Chapter 8: Looking at Senior Sister from Afar

August 31st, Sunday.

After saying goodnight to Congee Boss yesterday, Jiang Miao didn’t sleep. He worked diligently collecting material until two or three in the morning before falling asleep in a daze.

When he woke up, it was already half past ten in the morning.

Jiang Miao looked around the dorm room and found that Wang Xin wasn’t here, but the curtains were tightly drawn, blocking out any light.

It seemed like this roommate was quite considerate.

When he got out of bed and saw a small carton of soy milk and two buns on his desk, he was stunned.

There was also a note beside it, stuck squarely and precisely in the center of the desk’s edge, the upper edge aligned perfectly with the desk without any crookedness.

The note read: I bought breakfast on the way. I’m going to wander around the school and have lunch with some high school classmates, so I won’t go back to the dorm.

Is he actually a warm-hearted guy? He’s practically the perfect roommate. Jiang Miao threw the note into the trash can, pulled open the curtains, and opened the door to let in some air. Then he sat down and ate the buns while checking his phone.

On WeChat, Wang Xin had sent a similar message, so Jiang Miao replied.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Breakfast is great. Thank you.

[Wash Hands Often]: You’re welcome.

After seeing no other messages, Jiang Miao exited the chat interface and scrolled through Moments on WeChat.

Most of the posts were photos of people’s new schools. Some were happy, some complained, some griped about heavy luggage, some disliked the dirty dorms…

Of course, there were also plenty of posts from couples.

However, with school starting soon, most of these high school couples had to go their separate ways and enter long-distance relationships. Their Moments were full of sentimental goodbyes and sweet couple photos.

Hmph, if you weren’t in a relationship, you wouldn’t have so many issues. Jiang Miao’s fingers swiped lightly across the screen, not feeling envious at all.

After scrolling through Moments, he opened the Writer Assistant app to look at the new comments from last night.

Skipping over the short section hating on the female supporting character, the situation had returned to the usual about the male and female leads showing off their affection.

Seeing these readers scream and practically drool with envy, revealing their single status, Jiang Miao smiled smugly.

At this moment, the daily status report came out.

Number of Tips: 3

Monthly Votes: 0

Recommendations: 128

Reading Lists: 107

For a new novel by a struggling author without a large fanbase, having over a hundred readers adding it to their reading lists in a day was a good result.

If he could maintain this momentum, the future looked promising.

Moreover…

Jiang Miao’s eyes flickered as his finger hovered over the Author Consultation section.

[Congratulations. We are pleased to inform you that your work, My Girlfriend Is a Content Creator, will be featured in Xidian’s Light Novel Category’s New Arrivals section at 14:00 on August 31st. Please ensure that non-completed works continue to be updated. In case of emergencies, please contact your editor promptly. Thank you for your cooperation!]

A section recommendation!

It was also known as a trial push.

It was the first recommendation for a new book on the website.

Usually, it was a spot on the desktop version of the website, which had lower traffic, making it suitable to test the waters and make preliminary estimations on the potential of a new book.

And August 31st happened to be today!

In the same category, there would be eight or nine, or even more than a dozen, new books competing for attention in the recommendations spotlight.

A week later, the three to five books with the best performance would qualify for promotion and obtain resources for the next round of recommendations, allowing the new books to achieve even better results.

It could be said that every new book that made it through the gauntlet stood on the bones of countless failed works.

Jiang Miao had once been among them.

His previous book had a rough start. He had only secured a contract at 150,000 words, and the trial recommendation came at 200,000 words, right before it went live (started subscription chapters).

It had been on 2,400 reading lists and had 160 initial subscribers.

And now, with his new book at just around 40,000 words, it was already on 1,500 reading lists. It was clear that his skill level had improved dramatically.

But even so, he couldn’t be careless.

Among the books released in the same period, some had equally good results.

For example, ‘Tokyo’s One Punch’ blended a Japanese supernatural setting with the manga One-Punch Man, and its style imitated the popular book ‘I Worship Buddha in Tokyo’, which had more than 10,000 subscribers.

The reading list growth was impressive. At 50,000 words, it was already on 1,800 reading lists.

Another example of this was ‘Leading the Future Hokage to Build High-Speed Railways’, with its ambitious concept of extending the Naruto universe far into the future, where the main character led the Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha) in building major infrastructure projects.

If it could maintain its promising start, it could easily become a bestseller.

With just 60,000 words, it was already on 2,400 reading lists.

Fortunately, apart from these, most other new books were relatively underperforming. They were struggling to stay above 1,000 reading lists at even over 100,000 words.

But they were still considered lucky. At least they had signed a contract and received trial recommendations.

Below them were countless more failed works that were perhaps only on single or double-digit reading lists.

Many of these authors even begged people to add their books to reading lists in various book reviews and comment sections.

It could be said to be as miserable as it got.

Therefore, looking at the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood beneath his feet, Jiang Miao didn’t dare to let his guard down.

Perhaps after entering the trial recommendations, a few dark horses would emerge from the recommendation spotlight and squeeze him out of the promotion spots.

These were all unknown risks.

While Jiang Miao was thinking about these matters, a WeChat message popped up.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Junior Brother, what are you doing?

A girl you had just met sent you a message out of the blue asking what you were doing. Nine out of ten times, it meant she was interested in you.

However, Jiang Miao was self-aware enough to know that such good fortune was unlikely to happen to him.

… Especially when the girl was not only attractive but outstanding and capable like Senior Sister.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Having breakfast.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Breakfast at half past ten? You’re really something.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: What about you?

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: I’m having breakfast too.

Oof… She’s so cute… What should I do?

Could she really be interested in me?

I am a loyal practitioner of the single life, so I won’t easily be led astray by such charms.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Is your room on the fourth floor?

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Yeah.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: On the north side?

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Yes.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: I think I see you then.

[Miaomiao is Deep in Thought]: Huh?

Jiang Miao subconsciously stood up, still holding a bun in his hand. As he chewed on it, he looked around, but he couldn’t find the hidden Senior Sister.

My Invisible Senior Sister Is Stalking Me???

What kind of bizarre plot twist was this?

No, wait… Jiang Miao shook his head and suddenly remembered that Senior Sister lived in the dormitory building opposite.

With this thought in mind, he walked to the balcony and looked at the dormitory building opposite.

[Zhouzhou Loves Congee]: Looks like it’s really you. Do you see me? I’m on the sixth floor.

Upon receiving Senior Sister’s hint, Jiang Miao looked up at the sixth floor opposite and quickly spotted a small hand waving at him.

Senior Sister was sitting at a folding table on the balcony, having breakfast and greeting him with a smile.

What is this? Looking at each other across buildings, clandestine rendezvous through the void?