Chapter 15

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“D*mn it! This brat didn’t work hard on his physical book. Instead, he actually deprived himself of writing the web novel! I’m definitely going to sue him until he loses all his money!”

Lei Yong was like an angry leopard. Even the thick hair pomade could not make him appear less wrathful.

To begin with, he had a bad temper, and he would attack indiscriminately when he was irritated. Zhong Jie, standing at the side, did not know why Lei Yong was so mad, but he knew that the best way to deal with this situation was to keep silent and pretend to be invisible.

“I must teach him a lesson and let him know my power!”

Then, Lei Yong took out his cell phone and dialed Xu Yuan’s number.

“Hello, who’s that?” Xu Yuan’s greeting was indifferent and polite, which meant that he did not have Lei Yong’s phone number.

Lei Yong, who was used to being flattered, had never received such an attitude before. Hence, he immediately got angry.

He said with a sinister sarcastic tone, “Xu Yuan! This is Lei Yong. I’m calling specially to congratulate you on the success of your web novel!”

Xu Yuan did not expect that the person who called him would be Lei Yong. If he had known earlier, he would not have answered it. He could only say perfunctorily, “Mr. Lei, you are mistaken. It’s my cousin who registered this username with my ID card. Nevertheless, I will accurately pass on your congratulations to him. Thank you!”

Lei Yong was rendered speechless by this reply. Before he could make another move, Xu Yuan hung up the phone. Lei Yong tried to call again, but there was only a busy tone.

Xu Yuan had blocked him?!

“You dare to hang up on me?” Lei Yong widened his eyes indignantly.

He stared at the tablet screen without blinking and realized that he could do nothing about the clumsy excuse that Xu Yuan had just made up.

Since Lei Yong always pressed others with their contracts, he knew the drawbacks of the agreement better than anyone else. He had signed all Xu Yuan’s copyrights for five years, which was true. If Xu Yuan dared to break the contract, he could sue him right away.

However, there was a layer of barrier between the internet and reality. Although everyone knew that Xu Yuan was definitely talking nonsense, they didn’t have any evidence. It was impossible to spy on him every minute.

Even if Lei Yong had obtained the copyrights of all the screen names under Xu Yuan’s ID card, Xu Yuan could still change his identity information to his father, mother, or cousin, who might not even exist!

In short, Lei Yong had miscalculated this move.

His furious scolding scared Zhong Jie at the side, making him not dare to make a sound. Zhong Jie wished that he had never entered this office.

At this moment, Lei Yong noticed Zhong Jie, who was trying his best to avoid being seen. He quickly walked up to Zhong Jie, grabbed his arm, and dragged him to the computer.

“Contact the marketing account. I have to screw this b*stard up!”

Lei Yong was unwilling to let Xu Yuan take advantage of the loophole. Since he couldn’t do anything to that brat, he would ruin the entire online literature circle. Anyway, the web novels were all tacky things.

“Wh… What?” Zhong Jie was confused.

“Don’t you understand what I’m saying? Is it your first day at work?” Lei Yong said sarcastically. “Find some Internet Marketers and ask them to write something! Ruin these online novels that are stealing my business!”

Online novels and traditional literature were enemies. Many traditional literature authors despised online novels. They thought that their writings had no meaning. They were full of multiply words with no technical content.

However, online literature was more widely spread than traditional literature. Therefore, the more people read it, the more income they would get. This caused the conflict between online and traditional literature to become bigger and bigger.

Lei Yong’s publishing house leaned toward traditional literature. Sometimes, to sell the new books in his publishing house, he would defame the online novels for a while, then praise the traditional literature, and sell the books as a matter of course.

Zhong Jie had helped him with all these things. He quickly contacted the resources that specialized in this kind of work, Live Water Marketing Group.

“What… What should I do after getting in touch with them?” Zhong Jie smiled bitterly. “The new book has only been out for a few days, and there are no negative topics…”

Lei Yong glanced at Zhong Jie with disdain. He felt that this person only knew how to make money but couldn’t do his job.

“Do you think the negative topics are rocks on the ground waiting for you to pick up? Just create some! Do you want me to teach you hand-in-hand?”

“Okay… No, I mean… Since the influence of ‘Battle Through the Heaven’ is so great, we can just say… say that it will have a negative impact on the children’s study. Moreover… Moreover, the fighting and killing plots in the novel involve vulgar violence, so it will definitely mislead the children. This will definitely cause many parents to be agitated! Then, they would help to resist the online novels. What do you think, Mr. Lei?”

What he said was suitable for Lei Yong’s taste. He felt a little better and nodded while leaning against the back of his chair. “Alright, at least you have some brains.”

“Alright.” Zhong Jie smiled dryly and repeated what he had just said to the head of the marketing account. He told them to prepare the manuscript immediately and try to force the author to apologize.

Therefore, under Lei Yong’s arrangement, that night, the marketing account on Microblog quietly released an article named “The values of online novels are poisoning our children by propagating violence!”

The first paragraph of the article pointed out that the battle elements in “Battle Through the Heavens” were distorting the values of young people and misleading them into thinking that violence could solve everything.

The following content seemed to accuse the entire online literature circle of having no content. Still, it used “Battle Through the Heavens” as an example. From the writing style to the expressing core, it belittled “Battle Through the Heavens” to nothing. Between the lines, it hinted at the author’s bad intentions in writing this novel with particular metaphors, indicating that the author was writing it simply for money.

Xu Yuan had no idea that such a severe accusation had popped out while he had done nothing.

He received a kind reminder from his readers and immediately opened the article. He thought that all the accusations were groundless, and he knew that he was being targeted.

Xu Yuan knew that there was a great deal of controversy about the online novels, so he had been cautious when choosing the topic. He tried to avoid topics like supernatural, suspense, and grave robbing, which were quickly captured by others.

However, he had not expected that fantasy could not escape the slander of those people.

He had also discovered that after the article targeting him was issued, suddenly, many denunciations of online literature appeared on the front page of Microblog.

“When online literature enters the classroom, which should be responsible for the physical and mental health of students?”

“A primary school student gets angry for being caught reading a web novel in class and beats up his teacher!”

“Boycott! Online literature is not qualified to become a substitute for traditional literature!”

These articles criticizing online literature seemed to have been blown by the wind. Overnight, they spread across various social media sites as if they were afraid that the children’s parents would ignore them. All kinds of deliberately exaggerated article titles described reading online literature as an unpardonable evil.

The number of Xu Yuan’s private messages also significantly increased at night. A large number of Internet Marketers suddenly appeared. From Xu Yuan’s parents to his pets, they cursed Xu Yuan with sharp tongues, not showing any mercy!

Although many fans argued with reason and defended Xu Yuan, they seemed to be insignificant under the organized and planned siege of Internet Marketers.