Chapter 44

The new semester started with seat changes, and Jian Li was still seated next to Xia Liu. Xu Yanan, who ranked third in the class, chose a seat in the first row.

The center of the first row is usually not considered a good spot because it’s too close to the blackboard and the view isn’t great.

But Xu Yanan, as if punishing herself, firmly sat in the middle. Teacher Fang frowned but didn’t say anything in the end.

This time, the class officers were also adjusted. Xu Yanan, who was the class monitor, went to the homeroom teacher after class and said she wanted to quit to focus on her studies.

“I’m also quitting as the group leader.”

Xu Yanan gave up all her class duties, and Teacher Fang had to find someone else to take them on.

The first person she asked was Jian Li, who quickly waved her hand.

“Teacher, I can’t do it.”

She had her own important things to do.

Since both the first and third in the class didn’t want to take on the job, the role of study monitor fell to the second in the class.

Jian Li went to the school gate to wait for the letter.

After a whole winter break, Meihua had released two issues of its serialization, and Jian Li was eagerly waiting to see her work in print.

The old man at the mailroom already knew Jian Li and cheerfully said, “I knew you’d come. Here you go.”

Jian Li took the thin letter, her heart pounding.

She tore it open and skimmed through it. Jiang Rou’s letter was simple, with only two key points.

One was urging her to hurry up and submit her work. It had already been a whole winter break, and she hadn’t drawn even 100 pages yet; at least 50 pages should have been done. The content for the next two issues after the start of school was very important, and she hoped Jian Li would submit the finished work soon.

Jiang Rou even added a line saying to make sure to send it by express delivery.

The second point was about sales. Jiang Rou used four words to describe it: “Surprisingly good.”

Although it was the off-season during the winter break, the sales of the two issues released during the New Year had increased by 20,000 copies compared to usual.

In the letter, Jiang Rou wrote, “The January issue is still being reprinted.”

What did this mean? It meant that many people who had read the second issue were going back to buy the first issue.

Meihua mostly featured short stories, with only three long ones. The December issue started with a famous teacher’s work, and the January issue started with Jian Li’s work.

The senior editor, Qin Zhen, had originally wanted to take credit for the sales boost, attributing it to the famous teacher he had secured, but when the data for three months came in, he had nothing to say.

Sales had clearly surged in January. The Meihua magazine, which typically sold just over 100,000 copies a month, suddenly increased to 120,000 copies, and this number wasn’t even the final one.

Many people called, and there were countless fan letters, all urging them to reprint more.

Some people bought the first issue but couldn’t get the second one, while others bought the second issue but missed out on the first.

There were even young girls who were more ridiculous, calling to say they wanted to buy two more copies because they planned to cut out the characters.

The editor-in-chief was dumbfounded: “Cut them out? It’s a comic. Can you still read it after cutting it out?”

Jiang Rou, however, understood the girls’ hearts: “Our long-form cover is in color, right? I think she probably wants to cut that out.”

Jiang Rou thought to herself, who hasn’t copied lyrics in a notebook in school? She had classmates who loved cutting up newspapers. Lots of people cut out things from magazines. The cover of Movie Story often featured actresses from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and if it was a cover with Wang Zuxian, within three days, the classmates borrowing the magazine would have cut it out.

The editor-in-chief couldn’t understand and sighed, “I’m really getting old.”

When reading Jian Li’s Xingzhu Chuan: The Parting Story, he thought it was of medium quality, but he didn’t particularly like the story’s core.

If there was any novelty, it was the involvement of concepts like immortality and cultivation. But it was still essentially a teenage romance, just with a new twist.

However, to his surprise, such a story had gained so much popularity.

The editor-in-chief had data not only from various regions but also on the best-selling categories.

The best-selling areas were undoubtedly around schools.

Bookstands and bookstores near campuses had recently increased their orders. One familiar bookstore owner told the editor-in-chief, “I’ve never seen so many young girls come in asking specifically for it. I said it was sold out, and they wanted to order from me.”

The bookstore owner didn’t understand the girls’ chattering about the plot, so when the new batch of books arrived, he decided to open one and take a look.

After finishing it, he didn’t think much of it, casually tossing it aside. The magazine later ended up in his wife’s hands.

She didn’t react like the young girls did, but she had a smile on her face as she read. Later, she urged her husband to quickly restock.

The husband strongly suspected that his wife just wanted to be the first to see the new issue’s plot!

The editor-in-chief and other senior editors kept going over the content, but in the end, they couldn’t understand why the young girls liked it so much.

Jiang Rou blushed slightly. She couldn’t exactly explain why, but she just… liked seeing the male lead, liked seeing the female lead, liked watching the male and female leads fall in love.

At the end of the letter, Jiang Rou also shared some of her own feelings, since as an editor, she had to offer guidance to the author on content. However, Jian Li’s style was so mature that Jiang Rou felt there was nothing she needed to communicate. She simply wrote some thoughts as a reader for Jian Li to consider.

Jian Li slowly curved her lips. What’s so hard to understand?

Women are naturally more attuned to love, and the obsession with pairing up is a long-standing tradition. If a piece of work can fulfill their emotional need for love, it has already achieved half its purpose.

Jian Li tucked the letter away, and there was still a remittance slip tucked inside the envelope, with a sum higher than she expected.

What was originally agreed upon as twenty yuan per page, Jiang Rou had increased it to thirty yuan per page.

Plus, there was an additional reward for extra prints.

Jian Li picked up the 800 yuan remittance slip, feeling quite satisfied.

At this rate, her goal of buying a house before going to university wouldn’t be hard to achieve.

She sent out the drafts she had saved and, in the envelope, answered some of Jiang Rou’s questions and casually asked her to send some dot-matrix paper over.

Jian Li had scoured the whole city of Taocheng to find a store that sold dot-matrix paper, but the quality was poor, and the price was ridiculously high.

In her letter, Jiang Rou said that if she encountered any difficulties in her creation, she could tell her, as an editor, and she would help solve them.

Jian Li thought to herself that the other things didn’t matter, but she really needed the dot-matrix paper.

The letter was sent out, and Jiang Rou quickly sent a large package of dot-matrix paper back to Jian Li.

When Jian Li saw the package, she was stunned. It was a huge bundle of dot-matrix paper, enough for two or three years of use!

The accompanying letter was unusually short.

Jiang Rou only had one thing to say.

Hurry up with the drafts.

It had been a month since the last issue, and many readers had started to send in letters of dissatisfaction, some even suggesting directly on the phone that the magazine should cut some of the shorter stories.

“Each issue is too short!”

Twenty pages, and if you weren’t careful, you’d finish them in a flash.

The readers were upset and wished they could lock the authors up and make them draw to the end in one go.

Jian Li: …

Faced with the editor’s urging, Jian Li could only work hard to finish the drafts.

—-

The new semester started, and Qian Pingchu arrived at school on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

It was another year of the college entrance examination. One corner of the blackboard read how many days were left until the exam, and Qian Ping couldn’t help but feel more anxious as the number decreased every day.

This was the second time she had sat in the exam hall for the college entrance examination.

If she still didn’t get in this time, how would she face her parents and relatives?

The pace of last semester, with the New Year’s break, had vanished, and Qian Ping felt like she was repeating the same struggles.

Under the pressure, Qian Ping couldn’t help but feel short of breath, and sometimes, just sitting there made her feel like she couldn’t breathe.

Her deskmate, who was very casual, tried to comfort her: “My mom said, if we don’t get in, we don’t get in. Even if we don’t, we can just start a business together!”

Her deskmate had repeated a year, and her family wasn’t short of money. Under the heavy pressure, Qian Ping saw that others didn’t have to worry about the future, and she couldn’t help but blurt out, “Of course, you don’t have to worry.”

Her family situation was different.

Just thinking about her second aunt’s expression during the New Year made her feel upset.

Her mind was full of thoughts about how her second aunt would react if she caused more shame to her parents.

Her deskmate didn’t say anything. The two of them, who had always been on good terms, didn’t speak a word the whole day.

Qian Ping knew she was in the wrong, but she was truly exhausted and had no energy to spare for friendship.

When they got back to the dorm, her deskmate had already finished washing her feet and was asleep. Qian Ping felt like she hadn’t learned anything, and she didn’t dare sleep.

She used a flashlight to read. When she was starting to feel drowsy, she suddenly heard crying.

She called out her deskmate’s name, pulled back the curtain of her bed, and saw her deskmate crying with her eyes closed.

She hadn’t woken up; she was crying in her sleep.

Qian Ping carefully closed the curtain and cried herself.

How could anyone really be as carefree as they said? Her deskmate was just hiding her pressure deep inside.

In the repeated-study class, everyone was tense.

Now, this tension had stretched to its limit for everyone.

The teacher noticed it and went to the principal the next day.

Then, in the evening, the homeroom teacher of the repeated-study class came in to announce a big decision.

“This time, our school, along with two other schools, is holding the spring sports meeting, and I’ve signed us up.”

Facing the class of numb, pale students, the teacher took a deep breath. “Everyone has been studying hard lately. We don’t have to sign up for everything. I’ve chosen a few events for you, so you can participate according to your abilities. But when the time comes, everyone needs to show up.”

In this breezy season, she hoped more than anyone else that each person here would have a bright future. Beyond that, she wanted them to learn how to deal with pressure.

—-

In April, a light rain fell for several days, but it finally cleared up just before the sports meeting.

Jian Li’s middle school, along with the Cotton Mill High School and Cotton Mill Secondary School, gathered on the playground.

The spring sports meeting began with the sound of a whistle.