Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 40: The Manga Award

“What’s wrong?”
Tang Yao noticed that Li Xue suddenly turned her face away and looked a little confused.
“Nothing… I just feel like I got emotionally wrecked.”
Li Xue took a deep breath, calming herself, then turned back with a serious expression.
“You really shouldn’t say stuff like that to other people.”
“I don’t plan on taking anyone else with me, so why would I say it?”
Tang Yao tilted her head, still puzzled.
“No, wait—there is one more person, but he was planning to do games from the start, so whatever… You’re different.
You’re the only one I ever wanted to say that to.”
“……”
Li Xue knew—probably, maybe, hopefully—that it was just a misunderstanding…
But still, she felt another emotional hit.
So she scooted a little closer to Tang Yao and quickly changed the subject.
“Forget it, let’s talk about the game.
I still don’t know what prep work you’ve actually done.
You’ve been acting all mysterious lately—I have no idea what you’ve been up to.
What did you mean by ‘preliminary work’? Fill me in, so I know what to expect, and it’ll give me more confidence when I talk to my relative.”
“Oh…”
Though she found it a little odd, Tang Yao leaned against Li Xue and started explaining all the things she had done to prepare.
Li Xue listened quietly, finally managing to pull herself out of those tangled emotions.
Then—
About ten minutes later—
“You…”
Li Xue’s beautiful eyes widened in shock as she stared at Tang Yao.
“You’re saying… the New Media Department will help promote your manga as the foundation for a game?”
Tang Yao nodded. “Yup. Pretty cool, right?”
“This isn’t just about being cool… How the h*ll did you even pull that off?”
Li Xue looked dazed.
“The director of the New Media Department actually agreed to that?”
“He did.”
“And them being serialized works wasn’t a problem?”
“I have no idea why, but… yeah.”
“……”
Li Xue was totally floored.
Tang Yao smiled.
“So, Miss Li, I’ve already done everything I could possibly do. Now all that’s left is the money—and the results.”
Li Xue snapped out of it. “Results?”
“The results of releasing the manga in advance…
Even though I have a lot of faith in Fate/Zero, my opinion doesn’t count for much.
What matters is how readers respond.”
Tang Yao added softly,
“And I think we’ll know soon.
That Director Shang is probably even more anxious about the response than I am, since the website’s about to launch.”
And Tang Yao wasn’t wrong.
Shang Tao was more anxious than she was.
After all, this concerned the official site launch.
The day after Tang Yao submitted that crucial storyboard—
The New Media Department started ramping up the hype.
Of course, from their perspective, they were just building momentum for the Manga Award.
But for the readers of The Girl, the Boy, and the Sword…
It felt like the publisher was taking a dump on their heads.
Like, seriously?
After all that outrage, you’re still pushing the Manga Award?
You even want us to go preview the entries early?
Where the h*ll do you get the audacity?
Take Su Deqiang, for example…
He looked at the Manga Award blog post and was utterly baffled.
But confusion didn’t stop him from flaming them.
Because after two days of this mess, he was pretty sure now—
he’d been screwed over.
His cyber self had been screwed over!
After The Girl, the Boy, and the Sword dropped that dogsh*t development in the last chapter,
Ou Congquan had just been cowering like a turtle!
And now the magazine was pushing the Manga Award!?
What the h*ll was this?
Are you all deaf to our outrage?
The fury really boiled over in that moment.
“Let’s see here… Special promotion, early preview of Manga Award entries…
Outstanding works won’t be affected by any recent events…
The first batch will go live at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
We welcome everyone to check them out!”
Su Deqiang read the latest post from Wenxin Press’s official social media and felt like he was about to burst a blood vessel.
Welcome everyone to check them out?
You’re promoting it like that?
Isn’t this a bit much!?
And what’s with this ‘outstanding works won’t be affected by any recent events’ line?
Isn’t that a direct jab at how terrible this issue was?
So you do know what’s going on!?
Then if you know—why the f*** aren’t you doing anything about it!?
Su Deqiang was livid.
And just when he thought it couldn’t get worse—
Ding dong!
A new post came from none other than Ou Congquan, who Su had marked as “Favorites.”
Su froze, then clicked on it with a “so you finally showed your f***ing face” kind of vibe.
[Post from Ou Congquan]
…I’m sorry for the mess this chapter caused.
I’ve taken in all of your feedback, and with my editor’s help, I’ve already revised the next chapter’s storyboard.
Please don’t worry—next time, I won’t let you down.
I also want to thank my editor.
Without her, I’d probably still be stuck in my own head right now.
Also, because of me, the Wenxin Manga Award released some works early.
I truly apologize for that.
I just didn’t want great entries to get buried because of my mistakes.
If you’re interested, please consider checking them out…
“……”
Su Deqiang stared at the post, face flushing red with fury.
He was this close to a stroke.
Seriously?
Sure, it sounds nice—you say you get what readers are saying.
But then you twist it into a damn ad for the Manga Award!?
“Next time, I won’t let you down.”
Yeah right. This isn’t about quality—it’s damage control for the award.
You’re clearly just trying to calm people down for the sake of the bigger picture.
Wow.
Just… wow.
“Old man Ou… you’re still pulling this crap?
You’re seriously using this moment to shill for the Manga Award!?”
Su Deqiang gripped his phone so tightly he was trembling with rage.
“Fine, fine, FINE—just you wait for tomorrow!”
He muttered furiously to himself while furiously typing angry replies under Ou Congquan’s post.
And judging by the number of replies—
plenty of people agreed with him.
The next morning.
When Tang Yao woke up and saw the mess Shang Tao and Ou Congquan had stirred up, she was completely stunned.
“This is a f***ing disaster…”
Wearing her comfy pajamas, Tang Yao held her phone in one hand and tapped her forehead with the other.
She never expected that after suggesting the early release idea,
Shang Tao would go full-on turbo with it!
…He even had Ou Congquan shill for it!?
Was he that desperate to make sure readers knew about the Manga Award?
About the early access?
Yeah, negative attention is still attention,
but this felt like standing in the middle of the street yelling “HEY, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!”
Did you really need to drag the whole manga readership into this circus?
“What are you doing?”
Tang Kaoru appeared in the doorway, wearing an apron.
She saw her sister still in pajamas, sitting in a chair.
“Come eat breakfast.”
“Nothing, I’m coming.”
Tang Yao shook her head and put down her phone.
This… might not be a bad thing.
After all, Ou Congquan did revise the next chapter.
That should calm readers down.
Right now, they just misunderstood and thought he was pulling a stunt—
playing the bigger-picture angle while lying through his teeth.
So all their anger had shifted toward the Manga Award.
Which, strangely enough…
was probably a good thing.
At the very least…
the Manga Award sure wasn’t lacking in readers now.
At the same time—on the other side of the city.
Su Deqiang had also just woken up.
And the moment he remembered what happened yesterday,
he was still furious.
So—
he didn’t even bother washing up.
He rolled out of bed and sat down straight at his computer.