Starting as a Manga Editor

Chapter 36: Are You Fking Kidding Me?**

“How about... the Vice President contacts Mr. Ou directly and asks him?”

Shang Tao had been watching the Vice President’s expression from the start. Seeing him so conflicted and disbelieving, he suggested, “I mean, there’s no point in guessing here. Why not just ask the person involved?”

He had a lot of faith in Tang Yao.

“Visit him now?”

Zhao Fangsheng seemed tempted. “But I already brought the storyboard back...”

“A phone call is enough.”

Shang Tao shook his head. “We just need a confirmation. We haven’t even contacted the mangaka himself yet, have we? This way we can all relax.”

“……”

Zhao Fangsheng hesitated for a while, then slowly nodded. He put down the storyboard and woke up the computer in front of him, pulling up Ou Congquan’s contact info.

In a way, he was old-school. But unlike Ding Yilong’s traditions, Zhao Fangsheng believed that the most effective form of communication was still face-to-face.

So no matter what the issue was, he preferred to meet in person rather than talk over the phone.

But now—

He really wanted an answer. So forget tradition.

Soon enough—

He found Ou Congquan’s number and called.

The phone rang once before it was picked up immediately.

“Hello?”

Just as Zhao Fangsheng was about to introduce himself, the other person spoke first. He waited patiently for the voice to finish before politely saying, “No, no, I’m not Editor Tang. I’m Zhao Fangsheng, Vice President at Wenxin Press.”

“Yes, I’m calling to confirm something about the current chapter’s storyboard.”

“Yes, I’ve already read it... Hm? I don’t know what Editor Tang thought of it — I got the storyboard from a subordinate.”

“I haven’t met Editor Tang either.”

As Zhao Fangsheng spoke, he glanced at Shang Tao.

Shang Tao stood nearby, puzzled... he couldn’t hear Ou Congquan’s voice, but the word “editor” kept popping up an awful lot.

“Yes, your storyboard this chapter was great, but the previous chapter…”

Zhao Fangsheng pulled his gaze back and got to the point: “Forgive me for being blunt, but the last chapter was awful — night and day. But what’s strange is, the two chapters seem connected. Like the character development was deliberately flipped. So I wanted to ask: was that intentional or…”

Ou’s voice sounded again from the other side.

He had a lot to say.

Zhao Fangsheng fell into a long silence.

After a while—

He finally spoke, his voice a little dry: “You’re saying the last chapter was drawn without input from the editor… and this chapter was done with editorial input?”

“Hm? No? A revised manuscript? Detailed? How detailed?”

“...So that means the AORI and all the story elements were provided by the editor?”

“You only just saw the AORI yourself?… The hallucination of the female lead couldn’t include any other man, and the hallucination for the second male lead involving his mother’s death — that was in the revised script too… Got it.”

“……”

Shang Tao still couldn’t hear Ou’s side, but he could hear everything Zhao said.

Just as he thought...

Shang Tao was struck with a feeling.

Editor Tang hadn’t lied. Which meant Vice President Zhao’s earlier guess— no, it wasn’t a guess anymore. It was fact.

Meanwhile—

The call continued.

Zhao Fangsheng’s expression grew weirder and weirder, his features twisting slightly, but he forced himself to look calm. “Understood, thanks for clearing that up… You want to switch editors? No, no, I don’t have that in mind right now… Oh, Tang said that directly to you? So what you’re saying is…”

“You’re not okay with it — I see.”

“Ding Yilong contacted you too? Tried to rope you into shifting blame onto the editor? I understand... I’ll do my best to handle that. Sorry for the trouble.”

“What? Okay, we won’t be changing editors hastily, don’t worry… I understand. I’ll do what I can to pass along an apology.”

“Then best of luck with your future work.”

“……”

The call ended.

After saying goodbye, Zhao Fangsheng sat there in a daze for a while before stiffly putting down the phone and muttering, “It really is true… Unbelievable.”

“Yeah... it’s unbelievable.”

Shang Tao knew exactly what he was thinking and echoed the sentiment.

It also helped smooth things over.

After all, he had a really great impression of Tang Yao. Not only had she proposed a reliable plan for the manga award and the website launch, she also solved some major concerns.

She wasn’t just wildly capable — she was efficient, and she was gorgeous.

There was no way he couldn’t be impressed.

“Someone like that...”

Zhao Fangsheng glanced at Shang Tao, then looked back at the storyboard on the desk, seeming to fall into another internal debate.

Only this time, Shang Tao couldn’t guess what he was struggling with.

And he didn’t ask.

Because the manga award issue — the part that involved him — was fully resolved.

After a while—

Zhao Fangsheng seemed to reach a conclusion and said softly, “Better wait a few years. She’s too young right now. But Ding Yilong... he definitely needs to be dealt with.”

“What about Ding Yilong?”

Shang Tao caught the name and asked instinctively.

“When he couldn’t escape responsibility at the editorial department, he tried to get Ou Congquan to shift the blame onto the editor — said the editor influenced Ou’s creative direction.”

Rage spread across Zhao Fangsheng’s face: “What a f***ing bastard!”

“……”

Shang Tao’s eyes flew wide open. “No f***ing way… That’s seriously low.”

He never even imagined such a move. What a scummy route.

“I’ll go see the President later.”

Zhao Fangsheng took a deep breath and forced down the anger on his face. “You go ahead and start preparing for the early release. We’re moving forward — the storyboard is fine.”

With that—

He handed the storyboard back to Shang Tao.

“Okay.”

Hearing this, Shang Tao wisely kept quiet. Ding Yilong was basically finished.

From now on, he just had to focus on his own job.

He took a few steps forward and accepted the storyboard from Zhao Fangsheng.

“Also, pass on a message to that Tang... huh?”

As he was about to speak again, Zhao Fangsheng suddenly noticed the bundle of manuscripts in Shang Tao’s arms and asked curiously, “What are you carrying?”

Shang Tao took the storyboard and glanced down. “Oh, this? These are the manuscripts Editor Tang gave me — apparently from a mangaka she discovered. She wants to submit them for the manga award. Since we’re prepping for the early release, she thought these two works were a good fit and recommended them to me.

But I haven’t had time to look through them yet. Planning to check them out back at the office.”

“Oh?”

Zhao Fangsheng perked up and extended his hand. “Let me take a look.”

“You want to read them, sir? Sure.”

Shang Tao had no objections and handed over the two manga.

Zhao Fangsheng took them, placed them on the desk, and looked down at the first one.

“Human Head... Balloon?”

He looked at the manga title on the cover, a bit surprised. That name was bizarre.

Human heads and balloons?

What genre was this?

Intrigued, Zhao Fangsheng slowly opened the first volume.

Then—

Standing to the side, Shang Tao noticed Zhao Fangsheng’s expression starting to change again — just like when he’d read the storyboard earlier.

Only this time, it wasn’t skepticism.

This time, he started out curious... but gradually, his breathing grew rapid, and a look of shock appeared on his face.

As he flipped page by page, his expression twisted — like he’d just seen something truly messed up.

Seeing this, Shang Tao couldn’t help but get curious too.

What kind of manga was this?

To get a reaction like that?

Flip flip flip—

Soon—

Zhao Fangsheng reached the final page and saw the ending.

Then he completely froze, staring blankly at the last panel — just like Miss Li earlier — as if he’d fallen into a twisted, horrifying alternate reality.

About ten seconds passed.

Then he jolted back to life, his body stiffening, and looked up at Shang Tao while recalling all those grotesque, distorted, nightmarish images he’d just seen. He muttered:

“Where the hell did she find this lunatic— no, this genius of a mangaka?”

“Huh?”

Shang Tao was stunned.

“It’s brilliant.”

Zhao Fangsheng shook his head and picked up the short story Human Head Balloon, awe written all over his face. “Even with Ou Congquan’s mess of a chapter, she managed to clean it up, and now she’s discovered such a brilliant mangaka and work… F*** it, forget waiting. We’ll make an exception this once. The shoujo manga department already has a deputy editor in her twenties — thirty’s not even that young anymore!”

“???”

Now Shang Tao was really lost. The only thing he knew for sure was:

The manga Tang Yao recommended... must be phenomenal.

“This manga is going into the early release list, no question.”

Having made up his mind, Zhao Fangsheng put the volume down and looked at Shang Tao.

Shang Tao: “Uh… got it.”

“One more thing.”

Zhao Fangsheng continued: “How old is that editor named Tang Yao? When you return the storyboard, ask her to pick a time — I want to meet her.”

He’d already decided. But he needed to confirm with Shang Tao — just in case she turned out to be way too young and he lost his nerve.

“You want to meet her?”

Shang Tao was surprised at first, but then recalled Tang Yao’s face and blurted out without thinking, “How old? Uh... eighteen?”

“...Come again?”

Zhao Fangsheng froze mid-movement, eyes widening, looking at Shang Tao — even more shocked than when he read Human Head Balloon, with a face that screamed:

“Are you fking kidding me?!”**