Chapter 309: The Pursuit Plan
After Zhao Yuyan entered the weight loss plan, all her snacks and drinks were confiscated. She was not allowed to eat any greasy food and had to stick to her exercise routine. After her roommates found out about this, they also supervised her fully, watching her 365 degrees in the dorm without any blind spots, not letting her touch any snacks. This was really hard on Zhao Yuyan. And Zhao Yuyan had to go to the gym every day. Her roommates would supervise her. Once they found her sleeping in, they would immediately wake her up.
Zhao Yuyan was in misery, only able to drag her sore body to continue exercising, eating tasteless diet meals. In the past, she could eat anything. She could eat hamburgers and fried chicken every day, but not now. Her roommates had long wanted to cure this lazy Zhao Yuyan. This person always ate snacks, liked to sleep in, was even too lazy to get takeout, and even skipped class to play games at home, skipping for half a month at a time. Now that they had a chance to fix her, they had to do it properly.
And Zhao Yuyan had indeed brought it on herself. Who asked her to be greedy and not love to exercise? Over time, the fat accumulated, and her body naturally expanded. Plus, the success of the animation had made her eat more happily. Now it was good, something had directly gone wrong.
“Yuyan-senpai, persistence is key. If you want to lose weight in a short time and return to your previous image where you could take on commercials, you have to persist. I guarantee that in less than three months, I will return to you a beautiful Air-sensei.”
“I finally understand the difficulties of being a celebrity. This can’t be eaten, that can’t be eaten, all for fear of getting fat! I don’t want to be a celebrity!”
“That won’t do. You’re an idol author. You should learn from Linna. She doesn’t rely on her looks to make a living, and the key is that her physical condition is much better than yours, and she’s not as greedy as you.”
“Wuwuwu, you’re bullying me…”
The fact that Zhao Yuyan had been trying to lose weight recently had also reached Yu Linna’s ears. She just said that she would bring some fruit to see her some other day, to see if she had succeeded in losing weight. Then she entered the manuscript writing stage again, working hard to prepare her manuscript.
…
Time entered June, and it was a new month, but for Yu Linna, it was a bad month. This month, her novel sales still did not pick up, continuing to decline. The anti-hero type novel with horror elements, Demon Child, did not get much love in the market. Not many people would buy it, and even online, not many people bought it to watch.
Why did this novel not sell well? Yu Linna had also thought about it, but had no answer.
The main plot of Demon Child was about an alien baby who landed on Earth and was adopted by a kind person. But as this child grew up, he found that he was different from others. Plus, he had long been subjected to school violence, and his parents’ indifference, his father’s alcoholism, and his mother’s selfishness had all become his childhood. Then, he exploded, using his superpowers to kill the classmates who bullied him, then killing the principal, and then, he wanted to kill the mayor. The whole town was filled with a terrifying atmosphere.
The story sounded very familiar. Yes, she had referred to the story of the superhero Superman, borrowing from it to become her own story, renovating it into a brand new story. It was just that unlike a superhero, his story was about an anti-hero, a bloody and violent young man’s story.
Just in terms of atmosphere rendering, it was already terrifying and scary. Many readers would be scared by the plot when they turned the next page and could only watch it hiding under the covers. And the book also talked about school violence and family indifference, reflecting on the current social situation. Logically speaking, it shouldn’t have such sales. Plus, the setting of Demon Child was eye-catching enough. Many people also evaluated it as the “local version of Superman.” But the extremely dark style, and the bloody and terrifying elements that filled it, made many children stop in their tracks.
Plus, the narrative pace was too flat, the characters’ personality changes were too abrupt, many things were not explained well before the sentimentality began, and they would kill at the drop of a hat, and see blood at the drop of a hat, which was also the reason why many people found it uninteresting.
In the end, the setting was interesting, but the story content was too stiff. Some places were dark for the sake of being dark, some places were healing for the sake of being healing, and some places were violent for the sake of being violent, without character motivation.
When the second volume of the novel was published, the sales were even lower than the previous volume. This was even lower than her short story Promise, and this was a long novel.
Chen Xi had already told her before that she had to finish it within four volumes and start a new book, which was equivalent to cutting this book short. There was no choice. The sales were too low, and continuing to publish would just be a waste of money.
And because of the cut, a lot of content was stuffed into the second volume. Many characters appeared at once and frantically fought for screen time. The pace of the story was obviously accelerated, which made the score of the second volume even lower.
She closed the statistical data on the website. Yu Linna fell into deep thought. As for what to do next, how to create, she was a little lost. This summer, whether she could return to the glory of the end of last year was really an unknown. Her most glorious time was undoubtedly at the end of last year. At that time, she was very glamorous. But who knew, the animated version of Ballad of the Enchantress had ruined everything for her, making her popularity drop overnight. Her creation was also getting less and less smooth, and the novels she wrote were getting worse and worse. Now she didn’t even take on scripts anymore.
“Still thinking about that matter?”
Fang Jiangning patted her shoulder, wanting to comfort her a little. Yu Linna just shook her head.
“It will get better, when I write a better work.”
Yu Linna always said so, but everyone knew that it was not so easy for her to return to her peak.
Many people were laughing at Shion-sensei, saying that she had peaked at her debut, and had fallen from the position of a great god not long after. It was truly ridiculous. Although Shion-sensei was still a great god now, not many people thought she still had a chance to challenge the supreme god, at least not in the next two years.
Compared to Xiao Yanhan, whose career in the same dorm was on the rise, Yu Linna seemed a little out of date. She didn’t even know if she could write a novel comparable to Ballad of the Enchantress in the future.
Speaking of Xiao Yanhan, what had she been busy with recently?
She was busy with her confession.
Since she had decided to do so, Xiao Yanhan was definitely trying her best to think of a way, thinking of how to please her, to confess in a suitable place, and then turn her dearest idol into her dearest baby. She asked Lan Ranyan for her opinion, but Lan Ranyan ignored her. She then went to find Bai Ya, who had experience with a boyfriend. Bai Ya just said that it was her boyfriend who had pursued her, and she didn’t know how to pursue people, but her boyfriend had given her a lot of gifts when he was pursuing her.
So Xiao Yanhan immediately ordered a large snack gift package, and then racked her brains, and went to buy the Blu-ray version of the superhero movie DVD that Yu Linna usually liked to watch. She felt that she had made sufficient preparations.
“I, Xiao Yanhan, can definitely turn my idol into my best girlfriend.”
When she received the express package, she put her hands on her hips, looked up at the sky, and said arrogantly.
The student girl who had signed for her express package looked at her as if she were a fool, handed her the pen, and let her sign so she could leave.
“It’s not that I’m talking about you, Yan, but do you think this will really work?”
Lan Ranyan had just come back from the gym. Seeing her holding so many express packages, she knew what she was thinking at a glance. She made herself a cup of milk and rolled her eyes at her.
“Ranran, this is my secret weapon. With these, I guarantee Linna will like it. She will definitely think I’m a gentle and considerate girl, and maybe she’ll have feelings for me just like that!”
“Seriously, it’s a waste for you not to use this imagination on the theme of your manga. You have time to draw so many suspense and police-themed manga. Why don’t you draw a romance theme, for example, a story about a fool having a crush on a top student?”
Lan Ranyan was very merciless about this. She thought that Xiao Yanhan doing this kind of thing was like a fool. She really couldn’t stand it.
If you have this kind of thought, you might as well read more books and see how others pursue girls.
You are a girl yourself. How can you not understand this reasoning? This was Lan Ranyan’s inner thought.
At this time, Yu Linna was sitting on her bed, chatting with An Xiayue on WeChat. After getting to know An Xiayue, they often chatted on their phones. Coincidentally, An Xiayue was talking about their live-action filming in Africa. She said it was very hot and messy here, and a lion had even bitten the zookeeper’s hand. An Xiayue told her that when filming a scene, they had really let the lion out of its cage to chase their car for a live-action shot. At that time, she was sitting in the car and was almost scared to death. Fortunately, Hu Qing drove fast, otherwise they would have become the lion’s food. And that lion was also locked back in its cage.
For An Xiayue, this pampered young miss had never experienced this kind of thing before, nor had she suffered this kind of hardship. It must have been very hard to film in Africa. She also said that she would definitely come to find her after her scenes were finished.
“Hello! Linna baby!”
Yu Linna was just chatting with her when suddenly a head popped out from under her feet, startling her. It turned out to be Xiao Yanhan, who had climbed onto her bed.
“Yanhan, what are you doing?”
“A gift for you! Ta-da! Look what this is! A large snack gift package I got you!”
“…Thank you. Yanhan, is it some special day today? Did you get a boyfriend? So generous.”
Yu Linna accepted her gift, a little dazed. Xiao Yanhan was usually like a lackey, often helping her buy things, but she wouldn’t suddenly give her a gift like this.
“Go, go, can’t I be happy? If I give a gift, does that mean I must have a boyfriend?”
“You look happy. This large gift package, if I remember correctly, sells for three hundred yuan on a certain Taobao. You’re really willing to spend so much on me. I’ll treat you to a big meal next time.”
“It’s not just this. I have something else for you. Come down.”
“????”
Yu Linna was completely bewildered.
She put away the snacks, got out of bed, and went over with her. Xiao Yanhan took out a collector’s edition DVD.
“Look, the collector’s edition Blu-ray DVD of Infinity War. Good enough, right? It’s for you.”
“…”
“What’s wrong? You don’t like it?”
“Yanhan, do you need my help with something?”
“No.”
“Did you get into trouble?”
“Of course not!”
“Why are you giving me a gift for no reason? Is the weasel paying a New Year’s call to the chicken?”
Xiao Yanhan was at a loss for words. She couldn’t just say it was because she wanted to pursue her that she was giving her gifts, right? If she did, Yu Linna would definitely show a disgusted face.
Lan Ranyan silently watched this scene, turned her head away, out of sight, out of mind.
“I told you it was a foolish act, right? It’s not like you don’t know Linna’s personality.”
