Nearly Ten Thousand Yuan in Royalties

"Someone seems to have come to my place, I'm going to end the stream for a moment, sorry about that!" Hearing the knocking, Chen Zhao turned on his mic and said.

Little Bamboo Shoot: "Bye-bye! I'll play a solo match and wait for you."

As soon as these words were out, a large group of people in Little Bamboo Shoot's stream were suddenly unhappy, and the fans were howling in anger:

Little Bamboo Shoot is my baby: "What is this! How can you even say something like 'I'll wait for you'!"

Love eating bamboo shoots: "It's over, Little Bamboo Shoot has been snatched away by that small streamer Chen Zhao."

Bamboo shoot over rice: "Little Bamboo Shoot has been snatched away by Chen Zhao +1"

Bamboo shoots are delicious: "Little Bamboo Shoot has been snatched away by Chen Zhao +10086"

Orange juice boy: "Oh! No! I heard the sound of a heart breaking!"

Backstreet spicy girl: "Little Bamboo Shoot was snatched away? Unfollowing!"

Little Bamboo Shoot hurriedly explained: "What are you all talking about! It's not like that! I just wanted him to carry me to a chicken dinner! Why are you all like this!"

Fans are just like that, especially for a beautiful streamer like Little Bamboo Shoot who focuses on her looks and large chest; saying even the slightest thing can make the fans' jealousy explode. Similar situations have happened many times before.

Chen Zhao didn't know about the stir caused on Little Bamboo Shoot's end; he took off his headset and ran to open the door.

The person knocking outside was very impatient, banging on the door with a loud thudding sound. Chen Zhao shouted "Coming, coming" while rushing to open the door. He didn't even look through the peephole; for one, the security here was quite good and no crimes had occurred, and for another, if it were a thief, they wouldn't be so blatant as to make the whole floor hear the banging.

Opening the door, Chen Zhao was stunned.

It wasn't anyone else outside, but his landlady, Deng Zixin. Wearing a black tank top and white shorts, revealing fair, long legs and arms, she had an Esse cigarette between her red lips, looking quite hot. As soon as Chen Zhao opened the door, Deng Zixin blew smoke right into his face, likely angry because he took so long to open the door.

"Are you deaf? I've been waiting here for five minutes!" Deng Zixin frowned deeply and flicked Chen Zhao hard on the forehead.

"Sorry, sis, I was wearing headphones." Chen Zhao rubbed his head and groaned; Deng Zixin had a heavy hand, and he felt like his skull was about to crack.

"Go pour me a glass of water, I'm thirsty." Deng Zixin pushed Chen Zhao aside and walked in.

Chen Zhao closed the door and went to pour water. Deng Zixin sat on the sofa, crossing her legs while waiting. This posture made her legs look super long, and her attitude was super overbearing, like a boss. In a way, she was the boss of this building; all the tenants had to watch her mood.

"Warm water or hot water?" Chen Zhao asked.

"Ice water," Deng Zixin said.

Chen Zhao was in a bind; there was no ice at home! I'm not a milk tea shop, what kind of ice water do you want, sister!

"If there's no ice, then cold water will do," Deng Zixin said, noticing Chen Zhao's hesitation. "Such a young guy, and you don't even keep ice cubes at home for cold drinks? Is your life so devoid of passion, are you living like an old man?"

Chen Zhao had black lines running down his head; this landlady's tongue was quite sharp. He hurriedly opened a bottle of mineral water, poured it into a glass, and served it to Deng Zixin.

Deng Zixin drank half of it slowly, placed the glass on the coffee table in front of her, and crossed her arms while looking at Chen Zhao.

"You write pretty good essays?"

Chen Zhao was stunned. Since Deng Zixin came in, he had been secretly wondering what wind had blown the landlady over. He had thought of all sorts of possibilities: demanding rent, hiring him for child labor, asking him to move out by a deadline, or arranging for someone to share the apartment with him. He never expected that the first thing Deng Zixin would say about business was—you write pretty good essays?

Chen Zhao was very confused. What was this all about?

"My essays are terrible. My Chinese teacher often scolds me to pieces, calling me a destroyer of Chinese vernacular, the founder of a writing technique that disowns all relatives, and a talent who can truly kill with words." Chen Zhao decided to tell the truth.

"Don't be modest, why be modest with your sister?" Deng Zixin shook her head. "Your mom just called me and said that one of your essays was picked by your school teacher and submitted to the Baicheng Times, and it got accepted. She couldn't get through to you on the phone. She asked me to come and see if you're willing to have it published. If you are, I'll tell your mom, your mom will tell the school leaders, and the school leaders will tell the Baicheng Times. Then it'll be in the paper."

Chen Zhao was dumbfounded.

An essay picked by a school teacher?

Submitted to a newspaper and it got accepted?

When did I write such an awesome article? Haven't I missed handing in my homework for several essay classes?

There must be some misunderstanding here, for example, there might be another student in school with the same name as him who wrote the article, and the school leaders made a mistake and got the contact information for him instead.

"Oh, that article seems to be called Exhortation to Learning," Deng Zixin recalled.

Chen Zhao suddenly realized.

So it was that one!

It was actually submitted by the teacher so quickly; the speed was truly astonishing. Didn't he just hand in the paper this afternoon?

"Okay... okay then. Isn't it a good thing to be in the newspaper?" Chen Zhao said. He suddenly remembered something and took his phone out of his pocket, only to find that he couldn't turn on the screen; it must have run out of battery and shut down. No wonder his mom couldn't reach him and had to entrust the landlady to do it.

"Alright then, I'll send your mom a WeChat message," Deng Zixin said.

Deng Zixin took her phone out of her shorts pocket and placed it on her thigh to send the message. After a while, the phone vibrated, and she received a reply.

"Done, your mom told your school leaders," Deng Zixin said. "Your article will be in the latest issue of the Baicheng Times this weekend, and you'll get your payment next Monday."

"Payment... about how much will it be?" Chen Zhao asked.

"Seems to be close to ten thousand," Deng Zixin said.

Chen Zhao widened his eyes, shocked.

Just an essay written in a few dozen minutes, and it can sell for nearly ten thousand?

Is it this profitable?!

This thing is way faster than his streaming!

For the past two days, Chen Zhao had been livestreaming as soon as he got home from school, playing a round or two of PUBG. He would focus intensely for an hour or two, yet the gifts from his fans only amounted to a few hundred yuan. To think that writing such a simple article could actually rival the income of dozens of days of livestreaming?

Chen Zhao was instantly tempted.

One had to realize that ever since he obtained the System and the world had changed, Chen Zhao possessed many literary classics that only he knew about—works that the people of this world had never heard of. For instance, the Exhortation to Learning he had tossed out this time had produced such an effect. If he could toss out a few more, wouldn't he be able to rake in a fortune?

Just as he was thinking this, the System Ring on his finger suddenly vibrated, and immediately after, subtitles appeared in Chen Zhao's mind:

[Writing is a third-stage task, temporarily unavailable]

[The host's current task is to become a popular streamer]

Chen Zhao sighed inwardly; the System's word was law, after all, he was still counting on the System to provide him with a high-IQ brain. As for writing, he would have to put it on hold for now.