I Became an All-round Artist

Lin Yuan had no idea about the flurry of emotions Gu Xi was experiencing. After he left, it wasn't long before his phone rang—an unknown number.

As usual, he hung up.

The caller tried again.

It didn't seem to be a spam call. Lin Yuan thought for a moment and picked up. "Who is this?"

"Hello!" The voice on the other end was polite. "Am I speaking to Mr. Chu Kuang?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Hello, Mr. Chu Kuang. This is Wei Long, the chief editor of Tribe Literature." The person introduced himself with a hint of pride.

Lin Yuan swallowed.

Wei Long, oblivious to how peculiar his name sounded, continued, "We at Tribe Literature are organizing a short story competition. Thirty authors will be invited to participate, and you're one of them."

"Not interested," Lin Yuan replied flatly.

He planned to continue working with QuDu. Silver Blue's offer of 200,000 yuan per story was decent enough. Tribe Literature was a great platform, but they didn't offer any upfront payment.

"Please, don't rush to reject," Wei Long quickly added with a laugh. "All authors participating in our event will receive a base payment of 100,000 yuan. Additionally, if your story makes it into the top three, there's prize money—300,000 yuan for first place, 200,000 yuan for second, and 100,000 yuan for third."

Prize money?

Lin Yuan was intrigued.

Third place was worth 100,000, and with the initial payment, it was comparable to Silver Blue. If he placed second or even first, the rewards would be much greater. Although the money wasn't guaranteed, Lin Yuan felt confident about his stories. They were all classics from famous authors.

He saw potential.

Noticing Lin Yuan's silence, Wei Long guessed that he'd piqued Chu Kuang's interest. He eagerly pressed on, "Rest assured, the results will not be manipulated. The winners will be determined solely by our readers."

"What are the rules?" Lin Yuan asked, now considering the offer.

Wei Long explained, "The rules are simple. There's no restriction on themes, but the word count must not exceed 10,000. It's a short story competition, after all, and readers online don’t have much patience. In fact, stories under 5,000 words tend to do better."

He paused briefly before continuing, "Once we receive all submissions, Tribe Literature will promote the stories through official channels. The reach of our platform far surpasses that of traditional magazines."

Lin Yuan pondered. Tribe Literature indeed had a broad audience, thanks to its digital nature. Their user base was immense, dwarfing any magazine. The real question was how many of those users would engage with the stories.

"To be honest," Wei Long chuckled, "we considered paying authors directly to participate, but since we hope this event will become a regular occurrence—similar to music charts—we opted for this competition format. What do you think?"

"I'll think about it," Lin Yuan replied, although he'd already made up his mind.

Wei Long, sensing the agreement, said, "Great. I'll add you as a contact and send over the email for submissions. If you're interested, please submit your story by the end of this month. The competition starts at the beginning of next month."

"Okay."

After ending the call, Lin Yuan reflected. QuDu had also requested more stories from him, especially after the success of The Gift of the Magi, which had boosted the magazine's sales significantly. They were hoping for a long-term collaboration.

However, Tribe Literature's competition seemed more lucrative.

Lin Yuan had no loyalty to Silver Blue. His contract was for individual stories, not as an exclusive author. He was free to choose his platform, and that freedom had been clear when he uploaded The Artificial Beauty to Tribe Literature first.

During the Lunar New Year, thanks to his sister's luck, Lin Yuan had drawn five short stories in one go. He had already used two and still had three left to choose from.

"This one will do."

There was no need to overthink it. Lin Yuan felt confident that any of the remaining three stories would perform well. Ultimately, it would depend on the readers' tastes.

His next task was to adapt the story to suit the world's context, just as he had done before. The system had provided original works, but they needed tweaks to fit the Blue Star setting.

For The Gift of the Magi, Lin Yuan had personally adjusted the currency and historical context to make it align with the Blue Star world. On the other hand, The Artificial Beauty didn’t have a clear timeline, so it required minimal changes, making it easier to adapt.

The system had explained that it could assist with complex adaptations, but for shorter works like The Gift of the Magi, Lin Yuan needed to make the changes himself.

He didn’t mind.

With billions of brain cells, modifying a few thousand words wouldn’t kill him. In fact, it gave him a sense of participation in the work.

In reality, the process didn’t take long at all. After researching for about an hour, Lin Yuan adjusted the background of his new story in under two hours. Writing the original story itself had only taken about twenty minutes.

After finishing, he decided not to send it to Wei Long immediately. Submitting it too soon would reveal that he had a backlog of stories.

Shutting down his computer, Lin Yuan prepared to sleep.

Meanwhile, in another apartment, Gu Xi anxiously awaited a friend's call.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

She quickly answered, "So, did you find anything?"

"Miss Gu, I had to pull a lot of strings, but I got the info. You owe me a big meal."

"I’ll treat you!"

"Good to see you're grateful. The person you were asking about is named Lin Yuan, a sophomore in the composition department."

"And?"

"He's quiet and reserved, and apparently, he's not in the best health. His classmates say he's a good person, never one to cause any trouble."

Gu Xi was speechless.

A person who never caused trouble with anyone had issues with me? How unlikeable must I be?

"By the way," her friend teased, "why are you so curious about Lin Yuan? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for him? You’ve always been so picky."

"It’s not like that," Gu Xi sighed. "You wouldn’t understand. Can you give me some advice on how to win someone over?"

"That’s easy. Cater to what they like."

"But I don’t know what he likes."

"From my experience, 99% of people like money. But hey, that’s just coming from someone as shallow as me."

"He's not shallow at all." Gu Xi sighed again. "If only he cared about money... but he doesn't."

How could someone as extraordinary as him be concerned with something as mundane as money?

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