Chapter 37

Class C's Yamawaki. "Aren't you guys pushing the provocation a bit too far? If you keep this up, I'm going to report this to the school and request Student Council intervention." "I... I'm sorry, Ichinose, I didn't intend for things to go that far." Yamawaki, who was timid and subservient toward Ichinose, was not nearly as polite to Class D. He turned to his classmates and said, "Let's go. Studying here will just make us catch stupidity." "You're right." After the Class C group left, Ichinose didn't let Class D off the hook either. "If you're going to study here, try to behave yourselves." Yuan Yuyuan gave Ichinose a strange look, checking to see if she had been possessed, but finding no signs of it. Since she had resolved the issue without him needing to step in, it seemed his retirement plans could finally be put back on the schedule! "Honami did a good job there." "Hehe, because of Yuyuan, I've been growing too." Ichinose scratched her head. Taking advantage of the fact that their classmates were away, she pulled Yuan Yuyuan into a deserted corner and asked, "Is Yuyuan angry with me? Because I didn't stand up for you earlier... actually, I..." "That's not it at all." Yuan Yuyuan habitually ruffled Ichinose's hair. "I know Honami is a kind-hearted child, and didn't I get Xiaoxue to help out?" "Really? I thought Yuyuan was disappointed in me, and lately, it feels like we've grown a bit distant." "Is that so? Well, it can't be helped, since Honami seems to be focusing too much on her career and neglecting me." "That's not true! Why does Yuyuan always do this? No, we need to clear this up right now!" "Unread." "We aren't sending messages right now!" Yuan Yuyuan put on a smile that looked worse than crying. He really hadn't expected such a drastic change in Ichinose; she had never been this assertive before. Could that one incident have really traumatized her that much? "Honami, listen to my sophistry—no, wait, listen to my explanation. You know me, I just want to retire so badly. Haven't I been busy paving the way for you lately? Honami can understand that, right?" "Hmm... that does make sense, but Yuyuan seems to be a habitual fraudster, you know." Yuan Yuyuan widened his eyes in disbelief, as if he could see snow falling in June right before his eyes. "So that's how I look in Honami's eyes? Don't look at me like this, even I feel hurt by words like that (;′⌒`)" "No... that's not it. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that." "It's alright." He looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, as if he didn't want Ichinose to see his tears, though in reality, he just couldn't cry on command like Kushida could. "I'm already used to people judging me, so Honami really doesn't need to take it to heart." He lowered his head slowly, appearing as if he had suffered a major blow, but only he knew what he was actually thinking... This is too sudden! Such clumsy acting is bound to be exposed! But I can't admit it, can I? Being called a fraudster is a bit too intense, even if I haven't told her many truths anyway (scratches head). "Please don't say that, I really know I was wrong. You've done so much for the class, and I actually... I'm so sorry." Yuan Yuyuan froze. Ichinose didn't seem to be using sarcasm! Wasn't she just acting proud of her growth a moment ago? What is going on now! Yuan Yuyuan had already crossed retirement off his schedule. Regardless of whether Ichinose only trusted her own people this much, he found it hard to rest easy letting her take the lead alone... Even though his stomach felt a bit uneasy, in order to bluff his way through, Yuan Yuyuan said something that made him feel uncomfortable but made Ichinose blush. "It really is fine, because no matter what, I could never be angry at Honami." "Wh-what are you saying? Yuyuan really is a playboy, isn't he? I'm not talking to you anymore, I have to go tutor my classmates." Watching Ichinose's flustered retreating figure, he couldn't help but shake his head. "Young girls these days really have thin skin." Huh? Why does this scene feel so familiar...

First Semester : Chapter 35 I Gave Up on Reaching Number One on the Recommendation Ranking. I originally wanted to dump treasure chests to reach number one on the recommendation ranking. Isn't that bold? Dumping treasure chests for the number one spot—I'm talking about the gold treasure chests, the ones worth 160,000 cat biscuits. When I first started writing novels, I told all my editors that I wanted to be number one on the recommendation ranking. You can ask Pudding or Nanxi; all of them were very excited. The signing editors were very excited. We kept talking about the number one spot, and we were constantly preparing for it. So when I told the editors, I said I only needed 20 days, or maybe 25 days—two to three weeks. They asked why, and I said it was simple: I would dump two treasure chests every day. One for a book, two a day—one at dawn, one at dusk. I'd do that for ten days, pick one out of twenty books, and boom, straight to number one. The recommendation ranking would be topped. For a novel, ten days is enough. And the ten days before that? Popping champagne. Strictly popping champagne. I said as long as we had 20 days, we'd be number one. All my editors were like, "That's amazing, it's so challenging, not a single cent can be spared." But later, I gave up. Do you know why? I studied a massive number of novels that hit number one on the recommendation ranking, as well as some others, especially the "best of the year" novels from the last two years. I read them all, studied them, and I just couldn't bring myself to commit. Actually, when the book reviews said I was trash, I wanted to dump treasure chests to boost the stats, but I didn't. Do you know what the biggest problem was? Of course, this is a professional issue, but simply put, the biggest problem was that I had no money. Just no money. Because for a recommendation ranking, if you don't have money, there's no way. For a high-intensity, highly competitive, and highly challenging ranking, I simply didn't have that much money. I didn't have a single cent, so how could I dump it in? Because you can't just go "whoosh" and hit number one. From here to there, in that one second, your wallet would be empty. Empty. First, the funding wasn't there—no matter how I looked at it, as an insider, I knew the funding wasn't there. Second, more than half of the interpersonal relationships in the author circle would be lost. More than half of my author friends would be gone, and more than half of my friends in every category would be lost, because so many authors now don't use treasure chests. You'd have to update every single day, adding too much burden to the authors. Finally, after about two and a half years of internal struggle, it was a major decision. The editors were all prepared for the number one spot, they were already popping champagne, and then I said I was giving up. It was a decision I made alone, through my own thinking. A year later, I gave up. The first call I made was to Pudding, saying I was giving up on the number one spot. "Huh?" They just couldn't accept it. Pudding had already popped the champagne and was already thinking about how great it would be. How could I give up? They tried to persuade me, "You don't need to tell me, you don't even know, but the number one spot..." How could I? "You can do it, stop trying to fool me," I said. I just told them I was giving up. Then I told Nanxi I was giving up. "Oh, how could you? I even told the number two on the recommendation ranking to just cut their book." Everyone felt it was such a pity. Then I told the signing editor that we weren't going for number one anymore. "Oh, oh," they said, "it feels like there's no point now."