Started as a comics editor

Chapter 35 It’s not like that
Shang Tao saw Vice President Zhao's shocked expression and finally understood.

This episode's storyboard is done!
The launch time of the comic award and the website! No need to change!
So he immediately grinned.

"Don't be so playful, I'm asking you! What's going on with that AORI?"

But Zhao Fangsheng did not smile. Instead, he put down the screen and asked seriously.

"Editor Tang wrote this."

Shang Tao suppressed his inner joy slightly and responded.

Zhao Fangsheng confirmed again: "Did she really write it? And not Ou Congquan? Are you sure?"

Shang Tao, upon hearing this, lost his confidence and became a little more serious. He secretly glanced at Zhao Fangsheng and asked, "What's the matter? President Zhao, is the storyboard not working?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Fangsheng silently lowered his head to glance at the storyboard in his hand. He did not answer, but instead answered the question irrelevantly: "Girl, Boy and Sword is one of the most important works in the company. I just took the position of vice president... or rather, I have been paying attention to this work before I joined the company.

I believe that as long as they are in the industry, most editors will not miss a few major magazines' pillar works that have achieved good results. Whether you like them or want to learn from their successful experience, they will pay attention to them and take a look. Ding Yilong's situation is probably a minority."

Shang Tao didn't say anything, knowing that the vice president hadn't finished speaking yet, so he waited tactfully.

"I'm one of those people too. I'll read the excellent works in those major magazines. After joining the Literature Museum, because it's our own magazine, I pay even more attention to it. No matter how busy I am, I'll read most of the works, including girls' comics, and I'll also flip through them briefly. And this pillar of the Literature Museum..."

Zhao Fangsheng gently raised the storyboard in his hand and continued, "I can say that I know everything about Ou Congquan. I have a general understanding of his painting skills, ideas, and methods of advancing the plot.

To some extent, he is a pure person. In other words... he doesn't have many ideas. As long as you pay attention long enough and watch more, you can almost guess what he will draw next after watching the beginning.

Moreover, he rarely pays attention to some details. The fact that the interaction between the second male lead and the female lead caused such a big controversy is actually related to his long-standing habit. He is a cartoonist who doesn't care about the sense of distance between characters at all.

Maybe he doesn’t think distance matters, but readers don’t.”

Zhao Fangsheng took a deep breath and continued, "However, in this episode, he began to pay attention to the sense of distance.

And the means of advancing the plot have changed, it doesn't seem like him at all."

Shang Tao hesitated and said, "Isn't this a good thing?"

“That’s a good thing, but…”

Zhao Fangsheng frowned, his face full of doubt, and said slowly: "You don't know how shocking this is to those who know him... Ou Congquan is developing the plot completely according to the AORI in the previous episode. He introduced the concept of malicious collectives and attributed all the bullshit in the previous episode to hallucinations.

Moreover, after a brief introduction, the story cuts into the heroine's hallucination, and very cleverly makes the hero alone in the heroine's hallucination. Even if affected by the "malicious collective", no second man appears. She only sees the hero's back, and what she fears most in her heart is the hero's death.

As for the second male lead in the last issue who, in the eyes of readers, was more awesome than the protagonist, his hallucination did not involve the female lead. The female lead did not appear at all. Instead, his dead mother appeared. This also completed the previous story background of this character - it was mentioned in the previous series that he was brooding over his mother's death, but he seemed to have forgotten this setting afterwards.

This is incredibly clever. It's a perfect example of how it went after the previous installment, avoiding any significant issues while also minimizing the impact of the previous installment, telling readers it was just the hero being paranoid... It also leaves a hook, a hook for the sequel. I'm already looking forward to how the hero will untie his knot and face the heroine and the second male lead after the hallucination.

"Uh……"

Shang Tao understood, after all, he also read comics, and he asked quietly: "Isn't this still a good thing?"

"But this is not Ou Congquan's usual style."

Zhao Fangsheng was silent for a moment, then replied, "Not at all. Even if he introduced the concept of a malicious collective, even if it was an illusion, I don't think he would draw it this way. I know him... but he drew it this way anyway. The style is completely different from before, and after watching it, it makes me feel that he deliberately did that shitty development in the previous issue.

It’s like he deliberately drew the plot like that and then reversed it in this issue.”

"..." Shang Tao vaguely heard something: "Vice President Zhao, are you saying..."

"Well, this is either Ou Congquan seeking change. He is actively changing his thinking and methods of advancing the plot, so he planted a big bomb in the last episode and reversed it in this episode."

Zhao Fangsheng nodded: "He was premeditated and prepared to feed the shit. He also prepared the phrase AORI in advance, just for the change in this episode."

"So that's why you're asking if Editor Tang wrote that line about AORI... Are you saying this whole incident is a complete misunderstanding? Are we just being nervous for nothing?"

Shang Tao widened his eyes slightly, then thought of Tang Yao's face and shook his head gently: "No, no, no, I think it's unlikely that Editor Tang is lying."

"So there's another possibility. Either that, after Ou Congquan drew the storyline from the previous issue, Editor Tang immediately finalized AORI. Then, based on AORI, he combined Ou Congquan's storyline with his previous work, added new settings, and from a cartoonist's perspective, relied on his own abilities to design this issue's plot. Not only did it perfectly connect with the storyline from the previous issue, it also filled in some settings that Ou Congquan had forgotten.

And she did all this without communicating with the cartoonist.”

Zhao Fangsheng looked down at the storyboard in his hand: "But this is too outrageous... Can you believe it?"

This is really outrageous.

Zhao Fangsheng is not Kang Ming, who would think this is the editor's job.

He has also worked as an editor... He is sure that this is not an editor's job at all. Editors are not omnipotent. After all, everyone's ideas are very special, and words are sometimes very pale. Depending on the communication skills and empathy abilities, the information conveyed can easily be distorted.

What's more, many cartoonists have poor communication skills and will deliberately hide some little thoughts that they don't want to tell others - even editors are unwilling to tell them.

This means that editors sometimes cannot fully understand the cartoonist's ideas, and can only communicate and give some suggestions based on the cartoonist's requests, such as which direction to draw.

How can that be... You insist on drawing a shitty story and are unwilling to communicate. Fine, then I'll go through your previous series, and then try to figure out your ideas, and design the next storyline for you based on the shit you drew in the last issue.

This is completely capable of being used as the original plan!
Outrageous!

In fact, President Zhao didn’t know that this was indeed outrageous for him, but for Tang Yao... it was not the case.

As soon as she came to this world, she felt that the literary and artistic works of various themes in this parallel world were quite immature in terms of both setting and plot, and the use of various routines was even at the infant level.

Let me give you a simple example...pretending to be cool and then getting slapped in the face. The classic standard template of pretending to be cool and then getting slapped in the face is still being used here, including the waiter who looks down on others, the arrogant and brainless rich second generation on the street, and the smug superior dog at the class reunion.

Basically, you can guess the direction of the plot after watching it for a while.

So, to some extent, Tang Yao, an "outsider", can basically achieve a dimensionality reduction attack when watching most of the works in this parallel world.

“…That’s really impressive.”

Shang Tao understood everything and was also a little shocked: "I didn't expect it could be done this way..."

"...Do you believe it?"

"Believe."

"..."

When Zhao Fangsheng heard Shang Tao's decisive words, he did not say anything. Instead, he looked at the storyboard in his hand, feeling a little conflicted.

Although he also wanted to believe it.

But his common sense told him...this is impossible!
(End of this chapter)