Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 121

The popularity of “Imperial Spirit Girl” brought about a series of “travel between the inner and outer worlds” themes.

In “The Imperial Spirit Girl”, the jade pendant was broken, and the power was awakened by fusing with blood, so that the psychic world could be seen. Then she awakened the power of “seeing ghosts” and “seeing monsters” by breaking the ancestral tablets or other things. Some people were particularly creative and combined this change with the awakening of demon bloodline.

For a while, the traditional martial arts comics and gangster comics were suppressed. Colleagues had a love-hate relationship with this unconventional “Gu Pan”. They loved the new ideas she brought, but hated her outstanding talent and aggressive approach.

However, everyone really felt that this young cartoonist was “explosive” because of a newspaper headline – “Girl smashes family heirloom jade pendant, trying to find a demon spirit.”

Some readers have already become addicted to the comics and imitated them in real life. “Gu Pan” had to write in the serialized comics: This story was purely fictional. Any similarities were definitely accidental.

When the serialization of “The Imperial Spirit Girl” was popular, the single volume of “The Legend of the Desert Heroes: Devil City” also achieved great results.

Zhen Weilong, who had left the magazine “Huayou”, had published less than a fraction of “Da Mo” in his single volume. It was said that he was about to explode with anger.

“X, my single volume sold very well, and many people wrote to me. -H”

“Congratulations. I heard that young cartoonists are very popular. Maybe you have been overwhelmed by the love letters sent to you. -X”

An Yinong read the letter, then looked at the pile of drawings on his desk, and smiled bitterly. He didn’t tell X that he had drawn two comics, so now he had no free time, let alone dating, and even no time to do homework.

“Dear X, please stop teasing me. I’m busy preparing new drawings now. How can I have time to date someone? Besides, not many people know that I draw comics. -H”

“He didn’t tell his family about this? I’m the first one to know about it? (Not counting the editor)” Mr. Xie next door was holding the note, and for some reason he seemed happy.

An Yinong was busy at home almost all this summer, working day and night to create the next content of “The Imperial Spirit Girl”.

Now he was drawing a story about the heroine taking her family heirloom sword to the Sky Island to participate in the “Young Psychic Competition”. On the way, she was attacked by the dark force “Black Robe Organization”. At this time, a demon girl who also came to participate in the competition saved her. This girl also came to participate in the competition, and she had another purpose, to kill her brother who had betrayed her tribe.

In his busy life, An Yinong did not forget to write to his pen pal: “Today is also a busy day, life is not wasted. By the way, today I let Xie Xie eat a lot of nuts, please control its food intake after you go back. – H”

Mr. Xie next door didn’t receive the letter from the “little friend” until the evening. He walked to the balcony and saw light coming through the window over there, which seemed to indicate that he had not gone to bed yet.

“Why aren’t you sleeping at this hour?” He looked down at his watch. “If you keep staying up late, what will you do if you don’t grow taller?”

“Dear H, considering that you are still a middle school student, can you be kinder to yourself and not push yourself too hard? Sometimes it’s nice to go out for a walk to change your mood, isn’t it? -X” Mr. Xie had just finished writing when the parrot Xie came over and rubbed his hand, wanting food.

“No, he said you ate a lot of snacks today.” Mr. Xie rejected it seriously and lectured, “You can’t act like a spoiled brat and eat as much as you want just because he spoils you. He will think I am abusing you, and it is not good for your health.”

“Chirp?” The parrot tilted its head. It suspected that its owner wanted to abuse it, and it had evidence.

“The Imperial Spirit Girl” continued to be serialized, and the plots in the following issues continued to be high-energy. The sales of “Huayou” magazine also continued to rise, and many girls who originally did not read comics were brought into the pit.

The girls gathered together to discuss the plot. In addition to the heroine’s fashionable and beautiful clothes, the plot and the emotional line were also the focus of their discussion. For the first time, the girls felt that girls learning martial arts were so handsome, even more handsome than boys.

“It’s only the middle of the year, with ‘Yinong’s’ The Legend of the Desert Heroes’ and ‘Gu Pan’s’ The Imperial Spirit Girl’, who knows what kind of characters will appear in the second half of the year?”

“This year’s top ten best-selling comics and the top ten best-selling comics artists are going to be super competitive.”

Some people expressed their delight because this would expand the comics market and make the pie bigger, and they were happy to see their favorite industry flourishing.

Mr. Huang, the head of martial arts comics, even publicly stated: I am very pleased to see so many outstanding cartoonists emerging recently. Our industry will continue to develop healthily only if there is fresh blood coming in.

But not everyone welcomed this kind of freak newcomer. Some people were particularly averse to the entry of “female cartoonists” and “female comic themes”.

This was the case with Zhen Weilong, the comic author who left “Huayou” before and whose old comic was beaten to the ground by “The Legend of the Desert Heroes” and whose new comic was beaten to the ground by “The Imperial Spirit Girl”. He was already terrified when he saw Yinong’s work was selling well. He was ranked ninth among the best-selling comics last year. If such a dark horse came this year, he would drop to tenth. He also never expected that there would be a female cartoonist out there bullying people?

Zhen Weilong’s manuscript fees and royalties in “Xia Dao” were linked to his status. He could only be treated like this if he was in the annual top ten. If he fell out of the top ten, then… he lost face and money.

“I simply cannot watch this happen.”

He hated the two new cartoonists from Huayou, but he wanted to pick on the weak, so he thought about it and decided to target the relatively disadvantaged “female cartoonists”. So he wrote an article in a small daily newspaper saying that “The Imperial Spirit Girl” was a book that pleased female audiences, had no substance and was a small “love story”. It was a “new star” that was forcibly promoted by “Huayou” magazine.

Its appearance and popularity only showed that the aesthetic taste of this audience was not good. He suggested they go see an ophthalmologist.

This “senior” also questioned whether the author used her female identity to attract female audiences instead of using her works to attract them. This was actually a “sexist” practice that violated the professional ethics of cartoonists. As a cartoonist, one should use their works to attract people, so how can they use gender as a gimmick?

At this time, Zhen Weilong had already ignored the fact that ‘Gu Pan’ had never mentioned her female identity, and he assumed that comics with female themes were equivalent to works by female cartoonists. In addition, he criticized that the sales of “Huayou” magazine were only achieved by giving away free gifts. It looked lively, but it was actually a bubble. Once the comics in it were published as single volumes, they would be exposed.

As a predecessor and a master, he advised the newcomers (An Yinong) to be down-to-earth and work hard, and not to be too ambitious and take shortcuts.

“Haha, little girl, when I, Master Zhen, was at the helm of the world, you didn’t even know where to hide and nurse.” Zhen Weilong looked at his speech in the newspaper and became more and more satisfied. It was far-sighted and could be regarded as a role model among the predecessors.

“If she had any sense, she would have stayed at home and cried. Comics…what does that have to do with women? She should just go home and breastfeed her child.” Zhen Weilong wrote thousands of words, pointing out the country’s affairs from a high position, and his words were full of superiority.

An Yinong was fine, but the editorial department of Huayou magazine was furious. It was bad enough that they were backstabbed by this author before, but now he came out to suppress their new author? Where’s his face?

Also, what he said about the revealing of the truth when a single volume was published, was he actually talking about the publication of a single volume of “Desert Heroes: Devil City”? The editorial department assigned Editor Qian to call An Yinong, hoping that he could come out and respond to prevent the villain from becoming more arrogant.

“Where did this come from?” An Yinong covered his cheek with his hands as he read the newspaper. The more he read, the higher his eyebrows raised. When a person got angry, all kinds of monsters and demons would jump out.

“Didn’t the young master have an appointment at the dentist? Why are you still sitting here?” asked Granny Lian who was passing by curiously.

An Yinong looked at the clock and saw that it was time. He folded the newspaper, picked up his coat and walked out the door. He has had a toothache for two days. His gums were red and swollen, and he could feel a small tip with his hand. An Yinong suspected that he had grown wisdom teeth.

It turned out that the wisdom teeth really caused swollen and painful gums and even a sore throat. The doctor cleaned and reduced the inflammation for him and asked him if he wanted to have them removed.

An Yinong looked at the big pliers on the table nearby.

“……No!”

He went back, holding his cheek, holding an ice pack against his cheek while frowning as he read the newspaper: “Where did this idiot come from? You’re jealous if you want, and you put it in such a nice way.” For such people, we need to present facts and use data to slap them in the face.

“Hiss, my tooth hurts.” His throat hurt too.

His physical discomfort made him feel bad, and he wanted to transfer this gloomy and rainy state to the annoying guy. So An Yinong published a string of numbers in the same newspaper under the name of “Yinong”:

The first number was the sales of the single volume of “Desert Heroes: Devil City” in the first month, which was about 30,000 copies. The second number was the sales volume of “Huayou” magazine this month, which had exceeded 10,000 copies.

Finally, there was a long paragraph thanking readers for their support. Data was very intuitive. Even people who didn’t understand comics were amazed. Look at the sales volume. The first “Yi Nong” and the second “Gu Pan” were both newcomers with great momentum.

People in the industry were even more surprised. They knew that these two people were newcomers, but they didn’t expect them to be so good at fighting.

“He published these in the newspaper not just to thank readers for their support, right?”

“Of course not. How can it be such a coincidence? Zhen Weilong provoked him and he released the data right after? Is he speaking up for Gu Pan? Do they know each other?” This was what people who were paying attention to this matter speculated.

Zhen Weilong thought the same. When he saw these figures, his brows twitched. He thought of his single-volume sales figures that couldn’t even break 3,000, and his serial sales data that was crushed to the ground.

But before he could take any action, Gu Pan immediately published a statement in the same newspaper:

On a certain day of a certain month of the lunar year XX, Mr. Zhen Weilong, a big shot in the art world, visited the Hong Kong comics circle and gave an important speech on the issue of “sales being surpassed”. Everyone applauded and welcomed him.

This response contained no curse words, nor any disrespect, but… They don’t know why, but they seemed to feel the destructive power of words.

“Shameless, shameless little girl!” The hand of the ‘big boss in the painting world’ holding the newspaper trembled slightly, followed by a ‘bang’ sound.

“Sir? Sir?! Someone come – someone has fainted -“