"Chu Ge! You just wait!" Thunder cracked and gales howled over the Cloud Horizon Sect as though some great enemy had come invading. A batch of senior elders scrambled out of seclusion in a panic, only to find the sect master alone at the mountain peak, throwing a tantrum.
"What are you all staring at this Sect Master for? Don't you have anything to do?" Qiu Wuji flew toward the Scripture Repository in a fury. "This Sect Master has texts to look up. Go do whatever it is you do."
She had wanted to go straight back and beat him, but she held herself in check. Crossing between worlds was no small feat, and the back-and-forth was still quite tiring...
Wait till this Sect Master finds a few little toys to train you with. Then we'll see how you die!
Never mind Qiu Wuji and her schemes for revenge. On his side, Chu Ge finished that line feeling clear-headed and refreshed.
Did it take effect? Hopefully it did — let her learn that Father God is not to be provoked, and that I can hit back too! Without a counterattack or two, my husbandly authority is in danger.
That's for hitting me. Hmph.
His thoughts flowing smoothly, Chu Ge went on typing. He had been at it a while when QQ started going ding-ding-ding like mad. Puzzled, Chu Ge clicked over and found he had just been pulled into a new group.
No wonder it wouldn't stop dinging... He had muted every group chat precisely so he could write in peace, and only opened the few groups he hung around in once he was done for the day and felt like shooting the breeze. He hadn't even done that in ages — hadn't so much as looked at the Fratricide group.
Who's got that much time on their hands? Since when does dragging someone into a group not require their consent?
Then he looked at the group's name: "Flop Authors' Driving Group."
What's so interesting about a driving group? My own Fratricide group is already more than my constitution can keep up with — you think I'm short on your lewd pics and license plates?
Thinking this, Chu Ge reflexively moved to mute it. Then his eyes brushed the chat box, and he stared, dumbfounded.
At that very moment the chat was in a copy-paste loop: "These past few years of flopping have scrambled my brains. Sometimes I hide under the covers at midnight and cry to myself — I'm scared you'll all find out what a flop I really am and kick me out of the group."
"These past few years of flopping have scrambled my brains. Sometimes I hide under the covers at midnight and cry to myself — I'm scared you'll all find out what a flop I really am and kick me out of the group."
The copied lines themselves weren't strange; people spammed that kind of thing in flop groups all the time.
But this time the IDs were more familiar than the last. A single glance and Chu Ge spotted four hot ten-thousand-plus-subscription authors, two Grand God contracts, and one who was — holy hell — a Platinum, every one of them a blazing name at the top of the bestseller list, so dazzling it hurt the eyes.
You call this a "Flop Authors' Driving Group"?
Where's the driving? No, wait — where are the flops? You mean me?
Then the group owner spoke up: "Just pulled in the big shot Chu Ge."
A "Group Status -1.jpg" image arrived right on cue. Chu Ge stared wordlessly at this thirty-thousand-subscription big shot, not knowing where to even begin snarking.
And then the copy-paste chain started up again: "Group Status -1.jpg."
"…" Chu Ge figured he might as well just send a red packet: "A newbie pays his respects to the mountain."
The screen-spam promptly turned into "Thank you, boss.jpg."
Do you big shots not need to write at all?
It took a while for the copy-paste machines to run out of juice before someone finally got to the point: "I've read big shot Chu Ge's book — the ensemble cast is absolutely awesome! The big shot's awesome!"
Chu Ge looked at this big shot and could only reply: "Big shot, I grew up reading your books..."
"?" The big shot answered: "I'm only eighteen this year. You've got the wrong guy."
Chu Ge: "…"
Hell, it was just shooting the breeze in a group chat. Who couldn't do that? So Chu Ge became fifteen.
Watching a pack of old geezers all start pretending to be young at once, Chu Ge leaned back in his chair and drifted off into thought.
So this is... the so-called social circle upgrade that comes with rising numbers?
Anyway, it all looks the same to me. When these big shots get going in a group chat, how are they any different from Zhang Qiren?
Oh, right — there is a difference.
For instance, one big shot suddenly spoke up: "Hey, I'm seriously flopping with this one."
Someone asked, "What's up?"
"My new book only has twenty thousand bookmarks..."
Chu Ge figured that if a new book about to go to paid release had only twenty thousand bookmarks, that sounded a bit chilly. Were they about to witness the fall of another big shot?
Before he could even think of anything comforting to say, the man added: "And it's been up for almost a whole day now."
Chu Ge: "?"
Another big shot said, "I'm the real flop here — three days into paid release and I'm barely at nine thousand average."
Chu Ge looked at his own proud record of three hundred bookmarks on the fourth day after publishing, then looked at his own 5,500 average subscriptions after more than two months on paid release, and shut the group chat with a deadpan face, going silent to nurse his wounds.
Wait a second... 5,500?
That rate of growth really was... there was no word for it but terrifying.
A single violent spike might be luck, but a sustained surge probably meant the book really was good — retention and stickiness were high, and word-of-mouth recommendations may well have kicked in.
The one meaningful line from that group chat flashed through Chu Ge's mind: "The ensemble cast is awesome."
Was that really the reason? Or was he just saying something nice to help the new guy fit in?
Most likely it was real. After all, he had only switched to the ensemble-cast approach fairly late in the book; this big shot couldn't have spotted that by flipping through a couple of chapters — he must have genuinely read to the latest one. And a big shot had no reason to read all the way up to the newest chapter just to flatter someone. That meant the man was really following it.
If a big shot is following it, does that mean it's really good?
So... it really is that the book's quality is up to par?
Chu Ge leaned back staring blankly at the ceiling, and for a long while he couldn't tell what he was feeling. It was a bit of everything at once.
Chu Ge let out a long breath and opened Fratricide, which he hadn't touched in ages.
The group was as lively as ever — no quieter than before, and no rowdier either, because it was still the same people. This was his old reader group, and he had never once posted the group number for this book; the recent surge in popularity hadn't brought in any new members.
At that moment the group was in the middle of a heated discussion about a theft case at some school. It struck Chu Ge that his recent "wallowing in feminine charms" meant he hadn't followed any news at all, so he couldn't help asking: "Anyone got the full scoop? Drop a link."
The group went quiet for a beat, then someone said: "Holy crap, Big Chu, you finally surfaced! Did the book take off and you go start another group? Has this one become the cold palace?"
Chu Ge hurried to explain: "I've been in seclusion writing lately, haven't been online anywhere. Otherwise how would I be able to dump chapters like that, right?"
"We all thought aliens had abducted you."
"This seclusion of yours is a bit much. Fine, not a word out of you, but all those Alliance Leaders tipped you and you didn't even say thanks."
Chu Ge broke out in a sweat: "People tipped? I didn't even look..."
Feminine charms ruin kingdoms!
"We explained your seclusion in the review section and thanked the tippers for you. Nothing's blown up for now." One of the admins said: "But Big Chu, a lot of people are asking for the group number. Isn't it time to expand the group?"
Warmth welled up in Chu Ge's heart.
Never mind how the book was doing — he had vanished for days without a word and left others to clean up after him, so he had assumed there would be some grumbling about it. But the facts proved that people still cared about him.
"Let's expand. I'll go buy a membership and set up a two-thousand-person group, and add a line to the synopsis later." Chu Ge sent a big red packet, then added a batch of admins in one go: "I'm in a mass-update phase right now, so I'll be in the group very little. Thanks for bearing the burden, everyone... Oh, right — anyone want to be an operations manager?"
"What's an operations manager? Since when does a novel need operations..."
"It's really just what we used to call a review-section moderator. The capitalists had to invent a word so it sounds professional."
"Just a moderator? Then me, me!"
Volunteers came thick and fast.
"Big Chu, this book of yours keeps getting better. Go dump your chapters in peace — leave the rest to us."
Watching everything gradually settle onto the right track, Chu Ge's eyes went a little unfocused.
Back when he was a flop, he really had never imagined a scene this hot.
I wonder how Zhang Qiren is doing these days...
He tried sending him a direct message. No response.
At the Miracle Nightclub, Zhang Qiren leaned back on the sofa in his office, gently sipping a red wine that cost tens of thousands a glass.
The underground black-market fighting had closed down recently. His energy seemed to have gone into running the legitimate nightclub, and he had time to do a few other things as well...
Before him stood rows of young women in black, nervously lined up for his inspection.
Zhang Qiren's gaze swept over them again and again, and there was some disappointment in his eyes. "This is all of them?"
The red-haired young man beside him said, "Boss, there's no such thing as a hostess or a delinquent girl who only ever wears black. People change clothes..."
Zhang Qiren was silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Forget it. If there's none, there's none."
A woman who looked like a mamasan was smiling coyly. "Which one has Boss Zhang taken a liking to? Tonight we can..."
"Send them all back." Zhang Qiren said calmly: "Club hostesses are the thing that got famous. I'm the one who didn't."
Mamasan: "?"
Zhang Qiren looked at the wine in his glass and said quietly, "Send them back... They're all good-looking, but none of them are what I want. There's no point."
He paused, then turned to the red-haired young man. "Any progress on the Black House?"
"They're very interested. It's just that the cops are looking for them too, so they don't dare show their faces lately."
"It's fine..." Zhang Qiren said slowly. "Gu Ruoyan seems to have gone back to the capital already... Lin Wuyang is nothing but a section chief. He can't do a thing."