Huanyue Chinese Web.
"Xueliu, how's the poaching plan coming along?"
Huanyue CEO Zhu Zhiwen summoned Huanyue's editor-in-chief Xueliu to his office and asked.
"President, over the past two-plus months, we've poached everyone we could. Of the authors on our target list, about fifty percent have been brought under Huanyue. Another thirty percent was taken by Lianheng. The remaining twenty percent were held onto by Lingdian, and we probably won't be able to pry them away."
"Heh, this poaching plan was executed beautifully. Lingdian paid a heavy price this time to keep their god-tier authors. I believe they don't have much cash flow left now. The poaching plan ends here."
"Just as you say, President. I was also planning to suspend the poaching plan. It's just a pity we didn't manage to get one person. Sigh, that was my fault for offering too low a price back then."
"Who?"
"The Number One White Under Heaven."
"The author who wrote 'How a Bad Guy Is Made'?"
"Yes. His 'Bad Guy' started the noob-style trend. At the time, I only thought he had potential and tried to poach him. Unfortunately, my offer was too low, and he rejected it."
"How much did you offer?"
"One hundred per thousand words."
"Xueliu, that price isn't low."
"I thought so at the time too, but now it seems even five hundred per thousand wouldn't be too much."
Xueliu shook his head bitterly, feeling some regret. Why hadn't he raised the price a bit back then?
"Five hundred per thousand? Xueliu, are you joking? Even if you approved it, I wouldn't. That price is enough to buy an eight-star author. How many eight-star authors does Huaguo have? Fewer than a hundred."
"I know, but I think The Number One White Under Heaven is worth that price."
"Xueliu, what's going on with you lately? You've been editor-in-chief for so many years; how did you become so artsy? You need to understand, art is like this: when it's bright, it's like the sun; when it's dim, even if it's right in front of you, you still can't see it. 'Bad Guy' is indeed very popular, but who can guarantee his second book will be popular too? Authors who become gods with one book and ghosts with the next are everywhere. Not to mention, The Number One White Under Heaven is only a level-one author right now. He hasn't even passed the threshold of VIP subscription testing."
"President…"
Xueliu wanted to explain further, but seeing the president glare at him, he stopped talking.
He knew that in the eyes of these professional managers, they never believed in so-called art.
And even less in the infinite charm that art possessed.
"The next phase of tasks is to do content operations well and cooperate with other channels. Also, Lingdian is currently short on funds, which is exactly when we should make a large-scale push into Lingdian's territory. Headquarters has already decided to invest one hundred million yuan as Huanyue's market expansion fund. I hope this one hundred million can swallow up half of Lingdian's market. Xueliu, do a good job."
"Yes."
…
After parting ways with Zhang Huiping at the cafeteria, Huang Yifan smiled faintly.
The little girl's occasional nagging still echoed in his ears. It left a lingering aftertaste and felt rather warm.
He hadn't expected that after coming to this world, he would still meet such a lovely girl.
Without realizing it, after just a few minutes, Huang Yifan returned to the place he had rented.
Ah, he forgot to go to evening self-study.
Thinking of Zhang Huiping's reminder, he was about to get up, but then laughed and scolded himself.
What an idiot. He hadn't even registered yet. What evening self-study was he going to?
Besides, there was nothing meaningful to do there anyway. Going would just mean chatting and fooling around with classmates.
After thinking it over, he turned the computer back on.
He wasn't opening it to write this time. Writing six chapters in one go earlier had already made him a bit tired.
He planned to study the writing techniques of 'The School Belle's Bodyguard'.
Yes, as a standard noob-style novel, 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' was far from being as simple as an ordinary noob-style book.
Huang Yifan had already felt this while copying it earlier.
He felt that within 'The School Belle's Bodyguard', there seemed to be some very deep noob-style techniques hidden inside.
In his previous life, Huang Yifan had studied these techniques too, but never fully understood them.
Just now, he'd had a faint flash of insight, and he wanted to use that spark to properly study it.
Chapter One: A Mysterious Mission.
The first chapter of 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' talked about the protagonist Lin Yi being forced by his master to accept a mysterious mission and go down the mountain. Then, in the second chapter, he encountered a scam gang using pull-tab can prizes. In the third chapter, not only did the scam gang fail to scam the protagonist, but the protagonist ended up scamming them instead.
Seeing this, Huang Yifan felt a little puzzled.
This novel seemed pretty ordinary.
It wasn't as hot-blooded as 'Bad Guy', nor did it have the protagonist being instantly overpowered like in other novels.
He continued to study it.
Chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, chapter six… reading all the way through, Huang Yifan frowned more and more.
To be honest, based on Huang Yifan's experience of reading countless noob-style novels in his previous life, the first few chapters of 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' were really quite average. It was only later, when he met the eldest miss of the Chu family and became her personal bodyguard, that the ambiguous style began to show. Or rather, it was only at that point that the novel became more interesting.
But that was already more than ten chapters in.
According to the habits of online novel readers, they usually start reading from the first chapter. When judging whether a book is good or interesting enough, at most, they'll only read the first three chapters. If the first three chapters are good and can hook them, they'll keep reading. If the first three chapters are poorly written, readers will just close the page.
This is also where the term "golden three chapters" comes from in the online author circle.
The so-called golden three chapters refer to the opening three chapters. They must be written extremely, extremely well. If the opening three chapters fail to attract readers, hoping to hook them later with the plot is nothing but a daydream.
In his previous life, countless authors had rewritten and revised their openings over and over just to produce a perfect beginning. Many professional authors would even write dozens of opening versions, selecting one only when no flaws could be found. But looking at the situation now, 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' seemed to have very average opening chapters.
There wasn't much passion, nor any hot-blooded feeling… what was going on? This was a novel by a god-tier author.
How could a god-tier author make such a mistake?
Carefully recalling the feeling he had while copying the book earlier, Huang Yifan clearly remembered that he'd felt very excited while copying it. Even though the novel wasn't his and he was only copying, when he typed out each sentence and each word, Huang Yifan still felt a strong sense of excitement, like the book made him want to keep reading.
The urge to keep reading?
Suddenly, Huang Yifan's eyes lit up.
He finally found what made this book so damn amazing.
It wasn't about the first three chapters lacking highlights or attraction.
It wasn't about the protagonist not being able to fly around or dominate like other novels.
None of that was the most important thing.
The most important thing was only one thing: could you keep reading?
The reason the golden three chapters are called golden three chapters isn't that they have to be written exceptionally well, or because the protagonist has to be incredibly flashy, or because they must throw out some ridiculously awesome setting. None of that is the most important. The role of the golden three chapters is to make the reader keep reading.
As long as you achieve that, even if your first three chapters are written terribly, it's still a success.
The first three chapters of 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' looked simple, but with a flash of insight, Huang Yifan now understood that they weren't simple at all.
First, the opening three chapters explained the protagonist's mission and his descent down the mountain. They also established the protagonist's personality: lecherous, humorous, and very smart. At the same time, they hinted at the protagonist's abilities. Although it didn't explicitly say how he could fly through the skies or move through the earth, from a few scattered lines, it was already clear that the protagonist was very powerful.
Since the reader knows what the protagonist is going to do in the future and knows that he's actually very strong, they will naturally start to anticipate what kind of situations Lin Yi will encounter after going down the mountain. Will he show off his strength and dominate everything? Will he casually show a bit of skill and shock everyone? This sense of anticipation emerges right at this moment.
Golden three chapters.
Damn it, all those noob-style novels he'd read before could go to hell. This was the real golden three chapters.
Only at this moment did Huang Yifan truly realize that 'The School Belle's Bodyguard' was far more than just ambiguity.
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