I am not a literary giant

Chapter 129 The Mountain Moon Chronicle

Wang Zixu put the earpiece into his ear and "feed" twice. Ye Lan's voice came through the earpiece:

"Little Prince, keep going! Don't let life defeat you! You're the best!"

The prince was taken aback: "How come it's you?"

Ye Lan said, "Let me borrow your channel to cheer you on. I've come up with a slogan: 'Dry up and speak lightly, let literature and camaraderie endure forever.' What do you think?"

"It's not very good, it doesn't even rhyme."

"Then think of one."

Zuo Ziliang's voice interrupted, "Stop fooling around, you're about to get connected. Let me remind you one last time: even if the whole world forgets you, don't be a quietly rotting pomelo."

Wang Zixu knew he was speaking in code, reminding himself not to let his wife's situation affect him. Wang Zixu smiled silently; this bald man possessed a delicate sensibility that didn't match his appearance.

"What kind of pomelo?"

In comparison, Ye Lan is much more careless and sloppy.

"Alright, alright, to reiterate, all you need to do is announce our new contract," Zuo Ziliang said. "You can also use your idol-level influence to your advantage."

"I understand."

"It's time to begin," Zuo Ziliang said.

"Slay the frivolous, and let Wen'ai live on forever!" Ye Lan shouted from the side.

Zuo Ziliang finally grew tired of Ye Lan's utterly uncultured slogan and shouted over her, "Strike the snake at its vital point, defeat the enemy in one move."

Then, the channel fell silent.

Prince Xu took a deep breath.

……

Two weeks ago, Wen'ai app encountered its most disgusting competitor since its inception: Qingyan.

When faced with a formidable script team, Qingyan employed an old but effective tactic, which can be summed up in one word: piracy.

They organized several top speech therapists from the Qingyan team to register accounts on Wen'ai.

The script for The Little Prince was distributed in bulk to all the speech therapists, who would receive the script and immediately start chatting on it.

Qingyan provides traffic support to these speech therapists, allowing them to receive more promotion on Qingyan. For them, Qingyan allows them to benefit from both sides, while for Qingyan, it's like snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

Not only that, Qingyan also sent its editors to poach talent day and night. Any Wen'ai speech therapist who had ever been on the list was poached, with promises of traffic support, daily sales promotion, and much more money than they would have earned at Wen'ai.

In the last few days, at least 15 out of the top 20 sellers on Qingyan's daily sales chart are using Little Prince's script. Moreover, these people also have accounts on Wen'ai, and they are taking orders on Wen'ai simultaneously, just like driving for a ride-hailing service, switching between several platforms with one car.

Real business warfare is this simple and straightforward. Not only did they casually suggest doing this, but several new voice therapy software companies followed suit, and The Little Prince's script became the industry bible.

During that period, Zuo Ziliang and Ye Lan calculated the profits and found that Qingyan's net profit was almost as high as theirs. This was because all the costs were passed on to Wen Ai.

In other words, they painstakingly trained speech therapists and built script teams, only to have the lion's share of the profits taken by Qingyan.

Who could stand this?

The key issue is that this kind of behavior is difficult to prevent. If Wen Ai doesn't distribute scripts to all speech therapists, they will lose their core competitive advantage; if they spend time identifying who is truly loyal to Wen Ai and who is a spy, it will consume a lot of manpower and increase personnel expenses.

Meanwhile, piracy is virtually costless for those who prefer to spread rumors: even a single spy could sneak in and obtain all the scripts for the day. Text is cheap in the digital age, and people can forward it to everyone in the blink of an eye.

Qingyan has now become a festering sore that's sucking blood from Wen'ai; it's time to burst it today.

Wang Zixu's countermeasure was also simple: upgrade the existing contracts for speech therapists.

They drafted a new standard contract; the original contract was called "Level A Contract," while the new contract was named "Level S Contract."

Starting today, only speech therapists with an "S-signature" will be able to receive the new script and will be eligible to receive training. Platform traffic resources will also be allocated to speech therapists with an "S-signature".

S-signed contracts have higher requirements for speech therapists. In addition to monthly sales exceeding 1200 (this figure is calculated and is not too high, but the profit is enough to cover script expenses), S-signed speech therapists are not allowed to sign contracts with other similar companies, otherwise they will be subject to hefty penalties for breach of contract.

Meanwhile, the script for The Little Prince will be circulated as internal material, with its own confidentiality clause. If it is leaked through forwarding, and verified, the individual will face legal action.

This move is like striking at the heart of the problem, defeating the enemy in one fell swoop.

The new contract doesn't directly solve the "piracy" problem. With enough effort, Qingyan might be able to train a speech therapist to obtain an S-level visa. Sending this therapist to engage in literary and artistic pursuits could benefit countless families.

However, this speech therapist must have the following characteristics: sufficient loyalty to Qingyan, willingness to take legal action for Qingyan, indifference to the traffic support from Wen Ai S Sign, and willingness to sacrifice for the cause of Qingyan, even if it means only receiving a minimum living allowance, and distributing exclusive scripts to others free of charge.

In a capitalist society, if it's easy to find such a loyal person, then Wang Zixu and Zuo Ziliang would have nothing to say but to sue the other party.

Moreover, even if there were another selfless fire-stealer like Cheng Xing in the world, it wouldn't help the overall situation. Because the new contract excludes non-compete clauses, apart from the few top speech therapists who have already dominated the top, the vast majority of middle and lower-level speech therapists have no reason to stay at Qingyan.

What's the use of having a script if there's no speech therapist?

Before they can even think of a solution, they will fall into a vicious cycle where a lack of speech therapists leads to decreased traffic, and decreased traffic leads to the loss of speech therapists.

Of course, this approach is easier said than done; it's not as simple as it sounds.

In the past, when Wen'ai was smaller, they simply wouldn't have been qualified to issue such a contract. For a small, unknown company, issuing such a contract would be suicidal; who would be so foolish as to create trouble for themselves? They would face resistance from all speech therapists in the industry.

But in the past two weeks, Wen'ai Company's situation has undergone a complete transformation. With the release of the new Little Prince, the traffic of the Wen'ai app has been soaring. Now, their only concern is the shortage of speech therapists, not a lack of traffic.

In this situation, only a fool wouldn't sign the S visa. There might be boycotts, but as long as the online buzz doesn't decline, boycotts will be futile.

Zuo Ziliang specifically asked Prince Xu to announce the decision in person for this reason: in order to minimize the emotions of the speech therapists, having the little prince himself say it might be the best choice.

After the believer disconnected the channel, he came down excitedly and said to the others:

"How did I do?"

"Not very good," Sakura said. "Especially the last sentence, it's completely unnecessary."

The believer, enraged, exclaimed: "Those comments are outrageous! Shouldn't we have spoken out in support?"

No one cares about him.

Xiao Ba said, "Let's not talk about that. The new contract is about to be announced. Do you want to sign the S-contract?"

Everyone remained silent for a while.

As members of the Wen'ai Club, several speech therapists were among the first to learn about the new contract, and they even offered some opinions on it.

Sakura said, "Sign it. I don't use other apps, so the terms won't affect me."

The believer said, "I also plan to sign."

Xiao Ba said, "But, won't the company be able to control me in the future?...

His concerns were not unfounded. The company had its own considerations. While the various support measures offered by the S-signing were tempting, the issue of not being able to easily relocate in the future had to be taken into account, and nobody wanted to be entangled in lawsuits.

The poet said, "I've studied it. The contract is only for one year, and you are free to decide whether to renew it after it expires."

"One year. We can afford to wait, right?" Xiao Ba said.

The believer said, "Listen to what the Little Prince has to say."

Although The Little Prince is also a senior executive in the company, he always gives people the feeling that he is more like a speech therapist than a manager.

Wang Zixu stared at the draft in front of him, which simply listed the key points of his speech and various data.

This content was what he had asked Huang Da to prepare, and he had also polished it himself, but now, facing the barrage of comments and watching the scrolling text on it, he suddenly changed his mind.

He closed the folder.

Outside the glass curtain wall, Huang Da froze.

"Hello everyone, I am... the Little Prince," said Prince Xu. "Now it's my turn to speak."

His voice was compressed and converted into electromagnetic signals, which then propagated at the speed of light to various terminals.

Ning Chunyan sat up straight on the sofa.

"I had prepared a short speech with some very important points on it, about money, revenue, traffic, contracts, and other business matters. But before I say those things, I'd like to say something less important first."

These words have nothing to do with anyone else; they only concern myself.

"When Zuo Ziliang, the boss of Wen'ai Company, found me, it was the most desperate time of my life."

Backstage, in another workroom, Ye Lan and Zuo Ziliang exchanged a glance.

A deep sense of fear surfaced in Ye Lan's eyes.

What is he saying? This is not what we agreed on!

Moreover, how could the Little Prince despair?

As if in response to her, Prince Xu continued, "I'm sorry to show you my vulnerable side, but I promised someone I would be honest. So I'm telling you here that I was in extreme despair before I wrote what is called 'The Little Prince's Love Letters'."

"I live in a very small place. China is very big, and the earth is very big, but my living area is very narrow, not much bigger than planet B612 where the Little Prince lives. Just one blind bastard tree is enough to destroy the whole planet."

"There was a Japanese writer named Atsushi Nakajima who wrote a short story called 'The Moon Over the Mountain.' The protagonist in that story wanted to become famous through poetry but never succeeded. In the end, he went mad with jealousy and turned into a tiger."

"I was deeply afraid that I was not a beautiful jade, so I dared not work hard to polish myself, yet I also half believed that I was a beautiful jade, so I refused to live a mediocre life and associate with rubble. So I gradually detached myself from the mortal world and distanced myself from people, and as a result, I let resentment and shame grow stronger and stronger in my weak self-esteem." That was my state at that time.

"But if a person has never succeeded, how can he believe that he is a gem? If he is not understood by anyone, how can he prevent his self-esteem from becoming a fragile piece of paper? If this world is made of baobab trees, what other choice do we have besides living in the trees?"

"At that time, I split into more than a dozen selves, attacking and criticizing each other. I hoped that in the fierce struggle with myself, a winner would emerge and let the winner decide everything. However, only unattainable ideals and inseparable desires survived."

"Ideals pull my spine, reality drags my wings. I either crawl on the ground or sink upright, twisted between the two forces. That's why I'm desperate. What kept me going back then was an incredibly faint hope, and even that hope felt like self-deception. I don't know if I could survive without deceiving myself, but I know I almost turned into a tiger."

"But even in my most desperate moments, I did not become a parasite. It is laughable to ride a worn-out horse and take a windmill as an enemy, but it is pathetic to leech off others."

"I'm not saying this to reminisce about past hardships. What I want to say is that some people are stealing my work and illegally using it for other purposes. Whether my work is good or bad, it is something that has been refined through a series of painful experiences. It is a part of me, and I don't want anyone to continue to steal it."

"You may not believe in yourself, but don't distort others; that's not kind. I don't know if my words can awaken the goodwill in those who steal scripts, but I know that a written contract is probably more effective."

"That brings us to the second topic, the more important one: we're going to roll out a new contract..."

Hearing this, Ye Lan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, we've finally steered the conversation back on track. I thought he was about to explode."

She patted her chest, turned to look at Zuo Ziliang, and found his eyes shining.

"That's fantastic," Zuo Ziliang said. "This is much better than just dryly reading from a script."

"what?"

Ye Lan turned to look at Huang Da, only to find that he was also very excited: "I don't know if it will work, but I'm definitely encouraged."

"what?"

Zuo Ziliang said, "Our biggest risk is that the speech therapists are not satisfied with the new contract, and the results are mediocre. I think even a little bit of that would make the speech therapists more inclined to side with us."

After saying that, he turned to look at Ye Lan: "The essence of business is not simply the exchange of money, but more importantly, trust and confidence."

"Uh..." Ye Lan looked speechless.

It wasn't that she didn't believe Zuo Ziliang's words; she just felt that the way he said them sounded off.

She didn't believe that Wang Zixu thought the same way. It seemed to her that Zuo Ziliang was using the naive Wang Zixu to gain sympathy and create momentum!

Of course, the effect is indeed not bad.

On Xiao Ning's humble phone, the live stream comments scrolled endlessly like a river, and there was also a group chat on the dual-screen mode, with messages constantly scrolling.

"This is the Little Prince of my dreams."

"It breaks my heart to hear that."

"Waaah, little prince, please accept my order! I need to transfer the money to you!"

"..." Ning Chunyan stared blankly, somewhat bewildered.

She felt a weight lifted from her heart: although she still didn't know who the Little Prince really was, how old he was, whether he was married, or whether he was handsome... at least, he was a man.

It's enough for her that they aren't of the same sex.

only……

Ning Chunyan rubbed her eyes.

Why does this voice and the way it's spoken keep reminding me of someone I know?

(End of this chapter)