Chapter 52

【ps: First additional update~ Please support, we're not far from the top 20 on the charts, I'll prepare the second update right away~~】

The grandly produced magazine, *Shengda Entertainment: Novels*, which consumed a great deal of effort from the Qidian editorial department, was officially published on September 28th. It quickly spread from Shanghai to bookstores and newsstands in major cities like the capital, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and smaller cities in the south.

Hu Yuhai, a 31-year-old chef at Nanjing University, was a large-headed, thick-necked man. Though he was a cook, he was passionate about literature. In his youth, he enjoyed Jin Yong and Gu Long, and after entering the 21st century, he became a fan of online literature, making him one of the earliest readers of web novels in mainland China.

While passing by a newsstand, he saw a magazine called *Shengda Entertainment: Novels*. The name didn't particularly catch his attention, but the names of Blood Red and Yan Yu Nanjiang on the cover immediately drew his gaze. These two were the most prominent writers on Qidian, and Hu Yuhai, who loved online literature, knew their names well. Seeing them both featured in the same magazine, along with titles like *Desecration: New Chapter*, he couldn't resist picking up the thick magazine.

After just a minute, Hu Yuhai spent 3.8 yuan to buy the magazine. For such a thick magazine, it was a real bargain. Once home, he eagerly flipped through it.

The most attractive parts were undoubtedly the side stories of the popular serialized novels by Blood Red and Yan Yu Nanjiang. There were also excerpts or short stories by other well-known Qidian writers. Hu Yuhai skimmed through them briefly.

When he came across *Fated Enemies: Cat People vs. Dog People*, he was first surprised by the quirky title and felt a sense of curiosity. Then he became curious about the author, Dian Xia'er. Since the beginning of Qidian, he had been active on the site and knew almost every writer, whether they wrote historical or martial arts novels, no matter how obscure. In this magazine, he recognized all the authors listed in the table of contents except for Dian Xia'er. For a new writer to reach this level, there must be something special about him.

Following his habit of saving the best for last, Hu Yuhai started with *Fated Enemies*. Despite his age, Hu Yuhai had a young mindset. He quickly embraced the cute concept of Cat People and Dog People and soon became engrossed in the story.

Dian Xia'er's writing was excellent, easy to digest but not overly detailed, requiring much thought. After half an hour, Hu Yuhai closed the magazine and picked up his yellow cat, which was basking in the sun by the window. He looked at it from all angles and said seriously, "So you came to Earth from Cat Planet for our fish resources, Cat Person. Today, Brother Hu will fry some small fish for you, okay?"

The yellow cat meowed, "Meow~"

The Qidian editorial department was quite considerate of Dian Xia'er. Considering he was a new writer with little recognition, they added a brief introduction at the end of his story, mentioning his ongoing serialized novel *A Private Soldier's History*. After taking care of the Cat Person, Hu Yuhai logged into Qidian, found the novel, and checked the update date. It seemed there was no update yesterday, but Hu Yuhai didn't mind. He had followed *Zichuan* before, so a one-day break for *A Private Soldier's History* was no big deal.

Across the country, many readers like Hu Yuhai discovered the new Qidian writer Dian Xia'er through this magazine. They found his ongoing science fiction novel *A Private Soldier's History* and helped spread the cute terms "Cat People" and "Dog People."

Thus, the click rate and number of followers for *A Private Soldier's History* began to grow rapidly again.

As the author, Tong Yan was still unaware of this. At that moment, he was struggling with the subsequent plot of *A Private Soldier's History*.

He thought he had hit a bottleneck.

Last night, he had already planned out what he wanted to write today, but after Tang Jiao's disruptive behavior this morning, his ideas and plot twists were in a mess, and he couldn't sort them out.

Actually, blaming Tang Jiao was a way for Tong Yan to comfort himself. In reality, even without Tang Jiao, he might not have been able to continue writing coherently.

The drawbacks of hastily starting a novel became increasingly apparent. Because he hadn't considered the story thoroughly at the beginning, the setting and system were not well-developed. As a result, his current writing felt like a rootless weed, and he didn't know which direction to take. Should he focus on the romance between Song Hu and An Luwei, or on Song Hu's imperial ambitions, or both? And how should he connect these two storylines?

To be honest, Tong Yan was finding the writing process exhausting. He had set a final goal for the story but hadn't specified a direction or a clear path. At the beginning, it didn't matter much that the protagonist was in a small, isolated area, with only a few characters and a limited setting. But as the story progressed, more characters and stronger factions were introduced, and without a clear plan, Tong Yan had to strain his brain to maintain the story's stability, avoiding a collapse. To maintain stability, he even slowed down the plot, causing it to drag and reducing the reading pleasure.

Ultimately, he had never written a long novel before, and his inexperience was evident.

Tong Yan wanted to break this deadlock and open up new possibilities, but he found that many of his earlier unstructured and unplanned settings and plots were now limiting his creativity, becoming a heavy burden. He had to consider the logic of the earlier parts to maintain consistency, which wasted his creative energy.

If he had known this would happen, he would have laid a solid foundation and done thorough preparation before starting the novel. Now, it was too late to regret, and he could only勉强维持, like an ambitious emperor watching his empire decline, wanting to change but powerless to do so.

As he thought, Tong Yan arrived at his childhood bun shop. The morning rush hadn't passed yet, and his parents were busy.

"Xiaoyan, why are you here?" His mother, who was serving customers outside, saw him first. Perhaps she was tired, and she tripped over the leg of a stool, but fortunately, her son caught her.

"Mom, are you okay?" Supporting his mother's arm, Tong Yan noticed that the hardworking and capable woman he remembered was surprisingly thin, which made him feel a pang of pain.

"I'm fine, what are you doing here?" His mother tried to hide her weakness, though she had been feeling this way for some time.

"I just came from my cousin's place. Reading made my head hurt, so I came to help."

"There's no need for you to help. We're not that busy." His mother always hesitated to let Tong Yan help, seeing him as someone destined for great things, not someone who should be serving tables.

Just as his mother spoke, two tables called out, "Boss, another tray of pork and scallion buns." "I want the fennel and egg buns."

"You said you weren't busy. Mom, take a break, I'll do it." Tong Yan rolled up his sleeves and ran to the back to bring out two trays of buns...

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