Chapter 1206

Chapter 1206: The release of Fortress Besieged!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

In the morning.

At the studio.

After catching up on two days of no sleep, Zhang Ye returned to work.

“Good morning, Director Zhang.”

“Director Zhang, you’re here?”

“Have you had enough rest?”

“Don’t pull that many all-nighters in the future.”

“Yeah, you scared us to death.”

Everyone said a few words of concern to him.

Zhang Ye laughed and said, “The kind of life I lead is tiresome. I can as free as I want when I have downtime, but when I get busy, I’m especially busy. I’m used to this. Oh right, is there anything going on these next few days?”

Ha Qiqi smiled and said, “Nothing important, but tomorrow will be the launch of your novel.”

Zhang Ye said, “Oh? They’ve finished printing it already?”

Ha Qiqi said, “The publishing firm put in overtime and finally managed to meet 200,000 copies for the first print run. We did not have much time to carry out any heavy promotions for the novel as it was too rushed. Otherwise, if we had had a month to prepare, the marketing would surely have been very effective. Since we couldn’t promote it properly, we aren’t really sure how the sales will do.”

Zhang Ye said calmly, “It’s fine. Just sell however much we can.

Ha Qiqi nodded. “Starting from now, we’ll be following up with the promotional work for the novel. The money has already been paid, so we’ll start seeing the ad campaigns today.”

“Alright, great job,” Zhang Ye said.

Zhang Zuo suddenly said, “Eh, are they going to announce the winners for the Qilu Literature Prize tomorrow as well?”

Little Wang was giggling as she looked at a monitor. Then she got stunned. “Eh? This nominee list!”

The nearby people instinctively looked over.

“What’s the matter?”

“There’s a Zhang Ye on the nominee list?”

“Haha, it must be someone with the same name.”

“Let me have a look. Heh, you’re right!”

“How coincidental, there’s really an author with the same name as Director Zhang.”

“Eh, the nominated novel is titled Fortress Besieged?”

“Whoa, what a coincidence! It even has the same title as Director Zhang’s new novel?”

Having said that, everyone in the studio froze!

What?

The author’s name was Zhang Ye?

And the novel’s title was also titled Fortress Besieged?

What the hell! Coincidence, your sister!

Isn’t this Director Zhang himself?!

Wu Yi was dumbfounded. “Director Zhang, did you get nominated for the Qilu Literature Prize?”

Little Wang’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Surely not, right? What’s with this?”

“Ah?” Zhang Ye said in surprise, “Didn’t I tell you guys?”

Zhang Zuo exclaimed, “When did you tell us? No one knows about this!”

Zhang Ye sighed. “I must’ve been too tired. I’ve been sleeping so much the past two days that I forgot all about it. Yes, Fortress Besieged was nominated.”

Ha Qiqi said in disbelief, “How could it be that your marriage-themed novel was nominated for the Qilu Literature Prize? Doesn’t that award only shortlist literary fiction?”

Little Wang said, “Yeah, what’s with this?”

Zhang Ye said in amusement, “Haven’t you guys read the novel?

Everyone shook their heads. They had been too busy liaising with the publishing firm, readying the promotional materials, and handling other matters, so who would have the time to flip through the novel page by page and read it carefully?

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Didn’t I say it before? We’ll continue with the plan to reach the summit. If we can’t complete the first step of our plan, then we’ll combine it with the second step. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t manage to win the Yanhong Literary Prize. If I did, I couldn’t have been nominated for the Qilu Literature Prize. Comparing the prestige of these two awards, the Qilu Literature Prize is actually the more coveted of the domestic literary awards.” With that, he spread his hands. “But of course, I don’t know if I can win this time either.”

The studio staff got very excited!

They thought he had missed out on getting a high honor of the Chinese literary field, but who could have expected that Zhang Ye’s new novel would actually get nominated for the famous Qilu Literature Prize as well? This was excellent, great news for them! The only thing that made everyone feel a little doubtful was that Director Zhang had taken less than two fucking days to finish writing this novel that contained 200,000 words of pure bull…pure literature, so would he really be able to win the highest honor in the literary field?

Could he really do it?

Why did it feel like it was hopeless no matter how they looked at it!

Surely the Qilu Literature Prize wasn’t that “cheap,” right?

However—

Qian Zhongshu!

Fortress Besieged!

They couldn’t possibly know what these four words stood for back in Zhang Ye’s previous world!

…

Later that morning.

The promotions began.

On an ad page in the Beijing Times, the cover of Fortress Besieged, along with Zhang Ye’s photo and a written introduction by him, were printed.

Fortress Besieged.

Marriage is like a fortress besieged.

Those who are outside want to get in.

And those who are inside want to get out.

—Zhang Ye’s first novel, themed around marriage, will meet everyone on the bookshelves tomorrow!

On the other newspapers and some discussion forums, advertisement spots had also been purchased for the novel!

The official Weibo of Zhang Ye’s Studio also posted an announcement.

Following, Zhang Ye’s personal Weibo shared the announcement post and added simply: “My new novel will go on sale tomorrow at all major bookstores. Everyone, please join in and support me.”

This news had come too abruptly!

It was so sudden that it left everyone in the industry, as well as the public, unable to react to it!

It was so sudden that many of the media reporters felt like they had a rude awakening!

“A new novel?”

“Why wasn’t there any news about this beforehand?”

“Zhang Ye wrote another novel?”

“Eh, Fortress Besieged?”

“Why does it sound so familiar?”

“Yeah, it sounds familiar to me too. I seem to have seen it somewhere.”

“Fuck! Look at the Qilu Literature Prize’s nominee list!”

“Ah, yes. It’s the Qilu Literature Prize, I remember it now!”

“Zhang Ye! Fortress Besieged!”

“Your grandpa! So it wasn’t actually someone with the same name? Fuck!”

“Oh my God! Zhang Ye has been nominated for the Qilu Literature Prize!”

“The novel was nominated even before its release? Just what kind of novel is it!”

“Zhang Ye is getting married soon; is that why he’s chosen to touch on the topic of marriage with a literary novel? But it’s been proven in recent years that this sort of novel doesn’t sell well. What’s more, this is even literary fiction?”

“Zhang Ye will be competing for the Qilu Literature Prize?”

“That can’t be, right? He’s never written literary fiction before. In the past, he’s only dabbled in genre fiction 1 . This is Zhang Ye’s first time writing a full-length novel, so how could he possibly win an award for it? And we’re talking about the Qilu Literature Prize here. Do you think the award is like the cabbages in the market? Anyone can get one if they want one? Aiyo, let me process this for a moment! This is mind-blowing!”

The power of the people was limitless.

Having missed out on the Yanhong Literary Prize, Zhang Ye was in the news. When his nomination for the Qilu Literature Prize was revealed, it spread through the Internet like wildfire!

“Come and see this, quickly! Zhang Ye will be releasing a new novel!”

“Is Face-smacking Zhang making a comeback?”

“I must buy a copy of it tomorrow and see how it is!”

“I don’t like literary novels, they’re too contrived! I can’t understand them!”

“I don’t like them either, but we’re talking about Zhang Ye’s novel. Even if I won’t read it, I must still buy two copies and leave them at home. Can’t help it, I’m a braindead fan of his, after all!”

“Hahaha, me too!”

“Supporting Teacher Zhang!”

“Supporting Face-smacking Zhang in his fight for the Qilu Literature Prize!”

“I’ll reserve my judgment on how the novel is. I hope he didn’t forcefully put something together just so he could release a book.”

“I would buy the novel even if he wrote rubbish. I just want to see how Zhang Ye will write a marriage-themed novel. There might even be a description of Zhang Ye’s wife that could help us guess her identity!”

“Zhang Ye is too crafty! He knew that people are paying attention to his marriage, so he came up with a marriage-themed novel. He’s obviously just trying to make a quick buck!”

“Haha, then will you buy it or not?”

“Of course I…will buy it while holding back tears!”

“We’ll find out tomorrow if his novel is any good! The release of Fortress Besieged tomorrow will also be the day that the results of the Qilu Literature Prize are announced. It’s all going to happen on the same day!”

Even before its release!

Fortress Besieged was trending!

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction (or commercial fiction)