Chapter 16

Cao Sheng still gave the counselor face.

For the next two days, he didn't go to the internet café for overnight stays; when he needed to update "The Days I Lived with a Flight Attendant," he'd go to the internet café after lunch to take care of it.

By the weekend, he went to the internet café and pulled two overnight sessions in a row. During those two nights, he made the most of his time uploading his new book's manuscript, and finally, at a little past four in the morning of the second overnight session, he converted all his drafts of "I Want to Become an Immortal" into an electronic document on the computer.

Sixty-eight thousand characters in total.

Enough to submit to a publishing house.

His whole body relaxing, he sat in front of the computer and rested for a while.

The two books he'd written since his rebirth flashed through his mind.

He'd suddenly been reborn into this era just before the New Year.

At the time, he'd thought about snatching the title of "founding father of web novels" for himself, hoping this title would make his path in web novels a little smoother.

At the time, he hadn't expected that book to make money; he only thought about how to cater to the market, to cater to the tastes of literary youths, so he wrote "The Days I Lived with a Flight Attendant."

And then?

In order to make money as soon as possible and solve the problem of insufficient living expenses for the semester, he started another book, the xianxia cultivation novel "I Want to Become an Immortal."

With this book, he didn't plan to cater to the tastes of literary youths.

His idea was to use novel subject matter and settings to impress the manuscript-reading editors at publishing houses, and he also hoped this novel subject matter could quickly accumulate a batch of fans for him, establish his reputation in one fell swoop, and make him the first person in xianxia cultivation novels.

Deep down, he also hoped this book could prove his ability.

Founding father of web novels, the first to write xianxia cultivation novels... titles like these could only prove he'd written early; only the quality of the book could prove how good he actually was.

Only when readers recognized his ability would his future new books attract everyone's attention.

……

After resting for a moment, Cao Sheng began organizing the drafts of his new book in his email.

He gathered all the manuscripts saved chapter by chapter in his email into a single document.

Then he found Xin Chang Publishing House's submission email and sent over the first several tens of thousands of characters of "I Want to Become an Immortal."

When submitting, he also attached a few lines.

— "This book has not been submitted to multiple publishers. If it does not meet your company's publishing requirements, please inform me as soon as possible, and I will try submitting to other publishers. Thank you! Awaiting your good news!"

The manuscript was sent off; all that remained was waiting for the review results.

Although Cao Sheng was confident about the opening of his book, after all, it was early 1998, and publishers on the Taiwan side might not yet have started publishing mainland works; certainly no web novels had been published yet, so there was still a chance his book would be rejected.

Besides, his book was an entirely new subject matter.

Innovation could sometimes be an advantage, and sometimes a disadvantage.

It depended on the manuscript-reading editor's taste.

If the manuscript-reading editor felt this subject matter was very novel and attractive, then the chances of passing review would naturally be high.

But if the manuscript-reading editor was very conservative, felt this subject matter had never been seen before, had never been published on the market, rashly publishing a work with such new subject matter had an uncertain future and might result in total loss, then there was an eighty percent chance this book's publication review wouldn't pass.

Cao Sheng was mentally prepared for both of these different review outcomes.

That was also why he'd attached those few lines when submitting.

His living expenses for this semester really weren't much; if Xin Chang Publishing House wasn't willing to publish this book, he had to quickly submit to other publishers.

Otherwise, if too much time dragged on and his living expenses ran out, he'd have no choice but to take a work-study job.

Call home and ask for more living expenses?

He wouldn't make that choice.

Because he knew his family's circumstances were very limited; his parents were surely working hard right now to save up next academic year's tuition and living expenses for him. At a time like this, asking his parents for more money would only add to their pressure—how could he bear it?

There were still a little over two hours left in tonight's overnight session. He didn't wander the internet; after logging out of his email, he closed his eyes and curled up in the plastic chair to rest.

He fell asleep not long after.

When he woke up, it was already early morning. The internet café owner came over and nudged him, reminding him his overnight time was up.

Cao Sheng nodded.

He sat in the chair for a while longer, collecting himself.

Once he felt fully awake, he got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face. In the mirror, he had two obvious dark circles under his eyes, looking a bit disheveled.

Anyone who didn't know him, seeing only his current appearance, would surely think he was a degenerate, not a good kid.

As this thought flashed through his mind, he smiled at himself in the mirror.

He wanted to remember what he looked like today.

Because this was what he looked like after working hard.

……

That morning, he didn't sleep in the dorm; he went to class with his roommates.

He'd taken the counselor's last reminder to heart. He was also worried that skipping too many classes would dock too many of his regular grades, and when finals came, he'd fail too many subjects.

If he failed too many subjects, he'd have to retake them next semester.

Setting aside the embarrassment, it would also cost more time and energy.

But since he'd been busy all night at the internet café, naturally he had no energy in class today, always drowsy.

Fortunately, the teacher giving them class this morning wasn't strict; when lecturing, he didn't care whether the students below were listening attentively or dozing off.

Cao Sheng muddled through the whole morning like this.

After lunch in the cafeteria, he had just returned to the dorm and was about to get in bed for a nap when his shoulder was grabbed by his dormmate "Number Two," Guan Zhi.

Cao Sheng was quite surprised and turned to look at Guan Zhi.

Guan Zhi, beaming, kept his arm around Cao Sheng's shoulder, but his eyes swept over the others in the dorm. He cleared his throat and began: "Brothers! I've secured a great opportunity for you all. My girlfriend's dorm wants to organize a joint social event with our dorm. Heh heh, this is your chance to escape singledom. Brothers, do you want to join them for this mixer? If you agree, we'll have dinner with their dorm tonight. Whether you can win over any beauties from their dorm will depend on each brother's own skills. So, how about it? Want to do the mixer, brothers?"

Guan Zhi wasn't bad-looking, came from a decent family, and was smooth-talking; last semester, he'd been the first to get a girlfriend.

While the rest of their dorm were all still single.

He hadn't expected that today he would announce such good news to everyone.

After he finished speaking, the few people in the dorm immediately expressed their positions one after another.

"Such good news? Do we even need to ask? Definitely agree!"

"I agree too!"

"For real? Will everyone from their dorm really be there?"

"Hey! Second Bro! Are there still beauties in your girlfriend's dorm?"

……

Several roommates crowded around Guan Zhi and Cao Sheng, peppering them with questions, each one in high spirits.

These days, basically everyone going to college wants to fall in love.

The guys were especially eager.

After all, they're all adults now, and physiological needs affect their brains every day.

Cao Sheng yawned. He was severely sleep-deprived right now and just wanted to get into bed and rest quickly. At this moment, let alone a joint social event with the girls' dorms of their own school, even if you asked him to attend a mixer with the Korean girl group Girls' Generation, he'd still just want to sleep.

The kind where you sleep alone.

So he took the arm Guan Zhi had draped over his shoulder and said, "You guys discuss it! I'm going to nap for a bit."

After saying that, he climbed up onto his own bed.