Pursuing dreams comes at a price.
No one can keep pushing themselves forever, living off a few hundred or a thousand yuan a month for a lifetime.
Zhang Qiren has been stuck at the bottom of the online novel scene for almost two years, publishing one book a year, each with double-digit subscriptions. This is his third book to be published.
Third time's the charm.
Whether it's the pressure of life or the gaze of family, no one can hold on forever.
For the past two years, Zhang Qiren has been supporting himself by delivering food while pursuing his dream of writing. A few months ago, he had a huge fight with his family, and ended up even stopping his food delivery job. He moved out of his house, following a writer's co-living ad, and came to Chu Ge's place, dedicating himself entirely to working on his new book.
He has no income.
After several months, the savings he had accumulated from delivering food are almost gone. This time, no matter how unwilling Zhang Qiren is, he can only give up his dream and obey his family's wishes to find a factory job.
This isn't about what kind of writing style you should write; that's irrelevant. Zhang Qiren isn't good at romance; he's better at imaginative plots and witty commentary, making him more suited to writing without a female lead. Whether a book succeeds or not depends on ability, but also on bad luck.
Chu Ge has been in this industry longer, witnessing countless confident young people disappear into obscurity, or bitterly turning into trolls, finding fault with every work on every platform.
Behind every one of them are the voices of unfulfilled dreams.
To outsiders, he's seen as an "unemployed bum," but how many know the cruel reality of elimination?
Chu Ge's situation is similar to Zhang Qiren's. He used to be a nine-to-five office worker, but finding life too dull, he started pursuing his literary dream. He was lucky; the income from his first book was barely enough to eat. Then, he had a conflict with his boss, so he quit to write. Now, two or three books have failed, and his savings are almost gone. Therefore, the success of this book is crucial to him.
Slightly better off than Zhang Qiren, Chu Ge's family is supportive. Or, to put it another way, his family is too busy to care about him.
Chu Ge's parents are supposedly in a classified unit; he himself doesn't know what they do, they're rarely seen, only occasionally speaking on the phone. He contacts his mother more often, but hasn't heard his father's voice for a year. It wasn't always like this, but things have changed in recent years…
The only thing his parents are anxious about is his marriage; they rarely comment on anything else. His mother is quite proud that her son writes books, constantly proclaiming that he's a writer, making Chu Ge want to cover his face in embarrassment.
That's right, the "Aunt Wu" Gu Ruoyan mentioned during the blind date said you're a writer—that Aunt Wu is Chu Ge's mother. It's unclear how she and Gu Ruoyan met…
By the way, the reason he had to move out and rent a place when no one was home was because he was fed up with the stares from his neighbors. Every time he stepped outside, he'd run into neighbors or elders, all smiling: "Little Chu, I know the manager of XX Leather Factory, want me to introduce you…?" Chu Ge would reply with a smile, "No need, leave it to his sister-in-law." Turning around, he could almost feel the whispers behind his back: "That son of the Chu family is a good-for-nothing, twenty-seven or twenty-eight and still lazing around at home." He might as well move out, out of sight, out of mind.
This was the awkwardness of this line of work; Chu Ge was all too used to Gu Ruoyan's behavior during blind dates.
In short, regardless of his family's support, Chu Ge, a grown man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, was too embarrassed to ask his family for money, yet he stubbornly insisted on saving face by telling them his income was quite good… Now, if he failed miserably, he really didn't know how he would survive.
Two men, sharing a similar plight, ate barbecue skewers and drank wine. Zhang Qiren actually offered some suggestions for revising the draft: "Your story has some harem tendencies in the beginning, but none of the relationships are confirmed. It's all being built up gradually, which might be related to your personality… This leaves room for maneuver. Later on, it can easily switch to a stock market theme, ending with an open ending. Nobody knows which character the protagonist chose or if he chose none…" Chu Ge was silent for a moment: "You'd get beaten up in our group for saying that." Zhang Qiren laughed: "I don't believe you haven't thought of that yourself. Otherwise, why would you ask for leave to organize the outline?" Chu Ge hadn't really thought of it before. His usual way of thinking wasn't like that, and it was hard to consider this aspect so quickly. Now, being reminded was a real eye-opener.
Zhang Qiren's suggestion not only avoids the problem of missing any female characters in the harem—since everyone's already been revealed in the end, who cares about Qiu Wuji? The process also simultaneously appeals to both harem and single-female fanbases, potentially leading to even better results. The only downside is the potential backlash after completion; by then, all the money will have been made, so who cares about criticism?
Another advantage is that the previously troublesome Qiu Wuji scenes don't need much cutting. The original plot can proceed, only the relationship between her and the protagonist can be changed to a normal sect leader and disciple relationship. Any ambiguous or suggestive elements can be omitted. What does it matter if readers speculate or not?
It's practically a win-win solution.
Chu Ge raised a glass, sincerely saying, "Qi Ren, it's truly unfair that you're not popular. Your research and understanding of these things are deeper than many others."
Zhang Qi Ren's eyes shone brightly: "I also think it's unfair that I'm not popular."
He paused, his gaze seeming to shift, a slightly complex expression in his eyes.
Chu Ge followed his gaze and saw a girl of about seventeen or eighteen, dressed in black, walking silently past a barbecue stall and into their residential area.
The smell of alcohol wafted from her as she passed by.
Chu Ge recognized the girl.
She lived on the same floor, in the apartment opposite theirs.
These days, neighborly relations are distant. They'd lived on the same floor for so long, yet hadn't even spoken. Occasionally they'd bump into each other in the elevator, both looking down at their phones, no greetings exchanged, and naturally, no one knew each other's names.
Writers' lives are often erratic, with irregular hours, and this girl was similar. They frequently ran into her late at night, and she was always tipsy.
Sometimes she even had a small scar on her forehead…
Most people's first impression would be that she was a hostess or a delinquent, pretty much the same.
"She used to be a game streamer, I've seen her online," Zhang Qiren said softly. "But she didn't talk much, just quietly played her game, so her popularity was low, probably not enough to support herself."
Chu Ge asked, "A failure in the industry, like us?"
Zhang Qiren sipped his drink, remaining silent.
Live streaming and online writing are actually quite similar, making it easy to empathize.
We're all failures, who looks down on whom?
Chu Ge suddenly asked, "You like her?" Zhang Qiren's grip on his glass tightened slightly, then he said casually, "She's pretty, of course I'd be a little tempted, it's normal, haven't you ever been?" To be honest, Chu Ge had been tempted too, even fantasizing about being in some nightclub and having her accompany him for drinks. Men's feelings are judged by actions, not intentions; it's normal to fantasize. He even fantasized about the Chinese teacher from the next class in high school.
Realistically speaking, nobody has the money to go to those nightclubs!
Zhang Qiren quickly continued, "It's not that I like her, how could someone in that kind of job… Anyway, we can't even support ourselves, even if we knew which nightclub she was in, we wouldn't have the money to patronize her, so what's the point of talking about liking her or not?" Chu Ge raised his glass and downed it in one gulp: "Keep it up, you'll be famous."