The Real World Isn't a Comic: There's No Scene Where Misunderstandings Are Cleared Up and Everyone Gets Along

The living room.

After Tang Yao asked her question, a brief silence fell.

Li Jiang, standing in the kitchen doorway, looked so shocked his face twisted... He just couldn't imagine that such a cute girl could be so bold.

And Teacher Ou seemed to have been rendered speechless?

...Huh?

Li Jiang stood in the kitchen doorway, stunned. He didn't know whether to stay there or go over.

After a good while,

he finally mustered the courage to carry the tea over to them, trembling with nerves.

"Um... tea."

He carefully set the two steaming cups down in front of them.

Ou Congquan ignored him, still staring intently at Tang Yao.

Tang Yao, however, turned around and thanked him.

It was a matter of upbringing.

"Why... do you know?"

Li Jiang's arrival seemed to break the stalemate, and Ou Congquan spoke again.

"I'm an editor. I haven't been in the business long, but I'll do what needs to be done, and I'll take responsibility for what I'm responsible for."

Tang Yao spoke as if it were obvious. "When I learned I'd be your editor, I read all your previous serialized work, including your two earlier short stories. Leaving aside the arcs that have already ended, just look at the Hell Arc, which is nearing its conclusion. Starting with issue 102 at the end of last month, you began deliberately describing the male lead's expression when he saw the female lead interact with the second male lead. You never described it directly, but you clearly put a lot of effort into showing indirectly that it bothered him."

Ou Congquan's mouth fell slightly open. He wanted to say something, but no words came out.

Because it was true: that was when he'd started writing the male lead's inner conflict.

"Why..."

"Are you a broken record!? I told you, I'm your editor."

Tang Yao took a deep breath. "I won't interfere with what you want to draw, and I have no interest in interfering of my own accord. But as a professional, and just in case—say, if you bring something up for discussion—I need to understand your work before I can offer advice. And then there's a case like last issue, when you clearly went off track. I have to understand your work to offer constructive feedback."

Ou Congquan: "..."

"You're afraid I'll influence you for that childish, ridiculous reason, but you've forgotten that the editor is the first reader."

Tang Yao stared at Ou Congquan. "Your attitude is like removing the brakes and the passenger seat from your car, then driving it down the highway with no brakes while congratulating yourself for it. You even absurdly think the brakes are going to fight you for the steering wheel, all because they failed once.

What, when your brakes broke, did you replace them with a long arm?"

Ou Congquan's face gradually turned red.

Li Jiang, standing to the side, stared wide-eyed. He had a bad feeling about this and was just about to signal to Tang Yao to stop.

"Your bizarre plot development this issue started from a completely wrong premise! You didn't care about this problem in any of the previous arcs, so why suddenly make the male lead care now?"

But Tang Yao didn't seem to notice Li Jiang's signal. She continued, "You read the readers' comments, didn't you? They mentioned this problem, along with things like how the plot was repetitive and the male lead was a saint. Then you had a sudden inspiration and started putting the male lead through the wringer, coming up with this completely different, shit-tier plot development."

Ou Congquan's face turned liver-red. "So what if I did? Wasn't I supposed to change? Was I supposed to stay stuck in my ways? Does that mean nothing should ever change?"

"Wanting to change isn't wrong, but your problem is..."

Tang Yao lifted her snow-white chin slightly and looked at him as if he were trash. "You completely disregarded your editor's opinion. Because of that childish, ridiculous reason, you were afraid of being influenced, so you wouldn't even take a look. You didn't even have the courage to judge for yourself."

"What would it have changed if I'd looked? Could anything have changed?"

Ou Congquan seemed to be getting angry out of embarrassment. "Even if I'd talked to you and told you what I wanted to draw, what practical, useful advice could you, an outsider, have given me? You'd just have told me to change it! To stop me? What would that have accomplished?"

"Have you tried?"

"I don't need to try! You're so confident, so tell me right now! What should I do?"

Ou Congquan stubbornly insisted, "Now that it's happened, of course you can sit there and pontificate! You're not the one getting blasted! So tell me! What should I do?"

Tang Yao simply pushed the document folder in front of her toward him.

"..."

Ou Congquan looked at Tang Yao's expressionless face, then at the revisions she'd handed him. He couldn't believe it. "Are you kidding me?"

Tang Yao said nothing.

"Fine! Let's see what you wrote!"

Ou Congquan snapped. He snatched the folder off the table and ripped it open, then took out the revised manuscript. As he flipped through it, he panted, "You think you're..."

But then,

halfway through his sentence,

he suddenly fell silent.

Ou Congquan sat frozen on the sofa, clutching the revised manuscript as if he'd turned to stone.

On the other side, Li Jiang, who'd been tense with nerves and ready to pull Ou Congquan away at any moment, was also stunned. He stared at Ou Congquan, who'd suddenly gone still, confused.

Ou Congquan didn't notice Li Jiang looking at him. He stared blankly at the revised manuscript in his hands.

[Don't use a death as a way to develop a character. It's stupid.]

[The male lead and female lead's relationship shouldn't be deepened through a death, and the second male lead and female lead's relationship shouldn't be resolved through a crisis. Same reason as above.]

[If you want to free the male lead from the "saint" label, you can do it another way. This is too extreme. See below for details.]

[Do not use the "Sigh of Lament" from the first arc to bring the male lead back to life. It would turn all the setup in the second arc into a joke.]

[The "Wheel of Hell's Cartography," mentioned at the start of the third arc, still hasn't appeared in this arc.]

[...]

The first page of the revised manuscript.

A whole page of densely packed comments.

If it had only been opinions, Ou Congquan wouldn't have been stunned.

But... everything written there was something he'd been planning to draw next, and he'd never told anyone about most of it. He'd only laid a little groundwork so far; the ideas existed only in his head.

It was exactly the same as his own train of thought.

Some things he'd even forgotten himself, like the "Wheel of Hell's Cartography" setting... But it was there on the page, too.

"..."

Ou Congquan stared at the first page, stunned for a long while, then slowly turned to the next.

[Change the death event into a mechanism. The final boss in Hell lacks presence. I suggest changing the setup from pure physical dominance to "The Unapproachable," the embodiment of all malice—in other words, anyone who approaches her will confront the fear and darkness within themselves, and fall into an illusion formed from their own darkness and fear.]

[...]

The first page pointed out the problems; the rest offered revisions... There was much more, and unexpectedly, it even included illustrative sketches.

Anyone could see how much care had gone into it, and how much effort lay behind it.

Ou Congquan paused, then read on, line by line.

Then,

the farther he read, the wider his eyes grew. They brightened with every line, and his breathing gradually quickened.

But just now, it had been because of anger. Now it was excitement.

Li Jiang could clearly sense the change in Ou Congquan's mood. Even more shocked, he slowly turned to look at Tang Yao. What kind of magic had she used?

Tang Yao hadn't noticed.

About fifteen minutes later,

Ou Congquan finally looked up. He gripped the revised manuscript tightly, as if clutching the last lifeline he had, and asked in a slightly trembling voice, "What does 'the embodiment of all malice' mean?"

...It was exactly the same.

Exactly the same!

The revisions in the rest of the manuscript matched what she'd wanted to express perfectly, only the techniques were far more sophisticated.

And most importantly, following the revised manuscript's approach would connect seamlessly with this issue's plot and make up for the harm it had done to readers.

"I remember it was written very clearly."

Tang Yao replied, "You don't need to ask me to confirm something that's already clear."

"Then..."

Ou Congquan's eyes were still bloodshot, but unlike before, they were no longer full of agitation. Instead, they held a glimmer of light.

He wanted to ask something else.

But Tang Yao stood up, then met Ou Congquan's astonished gaze and asked, "May I ask whether the suggested revisions have been conveyed to you?"

Ou Congquan answered reflexively, "They have..."

"Then please consider them as you see fit."

Tang Yao nodded, then continued, "Of course, if you want to draw it the way you originally planned, go ahead."

With that,

she turned to leave.

"Wait."

Ou Congquan stared at Tang Yao, confused by her departure and suddenly anxious. "Actually, I still have some questions I need to confirm with you..."

"Confirm?"

Tang Yao paused, then turned back and pointed at Li Jiang, who looked uncertain. "I came to visit you four times. Three times, I was stopped at the door and only got to see Assistant Li. Each time after the first, I left the revisions you're holding with Assistant Li to pass on to you. And now you want to confirm things with me? Should I sit here all prim and proper and listen to what you have to say?"

Ou Congquan: "..."

"Don't make me laugh."

Tang Yao looked down at Ou Congquan, her expression cold, as if he were trash. "You're a famous manga artist. You can use your status to tell your editor to get lost. But that doesn't mean you can put on a humble, eager-to-learn act and expect real life to be like a comic, with a scene where misunderstandings are cleared up and everyone gets along. Real life isn't a comic.

"I may be an outsider. I may not understand characterization, plot, or drawing, and I may not have eaten as much salt as you have rice.

"But I can choose who I'm willing to put effort into, and there's no question that you're not worth it... and don't deserve it.

"I gave you these revisions this time for the readers, and for myself—the version of me who'd just started editing and had put so much effort in last week.

"And I wanted you to understand what a stupid thing you did last week.

"If you'd looked at the revisions even once last week, maybe things would have turned out differently. But your arrogance and your conceit forced things to reach this point."

Ou Congquan gripped the revised manuscript and stared at the neat handwriting. He froze for a moment.

If he'd read it last week...

Ou Congquan recalled what was written in the revised manuscript, then thought about what he'd drawn in this issue... Regret began to surge through him.

He lowered his head without thinking, looking... utterly miserable.

Li Jiang looked at Tang Yao, cold and beautiful as a woman made of ice, and was stunned as well. Then he quickly turned his head away, not daring to look any longer.

"Ask yourself: if you were sitting here last week, how would things have gone?"

Tang Yao looked at Ou Congquan, his head slightly bowed, his grip tight on the manuscript. Her voice was cold. "Think carefully about why you're trying to stop me now. Is it because you know you were wrong, or because those revisions can get you out of the mess you're in, with readers tearing into you? I'd guess it's the latter. Because you're just like Ding Yilong. That arrogance and conceit are carved into your bones. They'll never disappear; they'll only be temporarily restrained when something goes wrong.

"Admit it. Even if you could start over, you'd still make the same choice: for a laughable reason, you'd use your status as a manga artist to humiliate an editor who'd only just entered the industry.

"Right now, you're just basking in the feeling of having been saved. Don't put on an act like you've suddenly seen the light.

"Because it's truly sickening."

Ou Congquan gripped the manuscript even tighter. Tang Yao couldn't see because of the angle.

But Li Jiang, who'd turned his head away, saw clearly that Ou Congquan, a man over fifty, had a look of utter humiliation on his face.

"And don't think that drawing the story according to the revisions will solve every problem."

Tang Yao continued, "Don't treat the readers like fools. The harm your stupid plot this issue has done to them won't disappear. They'll never forget that last image of the ten fingers interlocked. The good reputation you built through your hard work will be stained by this lapse, a stain that will never wash off. Plenty of readers will be so furious they'll drop the series outright.

"Look at the reader survey next week, then look at the sales of the next volume... But you brought this on yourself."

"That's all."

"If you're angry, if you feel insulted, you can tear up the revisions in your hands and throw them in the trash, just like the last few times I came to visit."

Tang Yao withdrew her gaze and added one last thing. "I don't want to answer your questions now, and I have no interest in doing so. My patience ran out last week. Once this controversy dies down, I won't take responsibility for your work under any circumstances. Even if Ding Yilong doesn't reassign it, I'll resign voluntarily and let another editor handle your work.

"Keep using that ridiculous excuse to guard yourself against the next editor... I hope we never meet again."

After saying her final words,

Tang Yao nodded to Li Jiang and thanked him. "Goodbye."

Then,

she turned and left.

Only after Tang Yao had turned away did Ou Congquan slowly raise his head. He watched her retreating figure, that editor about the same age as his daughter, and wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say.

Soon, Tang Yao was gone.

Ou Congquan looked away, then lowered his eyes to the revised manuscript in his hands... a set of revisions that anyone could see had taken tremendous effort and cut straight to the heart of the matter.

He fell silent.

Yes.

Why hadn't he looked at it sooner?

If he'd looked sooner...

Ou Congquan thought of the readers' disappointment and angry insults, then recalled what Tang Yao had just said.

If I'd read these revisions last week...

As he thought about it,

his expression twisted...

But this time, it wasn't because he was angry. It was because... he regretted it.

At the same time,

after watching Tang Yao leave, Li Jiang turned to look at Ou Congquan as well.

Just then, Ou Congquan's phone, lying on the table, began to vibrate.

Li Jiang noticed... and saw the caller's name: Ding Yilong.

But

Li Jiang looked at the phone, then at the silent Ou Congquan, and decided to remind him later.