Monday.
Lingdian Chinese Web's editorial department, Group 7, held its regular weekly meeting.
"Let's start our routine company meeting. Everyone, please give feedback on the site's situation over the past week." Said the Group 7 chief editor, Call Me Captain, as he chaired the morning meeting.
"Chief Editor, Wuhen's new book is hugely popular and may be setting another record. There are rumors that Huanyue and Lianheng have privately contacted Wuhen. It's unclear whether he might jump ship to another site." Editor Feiyuan reported.
"Wuhen is Lingdian's flagship author. I believe he won't switch platforms lightly. That said, we can't let our guard down, especially with Huanyue. They recently received capital investment and are financially strong. If they offer an astronomical price, no one can guarantee Wuhen will stay. Still, this isn't something we directly handle. Most of the time, contact with Wuhen is managed by the Editor-in-Chief and upper management."
Even so, 'Call Me Captain' had little control over Wuhen.
Although Wuhen belonged to Group 7, who was he, really?
He was Lingdian's number-one author.
For a figure like that, even a chief editor had no real authority, let alone a regular editor.
"That said." Call Me Captain added, "Feiyuan, you should still maintain close contact with Wuhen privately. Besides money, emotional investment can also be very effective."
"Understood, Chief Editor," Feiyuan nodded.
"Chief Editor, I have a question," another editor, Blue Light, spoke up.
"What is it?"
"Recently, many authors in our group have said that after more than ten years of web fiction development, most innovations have already been exhausted. Quite a few authors admit they've hit a bottleneck, they don't know how to break through, or what else can be innovated."
"This issue was also brought up at the Editor-in-Chief's meeting earlier," Call Me Captain replied calmly.
"For now, we haven't found a particularly effective solution. However, the corporate side may organize several writing exchange sessions, inviting promising authors to discuss ideas together and see if that helps."
After explaining, Call Me Captain turned his attention to Wuyue.
"Wuyue, do you have any issues on your end?"
"I have two," Wuyue answered.
"Oh? Go on."
"The first concerns the newly signed book 'The Way of Heaven'. At the time, my evaluation was that its prose was excellent and that it might achieve modest popularity. However, judging from last week's recommendation performance, the results were poor. I arranged a homepage news recommendation for it. Normally, books in that slot gain at least 1,500 new favorites in a week, but this one gained fewer than 500."
Judging purely by the numbers, that meant the book had flopped.
"I've read 'The Way of Heaven' as well. The prose really is good, very elegant, with a solid literary foundation. But only 500 new favorites is indeed too few. Wuyue, what's your take?"
"I haven't found a major issue yet. Logically speaking, 'The Way of Heaven' shouldn't have performed this poorly. However, I reviewed this year's data across different signed genres. I noticed that established authors' numbers have slightly declined this year, while newcomers with little prior experience have seen a noticeable increase."
"Oh? That's something worth studying. Wuyue, submit your compiled data later."
"Yes, Chief Editor."
"Oh, right," Call Me Captain added, "how did that book you signed last week, 'How a Bad Guy Is Made' perform?"
At this point, he seemed to recall the title.
"That's actually the second issue I wanted to report," Wuyue said.
"Ha, Wuyue, don't take that book too much to heart," Call Me Captain said with a smile. "Editors are human, too. Ideally, we shouldn't judge books purely by personal taste, but that's just theory. No editor is without preferences; I myself like writing with an ancient, classical flavor. So it's fine that you signed 'How a Bad Guy Is Made'. Besides, everyone makes mistakes. Back when I was an editor, I misjudged quite a few decent works myself."
Web fiction was still a relatively new industry, and training an editor required significant time and effort.
So even if Wuyue made a small mistake, Call Me Captain responded with tolerance.
However, what he didn't expect was that after he said this, several editors in the meeting room couldn't help but snicker.
Realizing they were in a meeting, they quickly stifled their laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" Call Me Captain frowned. "Blue Light, Feiyuan, just because I wasn't talking about you, you think it's funny?"
He felt slightly annoyed. Maybe he'd been too easygoing, too lenient, and even a leader lost authority.
"Uh, Chief Editor, it's not what you think," Feiyuan said awkwardly, quickly explaining. "Chief Editor, have you not been following 'How a Bad Guy Is Made' recently? Oh! Right, you were on a business trip this week, so it's normal that you didn't notice. Let Wuyue explain."
"Wuyue, what's going on?"
"Chief Editor, after we signed 'How a Bad Guy Is Made', I arranged a trial recommendation, a second-level page text recommendation. The exposure was minimal, and the position wasn't great. But over the past week, the book's favorites count surged by 3,000."
"What?"
Call Me Captain thought he'd misheard. "Wuyue, what did you say?"
"You're saying it gained 3,000 favorites in one week? That's impossible."
A weekly increase of 3,000 favorites was unheard of for a second-level text recommendation. Even some homepage image recommendations couldn't achieve that. Only large campaigns, such as Sanjiang recommendations or cover-feature promotions, had that kind of power.
Call Me Captain asked again, incredulous.
"I know the number sounds exaggerated. When I first compiled the data, I also thought it was impossible. But I checked the backend, and everything is normal. The growth curve is steady, ruling out artificial inflation. Also, the book's review section gained over 1,000 new posts this week alone, which further confirms the data's authenticity."
"Are you sure, Wuyue?"
At this point, Call Me Captain genuinely didn't know how to continue the meeting.
Moments earlier, he'd been saying Wuyue had misjudged and signed a noob-style novel.
Yet now, that very noob-style novel had pulled off a complete turnaround.
"All right," he said after a pause. "I'll study this book myself later. Since its performance isn't inflated, it must have merits we haven't fully recognized yet. Wuyue, continue to closely follow this new title. Also, for this week's recommendations, increase its exposure, give it a homepage recommendation, and see how it performs. Does anyone else have questions? If not, meeting adjourned."
Suppressing his complicated emotions, Call Me Captain brought the meeting to an end.
==========
Glossary
1 - The Sanjiang recommendation is a top-tier promotional slot on Chinese web-novel platforms, most famously associated with Qidian. It is a highly selective, front-page–level recommendation typically reserved for promising new works and is considered a major milestone for authors. A Sanjiang placement can generate explosive growth in views, bookmarks, and discussion, often far beyond what normal text or secondary-page recommendations can achieve. Because of its prestige and impact, it is frequently mentioned alongside cover-feature promotions as one of the few campaigns capable of dramatically changing a novel's trajectory.
==========
Support the translation and help me keep the work.
patreon.com/Childish_Patriarch