Page 8

Tang Shi pursed his lips in a smile at Lu Hengzhi without saying anything. Still, he had to admire Lu Hengzhi's sharp instincts in certain matters.

When the two of them had participated in Dance Miracle in their previous lives, it was not just the student-organized vote-pulling text messages at school. Even the employees at Lu Hengzhi's father's company had been "ordered" to vote for them. Everyone had to scrape together ten phones, sending ten texts from each phone to vote overtime. The next day, they had to submit "proof" of the messages to Lu Hengzhi's father's company for inspection, then collect an "overtime fee" of five yuan per text. Tang Shi's mother had also constantly asked every customer who came to buy buns to vote for them. Even the nearby neighbors and relatives had thrown themselves passionately into the cause of canvassing for votes...

Thinking about it now, those votes had been no more than a drop in the ocean compared to the votes they ultimately received on the PK stage. But to Tang Shi, they had been proof that their family and friends were supporting them. It had been the first time Tang Shi received others' approval and affirmation for something he did, and the first time he realized he could successfully accomplish something. He had originally planned to make that stage the goal he would strive toward for the rest of his life. Who could have expected fate to have other plans? Just days later, there had been the rehearsal mistake and the snapped wire rig. Tang Shi's dream had shattered.

The television hanging on the wall at the far end of the cafeteria was playing the noon news. It was all nonsense about world peace, local wars, and the excellent domestic situation. The old man in charge of logistics carried over a four-legged stool, climbed up beneath the television, and changed the disc. A soundtrack from an old Hong Kong Island movie immediately began playing through the noisy cafeteria.

Lu Hengzhi lowered his head and picked the beef from his tray into Tang Shi's, then picked the green peppers from Tang Shi's tray into his own. As he did, he complained, "You never eat green peppers, but every time you eat, you insist on ordering stir-fried pork with green peppers. At least half the dish gets wasted. You really don't know how to live economically."

"If I don't eat green peppers, don't I still have you?" Tang Shi casually replied. He lowered his head and picked all the scallions out of his food, tossing them aside before he finally started eating.

Lu Hengzhi glanced at the chopped scallions scattered across the table, shook his head, and said disdainfully, "What kind of habit is that?"

Then he turned around and pointed at the television behind him with a grin. "They're playing Tai Chi Master in our cafeteria again today. Do you think that old man in charge of logistics at our school is a Zhang Sanfeng fan? When I was parking my bike this morning, I even saw him doing Tai Chi beside it!"

"Maybe he's a Lin Liancheng fan," Tang Shi casually replied. Then he froze. He looked blankly at the scene on the television, where Zhang Sanfeng was practicing Tai Chi with a ball, before turning to Lu Hengzhi and asking, "You know how to play freestyle basketball, right?"

Lu Hengzhi laughed at that. "That's funny. You make it sound like you don't know how."

Tang Shi could not be bothered with Lu Hengzhi's jab and continued, "What do you think... if we combine street dance with freestyle basketball, wouldn't that catch more attention at the Auditions?"

Lu Hengzhi said, "Huh?"

Chapter 9

High school life was, in fact, extremely simple and dull. Although students did not have to toil over food, money, and daily necessities, the heavy coursework and endless test papers could still keep them busy enough to make their heads spin. For many people, high school was memorable not because those years had been particularly colorful, but because they had been simple.

But for Tang Shi, high school after his rebirth was not all that simple.

Ever since deciding to enter the Dance Miracle Auditions, Tang Shi's life had become a little busy. As an adult with the soul of a twenty-six-year-old, Tang Shi could no longer stand by and watch Mother Tang wear herself out without doing anything. Although Mother Tang insisted that he could not do more, helping her sell buns every morning was something Tang Shi felt he had to do, and it was also the only little thing Mother Tang could accept for the time being.

And as a student, it went without saying that he had to pay attention in class and spend a great deal of time after school reviewing and previewing middle and high school material in preparation for the college entrance exam two years later. On top of that, he had to carve out time during lunch breaks and elsewhere to practice street dance. To that end, Tang Shi had specifically used studying as an excuse to go with Lu Hengzhi every weekend to secretly practice in a remote, quiet little park.

Lu Hengzhi made an even greater sacrifice for it—he even skipped the extracurricular Peking Opera class that his grandfather had forced him to attend without fail since he was six. Not only that, Lu Hengzhi went to see the old master who taught him and said with a regretful expression that his high school workload was too intense, his family did not agree to let him keep attending extracurricular classes, but he personally would absolutely not neglect the fundamentals of martial-role training. Once the college entrance exam was over, he would definitely continue studying Peking Opera, and he hoped his teacher could understand, and so on...

His vivid performance made Tang Shi, who was secretly watching outside, cover his mouth and laugh. Once again, he became certain that Lu Hengzhi absolutely had the talent to be an actor.

Once they had dealt with all the external obstacles, the two boys' schedules became even tighter. At eight every Saturday morning, they would put on an act, leave home carrying schoolbags, meet at the crossroads outside the alley, then take buses to the little park to practice dancing. A month or two passed without anyone discovering them. The two thought their scheme had succeeded and that they had kept the adults completely in the dark. What they did not know was that on the first day Lu Hengzhi skipped class, the old Peking Opera teacher had already called Lu Hengzhi's grandfather. Lu Hengzhi's grandfather then informed Lu Hengzhi's father and Tang Shi's mother... Once the two families got together and discussed it, all they had to do was call the boys' homeroom teacher to ask about their situation at school, then have Lu Hengzhi's father casually send a company employee to look for them. Naturally, Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi's whereabouts were soon uncovered.

However, seeing that the children were both so persistent and serious about it—and that they only rehearsed dancing on weekends and during breaks without neglecting their studies—the parents treated it as a way for the boys to relax and could not be bothered to interfere. The main reason, of course, was that after one or two months of deliberate and systematic review, Tang Shi's grades had gradually improved. As for Lu Hengzhi, his grades had always been above average and had never slipped. Lu Hengzhi's mother even contacted a friend who taught children to dance in the city and had her free up a dance studio for the two of them. This support solved a huge problem for Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi. After all, practicing in front of mirrors meant they could spot improper movements at First Moment and correct them more easily.

As for Mother Tang, she had no ability to offer the boys financial support, but she still did what she could—every weekend, she carefully prepared boxed lunches for Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi. She hoped that after working so hard, the two boys could have a delicious meal and feel their parents' support for their dreams.

Mother Tang's attitude reached Tang Shi's heart without reservation. The benefit of suddenly having more than ten years of memories was that Tang Shi was no longer as childish as boys his age, and he could more deeply understand the parents' awkward, indirect concern. He was deeply moved, of course, but at this stage, Tang Shi had no way to repay such profound motherly love. So he could only rehearse with increasing seriousness and effort, proving that Mother Tang's hopes would not be disappointed again.

Besides dancing and studying every day, Tang Shi also had to set aside an hour or two to write novels. Then, during computer class, he would type the articles from his draft paper into documents before going to an internet café to upload them to the website... Fortunately, Tang Shi had a rich friend in Lu Hengzhi. One day, after accidentally reading Tang Shi's novel, Lu Hengzhi immediately became a loyal reader of Prosperous Tang Strategy—and instantly became Tang Shi's personal human upload machine.

Unlike Tang Shi, who was so poor he could not even afford a computer, wealthy Lu Hengzhi had no desire to show off, but he lacked none of the standard privileges of a rich second-generation heir. Naturally, his home had a computer with the latest specifications. Tang Shi only needed to give Lu Hengzhi a USB drive containing the saved documents, and Lu Hengzhi could upload them when he got home—

Later, Tang Shi simply handed the rough drafts filled with his novel directly to Lu Hengzhi. Lu Hengzhi took them home, typed them into documents, and uploaded them online, becoming Tang Shi's true "ghostwriter."

But this method could not last forever. It was only the first semester of their first year of high school. Their studies were not yet that demanding, but once they reached their second and third years—or if they really got lucky and entered the entertainment industry through the Dance Miracle stage—they would obviously be even busier. It was not right to keep asking Lu Hengzhi for help. Even if Lu Hengzhi had no objections, Tang Shi did not have the nerve to keep troubling someone else. Brothers were brothers, friends were friends. It was kind of someone to help you a few times, but they had no obligation to serve you forever.

Whenever he thought of this, Tang Shi could not help shedding tears and missing the spacious, bright study in his future life, the soft and comfortable computer chair, the convenient laptop, and how effortless it had been to type ten thousand words a day—

When will it all come back, damn it! QAQ

Fortunately, major literature websites had only just begun to rise at this time. Even the practice of charging readers for VIP chapters had only been implemented for a few months. There were far fewer web novel authors than in the future. Most people wrote only out of interest and passion, writing whenever they had time or inspiration. There were authors who updated on schedule and by quota, but there were even more "amateurs" who wrote intermittently. Therefore, Tang Shi's sporadic updates did not draw many complaints.

And by the time all the free chapters were released and the novel began charging, summer vacation would be nearly here. Although Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi would be going to Apple City to participate in Dance Miracle then, Tang Shi believed he would have more free time than he did now. Setting aside a few hours every night to update six thousand words should not be a problem.

Tang Shi secretly made plans in his heart and felt slightly comforted. But after the novel had updated around thirty chapters, not only did website editors and readers become deeply interested in Prosperous Tang Strategy, a historical time-travel novel with fresh tropes, tight plotting, well-researched details, and a silly-sweet writing style, but several comments began appearing beneath it, asking to serialize Prosperous Tang Strategy in magazines or publish it as a book. Tang Shi was overjoyed. It was like he had worked hard on a story and accidentally created a masterpiece that shocked the world. #WhatAnEgo#

He had never imagined that a novel which would seem utterly clichéd and trashy in the future would be so popular in the web fiction market more than ten years earlier. But when he thought carefully about the landmark classics later hailed as genre founders, aside from their fresh ideas and grand structures, their writing and plots were really nothing special.

That was why the first person to eat crab always got to enjoy the greatest delicacy. Having lived again, Tang Shi was gradually getting a taste of that small pleasure.

He first added the website editor's QQ through the site message, then had a brief but sticky little exchange of kisses with the website editor Clear Breeze Bright Moon before decisively signing the electronic digital rights contract for Prosperous Tang Strategy. He also added the QQ accounts left in the comments by those seeking to contact him. After talking with editors from several publishing houses and magazines and making a judgment after considering matters from all sides, Tang Shi finally decided to grant the magazine serialization rights for Prosperous Tang Strategy to Legends of the World, a long-established historical magazine with an excellent reputation, for fifty yuan per thousand words. By the standards of this era, that was quite generous for a newcomer like Tang Shi.

As for the magazine publishing rights to Prosperous Tang Strategy, the publishing houses Tang Shi had spoken with all insisted that he stop the online serialization and publish the book directly. Since Tang Shi was a newcomer, their terms were not especially good either, so Tang Shi was dissatisfied. In the end, both sides reached a stalemate. Even when the publishers relented somewhat and improved Tang Shi's compensation, he still did not agree to stop updating the novel in order to publish it.