Chapter 286: Fall From Grace
Early in the morning, Yu Linna was running on the sports field. Students who got up early would see a blonde girl in black sportswear, her hair in a ponytail, speeding along the track. Many infatuated boys went up to chat with her, but this girl was extremely cold. She didn’t even glance at boys with slightly good looks, didn’t want to look, and wouldn’t even say a word.
This made the boys who wanted to chat with her very embarrassed.
Yu Linna ran several laps around the field, sweat soaking her vest, her forehead beaded with sweat. She went to the rest area and sat down, opening a bottle of mineral water to drink. To be able to sweat in this cold weather, no one knew how many laps she had run, but she had indeed been running for a long time.
“Phew…”
Yu Linna sat on the stone bench, opened her phone, and logged into Weibo. In today’s comments section, it was still a sea of curses. The second episode of Ballad of the Enchantress had already aired, but this did not change people’s opinion of this terrible film in the slightest. The bad reviews were increasing, and the fans who had previously vowed to support it to the end had also gone silent, no longer speaking up. The haters were very pleased online, constantly talking, and the fans couldn’t refute them, only able to swallow their anger.
There were a lot of doubts online. They found it hard to understand why Shion-sensei’s work had failed like this. In their eyes, Shion-sensei was like a myth, and should be invincible. But at this moment, this god had walked down from the altar herself. It was truly hard to understand.
Just as people said, the deified Shion-sensei’s status in people’s hearts was like a god. Gods are different from people. Gods are not allowed to fail. Once they fail, there will be a torrent of doubts and curses. And Yu Linna had also experienced this.
She just hadn’t expected that she would fail so completely.
The animated version of Ballad of the Enchantress was like two completely different works from the novel version. It was really hard to imagine that this was written by Yu Linna. This animation was a complete failure, with no highlights. Perhaps the biggest highlight was the heroine’s fleeting appearance at the beginning. And that was also the best-looking scene in the animation.
“The way she’s going, she’s going to get into trouble sooner or later.”
When Lan Ranyan and Xiao Yanhan went to the sports field to find her, they saw Yu Linna sitting on a stone bench scrolling through her phone, wearing thin sportswear, and couldn’t help but worry. She had been like this for several days. Ever since the animation premiered, she had deliberately made herself busier and no longer paid attention to the animation. She even got up early every day to run, saying it was to exercise, but in fact, that was not the case. The key was that she slept so late and got up so early, and her dark circles were getting heavier and heavier.
“Linna is so pitiful…”
As her number one female fan, Xiao Yanhan felt particularly sorry for her. The failure of the animation was undoubtedly the biggest pain in Yu Linna’s heart. She was a person who cared very much about her own works. Her works were like her children, and she cherished them all. If it weren’t for this, why would she have been so stubborn back then, refusing to sell the animation rights? It was because she cared too much about her works.
She just hadn’t expected that her stubbornness would ruin her work.
In the winter animation rankings, Ballad of the Enchantress had the highest heat, but its ranking was extremely low. Before it even premiered, it was a hot topic, with a trend of winning the best animation of the year. Who knew that as soon as it was broadcast, it would be a complete slap in the face, becoming a street rat that everyone shouted at. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Ballad of the Enchantress was just such a work.
Because of this animation, Shion-sensei’s personal popularity was affected. Many readers even stopped buying the new novels of Ballad of the Enchantress, causing Shion-sensei’s sales to drop a lot.
Yu Linna was just thinking about whether to run another lap when her phone rang. The caller ID showed it was Chen Xi. She estimated that she was here to ask for an explanation. She pressed the answer button. Chen Xi’s voice was clearly tired. The matter of the animation must have given her a lot of headaches.
“Shion-sensei, don’t worry about the animation for now. You should focus on writing the novel well first. We are already in negotiations with Caibi Company. If possible, we hope Caibi can compensate you.”
“No, it’s not necessary. Even if we claim compensation, the animation can’t be saved.”
At this point, it was useless to mend the fence after the sheep had been stolen. Any more effort would be futile.
Failure is failure. It’s as simple as that.
“Then Shion-sensei, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. About the script for the web series Blade Demon that you promised before…”
“What’s wrong? I said I would give it at the end of the month.”
“No, Xingong Company said, there’s no need to trouble you, sensei. They will find someone else to write the script. Anyway, the contract wasn’t signed, so it doesn’t affect anything. They promised to give you a sum of compensation.”
“…They could have just told me directly. Why did they look for you?”
“Xingong’s meaning is that they want me, your editor, to inform you. They couldn’t bring themselves to do it.”
“…It’s all just excuses.”
Yu Linna put down her phone. The weather was very cold today, but her heart was even colder.
Ballad of the Enchantress had failed. The company that had previously promised to write the script had immediately withdrawn their cooperation, and the prepared contract was also torn up. And before that, there had been a novelist who had looked for Shion-sensei and wanted her to help draw some illustrations, but now he had also withdrawn his request, saying he had found someone more suitable.
These were all just excuses.
After all, Ballad of the Enchantress had crashed in the industry, becoming one of the worst animations in recent years. Anyone with a business mind knew that Shion-sensei’s name was now tainted. Anything involving her would definitely be problematic. They decisively chose to withdraw their cooperation. They were afraid that having Shion-sensei’s name on their work would make the audience disgusted. Now many passersby were very disgusted with the original author of Ballad of the Enchantress, Shion, thinking that this author had written something like shit.
Therefore, it was not without reason that people would avoid Shion-sensei.
Shion-sensei’s popularity had now plummeted. It could be said that she had fallen from the altar overnight, no longer as glorious as before. The higher you stand, the harder you fall. This was as fitting as it could be for Yu Linna.
She just hadn’t expected that she would be so miserable.
“Linna.”
Xiao Yanhan came over and called her, but Yu Linna didn’t even raise her head, just kept her head down looking at her phone. She didn’t want people to see her in such a sorry state.
“Linna, after the final exams, let’s go on a trip to clear our heads! Don’t worry about what’s online. I’ll still support you anyway. Look, I bought ten copies of your book this time. I’m a good friend, right?”
“Thanks.”
No matter how hard Xiao Yanhan tried to cheer her up, Yu Linna never once showed a real smile. She always just kept her head down when she spoke.
This failure had hit her too hard.
She had once again tasted the taste of failure.
How long had it been since she had last failed?
This taste was really not good.
…
During the final exam season at Guangnan University, many people were staying up all night to review and prepare for the exams. Although Yu Linna had suffered a huge blow, it did not affect her studies. She passed the exams very easily, without any pressure. But Zhao Yuyan was miserable. For this final exam, she had begged her roommates to help her cram, and she herself was completely overwhelmed and frantic.
Although The Rich Man’s Game was a big hit, ranking first among the winter animations, and it should have been a happy season, Zhao Yuyan was living as if in hell because it was time for final exams. Sometimes she really wanted to drop out of school. Studying was too tiring! And there were exams. It was better to just go out and make money.
But thinking of her mother’s bamboo cane, she panicked. If she really dropped out of school, her mother would surely break her legs.
But fortunately, she once again passed her final exams by a hair’s breadth. She could finally go back home for a good New Year during the winter break.
She just didn’t know how the little girl was doing.
…
With the arrival of the holidays, Guangnan University also began its vacation. Yu Linna was packing her luggage in her dorm, planning to go back. Everyone in the dorm had made plans to go on a trip during the winter break, so they would be leaving on the second day of the vacation. For this trip, Lan Ranyan had not booked a flight home and was going with everyone. As for where to stay, Lan Ranyan was staying at Xiao Yanhan’s house. Fang Jiangning had also asked her if she wanted to go to her house, but Lan Ranyan had politely declined, saying it was fine to go to Xiao Yanhan’s.
And Yu Linna had to go back to her small rented apartment to continue living a life without day and night.
Because they lived close, Yu Linna and Fang Jiangning went back together. After parting ways, Fang Jiangning pulled her into the car to chat. Yu Linna also replied with a sentence or two, clearly not very interested.
The car passed through a section with heavy traffic and stopped at a red light. The car was crowded with people. Fang Jiangning sat in the car, looking at Yu Linna who was scrolling through her phone. She wondered how to start.
“Linna, this is not your fault,” she said.
“The people who made the animation were not you. You were just the authorized original author. This is not your responsibility.”
“I know.”
“But you care a lot, right?”
“…Yes.”
How could Yu Linna not care? To her, her works were her children. For her children to be ruined like this, how could she not care? She had also thought of going to Caibi Company to settle scores, but Caibi Company was very shameless, publicly stating online that they had followed the original author’s wishes and had not changed a single thing, 100% restoring the original work. After several rounds of negotiations, Yu Linna gave up. The animation was already finished, and the post-production was almost done. She couldn’t interfere. She didn’t have that much power.
The moment she handed over the animation rights, everything no longer belonged to her. Even if the animation became a hit, so what? She wouldn’t get much money. Looking at it from another angle, perhaps she should be glad, because no one would get a profit.
But in any case, Caibi Company’s reputation was ruined. Holding such a big IP and adapting it like this, it was only natural for them to be spat on by thousands. Everyone would absolutely not forgive a bad film.
In comparison, The Rich Man’s Game was a big hit, and its novel and manga sales also soared. Many passersby got into it. Air-sensei’s sales even surpassed Shion-sensei’s, once again snatching back the position that belonged to her. In this battle, Shion-sensei had lost completely.
Soon, the animation of the Qidian author, Luo Nan, was also going to be released. At that time, the market would welcome a wave of novel-to-animation adaptations. But none of this had anything to do with Yu Linna. She was just a loser. With this incident, she was even more afraid to hand over Zixuan and the Paper Airplane to someone else. What if this animation also went off the rails like Ballad of the Enchantress? Wouldn’t that be shooting herself in the foot again?
But Yu Linna also didn’t know what she should do, because she already had the thought of ending Ballad of the Enchantress.
