Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Bro, you’re pretty badass!”
After eating a midnight snack, he returned to his room and continued drawing when he received a WeChat message from Mr. Sleepy with an attached screenshot and link from Weibo. He clicked into it. Of course, it was a Double video of Shan Jin brother’s concert tonight. The owner of the video had also specifically singled out Meng Fan by circling him in the footage and indicated that he was the main culprit who caused the audience to erupt in laughter.
In addition, the Weibo article introduced Meng Fan; not his real name, but his stream name. This made Meng Fan quite happy, for this meant his stream would have more viewers in the future.
It had been shared a lot and had a lot of comments as well. They all spoke of laughing along like a dumbass and it had been their source of happiness today. Most of the comments were overwhelmingly positive.
“Your smile is poison, I started laughing along too when I watched the video.”
“You’re on your way to being internet famous!”
“You finished watching the concert, so you have time to meet now, right? I really need to talk to you.”
‘You probably don’t know I’ve seen your grace already.’ Meng Fan thought. He smiled and replied, “I’ve already got tickets for Hangzhou tomorrow after lunch.”
Mr. Sleepy quickly responded, “So urgent? Then is the morning convenient for you?”
“Of course I’m convenient, just worried you can’t wake up.”
“I’ll be up for sure.”
“Alright then, tomorrow morning at 6:00, I’ll wait for you at a restaurant in Xujiahui.”
“…I’ve heard of meeting this early, but to meet at a breakfast store is too much!”
“Hahaha, I’m just teasing you. How about 10:00 tomorrow? I’ll meet you at the south platform. Is that okay?”
“This sounds okay.”
The next day, Meng Fan wore the hat and ran his ten kilometers around the neighborhood. After bringing back an abundant amount of breakfast, he went to Meng Cai Wei’s room and loudly woke her up.
“What time is it, are you poison?! Is this revenge?”
Meng Cai Wei rubbed her eyes as she stepped out. Seeing Meng Fan took the initiative to buy her breakfast, she resisted the urge to violently beat him. After eating, she headed back to finish her sleep and yawned. She came out two hours later.
“Don’t you still have two days of vacation? You’re leaving?” Meng Cai Wei saw Meng Fan searching for a bag to contain his manuscripts and continued, “Why not stay another day? When are you leaving? I’ve already planned to grab lunch with your Shan Jin brother… You don’t want to come?”
Seeing Meng Fan shake his head, Meng Cai Wei felt odd. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she let out a long ‘oh’. “You’ve made plans to go back with the traditional art department beauty, didn’t you?”
Meng Fan did not respond. Meng Cai Wei chuckled but did not press further. When Meng Fan was ready to head out at 9:00, Meng Cai Wei had also dressed up and pretended to follow him out.
“What are you doing?” Meng Fan asked.
“Seeing you off.” Meng Cai Wei smiled.
“You want to see Wu Tong, don’t you?” Meng Fan evidently guessed what she was thinking. “Our train is at 1:30 PM. I’m leaving early to meet someone to discuss some things.”
No way in hell Meng Cai Wei believed him!
Sporting a hat, a mask, and sunglasses, she followed Meng Fan to the south platform. Then from afar, she saw a skinny and slightly awkward looking man greet Meng Fan.
Meng Cai Wei thought she had discovered something. “You still say you don’t like boys! Is Wu Tong a blind man?”
Meng Fan was utterly speechless.
Seeing that it wasn’t Wu Tong, she didn’t greet the person and immediately turned and left.
If it was a girl, she would have observed closely, but since it’s a guy, he can freely love anyone!
Of course, Meng Cai Wei only said this, and she didn’t really believe it.
“Adapt into a manga?”
After meeting Mr.Sleepy, Meng Fan conversed with him before quickly getting to the topic. After hearing him out, Meng Fan was rather surprised. “You want me to adapt your book, ‘There’s a Spirit Underground’? I have no manga adaptation experience, only illustrations. Don’t you think you’re thinking too highly of me?”
“You’re a profession!” Mr.Sleepy said matter of factly. “Moreover, you’re also talented! To be honest with you, I had found several illustrators to help me do illustrations before I met you. I even asked them to adapt my manga, but their artistic style didn’t match, which made it very upsetting.”
Sipping a mouthful of Pepsi cola, he gestured for Meng Fan to hear him out. “Your artistic style is to my taste, and you understand this novel very well. Many of your illustrations depict the scenes in my head, which is hard to come by, and perfect for me! So when I received the copyrights for a manga adaptation, you were the first person I thought of. It has to be you!”
“As for the story, you can take care of it if you feel adequate. If you need help, I can give you a few scriptwriters, and I will also participate in the adaptation myself. Also, if you need, I can give you two assistants as well if you need assistance in drawing or anything.”
“You can choose to receive the subscription fee in addition to the manuscript fees, which includes the subscription payments, publishments etc; or just name a price. Both are fine.”
“Either way, I just want you… as my main artist!”
Meng Fan spoke, “Wait, wait. Scriptwriters, assistants, and naming a price, can I ask you something? Are all novels this lucrative nowadays? Or does your family own coal?”
Mr. Sleepy paused for a moment and gave him a big thumbs up. “You even know about my family’s coal!”
Meng Fan also paused for a bit. “F*ck do you really?”
Mr. Sleepy snickered. “I’m from Mengzi, so my family does own some coal mountains.”
Meng Fan was shocked. “F*ck! No wonder you never update! You’re a second-generation mining tycoon!”
“Third generation,” Mr. Sleepy said very modestly.
Meng Fan continued, “You keep handing me so many cards, you’re not afraid of me asking for too much?”
Mr. Sleepy responded very seriously, “As long as the adaptation feels right, there’s no problem. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken back the copyrights and search for people myself. If I left it with the website, it would have been easy to pick, and they can help me choose the best choice, but I can’t guarantee their art will feel right.”
“Rich people are so impulsive!” Meng Fan couldn’t help but feel indulged at the moment. He thought about it and gave out his answer, “Because I’m already preparing to adapt a manga, I have to go back and think about your job. Give me some time within one week at the latest. I’ll give you a response before then. Is that alright?”
“Sounds good!”
Mr. Sleepy clapped his palms together loudly.
Maybe it was because he paid particular attention to anything aside from writing, or because Meng Fan was suitable to his taste, Mr.Sleepy had talked with Meng Fan for another two hours before leaving with the manuscripts.
Not long after, Wu Tong arrived ahead of schedule. As they prattled on their way towards the Hangzhou train, Meng Fan felt very comfortable on the smooth journey to Hangzhou. Naturally, not many shenanigans happened on the way, besides the two wild kids who would occasionally start a commotion. Thankfully, their parents were not wild as well.
Returning to the school, Meng Fan helped Wu Tong take her luggage to the entrance of the girls’ dormitory and felt reluctant to leave, but still happily returned to the boys’ dormitory.
Zhang Zhou Wei and the other guys hadn’t returned yet, so Meng Fan left his stuff in their room and headed to the studio with his drawing tube.
Using the rest of the afternoon, he caught up with the illustrations he had been procrastinating.
After dinner, he didn’t return to the studio, nor did he run, but immediately took a taxi to Xizi lake. The ‘Night Touring God’ task still had to be completed, only there would be no stream tonight. Instead, he wore his hat the entire process and sat on the corner of the scenic grounds. He wasn’t daydreaming, but pondering over the script Xing Ta Ge had given him.
He didn’t know if he would take Mr.Sleepy’s adaptation job, but Xing Ta Ge’s manga still had to be done.
With the manuscript in hand, and the +3 drawing skill and +1 imagination, the optimal conditions for creating a manga had been established.
After pondering, Meng Fan didn’t intend to begin creating a manga immediately but rather went off to search for a silly point of view. He prepared to draw some of the scenes from the script in the style of illustrations, drawing them separately. Naturally, this was to increase his progress for the [Illustrator] task—Meng Fan couldn’t confirm if manga content counted as illustrations by the system—so when he connected them together and modified them slightly, they became the first few panels of a manga!