This overturned some of Wuyue's ingrained beliefs.
In his understanding, whether a novel was good or not, even if prose style wasn't the most important factor, it still ranked very high.
Just as whenever writing was mentioned, people would instinctively think that writing required a certain level of prose skill.
Decades of reading habits had shaped his mindset.
Even if Wuyue felt that the other party's argument made sense, he was still unwilling to fully accept it.
Moreover, he was a novel editor and had his own complete set of standards for judging literary works.
The reason he believed How a Bad Guy Is Made could be signed was not that he agreed with the "simple prose" writing style, but because he felt that aside from its prose, the novel had other strengths. And it was precisely those strengths that attracted him to sign it.
"No matter what, I still think prose is relatively important. Although I believe your How a Bad Guy Is Made is good and meets the standard for signing, if its prose could be taken to the next level, its value would undoubtedly be much greater."
"In principle, I think so too, but…"
Huang Yifan was about to continue, then thought about it and decided to stop.
Novels are among the most artistic forms of literature.
How should a novel be written?
Is prose really that important?
What kind of novel can become popular?
There has never been a standard answer to these questions.
Besides, the other party was an editor.
Even authors can have different ideas from one another, let alone authors and editors.
Naturally, the two of them did not continue discussing the topic of simple prose.
After that, Wuyue went on to explain a few more matters.
"Once we receive your contract, we'll arrange a recommendation for you at an appropriate time. However, I hope you're prepared! Your work is too distinctive and somewhat different from mainstream market styles. Whether it can rise is still unknown."
"And also…"
At this point, Wuyue paused, unsure how to put it.
In fact, although How a Bad Guy Is Made had been signed, it had already been effectively given up on by the editor-in-chief.
The reason it was still signed was merely that the editor-in-chief wanted to use this book as a lesson for himself.
Basically, after signing, this work would get at most one recommendation.
Once that single recommendation was used, Lingdian would no longer continue promoting it.
"And also what?"
"Nothing."
Wuyue suddenly didn't want to tell him the truth anymore.
What was the point of saying it now?
If the other party heard it, his mood would probably be affected.
It was better to let him give it his all over these few days… maybe after the first recommendation, How a Bad Guy Is Made would achieve explosive results and exceed the editor-in-chief's expectations.
But was that possible?
You had to know that the editor-in-chief, Call Me Captain, was Lingdian's gold-medal editor.
And before becoming editor-in-chief, Call Me Captain had been a super platinum author at Lingdian.
His judgment had always been razor-sharp.
Every work that passed through his eyes had never been misjudged.
This How a Bad Guy Is Made felt pretty good to Wuyue and was quite hot-blooded to read, but after being lectured by Call Me Captain, Wuyue also felt that perhaps his own judgment had been too one-sided. Or perhaps it was because his own school experiences were similar to Xie Wendong's in the novel, being bullied by delinquents, so when he read How a Bad Guy Is Made, even though he tried to view it from an editor's perspective, he was too immersed in the story to maintain an entirely fair judgment.
"Just prepare more on your end."
Thinking this, Wuyue swallowed the rest of what he wanted to say.
"Don't worry, Brother Wuyue."
…
The next few days were relatively calm.
At school, Jiang Weiwei didn't really look for trouble with Huang Yifan anymore.
Perhaps it was because Huang Yifan didn't want to bother with her either.
Zhang Huiping, on the other hand, seemed a bit mysterious, as if she was up to something.
But Huang Yifan had no time to worry about that; what he cared about most right now was his novel.
After signing with Lingdian Chinese Web, How a Bad Guy Is Made finally received a recommendation.
A secondary page news recommendation, commonly known as a "mosquito push."
The meaning was that the recommendation was extremely small, so small it could only be described as a mosquito.
However, Huang Yifan didn't complain much.
Newcomers couldn't compare with top-tier authors.
He knew that most new works received this kind of recommendation first.
Filled with anticipation, that evening after a night of self-study, Huang Yifan returned home and immediately logged into the backend to check the data.
900 bookmarks.
In web-novel writing, bookmarks are the foundation of everything. Without bookmarks, there are no subscriptions.
So, before a novel goes paid, bookmarks are almost the best standard for judging whether a novel can become popular.
"Success."
When he saw the number 900, Huang Yifan let out a breath of relief.
Before signing, there had only been 400 bookmarks. Overnight, after getting the recommendation, it increased by 500.
Although Huang Yifan knew this data couldn't compare to the top authors, he also knew that with the power of a text-based recommendation, most novels could only gain around 100 bookmarks in a day.
If the writing wasn't very good, some gained only 20 in a day, or even single digits.
Yet now, How a Bad Guy Is Made had surged by 500 in a single day.
It seemed that simple prose novels really did have a market.
Whether in his previous life or in this world.
Easy-to-understand novels were still loved by many people.
"Are you there?"
Before Huang Yifan could reflect further, Wuyue, his signing editor, sent him a message on TT.
"Yes."
"First of all, congratulations! Your How a Bad Guy Is Made has achieved a good result."
Regarding this result, Wuyue saw further than Huang Yifan and was even more excited.
He knew that text recommendations had a limited effect. Even if a novel was well written, the increase in bookmarks wouldn't be large.
Yet after getting the recommendation, How a Bad Guy Is Made soared and quickly opened up a wide gap from others.
And this was only the first day.
If the first day gained 500 bookmarks, then multiplying by four, the total bookmarks after a week would reach 2,000.
Two thousand bookmarks! This was already enough to qualify for a homepage recommendation.
This indicated that How a Bad Guy Is Made had the potential to become a big hit.
"Thank you."
Huang Yifan expressed his gratitude, but after seeing Wuyue's message, he felt a bit puzzled.
"Brother Wuyue, from what you're saying, it feels like you still have something left unsaid."
"That's right."
"Brother Wuyue, please go on."
"Actually, this matter isn't big, but it's not small either. I believe you also know that your How a Bad Guy Is Made differs greatly from most works in terms of prose."
"I know."
Huang Yifan nodded. "I've looked around Lingdian, most novels have solid prose foundations. A simple prose style like mine is almost nonexistent, and before, on Feilong, there were also criticisms saying my novel reads like it was written by an elementary school student."
"The problem lies with Feilong."
"What happened? Are people on Feilong cursing my novel again?"
"I don't quite know how to put it. You should take a look at Feilong yourself."
…
Following Wuyue's reminder, Huang Yifan logged into the Feilong forum again.
The first post that caught his eye was about 'How a Bad Guy Is Made'.
"Lingdian Chinese Web is getting worse and worse. Even a novel like How a Bad Guy Is Made can get signed."
"Everyone, stop writing on Lingdian. Lingdian is finished."
"Breaking news! The author of How a Bad Guy Is Made is a relative of a Lingdian editor."
"If even a novel like How a Bad Guy Is Made can be signed, then what novel can't be signed?"
Huang Yifan couldn't avoid seeing it even if he wanted to.
On Feilong's web-novel community board, content related to How a Bad Guy Is Made and his novel took up 80% of the screen.
"How is it? Have you seen it?"
A few minutes later, Wuyue sent another message.
"I've seen it."
"What do you think?"
"What else is there to think? I plan to ignore them."
If it were someone else, they might have exploded immediately.
Being cursed for no reason, without offending or insulting anyone, any saint would get angry.
But over these days, Huang Yifan had spent some time on Feilong.
He discovered that most people who casually cursed and attacked others were either newbie authors or people with poor personal qualities.
If you argued with them, they would just drag your intelligence down to their level.
In his previous life, countless top authors were cursed all the time.
It was just that now, the one being cursed had become him.
"Ignore them?"
"Yes."
Huang Yifan nodded. "The more you respond to them, the more happily they'll curse. It's better to just ignore them. Once the heat dies down, they'll latch onto some other topic to attack."
"No, you can't ignore them."
Wuyue sounded a bit anxious. "Under normal circumstances, ignoring them is the right choice, and your thinking is correct. But this time, you must respond."
"Why?"
"Because this involves not only you, but also the website."
"Oh…"
Huang Yifan understood.
"If you don't respond, they'll keep holding onto this topic! They'll say you're an editor's relative, even if they don't mention that, they'll say Lingdian signs works too casually. You know that Lingdian has been competing fiercely with Huanyue and Lianheng recently. Our signing standards have always been strict, which has caused many new authors to fail to get signed. When they saw your novel, they instinctively vented all their anger on you. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying your novel is bad, and I'm not biased against simple-prose novels."
"So the website hopes you can step forward. This is good not only for the website, but also for you."
"All right, I'll write a statement. But I can't guarantee that after they see it, they'll stop cursing."
You could never understand the psychology of trolls. If they wanted to curse you, they would, without needing any reason.
"It's fine. Just post a statement. Don't bother with anything else after that."
…
"What should I write?"
After being cursed by those people, Huang Yifan still felt quite irritated.
He really wanted to rush onto Feilong and fight them for three hundred rounds.
Damn it, what's wrong with simple prose?
What's wrong with poor prose?
Is judging whether a novel is good only about judging its prose?
If that were the case, why even write novels? Just read people's prose directly.
But Huang Yifan knew that he couldn't explain these things clearly.
Literature was far too complex for anyone to fully explain.
Let alone overturning what they had always regarded as common sense.
But if he didn't write that way, then how should he write this statement?
Should he write something like: I swear, I really am not related to any Lingdian editors?
That sounded kind of ridiculous.
How should he write it?
Suddenly, Huang Yifan thought of the story of Hanshan and Shide from history in his previous life.
So, with a stroke of the pen, Huang Yifan wrote a statement that wasn't really a statement.
"When people slander me, deceive me, insult me, mock me, belittle me, despise me, hate me, and cheat me, how should I deal with them?
Just endure them, yield to them, let them be, avoid them, bear with them, respect them, ignore them. Then wait a few years, and you'll see for yourself."
==========
Glossary
1 - Hanshan (Cold Mountain) and Shide (Foundling) are legendary Tang Dynasty Chinese poet-monks, known as Zen (Chan) eccentrics who lived at Guoqing Temple on Tiantai Mountain, often depicted together in paintings as embodiments of nonconformity and spiritual freedom, with Hanshan the poet and Shide the kitchen helper who brought him scraps, embodying wisdom (Manjushri) and compassion (Samantabhadra). Their story, found in Hanshan's poems and folklore, centers on their simple, nature-bound life, defying societal norms with laughter and strange behavior, symbolizing Zen ideals, and famously disappearing mysteriously after their teacher, Fenggan, tried to honor them.
2 - The final chapter verse is a traditional Zen-style aphorism commonly attributed to Hanshan (Cold Mountain), a Tang-dynasty monk-poet, and often paired with his companion Shide. It is not a line from a single canonical text, but a later compiled verse reflecting Chan (Zen) Buddhist philosophy, emphasizing patience, forbearance, and long-term perspective in the face of slander and hostility. In modern China, it is frequently quoted in internet culture, self-cultivation discussions, and motivational contexts to advise restraint rather than confrontation when facing attacks or ridicule.
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