All-rounder Artist

Whether Chu Kuang would take up the combat or not was besides the point.

The performance data of this short story was still quite impressive. Although many readers had showered the story with curses in their reviews, the voting results for the short story showed many people were criticizing outwardly but appreciative inwardly—

An excellent first place!

The blog post of “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” occupied the first position for this month’s new short stories on the blog. The data on the hot list was much higher than the second one, proving the story was quite readable.

Again.

The cleverness of the Narrative Trickery was evident in the reader’s ambivalent feeling – being tricked but enjoying the farce at the same time. How would one describe it? Perhaps like the process of squeezing pimples in one’s teenage years?

Painful yet satisfying.

Obviously, for a long time in the future, “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” would be Chu Kuang’s most controversial work. However, this incident helped Lin Yuan understand a simple truth: what was the method to deal with a controversy about one’s work?

The answer was quite simple.

Write something even more controversial!

However, Lin Yuan admitted that “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” was not serious enough and was more like a joke on the readers. It was totally unexpected that this joke would provoke Leng Guang.

In reality.

When adapting the story, Lin Yuan had purposefully involved Leng Guang as part of a joke, just as the original story had ensnared renowned figures from the mystery genre. Since the apes of this world did not know who Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe were, Lin Yuan had named them after Blue Star’s mystery authors.

As for Chu Kuang dying in the story.

This was an adjustment in line with the original story. The author of the original story had also written himself as dead. Therefore, nobody needed to think that “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” was a representation of Narrative Trickery.

Want to refresh your eyes?

Turn left next door to “Malice.”

Even many senior mystery enthusiasts, who weren’t enthusiastic about Higashino Keigo, commented that “Malice” was a very excellent work, and even one of Higashino Keigo’s top five personal masterpieces.

“At least I got first place.”

Lin Yuan was very satisfied with the result, so he decided to ignore Leng Guang’s duel invitation. Let things like Literary Duel go with the wind, as a challenged person had the right to refuse according to another rule of Literary Duel.

“You can actually accept it.”

Jin Mu said with a smile, “The reason why Literary Duel is popular in Yan Continent is that this form is eye-catching enough. Many young writers often challenge their senior authors in the form of a Literary Duel. Under public scrutiny, if they win, they will become famous overnight. However, if the challenger and the challenged are in unequal positions, the seniors generally will not accept the duel. But Leng Guang is not a junior. Whether in mystery or in the entire field of novels, he is considered a senior. Beating him will greatly benefit you.”

“What if I lose?”

Lin Yuan always believed in the word “stability.”

Jin Mu smiled slightly. He did not think his boss would lose. Chu Kuang had always been victorious along the way, and Jin Mu was the only person who knew about the boss’s three pseudonyms. Such a genius seemed invincible.

…

Lin Yuan thought he was safe by not accepting the fight.

After all, he had already won the first place, and the prize money was surely in his pocket.

However, what Lin Yuan didn’t expect was that after a few days, as more and more readers finished reading “The Fall of Dondon Bridge”, a dramatic scene unfolded!

He was surpassed by the runner-up!

Upon discovering this, Lin Yuan was dumbfounded, “What’s going on?”

Jin Mu was also keeping an eye on this issue.

The reason was apparent without any investigation.

He said with a bitter smile on his face, “Isn’t it because of the disputes about the content of the story. Because some people think that the setting of the murderer in “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” is too childish, so now many mystery enthusiasts who don’t like this story are giving revenge votes for the second-place story.”

Lin Yuan:”…”

Is there such an operation?

In the past, it was he who always overtook others. This was the first time he was overtaken by someone else.

In fact, the runner-up author was also bewildered.

Originally, “The Fall of Dondon Bridge” was far ahead in first place, and there was no doubt that Chu Kuang would win the championship.

But out of nowhere, a bunch of people started to vote for him!

It wasn’t because they liked his story, but because they wanted to boost the votes of his story to pull down “The Fall of Dondon Bridge”!

“Am I being used? This is an insult to me – ha ha, no way. What’s wrong with being used?”

The second-place author had no intention of stopping readers from voting for him.

Didn’t the prize for first place taste good?

Plus, luck was also a kind of strength!

Chu Kuang infuriated the public, and he just happened to benefit from it.

An additional reason was that the second-place author was quite upset after reading “The Fall of Dondon Bridge”.

What to do if you’re upset?

Obviously, pull him off the horse!

There is no more relieving way than this!

These people were relieved.

But Lin Yuan began to get angry.

“I was tricked by the system. No good comes cheaply.”

No wonder the system told Lin Yuan to discount “The Fall of Dondon Bridge.”

In the end, the readers did not break Lin Yuan’s legs, but if he didn’t win the first prize, it would be worse than breaking his legs.

At least they could be set properly again, right?

Apparently, being an old rascal was not easy.

“I need to fix this.” Lin Yuan didn’t want to give up like that.

Jin Mu’s eyes flickered, “Actually, there is a way to remedy.”

Lin Yuan looked forward, “How?”

Jin Mu laughed, “After all, it’s because people think the Narrative Trickery is too cunning. Since some people feel your detective story is not reliable, or even feel that you only know this Narrative Trickery mode, the boss can completely write a reliable detective story, the reason is ready-made— didn’t Teacher Leng Guang issue a duel invitation?”

Round and round, it went back to the topic of the Literary Duel.

It seemed that this duel was unavoidable.

Why can’t these people see the deep meaning of “The Fall of Dondon Bridge”?

What a profound work.

Lin Yuan was helpless, exasperatedly took out his phone, and logged into his Tribe account.

This wave.

This wave was forced.

Then Lin Yuan directly mentioned Leng Guang, fiercely uttering four words as if he were challenging someone to a fight:

“Time, place!”

This time, Lin Yuan did not plan to play with Narrative Trickery anymore. He decided to use Leng Guang’s most admired traditional mystery, to fight a tough battle!

“…”

Jin Mu took out his phone, looked at Lin Yuan’s status update, and said languidly, “What did you do?”

“A Literary Duel.”

Lin Yuan was bewildered, wasn’t it you who made me accept the fight?

Jin Mu held his forehead, “I understand all of that, but why did you challenge him with Xian Yu’s account…”

Lin Yuan quickly took out his phone and looked at it.

Indeed, he was using Xian Yu’s account to mention Leng Guang.

Lin Yuan was petrified on the spot.

He had made another blunder.