Plan

For the rest of the day, whenever anyone came by asking about Man Ying magazine, Gu Yu asked them a few questions of his own.

"Just as I thought..."

After asking more than twenty people, Gu Yu had realized why they were buying Man Ying. Some were loyal readers, but nearly half had come specifically for Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

Quite a few had bought the entire issue just to read that one series.

With the increase in Man Ying's sales over the past few weeks and the series' publication schedule in mind, Gu Yu began to form an idea.

When planning his orders for next week, he doubled the number of Man Ying copies he usually ordered.

Gu Yu was only the owner of a bookstore in Luo Province, but the same thing was happening in bookstores and newsstands all over the province.

Bookstores everywhere had independently increased their orders of Man Ying, and the result was a huge jump in sales.

Before this, thanks to the serialization of Tian Shu, Magic Realm, Secret Girl, and Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, Man Ying's sales had already climbed from over three hundred thousand copies a week to over four hundred thousand.

Now, at the end of the year, the orders received by the Manga Company had passed five hundred thousand.

For a time, Ink Fish Manga Company had the entire Manga Industry in Luo Province taking notice.

Generally speaking, sales of manga magazines were stable. If a magazine's sales rose or fell sharply, it was bound to be because it had serialized a very good series or ended a popular one.

Man Ying had seen similar situations before, but its sales had only fluctuated by a few tens of thousands at most. They had never climbed by over a hundred thousand, as they had now.

And during this period, Man Ying had only launched two new series.

One was Secret Girl, and the other was Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

Everyone had expected Dong Yun's defection to boost Ink Fish's sales, but she didn't have enough clout to account for an increase of over a hundred thousand.

That left only...

People in Luo Province's manga industry turned their attention to Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal.

From Chapter 4 onward, the series had shown its true strength. It had climbed from eleventh place in the popularity poll after its first chapter to the top of Man Ying in just seven weeks.

Plenty of series had been canceled after seven or eight chapters in Man Ying, but none had ever reached the top of the magazine so quickly.

What's more, the series had also driven up Man Ying's sales.

Everyone had more or less reached the same conclusion about this sales boost.

A small part of it was thanks to Dong Yun's defection, but most of it was thanks to Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, by Shui Xin, Luo Province's biggest breakout new author of the year.

For a while, plenty of people remarked that Dong Yun had terrible luck. When she'd been with Feng Yu, she'd never had to deal with anything like this. Her series had been pushed aside at a meeting by this one, then, just as she was about to reach the top of Man Ying, this series had beaten her to it. And now, at this rate, even her chance to qualify for the Dragon Star Award was slipping away...

Before long, the latest Man Ying popularity poll results were out.

The results were more or less what everyone had expected. Although Man Ying's sales had continued to rise, the number of votes for Magic Realm and Secret Girl had barely changed.

By contrast, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, which had already topped Man Ying the previous week, had not only held on to first place in this week's poll, but had gained nearly four thousand more votes, breaking Ink Fish's record once again.

Although Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal had held on to first place with Chapter 8, Chu Yu wasn't as excited as he'd been the week before.

He knew the series would only get better from here. Its story became more gripping as it went on, so there was no reason for its vote count to drop.

Su Ruo and Zhao Qinyin, on the other hand, were just as excited as ever. It took them a while to calm down.

At this rate, qualifying for the Dragon Star Award was practically a sure thing.

If Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal took first place just one more time in the next two weeks, its qualification would be all but guaranteed.

By now, Chu Yu was nearly ten thousand votes ahead of Secret Girl, which was in second place.

They couldn't imagine how Secret Girl or Magic Realm could possibly overtake him.

"By the way, Chu Yu, Zhao Qinyin..."

"Do you remember what I told you a few weeks ago?" Su Ruo asked, finally calming down.

"What was it?" Chu Yu asked.

"The Annual Gala!"

"The Annual Gala!"

Su Ruo stared at them speechlessly.

"You two have terrible memories!"

"Your school's on break now, so you can get ready this week."

"Next Saturday is our manga company's pre-New Year Annual Gala..."

"I submitted your names for the guest list a while ago. You know, even though Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal has topped Man Ying, I'm the only person at Ink Fish who's ever met you, Chu Yu!"

"The editors at the company have been curious about you, the genius new manga artist Shui Xin, ever since you appeared out of nowhere. Plenty of them have asked me for a photo of you, but I haven't given them one," Su Ruo said with a smile.

"This is the perfect chance for you two to make an appearance at the Annual Gala. I wonder what everyone's faces will look like when they find out Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal was created by two high school students..."

What kind of faces would they make? I'm not some celebrity.

Chu Yu pursed his lips.

"Oh, right. One thing I should mention: the Annual Gala is fairly formal. Men are expected to wear suits, and women evening gowns. Don't show up in your school uniforms, or you'll be like monkeys at a zoo, with everyone staring and commenting on you."

"A suit?" Chu Yu asked.

"I don't have one!"

"You don't..." Su Ruo looked at Chu Yu.

"Then you'll have to buy one! You're already making tens of thousands a month. A suit is nothing to you, right?"

"Fine," Chu Yu said after thinking it over.

"That won't be a problem, right?" Su Ruo asked.

"No problem," Chu Yu replied.

Su Ruo stared at Chu Yu for a moment, then sighed.

"Forget it. Tell me when you're free and I'll go with you. That way, the salespeople won't talk you into buying something too flashy. It wouldn't be good if you showed up in something over the top..."

Do you really think so little of me?

Chu Yu grumbled inwardly, but he didn't turn down Su Ruo's offer.

"What about you, Zhao Qinyin? Do you have an evening gown?"

"No," Zhao Qinyin said after hesitating.

"Then that's settled. We'll all go together. After all, you're already the creators behind a series that's topped Man Ying and a manga assistant. It'd be embarrassing if you made a spectacle of yourselves..."

"Got it!"

"Understood!"

Zhao Qinyin and Chu Yu answered together.

"All right. You two can get back to work. I won't keep you," Su Ruo said with a nod.