Making Money by Writing Novels

"All right, I'll eat by myself, then."

On the other end, Yun Xiaoran breathed a soft sigh of relief when he saw the message.

He wasn't hungry yet, and bedtime was still a long way off. He had plenty of time to create an author account and write a novel.

But he accidentally tapped the first sticker his phone automatically suggested after he finished typing.

It showed a white bear slumped over a table, with a green cup and a steamed bun in front of it, along with a speech bubble.

Yun Xiaoran didn't notice, though.

Shen Jin paused when she saw the two messages.

She really hadn't expected Yun Xiaoran to send such a cute sticker.

The sticker had already made Shen Jin picture Yun Xiaoran looking all pitiful.

But after Sister Hua saw it, she said:

"The stickers other guys use are all ridiculous memes. If his are this cute, he's definitely using them to pick up girls. Don't fall for it."

Those words snapped Shen Jin out of it. Right! Just that afternoon, she'd seen another girl chasing after that scumbag stalker fan. She'd even accepted his business card and tucked it into her pants pocket like some precious treasure.

"You're right. Come on, let's go drinking."

Yun Xiaoran was still rather nervous.

He'd originally thought that, after transmigrating, writing any wildly popular novel from his previous life would be a piece of cake.

Only when he actually tried did he realize that, although he'd read most of those wish-fulfillment novels during a certain period in his previous life, without a system, there were only a handful he could reproduce himself.

There was nothing for it. He'd start with his favorite genre, novels about officialdom: Wild Rush.

He didn't choose a face-slapping wish-fulfillment story like The Live-in Dragon Son-in-law mainly because he intended to build on these works later, adapting the books into TV dramas and squeezing multiple profits out of the same material.

"No one in this world can bully you. You're my woman, and I'll take responsibility for you."

"Before, they took your money and got things done. Now they won't take your money, and they won't do anything either."

He soon finished the first six thousand words, enough to send to an editor for approval.

There were so many platforms now that he could simply pick one:

EndPoint, Yangtze, First Forum, Six Cats, Tomato...

After considering it, Yun Xiaoran decided to submit to the EndPoint Yuewen Group.

All he needed was to find an editor and send in his work. As for who would be lucky enough to land it, that depended on whose name was closest to his mouse.

"Lone Cloud, something this huge has happened, and you're not going to say anything?"

Zhao Ruoxi was pestering Yun Xiaoran as usual. This time, however, she also brought news of something that would have VA Station's uploaders laughing themselves silly:

An online smear team hired by some unknown party had planned to start attacking Shen Muge's song Silence at five that evening, ten minutes after I Am a Singer began airing.

They flooded VA Station, Tieba, and other major online forums all at once.

Their fabrications were impressively convincing. They even analyzed her vocal tone, facial expressions, and delivery from every angle, leaving practically no holes in their claims.

Looking at the string of screenshots and videos Zhao Ruoxi sent him, Yun Xiaoran was thoroughly confused. He typed:

"What's wrong? Does Shen Muge sing badly?"

Yun Xiaoran hardly ever followed the entertainment industry. At this point, he couldn't possibly keep up with it anyway, and there wasn't a single piece of entertainment news on his phone.

"Lone Shadow, do you know the funniest part of this whole thing?"

"What?"

"Shen Muge didn't even sing that song!"

Zhao Ruoxi finally couldn't hold it in anymore. On her end, she propped one long, fair leg against the desk as she sent the message from her phone.

Yes, this carefully planned attack on Shen Muge and the song had been a tremendous success. It had already reached number one on Weibo's trending list and occupied three trending slots.

The only regrettable detail was that Shen Muge hadn't sung that song that evening at all.

When everyone opened I Am a Singer with those paid smear comments in mind, they discovered, to their bewilderment, that Shen Muge had sung a completely different song!

For fuck's sake.

Who could have imagined that Shen Muge and Sister Hua's unintentional decision would create such a classic moment?

Those thousands upon thousands of paid trolls stormed the song's comments and all the major websites, only to discover, to their astonishment, that this was a genuine empty-fort ploy!

Yun Xiaoran wasn't particularly surprised by any of it.

Confucius had once said, "Sit by the river day and night, and your enemies' corpses will float past you."

"That's the entertainment industry for you. But the second song I posted got far fewer nasty comments and accusations of plagiarism. They know they couldn't make a song like that themselves."

Zhao Ruoxi had been dying to laugh, but then she heard what Lone Cloud said.

She froze for a moment. She hadn't expected Lone Cloud to see things so clearly. If she'd received that much attention, she would certainly have spent day and night arguing with those paid trolls and haters.

"I didn't expect you to take it all so well."

Zhao Ruoxi sent the message, feeling a little envious of Lone Cloud's state of mind.

"It's not that I take it well. I'm just forced to accept it. Even if I couldn't accept it, there'd be nothing I could do to make myself accept it.

So I just go with the flow. People call it emotional stability, but really, it's the calm resignation you get after life disappoints you a thousand times, when you know the next attempt will fail too."

Yun Xiaoran and Zhao Ruoxi chatted on and off.

"After all, bad publicity is still publicity."

I've truly inherited the wisdom of a certain brother from my previous life.

Lone Cloud (mentor: Cai Xukun)

"That's enough chatting. I'm a little hungry. It's already seven, so I'll grab a late-night snack..."

After saying that, Yun Xiaoran logged off. His stomach was getting hungry, and he had no time to keep chatting with her.

"Oh, good night, Lone Cloud."

Zhao Ruoxi also sent him a cute sticker, only to receive a notification that Lone Cloud had gone offline.

Yun Xiaoran looked around the room. He'd already put out cat food at noon, but he'd forgotten to feed Fu Bao dinner.

When he opened the refrigerator, he found plenty of ingredients: sliced fatty beef, fatty lamb, crayfish that hadn't thawed yet, and all sorts of seafood and fruit.

Yun Xiaoran got to work himself, making noodles tossed with garlic-and-spicy crayfish and a little hot pot with sliced fatty beef and shrimp, adding all kinds of ingredients to the steaming pot.

In the spacious, bright house, only Yun Xiaoran and Fu Bao-a man and a cat-were there enjoying themselves. A sip of cola made it feel like the ultimate earthly pleasure!

Living alone was pretty comfortable too. It looked like he ought to buy a house like this himself sometime.

As the ancients said: with fatty beef in my belly, I wouldn't trade places with an emperor.

"Wild Rush, a novel about officialdom? Which elementary school kid wrote this wish-fulfillment fantasy?"