Zhang Zian had thought that he could have a leisurely New Year, but he hadn't expected that the 11 newborn kittens would keep him busy. He spent almost all day around the two mothers and the 11 kittens.
The Crucian Carp that Snowy brought over was a great help. The mother cat that ate the Crucian Carp soup produced a lot more milk, just enough to fill the kittens' stomachs.
Out of love for the kittens, she tried her best to come over every day to help. Even if she couldn't go out, she would send the Crucian Carp over by express delivery. It was said that all of them were caught by her elder.
With her help, Zhang Zian's burden was a little lighter. Every day, he hoped that the two clowns, Wang Qian and Li Kun, would quickly come back to work after the New Year.
Feng Xuan was very satisfied with the report and photos he sent to him. He told him that the sample of Dog Warrior had been officially submitted to the Berlin Film Festival's organizing committee and had already passed the committee's review. It would participate in the selection of the main competition unit. It was hard to determine how much of an effect that line of subtitles at the end of the film had, but according to Feng Xuan, from what he had heard privately, the members of the organizing committee admired the Dog Warrior crew's attitude of caring for animals. It should have been a big plus.
Zhang Zian usually didn't pay much attention to entertainment news, but in the past few days, he had paid a little more attention. In the harmonious and happy New Year's atmosphere, he found that there were small reports about the Dog Warrior movie in the entertainment section. However, because there weren't any big stars or young actors in the movie, it didn't receive much attention. The reports were more focused on another domestic criminal investigation movie that was also in the main competition unit. After all, the director of that movie was more famous, and there were veteran actors in it.
Famous was more concerned about the progress of the movie than he was. It asked him several times a day if there was any new news.
Zhang Zian would tell it whenever there was new news, but he would often remind it to lower its expectations. After all, the Berlin Film Festival was the first important film festival of the New Year. It could be said that there were many strong actors, and the competition was very fierce. The directors and stars who participated in the main competition unit were all eager to win the big prize.
He read out the names that were well-known in the domestic and foreign film industry one by one, but all he got was a contemptuous "heh" from Famous.
Pi's novel was also progressing smoothly. It had emerged as a dark horse, firmly occupying the second place on the monthly novel list, which was equivalent to having a good free recommendation spot. The person at the top of the list was a god who had been famous for a long time and had many fans.
In the morning, after taking care of the mother and kittens, Zhang Zian sat next to Pi with a cup of hot tea, watching it write its novel.
The upgraded Pi could type faster and more accurately than before. Sometimes, it would still type the string of numbers 3.1415926, but it was no longer confused and ashamed by the number. It just grinned and continuously pressed the backspace key to delete it.
Zhang Zian's literary attainment was very average. In high school, he could often get 45 marks for a 60 mark essay. But even so, he noticed that Pi's improvement was not only reflected in its typing speed, but also in its original plot.
As Pi had said before, the novel it wrote was not completely based on the real life of Zhang Zian and the elfins, but like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it was 70% real and 30% fake. The real part was easy, but Pi used to have a headache when it came to the fictional part of the original plot. It would often get stuck when writing about it, and couldn't squeeze out more than a few words.
Now that Pi had leveled up to Sanctuary Elfin, it was even more adept at creating original plots. The frequency and number of times it got stuck had decreased, and it didn't need to sit in front of the computer all day to think. It even had some free time to play and interact with its book friends.
Pi typed the last few words and a period, and scratched its head in satisfaction. It had been writing since it woke up in the morning, and had just finished a chapter.
"Eeek?"
It pulled Zhang Zian and looked at him expectantly, which meant: Do you want to play hide-and-seek with Xinghai and the others?
Pi gradually integrated into the elfins, and was no longer as shy as before. Sometimes, when it finished writing early, it would actively want to play with the other elfins.
Zhang Zian smiled and was about to say yes, when his phone rang with a message. He unlocked the phone screen and saw that the message was from [Feather of the Specter], the Internet celebrity and the biggest book list owner on Qidian.
He picked up the teacup and said, "Pi, Xinghai and I are fine, but..."
After a pause, he laughed and said, "But hide-and-seek is boring without enough people. You go downstairs and wake up Famous. Find a way to pull it into the game. I'll go downstairs to find you after I finish this cup of tea."
"Eeek!"
Pi nodded excitedly, took off its glasses, and ran downstairs on all fours.
There were no customers at the moment, so it wasn't afraid of being seen.
After sending it away, Zhang Zian opened the message and read it carefully.
[Feather of the Specter]: Well... congratulations, the monthly votes are good.
Zhang Zian was also happy for Pi, and replied: Thank you, especially for the support of you and other book list owners.
He knew that this Internet celebrity was very busy, and had to do work in real life, and was busy contacting other book list owners. Zhang Zian waited quietly for the message.
[Feather of the Specter]: Do you want to aim for a higher goal?
Zhang Zian was stunned. What was a higher goal?
He tried to reply: Do you mean... to aim for the first place in the monthly votes list? Isn't the gap too big?
[Feather of the Specter]: [Cry Laugh] [Cry Laugh]! No, well... it's to aim for the Newcomer King of the Year, or the Best Newcomer of the Year.
This was the first time Zhang Zian had heard of this, and he asked curiously: What is this?
[Feather of the Specter]: A title given to the author with the highest monthly votes. Although there is no material reward, it's a great honor, and the competition is fierce every year.
Pi had probably woken Famous up downstairs. It was trying to persuade Famous to play hide-and-seek with it. Xinghai was also meowing in support. Famous looked as if it had seen a ghost. It refused to participate no matter what, and the two sides were in a stalemate.
Zhang Zian was speechless, imagining what Pi would look like if it was elected. Newcomer... Monkey King? Best Newcomer of the Year?
After thinking for a moment, he declined on behalf of Pi. Forget it. Let the more qualified author be elected. It's just a title anyway.
As an elfin, it was better for Pi to keep a low profile.
[Feather of the Specter]: Well... Is that so? Okay then. Although it's just a title, it's still helpful for the promotion of the novel.
It was obvious that he still wanted to persuade Zhang Zian, or Pi, to try to fight for this honor.
He was thinking about Pi's novel, but Zhang Zian knew that it was hard for Pi to write a novel. If it wanted to fight for more honor, it would have to work even harder, and might even sacrifice its free time like now. Between honor and health, he wanted to choose the latter for Pi. After all, Pi still had a long time to write a novel. There was no need to sacrifice the future for some immediate benefits. The body was the capital of revolution.
So he replied: Well, I don't want to fight for this, but thank you for reminding me.
[Feather of the Specter]: Well, I understand. But I still want to remind you that even if you don't fight for it, others will. Many people are jealous of this honor, and these people may see you and your novel as their biggest enemy.
Zhang Zian frowned, and couldn't help but feel nervous.
Where there were people, there was society, and where there were people, there was competition. He remembered the previous attack on the book review section. It was probably because of other authors. This time, the honor of the Best Author was ten times or even a hundred times greater than that. It was hard to imagine that others would ignore it. This was the so-called "the tree wants peace, but the wind will not subside".
[Feather of the Specter] was an old bookworm on Qidian and an internet celebrity in the book list industry. He was knowledgeable, and probably wouldn't be an alarmist. He asked: Then what should I do?
[Feather of the Specter]: Well... I don't have any good suggestions. In the words of Grandpa Mao, it was to dig a hole deep, accumulate grain, and not seek hegemony. It was to strive for the support of book friends as much as possible, and deal with the myriad of changes by remaining unchanged.
Zhang Zian thought about it, and it seemed that this was the only way.
In the near future, Famous and Pi would be involved in a very harsh competition. The only difference was that one was active, and the other was passive.
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