Chapter 13#
“Regarding the South China Sea, recently…”
“Too much! Do they still think we’re like we were a dozen years ago?”
“Hah, their thinking probably still stays in the feudal dynasties.”
“Keeping a low profile is a national policy, but when necessary, we must let certain countries see that we are not to be trifled with.”
“So, should that research be made public?”
“…Make it public.”
At exactly seven o’clock that evening, accompanied by the familiar melody, the hosts in formal attire and with smiles on their faces announced the good news to thousands of households in front of their screens:
“Good evening, viewers! Today is [Day], [Month] [Date], [Year]. Welcome to ‘Xinwen Lianbo’ (Evening News)…”
“On February 8th, under the leadership of Academician Gao Xinglu’s team, our country successfully broke through the greatest obstacle in controlled nuclear fusion technology. This research has a huge impact and is a brand-new milestone in the history of human technological development. Currently, this technology is limited to military use. In terms of weapons research, it is expected that within three years, the R&D—launch—sea trial process of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be completed…”
The brief thirty-second news report shook the entire world.
Research institutes and intelligence agencies around the world exploded.
Whether it was day or night, all physicists, engineers, and related practitioners in the relevant fields felt a burst of dizziness the moment they heard the news—
Regardless of nationality, race, or politics, this achievement represented that the history of human physics had turned a new page from then on!
Soon, the world would welcome another wave of industrial revolution!
Qiao Jing, who had long received news from his father, was sitting on the sofa watching the news on time.
He turned on his phone’s video recording function, used the remote to turn up the TV volume, and clearly recorded the footage of the South China Sea carrier strike group riding the waves into the video.
It was indeed a day worth commemorating.
The reaction from above was even faster than he imagined, he thought, and this development speed… worthy of the world’s most effective major power.
The phone on the table vibrated. Qiao Jing put down his beer and answered the call: “Hello?”
“Seen the news?”
“I did,” Qiao Jing leaned back on the sofa relaxedly. Only in front of his family would he show such an expression. “Pretty good. This should quiet things down a bit in the South China Sea. Mom said you’ve been irritable lately; did you receive the chrysanthemum tea I sent home?”
“Brat, do I need you to send me things? Just earned a little money and you’re floating to the sky.” The middle-aged man on the phone snorted, but it was impossible for him to be unhappy. “By the way, let me ask you something. Weren’t you writing things on that… whatever Moon Web? Do you know an author named ‘Yan Heqing’?”
“…It’s Xingchen Web, okay?” Qiao Jing said with a complex mood.
He had been writing on Xingchen Web for nearly seven years, and even had over a dozen books published, yet his father still hadn’t remembered the website’s name. Instead, he was thinking about his new pen name registered only six months ago every day. It was truly frustrating.
“Fine, Xingchen Web,” Father Qiao said seriously. “Anyway, do you know this author?”
“I don’t, but I’ve heard of him,” Qiao Jing said without blinking. “Why do you ask?”
“That’s a state secret,” Father Qiao said solemnly. “But if you come home, I might tell you.”
“Then forget it,” Qiao Jing said immediately.
“You little brat—”
Click. Qiao Jing hung up the phone quickly.
Every time he talked to his dad alone, it ended with the same result.
Qiao Jing was used to it.
After “Xinwen Lianbo” ended, he opened the Liuliu Web app and at a glance saw the comment section, which was bruised and battered by today’s update’s “knives.”
Every author has a heart eager to release “knives,” and Qiao Jing was no exception.
However, according to the outline, Qiao Jing still arranged for Yang Liu to successfully bring the data back to the country.
—He even added three chapters in one go to match today’s news.
But for some reason, his readers didn’t seem as happy as imagined.
“Too sad…”
“Damn, it’s really so sad, ahhh!”
Qiao Jing, with a belly full of doubt, reread his updated content.
It was clearly just simple technical data and the report plot after returning home, and he even let the protagonist show off his superhuman memory. No one died, and no one was injured. Where was the “knife”?
He reopened the comment section and continued scrolling down.
“Such lengthy and complex data—he remembered it all after hearing it just once. Yang Liu’s photographic memory is indeed awesome, but this also means he won’t be able to forget that melody Wu Zhining hummed to him on the phone before she died for the rest of his life.”
“Sad to death. Yang Liu is only eighteen this year, right? The most beautiful age in the prime of life. Both are young scientists—one genius meets another genius, appreciating each other, a perfect match. Everyone guessed Wu Zhining was the female lead before, but she gets her ‘bento’ (dies) after just a few chapters!”
“Yeah, this was the first time Yang Liu met a girl who could keep up with his thinking in his career, right? Just two years’ age difference. Even if I don’t go for older sister/younger brother romance, I’d ship this CP. I was still waiting for the sweet plot of Wu Zhining following Yang Liu back to the country to do research!”
“Damn it, author, give me back the beautiful female lead!”
“Wait, am I the only one heart-pained for Instructor Zhao? He’s a ‘King of Soldiers’ from the special forces, yet he was seriously injured protecting Yang Liu. He’ll probably have to live in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”
“Defense broken +1. Zhao Mingyu really protected the protagonist willingly. I didn’t cry when he was injured, and I didn’t cry when he said ‘Fortunately you’re okay,’ but when he was lying in the hospital bed and made Yang Liu cry while standing in a military posture against the wall to calm down, the tears really couldn’t be held back.”
“In short, a thousand words merge into one sentence—Old Thief Yan Heqing is not human!”
Qiao Jing, called an “Old Thief,” rubbed his nose and closed the comment section as if nothing had happened.
They are scolding Yan Heqing, what does that have to do with me, Qiao Jing?
But judging from the cries of “sad” in the comment section, the news just now didn’t affect “Song of the Earth.” Even if someone intentional wanted to investigate why their country’s research in this area was flying as fast as if it were on a rocket recently, they probably wouldn’t link it to a web novel for a while.
Therefore, although Qiao Jing had hundreds of thousands of readers, being explosively popular actually became his best protective color.
N City, Airport.
A Volkswagen Phaeton drove from the airport expressway and stopped in front of a man wearing a pure black suit.
After the driver took the luggage, Jing Xinglan rubbed his tired brow and bent down to sit in the back seat of the car.
Having just got off the plane, his jet lag hadn’t been adjusted yet. Although he had been busy all day, if he slept now, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
So the man pulled out his phone, preparing to read a novel to pass the time.
After hoarding for so long, the story should have “fattened up” by at least dozens of chapters by now, right?
But when he clicked on Jing Hua Shui Yue’s column, what he saw was the author’s statement of abandoning the account and a sea of gray “locked” chapters below.
Gone, everything was gone.
“A clean white expanse of land, truly clean.”
Jing Xinglan: “…”
This feeling of suffocation—anyone who has followed an update knows it.
With a tense face, he took a deep breath and made a call to his secretary: “Do you have the contact information for Xingchen Web? Give it to me now.”
The secretary was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly opened a notebook to search, not forgetting to ask: “Wait a moment, I’ll send it to you immediately. Do you want to acquire Xingchen Web?”
“No,” Jing Xinglan said gloomily, “it’s for personal reasons.”
Totaling it up over these years, he had spent nearly a million just reading books on Xingchen Web, 90% of which were tips given to Jing Hua Shui Yue. In the end, he got such a result. Was his money blown in by the wind?
And reading readers’ comments on Weibo, the author seemed to have been ostracized by the website’s higher-ups. How could this be tolerated?
After getting the contact information, Jing Xinglan had a “friendly” exchange with Xingchen Web’s CEO, Yao Jing, on the car. Ultimately, Yao Jing had to grit his teeth and agree to refund all his tips on the website and apologize publicly on Weibo.
“Does CEO Yao know where Jing Hua Shui Yue said he would write after terminating the contract?” Before hanging up, Jing Xinglan asked another question.
Since the author only said they were abandoning the account and not stopping writing, he still had hope of seeing a new story.
Yao Jing twitched the corners of his mouth and said with a fake smile, “I’m sorry, I don’t care much about such things.”
He was in no mood to wrangle with Jing Xinglan now. Just thinking about the price to be paid made his heart ache to death.
Refunding money was one thing, but a public apology meant that more readers like Jing Xinglan would surely make the same request next.
To know that Jing Hua Shui Yue’s tycoon readers often tipped tens of thousands at a time!
Not to mention that for such a “great god” author, the subscription fees of ordinary readers were the bulk of the income. Even if only one-tenth of the readers came to apply for a refund of their previous spending, it would be a huge pressure on the website’s capital chain.
When Qiao Jing paid so much in liquidated damages, Yao Jing hadn’t been willing to refund a single cent to the readers.
Jing Xinglan heard the coldness in Yao Jing’s tone, but what did that have to do with him?
He was just a reader who wanted to read stories, and because he liked Jing Hua Shui Yue’s writing, he had specifically bought several film and television rights, preparing to start filming. Jing Xinglan had even thought that he would invite the person over for a meal then, and preferably get a signed photo or something to put on the bookshelf in his office.
The result?
Not only were all the stories locked, but the author had also terminated the contract with the website. Even if the TV dramas in preparation could still be released, it would surely affect the crew.
Not taking Yao Jing to court was already giving the other party enough face!
“Since CEO Yao is a busy man, I won’t disturb you further,” Jing Xinglan said in a flat but subtly sarcastic tone. “I hope Xingchen Web will run better and better under your leadership in the future, with plenty of talent.”
The implication was that Yao Jing couldn’t retain talent and wasn’t fit to be a leader.
Yao Jing was so angry he almost cursed out loud, but Jing Xinglan didn’t give him the chance.
He hung up directly.
“Fuck! Is this bastard surnamed Jing purely looking for trouble!?”
Yao Jing, full of suppressed anger with nowhere to vent, could only make a call to Wang Cheng: “Remind Sa Yi for me—the higher-ups have already approved our plan to hold the International Web Novel Gala in N City. By then, the relevant industrial chain must be led by Xingchen Web. If something goes wrong on his end, tell him to get lost to some third-rate pheasant web to take a ‘guaranteed’ (minimum wage) and rot!”
Wang Cheng: “…I understand, I’ll pass it on for you.”
He sighed, looking at the darkened screen, thinking: As expected.
Even if one is willing to be someone’s dog for a bite of food, capitalists as a species will never be satisfied.
They fear disobedient wolves, yet they also look down on dogs that wag their tails and beg for mercy under them. All they need are “tool-people” willing to be driven by them.
He wondered, in this smokeless competition, who between Sa Yi and that Yan Heqing would have the last laugh?