[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of":3,"chapter-dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-chapter-10":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Dreaming Back to 1997: I Became the Forefather of Web Novels",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2348244,4589,"Chapter 10: Lovely Readers","dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-chapter-10",10,"\u003Cp>The thought of submitting to a publishing house lingered in Cao Sheng’s mind, but he did not take immediate action, continuing instead to input the saved manuscript from his draft paper into the computer document.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Primarily, he felt that the book \"Living with a Flight Attendant\" was purely a love story; unless he could contact a publishing house in Wanwan that specialized in romance novels, they likely wouldn't be interested in the book before it became popular online.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, he knew absolutely nothing about the publishing houses in Wanwan that published romance novels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if he wanted to find such a publisher to submit to, he wouldn't know which one to choose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, he planned to wait until he was mostly done with his work tonight, then casually search online for the contact information of publishing houses in Wanwan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew the names of some publishing houses in Wanwan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example: Adventure, Xinchang, Crescent, Gaia, Hetu, Novel Channel, Xianchuang, Nine Stars, Zichen Society, Xinran Culture, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his memory, after online literature rose in the country, most of those who went to Wanwan to publish did so through these houses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But by the time Cao Sheng knew of these publishers, it was already the early 2000s, so he wasn't sure if these publishers were even established yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He estimated they probably were.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Surely these publishers couldn't have all been founded only after the rise of web novels, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His biggest concern at the moment was that these publishers likely weren't accepting submissions from the mainland yet, and he might not be able to find their contact information on the mainland internet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as long as he could contact one or two of them, even if they didn't care for \"Living with a Flight Attendant,\" he was confident he could write a work they would be interested in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting a new book was no difficulty for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were too many subjects and stories in his memory that he could write about.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fantasy, magical realism, immortal cultivation, spiritual, doomsday wasteland...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could write them all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the forefather of web novels, he had no rivals now; those novel themes from his original timeline were things he could now pioneer as the trendsetter just by writing them out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Getting through to an editorial reader at one of those publishing houses shouldn't be a problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for why he only considered publishers in Wanwan and not those in the mainland?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That could only be said as: those who know, know.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For one, mainland publishers currently favored the works of traditional writers, and usually, they had to be famous traditional writers at that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A newcomer like him, Cao Sheng, with no background and no fame, had basically no chance of being published in the mainland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Secondly, with novel publishing in the mainland, piracy could always take the lead in seizing the market, making it very difficult for legitimate copies to find room to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The night grew deeper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At past 3:00 AM, Cao Sheng encountered the kind of infuriating thing that often happened in internet cafes of this era—the computer froze, followed by a sudden blue screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing his computer suddenly blue-screen, Cao Sheng didn't react for a moment, because before he transmigrated, it had been a very, very long time since he had encountered a computer blue screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stunned for several seconds, he finally reacted and restarted the computer with a depressed look on his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew that once a computer in an internet cafe encountered a freeze or a blue screen, the manuscript he had written would be lost instantly; it wouldn't save automatically at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, the over one thousand words he hadn't saved were definitely gone, and he would have to re-input them into the computer again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps his luck was bad today; at past 4:00 AM, his computer froze again, and under his speechless gaze, it blue-screened once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Damn it!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn't help but curse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the computer successfully restarted, he no longer had the mood to continue uploading the manuscript to the computer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mindset had somewhat collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The few hundred words he hadn't uploaded to his email to save were lost again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not wanting to continue uploading the manuscript, he simply went online to search for the contact information of those Wanwan publishers in his memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before long, he actually found a few.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One of them was Xinchang Publishing House.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had a deep impression of this publisher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because he remembered that the works of many web novel masters from his original timeline were published by this house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, he had relatively high confidence in the strength and reputation of this publisher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cao Sheng looked at the landline number and submission email for Xinchang Publishing House that he had searched for, but he hesitated a bit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't that he was worried the information he found was fake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather, he was hesitating whether he should submit \"Living with a Flight Attendant\" right now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In order to earn manuscript fees as soon as possible, he really wanted to submit it and try right now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his reason told him: now was not the best time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were several reasons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, this book wasn't popular online yet; only two chapters had been published, and fewer than a hundred readers had likely seen it. The current heat of this book online was not enough to be a bargaining chip to move a publisher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Secondly, he remembered that publishers in Wanwan generally required over sixty thousand words for submissions; the word count was too low and didn't meet the submission requirements at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And although he had already written over one hundred and ten thousand words for this book, most of it was still on draft paper and hadn't been uploaded online. Since he wanted to submit to Xinchang Publishing House, he could currently only do so via email, so he had to turn the paper manuscript into an electronic version first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because of these two concerns, Cao Sheng hesitated for a moment before dismissing the idea of submitting today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He planned to wait a bit longer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would wait until the book had some heat online before attempting to submit it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the book could become popular online first, the possibility of his submission passing the publisher's review would be higher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There would also be a chance to negotiate a higher manuscript fee.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a decision in his heart, he stopped thinking about this matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His thoughts turned to the current situation of his book on Banyan Tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wondered how many people had read it since he published another saved chapter on Banyan Tree tonight? What was the response?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carrying a bit of anticipation, he logged into Banyan Tree again and found his book.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered that before he updated the second chapter tonight, the book's reader count was 44, and the comment count seemed to be 16.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at this moment, the reader count for his book had already risen to 72, and the comment count had also increased to 33.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw some new book reviews.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There's actually a second chapter? Can the author say whether this story is made up? Or is it a true story?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What happened to the 'living with a flight attendant' part? Why haven't they lived together yet?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is there any content unsuitable for children? If there is, can we get to the point quickly?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I want to ask, is there a flight attendant named Ran Jing? Is this her real name?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Author, can you say when the third chapter will be posted? You aren't going to make us wait a few days again, are you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>72 people read it, and they actually posted 33 book reviews?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This ratio made Cao Sheng very surprised and very happy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before he transmigrated, every time he posted a new book, after the first few tens of thousands of words were out, it was like playing a single-player game; not only were the reader numbers very low, but book reviews were few and far between, and he couldn't even get a few new reviews a day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes there were more advertisement posts than book reviews.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These guys who had never seen web novels were seeing such a story online for the first time, and their enthusiasm for speaking up was actually this great.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cao Sheng suddenly understood why, at the beginning of the rise of web novels, there were so many authors who, despite not earning a single cent, were still willing to \"generate electricity with love\" and persist in updating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was truly because the web novel readers of this period were all too cute; everyone had a very high enthusiasm for interacting with the author.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With readers like these, he suddenly felt that he could also \"generate electricity with love.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, when the overnight session at the internet cafe ended and he walked out in the early morning, being blown by the cold wind outside, his brain quickly cleared up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He still felt that \"generating electricity with love\" was something he couldn't do too much of.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to find a way to earn some manuscript fees as soon as possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He decided to start a new book recently, just in case.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In case \"Living with a Flight Attendant\" couldn't pass a publisher's review, he would use another work to move the publisher's editorial reader.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would strive to earn a manuscript fee as soon as possible to improve his life.\u003C\u002Fp>",1586,"2026-06-21T01:55:54.452Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","2ba8ac0b161224ab450a0c6c7087a80c572f63216a568b1b3b5d92e36f10c127","dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-chapter-11","dreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-chapter-9",338,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fdreaming-back-to-1997-i-became-the-forefather-of-cover.jpg"]