Chapter 9: The Thought of Publishing

Two days later.

Early morning.

On the playground shrouded in thin mist, Cao Sheng, dressed in thin clothes, ran alone; in fact, there were other teachers and students exercising in the morning on the playground, but he knew none of them.

In his original timeline, he had no habit of working out.

When others told him that life lies in movement, he always said life lies in stillness, citing the example of the long-lived tortoise.

But deep down, he actually knew the benefits of exercise.

He was just lazy, unwilling to move, unwilling to suffer.

But now he wanted to develop the habit of morning exercise.

He wanted to possess a strong physique, wanted to have a body of solid muscles, hoping that the women in his future, upon seeing his muscles, would blush, breathe heavily, and swallow their saliva in secret.

In short, he wanted to change his attitude toward life.

A positive attitude toward life.

However, running was indeed exhausting; the more he ran, the more tired he became. In the chilly early morning, he forced himself to run until he broke into a sweat, his legs already aching and weak.

Yet he still gritted his teeth and persisted in finishing the planned one thousand meters for the day.

When he returned to the dormitory covered in sweat, his seven roommates were still sleeping soundly in their beds.

Cao Sheng smiled, picked up his washbasin, took his Mao Jin and soap, carried his thermos flask, and went to the water room to wash up; he also washed his hair and scrubbed his entire upper body.

Although his body was quite exhausted, his mental state was very good.

After eating breakfast in the cafeteria, he arrived at the classroom with his textbooks and notes; by then, a few students were already sitting sparsely in the classroom.

Their class had neither too many nor too few students, totaling 42.

Among them, 8 were girls.

Of the 8 girls, only two could be called pretty, and that was only in comparison to the other six girls in their class.

Compared to the girls in other classes at the school, the girls in their class were all very ordinary.

To put it this way! Of the 8 girls in their class, not a single one could surpass his high school classmate Tan Lei in appearance.

It was for this reason that Cao Sheng felt quite disappointed on his first day at university.

He had originally thought that upon entering university, the female classmates around him should be more numerous and more beautiful than during his high school years.

Who would have expected that they could not compare at all.

This made him somewhat regret choosing the accounting major.

As far as he knew, the major with the most girls and the most beauties at Huizhou Teachers College was the Tourism Management major in the Tourism Department.

It was said that the tourism classes were practically a kingdom of women, with the number of boys in each class being countable on one's fingers, making them extremely fortunate.

Unfortunately, he knew this too late.

Entering his own class's classroom, Cao Sheng randomly chose an empty seat in the back row, sat down, and casually flipped through the two books he had brought, appearing uninterested.

He had long grown weary of the accounting major.

He never wanted to be an accountant in this life.

Therefore, he had little interest in the courses he was currently required to study.

If it were not for the need to give his parents an explanation, he wouldn't even want to attend this university.

At this moment, sitting in his seat, he frowned at his textbook; after looking at it for a while, his thoughts began to wander.

He thought: Every time I stay overnight at an internet cafe, I spend three or four days' worth of my living expenses; if this continues, my living expenses for this semester will definitely not last until the end of the term.

I must think of a way to earn some money as soon as possible.

He did not want to live frugally for an entire semester; as a transmigrator, if there was no meat in his dishes every day and he ate only vegetables, that would be a huge joke.

It was just...

Before transmigrating, he was merely a shut-in who spent his days writing text.

Except for writing text, he possessed very few skills.

He thought about finding a small restaurant outside the school and, using the time left after studying each day, working part-time to earn some living expenses.

But he felt that earning money in this way would neither yield much money nor be easy; it was hard work.

It was not the best strategy.

Find a wealthy girlfriend and eat soft rice for a while?

This thought popped into his mind again.

He couldn't help but show a self-mocking smile, thinking: Why do I always want to eat soft rice? Is it because my stomach was not very good before I transmigrated?

Just then, a fragrant breeze arrived beside him; when he smelled the scent and looked over, Wu Can, the most beautiful girl in their class, plopped down in the seat beside him.

As she sat down, she turned her head and smiled at him.

This Miss indeed possessed a certain degree of beauty.

Although her height was not tall, appearing to be under 1.6 meters, her skin was Bai Xi and delicate like cream, and her face shape and facial features were quite good.

She was also quite fashionable, having dyed her hair yellow.

In terms of dress and style, she was obviously a cut above the other girls in the class.

She looked Similar family background.

But she was not the type Cao Sheng liked.

In his original timeline, Wu Can had pursued Cao Sheng.

Not only did she frequently sit next to him voluntarily during class, but she had also asked him out privately, yet he had rejected her every time.

At this moment, looking at Wu Can sitting beside him, Cao Sheng, who had just been wondering whether to find a wealthy girlfriend and eat soft rice for a while, suddenly made up his mind: A true man would rather take what is straight than seek what is crooked! I will never eat soft rice in this life, even if it kills me!

He realized he still could not get past the barrier in his own heart.

The thought of having to curry favor with some woman every day just to get three meals a day made him feel deeply resistant.

"Here! I bought an extra box and can't finish it; help me drink it?"

At this moment, Wu Can placed a box of milk on the desk before him and said with a smile.

Cao Sheng chuckled lightly, did not refuse, reached out to take it, inserted the straw, and put it in his mouth.

"Thanks!"

He offered a casual thank you.

Although he had already decided not to eat soft rice, he would not deliberately refuse Wu Can's milk.

As long as he kept in mind not to eat soft rice, that was enough.

That midnight.

Cao Sheng came to Starry Sky Internet Cafe for an overnight session again.

Today was the day he updated the second chapter of his new book.

He would also upload part of his stored drafts to his email.

After the computer booted up, the first thing he did was log onto Rongshu Xia to check the status of the new book he had published two days ago.

Soon, he found his book, "Days Living with an Air Hostess."

As expected, the current data for this book was dismal.

Number of readers: 44.

But the number of commenters was 16.

Cao Sheng curiously read through these comments.

"Really or fake? Did the author really live with an air hostess?"

"Chapter One? Is there a Chapter Two after that? Chapter Three? What about the follow-up? Why is there still no follow-up?"

"Is this a story? Or a diary?"

"Where is Chapter Two?"

"Living together? When did they start living together?"

"Isn't living together against the law in our country?"

After reading these comments, a smile appeared on Cao Sheng's face.

He found it quite interesting that these readers could not distinguish whether this was a story or a diary.

Their look of having never seen the world made him laugh.

He thought: Is this the reaction everyone had when the first web novel appeared?

Thinking that these readers had waited two days and still hadn't received an update, which was quite pitiful, he delayed no more, logged into his email, pulled up the draft of Chapter Two, and sent it to Rongshu Xia.

Afterwards, he opened a document and began typing the stored drafts from the manuscript paper into the document.

As he typed, he thought in his mind: This book probably won't make money in the short term; should I start another one suitable for publication recently? Try submitting to publishers in Taiwan to earn some manuscript fees?

He remembered that in the original timeline, before Qidian Chinese Network introduced the paid system, web novel authors who wanted to earn money all submitted manuscripts to publishers in Taiwan for publication.

Around the year 2000, quite a few web novel authors made money publishing in Taiwan.

It's just...

It is now early 1998.

The book he wrote, "Days Living with an Air Hostess," counts as the first web novel.

Publishers in Taiwan probably haven't started publishing web novels yet.

How about... submitting "Days Living with an Air Hostess" there to try?