Chapter 86: Cold Wind
Is this the best of times? It is also the worst of times. This is an era of opportunity, but also a cruel era. Everyone has the chance to climb forward, but not everyone can reach the end. Only a few can sit on the throne.
When the wave of the entertainment industry arrived, no one could stop this trend. In the current era, people can only adapt to the arrival of this wave.
If there’s anything currently more profitable in the entertainment industry than movies, it’s probably novels and comics. These two areas are still quite profitable at the moment, with a wide audience. These works often have the opportunity to be adapted into film and television works, gaining more attention.
Especially the novel industry; currently, the highest annual income for an individual author has reached 200 million yuan. Such a terrifying figure is currently unsurpassed. Although the novel industry has varying quality, criticized by traditional writers’ associations as commercialized secular articles lacking literary merit, it must be admitted that these novels are usually the most profitable.
“Sigh…”
Zhao Yuyan sat in her room, facing the densely packed lines of text on the computer, feeling a headache. Piles of manuscripts were on the desk, some discarded ones even drifting under the table. What was originally a girl’s boudoir had been stripped of all aesthetic appeal by these papers.
This girl had long black hair, tied into a braid thrown back, her fair little face filled with sorrow. It could be seen that the owner of this room had quite good taste, as the decoration and furnishings were decent, just ruined by the piles of manuscript paper.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Zhao Yuyan let out a mournful “woo woo woo” sound, picked up her phone, and answered the call.
“Hello, Teacher Kongqi? The deadline is approaching. It’s about time you submitted the manuscript to me, right?”
“Wait, wait, Sister Chen! Can you give me two more days?”
“No. It must be submitted to me tomorrow, otherwise, the publication date can’t be met. You can only give the publication slot to someone else.”
“Okay, okay, I know…”
Zhao Yuyan truly wanted to cry but had no tears. Being rushed for a manuscript wasn’t good at all. Why did she believe her senior’s words back then? Something like only great gods get rushed for manuscripts – she actually believed such nonsense.
After hanging up the phone, Zhao Yuyan quickly typed on the keyboard, rushing her manuscript. After all, the deadline was tomorrow; how could she not hurry?
“I wonder how Luo Nan survived under the hands of this devil editor.”
While typing, Zhao Yuyan didn’t forget to complain about her teammate.
She was an author under Chen Xi’s charge, currently a newcomer author at the publishing house. Having just debuted not long ago, she already had her representative work, gained some popularity in a short time, and harvested a batch of fans. Although her popularity wasn’t particularly strong, for a newcomer, she had already done quite outstandingly.
Guangnan City was still cold today. After entering winter, the cold wind swept into the city. When Yu Linna went home from school today, there was an extra scarf around her neck. This scarf was blue and pink with several patterns, specially bought for her by Ye Zhiyun. Although Yu Linna said she didn’t need it, Ye Zhiyun forcefully gave it to her. She could only accept it.
The past Yu Linna absolutely couldn’t afford such luxury items.
“It’s almost New Year’s. Have you thought about what to do after the holiday starts?”
Fang Jianing, as usual, accompanied her home from school every day. Thinking about the upcoming winter vacation, she felt quite happy. Although third-year high school students suffered a lot, it wasn’t completely without holidays. Since the Education Bureau issued the order, many schools were forbidden from holding make-up classes. Although the winter vacation for third-year students wasn’t as long as others’, it was within an acceptable range. Mainly, the operation of make-up classes was gone.
“Haven’t thought about it.”
Yu Linna exhaled a breath of hot air, looking at the gray sky, her eyes holding a trace of confusion.
If it were her last year, at this time, she should be thinking about how to save some money for Christmas Eve. But this year she didn’t have this worry. Because she was taken in by Ye Zhiyun, she hadn’t worked for a whole month. Suddenly becoming idle made her feel uncomfortable.
Although she felt this kind of life was quite good, compared to her past dozen years of drifting life, the current stable days were undoubtedly better, and also what she had always wanted. But she always felt something was wrong. Was it really okay to be supported by someone like this? Sometimes she would think this way.
Although she mentioned she wanted to go out to work, Ye Zhiyun refused, saying she could afford this little bit of money.
Every time she saw Ye Zhiyun’s domineering eyes, she immediately softened, unable to come up with good words anymore. Anyway, she had nothing to do. Cooking for her at home, wasn’t that quite good too?
Yu Linna had thought long ago, if she had a family in the future, she should be wearing an apron, busy in the kitchen cooking for her family. When the dishes were served, the gentle smiles on her family members’ faces were what she most wanted to see.
Although she didn’t have a family yet, she felt like she was already doing what she wanted to do.
“Linna, let’s go buy books! Teacher Kongqi’s new book is coming out. I want to go take a look.”
“You really pay attention to her.”
“A fan told me during the live stream before that they wanted me to do a commentary on Teacher Kongqi’s works. I want to go check out her works.”
“For the sake of you once helping me make a yuri video, I’ll accompany you.”
Fang Jianing and Yu Linna’s relationship was really getting better and better. The two who spoke less than three sentences at the beginning of the school year had now become good friends. Whenever Fang Jianing had time, she would use the excuse of treating others to food to lure Yu Linna out to play, and this excuse was truly tried and tested.
“Sorry little girl, Teacher Kongqi’s work hasn’t been published yet. Wait until next month.”
“What? I thought there was a new book. Forget it, I’ll buy her previously published books. I’ll need this material for the next live stream.”
Entering the bookstore, Fang Jianing began to select novels. As a qualified streamer, a qualified uploader, regular updates were necessary.
The current novel industry was so developed, many works were sought after by readers, receiving no less attention than live streams. Moreover, the threshold for the novel industry was low. As long as one had outstanding works, they could get opportunities. Like the author whose annual income now reached 200 million, his works could be called immortal grass, mainly focusing on fantasy. Currently, his novels had been adapted into anime, TV series, and comics, arguably the number one author in the country.
Compared to someone like Fang Jianing, a Bilibili uploader, she naturally couldn’t compare. You know, she was just a website uploader, not a hugely popular star. If you wanted to talk about which industry had high exposure and made a lot of money, besides the entertainment industry, there really wasn’t much else to say.
Yu Linna glanced at the bookshelf, looking at the dazzling array of works. Yu Linna picked up a few novels, but couldn’t get into many of them. She felt these novels were too cliché. Row after row were almost all fantasy cultivation, martial arts romance. She flipped through a few, and they basically all told the story of the handsome male lead and beautiful female lead getting together, hardly focusing on the plot.
It could only be said that the homogenization of novels on the market was too severe. Seeing something become popular, everyone followed the trend, ultimately writing the genre to death.
The novels Yu Linna could find, there weren’t many she could actually stomach. Some plot logic really didn’t make sense, and the protagonist forcefully acting cool made her uncomfortable to watch. She really didn’t know how these novels got published.
“Linna, is there anything you like? I can lend you money to buy it.”
“Seems like besides the novels published by famous authors, there aren’t many worth reading. Forget it, let’s stop browsing.”
“Okay, then let’s go. I’ve picked mine.”
Fang Jianing didn’t buy much, just one or two books. She specifically bought the works of Teacher Kongqi mentioned by her fans. She planned to take them home to read carefully, then make a video commentary.
As the only female uploader among the top ten famous uploaders on Bilibili, Fang Jianing’s popularity was very high. Whenever she started a live stream, someone would always click in to watch. Bilibili had even signed a contract with her, asking her to place advertisements. And Fang Jianing always inserted an advertisement near the end of her videos, catching the fans watching the video off guard and leaving them bewildered. So much so that many fans posted bullet comments like “Little Angel, you’ve learned bad things, turned into an old thief.”
“By the way, Linna, I don’t think I’ve ever live-streamed with you before. How about we live-stream together?”
“Live stream?”
“Yeah! You cosplay, put on some makeup, I’ll point the camera at you, you just need to smile. I’ve always wanted to do a cosplayer live stream.”
Yu Linna couldn’t understand. What did her live stream have to do with her?
She was about to refuse when Fang Jianing immediately covered her mouth.
“Please, one hundred yuan, how about it? One hundred yuan to be my live stream character. You’re living with Zhiyun now, you wouldn’t ask her for money, right? I’m giving you a chance to earn money~~”
Yu Linna paused, coughed twice, walked ahead, pulling her scarf tighter.
“Okay, I reluctantly agree.”
Nice, sure enough, it worked!
Fang Jianing silently gave her intelligence a thumbs up.
Although the weather was very cold, fortunately, it didn’t snow in the south, so it couldn’t get that cold. Besides the necessary commute to and from school every day, Ye Zhiyun mostly socialized, went to discuss projects with people, and handled trivial matters of her own studio. The consumption some time ago was too large. Having finally recouped a little bit of blood relying on one movie, she naturally wanted to pick up the previously shelved projects and make a complete plan. She hadn’t forgotten her plan, which was to invest in an animated movie.
The heating in the coffee shop was very comfortable. Unlike the cold wind outside, people staying here were like cats burrowing into blankets, not wanting to go outside.
Ye Zhiyun sat alone in a corner by the window, savoring her coffee, waiting for someone. When the coffee shop door opened, a handsome young man walked in. He saw Ye Zhiyun in the corner and walked over with a friendly smile.
“Zhiyun, what have you been busy with lately? Haven’t even come to class.”
“Busy doing business. What about you? Quite free today? Haven’t been able to reach you recently.”
“That’s because you were busy. I didn’t want to disturb you. Come on, my treat today. Order whatever you want to drink.”
The cold wind blew, the cold wind drifted, a few withered yellow leaves floated past.
Leave a Reply