Chapter 13: Tan Lei Runs Alongside

Day after day, Cao Sheng's life saw little change.

Every two or three days, he would spend a night at an internet cafe, upload part of his manuscript, and update one chapter on Rongshu Tree.

The readership and number of book reviews for "Days Living with a Stewardess," published on Rongshu Tree, were slowly growing, with no signs yet of it becoming popular.

On days he didn't spend the night at the cafe, he would run one thousand meters on the playground every morning.

On nights he spent at the cafe, he would skip classes after returning from the internet cafe in the morning and sleep in the dorm until noon.

Sometimes, after waking up from a deep sleep, a roommate returning from class would tell him: "This morning, Teacher So-and-So took attendance; you're marked absent."

Sometimes, a roommate would also tell him— "This morning, Teacher So-and-So took attendance; when your name was called, I answered for you, so you owe me a meal!"

Every time a roommate said this to him, Cao Sheng, despite his tight living expenses, would readily treat them to lunch, the kind costing no more than two yuan.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed.

His serialized "Days Living with a Stewardess" on Rongshu Tree had reached Chapter Six, and the male and female protagonists had finally moved in together.

The readership had also risen to over 800.

Yet the number of book reviews had already exceeded 100.

Netizens reading this kind of story for the first time remained highly enthusiastic about posting reviews.

And during these past half a month, Cao Sheng had completely finalized the outline for his new book, "I Wish to Become an Immortal."

The reason the outline took half a month was mainly because, during this period, most of his spare time had been spent writing "Days Living with a Stewardess," as he wanted to finish that book in one go.

After all, with a length of only two or three hundred thousand words, it would be finished in at most two months.

The key was that he had no habit of writing two books simultaneously.

Energy would be scattered, and the train of thought of both books would interfere with each other.

During this period, being able to finalize the outline for "I Wish to Become an Immortal" while writing "Days Living with a Stewardess" had already broken his previous writing habits.

The mutual influence of the train of thought of both books made him often feel a headache during this time.

But the pressure of insufficient living expenses this semester and the need to earn money quickly forced him to push himself to do so.

Occasionally, he would regret why he had written "Days Living with a Stewardess" in the first place just for the title of "Godfather of Web Novels."

If he had started by writing Xianxia cultivation, he might have already received publication royalties by now.

But...

Regret is always temporary; after reason returned, he still felt the title "Godfather of Web Novels" held great value.

It would allow tens of thousands of readers to remember him forever.

Every work he wrote in the future would immediately attract a group of readers to sample it.

The benefits of this are long-term.

Furthermore, if he ever wanted to invest in filming his own works in the future, the media might follow up with reports, after all, he was the first to write web novels.

The first one always receives more attention.

This morning, while the sky was just beginning to lighten, Cao Sheng, as usual, came to the playground and started his daily one thousand-meter run.

Having run less than half a lap, a long-legged girl suddenly ran over from the side, smiling brightly, and ran alongside him.

Cao Sheng turned his head in surprise, shocked to discover it was Tan Lei.

She was his classmate from Gao San and currently a fellow university student.

When he took the train to school this semester, he had coincidentally traveled with her, on the same train and in the same row of seats.

However, since enrollment, for these past half a month, the two of them had not met again.

After all, they were not in the same major, not even in the same department.

He studied Accounting, belonging to the School of Economics and Management.

She studied Chinese Language and Literature, belonging to the School of Literature.

The two of them attended classes on different floors every day, and their dormitory buildings were far apart; in an era without mobile phones and with no landlines in the dorms, it was truly difficult for them to run into each other on campus.

Running into Tan Lei on the playground this early, like today, was completely unexpected by Cao Sheng.

"Old classmate? You're jogging in the morning too?"

While asking this question, Cao Sheng tried hard to keep his gaze fixed on her face, because her bust was already impressive, and with the running motion, it immediately made his heart race and his throat go dry.

But to maintain his image, he couldn't look too much.

Tan Lei seemed not to notice his strangeness; she glanced at him with smiling eyes and replied cheerfully, "I didn't have a habit of morning jogging before; today was just a sudden whim. By the way, do you jog every morning?"

What Cao Sheng didn't know was: yesterday morning, when she went outside the campus to buy breakfast, she passed by the playground and inadvertently caught a glimpse of his morning jogging figure, which led her to decide to jog this morning.

Cao Sheng, unaware of the truth, hummed in agreement.

Tan Lei: "Hey! Actually, I've wanted to jog every morning for a long time, but there was never anyone to accompany me; if I'm alone, I can never summon the determination. Hehe, since you have the habit of jogging every morning, I'll come and run with you every day from now on! How about that? Do you welcome it?"

Cao Sheng was somewhat surprised.

He didn't quite believe she had the perseverance to persist in morning jogging every day.

After all, he himself had run for these past half a month, and persisting had been very hard; he didn't know how many times the thought of giving up had arisen in his mind.

"Sure! Of course, you're welcome, but I'm afraid you won't be able to persist."

Cao Sheng made a joke.

Tan Lei raised an eyebrow at him, still smiling brightly, "Then let's try! You actually dare to underestimate me? Come on! Let's race! See who runs faster!"

Before her words had even faded, she began to accelerate.

Cao Sheng smiled and accelerated as well.

During the first lap, she could still grit her teeth and persist; as soon as the lap was finished, she was covered in fine sweat, her face pale, and panting heavily.

Her speed also slowed down bit by bit.

To accommodate her speed, Cao Sheng also slowed down.

At that moment, Tan Lei was panting hard and asked in broken gasps, "H-how many more laps? H-how many laps do you run every d-day?"

Cao Sheng: "Two and a half laps!"

"A thousand meters?"

Tan Lei was very surprised.

The track at Huizhou Normal College was regulation standard—one lap was 400 meters.

Cao Sheng: "If you can't keep running, just rest for today! Take it slow from now on. Running a thousand meters on your first try really is tough."

Tan Lei hesitated a little at his words.

But suddenly she clenched her teeth and said stubbornly, "N-no rest! I'll run with you all the w-way to the end…"

But stubbornness was useless.

As time went on, her running speed grew slower and slower. She clearly had two long legs, yet just couldn't run fast.

To spare her pride, Cao Sheng had no choice but to slow down and jog alongside her at an easy pace.

But by the time she was running the last half lap, her speed was barely faster than a brisk walk. Cao Sheng tried several times to tell her to stop, that she'd done enough for today, but she always stubbornly insisted on finishing the full thousand meters.

When she finally barely completed the thousand meters, she looked like she'd just been fished out of water—drenched in sweat, her face so pale it was frightening.

Seeing this, Cao Sheng had her sit for a moment on the steps at the edge of the track. He went to a nearby kiosk, bought two bottles of water, and handed one to her.

As Tan Lei took the water, Cao Sheng asked with a smile, "Are you coming back for the morning run tomorrow?"

Tan Lei's expression stiffened for a moment, but in the end she nodded firmly. "Yes!"