Chapter 56: It Turns Out He Was Not Waiting for Me

In the luxury car driving toward the school, Zhai Da was deeply engrossed in a chat with his pen pal right in front of her mother.

Lu Siwen: "I have more good news. They said the response to the previous competition and the news coverage was wonderful, and they want to commission some work from you."

"Commission work?"

Lu Siwen was extremely serious. Yesterday, her phone call with Xinglang lasted for half an hour, and she had meticulously written down everything in her little notebook.

She felt a tinge of excitement herself. On one hand, the man she recognized—well, calling him that wasn't entirely wrong—was gaining recognition from a broader audience. On the other hand, participating in such matters as a high school student gave her the thrilling sensation of playing "adult games."

"They publish posts on blogs in the form of micro-fiction, poetry, essays, and personal reflections, with no length restrictions. As long as the view count exceeds two thousand, they pay a 200-yuan drafting fee. If it exceeds ten thousand views, the payout is 1,000 yuan, with no upper limit."

Zhai Da curled his lip: "Isnt two thousand views pretty hard? Let alone ten thousand."

He had no idea what blog traffic was like, but even in the era of short videos, it wasn't easy for an ordinary user to post something and get ten thousand likes.

Wouldn't you have to flash a bit of leg? Wouldn't you have to dance?

The internet era had not yet fully arrived. Both the user base and reading habits made it much more difficult than in future generations.

Zhai Da felt that the numbers offered by Xinglang were more like a carrot dangled in front of a donkey, an attempt to get him to continuously post on their blog for free and milk him for all he was worth.

After all, the "Han Han-style genius" narrative, however absurd, had indeed stirred up a wave of public emotion.

Simply put, it was currently a minor trending topic online.

Lu Siwen raised a slender, jade-white finger and wagged it in front of Zhai Da's eyes: "You can't put it that way, classmate Zhai. Thanks to that news piece, 'The Duvet Explorer' already has 2,872 followers, and that's with only a single blog post published."

"Meaning?"

"I've asked around. The ratio of followers to views is about 10%. That means getting 200 yuan for a blog post is practically guaranteed."

Zhai Da curled his lip again. What could 200 yuan even do? It wouldn't even cover that much gaming time at an internet cafe...

Besides, once this wave of hype died down, he doubted anyone would genuinely keep following a high school student's blog.

Lu Siwen, however, was quite optimistic: "I'll manage the blog for you. If we work hard together, we can definitely make it better and better."

She didn't think 200 yuan was a huge sum, but she found the whole endeavor fascinating.

Zhai Da sighed, his hands subconsciously playing with the [Joker Card] again.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind...

"Spotlight": The Joker card always commands a strong presence, capturing people's attention...

Could this thing... be put to some use?

Well... since his magic skills had already been recognized by the system, today he could focus on grinding his progress!

———

During the day, a magician appeared at Maofang Middle School.

Currently, Zhai Da was only proficient in three magic tricks: "Object behind the ear," "Card flip," and "Disappearance." For the latter, small objects could be vanished with just his hands, while larger ones required the assistance of the [Nerd's Eyeglass Cloth].

He didn't know many tricks, but he certainly played them with flair!

Zhai Da no longer worried about whether the same person could provide "progress" multiple times. During breaks and in the cafeteria, whenever he caught someone he knew, he would dazzle them with a trick.

About a third of the attempts successfully passed the system's judgment and increased his progress. Zhai Da guessed that the failed attempts were due to him giving away the trick; after all, he was still a far cry from a true close-up magician.

However, the school was packed with people, and this trick was simply too captivating. A small magic trick took only a dozen seconds. By the morning alone, his progress had reached (9/10).

In the restroom, Zhai Da was relieving himself while pondering where to squeeze out that final sliver of progress.

He turned his head and saw Wu Yue squatting in one of the stalls of the long row.

"Wu Yue, dropping a heavy load?"

"Don't stand next to me, you're making me nervous."

"Did you bring tissue? Hand me some."

Wu Yue dazedly handed over a small pack of facial tissues. Since he had plenty of stock, he didn't think much of it.

Zhai Da rolled up his sleeves to show his hands were completely empty, followed by a swift flourish of his wrists.

"Your tissues are gone. Pretty cool, right?"

Wu Yue: ?

Zhai Da turned around and walked away.

The humiliation of Wu Yue reading his news article on the podium and making his embarrassing business known to everyone had finally been avenged.

Amidst Wu Yue's wailing cries of "Dad! Dad!", Zhai Da strolled out of the restroom.

Wu Yue had graciously provided the final bit of progress, though his own progress in the restroom might have hit a bug.

On his way back to the teaching building, Zhai Da pulled out the [Joker Card] and drew one out to inspect it against the sunlight.

There was no change whatsoever—not in the texture, the material, or the weight.

Yet the moment he held it up, two or three people nearby immediately turned their heads.

Their gazes locked onto that playing card.

To test the effect, Zhai Da held it up like that for over ten seconds. Those people didn't stop walking, but their necks kept twisting until they reached an impossible angle before giving up, only for new people to look over instead.

Zhai Da moved the card left and right while holding it up, and he could clearly feel the gazes of several people shifting along with it. They were genuinely focusing on the [Joker Card] itself, rather than Zhai Da as a person...

With a flick of his finger, the card spun diagonally upward, then looped back into Zhai Da's hand. The few people watching were like marionettes whose line of sight remained rigidly tethered to the card.

Only then did this stunt snap them back to reality, leaving them astonished by Zhai Da's sleight of hand.

"This effect... is somewhat powerful... truly deserving of being a special ability that requires unsealing..."

High-tier equipment came with special abilities and unsealing quests. For now, it seemed to carry a hint of the surreal.

Next up was seeing... whether he could fleece Xinglang.

After school in the afternoon, Zhai Da had become a moderately famous magician at Maofang Middle School. People he knew or recognized would nod at him whenever they crossed paths, hoping he would show off another trick.

Zhai Da brushed off everyone's pleas, bought a starch sausage at the school gate, and waited for someone.

In less than ten minutes, Lu Siwen walked out of the campus, her eyes lighting up as she hurried over.

"Classmate Zhai? Are you waiting for me?"

Zhai Da shook his head: "Not really, but you came at the right time. I've already thought of the blog content. We can put photos on the blog, right?"

"Yes, photos, links, and web addresses are all fine."

Zhai Da nodded, pulled the [Joker Card] out of his pocket—Lu Siwen was no longer surprised by this item, but her attention was still immediately captured by it.

After rummaging through, he picked out the colorful "Joker"—the one with the love letter pattern—and had Lu Siwen take a picture of it using her Nokia N96, which had a decent camera.

Using the street lamp overhead as a background, the card looked somewhat dim and blurry, but it was still remarkably unique.

Other than that, the frame contained only three things: Zhai Da's fingers, the playing card, and the night sky.

After glancing at the photo, Zhai Da nodded in satisfaction, then pulled out his knockoff phone and typed out a text message to send to Lu Siwen.

"I've sent you the content. Just match the text with this photo, and don't write anything else. Let's set up one post first and see how it goes."

Lu Siwen looked at her phone, and the text on it was absurdly short...

"The switch of the street lamp is sunrise and sunset

Sunrise and sunset is the switch of the street lamp"

At first glance, because the words repeated so much, one would subconsciously speed-read past it. But after reading it and realizing something felt off, reading it a second time made it feel quite philosophical.

Yet for some reason, most of her attention remained fixed on that photo... it felt deeply atmospheric...

Only... would anyone actually read something this short posted on a blog?!

You had to know that the average length of a blog post exceeded 500 words! Most people operated at the thousand-word level!

"Classmate Zhai, is this appropriate? Isn't it too short?"

Zhai Da shook his head: "Trust me, in the future, the shorter the better. Just give it a try. Oh, and regarding the view-count reward system, I hope we can sign a contract. Please bring it up the next time you contact them."

Xinglang was trying to milk him for free content, while he was trying to use the [Joker Card] to fleece Xinglang.

Two thousand views corresponded to 200 yuan... Honestly, by common sense, the ratio proposed by the other party wasn't high. Blogs had only appeared two and a half years ago, and because they were too professional, their previous growth had not been particularly fast.

Only some well-known figures and veteran bloggers could measure their view counts in the tens of thousands. If a post hit a hundred thousand views, it was considered top-tier, something that happened only a handful of times a year.

It was safe to say that current internet companies hadn't yet realized the power of traffic, or the sheer scale that traffic could reach.

They probably thought about it quite simply. Even if a post really reached a hundred thousand views, what did giving Zhai Da ten thousand yuan matter? Internet companies were all about burning cash to grab market share.

Yet... exchanging an average of ten views for one yuan was a level of payout no platform in future generations would ever dare to imagine.

Just as Lu Siwen was about to say something else, Zhai Da's eyes suddenly lit up, and he strode forward with bold steps.

A middle-aged woman was riding a vintage "Permanent" bicycle, with a young girl seated on the back rack.

Slender, clean, and pretty—that was Lu Siwen's first impression.

Lu Siwen guessed the middle-aged woman's identity, but she couldn't guess the identity of that girl for the life of her.

Hesitating for a moment, Lu Siwen took the initiative to step forward: "Hello, ma'am. I'm Zhai Da's classmate."

Yu Xiaoli was momentarily stunned, then smiled warmly: "Hello, hello."

Today she had come to see the teachers to ask for an evening self-study leave for Zhai Da. From now on, little Da could come home as soon as school let out at six.

Lu Siwen secretly looked at the girl—pretty, clean, like a blank sheet of paper.

Yet the girl's eyes seemed to hold only Zhai Da.

Suddenly, a pang of ache pierced through Lu Siwen's heart.

Turns out, the person Zhai Da was waiting for really wasn't her.