Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 330: Women's Fate

When she told him that her phone was out of credit and that's why she couldn't reach him, Cao Sheng chuckled slightly.

As he walked to the dining table, he opened the takeout bag and said, "Don't bother! Come and eat! My place isn't that dirty."

His place isn't actually that dirty, because his new assistant comes over almost every day to clean for him.

By the way, his new assistant was introduced by his former counselor, Lu Xiangwei. She is a senior student two years ahead of Cao Sheng, named Cui Xinyu, who also majored in accounting.

She has been Cao Sheng's assistant for almost four months now.

"I'll eat after I wipe the table."

As Huang Qingya spoke, she quickened her pace of wiping the table.

A moment later, she washed the rag, hung it out to dry on the balcony, and then came to the dining table to eat.

"Would you like some more? We have your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs."

She asked with a smile.

Cao Sheng opened another pair of chopsticks, added a piece of pork rib and put it in his mouth, "Hmm, the taste is really good."

The two of them chatted while eating.

Cao Sheng had already eaten in the cafeteria, so she didn't eat much; she just tried a few dishes that she had packed up.

Huang Qingya: "In the past few months, you've been releasing two episodes this month, three episodes next month, and two more episodes the month after that. Do you know what people are saying about you online lately?"

Cao Sheng chuckled, "What did you say?"

Huang Qingya: "Some people say that your writing style is 'nine shallow and one deep'."

After saying that, she couldn't help but chuckle.

Cao Sheng was speechless. He looked at her and pursed his lips, saying, "This is a typical case of being uncultured. If I only publish one episode for several months in a row, and then suddenly publish three or four episodes in one month, then what they say is correct. But have I been like that for the past few months?"

Huang Qingya looked at him with a smile in her eyes, "So what do you think your writing style is?"

Cao Sheng thought for a moment, "You could say it's a pendulum-like writing style."

Huang Qingya: "Some people say that your writing style is like doing sit-ups."

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Let them say whatever they want! It doesn't matter."

Huang Qingya was a little curious, "Then why have your updates been like this for the past few months? Can't you be more consistent? For example, release two or three episodes every month? With your ups and downs, it's no wonder everyone finds it strange."

Cao Sheng: "Except for weekends, I have to attend classes every day, and I can only write this much each month. What can I do?"

Huang Qingya was puzzled, "That's not right! The word count you publish each month is different!"

Cao Sheng: "Because I can only write two and a half episodes a month these days! If I combine the remaining half episode with the two and a half episodes next month, wouldn't that make three episodes?"

Huang Qingya: "???"

She never expected the truth to be like this.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, she couldn't help but say, "You type so fast, if you just rush to finish the manuscript a little each month, you should be able to publish three volumes every month, right?"

Cao Sheng countered, "Why should I rush to finish a manuscript?"

Huang Qingya: "Let's make it three episodes!"

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Why would I want to make it into three episodes?"

Huang Qingya found it even stranger, "Isn't it better to round it up to a whole number? Don't you think it's not complete to always write two and a half episodes a month?"

Cao Sheng: "Do you have obsessive-compulsive disorder?"

Huang Qingya paused for a moment, then nodded. "It seems a little bit. Don't you have any?"

Cao Sheng shook his head, "No!"

Huang Qingya chuckled to herself.

After a while, she changed the subject, "Hey, I'm about to finish writing my novel 'Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms' this month, but I still have no idea what to write next. Can you give me some suggestions?"

Cao Sheng was a little surprised, "Aren't you going to take a rest?"

Huang Qingya shook her head slightly, "What's there to rest about? I'm used to writing every day. Suddenly having free time, I don't know what to do. Can you help me think of a story? Everyone says your work is always very creative. I'm definitely not as good as you in this aspect. Can you help me think of another one?"

Looking at the expectation in her eyes, Cao Sheng felt a mix of emotions.

Because she's always been so career-driven.

Even though she didn't need to work hard, she always wanted to achieve greater success in writing.

She's been visiting his site a little more frequently lately because this book is almost finished, but I guess she'll be visiting less often each month once she starts writing her new book.

However, since they had been together for so long, and she wanted a new book idea, he was still willing to help her think of one.

"How about trying a story where the female protagonist travels back to ancient times and leads a family to the top step by step? For example, she travels to a fictional ancient world where she is the eldest daughter of a poor family. She has several younger brothers and sisters, a disabled father, and a weak mother. The story is about how she uses her advantages as a time traveler to gradually lead them to a better life?"

This is a writing style that Cao Sheng remembers was once very popular in female-oriented online literature.

However, he himself has never seen such a work.

I've only heard people talk about this way of writing.

It seems that many popular works in the female-oriented genre are written in this way.

In my memory, these kinds of works usually also portray a few ungrateful younger brothers or sisters, or sisters-in-law.

In a more ruthless way, the entire female lead's family might be portrayed as ungrateful wretches.

Therefore, it is intended to arouse the readers' righteous indignation.

However, Cao Sheng didn't really want to talk about this kind of extreme writing style.

After listening to his suggestion, Huang Qingya blinked and blinked again, then nodded slightly and said, "It sounds interesting, but you once told me that novels need to have a gimmick, like the novel you mentioned, 'Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms,' where the male protagonist is a dragon, which is a great gimmick. But the story you just told doesn't seem to have any gimmicks, does it?"

"You want a publicity stunt?"

Cao Sheng countered with a question.

Huang Qingya was a little confused. "Didn't you tell me this before? Have you forgotten?"

Cao Sheng smiled.

He couldn't quite remember if he had ever said something like that to her before.

However, he felt that using gimmicks to attract readers should be something that new authors should consider, because new authors have no reputation, and when a new book is just starting out, they have nothing else to attract readers except gimmicks.

For authors with a certain reputation, their pen name is already a brand name, enough to attract a portion of readers.

Therefore, when launching a new book, whether it has a gimmick or not is no longer that important.

But since Huang Qingya wants a gimmick, Cao Sheng can help her come up with one.

"You can use gimmicks, such as having the female lead travel back in time to become Da Qiao or Xiao Qiao, or into the body of other famous women in ancient times. Or you can give the female lead a hidden identity, such as her being the daughter of an ordinary family on the surface, but actually the illegitimate daughter of a prince or emperor. You can use your imagination to give her a distinguished background. This will arouse readers' anticipation for the subsequent plot. When the work is written in the middle or later stages, suddenly revealing the female lead's secret background can also lead to many exciting plot developments."

Huang Qingya's eyes lit up as she listened. After hearing the story, she nodded repeatedly and said with a smile, "That's great! If she's the illegitimate daughter of a prince or the emperor, we could even arrange for her to eventually ascend the throne and become an empress, right?"

Cao Sheng chuckled, but still nodded.

Unlike when he gave her ideas for "Eternal Love" last time, this time, although he was still giving her suggestions and helping her come up with ideas, he was clearly not as attentive as before. This is because he doesn't like her strong ambition for her career.

If two people are both very career-oriented, who will take care of the home, the children, and their education after marriage?
Huang Qingya, however, did not notice the look in Cao Sheng's eyes.

She added enthusiastically, "If the female protagonist were to travel back in time to become Da Qiao or Xiao Qiao, she could assist Sun Ce or Zhou Yu in conquering the world, right? In the process, we could also depict other famous ministers and generals who admire her and risk their lives to protect her, right?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

"Yes! That's how you can write it."

Cao Sheng nodded in agreement.

She chatted with him enthusiastically for over an hour, and only when it was almost time for his afternoon class did she say goodbye and leave.

After she left, Cao Sheng got up and cleaned up the food she had left behind, sighing with mixed feelings.

……

He finished his two afternoon classes before 4 p.m.

He drove to the gym next to Huizhou Technical School.

This gym, named "Tian Tian Fitness Center," belongs to him.

The three storefronts on the first floor were the first branch of Xitong Internet Cafe, and the second floor was Tiantian Fitness Center.

With a hired manager in charge, Cao Sheng also invited the four sports students who had briefly worked as his personal bodyguards for a few days to work part-time as fitness instructors, as planned.

Of course, there are also several professional fitness coaches.

Since the gym opened, Cao Sheng has had a dedicated place to practice boxing.

The Tiantian Fitness Center, which has been open for more than two months, is not doing well and has not yet turned a profit, but he doesn't really care.

Take it slow! As times change, more and more people will enjoy fitness.

Moreover, even if the gym doesn't make money, the appreciation of the property can offset the gym's losses.

He was mentally prepared for all of this long before he decided to open the gym.

"Hi boss!"

As you enter the fitness center, the receptionist behind the bar at the entrance greets you with a sweet smile and a cheerful voice.

The sluggish business here did not diminish her enthusiasm for Cao Sheng at all.

Because she had calculated it on her fingers: even if the gym continued to lose money, given Cao Sheng's rate of earning money, it would never run out of funds! It simply wouldn't run out of funds!
You should know that he earned 20 to 30 million the year before last and more than 100 million last year, which has been reported in the news.

So even though business here has been getting worse lately, and the manager and coach have been so worried that they haven't been able to smile for days, she still manages to show a sweet smile every time she sees Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng nodded to her and walked to the changing room. Along the way, several fitness instructors greeted him.

When he changed into boxing shorts and wore boxing gloves, he came out of the locker room.

Manager Kan Ming was already waiting at the locker room door.

Upon seeing Cao Sheng, Kan Ming immediately smiled, greeted him, handed him a bottle of mineral water, and asked in a low voice, "Boss! Would you like me to order you dinner? It'll be dinner time soon."

Cao Sheng took the bottled water and hummed in agreement, "Just order a few dishes."

"Yes! Okay!"

Kan Ming quickly turned around to make arrangements.

Cao Sheng went to a sandbag, put down his bottle of mineral water, and began practicing his boxing.

The loud thuds drew attention.

It attracted the attention of the few customers nearby.

Two of the girls were students from the nearby vocational school. They had gotten membership cards here and came almost every day.

At this moment, one was lifting dumbbells and the other was running on a treadmill, but their eyes kept glancing at Cao Sheng.

Not far away, another person running was Jiang Xiaoshuang.

When Cao Sheng entered the room, he didn't look to the side and didn't see her.

Jiang Xiaoshuang had already seen him, but she didn't rush over to greet him.

She recently saw Cao Sheng come to this fitness center by chance. Out of curiosity, she followed him in, chatted with the receptionist for a while, and found out that Cao Sheng was the owner of the fitness center.

So she also got a membership card and has been coming here often lately to work out while waiting for Cao Sheng to appear.

Today, she finally got to see him.

What she didn't know was that Cao Sheng actually came here to practice every day.

It's usually after dinner.

The reason he came early today is because he only has two classes this afternoon, and school ends early.

Wearing only a pair of shorts and a gray vest, Cao Sheng exuded masculinity, with clearly defined muscles.

This is the result of his two years of continuous boxing practice.

As Jiang Xiaoshuang watched him practice his boxing seriously and admire his strong muscles, she couldn't help but swallow hard.

I couldn't help but blush.

Suddenly, she heard two vocational school girls talking in hushed tones not far away.

Girl 1: "Hey! Aren't you going up? It's been so many days. If you like him so much, why don't you go up and say hello? What are we doing here every day?"

Girl 2: "Shh! Keep your voice down! And you're the one talking to me? He's a nobody in the Central Plains! Don't you like him? You don't even have the courage to go to him, do you?"

The girl pouted, "Can we be compared? I know my own limitations; I'm definitely not good enough for him, but you're pretty! I think if you take the initiative, you might actually have a chance! Why don't you give it a try?"

The second girl frowned and hesitated, then whispered, "I don't dare! He's so rich and talented, and so handsome. He's also an undergraduate from Huizhou Teachers College. What about me? You're not good enough for him, so how could I be? No, no! I really don't dare."

……

Jiang Xiaoshuang couldn't help but glance at them.

They discovered that one of the girls was of average appearance, height, and build.

The other girl, however, was fair-skinned and beautiful, with long legs, and most importantly, she was young, probably around sixteen or seventeen years old.

Youth is invincible.

Compared to them, Jiang Xiaoshuang suddenly felt that she seemed a bit old.

She couldn't help but laugh at herself.

Are all the girls at the vocational school interested in him?
Jiang Xiaoshuang wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

Because she knew that the line of people who liked Cao Sheng could probably stretch from here to the train station.

Just like that girl said, he's so rich, talented, and handsome, what woman wouldn't like him?

Jiang Xiaoshuang didn't get off the treadmill and walk towards Cao Sheng until he finished practicing with the sandbag and went to rest and wipe his sweat.

(End of this chapter)