I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 182
Chapter 182: The Meaning of a Smile
The author conference convened by Honeydew this time covers a wide range of topics, from novel creation to website operation, from author income to reader benefits and advertising placement. As most authors who attended had expressed during video calls with Honeydew previously, they generally possess a certain level of proficiency in these areas. Participants provided various insights into the current situation of Honeydew’s octagonal hall and discussed several sharp issues.
After all, authors and websites are in a relationship that can be described as “both opposing and mutually unified” in a certain sense. For example, regarding subscriptions, currently Honeydew, like most mainstream websites, allows authors to receive 60% of the subscription fees.
For instance, if a chapter of a novel with 2000 characters is priced at 5 cents per thousand characters, the chapter’s selling price would be 10 cent. With one subscriber, the author can receive 60%, which amounts to 6 cents in earnings. Therefore, if a hundred readers subscribe to this chapter, the author can earn 6 yuan in a day.
From the perspective of this proportional relationship, authors and websites are in an “opposing” relationship. After all, there is only so much subscription money available. If authors propose to increase their income share, the website will inevitably receive less. For example, if authors receive 70% of the subscription money, then the website can only receive 30%. Facing Honeydew’s editors, it takes great courage to proactively propose a “raise.”
Furthermore, if the income of “full attendance” or “ranking list” authors is increased, it is essentially equivalent to directly telling the boss, “I want a raise,” because both full attendance and various ranking lists require financial investment from the website. It’s easier to justify ranking lists since novels that can make it onto the monthly ticket list or bestseller list already bring huge profits to the website, and settling the list can be considered as awarding bonuses. However, “full attendance” is a different story.
If the website’s signing threshold is set low, for example, allowing books with coherent sentences and relatively mild plots to be signed, it may attract a large number of studios looking to exploit the system. By easily signing up a writer who can come up with something impressive, they can smoothly switch to AI writing, letting the robot complete updates in minutes and sending them out on time every month to qualify for full attendance.
However, if the signing threshold is raised and full attendance rewards are increased, it will lead to many genuinely new authors being unable to sign contracts. Among these authors, there may be a significant portion of talent who are “capable of being cultivated” and “willing to invest time and energy into writing.” Because Honeydew’s signing process is too strict, they may choose to go to other websites, resulting in the loss of potential future best-selling authors. Moreover, raising the signing threshold will also lead to some relatively niche genres having no submissions for several months, with the recommended slots in those genres remaining unfilled. As long as they sign contracts, they can be featured, such as in “sci-fi” or “sports” genres. If new readers come in and see only a few books recommended in these niche genres, they may perceive the website as too small and lacking in content, which may drive them away.
Raising the signing threshold and improving full attendance benefits is beneficial for experienced authors and talented writers, but it is disastrous for new authors. Lowering the threshold without reducing full attendance rewards would impose a huge burden on the website. Lowering the threshold would also reduce the value of full attendance for authors who can consistently meet the requirements, and it could easily lead to the publication of low-quality novels, damaging the website’s reputation. Finding a balance in this regard is a matter that requires extensive discussion.
In addition to this, the website also discussed the issue of novel covers and illustrations at the author conference. This problem is similar to full attendance, the website has a limited number of in-house artists, and if every book requires illustrations, the artists will surely be overwhelmed. Moreover, there is a risk of authors exploiting the website’s artists after their work is published, taking the illustrations and leaving.
Finally, there was discussion about the current atmosphere and direction of the website. This topic is sensitive in nature, but because it was not held online, everyone continued discussing it.
“There’s no way around it, this is the current environment. You never know when the bottom line will drop. Maybe one day you wake up and there are no more books.”
“I used to be able to include a mayor in my novels, but now even mentioning an education bureau chief is frowned upon. They say we can only go as high as a principal. I’m afraid that in another ten years, we won’t even be able to write about principals anymore, we’ll have to write about our homeroom teachers or the class representatives for Chinese class.”
“Don’t even mention it. During the time when Yae-do Hall closed down, I spent three days writing an opening of around ten thousand words, and I submitted it to the neighboring website. The editor over there told me that my story’s protagonist starts by eating barbecue, but their website doesn’t allow plots involving barbecue, so they rejected me.”
“You’re touching on the underworld with that barbecue scene, don’t you get it? I had a rough time last month because I casually mentioned internet water armies, and it was interpreted as the protagonist’s archenemy buying water armies to smear him. As a result, they accused me of promoting negative values and rejected my book cover.”
“Well, it seems like male lead cultivation novels in the xianxia genre (Chinese fantasy genre) are more secure, right? They’re not related to the real world, and martial arts novels are part of our tradition. They’re generally not sensitive and quite popular.”
“Urban soldier king, son-in-law, war god, martial arts novels, these have always been stable. They depict strong men, getting married, having children, and serving the country… It meets market demand and is politically correct. But I don’t think Honeydew is going to transition in that direction. The gap between the second dimension and this genre is too significant.”
Since I didn’t really understand much about writing novels, I could only sit quietly at the table, eating various foods while listening to their discussion.
“What about Yuri novels? Should we just reduce their recommendations?”
“Yuri is more niche. For now, that’s all we can do. And in this big market environment, niche circles are easy targets for criticism.”
“What about cross-dressing novels?”
“I don’t think cross-dressing novels have much of an audience on Honeydew, right? There was a time when short videos were constantly banning cross-dressing content. Are you still daring to write it?”
“……”
Somewhat unexpectedly, I learned that the demure-looking girl sitting across from me was none other than the outspoken and carefree “Daxu” who had been very lively in the group chat.
Daxu, a member of the Catnip group of authors, is said to be a part-time writer. After coming home from work each day and having dinner, she starts typing away. On weekends or days off, she stays at home writing, rarely going out, and her interests include playing games and watching anime.
Although she is a part-time writer who only writes after work, Daxu’s word count is the highest in the entire group. Even on weekends, she can be found fiercely typing away, dominating the entire website.
Daxu may not be a naturally gifted writer in terms of creativity, but she seems to have an innate talent for typing. And she’s… an ultimate genius at it.
Under normal circumstances, most authors’ typing speed is slower than their handwriting speed. For example, professions like typists who input text into computers during work hours certainly don’t write novels at the same speed when they’re at home because writing a novel involves thinking about the plot, revising, editing, and possibly repeating revisions during the writing process. However, typists are different. They simply type what’s in front of them, without needing to think. They just mechanically tap away at the keyboard.
Daxu, in the Catnip group, is a “genius” at typing. Her typing speed surpasses that of most typists, she doesn’t even need to think. It is said that her maximum speed reaches 18,000 characters per hour, close to 20,000 characters. If she sits in front of the computer and types continuously for six hours, she can write 100,000 characters.
Indeed, this person is so terrifyingly efficient that she can finish the manuscripts of other Honeydew authors in a single day.
I had previously studied Daxu’s novels and found that many of them had similar plots, and the characters of the protagonist and heroine were also very similar. However, her advantage lies in the sheer quantity, updating three books a month, with all three books qualifying for full attendance, earns her a considerable amount of manuscript fees.
At that time, there were people in the group asking Daxu how she could type so quickly. Daxu’s answer was that she had trained her input method. While others can only get two characters at most when typing two letters, her input method can directly produce a whole sentence. Muscle memory allows her to select the sentence she needs without looking, achieving terrifying speeds of tens of characters in a second and hundreds of characters in a minute.
At that time, some people in the group said Daxu was an octopus monster with at least four pairs of hands. Others said she was a “six-fingered piano demon,” an uncle with abnormal hands who could flexibly tap on the keyboard. Some even described her as a humanoid typewriter or simply an entire studio.
Personally, my impression of “Daxu” is similar to the protagonist Kobayashi from “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” – serious, diligent, and meticulous in her work.
I didn’t expect the real Daxu to be so different from my impression. From the looks of it, the Daxu sitting across the table is probably only twenty-three or twenty-four years old, recently graduated from college. She has two small ponytails and looks much more delicate than Kobayashi from “Dragon Maid.” Her complexion is also much paler than that of an ordinary girl. At first glance, I have a feeling that “she seems fragile.”
It’s as if… she had once suffered from a serious illness.
Moreover, compared to the lively and active Daxu in the group chat, who pulls everyone into a room to write 30,000 characters every day, the “Daxu” at the author conference hardly speaks. She either stares blankly at the table or occasionally looks at the editor-in-chief, Big G, who is speaking on stage, or she simply keeps her head down and plays with her phone.
It’s worth noting that most attendees of the author conference are best-selling authors, so the appearance of Daxu, a part-time writer, here can only mean one thing… her income is very high.
Perhaps sometimes, achieving quantity in writing novels is also a choice.
“Nowadays, it’s all about market economy. Actually, I feel we can consider a different approach. Look at some short video platforms. They used to sustain their operations through short videos and advertising monetization. Now, advertising might not be enough to sustain them, so they’re starting to explore mixed economic models. I remember… what was that short video platform called? They’ve already started live streaming to sell products, haven’t they? My brother bought his graphics card from a short video platform.”
“Are you suggesting that Honeydew could collaborate with some manufacturers and offer products in addition to novels? But… isn’t that risky?”
“I’m not sure. I’m just providing a suggestion. Haven’t you established the virtual image of “Honey Girl”? You could do live streams to sell products or even develop a fan-made game.”
“Let’s not. That’s very risky. I think it’s better to focus on novels. Honeydew and Yae-Do Hall are both novel websites. If we divert our focus to other things, it will only cause chaos.”
“……”
And so, starting from around four in the afternoon with the serving of dishes, until everyone finished eating and continued discussing the treatment of authors, readers, and the future development of the website after the merger, the “author conference” that was a bit tiresome for me finally came to a close around six-thirty.
“I think that’s about it. We’ll consider everyone’s opinions when we get back. Xiao Lu, when we return, notify everyone in the company WeChat group. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow morning to summarize the opinions we’ve collected today.”
After distributing a boxed “souvenir” to each attendee, Editor-in-chief Big G stepped down from the stage and said, “Everyone who attended today’s author conference will have their books recommended when they return. Just let your respective editors know about your books, and the recommendations will be arranged by the end of June.”
“Ah… Finally, it’s over.”
Upon hearing Big G’s words, several girls sitting in front of me slumped down exhaustedly and took out their phones. “Nuo’er, shall we take a group photo?”
I was a bit surprised. “Huh?”
“Don’t hesitate, come on. I heard they charge for photos at the café. Do they charge here? Come on, come on.”
“……”
“Xiao Mo, can we borrow your Nuo’er for a bit?”
“Of course, no problem. Just be careful. Nuo’er may be a little kitten, but she still has a temper. Watch out for her granny’s fangs.”
Hearing Yin Xiamo’s words, without hesitation, I turned and bit her exposed arm.
“Ahh— Did you see that? The little kitten bit me! Too bad her milk teeth are soft, doesn’t hurt.”
“Nuo’er, stop being coy. Just take a photo with us. We traveled for hours on the train to get here, and all we got was a meal and a recommendation. Feels like we’re shortchanged.”
“Taking a photo with me won’t make up for it!”
“Of course! Oh, your and Xiamo’s skin is really good, my god! It feels like you’re like dolls, how did you achieve such smooth and tender skin? I’m so jealous, wuwuwu…”
Amidst the chatter of the female authors, I was carried to the center of the private room like a little kitten, followed by a flurry of camera flashes.
“…..”
On the way back, Daxu, who had hardly spoken the whole time, handed me a letter. “You’re the ‘Uncle Loves Loli’ in the group, right? And also the Yin Nuo’er from the café?”
“Yeah.”
I took the letter, curious. “What’s up?”
In terms of relationship, I didn’t have much communication with Daxu. At most, we both wrote under Catnip, and we had spelled together in the word war room. But because Daxu typed so fast, writing only 2000-6000 words a day, which for Daxu was less than half an hour’s work, each session in the room ended quickly, so we had very little conversation between us.
We knew each other, but hadn’t really talked much, just slightly more “intimate” than strangers—that’s the kind of relationship I had with Daxu.
However, today she unexpectedly came to the author conference and even prepared an envelope for me in advance, which surprised me greatly.
Envelopes, like stamps, are considered “antiques” nowadays. In the past, besides sending letters, envelopes were either used to hold money or to contain love letters or write confidential information on letterheads. In simple terms, whatever was enclosed in an envelope… was usually very important.
“It’s just… this, read it when you’re alone after you get back.”
Daxu adjusted her glasses, hands behind her back, looking shy: “What happened between us… is very important.”
What happened between us?
I glanced at the envelope in my hand, vaguely sensing that there were several thick sheets of paper inside, but I wasn’t sure if it was a letter or something else.
Wait, did I know this old writing enthusiast from the Catnip group before? I don’t think so. Isn’t she an author for Honeydew? I used to be from Yae-Do Hall. I only met her when the editors asked us to spell together that day.
“It really is important, please… trust me…”
Seeing my confusion, Daxu lowered her head, blushing again, and repeated her words from earlier: “Read it when you’re alone.”
I instinctively gave a curious glance to Yin Xiamo next to me, but the Grim Reaper just shrugged, indicating that she was also unaware of the situation.
“Sorry… for bothering you…”
Shortly after, Daxu, who had given me the envelope, reached for her backpack and, blushing, left the private room.
Huh?
“Not bad, little Nuo’er.”
After Daxu left, Yin Xiamo leaned in. “Seems like you’ve learned to flirt with other little kittens outside.”
“Hey, I barely know her.”
I raised the envelope above my head and glanced at the ceiling lights in the private room.
Just like when I touched it before, there were several stacked documents inside, or maybe a long letter with densely written words on the paper.
Could it really be a love letter?
Well, whatever. Since Daxu asked me to read it when I’m alone, I’ll just wait until Yin Xiamo takes a shower after we get back to open it.
“And what do you mean by flirting with little kittens!”
I placed the envelope behind the rabbit backpack and gave Yin Xiamo a glare. “Having you at home is already enough trouble!”
“Are you implying that you actually have that intention?”
“No!”
“The little kitten is misbehaving, she must be punished.”
“Hey! This is a hotel, don’t mess around!”
“What’s the big deal? Didn’t a certain little fountain say something like that before?”
“What does ‘little fountain’ mean? Explain yourself!”
“Uh… the ‘little fountain’ might have been a bit too much, so… a broken faucet?”
“Why does it sound even more absurd the more you explain… What did you do while I was unconscious?”
“I didn’t do anything! Just charming water mage things?”
“……”
Exiting the hotel with Yin Xiamo, we boarded the bus back.
Similar to when we arrived during the day, perhaps because the destination was the sparsely populated Nanqi District, there weren’t many people on the bus back. Yin Xiamo and I easily grabbed seats by the window in the back row.
“Sigh…”
As soon as I got on the bus, feeling sleepy after not having much of a nap today and being busy all day, I asked, “Are you tired, Xiao Mo?”
“A Grim Reaper doesn’t get tired, sleeping every day is just a habit,” Yin Xiamo replied.
Yin Xiamo was quite open-minded and patted her thigh, saying, “Come on, I’ll wake you when we get there.”
“Although I said that, I still feel a bit off since the time I got heatstroke at noon.”
Despite saying so, with all the blood concentrating in my stomach after just eating and my body not having rested much, I instinctively lay down on Yin Xiamo’s soft thigh.
“Shall I sleep then?”
“Yes, go ahead. I’m quite satisfied today, consider it a reward for you.”
“The more you say you’re satisfied, the stranger it sounds.”
I glanced at the time on my phone one last time and then put it back in my pocket, saying, “Can I apply for the name we mentioned earlier when we get back?”
“You mean the Thousand Flowers Spirit?”
“What Thousand Flowers Spirit? I said Chameleon.”
“Isn’t Thousand Flowers Spirit the setting for the Chameleon Girl?”
“Interpret it however you like, it’s just a pen name anyway.”
I yawned, “Although I didn’t do much today, I still… feel tired.”
“……”
……
Also not knowing how much time had passed, as the darkness and mist gradually dispersed, I found myself standing on top of a high city wall.
On the outside of the wall stretched boundless darkness.
In the darkness, a slightly mature male voice echoed faintly ——
?Do you like flowers??
Immediately following was a crisp female voice ——
?I don’t.?
?Why??
?Flowers are just the reproductive organs of plants, they’re nothing more than something that looks pretty.?
?Do all demons think this way? Or is it that demon bodies are… more repulsed or sensitive to flowers or something like that??
?No, it’s just that demons don’t have such customs. Humans like to use flowers for decoration, but most of the flowers that are picked will wither away in about ten days and need to be replaced with other bouquets. We demons are different. My mother likes to hang the skulls of killed human heroes in the hall. Even if they turn into skulls after thousands of years, they won’t disappear.?
?Skulls are too scary, aren’t you uncomfortable living in such houses? Aren’t skulls ugly??
?In our aesthetic, the bodies of most humans and demons are very beautiful, so skulls are also a form of art.?
?But flowers can emit a fragrance that keeps people calm and their colors are much more beautiful than the dilapidated world, aren’t they??
?Does the brave hero really like “beauty”??
?Ah… I just feel that, like the elves we encountered before, as well as those cats, or succubi, they all have their own sense of beauty. Isn’t the world originally like this? Hasn’t our meaning of survival always been to discover beauty??
?But whether it’s the elves, cats, or succubi, the beauty they possess is flawed, and just like flowers, it’s not eternal.?
?Does Xiao Mo like to combine beauty with eternity??
?Patting the head is prohibited.?
?Hehe, just now, Xiao Mo, your expression seemed to say… “When I grow up, I want to capture all these beautiful things and show them to the brave hero.”?
?Is that not allowed??
?I probably can’t do it.?
?I’ll try my best.?
?Huh??
?……?
……
I was awakened by Xiao Mo next to me.
In the stereo of the bus announcement “Xingxing Road South, arrived, please take your belongings and exit the bus” and Xiao Mo’s “Little Kitty, we’ve arrived, wake up,” I groggily opened my eyes.
“Ar… are we here?”
“Yes, we’re here!”
Xiao Mo helped me take the rabbit backpack: “You were restless on my thigh just now. Come on, tell me, what kind of dream did you have?”
“N… nothing much.”
Unable to recall what dream I had, I yawned and stood up, shouldering my backpack. “Let’s get off.”
As usual, the sky in Shenzhen City at around seven o’clock was just entering the state of “approaching nightfall.” The sun couldn’t be seen in the west, but the sky wasn’t completely dark, and the street lamps along the road weren’t lit.
“Back already? Any gains today?”
Back at Ai Luodi’s house, Lan Jiajia, who had come back from work long ago to cook and finish dinner, helped me take my bagpack over like a mother: “Have you eaten yet?”
“I’ve eaten, not hungry yet.”
I took off my round-toed shoes and changed into slippers. “Is Ai Luodi already at work?”
“Yeah, she woke up early today. She was up around three in the afternoon. I just finished cooking dinner, and she ate before going to work.”
Lan Jiajia looked at the sweat stains on me and Xiao Mo. “What have you two been doing? You look like you’ve run a marathon. Go take a shower.”
“Okay!”
Xiao Mo hurriedly ran to the bathroom. “I’ll go first. Nuo’er, you can read that girl’s love letter with peace of mind!”
Lan Jiajia looked puzzled. “A girl’s love letter?”
“N… nothing much.” I quickly took the backpack and headed to my room. “Just some information given to me by an author.”
“……”
Back in my room, I saw that Xiao Mo had already picked up her clothes to change and had slipped into the bathroom. I gently closed the door, sat down at the computer desk, and took out the envelope from the rabbit backpack.
Carefully using scissors to cut a small opening and confirming multiple times that I hadn’t cut into the documents inside, I opened the envelope and took out the thick stack of materials inside.
Organ tracing… Private detective?
Laying the documents flat on the desk, just reading the beginning of the first letter made me feel somewhat embarrassed.
Private detective… Commissioned investigation… Organ transplantation… Kidney transplant… Sister… Renal failure…
Hold on a moment.
The more I read through these documents, the more surprised I became.
Finally, after seeing the investigation report related to “Yin Shiren,” I fully understood what this was all about.
In simple terms, this was the result of the author “Daxu” hiring a “private detective” with money.
The content she investigated was… information about people who donated kidneys for their own sisters.
According to the information in the report, Daxu has a 16-year-old sister who, at around the age of 12, suffered kidney failure due to an accident and requires dialysis every week.
The reason why Daxu works so hard, working during the day and writing novels part-time at night, is to earn money for her sister’s dialysis and to save money for future kidney transplant surgery.
Behind this pile of information is a letter written by Daxu.
The content of the letter is very concise, with only 2 words — “Thank you.”
“……”
……