Chapter 189 - 143: He’s No Longer His Former Self

Chapter 189: Chapter 143: He’s No Longer His Former Self

She buried her head in his chest, feeling his warmth, and the guilt she’d been holding back finally burst forth.

The corners of her eyes grew moist.

"I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault."

Her face was pressed tightly against his chest, her voice muffled and tinged with a sob as she spoke.

Hearing her, Xiao Ran’s heart ached.

He reached out and stroked her head, like an elder comforting a child.

"It’s alright now. The apology videos should already be up on Douyin. Four of them, in fact!"

Hearing this, Yan Xici felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She raised her head, her teary eyes looking at him earnestly. "Really?"

’Would my sister really do that?’

"Of course. See for yourself if you don’t believe me."

Xiao Ran handed her his phone and played the apology videos.

One blogger explained in the video, "I’m sorry. This morning, in an attempt to get more views, I shared some unverified and exaggerated information. I now offer my sincere apology. The original video has been taken down, and I hope the people involved can forgive me. I am deeply sorry for this."

"I promise I will never make this kind of mistake again..."

The person in the video kept talking, but Yan Xici wasn’t listening anymore.

Her mind was filled with a single phrase: ’The original video has been taken down, and I hope the people involved can forgive me.’

The girl sniffled.

’So no one will hurt him because of me anymore, right?’

"So, what did my sister say?" Yan Xici asked, her voice soft and her eyes full of unconcealed curiosity.

Xiao Ran gestured with his phone. "Isn’t this what your sister said?"

’Yan Li is the one behind these bloggers. Everything they’re saying was arranged by her.’

"Then... she didn’t give you a hard time, did she?" Yan Xici asked, her face still etched with concern.

She knew exactly what kind of person Yan Li was, so she found it hard to believe her sister would back down so easily.

The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

"She didn’t. Don’t worry, the matter is settled. Stop thinking about it."

After he spoke, Xiao Ran glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost one. He hadn’t had a chance to check his author dashboard since last night.

’My update is late!’

He quickly unboxed his new phone and inserted his SIM card.

"I’m going to go check on my book," Xiao Ran said, turning and heading into his bedroom. He sat down at his desk and quickly booted up his computer.

At the same time, he started downloading the Author’s Assistant app on his phone.

’This was the one downside to being a word-slinger. You had to check the author dashboard at least ten times a day, regardless of how well the book was doing.’

’He was always worried he might miss a surprise donation he needed to thank someone for, or that he’d get bad reader feedback and need to make a quick revision.’

The computer booted up quickly. Xiao Ran hurriedly navigated to the Yuewen Author login page and entered his username and password.

He then saw his new book’s performance from the previous day. The number of ’collections’ was quite good, hitting over seven thousand in a single day.

Then he looked at the donations section and saw a notification badge: 15.

He quickly clicked on it. Sure enough, it was full of donations from enthusiastic readers. When he scrolled to the top, he saw two Silver Alliance Leader donations from ’Little Fox.’

Seeing this, Xiao Ran’s mood soured. ’Are they serious?’

’One Silver Alliance Leader donation, thirty Chapters. Two of them, sixty Chapters. And sixty Chapters meant 120,000 words!’

’Aren’t they trying to squeeze my entire stockpile of Chapters dry?’

’What’s the deal with this kid? And their parents have no idea? Just how rich are they that their kid can donate this much money without them even noticing? Unbelievable!’

’Complaining was one thing, but he’d accepted the money, so he had to deliver the Chapters.’

Gritting his teeth, Xiao Ran opened up the last of his stockpiled Chapters and uploaded all of them in one go.

’Whatever, who needs a stockpile anyway!’

Despite this, he still left a note at the end of the Chapter: ’First of all, thank you so much for the Platinum Alliance Leader donation! But this pace is just too fast. You’re going to kill this author if you keep this up!’

’My perfectly good book... and she’s forced me to mass-release hundreds of thousands of words before it even went premium. The ’getting to know you’ phase of the romance is already over, and the main couple is officially in the passionate-love stage. All of this was supposed to be premium content, and now, because of her, it’s all free.’

’And if her parents come after me demanding the money back, I’ll have suffered a double loss. It would be an absolute disaster!’

....

Lunch was over, and the film crew was on break. Yang Mi didn’t have many scenes today.

She was just about to take a quick nap to save her energy for the afternoon shoot.

When she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

She pulled out her phone, and her eyes lit up instantly.

’Well now, he updated.’

’She already figured that Xiao Ran hadn’t updated because the scandal had killed his mood for writing.’

’She could understand, of course.’

’But she never expected him to still have the heart to post an update after dealing with something so huge. He’s a tough one, that’s for sure.’

’I like that!’

’No matter what happens, you don’t abandon your work. You don’t let down the people who support you.’

That was her principle.

’She hadn’t realized she and Xiao Ran were a bit alike in that respect.’

At that thought, her fair-skinned hand tapped open the new Chapters, and she began to read with excitement. Ever since she’d started following this book, she felt like it had made her feel younger.

’It was as if she believed in love again. It was really making her own heart stir.’

’So annoying~’

’But seriously, the book was incredibly well-written. Even the clothing was described in detail. It felt like she was standing right there, watching the hero and heroine fall in love.’

The male lead’s character was great, too. He wasn’t flashy, but he wasn’t a pushover, either—just calm, understated, and radiating a sense of security.

The heroine’s character was also very endearing—innocent, carefree, and a bit of a chatterbox.

’These kinds of characters would be a huge hit in a TV drama, especially with young, single women.’

It took her half an hour to devour the thirty-odd new Chapters. With her relentless binge-reading, she had now finished all the most exciting parts.

From a commercial standpoint, this book was perfect for a sweet, romantic drama. She even had the perfect actors in mind.

’Reba would be absolutely perfect for the role!’

’If she headlines it, she could probably make a few of our lesser-known actors popular too!’

In the time it would have taken to nap, Yang Mi made a decision.

She had to talk to Xiao Ran about the rights as soon as possible.

’I have to make the first move. After all, judging by Director Zhang’s attitude today, he seems to think very highly of Xiao Ran.’

’If he tries to buy the rights from Xiao Ran too, then I’ll lose a major business opportunity.’

Moreover, she couldn’t handle this personally. She’d have to get someone else from Jiaxing to do it. Otherwise, she’d be poaching too obviously, and it would create an awkward situation between her and Director Zhang.

Everyone’s in the same industry; it’s best not to make things ugly.