While continuing to read the classics of the ancient sages and digesting the philosophies of the various schools from his previous life, time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the entire two-month summer vacation had come to an end.
Speaking of which, quite a few interesting things happened over those two months.
Setting aside what had already happened before, let's first talk about some amusing events in the Cabbage Group.
Ever since Huang Yifan gave a lesson to more than a dozen newbie author friends in the Cabbage Group, seven or eight people in the group immediately chose to release new books.
That in itself wasn't strange.
Everyone was an author, everyone liked writing, so releasing new novels was perfectly normal.
What made Huang Yifan laugh and cry, however, was that these guys who opened alt accounts to publish new books had all chosen pen names related to the character "white."
Names like A Bit White, Super White, The Second White Under Heaven, A Dot of White in the Central Plains, Look How White I Am, and the like. When Huang Yifan saw those pen names, he almost sprayed out the lunch he had just eaten.
Damn it. His noob-style fiction trend hadn't even fully taken off yet, but they'd already mastered using the character "white" in pen names.
That was only a minor thing. What was even more impressive was that the new books written under these seven or eight "white"-related pen names somehow all achieved a bit of success. Whether it was an explosion of inspiration or influence from Huang Yifan, no one really knew.
This phenomenon even gave quite a few authors on the Feilong forum a scare.
Looking at the wave of debut pen names all related to "white," many Feilong forum authors muttered to themselves, "Could it be that noob-style fiction is about to explode?"
"Or is it that as long as your pen name includes the character 'white,' your novel will get good results?"
That was just one thing.
The second was that Huang Yifan's pen name, Qiushui, became famous in a single battle at Youth Daily. Although it didn't attract the interest of the general public, it greatly boosted Qiushui's prestige. Continuing to stay at Youth Daily, as Sun Zaian put it, would be a bit unfair to others. In the end, during the summer, Sun Zaian recommended a higher-end youth literary magazine to Huang Yifan, hoping he would go show off there as well. He also introduced Huang Yifan to the editor-in-chief of Youth Literary Arts, Ji Ziping. However, Huang Yifan used being too busy during the summer as an excuse and turned down several of Ji Ziping's requests for manuscripts.
The third was that 'A Chinese Ghost Story' had been successfully published and released on the market. However, because Huang Yifan had no prior reputation, the release of 'A Chinese Ghost Story' didn't receive much attention from the market. Only the cooperative bookstores of New Moon Publishing House stocked a few thousand copies. Still, editor Hongdou from New Moon Publishing House passed along some fairly good news to Huang Yifan. He told Huang Yifan not to worry. Although the market hadn't paid much attention to it, the reputation of 'A Chinese Ghost Story' was excellent. Every reader who bought the book gave it a 9.7 out of 10 rating. Based on experience, with such high praise, sales could reverse and surge later on.
As for this, Huang Yifan naturally said he didn't mind. He knew very well that this was how it always was for a new author's debut book. No fame, no fans, nothing at all. What bookstore would dare give you heavy promotion and large orders? No matter how well your new book was written, merchants wouldn't take that risk. If it were truly good, they could always increase orders later once readers started buying it like crazy.
The fourth was some news about the graduating students of Class 2, Grade 9.
During the two-month summer vacation, Huang Yifan had a small reunion with his classmates. He learned that Li Luozhi had been specially recruited by Gan No.3 High School and would be going to Gan City in the future. Yu Bin, for reasons unknown, also said he was going to Gan No.3 High School. As for those admitted to No.1 High School, there were Jiang Weiwei from the class, class monitor Liu Guiquan, Zhu Jun, and Xia Hui, who had sat behind Huang Yifan. Quite a few people went to No.2 High School. Aside from Huang Yifan himself, there were also Chen Peng, Xie Qian, Xia Cixiang, Zhang Lin, Zhang Yuancong, and others. Of course, his deskmate Zhang Huiping was something Huang Yifan had known about for a long time.
As for the rest, some went to vocational schools or nursing schools because they didn't do well on the exams, while others were preparing to pack their bags and head south to work.
This small reunion felt different from the carefree mood during the graduation photo shoot. Perhaps because they sensed a hint of parting, this gathering was both happy and sad. They reminisced about interesting events from the past three years of middle school, talked about how certain teachers were, and even teased Huang Yifan for hiding his true abilities and somehow getting into No.2 High School. Huang Yifan replied that there had been a top student ahead of him, and he had just copied his way in. There was also a certain male classmate who, emboldened by alcohol during the farewell, confessed to a certain female classmate. Unfortunately, campus love stories mostly end in tragedy, especially middle school ones.
The gathering ended with hugs among the guys and tears from the girls.
Of course, there was also one girl's helplessness and another girl's sigh.
All in all, Huang Yifan's summer vacation was fairly fulfilling.
Checking the time, it was almost the agreed-upon moment. It was time to show some real skills.
…
September 1, 2015 AD, was the day Xinfeng No.2 High School began registration.
On this day, Huang Yifan had just turned fifteen.
On his fifteenth birthday, Huang Yifan made a wish in front of his parents.
The wish had nothing to do with his career. It was simply a wish made to his parents.
At the same time, on his fifteenth birthday, Huang Yifan took out the 10.000 yuan reward previously given by the school, along with a total of 80.000 yuan in advance manuscript fees that had been paid in advance by Midnight Talk magazine, Youth Daily, and New Moon Publishing House, and handed it all to his parents. He told them not to go out to work anymore and instead use this money, together with some family savings, to start a small business in Tieshikou Town.
Although his parents were initially shocked that Huang Yifan had suddenly come up with 80.000 yuan, after he briefly explained that he usually wrote some articles and submitted them to publishers, they gradually calmed down. After all, they already knew about the 10.000 yuan reward Huang Yifan had received from the school before. Even though Huang Yifan had skipped classes for ten consecutive days after that reward, from that point on, his parents had already begun to accept the idea that their son was a genius.
Even so, on the day Huang Yifan entered his first year of high school, his parents still repeatedly reminded him to behave himself. Even if he was a bit clever, he still had to follow school rules and regulations and not skip classes for another ten days.
Huang Yifan solemnly stated that such a thing would never happen again.
In the end, amid his parents' relieved smiles, Huang Yifan set off on the road to Xinfeng No.2 High School.
There was no imagined sense of unfamiliarity, nor the curiosity typical of other new students.
Unlike others who went straight to register upon arriving at school, Huang Yifan did not register after arriving at Xinfeng No.2 High School. Instead, he rented a small room near the school.
Renting a place was, of course, not to pick up girls, but for the upcoming second work.
Huang Yifan couldn't exactly live in the school dorm and write novels there.
Although it wasn't impossible, it would be far too inconvenient.
Moreover, with the mindset of an adult from his previous life, he really wasn't used to sharing a room with others, especially men.
Fortunately, housing near middle schools was cheap. For 150 yuan a month, Huang Yifan settled in a small room.
After buying all the daily necessities, his little home for the next three years was basically set up.
Unfortunately, there was no broadband installed yet, which gave Huang Yifan a bit of a headache. He could only call the telecom company and urge them to come install it as soon as possible. Then, opening the laptop he had already bought as his writing weapon, Huang Yifan prepared to begin writing his second new book.
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