Chapter 74: Father Wang’s Daily Life of Looking for Inspiration
By the time Father Wang finished smoking one cigarette after his alarming, demonic screech, the female broadcast host Little Xuan had finally come rushing back in after receiving the notification. She tidied up her messy fringe before sitting down demurely in front of the computer screen, her eyes twinkling at the camera as she waved with a pleasantly surprised expression on her face. “Hi! So Jiaomei has come! Welcome, welcome!”
From Wang Ling’s point of view, Little Xuan’s looks were nothing spectacular and not as outstanding as online otakus had made them out to be. She had the standard hallmarks of an online celebrity, with straight eyebrows and an oval face. However, comparing facial features alone, Wang Ling felt that even without makeup, Lotus Sun was still more attractive. He had to admit, though, that compared with those tedious look-alike female broadcasters online, Little Xuan was nonetheless a pleasant-looking girl with just the right type of voice, sweet and not shrill. In addition, she was wearing a lacy maid’s outfit, and black silk stockings on her slender legs…
Hmm, perhaps this was the reason why the audience loved Little Xuan.
As Wang Ling pondered this with his chin in his hands, on the other side, Father Wang had stubbed out his cigarette butt and was looking at Little Xuan plaintively. She clearly understood what this expression meant. “It seems our Jiaomei has run out of inspiration again?”
“The old book is about to be finished, but I have no inspiration for a new one. In a word, I’m anxious!”
Father Wang rubbed the skin between his knitted eyebrows. “There has to be a seamless transition between the completion of the old book and the publication of the new one. Otherwise our whole family will have to tighten our belts…” (And there’s a possibility we won’t be able to afford even tableware. The amount we spend on tableware for our family oddity each month is not a small one!)
As Father Wang bewailed his poverty, other fans of Little Xuan in the live stream started to kick up a fuss.
“Jiaomei, you’re a guru! If you’re poor, us white collar small fry who go to work everyday won’t need to live anymore!”
“By the way, I’m new here. Is there anyone who can tell me what Master Jiaomei’s pen name is? What books has he written?”
“The hell? You don’t know Jiaomei?! Jiaomei’s pen name is Wang Situ!”
“Holy shit! He’s actually Guru Wang Situ!”
…
Just like that, chaos broke out in the live stream!
Because this pen name Wang Situ was too renowned!
When he had been a newbie in the world of web novels back then, Father Wang had finished writing three hundred thousand words in less than two months and had completely floored audiences with his debut novel Let Go of that Wet Nurse . Chapter subscriptions for the novel soared to over two hundred thousand users, setting a new online record for most subscriptions ever and even trouncing top veterans who had been writing web novels for a long time.
It could be said that at the time, Wang Situ had made an explosive entrance; he was a dark horse who had burst out from under Five-finger Mountain 1 and caught many veteran writers off guard. Previously, a top-ranked writer named Zhu Ge, who had been serializing his books on the Cultivation Reading Network for nearly twenty years, had been so pissed off by Wang Situ’s debut that he had quit.
Although Father Wang seldom talked about his writing at home, Wang Ling had nonetheless heard the mighty online legends about him. Over the years, he had made a name for himself and was now very well-known. Nevertheless, the name Wang Situ was still a mysterious existence even to the editors on the Cultivation Reading Network.
Father Wang had been selected as the top writer at the annual novel awards many times and the website sent him an invitation to the event every year, but he had never attended a single one. He turned down all notices of online and offline activities and dedicated himself solely to literary creation.
After Wang Jiaomei’s identity was revealed, there was an endless bombardment of bullet messages 2 in Little Xuan’s live stream. Audience numbers even soared from an initial three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand. Looking at this, one could see how popular Father Wang was online…
“Who would have thought Master Jiaomei was Guru Wang Situ! …By the way, is the book Let Go of that Wet Nurse finished yet?”
“Not yet! But it will be soon — the problem now is that our Guru Wang Situ is worrying over a new book…”
“It’s finally going to be finished!” Someone sent a crying emoji. “I remember when I started following this book by Guru Wang Situ; I was still in Qi Condensation primary school back then. Now I’m going to graduate from university soon!”
Seeing this bullet message, Father Wang sent a sweat emoji. “…”
“It’s been serialized for thirteen years already, shouldn’t this book be ranked number one with the most number of words in a novel?”
“Not yet, there’s still an ongoing book called A Reborn Demon’s Life . I heard that there was a cultivation master following this book who went into seclusion for one hundred years, and after he came out, he found that this book was still ongoing. It startled him so much it triggered an early ascension in his cultivation realm, and he almost died from the divine tribulation which followed!”
“…Guru Wang Situ, please don’t finish yet! Try to beat this book’s number of words for the number one spot!”
Seeing this bullet message, Father Wang couldn’t help laughing. Even if he continued this book, there was no way the number of words could surpass those in that Demon’s Life book. After all, that book had started serialization when the website was first set up.
Let Go of that Wet Nurse told the story of a protagonist who had been reincarnated into the body of a weak prince and how he grew by relying on wet nurses. Later on, thanks to Wet Nurse Rong’s steel acupuncture needle, the protagonist was able to open up his Governing Vein. Using a god-given palm technique, he defeated the top killer in the country, King of Killers Demon Huoyun, and became a world-class master…
Back then, inspiration for this story had struck Father Wang when he had been leisurely reading the newspaper on the toilet bowl. Who would have thought that after turning it into a serialized novel, it would unexpectedly enjoy wide popularity among readers.
But after years of serialization, Father Wang felt that he had already included everything he wanted to say in this story. There was no integrity in continuing to write it just for the sake of doing so. Since this was a novel, he should give the characters he created a satisfying end.
This thought did still make him a little sad, however. After all, it was a book he had been writing for more than ten years, and also his debut work. It was inevitable that suddenly finishing it to start a new one would make him feel a little empty and lonely.
That was why Father Wang had sought out Little Xuan. He felt that this kind of youthful and lively maiden would be able to soothe the regret in his heart. At the same time, girls tended to have vivid imaginations, so he thought that Little Xuan might be able to give him some tips for inspiration.
It had been less than half an hour after Father Wang had gone online. Little Xuan looked at the number of people in the live stream. After Father Wang’s identity had been revealed… the number had already surged to six hundred thousand.
Father Wang alone had helped her attract three hundred thousand new spectators…
For a broadcaster, this was far more precious than any gift she might receive!
And so, Little Xuan straightaway changed the subject of the live stream to “Let’s help Guru Wang Situ come up with new themes!”
After making this change, this maiden sank into deep thought, clearing racking her brain on the computer screen.
Whenever Little Xuan answered a question on love, she did so with unruffled calm. Thus, the audience had never seen her troubled like this before. The bullet messages flew around the live stream once again…
“Little Xuan is vexed! But still so beautiful!”
“New meme of Little Xuan, GET!”
Looking at this noisy and excited barrage of bullet messages, Father Wang absent-mindedly pulled out a cigarette. There were now six hundred thousand people helping him to think up themes. Even if he wasn’t going to use them, at the very least he should be able to get some good ideas.
Pa ! The moment Father Wang flicked his lighter on, Little Xuan’s face suddenly brightened on the computer screen. “I don’t know how to write a novel… but I think maybe you can try this theme… Jiaomei, how about live streaming?”
Live streaming?
Father Wang immediately patted his head. That was right, he could make it about live streaming! Why hadn’t he thought of that himself!
Comments