Senior Sister, Shut Up!

Chapter 39: Debate Topic: I Am an Independent Woman, Should I…

Time was a magical thing.

During class, it was like a towering, stubborn mountain peak, as though it would take eons for it to shift even an inch.

But when playing games, it was like a fleeting breeze that blew past in the blink of an eye.

Before Jiang Miao knew it, it was already Thursday afternoon.

Sitting in the office of the Political Work Group, he was enjoying the air conditioning. After finishing his daily writing and copywriting tasks, he found himself with plenty of leisure time.

While other students chatted and played games, Jiang Miao sat comfortably in a corner, engrossed in a novel. He even used his author’s account to post on the other writer’s dog food story.

Then he was caught and urged to release his own work.

He was clearly diligently gathering material, but his readers couldn’t understand his efforts.

This feeling was akin to a superhero silently contributing behind the scenes but still facing disdain in their everyday life.

Thinking about it this way, Jiang Miao felt that he was really great.

[The Uninformed Team]

[Su Huaizhou]: Since there’s no military training tonight, let’s meet in Room 215 of the department’s building after dinner to discuss the debate topic. Please reply if you can make it or let me know if you can’t. @everyone

[Ding Ning]: Got it!

[Jia Tongxue]: Got it!

[Yi Luren]: Got it!

[Pei Jue]: Got it!

Looking at the newly received WeChat message, Jiang Miao sighed.

As much as he wanted to reply with ‘Didn’t get it’, when he thought of Senior Sister’s voice saying ‘Peach Jam’, his head throbbed as though he had been cursed.

[Jiang Miao]: Got it.

This wasn’t cowardice but a strategic compromise.

After all, during the first few days after the second-years started classes, Senior Sister had indeed stopped bothering him as much.

It seemed like she was genuinely busy.

For the past few days, their conversations had only been about the plot of his novel on WeChat, and he hadn’t heard her call him Peach Jam again, which felt oddly unsettling.

Wait, no… Jiang Miao shook his head vigorously to get rid of this terrifying thought. I feel like I’m being psychologically manipulated by Senior Sister. Damn it!

He patted his face to clear his mind and regain his vigilance.

It was already 4:30 p.m., and there was still some time left before the military training ended at five. Jiang Miao reached for his mouse and planned to look at the data of his novel.

He logged into the author’s dashboard and the Xidian data network.

The daily report for his work had already been updated.

[Number of Tips]: 17

[Recommendations]: 467

[Monthly Votes]: 0

[Reading Lists]: 988

The number of reading lists had reached 7,802!

At this rate, breaking more than 10,000 by the end of this week was practically a certainty.

But even so, when Jiang Miao’s novel was first featured on Sunday, it was still overshadowed by two others.

One was his old rival, Leading the Future Hokage to Build High-Speed Railways, which had a staggering 1,200 reading list adds on the first day. It was simply inhumane.

The other was Soul Fight: Starting from Inheriting the Martial Soul Palace, which had an impressive increase of 1,100 on the first day, trailing closely behind.

Jiang Miao’s novel was currently in third place, with just over 1,000.

However, after four days of confrontation, his novels’ reading list adds had reached more than 3,400, propelling it to a strong second place.

As for Leading the Future Hokage to Build High-Speed Railways, it seemed there might be an issue with its plot, as its momentum suddenly plummeted over the last three days. So far, it only had 2,500+ adds.

Although its total reading list number was still about a thousand more than Jiang Miao’s novel’s, it had already reached 100,000 words, which meant its growth potential was inferior to Jiang Miao’s novel’s for the time being.

However, Soul Fight: Starting from Inheriting the Martial Soul Palace was still going strong. In four days, the total increase was over 4,000.

There was no denying that fanfiction novels of Soul Fight Continent had their own traffic at Xidian. As long as the quality was passable, they always had a strong start.

Original novels in the light novel category were naturally at a disadvantage.

For example, Tokyo’s One Punch, which had been doing quite well before, only saw an increase of just over 2,000.

Even though it borrowed elements from the popular novel I Worship Buddha in Tokyo, replicating the success of the latter was proving to be extremely difficult.

Looking at the two novels, which had seemed to have great potential two weeks ago, now ranked below his own, Jiang Miao felt a mix of emotions.

The new novel period was brutal and realistic. If you wanted to fight for better and more prestigious recommendation spots, you had to step on the corpses of others to prove your value.

And this sentiment was hard to convey to readers.

Even if you explained it, they wouldn’t truly empathize with the authors’ struggles.

After all, they came to the website to find novels to enjoy and relax with, not to dole out sympathy and compassion.

Therefore, apart from writing their own works, many authors banded together in authors’ group chats to find solace.

In the chat, they would vent about the current writing environment, complain about the platforms and editors, and occasionally rant about some annoying readers.

But when they returned to their writing desk, they still had to put on a smile and cater to these people, trying their best to make their works appeal to the preferences of a broader audience.

Although it was called a freelance profession, they were still just prisoners in reality.

However, Jiang Miao still considered himself fortunate.

After shutting down his computer, he tidied up his desk and left to find his roommates for dinner.

Walking on the asphalt path, feeling the evening breeze, Jiang Miao took a deep breath and tossed the slight melancholy from earlier to the back of his mind.

After all, he was still a first-year college student and didn’t have much life pressure. His family was moderately well-off, and he didn’t need to worry about basic necessities.

Writing novels was more about pursuing his own ambitions, so he didn’t have too many distracting thoughts and pressures.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Why aren’t you in the office?

A message came from Senior Sister.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: I just left and went to find my roommates for dinner.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: What a pity~ I was planning to treat you to a meal.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: You mean you want me to treat you to boba, right?

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Peach Jam, you’ve truly made me sad with those words.

Jiang Miao’s eyelids twitched. The words ‘Peach Jam’ stabbed his heart. Even though Senior Sister had teased him many times over the past few days, he was still a little uncomfortable with it.

The shadow of social death wouldn’t disappear so easily.

Jiang Miao sighed and replied.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: So, what’s up, Senior Sister?

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: I just wanted to check if you’re prepared for the meeting tonight.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Although you won’t be going on stage, you still have to contribute to the debate preparations. Otherwise, if you’re just slacking off, it’ll be difficult for me to explain to our teammates.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: I know. It’s just pretending to be hardworking while actually slacking off, right?

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: You’re the only boy on the team, and the topic this time is special. The team really lacks male perspective.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: You’re a pro writer, so put some effort into it!

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: … I’ll do my best.

Hopefully, his teammates would also do their best.

Jiang Miao yawned and slowly made his way to the sports field. He sat down on the stands and waited for the military training to end while looking at the debate topic sent in the WeChat group.

I am an independent woman. Should I accept the groom’s bride price when I get married?

This kind of debate topic was truly a headache.