Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Li Yuanfei was a big boss with immeasurable assets, and such a modest attitude made the employee feel quite embarrassed. He awkwardly took the mobile phone, not knowing what to say. He didn’t know if it was better to just turn around and walk away from the handsome figure…
The store manager was very troubled, not knowing what Li Yuanfei had in mind. It was just a bottom-level, temporary worker. What was wrong with firing him?
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you about this novel. May I?” Li Yuanfei asked the staff member.
When the employee and the store manager heard Li Yuanfei’s request, they were stunned. The former was wondering why such a big boss was interested in an ordinary web novel, while the latter did not understand at all why they were talking about the web novel.
“This…” The employee looked at the store manager awkwardly. If it was found out by the store manager that he was reading novels during work, even if the boss did not fire him, the store manager would treat him badly in the future.
Li Yuanfei understood his considerations, and motioned at the store manager, signaling for him to leave.
“This…” The store manager still wanted to say something else.
“There’s nothing else you need to do here. You can go,” Li Yuanfei said firmly.
Although the store manager was not happy, he left slowly. Before he left, he fiercely glared at the employee, blaming him for losing face in front of the boss.
“Sit.” Li Yuanfei signaled, then pulled a chair for himself to sit down on. The employee sat stiffly, only daring to put half of his buttocks on the chair.
“Explain this book in detail. Which city did you say the main character is in? Binhai City? Is there a place called Binhai City in China?” Li Yuanfei asked with a pleasant face.
“Online novels are all fabricated. Where would there be a city called Binhai City? And the website does not allow real life places to appear in the stories,” the employee answered, wondering in his heart why his boss did not have that kind of common sense at all.
“All right…” Li Yuanfei sighed regrettably. “Then tell me about the novel itself… Right, I still don’t know what the name of the book is.”
The employee hardened his resolve and wondered what he was so scared of.
“It’s called Pet King. It is currently being written and published on the Chinese version of the Qidian Website.” He opened the conversation box and roughly summarized the hundreds of thousands of words of the novel so far. Because he read more than one novel, sometimes he confused the content of the novel with other novels. What he said before did not match what he said after, but at least the main content was clear.
Everyone else did not know, but Li Yuanfei understood, that the story was not randomly fabricated––or at least, it was not entirely fabricated. It was not even possible to fabricate the part of the game where elfins were captured.
“Have a lot of people read this book?” he asked. He was greatly concerned about it.
“Eh. There are quite a few books on pets, and this is a more realistic type. Boss, you also know that a lot of people utterly hate dogs and cats, and won’t even want to read a book concerning pets,” the employee answered. “En… however, it seems like there are people who say that the author of this book has a chance of getting the Best New Author of the Year. If that happens, it would probably become more popular.”
Li Yuanfei’s heart grew colder and colder. He knew clearly how the game worked and how the elfins could attract the power of faith to grow up. He admired the author who had thought of increasing the spiritual power of the elfins in that way.
Based on what the employee said, the elfins that appeared in the story were liked by different readers. Based on that, the elfins that the other had would receive more and more belief in them.
He could not leave it as it was.
“All right, I know now. Thank you! Right, can I add your WeChat? Perhaps I’ll still have to ask you about some other things.” He smiled and stood up.
The employee was so flattered that he could exchange his WeChat with the big boss. It was just like getting an amulet, which he could boast about for a year!
“Then I’ll go now. Right, I promise the store manager won’t do anything to you; you don’t need to worry.” Li Yuanfei straightened his clothes and waved goodbye to him. He paused at the doorway. “It’s still raining outside. You don’t need to send me out.”
The employee stood dumbly in place until Li Yuanfei left. The big boss’ humility was something that exceeded his expectations.
******
When Li Yuanfei reached the doorway, the driver had already walked up holding an umbrella and was helping him open the door. Li Yuanfei sat in the comfortable car, separating himself from the noisiness of the outside world.
He frowned. He was definitely not as calm as he looked on the outside. The truth was that, in his head, he was a mess.
What should he do? He took up his phone to confirm: China really did not have a city called Binhai City. The location’s name was fake and the main character and the side characters’ names were probably fake, too. As for the events in the book, how real they were was hard to tell.
He was just like a heavyweight champion––his body was full of strength, but he could only wave at the air.
However, the elfins in the book were definitely real. Quantum cat… The game actually had that kind of fantastical elfin… It was the first time he started to lose confidence in his elfins. As he thought about it, he installed the web novels application.
He was not in a rush to add the book to his library, but he first checked viewership of the Chinese version of the Qidian Website to see if he could spare some effort and directly purchase the novel website. From there, he could find the author from the database.
However, the viewership of the online novel website exceeded his expectations.
At that moment, the Stars pet chain supermarket was rapidly developing, opening outlets everywhere in the country and even overseas. The IPO was blocked and they did not have a lot of funds. For the time being, there was no way to swallow the novel website.
His cat was quietly resting in the seat next to him.
As a result of recent trade frictions between China and another superpower, the yuan had depreciated by about five percent in the first half of that year alone. Trade frictions were still warming up. There was no sign that it would end, which made his cat somewhat depressed. There was no room for providing more money.
“Novels…” He breathed out since it was just novels… Perhaps there was a way.
If he wanted to suppress the novel remotely without knowing the author’s location, it seemed that he could only resort to the teacher and his elfins.
He took up his phone and called his assistant. “Hello? It’s me. Pack that authentic Qi Baishi artwork into a gift box. Also, cancel all other arrangements and prepare the plane for me as soon as possible.”
He did not need to wait for the other to answer before he hung up. He told the driver, “To the airport.”
