New Issue of Big Comic

Though Tang Yao had been mocked, she didn't really care.

She knew her superior cared a lot about so-called "leadership authority." Just as he believed an editor's job was all about sales, his expectations of his subordinates were startlingly simple: they had to obey him, stay loyal, and respect him.

Compared with that, their actual ability was secondary.

It might sound ridiculous, but this sort of thing was common. Tang Yao had encountered people like him in her previous life, too.

It was mainly because her superior wasn't very capable, and was narrow-minded and extremely jealous. His fragile, inept vanity made him especially resentful of subordinates who were more capable than him and liked to talk back. He would needle you, using every kind of insinuation to tell you that you weren't all that impressive.

If you made a mistake, he would go to any lengths to put you down.

It was understandable for a boss to be like that, but seeing it in an editor-in-chief was just tiresome.

Tang Yao knew that as long as she refused to bow her head, nothing would improve, no matter how well she did her work.

But she had never considered swallowing her pride to appease him.

There was no need.

She had already decided to quit.

Whether or not she got the investment, she was leaving.

Even if she couldn't get the money to make a game, she would still quit. There was no point in caring anymore.

The only reason she was still here was to make it easier to meet Miss Li and confirm what path to take next.

Now that she had untied the knot from her previous life and could pick up a paintbrush again, she didn't even care about her year-end bonus...

In a way, she really wasn't very loyal.

"Are you okay?"

Back at their desks, Kang Ming sat down and glanced worriedly at Tang Yao.

"I'm fine," Tang Yao replied casually. "What's that saying? The money you get every month isn't a salary; it's compensation for emotional distress. There's some truth to it."

"What about the Manga Award?"

Kang Ming hadn't been there long—not even two full days, all told.

But he had managed to piece together what had happened from Editor Ding's words.

Tang Yao shook her head. "It'll be fine. The editor-in-chief wasn't wrong that I'm a third-rate editor and the artist is a third-rate painter, but I'm still pretty confident."

"I'm not so sure."

Kang Ming studied Tang Yao's profile. They hadn't known each other long, but his instincts told him that, despite what the editor-in-chief had said, the girl in front of him was absolutely not worthless.

"Then just wait and see. You can check the website yourself when the time comes."

Tang Yao smiled and added casually, "In the end, it's the readers who decide whether someone's any good. And thanks for caring, but... I'm actually planning to quit, so I really didn't take Editor Ding's words to heart."

"What!?"

Kang Ming stared at her, surprise swiftly replacing his curiosity.

He'd never heard anything about that.

"I want to do something else."

Seeing his shocked expression, Tang Yao hesitated. If she waited to tell him until she got the investment, it might be too much of a shock, so she decided to prepare him in advance. "I haven't settled on a date yet, but I'm definitely leaving."

"..."

Kang Ming finally recovered from his surprise. Though it all felt very sudden, he still asked, "So you're planning to..."

Tang Yao turned to him with a light smile. "Make games. I want to start with a mobile game. Can you believe it?"

"..."

Kang Ming glanced at the manuscript in Tang Yao's hands, then at the captivating smile on her face, feeling even more confused.

Wait.

How did that connect?

It didn't connect at all!

Was she joking?

But before he could figure it out, Tang Yao bent over her desk and got to work.

Kang Ming felt it was better not to ask.

Meanwhile, Tang Yao looked over the storyboards she'd finished yesterday and the latest masterpiece by Teacher Ou... then gently shook her head.

The new issue of Big Comic was about to go on sale.

Ou Congquan had stubbornly gone his own way after all. Just think of all those readers, brimming with anticipation as they rushed out to buy the magazine.

And then they'd see a story like that... They really had it rough.

The Manga Award was important.

But it wouldn't affect the magazine's release.

As time passed, the manga's final proofreading was completed. Once the magazine was confirmed to be error-free, it was sent straight to the printing plant.

Before long, the plant's machinery rumbled to life, the sound echoing across the entire facility.

Then Thursday arrived.

The new issue of Big Comic was distributed, appearing on schedule at bookstores and various retail outlets.

On her way to work, Tang Yao also took the time to buy a copy from a magazine stand.

She already knew what was running this week. She wasn't interested in Girl, Boy, and Sword, the magazine's flagship series, so she wasn't particularly interested in the other manga either.

But she still bought a copy. In her previous life, when she was young, she could still occasionally see magazine stands around, like at station exits.

But as time passed, places like magazine stands became rarer and rarer.

Traditional bookstores were disappearing even faster.

She hadn't lived through the cultural boom of the eighties, either. By the time she was born, online bookstores and digital reading—the first wave of killers of brick-and-mortar bookstores—had already appeared.

If anything, this world was nearly at the dawn of the mobile internet era. The fact that traditional bookstores hadn't yet died out on a massive scale was what seemed most unbelievable.

Maybe it was just a parallel world.

It was out of a sense of nostalgia that she went and bought the latest issue of Big Comic.

To her surprise, quite a few people were buying it. Most of them were probably just picking up the magazine that topped the sales charts, but judging by the stack of issues at the magazine stand, even Big Comic—the perennial fourth-place finisher—had sold two-thirds of its copies early in the morning.

"This issue has Girl, Boy, and Sword, right?"

"Of course! We're right at the best part! The mastermind is a little girl, and she's about to fight the male lead! I've been waiting for this for over half a year! The story's finally reaching its climax."

"Yeah! I wonder what Give It Your All will draw this week!"

"Can't wait!"

"..."

As Tang Yao bought the magazine, several young-looking readers picked up the new issue of Big Comic while discussing it.

Were they students?

Tang Yao couldn't tell, but she heard what they were saying.

She gave a slight shake of her head, fell silent for a moment, then turned and headed to the office.

A little over ten minutes later, Tang Yao reached her workstation. She set the magazine she'd bought on her way in on the desk, sat down, and flipped through it a little.

After skimming through most of it, she tossed the magazine aside and gently rubbed her temples. For some reason, she felt a little irritated.

Especially when she thought back to those readers' excited words.

It irritated her even more.

Tang Yao thought for a moment, woke her computer, and opened the website for the upcoming Wenxin Manga Award, intending to distract herself.

The website obviously wasn't called "Wenxin Manga Award." It was called Wenxin Online.

The Manga Award hadn't begun yet, but the website had already been built, and the mascot had already been drawn. The main page currently featured information about the first Wenxin Manga Award.

According to the plan, once the Manga Award opened, all the entries would be displayed on the website.

After the award ended, the site would officially begin accepting free submissions. The award entries would become the first batch of works on the site, serving as a kind of seed collection.

Tang Yao had opened the website to check the submission process for the Manga Award.

After all, she wasn't entering through the invited-manga-artist channel...

Overall, the submission process for the award wasn't complicated. The company seemed to be taking the website seriously. Besides invited artists, it also accepted editor recommendations.

That made things easy.

Tang Yao closed the page, searched around a little, found the short manga titled Uzumaki, and began preparing a digital copy.

But first, she needed to confirm one thing: should the manga artist use their real name?

No.

The moment the thought occurred to her, Tang Yao shook her head and dismissed it.

It wasn't her work, for one thing. And it felt like it would bring a lot of trouble.

Using Junji Ito wouldn't work either.

She'd need to put her other works under the same pen name later.

Hmm... Then she'd just come up with something. It was only an alias, anyway.

She'd call herself Third-rate Painter.

Tang Yao thought about it and picked the name on a whim.

After all, in this world, the person drawing these manga—her—really was a third-rate painter.

Now that she had a name, all that remained was to finish proofreading and convert the pages into a digital copy.

She'd drawn the cover yesterday, too.

Tang Yao got back to work.

About twenty minutes later, Tang Yao was fully absorbed in her work. Around the same time, Kang Ming, whose workstation was next to hers, arrived.

Hearing footsteps, Tang Yao glanced over and saw the new recruit holding a copy of the latest issue of Big Comic... But for some reason, he looked utterly exhausted. He had the air of someone who'd gone tomb-raiding in the middle of the night, run into another gang of tomb raiders, fought desperately to the bitter end, and only just made it to work on time.

What had he been doing?