Nighttime.
"Okay, I understand. I'll try my best." Daniel, holding a cup of espresso, sat at his desk. He pulled out a magazine from a pile of books and, with a bit of frustration, scratched his head after finding the entry for "Your Name" in the table of contents.
In this era of the flourishing comic industry, besides film critics and food critics, there are also comic critics.
Comic critics are those who review comics in the media, rating them and providing in-depth interpretations to help readers decide whether to follow a comic series.
Daniel is a well-known comic critic.
His main job involves revolving around comics, giving brief plot introductions and more professional reviews on platforms like Weibo and official accounts, helping readers decide whether to follow a comic series.
He had just received a call from a college friend.
Asking him to give a favorable review of a comic.
But looking at this magazine, Daniel felt a bit troubled.
Picca Comics, he was familiar with it, and he had even given some of its recent issues specific reviews.
Of course, they were not positive reviews.
In his view, this comic magazine had gone downhill after losing several of its artists, and now he was supposed to review a comic from it, it felt like just making money off subpar content.
And the worst part... he hadn't even been paid yet.
"Alright, alright, I'll just find a couple of points and squeeze a sentence or two into the reviews for this issue's works. That should be enough." He sat back, sipped his coffee, and flipped through the comic.
Hmm, the beginning seems quite typical, probably a plot about childhood friends who meet but don't recognize each other. From this, you can tell how clichéd the storyline is. However, the art style and paneling are top-notch.
So, he quickly started typing on the keyboard—beautiful art style, each panel could be a wallpaper.
But as he read on, the plot gradually unfolded and quickly captured Daniel's interest. He involuntarily got caught up in the rhythm and followed the storyline.
Huh? What's this? A breast rub? That's a bit risqué.
Why has it switched to the male protagonist now? Did the monkey steal his own peach? Interesting.
Oh, a male and female soul swap? Quite innovative; I haven't seen this before...
This author is somewhat intriguing.
"Your Name" ended as soon as the male and female protagonists realized something was amiss, with the scene freezing on both of them simultaneously saying, "We've switched!!"
By the end, Daniel had snapped out of his immersion, then looked at the author's name on this work, Porter... an unfamiliar comic artist.
But... this definitely isn't the work of a novice!
Tight pacing, innovative twists, exquisite art, beautiful paneling.
This piece could even stand against the giants in the top five if it were sent there. Why stay with Picca Comics, a nearly defunct company?
Could it be that this Porter has some unspeakable reasons for choosing Picca?
Is there any insider story to dig into? And he definitely knows my classmate, right? Should I take this opportunity to ask for contact details?
He pondered this for a long time before finally looking down at the computer screen, realizing that the brief review he had planned to write definitely needed a rewrite.
...
However, Ren and others were unaware of these reader reviews.
After dinner and watching TV, Ren played with his little girl for a while before sneaking out of the room to return to Jada's room.
Seeing Ren lock the door as he entered, Jada casually asked, "Has she fallen asleep?"
"Yes, she's asleep." Ren nodded and started setting up a place to sleep on the floor.
He had gotten used to this arrangement over time.
Jada chuckled on the bed and teased, "This girl really is heartless. I took care of her for five years, and now that you're back, she clings to you every day, and I've become an outsider."
Hearing this, how sour it sounded!
Ren chuckled inwardly and then said, "What can I do, didn't Lu Xun say that daughters are their father's past lovers?"
But then he seemed to remember something and asked, "Speaking of which, I heard there's something about first-day sales with this stuff. This issue's sales probably aren't great, right?"
After all, he had seen the sales of Picca Comics in the bookstore, which were obviously less than others.
Even though he used some tricks to sell a few more, it was merely a drop in the bucket.
"Hmm..." Hearing Ren bring up this issue, Jada silently nodded.
Not just poor sales, but sales had declined even further.
However, this had nothing to do with Ren's comic.
It was completely because the previous issues had driven away the readers.
But there should be some recovery over time.
After all, reading also takes time, and perhaps later on, it could explode in popularity?
There have been cases in the market where some comics started with poor reviews but later turned around, with word of mouth boosting the sales of the entire magazine.
Although such cases are rare.
But she believed in Ren's "Your Name."
And having run a comic company for so many years, she was sure to have some connections with comic critics and paid reviewers.
The previous few issues didn't use comic critics simply because those comics weren't worth the effort.
But "Your Name" was different; Jada was very confident about this work!
"So, just relax," Jada said with a smile.
"Is that so?" Hearing Jada's words, Ren nodded. "That's good."
Since his partner had this confidence, he could rest easy too.
Just then, his phone vibrated with a message. It was from Xena, whom he had met earlier.
Ren was puzzled; why would she message at this time?
Could it be... she's craving his body?
Upon checking, it turned out to be a congratulatory message from Xena, praising the launch of his comic and mentioning how good his artwork was.
Seeing the message, Ren smiled and replied with a thank you.
"Should I turn off the light?" Ren looked toward Jada on the bed, his hand on the lamp switch.
"Yes." Jada nodded, then hesitated before asking, "Um... do you want to sleep on the bed? I can sleep on the floor."
"No need," Ren waved his hand. "How can I let a woman sleep on the floor while I comfortably sleep on the bed?"
If they were to sleep... they should sleep together.
Of course, Ren only said this in his mind and didn't vocalize it.
He still had a long way to go in breaking through Jada's emotional defenses.