Chapter 115: Chapter 113 Mr. Lin, You’re Really Going to Jail Now, Huh?

“`

The moonlight was deep, and the city in the night gradually sank into silence.

The twinkling lights in the distance flickered like stars in the night sky, peeking at this tranquil moment. A gentle breeze blew, rustling the leaves in the urban area, and the neon lights on both sides of the streets gradually went out, leaving only one or two street lamps standing firm in the darkness.

The takedown of “All-In” and “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area” continued to ferment in the thrust of the night.

The next day, May 19th.

Modu, Sailing Building.

Wearing a moon-white dress, Youyou sat at her desk, one hand propping her cheek, the other scrolling the mouse wheel, searching for how to get Lin Chuan’s new book unblocked.

Though Lin Chuan had sent her a message last night, telling her not to worry,

Lin Chuan was the hidden gem under her management, and the powerful momentum of “All-In” being sealed meant she couldn’t even sleep peacefully.

This was more than just about performance!

It was also a crucial work on Lin Chuan’s path to becoming an influent author.

If “All-In” could achieve great success in the anti-fraud competition, then, with such achievements plus the international success of “Hacker Kingdom,” Lin Chuan might even have the chance to contend with some veteran authors for a spot among the Heavenly Kings.

The Heavenly King, a title selected once a year by Sailing Novel Website, totaling twelve individuals, aiming to discover and support authors with potential who are not yet influent authors.

These twelve are also the unquestionably strongest authors of the year in their respective channels.

It can be said that the title of Heavenly King is the reserve force for becoming an influent author.

In the path to influent author status that Youyou planned for Lin Chuan, the title of ‘Heavenly King’ this year was the most critical link.

In recent years, the rigorously hierarchal Sailing Novel also added an unwritten rule: No Heavenly King, No Influent Author.

That is to say, without the title of ‘Heavenly King,’ there’s no qualification to be promoted to influent status.

In Youyou’s ideal scenario: Lin Chuan becomes one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings this year, promotion to influent author next year, and ascension to platinum status the year after!

Therefore, she highly valued the performance of “All-In.”

“Sigh… maybe Lin Chuan’s success has been too smooth lately, which is why he has come across this setback,” Youyou muttered as she switched the hand propping her cheek.

Suddenly!

A pop-up appeared in the bottom right corner of her computer screen.

Youyou glanced at it, thinking it was an advertisement, about to close it, but then she took a closer look, her eyes widened, and her curly eyelashes couldn’t help trembling twice.

The popup was a piece of news.

[Web novel author ‘Ming’ of “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area” was previously involved in telecom fraud in the Myanmar area and has now been arrested by the police!]

[Publisher: Urban News]

“Ming has been caught?”

Youyou’s delicate arched eyebrows instantly furrowed, and her face showed a look of surprise and confusion. Her fingers did not delay for a second as she immediately clicked on it.

The page shifted to a fast-shaking video.

A video sprang up before her, its cover featuring two police officers standing next to a young man.

The young man was thin, his hands adorned with shimmering silver handcuffs, and his face was pixelated.

The caption read:

‘After fleeing the factory area, the man turned his harrowing experience into a web novel and was identified by the police!’

‘Apparently, after several assessments, the XX police had grasped the real identity of ‘Ming,’ the author of “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area,” who had dreamt of high income and engaged in telecommunications network fraud after sneaking into the Myanmar area and escaped back to the country to turn himself in for illegal exit but concealed his criminal acts of fraud.’

‘…’

Hiss!

Youyou inhaled sharply.

“`

But she didn’t stop; as the video played, she also scrolled through the comments below.

[This isn’t writing a novel, it’s like a work report!]

[I read this book when it first came out, and it felt very realistic, but I never imagined it was a firsthand experience.]

[The next book will be, “The Years I Was a Boss in Prison!”]

[Web novel writers are really a hidden pool of talent!]

[Hey, Ming has been locked up, but what about the other author?]

[What other author?]

[The other author Mr. Lin, who had his work ‘All-In’ taken down at the same time, must be under investigation now, right?]

[Your word and mine, and Mr. Lin might also be heading to prison!]

[Hiss! Are all novels these days based on true stories?]

[I heard that he, too, escaped from a factory area!]

[Don’t talk nonsense, didn’t he take down a fraud ring last time?]

[Exactly because he understands fraud rings so well, that’s how he, a web novel writer, was able to bust them all at once!]

[…]

Youyou stared at the computer screen, her brows furrowing deeper as she read through the many trending comments, her clear and bright eyes filling with worry.

Yeah.

Ming is locked up now, but what about Lin Chuan?

If Lin Chuan’s writing is even more realistic than Ming’s, could something have been discovered about him too?

Meanwhile.

The news of the arrest of ‘Ming,’ the author of “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area,” had topped headlines and climbed the hot search lists on every major platform.

> Renowned web novel writer Ming turns factory scam experience into autobiographical novel

> The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area, by Ming

> True story, The author puts himself into the novel!

> Ming + Mr. Lin, the anti-scam dream team?

> Ming’s already inside, how far can Mr. Lin be from jail?

> The web novel writers’ threshold!

An unspecified number of web novel creators had come across these similar headlines and quickly spread the news through various web novel community groups.

At this moment.

In front of a computer screen, a young man’s gaze was tightly fixed on this piece of news, and then his eyes gleamed!

After a long while.

“Ah…”

The young man let out a heavy sigh, but then he changed his tone, “Ming, Mr. Lin, there’s no time to say goodbye. I, Handon, have already climbed to the top of the anti-scam novel rankings!”

“The blue sky is dead; the yellow sky shall rise!”

“I, Handon, vow to compete for the title of king of anti-scam novels!”

This person was none other than Handon.

Just like Handon, many web novel writers gained massive traffic and reaped a full harvest of surprises amidst such explosive news.

Before, Lin Chuan’s “All In” and Ming’s “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area,” were like two giant mountains looming before the authors participating in the anti-scam novel competition.

Surpassing them was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

And now.

It was like the fable of the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains, with the Heavenly Emperor directly ordering people to move “these two big mountains” away.

How could he not be happy?

At this moment, even Lin Chuan’s reader group was discussing this matter.

[Guys, some authors really write themselves into their novels!]

[That’s outrageous, someone actually wrote their autobiography like Mr. Lin did with his novel!]

[Are you guys not following Mr. Lin at all? Mr. Lin’s books have also been taken down!]

[They really have been removed!]

[Ming’s “The Years I Was Tricked into the Factory Area” and Mr. Lin’s “All In” seem similar!]

[It’s over, could Mr. Lin have really been arrested?]

[Mr. Lin, you’re really going to jail!]

[Quick, @Mr. Lin, see if he’s around!]

[@Mr. Lin]

[@Mr. Lin]

[@Mr. Lin]

[…]

In Anling City, Qingxiu District.

The dawn quietly sprinkled over the city, with the horizon gradually turning a pale golden color. Occasionally, the chirping of insects reached the ears as Lin Chuan sat in the back seat of the Little Landlady’s car, facing the morning breeze, and arrived at Zhongcheng Building, Network Security Company.

The chairman had arrived at work.

Lin Chuan was sitting in his office, but his mobile phone kept ‘ding-donging’ incessantly.

“What’s going on now?”

Lin Chuan frowned and muttered.

Then, he took out his phone.

Good lord!

More than a dozen unread messages, many of them ‘@Mr. Lin’.

It started with a message from Youyou: “Darling~ are you alright?”

Lin Chuan smiled and tapped on the screen of the phone, displaying a line of text: “I’m fine. /emoticon.”

“Did the police comrades contact you for an investigation?” Youyou quickly asked again.

“They already investigated, and I was ‘exonerated on the spot’,” Lin Chuan replied half-jokingly.

Youyou was puzzled: “Exonerated on the spot?”

“Yeah, my background is clear, there’s no way I could be involved in internet fraud,” Lin Chuan chuckled and replied.

“Then I’m relieved,” Youyou breathed a sigh of relief, “What about your book, can it be released?”

“The police station here has already submitted an explanation of the situation, if it’s fast, it could be released today.”

“Waiting for your good news/emoticon,” replied Youyou.

Having received a definite answer from Lin Chuan, Youyou regained her original vigorous spirit and immersed herself back into her busy work.

Lin Chuan then opened the reader group and scrolled through the hundreds of messages from early today, quickly knitting his brow and immediately @everyone in the group:

“Guys, I’m still here!”

Lin Chuan popping up today was a surprisingly astonishing event.

[Author, how can you still be on your phone? Don’t they say you can’t use phones in the nick?]

[Mr. Lin, where are you? Are you at the police station?]

[Mr. Lin, are you really not afraid of getting arrested?]

[I don’t understand, Ming is arrested, so why isn’t Mr. Lin?]

[I also don’t get it, could Mr. Lin have some special skills or what?]

[@Police Uncle, there’s a fish that slipped through the net here, not captured yet!]

[…]

Lin Chuan’s expression darkened.

These criminals always hope I go inside!

I consider you brothers, but you treat me like a criminal suspect, is that appropriate?

Humph!

Afterwards, Lin Chuan opened the Kuaidou app to check out the related news.

Good lord, he got the shock of his life.

On the trending searches, besides Ming’s, there was also his!

On the Kuaidou trending list, there were two entries related to him.

>Ming + Mr. Lin, the anti-fraud duo?

>Ming is already in, how far is Mr. Lin from entering?

Lin Chuan clicked in, and a torrent of comments flooded his view.

[Strongly suggest Police Uncle Shuli investigates Mr. Lin!]

[I’m a passerby, Mr. Lin’s book feels even more real than Ming’s, he must be someone from the factory area!]

[Could he possibly be collaborating with the factory area?]

[@Cyberspace Administration @Han River Cyber Police @Anling Cyber Police @Yundian Cyber Police @Lincang Cyber Police]

[He’s definitely one of the factory lot!]

[I dare say, even if professional anti-fraud officers came, they wouldn’t be able to withstand Mr. Lin’s scams!]

[…]

Among them, a small blogger ‘Hand of Justice’ had made a video, analyzing the content of his “All-In” with real-life cases, listing three main reasons why Lin Chuan was also one of the factory folks.

Each reason was argued convincingly.

But the more Lin Chuan read, the more absurd it seemed.

He’d been consuming too much data these days, so he was somewhat of an internet celebrity author now.

At the same time, he’d also gained quite a few haters.

Now, these haters were almost having a field day, using the news of Ming’s arrest to continuously sling mud on Lin Chuan!

Getting the haters to shut up was almost impossible.

Because they could always find an angle to disparage.

“I also have haters now, damn it, where did these haters come from?” Lin Chuan spat out in annoyance.