Chapter 33: Surging Savings, Passing the Publishing Review

At nearly 11 p.m. that night, Cao Sheng returned to his school dormitory.

As soon as he entered, his roommates chased him with all sorts of questions; they had already learned about the book he wrote, "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: had he really started dating a flight attendant?

To this day, some in his dormitory still believed that his frequent nights away from the dorm meant he was out getting hotel rooms with women.

For instance: where could they read his novel? How much money had he already made?

And so on.

After pestering him for a while, someone started clamoring for Cao Sheng to treat them.

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

But Cao Sheng still refused.

His reason for refusing was: the website only came to sign a publishing agency contract with me, it isn't actually being published yet, and there is no manuscript fee; furthermore, since "Living with a Flight Attendant" was first published on Banyan Tree, he hadn't received a single cent in royalties, as it was all free.

However, 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," for which he had long since received royalties?

Since they didn't know about it yet, he wouldn't volunteer the information.

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

For one, there were eight people in the dorm; while relations seemed harmonious on the surface, in reality, he only had good relationships with two or three of them, and he had no personal friendship with the others, so even if he treated them to a meal, it would be pointless.

For another, he had long felt that when it came to treating people to meals, inviting too many people at once was actually useless for drawing people closer together.

If you really want to build a closer relationship through a meal, it is best to invite only one or two people at a time.

Only with fewer people is it convenient to open up and share one's heart during the meal.

When there are many people, everyone eats together, and no one will remember the favor of you paying for the meal; in their hearts, they might even be smugly thinking: "Look! I got a free meal out of this idiot."

Therefore, Cao Sheng put off such requests to treat people to meals whenever he could, and would only treat them to one to get it over with when he absolutely couldn't refuse anymore.

……

The next morning.

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

That night, after finishing two more chapters of his manuscript at the Adult Education Building, he took his draft notebook and walked toward the school gate at a leisurely pace.

He prepared to grab a late-night snack and, while he was at it, check his bank card balance at the ATM on campus to see if Banyan Tree had deposited his signing bonus.

Wang Jing had said before she boarded the plane today that Banyan Tree would deposit the signing bonus into his bank account today.

Additionally, calculating the time, he estimated that Xinchang Publishing House should have also deposited the manuscript fees for the two volumes this month.

He needed to confirm this as well.

It was already past 11 p.m., and the campus was much quieter than during the day; under the dim streetlights, although there were still people coming and going, the figures were sparse, and the area around the ATM was completely deserted.

Cao Sheng walked to the ATM as if taking a stroll, took out his wallet, pulled out his Agricultural Bank card, and inserted it into the card reader.

After a series of operations, the machine displayed a string of numbers: 41,510.00 yuan.

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

Over 40,000.

Although this money wasn't much, the matter of earning money is always hardest when starting from zero.

Moreover, it was 1998; for him to have earned this much from the New Year until now was already quite good—his parents probably hadn't earned this much combined in their entire lives.

Of this 40,000-plus, 30,000 was the signing bonus from Banyan Tree.

8,000 was the manuscript fee for the two volumes this month.

3,500 was what remained from his first volume's manuscript fee.

Shortly after the first volume's fee arrived previously, he had withdrawn 500 yuan for pocket money, mainly used for daily meals.

Over 40,000……

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

In this day and age, some things were very expensive, like computers, but some things were very cheap, like houses; he remembered that around 1998, someone in his home village bought and sold a residential plot, and a single plot only cost two thousand yuan.

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

And around 2006, housing prices had actually already risen quite a bit.

By 2016 and beyond, the average housing price in the urban area of Huizhou had already risen to over 10,000 per square meter.

Should he buy a house?

He quite liked Huizhou; this tourist city had little industry, the natural environment was well-protected, with green hills and clear waters, and transportation was convenient, with both a train station and an airport; ancient architecture could be seen everywhere, and there were countless well-known scenic spots nearby.

Additionally, the cultural heritage here was also very profound.

Because it was a tourist city, there was also a dazzling array of delicious food.

In short, this was a very livable city.

Before his rebirth, he had been to two of the country's first-tier cities—Shanghai and Pengcheng.

Both of those cities were very prosperous.

The feeling Shanghai gave him was one of high-rises everywhere, truly an inch of land worth an inch of gold; the distance between the high-rises was very small, and when standing on the road looking up at the sky, most of the time one could only see a patch of sky the size of a palm, giving him the illusion of sitting in a well and looking at the sky.

Therefore, he didn't like it there.

He felt that Shanghai was suitable for earning money, but not for living a home life.

Pengcheng……

The prosperous areas were very prosperous, but they were mostly commercial districts with little human warmth; the most vibrant places were likely the urban villages, where migrant workers gathered, and the distance between buildings was even smaller—many buildings were less than a meter apart, and one could enter another building just by opening a window.

Therefore, he didn't like that either.

As someone who made a living by typing, he didn't need to live in a big city.

Instead, he preferred a city like Huizhou.

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

The cost of living was also relatively cheap.

There was beautiful scenery, good food, and no shortage of beautiful women.

There were modern commercial districts, as well as old streets with an antique charm, and houses with white walls and black tiles that exuded a historical atmosphere.

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

However, 40,000-plus still seemed a bit low.

Cao Sheng withdrew his bank card and continued walking toward the school gate, thinking that he would wait a while longer, and once his funds were a bit more abundant, he would go look for a small courtyard for sale nearby.

Before his rebirth, he had bought a commercial apartment in his hometown county, with neighbors living both above and below him.

At first, he thought it was quite good, closing the door to live his own little life, as it wasn't easy to have neighborhood conflicts.

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

Because there were always various annoying things that would occasionally disturb his life.

For instance: every year there were several households renovating, and the sound of electric drills hitting walls was like demonic sounds filling his brain, making it hard for him to concentrate on typing.

For instance: a household downstairs had their bathroom back up, and the sewage flooded the house, leading them to sue all the residents above in court; he, Cao Sheng, was living his life just fine, only to inexplicably find himself in the defendant's seat in court.

For instance: every night, the sounds of children running, bouncing balls, and jumping rope upstairs would constantly drift down, and sometimes something would suddenly drop onto the floor upstairs, and the sudden noise would give him a fright.

And so on.

All kinds of annoying things had long since made it impossible for him to like high-rise residential living.

And here in Huizhou, there were many one or two-story civilian houses, the kind that still came with a courtyard, and he really wanted to buy one.

As for whether his future partner would like such a house?

He believed that a woman who didn't like this kind of house wouldn't be his partner, and that was that.

……

About a week later.

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

——"Congratulations! Your work 'Living with a Flight Attendant' has passed the publishing review of Huacheng Publishing House. For specific details, please check your email. ——Banyan Tree"

They found a publisher willing to publish it so quickly?

Cao Sheng was quite surprised.

He suspected that before Banyan Tree came to sign the publishing agency contract with him, they had already secured a publisher.