Chapter 253: Online Public Opinion
October, another new beginning, and this month also brought good news. Shion-sensei’s novels, for the first time, had two volumes released simultaneously this month. On this day, major bookstores across the country were packed, with long queues of people wanting to buy her novels. Some clever people had pre-ordered online long ago and had already received their copies.
In the history of Wenqing, there had never been an author who was responsible for both the novel’s illustrations and had two books published in the same month. Shion-sensei’s publication of two volumes this time set a new record, one that would remain unbroken for a long time.
More importantly, Shion-sensei also posted a Weibo, saying that if conditions and time allowed in the future, she would try to publish two volumes of her novels simultaneously every month. When this news was released, the fans exploded, spreading the news to each other. Such a diligent author, with powerful updates, beautiful illustrations, and excellent writing, where could you find someone like that? It was really too hard to find. The readers shed tears of emotion.
And at this time, as a fellow author, Air-sensei was inevitably brought out for comparison. Compared to the diligently updating Shion-sensei, Air-sensei’s update speed was indeed too slow. Although the novels she wrote were also very good, and she would publish short stories when not publishing The Rich Man’s Game, it always gave people a feeling of being perfunctory.
In the past, Air-sensei was the pillar of Wenqing, a god-tier author, and Shion-sensei was still a newcomer, so no one could say much. But now, Shion-sensei had caught up, her status the same as Air-sensei’s, both pillar authors of Wenqing. In the future, she might even become a supreme god, her status even directly threatening Qidian, seriously threatening Qidian’s future position. At this time, it was inevitable that they would be compared. The fans of the new and old authors often fought online. But the two people involved, Yu Linna and Zhao Yuyan, had a very good relationship in private. It was the dogs online who were fighting among themselves.
However, a few of Wenqing’s older authors were dissatisfied with the recent rising star, Shion-sensei. How long had this newcomer been in the industry, and she had already become a god-tier author? This was too disrespectful to her seniors. Even if you were talented, you couldn’t not give face to your seniors. But from her debut until now, she had never been seen visiting her seniors.
The old authors were unhappy about this, but due to Wenqing’s face, they couldn’t say it directly, only expressing their displeasure indirectly through others.
And as October arrived, everyone had a holiday. The members of dorm 383 all went back to their respective homes. In the entire dorm, besides Lan Ranyan, everyone else lived locally. So when Lan Ranyan packed her luggage to go home, the three of them saw her off at the airport. Then, the three of them all went back to their own homes. Yu Linna lived alone. She took a taxi back and didn’t need anyone to pick her up. As for Xiao Yanhan, it was her mother who drove to pick her up.
Returning to the home she hadn’t lived in for a month, Yu Linna simply cleaned the house. She thought that since it was close to home, it would be fine to come back here often in the future. If they wanted to hang out outside in the future and couldn’t get back to the dorm after curfew, they could come here.
“Little Nana, you’re back? Perfect. Can I come over for dinner tonight?”
From a distance, Zhao Yuyan’s voice could be heard. Looking up, Zhao Yuyan had a Bluetooth headset hanging around her neck, was playing a game on her phone, and had her usual smile on her face. It was hard to believe that she had just been on TV not long ago.
“Sister Yuyan, are you still not writing your manuscript? Didn’t Sister Chen say she gave you time?”
“I can finish these manuscripts very quickly, so don’t you worry. More importantly, I’ve been thinking of something fun recently. Why don’t we go on a trip somewhere? I want to go to the beach. I’m usually so tired from work, I need to go somewhere to play and relax.”
“Are you sure?”
With Zhao Yuyan’s lazy personality, she would be tired from work? She was clearly just slacking off.
In fact, she was indeed very talented, but she just liked to procrastinate. If she were more diligent, she would definitely be more terrifying than the current Yu Linna.
“By the way, Little Nana, have you been too busy lately? Has someone else looked for you?” Zhao Yuyan asked while playing her game.
The hand that Yu Linna was using to tidy things paused for a moment. She continued to lay out the bedsheet, taking the clothes from her suitcase and hanging them in the closet.
“It’s a good thing to take on more orders.”
Recently, Yu Linna had indeed arranged her schedule to be very full. Besides the pre-arranged novel and illustration work, several other companies had asked her to write scripts. Like the previous The Smile of the Rose, they were all web series, 12 episodes per season. Yu Linna had hesitated for a long time at the time, and finally chose to write the script for Binglu Film and Television Company’s Wulin Kitchen Maiden.
The outline for Wulin Kitchen Maiden was written by Yu Linna herself. It was about Qian Ren, a female warrior who had been a dominant force in the martial arts world. After being ambushed, she lost all her martial arts skills and ended up working in a small inn. By accident, an unreasonable customer caused trouble. Using her remaining martial arts consciousness, she cooked a delicious meal and conquered the troublemaking customer. From then on, she embarked on the path of a martial arts chef and decided to participate in the “World’s Number One Chef” competition to win the title of the world’s best chef. She would also use this opportunity to investigate the truth behind the ambush in the martial arts world back then.
The drama was still a female-centric one. She still had the right to revise the script, and she also stated that she would only be responsible for the first season’s script. Any derivative series after the first season would not be her responsibility.
Giving herself so much work would surely work her to death, but Yu Linna didn’t seem to feel it at all. She took on this order and started working on it right away. Zhao Yuyan had also asked her, wasn’t she not short of money? Why was she doing this kind of work? But she didn’t answer.
To her, only work could make her value meaningful. If she didn’t work, it felt like something was missing.
“I say, Nana, you should just focus on writing novels. Doing these things outside will tire you to death. You don’t want any rest time at all?”
After finishing her game, Zhao Yuyan tore open a lollipop and asked while sucking on it.
Yu Linna didn’t know how to answer either. Perhaps because she had done all sorts of work when she was down and out before, now, no matter what work it was, she wanted to do a little more. She was always afraid that one day she would be eliminated.
“Besides, haven’t you seen Weibo? There are people at Wenqing who are flaming you.”
With that, Zhao Yuyan opened her phone, pulled up the Weibo hot search. It was easy to find the hot search about her. Recently, the popularity of this person, Shion, was too high, and she had long occupied the hot search list, just like a popular celebrity.
With fame comes trouble.
This sentence couldn’t be more fitting for her.
Wenqing had an author named Suiyuan, an old-timer who had been with Wenqing for ten years. He was a pillar author of Wenqing, and also someone who was very close to the position of a supreme god. His representative works were Demon World Rhapsody and Heavenly Realm. His style was refreshing, his values were upright, and his works were all harem-oriented. They were quite popular in the early years, and he still had many fans now. He was once thought to have the potential to compete with Qidian and had challenged Qidian’s supreme god author, but unfortunately, he returned in defeat. From then on, the quality of his works became worse and worse, and now he was just living off his past glory.
Suiyuan’s real name was Liu Feng. In reality, he was already thirty years old, with a wife and children. His family was considered happy, but he just wasn’t popular enough. He was very dissatisfied with the recent rising star, Shion-sensei, feeling that this junior was disrespectful to her seniors. Back then, Air-sensei would personally come to greet him and would also give him some face on Weibo. This Shion was different. She didn’t care about anything, only focusing on writing her books, not putting him in her eyes. This made him feel uncomfortable.
Actually, it wasn’t just him. The other old-timer authors at Wenqing were the same. They had been dissatisfied with this newcomer for more than a day or two. Everyone was a writer. Why did what you wrote sell so well? Why? With this extreme mentality, they all came to Suiyuan’s side.
Suiyuan posted a Weibo under his personal name, implicitly talking about Shion-sensei, secretly mocking her for messing around and being distracted.
“As a professional writer, I think it’s very important to maintain a professional attitude. I recently watched a movie called Multitasking. The protagonist of this movie was multitasking, which led to him accomplishing nothing and not being able to do anything well. I personally feel that as a writer, being single-minded is very important. I will encourage myself to continue to work hard.”
Such a veiled Weibo post, even if he didn’t say who it was directly, some people could guess that he was referring to the multitasking Shion-sensei.
In the industry, Shion-sensei’s diligence was famous. She herself was responsible for the illustrations and manuscripts of two novels, and had recently taken on the scriptwriting for a web series. This was all public knowledge in the fan circle.
With her multitasking so much, it was natural that some people would think that doing so would lead to distraction, and in the end, she wouldn’t be able to write anything well.
This wasn’t without reason either.
“Just ignore it.”
For these articles, Yu Linna didn’t even want to bother with them. Whoever bothered was a fool. With that kind of time to argue with others, she would rather focus on writing and do a little more. She had already planned her arrangements for the second half of the year. In November, The Smile of the Rose would be broadcast. In January, Ballad of the Enchantress would be broadcast. At the end of January, Wulin Kitchen Maiden would be broadcast. The broadcast of these film and television works would affect her subsequent schedule. Plus, she had already planned to publish two volumes of her novels every month in the future, so her workload would only increase, not decrease.
There would basically be no time to rest in the second half of the year. To make matters worse, she might not even be able to rest during the Spring Festival.
So for her to bother with Weibo was basically impossible.
“But if you ignore them, they’ll just keep latching onto you. Is that a good thing?”
“Whatever he wants. I’m too lazy to bother. There’s no need.”
Yu Linna’s mind was on her work. She didn’t have time to bother with others’ slander. In her heart, the readers’ weight was probably even higher.
As for this senior author, it was better not to bother. She would find an opportunity to visit him some other day and give him some face. That would be the end of it. Weren’t these people all like this? You give me some respect, I give you some face. These rules of the adult world, she already understood them.
“Why don’t you understand, Nana? I mean I want you to rest. If you go on like this, aren’t you afraid you’ll collapse?”
“What am I afraid of, Sister Yuyan? No one will care if I collapse alone. What else do I have to lose? I don’t have any relatives to begin with.”
Yawning, Yu Linna sat down to continue working. As for Zhao Yuyan, she could hear the sound of her own reason snapping.
