Chapter 631: 633, a pest that affects social customs (second update)

Readers could no longer see "Butterfly Dreamer."

Editors couldn’t see her either.

The number one spot was even snatched away by "The Return of the Past."

"Butterfly Dreamer" was very unwilling!

She couldn’t accept being defeated by "The Return of the Past" just like that!

Especially seeing today’s sea of people, among them only a thousand were her fans, nearly four-fifths were here for "The Return of the Past."

What did "The Return of the Past" have to deserve all this?

She was nothing but a mistress!

Rumor had it that the gifts "The Return of the Past" received from the site during the holidays were ten times more luxurious than hers!

She used to be the one receiving the highest quality gifts!

How could such a hateful mistress enjoy all these privileges?

"The Return of the Past!" "The Return of the Past!" "The Return of the Past!" These three words haunted "Butterfly Dreamer" like a nightmare.

Jealous! She was insanely jealous, her heart twisted with envy.

As a revered author, "Butterfly Dreamer" had never felt such intense jealousy towards another author!

"The Return of the Past" had over ten million online fans, while her own mere one million paled in comparison.

In front of "The Return of the Past," she couldn’t even be called a great author, at best she was just a lousy newbie!

From great author to lousy newbie, how could that not hurt?

What was even more infuriating was some old readers outright pointed out the flaws in her writing, suggesting she should read "The Return of the Past" to learn a thing or two, implying her writing was petty while "The Return of the Past" had the grace of a true master.

Even worse, some accused "Butterfly Dreamer" of running out of talent!

In fact, it wasn’t that "Butterfly Dreamer’s" writing had deteriorated but that the readers had become more discerning! Previously, when "Butterfly Dreamer" was number one on the entire network, crushing all other authors, there was no basis for comparison, and her flaws went unnoticed.

Now, with "The Return of the Past" around, people naturally started seeing the shortcomings of "Butterfly Dreamer" when they compared the two.

Actually, the readers were doing this for her own good.

Life is a process of constant learning and striving for excellence.

Unfortunately, "Butterfly Dreamer" didn’t think so much.

She believed it was all orchestrated by "The Return of the Past," hiring fake supporters to discredit her!

All of this was "The Return of the Past’s" fault.

It was bad enough that the fake supporters talked trash, but even the editors said the same thing!

If this had happened a year ago, who would have dared to say such things about her! She was the top author on the site, and there were bunches of other sites waiting to steal her away!

Could she, an author god who had been creating for a decade, really be inferior to a newcomer?

Back when she became famous with her first book, "The Return of the Past" wasn’t even born yet!

So, "Butterfly Dreamer" was extremely unhappy with "The Return of the Past"!

And she couldn’t understand how people nowadays could idolize a mistress!

Wasn’t that sick?

The more "Butterfly Dreamer" thought about it, the more bitter she felt inside.

Eleven o’clock sharp.

"The Return of the Past" still hadn’t arrived.

The person in charge of the event was getting anxious, and said hurriedly to a young lady beside him, "Li Hua, quickly go outside and see if ’The Return of the Past’ has come! Also, does anyone have ’The Return of the Past’s’ phone number? Contact her immediately."

The person in charge of the event was a middle-aged man, probably in his forties or fifties, wearing glasses, looking very gentle, but when angry, he was quite frightening, his face red with rage.

He hated people who were not punctual the most.

With other authors, he would have already stopped waiting, but "The Return of the Past" was a super popular author.

The fans present today were almost all "The Return of the Past’s" readers.

With such popularity, even if she were a bit arrogant, she had the right to be.

The young lady, scared, whispered back, "Teacher Wen, only Sister Linglong has ’The Return of the Past’s’ phone number. We don’t have it over here."

"What about Linglong? Get her to call immediately!" the person in charge complained while looking at his watch, "What’s going on, don’t they have any sense of time? It’s already been five minutes!"

Someone nearby quickly responded, "Linglong has gone to pick up ’The Return of the Past’ and should be back soon. Teacher Wen, please don’t worry."

"Go find her, quickly!" urged the person in charge, his voice indicating he was close to shouting in frustration.

"Alright, I’m going right now." Apparently frightened, the young girl turned and ran.

Yet, the person in charge still bellowed from behind, "Run faster! Didn’t you eat?"

The girl’s legs nearly buckled from fright.

Teacher Wen was one of the most well-known figures in the literary world, and he was always very serious, so the young men and women were somewhat afraid of him.

Seconds and minutes ticked away, and before long, it was 11:10.

’The Return of the Past’ still hadn’t shown up.

The fans remained quiet, willing to wait all day for their beloved idol if necessary.

But the authors seated at the signing table were getting restless and began to whisper among themselves.

"This ’The Return of the Past’ really thinks highly of herself, making so many of us wait just for her!" one author said in dissatisfaction.

"I hate this kind of untrustworthy behavior, poor moral integrity, and lack of punctuality the most. Who knows how such a person ever got popular!" another author chimed in.

An author with glasses pushed them up on his nose and slowly said, "I’ve read ’The Return of the Past’, the writing is indeed not bad; she’s a role model in our literary world. Right, we should refrain from spreading rumors before things are confirmed lest we bring trouble upon ourselves."

The bespectacled author, around 30 years old, was known as ’Rain River’, her name reflecting the serene image she projected, and she spoke in a gentle, soft voice.

"The facts are clear as day, do we really need confirmation? I bet ’The Return of the Past’ is just too guilty to show up! She even had the audacity to claim she’s Chu Jin on the internet before—I’m embarrassed for her!"

"To be honest, what ’The Return of the Past’ did was really underhanded. The National Goddess and the head of the Mo family were a great couple until she had to meddle. To make matters worse, she didn’t even apologize afterward. If I were the National Goddess, I wouldn’t let her off easily!"

Rain River was always very rational.

So, she wouldn’t speak without knowing the full story.

But mouths belong to others, she couldn’t control what they said. However, she could control her own words.

Seeing this, Rain River chose not to speak up and instead lowered her head to fiddle with her phone.

"I really don’t understand how ’The Return of the Past’ got so popular. Could it be that the head of the Mo family spent a fortune on her? Teacher Wen is very punctual, and he never delays events like this. Why would he make an exception for ’The Return of the Past’?"

Another author smiled meaningfully, "With money, you can make the devil turn the millstone. The Mo family is rich as a nation! No wonder the head of the Mo family had an affair, and the National Goddess doesn’t dare to speak out!"

"’The Return of the Past’ really is despicable, even daring to seduce someone else’s fiancé!"

"People these days, what wouldn’t they do to get famous? Just the other day, I saw someone livestreaming themselves eating shit on a streaming platform! Just thinking about it makes me sick!"

"’The Return of the Past’ is even more disgusting than that shit-eater! At least, they earned their fame with their own ’skill’!"

’Butterfly Dreamer’ had been silent all along, but as she listened to everyone else, a small smile played across her lips. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who disliked ’The Return of the Past’.

It turns out ’The Return of the Past’ had already provoked public outrage.

This suited her just fine.

Indeed.

Just thinking about the miracles ’The Return of the Past’ had achieved in the literary world made these people’s hearts turn sour with envy!

With this in mind, ’Butterfly Dreamer’ stood up and said, "I think Tiantian is right. Why should so many of us wait for just her? Our time is extremely valuable. Plus, what right does ’The Return of the Past’, a scandalous homewrecker with questionable morals, have to keep us all waiting? She’s nothing but a disgrace to our literary community!"

No one is perfect, not even in the literary world, and some in their midst hold themselves in high regard.

A mere homewrecker, how could she be compared to them, the authors!

Furthermore, ’Butterfly Dreamer’ was a veteran author with considerable influence, seen as an idol by many, so her words garnered a lot of support from fellow authors.

Setting other factors aside, just ’The Return of the Past’s’ achievements were enough to cause jealousy.

These veteran authors had struggled for years to attain similar success. Why should ’The Return of the Past’ be able to achieve instant fame with just one book? Their collective works couldn’t even measure up to a single one of hers.

Consequently, some authors eagerly awaited ’The Return of the Past’s’ fall from grace.

And now, an opportunity presented itself; naturally, they would not let it pass.

As a result, more and more authors stood up, agreeing with ’Butterfly Dreamer’s statement.

Only a man with a crew cut and Rain River remained seated, choosing not to voice their opinions. They saw through the situation and understood that some talent just couldn’t be envied.

"We’ve only been waiting a few minutes, it’s not a big deal; perhaps ’The Return of the Past’ is stuck in traffic. She could arrive any minute now. Please take a seat, seniors, getting anxious won’t help," said Rain River in a calm voice.

Upon hearing this, one of the authors immediately retorted, "This has nothing to do with waiting! It’s about ’The Return of the Past’s’ poor character! With the way she behaves, she has no right to share a stage with us!"

The male author also said, "Qi Tiantian, some words should not be spoken too soon. In the legal field, there’s a crime called defamation."

The author with the pen name Qi Tiantian sneered, "It seems to me that you two are in cahoots with ’The Return of the Past’! Isn’t it just because someone has become popular you want to curry favor? It’s disgusting!"

"Unreasonable!" The male author couldn’t be bothered with her and picked up his cup to drink tea.

"Rain River" also stopped speaking. In such a situation, whatever you say, these people won’t listen!

They were determined to trample "The Return of the Past" down completely.

No matter the industry, competition exists, and the literary circle is no exception.

Out of ten authors, eight stood up to raise objections. Now, even the organizers had to take it seriously.

"Please calm down, everyone. ’The Return of the Past’ has not yet arrived. Please wait a little longer. If anyone is hungry, I will promptly have some fruit platters brought up; everyone, please be patient," said the person in charge.

Upon these words, staff immediately set to work, bringing up neatly cut fruit platters to the signing table.

With a slight smile, "Butterfly Dreamer" picked up the microphone leisurely and looked in the direction of Teacher Wen as he slowly began to speak.

"Teacher Wen, we authors live by the clock; time equals life, equals words, equals royalties. We really don’t have time to waste on waiting for someone, especially not for someone of dubious character who’s a mistress! I don’t know what’s happened to the world. Shouldn’t a mistress be condemned by everyone? How is it now that a mistress can be upgraded to an author? And even to the rank of a literary master! Don’t you think ’The Return of the Past’ insults the profession of an author, contaminating the entire literary community?"

"Butterfly Dreamer" continued, "Authors like ’The Return of the Past’ should be immediately banned. We can’t keep indulging them. Otherwise, it’ll directly impact the next generation of our country! Such people are like the parasites of society, undermining social morals!"

As a seasoned author with a fierce way with words and excellent speaking ability, "Butterfly Dreamer" needed only a few sentences to cast "The Return of the Past" into the abyss of hell, making revival impossible.

Moreover, he labelled "The Return of the Past" as someone harmful to the children of our country.

His words were extremely self-righteous.

"I don’t want people to associate the term author with offensive synonyms such as mistress, schemer, or ’Lotus’. Therefore, I ask Teacher Wen to do justice for us hardworking authors and give us back our peaceful and beautiful writing environment! Don’t let authors like ’The Return of the Past’ tarnish the reputation of our entire literary community."

"Butterfly Dreamer" spoke each word clearly, every word was sharp, and every sentence was piercing. Each word belittled "The Return of the Past" to worthlessness and without any evidence, branded "The Return of the Past" as a mistress!

Moreover, her speech was eloquently delivered, from the perspective of the literary community, without a hint of personal sentiment.

Not only were there journalists shooting from outside.

Inside the signing event, journalists were recording and streaming live the whole time. Seeing "Butterfly Dreamer" stand up to speak, the cameraman even gave "Butterfly Dreamer" a big close-up.

The atmosphere at the scene became a bit tense.

After "Butterfly Dreamer" finished speaking, another author immediately took over the conversation.

"Teacher Wen, I think Senior Dream Butterfly is right. With the character of ’The Return of the Past’, she is not worthy of being an author. Didn’t recent exposure reveal her plagiarism? Even if she didn’t plagiarize, she probably hired ghostwriters! Otherwise, how could a mistress write such articles! We ask Teacher Wen to handle this matter seriously and with fairness. Block ’The Return of the Past’s articles and strip her of her author status! Such a person does not belong in the literary community."

"Right! Demand that ’The Return of the Past’s’ works be blocked!"

"Authors like ’The Return of the Past’ are negatively impacting the next generation of our country."

"Teacher Wen, please purify the air for our literary community!"

"We can never become colleagues with a mistress."

Similar voices became more and more prevalent.

Teacher Wen’s face had turned extremely ugly!

There’s a saying: don’t air your dirty laundry in public! Although these authors came from different websites, they all belonged to the literary world! Whether ’The Return of the Past’ is a mistress is another matter, but these authors went ahead and directly questioned whether the works of ’The Return of the Past’ were really written by her!

Isn’t this publicly slapping the face of the literary community?

It’s too selfish!

They had no consideration for the bigger picture!

Didn’t they realize ’The Return of the Past’ was an honor to the entire literary community?

In Teacher Wen’s view, no author present could compare to ’The Return of the Past’!

It’s ridiculous. I wonder what these authors were thinking, asking him to remove ’The Return of the Past’ from the literary community!

The literary community now relied on ’The Return of the Past’ to draw the crowd!

They had no idea how many fans she had brought in today!

To say that ’The Return of the Past’ is the face of the literary community is not an exaggeration.

Most importantly, Teacher Wen had read the writings of ’The Return of the Past’, and he believed in her! How could a woman with such a clear and pure mind ever do such a thing!

Teacher Wen could certainly tell these authors were here to deliberately cause trouble.

Teacher Wen looked coldly at the authors on stage, "Everyone sit down. We’ll wait another 10 minutes! If ’The Return of the Past’ doesn’t arrive within 10 minutes, we’ll start without her."

He deftly sidestepped the issues raised by the authors.

They also hoped these authors could understand the underlying message of his words.

But "Butterfly Dreamer" was relentless, continuing on.

"Mr. Wen, everyone knows you have always been a fair and just senior, and we hope that this time you will not let us hardworking authors down, nor let ’The Return of the Past’ tarnish the reputation of the literary world! Grant us the justice we deserve!"

As things had developed to this point, "Butterfly Dreamer" was bent on dragging ’The Return of the Past’ down! Otherwise, how could she face the audience in front of so many TV sets!

Moreover, once ’The Return of the Past’ was discredited, the original literature website would become her domain!

Naturally, "Butterfly Dreamer" would not miss such an opportunity.

"Isn’t this making a fuss over nothing? How has ’The Return of the Past’ corrupted the morals of the literary world? All of you here are celebrities of the literary world. I hope that when you speak, you filter your words through your cerebrum and cerebellum! Don’t believe those baseless rumors! Did you witness ’The Return of the Past’ becoming a mistress with your own eyes, or did the head of the Mo family admit it?"

Mr. Wen continued, "The National Goddess hasn’t even issued a statement to confirm the incident! What, are all of you here engaged to the head of the Mo family?"

After Mr. Wen’s words, the room fell somewhat silent.

Moments later, fans of ’The Return of the Past’ all burst into applause.

Thunderous applause and shouts of approval.

Upon hearing this, some authors felt guilty.

Indeed, Mr. Wen’s words made sense; after all, nobody had seen ’The Return of the Past’ cheat with their own eyes! It was all just exaggeration by the online public opinion!

The most important thing was that the National Goddess had not yet spoken out to confirm the matter.

They were now accusing ’The Return of the Past’ of being a mistress, corrupting the literary world, and affecting the next generation of the country—wasn’t that an overstatement?

Seeing other authors wavering, "Butterfly Dreamer" steeled her heart, looked at Mr. Wen, and continued.

"Mr. Wen, if you don’t give us authors an explanation today, then I, "Butterfly Dreamer," will stop writing from today on and withdraw from the literary world! I, "Butterfly Dreamer," refuse to share a profession with someone of such poor moral character!"

Having said that, "Butterfly Dreamer" took off her name tag and placed it on the table.

Stop writing?!

This was a serious matter!

It seemed that "Butterfly Dreamer" was determined to bring down ’The Return of the Past’.

Seeing this, the other authors also showed their determination one after another by taking off their name tags to demonstrate their resolve.

"Mr. Wen, we hope you won’t let us down!"

"Me too."

"And me."

"..."

Seeing the situation about to spiral out of control, the reporters were getting more and more excited; they loved nothing more than a good scandal.

On one side, authors jointly protested to expel ’The Return of the Past’ from the literary world.

On the other side, the fans of ’The Return of the Past’ were unhappy.

They loudly chanted, "Protest! Protest! We, the House of ’The Return,’ do not accept malicious slander!"

As they had come here today, they all truly believed in ’The Return of the Past’ and knew that ’The Return of the Past’ would never do such a thing.

Everything that happened here was recorded by cameras and streamed on online streaming platforms.

[This is too much! ’The Return of the Past’ is ’The Return of the Past’! Works are works! Not to say whether she is a mistress or not, but her literary talent is indeed good! Jealousy makes people ugly!]

[Ahh! I missed ’The Return of the Past’ book signing today! Is it still possible to go now?]

[If ’The Return of the Past’ really is a mistress, then it makes sense for these authors to do this!]

[I love Dream Butterfly so much, please don’t leave the literary world! Don’t stop writing! If anyone should stop, it’s ’The Return of the Past,’ the mistress!]

[Looking forward to sister ’The Return’’s face-slapping comeback.]

[To the one above, hehe, it looks like ’The Return of the Past’ would hardly dare to come now, still talk about face-slapping!]

[Front row seat reserved! Tea and sunflower seeds ready!]

[Wow, it’s such an exciting scene! So thrilling!]

[My heart aches for my beloved Dream Butterfly... don’t be sad, such a person is not worth it.]

["Butterfly Dreamer" is so disgusting! Deliberately inciting other authors and even using the threat of stopping writing to pressure Mr. Wen! How foolish for these authors to stand up with her!]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read