Chapter 81

After meeting Jingguan, Tongyan found out the reason he recommended "Furious Thunder" was because a fan had recommended it to him. However, the tone of that fan seemed more like that of a carefree child. Coincidentally, Jingguan had also seen someone on Longkong comparing this new book to "Beast Blood Boiling," saying that the "ball egg" was irresistibly cute, far surpassing "Guo Guo" in every way.

Out of curiosity, Jingguan read "Furious Thunder" and found it quite interesting. The protagonist, Han Ting, and the "ball egg" were similar to Liu Zhenhan and Guo Guo, but the novel's style and background were completely different. Fans who liked "Beast Blood Boiling" might not necessarily enjoy "Furious Thunder." Personally, he really liked the novel "Childish Words," and since "Furious Thunder" had climbed to the homepage's new book potential list with less than 100,000 words, he thought the author, Childish Words, was a very promising newcomer. Thus, he decided to reach out.

In Jingguan's own words, "After reading your book, I was deeply moved and couldn't calm down. Such a good book must be seen by more people; otherwise, it would be a great waste to the web novel community, a crime. So, I instinctively added a comment at the end of the chapter."

Later, Tongyan asked for the name of that fan. Jingguan said, "I don't know her very well; I just added her to the reader group recently."

Tongyan didn't expect his female fan to like "Beast Blood Boiling," a harem-style novel. Girls these days are indeed tough. He also didn't expect this female fan to recommend his novel to Jingguan, indirectly fostering their friendship. Tongyan made a mental note of this fan.

Thanks to the spontaneous promotion by such fans, "Furious Thunder" had climbed to second place on the new book list after the second recommendation, with over 5,000 collections, reaching 5,360, showing great potential.

In the new week, even without a recommendation, "Furious Thunder" still held the second position on the new book list, maintaining its popularity. More fortunately, a few days later, the book at the top of the list had been there for 30 days and automatically dropped off, making "Furious Thunder" the top book. By then, Tongyan had already returned home for the holidays.

Tongyan's December monthly exam results were even lower than his mid-term exam, ranking seventh in his class and 33rd in the grade, slightly better than his September monthly exam. This worried Mr. Song a lot.

Tongyan occasionally still felt unwell, but whenever he felt drowsy, he would automatically stand at the back of the classroom to listen to the lessons, which seemed to have become his specialty. Mr. Song was puzzled and even searched for Dian Xiaoer's latest updates on Qidian, finding no evidence of him writing a book. He began to suspect that his daughter was still maintaining some secret relationship with Tongyan, blinding his eyes and causing Tongyan's grades to drop. However, when he looked at Song RAO's exam results, they were steadily improving, which was quite strange.

Only the boys in Dorm 121 knew that Tongyan spent two hours every night working in Old Liu's room, with almost no interruptions. For a teenager, sacrificing sleep time was very painful. Tongyan's persistence was already beyond what most people could achieve. Although he planned well to minimize the impact on his studies, he still couldn't help but get distracted, which was the main reason for his declining grades.

However, seeing the good performance of "Furious Thunder," Tongyan no longer cared about his exam results. He believed that his recent focus on the novel's plot had led to some small mistakes during the exams. As long as he took them seriously, exams would be no problem for him.

After returning home, Tongyan didn't bring any delicious snacks from the city for Shan Shan. Although there was a flash of disappointment in her eyes, she didn't say anything. The family's financial situation was difficult, and she hadn't spent the pocket money her parents gave her. Seeing that her sister was still wearing last year's old clothes, Tongyan felt a pang of pain. At her age, girls usually love to dress up, but the little girl was very sensible. After the family's situation changed, she never asked for anything, and at such a young age, she already knew how to be frugal.

What hurt Tongyan the most was when Shan Shan said at dinner, "Brother, it's so good to have you back. We can eat meat again."

Shan Shan's innocent words stirred something deep in Tongyan's heart, making him even more determined to earn money by writing web novels. Even if his grades fell to the bottom, he couldn't care less.

Closing the door to his room and logging into Qidian, Tongyan saw that "Furious Thunder" had become the top book on the new book list. He thought it had surpassed the book that had been on top, but it turned out that the other book had dropped off the list, and "Furious Thunder" had taken its place.

The previous week was the fastest week for "Furious Thunder" to gain collections, thanks to the website's recommendation, the topics created by Nian Huai Nian and Wo Zai Ni Shen Bian on the Longkong forum, and the enthusiastic recommendation by the new writer Jingguan. Collectively, these efforts added nearly 4,000 collections!

This week, the collection growth slowed but didn't stop. Although there were no website or peer recommendations, and the Longkong forum's interest had cooled, the top position on the new book list itself was a good recommendation. Anyone who saw an unfamiliar novel in such a high position would be tempted to click and read.

Logging into QQ, he saw that Xigua was still online.

Xigua: Kid, when you update later, it's best to tell your readers not to rush to cast their monthly votes next month.

Xigua's sudden comment surprised Tongyan.

Tongyan: Sister Xigua, isn't the book going to be serialized in February?

Tongyan's novel was released in early December. Since the updates weren't too fast, even if it was serialized in February, it wouldn't exceed 300,000 words. Although writing more free chapters was beneficial, a good ranking in the monthly evaluation would also be worth it because of the substantial bonus.

Xigua: I've thought about it, and it might be better to serialize in January because the monthly vote rules will change starting in January.

Tongyan had already studied the monthly vote rules. Since the monthly evaluation began in February, the rules had always been to select the top 5 "Excellent VIP Works (Monthly Vote Total List)" and the top 3 "Excellent New VIP Works (New Book Monthly Vote List)." A work could not receive both awards simultaneously; if it met both conditions, it would receive the "Excellent VIP Work" award, which had a higher bonus.

Each VIP reader had one guaranteed monthly vote, and an additional vote could be earned by spending 1,500 Qidian coins in a month. Each work could not receive more than 4 votes from the same reader (Note: The rules often change, and this is not the current rule, which will be mentioned later).

However, Xigua told Tongyan that the rules had changed, and the announcement would be made soon.

Xigua: The new monthly vote list rules will select the top 5 "Most Popular VIP Works" and the top 5 "Most Popular New VIP Works" of the month. The top 1 and 2 in the former category will receive a 5,000 yuan bonus, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th will receive 3,000 yuan each. The top 1 and 2 in the latter category will receive a 2,500 yuan bonus, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th will receive 1,500 yuan each.

Before the rules changed, Xigua wanted Tongyan to serialize in February to avoid the peak of "Beast Blood Boiling." This way, he might have a chance to get the top spot on the new book list, which had a higher bonus than the second and third places. However, with the new rules, the top two spots on the new book list had the same bonus. In the absence of other strong new books, even if "Furious Thunder" couldn't surpass "Beast Blood Boiling," it still had a good chance of securing the second spot on the new book list.