Chapter 31 - Your Family Owns Coal (1/2)

The illustrations for ‘There’s a Spirit Underground’, Meng Fan had drawn very well with a high level of skill and execution, making them better than the illustrations he had done for ‘Rampage and Repair the world’.

To the netizens that came for Mr.Sleepy, Meng Fan had satisfied their expectations, even drawing one that had exceeded their expectations.

When it came to adapting novels, regardless of manga adaptation or video, these kinds of content will always stir up controversy and attract disses from the viewers. Comparably, manga adaptations were treated a bit better, as video adaptations usually got downvoted into oblivion.

Even so, the expectations for a manga adaptation were very hard to reach, because once the texts provided too much space for imagination, the visualizations will always turn out different. Meng Fan’s illustrations didn’t count as manga adaptations of course, but it was very close. From a certain point of view, it was more difficult than regular adaptations as he didn’t have the coherence of the plot to base off.

When Meng Fan completed his first five illustrations, fans of the book immediately took screenshots and began sending them to their friend groups, rushing to tell and share.

Mr.Sleepy, who was not proactively updating his chapters but proactive in other activities, was extraordinarily proactive when it came to this matter. He sent a WeChat message to Meng Fan after his stream had ended, asking for Meng Fan to send him the five manuscripts he’d done on stream, immediately selecting two and posting them to his public profile. Additionally, he sent a hehe and made another post telling his fans to look at the images on his public handle.

Even this was not enough, as he then posted the images to his WeChat moments and WeiBo, and considered for a minute before showing them off on the network writers’ association ‘LongKong forum’. He couldn’t forget the writers’ chat rooms either.

“MotherF**ker you have this much time why can’t you update another chapter?”

“You have enough time to watch a stream but not enough to write some words!”

“You said your eyes were hurting! They hurt from looking at words but not at images, is that it?”

After chuckling, he accepted the wave of complaints. Mr.Sleepy opened the Word doc and entered:”Chapter xxx” before getting up to make a cup of coffee. He then sat down without looking at his keyboard and uncontrollably opened WeiBo. He scrolled and scrolled until he reached a link to an old zombie film by Lin Zheng Ying, then uncontrollably clicked into it and attentively began to watch.

At the end of the joyful movie, the clock was nearing midnight. Mr.Sleepy sighed regretfully and clicked the close button to the left of his word doc. He’d finally corrected his work schedule and couldn’t ruin it now. Guess writing will have to wait until tomorrow; a ‘healthy body was key to revolution,’ after all.

He’d just laid down when his WeChat began to buzz nonstop. He had been pulled into a new WeChat group by his night owl author friends.

“Sleepyhead, what’s the deal with your illustrations?”

“Where did you find your artist?”

“After looking at the illustrations you posted then back at my own, I want to die!”

“How much are you paying? It’s got to be at least five hundred for one drawing right?

“Five hundred minimum right? I found a guy for three hundred per drawing and he often delays his submissions; his update rate is even worse than you!”

“I’ve seen Mr.Sleepy’s books, the illustrations that you sent are completely recognizable to your name! As for the artists I found… Hehe, if you didn’t say what book their art was from you’d never guess, but if you did say it was from a novel it’d be right because they’re way too ordinary!”

Mr.Sleepy looked at the barrage of messages, letting out a chuckle, and sat up.

…

Meng Fan had painted twelve illustrations for ‘There’s a Spirit Underground’, as it was good to give some discounts during their first time doing business. Of course, it was also because Meng Fan could illustrate it with ease, incorporating a lot of small details and quirks into his scenes, and even adding some easter eggs in small corners. It wasn’t that he was hardworking but way too familiar with the work.

There weren’t any classes in the afternoon, so before 10 am, Meng Fan had sent the remaining seven drafts to Mr.Sleepy. Around one in the afternoon, Mr. S had just woken up. Once he received the message, he immediately responded to Meng Fan. “Bro, your art is too much! Thank you, thank you!

“By the way, a few of my colleagues were asking me about illustrations yesterday, they want you to draw for them. Do you still have time? As for the price, they have suggested themselves, as long as the quality doesn’t go down, they are willing to increase it.

“FlatHeadBro told me already, you’re worried the books are too long and you can’t read them in time, so I spent a long while last night selecting some suitable ones for you. They’re all fairly short, and the authors pay a lot.” As he spoke he sent a few novels over.

“Take a look, if you’re interested in any of them let me know, I’ll send you the author’s WeChat contact info to you.”

Yup, Mr.S was very proactive towards these things too.