Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Let… let go… I am dying, I am dying… ” His colleague was strangled almost until he couldn’t breathe. “You… you are committing murder…”

Then, Sheng Wenshi changed to pressing his shoulders instead and shook him violently. “Where is this lady now? Bring me to her now! Her song is most suitable for the theme song for the movie. It’s perfect!”

His colleague took in deep breaths, panting like an old brown cow that was working on the fields. “What are you so rushed for… Huff… It’s not like I won’t tell you… Huff… How is it, this lady is not bad, right? When I listened to her sing yesterday, I immediately became her loyal fan!”

Sheng Wenshi became frantic. “Ahhh, stop talking crap! I know that you are her loyal fan, I am too! But what I am asking is how I can find her! How do I find her! Now is not the time to discuss whether you are a loyal fan or not!”

By now, his colleague had finally caught his breath. “Yesterday night, I was bored, and I heard from my friend that the Ye Lai Xiang nightclub in West Fourth Loop was entirely free, so I went. When I arrived, the crowd was spectacular… Ah, don’t rush, I am going to say it, really!” Feeling the piercing stare from Sheng Shiwen, he hurriedly said, “I will just skip the beginning. When this lady went on stage, the crowd totally erupted. She sang a total of two songs. I felt that this ‘Lightning Pursuit’ was suitable to be the theme song for the movie, so I paid special attention to her. Then, I found out that she seemed to… seemed to be… how should I say it?”

“Seemed to be what? You’re going to make me die from nervousness—is that what you want?” Sheng Wenshi was quick to be enraged. He panted heavily just from listening to his colleague.

“En, she seemed to be the mistress of a rich family’s young master, but that also didn’t seem to be the case. The young master was only about 17 or 18 years old, and their relationship didn’t seem very close. But if there is some other relationship, I couldn’t tell.” After a long-winded speech, his colleague finally concluded. “Basically, she is definitely related to that young master.”

“Who’s that young master? Did you find out?” Sheng Wenshi curiously asked.

“Of course.” His colleague pushed his glasses up his nose. “It’s Young Master Hong Dali from the Hong family. You have definitely heard of him before.”

Upon hearing this name, Sheng Wenshi almost bit off his own tongue. “Hong Dali from the Hong family? The infamous prodigal!? Where did that prodigal find this extraordinary singer?”

“How am I supposed to know that?” His colleague jabbed Sheng Wenshi’s elbow. “Hehe, Old Sheng, I heard that in two days, Young Master Hong Dali will be hosting a concert for this lady at the West Fourth Loop sports stadium. And it’ll be totally free. On that day…”

What was there to hesitate for? Sheng Wenshi immediately came to a decision. “Go, of course, we will go! I will find some more seasoned music producers to go together. Oh, right, and the company that is filming the movie, ask them along too. We shall take a good look on that day! Aiya, heaven is really on my side. Quick, play the video again! Although the effect is a little too noisy, it still sounds fantastic!”

…

Hong Dali slept till noon in a daze and felt quite unhappy.

The entertainment culture in this world was really too poor. It was not an exaggeration to say that if the entertainment service in his previous world was rated 100 marks, the one in this world could only be rated 50 marks. Hong Dali couldn’t find any songs worth listening to at all. Although music had no boundaries, the music that he heard always made him feel vexed as if someone was scratching his insides.

When he wanted to read a novel, the novels in this world were even more intolerable. He had gone and taken a look at the Zhong Dian website that he had bought yesterday. The novels there weren’t even readable… Visually speaking, the novels in this world were more like essays and not the kinds that were moaning about imaginary problems. Rather, they were the type that expressed emotions. The whole passage was filled with beautiful words that described an impressive scene, but they had no storyline or plot. Was this kind of novel readable? Hong Dali slept through the morning thanks to the hypnotizing effect of this stuff. After reading three chapters of the opening of a novel, he had fallen asleep immediately.

When he finally found a novel that was quite interesting, there wasn’t anything left to read after just a while…

Damn it, this is intolerable!

Hong Dali was so angry that he wanted to smash his phone on the floor. Just when he got to an important part, there were no more chapters left. He couldn’t even anticipate the remaining chapters because the author had quit. How was Hong Dali, someone who always viewed squandering as a means to change his lifestyle for the better, supposed to accept this?

Therefore, when his lunch break came, Hong Dali entered his car and directly asked Xiaoyi, “Xiaoyi, that Zhong Dian website, most of the novels there aren’t interesting at all. When I finally found one that was acceptable, the author had actually quit halfway. That made me so depressed. Help me find some authors with their own unique writing styles to write some novels with more storylines and plots. Their job is just to write novels full time.”

“Ah?” Hearing Hong Dali’s words, Ling Xiaoyi was baffled and asked, “Storyline? Shouldn’t novels always be as they are now? I thought they were quite fine when I read them occasionally. You just can’t read too many of them at once. If you do, you will get sleepy.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. These aren’t novels but hypnotizing books. I read five different novels and slept for four lessons. They are even more effective than sleeping pills.” Some of the novels in this world were similar to those light novels from a certain island country in his previous life. Hong Dali lethargically said, “The type of novel that I want isn’t like this. I want those kinds that, yep, those kinds that are filled with fighting and killing. You glare at me and I beat you up. You scold me with one sentence and I will kill your whole family. This type, are there any?”

Ling Xiaoyi was almost choked to death by Hong Dali’s words. She looked at him, stupefied, and said, “I… I will try my best… There should be something like that…”

“If there aren’t any, find some authors who write in simple language and ask them to write a few such novels for me.” Hong Dali added, “And also, the novel that I found acceptable was called something like ‘Evil Energy.’ Ask the editor to contact the author. I don’t care what he does, but make sure to get that author to continue writing the story for me to read.”

Ling Xiaoyi: “All… all right.”

“I am bored to the point of dying. Oh, right, make a copy of Sister Nianwei’s songs for me. Her songs are more to my liking.” Hong Dali leaned against the window. “And also, that Turkey Bookstore, what’s the current situation? Tell me more specifically.”

“OK.” Ling Xiaoyi immediately reported. “Turkey Bookstore is currently the largest novel database in Heavenly State. The website’s IP site traffic… is roughly 10 times that of Zhong Dian. The number of authors there is also much higher than at Zhong Dian. Currently speaking, with regards to online novels, Turkey Bookstore is dominant. Its position is very stable.”

Looks like this opponent isn’t a weak one. Hong Dali asked, “Then, how can we win against them?”

Ling Xiaoyi thought for a while, then helplessly said, “I am not very knowledgeable about operating a website. Young Master, why don’t we hold a job fair and hire some people to help us manage it?”

“En, OK. You decide the timing, and we will hold a job fair then.” Hong Dali immediately decided.

“OK, Young Master, I got it.” Ling Xiaoyi carefully asked. “Young Master, are you really planning to compete directly with Liu Mingcheng?”

“Do you still need to ask?” Hong Dali calmly said. “Our relationship isn’t good anyway. We will have to fight each other sooner or later. The one who strikes first will gain the upper hand, right, haha. There’s an old saying that is very suitable: those with the means should squander, those without the means should create the means to grab someone to squander with!”