Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 430 (a single chapter)

The evening of July 2.

The day after tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve. With the New Year approaching, Cao Sheng's mind is a bit scattered. He feels that the New Year is coming soon and he should rest for a few days, which greatly reduces his motivation to write.

Moreover, the things his parents said when he accompanied them to buy New Year's goods today also affected his mood.

They said they wished they could spend the Spring Festival in their hometown, their longing for home evident in their words.

Their words also stirred up Cao Sheng's homesickness.

After all, he is a middle-aged man at heart, and once a man reaches middle age, the desire to return to his hometown becomes stronger and stronger. For example, many men who have worked hard outside for half their lives always think about returning to their rural hometown to build a house and prepare for retirement when they reach middle age.

On his way back to the villa after shopping for New Year's goods today, Cao Sheng considered taking his parents back to their hometown for the New Year tomorrow.

But after thinking about it, I gave up the idea.

Because there's not enough time. The day after tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve. If I go back tomorrow, I'll have to spend at least a day doing a thorough cleaning, which will be very tiring and rushed.

The idea of ​​going home for the Chinese New Year has been abandoned.

But I haven't been able to find the right mindset for writing tonight.

So he decided to give himself a break tonight and take a break.

With nothing to do, he aimlessly browsed the Qidian website. As he wandered around, he saw Xuan Yu's latest chapter of "Starry Sky" promoting his new book, "The Legend of the Little Soldier," on his personal bookshelf.

Yes, ever since he saw the pen name Xuan Yu on Qidian, he has been following Xuan Yu's activities. For example, when Xuan Yu was writing "Interstellar Prodigal Son", he put "Interstellar Prodigal Son" on his bookshelf.

Xuan Yu wrote "Starry Sky," and he put "Starry Sky" on his bookshelf.

Cao Sheng had read a few chapters of both "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky".

One can sense the immaturity of Xuan Yu's writing and the looseness of the plot, which is somewhat reminiscent of "The Legend of the Little Soldier," but its appeal is far less than that of "The Legend of the Little Soldier" in his memory.

Therefore, he only read a few chapters of both books and then stopped reading them.

But I never removed those two books from my bookshelf.

In fact, Xuan Yu is not the only author he follows.

Whenever a great author he remembered was writing a book, he would subconsciously put that book on his bookshelf.

This reflects his concern for these original time-traveling deities.

I want to see if they in this timeline can still write the popular works they did in the original timeline. Can they still become legendary figures in the industry like they did in the original timeline?
Over the past two or three years, most of the works written by the "masters" he has followed were not originally written in the original timeline.

For example, the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda by Tang Jia San Shao. In the original timeline, Tang Jia San Shao never wrote such a book.

For example, Lao Zhu's "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Nine Sons" were not written by Lao Zhu in the original timeline.

For example, the Toad's "Map of Mountains and Rivers" is a book that the Toad of the original timeline never wrote.

and many more.

Cao Sheng discovered that all the great figures in his memories seemed to have had their life trajectories skewed by him in this time and space.

Sometimes, when he saw Guo Jingming's "Senior Sister! Senior Sister!" and "Master's Wife! Master's Wife!", he couldn't help but laugh.

He felt that Guo Jingming was probably the one who had been most severely misled by him.

How glamorous was Guo Jingming in the original timeline?
She became famous throughout the country early on because of the New Concept Writing Competition. Her subsequent best-selling books, though receiving mixed reviews, all achieved increasingly impressive sales figures.

He wrote novels, published magazines, and made movies. At the height of his fame, he once publicly ripped off Yang Mi's skirt at a movie press conference.

And now?

It's already 2002, and Guo Jingming still hasn't participated in the New Concept Writing Competition.

They're still writing things like "Senior Sister! Senior Sister!" and "Master's Wife! Master's Wife!" in the online novel circle, rushing headlong down the path of skirting the line.

Of course, in recent years, he has also met authors who were not led astray by him, such as: The Great Demon King Rosen.

Just like in the original timeline, this version of Rosen first published "Feng Zi" and this year published "Feng Yue," firmly holding onto the territory of erotic fiction and resolutely refusing to waver.

Where is Jin Hezai now?

Jin Hezai of this time and space also deviated from the original time and space's life trajectory and wrote a book called "Dark Cultivation".

But he soon returned to his original life trajectory and wrote his famous work from the original timeline—"The Legend of Wukong".

However, in general, Cao Sheng has been led astray by most of the "experts" he has encountered in recent years.

He has never seen the novel "Child of Light" by Tang Jia San Shao.

I also didn't see Hama's "Tianpeng Zongheng".

Old Pig still hasn't written "Zi Chuan".

However, when Cao Sheng previewed the book "Nine Sons," he saw some similarities to "Zi Chuan." It seemed that Lao Zhu had used some of the inspiration and plot elements originally used in "Zi Chuan" in "Nine Sons."

Tonight, he saw Xuan Yu promoting his new book, "The Legend of the Little Soldier," in the title of the latest chapter of "Starry Sky."

"The Legend of the Little Soldier?"

Has Hyunwoo returned to her original life trajectory in the same timeline?
The thought flashed through Cao Sheng's mind, and he subconsciously clicked on Xuan Yu's pen name, finding the new book "The Legend of the Little Soldier" under his pen name.

The pages of "The Legend of the Little Soldier" open.

Total clicks: 1183, Total recommendations: 152, Total words: 4.8.

Cao Sheng smiled, feeling as if he had discovered a promising new seedling.

With 4.8 words, yet only such a small number of clicks and recommendation votes, he felt a little sorry for Xuan Yu.

Scrolling down to the book review section, I found dozens of serious book reviews.

For example: "Go! Go!"

"Another sci-fi book? Keep it up! I feel like the beginning of this book is much better than the previous two!"

"The title isn't good! I suggest the author change it to 'The Legend of the Marshal' or 'The Legend of the General.' 'The Legend of the Little Soldier' ​​is too unimpressive."

"Another science fiction story? Can't you come up with something new? Can't you write a different genre?"

……

After glancing at the book review section, Cao Sheng opened the book's table of contents and began reading the first chapter, with a mix of curiosity and nostalgia in his mind.

The purpose of this investigation is to see how different this book is from the original "Legend of a Little Soldier" in the original timeline.

Nostalgia is about rekindling the feeling of reading this book back then and reminiscing about the past.

Before his rebirth, Cao Sheng was also captivated by the book's imaginative ideas.

Back then, there were many authors who could write about Xianxia and cultivation, and many who could write about Xuanhuan and Fantasy, but very few who could write well about science fiction.

"The Legend of the Little Soldier" was undoubtedly the best science fiction book of its time, without a doubt!

It's fair to say that the continued emergence of popular and classic works in the online science fiction genre was largely influenced by "The Legend of the Little Soldier".

Or you could say that back then, who among those who wrote online novels hadn't read "The Legend of the Little Soldier"?
Works such as "The Legend of the Little Soldier", "Zhu Xian", "The Legend of the Dragon Warrior", and "I Am the Great Mage" were read by almost every writer and reader in that era.

It has affected too many people. One chapter, two chapters, three chapters...

Time passed quietly, and Cao Sheng read seven chapters of "The Legend of the Little Soldier" in one go.

After finishing Chapter Seven, he didn't read the next chapter.

Instead, he chuckled and opened "Interstellar Prodigal" and "Starry Sky," quickly scanning the table of contents of the two books. He had already read over ten thousand books, ninety-nine percent of which were online novels.

Therefore, his "sense" for online novels should be better than many people's.

He had previously previewed "Star Wanderer" and "Starry Sky," and had just read seven chapters of "Legend of a Little Soldier." As he read, he suddenly realized that although these three books seemed to have three different beginnings, with different character settings and plots,... the core elements seemed to be the same.

It's somewhat like the original Potato, who wrote three books based on a single outline.

It was also like several colleagues he knew before his rebirth. Those colleagues took Potato as their role model and always imitated him, writing several books based on a single outline.

Some of them saw their popularity decline the more they wrote.

But some people, while writing, end up earning millions a year.

Just now, Cao Sheng had some suspicions that "Legend of a Little Soldier," "Star Wanderer," and "Starry Sky" used the same outline.

Although the characters and stories may seem different, the overall feel of the books, such as the writing style, combat system, and weapon settings, is almost the same.

Is Hyunwoo taking this path?

Is this how "The Legend of the Little Soldier" was written?
Cao Sheng didn't quite remember the plot of the original "Legend of the Little Soldier," but when he read the first seven chapters, he thought it was very well written, with a light and interesting style, and was highly readable. He believed that its quality was no less than that of the original "Legend of the Little Soldier."

This surprised him.

Xuan Yu actually used this method to return to the original timeline of his life and create "The Legend of the Little Soldier"?
Xuan Yu, whose life trajectory had already been skewed by Cao, would probably never have been able to write "The Legend of the Little Soldier" if he had changed the subject matter of every book he wrote.

But now he seems to have used a single outline to write three books, creating his representative work from the original timeline—"The Legend of the Little Soldier".

"Brilliant!"

Cao Sheng gave this assessment with a smile.

After thinking about it, he wrote a separate chapter in his work, "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts".

I'd like to recommend a new book to everyone!

This is the title of the chapter.

The main text of the chapter reads: "Tonight I accidentally discovered a very interesting new science fiction book - 'The Legend of the Little Soldier'. Friends who like science fiction and friends who are experiencing a reading slump should check it out. I don't think you will be disappointed."

For him, this was a book recommendation piece written on a whim.

When he wrote this chapter, he had this mindset: I've led you astray in your life, and since you've produced "The Legend of the Little Soldier," I'll give you a hand! That's all I can do to help you!
This can be seen as a form of compensatory psychology.

He wanted to make amends to Hyun-woo, whose life had been led astray by him.

After all, Xuan Yu from the original timeline reached his peak right from the start. His book, "The Legend of the Little Soldier," made him a legend and a classic in the hearts of countless readers.

This book also represents the youth of many people.

……

After posting this chapter, Cao Sheng went to browse other works on his bookshelf, without paying attention to the reactions in his book review section.

However, the article he posted quickly reached Xuan Yu's ears.

That evening, around 8 p.m., Xuan Yu logged into the author backend as usual, preparing to update "The Legend of the Little Soldier".

But I was surprised by the number of people who had collected this new book.

Because when he updated the book in the morning, it only had 284 favorites.
But now it has skyrocketed to 556.
It has almost doubled.

Keep in mind that his book was published on February 1st.

Today is February 9th. It took 9 days to accumulate 284 favorites, but today it almost doubled in just half a day?
What is this if not a surge?
How could it suddenly surge so much?

My book hasn't even made it onto the recommendation list yet, and it's less than 5 words long, so it hasn't even made it onto the new book list. Without a recommendation spot or the boost from the new book list, how could my collection count skyrocket?
what's the situation?
Xuan Yu was a little confused.

But this was ultimately a good thing. He smiled and didn't delve into the reasons for the time being, instead focusing on updating a chapter of the manuscript.

Then I opened the book page and found that the total number of clicks had almost doubled, reaching more than two thousand.

The total number of recommendation votes also increased by more than 100.

He was increasingly surprised.

I scrolled to the book review section and learned what had happened from some of the posts.

"Wow, Xuanyu! Zhongyuan Yidianhui actually gave you a thumbs up! Tell me! When did you start hanging out with Zhongyuan Yidianhui?"

"I came from the 'Chinese Martial Arts Chronicle' section. Is this the book Ah Hui recommended? This seems to be the first time Ah Hui has recommended someone else's book. Let me check out the quality first."

"I came from 'The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts,' and I've left without leaving a trace!"

"The Legend of the Little Soldier? Ah Hui's recommended new book has such a short word count, what's the point of reading it? I'm leaving!"

"I just took a look at this book, and it's really well-written. No wonder Ah Hui recommended it. I've added it to my bookshelf. Keep up the good work with updates!"

"This is the first time Zhongyuan Yidianhui has recommended a book, and it's a science fiction book. Let me take a look."

"Author! Go thank Zhongyuan Yidianhui! He gave you a special chapter recommendation."

"I didn't expect to see this book's name in a single chapter by Zhongyuan Yidianhui. Tsk tsk, I thought the author was some old flop! I didn't expect that he would know Zhongyuan Yidianhui. Amazing!"

……

Upon seeing these posts, Xuan Yu's doubts were resolved, but even more doubts arose.

For example, did Zhongyuan Yidianhui really dedicate a chapter to recommending my new book?

For example: I don't know him! Why would he recommend my work?
For example: How did he make the recommendation?
With these questions in mind, he came to the page of "The Romance of Chinese Martial Arts" and saw a recommended book chapter with a gray dot in the center. Sure enough, this chapter recommended his own "The Legend of the Little Soldier".

At this moment, Xuan Yu felt it was incredible.

It feels like I hit the jackpot.

A sense of pride welled up inside him, and he felt very proud. Zhongyuan Yidianhui actually thought his new book was very well written and even wrote a special chapter to recommend it.

He was also a fan of Zhongyuan Yidianhui's books, so he knew that this was the first time Zhongyuan Yidianhui had recommended another author's work in his own writing.

This special treatment made him much more optimistic about the prospects of "The Legend of the Little Soldier".

My confidence suddenly increased several times over.

I even dared to speculate whether this book could ever be published?

……

That same evening, tens of thousands of writers and readers saw Cao Sheng's book recommendation chapter, including the Third Young Master, who recently published his new book "Mad God".

The Third Young Master looked at the "Legend of the Little Soldier" in this chapter and felt very envious.

I thought to myself: I wish even Central Plains A Little Ash would recommend my new book.

(End of this chapter)