Chapter 27: Admitting to Having a Girlfriend

Cao Sheng's lips curled up at the corners, his curiosity piqued by Tan Lei's words. "What's there to be embarrassed about? Tell me! What happened after that?"

Tan Lei's face showed a self-mocking smile. "Later, after my body recovered, I wanted to come morning-jog with you, but I always felt too embarrassed, always felt I had no face to meet you again."

Cao Sheng: "Why?"

Tan Lei gave a bitter smile. "What do you think? The very first day I came to morning-jog with you, I said I'd come every day from then on, but the next day I didn't show up. Just thinking about it makes me cringe! How could I have the nerve to come see you?"

Cao Sheng smiled faintly.

"Then how come you have the nerve to come today?"

Tan Lei: "……"

After a moment of stunned silence, she said: "Because today I finally mustered up the courage! We're old classmates after all—it's inevitable we'll run into each other at school, and on the way home I still want to ride with you! If I kept avoiding you, wouldn't it be even more awkward if we suddenly bumped into each other at school?"

Cao Sheng smiled.

They ran in silence for a while, then he suddenly asked: "Are you coming again tomorrow?"

Tan Lei gave a bitter smile. "Why do you keep asking me that? This time I don't dare make bold promises. What if I say I'll come tomorrow and then don't show up—I'd really die of embarrassment!"

Cao Sheng was amused into laughter.

After that, neither of them spoke again by unspoken agreement—after all, chatting while running takes a lot of breath.

With Tan Lei joining him, Cao Sheng's running pace slowed down. She couldn't run fast, so he could only slow down and accommodate her a little.

The result was that after today's kilometer run, he was much more at ease than usual, barely broke a sweat, and his breathing was relatively even.

Tan Lei, meanwhile, was about the same as last time—panting, drenched in sweat, her face deathly pale.

Seeing this, Cao Sheng did the same as last time: had her sit by the edge of the track while he went to a nearby shop and bought two bottles of water.

He handed her one and sat down beside her.

By now, the number of people out on the field for morning exercise was noticeably higher than before, and the sky had brightened considerably.

"Very tired?"

After taking a sip of water, Cao Sheng asked her with a smile.

Tan Lei's breathing had steadied by now, but her face was still a bit pale. She glanced at him, nodded, and said with a smile: "Yes! I never had the habit of morning jogging before, suddenly coming to run is really tiring. I really admire you—how have you kept it up for so many days?"

Cao Sheng smiled.

Tan Lei turned to look at him and said with feeling: "You're so handsome, why do you still insist on working out? Even without working out, you should be able to find a girlfriend pretty easily, right? Who are you trying to enchant?"

Cao Sheng burst out laughing. "You think I work out to enchant someone?"

A smile surfaced in Tan Lei's eyes. "Isn't it?"

Cao Sheng: "Of course not!"

Tan Lei was silent for a few seconds, then with a slight smile asked: "Hey! Old classmate, we've been at this school almost a year now, and you're so handsome—you must have a girlfriend by now, right?"

Asking me this?

Cao Sheng looked at her, wondering if she was trying to pursue him.

It was also possible that, as an old classmate, she was simply asking out of curiosity.

He had no desire to date recently—he wanted to focus all his attention on writing and making money.

So, in the blink of an eye, he smiled and nodded, giving an "mm."

Whether or not she was trying to pursue him, as long as he admitted he already had a girlfriend, she wouldn't confess to him.

As long as she didn't confess, the relationship between them wouldn't become awkward.

The smile on Tan Lei's face seemed to stiffen for an instant, then she said with a beaming face: "Not bad! Congratulations, congratulations! By the way, is she pretty? What's her major? Is she a freshman like us? When will you bring her out so I can meet her?"

Cao Sheng: "Thanks, if there's a chance I'll introduce her to you."

Tan Lei: "Great! Then it's settled! I'm really curious."

……

After that the two chatted casually for a while longer, then she got up, took her leave, and went away.

Cao Sheng also got up and headed back to the dorm.

On the way, he decided that from now on, no matter who asked whether he had a girlfriend, he would admit he already had one.

No other purpose—just to avoid falling into the whirlpool of romance, wasting his time and scattering his energy.

He remembered a saying that had always circulated among the greats of the web-novel world: without going mad, one cannot truly live.

Every great who had ever reached the summit seemed to have gone through a fairly long period of single-mindedly writing.

During that period, the story beneath their pen occupied their entire mind and spirit, as if they had gone mad.

In that state, the quality of their work kept improving, and gradually, in the eyes of many readers, their works became masterpieces.

Therefore, a good work requires total concentration.

No one can succeed casually.

In the web-novel industry, this saying is reflected very clearly.

Authors whose minds aren't pure enough and whose focus isn't concentrated enough—even if they write every day—can only eke out a middling result; year after year, they have no hope of standing out from countless other writers.

In his original timeline, after Cao Sheng went full-time writing, he had gone lukewarm for years on end—couldn't starve, but couldn't get rich either.

Until when he proposed to his girlfriend, she, while pulling off his pants, said to him with a smile: "Don't propose to me. I don't want you to be responsible, and you don't need to treat me as your marriage partner. When I find someone suitable, I'll get married—I hope you'll do the same."

Not long after, she took the initiative to break up with him.

Stimulated by that incident, he then earnestly wrote a book well, and after it went on the shelves, he updated over ten thousand characters a day for several months in a row.

During that period, his heart held only the characters and plot of the book.

And that book's results did not disappoint him.

It was the first time he got a taste of earning over ten thousand a month.

After that book, his income was no longer as low as before; gradually he saved up and bought a house, bought a car.

Precisely because in his previous life he had earned money writing novels and truly improved his life, after his rebirth, the first money-making path he thought of was writing novels.

And he had always felt that with his level of strength, starting to write novels in 1997 should earn him quite a lot of money; back then, he had not thought about how to improve his writing skills.

He only wanted to take a shortcut route—every time he opened a new book, he would bring out a completely new subject.

But recently, he had developed greater ambition.

He hoped the quality of his One's own work could get better and better, so that the name "Zhongyuan Yidianhui" would be remembered by more people.

Therefore, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that not many people were writing web novels yet, seize the time, work hard to improve his writing skills, and do his best to increase his first-mover advantage.

During this period, he did not want a relationship.

He wanted to wait until those great masters from his memories entered the industry, then compete with them.

He thought this way, and he acted this way.

Throughout the entire month of May, his heart held only the characters and plot of the book "I Wish to Become an Immortal".

Every day, he only returned to the dormitory after meals and when sleeping.

At other times, he was either in the classroom or typing in the adult education building; every Friday and Sunday night, he uploaded his manuscript.

By the way, after that day when he admitted he had a girlfriend, Tan Lei never came to the playground to run with him in the morning again.

In mid-May, he accidentally saw the book title "The First Intimate Contact" in his book review section.

He searched online and was surprised to find that "The First Intimate Contact" by Pizi Cai had already been published on the internet, and furthermore, the time of publication was not much later than his "Living with the Stewardess".

His "Living with the Stewardess" was published in February of this year.

"The First Intimate Contact" was published in March of this year.

The time difference between the publication of the two books did not exceed one month.

Before, he had always thought that the publication time of this book was much earlier than "The First Intimate Contact"; he never expected the publication times of the two books to be so close.

Only recently, as both of their books became increasingly popular online and someone mentioned "The First Intimate Contact" in his book review section, did he belatedly realize this reality.

He was unsure whether "The First Intimate Contact" in the original timeline was also published in March of '98.

But in this current timeline, since the publication times of their two books were so close, Cao Sheng was somewhat worried: if the popularity of this "The First Intimate Contact" were higher than the popularity of his "Living with the Stewardess", would the public in this timeline still think in the future that "The First Intimate Contact" was the first web novel?