Chapter 5: husband, brother, baby, choose one.

Chen Fan ultimately decided to copy his own work.

It was not because his moral bottom line was too high and he was unwilling to draw on the works of other famous authors.

Rather, time did not wait, and to securely buy the house he had to go to Modou to close the deal in August.

That meant he had at most one month to earn money, and he also had to get his new book finished and listed quickly, or he would not be paid.

Besides, his borderline formula combined the strengths of many writers, and it could still produce surprising results in this era.

“Huh, if you want to make more money, why not have Li Miaoyi write as well?”

Influenced by Li Miaoyi, Chen Fan had initially planned to break into women’s fiction, dismantling all of Li Miaoyi’s novels and several famous female-oriented works, and he had learned a great deal in the process.

He only regretted that he had accidentally revealed his identity as a male author, been attacked by certain groups, and had his money-making plan die before it even began.

However, although the plan collapsed halfway, the knowledge he had gained remained, and he could now put it to use by having Li Miaoyi work for him.

The only difficulty was how to get Li Miaoyi to obediently follow his instructions.

Chen Fan took out his phone and only then discovered that he hadn’t even added Li Miaoyi on QQ.

That would not do.

After all, they had become boyfriend and girlfriend and still had not exchanged contact information, which was absurd.

Chen Fan immediately added the contact “Guyu丨Patient” from the group chat.

What a ridiculous name that was!

Chen Fan suddenly felt a little embarrassed to have such a pretty girlfriend.

After a while his request was accepted, and Li Miaoyi sent a message: “Chen Fan, did you need something?”

He was surprised that she still addressed him as “Chen Fan”.

They were already boyfriend and girlfriend, so being that distant was not acceptable.

Chen Fan thought for a moment and first typed a line: “Miaoyi, what is your phone number?”

Li Miaoyi obediently hesitated briefly and then replied, “…135****4396…”

Chen Fan did not hesitate and dialed straight away: “Miaoyi, now that I’m your boyfriend, shouldn’t you change what you call me?”

“How do you want me to change it…”

A weak voice came from the other end; Li Miaoyi sounded like someone who could be easily picked on.

Then Chen Fan did not hold back and considerately offered several options.

“Husband, brother, Brother Fan, or baby are all fine; pick one.”

“Ah?”

At a classmate’s house in the county, Li Miaoyi lay on a soft bed with a novel beside her, and she stared at the content on her phone with her eyes wide.

Aside from “Brother Fan”, which was somewhat acceptable, she could not bring herself to say any of the other options out loud.

Chen Fan sent a timely threat: “Miaoyi, these are common pet names between couples; you wouldn’t object, would you?”

At his words Li Miaoyi clenched her small hand and the uneasy memories from the afternoon resurfaced in her mind.

She gripped the bedsheet hard, finally buried her head, and in a voice as thin as a mosquito’s whisper murmured, “Fan… Brother Fan…”

“What did you say? Say it louder.”

“Brother Fan…”

“That was flat, say it again!”

“Brother Fan!”

“Mm, not bad, very spirited.”

Satisfied with his own mischievous amusement, Chen Fan stopped teasing the girl and, as her boyfriend, began his usual greetings.

Li Miaoyi answered every question and told him everything she had eaten and everything she had done.

Upon learning that his girlfriend was currently reading novels, Chen Fan became interested.

He had been worrying about how to lead Li Miaoyi into the path of novel writing, and now his opportunity had arrived, hadn’t it?

At first Li Miaoyi couldn’t believe Chen Fan read women’s fiction too; students in an elite class like theirs rarely read novels at all, let alone boys reading female-targeted fiction.

But when she heard Chen Fan casually talk about classic women’s-genre tropes and analyze them thoroughly, she began to believe it.

“Chen Fan… Brother Fan, you’re really amazing; I didn’t notice so many details when I read.”

“I don’t just analyze, I can write too; do you want to learn?”

Li Miaoyi was stunned; she had never thought about this before, and she felt genuinely moved when she heard it.

She had never really been interested in STEM subjects; she had persisted in studying hard only to gain recognition from her parents and Teacher.

But she later discovered that studying hard didn’t seem to have helped much.

So why not live according to her own wishes?

However, she hesitated.

“Fan… Brother Fan, can I really learn this?”

“Of course; my girlfriend is so clever, and with me as your renowned mentor guiding you, I guarantee that within a few years you’ll become a household-name author!”

“Brother Fan, don’t flatter me; I’m not that great…”

Li Miaoyi felt a little shy, but a smile nevertheless spread unconsciously across her small face.

For some reason, she suddenly had a bold thought.

Having Brother Fan… uh, Chen Fan… such a like-minded boyfriend suddenly seemed rather nice.

One night passed, and the next day was the day to submit college application preferences.

Chen Fan got up, ate the breakfast his grandmother had prepared, tidied his novel outline for a while, and then unhurriedly walked toward Wolong No.1 High School.

Wolong No.1 High School could be called Wolong County’s best high school, gathering the county’s most outstanding students and teachers.

The experimental class that Chen Fan was in was the cream of the crop, with a 70% rate of students meeting the Tier 1 university admission threshold.

Chen Fan had usually ranked in the top five of his grade and had hoped to try for a 985 university.

Unfortunately, family upheaval unbalanced his mind, and he ultimately only got into a Tier 1 university and later dropped out.

More than ten years had passed since he graduated from high school, and Chen Fan was no longer familiar with the campus; it took him a while to find his class.

The classroom was lively, filled with youthful faces everywhere.

Teachers and parents often said that once you got through high school you’d be free in university, and many classmates believed it.

In fact, to remain competitive in the future you could not slack off at university either.

Then after entering society you still had to work yourself to the bone; life was truly hard.

“Chen Fan, over here!”

While Chen Fan sighed, an ordinary young man wearing glasses enthusiastically waved at him.

This was someone Chen Fan knew better than anyone.

It was the one he had once considered his good brother, Zheng Xingtao!

In high school he had taken advantage of him for trivial things, had joked about delivering love letters to Li Miaoyi in his name after graduation, and later had borrowed 100,000 yuan from him to buy a house, which he had not repaid even before Chen Fan’s reincarnation.

Of course Zheng Xingtao could not know that Chen Fan was no longer that silly flirt, and after enthusiastically pulling him down to sit he immediately asked with concern:

“Chen Fan, are you getting used to working at the supermarket? I think your boss there is a bit fierce.”

“I’ve already quit.”

Chen Fan sat down beside him and quietly watched Zheng Xingtao perform.

The same scene had happened in his previous life, when Chen Fan had his wages withheld by the fat boss lady, had publicly questioned Li Miaoyi, and had been slandered by Huang Kexin, leaving him in a miserable state.

Only Zheng Xingtao had reached out to help him, kindly introducing him to a new job, and Chen Fan gratefully went to do two months of hard labor.

Sure enough, Zheng Xingtao’s eyes lit up and he grabbed Chen Fan’s hand, speaking with a sense of shared grievance:

“I’ve long said that boss lady isn’t someone to get along with; we’re about to be students at prestigious universities, so why put up with that kind of treatment?”

“I happen to have a job here whose base salary is about the same as your supermarket cashier work, and you can earn commission on each item you sell.”

“Most importantly, it will help you train your abilities!”

“Jobs as good as this don’t come around often; my good brother, are you interested?”