414 Resume Work Earlier? No Way!

Ma Yiqun laughed as if he had just heard the biggest joke in the world. "What do you take Boss Pei for?

"Boss Pei is so magnanimous and far-sighted. Until now, Upwind Logistics is still incurring losses, and yet has Boss Pei said a word about it? No! He still trusts Upwind Logistics' leader so much.

"You think Boss Pei would be so calculating over something as small as this? You're belittling him."

After some thought, Cui Geng realized that this was true.

Boss Pei was so magnanimous. How could he stack the deck against Cui Geng over a single novel? That sounded impossible.

"Alright, Boss Ma! I'll change it at once!

"It's a good thing that I hadn't written that much yet, and I won't have to change the plot too drastically. I think I can include the modifications very quickly," said Cui Geng with determination.

Ma Yiqun was very satisfied with Cui Geng's attitude. It looked like the latter was serious about writing this time.

"This is what I'm thinking: if you can consistently upload five chapters a day throughout the Chinese New Year holiday, I'll tell Zhu Xingan to give your novel a recommendation spot in advance!

"The faster you write, the better a spot you'll get. Try to make the novel the most popular one in the urban genre!"

Once again, Cui Geng felt overwhelmed by Boss Ma's favor. "Alright, no problem! I'm not going anywhere over the holiday. I'm staying at home to write!"

…

After getting Ma Yiqun's advice, Cui Geng felt more motivated.

If even the higher management of the website was recommending his novel, would he still have to worry about not getting enough recommendations?

All Cui Geng wanted to do now was to write as quickly as he could while maintaining the novel's quality. He would write ten thousand words per day and hope that those readers, who had a habit of only chasing books on the recommendation lists, would get hooked on his novel as soon as possible.

It was just as well that Cui Geng's creative juices were flowing at their peak. Before the Chinese New Year, he had gathered a lot of material from Tengda Games. He only had to process the material slightly before including them in his novel.

All he had to think about was how to write those stories more dramatically to create conflict.

Cui Geng began tapping away rapidly at his keyboard.

"Even if my family goes through ten more demolitions, it wouldn't stop me from writing this novel well and completing it!"

…

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, Cui Geng edited the five chapters that he had already uploaded, as well as the chapters that he had already written. After confirming that the story flowed, he continued writing subsequent chapters.

To his surprise, Cui Geng found that adopting Ma Yiqun's suggestions had been extremely effective!

When he wrote before, he had felt that something was missing. It caused him to feel more sullen as he wrote.

Even after finishing the first five chapters, he had found the story imperfect and had felt that something needed to be changed.

Yet, he had no idea what exactly needed to be changed.

Thus, although Cui Geng had been writing quite quickly, he had also felt unsure.

Now, things were different. After adopting Ma Yiqun's suggestions, Cui Geng realized that he could interweave interesting, transiting storylines that concerned the protagonist into the original plot. His story seemed to flow much better.

He read the chapters after writing and also felt more satisfied. The nagging feeling that something needed to be changed had disappeared completely!

The words flowed naturally to Cui Geng. As he held onto his own laptop and typed, everything else around him seemed to disappear.

As Cui Geng uploaded more and more chapters, the comments under the book changed as well.

"Huh? Did he change the first few chapters?"

"The opening was not bad before, but this opening is much more interesting!"

"I wanted to stop reading the no-show's books altogether, but I subconsciously read his newest uploads. D*mn it!"

"Ai, you can curse him all you want, but you have to admit that the no-show's books are really nice to read! This opening is really attractive; I might fall for it again!"

"I'm going to ask you if you can really write two million words this time! Forget it, I'm not going to hold too much hope. Just write as much as you can…"

"Suddenly, novels set in the city look so interesting to me!"

"That's strange. I thought most writers would lose a bunch of readers after switching to city novels from Xuanhuan novels, but many of these IDs look familiar. Are you still around? All of you keep saying that you won't read another one of this no-show's books, but you're still eating your own words…"

"This book is really interesting. It's humorous and full of tricks. Changing the world one accident at a time… that gives me a subtle, warm feeling in my heart. It's really good!"

"I'm tired of reading Xuanhuan and Xianxia books that revolve around killing entire families. It doesn't sound like a bad idea to try something new every once in a while. You have my vote. If you dare to leave this book incomplete, I'll turn up at your doorstep and slaughter you!"

"You're uploading five chapters a day for a new novel? Aren't you afraid it won't get a recommendation spot?"

"Why should he worry about that? This new novel already has a really good recommendation spot. It looks like the website is intentionally supporting this novel!"

"It's really interesting indeed. I'm going to share it with my friends!"

…

…

February 4th, the second day of the Chinese New Year…

In the afternoon…

The cool breeze blew past. Standing at the entrance of the internet cafe not far from his home, Pei Qian held his arms open, wanting the breeze to cleanse his body of the stench of cigarettes.

"Ai, I should have opened a Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branch near my house earlier…"

Pei Qian shivered in the breeze, a sorrowful thought surfacing in his mind.

There really wasn't anything fun to do during the Chinese New Year period.

Today was the second day of the Chinese New Year. Pei Qian had gathered with a few of his close childhood friends and classmates, and they had spent an entire day out together.

Since there weren't many things to do in the small county, everyone decided to catch a movie at a cinema, have lunch, and then play games together at a nearby internet cafe.

After watching the movie, Pei Qian had mixed feelings.

Of course, he mainly felt lucky!

At first, he had planned to release Tomorrow is Beautiful during the Chinese New Year period. He had thought that since the Chinese New Year provided an occasion for families to gather, more people would go to the cinemas and watch it. Then, more people would diss it and cause it to fail quickly.

What's more, many other films would premiere during this period as well. He had thought that very few slots would be given to Tomorrow is Beautiful in cinemas.

However, after watching the most anticipated movie during the Chinese New Year period that day, Pei Qian only had one thought: 'What the hell is this?!'

He had forgotten which movies had been popular during this period in 2011, but none of the ones that were showing in the cinema looked like they could become popular.

As he walked out of the cinema, he had checked his cell phone and discovered that the Chinese New Year period this year was not considered a good season for movies.

The movies during this period all had ratings of less than 7.0 on ticketing sites. Pei Qian guessed that none of the movies would manage to generate even two hundred billion yuan in revenue either. This was incredibly shocking.

After more thought, Pei Qian realized that the Chinese New Year period only became a popular season for movies because of Stephen Chow's Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons in 2013.

This world was quite different. Even the movies were completely different from what Pei Qian had remembered. Thus, although the Chinese New Year period was still considered a good season for releasing movies, there weren't many good films to begin with.

At that thought, Pei Qian began to feel strangely fearful.

What if he released Tomorrow is Beautiful during the Chinese New Year period and it failed to incur losses?

It was not that Pei Qian had no confidence in his own movie. However, the airing films were really rubbish, and he needed the help of his fellow filmmakers.

Pei Qian thought, perhaps it's a good thing that they could not release Tomorrow is Beautiful in time for the Chinese New Year period.

Hopefully, one or two blockbusters would be released at the same time as Tomorrow is Beautiful so that its sales would be hurt.

As for playing online games with his friends…

There weren't many good internet cafes in the county. They had found the best one already, but smoking was not prohibited there. Pei Qian nearly choked to death while playing.

He could only say that he had not thought things through well enough in the beginning. He had only set up an Upwind Courier station in front of his parents' place, so that picking up their packages would be convenient for them. He had not even thought about opening a Fish-Catching Internet Cafe at his doorstep.

"I'll speak to Zhang Yuan about this when I get back and ask him to set up a Fish-Catching Internet Cafe near my house. It doesn't matter whether it incurs losses or makes a profit. At least, I'll be able to play there during the next Chinese New Year holiday.

"Eh? That's not right. Zhang Yuan has already been eliminated by the first-place-elimination system.

"I'll speak to the new in-charge of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe after the holiday, then…"

Pei Qian shook off the smell of cigarettes outside, said goodbye to his childhood friends and high school classmates, and then headed home.

On the way home, Pei Qian thought about his experience gaming in the internet cafe.

While thinking about what game they should play, his childhood friends and high school classmates were swinging back and forth between IOI and GOG.

Obviously, as battle games that had been released most recently, IOI and GOG were equally influential among groups of gamers.

Still, everyone decided to play IOI in the end. That was comforting to Pei Qian.

Indeed, the crowd's eyes were sharp. IOI was still a tier better than GOG!

However, after being immersed in the game for some time, Pei Qian realized that IOI was very different from LOL. The heroes in both games had nothing in common, and IOI's operations were more complicated.

What's more, for them to play IOI in China, they had to make use of an accelerator and connect to a foreign server. Thus, the lag was pretty bad.

Of course, that did not affect the game's popularity.

Fish-Catching Internet Cafe aside, many other internet cafes had installed both IOI and GOG in their computers at the moment.

Internet cafe owners were very good at observing the market. They would make sure to install games that looked most popular among gamers in the internet cafe at the time.

Furthermore, IOI was going to be updated today. After all, the United States did not celebrate Chinese New Year.

As he approached home, Pei Qian's cell phone rang.

He had thought that it was his mother, chasing him to go home for dinner. However, as he retrieved his cell phone in the cool breeze, Pei Qian discovered that it was Li Yada.

"Eh? Why are you calling me today?

"Are you sending me a greeting?

"That can't be. You've already sent me a message on the eve of Chinese New Year."

Pei Qian picked up the phone, full of suspicion.

Li Yada's anxious voice immediately sounded. "Boss Pei! I think IOI just updated their game. Did you notice that?"

Pei Qian, "Oh, I know. What's up?"

Li Yada was stunned as if she had not expected Boss Pei to sound so calm. In fact, there seemed to be a bit of… joy amidst the calm tone.

"Boss Pei, once IOI is updated, GOG would be much less competitive! Finger Games is not celebrating the Chinese New Year!

"A ten-day Chinese New Year holiday might not seem like much, but our game started off worse off than IOI already. If we delay this any further, the consequences would be dire. We might not be able to catch up with them!

"Can I apply to resume work earlier? I know it's wrong to work overtime, but it's an emergency…"

Pei Qian frowned.

Resume work earlier?! No way!