The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

After catching up with his classmates from the first year of high school, Zhao Shi'an hurried towards the classroom when the bell rang.

Wang Zhijie, Chen Yongfu, and the others ran a few steps before realizing they hadn't gone to the toilet yet, so they hurriedly turned back and rushed to the toilet.

Zhao Shi'an was overjoyed at this sight.

After the Chinese class ended, he was called to the teacher's office again.

"Zhao Shi'an, I've read your articles published in the *Youth Daily* and the *Beijing Daily*, and they're very well written! Especially 'The New Look of Longxu Ditch,' which is written with genuine feeling! Keep up the good work!"

After the college entrance examination reform, the essay accounts for at least half of the score. Last year, the essay alone accounted for 60 points. If you write a good essay, your score will definitely be high.

"You've published an article in the newspaper, so take this opportunity to practice your writing and try to improve your essay score. This will also be very helpful for the college entrance examination..."

In the office, Xiao Yingxue looked at the student in front of her. After Li Zhankui returned from a home visit to Zhao Shi'an's house, he told her that a writer had emerged from the class.

After reading it with great admiration, she originally intended to call Zhao Shi'an to the classroom yesterday, but considering that the class had already ended, she postponed it to today.

"Teacher, I'm bad at writing essays. 'Longxu Ditch' is all about my experiences, but 'Using vinegar to remove limescale' is my true skill level. Otherwise, I wouldn't have submitted these two essays for almost a year and a half before they were even accepted!"

Upon hearing his teacher's words, Zhao Shi'an quickly began to explain, as he did not want to be labeled as a scholar.

"I heard about this from your homeroom teacher!"

You were able to write this article about Longxugou, which must have been based on genuine feelings! This is how sincere emotion triumphed over technical skill…

This is something your teacher has always taught you: narrative writing must be based on genuine feelings and experiences, not just a chronological account. The fact that you can write something like this, even if you don't usually know how, is precisely because of your experiences… This is a good start. Practice more and improve your writing skills!

Xiao Yingxue suddenly realized why Zhao Shi'an's submissions hadn't been accepted for over a year. This time, the accepted submissions were for two things: a life hack and his own personal experience. The articles he wrote were full of emotion and didn't contain any tricks!

"Okay, teacher, I will practice hard!"

Zhao Shi'an nodded in agreement.

"When you're tired of studying, you can read more works by famous authors. They're all available in the library. The more you read, the more substantial your writing will become..."

By the way, I heard from your homeroom teacher that your writing was influenced by Liu Shaotang?

Xiao Yingxue gave a few instructions, then changed the subject and asked Zhao Shi'an about his writing.

"Yes! It's said that Liu Shaotang earned over a million yuan in royalties for his novel 'Green Branches and Leaves.' My family was poor at the time, so I thought..."

Zhao Shi'an didn't hide it; after all, it wasn't a secret, since most people start writing to make money.

"Don't get me wrong, I just want to tell you that Liu Shaotang is a senior in high school this year. How can you be confident that you can surpass him?"

Xiao Yingxue asked with a smile, "Liu Shaotang's fame is so great that it's easy for people to forget that he's only 18 years old and just a senior in high school."

Zhao Shi'an is two years younger than Liu Shaotang. He just skipped a grade from the first year of high school last week. He achieved a good score of tenth in the grade within two days of transferring schools and also published two articles.

In addition, many talented people emerged in the capital, such as Cong Weixi and Shao Yanxiang.

As a teacher, she was deeply moved to see so many talented people emerge. The students, young and eloquent, each displayed their unique talents, which was a sign of national prosperity and the flourishing of culture!

"I'm confident about my college entrance exam results!"

Zhao Shi'an was very surprised to hear this; he actually wanted to take the college entrance examination with this "prodigy writer".

Liu Shaotang was from Tongxian, which is the modern-day Tongzhou. At present, Tongxian is still under the jurisdiction of Jizhou.

Although they are not from the same province or city, they are both from the North China region when taking the college entrance examination. So, he is not afraid of the exam results alone. However, he may not be so confident in writing essays, since Liu Shaotang became famous at the age of 13 and has been famous for a long time!

"Great job! Very confident, I have high hopes for you!"

Xiao Yingxue was very satisfied with what she heard, and after giving Zhao Shi'an a few words of encouragement, she let him go back.

After leaving the office, Zhao Shi'an went straight to the classroom. He had been called in for talks by teachers quite a few times in the past two days. After the Chinese and Russian teachers had spoken to him, he guessed that the other teachers would also talk to him one by one.

He was prepared for this.

After school, Zhao Shi'an left the classroom and went straight home.

Since the teacher's home visit, the meals at home have improved considerably in the past two days, with the staple food now consisting of a mixture of corn and wheat flour.

More than half a month after arriving in this era, he finally got to eat steamed buns. Although a lot of cornmeal was mixed in, the white flour wasn't white and even looked a bit dark. His mother could never quite get the amount of alkaline flour right, so the steamed buns were either under-kneaded and sour, or too alkaline and bitter.

He finally got to eat! He no longer had to gnaw on hard cornbread, since cornmeal couldn't ferment and could only be made into cornbread or unleavened flatbread.

As I walked through the alley, I arrived at the courtyard and saw a group of people gathered inside.

"Mother, my eldest brother is back! Brother, there's a letter for you!"

Sharp-eyed Zhao Xiaoyue spotted her older brother and immediately shouted.

"letter?"

Zhao Shi'an was taken aback upon hearing this. Hadn't he only written two articles? No, it was royalties! Realizing this possibility, he quickly walked into the courtyard.

Seeing the people in postal uniforms in the courtyard always seemed somewhat familiar.

"Shi'an, the postman said there's a registered letter for you. Your mother went to get the register, but you're back now, so hurry up and get it!"

Upon seeing Zhao Shi'an return, Tian Fusheng immediately offered a reminder.

"Boss, you're back just in time! Your royalties have arrived!"

As Liu Guiying spoke, she took out the household registration book from the house. It was a thin little booklet that the government had issued during last year's population census.

"Shi'an, hurry and get it!"

Sun Cuilan reminded her eldest nephew.

"Hey! It's you, classmate! How did it go? I told you your article would get selected! Here I am, bringing you your payment!"

Upon seeing Zhao Shi'an, Li Dahai quickly recognized him. Some time ago, when he went to the mailbox to collect his mail at night, he came across Zhao Shi'an. At that time, Zhao Shi'an was preparing to submit his manuscript. When he saw Li Dahai collecting his mail, Zhao Shi'an gave it to him directly. Li Dahai even gave him a few words of encouragement when he saw the address Zhao Shi'an had sent. He never expected that Zhao Shi'an would actually be accepted.

"You were the postman who picked up the mail that day! You have such good eyesight!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shi'an quickly realized what was going on and secretly marveled at how sharp people's eyesight was in this era. It was already dark that day, and the streetlights weren't very bright, yet the postman recognized him as soon as he saw him. That was amazing!

"Heh! It's all practice. Here, take these two letters, make sure they're safe!"

Li Dahai glanced at the household registration book in Liu Guiying's hand and handed the two registered letters in his hand directly to Zhao Shi'an.

"Two letters?"

Zhao Shi'an was somewhat surprised to hear this. The article "Using Vinegar to Remove Scale" published in the Beijing Daily was published two days earlier, but the payment for the article arrived at the same time.

"Yes! The copies of the *Youth Daily* and the *Beijing Daily* have arrived!"

Li Dahai nodded.

"Shi'an, quickly check how much money we have!"

Tian Fusheng asked with eyes full of curiosity.

"Yes! Shi'an, take a look!"

Hearing her husband's words, Liu Hehua asked curiously.

"Shi'an, let's watch it when we get home!"

Sun Cuilan reminded him that she didn't want others to know how much money her nephew had taken.

"Auntie, it's alright! I was just curious to see how many there were!"

As Zhao Shi'an spoke, he first opened the letter from the Youth Daily. After opening the envelope, he found only three thin sheets of paper inside.

A printed royalty statement, a clipping of the published article, and a bank draft.

Seeing Zhao Shi'an's actions, Tian Fusheng immediately pulled his wife over to him, Liu Guiying and Sun Cuilan also looked over, and Li Dahai couldn't help but join in out of curiosity!

Zhao Shi'an was shocked when he saw the 30 yuan bank draft after a quick glance. He wondered to himself, "Is 'New Look of Longxu Ditch' really that valuable?"

Thinking of the royalty notice in his hand, he quickly opened it and looked at it. After seeing the standard of 100,000 yuan per thousand words, the royalty was exactly 300,000 yuan.

Seeing this payment, Zhao Shi'an thought of Liu Shaotang, who received over a million yuan for a piece called "Green Branches and Leaves," which seemed to be 100,000 yuan per thousand words!

He himself also wrote hundreds of thousands of words, so does that mean he is equal to Liu Shaotang?

No, that's not right! Liu Shaotang is a child prodigy writer, while I'm just an ordinary student. Liu Shaotang's royalties must be much higher. Looking at it this way, writers really do make money!