Parents

Li Changle spent half the day at home doing nothing but eating. His mother had bought a huge pile of snacks and fruit early in the morning, all things he liked. He was getting a little stuffed; if he kept eating, he probably would not need dinner.

With nothing else to do, he simply turned on the computer at home and continued writing.

Since he had not touched the guitar for several days, Li Changle's fingers had mostly recovered and returned to their familiar state. Following the outline in his mind, he typed away like mad. By the end of the afternoon, nearly twenty thousand words had been produced.

Li Changle nodded in satisfaction. An extra update today—ten thousand words!

He directly uploaded a ten-thousand-word chapter through the backend. Many subscribed readers immediately felt tears welling up, moved beyond measure. This Li Xiaoyao had finally learned how to release extra chapters.

The comment section was as lively as New Year's.

"Holy crap, ten thousand words! Did this dog of an author finally hear our heartfelt cries?"

"Please, you absolutely have to keep up this update pace..."

"I am actually getting excited over a novel update!"

"I love Ling'er so much. Li Xiaoyao and Ling'er have to end up together..."

"Same here!"

"Same here!"

The comment section gradually went off the rails and became increasingly ridiculous. Li Changle did not look at it. He was currently helping Lu Chengying in the kitchen.

The sound of the door opening came from outside. Li Changle's father, Li Zhenning, was home.

"Dad, you're off work. Dinner's almost ready..."

Li Changle came out to greet him, smiling as he spoke to Li Zhenning.

Li Zhenning was naturally happy to see Li Changle back home. But with work not going well, he only managed a somewhat forced smile.

"Dad, what's wrong? Is there another problem at the factory?"

Li Changle noticed how strained his father's smile was. He knew about the factory where Li Zhenning worked. Business had not been good these past two years, and they had been continually cutting staff.

"Sigh, the factory is laying people off again. The workload is already heavy enough, and now they're cutting more people. There is no way we'll meet our production targets, so they can only make everyone work overtime. Isn't that just forcing employees to work overtime in disguise..."

After grumbling at length about the factory management's idiotic decisions, he seemed to feel that Li Changle had finally come home and should not be fed too much negativity.

"Ah, forget it. How about you? Your mother said you found a job?"

Li Zhenning simply shifted the topic to Li Changle.

"More or less. I should be able to support myself."

Li Changle awkwardly rubbed his nose. Strictly speaking, he was flexibly employed.

If the book performed well, he would take off immediately. If it kept flopping, he might not even be able to afford meals. But for now, he had Wang Siyi, that Rich Woman, supporting him with food and lodging.

Thinking of Wang Siyi, he wondered how she was doing. It had been more than a week, yet he had not heard anything from her, nor had he contacted her. Mainly because there had been nothing to talk about...

Still, his father's work was not going well. If the factory job required overtime too, it would be exhausting.

Li Changle thought that he needed to make money quickly, at the very least to help ease the burden on his family. He had been spending his parents' money this whole time, which did not feel right.

Judging by the momentum of the Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 he was writing, it should be impossible for it to flop. Later, he would check the data and see how many more words it needed before it could go premium. He needed to start making money soon.

Many thoughts flashed through Li Changle's mind. It seemed he was rather short of money right now. He would have to look into ways to make quick money. Writing novels paid a little too slowly...

Li Changle was not worried about being unable to make money. With so many things in his mind, it only depended on whether he wanted to do them and was willing to do them.

The biggest problem now was finding the right opportunities. But this was not something he could rush. He just needed to learn more online later.

During dinner that evening, Lu Chengying unsurprisingly asked about Li Changle's love life.

"Ale, you've been out of school for several months now. Have you met any girls you like? If you have, remember to bring her home for your mother to see... You're not getting any younger. When we were your age, you were already one year old... You need to hurry."

Li Changle looked utterly awkward and quickly said no. These days, he barely left home and had almost no chance to interact with women. Where would he get a girlfriend?

But he could not tell his parents that. For now, they could not know that he was writing novels. He would tell them after he made money.

The older generation always felt that having a stable job was the most reassuring thing. If they learned that he did not even have a job right now, they would probably worry themselves sick. Li Changle would likely get another round of lecturing too.

Thinking about it, the only woman he had interacted with over the past few months was probably Wang Siyi. But after she left last time, he likely would not have another chance to see her.

After all, she had gone to record songs. Once she finished recording, she would have to prepare for her new album's release. If the new album sold well, she would probably become even more famous and be even less likely to come live in Yangcheng...

Strange. Why did he keep thinking about her today? Li Changle shook his head, tossing those thoughts aside as he focused on drinking his Chicken Soup.

After returning to Yangcheng tomorrow, he needed to work hard at writing and, while he was at it, look for ways to make money.

With his family struggling like this, he had no reason to lie flat anymore. Sure enough, people were lazy by nature. Diligence was forced out of them by life.

At noon the next day, Li Changle headed for the High-speed Rail station carrying large and small bags of local specialties. He looked utterly lifeless beneath the load of pickled vegetables, cured meat, and other rural specialties Lu Chengying had brought back herself.

Li Changle could not refuse, so he could only endure it in silence. He thought that once he had money, the first thing he would do was buy a car. It would make traveling home easier, and more importantly, hauling all this stuff to catch the High-speed Rail was really miserable.

Ruyi saw that the word count for Legend of Sword and Fairy in the backend had finally met the conditions for premium release, so she quickly arranged for Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 to go premium.

The backend immediately sent Li Changle a notification about the premium release, along with a personal message: Please add the editor's Penguin Social account xxxxxxx.

This time, he should see it, right? This person was truly too hard to find. Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 had been serialized on the Chinese Web Novel Platform for half a month, and she had been looking for him for half a month. Yet he had never replied.

It was simply ridiculous. If he still did not contact her after the book went premium, she would apply for backend access to check his phone number and call him directly.

Li Changle had just uploaded the latest six thousand words when he received the premium-release notification from the Chinese Web Novel Platform. He was quite pleased.

"I didn't expect it to go premium so soon!"

He checked the push notification from the Chinese Web Novel Platform and saw the message asking him to add his editor's Penguin Social account. He quickly opened the Penguin account he had not used in a long time.

Upon opening Penguin Social, he saw someone had been frantically sending him friend requests. Looking closer, this account seemed to be the same one as the Chinese Web Novel Platform backend account.

Li Changle froze for a moment before accepting. Then his Penguin was immediately bombarded with messages.

"Ahhh, Great God Xiaoyao, you finally checked Penguin!!!"

"I've been looking for you forever!!"

"Your Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 is super good!"

"I liked it from the first day it was serialized. Why is there a 1 in the title? Are you planning to write several installments??"

"Great God Xiaoyao, why aren't you saying anything?"

The moment Ruyi saw that Li Xiaoyao had finally checked Penguin and accepted her friend request, she fired off all the words she had accumulated over the past few days like a machine gun.

Li Changle stared in utter confusion, completely unsure how to respond. Was this editor really so enthusiastic? Judging by the avatar, she seemed to be a girl.

In the end, he simplified everything down to two words: "Hello!"

When Ruyi saw Li Xiaoyao reply, tears immediately filled her eyes. She had finally found Li Xiaoyao.

"Sorry, I rarely check Penguin, so I didn't see them."

Li Changle explained, letting her know that he had not deliberately ignored her.

"It's fine, it's fine! Great God Xiaoyao's Legend of Sword and Fairy is super good. I'm your fan now too!"

As if that were not enough, Ruyi also sent a worship emoji. She had none of an editor's seriousness and instantly turned into a fangirl.

"Thank you."

Li Xiaoyao kept it brief. He did not know how best to communicate with this editor. Mainly because this was his first time writing a book. He only knew how to upload chapters and check site messages in the backend, so he knew nothing else.

"Great God Xiaoyao's book goes premium tomorrow. Have you prepared your drafts? You need to release a huge batch of chapters. Good luck!"

Ruyi gave him a reminder. It was both a reminder on behalf of everyone who liked Legend of Sword and Fairy and her own heartfelt wish.

A huge batch of updates. He absolutely had to release a huge batch!

"I prepared a little. Is fifty thousand words enough?"

Li Changle had previously built up three hundred thousand words in reserve, but he chose to play it safe. Fifty thousand words should be about right, shouldn't it?

One hundred thousand words was his bottom line. He could not release all his saved chapters at once.

"That's enough, that's enough! Great God Xiaoyao is amazing! I'll be your editor from now on. If anything comes up, I'll contact you on Penguin, so make sure I can always find you there!"

The moment Ruyi heard that Li Xiaoyao had fifty thousand words saved up, she was overjoyed.

Tomorrow would be New Year's!

Then she reminded Li Xiaoyao again to make sure she could reach him and not disappear.

"Okay, thank you!"

"Then it would be best if you post a Single Chapter Announcement now to build hype for tomorrow's premium release. Mention how many words you'll release tomorrow, then how many words you'll write within the next week. Give readers something to look forward to, and the results will be better..."

She went over all sorts of things Li Changle needed to pay attention to for the premium release, and Li Changle felt like he had learned a lot.

Then he immediately posted a Single Chapter Announcement.

"Fellow cultivators! The book goes premium tomorrow. I expect to release fifty thousand words that day, followed by no fewer than ten thousand words daily for the next week. Please get ready and join this great swordsman on our journey through the martial world!

As stars sink and the moon sets, fragrance fills the night. Delicate hands draw forth their brilliance. Renewing an old bond with a new melody, the heart holds love, and love bears no hurt.

The martial world is distant, the blue sky stretches far, and the road is boundless.

The flavor of idle sorrow, a heart overflowing with feeling, endless thoughts."

A ci poem was attached beneath the Single Chapter Announcement.

"Woohoo! My youth is back!"

"Together into the martial world! A master really is a master. Even his Single Chapter Announcement is this classy. Say no more, I am definitely giving this Monthly Ticket. Not even Jesus can stop me, and I mean it!"

"Putting aside everything else, this dog of an author even writes a poem for a novel announcement. That's way too intense. How are other authors supposed to survive?"

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