Excluding those exceptions, in this era, writing female-oriented fiction indeed earns money faster than writing male-oriented ones, and it's also easier. On the first day of Zhou Yuwen's book release, there were just a few comments, basically attracting no attention.
However, on the second day, Zhou Yuwen started to exert effort. With a domineering CEO's devilish smile, he pulled the female lead into various domineering scenarios.
Below, the book reviews quickly surpassed a hundred.
"Author, update quickly! I really love your work!"
"Update soon! I want to see the next plot!"
"Is the author male? Your writing is so good! The author must be a gentle gentleman! Can we be friends?"
In 2010, it was the era of innocence on the internet. People would greet each other with "hello" when chatting online. After a pleasant conversation, they would say, "It was nice chatting with you." Unlike now, where there are many scammers online.
After writing female-oriented stories for a few days, Zhou Yuwen couldn't even be bothered to update his male-oriented stories. It wasn't that there were fewer subscribers for male-oriented stories, but because these readers criticized Zhou Yuwen for lacking historical knowledge. They would comment, "When Xiao Qiao appeared, Cai Wenji was already forty years old. Do you have feelings for a forty-year-old woman?"
In the book review section, several readers mocked, "Did this author drop out of elementary school to start writing?"
The female-oriented book review section was different, filled with young girls urging updates, saying things like, "Author, please update soon! We love reading your books! Do you have a girlfriend?"
Based on the above, Zhou Yuwen felt he could delve deeper into the realm of female-oriented novels.
In mid-July, Zhou Yuwen directly pushed his female-oriented novel to 300,000 words, gaining a homepage recommendation that skyrocketed traffic. Overnight, both the book review section and reader engagement exploded. Several longtime readers claimed to be die-hard fans of Zhou Yuwen, helping him establish a reader community.
Seeing everyone's enthusiasm, Zhou Yuwen decided to create a reader group directly. The group quickly filled up its 500-person capacity.
While mostly filled with girls, there were also a few boys. Seeing the group reach its limit, Zhou Yuwen had no choice but to remove all the boys and posted a notice: "This group is for discussing female-oriented novels. Boys are not allowed to join!"
"????!"
After the book club reached its limit, Zhou Yuwen's QQ notifications kept chiming incessantly. Not only did the female book club members urge updates in the group chat, but some also added Zhou Yuwen on QQ privately, wanting to discuss the plot with him.
Within the group, gossip was rife:
"Is Mr. Zhou really a man? How can a man write so delicately?"
"Is Mr. Zhou married?"
"Does Mr. Zhou have a girlfriend?"
Seeing the enthusiastic response from the book club members, Zhou Yuwen adopted a deep, mature tone and said, "Don't overthink it, my child is already six years old."
"Ah, so he's an uncle then!"
That year, there was a very popular foreign drama called "Prosecutor and His Eighteen-Year-Old Wife," where the young girl often called the man "大叔" (Uncle). This sparked a trend in China known as "大叔控" (Uncle Control).
As a result, Zhou Yuwen gained a new nickname in his book club: "大叔" (Uncle). Zhou Yuwen didn't mind this at all. One advantage of writing in the women's fiction genre was that when readers found out he was a male author, they often found it intriguing and wanted to chat privately about writing experiences. This often led to making friends and potentially developing deeper relationships if they clicked.
Zhou Yuwen didn't waste time with these young girls. He continued writing. By the time the story reached six hundred thousand words, the male and female protagonists were finally about to meet. The female lead was crossing the street amidst a crowd.
Bang!
Oops, a large truck rushed by.
The female lead fell unconscious.
The male lead waited for three months until the female lead finally woke up, only to open her eyes and say as her first words, "Who are you?"
Goodness, amnesia!
The book club erupted into chaos.
"大叔! How could you write it like this?"
"Yeah! 大叔, why can't you let the male lead and female lead be together?"
Zhou Yuwen avoided the topic, joking, "Without some drama, who would read it? How can you appreciate the refined writing of an author without some setbacks?"
After reaching six hundred thousand words, there was another wave of strong endorsements. In July, Zhou Yuwen earned eighteen thousand from his male-oriented novels and forty-one thousand from his female-oriented novels, totaling sixty thousand.
In July, he also did one more thing: he applied for a driver's license. As a thirty-year-old "veteran driver," after just getting his hands on the wheel, the instructor said, "Go down, the car resources are limited, and you can go directly to the exam."
"????!"
In July, the blazing sun cast its scorching rays, and the phoenix trees on both sides of the road formed like two expansive green umbrellas, completely shading the asphalt pavement. The cicadas perched on the trees tirelessly chirped away. It was noisy, yet strangely soothing. Perhaps, this was what summer felt like.
With a chilled bottle of cola and a bulky laptop, Zhou Yuwen spent his final summer in high school incessantly typing away.
After receiving his acceptance letter, Zhou Yuwen opted to comply with the transfer, ending up in a major in landscape design that seemed somewhat novel in 2010, though its future utility was uncertain. His mother suggested switching to computer science for better prospects in government exams, but Zhou Yuwen remained indifferent, viewing university as merely a process where outcomes held little significance.
He lowered his head to resume writing his novel when his QQ blinked twice—an incoming message from Su Qianqian.
"Are you really not planning to repeat the year?"
"Do you have any say in that?" Zhou Yuwen replied bluntly.
"You!"
Su Qianqian was furious. Since that gathering ended, he had vanished into thin air as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth. Hadn't she just said a couple of slightly unpleasant things? Was that enough for him to act like this? Was he even a man?
Didn't he understand it was for his own good?
Summoning courage, Su Qianqian finally took the initiative to find Zhou Yuwen online after receiving her acceptance letter, intending to persuade him again. After all, he needed to consider the future now, didn't he?
Even if I agreed to be your girlfriend? What future can you have as just an ordinary college student? Isn't it for your own good? And yet, he treats me like this!
"Fine! Then I won't bother with you anymore!" Su Qianqian said, her cute little tiger teeth clenched angrily.
After sending this message, Su Qianqian started to feel that maybe she had gone a bit too far. Was he angry now?
"Why aren't you saying anything?" After a dozen minutes passed and Zhou Yuwen remained silent, Su Qianqian couldn't hold back and cautiously sent another message.
"?" "Are you there?" "Zhou Yuwen?"
Zhou Yuwen continued to ignore Su Qianqian. Annoyed by her persistence, he replied, "Damn, are you annoying? I've already rejected you, so why are you still bothering me?"
"Does rejecting you mean we can't be friends anymore!? Zhou Yuwen, I didn't expect you to be so petty!"