"Brother, I forgot to ask, what's your name?" Lu Nan asked Wang Shu with a bit of embarrassment.
"Wang Shu, I'm technically a small artist!" Wang Shu replied.
"Wang Shu? I think my sister mentioned that name before!" Lu Nan recalled thoughtfully.
"Then it must be a common name. After all, I'm just a small artist. Alright, I need to head back to Hangzhou tomorrow. Here's my bank card number and contact information. If you need anything in the future, just call me!" Wang Shu said as he handed over his business card.
"You're going back to Hangzhou tonight? Driving back?" Lu Nan was a bit taken aback. The distance from Beijing to Hangzhou was not short.
"No, I don't even have a driver's license, how could I drive?" Wang Shu waved his hand helplessly. Even if he wanted to drive the two Rolls-Royces to Hangzhou, he would need a license. Driving just now was out of necessity, but now that no one was chasing him, he naturally wouldn't risk driving without a license. After all, he was a public figure and shouldn't set a bad example. Even though his driving skills were basically world-class, rules were rules.
"I'll leave the cars here for now. Please keep an eye on them. I'll arrange for them to be picked up tomorrow!" Wang Shu told Lu Nan, then pulled out his phone to book a ride to the airport. He had to get back by morning for the recording of 'King of Masked Singer'.
"Why don't I give you a ride?" Lu Nan said with a smile.
"That would be very kind of you!" Wang Shu was delighted to have someone offer him a ride.
"Miss Su, hurry up, let's go to the airport!" Wang Shu called out to another group of girls.
A moment later, Su Yao emerged and ran towards Wang Shu.
"Sister Su Yao!" Lu Nan exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Su Yao.
"Brother Lu Nan?" Su Yao was also startled by Lu Nan's greeting and turned to look at him.
"What? Do you two know each other?" Wang Shu looked at them, puzzled. They seemed to know each other.
"We know each other more than just acquaintances. We've known each other since childhood. Our families are business partners, so we're quite familiar!" Lu Nan explained.
"Sister Su Yao, what's going on?" Lu Nan asked Su Yao.
"It's a long story. Why don't you drive us first?" Su Yao replied with an embarrassed smile.
Afterward, Wang Shu and Su Yao got into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce, while Lu Nan drove them. Wang Shu and Su Yao both refused to sit in the cramped back seat of Lu Nan's Porsche 911.
On the way, Su Yao explained the entire situation to Lu Nan.
"Uncle Su is still too cautious!" Lu Nan sighed, understanding Su Yao's predicament. If he were a girl, his situation would probably be similar to Su Yao's.
"Your family is so heavily guarded, how did Brother Wang Shu get in?" Lu Nan asked Wang Shu curiously.
"That's a bit difficult to explain!" Wang Shu smiled and skirted the question. He couldn't exactly tell this young master that he knew martial arts. Even if he did, the other party might not believe him. Besides, he felt it was best not to reveal his skills unless absolutely necessary. Having an extra ace up his sleeve could mean an extra chance at survival.
Although Lu Nan enjoyed fast driving and racing, he was very law-abiding on public roads. He even often yielded to pedestrians, which made Wang Shu look at this second-generation rich kid with newfound respect. While many of them received elite education, some still had very low quality. They received the best education but had the most vulgar character. However, today, Lu Nan's demeanor had improved Wang Shu's impression of the rich second-generation group.
They arrived at the airport smoothly. After saying goodbye, Lu Nan drove off in the Rolls-Royce, promising Wang Shu that he would return the car to the Su family. Wang Shu and Su Yao then took a flight back to Hangzhou.
...
The next morning, Wang Shu sent the songs he wanted to submit for the competition to Gong Tao, and then started writing furiously. His updates had been very unstable recently, and he worried that if he continued like this, Xiao Chui would come looking for him again. He had even completely stopped updating his books on two other websites. The editors from those sites had sent him many messages urging him to resume updating.
However, Wang Shu was not in a hurry. His main focus was on writing 'Douluo' well. He had glanced at the backend data recently. In the half-month since 'Douluo' went on the shelves, despite his terrible updates and frequent breaks, the data for 'Douluo' had doubled compared to when it was first released. The monthly votes were even more astonishing. In just a few days, the monthly votes had surged to first place, completely eclipsing Cunzi and Zhu Shen.
At the same time, his comment section had exploded. Countless readers were frantically urging him to update, and many wealthy readers were even donating hundreds of thousands, begging him to add more chapters. Wang Shu roughly calculated that his reward income for this month alone, after deducting the platform's share, was over a million. This was an incredible figure, considering that Zhongdian Novel Network was a second-tier platform with a smaller user base than top-tier platforms. Yet, the revenue generated by Wang Shu's book this month was almost surpassing that of top-tier platforms. This was why those platforms were constantly urging Wang Shu to update; they desperately needed a phenomenon-level masterpiece like 'Douluo World' to attract a large number of users and create a phenomenon-level copyright work to achieve company performance.
Meanwhile, in Cunzi's fan group. In the past few days, Cunzi had added extra updates and personally used alternate accounts to boost rankings. However, not only was he unable to catch up to the monthly votes of 'Douluo World,' but he also found the gap between his monthly votes and theirs widening. Fortunately, Zhu Shen's book was in a similar situation to his. The difference in votes between him and Zhu Shen was only a few dozen.
"What kind of monster is this newcomer!" Cunzi grumbled as he looked at the monthly vote rankings. He had initially thought his influence was enough to suppress a newcomer. But now he realized he was too confident. Although he was currently a top author on the platform, this title might change hands after this month.
"Old Zhou, didn't you try to recruit me to your platform before? I can start a book on your platform now!" Cunzi opened the chatbox of an editor from another top platform, Yuewen Novel Network, and sent a message.
"Welcome, Great God Cunzi! Yuewen is now a top platform and is in urgent need of a big shot like you!" Zhou Wu, an editor from Yuewen Novel Network, quickly replied upon seeing it was a veteran big shot. Cunzi then directly reached an agreement with him and published a new book he had been preparing for a long time on Yuewen. Cunzi attached great importance to this book; he had written dozens of beginnings and polished it for several years. Now was the perfect time to use it as a declaration of loyalty to the new platform. After all, Yuewen Novel was now a top platform, and he couldn't easily establish himself without showing some strength.
As for Zhongdian Novel Network, he felt it would be very difficult to win against the newcomer with 'Douluo World' this time. So, he decided to give himself an excuse, claiming he was unwell, and finish the book. Then, he would conquer new territory on Yuewen. This way, authors in the industry wouldn't think he had hastily finished the book because he lost the monthly vote competition. Instead, they would admire his courage and ambition.
"I'm such a genius!" Cunzi thought with a grin, then glanced at the rankings again.
"Zhu, you keep yourselves busy here with him. I'm leaving first!" Cunzi thought proudly as he looked at Zhu Shen's book. Once he left, all the authors on Zhongdian Novel Network would be suppressed by this 'Douluo World'. Even his old rival Zhu Shen would be no exception.
...
After finishing today's update, Wang Shu washed up and called Su Yao downstairs for dinner. After the meal, they both hurried to Jiangnan TV. Today's competition was the semi-final qualifier, where one contestant from the first round would be selected to advance to the semi-finals. This round, in addition to Wang Shu and Zhang Liangying, there was a man wearing a wolf mask.
Wang Shu didn't recognize this man, but he noticed that the man seemed to recognize Zhang Liangying. Today, among the three singers, only Zhang Liangying had already removed her mask. Wang Shu had also inadvertently noticed the man in the wolf mask frequently staring at Zhang Liangying.
"Monkey, we meet again. I definitely won't lose to you today!" Zhang Liangying greeted Wang Shu with a smile upon seeing him.
"That's not necessarily true," Wang Shu replied. Wearing the monkey mask, Zhang Liangying couldn't recognize him at all.
"Hmph, I'm very confident!" Zhang Liangying said confidently. The song she was performing today was written and composed by herself. She had spent nearly ten years creating this song, so it could be said to be her life's work. She originally couldn't have finished composing it, but a few days ago, she met that singer named Wang Shu. She drew a lot of inspiration from the song Wang Shu had written for her, which allowed her to complete this song before today's competition. She was also full of confidence in this song.
As the host on the stage finished the opening remarks, the competition officially began.