Early in the morning, before dawn, Zhang Zian was still the first one to wake up in the pet shop. In order to expand the space, the bedroom and the living room had been connected in the last renovation. From the single bed, he could see the basket hammock chair and the desk. Sitting up in bed, he found that Pi was still sleeping in the basket hammock chair like a baby. It took off its pince-nez and put it on the desk. It only took off its glasses when it was sleeping.
Pi looked precocious when it wore its glasses, which often made Zhang Zian forget its age. Now that it took off its glasses, Pi was clearly an underage monkey. If it was a wild monkey, it might have just left its mother's back and tried to explore this strange and unknown world.
The single bed creaked slightly with Zhang Zian's movements. The elfins were alert, but then they went back to sleep. Only Xinghai and Pi blinked and sat up. Maybe it was because they were imaginary elfins and did not need too much sleep? As for Snowy Lionet, theoretically, this Neet cat was also an imaginary elfin, but Zhang Zian wondered if there was something wrong...
Pi jumped out of the basket hammock, put on its pince-nez, sat in the swivel chair, and couldn't wait to turn on the laptop.
After uploading the first chapter, it would be reviewed by the website for new works. The review editor would check whether the content of the first chapter had any tendency to violate the rules, and whether someone would break the law and move the articles from the headquarters over, or publish some illegal and misleading things. However, Pi's novel was not involved in either of these, so there shouldn't be any problems.
Zhang Zian knew that after turning off the light last night, Pi didn't fall asleep. From the direction of the basket hammock chair, Pi tossed and turned, and its fur rubbed against the blanket. It must be anxious waiting for the review results.
When the old computer was finally booted up, Pi entered its username and password to enter the author platform of Qidian website. Sure enough, a short message from the website popped up: "Pet King has passed the review. Happy writing!"
Pi turned its head and smiled at Zhang Zian, clenching its fists.
Under the light of the screen, its face was full of excitement.
He also gave it a thumbs up to encourage it. Anyway, it was good that Pi was happy.
Zhang Zian put on his clothes and got out of bed. In the blink of an eye, Pi's face had turned from sunny to cloudy, staring at the screen with its mouth half open.
Zhang Zian's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know what was going on, so he walked over with light footsteps and used his finger to draw a question mark on the desk.
On the screen was the "Works Management Area" in the backend of the website. From this section, one could see some simple data of the works under the pseudonym. Currently, there was only one book under Pi's pen name, which was "Pet King." It pointed to a column of data for him to see.
Favorites: 2
In other words, after the first chapter was published, only two people saw it and added it to the bookshelf. One of them was Pi itself, and the other was a wild reader — probably a review editor.
Zhang Zian understood why Pi was suddenly depressed. To be honest, this was within his expectations. He typed an encouraging message: "It's okay. In the world of online literature with millions of words, if it were you, would you read a novel with only one chapter?" Come on, perseverance is victory!
His encouragement had some effect. Pi forced a smile and typed, "Okay."
It was not convenient to write directly on the website. Pi took a deep breath and tried to forget the poor number 2. It opened a Word document and started to write the second chapter.
Seeing Pi like this, Zhang Zian was even more worried.
He didn't know if his encouragement was like drinking poison to quench thirst. It was like a parent knowing that the path their child chose might be a detour or even a dead end. Should they encourage their child to continue to move forward bravely and then knock their head until it bled, or should they try to persuade their child to change?
He didn't know what the situation was like abroad, but most parents in China would choose the latter wisely, hoping to pave a broad road to "happiness" for their child. They hoped that their child would walk straight on this road, never make a detour, and never be hurt in any way.
If this kind of thing happened to Fina and Old Time Tea, it wouldn't be a big deal at all. Their pride and strength gave them unparalleled confidence. They wouldn't accept any interference, not even from their owners. Even if they failed, they would just smile, lick their wounds, and move on. However, Pi was different from them. It was an introverted and sensitive elfin, unsociable and not good at interacting with other elfins, let alone being strong. Could it bear the pain of failure?
Usually, he would go downstairs to clean up after getting up in the morning and start his daily business. But today, he stood behind Pi for a long time, weighing the pros and cons repeatedly in his mind, unable to make a decision.
Pi turned back in confusion and typed, "What's wrong?"
Zhang Zian pretended to be relaxed and smiled. He bent down and drew the word "people" on the table with his finger, then typed, "See? The Chinese character for "people" means mutual support. I want to tell you one thing. No matter how your novel turns out, we will always stand behind you and support you. "
Usually, after getting up, Galaxy would run downstairs to play hide-and-seek with Wendy and the others. But today, it stayed, jumped onto the desk, and waved its front paw at Pi to show its support.
Pi smiled happily and typed, "Thank you."
As if it had received some kind of invisible power, it straightened its body and continued to type according to the posture and finger movements that Zhang Zian had taught it, but still very slowly.
Zhang Zian silently watched Pi's back. When he typed that line, he had already made a decision in his mind. Taking a detour was not necessarily a bad thing. The experience of taking a detour would become a valuable asset in a child's life. When faced with the next fork in the road, the child might recognize the detour and choose the right one. Even parents could not stay with their children forever. In the end, they had to let go and let their children go on their own. What parents could do was to silently watch their children's back, and then when their children knocked their heads and bled on the detour, they would bandage their wounds and prepare for the next trip.
After a fracture, the new bones would be stronger; after a heart was hurt, it would be stronger.
He turned slightly, and looked at the black and white portraits of his parents on the chest of drawers in the dim light of dawn. They were also smiling at him. They had never interfered with the path he had chosen, nor had they asked him to inherit the pet shop. Maybe this was how they used to feel in the past?
But this did not mean that he had to be a pure bystander. In order to better support Pi, there were many things he could do.
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