Chapter 843
IF0115
"Don't be angry, don't be angry."
After laughing for a long time, Li Xiuyu finally stopped his hurtful mockery.
"Hmph!" Li Zhuangsheng turned his head away.
"How did I know you'd add a bad sequel? Because your first book was ignored, it didn't even get a contract," Li Xiuyu said with a smile. "Your skill level is probably only what it was back then."
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?" Li Zhuangsheng was still angry.
Li Xiuyu patted Li Zhuangsheng on the shoulder, slightly suppressing his unrestrained smile: "Because I see you are just as extremely arrogant as you were back then. Moreover, as you yourself said, the failure of your first book was a valuable experience for you. You accumulated writing experience and also realized the problems you encountered in the writing process. And it was precisely because no one read your first book that you were able to get rid of some of your self-indulgent habits and start to think about how to make readers engage with it."
Li Zhuangsheng remained silent, seemingly unconvinced.
"So you signed a contract for your second book, even though your grades weren't great, at least you got the basics down."
“What’s the point of even trying…” Li Zhuangsheng pouted, on the verge of tears, and resigned himself to his fate, “I just don’t have any talent for writing! I might as well go feed the pigs!”
Li Xiuyu shook his head, his voice finally revealing encouragement: "You are quite talented. You are a writer in the Writers' Association, a Level 5 writer on Qidian, and have so many readers. That's a testament to your ability. If you can do it in the future, you can do it now as long as you work hard!"
With Li Xiuyu's comforting words, Li Zhuangsheng calmed down a bit, though he muttered to himself, "I wonder how long I'll have to keep trying..."
"Don't rush it, it'll be two or three years at most." Li Xiuyu shrugged. "Although I've never written a novel, I suggest you carefully read through your previous novels in chronological order, and then read more of those famous online novels."
"I know... but I won't forgive you!" Li Zhuangsheng remained stubborn.
"Okay, okay, I admit I was wrong. How about I give you a three-day work-from-home voucher?"
Three weeks!
"Don't try to take advantage of this and ask for an exorbitant price. It'll be a week at most, take it or leave it!"
"Deal!" Li Zhuangsheng grinned.
"Look at your pathetic self!" Li Xiuyu said disdainfully.
Although he was no longer worried about the future, Li Zhuangsheng still had to face a real problem: even if he could gradually recover his "power", that was a matter for the future. What should he do now?
"And what about this book?" Li Zhuangsheng asked cautiously.
"Just cut it off and become a eunuch." Li Xiuyu spread his hands. "Your book is already on the shelves. Writing this kind of book is just a way to scam money and you'll easily get criticized. You might as well just cut it off, create a new account, and start writing the next one."
Li Zhuangsheng hesitated and said, "This, this isn't right. Writing a novel should have a beginning and an end, and there are readers in the group..."
Li Xiuyu raised an eyebrow, placed both hands on Li Zhuangsheng's shoulders, and said in a seductive voice, "You're right, but when writing online novels, you must abandon the idea of 'having a beginning and an end.' What you're doing isn't abandoning the story, but rather 'making paying readers cut their losses because you can't provide them with the best experience!'"
Li Zhuangsheng angrily rebuked with righteous indignation: "What nonsense! If I were a reader, and a book I paid for was abandoned, I would curse its entire family ancestors... Those are readers who paid for the legitimate version, I myself read pirated copies!"
"You watched pirated copies in high school, but not anymore."
"So I started watching the official version later?"
"No, I won't even watch pirated versions."
"...Does it really have to be cut?" "Otherwise, do you want to add a bad ending?" Li Xiuyu coaxed with a smile, "Cut it, cut it. You cut your first book too. Everyone feels guilty when they cut a book for the first time, but soon..."
"You've gotten used to it, haven't you?"
"It's discovering that I never had a conscience to begin with."
Li Zhuangsheng was utterly speechless. After a long silence, he sighed. It seemed that he had no choice but to abandon the book; continuing to write this lousy book would only result in even more severe criticism.
"How should we explain this to the readers in the group?" Li Zhuangsheng asked Li Xiuyu for advice.
"It's okay. They're not your only readers. They're used to authors cutting off books. They might complain a bit, and those who can't stand it will leave the group. Don't worry too much about those who leave. It's impossible for everyone to like you forever... Even though I'm saying this, you'll still be sad because of those readers who leave, but the number of long-time readers who will read your books forever is actually very small. You'll get used to it."
Li Zhuangsheng remained silent, then sighed.
"I'm going to create a new account to prepare for my new book."
"You can borrow my ID card, and you can borrow my bank card too."
"You are beautiful!"
Li Zhuangsheng returned to his study dejectedly. Due to Li Xiuyu's previous instigation, the group chat had already exploded with discussion.
You tagged everyone just to show this pile of shit to everyone! You're utterly rotten!
Li Zhuangsheng's Dao heart was shattered at this point, so he decided to play dead and stop looking at the group for a while.
Suddenly, the computer beeped twice.
Li Zhuangsheng squinted painfully, thinking that someone was sending him a private message to criticize him again, but when he saw the sender's ID, it was Village Chief Chu.
Li Zhuangsheng was slightly taken aback.
He had already checked his QQ account; this Village Chief Chu was his closest old reader… even the word “reader” wasn’t quite accurate, he was more like an old friend.
The chat history between the two was very long, so long that Li Zhuangsheng couldn't finish scrolling through it even after a long time. In the end, he only glanced at it a few times and realized that his relationship with this person was unusual. They talked about everything from astronomy and geography to history and science fiction.
Moreover, the last post he made on his social media was about meeting up with Village Chief Chu. Of course, Li Zhuangsheng didn't believe that Village Chief Chu was really a "long-legged beauty driving a Ferrari"; it was probably just a joke he made with his readers before he lost his memory.
After all, a row of people below were commenting: "Tears welling up, the virgin author has finally gone mad... These bastards actually look down on me!"
Of course, the idea of a male-oriented online novelist having a "long-legged female reader who drives a Ferrari" is a sci-fi concept that only exists in third-rate novels.
Even Li Zhuangsheng, who suffers from chuunibyou (middle school syndrome), wouldn't believe this to be true. He guessed that the other party must be a rich second-generation heir with both money and leisure.
However, speaking of which, this rich guy seems to have been busy all the time lately. When he occasionally peeked into the group chat, he saw someone say that the village chief hadn't shown up for a long time... and since losing his memory, this Village Chief Chu hadn't contacted him to chat anymore.
Since Li Zhuangsheng was unfamiliar with the place and had a lot of worries every day, he naturally wouldn't want to cause any trouble by chatting aimlessly with his online friends.
He would only occasionally think about it and wonder if his amnesia was related to this guy. He even asked Li Xiuyu about it, but Li Xiuyu said he had never met this Village Chief Chu; it seemed the man only stayed one night before leaving. (End of Chapter)