Freeman Martin's first half of life had been rather humiliating. Everyone knew he was a crude man who had accomplished only one deed that shook his hometown—chasing the future Duke Mecklen down the long streets with a sword while he ran around "walking his bird."
But the latter half of his life had made him a cultural celebrity. Under the pen name Freeman Ximen Qing Martin, he had "shaken the New and Old Continents" and was later praised with such elegant and vulgar titles as the progenitor of erotic fiction, founder of the salacious novel genre, the most shameless author in history, the fastest draw in the Old Continent literary world, and a literary craftsman with no bottom line.
Freeman Martin had also been one of the best-selling novelists across the New and Old Continents...
Well, Charlotte had taken all the royalties and never given him a single cent.
It was only after Charlotte later read novels from the era of the Twenty-Two Centime Battle that he learned some unscrupulous Fast-Handed Clerks had stuffed their novels with vast amounts of indecent writing in order to meet KPIs such as making readers unable to put the book down, ensuring widespread circulation, attracting attention, delivering explosive content, and opening with bizarre hooks.
Charlotte had even discovered a book called The Biography of Wood Brandon, written by some unknown Fast-Handed Clerk. This bizarre biography had no main account, only a supplementary tale called Young Wife Winnie. Its prose was fresh and elegant, carrying something of the charm of La Dame aux Camélias, yet its substance was utterly that of a vulgar romance novel.
Well, Charlotte had paid every Fast-Handed Clerk a hefty sum to keep quiet, vigorously promoted Freeman Martin, who was far away in Seagull City, and firmly refused to admit that