Chapter 39: The Envelope Containing the Sample Book Was Torn

Cheng Ying's words drew the attention of everyone in the classroom, their expressions all different.

Some watched the scene with great interest; some were expressionless, the corners of their mouths slightly turned down; some showed looks of envy on their faces — it ran the gamut.

Cheng Ying's request was completely beyond Cao Sheng's expectations.

So Cao Sheng's expression was very surprised.

What does it feel like to have your own teacher ask to see your saved manuscript? He was experiencing it right now.

A little satisfying, and a little awkward.

A few days earlier, Song Chao, who slept in the bunk below him, had asked to see his saved manuscript. Since Song Chao was on good terms with him, he took out a draft. Song Chao couldn't make out his overly scrawled handwriting. The other roommates in the dorm at the time, out of curiosity, also crowded over one after another, but they couldn't read it either — most of the characters on that draft, they couldn't make out.

Recently, other classmates in their class had also asked him for his saved manuscript, all saying they wanted to broaden their horizons and see how his novel was written.

He fobbed them all off.

Every time, he had his roommates testify that his manuscript was too scrawled for anyone to read.

He hadn't expected that today, his English teacher Cheng Ying, would also make such a request.

A direct refusal would certainly cost her face.

In the blink of an eye, Cao Sheng had a decision. He smiled and said, "Sure! But my saved manuscripts are all in the dorm. If you really want to see them, teacher, after class you can come with me to the dorm, or I can go back to the dorm and bring one over for you. It's just that my saved manuscripts are all handwritten and very scrawled — you might not be able to make them out."

He was certain Cheng Ying wouldn't be able to read his manuscript either, so he deliberately said this.

In fact, he had long ago converted the entire text of "Days of Cohabiting with a Flight Attendant" into an electronic document and saved it in his email.

If he were truly willing to let her see the saved manuscript, he could perfectly well ask her if she had an email address, or if she had a floppy disk, then send her a copy of the manuscript, or copy one for her.

But…

If he did so, his saved manuscripts would risk being leaked.

If she forwarded it to other teachers, and those teachers forwarded it on, who knew how far it would eventually spread?

If it spread all over the internet, it would inevitably affect the serialization effect of his book later on Under the Banyan Tree. Once readers had read the full text elsewhere, who would come to Under the Banyan Tree to read it again?

Besides, piracy was already very serious domestically. The publishing house, for the sake of better sales of this book, had long ago required that the last 20 chapters of this book temporarily not be serialized online.

They had to wait until the physical book had been on sale for a period of time before those last 20 chapters could be posted online.

Therefore, he could not really show his subsequent saved manuscripts to anyone.

Even though Cheng Ying was his English teacher, that wouldn't work either.

Of course, these thoughts in his heart, he would not speak out.

And his answer just now made Cheng Ying very satisfied. The smile on her face deepened considerably. She raised a hand and patted Cao Sheng's shoulder, praising, "Not bad! It just so happens that after this class ends, you don't have any more classes this afternoon. I'll go with you to your dorm! Saves you the trouble of going back to get the manuscript and then having to come all the way back here."

Cao Sheng nodded. "Alright, teacher!"

On the surface, he gave Cheng Ying plenty of face.

Only…

After class, when Cheng Ying followed the few people from their dorm with a beaming smile, chatting and laughing all the way to their dorm, and took the draft that Cao Sheng handed her, the smile on her face transferred to the faces of Cao Sheng and his roommates. Cheng Ying looked at the draft in her hand, her expression turning bewildered. Her slightly open mouth even forgot to close. After a good while, she blankly looked up at Cao Sheng. "Isn't this a bit too scrawled? This draft of yours suddenly makes me really doubt whether I actually know how to read characters. Written like some ghost script — can you even make it out yourself?"

Pang Yunhai and the others struggled hard to hold back their laughter.

They had all seen this draft before, and had all had roughly the same feeling.

But as everyone knows, when a group of people is holding back laughter, there's always someone who can't hold it in. Sure enough, Guan Zhi was the first to lose it, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.

Pang Yunhai and the others had already been struggling terribly to hold it in. With Guan Zhi laughing like that, immediately, laughter like air leaking from a tire rose up all around.

Cheng Ying speechlessly turned her face to look at them, and suddenly, she too laughed.

When everyone's laughter gradually subsided, Cao Sheng explained with a smile, "Teacher, when I was writing these drafts, I never imagined that anyone would want to see my handwriting later, so I just wrote as fast as I could, and it ended up like this. Sorry about that! I've disappointed you."

Cheng Ying looked at him, then lowered her head to look at the draft in her hand, suddenly let out a laugh, and with a look of feeling on her face, handed the draft back to Cao Sheng.

"Forget it. Since your draft looks like this, I won't read it. You keep it safe! If you become a great writer someday, even though no one might be able to read this manuscript, it will definitely be worth quite a bit of money. So, don't lose it."

Before she finished speaking, Pang Yunhai and the others chimed in one after another.

But from their expressions and tone, Cao Sheng could see they were all very casual — just stirring things up.

Right — in their eyes, he, Cao Sheng, had only written one romance novel so far, and romance novels had never belonged in the halls of great literature.

Even though his book was going to be published, no one would think he could become some great writer in the future.

Cao Sheng himself thought so too.

In his eyes, only people on the level of Lu Xun and Mao Dun could be called great writers.

But Cao Sheng still believed that this manuscript of his would have a certain collectible value in the future, because it was the manuscript of the first web novel.

The first one always has some commemorative significance.

……

After that day, no one in Cao Sheng's class ever asked him to show them his saved manuscript again.

The scrawled degree of his manuscript also gradually spread through the class.

Time came to the end of June.

The weather was hotter, and the atmosphere in the school gradually grew tense. Every day, fewer and fewer people skipped class or evening self-study. Many students who were usually lackadaisical also, for once, got serious. The studying atmosphere in the school gradually thickened, because the final exams were approaching.

Even Cao Sheng, who had long lost interest in accounting courses, during evening self-study recently paused his writing and began earnestly reviewing the several courses of this semester.

Because he didn't want to fail any courses in the final exams.

If he didn't work hard to review now and strive to pass all courses in one go, once he really did fail, he'd still have to spend time next semester reviewing hard to possibly pass the make-up exam.

And right in this tense period, one evening, their class monitor Geng Yong, when passing by the school's gatehouse, habitually turned into the mail room next door.

This mail room was right next to the gatehouse.

In the mail room there was a wall of mailboxes, each mailbox corresponding to one class in the school.

Mail sent to their school would be placed in the mailbox of the recipient's class.

The key to Cao Sheng's class's mailbox was usually kept by class monitor Geng Yong, and their class's mail was also brought back to the class by Geng Yong and then distributed to the recipients.

This was one of Geng Yong's routine duties as class monitor.

Today, as usual, he used his key to open his class's mailbox, pulled out all the letters inside, then locked it again.

As he was about to carry the letters away, he suddenly noticed a thumb-sized hole in the envelope of the registered letter that was thickest.

He instinctively looked at the recipient's name on the registered letter.

"Cao Sheng?"

The recipient's name on the envelope surprised Geng Yong.

But it stirred his memory.

He remembered once delivering a similarly thick registered letter to Cao Sheng—he recalled asking Cao Sheng what was inside such a bulky letter, and Cao Sheng had said it was several books bought for him by a friend.

Are these books bought for him by a friend again?

Geng Yong's curious gaze turned to the tear in the corner of the envelope, and sure enough, he saw books inside—the clean, neat pages clearly new.

What kind of books are these? Cao Sheng writes so well—could all these books be about writing?

Geng Yong's curiosity was stirred.