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Chapter 491 0481 [Flying to Ireland]

Tao Xue has always had a literary dream, but not the traditional kind of literature.

She started writing novels on Qidian.com during her freshman year of college.

She's written all sorts of genres—historical, fantasy, xianxia, ​​and fan fiction—and all of them are male-oriented. She's inconsistent in her writing, abandoning over ten books in total, and the two that were completed are suspected of having terrible endings.

The girl finally realized that she was not suited to writing long novels of millions of words, so she decisively went to Jinjiang to write female-oriented novels.

Given her skills honed on Qidian's male-oriented platform, she surprisingly maintained a relatively fast update speed on Jinjiang. Moreover, it took her nearly a million words to complete, which is considered quite long on Jinjiang.

The novel is called "Silk Road Smoke and Dust," a typical female-centric story.

The female protagonist was originally a princess of Loulan, while there were several male protagonists. However, her first love was a member of Zhang Qian's mission, a guy who came from a wandering knight-errant background.

The female protagonist is forced to marry the crown prince of Wusun and navigates the complex relationships between various powers, including the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu, Wusun, and Loulan.

The main villain is the "Xiongnu woman" recorded in the Book of Han, Chapter on the Western Regions. This Xiongnu woman gave birth to the second prince, Dalu, for the King of Wusun.

The female protagonist gave birth to the crown prince's grandson, Junxumi, but unfortunately, the crown prince died of illness. The villainous Xiongnu woman then instigated the king to install the second prince instead. The female protagonist, along with her son (the crown prince), amassed a powerful army, while the king and the Xiongnu woman also held their own power, effectively splitting the entire Wusun into three parts.

The overall framework largely respects historical facts.

The climax of the novel occurs during Zhang Qian's second mission to Wusun, where the female protagonist reunites with her first love. The Han Dynasty wants to form an alliance with Wusun, but the Xiongnu woman sabotages the effort. Persuaded by her first love, the female protagonist supports Zhang Qian, leading to a successful alliance between Wusun and the Han Dynasty.

The heroine's son marries Princess Xijun of the Han Dynasty at the end of the story.

The heroine's first love returns to Chang'an to escort Princess Xijun to a marriage alliance, and the former lovers reunite under the Gobi Desert sunset.

Some parts of this novel are quite melodramatic, and the political intrigue is a bit naive. But in the Wusun Kingdom at that time, political intrigue was indeed rather naive; everything depended on hard power. The female protagonist had tens of thousands of followers left behind by her deceased husband!

The description of the Western Regions is quite wonderful. Tao Xue even made a special trip to the Gobi Desert, grasslands, and other deserts, and visited several museums as well.

Tao Xue's "Silk Road Smoke and Dust" ranked in the top three of Jinjiang VIP Gold List for three consecutive months. Its main competitors are "The Story of Minglan" and "Legend of Fuyao" (the novel that inspired the TV series "Legend of Fuyao").

"Have you finished reading my novel?" Tao Xue asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Your update speed is too slow. I stopped reading after Zhang Qian's second mission to Wusun. I'll wait until you finish writing before I read it."

Tao Xue slumped in the back seat, saying weakly, "The last few tens of thousands of words have drained me of all my energy. I dream about it every day, and I haven't left the house for half a month. I feel like I'll die if I don't finish writing it soon."

"Haha, you're a great writer now," Chen Guiliang laughed.

Tao Xue said, "I'm only famous on Jinjiang Literature City and Tieba. If you ask anyone on Qidian, they've never heard of my novel. Do you want to buy the copyright? Several publishing and film companies have contacted me."

Chen Guiliang said, "Buy it. I'll get you physical novels, comics, and TV series all at once. From now on, when you attend events, we can call you Teacher Tao."

"Whee!"

Tao Xue laughed triumphantly.

Chen Guiliang asked, "So, how exactly did you end up hanging out with Xu Fengyin?"

Tao Xue said, "When I was stuck with writer's block, I often browsed the forums for my novels and saw that some readers were drawing character comics for me. I felt that their drawings were not good enough, so I contacted Xu Fengyin to help me draw them. She is your top artist. Xu Fengyin is now my fan and a fan of the novel. She especially likes 'Silk Road Smoke and Dust'."

“I quite like it too,” Chen Guiliang joked, “especially the scene where the female lead and her first love are riding horses and stop at the oasis to have sex. The sex scenes are really explicit, and the website’s censorship is quite lenient.”

Tao Xue said speechlessly, "You're treating this as pornography, aren't you?"

Chen Guiliang looked completely innocent: "Isn't it Huang Wen?"

"roll!"

Tao Xue was furious.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Shall we go for Western food?"

Tao Xue said, "I want to eat authentic Sichuan cuisine. I'm sick of eating takeout for the past two weeks."

"Okay." Chen Guiliang drove to his usual Sichuan restaurant.

Tao Xue said, "Your publishing company doesn't have a comics business, but Xu Fengyin has already helped me find an artist."

Chen Guiliang said, "Then let's poach the illustrator. The company has other works that need to be adapted into comics. If you remove the sex scenes from your novel, its values ​​are quite positive, and it aligns with the main theme of ethnic integration. It can definitely be adapted into an animated series and broadcast on a children's channel."

Tao Xue muttered, "Once I get all the copyright fees, I can buy a house in Beijing. Humph, I'll buy it with my own money!"

“I know you’re amazing, the renowned writer Teacher Tao,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile. “What are you planning to do next, Teacher Tao?”

Tao Xue said blankly, "I don't know either. After finishing this novel, it feels like my soul has been emptied out. I just want to lie at home and do nothing. I probably won't write another novel for at least six months."

"No rush, let's play for a while longer," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Xue suddenly had an idea: "I'll use the royalties to buy a car, get a driver's license first, and then drive around traveling. I'll contact my high school and college classmates, and go to whichever city they live in."

"You're only allowed to invite female classmates," Chen Guiliang reminded them.

Tao Xue laughed and said, "I'm going to ask a male classmate out, just to spite you!"

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm very petty. If you piss me off, you'll regret it." "Haha, are you jealous of thin air?" Tao Xue became happy for no reason. She liked it when Chen Guiliang was jealous of her.

Upon arriving at the Sichuan restaurant, the two found a corner seat and sat down.

Tao Xue ate with gusto, her mouth greasy and her appetite dripping, as if she hadn't eaten for three days. After finishing, she took out her phone to buy movie tickets.

She used Chen Guiliang's Mtime app to book tickets, and after browsing through movies for a while, she said, "Pirates of the Caribbean 4 won't be released for a few more days. There's also Fast & Furious 5. Is that series any good? I haven't seen the previous ones."

Chen Guiliang said, "Popcorn movies are quite entertaining if you don't think too much about them."

"Then let's look at this one. I don't need to think right now." Tao Xue immediately bought two tickets.

The movie started early, so the two wandered around for a while before heading to the cinema to get their tickets and take their seats. Chen Guiliang wore a hat the entire time to avoid being recognized.

These days, Hollywood movies don't follow the political correctness stuff; popcorn movies are just for fun.

The screening room was packed, and the atmosphere was very lively.

Chen Guiliang had already called Bian Guanyue and stayed at Tao Xue's rented room that night.

This girl rented a high-end apartment with two bedrooms and a living room, but she hardly ever used the kitchen, ordering takeout all day long.

……

Late May.

ByteDance's stock price has finally stopped falling; it had dropped by nearly $40 in total due to Jack Ma's actions.

The situation is similar for Baidu, Sina, and Sohu.

Tudou.com is in particularly bad shape. The problems caused by Wang Wei have severely impacted investor confidence, and the company is also facing the issue of Alipay being separated from its VIE structure. Currently, its stock price has fallen by more than 50% below its issue price.

Several major venture capital shareholders urged Wang Wei to come up with a solution.

No way.

Chen Guiliang flew to Ireland without making a sound, taking Tao Xue, who had nothing to do and didn't know what to do, with him.

Youke's European headquarters has been established, and employee recruitment has been completed. The game server has also been set up, and the English version of "Oracle Era" has been completed.

However, the channels are not yet perfect, so we can only proceed slowly.

The upcoming European release of "Oracle Era" will initially only be available for online advertising, such as on Facebook and the Dota community.

"Mr. Chen! Ms. Tao!"

The person in charge of picking them up at the airport was Shen Lin, the vice president of Youke's European headquarters.

As for the CEO, he was a foreigner recruited through a headhunter. There was no other way; forcibly sending a Chinese person to be in charge of the European market would most likely result in cultural differences and difficulties adapting.

The president of Youke Europe is Sean Bauer, a 38-year-old German, who was formerly the European operations director for Zynga (an American social gaming company). His annual salary is exceptionally high!

Besides Vice President Shen Lin, the Chinese personnel assigned here also included financial staff and technical staff.

Shen Lin drove them to Silicon Harbor, pointing to nearby buildings and saying, "Because Ireland has low tax rates, many tech giants have their European headquarters here. The Gordon Building next door is Google's European headquarters. Facebook's new address is also on Barrow Street. And there are Twitter, LinkedIn, and other companies..."

"There are so many strong people here," Chen Guiliang remarked.

Shen Lin said, "The EU is very dissatisfied with Ireland. Every now and then, they make some comments, complaining that Ireland has taken away all the big companies. The problem is that their tax rates are too high, especially in France, where corporate taxes account for one-third of the total."

Chen Guiliang asked, "How is the work progressing?"

Shen Lin said, "The president we recruited is quite capable. He used to be in charge of Zynga's European operations and has certain channel resources. He's not currently with the company; he's personally traveling to the UK, France, and Germany to contact companies he's worked with before and try to improve Youke's distribution and promotion channels in Europe."

"When will you be back?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Shen Lin said, "In the next few days."

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll spend a few days in Ireland. When he returns to the company, I'll treat him to dinner and we'll chat. What's this person like?"

Shen Lin laughed and said, "A German who loves to tell jokes. Every time he tells a joke, I don't know what's so funny, but he complains that I have no sense of humor."

“Then next time you can tell him that the Germans buried oil-paper packets in the sewers of our Qingdao. Whenever there is a problem with the sewers, you can open the oil-paper packets from a hundred years ago and fix it,” Chen Guiliang said.

Shen Lin laughed heartily: "President Chen's jokes are much funnier; I can understand them immediately."

Tao Xue asked, "What are some fun places to visit in Ireland? Are there any medieval castles?"

Shen Lin said, "I really don't know. Since arriving in Ireland, I've been busy with work for the past few months, and I've been so stressed that I haven't had time to play. I can help you contact a tour guide. Do you want a local guide, or a Chinese student?"

“A local tour guide, the professional kind,” Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Xue said, "I would choose one with a historical feel. I especially like medieval European castles."

(End of this chapter)