Chapter 16: Submitting a Manuscript, and a Mixer with a Girls' Dormitory?

Cao Sheng still gave the counselor some face.

For the next two days, he did not go to the internet cafe for overnight sessions; whenever he needed to update *Days of Living with a Flight Attendant*, he would go to the internet cafe after lunch to handle it.

It wasn't until the weekend that he went to the internet cafe and booked two consecutive overnight sessions. During these two nights, he seized the time to upload his new manuscript, and finally, at past four in the morning on the second night, he finished converting all the saved drafts of *I Wish to Become an Immortal* into electronic text on the computer.

It totaled sixty-eight thousand words.

Enough to submit to a publishing house.

Feeling completely relaxed, he sat in front of the computer and rested for a little while.

Thoughts of the two books he had written since his rebirth flashed through his mind.

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

At the time, he wanted to snatch the title of "Progenitor of Web Literature" for himself, hoping this title would make his path in web literature a bit easier.

Back then, he didn't expect that book to make money; he only thought about how to cater to the market and the tastes of the literary youth, so he wrote *Days of Living with a Flight Attendant*.

And later?

In order to earn money as quickly as possible and solve the problem of his insufficient living expenses for the semester, he started this Xianxia cultivation novel, *I Wish to Become an Immortal*.

For this book, he had no intention of catering to the tastes of the literary youth.

His idea was to use a novel subject and setting to impress the editorial staff at the publishing house, and he also hoped this novel subject would allow him to quickly accumulate a group of fans, make a name for himself in one fell swoop, and become the number one person in Xianxia cultivation literature.

Deep down, he also hoped this book would prove his strength.

Titles like "Progenitor of Web Literature" or "the first to write a Xianxia cultivation novel" could only prove that he wrote early; only the quality of the book could prove what his strength was really like.

Only by letting readers recognize his strength would everyone pay attention when he started new books in the future.

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

He gathered all the manuscripts that were saved individually as chapters in his email into a single document.

Then he found the submission email address for Xinchang Publishing House and sent over the first several tens of thousands of words of *I Wish to Become an Immortal*.

When submitting, he also attached a few sentences.

—"This book has not been submitted to multiple publishers simultaneously. If it does not meet your company's publication requirements, please inform me as soon as possible so I may attempt to submit it to other publishers. Thank you! Awaiting your good news!"

The manuscript was sent; all that remained was to wait for the review results.

Although Cao Sheng had confidence in the opening of his book, it was, after all, early 1998. Publishing houses in Wanwan might not have started publishing works from the mainland yet, and certainly not a single web novel had ever been published, so there was still a possibility his book would be rejected.

Moreover, his book was a brand-new subject.

Innovation is sometimes an advantage, and sometimes, it can be a disadvantage.

It depends on the taste of the reviewing editor.

If the editor thinks the subject is very novel and attractive, the chance of passing the review is naturally very high.

But if the editor is very conservative and feels that this subject has never been seen before and has never been published on the market, and that rashly publishing such a new subject has an uncertain future and might lead to a total loss, then there is an eighty percent chance the book will not pass the publication review.

Cao Sheng was prepared for both of these different review results.

This was also the reason he attached those few sentences when submitting.

His living expenses for this semester were truly running low; if Xinchang Publishing House was unwilling to publish this book, he had to submit to other publishers as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if the time dragged on and his living expenses were exhausted, he would have no choice but to take up a work-study job.

Call home and ask for more living expenses?

That was a choice he would not make.

Because he knew his family's conditions were very limited; his parents were surely working hard to save up his tuition and living expenses for the next school year. At a time like this, if he asked his parents for money again, it would only increase their pressure—how could he bear to do that?

There were still over two hours left in his overnight session, but he didn't wander around online. After logging out of his email, he closed his eyes and huddled in the plastic chair to rest.

He fell asleep before long.

When he woke up, it was already early morning. The internet cafe owner came over and nudged him, reminding him that the overnight session had ended.

Cao Sheng nodded.

He sat in the chair for another moment to steady himself.

Only when he felt completely awake did he get up to wash his face in the restroom. In the mirror, he had two obvious dark circles under his eyes, looking a bit decadent.

Someone who didn't know him, just looking at his current appearance, would surely think he was a very degenerate person and not a good kid.

When 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 the look of him after putting in the effort.

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

He had taken the counselor's warning from last time to heart, and he was also worried that if he skipped too many classes and had too many points deducted from his attendance, he would fail too many subjects during the final exams.

If he failed too many subjects, he would have to take make-up exams next semester.

Not to mention the loss of face, it would also cost more time and energy.

But since he had been busy working through the night, he naturally had no energy in class today and was constantly drowsy.

Fortunately, the teacher giving the lecture to their class this morning wasn't strict; while lecturing, the teacher didn't care whether the students below were listening attentively or dozing off.

Cao Sheng just muddled through the morning like that.

After eating lunch at the cafeteria, he had just returned to the dormitory and was preparing to get into bed for a nap when his shoulder was grabbed by the dormitory's second-eldest, Guan Zhi.

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

Guan Zhi was all smiles, his arm around Cao Sheng's shoulder, while his eyes looked toward the others in the dormitory. He cleared his throat and said, "Brothers! I've secured a great opportunity for you all. My girlfriend's dormitory wants to have a mixer with our dormitory. Hehe, this is a great chance for you guys to get off the singles market. Brothers, do you want to have a mixer with them? If you agree, we'll have a meal with their dormitory tonight. When the time comes, whether you can win over some beauty from their dorm depends on your own skills. How about it? Do you want to have a mixer, brothers?"

Guan Zhi didn't look bad, his family background was decent, and he had a silver tongue; last semester, he was the first to find a girlfriend.

Meanwhile, everyone else in their dormitory was still single.

He didn't expect him to announce such good news to everyone today.

After he finished speaking, the guys in the dorm expressed their stances one after another.

"There's such a good thing? Do we even need to ask? Definitely agree!"

"I agree too!"

"Is it for real? Will everyone from their dorm be there?"

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

Several roommates surrounded Guan Zhi and Cao Sheng, asking questions all at once, each one in high spirits.

In this day and age, basically everyone in college wants to fall in love.

The men were especially proactive.

After all, they were adults, and their physiological needs affected their brains every day.

Cao Sheng yawned. He was severely sleep-deprived and just wanted to get into bed and rest. At this moment, let alone a mixer with a girls' dorm from his own school, even if he were asked to have a mixer with the Korean girl group Girls' Generation, he would still only want to sleep.

The kind where one sleeps alone.

Therefore, he removed Guan Zhi's arm from his shoulder and said, "You guys discuss it! I'm going to sleep for a bit."

After saying that, he climbed onto his bed.