Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 282 Journey to the West

Upon seeing the book title, the bookseller displayed disdain.

It's not that the name "Journey to the West" is unpleasant or makes people lose interest.

On the contrary, it's quite suspenseful.

Why the journey to the West?

However, he sells books here.

It's about making money.

I'm not here to do literature.

The title "Strange Tales," the progenitor of the monster-themed novels, is quite grand in scope and was also the best-selling work of the Great Yu Dynasty. However, this does not mean that everyone can achieve the same level of success.

Countless books have followed suit, including some that use characters from "The Strange Theory" as protagonists and then create derivative works.

In other words, it's a fan-made comic.

In ancient times, fan fiction could be considered an extremely large literary genre.

However, since you've already written fan fiction, you can't keep up the act anymore.

The title of a book should be concise and to the point.

From "The Road Back from a Thousand Years of Frost"

"You should have seen it too."

The stall owner, leaning back in his chair, didn't even pick up the book on the table, and said with a rather arrogant attitude, "If I don't like a book, it only deserves to be thrown on the ground and trampled on by others."

I will directly reject novels I don't like.

"I saw it." Song Shi'an replied quite casually, completely unaffected by his rudeness.

The stall owner also realized that, judging from his clothes, he wasn't the kind of person who was short of money.

It's purely a rich guy writing a book.

After all, we now have a readership, and there are many people who read novels. Therefore, some wealthy young men who love reading novels will write them themselves, enjoying the feeling of being sought after by the common people, being discussed in the streets and alleys, and becoming a popular novelist.

But so what?

"Is there a sister-in-law in the first chapter?" he asked rather provocatively.

“No,” Song Shi’an said calmly.

“I know you look down on writing this kind of stuff, thinking it’s vulgar and low-class.” The stall owner had seen plenty of people like Song Shi’an, so he offered a sharp critique directly, “But we’re in business. All the books are laid out here for customers to choose from. No matter what they’re about, selling a lot is the real skill. If you can’t sell many copies, then you’re considered useless in this line of work.”

Rich young masters like this simply think erotic novels are vulgar, and they fantasize about their sisters-in-law being despicable. They naturally have a sense of superiority and want to write works that are not erotic or involve promiscuity.

They actually wrote it, put it up for sale, and then couldn't sell it. They still clung to the illusion of victory—"Sure enough, the readers are too low-class. You people who read popular novels are just trash."

The stall owner wasn't lenient at all.

This analysis thoroughly dissects Song Shi'an's mindset.

“Of course, nobody wants to read it, so it’s definitely just waste paper,” Song Shi’an agreed completely.

“Fine, I can look at this stuff.” The stall owner glared at him, challenging him defiantly, “If it’s written as utter nonsense, and even plagiarism doesn’t turn out well, I’ll tear this book to shreds right here and now!”

"please."

Song Shi'an extended his hand humbly.

So the stall owner casually copied the book down.

He roughly flipped it open, leaned back in his chair, and prepared to scrutinize it with a magnifying glass.

Chaos is not divided into chaos, and no one sees it.

Since Pangu broke the primordial chaos, the distinction between the pure and the impure has been established...

The opening poem is quite well written.

However, the stall owner was not particularly surprised; on the contrary, he looked down on it even more.

Many pedantic scholars who look down on erotic novels but still want to make money from them all start with a poem.

Furthermore, the beginnings were all well-written.

But of the whole book, only the opening poem is acceptable.

The rest of the story will probably start as a poor scholar preparing to travel to the capital for the imperial examinations...

But after reading only the beginning, he frowned and asked, puzzled, "How come a monkey popped out of a rock? Who writes a novel where the protagonist is a monkey?"

As he spoke, he looked at Song Shi'an.

Before I knew it, this guy had already sat down in the seat next to me. And, leaning back in his seat, he started pouring himself some tea and drinking it.

He's very outgoing and friendly.

Novelists are all idiots. Without him to publish their books, how would they print them, sell them, and make money?

That's why he was able to humiliate those poor scholars from a high position.

And the other party could only swallow their anger and go back to revise the article.

Why is this kid acting like a big shot?

Song Shi'an was very confident that once he finished watching a segment, he wouldn't stop, even without his sister-in-law.

You'll never understand the shock of an arrow piercing through Behemoth's testicles, hitting Janna, and then giving birth to the male protagonist.

At this moment, a monkey sprang from the stone, which was absolutely groundbreaking in an era where novels were merely various connections with people.

Song Shi'an glanced in that direction, and sure enough, the guy continued watching.

Unlike that guy who just threw it away because his sister-in-law didn't appear in the first chapter.

When the world was created, the immortal stone received the essence of the sun and moon.

The commotion startled the Lingxiao Palace, and the stone monkey's eyes shone with golden light, shooting towards the Dipper and the Ox.

Baptized by wind and frost, the spirit stone bursts open and produces stone eggs.

This is the origin of the stone monkey...

The identity of this monkey left the stall owner with a strong sense of imagination.

He roamed and leaped through the mountains, eating grass and drinking from streams, gathering wildflowers and searching for fruit. The passage vividly portrays the habits of a monkey. The scene where he enters the Water Curtain Cave in front of the other monkeys to become the Monkey King is particularly moving, making the reader feel as if they are there, thoroughly enjoying the experience…

They all sat up straighter.

Very normal.

The reason why "Journey to the West" is one of the Four Great Classical Novels is because it is entertaining.

It's fair to say that all four classic novels are enjoyable.

Apart from the fact that the characters in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are somewhat underdeveloped and lack psychological descriptions, making it slightly less exciting, the other three books are all worth reading repeatedly.

Among them, "Water Margin" is a mature novel that can be compared with "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Of course, Song Shi'an wrote "Journey to the West" because "Water Margin" was banned after it was written.

He only read "Dream of the Red Chamber" once and couldn't remember the plot.

Yes, even if the original Journey to the West were written out, it would be banned.

So, he wrote about the 86 TV series "Journey to the West," a show he had watched at least ten times on television. The stall owner swallowed hard.

Without realizing it, he had been watching for quite a while without stopping for a moment.

Fingers slowly flipped through the rough paper.

In fact, his job is equivalent to a pornography reviewer.

I usually just read all sorts of articles about sisters-in-law.

Select the articles that best capture the atmosphere, the most realistic details, the sense of transgression between the two parties, and the sister-in-law's gradual descent into depravity.

During the peer review process, the feedback is often very harsh.

Only at this moment did he feel the pleasure of reading novels.

The spiritual root gives birth to the source, and the cultivation of mind and nature gives rise to the Great Dao.

To fully comprehend the profound truth of Bodhi, one must vanquish demons, return to one's original nature, and unite with the primordial spirit.

This monkey is truly amazing!

Time passed by so quickly that he had no idea how much time had gone by.

"Hey, can you recommend a book?" a customer said.

"See for yourself." He gestured with his hand and ignored him.

"Tsk." The customer was speechless.

Then, Song Shi'an handed him a copy of "Springtime in the Garden".

After looking at it a few times, the person smiled, nodded, put down the money, and left.

Books are being read less and less.

It's getting thinner and thinner.

Anyone who enjoys reading knows that you feel very reluctant to part with a book as it gets closer to its end.

The stall owner was thrilled and felt exhilarated watching the monsters play tricks on the gods and wreak havoc in the Heavenly Palace.

Completely immersed, as if I were there.

The appearance of Buddha also made him feel a powerful pressure.

And so, he turned to the last page.

That's it.

"What happens next?" he asked Song Shi'an eagerly.

"That's the second part," Song Shi'an said with a faint smile.

"Oh dear! He's the Monkey King, how could he be trapped under the Five Fingers Mountain?!" The man was still fuming when he was completely drawn into the situation and asked repeatedly, "He must have had other tricks up his sleeve, right? When he was trapped, he turned into a fly and flew away."

"Books," Song Shi'an gestured, reminding him, "Let's talk about publishing a book."

The stall owner, who had been staring at the scene for a full half hour, finally snapped out of his daze.

It felt like I had just experienced a top-level battle of wits.

There's absolutely no way to detach myself from it.

"This..." He had previously thought this was just a copycat of "The Bizarre Theory," but now he realized that this book far surpassed "The Bizarre Theory," and his attitude completely changed. "This is a good book, and it will definitely be a bestseller!"

Of course, there are tens of millions of genuine copies of "Journey to the West" worldwide.

If you include piracy, it'll easily exceed 100 million.

"Then I accept your kind words," Song Shi'an said with a slight bow.

“But I don’t understand, why did you write such a story?” he asked curiously.

Song Shi'an also had plans for this.

In fact, besides being so familiar with "Journey to the West", he also wrote "Jin Ping Mei".

But there's nothing he can do; his writing style is rather proper, and he can't write something so obscene.

Furthermore, the disguise will eventually be exposed.

Just like that scholar who became famous for writing about his sister-in-law.

Therefore, I had to write "Journey to the West".

Others write about their sister-in-law, I write about a monkey—see how upright I am!

“Because the Great Sage is also my dream,” Song Shi’an explained.

"This book will undoubtedly be remembered for all time. Perhaps even more so than 'The Strange and the Bizarre'," the stall owner declared confidently, then asked, "Sir, what price would you like to offer?"

How will you offer your price?

"The books here are usually sold by percentage," the stall owner said. "Twenty percent of each book goes to the gentleman. Then, a book usually costs fifteen coins. Of course, a book of your quality can sell for twenty coins."

How can I know how many copies you actually sold?

“We have ledgers,” he said. “We have several shops in Sheng’an, and several more in cities near the capital. If we can sell 20,000 copies of yours, that’s 80,000 coins.”

Of course, if you sell too much and don't want to share the profits with the author, you can slightly adjust the sales figures.

But we can't suppress it too much.

They are still very conscientious.

Eighty thousand coins.

The tax revenue of a county is only one million coins.

Even if Song Shi Anfen finished writing ten books, he would only earn a million coins.

That's nothing.

Piracy will indeed be rampant at that time. The total number of copies of ten copies in existence, accumulated over several generations, could reach tens of millions.

After all, printing technology is now very advanced.

But you can't make money from piracy.

“If you feel this is not acceptable, I can take the liberty of adjusting the profit sharing to 30%,” he said earnestly.

Sheng'an has more than just one Yuewenge.

The people reading books in Sizhou were not just the people of the capital.

If he had voted for someone else, he would have lost out.

We must hold on tight.

"What percentage do you want? Just tell me," he pressed.

"Zero percent".

Song Shi'an smiled.

"Huh?" He was stunned.

Song Shi'an slowly stood up and said quite casually, "This book is free. You can order whatever you want."