“To be honest, even though I suck, I really think your book is a good change of pace.” David Bolton clinked glasses with him and laughed, “Like we talked about before, the whole sisters thing—sure, I enjoy reading it, but in the end, that’s all I remember. With this one, all I want to see is when you finally get with that female sect leader. I skip all the main character’s struggle scenes. Is that what you want?”

Brian Carter looked at the foam in his glass. “If it flops? Am I just a pretty face?”

David Bolton pursed his lips, feeling the same way.

It’s easy to joke about it, but if it doesn’t get popular, I’m just a pretty face.

But after countless days and nights of torment, sitting in front of the computer for over ten hours a day, ending up with cervical spondylosis, tenosynovitis, and sciatica—who wants to see their pitiful stats ignored by everyone?

Even David Bolton was anxious before his book went live. Who can really be that carefree? Especially when Brian Carter is finally starting to see an upward trend—could he really just let it go?

He could only respond half-heartedly, “Look at me, my book flopped so hard even dogs wouldn’t read it, but I still insisted on no female lead.”

Brian Carter glanced at him.

Actually, Brian Carter knew that this time, David Bolton really couldn’t afford another flop.

Chapter 6: Dreams and Reality

Chasing dreams comes at a price.

No one can keep flopping forever, scraping by on a few hundred or a thousand a month for a lifetime.

David Bolton has been stuck at the bottom of the web novel world for almost two years now, flopping a book every year, each one getting only double-digit subscriptions. This is already his third book to go live.

Three strikes and you’re out.

Whether it’s the pressure of life or the looks from family, no one can keep toughing it out forever.

For the past two years, David Bolton was delivering food to make ends meet while writing books to chase his dream. A few months ago, after a huge fight with his family, he even stopped delivering food, burned his bridges, moved out, and found Brian Carter through a writer’s roommate ad, dedicating himself fully to a new project.

He no longer had any source of income.

After a few months, the savings he’d built up from food delivery were almost gone. If this book flopped again, no matter how unwilling he was, David Bolton would have to give up on his dream and follow his family’s wishes to get a factory job.

It wasn’t about what genre he wrote; that didn’t matter. David Bolton was never good at romance anyway—he was better at wild ideas and witty banter, and more suited to stories without a female lead. Whether a book succeeds depends on both ability and luck.

Brian Carter had been in the industry even longer, and had seen so many young people enter full of confidence, only to disappear quietly, or turn into bitter trolls nitpicking every book on every platform.

Behind all that is the sound of dreams shattering.

To outsiders, they’re just “unemployed drifters,” but how many know the brutal elimination behind the scenes?

Brian Carter’s situation wasn’t much better than David Bolton’s. He used to be a nine-to-five office worker, but found that life dull and meaningless, so he started chasing his literary dream. He was lucky—his first book barely made enough to live on, and after a falling out with his boss, he quit to write full-time. But after two or three flops, his savings were almost gone, so the performance of his current book was crucial.

He was a bit better off than David Bolton in that his family supported him. Or, to put it another way, his family just didn’t have time to care.

Brian Carter’s parents supposedly worked in some secretive unit—he didn’t even know what they did. They were rarely home, and he only got the occasional phone call. He was in touch with his mom a bit more, but hadn’t heard his dad’s voice in a year. It wasn’t always like this, but something changed in recent years...

The only thing his parents ever worried about was his marriage. They rarely commented on anything else. His mom was actually proud that her son could write books, bragging everywhere that her son was a writer, which made Brian Carter want to cover his face in embarrassment.

That’s right, when William Parker said at the blind date, “Aunt Wu said you’re a writer,” that Aunt Wu was actually Brian Carter’s own mom. He had no idea how she knew William Parker...

Honestly, the reason he moved out to rent a place even though no one was home was because he was sick of the looks from people around him. Every time he went out, he’d run into some neighbor or elder, smiling and saying, “Little Chu, I know the manager at XX Leather Factory. Want me to introduce you?”

Brian Carter would smile back, “No thanks, let him save it for his sister-in-law.”

But as soon as he turned around, he could almost feel people whispering behind his back, “The Chu family’s son is a failure, twenty-seven or twenty-eight and still lazing around at home.”

So he just moved out—out of sight, out of mind.

That’s just the awkwardness of this profession. William Parker’s attitude at the blind date was something Brian Carter was all too used to.

In short, whether or not his family supported him, Brian Carter was a man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and of course he was too embarrassed to ask his family for money. He kept up appearances, telling them he was doing just fine... But if this book flopped, he really didn’t know how he’d get by in the future.

The two men, both down on their luck, munched on skewers and sipped their drinks. David Bolton actually gave some suggestions for revisions: “Your story, the beginning does have a bit of a harem vibe, but none of the relationships are confirmed—they’re all being developed step by step. Maybe that’s just your style... But that actually leaves you an out. Later on, you can totally switch to a stock market theme, and end with an open ending, so no one knows which girl the main character chose—or if he chose any at all...”