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At 7:00 AM sharp, Wang Pu woke up from his slumber.
He quickly washed up and hurried out into the morning light, jogging to work. This was Wang Pu's primary form of exercise, a routine he never skipped unless it rained or snowed.
After grabbing breakfast at a nearby diner, he still had plenty of time before work. As usual, he walked the rest of the way, pulling his phone from his pocket to open the Wave Reading app.
He couldn't wait to see how 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' was faring—whether it had managed to hold its top spot on the Weekly Recommendation Chart or been dethroned by another book.
After refreshing the bestseller charts, Wang Pu was shocked not to find the familiar title on the Weekly Recommendation Chart.
'Already out of the Top 10?'
The Wave Reading Weekly Recommendation Chart only displayed the Top 10 on the homepage, leaving Wang Pu feeling a pang of disappointment.
But he quickly realized something was amiss.
The data on his phone showed that the tenth-ranked title had fewer than 3,000 recommendation tickets!
'How could that be possible?'
Wang Pu vividly remembered that when the chart first refreshed after the group's collective voting at dawn, 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' had soared to the top spot with 3,780 votes. How could it possibly be missing from the Top 10 now?
A sense of foreboding washed over Wang Pu.
He hastily clicked on the "More Data" section of the Weekly Recommendation Chart. Scanning down from the top to the fifth position, he found no trace of 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'.
Wang Pu frantically retrieved 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' from his bookshelf and opened its product information page to check the data.
Weekly Recommendations: 0!
Zero votes!
It felt like ten thousand alpacas were stampeding through Wang Pu's mind. His face flushed crimson, and his hair nearly stood on end.
'Motherfucker! What the actual fuck?!'
Though young, Wang Pu was a seasoned veteran when it came to reading web novels. He knew the rules of literary websites inside and out. This wasn't a data error—it meant the novel had been flagged for vote manipulation, resulting in a complete reset and invalidation of all votes within a specified period.
If 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' had truly been vote-padded, Wang Pu would have accepted it. The website had been cracking down on such cheating aggressively, with substantial penalties. As a reader, he supported these measures.
But every single recommendation ticket had been legitimately earned through his rallying hundreds, even thousands, of fellow readers. This wasn't vote manipulation. Last night, they had all stayed up until midnight, diligently voting. Now, all their hard work had vanished into thin air.
How could Wang Pu possibly accept this?
'The group chat must be exploding by now,' he thought.
He quickened his pace, hurrying to his workplace. Before his boss and colleagues arrived, he logged into WeChat on his computer.
Just as Wang Pu had predicted, the WeChat groups were already a cacophony of complaints.
"Does anyone know why our recommendation tickets were cleared?"
"Holy crap, are you kidding me?!"
"Hehe, unsigned books don't get to be on the charts. What else is there to say?"
"This is so unfair! I'm going to file a complaint!"
"Forget about it. You can't fight the system. Even if we complain, they won't give a damn."
"Ugh, this is infuriating!"
Some members were confused, others agitated, some furious, and still others clamoring for justice. Though only a handful of members were online at this early hour, the chat was already a chaotic frenzy of heated exchanges.
Wang Pu gritted his teeth, his fingers pounding the keyboard with extra force. "We need to demand an explanation from Wave Reading! Why did they clear our recommendation tickets? We didn't even engage in vote manipulation!"
Book friends voting to support their favorite books and authors was perfectly normal. If even that counted as vote manipulation, then the entire ranking system would become meaningless.
Feeling completely justified, Wang Pu refused to swallow his anger.
His proposal immediately garnered unanimous support from the group.
The plan was simple: flood Wave Reading's customer service with complaints and protests.
A handful of complaints might be ignored, but what about hundreds or even thousands?
The impact would be undeniable!
'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' reader group was remarkably united. Their massive wave of complaints and protests soon caught the attention and serious consideration of Wave Reading's official channels. After all, many of these readers were high-level VIP members.
That is, subscribers who were long-time readers.
Around noon, the department head of Wave Reading convened a small meeting with the Channel Editor-in-Chief, the Editor, and technical support staff to specifically discuss the matter.
The department head asked, "What exactly is going on with 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer'? Why are so many people complaining?"
A technician explained, "The book suddenly appeared at the top of the Weekly Recommendation Chart at 12:10 AM today. Given the strong suspicion of vote manipulation, I temporarily froze its votes this morning."
The department head frowned. "Have you investigated whether the votes were genuinely manipulated?"
The technician shook his head. "We haven't found any evidence yet. The votes all appear legitimate, but..."
At this point, the Channel Editor-in-Chief cleared his throat and said, "I've been following this book for a while. The writing is decent, and the theme is unique, but the author refused to sign a contract."
The department head's brow furrowed into a deep frown. "What was the reason for the refusal?"
The editor said, "He has issues with the copyright contract and refuses to sign."
"Ah, I see."
The supervisor immediately understood. Authors refusing to sign contracts was a common occurrence, usually due to issues with the contract terms.
However, for an unsigned work like 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' to appear on the homepage rankings was exceedingly rare. Unsigned works receive no promotion, their visibility so low that they couldn't possibly compete with trending books.
Understanding the situation was one thing; figuring out how to handle it was another.
The supervisor scratched his head, feeling a bit stumped. Banning the book from the rankings would clearly be unjust. Yet, if the author refused to sign, the website wouldn't profit from the work. Why should they allocate valuable homepage resources to it?
After a moment's thought, the supervisor declared decisively, "Since we've already banned it, let's stick with the decision. Contact the author again and ask if he's willing to sign the contract. If he agrees, we'll lift the ban."
'What if he still refuses?' No one asked the question, because there was no need.
The customer service representative asked, "What about the complaints?"
The supervisor chuckled. "Just tell them the book's data is abnormal and our technical team is working on it."
He would never allow 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' to appear on the homepage; that would be far too embarrassing.
After the meeting adjourned, the editor contacted "Recalling Ancient Times" again via WeChat.
But she received no response.
At that moment, Lu Chen was completely unaware of the storm 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' had stirred up.
He was currently in Hangzhou.
(End of chapter)