I am not a literary giant

Chapter 89 Let the Bullets Fly (Thanks to Alliance Leader Pony)

Ye Lan remained silent for a while, watching as Wang Zixu's eyes closed peacefully. His head slumped back in the chair, slowly softening like a damp pillow.

"Hey, feed."

She shook Prince Xu awake. Prince Xu sniffed loudly, looked up at her groggily, and seemed not to recognize her.

"Unbelievable! You actually fell asleep while chatting with someone!"

"What's wrong?"

Ye Lan softened her voice slightly and said, "If you're really too sleepy, go and get some sleep."

Wang Zixu shook his head. The brief moment of distraction had brought him back to his senses. He rallied and turned to the computer: "I still have to write an essay for this competition. I won't have time tomorrow."

Ye Lan crossed her arms and stared at Wang Zixu typing. Her long legs were spread wide and leaned to the side, her high heels tapping evenly on the ground. After a while, she saw Wang Zixu look up and stare at her.

"what?"

"Um, do you want to go do your thing?"

Ye Lan shrugged: "I'm not busy at all, I really have nothing to do. By the way, I'll be staying here tonight."

Prince Xu was taken aback: "Why?"

"A bunch of grown men, and only a young poet sleeping here, how can anyone feel at ease? Besides, it wouldn't look good if word got out."

The prince thought for a moment and said, "You've considered things very carefully, but I still suggest you find something to do."

Why?

"Your presence here is disrupting my train of thought."

Ye Lan clenched her fist: "Unbelievable, someone with your emotional intelligence actually has a wife."

Prince Xu thought sadly, "Why do they all say that?"

However, if we look at it from another angle, the fact that none of them are married proves that the laws governing the world are logical.

Prince Xu said, "But I do have it."

"goodbye!"

……

【Hello. 】

Qiu Ze: [Hi, miss! ~]

even羽: [Waving.jpg]

Qiu Ze: [I'm your loyal little wolfhound. If you're willing, I can protect you 24/7 and whisper the sweetest love words in your ear. If you want, we can even do some "umm" things. Would you like to spend an hour with me?]

even羽: [Uh, okay...]

Qiu Ze: [Miss, you're not very enthusiastic. Do you not like the "little wolf dog" image? With a flick of my finger, I can transform into a handsome young master or a domineering CEO anytime.]

even羽: [Just... speak normally. I just want to talk to someone. You're my first customer...]

Qiu Ze clicked on the other person's avatar and saw that their VIP experience value was 0, which immediately made him realize what was going on.

"Oh, it's Xiaobai. No wonder, that was a bit too exciting. But today's my lucky day! Watch my amazing moves!"

Qiu Ze rubbed his knuckles and typed into the software:

【I apologize for treating you somewhat like any other ordinary woman earlier. Let me reintroduce myself. I am actually a prince of the Kingdom of Xilin. It's a pleasure to meet you.】

"The other party has cancelled the order. Since the cancellation was made within 15 minutes, it is a no-fault cancellation, and this speech therapy session will not be counted as a charge."

Qiu Ze threw down the mouse and leaned back in his chair in frustration.

A colleague leaned over and asked, "What? Failed again?"

Qiu Ze's face turned bright red: "No, I was just going through the motions and chatting casually. I didn't really demonstrate my skills."

My colleague laughed: "If you were to reveal your true skills to your rivals, wouldn't that be aiding them?"

"That's exactly what I meant!"

Tianxing Media is a medium-sized cultural and entertainment media company located in Donghai City. Its main business scope includes influencer incubation, GG planning, and live-streaming e-commerce.

"Qingyan app" is a newly launched "speech therapy" software.

In other words, "Wen Ai" is the opposite of "Wen Ai".

In the past two months, the two software programs have been locked in a fierce battle—that's an understatement; in reality, "Light Talk" has been utterly defeated and has no chance to fight back.

In order to figure out the enemy's business model and cause some disruption, "Qingyan" planted an undercover agent to become "Wen'ai's" speech therapist and infiltrate the enemy's ranks.

Qiu Ze, with his experience in speech therapy and project operations, was the most suitable candidate. He confidently accepted the task.

Business warfare is often not so mysterious; it often takes place in the simplest form.

Qiu Ze's mission was executed exceptionally smoothly. Last night, he instigated several speech therapists who were not doing well in terms of sales to create a stir and put pressure on the operations team.

His intention was to damage the rival's script section, throw them into disarray, and at the very least, shake the confidence of some speech therapists. Unfortunately, no one took the bait.

He himself suffered the consequences, being removed from the core speech therapist group.

To prove himself, he took several orders today, but they were either canceled or received negative reviews, which made him very discouraged.

A colleague advised, "You should continue to lead the charge. Those speech therapists who followed your lead yesterday were just small fry. If you can persuade the top speech therapists to cause trouble, or even poach them, that would be a tremendous achievement."

Qiu Ze frowned and said, "No, I'm not trusted anymore. I can only contact the worst speech therapists. Even if these people get involved, they can't accomplish anything. Besides, they require speech therapists to complete a positive review within a certain time, otherwise they will be demoted. If my account is demoted again, I will lose my speech therapist qualification."

My colleague said, "Then you'd better take it seriously and show your true abilities."

Qiu Ze stared at the computer screen without speaking, his face flushed red again. He had already used his full skill, but unfortunately, it was useless. "I offered my heart to the bright moon, but the bright moon shone on the gutter."

He was starting to question his life. He had clearly had a good conversation when he was "light-hearted," but when it came to "literary ambiguity," things were completely different, and he couldn't understand why.

Just then, a chat window popped up, and he saw that Wen'ai's operations manager was messaging him.

He rushed over to check.

Huang Da: [Your order has been cancelled again. Do you need me to analyze the reason?]

Qiu Ze typed in the chat box: "Who do you think you are? You think you can tell me what to do?"

He typed halfway through, then pressed the backspace key to delete everything he had just typed.

Because he then realized that he wasn't really working as a speech therapist, listening to their operational analysis and understanding their software strategy would be very beneficial.

Qiu Ze: [Okay. Tell me about it.]

Huang Da: [I checked your speech therapy records in the backend. Have you done speech therapy for other software companies before?]

Qiu Ze: [Yeah, I worked at "Soul Song" for a few days before, but not for long.]

"Soul Song" is the name of another speech therapy software. He deliberately made up a front to avoid suspicion.

Huang Da: [That's right. Your speech therapy methods are all from other companies. Our software is different. Our core competitiveness is the Little Prince script. You should follow the script we've provided.]

Qiu Ze rolled his eyes and typed on the screen: "What fucking little prince?"

His colleague, who had somehow gotten close to him, was watching him try to get information out of the conversation. He quickly stopped him, saying, "Don't be impulsive. It's rude of you. If people see your bad attitude, they might not talk to you anymore. Try to get more information out of them."

Qiu Ze said, "I know, I know, I was just making fun of myself, I wasn't planning to send it to him. I definitely wouldn't make such a silly mistake."

He deleted the previous message and retyped: "I've used scripts before, but I'm not used to them. They feel very out of touch with reality, and users won't like them."

Huang Da: [But users are coming specifically for The Little Prince. If you don't continue learning and get too many cancellations, your speech therapist qualification might be revoked.]

"Cancel your mother..."

Qiu Ze leaned back in his office chair.

My colleague next to me said, "Their entire app is superstitious about The Little Prince, from top to bottom, from operations to speech therapists, they're all superstitious."

Qiu Ze said in a cold tone, "Yes, they're still hyping it up, aren't they? They've invested so much money and so many online trolls to help promote a so-called 'scriptwriter.' It's utterly absurd."

My colleague next to me took a sip of water: "But you have to admit, their data is really impressive."

"The data can be manipulated," Qiu Ze said. "But it doesn't matter, they've used all their assets to hire online trolls. Let's see how long they can hold out."

……

"I can't hold on much longer." Huang Da covered his face and leaned back in his chair, on the verge of collapse.

A colleague came over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Huang Da said, "This speech therapist is completely stubborn. I told him to follow the script, but he wouldn't listen. He even tries to set the pace."

The chat app notification sounded again. Both of them leaned over simultaneously and saw the message the other had sent:

"There aren't that many artsy users; some users just like the 'little wolf dog' or 'little puppy dog' type. Besides, with only one scriptwriter, it definitely won't grow very big. So I don't use scripts."

After reading it, Huang Da's neck turned red, and he suppressed his roar, "Is this something a speech therapist should be thinking about?"

My colleague, holding a water glass, nodded and said, "She really is silly."

Huang Da typed in the chat box: "Your order volume is in the worst tier. You don't need to worry about what users like, or whether our app lives or dies. Just follow the script obediently. Even if you don't improvise, at least you won't get any cancellations..."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Huang Da's colleague stopped him, saying, "Don't say so much. Your tone is so agitated. What if someone takes a screenshot and spreads it around? Just talk to him formally. If he still doesn't listen, it's his own business if his account gets deleted."

There's always a calm person next to every impulsive person, which is why there's always a remedy within ten steps.

Huang Da wasn't an impulsive person. Years of being a corporate slave had been the best whetstone for his character. He calmed himself down, obediently deleted everything he had just typed, and retyped:

[Dear user, based on our user preferences and feedback, it's best for you to use a script. Please keep up the good work!]

Huang Da ended the conversation on his own initiative, and lying back in his chair, he said to his colleague:

"With this level of comprehension, any more orders you take will be canceled, and your account will definitely be deleted."

Qiu Ze stood up from his chair, stretched, and turned to his colleague, saying:

"They're still obsessed with the Little Prince. With this level of management, they're bound to fail."

Wang Zixu sat in a chair and typed into the computer:

My teacher told me that no one is born great, and no one is born mediocre. But my father told me I was destined to be mediocre. Because he's a loan collector. A loan collector can never have a great son, unless I'm not his.

Then he'll remember that I might not actually be his child. So he'll start beating me. He'll beat me until I'm covered in bruises.

I didn't get beaten up every time, because I learned to run away later. At first, he always caught me, and he would say, "See if you can still run, see if you can still run," and then hit me harder. He hoped I would realize that if I didn't run, I wouldn't get beaten harder. If I didn't run and obediently acted as a punching bag, he wouldn't hit me too hard.

Unfortunately, he was clumsy with words. He could neither say "I love you" to my mother nor "Don't run away again" to me. It wasn't until many years later that I finally understood the profound meaning behind his actions.

I was a bit slow-witted back then.

That's why I developed such excellent long-distance running skills.

I would always go out and run along Wangqiao Street towards the riverbank. When I could see the back of the embankment, I would turn left and run along that road to the riverbank at the edge of the city. Then I would lie down among the grass on the riverbank and count the clouds in the sky. That was the happiest moment of my day.

As I ran, I felt the wind gently caressing my cheeks, buildings flashing past my eyes, and people's voices growing clearer and clearer, then fading into the distance. All of this captivated me.

When I get home, my father usually squats in the dark room, covering his face and crying. I turn on the light for him and say, "Dad, I'm home."

He never answers.

One day, I ran away from home again. I thought I heard my homeroom teacher calling my name, but I didn't stop. The next day, my homeroom teacher called me into his office. I thought he was going to talk about respecting teachers, but what he said surprised me:

"You have great potential in track and field. Our sports school coach is very interested in you. Would you like to train with him in long-distance running?"

I hesitated.

Actually, I really wanted to say yes. The reason I hesitated was because of one person.

My mother told me—and that was a long time ago—that as long as you love someone very, very much, your life will be saved. Later I found out that the person she loved wasn't my father. Therefore, my father doesn't love me either. I don't love my father either. We hate each other.

My mom used to hate my dad too, but then she fell in love with someone else, found the antidote, and left, leaving my dad and me to hate each other. I not only hate my dad, I also hate my bald history teacher, I hate my bad-mouthed deskmate, I hate everyone equally.

We were so hopeless that we believed some people were born mediocre, destined to rot and stink in some unnoticed corner. Until I met her in this class. She became my reason for refusing to go to the sports school.

Her name is Chen Qingluo...

...Prince Xu covered his face and rubbed it vigorously before he came to his senses.

He groggily looked into the dimly lit living room and saw a child's shadowy figure standing near the coffee table, looking remarkably like himself when he was young. He turned on the light, and the child vanished.

He returned to his computer, first deleting the three words "Chen Qingluo," and then deleting the entire paragraph.

It was 6:45 p.m.

get off work.

The five hours after get off work are often the peak time for user engagement metrics. New users who have downloaded the app in the last three days will ultimately decide whether to retain them. This is a decisive moment.

He'd done all he could. All he had to do now was wait. Wait for the bullet to hit the bullseye.

(End of this chapter)