Chapter 273: Chapter 152: A Battle Between Men, No Retreat

The idea was to leverage his own status and position to ask the other side to do him a favor and give up the top spot on the charts.

The editors from both sides had been keeping a close eye on this rare, large-scale battle. Now that the other party had suggested a truce, both were, of course, willing to accept.

Chen Xin’s editor, Hu Ya, also hadn’t expected Chen Xin to be so wealthy. To think she would drop two million yuan just to fight for the top spot.

She tried messaging her privately on QQ, but there was no reply.

She had no choice but to look up her phone number from the contract and give her a call.

Chen Xin, who was in the middle of writing, saw an unfamiliar number and answered, "Hello?"

"Is this Hua Zhu?"

A woman’s voice came through the phone, "I’m your editor, Hu Ya."

"Huh? Yaya?"

Chen Xin asked in surprise, "Yaya, why are you calling me?"

"I had to. I sent you a message on QQ, but you didn’t reply."

"I was writing, so I didn’t see it. Sorry about that."

Chen Xin asked apologetically, "Yaya, what’s up? Is there something you need?"

"Well... the other author’s editor-in-chief just contacted me. He wanted me to talk to you about letting his author have the top spot this time."

Chen Xin was baffled. "What top spot? I don’t really understand."

"The monthly ticket and bestseller charts."

Hearing her tone, the editor asked in surprise, "Aren’t you the one fighting them right now?"

"I’m not."

Chen Xin denied it. "I’m just a flop. Why would I compete for that? I couldn’t win anyway."

"It wasn’t you?"

The editor exclaimed, "Then who is it? Someone has been spamming Golden Alliance donations for you, trying to steal the top spot from another Great God author. They’ve already donated twenty of them—that’s two million yuan!"

"What!!!"

Stunned by her editor’s words, Chen Xin quickly said, "Hold on, Yaya. Let me see what’s going on, and I’ll call you right back."

"Alright."

After hanging up, Chen Xin quickly opened the writer’s dashboard on her computer.

She didn’t know what to expect, but one look left her completely dumbfounded.

The donation notification tab was flooded with a long list of messages, a seemingly endless trail of zeroes that filled the entire screen.

Seeing the familiar ID, "Angry Brother," she thought she understood what was happening.

She opened the novel platform to take a look. Holy cow, she was really number one on both charts.

Her "Premium" novel had been forcefully boosted by donations all the way to the "Five-Star Glory" rank.

You have to understand, the only novels that ever reached the Five-Star Glory rank were books by Platinum-level Great God authors with tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of average subscribers.

When she looked at her author and reader groups, everyone was going crazy, constantly tagging her and discussing what was happening.

Chen Xin’s mind went blank.

’This Angry Brother is insane!’

She immediately sent him a message on QQ.

[Hua Zhu: You there?]

At home, Xu Yun saw Chen Xin’s message and knew she had finally seen his handiwork.

[Angry Brother: What’s up? Saw all the money I dropped for you and got all emotional?]

[Hua Zhu: I really do have someone I like. Please don’t waste your money fighting them.]

[Angry Brother: I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for me.]

[Angry Brother: This is a battle between men. There’s no retreat.]

[Hua Zhu: ...]

Xu Yun suddenly thought of something.

[Angry Brother: Did they contact you privately and ask you to persuade me to give up?]

[Hua Zhu: Yeah, my editor just called me. I wouldn’t have even known about this otherwise.]

[Angry Brother: So you agreed?]

[Hua Zhu: I haven’t replied to her yet.]

[Angry Brother: So what are you thinking? If you don’t want to make an enemy of them, just say the word and I’ll concede right now.]

Chen Xin read Xu Yun’s message, hesitated for a moment, and then asked: [If you keep this donation war going, will it affect your personal life?]

[Angry Brother: Don’t worry. To me, this amount of money is a drop in the ocean.]

Hearing him say that, Chen Xin took a deep breath.

[Hua Zhu: Then fight! A man can lose anything but his pride! If it means offending a Great God, so be it. If it means offending an editor, so be it. It’s fine.]

[Angry Brother: That’s more like it! Now that’s the kind of woman I like. With you saying that, the top spot on both charts this month is all yours.]

[Hua Zhu: I’m not your woman. I have someone I like. (knife.jpg)]

[Angry Brother: It’s fine, I know, I know. I’m so jealous of the guy you like. He must be really handsome.]

[Hua Zhu: Hehe, he is. And he’s rich, too. So don’t even think about getting any ideas about me.]

[Angry Brother: ...]

Xu Yun had to smile as he read their conversation.

’If Chen Xin knew they were both the same person, her reaction would be adorable, hahaha.’

Chen Xin called her editor back and said, "Yaya, the person making the donations is one of my readers. I can’t control their decision, so I’m sorry.

He also told me to relay a message: as long as he’s here, the other guy can forget about taking the top spot on the monthly charts this year."

"..."

’Such arrogance!’

The editor was left speechless. After hanging up, she relayed the message to the other party’s editor-in-chief.

When the other great author heard how brazen the message was, he flew into a rage and started cursing.

He refused to believe it. How could any reader be that willing to part with their money?

So, he joined forces with a few of his own whale readers and dropped another million yuan.

Seeing this, Xu Yun added another two million to his account and matched their move, intentionally maintaining just a small lead to keep the pressure on.

This was blatant humiliation. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

’You can’t win, so you resort to pressuring people through their editors behind the scenes?’

’Today, I’ll teach you the true power of money!’

After spending a full three million, they still couldn’t take the lead. The other author was on the verge of a breakdown.

The other whale readers also threw in the towel and refused to keep going.

They were rich, yes, but no matter how much they supported an author, they couldn’t just keep throwing money into a bottomless pit.