Chapter 33: Explosive Growth in Savings, Passing the Publishing Review

That night, just before 11 o'clock, Cao Sheng returned to the school dormitory.

As soon as he entered, his roommates chased him with questions; they had already learned about the novel he wrote, "Days Living with a Flight Attendant," at noon today, as Wang Jing had told them the title.

But they still had many things they wanted to ask.

For instance: Did he really date a flight attendant?

To this day, some in their dormitory still believed that his frequent failure to return home at night meant he was opening hotel rooms with women outside.

For instance: Where could they see his novel? How much money had he already earned?

And so on.

After pressing him for a while, someone shouted that Cao Sheng should treat them to a meal.

The reason for the treat was hard to refuse: Your novel is so successful, someone even came to buy the copyright today; shouldn't you treat us?

But Cao Sheng still refused.

His reason for refusing was: The website just came to sign a publishing agency contract with me; it is not real publication yet, and there is no royalty fee; furthermore, my "Days Living with a Flight Attendant," published on Rongshu Tree until now, has earned not a single cent in royalties; it is all free.

But he promised that once his book was truly published and he received the royalties, he would definitely treat everyone to a meal.

As for the fact that he had another book, "I Wish to Become an Immortal," which had already received royalties long ago?

Since they still didn't know, he wouldn't bring it up actively.

Because treating the entire dormitory to a meal was something he had no interest in doing.

First, there were eight people in the dormitory; on the surface, the relationship was quite harmonious, but in fact, only two or three were close to him; the others had no private friendship with him; even if he treated them to a meal, it would be useless.

Second, he had long felt that treating people to a meal, when many are treated at once, is actually useless for drawing people closer.

If one truly wants to draw people closer by treating them to a meal, it is best to treat only one or two people at a time.

Only with fewer people is it convenient to open one's heart while eating.

With more people, when everyone eats together, no one will remember the favor of you treating them; in their hearts, they might even feel self-satisfied: Look! I mooched a meal off this idiot.

So, regarding this kind of treating to a meal, Cao Sheng would push it away whenever possible; only when he absolutely could not push it away later would he treat them to a meal to cope.

The next morning.

Cao Sheng skipped class and went specifically to the airport to see Wang Jing off onto her plane.

That night, after finishing two chapters of manuscript in the continuing education building, he took his draft notebook and walked leisurely towards the school gate.

He prepared to get a late-night snack, and also check his bank card balance at the on-campus ATM, to see if Rongshu Tree had transferred his signing fee.

Before Wang Jing boarded the plane today, she said that Rongshu Tree would transfer the signing fee to his bank account today.

Additionally, calculating the time, he estimated that Xinchang Publishing House should have also transferred this month's royalties for the two installments.

He also needed to confirm this.

It was already past 11 o'clock at night; the campus was much quieter than during the day; under the dim yellow streetlights, although people still came and went, the figures were sparse, and the area around the ATM was completely empty.

Cao Sheng walked to the ATM as if strolling, took out his wallet, pulled out his Agricultural Bank card, and inserted it into the card slot.

After a series of operations, a string of numbers appeared on the machine: 41510.00 Yuan.

Seeing this string of numbers, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

More than 40,000.

Although this money was not much, earning money, starting from zero, has always been the hardest part.

Moreover, it is now 1998; from the New Year until now, being able to earn this much is already very good; his parents, having lived until now, probably never earned this much together.

Of this more than 40,000, 30,000 was the signing fee given by Rongshu Tree.

8,000 was the royalty for this month's two installments.

3,500 was the remainder from his first installment's royalty.

Shortly after the first installment's royalty arrived, he had withdrawn 500 Yuan for pocket money, mainly for daily meals.

More than 40,000...

Should be enough to buy a house here in Huizhou, right?

In this era, some things are very expensive, such as computers, but some things are very cheap, such as houses; he remembered that around 1998, someone in his hometown village had bought and sold a homestead site; one homestead site cost only 2,000 Yuan.

He also remembered that in 2006, a classmate bought a house in the urban area of Huizhou; one unit cost only a little over 100,000.

And around 2006, housing prices had actually risen a lot.

By after 2016, the average housing price in the urban area of Huizhou had risen to more than 10,000 per square meter.

Should I buy a house?

He quite liked Huizhou; this tourist city has no industry, the natural environment is well protected, with green mountains and clear waters, transportation is convenient, with both trains and an airport, ancient architecture is seen everywhere, and famous scenic spots nearby are countless.

Additionally, the cultural heritage here is also very deep.

Because it is a tourist city, various delicacies are also abundant.

In short, this is a very livable city.

Before his rebirth, he had visited two first-tier cities in the country: Magic City and Pengcheng.

Those two cities were both very prosperous.

The feeling Magic City gave him was rows of high-rise buildings, truly where an inch of land is worth an inch of gold; the distance between high-rise buildings was very small; standing on the road and looking up at the sky, most of the time one could only see a palm-sized patch of sky, giving him the illusion of looking at the sky from the bottom of a well.

So, he did not like it there.

He felt Magic City was suitable for earning money, but not suitable for home life.

Pengcheng...

The prosperous places were very prosperous, but mostly commercial districts with little human atmosphere; the place with the most human atmosphere should be the urban villages, where workers gathered; the distance between buildings was even smaller; in many places, the distance between buildings did not exceed one meter; pushing open a window, one could enter another building.

So, he also did not like it.

He, a person who makes a living by typing words, did not need to live in a big city.

He actually preferred cities like Huizhou even more.

Housing prices here were much lower, and the pace of life much slower.

Prices were also relatively cheap.

There were many beautiful sights, many delicious foods, and plenty of beautiful women too.

There were modern commercial districts, as well as old streets with an antique charm, white-walled, black-tiled houses exuding a historical atmosphere.

If he could settle down here, and later get married and have children, it should be quite good for children to grow up in such a city.

However, over 40,000 still seemed a bit low.

Cao Sheng withdrew from his bank card and continued walking toward the school gate, thinking in his heart to wait a bit longer; once his funds were a bit more ample, he would look for a small courtyard house nearby that was for sale.

Before his rebirth, he had bought a commodity apartment in his hometown county town, with residents living on both the upper and lower floors.

At first, he thought it was quite good; closing the door to live his own small life made it difficult for neighborhood conflicts to arise.

But after living there for a few years, he liked it less and less.

Because various annoying matters constantly interfered with his life.

For example: every year, several households would renovate, the sound of electric drills boring into walls, like demonic music flooding his brain, making it hard for him to concentrate on typing.

For example: a household downstairs had sewage backing up from the bathroom, flooding the house, and sued all the residents upstairs; he, Cao Sheng, was living his life just fine, yet inexplicably found himself sitting in the defendant's seat in court.

For example: every night, the sounds of children running, bouncing balls, and skipping ropes upstairs would constantly come through; sometimes, something would suddenly fall onto the floor upstairs, and the sudden noise could make him jump.

Etc.

Various annoying matters had long made him unable to like high-rise residential buildings.

And here in Huizhou, there were many one or two-story folk houses, the kind with courtyards; he quite wanted to buy one.

As for such a house, would his future partner like it?

He believed that a woman who did not like this kind of house would not be his partner; if she was, then she was not.

About a week later.

One noon, Cao Sheng came to the internet cafe again, preparing to update "Living with the Flight Attendant." After logging into the author backend, he saw an internal message.

— "Congratulations! Your work "Living with the Flight Attendant" has passed the publication review by Huacheng Publishing House. For specific matters, please check your email. — Rongshuxia"

So quickly, they found a publishing house willing to publish?

Cao Sheng was quite surprised.

He was somewhat suspicious that before Rongshuxia came to him to sign a publication agency contract, they had already secured the publishing house.