TGBOG Chapter 27

The Meteor Garden group chat was buzzing with a live broadcast of the Weibo frenzy:

Tian Gai: [Screenshot]
Tian Gai: Look! Some female authors have joined the discussion!
Qin Hai: The project description is pretty well-written. It probably struck a chord with a lot of the girls.
Somnolent Fox: Wow, isn’t Yun Fei supposed to be a top student who studied abroad? Even she faced discrimination?
Tian Gai: [Screenshot]
Tian Gai: This person suspects it’s a PR move to clear Zhao Zhao’s name. What a clever little one.
Qin Hai: [Screenshot] The official account’s responses are flawless. Were they trained for this?
Tian Gai: Snow Pine definitely handled this personally.
Zhao Zhao: So it was Snow Pine you went to?
Tian Gai: Yeah, Yuesi’s chief editor and deputy general manager. Who else would I go to? Let me make this clear: to get him to agree to take the fall, I had to sell our group to him. We might need to cooperate with some activities later on.
Qin Hai: This is turning into a big deal. I bet they’ll buy some marketing accounts, too.
Somnolent Fox: Well, it’s already turned into a real project now.
Tian Gai: Oh, right. We’ll be revealing one author per week. Who’s up next week? @Twelve Ye, do you want to go first?
Twelve Ye: No, the second one has to be Qin Hai.
Somnolent Fox: Why?
Twelve Ye: Qin Hai has always had a low-key, reliable image. Revealing him second will reinforce the theme.
Qin Hai: [Blushing old face.jpg]
Zhao Zhao: Haha, Hai Ge, take us with you!
Tian Gai: Sounds good. Once Hai Ge is revealed, no one will blame us for those awkward descriptions anymore.
Somnolent Fox: [Screenshot]
Somnolent Fox: Most people are guessing who the other four authors are. A lot of them are curious about who wrote the bed scenes, haha.
Tian Gai: [Screenshot]
Tian Gai: A few people are already speculating whether the five authors writing this story are straight or not. What is the world coming to?
Zhao Zhao: [Screenshot]
Zhao Zhao: Look at this. Meng Meng says she thinks she’s figured out who one of them is. She must have guessed you, Tian Gai.
Tian Gai: She already messaged me on WeChat, asking if the commission I took earlier was for this project.
Zhao Zhao: Haha!

Just like Somnolent Fox mentioned, even though Tian Gai initially reached out to Snow Pine to shift the blame and save their skin, Snow Pine didn’t treat it as a mere cover-up. Instead, he turned it into a genuine project, complete with press releases, marketing accounts, and media coverage. Every aspect was pushed with full force. As a result, shortly after the Weibo post went live, the impact was immediate: On one side, there were heated discussions about gender discrimination, while on the other, people were speculating which five authors had co-written the danmei story. Zhao Yijia was quickly pushed out of the eye of the storm, and on the Yuesi forums—whether in the men’s or women’s sections—everyone was now obsessed with the guessing game.

Yuesi Literature Network Official Forum—Women’s Channel—Web Novel Discussion Section

[Discussion] Place your bets: Who are the five authors of The Villain’s Guide to Conquest?

0L: Zhao Yijia has been revealed. Four more to go.
1L: Yuesi is really pulling some stunts. I peeked over at the men’s section today, and the guys are wailing. It’s hilarious.
2L (Replying to 1L): Haha, I can totally imagine.
3L (Replying to 1L): I checked it out too. Haha, they’re roasting Yuesi to death, trying to figure out who “took the plunge.” Someone even replied, “Anyone involved is blacklisted. They’re not pure anymore.” LMAO.
4L: Haha, so much drama. Back to the main topic: blind guess—Twelve Ye.
5L: Twelve Ye +1. His interactions with Zhao Zhao have been blindingly frequent lately. It wouldn’t make sense without him.
6L: I think it’s not Twelve Ye. Precisely because they’ve been interacting so much, it’s too obvious.
7L: I’m guessing Mao Lizi. One of the plot designs really felt like his style.
8L: Do you think Qin Hai is a possibility? I remember someone mentioning they noticed Hai Ge’s vibe in one of the posts.
9L (Replying to 8L): No way. Qin Hai would never join something like this. His style is too traditional. How would he handle it?
10L: Is no one curious about who wrote the bed scenes?
11L (Replying to 10L): I hope they reveal which chapters were written by which author after it’s finished.
12L: We could try the process of elimination. First, rule out the parts written by Zhao Zhao. Then, based on what’s left, guess the authors. Writers’ habits are hard to change, so there will definitely be clues. It just depends on how devoted you are to figuring it out.
13L: [Screenshot] Meng Meng says she’s figured out one of them. Who could it be??
14L: Which male authors are close to Meng Meng? Tian Gai, Yi Wangchuan, and Blue Eggplant. That’s it, right?
15L: It’s definitely Tian Gai. He’s always had that GAY-vibe.
16L: [Screenshot] Someone on Weibo made a list of chapters that might have been written by Zhao Zhao!
17L (Replying to 16L): OMG, the hug scene I loved was written by Zhao Zhao! I’m spinning in circles!
18L (Replying to 16L): The first time the two met, that scene!!!
19L: I took a spin through Weibo and cracked up. Someone said, “What’s Yuesi’s deal? Are they trying to turn all the straight guys into gay writers?”
20L (Replying to 19L): Every male Yuesi writer now has a swarm of people under their posts with story screenshots, asking if they wrote it. 23333333

Tian Gai: [Link: Place your bets: Who are the five authors of The Villain’s Guide to Conquest?]
Tian Gai: I think we’re amazing. Not only are we playing a game, but even our readers have joined in. This is a new genre—let’s call it “Game Flow.” I’ve already come up with the slogan: Read (or write) and play at the same time, and be happy all the way!
Somnolent Fox: [Facepalm]
Zhao Zhao: Did you forget that part you wrote got roasted?
Qin Hai: Once your name gets revealed, I don’t think you’ll feel much happiness.
Somnolent Fox: Hahaha.
Tian Gai: Oh, by the way, Snow Pine just told me he’s arranged for an artist to draw some four-panel comics of our daily plot discussions. He wants me to provide some material. I’m thinking of sending him some screenshots of our group chat. Any objections?
Twelve Ye: Just remember to blur out the group name.

Ever since Yuesi took the heat, Ye Luan’s mood visibly improved, and Zhao Yijia was happy too. He started tagging along with Ye Luan to work every day. While Ye Luan worked, Zhao Yijia would sit nearby and write. Rumor spread within the company that President Ye had hired an intern. Some employees, who didn’t know the full story, even handed documents to Zhao Yijia, asking him to pass them on to Ye Luan. Whenever that happened, Zhao Yijia would play along and walk over to Ye Luan, saying, “President Ye, you’d better pay me a salary.”

Ye Luan’s office had floor-to-ceiling windows on one side, and the sunlight streamed through, casting dappled shadows on Zhao Yijia’s face.

Ye Luan took his hand and kissed it. “I’ll give you everything. I’m yours too.” Then he sighed, “If only I had met you sooner.”

Zhao Yijia raised an eyebrow. “You met me when you were 14. Isn’t that early enough?”

“But we wasted 16 years.”

Ye Luan looked up at Zhao Yijia. “I’m greedy. I keep thinking that if I’d found you sooner, we could have spent days like this, riding bicycles around aimlessly together in the sunshine.”

If they were younger, they could have recklessly spent their time with the one they liked, instead of now, when they had to split their attention with work.

Zhao Yijia casually responded, “If you can’t ride a bike, you can always drive something else.”

Ye Luan froze for a second, then caught on. “Wow, so now you’re making dirty jokes too?”

Zhao Yijia smiled right at him. “I get inspired when I see you.”

Then he pulled Ye Luan’s hand, standing in front of him, and said, “In that inspiration box of yours at Fifth Garden, there’s a note with my name on it.”

Ye Luan nodded. “I was thinking of you, so I wrote your name.”

“We were just a door apart back then. Were you thinking of me even then?”

“Yes.”

“And now that I’m standing right in front of you?”

“Yes, still.”

Zhao Yijia was silent for a moment, then looked up at Ye Luan with bright eyes. “Actually, I think it’s pretty inappropriate to be saying these things in your office, but—” He paused for a second. “Ye Luan, I really, really like you.”

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