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

  Early in the morning, Zhang Zian was once again startled awake by the distant sound of firecrackers. It was the week before Chinese New Year, so people were using firecrackers more and more.

  Even people with bad hearing would be able to hear the noise, so, of course, the elfins were startled too. Galaxy leapt out the crib, silently waved good morning to Zhang Zian, opened the bedroom doors and went downstairs to play with the kittens. Pi yawned and stretched before he going to the swivel chair to turn on the computer.

  The other elfins awoke too, but they wanted to keep sleeping as it was still too early and there was nothing for them to do even if they did get out of bed.

  Zhang Zian got dressed, walked over to the window, pulled the curtains open, and looked outside. It snowed again last night, so the streets were covered with white, making the day brighter than usual.

  He saw an electric rickshaw stop right in front of Li’s Supreme Snack Bar’s.

  The driver was Uncle Li, who woke up before the sun rose to go to the market by the suburbs to stock up on groceries. He wore a thick cotton coat and knee pads to keep his knee joints warm. Driving the rickshaw in this weather must be very cold, his eyebrows had frost on them yet he was smiling.

  A quilt covered the trunk of the rickshaw. Uncle Li lifted the quilt, grabbing the bags of fresh vegetables to take into the snack bar. Their usual stock of ingredients that would always have leftovers was sold out by noon, so they had no choice but to close early. Today, Uncle Li not only increased the amount of vegetables he bought, but also the variety.

  Pi tapped its mouth and logged into Qidian’s author platform. Pi did this every morning, it looked at the new adds and comments left by readers, as these were his motivation to continue working on his novel.

  “Zhi zhi!” Pi started screaming.

  All the elfins raised their head off their beds and looked towards Pi, wondering what had happened. Only Richard was still asleep.

  “What’s wrong, Pi?” Zhang Zian asked.

  Every morning Pi would be one of the first to wake up, but Pi always tried to be quiet. It even typed softly, so it wouldn’t disrupt the other elfins. However, today it suddenly screamed, something out of the ordinary must have happened.

  After Pi logged into QQ, there were a number of messages sent by its book friends in the middle of the night.

  “Popo, go look at your book review section. There’s posts of people claiming that you’ve been hacking accounts to rig votes.”


  “Popo, erase those posts! New readers will believe them!”


  There were also others who were doubtful and asked, “Did you really hack into accounts to rig votes?”


  Pi was at a loss as it watched all the messages pop up. The most unbearable thing was the lack of trust from readers.

  “What?”


  Zhang Zian was stumped. Pi would never hack into accounts to rig votes. Pi even told readers not to send in recommendation red packets, as it felt like it was a waste of the reader’s money.

  Zian turned around and gestured to the other elfins that everything was okay. He placed his hands on Pi’s shoulders and said, “Pi, don’t panic. Let’s take a look at what’s going on before we decide on what to do next. It’s like the saying goes, different situations call for different action, and there’s no problem that can’t be solved.’ You’ve made it through worse, there’s no need for you to be depressed by baseless slander.”


  Zhang Zian could feel Pi’s body trembling, unclear if it was out of sadness or anger, maybe a little of both. Maybe Zhang Zian being calm helped because Pi pursed its lips as it opened the book review section.

  The book review section was flooded with posts filled with malicious language.

  “Could you more shameless? How could you bring yourself to do such things?

  “As long as the book is crap, it’s all pointless, even if you rig votes!”


  “Even if you get your votes up, no one would read your book!”


  Looking at all the baseless rumors, Pi was depressed. It looked up at Zhang Zian with its red eyes, pointed at its chest, and shook its head, as if explaining that he did no such thing.

  “Pi, I know you didn’t do it.” Zian consoled Pi.

  Zian frowned as he looked through the posts. He took the mouse from Pi’s hands and said, “Pi, go wash your face. Let me take a look.”


  Some of the posts were very offensive, going as far as to curse Pi’s relative to die a painful death. Although Pi had no relatives, Zhang Zian still didn’t want Pi to see all these.

  Pi nodded and leapt out of the chair to head to the bathroom.

  Zhang Zian clicked every post. He told himself to be calm and look at it with an objective attitude, but after reading the offensive language, he couldn’t stop his anger. He couldn’t wait to delete all the posts. Readers who weren’t aware of the truth could easily believe the posts, causing Pi to lose potential readers. Like the saying goes, If you fling enough mud, some of it will stick.

  Most of the readers believed in Pi, but clicking into the book review section to have all the rubbish posts everywhere will only serve to discourage readers. The book review section used to be full of discussions on the current elfins and what other elfins might appear. There were also theories on how the story was going to progress, but now the normal posts were pushed all the way to the third or fourth page. Even if readers wanted to look for them, they wouldn’t be able to.

  Some readers took the initiative and tried to get the writer of the post to show proof, but the writer would never reply, they would just publish a new post. The first few pages were filled with such posts and their numbers were still growing.

  Soon, Zhang Zian realized a pattern, all the writers were newly registered Qidian readers with a level one account.

  Qidian accounts have varying levels. Zhang Zian remembered that all you had to do was pay a dollar to become a regular member.

  All the people who slandered Pi never paid the dollar, so what value do they have? It was clear that this was all a plan against Pi, an organized move with the goal of discrediting Pi.