Chapter 11#

Qiao Jing, who was asleep, was woken up by 008 and informed about the matter.

“Isn’t this Sa Yi’s usual operation?” Qiao Jing’s tone was deep, showing a lack of energy as if he hadn’t fully woken up. “Normal. If he didn’t do this, I’d find it strange.”

“But we can’t just sit and wait for death!” 008 said anxiously.

“What time is it,” Qiao Jing lay on the pillow, glanced at the time displayed on his phone screen, and his upper and lower eyelids were about to stick together again. “No rush. Let’s think of a way when I wake up in the morning, huff…”

He fell asleep.

008’s cat eyes stared as wide as copper bells in the darkness, so angry that the whole cat felt unwell.

You should at least perk up a bit!

On the other side.

Sa Yi, who had stayed up all night in front of the computer, saw that Qiao Jing hadn’t taken the bait. His “Legend of the Qilin” was still firmly in the number one spot. He thought Qiao Jing had run out of money to throw and was scared, and his tensed nerves finally relaxed a bit.

Looking at the white belly of the sky, he rubbed his bloodshot eyes and said in the group: “I’m going to sleep first. Notify me promptly if there’s any news.” Then he washed up and prepared to sleep.

At the same time, Qiao Jing, who had slept until dawn, entered the virtual space refreshed and began writing.

He felt a burst of inspiration today, as if his pen were guided by a god. He wrote ten thousand words in one go, and after a simple revision, he posted them as today’s update.

What, drafts?

Qiao Pigeon: Thanks for the invite, but a “pigeon” (lazy) author doesn’t know what a draft is.

Now the favorites for “Song of the Earth” had soared to two hundred thousand. Therefore, even though it was early morning on a workday, many readers were still stationed in the comment section waiting for updates.

Like goldfish in an aquarium waiting to be fed, even if they were to eat until they burst, they would use their souls to let out a final cry:

“Great God, hungry, feed us!”

Thanks to the national team’s help in perfecting Liuliu Web’s old and broken system from a dozen years ago, within seconds after Qiao Jing posted the update, hundreds of comments refreshed. And since college students’ morning classes basically started at eight o’clock, the dozen or so minutes before the teacher arrived were the golden time for slacking off and catching up on sleep—perfect for following a novel!

What excited them was that today’s plot of “Song of the Earth” was also very explosive.

The experiment in Yang Liu’s hands had entered the final stage. It was heard that the higher-ups had given each of their researchers a substantial bonus. Everyone was overjoyed, discussing in the office how to spend it.

But Yang Liu did not participate in this heated discussion.

He was currently at a secret base in the country, about to visit a semi-public exhibition held by a certain country’s famous microelectronics leader in the capacity of a student.

Since he was a child, Yang Liu had loved tinkering with various machinery. The toy cars, TV, and even the washing machine and refrigerator at home could not escape his hands. He was a wild horse that his father couldn’t even control with a belt.

And most importantly, although he was exceptionally admitted to the CAS Nuclear Research Institute due to his outstanding talent, he didn’t skip grades according to his mother’s request. Just because he participated in many undisclosed experiments by following his supervisor on projects, his public information was still that of an ordinary university student who hadn’t even graduated—the kind who needed to regularly take final exams.

—Such an identity created excellent camouflage conditions for him.

Due to the need to promote products, this leading enterprise held an exhibition abroad. But they were very cautious, refusing visits from all experts and scholars within other countries. Instead, they accepted Yang Liu’s application as an ordinary undergraduate student. Presumably, they didn’t expect that the CAS would actually take in such a young researcher.

Therefore, the higher-ups specially assigned Yang Liu a task.

Simply put, it was “learning the superior technology of the barbarians to control them.”

“SO EXCITING!!!”

Seeing Yang Liu receiving agent training in the secret base, readers were screaming with excitement.

The newly introduced special forces instructor was too handsome!

And when they saw the protagonist, who usually acted stuck-up, standing in a military posture while arguing with the instructor with a stiff neck—claiming he was a real man who could carry the other party with one hand—only to be carried like a sack on the instructor’s shoulder for a 500-meter sprint the next second with a bewildered face, they all let out malicious cackles behind their screens.

At this moment, the straight men and women who used to tear into each other in the comment section, as well as some readers who were secretly shipping a strange CP, had their logic достигнуто weirdly aligned—

If there was anything in the world happier than watching Yang Liu show off and slap faces…

It must be watching him fail!

Readers: Hurry up! We want to see 007! We want to see the buff instructor crush the little chick!

But Yang Liu’s failure this time wasn’t entirely a complete wipeout.

The leader in charge of this operation in the novel said that no matter what, even if sacrifices occurred, even if the data couldn’t be brought back, Yang Liu must be guaranteed a safe return to the country.

Because both his supervisor and the higher-up leaders firmly believed that Yang Liu’s value was much higher than the tens of billions of dollars in profit these advanced technologies might bring!

—So, for this special forces instructor, besides training Yang Liu, a more important task was to ensure his safety in the upcoming itinerary.

Readers: Isn’t that even better!

They couldn’t wait to see Yang Liu’s breakdown after learning this news!

However, when readers enthusiastically wanted to flip the page down—

“This story is not yet finished, please wait for the next installment~”

Readers: “…”

Heavens, why!!!

—At this moment, they deeply felt the pain of following an update.

However, no update meant no update. No matter how much their hearts were scratched or their eyes grew weary from waiting, there was no way.

Readers could only turn their grief and indignation into motivation, starting to wave small whips in the comment section, hoping Qiao Jing would quickly transform into a tentacle monster with eight hundred chapters a night.

“Great God, please update!”

“A friend of mine said he’ll die if he doesn’t see an update today. Save the child!”

“A friend of a hundred years comes uninvited +1”

“A friend of a thousand years lifts the coffin lid!”

“Tipping for an update! Hope the author doesn’t fail to appreciate the favor, otherwise… otherwise I’ll kneel down and beg you!”

The above were all ordinary readers attracted by Qiao Jing’s plot.

When seeing “microelectronics enterprise,” Gao Xinglu keenly perceived the sign of Yan Heqing’s next plot.

But even having guessed it, he couldn’t help but feel a burst of dizziness at the other party’s boldness—

Microelectronics—this was the core technology of the information industry!

Integrated circuits even concerned the life and death of modern warfare!

Not talking about the military, just on the civilian side, the technological barriers of chips—the country had already suffered countless losses in this regard. Because of being inferior in skill, whether it was enterprises, technical staff, or scientists, they could only swallow their teeth.

Not to mention being at the mercy of others, the lost money and talent, combined, were an astronomical figure.

In fact, Gao Xinglu had an old friend who specialized in this area. One of his most outstanding students, whom he intended to let inherit his mantle in the future, had died mysteriously in a corner of an airport boarding hall precisely because he wanted to return to the country to help his supervisor with research…

Thinking of the old friend telling him with tears that the M Country embassy told them the cause of death was “heart attack,” but that young man was only 32 this year, didn’t smoke or drink, and even often took time to run two thousand meters after work!

Gao Xinglu’s finger stayed on the “send” button in the comment section; he didn’t even know what to say.

In the end, he just silently clicked exit, and then with a trembling hand, dialed the old friend’s number.

But unexpectedly, the old friend already knew about this.

“Old Gao, someone from above has already contacted me just now. Don’t worry,” Han Youpeng, who also held the title of Academician, laughed. He was clearly in a good mood. “A while ago I was still laughing at you for holding a phone every day, addicted to following a novel just like those young people with internet addiction. I didn’t expect that I’m about to join your ranks soon too.”

Gao Xinglu was a bit surprised, but soon became happy, humming with a laugh: “This is what’s called ’the wheel of fortune turns’! But Old Han, with those old eyes of yours, can you still see the words on the phone clearly?”

“You also have old eyes, you’re almost blind and yet you have the nerve to talk about me! Even if I can’t see clearly, can’t I ask someone else to help print it out?”

The two “old children,” whose combined ages were almost one hundred and fifty, traded barbs, being quite ruthless with their words.

This update of only ten thousand words of “Song of the Earth” touched the hearts of countless people.

Sa Yi hadn’t even slept for an hour before being woken up by the phone ringing, almost scaring him into a heart attack.

He clutched his heart, which was aching slightly after staying up all night, and answered the phone with an unfriendly tone: “Speak, what’s the matter?”

And upon hearing editor Wang Cheng inform him in a calm tone that he had been pushed down again by Yan Heqing, becoming second place, Sa Yi instantly sat bolt upright from his “deathbed”: “Impossible!”

It had only been a short half-day, and Yan Heqing hadn’t even continued to throw money in. How could five hundred thousand have come into his account?

“He’s cheating!” Sa Yi said instinctively, and then immediately confirmed his guess. “It must be so! Liuliu Web has finally managed to produce a top hit book; they must have seized this opportunity to try and overtake us in one fell swoop. It’s not impossible for them to help him modify data in the back end.”

Wang Cheng had to remind him: “To prevent such a situation, the income from our own site is calculated quite low when calculating weights for the new book chart. Even if Liuliu Web really helped Yan Heqing modify data, as long as it wasn’t too outrageous, it basically wouldn’t have much of an effect.”

And for the data of “Song of the Earth,” there were countless eyes staring at it at all times.

Sa Yi was so angry he punched the head of the bed.

“Calm down first,” Wang Cheng said. “The higher-ups are already trying to find a way for you. Marketing accounts under Xingchen Web have also been arranged for promotion. It’s just that these were originally measures prepared for after your book was finished, so CEO Yao asked me to come and ask—what are you thinking?”

Anyone who has studied marketing knows that this kind of overwhelming promotion is likely to cause resistance in the audience, especially for entertainment products like web novels.

Not to mention that Sa Yi’s “Legend of the Qilin” was still unfinished. If all the readers were attracted and it ended poorly later…

By then, the backlash caused would only be borne by Sa Yi himself.

“Let’s do it!” Sa Yi’s thinking was already groggy due to lack of sleep. Hearing Wang Cheng’s words, he was silent for a moment, and in a moment of heat, he decided to stake everything on one throw. “Also, help me check that Yan Heqing. Betting on my years of experience writing web novels, I don’t believe his data isn’t faked!”

Wang Cheng sighed: “Okay, understood.”

Hanging up the phone, Sa Yi threw away the phone and lay back on the bed.

Why Wang Cheng had spoken to him in such a lukewarm tone just now—Sa Yi naturally knew in his heart.

Back then, he was the one who faked data to squeeze out Qiao Jing. Now here came Yan Heqing with the same operation… Sa Yi clenched his fists, wondering if this was karmic retribution?

But he didn’t believe in such things!

Even if he couldn’t compete on the new book chart, the serialization time for a story afterward was still very long. With Xingchen Web’s resources and reader volume, the final winner would definitely still be him!

In the dim room, for a time only the man’s heavy, unwilling panting could be heard.

—And on the bookshelf by his bed, there was a full series of novels signed as “Jing Hua Shui Yue.”