Chapter 85: Nap
Chapter 85: Nap
Wednesday, October 1st, the day when gods and immortals fought.
With the novels of many big shots going premium, the various authors’ group chats were abuzz with discussion.
On typical Fridays, there wasn’t as much excitement since it was rare for any hit books to go premium.
However, on days like the first of July and August during summer vacation, National Day on October 1st, and the first of January and February during winter vacation, it was almost guaranteed for a few blockbuster books to go premium.
Normally, a new novel would only receive six or seven recommendations in the first two months of being released. Ordinary authors could only expect their novels to reach around 40,000 to 50,000 reading lists and 3,000 to 6,000 initial subscriptions.
However, for veteran authors with subscription numbers in the tens of thousands, the new novel period was a completely different ballgame.
With the backing of a large and loyal reader base, they could secure premium recommendation spots like splash screen promotions or top banners with just tens of thousands of words.
By the time their novels went premium at around 100,000 to 200,000 words, they might already have a following of hundreds of thousands.
For authors with sky-high popularity like Octopus Girl, Pig Feet, and Eagle Boy, their novels could easily attract hundreds of thousands of subscriptions when they went premium.
Compared to the tens of thousands of reading lists that ordinary authors got, the numbers these big shot authors pulled in was on a completely different level.In the early morning, Jiang Miao was chatting with the other authors in the authors’ group about the new novels going premium today.
Perhaps because most of the high-profile authors had already released new works earlier this year, there weren’t as many blockbuster titles going premium on October 1st this time.
Most of the discussion centered around the book The Pirate King Starts From Impel Down.
With 21,000 follow-up reads before it went premium, if the initial subscription numbers matched this, then this novel could break the all-time record for initial subscriptions for a fanfiction novel on Xidian in the past twenty years.
But none of this had much to do with Jiang Miao. His battle would come two days later, so after chatting in the authors’ group until about two in the morning, he forced himself to go to bed early.
…
At noon on October 2nd, the intial subscription results from the previous day were out.
There were five high-quality novels that achieved 3,000 average subscriptions, with two of them surpassing 5,000.
And at the top of the rankings was, unsurprisingly, The Pirate King Starts From Impel Down.
Its initial subscription count reached an astounding 23,500.
This meant that more than 23,000 readers had chosen to purchase the first premium chapter.
Jiang Miao was drooling with envy.
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: It’s already noon. No release today?
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Senior Sister, I usually release in the afternoon at the earliest.
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: But isn’t your novel going premium at noon tomorrow? You have to adapt in advance!
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: I’ll write as soon as I finish eating!
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: You haven’t eaten lunch yet??
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: I was just about to order delivery.
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: I’m in the cafeteria. What do you want to eat? Go ahead and order.
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought:] Do they have duck leg rice?
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Okay, I’ll bring it over in a bit.
[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Ahem… Should I come downstairs to get it?
[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: It’s not the first time I’ve been there.
Looking at the chat history, Jiang Miao felt warm in his heart.
It was also tingling again.
But in broad daylight, it was impossible to recreate what had happened that night.
Fortunately, Wang Xin and Xun Liang had gone home for the National Day holiday, leaving only Chen Haoshang in the dorm room.
However, Chen Haoshang spent almost the entire day delivering food and usually didn’t return until 10:30 p.m., so there was no need to worry about bumping into him.
Ten minutes later, when Jiang Miao heard the knock on the dorm room door, he rushed to open it.
Su Huaizhou was standing there in casual clothes, her usual half-sleeved T-shirt and cropped pants, and her neat high ponytail. Her teardrop mole at the corner of her eye—even though he had touched it once—made him want to reach out again.
“Here, your duck leg rice.” Su Huaizhou smiled and handed over the takeout bag to Jiang Miao. “Alright, I’m leaving and won’t disturb your writing.”
He took the bag and was stunned when he heard that Senior Sister was leaving. “Senior Sister… do you want to come in and sit for a bit? There’s no one else in the room now.”
“Oh? Your roommates aren’t around?” Su Huaizhou asked while casually adjusting her hair.
“Yeah…” Jiang Miao felt a little embarrassed. It made him feel weird to invite a girl into his dorm room.
He had thought that she would come in directly like last time.
But unexpectedly, she was ready to leave after delivering the food.
“Won’t I disturb you?” Su Huaizhou asked.
“No, not at all.” Jiang Miao quickly shook his head. He fully opened the door and moved aside to invite Senior Sister into the room. “Come in and sit for a bit.”
Hearing the invitation from Junior Brother, Su Huaizhou walked into the room. The moment her back was to him, a sly smile and a pleased expression flashed across her face.
Sure enough, there are some results from the training.
At least he’s taking the initiative to invite me in now.
Otherwise, if I always enter his dorm room unprompted, won’t that make me seem too forward?
His performance today isn’t bad.
Su Huaizhou nodded in satisfaction, hoping that Junior Brother would continue.
At the door, Jiang Miao closed it behind him. When he turned around and saw Senior Sister’s graceful, slender back, an odd feeling began to stir inside him.
The last time she visited, he had been afraid that any excessive action would upset her.
After some guidance from Boss and a few days of testing the waters, he was almost certain that Senior Sister had some feelings for him.
This made his heart itch whenever he met her. He really wanted to confess and quickly start dating her.
To be honest, after being teased by Senior Sister during this period of time and still having to write a dog food novel to feed himself every day, he was already mentally tortured nearly to the point of collapse.
But he was worried that if he confessed too soon, right after she just had some feelings for him, it could be risky.
So Jiang Miao reminded himself to be humble and patient. He had to proceed step by step and let things develop naturally so that he could achieve his desired result.
Jiang Miao pushed his mechanical keyboard on his desk to the side, placed the duck leg rice on it, and started eating his lunch.
Su Huaizhou pulled a chair over, sat on it backwards, propped her chin on her hands, and watched Junior Brother eat.
This scene of delivering food to her boyfriend made her blush a little, but seeing him eating happily filled her with satisfaction.
Is this what it feels like to be in love?
I was so stupid before… I actually said that I didn’t want to date.
It’s clearly very fun.
After Junior Brother confesses to me and we officially start dating, will even more exciting things happen?
With these thoughts, Su Huaizhou looked around and asked, “Did all three of your roommates go home?”
“No.” Jiang Miao swallowed his food and said, “Xun Liang and Wang Xin went home. Chen Haoshang is probably still delivering food and won’t be back until late.”
“I see~” Su Huaizhou’s eyes flickered, and the next second, her gaze landed on Junior Brother’s bed.
She looked at the time. It was only twelve-thirty in the afternoon.
Without hesitation, Su Huaizhou got up from the chair and walked over to the ladder beside Jiang Miao’s bed. Avoiding Junior Brother’s gaze, she asked softly, “Junior Brother, I’m feeling a bit sleepy. Can I borrow your bed?”