file Wuyue sent and opened it. It was a revenue-sharing contract. That meant once the novel generated income, the platform would split it with him at a 50-50 ratio, the other terms were basically the same as contracts from other novel sites in his previous life.
"I've read the contract, no problems."
In truth, Huang Yifan didn't read it carefully, just skimmed it. But he knew that contracts like this applied to over 90% of Lingdian's authors. In other words, everyone signed the same contract, whether he read it closely or not made no difference. As for wanting to modify the contract or negotiate terms… Sorry, wait until you become a top-tier author.
"Alright! Then print out this file, two copies, and mail them to our website at this address."
"Got it."
They quickly wrapped up the contractual matters.
"Oh right, let me ask, how did you come up with writing in this style?"
After finishing the contract discussion, Wuyue asked about Bad Guy.
"Do you mean the genre, or the prose style?"
"Mainly the prose."
"Hehe, Wuyue, you mean why I chose to write noob-style fiction, right?"
Guessing Wuyue's meaning, Huang Yifan said so.
"How should I put it… I think noob-style fiction is actually pretty good, relaxed, and most importantly, easy to understand. Of course, other authors might not approve, and some readers might not like it either. But I believe this style definitely has its market."
"Seems you're very confident."
"At first, I had doubts too, especially with so many people on Feilong criticizing my book. But the more they criticized it, the more I realized that noob-style fiction actually has a huge market."
"Why do you say that?"
"It's actually very simple, Wuyue. I'm sure you've read the Four Great Classics, right?"
"I have."
"Then which one do you think is the most popular and the most enjoyable to read?"
"Journey to the East."
Huang Yifan nodded. "That's what I think too."
In this world, the Four Great Classics were Romance of the Warring States, The Tale of Waguan, Journey to the East, and Nine Cloud Dream.
These past few days, since classes were unbearably boring, Huang Yifan had finished reading the other three as well.
Overall, he felt Romance of the Warring States was too historical, The Tale of Waguan too serious, and Nine Cloud Dream far too artistic. Most people couldn't understand it at all. Only Journey to the East was the most enjoyable and the most popular among Huaguo's people. Even children could casually talk about many of its plot points.
"But Wuyue, while you feel Journey to the East is the best to read, have you noticed that compared to the other three, it's also the most 'noob'?"
"The most noob?"
On the other side of the screen, Wuyue was a bit stunned by Huang Yifan's thinking.
Was Journey to the East noob-like?
He had never considered that question before.
How could one even think of it that way?
Journey to the East was one of the Four Great Classics, the most famous of them, and the one with the most readers.
Who would dare say Journey to the East was noob-style?
But after Huang Yifan put it that way, Wuyue really did compare them.
And after comparing, the result shocked him.
Journey to the East really was the most noob-like. Setting aside the many simplistic or even illogical elements in its plot, its prose alone was far inferior to Romance of the Warring States, and even more so compared to Nine Cloud Dream. Not only that, compared with other classical novels, the prose of Journey to the East didn't rank highly either. Many classical operas had prose that utterly surpassed Journey to the East.
Yet why was Journey to the East the most popular novel among the Four Great Classics?
Could it really be, as the other party said, because Journey to the East was written in the most noob-like style?
==========
Glossary
1 - In real-world Chinese literature, the Four Great Classics are: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber. However, in the parallel world of this novel, the canon is different. Instead, they are replaced by Romance of the Warring States, The Tale of Waguan, Journey to the East, and Nine Cloud Dream, which serve the same cultural role as foundational classics but reflect an alternate literary history.
==========
Support the translation and help me keep the work.
patreon.com/Childish_Patriarch