Chapter 372 - 252: Wu Bao: I Want to Give It a Try

The Tier Five Beast Taming Space was clearly not going to be as easy to master as the previous ones. To this day, Su Zhi still hadn’t felt that sense of being on the verge of a breakthrough, which was a departure from his experience before Tier Four.

Of course, this kind of thing couldn’t be rushed. It was best to let nature take its course.

TAP TAP TAP. A few knocks sounded before the door opened and Shen Chuqing’s long legs strode in. "Ready to go now that you’ve slept your fill?"

"Alright!"

Su Zhi gave a long, lazy stretch.

’Can’t deny it, a room with air conditioning and a king-sized bed is the life. And finding out it’s all getting expensed? Those stacked buffs make it even more comfortable.’

Seeing the tall girl leaning against the doorway, Su Zhi couldn’t help but whisper, "You could at least wait for me to answer after you knock. Isn’t it a bit inappropriate to just walk in...?"

"Ooh? Getting shy on me now?"

Shen Chuqing narrowed her eyes mischievously. "This is a hotel, you know. If you’d closed the door, I wouldn’t have been able to open it from the outside. Blaming someone else for coming in when you didn’t close your own door, aren’t you trying to have it both ways?"

"Huh?" Su Zhi paused. "I remember closing the door."

Seeing Shen Chuqing’s confused look, Su Zhi glanced over at his two little companions.

"Chirp?" Shan Bao tilted its head in confusion.

"WOOF!" Yu Bao eagerly conveyed, ’Big bro, you get me!’

"Where’s Wu Bao? Where did Wu Bao go?"

"...Chirp?"

"...Woof?"

·

In the hotel restroom, the SWISH SWISH of a stylus on a screen came from the rearmost stall.

Many tourists who came in to relieve themselves would glance at the stall with a look of utter confusion, then leave, still looking just as confused.

’Why would someone using the toilet be so intense with a stylus?’

’Are they drawing pictures of poop or something?’

But if a curious person were to bend down and take a look, they would be in for a huge shock. The feet in the stall were not two, but six, and all of them were black, thin, and long... ahem.

And the one using the stylus wasn’t drawing poop, but weaving a little dream.

"OOH!"

Having finished a Chapter, Wu Bao typed out the final period, let out a sigh of relief, and a sentimental look appeared in his eyes.

’Traveling is so inconvenient. Even just trying to write a few words feels like I’m in a spy thriller.’

He usually used a keyboard at home and hadn’t used a stylus in a long time... But while he could come up with an excuse to keep a tablet on him, bringing a keyboard along would be too suspicious.

To avoid attracting his companions’ attention, Wu Bao had no choice but to go back to using the tablet’s built-in stylus.

This change had slowed him down. He could usually write over twenty thousand or even thirty thousand words, but today he’d written less than five thousand. It was so bad he was too embarrassed to even join other authors’ writing chat rooms today.

’Sigh... The guilt is overwhelming...’

His book was going premium in two weeks, and Wu Bao had heard that you need a huge burst of Chapters for the launch to get good results, so he’d been stockpiling Chapters like crazy for the past two days. Now, with this delay, his stockpile progress had ground to a halt.

’I’ve only stockpiled 132 Chapters. That’s not nearly enough to feel secure.’

’Once we get back from Hundred Rivers, I have to write like my life depends on it...’

BUZZ BUZZ

The tablet vibrated. Er Shang’s profile picture flashed.

[Er Shang]: The Effect of the feature recommendation is pretty good. You’ve seen a fifty percent increase.

[Wu Bao]: Only a fifty percent increase?

[Er Shang]: ...

[Er Shang]: Because you already had several thousand active readers by the end of the trial period. Your base number was already huge.

[Er Shang]: Don’t be fooled because fifty percent doesn’t sound high. When you convert that to the number of active readers, you’re head and shoulders above everyone else in this batch.

[Wu Bao]: Ah, so that’s how it is.

[Wu Bao]: Still, just a fifty percent increase... it feels less than ideal...

[Er Shang]: That’s how it is for books that explode in the first round. They suck up all the traffic early on, so it’s harder to attract more later.

[Er Shang]: Of course, books with both a huge base and a huge growth rate have appeared before, but that requires all the stars to align. It also depends on the market audience, so you can’t force it.

[Wu Bao]: That’s true.

[Er Shang]: And another thing...

[Er Shang]: Looking at your recent characterization, are you planning to write a romance plot??

Wu Bao froze.

His female lead had only just appeared for one Chapter, had a sparring match with the protagonist, and was defeated. A proper romantic plot hadn’t even gotten off the ground...

’Editor Er Shang is as terrifyingly perceptive as they say, to even notice that!’

’But what does he mean by using two question marks? Does he mean I’m not allowed to write it like this...?’

[Er Shang]: I don’t know what you’re thinking, but from a market perspective, I don’t recommend you write a female lead.

[Er Shang]: It’s not that this genre can’t have a female lead, of course it can.

[Er Shang]: But adding a romantic plotline exponentially increases the demand on the author’s writing skill. The romance-focused readers will complain that there isn’t enough interaction, and the plot-focused readers will complain that the story isn’t moving fast enough. You’ll likely end up pleasing neither side.

[Er Shang]: Besides, as it stands, your audience is mostly made up of readers who prefer no female lead. A portion of them will likely drop the story the moment they see one.

[Er Shang]: So, think about it. Maybe just don’t write one? You could downplay her role in the next few Chapters, or just make her a supporting character. Both are viable options.

[Wu Bao]: But a veteran author told me that most readers who prefer no female lead really just don’t want to see a badly written romance. If you can write it well, they’ll end up loving it.

[Er Shang]: That’s true, but are you confident you can write it well?

[Er Shang]: Based on your current writing style and tone, a token female lead written in the traditional male-oriented web novel style won’t work. Only a well-developed, three-dimensional female lead, like one from a romance novel, has a chance of success.

[Er Shang]: But that increases the difficulty exponentially, and you don’t have any experience writing that kind of female lead.

[Wu Bao]: I want to try.

On the other end of the screen, in an editor’s office at the Qi Point headquarters, Er Shang’s hands froze over his keyboard. For a long while, he couldn’t type a single word.

His eyes reflected only Wu Bao’s four words: [I want to try.]

As an editor, he had seen many authors. Almost all of them started out as complete rebels, but after getting a harsh dose of reality, they would eventually become obedient little lambs willing to listen to their editor’s advice.

Even some veteran authors, when discussing ideas with him, would mostly give up on the concepts he rejected.

From a market perspective, this was, of course, perfectly understandable.

But...

It had been a long time since he’d heard the words, "I want to try."

And the person saying it wasn’t some newcomer with nothing to lose. He was a master author with a long-established style, yet he was resolutely choosing to step out of his comfort zone.

He had poured so much of his heart and soul into this new book; a single misstep could tarnish his entire legacy.

And yet, despite this, he continued to walk a path of breakthroughs and challenges, ready to press on even if it meant being ground to dust.

Yes, from a market perspective, Er Shang wasn’t wrong.

But, in that moment, Er Shang understood once again that even though the other party was a commercial writer, he was, at his core, a person who followed his own "Dao," a person with ambition, a person who had moved beyond base pleasures.

The four words, "I want to try," were very simple.

Yet, just like his choice to set aside his past and quietly create a new account, they were pure and clear.

’Great Author Gou Mao... I can feel your resolve!’

Er Shang took off his glasses, quickly wiped his eyes, and placed his hands back on the keyboard.

[Er Shang]: Okay. Write it!

[Er Shang]: I’ll keep up with every Chapter you release from now on. If I spot any problems, I’ll reach out to you myself.

[Er Shang]: You can also come to me with any ideas you have. I’m online twenty-four hours a day.

[Er Shang]: I wish you success in attaining your Dao!

[Wu Bao]: Thanks, Boss!

Wu Bao’s eyes grew a little misty too. He had heard that Editor Er Shang was a person who seemed cold on the outside but was warm on the inside, but he never expected him to be this kind.

’I have to find the time to write even faster. I absolutely cannot betray the trust my boss has placed in me!’

"Woof?"

A familiar dog’s bark made Wu Bao’s heart stop.

Wu Bao looked down and saw a dog’s head poking through the gap under the stall door, looking up at him curiously.

"Chirp?" Then, a familiar bird’s call came from above, making Wu Bao’s pupils shrink in sheer terror.

Wu Bao looked up. Shan Bao had hopped lightly, hooked its nimble feet around his horns, and was now hanging upside down, its curious gaze fixed on his screen...

"OOH!!!!"

The panicked cry of the Black Fighting Emperor suddenly echoed through the restroom, frightening the occupants of the nearby stalls into producing a series of satisfying SPLASHES into the water below.

Amidst the confused gazes of the passersby, Su Zhi quickly followed the sound and dashed into the restroom.

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