Chapter 207: Facing Those Doubts

Xin Zixing: We can take this opportunity to announce the book "Jump Up: Our Student Days" to everyone. We can make the most of the heat from this incident and get better promotion than any other method. Yan He, I understand you don't want this book to be a book with strong fan attributes, but look, the authors of this book now include several artists like Jiang Yuqian, Li Zhibai, Song Linxin, and Yan Liang. Even if it has fan attributes, it's not just focused on you. Think about it, okay?

Lu Yan He looked at the message from Xin Zixing, was silent for a moment, and showed it to Chen Siqi.

After reading it, Chen Siqi asked, "What do you think?"

"I think what she said makes a lot of sense. However, the most critical thing is another matter. I've been thinking about it these past few days: rather than whether it's a book with strong fan attributes in the eyes of others, I care more about whether it can survive," Lu Yan He said. "We both have such high expectations for 'Jump Up.' If the first issue doesn't do well, it will definitely be hard to continue later. This heat, Sister Zixing wants to use it, and so do I."

"But this way, you'll be exposed to everyone. All the problems that might appear in 'Jump Up' will be blamed on you," Chen Siqi said.

"I know, but since this book is edited by us, all the problems that appear in 'Jump Up' should be our responsibility anyway," Lu Yan He said. "Since Lu Yan He is my name, writing my name on the book 'Jump Up' has many benefits for it, so let Lu Yan He's name be written on it."

Chen Siqi looked at him helplessly and said, "You could actually wait until 'Jump Up' is truly well-made before announcing to everyone that you are the editor-in-chief of this book."

"It doesn't matter," Lu Yan He shook his head. "I haven't done anything shameful, so why hide it? Besides, don't I have you as a co-editor-in-chief?"

He said with a smile.

Chen Siqi was stunned, looking at him in surprise, "Co-editor-in-chief?"

"Mm." Lu Yan He nodded.

"Dual editors-in-chief?" Xin Zixing asked in surprise on the phone.

"Yes." Lu Yan He nodded and said, "Can we put both my name and Chen Siqi's name as editors-in-chief?"

Xin Zixing was silent for a long while before saying, "It's almost rare to see dual editors-in-chief in the country; in fact, it's rare worldwide."

The editor-in-chief is the person who makes the final decision, just like the director of a movie; it's rare to see two people serving at the same time. Otherwise, how to resolve disputes? Whose opinion to listen to when there's a disagreement?

Lu Yan He: "This is considering the actual situation. I am also an artist, and in the future, I will have various jobs such as acting and performing, and I won't be able to put all my time and energy into this book. If we really want to make this book continue and become a series, there must be someone to edit this book with me, and I hope it's her."

"Yan He, don't misunderstand, I like your classmate very much. Although she is still young and green, she has a lot of drive and energy, which is a type I admire. It's just that putting her name as editor-in-chief is easy to cause controversy," Xin Zixing said. "She is just a high school graduate. Of course, I know she is the same as you, the person who facilitated the production of this book. She can be the content director or deputy editor-in-chief, that's no problem. Putting her in the same position as you will make people question it."

"Question what? Question her lack of ability, or question me for selling dog meat under a sheep's head?" Lu Yan He pointed out Xin Zixing's concerns directly. "Sister Zixing, since this book is made by the two of us together, let's realistically put both of our names as editors-in-chief. That's what I hope. If the Ye Mai website wants to announce this matter at this time, let's announce it together."

Xin Zixing was a bit helpless.

Only eighteen or nineteen-year-olds would say such things, with no room for negotiation, carrying a kind of enthusiasm and idealism that adults cannot understand.

However, Xin Zixing couldn't persuade Lu Yan He either.

This book is not a book of the Ye Mai website, but a book of Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi.

How they want to do it, the Ye Mai website only has the right to suggest, not the right to decide.

In fact, deep down, Xin Zixing actually quite admires Lu Yan He's attitude—after all, there are many who always want to take all the credit, and few who are willing to share the credit.

Xin Zixing said: "Okay, I know. However, Yan He, regarding the book 'Jump Up,' do you and your classmate have a clear division of responsibility and a revenue distribution plan? I have seen many partners who can work together when they are starting a business, but when it comes to dividing the cake afterwards, they fall apart. Have you communicated about these things?"

Lu Yan He said: "Communicated, it's very simple, fifty-fifty."

Xin Zixing was stunned.

Lu Yan He said: "Sister Zixing, we are just high school graduates. Compared to specific income, what we care more about is the significance of this book to us. It may sound idealistic to you, but it is indeed the case. It doesn't matter if we don't do this book. We want to spend time and energy on this because we are willing to."

Xin Zixing wanted to laugh after hearing Lu Yan He say these things, but she held it back.

Sure enough, children are children. You can't have a real communication with them because they don't understand what "human desire is slowly expanded" means, and they haven't experienced "when disaster strikes, everyone flies their own way." But listening to these childish words, you feel a bit ridiculous, and at the same time, you feel a bit envious. They are still so pure and bright, and even give rise to an impulse to protect their purity and brightness.

"Mm, keep it up." Xin Zixing heard herself say.

The official account of the Ye Mai website released a message: Heard that the two editors-in-chief of our upcoming theme Mook "Jump Up" are trending?! Pouting, Xiao Mai originally wanted to secretly hold back a big move and give everyone a surprise, but it was exposed like this? Okay, okay, then let's officially announce it. Xiao Ye is teaming up with Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi, who have just graduated from high school, to edit a theme Mook "Jump Up" for all internet youth. It will be listed on the Ye Mai website later. Everyone, come to the Ye Mai website to make an appointment! Link attached~

Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi were @-ed by the official account at the end.

Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi reposted this post one after another.

Lu Yan He posted a smiley face and said: Working on a theme Mook with classmates, an experience I've never had before, facing new fields and new problems every day, but doing what I want to do, even if it's tiring, it's happy.

Chen Siqi: Mm, eating a 27-yuan meal and solving a key problem, this meal is very worth it.

Then, the Ye Mai website spent money to get Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi trending.

On that day, the search volume of the Ye Mai website increased threefold, the number of visits increased by 160%, and the appointment link for "Jump Up" opened by the Ye Mai website exceeded 1,300 appointments, of which nearly half were appointments by newly registered users.

Whether this data is high or low depends on how it is evaluated.

For the inside of the Ye Mai website, this is a number within their expectations but also makes them very satisfied.

Now the book "Jump Up" has nothing, only an editor-in-chief name. Being able to immediately get 1,300 appointments shows that Lu Yan He really has quite a few fans who can be interested in this book because of Lu Yan He's name alone.

But for some marketing accounts and media that don't understand the situation, they have successively sung down Lu Yan He. After all, this is an era of traffic where XX stars are on the cover and this magazine will sell out tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. How much sales can be driven has become a touchstone for the popularity of a star artist. And Lu Yan He can only call for 1,300 appointments, which is too weak and simply doesn't match his momentum of being in the limelight in the past two months.

"Art Report" has a special columnist who wrote: No matter how high Lu Yan He's college entrance examination score is, in the idol artist market, it cannot be equivalently converted into corresponding fan appeal.

More media are questioning the act of Lu Yan He editing the theme Mook itself.

Most of those engaged in media work understand some of the situation.

They question that Lu Yan He, a high school graduate, can be an editor-in-chief, and question that the Ye Mai website only cares about traffic, only cares about stars, and does not respect professionalism.

There are also former print media workers who complain that Lu Yan He hasn't walked one path steadily before starting to jump to another.

Most of those who hold an optimistic and supportive attitude towards the book "Jump Up" are passersby.

Lu Yan He and the others had expected this situation before, but they didn't expect it to be so fierce.

Some people specifically ran to the comment section of Lu Yan He's social platform to complain about him, question him, and say sarcastically that it's good to be a star artist, doing everything more smoothly than ordinary people, and doing whatever they want.

The Ye Mai website side is even worse. Many people poured cold water under the post of the Ye Mai website, asking them how high a salary they gave Lu Yan He to make Lu Yan He run over to be their editor-in-chief, and also saying they misjudged the market, this book will definitely lose money, won't sell, etc.

The official account of the Ye Mai website made a simple reply in its own comment section, saying: "Jump Up" is not that we invited Lu Yan He to be the editor-in-chief, but that we learned that Lu Yan He and his classmates had this idea, so we went to talk about the cooperation, oh. We didn't provide any salary, only responsible for the production funds of this book.

After the Ye Mai website replied like this, many people appeared again to mock Lu Yan He for being too weak, and the Ye Mai website looking for him to cooperate didn't intend to provide any salary.

"..."

Such large-scale singing-down voices caught the Ye Mai website off guard.

Lu Yan He also changed from his initial indifferent attitude to slowly becoming a bit worried.

He was even a bit puzzled, wondering why there were so many people resisting this matter?

Chen Ziyan instead said to him: "Yan He, you have to slowly start learning to accept this matter. You are an artist. Undeniably, you have indeed received a lot of convenience brought by this identity, and also have a lot of resources that ordinary people cannot get. So, even if everyone doesn't use a fair scale to measure you, you can feel uncomfortable, but you have no position to explain. For you, the only thing you can do is to do it well and tell everyone with the final results that you are the right choice to do this, and you haven't wasted these opportunities."

Chen Ziyan's words made Lu Yan He think deeply.

Mainly because Lu Yan He didn't expect Chen Ziyan to say such things.

Lu Yan He had never felt that his artist identity brought him a lot of convenience. In fact, in the past year, the doubts and troubles were much more than the convenience.

If you really want to talk about convenience, it's that after the college entrance examination results came out, there was suddenly a lot of work, which was also because his own popularity went up, not brought by the artist identity.

However, Lu Yan He also admitted that if he weren't Lu Yan He, he would absolutely never have the opportunity to edit such a book.

He hadn't seriously thought about the contradiction between these two ideas before, but now Chen Ziyan poked it out directly.

"So, because I am an artist, no matter what I do, I have to be considered as taking advantage of the artist identity, right?" Lu Yan He actually felt a bit wronged deep down.

Chen Ziyan sighed.

As soon as she heard it, she knew that Lu Yan He was holding on to his youthful spirit here and hadn't really thought it through.

"Yan He, whether you take advantage of an identity or not is not important at all. In this world, every young person wants to prove that their success is 100% dependent on themselves, but this is simply unrealistic because people have been involved with all kinds of people and all kinds of things since birth," Chen Ziyan said. "Compared to taking advantage, I hope you can truly realize that when we have the ability to legitimately obtain more resources and more convenient conditions from our identity, family, and interpersonal relationships, we can accept it calmly. We can calmly accept that there are noble people, assistants, and luck behind our success. Only by acknowledging our own specialness can we calmly face our own success. Otherwise, the more you deny, the more wary you are, the less you can let go, and the less you can handle things with ease."

Chen Ziyan's words lingered in Lu Yan He's mind, lingering for a long time without disappearing.

At the Ye Mai website, because of the controversy Lu Yan He received for editing "Jump Up," this project was also brought up at the meeting to discuss whether to continue.

A senior editor in the editorial department said: "I didn't look favorably on this project in the first place. To be honest, stars certainly have a fan effect, but we all know that making a book series is a long-term project. It's hard for people who don't truly love books and have feelings for books to persist. Lu Yan He coming to do 'Jump Up,' he is looking for freshness for a while and creating a book series with high topics. This will certainly achieve temporary success and attention, but how long can this last? Look, this matter didn't even get much support at the beginning, which shows that everyone knows very well that stars coming to be editors-in-chief is actually just a gimmick, how can they value content."

"Chen Laoshi, and all the teachers present, I need to clarify one thing with everyone. The book 'Jump Up' is not a plan proposed by our Ye Mai website and then we found Lu Yan He to do it. It is that our Ye Mai website has always wanted to do such a book series, but for various reasons, we couldn't do it. It just so happened that at this time, Lu Yan He proposed that he wanted to do it, so we took the initiative to seek cooperation," Xin Zixing said earnestly. "Without Lu Yan He, when would our Ye Mai website's own book series be able to be made?"

The person she called Chen Laoshi shook his head, "Zixing, I know that the documentary 'City Travel Notes' recently allowed you and Lu Yan He to have a good cooperation, and you also trust him, but there are many reasons why our own book series hasn't been made. Lu Yan He wants to do 'Jump Up,' I actually don't oppose it. Not to mention whether it can succeed in the long term, at least it can definitely attract some of his fans in the short term. It's just, do we really want to use 'Jump Up' as our Ye Mai website's electronic reading brand book series? This is what we need to seriously consider. An e-book that even if it has tens of thousands of fan subscriptions every month, but has a low social reputation evaluation, will damage the overall reputation and word-of-mouth of our Ye Mai website in the long run."

"Indeed, the biggest difference between our Ye Mai website and other websites is the construction of our user community atmosphere. The reason why we have been slow to open the entertainment star section is also because we don't want the fan circle set to affect the network community atmosphere of our Ye Mai website. Now introducing Lu Yan He and his 'Jump Up' into our Ye Mai website, what kind of impact it will have, we must seriously consider it," another person also said.

Xin Zixing shook her head, "Teachers, Lu Yan He is indeed an artist, but is he the same as an ordinary artist? Is there a second idol artist who has such a high social evaluation as him? Now it's just that some people question Lu Yan He's ability as an editor-in-chief. Does this count as a very negative evaluation? As long as 'Jump Up' is done well and wins everyone's word-of-mouth, these doubts will be solved."

"Who knows what the word-of-mouth of 'Jump Up' will be like?"

"Indeed, we don't know what the word-of-mouth of 'Jump Up' will be like now, but if we don't try, we will never know," Xin Zixing said. "Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi are both doing this book with a very serious attitude. Putting aside Lu Yan He's artist identity, isn't he suitable to be the editor-in-chief of 'Jump Up'? This is not a serious literary journal, this is an e-book for youth in the internet era. Lu Yan He's age, experience, and ability are all very consistent with our positioning for the editor-in-chief of such a book. Only such a person can truly create a book that can attract many people."

"But he is an artist, we cannot put aside his artist identity to discuss this matter."

Regarding the discussion of this matter, both sides of the opinion were deadlocked and refused to compromise.

In the end, the meeting room became two groups of people with completely different attitudes. One group was led by Chen Laoshi of the editorial department, who believed that this matter should be considered prudently, and one group was led by Xin Zixing, who believed that this opportunity should be grasped.

At this time, Liu Qiao, the content editor-in-chief of the Ye Mai website, spoke.

"The Ye Mai website is indeed not a website that only cares about data. We value everyone's impression of us and the positioning of the Ye Mai website."

As soon as Liu Qiao spoke, the faces of Chen Laoshi's faction showed a slight look of complacency.

"However, do you know how many appointments this book has had so far today after we announced the news of 'Jump Up'?" Liu Qiao asked.

In the meeting room, everyone's expressions were stunned.

"So far, more than 1,800 people have made appointments," Liu Qiao said. "People who don't know the industry will of course say that this number of appointments is very small, but we all know that we require those who make appointments to have a real-name authenticated Ye Mai website account in the background, which means it is impossible to brush data. And we haven't done any recommendation promotion inside the Ye Mai website, all relying on traffic from social platforms, and half of the accounts are newly registered."

"I said these things, actually not to say that the data is very good or very bad, I want to clarify one thing. There are many people on the internet who question Lu Yan He as an editor-in-chief, but there are also quite a few people who believe in Lu Yan He and are interested in the book edited by Lu Yan He," Liu Qiao said. "We have always wanted to launch a brand ourselves, but we haven't been able to launch it. Why is this? There are many reasons, but to put it bluntly, it is that after our evaluation, we found that it couldn't achieve our goals at all, and it could only rely on the website to constantly supply blood to maintain it. Now that the book Lu Yan He is doing has hope of achieving this, should we shelve it because of some doubts on the internet? You might as well think about it seriously."

He smiled, got up, "I'm going out to smoke a cigarette."

After he went out, the faces of the group led by Chen Laoshi became a bit ugly.

Xin Zixing didn't show a look of complacency because of this.

She silently looked at the materials in her hand, knowing that the overall situation of today's meeting had been decided, and "Jump Up" would continue to be promoted.

That was enough.

She didn't want to say anything more.

No matter how much you say, it's not as good as doing "Jump Up" well and placing it in front of everyone. ===== CHAPTER 208 =====