556 Strength of Faith (1/2)
Chapter 556: Strength of Faith
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tic!
Early in the morning, Zhang Zian heard a gentle noise in his sleep. He opened his eyes slightly, and saw the laptop being booted up on the desk. Pi was holding its legs and was curled up in the chair. It opened its mouth and yawned, as the reflection of the Windows start up image flashed on the lenses of its pince-nez.
Ever since Pi started online writing, it woke up early every morning before Zhang Zian, and always hurried to check on website data as soon as it got up.
Zhang Zian put on some clothes, sat up, then got off the bed quietly and stood behind Pi. Pi looked back at him and squeezed out a smile, with an anxious and expectant look. It entered the username and password to enter the author's page. As soon as it saw the number of favorites, the expectation and anxiety turned into disappointment.
Pi had already written over 20,000 words, but only got 9 favorites, 0 recommendation and 20+ views. The worst was, there was still no sign of a contract. Zhang Zian patted its shoulder and asked it to calm down, relax, and not to overthink.
Pi nodded reluctantly. It opened a Word file and typed: ”It's OK. If nobody reads it after I finish it, I can at least read it to all of us.”
Zhang Zian nodded with a smile, but thought otherwise in his heart. How could it be Okay? He saw how Pi had been writing. It sat in front of the laptop from dawn to dusk. If he didn't go upstairs to remind it, it would not stand up for a break. It stared at the screen all day and referred to the nameless book from time to time, searching for past histories from the book, making them into stories and writing them down, following a proportion of 70% real vs. 30% unreal.
He always believed that hard work deserved some payoff. If Pi only wrote to pass the time, it would be fine. But it didn't. It was writing with great seriousness, trying to show people the stories of the pet shop.
Zhang Zian bent down and typed: ”Pi, I did some research. Qidian has different numbers of books in each category. You are writing a modern category novel, which has the most number of books. Maybe the editors haven't even gotten to it yet. Don't give up. Carry on!”
Pi nodded again and typed gently: ”I will carry on.”
It was not just saying it. It jumped off the chair, wobbled into the bathroom, took off the glasses, and washed its face with a handful of cold water to clear its head.
In the bathroom, Zhang Zian prepared separate towels for each elfin, with different colors and patterns. Everybody was only using their own except Richard. Galaxy's towel was dark blue, Fina's was gold, Old Time Tea's was dark brown, Snowy Lionet's was white, Richard's was grey, Famous' was yellow, and Pi's towel had comic style numbers embroidered on them. They were easily distinguishable.
Pi wiped its face with its own towel, returned to the chair, sat straight, and typed in Word with strokes of growing skillfulness: Chapter 15 The Observer of Destiny.
Despite the sleepiness, Zhang Zian did not lie down again, since he was up already. He was thinking about Pi's novel anyway, and could not have fallen asleep even if he had laid down. He saw Pi writing with its entire focus, then he decided not to bother it and walked out of the bedroom door. Galaxy also woke up, and snuck out behind him.
”Galaxy, are you going to play hide-and-seek?” He closed the bedroom door and asked gently.
”Meow... Is Zian joining me?” Galaxy paused.
”Maybe later. I need to clean up the bathroom first.” Zhang Zian smiled. ”Go ahead, Galaxy.”
For a moment, he wanted to ask Galaxy about the future of Pi's novel. But he didn't do it. If he knew everything about the future, what fun was left in life? Just like what Forrest Gump said,” Life is like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you're gonna get.”