一路向西 粤语

Chapter 601: Correcting Mistakes

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Uncle Li couldn’t understand what Fina and Snowy Lionet were saying. He just thought that Fina’s movements were interesting, so he told everyone that he knew cats could knead. When Fina stopped pressing on the dough, Uncle Li wished that he’d recorded it on his cell phone.

Zhang Zian walked to the sink and saw several deep paw prints on the dough. He decided that this was a good opportunity to flatter Uncle Li, and he immediately beckoned for Uncle Li to come over.

“Uncle Li, look at this.” Zhang Zian pointed to the paw prints on the dough. “Your store has a new name now. Do you want a new logo too? How about using a paw print as your logo? When the dough hardens, get a mold and print the paw print next to ‘Li’s Supreme Snack Bar for Cat Fanciers.\'”

Uncle Li was surprised. He thought that a sign would be enough for his small business, and a logo seemed unnecessary. However, since he felt like it was impolite to refuse Zhang Zian’s idea, Uncle Li nodded to agree with him.

Zhang Zian didn’t think the logo was unnecessary. Apart from adding a paw print to the sign, he also suggested that Uncle Li and Aunt Li print the paw print on their aprons or wearing a badge in the shape of one. If they took care of those things, Fina would train the cats from time to time, which would be significantly helpful for Uncle Li and Aunt Li.

Fina was obviously very satisfied by Zhang Zian’s suggestions. Since this place was its Imperial Kitchen, it was good for Fina to leave its mark there.

Fina jumped off the table and majestically observed the kitchen, as if it was inspecting its own territory. Snowy Lionet also followed closely behind.

Zhang Zian lowered his voice and pointed to the dough. He said to Uncle Li, “Don’t use paw prints from other cats. You must use the paw print from this dough for your logo.”

If Fina found out that the paw print on the logo wasn’t the one it created, it would be furious.

Uncle Li nodded.

Zhang Zian said goodbye to Uncle Li, and took Fina and Snowy Lionet out of the kitchen.

The young girls in the dining area were still happily teasing the cats and taking selfies. They hadn’t eaten much of the food they ordered. The girls had spent a long time in the restaurant, and Zhang Zian predicted that if their business was to keep improving, the future customers might need to wait in line to be seated.

“I wish I could hold those two cats,” sighed the young girl admiringly, pointing at the arrogant Fina and Snowy Lionet as they walked past her.

“Yeah! They’re so adorable!” The other girls echoed in agreeance.

“What kind of training have these two cats been through? How can they walk so obediently behind him?” Some of the girls wondered out loud.

Zhang Zian ignored them and left. He brought Fina and Snowy Lionet back to the pet shop along with everybodies lunch.

Staring at the computer screen too intently, Richard didn’t notice Zhang Zain’s arrival until he had already entered the door. It screamed and flapped its wings to fly away from the desk. Lu Yiyun switched the page on the computer, as if she was deliberately hiding something. She said, “The cards are already printed. The manufacturer said that the cards will be shipped today.”

“Okay. When the cards arrive, tell Wang Qian and Li Kun to put them up,” said Zhang Zian.

“Meow! I’m exhausted! I want to eat! I want to sleep!” Snowy Lionet jumped onto the cat tree and desperately laid down.

Fina leapt to the top rack of the cat tree and laid down to relax in the sun.

Zhang Zian passed out the food to the elves and pets. He took his own lunch and went up to the second floor to check on Pi.

Pi was still sitting in front of the computer, typing. Whenever it encountered any problems, it would read the untitled book for reference.

“Pi, how many words have you written?” he asked with concern.

“Eeek…”

Pi lowered its head and covered its face in embarrassment. It had been too excited to concentrate. Its writing speed was much slower than usual and it had only written a few hundred words.

“It’s okay. Stand up and get some exercise.” Zhang Zian understood its situations and comforted it.

Pi nodded.

“By the way, when will your novel be recommended by the Qidian website?” he asked.

Pi held up two fingers.

“2 o’clock?” Zhang Zian looked at the time. There was still about an hour until then.

Pi jumped off the chair and walked around the living room to stretch.

Zhang Zian sat down and opened the author platform on the Qidian website. He saw that nearly 1,000 readers had added Pi’s novel into their libraries, and some readers were constantly leaving encouraging messages for Pi and voting to recommend its novel. He noticed that there was a new message in good faith.

[Dumplings]: This novel is well-written, though there are some typos at the beginning of the book that are distracting for the readers. It would be nice if the author fixed these errors.

Is that so?

Since Zhang Zian had actually experienced the scenes Pi wrote, he originally read through the novel quickly and didn’t pay too much attention to the typos. Now that he was reminded by the reader, Zhang Zian thought that he should take this suggestion seriously.

He switched to the Word document that Pi had been using to write its novel and started to reread it word by word from the beginning.

Soon, he found that there were indeed a lot of typos, especially at the start of the book. Maybe Pi wasn’t quite used to typing in Chinese back then.

In addition to typos, Pi also typed a number every few hundred words.

“3…1…4…1…5…9…2…6…”

If the numbers were put together, they would form pi. Readers bothered by these unexplainable numbers might think that they possessed some profound implication. Zhang Zian hadn’t figured out the meanings of these numbers. The only person who might understand them was Meng Li, who’d returned back to his hometown for the Lunar New Year. Since Zhang Zian wasn’t particularly familiar with Meng Li and didn’t have his phone number, he thought it would be awkward if he contacted him.

Maybe some readers gave up on reading Pi’s novel because of the typos and the random numbers.

Pi walked around the room a few times and then went back to the computer to continue writing.

“Wait a minute, Pi. You didn’t sleep well last night, did you? Go take a nap while I use the computer,” he said.

Pi looked up and thought for a moment. It remembered that the computer had always been Zhang Zian’s, and Pi had only been borrowing it.

Pi grew upset and felt guilty for hogging Zhang Zian’s computer for so long.

“Eeek.” Pi tiredly nodded and jumped into the basket hammock chair.

“Sleep for a while,” Zhang Zian urged. “Don’t worry, you still have half a day to write.”

Lying in the chair, Pi closed its eyes. To block out the strong rays of noon sunlight, it pulled up the blanket to cover its head.

Though Pi was very sleepy, it couldn’t fall asleep because of all its excitement. It was thinking about every comment, both encouragement and critique, left from its novel’s readers.

After lying there for a while, it opened its eyes and quietly moved the blanket away from its face to see if Zhang Zian had finished using the computer. If he had, Pi wanted to continue writing its novel. In the past, Pi didn’t have a fixed schedule to upload the completed chapters. It just uploaded whenever it had finished writing its chapters. Since some readers had asked about the specific time that the new chapters would be released everyday, Pi tried to upload its work more routinely.

Before, Pi felt hopeless when its novel had no readers. Now that its novel had attracted a large group of readers, Pi was even more anxious because it was afraid that it would fail these readers’ expectations.

Since Zhang Zian was still using the computer, Pi grew a bit worried.

The hammock chair was very close to the desk. Pi could see that Zhang Zian was closely reading the chapters that it had already uploaded to the Qidian website.

Pi blinked in confusion, wondering what he was doing.

Too busy carefully examining every word and sentence, Zhang Zian didn’t notice Pi’s gaze from beneath the blanket. He was silently reading Pi’s novel to correct the typos, modifying some awkward sentences, and making some too-formal dialogues sound more colloquial.

Fixing the typos was tedious work. Pi had written about 110,000 words. Zhang Zian needed to fix these 110,000 words before Pi’s novel was recommended by the website, so that the novel would leave a better first impression on its new readers. This task might not have been the most important thing to focus on. After all, most people read web novels quickly and wouldn’t notice the changes. However, currently, it was the only thing that Zhang Zian could do for Pi.

Pi finally realized what he was doing. As if the anxiety in its heart had been blown away by a gentle breeze, Pi suddenly felt calm.

When almost no one read its novel, Pi uploaded the chapters right away after it finished writing them without reviewing them for mistakes. Previously, some readers had mentioned the typos in its novel, but Pi ignored any comments that affected its good mood.

Now, Zhang Zian was helping it correct its mistakes.

Zhang Zian started to become more anxious. He wished he would have thought of fixing the typos in Pi’s novel earlier. Soon, it would be two o’clock in the afternoon and Pi’s novel would be officially recommended by the Qidian website. Zhang Zian tried his best to focus on every sentence as he read the computer screen.

As the sun moved silently across the sky, the shadow that the desk cast on the floor slowly became longer.

“Hoo!”

Zhang Zian felt relieved. He rubbed his face as he leaned against the back of his chair in exhaustion. He glanced at the time. He’d finally finished going over the typos and rewriting the awkward sentences in all of the chapters around 2:10 p.m.

He went back to the website’s homepage, entered the section for Modern Novels, and found the title Pet King in the Popular Category, along with a concise introduction. “Catch a few magical pets as partners.”

If Zhang Zian was right, Pi was only competing with other new authors rather than the other already popular writers for the attention of new readers. Pi should be ready to pass the first round of tests.

Pi gently moved beneath the blanket.

“Pi, did you fall asleep? Get up quickly! Your novel is being recommended by the website.” Zhang Zian yawned, but was still excited.

“Eeek.”

Pi lifted the blanket and sat up. Putting its two palms together, Pi placed its hands next to one ear and signalled that it had slept very well.