For an ordinary person, if there are ten things that bother him the most, then for an author, the number is multiplied by three. For an author who is approached by a deadline, anything can be annoying.

Yue Qingyan has been fighting in front of the computer for more than 100 hours. Except for being so tired that I couldn't do it and dozing off with my head hanging down for a while, I almost kept writing.

There is no way, the author of the servant street has no choice. The manuscript of an author in the studio where he sent him a live ticket bounced, and the boss asked who could get the manuscript out in a week, at three times the usual price. Yue Qingyan agreed without hesitation.

The 60,000-word manuscript is a stand-alone short story for a magazine. While there are some requirements, they are generally broadly defined. But for Yue Qingyan, this is a rare opportunity. He's just a gunslinger with an average price of 15 words per 1,000 words, and the studio allocates about 200,000 words of work to him every month. Although I also wrote a half-dead serial on the website, at best, I got some full attendance every month. Every month, the total income of all kinds adds up to less than 4,000. After deducting 1,200 rents, 200 Internet fees, and more than 300 water, electricity and gas, only more than 2,000 can be used daily. In the studio, everyone takes turns to pay for dinner, and it can be done once a month, which is indispensable. And everyone is nervous, and there are more difficult things than him, and it's really hard to shirk it.

And this 60,000-word manuscript is three times the previous standard of 150 words per 1,000 words. The boss must have lost this order, and the manuscript fee he got from the magazine was only 300 words per thousand. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't get out of his manuscript and affect the cooperative relationship with the magazine, he would definitely not be so active. If Yue Qingyan can really carry this order, not to mention the manuscript fee of more than 20,000 yuan, his status among the many authors in the studio can also be mentioned. Not to mention the cost of a thousand-word manuscript, if you can raise 5 yuan, the days of that month can be much easier. The greater benefit is that the boss may carefully guide and guide himself, so that he can get rid of the dilemma of Kaiwen, servant street, eunuch and then change his pen name.

However, when he really started writing, Yue Qingyan found that this was not the case at all. He had never written a magazine manuscript before, and had absolutely no idea about the rhythm, structure, and text requirements. After spending half a day reading the magazine and more than three hours writing the outline, I realized that it was not easy to write. Not to mention the bitterness and stagnation of the pen, the bridge section that he had thought of before was carefully scrutinized, it was not the case at all, there was a lot of logic to be reorganized, and the pressure of completing at least 8,000 to 10,000 words a day on average was even more heavy in his heart, and his mind was completely full of this terrible dead line, which limited the way of thinking about writing.

It wasn't until the third day that he finished the first 10,000 words. Although this 10,000 words can barely satisfy yourself, a lot of time has passed. It takes more than 10,000 words a day to catch up with the progress, but even if Yue Qingyan writes an online serial, he has never written more than 10,000 words a day. How is it possible to write a magazine manuscript in this state?

The more nervous you are, the more restrained you are, and the more you can't write. It was as if the whole world was working against him. The computer has crashed more than once. Well, there's no way around it, a four-year-old notebook is running continuously, and it's weird that it doesn't crash. I was two hours late for ordering takeout, I made N phone calls to ask for directions, and Yue Qingyan was so angry that after returning the order, he called to scold and harass people; the circuit at home burned for a while because another tenant used high-power electrical appliances, and the other party still refused to admit it; a few keys on the keyboard were stuck, either they couldn't hit it or they would press it and it would get stuck there and become a combo effect, and the life of the membrane keyboard was this virtue......

Another example is the collapse of the comfort method, no network or browser crash when checking information, diarrhea after eating takeout, slight headache, parents calling to ask about the work situation, landlord urging rent, etc., he is already about to be numb. It was as if everything that had never been a problem had happened this week.

And Yue Qingyan didn't have any other way than to sit in front of the computer hour after hour, struggling to figure out sentence after sentence and paragraph to advance the plot. If he promised, he had to do it.

Finally, the last full stop was laid, and the cut-off word count of the document was 60191. Yue Qingyan finally breathed a sigh of relief. After reading through the full text and finding that there was no problem, Yue Qingyan opened the mailbox and pasted the attachment and sent the manuscript to the boss.

"Servant Street Author, just die on the keyboard. He said self-deprecatingly as he pressed send. At this time, it had been 166 hours and 14 minutes since he began writing this short story. There is 1 hour and 46 minutes left until the deadline.

Then he fell asleep on his stomach on the keyboard.

He never woke up again.

In the email, he wrote that because he was very tired, he would take a day off and then go to the studio to listen to the boss's review of the novel. The boss was very satisfied with the manuscript, and except for a few subtle expressions, he sent it to the magazine without moving any words. The other party's evaluation is also very OK. Then, the manuscript fee was remitted to Yue Qingyan's account. The boss was very satisfied with the manuscript, so he simply gave 27,000 after tax.

Yue Qingyan didn't show up in the studio the next day, and no one asked. Nor on the third day.

With the final remittance of the manuscript fee, everyone no longer seemed to have any impression of this fringe servant author and barely passing gunman.

Yue Qingyan is dead. Know this clearly. He seemed to feel his soul detached from his body, drifting towards the sky high in the distance, watching his shell lie on his stomach in front of the computer, lifeless.

Looking back on this life, maybe there are some regrets. Achieved nothing, wanted to write and become a generation of writers, but reluctantly became a servant street author. Although it was barely enough to make ends meet, it was far from success. There is no explanation for their parents, friends, and girls who may have some expectations for their future. However, after all, I died for writing, tired to death. One is perhaps not the bleakest way to die for the author.

"So, are you willing?" Just as Yue Qingyan was breathing wildly, a voice sounded behind him.

"Is this the worldview of the 'Youyou White Book'?" Yue Qingyan turned around and muttered—he didn't know that the soul that was actually suspended in the air could really turn around—and what he saw was a middle-aged man wearing a black embroidered gold cloak.

"Not really. It's just that the way you died is so weird. I can understand all kinds of sacrifices, sacrifices for the sake of grand and magnificent causes, for the advancement of humanity, for the well-being of the next generation, or for the sake of difficult victories. However, such sacrifices rarely occur in the case of an ordinary author who has no political position, no ideology, no hopes and dreams. If it's for the sake of achieving great works, then it's okay, at least for the sake of leaving something behind in this world. However, I read the short story you wrote, and it was very clumsy. It seems completely unworthy of such sacrifice and effort. So, after a long time, I have a little doubt. The middle-aged man said politely.

"You're really welcome. Yue Qingyan couldn't laugh or cry.

"I think my literary appreciation is still recognized by time. The middle-aged man explained earnestly: "My name is Faust. ”

"Faust?" Yue Qingyan still knew the name. "Didn't you go with Mephisto?"

"That was before. But in the end, I couldn't resist the temptation. ”

"Temptation?" Yue Qingyan asked, "What else can Mephisto give you?"

"Power. Like him, he has the power to acquire souls and change fate. ”

So you took a fancy to me? Yue Qingyan was a little puzzled. "This is China, not your jurisdiction, are you? And are you sure you want to harvest the soul of a servant author like me?"

"Now everyone is harvesting according to the agency system. It's global. Faust said, "I don't know why Mephisto took a fancy to me in the first place." But I'm also an intellectual, so I can't be as rough as him. Having people give their souls for the highest pleasure always makes me feel as if the organization I serve is a ...... Well, how to say it? brothels. Wouldn't I be a turtle then? No, now, that's obviously not something I'm willing to accept. What's more, what do you want so many people to do? No...... This is not an exact expression, what do you want so many souls to do? One soul with quality is worth a thousand and ten thousand chaotic beings. Inferior souls, used as fuel, are disgusted by the smell and disgusting people. But a good soul has a great possibility of becoming our friend through the long years. ”

"So, atheism is basically nonsense, right?" Yue Qingyan asked.

"Huh, why do you ask this? Actually, it's not nonsense. People always have exaggerated descriptions of things they don't understand, and of course, I don't need to explain this to you right now. I came with great curiosity and an insatiable desire for the future. Faust's face was full of mysterious, malicious smiles: "I want to ask you a question......"

"I don't want to be a horse monkey soju...... But you're not a QB either. ”

"I think you're probably mistaken about what I do. Faust said, "That's not my business. Even if I'm recruiting...... Well, what you're talking about...... The pronunciation of the horse monkey soju is suspicious, but the cute crowd does not accept transvestism. Faust looked at Yue Qingyan carefully and continued: "If you really want to, I need to assess whether I need to resurrect you, send you to Thailand to complete certain surgeries, and then let you continue to enter the palace of death." I think maybe it's a little bit of work. ”

Yue Qingyan hurriedly said, "Don't!

Faust smiled and said, "However, I do need to make a contract with you. A, for someone like you, who claims to be the author of the street, can't refuse a contract. ”