Chapter 38: Classmates Turn Book Fans, the Teacher Demands Stocked Manuscripts

Only, how was he going to kill these few hours before dawn?

Song Chao scratched his head; having just learned to get online, he had no idea what there was to do on the internet.

Subconsciously, he looked left and right to see what the other guys pulling all-nighters were doing.

He saw that most of them were wearing earphones, most were playing games, one was listening to music, one was watching a movie, and someone else was sleeping.

He thought for a moment, then suddenly wanted to see how Cao Sheng's book was being pre-ordered on Rongshuxia.

He couldn't quite figure out how you'd pay for a pre-order.

He clicked open the Rongshuxia homepage and found the banner at the top, which was both promoting the upcoming publication of "The Days I Lived with a Flight Attendant" and serving as the pre-order window.

It was also the pre-order window.

He clicked open the pre-order window on the banner and saw that the pre-order number in the announcement had already climbed to 133,664 copies.

This number surprised Song Chao a great deal.

He wondered how much money Cao Sheng could earn.

He saw the pre-order button and, with a bit of curiosity, clicked it once with the mouse.

The pre-order button turned into an input box; in front of the input box it said: "Pre-order Quantity," and the unit after the input box was "copies."

Inside the input box was a default number: "1."

After the "1" was a "+" sign.

He clicked the + sign once with the mouse, and the 1 in the input box became 2; he clicked again, and 2 became 3.

Moreover, every time he clicked, the amount displayed below changed.

At 1 copy, the pre-order price was 22.

At 2 copies, the pre-order price became 43, a discount of 1 yuan.

At 3 copies, the price became 63, another 1 yuan discount.

Below the amount, two payment methods were displayed.

One was game point-card top-up.

The other was bank transfer.

Song Chao clicked game point-card top-up, and three input boxes immediately popped up.

One input box said: Please enter the card number.

The second input box said: Please enter the password.

The third input box said: Please enter the recipient address.

He clicked bank transfer again, and beneath the words "bank transfer" three input boxes popped up as well; one box said: Please enter the remitter's name.

The second box said: Please enter the transfer date.

The third box said: Please enter the recipient address.

Below these three input boxes, a receiving account number also appeared.

Seeing all this, he felt he'd broadened his horizons; he hadn't expected you could actually pre-order things online.

He'd heard of game point cards before.

He hadn't expected they could be used like this.

……

Not knowing what to do with the remaining time, Song Chao clicked open "The Days I Lived with a Flight Attendant" again, and this time he started reading the reviews in the book's review section.

Don't tell anyone, but these reviews were actually pretty interesting too.

One review after another gradually made him forget the time.

"Right now I just want to know if the author really lived with a flight attendant. If he hadn't actually lived with one, he couldn't have written such a lifelike story, could he?"

"My name is Ran Jing. I hereby declare I have never lived with any man. I demand the author compensate me for damage to my reputation! If you don't want to pay up, that's fine too, but the author must update two more chapters! Otherwise I'm taking you to court!"

"The female lead is so great. I feel Ding Yang isn't good enough for her. Ding Yang seems a bit dopey, way too foolish!"

"Borrowing your precious space to put in a plug: 'First Intimate Contact' is also very well written, everyone should go check it out."

……

Dawn broke. Song Chao walked out of the internet cafe looking washed out. Passing the school gate, he casually bought a few baozi and a cup of soy milk, and walked into campus eating as he went.

He finished eating before reaching the dorm.

Walking into the dorm, he was just about to settle the score with Cao Sheng!

But he found Cao Sheng's bed was empty; on the bed were only a neatly folded quilt and pillow.

Had this guy gone for his morning run again?

"Showing off, running at the crack of dawn…"

Song Chao rolled his eyes, muttered a line, yawned, and quickly burrowed into the covers.

He was already unbearably sleepy.

By the time he woke from that sleep, it was already lunchtime. His roommates came back from class, and the sound of the door opening and their chatter woke him up.

He opened his eyes and saw Cao Sheng walk into the dorm, then suddenly blurted out: "Cao Sheng! Are you even human?"

That abrupt line drew the gaze of every roommate who had just entered the dorm, Cao Sheng included.

"What's wrong? What did I do?"

Cao Sheng was completely baffled.

Song Chao pressed his lips together, sat up, glared sideways at Cao Sheng, and opened with an accusation: "You tell me? And you have the nerve to ask? Let me ask you—didn't you finish writing your book 'The Days I Lived with a Flight Attendant' a long time ago?"

Cao Sheng was a bit dumbfounded and nodded instinctively. "Yeah, I finished it a long time ago. So what?"

Song Chao pointed at Cao Sheng. "You finished it ages ago, so why have you only posted that little online? I specifically went to an internet cafe and pulled an all-nighter to read your book last night, and I finished it in just over two hours. Do you think you've done right by me? Do you think you've done right by my fifteen-yuan all-night fee? Tell me yourself—aren't you going way too far?"

"Huh?"

Cao Sheng was at a loss, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

The few roommates who had just entered the dormitory heard this, understood immediately, and burst into laughter.

Zhai Jun: "Damn! I thought something was wrong!"

Guan Zhi: "Song Chao, is Cao Sheng's book really that good? That you're so resentful? Someone who doesn't know might think he seduced you and then abandoned you! Haha..."

Zheng Xiaoqiang: "You scared me!"

At this moment, Cao Sheng adjusted his mood, walked over with a smile, and said, "Song Chao, have you finished reading all the chapters of my book that are currently serialized?"

Song Chao nodded. "Yeah, I finished it all. I specifically stayed up all night last night just to read your book."

Cao Sheng was a bit curious. "Then what do you think of how I wrote this book?"

Zhai Jun, Guan Zhi, and others gathered over curiously, looking at Song Chao.

Song Chao looked at Cao Sheng with complex eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, Song Chao gave Cao Sheng a thumbs-up and sighed, "Third Brother, your writing is truly impeccable! Much better than mine. I couldn't even write a good 800-character essay before, yet you not only write so long but also so brilliantly. Ding Yang and Ran Jing are almost brought to life by you. I never expected you to have this ability; I really didn't see it before."

"Really? Is it that good?"

Guan Zhi expressed doubt.

Zhai Jun and Zheng Xiaoqiang looked at Cao Shao in surprise, then turned to look at Song Chao.

Zheng Xiaoqiang: "Song Chao, is Third Brother's book really that good?"

Zhai Jun: "You make me want to read it."

Cao Sheng smiled. "You flatter me. It's not as good as you say; I was just writing blindly."

Song Chao pouted. "Oh, come on! If you were really just writing blindly, could this book have over a million readers? If you were really just writing blindly, would Rongshu Xia specifically send an editor to fly over here to find you and sign that contract? And would a publishing house agree to publish your book? To put it plainly, isn't it because both the website and the publishing house have high hopes for your book?"

Cao Sheng smiled.

He knew his writing was indeed far superior to his roommates'; being too humble would just seem hypocritical, so he said nothing more.

And Song Chao's words made Guan Zhi and the others look at Cao Sheng with eyes different from before.

In the following days, more and more of Cao Sheng's dorm roommates read his book.

Classmates in his class also gradually began to read his book.

Without exception: everyone who read his book looked at him with eyes different from before.

Talent is something that others cannot see at all before it is revealed.

And this book written by Cao Sheng, "Days Living with an Air Hostess," allowed the classmates who read it to clearly feel the gap between them and Cao Sheng.

That afternoon.

When the English class was about to end, the English teacher, Cheng Ying, walked over to Cao Sheng and said with a smile, "Cao Sheng! I read the novel you wrote yesterday; it's really well written! It just seems not finished yet. Have you written the rest of the content? If you have, could you let me have a sneak peek?"