Chapter 144: A Plunging Popularity with Women

After mailing the letter, Jiang Xiwen felt much more relaxed. During his morning jogs, he no longer dwelled deeply on things, and it was then that he realized that while Ning Yan had been running and practicing martial arts by his side every morning lately, she hadn’t spoken a single word to him for a long time.

Looking at Ning Yan’s indifferent expression, it wasn’t just the calm-as-water attitude of the past; there was more of an anger to it—an icy, frost-bitten anger. Thinking back, Ning Yan seemed to have been this way for days now. How strange, what on earth was wrong with this young girl? It didn't seem like he had offended her.

Puzzled to no end, Jiang Xiwen simply chose to remain silent as well. By the time they finished running the route, it was almost time for school. So, he greeted Ning Yan, "Ning Yan, morning exercise is over, I'm heading back. You should head back early too, don't be late for school."

"Whether I'm late or not, what business is it of yours?!" Ning Yan said in a harsh, stern tone, emanating a chill that kept people a thousand miles away, cold enough to make Jiang Xiwen shiver.

"Hey now!" Jiang Xiwen hopped backward and said, "Heroine, I was just being polite, why resort to this? I wonder how I might have offended you?"

"Jiang Xiwen, from now on, we run our own separate ways, there's no need for us to speak!" Ning Yan said coldly, then stepped around Jiang Xiwen and continued running forward.

Jiang Xiwen was stunned for a moment before snapping back to his senses. Watching Ning Yan's receding back, he muttered to himself, "Sigh, she doesn't want to talk, yet she still goes out of her way to come here for morning exercise every day. How strange..."

With that, he shook his head, turned around, and jogged back in the direction of his home.

After running for a little while and still not seeing Jiang Xiwen catch up, Ning Yan couldn't help turning around. Seeing that Jiang Xiwen had already gone back, she instantly became annoyed and thought, *If you're not going to talk, you might as well stay silent all the time. Why talk today and then ignore me? Detestable!*

Stunned for a moment, she felt a strong sense of grievance in her heart and scolded herself, *Why am I so idiotic, waiting here for this jerk every single morning? And even when he finally shows up, I don't give him the time of day...*

Saying this, the icy coldness in Ning Yan's eyes vanished, replaced entirely by a sense of loss. *I wonder if... I wonder if there will still be a chance to see him after I leave Yangjiang in the future...*

Ah! That's right. Not long ago during my runs, Ning Yan seemed to have spoken to me, but I was deep in thought and barely paid her any attention! Just as Jiang Xiwen stepped through his front door, he suddenly realized his mistake. No wonder a simple greeting today had provoked such a freezing burst of icy energy.

Never mind, misunderstandings would clear up sooner or later; there was no need to go out of his way to explain. Thinking this, Jiang Xiwen’s stomach let out a hungry rumble, and he hurriedly picked up the breakfast his mother had prepared, eating it in large, hearty bites.

After finishing breakfast, good news dropped from the sky. The publishing house in Taiwan called to say that the comic manuscript for *Fairy Charm* had passed review, and the traditional Chinese edition of the first volume—consisting of five chapters—had already been sent to the printing press. According to the agreement, forty percent of the royalties would be allocated to Jiang Xiwen, and sixty percent to Inaba Kikuo from Japan.

Jiang Xiwen immediately provided the publishing house with his account number at the Huashang Bank. Afterwards, the editor mentioned another matter: a friend of his at Hainan Elite Fine Arts Publishing House on the mainland had seen Jiang Xiwen's comic manuscript and wanted to publish the simplified Chinese edition. They had already discussed it with Inaba Kikuo, and there were no issues; now they were just waiting for Jiang Xiwen's nod. The Taiwanese editor left him the name and phone number of the Hainan editor, telling Jiang Xiwen to contact him directly if he decided to go ahead with it.

Hanging up the phone, Jiang Xiwen slipped out of the house under his mother's suspicious gaze.

*This child is getting more and more mysterious. Bank accounts, editors—who knows what he's up to. I need to ask his teachers about how his studies are going lately,* Wang Yanan thought to herself while tidying up the breakfast dishes.

Jiang Xiwen planned to wait until he entered university before slowly revealing what he had been doing to his parents. Telling them now would probably make it hard for them to accept all at once, leading to too much wasted breath. As the saying goes, a low-key man is a true man.

As soon as he arrived at the office, Jiang Xiwen called the editor at the Taiwanese publishing house to tell them to use this number for future contact, and then dialed the Hainan editor, Liu Chong.

Upon hearing it was Jiang Xiwen, Liu Chong was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. After a brief chat, he mentioned that he would be coming to Yangjiang on a business trip in July, at which point they could meet and discuss things in detail. He expressed great admiration for the *Fairy Charm* story written by Jiang Xiwen and hoped Jiang Xiwen could write more of it, to be published directly as a new genre of popular fiction.

As soon as this phone call ended, Qi Huanchang arrived for work with sleepy eyes. Although Wang Xunfei had only stayed in Yangjiang for a few days, he hadn't given up his rented apartment, so Qi Huanchang no longer needed to squeeze into the office so crampedly. Because of this, the office space felt much larger. Jiang Xiwen had already hired someone to remodel it, giving it a somewhat archaic charm that matched the style of the upcoming Sword-Wielding Residence.

Fatty Qi was extremely cautious and serious in his work. Following Jiang Xiwen's instructions, he had already played through all the currently popular and past classic games, writing a game analysis report nearly two hundred thousand words long. He had listed the pros and cons of almost every game and summarized them impeccably.

"Fatty, you must be exhausted lately, but there's even more exhausting work waiting for you. Are you up for it?"

"Alright! I'll follow you through fire and water, at your service!" Qi Huanchang gave a low bow.

"This is at your own service. Gather the profiles of the creators of all these games. Forget about the foreign ones; I want all the ones from the mainland and Taiwan. Most importantly, I need their contact information. When the time comes, give me the list, and I'll help you screen out the future members of your Sword-Wielding Residence—they will all be your subordinates."

"Oh my god, Xiwen, how are you going to recruit people? Let alone big shots, even for obscure little creators, nobody has ever heard of our Sword-Wielding Residence name. Who would come?" Although Qi Huanchang's expression was one of extreme shock, it was also filled with anticipation. The kid in front of him had given him too many pleasant surprises. From his perspective now, no matter how exaggerated the boy's words sounded, they were entirely capable of becoming reality.

"That will depend on yourself. You can take your time gathering their profiles. That twenty-thousand-word analysis report wasn't just for me to look at; your main job now is to start designing a small game based on your own analysis..."

"Ah, I'm not good at writing stories. You'll have to do that. I think *Ethereal Legend* would be great, it was so good!"

"You don't need to tell me that; when it comes to writing scripts, I won't defer to anyone. However, it won't be *Ethereal Legend*. Remember when I mentioned the comic I co-created with a young Japanese manga artist? It has already passed review. I'll write a prequel manuscript similar to that manga for you. Based on the pros and cons of those games you summarized, you will design a small yet exquisite RPG (Role-Playing Game), including the connection of every plotline, the setup of the stages, and so on.

These are things a game designer should accomplish. You must learn as quickly as possible through practice and become an outstanding game developer. In the future, recruiting those gaming talents will rely on this small game of yours to attract them. By then, I'll use the published manga to run some major promotions, so Fatty Qi, our mission is heavy and our road is long..."

Listening with growing excitement, Qi Huanchang struck a righteous pose and declared, "I will definitely not let down the organization's trust!" With that, he immediately threw his limited amount of flesh into infinite work.

That evening, before Jiang Xiwen returned home, Wang Yanan called Tan Yutou to inquire about her son's recent academic performance. She received nothing but endless praise from Tan Yutou, which completely set her mind at ease and stopped her from dwelling on her son's rather mysterious activities lately.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was late May. Jiang Xiwen participated in the provincial computer competition, casually designed a small program, and once again won first prize. This made Li Chang-tian beam from ear to ear. With an eye toward the national middle school computer competition next semester, he immediately helped Jiang Xiwen apply, securing the privilege of bypassing the senior high school entrance exams and being directly admitted to the key high school classes of Yangjiang No. 2 High School.

Jiang Xiwen was quite content with the leisure, sparing himself the energy of reviewing subjects that required rote memorization. The days leading up to the high school entrance exams were filled with tension and a hint of gentle melancholy. Gong Xiang was scheduled to go to Shanghai right after the exams; the art school spot in Beijing originally arranged by his family had been taken by someone else, forcing them to hastily rearrange things for Shanghai, which was now confirmed.

Jiang Xiwen planned to give Gong Xiang a proper farewell dinner after the exams and offer this good brother of his some advice for the future. As for the development of the entertainment industry over the next few years, Jiang Xiwen was quite clear about it, and he would write down a list for Gong Xiang of which major directors to cozy up to.

On the evening before the high school entrance exams, just as Jiang Xiwen was getting ready to head home, he was stopped by Zhang Ya as he passed through the school's floral path. Turning around, he saw that the beautiful class monitor's charm value seemed to still be overflowing, her lovely eyes wide as she stared right at him.

"Class Monitor, what a lovely sunset. I have things to attend to, you go ahead and get busy. The exams are in a couple of days, keep it up, I'm heading out!"

Seeing this, Jiang Xiwen greased the soles of his feet and prepared to "escape." Are you kidding? Lately, his affinity with women had been plummeting as he managed to irritate these young beauties at every turn. Of course he was going to run.

"You stop right there, Jiang Xiwen!" Zhang Ya shouted loudly. "Don't think you're all high and mighty just because you don't have to take the entrance exams! Are you just going to stand there and talk down to us? Let me ask you, why have you been avoiding me all this time?!"