Chapter 31

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Actually, we’ve already discovered two days ago that the discussion on this year’s Fall Cup on social media was gradually growing, especially ‘Candle in the Tomb’ and ‘The Lost Tomb’. These two works were especially popular. Of course, ‘Ghosthands’, which suddenly became popular today, is also a force that can’t be underestimated. Next, we are about to go into the public voting and real-time vote counting segment!”

Professor Hades, who was usually humorous in his lectures, was surprisingly adept at being a host.

He did not have any stage fright in front of the audience below the stage or in front of the television crew.

“After reading for two and a half days, I’m sure the readers will have their favorite book in mind, so let the voting for this Fall Cup begin!”

The voting poll on the Fall Cup official website was unlocked.

Countless readers logged on to their computers, mobile phones, tablets, and other devices and started voting.

They saw that the two novels, ‘Candle in the Tomb’ and ‘The Lost Tomb’ had surpassed the other two books by an order of magnitude and had reached ridiculous heights.

The other two books were also on the rise, but they were slow to catch up.

Penguin Publishing was able to generate traffic and buy likes, but the voting process was very strict and only allowed those who read all four books to vote.

Traffic was nothing more than just giving the book more exposure.

The real attraction for readers to pay and read the books depended on the quality of the work, not anything else.

Thus, this scene now was like students who were used to cheating showed up exposed at the college entrance examination with their cover blown.

Good marketing worked, but it was just icing on the cake and could not change the author’s quality of writing.

Since everyone was a veteran publisher, they tacitly did not say anything when they saw this scene.

Hades just led everyone’s attention to the outstanding works, “Candle in the Tomb” and “The Lost Tomb”.

“Just as we expected, these two works have already started a war from the moment voting started. Before the final result of the poll is out, purely out of personal curiosity, I’d like to ask the judges and guests, which work do you think is more likely to win the championship in this final?”

Lilith pondered for a moment and spoke first. “It’s hard to say. In my opinion, the two works each have their own strengths, and the supporters are also evenly matched. I feel that giving it will be a pity if either one of the authors lost tonight.”

Hades said, “That’s right. I feel that if we choose either ‘Candle in the Tomb’ or ‘The Lost Tomb’, the fans of either one will come and attack our competition venue. It looks like we’re in a very precarious situation!”

The director of the live broadcast from the Iowa TV station cut the camera scene to the entrance of the hotel where the event was held.

Outside, fans of “Candle in the Tomb” roared the names of the main character trio, Hu Bayi, Wang Pangzi, and Da Jinya, in support of this work.

The fans of “The Lost Tomb” were even more outrageous.

The girls had already raised their homemade glow-stick signs, screaming that love between men was the purest love. They waved their glowing signs and shoved their way to the front of the crowd.

If it were not for the security measures of this five-star hotel, the fans would probably have occupied the lobby where the finals were held.

“Please allow me to first express my most sincere thanks to the enthusiastic readers on behalf of the two excellent anonymous authors.” Dean Sherry smiled gently. “Although there’s no such thing as being the best in literature, today is a competition after all. Thus, there will be winners and losers, so only one work will win first place. I wish that no matter what the final result is, everyone will remain calm and rational. In my opinion, I personally prefer ‘Candle in the Tomb’ to win this time.”

Waves of vigorous cheers came from the entrance.

“The plot of this work is very firm, like a handsome young man with a well-proportioned body and a delicate face.”

Sherry’s face suddenly blushed as she said this. Her thoughts drifted back to the time she had co-created this book in Fang Yuan’s room that day. “Although some people have criticized that the characters lacked growth in ‘Candle in the Tomb’, the main trio and Shirley Yang the heroine, are clearly described and molded. This is actually very useful for genre novels.”

Hades nodded repeatedly and said, “Dean Sherry is right. In terms of the plot, ‘Candle in the Tomb’ has the upper hand. It can be seen that the author of this book is very experienced, and it’s obvious that he’s a veteran with solid fundamentals. He probably has more writing experience than the author of ‘The Lost Tomb’.”

“I can’t agree with Ms. Sherry.” Sakazaka Rion stood up. “In my opinion, ‘Candle in the Tomb’ and ‘The Lost Tomb’ are indeed first-class works, but if we must decide a winner between the two, it will undoubtedly be ‘The Lost Tomb’.”

As the mentor for ‘The Lost Tomb’, Sakazaka Rion had personally seen words that were as vivid as movie scenes flowing out from Fang Yuan’s pen.

“From the perspective of film and television adaptations, ‘The Lost Tomb’, which has a strong character relationship, clearly has a stronger advantage. ‘Candle in the Tomb’ is just a good novel, but ‘The Lost Tomb’ is a rising star that is about to break through the entire entertainment industry. We can find more value from this work, so it deserves to be the champion of this competition.”

Hades turned his head and said, “Indeed, this is the difference between commercial writing and traditional literature. “Ms. Sherry may be more concerned about the value of the words themselves, but from the perspective of the film and television, Ms. Sakazaka has clearly enlightened us on the reach of ‘The Lost Tomb’.”

He was very good at dealing with people and did not offend either side.

“It seems that these two authors each have their own strengths and personalities. Since it’s getting late, it’s time to have a look at the final voting results!”