The Vote

As one of the artists with a series running in Man Ying, Chu Yu had bought a copy of this month's issue to show his support.

As the creator, he understood that The Garden of Words was indeed too short, with little dramatic conflict. It wasn't a very suitable choice for a newcomer's first serialized work.

That was precisely why Chu Yu had focused so much effort on the art style, hoping to draw readers in with it at the start.

Although the original work came from the system, Chu Yu wasn't completely unfamiliar with how it had fared in its original world.

The system prohibited Chu Yu from viewing manga that hadn't been unlocked, but it didn't hide information such as those works' popularity and status in their original world or the creators behind them. Chu Yu could access all of that in the System Space.

In the Earth Plane, the original had been created by Makoto Shinkai, a renowned animation director known as the Wallpaper Demon. Compared to the huge success of his later hit, Your Name, The Garden of Words had performed rather modestly at the box office. Its results could only be called decent.

And that was with a director who already had some renown, along with funding for publicity.

In this world, though, the creator was a newcomer like Chu Yu, and the series was running in an ordinary magazine with sales of just tens of thousands of copies. He had no idea how well it might do.

All Chu Yu hoped for was that The Garden of Words would find as many readers as possible, and that they would genuinely come to love it. That would earn him more World Points, which he could then use to exchange for his second manga.

At the headquarters of the Ink Fish Manga Company, after finishing the odds and ends on her desk, Su Ruo sat alone in her office, lost in thought.

It was already afternoon, but she still hadn't left. She was waiting.

Today was the release date of the first chapter of The Garden of Words.

At the company, neither the editor nor the editor-in-chief got to decide whether a work was good. The readers did.

After each magazine issue came out, the company collected reader surveys to find out which works in the issue readers liked most.

Of course, in modern times, there was no need to go through the hassle of mailing in a survey. Readers could simply vote online.

Magazine readership took some time to catch up, but the online votes collected in the twelve hours after an issue's release generally reflected the actual level of reader support.

"What, you're still not going home?" A man walked straight into Su Ruo's office without knocking.

Song Jiayu smiled and took a seat without waiting to be invited.

"Su Ruo, since it's about time, how about we go get dinner together?"

"Sorry, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Song. I'm trying to lose weight, so I don't eat dinner." A trace of disgust flashed in Su Ruo's eyes, but she held herself back.

The word "Deputy" still irritated Song Jiayu a little.

"Waiting to see how this issue's Ink Shadow series did in the poll?" Song Jiayu chuckled. He wasn't surprised by Su Ruo's excuse. After all, he'd been rejected dozens of times over the past six months when he'd invited her to dinner.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have used his position to make her work life difficult at every turn.

Most people would have given up by now, but Song Jiayu wasn't like most people.

He was a textbook petty man, and even he saw himself that way.

What was wrong with being petty? It was a lot more comfortable than being a gentleman. A gentleman didn't force things; if a woman turned him down, he accepted it and moved on, and they could still be friends afterward.

But Song Jiayu wasn't that sort of man. If he couldn't have someone, he'd ruin her life and make her miserable. Since Su Ruo wasn't making things easy for him, he was determined to make things difficult for her.

"I've already told you that series has no chance. You insisted on wasting an Ink Shadow slot on it. Once the results are in, you'll see. Don't come crying to me when it ranks near the bottom among the magazine's eighteen series..."

"When that happens, cutting a manga after just seven chapters will be an industry joke. I can't even imagine it. Our peers will laugh at us, and the Editorial Department will take a fresh look at your judgment as an editor..."

"After all, it's been months, and almost none of the new series you've proposed have been approved. Even the few that made it into our second-tier magazines have barely attracted any readers..."

"Deputy Editor-in-Chief Song, are you finished? If there's nothing else, please leave me alone for a while." Su Ruo's expression didn't change.

Song Jiayu paused, then smiled. He said nothing more and left her office.

But as he closed the door, his face darkened.

So you won't take the easy way? Then don't blame me for making things hard for you!

Time passed, minute by minute.

At seven that evening, the support figures for the works in Ink Shadow were tallied, and the results were emailed to the editors at the Ink Fish Manga Company.

Su Ruo opened her inbox at once.

"First place: Magic Monk, with 1,263 votes."

Su Ruo bit her lip. She knew the odds were slim, but she'd still let herself hope. She kept reading.

"Second place: Black Cat, with 1,005 votes."

Su Ruo looked farther down, and a spark appeared in her eyes.

"Third place: The Garden of Words, with 998 votes!"

Su Ruo let out a long breath. Honestly, as long as the series didn't start out at the bottom and get cut, she believed readers would think highly of The Garden of Words by the time it ended.

Thank goodness. It seemed this issue's readers were receptive to this kind of gentle, understated manga.

If it had ranked at the bottom of the poll, things would have gone just as Song Jiayu said. The Editorial Department, led by him, would have come after her.

After all, the process didn't matter. Song Jiayu would use the results he himself had engineered to hold her accountable.

When that day came, she would either give in to him or leave the manga company where she'd worked for years.

Driving his sports car to pick up his girlfriend, Song Jiayu took a moment to check the popularity poll for this issue of Ink Shadow.

When he saw that The Garden of Words had placed third after just its first chapter, he stared at the result for several seconds.

Then he smiled.

"It's only a manga magazine like Ink Shadow."

"Su Ruo, if you keep this up, don't blame me. I've already gone easy on you."

"But who is this artist going by Shui Xin? Why join Su Ruo's team at such a crucial time..."

Song Jiayu had already used threats and tempting offers to push every capable manga artist under Su Ruo to other editors.

Over the past three months, five of the eight series Su Ruo had previously handled had been transferred after their creators complained that she had failed to fulfill her editorial duties.

The three remaining series were all insignificant little serials. On top of that, for three months in a row, every new-series proposal from Su Ruo had been rejected.

He'd thought he had already driven her into a corner.

He hadn't expected her to discover a pretty good work.

Back when Su Ruo had proposed at the Serialization Meeting that The Garden of Words be serialized in Man Ying, he'd been the one who strongly opposed it. He'd even publicly dismissed it as such low-quality work that not even elementary school students would bother to read it. He'd believed that even without his remarks, another editor would have objected. After all, Man Ying was the top magazine under the Ink Fish Manga Company; letting a newcomer serialize a work there on a whim would be far too reckless. But in the end, he'd been the one to play the villain.

If The Garden of Words topped the Ink Shadow popularity poll, he'd lose face no matter how he looked at it.

Achoo!

At home, Chu Yu was watching TV when he suddenly sneezed hard.

"Who's thinking about me?"

Chu Yu had no idea that he was sitting at home while trouble was falling on him out of nowhere.

He'd simply picked Su Ruo's contact details at random from the Ink Fish Manga Company's website and mailed her his work. Now Song Jiayu had labeled him one of Su Ruo's artists and was holding a grudge against him.

Ding ding ding!

His phone rang. Chu Yu checked the screen.

It was Su Ruo.

"Hello, Su Laoda. What's up?"

"I've told you so many times: call me Sister Su or Su Meinv. What's with 'Su Laoda'?"

"Oh, right. Su Laoda, what did you need?"

"..."

"It's nothing major. Today's the release date for Ink Shadow, and the first chapter of The Garden of Words has officially come out."

"To be honest, judging by its online votes so far, The Garden of Words has made a pretty good start."

"It's an industry tradition for the editor to treat the artist to a meal. Do you have time?"

"Treat me to a meal?"

Chu Yu thought it over.

Sure, why not? He hadn't eaten yet, and he was happy to let someone else pay.

"Where are you?" Chu Yu asked.

"Downstairs!"

Downstairs?

Chu Yu ran to the window and leaned out.

Down below, Su Ruo had pulled her car over by the side of the road. She held her phone in one hand and waved at him with the other.

"Stop looking and come down! I skipped lunch, and I'm starving!"