Rurouni Kenshin's First Installment!

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye. During these two weeks, the manga industry in Luo Province experienced considerable upheaval.

Dong Yun, a top manga artist under Feng Yu Comics, did not renew her contract upon its expiration. Instead, she chose to join Ink Fish Manga Company, one of the three major periodicals in Luo Province, to serialize her new work.

Given that Man Ying dedicated a full five pages in its previous issue, and Ink Fish Manga Company promoted her new work, Secret Girl, across its other periodicals, the name "Secret Girl" had already gained considerable fame in the manga industry and among readers even before its official serialization.

In contrast, another new work, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, serialized in the same issue of Man Ying as Secret Girl, received almost no promotional resources.

Initially, most of the Ink Fish Manga Company editorial department proposed giving Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal at least the same level of promotional resources as the new works of their quasi-first-tier manga artists.

However, Song Jiayu argued at the meeting that the author, Shui Xin, was too junior and not worthy of Ink Fish dedicating resources to promote him. The matter was dropped.

But throughout Luo Province, or more accurately, Ming City's manga circle, Shui Xin's name had been frequently mentioned during this period.

The general public might not understand the inside story, but how could these industry insiders not?

This newcomer manga artist, who had previously only serialized a work called The Garden of Words in periodicals like Ink Shadow, had his second work receive numerous votes of support from editors at Ink Fish Manga Company's serialization meeting, securing a serialization slot only after pushing aside Dong Yun's new work, Secret Girl.

This stunned the entire Ming City manga industry, making them disbelieve.

Ink Fish Manga Company went to such great lengths to poach Dong Yun; they certainly wouldn't do it just to suppress her or give her a hard time, would they?

So what was going on?

Dong Yun's new work lost to a newcomer's work? Or did Ink Fish have to cancel one of its works to give Dong Yun a serialization opportunity?

Was this a joke?

Furthermore, according to insider information, the newcomer manga artist named Shui Xin's new work was of very high quality, and he had legitimately defeated Secret Girl at the meeting through sheer merit to earn the serialization qualification.

Therefore, with the release of Man Ying's new issue today, many active figures in Luo Province's manga industry were eager not only to see the quality of Dong Yun's new work but also held extremely high interest in Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

As a professional manga critic, Xiao Shan naturally also held great interest in this issue of Man Ying.

Dragon Country's literary world, after years of evolution, had formed a business model based on regional boundaries.

Literary works, novels, manga, etc., from each province generally only circulated within that province and could not spread outside. This was a self-protection policy of local powers. However, because of this, the business scope of these local publishers, magazine agencies, and manga companies could not expand.

It had both advantages and disadvantages.

Xiao Shan's affiliated Xin Man Net, due to the unique nature of the internet, naturally did not have its regional dissemination limitations of the real world extend to the online sphere. Thus, Xin Man Net gained the favor of manga fans from all over Dragon Country.

Manga fans from various provinces would communicate about excellent manga works from their respective provinces on this website.

Over time, demand naturally gave rise to professional manga critics like Xiao Shan.

Basically, Xin Man Net had one or two people like Xiao Shan in every province, responsible for discovering excellent local manga and acting as critics to publish articles on Xin Man Net!

This was his hobby, and also his job.

The unified release day for magazines on Man Ying is every Friday.

This is precisely when students have their weekend break.

Perhaps because Dong Yun's new work was serialized in this issue of Man Ying, the sales of Man Ying at various newsstands and bookstores today were exceptionally explosive.

Xiao Shan had to search several bookstores before finding one where the magazine Man Ying had not yet sold out.

At the same time, after school in the afternoon, many students from various primary and secondary schools also rushed to bookstores, as they were the largest audience for comic magazines!

Qin Qianyv was naturally no exception. She also bought this issue of Man Ying today. She had always liked buying Tian Yin Comics under Feng Yu Comics, as most of the works serialized in Tian Yin Comics were shojo manga.

However, firstly, Tian Yin Comics' renowned Manga Artist Dong Yun's new work was serialized on Man Ying, and secondly, Qin Qianyv noticed a small advertisement on the last page of the previous issue of Mo Ying.

"Original Mo Ying serialized Manga Artist, author of The Garden of Words, Shui Xin's new work Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal will be serialized in the next issue of Man Ying, please look forward to it!"

After The Garden of Words concluded, Shui Xin's popularity gradually declined. Two weeks later, almost no one mentioned this work or its author anymore.

Even her younger sister and female cousins, who were loyal fans of The Garden of Words, rarely mentioned Shui Xin after it ended and time passed.

This is the reality of the manga industry. Without classic, excellent, long-term serialization, your readers will forget you in just a few days.

If she hadn't confirmed that Chu Yu was Shui Xin, Qin Qianyv might have felt the same. Although they hadn't had much contact after she abruptly asked Chu Yu for an autograph that day.

But with Chu Yu hanging around Qin Qianyv every day, it was difficult for her to ignore his presence.

Upon realizing that Chu Yu had serialized a new work, she, as a fan of The Garden of Words, finally couldn't suppress her curiosity and bought a copy of this issue of Man Ying.

Only Chu Yu, after school, headed straight home.

For him, the serialization of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, compared to The Garden of Words, merely increased his manuscript fees from two hundred and twenty yuan per page to six hundred yuan per page.

He had merely transformed from a Manga Artist earning over four thousand yuan a week to one earning over ten thousand yuan a week.

Thinking about it this way... Chu Yu suddenly felt a bit out of sorts.

"Have I become rich?"

Compared to Chu Yu, who was previously content with eight hundred yuan a month, after Rurouni Kenshin began serialization, his monthly income skyrocketed to nearly fifty thousand Dragon Country currency.

Let alone in a second-tier city like Luo City, even in first-tier cities like Shanghai or Beijing, he was definitely a high-income earner.

For a moment, Chu Yu felt a bit lost.

This money felt too unreal, completely different from the difficulty of earning money taught in school!

However, his confusion vanished when he went upstairs and saw Su Ruo standing at his doorstep, carrying a large bag of vegetables.

"You've really gotten addicted to freeloading meals at my place, haven't you?" Chu Yu said coldly.

"What do you mean freeloading? Didn't I buy all the ingredients?" Su Ruo asked with a grin.

Ever since the three of them had a drink together two weeks ago, their relationship seemed to have changed slightly.

Beyond their professional collaboration, they were growing closer as friends.

At least, whenever Chu Yu encountered Zhao Qinyin at school during this period, they would stop and chat for a few sentences.

The sense of unfamiliarity and wariness between them had significantly diminished.

And ever since Su Ruo came to discuss some manga matters with Chu Yu last week, and he cooked a table full of dishes to entertain her, she had been coming to Chu Yu's place every few days. Chu Yu had been too lazy and wanted to order takeout to solve his meal problems, but she, every time she came, would buy a pile of dishes she wanted to eat. She claimed it was to supplement the nutrition of her manga artists, lest they get sick from eating takeout. In reality, she just wanted Chu Yu to cook for her.

Sigh...

Chu Yu was a little speechless. He gave her a look and took out his key to open the door.

It was already December, and the temperature had plummeted. White mist would dissipate with every breath.

Looking at the ingredients Su Ruo had bought, Chu Yu said, "I'm too lazy to do anything fancy. Let's just boil it all into a hot pot."

"Yes, yes! We'll listen to Chef Chu!" Su Ruo said, then ran to the heater, turned it on, and sat down to watch TV.

Judging by her demeanor, Chu Yu would be doing all the work again.

Shaking his head, Chu Yu didn't bother with pleasantries. He washed the rice, vegetables, and meat, and boiled water by himself...

When it was almost time to eat, there was a knock at the door.

Su Ruo ran over and opened it.

It was Zhao Qinyin.

"You're here?" Chu Yu nodded.

"Perfect timing, let's eat together!"

Today was the day the first chapter of Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal was released, and also the first day Chu Yu and Zhao Qinyin had agreed to continue working as assistants for the subsequent manga chapters.

Chu Yu had originally intended to treat Zhao Qinyin to a meal outside, but since Su Ruo had brought the ingredients, it was no trouble for him!

Zhao Qinyin was hesitant at first, but couldn't resist their persuasion.

The heater, the hot pot, the three people sitting in a circle, and the boiling water vapor.

For a moment, Chu Yu felt his home was much livelier. Ever since his parents were gone, he rarely experienced such a feeling.

Su Ruo's face was constantly beaming, Zhao Qinyin also had a faint smile on her lips unconsciously, and although Chu Yu remained stoic, his eyes had softened considerably.

Unlike Chu Yu and his author, assistant, and editor, who were having a relaxed meal, Song Jiayu and Dong Yun were having dinner together at a Western restaurant.

"How is it?" Dong Yun looked at Song Jiayu.

"The popularity poll results are out."

"Magic Realm is first, with over 35,000 votes."

"Secret Girl is second, with over 31,000 votes."

"Tian Shu is third, with just over 30,000 votes."

"Not bad. Secret Girl's first chapter has already caught up to Man Ying's original two giants. Now, with you, these three works are Man Ying's three giants! If the momentum continues, reaching the top is just a matter of time!" Song Jiayu seemed to be in a good mood.

"What about Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal?" Dong Yun asked.

"That work?" Song Jiayu chuckled.

"It seems that work is having some trouble adapting!"

"In twelve hours, it only got a little over 4,000 votes, ranking eleventh among the twenty works serialized by Man Ying. It seems my guess was correct. Although the quality of this work is very high, the setting of a Japanese protagonist still has a huge impact! And I even used my influence to give the promotional resources originally intended for this work to Secret Girl." Song Jiayu sneered.

"Even if the quality of this work is high, good wine still fears a deep alley. A work doesn't become popular just by being published on a good platform. Quality is important, and so is promotion. Otherwise, Man Ying wouldn't have so many canceled works every year."

"Perhaps the results of this issue are the peak for this work. Its popularity will decline afterwards, and it will eventually be canceled?" Song Jiayu said.

"The situation isn't settled yet, don't jump to conclusions." Dong Yun wore light makeup today, but her beautiful makeup couldn't hide the solemnity on her face.

"You said before that this work's success was mainly due to the third chapter being too amazing, especially the last scene of the third chapter. Due to the serialization length of new works, both Rurouni Kenshin and Secret Girl serialized two chapters in their first issue."

"Since that's the case, we can't determine the performance of this work until the voting results for Man Ying's serialized works come out next week."