"Hm?"
Tang Yao noticed Kang Ming staring at her and turned her head.
"...Actually, you can't really blame the other editors."
Kang Ming snapped out of it, avoiding Tang Yao's gaze, and looked at the screen in front of him.
"The two manga you recommended are just way too popular."
"I know that."
Tang Yao leaned over for a glance at his screen and casually replied,
"Wasn't that yesterday's news already?"
"......"
Kang Ming fell silent.
He glanced at Tang Yao’s "what are you talking about?" expression, then looked at the website where the likes for those two works had already shot past 200,000—
and he completely gave up.
At the same time, he confirmed something: he really had zero talent for being an editor—
at least compared to the girl in front of him, he didn’t have a shred of it.
He really should resign...
Thinking of this,
Kang Ming shook his head, steeling himself to tell Tang Yao about it.
After all, she had been the one to interview him, and she’d looked after him quite a bit after he joined.
Out of both courtesy and reason, Kang Ming felt he should at least tell her he was planning to quit.
"Editor Tang..."
Kang Ming gathered his thoughts and was just about to speak—
when suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoed.
Although Kang Ming hadn't been working here for long,
he had a knack for this kind of thing.
In an instant,
he recognized the sound: it was Ding Yilong’s footsteps.
His words caught in his throat, and he quickly turned his head.
Across the room,
Tang Yao also spotted Ding Yilong.
He was walking toward her desk, his face dark as thunder.
The other editors clearly noticed too—the whole office fell deathly silent.
"......"
Tang Yao frowned slightly, watching Ding Yilong approach, wondering what kind of nonsense he was about to pull this time.
He walked right up to her.
After hesitating with a dark face for a long while, he finally said slowly,
"Teacher Third-Rate’s Fate/Zero can be serialized in big comic. Contact her... The manuscript fee is 900 per page. You should know how high that is. Tell her to get ready as soon as possible."
"...?"
Tang Yao slowly blinked in confusion.
She’d considered a lot of possibilities—
but this was not one of them.
Ding Yilong was actually here to talk about serialization?
To be fair,
900 per page was no small sum.
The so-called manuscript fee was exactly what it sounded like—the pay mangaka received for their original pages, usually calculated per page.
For example, if a mangaka drew 20 pages per issue, at 900 per page, they’d earn 18,000 for that issue.
It was usually the first significant income manga artists made.
And in this parallel world, manga manuscript fees were about the same as in Japan from Tang Yao’s previous life.
The mainstream manga magazines paid around 450 per page—
and most mangaka earned even less than that.
Even someone like "Teacher Mi," a hugely successful, world-famous mangaka in this world, only made 2,500 per page.
(Side note: ero-mangaka got the same per-page pay as normal mangaka.)
And Teacher Third-Rate—who was, well, Tang Yao herself—
for her first ever serialization, to get 900 per page?
Not bad at all.
It also showed just how insanely popular Fate/Zero was.
However...
Did Ding Yilong seriously think it would be that easy?
He thought just saying "serialize it" would make it happen?
"Teacher Third-Rate isn’t planning to serialize with our magazine."
Tang Yao withdrew her gaze from Ding Yilong and calmly looked back down at her desk.
"I already asked for her opinion," she said directly.
"...What did you just say!?"
Ding Yilong froze, then widened his eyes.
"What do you mean, 'not planning to serialize in the magazine'!?
You pulled all those stunts—cozying up to the New Media Department, sweet-talking Ou Congquan—wasn’t it all for this!?"
Clearly,
he had learned quite a lot over the past few days.
In fact,
the reason he came to find Tang Yao was simple:
He was desperate.
After failing to shift blame, after getting cursed out when he tried calling Ou Congquan,
and after Zhao Fangsheng and Shang Tao never once contacting him—
instead always reaching out to Tang Yao—
Ding Yilong realized something.
As an old veteran of the publishing house,
getting insider information wasn’t hard for him.
Soon enough,
he found out everything Tang Yao had done...
And when he learned that the issues with Ou Congquan had been solved—
and he hadn’t even been informed about it—
Ding Yilong realized:
he was screwed.
Then, when the manga award winners were posted early,
and he saw Ou Congquan publicly thanking Tang Yao in his social media posts,
and saw that dazzling new website category—
Ding Yilong felt like the sky was collapsing.
Such a major event—
and the Editor-in-Chief hadn’t even been told.
What did that mean?
Ding Yilong wasn’t sure.
But he was panicking.
He immediately ran to find Zhao Fangsheng that morning—
only to get completely brushed off.
So he came to find Tang Yao instead.
He’d been keeping an eye on the website situation too.
And although, in his mind, Tang Yao was just lucky as hell—
he couldn’t deny that Fate/Zero’s popularity was off the charts.
He’d thought he could do something to salvage his image with Zhao Fangsheng.
Like—
hurrying up and locking down Fate/Zero's serialization.
That way, even if the worst happened,
he could still claim some credit!
But now Tang Yao was telling him—
that Teacher Third-Rate didn’t plan to serialize?
Was this a f***ing joke!?
At the same time,
Kang Ming’s eyes also widened in shock at Tang Yao’s words.
"I tried to persuade her, but couldn’t change her mind.
She just doesn’t want to serialize, that’s all."
Tang Yao casually pulled out a form from her file tray, filling it out as she calmly said,
"I think I made myself clear enough."
"That’s impossible!!"
"You think I’m going to believe that BS? Wait... This is revenge, isn’t it?"
Ding Yilong trembled all over, his last shred of hope slipping away.
Unable to accept it, he roared:
"You’re trying to get back at me, right!?
You think this will force me to step down!?
You’re just waiting for me to get kicked out before you serialize it!?
Dream on!
Even if I have to cling on like a cockroach,
I’ll drag this out until the hype dies down!
Let’s see how you explain that to your Teacher Third-Rate then!"
The truth was,
the manga award buzz would eventually fade.
And those winning works’ popularity would too.
After all, most were one-shots.
Even though Fate/Zero looked like a long series,
it had only barely started.
Granted, even after the hype cooled off,
based on Fate/Zero’s quality, it would never be completely ignored—
on the contrary, with good management and steady quality, it would still be very successful.
But it would definitely be better to announce serialization now,
while public excitement was sky-high.
Readers’ emotions couldn’t stay heated forever.
That was why Ding Yilong was saying all this.
However—
all of it was based on the assumption that Teacher Third-Rate actually existed.
"Then go ahead and drag it out all you want."
Tang Yao looked up, handing him the form she’d just finished filling out, and said calmly,
"I’m not interested in playing with you.
I’m leaving first."
Ding Yilong glanced down—
and his pupils shrank violently.
It was a resignation form.
Next to him, Kang Ming saw it too—
and was stunned.
Wait a second.
I haven’t even gotten a chance to resign yet?
And you’re quitting already!?