My System Forces Me to Live off Women-Chapter 225 - 204: Seriously Short

"Old Xia, I'm definitely not jealous, listen to me."

Li Baodao continued to persuade earnestly, "Yi Liangfeng is moving to the male frequency, you can't be his editor anymore, you can't handle it."

Xia Sheng thought he had seen through the other's malicious intent, so he sneered, "Stop talking nonsense, I can handle it! He's always been my author since the female frequency, this is my platinum writer, how can I give him to you?"

"You're in charge of the female frequency, how can you give him resources?"

"That's none of your business, I can go talk to the BOSS about this."

"You won't get anywhere, it's the rule, you can't handle it at all!"

"He's platinum; what rules? Rules are made by people, I'll talk to the boss now, do you have anything else to say?"

Xia Sheng was very firm, even a bit excited. Li Baodao looked sullen, his hand reached for the pack of cigarettes on the table, and he picked it up effortlessly, "You won't succeed, books in the male frequency are managed by the male frequency editors, no exceptions."

"Nothing else to say? If not, I'm leaving."

Li Baodao tapped the cigarette pack, a cigarette peeked out due to gravity, he lit it again, took a deep drag, and tentatively said, "Can I say what's on my mind?"

"Damn!"

Xia Sheng laughed and swore, "So everything you said earlier was a lie?"

Li Baodao also chuckled, continuing to smoke, amidst the swirling smoke his face showed a mix of confusion and excitement.

"Yesterday, after you sent the document to the group, many editors read it through the night. Most haven't finished it yet, and are still reading it when they find time. A few did finish it, but only got the gist. I'm one of those who skimmed and got the gist."

"I started writing web novels at thirteen, became an editor at twenty-one, have been doing it for fifteen years now, I've read countless books, but to finish this novel with only a few lines in the outline… mainly the 'Sword and Magic Chronicles of History' document."

"Right." Xia Sheng pressed on, "How was it?"

Li Baodao reminisced slightly, "I was shocked at first sight, using chronicle style to write history isn't unusual; using chronicle style to write a novel outline's story structure? Never heard of it! I thought, which alien just discovered the internet, and is actually ripping the outline from Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian' to write a web novel?!"

"Seventy thousand words, a hundred and sixty-nine chapters, fifty-five chronicles detailed the rise and fall of fifty-five countries in the Otherworld; Eight Diagrams recorded the major events of various historical periods; Twelve Books covered astronomy, geography, cultural arts, and unique power systems shaped by a natural environment and physical laws different from Blue Star; Seventy-one biographies, narrating the lives of seventy-one heroes of different races and classes; twenty-three souls, depicting the evolution and habits of twenty-three intelligent races in the Otherworld, written like the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas'..."

Li Baodao flicked his cigarette ash, laughed, "To be honest, I clicked off after the first chronicle, because it's tiring to read such things, and the worldview serves the story, which in turn serves to evoke emotions, so I truly believe that making the novel's background so grand is completely unnecessary. Isn't 'Jiuzhou Fantasy' impressive? Yet now it's just a ripple..."

Xia Sheng interrupted, "Did you read the character biographies?"

"I did!" Li Baodao nodded, "Yy reminded me to read the character biographies first, then I found the proper way to read it, and patiently started over."

"When I did that... I felt the excitement of reading web novels for the first time in school, to sum it up in one sentence; wtf? Is there such a magical world?!"

"Reading further makes you really believe in such a world, completely different from our real world, bizarre yet logical, the history and characters convey a depth and weight not inferior to true history."

Li Baodao gritted his teeth, shook his head, "Especially after roughly understanding the world background, reading the various race hero bios. Damn, it's so freaking well-written, each short story is like a knife, with just ten thousand words or so covering a whole life. A character's offhand remark, that kind of writing skill..."

"Shit!"

While speaking, Li Baodao swore, then eloquently recited, "Sigh, life is like grass flourishing in spring and summer, waiting for the autumn wind to slowly wither! After finishing each piece, I gain new insights."

"But what puzzles me now is, how did Yi Liangfeng write it? What kind of mind does he have? So many distinct, vivid, and profound characters, such a vast and complex world, how did he come up with it? Can he come up with it? Isn't he indeed a time traveler?"

Xia Sheng snorted with a smile, not wanting to listen to his blathering further, continued looking at the document on the screen, which had comments from various editors.

Lemon: "Read a fifth of it, the text is densely informative, the world building details are vividly real to the point of being creepy, making you feel it's living and breathing, but it's very exhausting to read. If a newcomer had written this, I'd tell them to give up web novels, introduce them to traditional publishing. If it's a platinum author, with my professional experience... professional experience doesn't work with this kind of book, not even with platinum authors. Only instinct remains! My instinct tells me, this kid is terrifying, definitely has the stature of a Supreme God! But why isn't he my author? I'm so sour!"

December: "Exploring the interactions of heaven and humanity, understanding past and present changes. It's divine, giving me a 'Records of the Grand Historian' vibe. Simple prose yet with hidden sharpness, at certain points it erupts like thunder, incisive enough to induce a sense of despairing impotence, many short stories in the biographies could be published in magazines, could also expand as novel outlines, but as a story background, going the web novel route, it's still hard to say, hard to say. I've read Yi Liangfeng's work, if this is truly his, I definitely feel it's promising. Yet it's still unclear now, quickly let him finish the outline, write a beginning, only then can we better judge his specific approach with this book."

Peanuts: "Reading this book feels like three years' worth of work, it's too exhausting to read. The Narnia power system described in Eight Diagrams involves physics theories, Yi Liangfeng even cited the fifteen latest frontier physics papers in Nature, Science, PNAS! All in English, I only understand half, roughly about parallel universes, black holes, constants, dark magic, human superpowers, demonstrating the possibility of different physical laws existing in various galaxies and celestial bodies, and attempting to support the existence of power systems in the book... I kneel! Among all current fantasy novels' power systems, in my personal opinion, this book's setting is the most meticulous. Solely for this reason, it's worth focusing on cultivating."

Yy: "This work has high artistic merit, just how high? Higher than the Endpoint Group building. Regardless of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, they all should take a look at this, to see what truly defines a fantasy novel. The offhand idioms and phrases in the Otherworld are truly peculiar and novel, the dimensionality of the Otherworld stands up instantly. Not to mention the seventy-one biographies, the poetry in Twelve Books is so full of imagery, but it's a shame the state doesn't assign jobs to poets, otherwise I'd really want to copy a few poems... quickly let him keep writing, this kind of book doesn't need to consider any market, any audience. If the subsequent novel quality holds up, and if Yi Liangfeng can maintain the penmanship of the outline, I suggest directly finding the boss, throw resources at him, promote him, we definitely won't lose in the future! If we lose, pretend I never said anything!!!"

"Treasure sword!"

Xia Sheng roughly finished reading the male frequency editors' reviews and laughed, "This is what you mean by not optimistic? Is it my understanding problem, or is it your understanding problem?"

Li Baodao was unflustered and calmly said, "You must understand their judgment focus is based on what. The focus is based on Yi Liangfeng's years of web novel writing experience, he's written three for male frequency, ten for female frequency, spanning both channels, he's a mature web novel author if ever there was one, he knows how to cater to the market, the rhythm of web novels, and the patterns of manipulating author emotions is already ingrained in his bones, now breaking through the bottleneck, using superb writing, created such an admirable story structure, erected vivid characters, which is why we have faith in him."

"Finally, you speak honestly."

Xia Sheng nodded with great satisfaction, then looked towards the screen, a bit puzzled, "What about your comment? You didn't write an electronic version review?"

Li Baodao coughed dryly, "I wrote it short, on the last line, just one sentence."

"Is that so?"

Xia Sheng scrolled the mouse wheel, dragging the document to the bottom, indeed finding his comment...

Treasure sword: "Utter trash, skimmed thirty lines in three seconds and clicked close immediately."

Xia Sheng chuckled, "You are indeed concise."