Chapter 54: Shen Qingliang the Clown

“What post?” Chen Jiang asked in surprise.

After hanging up, he checked the Weibo posts forwarded by Sweet Potato.

There were two posts in total.

Shen Qingliang: [Severe criticism of the online literary work “Sky Shattered”: amateurish writing, absurd plot, utterly lacking depth. How can such a book appear on the bestseller lists of major novel websites? Has Chinese literature truly fallen to this level?]

Shen Qingliang: [Harshly criticizing the online literary work “Mystery”: nonsense, chaotic and disorganized, misleading the public! How can such a work be called “literature”? We should boycott this online literature culture!]

Chen Jiang: ???

“Who is this guy?” he muttered, utterly confused.

[Chen Jiang]: Who is this person?

[Sweet Potato]: I don’t know!

[Sweet Potato]: Early this morning, all my book friends blew up and kept tagging me in the group.

[Sweet Potato]: At first, I thought my book was gone. I was so scared I woke up and saw that someone was calling us out.

[Chen Jiang]: Did you offend him? Wait, why did he tag me as well!?

[Sweet Potato]: No way, I don’t even know him.

[Sweet Potato]: Case solved, I asked Pea, and it's that bald guy from yesterday.

Chen Jiang was speechless. So it was that guy.

He clearly despised online literature, yet he still attended the exchange meeting organized by Vice President Ning…

Now that he’s upset, he dares not call out Vice President Ning, so he tagged both of them instead.

Chen Jiang checked several book friend groups of his own, and they were all in uproar.

[Who the hell is this guy?]

[@Jiang He — did you offend this person?]

[This guy seems to write traditional literature, what’s wrong with him tagging authors?]

[Does this person have any reputation? Why tag Jiang He like this?]

[Sweet Potato got tagged too. Honestly, what he said about Sweet Potato’s writing being amateurish is not entirely wrong... But what he said about Jiang He sounds like nonsense.]

[Is he just grasping at straws because he can’t find proper points to criticize?]

[Saying “Mystery” is nonsense and misleading the public? Where’s the proof?]

[“Sky Shattered” is indeed amateurish, but what he said about “Mystery” is way off. It doesn’t add up.]

…

[Yuedian Editor Master]: (screenshot)

[Yuedian Editor Master]: Did you offend someone?

[Jiang He]: …

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Chen Jiang saw that even editors were paying attention to the matter and felt a mix of amusement and exasperation.

[Jiang He]: Nothing like that. I don’t even know him.

He explained to the editor about attending the writers’ association exchange meeting yesterday.

Seeing his reply, the editor suddenly understood.

[Yuedian Editor Master]: You’re really unlucky to meet someone like this.

[Yuedian Editor Master]: Our chief editor has noticed this. Rest assured, you and Sweet Potato’s books are the face of our platform. The platform will back you up.

[Yuedian Editor Master]: He might have a point about Sweet Potato’s writing being amateurish, but tagging you in that post is unjustifiable slander.

[Jiang He]: Thanks!

Soon, Chen Jiang saw that the Yuedian PR account had sent a warning to Shen Qingliang.

At the same time, fans of both books began to flood Shen Qingliang’s past posts with criticism.

They originally just wanted to support Chen Jiang and Sweet Potato.

But when they visited his homepage, they were stunned.

Out of ten posts, four were complaints about the unfair world, lamenting that despite his talent he had no outlet, and scolding readers for being blind to good literature.

The remaining six were all about opposing online literature, spreading rumors and slandering top books on major platforms.

He even claimed online literature would ruin human literature.

This kind of brainless nonsense left netizens speechless.

[Apologize to Jiang He!]

[You look down on online literature? You can’t make money yourself, so you blame online literature? If you have the ability, write online literature yourself!]

[You write so-called “noble” traditional literature, but can’t even write “lowly” online literature? You just can’t write!]

[It’s one thing to call Sweet Potato amateurish, but saying he lacks depth? Sweet Potato can write about youthful passion—can you?]

[Your family collects scrap, I’ve read a few of your books before—what a mess! How can you deserve to be published?]

[You even write suspense? Don’t mislead young readers!]

Browsing the comments, Chen Jiang learned that Shen Qingliang wrote suspense novels.

He had pieced together several popular suspense bestsellers to achieve some success and used connections to join the writers’ association.

But after patching everything together, he ran out of things to plagiarize. Plus, with the decline of physical book sales, his new novels sold poorly.

He blamed all this on online literature.

He claimed online authors had stolen his livelihood.

In truth, he simply lacked talent.

[@Shen Qingliang, you’re not qualified to criticize “Mystery”!]

[Your books are rubbish! Your debut “The Cabin Under the Spooky Tree” is 50% patched from another bestseller “The Eerie Cabin,” 30% patched from “Blood Corpse Under the Banyan Tree”… and your second work…]

Before long, netizens had dug up all his information.

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Some even found a post on what seemed to be his alternate account:

[My work “xxxxx” has been uploaded to Yuedian Literature platform. Come read it!]

His main account had previously reposted this, praising the book’s quality and hoping fans would read it.

Though he later deleted the post, a vigilant netizen had saved a screenshot.

Tracing this alternate account, netizens found a help-seeking post on a certain platform:

[Help, my novel is so good, why haven’t editors contacted me for a contract after nearly 100,000 words?]

A comment replied: [Usually if no one signs you by 50,000 words, just give up. I looked at your book—it still needs a lot of practice.]

Shen Qingliang’s alternate account: [Damn it...!]

Netizens were stunned to realize he was a clown.

Secretly writing online literature, hoping to become a star with one book, but failing to even get a contract, he angrily created a main account to start bashing online literature.

They had thought he was just a conservative old-timer unwilling to accept new things.

But it turned out this was the real reason!

At that moment, Sweet Potato posted on his verified Weibo account:

[(Screenshot)]

[Caption]: This is the post-tax royalty I received last month, @Shen Qingliang — you’re right, I am an amateur. So what? The readers like it! You don’t need to boss me around. I bring joy to my book friends and make money doing so. Keep on insulting all you want—it won’t stop me from earning!

[Holy crap, seven-figure royalties!]

[Truly the king of distribution!]

After a while, perhaps due to pressure from Yuedian or the harsh criticism from netizens, Shen Qingliang deleted his two earlier posts.

Just as everyone thought the matter was over, Shen Qingliang posted again:

[I can’t write online literature, no surprise! You online writers think you can write traditional literature? There’s no depth in that literature!]

Chen Jiang was dumbfounded. Even now, he couldn’t resist mocking to try to save face.

But netizens had already deemed him a clown and refused to indulge him:

[Lol, only the very top tier in physical publishing can make money nowadays, and the bar is ridiculously high. Who still writes traditional literature?]

[Didn’t you see Sweet Potato’s royalty post? Whether he can write or not, would you have him quit online literature to write that unprofitable traditional stuff?]

…

Reading the comments, Chen Jiang’s eyes gleamed, and a thought flashed through his mind:

“Why not publish a physical novel myself?”

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