Chapter 17

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

“You mean that you want to make a big change? This isn’t fair, right?” Cai Pingtong stood up and immediately objected.

He had been reviewing the web novel for so many years. The content of ‘Battle Through the Heavens’ was already very reserved. It did not involve explicit content or politics. The main character, Xiao Yan, was also an active and upward-looking person. There was no problem with the world view that he conveyed.

He retorted, “There is no need to change the content of ‘Battle Through the Heavens’. It is completely the fault of that marketing account. If we continue to tolerate them, it will only make them think that we are easy to bully and become even worse!”

Liu Fu did not expect Cai Pingtong’s reaction to be so great. He bitterly smiled and said, “This was how I had solved my problem earlier. Although the author got arrested, his book is at least still intact. There is no problem with the copyright that was sold earlier too.”

The book that Liu Fu was in charge of previously did not have any big problems. The plot was wonderful, and it gained a large number of readers’ favor. Unfortunately, the one with problems was the author himself.

The author had privately created a fan group and often chatted with the readers in it. Over time, the readers’ infatuation with the characters turned into admiration for the author. In the end, they became the author’s gun, shooting wherever he pointed it at.

The literary circle became a crazed fan circle, often trampling on other books. This caused other readers to be dissatisfied, and then they quarreled with them online.

Then it escalated to real life, and just in time, the author wrote an extra chapter to give back to the readers and spread it in the group.

The words in the extra were so wonderful that every time Liu Fu thought of it, he felt that it was a pity for such a good writer to have dug his own grave.

In the end, the author was most probably poor out of his mind. Behind the website editor’s back, he had secretly contacted a publishing house to print his book. He even included that extra chapter and openly sold it on the Internet.

One had to know that it was illegal to publish a physical book without a license number.

To make matters worse, other readers caught wind of this. No one knew who had reported the author. In the end, the fans’ conflict ended up sending the author to prison. He was sentenced to two years.

Fortunately, the website where the novel had originated from had suppressed the matter of the author’s imprisonment, and the copyright that Liu Fu sold was not affected. There was no delay in the animation and film production. Currently, Liu Fu’s desk still had the original character design on it, it was used to remind himself to monitor the author from time to time.

Although Mr. Shu himself did not have any black spots this time, the trolls on the internet were like mad dogs when they bit people. Who knew what kind of tricks they might pull? As such, to be safe, Liu Fu’s suggestion was to endure.

Cai Pingtong also knew about this matter, but he just couldn’t swallow his anger. He knew that if he really bowed down to pressure and admitted his mistake, then whether or not ‘Battle Through the Heavens’ was wrong wouldn’t be so important. In the future, if anyone mentioned ‘Battle Through the Heavens’ again, their first impression might be that it had worthless, violent content.

This was very disadvantageous to the subsequent copyright acquisition of ‘Battle Through the Heavens’.

“But Cai, you have to think clearly. We don’t know when this wave of public opinion attacks will pass. Are you sure that the author’s heart is strong enough to survive this? The bad reputation of online novels will also have an impact on our website. ”

“I know that they are using ‘Battle Through the Heavens’ to attack the origin of web novels, but we are not wrong. Why should we admit it!?”

“Cai, you have to put the big picture first. Otherwise, if the matter blows up and the higher-ups want us to shut up and reorganize again, the losses will be too great!”

“But…”

“Stop arguing!” Mr. Ma could not stand it anymore. He slammed the table and interrupted the two. “I didn’t ask you to come here to quarrel!”

Since the Boss had spoken, the two immediately shut their mouths. After all, no matter how much they said, Mr. Ma was the one who would make the final decision.

The office was silent for two minutes. Mr. Ma looked up at the two of them and snorted. “You’ve said so much, but you still haven’t gotten to the main point. To think that both of you are senior editors.”

He took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and then said, “First of all, I feel that this is a case of the shot hitting the bird that pokes its head out. Someone is targeting ‘Battle of the Heavens’, so we can’t just tolerate it.”

“Second, the propaganda of violence mentioned in those articles is also untenable. The essence of the novel is to promote the spirit of fighting and competition, and there are many ways to compete in the first place, so clinging on to this point is clearly an excuse!”

“Finally, it’s even more ridiculous to say that web novels affect students’ grades! Reading web novels in class is a student’s personal behavior, how many such children can there be in a school? They’re simply generalizing this concept to suit their point!”

With that, Mr. Ma took another sip of his green tea.

Cai Pingtong understood what he meant and immediately followed up with a resolution. “I have the same thoughts as Editor-in-Chief! If we tolerate it repeatedly, it will only make those people think that we are easy to bully.”

Although he didn’t know who “those people” were, when he got emotional, he wanted to create an enemy for himself, even if it wasn’t a physical one.

However, Mr. Ma had sharp eyes. He pondered for a moment, then said, “The results of ‘Battle Through the Heavens’ have been so good. It will definitely attract the envy of others. It has already proved its value to us by attracting 100,000 readers to subscribe to it. If we can’t even protect the good books on this website, then we will only end up being manipulated by others in the future. This time, we definitely can’t hold in our frustration!”

The reason he was so stubborn was not only because of the good results of the web novel, but also because the author Xu Yuan was a newcomer, a student who had just come of age. It could be said that his life was still a blank sheet of paper without any black spots.

In addition, the starting point had always been large websites. Many small websites were eyeing the author covetously, wanting to poach him. If they couldn’t keep the author, then they wouldn’t even have the last bit of competitiveness.

For the sake of long-term considerations, they had to fight back in this war of public opinion!

“Cai, immediately contact Mr. Shu. Tell him to relax and write as much as he wants. We will help him with the rest! Liu, make the arrangements. Let the authors in your hands also speak out and defend the right to survive of web novels. Hurry up!”

Mr. Ma methodically made the arrangements.

Unlike those marketing account handles and trolls, the fans of web novel authors were all living people. If they could persuade these readers to come to their aid, they would definitely be able to redeem their reputation!

“I’ll go right away!” Cai Pingtong turned around and went out to contact Xu Yuan.

Liu Fu looked at Mr. Ma meaningfully and reminded him, “Editor-in-Chief, I’m not opposed to going against them head-on, but according to my experience, the result this time might not be very good.”

“I know.” Mr. Ma nodded. “The best opportunity to refute that we missed…”

He paused and said seriously, “This time, the other party is obviously attacking on a large scale. It will definitely affect us, so we should salvage as much reputation as possible. The purpose of my doing this is to give the authors an attitude.”

“Let them know that writing online novels is not a shameful thing! What cannot be compared to traditional literature? Bullsh*t! Elite melodies and folk songs are never opposites!”