Chapter 8: A Final Surprise

At the top of the online literature overall rankings sat a fantasy novel, "Throne," penned by the renowned grandmaster "No Kimchi" from BaiDu Literature, with 1.01 million paying readers. In second place was "Invincible King" by "Mulberry Phoenix Branch," another fantasy master from One Read Books, boasting a million paying readers.

Li He glanced over the top ten on the list; every single slot was occupied by works from these two major giants. Was the distribution of traffic really that stratified?

Judging from the chart, the two powerhouses were evenly matched in strength, though if one had to split hairs, the veteran BaiDu Literature still commanded slightly greater traffic. Li He made a decisive choice: BaiDu Literature. Just by the name, One Read sounded off, not nearly as nice as Seven Read, for instance.

Registering was a breeze—he could complete everything on his phone. The only annoyance was that real-name authentication was required, including uploading a photo of his ID and so on.

He didn’t bother to rack his brains for a pen name. Youth should be bold, after all. Li He swiftly entered his chosen pseudonym: "Grandmaster."

Those readers, seeing his pen name, would surely provide a wealth of negative emotions. Li He’s calculations were precise—he wouldn’t miss any chance to earn from negativity.

Once registered, he immediately uploaded ten chapters. There could be no stinginess at the outset; he needed to capture readers’ attention first, then later he could strategically cut chapters to fleece his audience. The process was essential.

Novel uploads required review, which would take one to two days. Li He wasn’t in a hurry; he could afford to wait.

After wrapping up, Li He reopened ShakeUp, uploading another video he’d edited the night before. Then, in high spirits, he turned on his computer and dove into a game.

…

With the recent involvement of celebrity news, the Gabby account’s popularity was skyrocketing.

Thanks to Li He’s infuriating antics, Jiang Qi had lain awake all night, finally succumbing to exhaustion only around three in the morning. She had no work the next day, so she slept in with abandon, only waking at ten, when the sun was already high.

Her first act upon waking wasn’t to wash up, but to open ShakeUp and see if Gabby had a change of heart and released the next part of the lyrics.

To her astonishment, there really was a new video—and its thumbnail looked just as aggravating as last night’s.

Jiang Qi swore to herself that if Gabby pulled this trick again, she would absolutely report the account.

With apprehension, she tapped on the video.

The visuals hadn’t changed: one sheet of paper, one line of lyrics per page.

When the video reached, “Thus I can fly against the wind without looking back,” Jiang Qi’s heart leapt to her throat once more.

The video continued; the white, checkered paper flipped to the next page.

A brand-new lyric line popped up.

“Unafraid of rain in my heart, or frost in my eyes.”

Jiang Qi had no time for emotional reactions—her entire focus was riveted on the next sheet about to be revealed.

“One cup to my hometown, one cup to distant lands.”

“………………”

“………………”

“………………”

Jiang Qi’s composure completely collapsed. She’d been just about to offer some praise, but here it was again—the same infuriating trick, and this time, Gabby seemed bent on turning it into a recurring theme. Just how many times did he intend to drag out these lyrics?

This time Jiang Qi was wiser. She paused the video—she refused to let him get the better of her again.

She opened the comments and immediately saw the top pinned message:

[Teacher He]: "If you give up before the end because of the last video, trust me, you’ll regret it.”

[Singer Chen Xueling]: "Teacher He is right—you’ll definitely regret not watching to the end! There’s an unexpected surprise waiting! (*/ω＼*)”

Jiang Qi was skeptical. Really? These two obviously had something up their sleeves.

Even as she tried to convince herself it was a ruse, Jiang Qi couldn’t suppress her curiosity and resumed playback, desperate to know the next line.

The ellipsis dragged on for four whole minutes. Just as Jiang Qi was about to explode in frustration, the video at last changed.

“Guarding my kindness, urging me to grow.”

At this, Jiang Qi’s cheeks flushed instantly with relief, mingled with deep guilt. How could she have doubted Teacher He?

Not trusting Chen Xueling, her best friend, was one thing, but how could she disbelieve Teacher He’s words? He wasn’t the kind to deceive.

The next second, the corners of her mouth twitched—another ellipsis! Gabby, does your family run an ellipsis factory?

With her last shred of hope, she watched the video to the end, then promptly hurled her phone away.

The final frozen frame displayed a single line of tiny text: “No way, no way, is there really someone who watched all the way to the end again?!”

So this was the so-called surprise? Truly, what a surprise.

Her good mood evaporated in an instant; Jiang Qi was so infuriated by Gabby that she lost her appetite altogether.

Then, silently, she picked up her phone—now sporting even more cracks.

She stared at the battered screen.

Damn!

Jiang Qi nearly cursed aloud. This was her brand-new phone.

Yesterday had been one thing—the crack was only on the tempered glass. She’d thought it felt odd to use with a cracked screen, so she’d peeled off the protector. The replacement hadn’t arrived yet, and this time, the phone’s actual screen had shattered.

Fuming with rage, Jiang Qi fired off a private message to Gabby: “You owe me a new phone (Ծ‸Ծ).”

Even after sending the message, her anger refused to subside, so she left a comment under Gabby’s latest video, then, feeling somewhat better, ordered some takeout.

[Singer Jiang Qi]: “After seeing the latter half of the lyrics, I lost my appetite—I just love it too much.”

…

While Gabby’s comment section was ablaze with activity, the editors at BaiDu Literature’s editorial office had no time for such mischievous pleasures.

They were buried in the task of reviewing the day’s new novel submissions.

Since One Read Books was backed by a powerful investor, BaiDu was seeing fewer and fewer newcomers—most promising new authors had gone over to the other side.

Although BaiDu could always top One Read Books on the overall leaderboard, when it came to the newcomers’ chart, they were trailing far behind.

Senior management at BaiDu had lost their temper more than once, but there was little the editors could do—the benefits over there were simply better. It was only natural for newcomers to defect.

In the fierce competition for new writers, every editor was tasked with headhunting from other sites, while also reviewing their own newcomers’ submissions with extra patience.

Liu Da was one such editor at BaiDu.

He was, by most accounts, rather unlucky; while his colleagues had managed to poach promising talents from elsewhere, he had come up empty and could only focus on the fresh faces submitting to their own platform.

A few other editors were in the same boat, and to ease the pressure, they would often slip away together to the restroom for a smoke.

“Have you found any promising newcomers?” one asked.

“Not yet,” another replied, “but I have a few decent ones on hand. I’ll go through the rest, and if nothing better comes up, I’ll have to pick from these.”

Liu Da took a particularly deep drag—none of his rookies looked remotely promising.

“The start of every month is always the hardest,” one sighed.

BaiDu’s recommendation system ran on a monthly cycle, so at the beginning of each month, every editor had to submit several candidates for the newcomer spotlight.

If any rookie showed signs of taking off, the chief editor would channel all the newcomer recommendations into that one candidate, and the recommending editor would be handsomely rewarded as well.

BaiDu had been trounced so badly in the newcomer arena that they’d resorted to the ruthless "many protect one" strategy.

A chubby editor exhaled a cloud of smoke and said, “Wang Ke seems to have poached a great newcomer from One Read. Looks like this month’s recommendation is his.”

“What’s the name?” Liu Da asked with a frown.

—
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