I will never give in to Miss Death

"Uh……"

Pipi was silent for a moment: "Why did their funding chain break?"

"That's a lot of situations."

The bald man smiled bitterly. "For example, their parent company packages computer parts. One day, they receive a large order and spend money to place an order with a factory. Something goes wrong with the factory, causing the order to be delayed or breached. Or the downstream company fails to pay after the order is shipped. Or the company itself makes a major mistake in decision-making. All of these can cause the capital chain to break."

"Yaedo isn't a small website, is it?"

Jiang Wei continued, "I remember that the number one novel before the website closed had over 300,000 subscriptions every month. Counting us, the top ten authors alone must have made millions, right? Isn't that enough?"

"not enough."

The bald man shrugged. "You may not know this, but the management has been considering whether to cut editorial salaries half a year ago. The website can't even afford to run ads, and it's already very difficult for you authors to receive regular royalties. Yaedo was in trouble a year ago, and it's only managed to survive this year thanks to the transfusion from its parent company."

As he spoke, the bald man seemed to notice me next to Pi Pi, and asked curiously: "Pi Pi, your daughter is this big already?"

"Why do they all say it's my daughter? My daughter just learned to walk."

Pipi walked behind me and grabbed my shoulders with both hands: "My pen name is Uncle Loves Lolita. Does your editorial department have any impression of it?"

"Uncle loves loli? The one below Elodie's editor? The uncle who never fails to update 2000 words a day?"

"She is the one."

"so small?"

The bald man walked up to me and asked, "Are you Uncle Love Loli?"

I raised my hand awkwardly and said hello: "Hello..."

My previous editor at Yaedo was called Elodie, but I’m not sure whether she was a man or a woman, because I had no plans to develop in this direction at the time, so communication with the editor was limited to daily work, such as when to put the book on the shelves, when I wanted to modify a chapter, or asking the editor to correct typos in the backend, and the editor’s responses to me were generally “hmm,” “ah,” “oh,” “very good,” etc.

As for the editor-in-chief and other senior executives, I don’t know any of them.

"One time during a morning meeting, Elodie mentioned you to me, saying that this author has a certain talent but is not very good at updating. She wanted to recommend you, but it was difficult to do so because she was not sure whether you would update more..."

As we were talking, the authors who took another elevator also arrived at the tenth floor and quickly found us in Room 1002.

"Why is it so desolate?"

Apacha, who came in first, looked around the huge office that was several hundred square meters in size and full of various items piled up on the ground and garbage, and asked, "Where are the people?"

Pipi turned around and said, "He ran away."

"You can run away with this? Aren't there so many things here?"

Apacha walked over to several large boxes and opened one of them. "Wow, so many sauerkraut beef noodles?"

The bald man said calmly: "If you want to eat it, you can take it back. They don't want it anymore."

"No, no, no, I don't want to eat this. My stomach will feel uncomfortable if I eat instant noodles."

"So did we really come here for nothing?"

The Cockroach Bully also came in with his little brother "Venom Fang" and said, "Hey, Pikachu, we came here because you said we could get the royalties."

Pipi turned around and said, "I didn't say I would definitely get it."

Jitu Tonglong thought for a moment and asked, “Is there any case in history where an author could get his royalties back after a website went bankrupt?”

"Yes, we can sue with the contract and apply for the execution of breach of trust to force the boss to pay, but the process of defending rights is very long. If you have any ideas, we will prepare to find a lawyer in the next two days."

The bald man sat down on an office chair with a clang: "Several of our editors haven't received their salaries yet."

"Find a lawyer to sue? Are you kidding me?"

The cockroach bully twitched his lips: "You mean I still need to find a house to live in Kamihama City and prepare for a long-term battle?"

“Aren’t you all writers?”

The bald man picked up the pen on the table and turned it around. "It doesn't matter where a writer writes, right? Besides, I, the former editor-in-chief of Yaedo, and the former editors live here to help and guide us. Face-to-face communication is much faster than asking an editor to help you read a book on QQ, right?"

"No, no, no, this is different. I don't have any feelings for Kamihama, and I have a girlfriend. I have to take the bus back tonight."

The cockroach bully looked around at the authors who were coming over one after another and asked: "Are you planning to stay here to defend your rights?"

Many people shook their heads, and some almost blurted out: "One or two months of royalties are not worth it. If I had that much time, my new book would have passed its new book period, and I would have put it on the shelves to get the royalties in the second month."

"Yes, I don't know if the lawsuit can be won in a month or two. I heard that financial disputes like this take a long time."

"We may not win the case, and we authors did not sign a labor contract."

"I didn't have high hopes in the first place, so if it doesn't work out, forget it, just treat it as a trip."

Obviously, most people do not intend to resolve the matter through legal means, and they did not have any hope of recovering their royalties before coming here, so they were not too sad when they heard that they might not get their royalties back.

In fact, many authors, including myself, have already gotten used to it.

It is inevitable that freelancers like novelists will have large fluctuations in their royalties. Sometimes, after writing a book, you can earn tens of thousands of yuan a month in royalties. Sometimes, during the off-season, when everyone is back to school and no one is reading books, and your book is not recommended, it is normal for your royalties to drop from ten thousand yuan to two or three thousand yuan.

After finishing one book, I started a new one. During the first period of the new book's tens of thousands of words, I couldn't see any results and I couldn't earn any income. I gritted my teeth and wrote for a month until the first recommendation. If the data was really bleak, I had to continue writing new books.

During the one or two months when a new book is published, the author does not have any income. If you are very unlucky and a new book fails, then you change your alias and write another one, and it fails again. It is normal to have no income for two or three months.

In this industry, even the editors themselves cannot guarantee that every book written by the authors they train will make money. They can only give a general direction. After all, if writing a book that appeals to readers is so easy, experienced editors would have quit their jobs long ago to write books and make money, without having to stick to a salary of several thousand yuan a month.

Therefore, most authors have always been accustomed to the situation of "one meal full and one meal hungry" - since it takes several months to defend their rights for one month's royalties, and there are a lot of troubles to deal with, why don't I use the time to defend my rights to start a new book?

In addition, there are sensitive words in the novel today, and this content is not allowed to be written tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, a book under the name will be removed from the shelves for violating some new censorship standards. The authors' attitude towards life is basically... numb.

In a sense, this is also a group that is particularly vulnerable to bullying.

"I am just providing an idea for recovering your royalties. Whether or not to defend your rights is of course up to you."

Facing these more than 30 authors, the bald man said he didn't have any particularly good solutions: "I haven't received my salary for March and April yet. Let's discuss it. Those who are willing to stay and defend their rights can find a lawyer together in the next few days and prepare relevant materials. If you are not willing, I can't do anything about it."

"Oh, by the way, are you all the best-selling authors on the list? I heard from Pipi that most of the authors here are owed tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan in royalties. Are there any small authors? For example, those whose royalties are only one or two thousand yuan?"

"Yes, I have."

After hearing what the bald man said, most of the authors turned their eyes to me: "She was captured by Pikachu to be a mascot."

How did I become a mascot?

"Oh, uncle, I almost forgot."

The bald man walked up to me and asked, "How much did you get for your manuscripts in March and April?"

"The March one has been sent out, and as for the April one, I checked it on April 25th and estimated that there should be more than a thousand."

I roughly calculated in my mind: "It should be 1,300 or 1,400 yuan?"

"It's easy for just over a thousand dollars."

After looking around, the bald man walked to several large boxes in the corner.

"Here are all the computer parts they don't want. You can pick any to pay off your debt."

No. 032 Lucky items are small skirts, stockings and crime and punishment

Just as the editor-in-chief Bald Man said, the "Shenbin Network Technology Co., Ltd." which used to specialize in computer accessories is now deserted. The desks are all crooked, some have water cups on them, some drawers still have unused napkins, and all kinds of cargo boxes and shelves are scattered here and there, making it a mess.

The floor was littered with messy footprints and documents with contracts or terms printed on them could be seen everywhere. The whole office felt as if it had suddenly encountered a disaster and everyone had gone back to their own homes.

They hadn't even disconnected the water dispenser in the corner, which still had a big bucket of water to drink.

Logically speaking, in a company that has "filed for bankruptcy", anyone can take anything from the office. Even if you don't take it, if the boss doesn't pay the rent after a few days, the cleaning lady will come and take it away. If you really can't get any royalties, it's really a good choice to take some valuable props back from here, but...

I...what do I need computer parts for?

I want money!

Whether it's cash that I can touch, or a string of numbers in Alipay, WeChat, or a bank card, it's all fine. What I need now is money to pay the rent and live!

"Don't just stand there, come and move here."

At the signal of the bald editor-in-chief, Pipi, Marisa's Iron Butt and I walked towards that corner. Pipi took the initiative to carry out several large boxes and put them aside.

"I asked the security guards here, and they said the employees here stopped coming to work two days ago. They don't want these things."

The bald editor casually took out a few beautiful girl standees that seemed to be used as gifts and sighed, "I will continue to defend the rights of the authors who stayed. If there are any discarded items involved, I will help deal with them."

"What are these?"

"Marisa's Iron Butt" Jiang Wei casually opened a box and took out something that looked like a scroll. He raised it above his head and let the scroll fall down with a "clatter" to form a picture: "Cat-eared girl?"

“It’s dog ears.”

The bald editor-in-chief glanced at the portrait and said, "They are going to create a virtual image of Yaedou's poster girl, Ms. Hina."

"Why do they create avatars? To debut as idols?"

"Yes, to attract traffic to the novel website. This bitch is the first version of the image they have designed. The paintings have been customized. Hasn't the website held several lucky draws before? These paintings were originally planned to be used as consolation prizes during an event on May 1st, Labor Day, where the author would update more frequently and readers would give them rewards."

The bald editor-in-chief pulled out a few more large boxes, walked a few steps inside, and then picked up a package that looked very heavy: "Found it."

Pippi leaned forward and asked, "What is this?"

"The mobile hard drives are all new. A good friend of mine who works here told me that when they left, they didn't take away a box of hard drives here. They can be used to pay the manuscript fee for this little sister."

The bald editor-in-chief glanced at me and said, "Twenty mobile hard drives, both 1T and 2T. The purchase price was over yuan. If I sell them, I can probably get back or yuan. Unfortunately, they are not graphics cards."

"Wait a minute."

Pipi frowned: "Are you going to give this to Nuoer as payment for his writing?"

"Or else?"

The editor-in-chief smiled bitterly: "A 2TB mobile hard drive costs about yuan now. It should be enough to bring her five. Her royalties are relatively small, so let's deal with them first, and then we will go find a lawyer to discuss the overdue royalties."

Then, the bald man walked further inside and found a small backpack and a bag of clothes on a shelf.

"And this is also a prize, but it seems to be only suitable for girls... Girl, take this back as a consolation prize."

What are these?

I took the backpack from the bald man and carefully opened the bag.

A uh... well, very girly round rabbit backpack.

The backpack is very small, and it seems that it can't even hold a large dictionary of idioms. It should only be suitable for carrying things when going out. The main colors are pink and white, with two rabbit ears on the top. When you open the zipper, you can see that the inside is very sturdy and there is no interlayer, but it is really cute.

"Do you think this style of bag is suitable for me?"

I cast inquiring looks at the editor-in-chief, Jiang Wei, and Pipi.

As I looked at them, they all nodded in unison.

I repeated, “Is it suitable?”

“It fits perfectly.”

Pipi said confidently, turning to the bald man: "Why is there such a girly thing here?"

"It's also a prize. Don't underestimate this bag. It's made by a big company. It can be used for ten years without any problems. It's just too small."

The bald man helped me open the bag of clothes and took out a nightgown that seemed to be the same color as the bag: "Take this back with you too. If you leave it here, it will probably be stolen by the cleaning lady in a few days."

"What is this?"

I took the clothes and looked at them roughly: "Why are there matching socks..."

Like the rabbit bag, this nightgown is mainly pink and white. It is also an off-shoulder style with short sleeves and a short skirt. There is a big hole at the shoulder position. On the chest are a pair of eyes like Kyubey from "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", and under the eyes is a "W"-shaped mouth like a small animal. A pair of pink rabbit ears hang down to the back at the collar on both sides of the neck, which is very cute.

In addition, this clothing set also contains a pair of pink and white striped over-the-knee socks, which shocked me as I am still a middle-aged man at heart.

"It's a sample, just like the bunny bag. They seemed to be planning to hold some kind of event before, but it didn't happen in the end, so they pulled it off. I'll look for it again. Anyway, I'll take whatever I can take away..."

The bald man looked like he was used to it. "Don't just stand there. Take whatever you like. These are what they don't want anymore. Buy them for free. Hurry up."

Is this really good?

"that……"

Seeing that the bald man seemed to really intend to use the mobile hard drive to pay my manuscript fee, and thinking that if I couldn't pay the 850 yuan rent, my dark history would probably be exposed by a certain death girl, I mustered up the courage to step forward and said, "Is there really no other way? One thousand yuan... Well, even 900 yuan will do. I don't know what to do with this hard drive..."

External hard disks are not considered hard currency, and I am not qualified to sell them, unless I sell them to black market dealers in the computer mall at a low price. And with my current appearance... I don't know what tricks those people will use to kill me.

"Editor-in-Chief, are there any items for sale downstairs in the Pearl Building?"

Before the bald man spoke, "Marisa's Iron Butt" Jiang Wei seemed to sense my hesitation and stepped forward: "Why don't we take a few hard drives and sell them to these office workers to raise enough money for Nuo'er's royalties and let her go back first? It's dangerous for a little girl to go out alone for a long time."

"You want to sell it?"