Crime and Punishment 2

Chapter 91 Crime and Punishment 2

As night fell, the swirling dust settled, the cool air rose, and the Stegosaurus fell asleep. In the deserted wilderness, only the Wen'ai Club's base was brightly lit. No one knew how many spring dreams this building was connecting across the land at that moment.

The outskirts of Xihe were very quiet. Only crickets hopped around in the fields, courting their mates and making annoying chirping noises; besides the crickets, there were toads lying in the yellow soil, croaking; besides the toads, there were the plastic greenhouses of the strawberry farm, swaying in the summer night breeze, rustling in the wind; besides the plastic greenhouses, there was Ye Lan, sitting in the living room of her apartment, occasionally letting out a snicker.

In the apartment, Ye Lan stared at her phone screen, eating fruit and grinning foolishly. Suddenly, a voice sounded beside her: "What are you looking at?"

"what!"

Ye Lan was so startled that she almost dropped the yellow peach in her hand.

"You scared me to death! What, you've finished writing the novel?"

"Only a rough framework has been completed."

Wang Zixu picked up his water glass and gulped down the water. Ye Lan held her phone in front of his face: "I'm looking at this."

Wang Zixu took a closer look and found that Ye Lan's phone was more boring than he had imagined, terribly boring—the screen displayed the daily sales ranking of the Wen'ai app.

"Were you just staring at this and laughing so hard?"

"That's because you didn't understand it. Look at it more carefully, and you'll be able to appreciate its meaning. What's the idiom called?... "

She tilted her head back and thought for a long time before finally blurting out, "It's unforgettable!"

"You mean it has a deeper meaning, right?"

"It's so memorable."

Wang Zixu took the phone and saw the name of the top-ranked player on the screen:

Sakura-chan.

Further down: the sinful poet, Xiao Ba, the lost believer...

All of them were familiar names.

Wang Zixu handed the phone back to Ye Lan and looked up at the building: "What are they doing?"

The scriptwriters' rooms upstairs were eerily quiet with their doors tightly shut. The hallway was dark, with only light seeping through the cracks in the doors.

"Just look at the daily sales charts, right? They're taking orders like crazy to boost your numbers!"

As we were talking, a full-screen message appeared on the phone screen:

"even羽 has gifted [The Sinful Poet] a 2333-point global satellite!"

Ye Lan was overjoyed again: "We've surpassed them! The poet is now in first place! Sakura-chan is in second... Oh dear! The believer has surpassed Xiao Ba to take third place!..."

Prince Xu understood.

She's watching the game online.

"What's so interesting about this?"

"Didn't you hear anything? Ding! Clack clack, ding! Clack clack..."

She stared at the bewildered Wang Zixu, rubbed her fingers together, and made a counting motion:

"That's the sound of a money counting machine! Money! You have no idea how much money just went into site-wide donations..."

Ye Lan's face was rosy, and she looked radiant and beautiful under the night light.

Indeed, money is the best beauty treatment and the best stimulant. Ye Lan wasn't cheering for the daily sales rankings; the flush on her face wasn't from blood, but from "a new car, caviar, and a four-star daydream."

Wang Zixu sat down beside her: "Do you stare at this every day?"

"No, today is a special case. The daily sales charts are particularly crazy today. By the way, let me show you something interesting."

She pointed to the bottom of the list, at number 48, where the name Wang Zixu was both familiar and she couldn't quite place where she had seen him before.

"Qiu Ze? Who is this? Do I know him?"

"Tsk."

Ye Lan clicked her tongue and said, "You forgot? The one who stirred up trouble for you in the group last time, the one who said the script was useless and wanted a refund."

Prince Xu remembered and said, "Oh, it's him."

Ye Lan laughed and said, "This guy used to barely get any orders and never even made it onto the daily sales charts. Today, it's like he's unlocked a new potential, jumping straight to 48th place. From now on, when he criticizes you, it'll be a completely different story. Mr. Little Prince, what are your thoughts now?"

Wang Zixu said he had no thoughts. No matter what place he gets, he'll still make money for me.

"Your attitude is pretty good." Ye Lan threw the peach pit into the trash can, wiped her hands clean, and straightened her chest. "You're probably going to win today. Come on, you can start planning the punishment."

……

"...Wait a minute, let me sort out the situation you mentioned."

"Good leader."

At 9:30 p.m., in the general manager's office of "Qingyan" studio, Qiu Ze was reporting to Zhong Susu.

Zhong Susu was his superior; she was relatively young and not at all arrogant. After listening to Qiu Ze's report, he leaned back in his leather chair, rubbed his temple with one finger, and closed his eyes in deep thought for a long time.

"Xiao Ze, look..."

"Boss, just call me Xiao Chou. Xiao Ze sounds like a Japanese name, and I can't stand it."

Zhong Susu readily agreed: "Xiao Qiu, our ultimate goal is to defeat our competitors, right?"

"Yes. That's for sure."

"In order to defeat our opponents, I'm sending you to find out their daily revenue."

"right."

"And you plan to use the company's account to tip your own speech therapist account 1000 yuan."

Qiu Ze explained, "They have a daily sales ranking. After I pay, I can see where I am ranked and estimate their approximate daily sales revenue."

Zhong Susu took a deep breath: "So, in order to defeat our competitors, we have to pay them money, is that what you mean?"

Wen Ai's daily sales ranking is updated in real time. Qiu Ze's idea is that if you give a thousand yuan in tips, your daily sales will be a thousand yuan. By looking at your ranking on the daily sales ranking, combined with the overall scale of the speech therapists, and other information obtained from the group, you can basically estimate the other party's revenue.

It sounds like a good, simple method, but summarizing and explaining it makes it seem a bit nonsensical. Or perhaps one could loudly question, "Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable?"

Qiu Ze said, "Boss, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. Right now, to know our revenue, we need to build relationships with our distributors, and maintaining those relationships is the most expensive thing in the world. A thousand yuan can give us a rough estimate—what a great value!"

Zhong Susu clutched her chest: "Your idea is indeed very novel, but what should we write on the expense reimbursement slip? And how will we get over this mental hurdle?"

Qiu Ze smiled inwardly, thinking that women were troublesome, always more emotional than rational, and unable to focus on business.

"As for the name, just fill in 'research expenses.' Besides, not all of this thousand will go into their account. Wen Ai will only take half, and the remaining five hundred will be returned, right? Spend a little money, get a lot done. I think it's a good idea."

Zhong Susu sat up: "Okay, I think that's fine. Let's use your next month's salary as an advance, and transfer it directly to your account, so we don't have to return the money to the company account."

Qiu Ze froze: "Boss, isn't this inappropriate?"

Zhong Susu had already started calling the finance department: "What's wrong with it? It's just a matter of five hundred yuan. If we win the competition, you'll be the one who made the greatest contribution, so you'll get an extra two months' salary as your year-end bonus, okay?"

Qiu Ze panicked: "Boss, actually I have a classmate who works for a distributor, I think..."

Zhong Susu said, "No need. Like you said, the most expensive thing in this world is maintaining relationships. Besides, didn't our rivals reform their script output model today? Today is the best opportunity to find out their secrets. Hello, is this finance?...

Qiu Ze's heart was bleeding. He cursed inwardly, "Isn't this like paying to work? How could such an absurd thing exist in the world? Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable? This world is truly a giant makeshift operation..."

The money arrived in her account. Zhong Susu asked, "How do I do it? How do I tip?"

Qiu Ze said, "If it's convenient for you, you can download the Wen'ai app, register an account, and then specify me..."

Zhong Susu wrinkled her nose: "Disgusting."

Qiu Ze quickly said, "Boss, that's not what I meant. This is the standard procedure."

Chung Su-su said, "I'm not saying you're disgusting, I'm saying it's disgusting that I have to download the rival's app."

Qiu Ze laughed: "Well, there's no way around it. This will require at least two accounts to complete. After you're done with this, you can delete the app."

Zhong Susu said, "Help me register."

After a few steps, the two successfully registered a new account and entered the speech therapy interface.

Qiu Ze typed in the chat box: "Hi Miss, I'm your loyal little wolf dog..."

I had only typed halfway when I received a new message: You have received 1000 Pink Diamonds as a reward!

Qiu Ze looked up in shock: "Boss, I haven't even said a word yet, isn't this a bit too fake?"

Zhong Susu waved her hand impatiently: "Quickly look at the daily sales chart, hurry up and calculate."

Qiu Ze hurriedly started scanning the daily sales chart, but after searching for a long time, he couldn't find his name.

Zhong Susu looked at him: "What's wrong?"

"It seems they weren't on the list."

"Can it be calculated this way?"

"...At least we now know that the top 50 competitors all earn more than 1000 yuan a day."

Zhong Susu rubbed her forehead: "Then I'll give you another thousand yuan of your salary in advance."

Qiu Ze bit his lip: "Boss, I think we should just let it go like this."

"No, we can't just let it go like this. Otherwise, wouldn't we have wasted 1000 yuan? Hello, is this finance? Advance another 1,000 yuan of Qiu Ze's salary..."

The two of them performed the same operation. Qiu Ze flipped through the daily sales charts until his eyes were bloodshot.

"Boss, bad news, we still didn't make the list."

Zhong Susu slammed her hand on the table: "Is this bad news? This is the worst of the worst news ever!"

She rubbed her hands; they were sore from clapping.

"Let me get another thousand in advance."

"lead!"

Qiu Ze's legs went weak, and he almost knelt down. He leaned on the desk, his voice trembling, "I still have to pay rent next month!"

Zhong Susu gritted her teeth: "Fine, I'll give you an advance on my salary!"

"OK."

After donating 3,000 yuan, Qiu Ze finally made it onto the list. However, he didn't achieve a good ranking, only reaching 48th place.

Even by the most optimistic calculation (from their perspective), Wen'ai Company's revenue today would definitely not be less than six figures.

Before Qiu Ze could figure out the accounts, he received another message from Huang Da on his phone:

"Dear customer, we discourage you from artificially inflating your own transaction volume! It won't help increase your order volume."

"I'll f*** your mother..."

Qiu Ze's teeth were practically grinding to powder. He sensed a hint of schadenfreude in the other person's words.

Most importantly, he can't refute it. Today, he not only lost next month's salary, but his innocence is also gone forever.

Chung Su-su said, "Our 48 daily sales are only 300 yuan, we're not even in the same league, how can we compare to them!"

Qiu Ze was at a loss for words to save face when he saw Huang Da send a message to all members of the speech therapist group:

[Congratulations to today's top-selling item on breaking all previous records, achieving a single-day sales record of 20!]

Qiu Ze silently placed his phone on the table. Zhong Susu leaned over to take a look, then looked up at him and said:

"Can you get in touch with the scriptwriter on the other side? Try to poach him."

"what?"

……

Prince Xu won.

He and Ye Lan made a bet to increase the retention rate from 6% to 12%, but they went a bit overboard. The final retention rate was 16.1%, and the paid conversion rate was also very high.

This resulted in the day becoming the day with the highest single-day turnover in Wen'ai's history.

Of course, that's not the scariest part. The scariest part is that the daily revenue in the future could exceed that of this single day.

Prince Xu didn't just win; he won big. He won twice.

Ye Lan, standing beside him, started calculating: "Based on this income, at best you'd get over 80 a month, at worst you'd get 50. Ye Lan would get 50, and Wang Zixu would get at least 40. 40 can buy another car. Wang Zixu, you don't have a car, right? What kind of car do you want? A Porsche? Forget it, you'll just have to grit your teeth and get a Xiaomi SU7..."

Towards the end, Prince Xu was dizzy because he had heard the word "ten thousand" so many times that he no longer understood its meaning.

Ye Lan lost, but she was very happy. She ordered a table full of late-night snacks for everyone, including barbecue, seafood, and beer, worried that everyone might not have enough purines to get gout. But everyone still enjoyed the meal.

Wang Zixu won, but he wasn't happy; he sat there with a sullen face. His unhappiness wasn't because the data didn't meet his expectations. In fact, he would be quite satisfied if he could earn 10 yuan a month; 30 yuan would leave him feeling lost; and 50 yuan would leave him completely at a loss.

Money beyond what he needed for living was a burden for him and would frighten him. As Zuo Ziliang said, he was a true scholar.

He suddenly felt a pang of envy for Ye Lan. This woman was simple and straightforward; if she wanted something, she liked it. She made no attempt to hide her desire for money, and she never let such things cause her any internal conflict. She laughed wildly in front of everyone, downed three bottles of beer, unbuttoned the top button of her shirt, took off her coat, revealing her long legs beneath her beautiful waist and hip curves, and occasionally swayed her body to the music with a silly grin.

Amidst the noise, Cheng Xing, holding a glass of wine, sat down next to Wang Zixu and whispered, "Teacher, I also tried speech therapy today."

Prince Xu asked, "How is it?"

"I only took one order, which isn't quite what I'm used to. But I think I did pretty well; the customer gave me a five-star review and wrote a long comment."

Cheng Xing spoke in a measured and deliberate manner, appearing very quiet. Wang Zixu suddenly felt reassured; at least, Cheng Xing was a scholar.

"fine."

"I heard they all did very well today. We discussed it, and everyone agrees it's thanks to you."

Wang Zixu didn't respond, only saying "Oh." He was socially awkward and didn't know how to react to the compliment.

Cheng Xing, however, was filled with awe. The Little Prince had always been this cool, the kind of cool that was understated.

Cheng Xing added, "Although your classes all focus on creative writing, you've combined scriptwriting with speech therapy itself, and everyone feels they understand it much better than before. Before, we didn't know how to use scripts, but now we not only know how to use them, but we can also write them, and sometimes we can even improvise on the spot, like a window has been opened. That's why we performed so well today."

Prince Xu nodded, leaned back on the sofa, and took a sip of wine.

Having a skylight is great.

"Teacher, I would like to ask you, how do you manage to depict such realistic characters in your works? I feel that although there are no characters in the script, there are characters everywhere, very real and down-to-earth characters that make people feel like they are there."

Seeing Cheng Xing's sparkling eyes, Wang Zixu thought for a moment and said, "Maupassant once shared a writing technique, which is to observe pedestrians."

"Observing pedestrians?"

"Yes, he said that you can find a busy time of day, sit down at the busiest street corner, observe the passersby, try to describe their appearance in a notebook, and imagine their past. Write short biographies for them."

Cheng Xing listened with great interest: "That's a good idea."

Wang Zixu said, "I've done that before. But for a long time, I couldn't imagine people's past experiences. Looks are looks, clothes are clothes, and people's stories aren't written on their faces, so how can you imagine them?"

"Yes," Cheng Xing said.

"Until one day, I saw a middle-aged woman. It was raining heavily that day. I was standing at the entrance of the bank taking shelter from the rain. A middle-aged woman riding a dilapidated electric bike parked her bike at the bottom of the bank's high steps and ran over to take shelter from the rain."

She was wearing a dark, pale pink wool coat, black trousers, and flat shoes. Those shoes left a deep impression on me.

"Those were actually a very well-made pair of shoes, with a light green glossy finish, pearl flowers on the front, and gold leaf on the heel. But they were worn out. The green finish had turned into something resembling dog poop, the pearl flowers were gone, and there were patches of black and white, with mud stuck to the heel."

Wang Zixu turned to look at Cheng Xing: "That woman looked very down on her luck, very poor, very miserable. She was quite down on her luck, as down on her luck as her shoes. But I know those shoes used to be beautiful. So did she herself."

"That's when I saw something more—I saw her carefully selecting her shoes in front of the shoe cabinet, discussing with the clerk whether she could try them on, then buying them with a big smile, running out of the shoe store, changing into them at home, showing them to her husband and children, all in a happy mood... Those shoes were once a source of great joy."

Cheng Xing sighed.

Wang Zixu said, "It was from then on that I began to see the stories behind people. But they were always very sad stories."

Cheng Xing raised his glass and said, "Teacher, 'A person with a broad mind and deep emotions will inevitably experience pain and sorrow. I believe that truly great people in the world must feel immense sadness.' I feel that this describes you perfectly, teacher."

The prince rubbed his temples and said, "Is this from 'Crime and Punishment'?"

"I don't remember, but it must have been Dostoevsky who said it."

Wang Zixu said, "He's right."

He raised his glass, the light distorting against the glass above the beer foam, illuminating Ye Lan's figure. She was bare-shouldered, smiling with sweat dripping down her face.

If great people are destined for sorrow, does that mean that "greatness" itself is a sin? Perhaps. In Wang Xiaobo's words, it is the sin of "hypocrisy."

He raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp.

"..."

Two hours later, looking at Ye Lan lying on the sofa, Wang Zixu sighed.

The woman downed six bottles of beer in one go, finally getting herself drunk. She lay on the sofa, wearing only a black camisole and a bodycon skirt, her long legs in stockings draped over the sofa, completely unguarded.

Everyone else slipped away without a word, leaving him to deal with this thorny mess.

Just as he was considering how to get Ye Lan safely and discreetly to her room, Jean-Paul Sartre suddenly appeared behind him again and whispered in his ear, "If you do that, she won't have any objections when she wakes up tomorrow."

Wang Zixu said, "Shut up, you lecherous and despicable old rogue."

Sartre raised his hands: "I'm not encouraging you to do anything, I'm just stating a fact—she won't have any objections."

"I'm just stating a fact: you're an old scoundrel. Simone de Beauvoir was blind to have fallen for you."

"This has nothing to do with Simone de Beauvoir."

……

How many words have been written in "The Dedication of Simone de Beauvoir"?

Hearing the voice coming from the phone, Ning Chunyan was drenched in sweat.

"Teacher, how did you know this name?"

Li Tingfang's voice sounded both amused and annoyed: "I won't say who told me, but Xiaochun, Qingluo went back to Xihe, why didn't you tell me?"

Ning Chunyan turned her head and glanced at Chen Qingluo, who was writing furiously beside her bed—she had taken off all her clothes again, this time even unhooking her bra, which hung on her arm, making her look like a clothes rack—she said to Li Tingfang:

"Teacher, my dad told you that, right?"

"Don't ask. Let's settle the score for you keeping it from the teacher first."

Ning Chunyan inwardly groaned.

(End of this chapter)