Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Zhang Zian was busy the whole day and now it was almost time for him to go to bed.

  Zhang Zian had been exhausted throughout the day, but now that he knew the elves’ lives could be extended, his tiredness vanished completely. However, he hadn’t told the news to Old Time Tea or the other elves yet. As Pi had said, it wasn’t the right time. If he hastily told the news to everyone, they would be too expectful. The reality might be too disappointing. For that reason, they might as well not know about it in the first place.

  Even if the lifetime of the elves really could be extended infinitely, the elves had to go through an extremely difficult process to do so. Judging from Pi’s stern expression as it read the untitled book, Zhang Zian figured that this may be his biggest challenge and trial since he downloaded the Pet Hunter game.

  Although he couldn’t understand the untitled book, whether it was the Hyperwebster Dictionary, The Book of Sand, or a fantasy book from another civilization in the universe, he was still very grateful for it. Without it, he wouldn’t have found out about such reassuring and hopeful news.

  The elves had fallen asleep, one after the other. Before going to sleep, Richard had been very active that night, as if everything put him in a good mood. Zhang Zian had to hang it upside down to calm it down.

  When everyone was in bed, Pi was still sitting in front of the computer, typing away.

  “Pi, did the noise bother you?” Zhang Zian came over and asked. He knew how annoying Richard and Snowy Lionet were.

  Pi shook its head no.

  “Well, we’re all going to bed now. Please go to sleep as soon as you finish writing.” Zhang Zian brought over a small desk lamp. The lamp light was turned away from the bedroom, so it wouldn’t affect anyone’s sleeping.

  He didn’t plan on telling Pi what he was doing later, because he wasn’t sure whether he would be successful or not. He didn’t want Pi to be disappointed after giving it so much hope.

  Pi grinned and nodded.

  Zhang Zian glanced at the elves again. After confirming that each elfin was in its correct place, he turned off the ceiling light.

  With the light from the desk lamp and his own nightlight, he laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling, listening to Pi type. He thought about the elves’ lives for a while, and then thought about the situation of Uncle Li’s diner. He tried to allow all of his thoughts to occupy his mind and keep himself from falling asleep.

  About an hour later he heard a click, and the fan noise from the laptop disappeared. Pi turned off the desk lamp and the room grew darker. It climbed into the basket hammock chair to go to sleep.

  Zhang Zian kept his eyes open for a while, and almost fell asleep. He pinched his thighs to keep himself awake.

  He looked up and guessed that Pi had already fallen asleep. Then, he grabbed his cell phone by his pillow and opened the Qidian app.

  That day, as he watched Pi write, he had secretly browsed the Internet on his cell phone, trying to find out what the amazing reading lists were.

  After he finished researching, he knew that reading lists were an important supplement to the Official Recommendation Spots from the Qidian website. A reading list was created by an individual, who would list his or her favorite books and the reasons why they would recommended those books on their list. If other readers agreed with the owner’s suggestions, they would start following the creator of the list. The reading list owners were similar to bloggers who reviewed digital products on video websites, and the digital products recommended by bloggers tended to receive more attention. Some reading list owners even had tens of thousands of followers.

  After careful searching, Zhang Zian discovered that the reading list owners were roughly divided into two categories. One type introduced and reviewed each book in great length, while the other kind of reading list owners introduced each book with only one sentence. The former type attracted much more followers than the latter. After all, through the detailed evaluations and introductions, the readers could tell that the reading list owners had put in a lot of work into every book.

  That day, he had mentally noted the reading list owners’ IDs who wrote long book reviews and then went to the comment sections of their lists. He first ruled out the most popular reading list owners, because in their comment sections, numerous authors or authors who pretended to be readers were promoting their own books. Those reading list owners wouldn’t be able to read all the books being recommended to them, even if they tried to read 24 hours a day.

  As for the reading list owners that attracted fewer followers, their comment sections were basically empty. It wouldn’t be helpful for Zhang Zian to advertise Pi’s novel in those lists.

  After more research, he targeted a reading list owner who had the tenth most followers. The ID name of the reading list owner was Morning Gorilla Star, who was mentioned by the author of Diplomats of the Underworld.

  Morning Gorilla Star had written down his requirements about posting advertisements in his comment: Do not copy and paste your ads. I will promote urban novels that have no or only one female protagonist.

  Zhang Zian felt relieved when he read these requirements. He was extremely popular with women, and many cute girls were desperately hoping to be his girlfriend. Pi had just hidden this fact while writing the novel based on the life in Zhang Zian’s pet shop. Therefore, Pi’s novel had managed to meet Morning Gorilla Star’s requirements.

  Advertising was like sending resumes to hiring managers. The key points of the novel must be written as concisely as possible. What was the highlight of Pi’s novel? It certainly wasn’t that the protagonist didn’t have a girlfriend!

  He typed on his phone: Can I promote my own book? The title of the book is Pet King. The protagonist, who is the owner of a pet shop, downloads a game that can capture elves. Together with the elves, he witnesses the growth of the pet shop. There is no female protagonist in this book.

  He thought it over and added “Currently” in front of the sentence, “There is no female protagonist in this book.” Then, he satisfyingly clicked the “Send” button.

  After sending the message, Zhang Zian repeatedly refreshed the comment section and anxiously waited for a reply from the reading list owner, just like a job seeker who was constantly refreshing emails and nervously waiting for replies after sending out his resume. Zhang Zian had read the books recommended by Morning Gorilla Star, and all the books were well-written. Perhaps Morning Gorilla Star wouldn’t think Pi’s novel was good enough. However, Zhang Zian hoped that Morning Gorilla Star, who had read countless books, could at least tell him why Pi’s novel failed to be recommended by him. In that case, Zhang Zian could help Pi revise the novel. Zhang Zian was acting like a job seeker who was close to starving to death and desperately needed a job, whatever the job was, to feed himself.

  Since it was nearly one o’clock in the morning, the owner had probably gone to bed already. Watching his comment drowning in other comments from authors promoting their own books, Zhang Zian couldn’t help but sigh in dismay.

  Perhaps he sighed too loud, because Zhang Zian heard a squeaking sound come from the hammock chair. It sounded like Pi had turned over.

  He locked his phone screen and waited a little longer. He didn’t unlock his phone until there wasn’t any more sounds coming from the chair.

  What should he do?

  He was very sleepy. Should he wait till the reading list owner woke up and try advertising again?

  No, he shouldn’t wait. Tomorrow, Pi would receive its first Minor Recommendation Spot. If its novel failed to be ranked in the top three or top four spots, it might never have a chance to receive a recommendation again.

  With that thought, he decided to advertise on another reading list. Advertising was just like begging, and as long as he could swallow his pride now, he would gradually become thick-skinned.

  This time, he lowered his expectations by moving his attention from the reading list owners with tens of thousands of followers to ones with hundreds of followers, hoping that some of them hadn’t fallen asleep yet.

  Zhang Zian noticed that there was one whose ID was Yang Chenkong. In his reading list, Yang Chenkong wrote reviews with thousands of words for each book and offered many thoughtful insights. However, Yang Chenkong only had a mere 3,000 followers. Would it really be useful to advertise in this list?

  Zhang Zian desperately went to the comment section. To his surprise, he saw that this reading list owner was still online, discussing his opinions with his friends about a certain book.

  Zhang Zian hadn’t read the book that they were talking about. However, from reading their conversation, Zhang Zian felt as if he had read it and learned about its successes and failures. From observing, Zhang Zian could tell that Yang Chenkong was very professional.

  For some reason, the comment section of his reading list was blank and had no advertisements. Zhang Zian chuckled to himself. He could take advantage of this rare opportunity to advertise.

  There were some basic rules of advertising for all reading lists. Unlike like people who put advertisements in bathrooms, book-promoting advertisements couldn’t be randomly posted. Each reading list owner had different requirements for advertisements. For example, Morning Gorilla Star had explicitly stated that he would only recommend novels with no or one female protagonist. Yang Chenkong, however, had a wide range of book choices. Except for supernatural novels, Yang Chenkong basically read every genre.

  However, the most difficult thing was that the list owner didn’t specify which book genres he would recommend, and Zhang Zian didn’t know how to cater to his preferences. After thinking about it for a while, Zhang Zian rewrote the message that he had sent to Morning Gorilla Star. He deleted the sentence “Currently, there is no female protagonist in this book.” He added, “Feel free to read the sample chapters, but don’t blame me if you’re poisoned (Translator’s Note: Read and Poison sound the same in Chinese),” hoping that his self-deprecating tone would draw Yang Chenkong’s attention.

  After clicking “Send”, he was too tired to repeatedly refresh the comment section as he did before. It was almost half past one in the morning, and he would need to get up early that day.

  Putting down his cell phone, Zhang Zian lay down flat on the bed. Soon, he was half-awake and half-asleep, and he would completely fall asleep at any moment.

  In the darkness, Pi had been watching him the whole time. It had barely moved, except to slightly change its posture after its legs started to get numb.

  Pi had always known about Zhang Zian’s actions. It could tell from Zhang Zian’s exhaustion.

  Since Zhang Zian was so tired, it wouldn’t matter if he did these things later, right?

  Pi opened its mouth and silently imitated the shape of someone saying “thank you.”


  What?

  Zhang Zian thought he heard something. It seemed like someone was talking to him. He barely could open his eyes. His drowsiness was as heavy as a mountain, pressing down on his eyelids.

  He looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary. He unlocked his phone screen and saw that it was past two in the morning.

  Since he hadn’t logged out from the Qidian app yet, he clicked open Yang Chenkong’s comment section, the second reading list owner he advertised on that night, hoping to find Yang Chenkong’s review on Pi’s novel. However, he found no review, and saw that the advertisement he had posted was gone.

  No wonder the comment section was so empty. As it turned out, Yang Chenkong deleted all of the advertisements in his comment section. Zhang Zian’s efforts were again all in vain.

  He couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore. He shoved his cell phone under his pillow and fell asleep.