Chapter 1 Feeling Less Lost

Having returned from President Pei, Ma Yiqun felt less lost than before.

Back upstairs, he passed by the editorial department and saw the young editors diligently reviewing and revising manuscripts.

These young people still cherished this job opportunity.

As a second-tier city, Jingzhou's high-tech industry was not developed, and there weren't many internet companies. Most job opportunities came from traditional industries.

But for most recent graduates, working in traditional industries was a torment.

Office politics, strict hierarchy, dull work... traditional industries were largely unsuitable for most young people.

Originally, these people were very confused about their future.

They couldn't get into postgraduate programs, couldn't pass the postgraduate entrance exams, and couldn't find a job that suited them.

The traditional industries looked down on them, and they looked down on the traditional industries; they disliked each other.

Seeing that their classmates had found their places, some smoothly entered postgraduate programs and were carefree; others received high-paying offers and became the envy of everyone.

But they didn't have a single offer in hand, had been rejected several times after interviews, and their resumes had disappeared without a trace. The psychological pressure was unimaginable.

Originally, some were preparing for a second attempt at the postgraduate entrance exam, and some were planning to return to their hometowns. But unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better!

Just as a new website was being established, it took all of them in one fell swoop. Moreover, it was an editing job that was somewhat related to their liberal arts major. Their luck was simply too good!

Although some people weren't particularly satisfied with this job at first and were somewhat repulsed by online novels, after communicating with other classmates who were already working, they realized that their job was actually very good!

The salary was definitely considered high income in Jingzhou;

The work content, although reviewing manuscripts was a bit tedious, was much more interesting than many office clerical jobs;

In addition, the leaders were young and easy to talk to, and the atmosphere of the entire company was relaxed and harmonious. Everyone quickly accepted this job and began to work hard to transform from students to office workers.

Seeing Ma Yiqun come in, a thin young man stood up and said, "Brother Ma, I've finished reviewing today's manuscripts."

Ma Yiqun nodded, "Okay, just keep yourself busy for now. I'll call you for a meeting later."

This young man was named Zhu Anxing. He was the most active of the group, not as introverted as the others, and his mind was also quick. He was one of the few editors that Ma Yiqun was relatively satisfied with.

Zhu Anxing's academic performance was at the bottom. He was still failing three subjects until graduation, so he gloriously extended his studies.

Considering the difficulty of exams in liberal arts majors, still failing three subjects before graduation showed how much he disliked studying.

Extending his studies meant that he wouldn't be able to get his diploma until the end of the year, but Ma Yiqun didn't care about that. In his opinion, whether or not someone's academic performance was good had little to do with whether or not they could do a good job as an editor.

This Zhu Anxing read online novels and played games during college, and had a wide range of interests, so he got the hang of editing relatively quickly.

Ma Yiqun considered that after Zhu Anxing's ability was almost up to par, he would promote him to editor-in-chief of a popular channel, which would also help share some of his work.

After returning to his workstation and preparing a bit, Ma Yiqun called a few promising candidates for editor-in-chief to a meeting and briefly explained President Pei's intentions.

The standards for passing manuscripts would be further lowered in the future, and authors would be attracted with full attendance bonuses to enrich the library.

After that, there was the problem of an insufficient workload.

People like Zhu Anxing, who understood online novels relatively quickly, were currently considered barely capable of handling the editing work. Moreover, since there were currently very few manuscripts submitted by authors, they were quickly reviewed.

After that, if there was no other work, they could only read popular online novels on Infinite Chinese Network to learn.

Ma Yiqun looked around at everyone and said, "If you feel that your workload is not saturated, in addition to finding some popular online novels to read, you can also try writing some yourself."

"Although everyone is an editor, what if you write an online novel that becomes a god? You still have to have dreams."

"Besides, there aren't many manuscripts on our website right now, and the quality of the manuscripts isn't high. The books you write will definitely be arranged for good recommendation slots. You can take this opportunity to try it out."

What he said was correct, but in reality, it was meaningless.

No one was looking at the website, so what was the point of being on a recommendation slot…

Ma Yiqun paused and continued, "If you really have nothing to do, I'll arrange some work for you: think about the world-building and plot of *Turn Back to the Shore*."

The world-building of the game *Turn Back to the Shore* was originally the responsibility of Ma Yiqun, the plot planner.

But fate was unpredictable, and Ma Yiqun was inexplicably promoted.

Logically speaking, Ma Yiqun should have handed over this job.

Lu Mingliang was dumbfounded and said to Ma Yiqun, if you don't do this, no one can take over!

The only one with this level of skill is President Pei, but President Pei is so busy, where would he have time to do the plot himself?

Ma Yiqun thought about it, and that was also true. Writing the world-building seemed to be something only he could do.

Therefore, Ma Yiqun had to hold two positions concurrently.

He was considering the world-building settings for *Turn Back to the Shore* while also busy with the affairs of Qidian Chinese Network. This was why he had been so busy lately.

Now, the initial preparations for the website were complete, and with President Pei's strong support, Ma Yiqun's psychological pressure was greatly reduced.

Ma Yiqun suddenly realized a problem: he now had brothers. He didn't have to fight alone; he could work on the plot of *Turn Back to the Shore* together!

These twenty-odd people could help think about the plot of *Turn Back to the Shore* in their spare time, especially since several of them were Chinese majors, like Zhu Xing'an, who had a very good foundation in classical Chinese.

According to President Pei's requirements, *Turn Back to the Shore* needed a large amount of classical Chinese puzzle-solving content. Having Ma Yiqun write all of this content alone wasn't impossible, but the quality would definitely decline if one person wrote so much content.

But now that he had so many people helping out, with each person responsible for a little bit, wouldn't that be equivalent to having an extra plot team?

Ma Yiqun briefly told everyone about the world-building settings for *Turn Back to the Shore*.

The initial world-building settings had been completed. It was a traditional Chinese background with elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional mythology, but no one element would be overly emphasized; they would only serve as embellishments.

Although this game could be made entirely with a Buddhist background, and even use Sanskrit in the art assets, Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang discussed it and felt that it was not appropriate.

A purely Buddhist background would make the game's world-building more unified and the style more distinct, but it might not be able to highlight the characteristics of Chinese style.

In other words, it might overshadow the main theme.

Buddhism was, after all, a foreign religion, not local enough, and the Chinese style wouldn't be highlighted enough.

Therefore, Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang discussed it and decided to integrate all the elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional mythology to form a unique Chinese style.

As for whether mixing so many elements would cause the style to be chaotic…

No need to worry; the style design was being handled by the great master Ruan Guangjian.

The epic ink wash oil painting style would be absolutely perfect for drawing this kind of subject matter.