Ma Yiqun’s problems were not contradictory. All in all, the authors sucked at writing, and the editors sucked at vetting manuscripts. There was no way that the manuscripts they accepted would be readable.
The website had not started officially. Ma Yiqun was still browsing various forums and contacting failed authors. Once he had accepted sufficient manuscripts to fill the website up, he would officially open it.
Even after listening to Ma Yiqun’s description, Pei Qian’s expression remained calm. It seemed to say ‘everything is under control’.
“Do you have a manuscript? Let me see it.”
Ma Yiqun retrieved a thumb drive from his pocket and handed it to Pei Qian. It contained all the manuscripts he accepted. He had contracted some authors but not others. Pei Qian randomly opened several manuscripts and read them.
Once he finished, he had only one feeling: disgust!
For most of them, he did not want to read on after roughly scanning through the first chapter.
Satisfactory plots and rhythm aside, many people seemed to be having difficulty with forming basic sentences. They were using the wrong words, the wrong punctuations, and the wrong sentence structures. The logic of the first three chapters was a mess, and the theme was unclear.
All in all, there were problems everywhere.
Pei Qian briefly looked through the manuscripts. Looking through those written by authors whom Ma Yiqun had contracted, Pei Qian felt like they were choosing generals from among shorties. If these were published on other websites, they would fail miserably.
Although Ma Yiqun only had thirty subscriptions initially, he had a good understanding of how online literature worked.
This was within Pei Qian’s expectations. Although Ma Yiqun did not have many subscriptions, the novels that he had released to the public were quite good. He even had a loyal following
Ma Yiqun observed Pei Qian’s expression as the latter scanned through the manuscripts. He could not help but feel moved.
Boss Pei is so patient. I can’t believe he can stand to read these.
After randomly reading a few manuscripts, Pei Qian felt completely relieved. If all the manuscripts they accepted were of this standard, it would be a surprise if the web novel site could succeed!
Not bad, keep up the good work!
Calmly, Pei Qian plucked out the thumb drive and handed it back to Ma Yiqun.
“It’s not a big problem. As for the two things you mentioned…
“It’s alright if our editors are below standard. Ease the review criteria. In any case, our aim is to fill up our libraries for now. These people are just writing to fulfill the contract and earn money. There’s no need for us to be so strict.”
Ma Yiqun hesitated. “But… Boss Pei, back then, the remuneration you offered to full-timers was a thousand yuan. Infinite Chinese Network only offers five hundred yuan to their full-time authors. Other small sites offer a thousand yuan, but that’s only if authors produce ten thousand words a day.
“We’re offering them a thousand yuan for three thousand words a day. If we ease the criteria, we would be giving out money for free. That’s like burning all that money every single month.”
Pei Qian shook his head. “That’s alright. If we have five hundred authors, it would only cost us five hundred thousand yuan a month. That’s not a lot of money.
“Our website is new. If we don’t pay our full-time authors more, why would people want to write for us? What’s more, for newbies, three thousand words a day is not an easy target to hit.
“Don’t worry. Accept more manuscripts. An outstanding author will appear one day.”
Ma Yiqun pondered for a while and decided that there was logic to what Boss Pei was saying. However, the chances of this happening were low.
After thinking for a moment, Ma Yiqun spoke again. “Boss Pei, there is another problem. Most of our employees have little to do.
“Since few authors are submitting manuscripts, there is not a lot of reviewing to be done. Even if our editors make time to guide the authors in their writing, they will still have time to idle.”
Pei Qian waved his hand. “That’s even less of a problem. If they have nothing to do, ask them to work on their hobbies. Take you for example. If you find that you have nothing to do, write a novel or two to entertain yourself. Isn’t that good?”
Pei Qian stood up and patted Ma Yiqun on the shoulder.
“Yiqun, don’t stress yourself out too much.
“Tengda’s mantra has always been to be happy at work. If you have work to do, get busy. If you don’t, work on your interests and hobbies. If you have too much work to do, hire more people. How difficult is that?
“Don’t try to devour too much at one go. Take it slow.”
Ma Yiqun nodded and replied, “Yes, Boss Pei! I understand!”
At first, he felt anxious and panicked. Boss Pei had given him such an important task, and yet he had made no progress. Instead, he was spending more money by the day. It felt like he just could not catch his breath.
However, seeing that Boss Pei had everything under control, Ma Yiqun immediately felt relieved. Indeed, following a good leader could make one feel secure!
Chapter 201 - Ma Yiqun Wears Two Hats
Ma Yiqun returned from Boss Pei’s office, feeling less confused than he was before.
When he went back upstairs, he passed by the editors’ department and saw all the young editors vetting and editing manuscripts seriously. These young people seemed to cherish this job opportunity.
As a second-tier city, Jingzhou did not have many tech ventures. There weren’t many internet businesses either. The main source of jobs was in traditional industries. These traditional industries were known for torturing fresh graduates. They were worldly, hierarchical, and boring; most fresh graduates could not adapt to working in traditional industries.
At first, these people lacked direction for their own futures. They could not get recommendations for post-graduate studies, and their academic results did not qualify them either. Yet, they could not find jobs that they were passionate about.
Companies in traditional industries looked down on them, and they looked down on traditional jobs in return. They practically despised each other.
They watched as their own classmates became carefree after securing jobs and post-graduate positions. Some of them had even been offered high starting pays and had become the envy of many.
On the other hand, they did not have a single offer. They faced as many rejections as they did interviews, and they felt like they had already thrown their resumes into the deep sea. One could only imagine the immense pressure they were under.
Initially, some of them were prepared to retake their examinations. Others decided to go back to their hometown. None of them expected the tables to turn!
Coincidentally, a new website was set up. All of them were recruited. What’s more, they landed editing jobs that were slightly related to their majors. Their luck was extremely good!
In the beginning, some of them were unhappy with the job and even despised web novels. However, after interacting with other classmates who were already working, they realized that the job was extremely good!
In Jingzhou, the salaries they were earning were considered high for sure.
In terms of job content, reviewing manuscripts could be dull and tedious at times. However, it was much more interesting than working as an administrative staff in most offices.
On top of this, their boss was young and easy to talk to. The atmosphere in the company was relaxed and harmonious. Everyone very quickly took a liking toward their new job and decided to work hard to transition from being a student to being part of the working class.
When Ma Yiqun entered the office, a small-sized, skinny boy stood up suddenly. “Brother Ma, we have finished reviewing the manuscripts for today.”
Ma Yiqun nodded and said, “Good. Do whatever you want for now. I’ll gather everyone for a meeting later on.”
>
This boy’s name was Zhu Anxing. He was the liveliest person in the batch of fresh graduates. He was not as autistic as the rest, and he was much smarter as well. He was one of the few editors Ma Yiqun was happy with.
Zhu Anxing’s academic results were horrible. Even when he was about to graduate, he failed three subjects. That was why he proudly delayed graduation.
Considering the difficulty of examinations for humanities majors, he still managed to fail three subjects before graduation. It was obvious how much he hated learning.
Delayed graduation meant that Zhu Anxing would only get his graduation certificate at the end of the year. However, Ma Yiqun did not care too much about this. After all, to him, academic results were not important for determining whether one would be good at editing or not. The correlation was not strong.
This Zhu Anxing read online literature and played games while he was at university. He had a wide variety of interests. That was why he was learning the ropes of this editing job relatively quickly.
Ma Yiqun decided that once Zhu Anxing’s skills were satisfactory, he would promote the latter to become the editor-in-chief of a popular channel. This would take some burden off Ma Yiqun as well.
Ma Yiqun returned to his desk and made some minor arrangements. Then, he invited the good seedlings, who had chances of becoming editors-in-chief, to attend a meeting. There, he briefly explained what Boss Pei had instructed.
In the future, they would ease the criteria for accepting manuscripts. They would also attract authors to write for them with full-time benefits. Their main goal would be to fill the library up.
After that, Ma Yiqun addressed the problem of them not having enough work to do.
People like Zhu Anxing, who were learning quickly about online literature, could start working as editors if they were really needed to. What’s more, since there were very few manuscripts being submitted, they could quickly finish their reviewing work.
If they had no other work to do during the remaining time, they could learn from Infinite Chinese Network’s popular online literature.
Ma Yiqun scanned the group and said, “If you feel like you do not have enough work to doapart from reading popular online literature, you could also try to write something.
“You might all be editors, but who knows if you would be able to write a hot-selling novel? You must still have dreams.
“What’s more, we don’t have many manuscripts on our website at the moment. The standard of the manuscripts we are receiving is not great as well. I’m sure we could recommend any book you write in good positions on the website. You could take this opportunity to give it a shot.”
There was nothing wrong with what Ma Yiqun was saying, but it had no practical significance. If no one visited the website, it would not matter even if he recommended their books there.
Ma Yiqun paused before adding, “If you really have nothing to do, I will give you something to do: think about the theme and plot for Repent and be Saved.”
Initially, thinking about the theme for Repent and be Saved was Ma Yiqun’s job as the plot planner.
However, life was full of twists and turns. Ma Yiqun had unexpectedly been promoted. Logically, Ma Yiqun should have handed this task over to someone. However, Lu Mingliang was stunned. He said to Ma Yiqun, “If you don’t do this, no one else would be able to.”
The only other person who was fit to do the job was Boss Pei. However, Boss Pei was extremely busy. How could he personally work on the plot?
Ma Yiqun thought about it and decided that it was not a big deal. He could afford to write the theme for the game.
Thus, Ma Yiqun put on two hats. He thought about the theme for Repent and be Saved while he worked on Zhongdian Chinese Network.
Now that the initial preparation for the website was more or less complete and Boss Pei was fully supportive, Ma Yiqun felt a lot less stressed.
All of a sudden, Ma Yiqun realized a problem. He had brothers around him. He did not need to fight the battle alone. They could work on Repent and be Saved’s plot together!
When the twenty-odd people found that they had nothing to do, they could think of a plot for Repent and be Saved. The few of them who majored in Chinese, like Zhu Anxing, had a good foundation in ancient Chinese anyway.
According to Boss Pei’s request, Repent and be Saved had to have a huge amount of ancient Chinese riddles and puzzles. Ma Yiqun had to work on all of these on his own. He would be able to complete it, but if he worked on it by himself, the quality would be compromised for sure.
Now that there were so many people there to help him, he could split the workload. Wouldn’t they be acting as a plot team, then?
Ma Yiqun briefly explained the direction for Repent and be Saved’s theme to everybody.
The initial design for the theme was already complete. There would be traditional Chinese scenes and elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancient mythology. They would not emphasize any one element over others. Instead, there would be sprinkles of everything.
It was possible for the game to only have Buddhist-themed scenery. They could even make Sanskrit part of the art resources in the game. However, after some discussion, Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang decided that it would not be appropriate.
Having purely Buddhist-themed scenery would make the entire game cohesive. The style would also be very clear. However, it might not be able to accurately portray the characteristics of ancient China.
In other words, the main point of the game might be obscured.
Buddhism was a foreign religion after all. It was no indigenous enough. It did not bring out traditional China’s style.
That was why Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang decided that they would include elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancient mythology. They would come together to express a unique, traditional Chinese style.
As for whether it would look like a mess of different styles or not…
They did not have to worry. Big Boss Ruan Guangjian would be in charge of curating the style of the game. He would use the epic ink oil painting style to create art resources. Ma Yiqun trusted that the effect would be beautiful.
Chapter 202 - Write Repent and be Saved’s Plot Together!
Repent and be Saved’s story was supposed to take place in an unknown age in ancient China. What used to be a peaceful, harmonious village was suddenly wrecked when more and more people began to lose their souls and become wandering ghouls.
These people slowly lost their memories and sanity. They wandered around subconsciously and attacked the souls of complete humans. On top of this, they were unknowingly drawn towards a faraway place.
In the words of lucky survivors, the road to this faraway place was called the ‘Road to the Underworld’.
According to the elderly in the village, dead people would be captured by the Black and White Impermanence. After that, they would be brought to the netherworld to be judged and punished by Yama, who would then decide if these people could reincarnate and become humans again, soon sending them into the six realms of rebirth and existence or to the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
However, for some reason, the Black and White Impermanence stopped receiving dead people. Thus, regardless of whether they died naturally or were murdered, everyone found themselves on the Road to the Underworld, unable to get to the netherworld.
Instinctively, these wandering ghouls could sense a calling towards the netherworld. Yet, none of them could find the right path to get there. As time went by, they became increasingly tyrannical.
Thus, the mortal world slowly turned into hell.
Players would play the role of the protagonist who was a normal human facing death. The protagonist’s soul was already incomplete. However, mysteriously and inexorably, he felt something in a faraway place faintly calling out to him.
In order to avoid becoming a mindless, wandering ghost; he embarked on a journey to seek out the truth. The protagonist began his journey on the Road to the Underworld and entered the netherworld
with his mortal body.
The game’s flow could generally be split into several parts:
The beginning, which was situated in the mortal village; a town which had been completely overtaken by wandering ghouls; a strategically-placed gate to the netherworld; The Road to the Underworld, which was crowded with wandering, malicious spirits; The River of Three Crossings, which was covered in red spider lilies; The end of the Road to the Underworld, where players would arrive at the River of Forgetfulness and the Bridge of Forgetfulness;
The Home-Viewing Pavilion and the Three-Life-Stone, which were situated by the side of the Bridge of Forgetfulness; Yama’s majestic palace; the unbelievably messy six realms of rebirth and existence; and the bottom-most level of hell…
Apart from these, the bosses in the game would take on characters in Chinese mythology. These would include Mengpo on the Bridge of Forgetfulness, the four great magistrates of hell— Lu Zhidao, Magistrate of ‘Examination and Research’; Zhong Kui, Magistrate of ‘Punishment of Evil’; Wei Zheng, Magistrate of ‘Rewarding Goodness’; and Cui Yu, Magistrate of ‘Implicit Law’ (each was to have purple, green, blue, and orange as their theme colors respectively)—and the ten Yama kings in hell.
According to Boss Pei’s request-each time players died, all the monsters would refresh. Thus, one could find statues of Buddha at regular intervals along the journey to guide them.
Worn-down temples, statues of Buddha, Tudi’s[1] temples, and Tudi’s statues would also be distributed throughout the journey.
Buddha would not appear in the game, but there would be dilapidated statues of Buddha to hint at the legendary Degenerate Age.
The Buddha statues would act as save points, where players could restore previous states and refresh the surroundings beasts. Tudi statues, on the other hand, could be used to collect wandering ghouls from the surroundings. These would increase the character’s skills.
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