Qi Cong pointed at Wu Heng’s “Chivalrous Bones”

The collection had close to one million reads; with this kind of data it was enough to stand out from the crowd.

He then clicked on his “Chivalrous Bones” again.

The collection had 90,000 reads. Because the new novel had a three-day review period all data except collection and word count were zero.

The contrast was too much.

Qi Cong became silent for several seconds and then stopped looking at the home page and opened the author’s background.

There are five system letters lying in his personal inbox, so he clicked on them one by one. Three of the system messages were generated automatically, sending a welcome message and a signed author reminder. There were also two messages from Editor Cold Wind Like a Knife.

He first opened one of Cold Wind Like a Knife’s messages and read it.

Editor Cold Wind Like a Knife: Sent you a Penguin account message but no one replied, check the website and remember to join the group.

Editor Cold Wind Like a Knife: I don’t know where Wu Heng’s fans got the news that Jiangtian.com is terminating the contract with Wu Heng and they went crazy. After your novel’s data was moved, Wu Heng’s novels also made the golden list. Don’t mind it and just focus on your writing. Remember to make a cover and change your current one.

So that’s how it was.

The elevator arrived at the floor where the restaurant was located and Qi Cong put away his phone, going out first. He logged into his Penguin account while eating breakfast and entered the group number given by Editor Cold Wind Like a Knife and sent out his application.

The application never went through, probably because it was too early and Cold Wind Like a Knife hadn’t gotten up yet. Qi Cong minimized the Penguin account and opened Jiangtian.com to have a look.

The two-chapter deposit box has been already published and his novel was updated.

He glanced at the system cover of “Chivalrous Bones” and then looked at Shen Jia who was rolling noodles beside him and asked, “Jia Jia, did you bring your tablet? I want to make a cover.”

 

……

 

Half an hour later, the car pulled up outside the shooting location. Before getting out of the car, Qi Cong updated the novel cover on Jiangtian.com and clicked OK.

The system refreshed synchronously, and on the home page of Jiangtian.com, underneath the beautifully painted cover of Wu Heng’s version of “Chivalry Bones”, two big words in ink with dashing atmosphere and severe brush strokes lay quietly on a pure white back cover, like a boat breaking into a quiet landscape.

At lunchtime, the chief screenwriter of the “Legend of Youth” suddenly appeared and called Zhao Zhenxun away. Half an hour later, Zhao Zhenxun came back and handed Qi Cong five pieces of A4 paper bound together. “Your new part, prepare well. Your new costume will probably be ready the day after tomorrow, and the fitting will begin as soon as the costume arrives. I have already greeted your acting teacher. Starting tomorrow you will learn online from the teacher at the hotel with four lessons a day. You don’t need to follow the group anymore.

The five sheets of paper were light, but to Qi Cong they felt heavy. He asked, “Are the costumes also newly made?”

“Your character is the king’s son, it won’t do to dress too poorly or too ordinary.” Zhao Zhenxun looked at his watch. “You can hand over your work to Xiao Han later and then go to the hotel this afternoon to get ready. Also, the score for the interlude “Delusion” arrived today. I contacted a vocal teacher for you, so you and the teacher can study the tune this afternoon.”

Qi Cong nodded.

After he finished speaking about official business, Zhao Zhenxun suddenly lowered his voice. “It’s already started.”

Qi Cong became puzzled, then he reacted. He squeezed the new scene papers tightly and asked Zhao Zhenxun, “From which side did it start?”

“Public welfare.” Zhao Zhenxun added, “The material will be slowly released as we need to leave time for Jiang Zhaoyan to react. This kind of drama is only interesting the more you see it.” With that he patted Qi Cong on the shoulder and turned away.

The news that the chief screenwriter called Zhao Zhenxun over wasn’t a secret, and after a while, the news of Qi Cong’s additional scenes spread throughout the crew. Some of the actors didn’t care much about Qi Cong before and some didn’t even know that Qi Cong was going to play part in the “Legend of Youth”.

The atmosphere of the crew became vaguely subtle, making Qi Cong feel countless gazes from all directions with complex meanings behind them falling on him. But he ignored them all and concentrated on handing over his work to Xiao Han, then he returned to the hotel with his newly acquired scenes and contacted his vocal teacher.

The drama’s interlude, “Delusion” was a very sad love song. The first part was very slow and deep while the second part suddenly breaks out. This was a cathartic song of despair, which requires high level singing skills.

Qi Cong hummed the song once according to the score at the request of the vocal teacher, and then looked at the computer screen after singing.

On the screen, the vocal teacher frowned and pondered for a while before saying, “”The first part is very good. Your vocal line and emotional control let you go through this part easily, but the later part of the song’s transition… you don’t have enough skill. Your breath isn’t stable, you need to practice it.”

Qi Cong also knew he was lacking, so he nodded. “Okay.”

After the lesson, it was almost dinner time so Qi Cong drank water to moisten his throat before picking up his phone.

There were several unread messages from Gu Xun lying on WeChat. Raising the corners of his mouth, he read them one by one. Then he replied carefully, and mentioned that he had more scenes.

Gu Xun didn’t reply immediately, so he was probably busy.

Qi Cong waited for a moment before closing his WeChat and looking at the Weibo icon on his phone. Remembering what Zhao Zhenxun said, he clicked on it.

Overnight, the turbulence in public opinion caused by Gu Xun didn’t cool down, but spread even more. Among them, some gossip accounts seemed to respond to the public’s psychology of eating melons in general and published a lot of news about Qi Cong. But these posts were no longer like before, invading Qi Cong privacy, but instead reported from the Sanmu side.

One of the gossip accounts named “Melon Eating Group” wrote a long article with more than 20,000 comments, standing proudly at the top of all similar articles.

The article was very long and the Melon Eating Group used a storytelling approach, following the timeline that told the story of Sanmu from founding to bankruptcy in narrative manner. The Melon Eating Group should’ve done a lot of preparation since many of their claims were backed by many news reports about several generations of Sanmu bosses’ entrepreneurial short stories. The writing style was also concise and easy to understand, so in just a few lines, the character of the Qi Family generations was out.

Qi Weimin, the hardworking and simple boss of the first generation of Sanmu, Qi Changjiu, the second-generation boss of Sanmu who dared to expand and wasn’t afraid of failure and then Qi Yin, the calm and resolute boss of Sanmu of the third generation. Sanmu’s many ups and downs with several generations of bosses unfolded in front of everyone.

At the end of the article, the Eating Melon Group wrote: When I was looking up the data, I found a very moving thing. From the first generation to the third generation, Sanmu has always had a public welfare support project of “Giving You a Home” even from the beginning of its establishment. Every year Sanmu allocated a sum of money and customized a batch of furniture from desks to chairs, to give to various poor mountainous areas or to poor primary schools. Even when it was already very difficult for the company last year, Sanmu still kept its promise and delivered every penny and every piece of donated materials promised last year to the charity. I won’t comment on anything else but to admire Sanmu and Qi Yin who said “we can’t let the children wait”.

Qi Cong didn’t remember the bankruptcy of Sanmu, and Qi Yin and Lin Hui never told him about it. He looked at the section of Sanmu described by the Melon Eating Group, then looked at the haggard and tired figure of Qi Yin in one report after another in the article and clenched his fist. He stretched out his fingers to open the comment area under this article.

Hot comment one: Sanmu, alas, I am a Haicheng person, so I used a lot of their wood furniture. To be honest their quality is really good and the price was never too expensive. I don’t understand the economy or anything, but I feel very sorry that such a good brand is now gone.

Hot comment two: So their logo refers to Sanmu? Oh, my God, I used a desk from “Give You a Home” in my primary school. I still remember that there was a sentence printed on my primary school desk “Trees become a forest while a forest gathers all the spirits.” I was wondering why this was printed on the desk.

Hot comment 3: As a Haicheng local, I come out to say that Sanmu’s public welfare was far more than just this one. It was also “Haicheng Springwood Project”, “Haicheng University Universal Spirit Plan”, “Helping Hands,” and so on. Basically Sanmu participated in all of Haicheng’s large public welfare projects. What is less known is the Haicheng Single Mother Support Association which was created by Sanmu. Qi Yin, who personally became the president, helped many single mothers start their own businesses and find jobs. My mother is one of the beneficiaries. I am really grateful to Qi Yin.

Clicking on the responses under these hot comments, it could be seen that many Haicheng locals came out to say that Sanmu was good. But once in a while there would be one or two strange comments, saying that Sanmu furniture was expensive. There were also many people who used Sanmu donated desks as children who expressed their gratitude.

The atmosphere in the comment area was very harmonious, most of the comments were warm.

Qi Cong didn’t know how much PR work there was in it but even if only one of the grateful comments was true he thought it was worth it for his grandfather and mother’s dedication to public welfare.

He continued to read through the comments, when on the third page, a comment stopped him.

The Sea is Full of Water: What the blogger wrote is mostly true, but one thing is wrong. The reason for Sanmu’s bankruptcy isn’t Qi Yin’s repeated decision-making errors, but because she was trapped by her son Qi Cong. The son not only cheated his own mother but also his family’s company and good friends. Before trying to commit suicide, Qi Cong had been acting as the marketing manager of Yanhuang Smart Home and was also in charge of some after-sales affairs. Two days ago, Yanhuang Smart Home exploded due to after-sale chaos, just guess who left this mess.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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