January 2nd, during the holidays.
Jiahui, a sophomore, was bored surfing the web. There was still nearly a month until the end of semester exams, and she wasn't in high school anymore, so it was too early to start reviewing. Going out was an option, but the weather was too cold. The dormitory with its heating was so cozy.
Early that morning, she had already ordered some takeout fried chicken and was lounging in the dorm with her roommate, watching dramas and browsing Weibo.
"Jiahui, check out this poster," her roommate sent her a picture, "This guy's pretty handsome!"
Jiahui took a glance and said, "That's Shaomeng!"
"Oh, the one who starred in The Mysteries of Song Dynasty?" her roommate mentioned a hit ancient costume drama that was once hugely popular nationwide.
Jiahui nodded, "Yeah yeah, he's acting in a new drama? Let me see."
She wasn't into celebrities, but Shaomeng had starred in quite a few popular shows with good industry reputation and production quality, instantly piquing her interest.
The poster was dark and moody, only revealing a white doctor's coat. The actor's face was vaguely visible, giving off an oddly sinister yet cool vibe unlike typical medical dramas.
No wonder her roommate was surprised. The poster had a very Western TV show aesthetic, unlike most Chinese dramas that shoved the star's face in your face.
"Demon Doctor? Sounds interesting!" Jiahui casually followed the drama's Weibo account, and related recommendation links popped up under that post.
Demon Doctor Seasons 1+2 combo pack, light and shadow, good and evil, two sides of the scale, who can take control?
It was a book recommendation.
She hadn't bought a book in a long time. On a whim, Jiahui clicked in.
She didn't know Ji Yunyun, but felt the name rang a bell. Glancing at the reviewers, hmm, they seemed to be famous figures (though she wasn't familiar with them either).
It should be decent then.
Skimming further, hmm, the books were adapted into movies that won awards recently.
This author must have some skills.
Finally checking the rating on Bookworm, 8.5, a very good score.
Might as well buy it and check it out!
Jiahui placed her order.
-
Yiwen was a corporate slave, twenty-six, single, because his commute from home to work took over an hour each way, two hours round trip. After getting home from work, he just wanted to collapse into bed, too exhausted and broke to date.
His only hobby was buying manga and novels.
He was a loyal reader of Ice Mirror, and also browsed Golden Crow's books occasionally, buying the good ones. Used book websites were thriving anyway, so after reading he could just resell without taking up space and recoup the cost. No pressure splurging.
Last night, the reading public WeChat account had sent him new book updates from various publishers. Demon Doctor II by Ji Yunyun topped the list with over 15,000 sales just yesterday.
"A book by Ji Yunyun, huh." Yiwen hesitated a little. As a guy, he didn't really like reading novels by female authors, all sappy romance or romance masquerading as something else.
But there were exceptions, and Ji Yunyun was one of them.
He really enjoyed Hide and Seek and had read Demon Doctor 1 too. Now part 2 was out, so based on his good impression of part 1, he decided to check it out.
A few clicks to purchase, success.
The next moment, the website prompted "Out of Stock."
With that, his last doubts vanished.
Lucky he moved quickly. Yiwen felt relieved.
The book arrived swiftly.
Yiwen had intended to read it on his work commute tomorrow, but after browsing Weibo last night, many were already discussing Demon Doctor 2, saying it had a vastly different style from 1 yet integrated seamlessly, fully surprising.
His curiosity was piqued while thinking "how good can a mystery by a female author be," itching to start reading immediately.
He read until midnight, finishing two chapters, reluctantly falling asleep yearning for more.
The next day on the subway to work, he tucked the book in his bag and continued reading.
Who knew the subway arrived exceptionally fast today. He didn't get to finish the third story before having to start work.
It felt awful, like having to stop pissing midway.
Yiwen hadn't felt such an urgent impulse in a long time. Once at the company, after suffering through the morning meeting, he eagerly smuggled the book into the bathroom and squatted a paid fifteen minutes on the toilet before emerging refreshed.
Ah, finally finished it, so worth it!
After painfully slogging through the work day, Yiwen stood crammed in rush hour subway for over an hour before finally, satisfactorily finishing Demon Doctor II back home.
Returning home, he wolfed down a couple rice balls then impatiently opened Bookworm to rate - five stars max, then frantically started posting.
"Good mystery novels have no gender. Demon Doctor 2 destined for annual outstanding work."
"Poster male, into females. Old bookworms may remember my ID from previous mystery novel posts. Cutting to the chase. These days mysteries by female authors can't escape the weird romance vortex. Some with pretty decent mysteries, but once romance appears, this straight guy feels mighty uncomfortable...
"But Ji Yunyun's Demon series has no cheesiness. After the first story, I completely cast aside gender bias - ladies, sorry for misunderstanding you all! As long as you don't write romance, your mysteries can totally match men's..."
-
Bingshu, thirty-seven, had resigned from publishing two years ago and started writing WeChat public accounts, garnering decent popularity as a notable reading account.
Last night, he had just finished an article titled "Golden Crow VS Morning Star, the prestige battle between veteran and newcomer," vividly depicting the New Year's Day clash between the two companies.
The final outcome was Morning Star signed nearly 35,000 books, Golden Crow 46,000, a landslide victory. The numbers were actually quite good. Bingshu felt Morning Star lost in the end not because of publishing shortcomings. Golden Crow had mobilized currently popular male celebs - despite claiming a "private event" and denying business partnerships, the rallying power wasn't even comparable.
Especially when Golden Crow precisely targeted Morning Star's customer base, the outcome wasn't surprising.
After covering the business side, Bingshu naturally had to post about the chart-topping book too.
Yesterday's signing had Ji Yunyun's Demon Doctor II at number one. No matter what, he had to check it out. So after submitting the first draft, he started reading the book.
To be honest, the content of 1 was fuzzy, but episodic cases had this advantage - no need to recall previous details, just directly enter the new case.
The first story was about a virtuous wife ingeniously murdering her adulterous husband via a locked room mechanism, ultimately getting off innocent.
The demon was unable to judge her good or evil and mailed her a letter analyzing her murder methods in detail.
Then asking - [Was it you?]
The virtuous wife did not reply.
The second story was an occult murder case, no need to elaborate, thrilling and bizarre. Even more chilling was an included printed wanted poster for "Qitian."
Bingshu closely followed online trends and naturally remembered the heavily discussed ghost house incident from months ago.
He recalled Ji Yunyun was the one who reported discovering the skeletons.
Considering this, looking back at the second story's details, he couldn't help speculating how much was true, how much fictional. His hair stood on end.
Bingshu wasn't very gutsy and never read horror stories. Seeing it was nearly 11 PM, he shut the book and went straight to sleep.
Hmm, better wait until sunlight tomorrow to continue reading!
He never expected such content from a young woman like Ji Yunyun. Industry insiders previously criticized her for "drying up," clearly going overboard.
Bingshu flipped over, wide awake and brain already automatically outlining content for a new article.
The evolution in Ji Yunyun's two books could be described as shifting from the police's cold, dry bulletins to news reports. The former more calm and objective, the latter with human touch. From a literary perspective, it was hard to judge which was better, but readers undoubtedly preferred news over bulletins.
The next day after reading the last two stories about revenge and accidental killing, quite simple plots yet with excellent twists, also thrilling.
Bingshu organized his thoughts and started writing the public account content.
"Doctor VS Hunter, demon on earth, discussing the new year's new books, Demon Doctor II."
"The day before yesterday, the editor released a piece on the fierce battle between Golden Crow and Morning Star. Needless to say, competition between publishers has intensified over the past couple years. As an old establishment, for Golden Crow to grab a spot in the market, it must excavate high-quality works without falling into clichés..."
Fortunately, Jianjing's new book achieved this. Compared to the bleak criticism at the time of the first book's release, the second one would hardly have anyone uttering words that betray their conscience. As of when this writer typed this line, Bookworm.net's rating had exceeded 1,000 people, which meant that so many people eagerly bought and finished reading it within three days and unanimously gave high ratings.
The current rating for Demon Doctor II is 9.3. Of course, as the number of readers increases, this score will definitely drop a little, but it will absolutely be hard to go below 8.5. Jianjing blends real cases into fictional stories, using the dual perspectives of demons and hunters. The line between good and evil is often blurred, but isn't this where the contradictions of reality lie?
He wrote for over 3,000 words in a rambling manner, did a quick check, and immediately posted it.
That day, the views exceeded 100,000.
-
On New Year's Day, Ji Yunyun went to the signing event early in the morning. Compared to other fans who just read the books, she clearly understood Jianjing better.
Is she a little miss who only writes novels?
No!
She's a big sister who really solves cases!
Saving people in hospitals, digging out corpses in haunted houses, finding gold in parks... Her own stories are just as exciting as her novels.
Ji Yunyun has upgraded from a book fan to an author fan. She made plans early in the morning with her classmates to get an autograph.
Unfortunately, there were too many people at the signing event, and she didn't get to chat much with her idol before leaving.
Ji Yunyun could only go back home with her classmate to read the novel first.
Before reading, Ji Yunyun was still a little worried in her heart. In her opinion, Demon 1 was already outstanding, if Demon 2 didn't have enough highlights, it might come under another wave of attacks, with people ridiculing that Jiang Lang has run out of skills.
But after reading the book, all concerns were dispelled.
Ji Yunyun held her phone in her hands and shouted first in the readers' group: [If we don't occupy the position of public opinion, the enemy will occupy it! We can't let Teacher Jian be bullied again like last time!!]
Thinking about it, feeling unsatisfied, she complained: [Jinwu is really old. We can't rely on them, we'd better rely on ourselves!]
Group member 1: [My book hasn't arrived yet, is Demon 2 good? I heard there are new characters.]
Group member 2: [Yes, there is a new hunter character. I'm so worried it might be written poorly!]
Group member 3: [I'm here for the demon, don't steal the spotlight from the demon!]
Ji Yunyun: [Don't worry, the demon is still the protagonist, but the hunter is also good. I feel like these two characters were originally one, it feels more complete now, really good!!]
Group member 4: [Demon x Hunter, what a great CP, I've already started shipping them!]
Ji Yunyun: [Black and white contrast, karma over lifetimes, very touching!]
Group member 5: [Wait, there's no female lead? I've been waiting for Teacher Jian to write romance.]
Group member 4: [Her female criminal characters are also quite touching, there are bestie pairs, very *jī* (gay), good for shipping too...]
...
-
On January 5th, sales of "Demon Doctor II" reached 100,000 on major book websites' new book charts. This number was not eye-catching, because most readers chose to buy at nearby bookstores, where same-city delivery services were already highly developed, arriving in half a day, so there was no need to wait a few more days.
But from January 6th onwards, online sales began to skyrocket for a simple reason - physical bookstores were out of stock... Readers who couldn't buy had to place orders online.
Online sales climbed to 300,000, then abruptly stopped.
Inventory was gone.
On January 10th, it was sold out across the web.
