Chapter 6#

“A reader tipped you ten thousand yuan!” 008 screamed. “And 20 reputation points have been credited! A full 20 points!”

Although it had said before that human mental power was limited and one person could only provide one reputation point, there were naturally exceptions.

Special talents with high mental power, for instance, could create double or even dozens of times more reputation points.

Qiao Jing rubbed his ears: “Yes, yes, yes, you’ve been nagging all day.”

Still, ten thousand yuan was indeed not a small sum. He even went to take a look, and after confirming it wasn’t a minor tipping with a parent’s bank card, he politely replied with “Thank you for the support.”

And that reader replied almost instantly, as if they were holding their phone and waiting for Qiao Jing’s reply at all times:

“Great God, do you have a group or a QQ number? If not, do you plan to create one? I apply to be the group leader!”

It was normal for readers to ask this, just like how streamers often chatted with their top donors in private to cultivate relationships. Many authors also interacted closely in the comment section and with top donors on the leaderboard.

However, they met Qiao Jing.

Yan Heqing: “No. Don’t plan to.”

Next, no matter how much Ding Qi used rainbow farts or tried various probes, the other party stopped replying.

He could only stare at those two eye-piercing periods, gritting his teeth in frustration.

Big shot, do you have to be so cold!

“Little Ding, what are you doing?” “Ding Qi, don’t slack off in the lab!”

Almost simultaneously, the voices of his supervisor and senior brother reminding him rang out in the lab.

It couldn’t be helped; now everyone in their lab had downloaded the Liuliu Web app and followed Yan Heqing. As soon as “Song of the Earth” updated, everyone would immediately drop what they were doing and start following the story.

Gao Xinglu had also specifically instructed them to comment enthusiastically and engage more with Yan Heqing on academic topics.

Even if there were no questions, they had to strive to start discussions about the plot.

In short: under no circumstances should the author be allowed to abandon the story!

This manifested in the comment section as Qiao Jing suddenly having a dozen die-hard readers, and every one of them was a C9 (elite) PhD. The profound content they posted in the comment section every day left other readers in a daze, only able to follow behind and spam “Big shot 666” (awesome).

Qiao Jing felt good about this.

Although the doctoral students under Gao Xinglu were very impressive, his original reader base at Xingchen Web was also substantial.

Let alone doctoral students, he had seen several post-docs among his readers.

What truly surprised him was that after writing this sensitive content, no one had come to his door to “invite him for tea.”

“Don’t worry,” 008 said proudly. “With me around, no one in this world can find your true identity!”

Upon further questioning, Qiao Jing then learned that someone had indeed called that fake number.

Linking this to the several “professionals” who had suddenly appeared in the comment section recently, he was very satisfied: “Very good, it saves a lot of trouble.”

—Though, his editor probably had to work a bit hard.

To be honest, Don’t Pigeon’s life had indeed been quite turbulent lately.

Since the day Gao Xinglu called, during working hours every day, the boss would always “inadvertently” pass by his workstation several times, casually asking what Yan Heqing wrote today and how the reaction in the comment section was, showing even more concern than the author himself.

Therefore, besides his daily editorial work, Don’t Pigeon had an additional task—

Following the story.

Although this wasn’t much of a burden for him since “Song of the Earth” was originally the type he liked, and the protagonist Yang Liu was a model for us wage earners.

But Don’t Pigeon only wished the boss would pay a bit less attention to him. Paying employees such a measly salary and not even allowing slacking off at work was too painful!

But putting these aside, after confirming that this new author under him was indeed a big shot—and a “pervert” (genius) a hundred times more than he had imagined—Don’t Pigeon had been thinking about one thing—

Why on earth did Yan Heqing come to Liuliu Web to write?

Even if he simply liked writing novels, Xingchen Web should be a better choice, right?

It wasn’t that Don’t Pigeon was belittling himself, but looking around, their entire company’s area was less than 150 square meters, and the server felt older than he was. To save money, the boss was reluctant to rent an office building and had directly rented an apartment in a residential complex; a left turn out the door was a wet market.

Don’t Pigeon was stunned when he first came for an interview.

He was completely puzzled and simply mustered the courage to ask Qiao Jing personally: “Brother Yan, can I ask a question?”

Qiao Jing, whose remark name was “Big Shot Yan,” replied quickly: “Go ahead.”

“Why did you come to Liuliu Web to write?”

Seeing Qiao Jing send a “?”, Don’t Pigeon hurried to explain: “I don’t mean anything else, it’s just… the boss asked us to do an author survey! We want to know why everyone chose our website to sign.”

He tactfully pushed the boss out as a shield, causing Liu Huayi, who was sitting in his office thinking about how to further cut expenses, to sneeze several times in a row.

Qiao Jing didn’t suspect anything, thought for a moment, and typed two words: “Fairness.”

Fairness?

Don’t Pigeon thought about the rumors he had heard from editors at other websites recently and became somewhat thoughtful.

So, has the big shot been ostracized before?

He immediately promised solemnly: “Don’t worry, Brother Yan. As long as I’m an editor at Liuliu Web for one day, no one will be able to bully you!”

But Don’t Pigeon regretted it as soon as he sent it.

It sounded so “chuunibyou” (cringe/immature), practically a social death!

Was there water in his brain just now?

Just as Don’t Pigeon wanted to retract his foolish words and pretend nothing happened, Qiao Jing unusually sent him a cute smiling cat face.

“Thank you,” he said.

Even though he knew the big shot was just being polite and had stolen his own emoji, Don’t Pigeon was still very excited.

He took a deep breath and banged his forehead hard against the table several times, startling his colleagues nearby.

After finally calming his surging emotions, Don’t Pigeon held back his excitement and went to the big shot’s comment section again with a spirited air, looking to see if there were any inflammatory comments that needed his help to delete.

However, with 008, a high-level AI, around, it was clear that it was impossible for Don’t Pigeon to find such comments.

But he soon discovered another very important thing—

“The big shot has written fifty chapters?” Don’t Pigeon was stunned, then overjoyed. “Then we can pack things up and prepare for it to be ’listed’ (start charging)!”

“Listed?”

It was only when reminded by the editor that Qiao Jing remembered: “Oh, the word count is indeed enough.”

Because there were too many new books entering the database every day at Xingchen Web, they usually had to wait until over a hundred or even several hundred chapters before they could start charging. Qiao Jing was used to writing long stories, and the plot hadn’t even fully unfolded yet; it could only be considered a beginning.

“Coincidentally, I have an important plot point to write next,” Qiao Jing flipped through the outline and quickly decided. “Let’s stop here. Do you have any recommendations for the listing?”

Don’t Pigeon: “We do! Not only do we have recommendations, but other websites will also give us channels. It’s just that there aren’t many channels allocated to our site; most go to Xingchen Web.”

Qiao Jing: “It’s fine, as long as there are some.”

The big shot is so easy to talk to!

Don’t Pigeon was very moved: “In that case, Brother Yan, let me go ask around and see if any big shots from other sites are also going to be on the channels recently.”

No matter which website, reader traffic is limited. It often happens that several big shots haven’t coordinated their times, and as a result, they end up hitting the channels at the same time.

Generally speaking, when this happens, there are only two outcomes:

Either a lose-lose or winner-takes-all.

But no one can guarantee they’ll be the winner-takes-all, so basically everyone will consciously avoid each other. Although Don’t Pigeon had confidence in Qiao Jing, just in case, it was better to be thorough.

Qiao Jing also understood the editor’s good intentions, although he himself didn’t care much about such things.

But he didn’t refuse either: “Okay, then I’ll trouble you.”

From his way of doing things and his speech, he could tell that Don’t Pigeon wasn’t old and was still a new editor who hadn’t been in the industry for long.

Back then, his editor at Xingchen Web, Wang Cheng, was much more experienced and smooth than Don’t Pigeon.

For example, if the person facing this matter were Wang Cheng, he would never say something like “I’ll go ask for you.” Wang Cheng would only suddenly pop up the day before Qiao Jing was to hit the channels and tell him that so-and-so was going to be there with him, but don’t worry, I’ve already handled it; under my persuasion, he decided to stop updating for a few days to delay.

—As for what method he used and how he persuaded them, Qiao Jing didn’t know.

His first book was a hit, and from then on, he quickly became a “great god” of Xingchen Web. Authors from the same period either stopped writing or weren’t as prominent as he was.

Therefore, as long as Wang Cheng used the pen name “Jing Hua Shui Yue” to pressure those slightly famous authors, they would naturally give way out of respect for Qiao Jing.

However, doing this in the end only damaged Qiao Jing’s reputation.

Thinking of the past, Qiao Jing rubbed his aching temples and decided not to code tonight, instead going out for a walk to relax.

008 said in surprise: “You’re actually going out on your own initiative?”

Heavens, the sun has risen from the west!

“I’m not a writing machine; I can run out of inspiration too,” Qiao Jing sighed. “It’s just going out for a walk alone, no need to be so surprised.”

Who knew, the kitten actually nodded at him.

Qiao Jing: “…”

Forget it.

In the dead of winter, the cold wind was biting.

Qiao Jing tucked the lower half of his face into his scarf, with both hands in his coat pockets, watching the city’s neon lights on both sides of the street. Before he knew it, he had walked to a bookstore.

Unlike the secondhand bookstore he had visited before, this bookstore was the type aimed at the general public. Next to it was a central shopping mall, and the entrance was bustling with people coming and going.

Standing among the continuous stream of people, Qiao Jing looked up and inadvertently saw a car advertisement playing on the large screen at the intersection.

A familiar-faced male model wearing a high-end suit leaned against a luxury car. He was tall, with broad shoulders and long legs. One well-defined hand rested casually on the car door, and his deep profile when he looked down was so handsome it was practically a crime.

In the short time waiting for the red light, no fewer than four or five girls had already held up their phones to take photos.

008 screamed: “Ah! He’s the host I should have been looking for!”

Qiao Jing thought to himself: Isn’t this Jing Xinglan?

Based on his knowledge of his high school desk mate, even if 008 hadn’t gotten the wrong person, the description “a handsome guy with a cold exterior and warm interior, strong personal charm, 1.88 meters tall” was absolute nonsense, except for the last part.

To put it without exaggeration, Jing Xinglan was his high school nightmare.

At that time, the two were desk mates, so every week girls would find Qiao Jing to ask about Jing Xinglan’s hobbies and have him help pass on love letters. Qiao Jing was incredibly annoyed and wanted to change seats, but the teacher thought it was good this way because it allowed Qiao Jing to interact more with classmates and “become a bit more extroverted.”

But Qiao Jing didn’t understand—who on earth decided that not liking to talk was a disease?

—Because of this, his perception of Jing Xinglan as a person was also very poor.

Fortunately, Jing Xinglan wasn’t a talkative person either, just a bit overly serious in some strange aspects and a bit of a clean freak. Generally speaking, the interaction between the two was barely peaceful, and Qiao Jing had even lent him a few novels.

…But in the end, they were all confiscated by the teacher. Because of this, Jing Xinglan had even topped up a large sum of money on his meal card as compensation.

Now the man’s career was flourishing, but Qiao Jing wasn’t envious like other classmates.

For him, none of this had anything to do with him.

And he wasn’t someone who lacked money.

So Qiao Jing just took one more look at the billboard, quickly withdrew his gaze, and prepared to leave.

“The book signing is starting! Don’t miss out as you pass by!”

The loud megaphone promotion at the entrance of the bookstore made him pause.

Qiao Jing was a bit curious about who was holding a book signing here. He thought about it and decided to go in and take a look.

It wasn’t that he wanted to reminisce; he had no past to reminisce about with authors from Xingchen Web.

He was just simply curious.

It seemed Yuan Chengdao had mentioned in the group that he was coming to N City recently?

But when Qiao Jing walked into the bookstore, passed through the crowd, and saw the face sitting behind the long table, the smile on his face instantly faded.