I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

After seeing this, the two of them remained silent for a while.

"...What a coincidence!" He Shiying exclaimed in a low voice.

"It is somewhat of a coincidence."

He Shiying said, "Does this mean that she does have some connection with the Liu family?"

Gu Yuanzhen cleared her mind a little, and her eyes brightened.

“If she really has a connection with the Liu family, then this is very interesting,” he said. “Big news.”

He Shiying remained silent.

indeed.

Breaking news.

The girl from the Liu family fell in love with an ordinary employee who earned 5 yuan a month, and she even became part of his harem. It was also a teacher-student relationship.

Given the old man's rigid personality, I wonder what he'll do to that junior employee?

Gu Yuanzhen's expression became quite interesting.

……

"When did Chen Ya become your teacher?" Qin Yun Chu asked with a serious expression, "In high school or some kind of tutoring class?"

Liu Ruyan was a little confused as to why she had suddenly become so serious.

She shook her head vigorously and said, "None of them."

"Then how can you say he's your teacher? What did he teach you?"

Qin Yun Chu was serious because she was very angry.

If it really is a teacher-student relationship, then Chen Ya's behavior is very bad.

She will definitely find a way to fire Chen Ya from the company.

He Shiying and Gu Yuanzhen also pricked up their ears, wanting to hear how Liu Ruyan would respond.

Liu Ruyan remained as natural as ever, saying:

"He taught me to write."

"writing?"

Qin Yun Chu never expected to hear this answer.

"Does writing still need to be taught?" Qin Yunchu asked.

In her worldview, writers are all wild, able to pick up a pen and write fluently, relying purely on talent.

Gu Yuanzhen said, "Are you a web novel writer? He's not one of those people who runs web novel writing training classes, is he?"

Liu Ruyan turned her gaze to him and said, "No."

"That's good, they're all lies." Gu Yuanzhen smiled and shrugged. "You don't seem like someone who writes web novels, with all that domineering CEO and wealthy son-in-law stuff, it feels a bit cliché."

Liu Ruyan seemed a little angry and said:

"My teacher said that all creations belong to everyone, and the goal should be to be appreciated by all, regardless of their taste. We should not have a sense of superiority that looks down on others."

Gu Yuanzhen was speechless.

In order to win Liu Ruyan's favor, he chose to remain silent.

But deep down, he was resentful.

"That's what they usually say when a web novel writer fails," he muttered to He Shiying.

He Shiying was amused and kept laughing.

Qin Yun Chu had never read online novels, so she couldn't understand what they were saying.

She pressed on, asking, "Why do you want to learn writing from him?"

This time, Liu Ruyan didn't answer, but instead pushed the copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" that was next to her in front of her.

Slender, long fingers turned the cover, revealing the book's title page to her.

The sign read:

"Love is an instinct, but creation is not."

I'm not good at romance, and you're not good at writing.

Let's practice separately. If one day your book's sales surpass this one, I will sincerely tell you how much I love you.

—Chen Ya

Qin Yun Chu picked up the book and read it aloud.

Then, she suddenly looked up: "He means that if the books you write sell more than this one, he'll start a relationship with you?"

Liu Ruyan nodded.

Qin Yun Chu thought to herself: This is too ridiculous!

She disliked this condescending and arrogant attitude.

Holding up a copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera," Qin Yunchu asked, "Did he write this book?"

As soon as she said this, Gu Yuanzhen behind her burst out laughing.

Qin Yunchu turned his head, and Gu Yuanzhen said, "President Qin, don't you read books?"

"I haven't read much, what's wrong?" Qin Yun Chu asked humbly.

"Love in the Time of Cholera is a legendary book; it was incredibly popular back then."

Qin Yunchu said she hadn't heard of it much.

Gu Yuanzhen nodded and said, "It's normal that you haven't heard of it. This book was written 15 years ago, and it's not as popular in China as it is abroad. Overseas, it has won numerous awards."

Gu Yuanzhen introduced the book with great familiarity:

"The author of this book uses the pen name 'García Borges' and has never appeared in public, but people speculate that he is not a foreigner, but a Chinese! Because the first editions of his books were all in Chinese."

He Shiying frowned: "Why would someone who is clearly Chinese choose a foreign name?"

Gu Yuanzhen said, "Who knows? Famous writers always have some quirks. Anyway, all you need to know is that this book is incredibly awesome, that's enough."

Qin Yun Chu was still in a daze: "Then this book wasn't written by Chen Ya?"

He Shiying rolled her eyes: "Didn't he just say it? A divine book! Awesome! How could it possibly have been written by your lousy employee who only makes 5 a month?"

Qin Yunchu covered her mouth, feeling a little embarrassed.

Gu Yuanzhen continued, "And I remember this book has always been a bestseller, translated into more than 50 languages ​​worldwide, reprinted countless times, and must have sold tens of millions of copies, right?"

Liu Ruyan said, "The total print run was 3200 million copies."

Gu Yuanzhen casually pointed: "Making such high demands, isn't that a tactful way of rejecting you? However, it's also possible that Chen Ya is an ignorant fellow, and he probably thinks this book is an obscure work with few sales."

Liu Ruyan said calmly, "I have already achieved half of my goal."

A gust of wind blew by.

Everyone remained silent.

Chapter 8 Poor Writing Skills

Love in the Time of Cholera had a total print run of 3200 million copies.

Half of that is 1600 million copies.

Gu Yuanzhen was momentarily speechless upon hearing this.

Others have little contact with the book industry and have little concept of 1600 million copies.

Qin Yunchu and He Shiying only knew that selling 1600 million copies was a remarkable achievement.

Gu Yuanzhen had dealings with publishing houses because of her family business.

He knew perfectly well what was going on.

What does 1600 million copies mean?

The total annual reading volume of everyone in Jiangdong is only 1600 million books.

Spread across the entire country, 1600 million copies may not seem like much, but only 1 in 100 people have actually read them.

However, a shocking fact is that the combined sales of the four great classic novels, namely "Journey to the East", "Romance of the Seven Kingdoms", "The Story of the Mountain", and "The Love of the Brothel", are only 2000 million.

In other words, 1600 million copies has already reached the ceiling for domestically produced books.

This is equivalent to covering the entire reading population.

This means that anyone who reads books must have read this book.

Gu Yuanzhen asked cautiously, "What's the name of your book?"

Liu Ruyan's voice seemed to drift from a very distant place:

"Offside Cohabitation..."

"what!"

He Shiying covered her mouth and let out a small scream.

I've read your book!

Her face was flushed, and she was quite excited.

Although Qin Yun Chu appeared calm, she was still deeply shaken inside.

She had also read the book.

"You're that genius female writer, Ruyan?"

He Shiying was extremely annoyed.

She should have thought of that sooner.

Liu Ruyan, Ruyan.

The pen name is practically an open secret.

Most importantly, she especially loves the book "Offside Cohabitation"!

"So Ruyan is this beautiful..."

He Shiying murmured.

While reading that book, she imagined what the author looked like.

Someone with the name "Ruyan" must be quite good-looking.

Once you meet the real person, you'll know that she's more than just "not ugly".

She's already quite restrained, otherwise this place would immediately turn into a massive fan meeting.

Gu Yuanzhen's hands trembled slightly as she placed them under the table.

He tried to control his excitement and said, "I heard that 'Offside Cohabitation' is going to be made into a movie?"

Liu Ruyan nodded: "Yes."

"The adaptation rights were sold to Double Star Film Company?"

"Ah."

Gu Yuanzhen straightened her chest slightly: "You may not know, but Shuangxing Company is a subsidiary of my family's company."

Liu Ruyan glanced at him.

Gu Yuanzhen smiled and said, "If there's anything in the company that's causing you trouble, you can come to me, and I'll help you sort it out."

Liu Ruyan shook her head: "Thank you, but no need."

Compared to the different fan behaviors of the other two, Qin Yunchu's attention remained focused on Chen Ya.

She took the book from Liu Ruyan's hand, glanced at the words on the title page again, and read them aloud softly:

"Love is an instinct, but creation is not."