Chapter 365 (2/2)

The moment he got bored of them, he would just drop it, even if it had turned out well and reputable. After all, it was heading towards the harem route, and every book that he had written in the past had the potential of becoming great…

It was without question, Shi Jingnian completely ignored his readers, or never treated his readers like his children. A parent might be able to provide some parental love, but he could not give two hoots about the emotions of his readers.

He was capricious but talented; his half-written web novels were better than those completed web novels containing millions of words. He did not stick to a single pen name. Whenever he created a new sockpuppet identity and wrote a new novel, his writing and content would inadvertently attract many readers.

Every time, many naive readers assumed that he was a talented amateur author, and they predicted that he would soon claim the prize title as the king among the amateurs. But he always vanished at critical moments, never bothering about the comment section of his book or even created a group for his fans. All this time, he never cared about his readers.

“If you love what you see, then help yourself, or else, scram,” He would not say such words too, he was simply an irresponsible author. Even he did not treat himself like an author; he was just fooling about.

However, when he was writing on Lin Shiya’s behalf, he became dead serious; he knew that Lin Shiya’s fame was far more important than his. He was fine with being treated as a useless child by his parents or getting bullied in school, as long as the girls and Lin Shiya were happy.

Zhao Youyue thought Shi Jingnian was strange, and she was right. She thought he was the type of main protagonist who hid his real potential, but actually, he had nothing to hide from her. To put it nicely, he was an indifferent, aloof individual, in fact, he did not possess any self-esteem whatsoever. He would not care if he received a slap or two; he only cared about girls like Zhao Youyue. If Zhao Youyue ever slapped his left face, he would gladly offer his right face for her to slap.

If such a wimpy character became the main protagonist of a harem novel, it would definitely infuriate the crap out of people.

Of course, these thoughts should stay with their originators; he only needed to enjoy himself.

Recently, Shi Jingnian had grown addicted to Wen Qingyu’s literary work in “Bakuman.” It had been a long time since he had been so eager to a certain literary work, but unfortunately, he could only experience it when he was in his “intoxicated state.” Although he could not finish reading the literary work of Wen Qingyu, he was satisfied with a smattering of knowledge regarding her work.

Some author could copy a quote, or even rip-off entire plotlines from other authors, even though they were fully aware that they would get scolded by the fans. This “Bakuman” was an excellent example of copying other authors’ stories and altered by Shi Jingnian, except for Wen Qingyu.

Whenever Shi Jingnian wrote stories about Wen Qingyu, it was always filled with unknown mysteries.

When Lin Shiya showed Shi Jingnian the illustration of Wen Qingyu as drawn by Su Li, he had praised the drawing. He liked it, because it had a spirituality of its own.

“There’s a rumor circulating on the internet that Su Li’s drawing has the power to bring misfortune to the characters she draws, or even bring misfortune upon the creator, what do you think of this?” Lin Shiya told this urban legend to Shi Jingnian with a lightness in her voice, as if it was a normal thing.

“I’m aware of it. My… No, I mean your ‘Bakuman’ has a character modeled after her, but she’s a guy in this novel. Besides, this was just a joke on the internet; I don’t actually believe that her drawings have such power, my head is made out of iron,[1] after all!” Shi Jingnian proclaimed.

First of all, the character he had created, Wen Qingyu; would never get into an accident because he desired to see her masterpiece in the grand finale. Besides that, as the real author of this book, he had always stayed hidden behind the scenes, how could this possibly affect him?

“Hmph, I don’t believe such things,” and so, he continued writing without fretting over it.

After one month, a huge headline took the internet by storm!

The author of “Bakuman,” Master Ya Jing, the beautiful genius, Lin Shiya was caught red-handed asking somebody else to write her novel on her behalf!

Translation note:

[1] Iron head – A Chinese slang used to describe a stubborn person.