Chapter 113: Fortune Favors the Bold

Xu Dong was too busy at the moment to look into the sample of "Psychological Crime" that Gu Xin Xue wanted. He kept marveling, "You really just decide to do something and then actually pull it off!"

Zhang Chu humbly replied, "I was just trying it out, didn’t think too much about it." Inside, he was overjoyed. His choice had been wise—he had spent a full five million reputation points on this endeavor.

During the past fortnight, he had entertained thoughts of asking the system for a refund, but once the points went into the system’s pocket, there was no getting them back. Now, finally, the returns were coming in.

His reputation had soared to over nineteen million, and these news reports had all broken out during the night in the United States. Due to severe time zone differences around the world, there would be yet another surge of attention once people woke up and saw the headlines.

What thrilled Zhang Chu most was that what was visible now was merely the court’s routine public case information. The hearing was still three days away, and only then would the results be revealed.

Once the verdict came out, it would ignite a global storm. Zhang Chu was not the main character in this tempest; he was merely one of the repeatedly mentioned names. The spotlight would be on the fans of Sherlock Holmes and the related authors—that was where the true focus lay.

At that point, thirty million reputation points wouldn’t be a problem. Or even fifty million—it would be perfectly feasible. Trading five million for fifty million was an incredibly profitable deal!

Truly, fortune favors the bold and starves the timid. Zhang Chu’s system-assisted request had been disguised as an email by the system itself. Who knew what kind of email wielded such irresistible power?

No one cared to question how Zhang Chu had obtained the email addresses of these lawyers, or how their assistants and secretaries hadn’t filtered him out.

Within a single day, Zhang Chu appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious media platforms, instantly eclipsing all his previous efforts.

Of course, this was a one-time opportunity; repeating it would never have the same impact.

“Reporters outside are all looking for you,” Gu Xin Xue said cheerfully. “Our publishing house is practically overrun by them. Do you want to go out and show yourself?”

Gu Xin Xue was delighted—this kind of exposure rendered ordinary promotional methods for Zhang Chu’s novel entirely unnecessary.

“I’d better not,” Zhang Chu said frankly. “I’m afraid they’ll tear me apart alive.”

He wanted to live a little longer. Though interviews would bring more exposure, the media had already reported on him extensively.

Unless they became his fans, reputation points could only be harvested once. Only fans, veteran fans, loyal fans, and die-hard fans could contribute more points.

Gu Xin Xue agreed. “I think it’s best not to face the reporters right now. After all, you have that exclusive with Southern Weekend this afternoon. If you don’t appear today, tomorrow’s launch event for ‘Psychological Crime’ will treat you like a superstar. All the media interested in you will come.”

Sometimes, one must be patient in earning reputation points. Zhang Chu knew it was better to let the media cool off for a while.

“Tomorrow, do you think there will be more reporters than readers? That’ll be interesting.”

“You really should find an agent soon,” Gu Xin Xue said. “Our publishing company is filling in as agent for now, but we’re not really equipped for this kind of thing.”

As an editor at Nanhai Publishing, Gu Xin Xue was unfamiliar with interviews, film adaptations, or foreign translations. Such matters were best left to professionals.

Zhang Chu shrugged. “I originally planned to find an agent after the suspense literature summit, but now I have to speed things up.”

With so many media outlets involved, dealing with them all one by one would take enormous time and energy.

Gu Xin Xue glanced at photos sent by a colleague on WeChat—the sea of reporters gathered anxiously, a dense and restless crowd.

“I have masks here. How about you wear one if you go out?”

Zhang Chu shook his head. “Wearing a mask would be like confessing right away. Do you have a car in the parking lot? Where are you meeting the Southern Weekend reporters for the interview this afternoon?”

“Apparently in the reception hall of our branch office. The main idea was to use this exclusive to boost attention for ‘Psychological Crime’—it’s a real bargain for Southern Weekend.”

At that moment, Xu Dong, who had been standing nearby, suddenly spoke up. “My car is parked in B2. There shouldn’t be many reporters there. Why don’t I drive you over?”

“That’s totally out of the way. Mr. Xu, you’re heading east, and our branch is in the northern district. I’ll call a colleague and have him slip out quietly,” Gu Xin Xue declined politely. It seemed improper for such a top-tier author to drive just the two of them.

But Xu Dong insisted, “It’s on the way. I’ll take you there and grab a copy of ‘Psychological Crime’ myself—I’m getting impatient waiting for the finale.”

Zhang Chu hadn’t expected Xu Dong to be so hooked on the novel. He smiled and said, “Then thank you, Mr. Xu. Once we get to the company, you can take as many copies as you want.”

---

No reporter knew that the ordinary Volkswagen Passat they saw contained the very man they had been searching for so long.

After arriving at the Nanhai Publishing branch in Yanjing, Xu Dong grabbed a copy of “Psychological Crime” and quickly drove away, while Gu Xin Xue had to report the situation to their superiors—preparations for tomorrow’s launch event had to be planned.

With nothing pressing, Zhang Chu sat down outside the branch at a McDonald's, ordered a Coke, connected to the Wi-Fi, and carefully read through the news.

Only now did he have time and space to understand the full scope of events, even browsing domestic and international media and netizens’ opinions in earnest.

“As expected, the curious far outnumber the concerned,” Zhang Chu muttered to himself. Twitter trends had dropped to fifth place, but on Weibo, the topic still dominated the top two spots, keeping his popularity firmly alive.

As a result, his Weibo followers had surged past 500,000, heading toward one million. Private messages, likes, comments, and shares flooded in, and his verified yellow V badge had instantly turned red!

For fan fiction writers, this was unprecedented. Others had the nerve to sue in the United States, while he had to endure bans and compensation claims.

But they overlooked a crucial fact: Zhang Chu’s fan fiction had no copyright issues, whereas most original works of their creations were still protected by law.

Despite such a huge incident, the original parties remained silent. Many netizens joked that Fengxing Studio was utterly useless.

Some journalists even complained about waiting two hours at the Book Fragrance China Book Fair without seeing a single person, which made Zhang Chu laugh heartily.

A few minutes later, he posted this on his Weibo and hit send:

“I just love how you all can’t stand me, yet you have no choice but to build socialism with me!”