158 Want to change the title content

Although it had been a while since they last met, the gorgeous Shennan, who usually dressed in professional attire, still looked stunning. As the weather grew cooler, mornings and evenings became especially chilly, yet the beauty was still rocking a dress with thick tights hugging her legs.

Seeing Zhang Pa enter the door, she smiled and said, "You finally made it. I heard something happened?"

Zhang Pa replied, "Yeah, a massive, massive thing."

Luo Shennan smiled and said, "As long as it's resolved, that's what matters. Being able to come back is better than anything else."

Zhang Pa grunted a response and sat down at the desk.

Being an internet writer wasn't just about making money online; many excellent works by outstanding writers had opportunities for publication. The easiest route was traditional publishing in the traditional Chinese character version, which meant publishing in Taiwan. On the domestic mainland side, publishers had exceptionally strict requirements regarding content and quality. Certain lines could not be crossed, politics could not be touched, and the vast majority of books had no chance of simplified Chinese publication, with urban genre books facing an especially difficult path.

When Zhang Pa used to write books, he worked entirely alone, refusing to join author groups or reader communities. He was just a guy who updated on schedule and collected his paycheck on time, nothing more. He had no contact with any fellow writers.

Some time ago, through Fatty, he got to know a writer named Pencil, added him as a friend, and was dragged into two writer groups, particularly a supreme god tier group where experts emerged in droves, practically consisting entirely of elite-tier authors.

"Elite author" was a standard set by the website for writers. Meeting this standard meant being admitted to the elite channel, signifying that the books here were all exceptional.

Pencil was an elite author who knew many others of the same caliber. When one's sales and popularity reached a certain level, one naturally got to know many people; for instance, the website regularly held author salons and invited top-tier writers to attend. Meeting face-to-face naturally opened up opportunities to become friends.

Pencil dragged Zhang Pa into that powerful writer group. For a long time, aside from saying hello when he first entered, Zhang Pa rarely spoke. Of course, he was usually too busy to have many chances to chat.

Still, occasionally glancing at everyone chatting, he did pick up on a few things, such as publishing and submissions.

Many top-tier gods in the group were publishing veterans, writing and publishing a book after another—some simplified, some traditional—while bigshots even sold television, movie, and gaming copyrights... To Zhang Pa, those things seemed far too distant; he had better focus on publishing first.

Anyone who wrote had a publishing dream. Who wouldn't want to see what they wrote turned into a physical book resting right before their eyes? Zhang Pa had this dream, but lacked the strength to pull it off.

When he wrote his first book back then, even a pirated version had been printed by bootleggers, though only a single volume was ever produced, hung up on Taobao to sell. Unfortunately, it stayed at zero sales for the longest time. He could only celebrate happily that the pirate had lost money.

By the time his second book came out, presumably affected by the first, there wasn't even a pirated edition. It left Zhang Pa quite indignant: "You guys have zero respect! Zero respect! I'm giving you permission to pirate, so why aren't you pirating?"

Having no other choice, he pooled his own money to print a batch of legitimate books, which ultimately ended up serving as firewood.

For publishing submissions, many top-tier writers would write a couple hundred thousand words, send them to a publisher first, and once that contract was signed, they would return to serialize it on the website, allowing them to earn twice. If simplified publication happened later down the line, plus gaming rights... they would absolute hit the jackpot.

Zhang Pa's book was already serialized online, but luckily it had just started, giving him a chance to contact publishing houses. He had mentioned this to Pencil, who said he would help with the submissions, with only one catch: he needed eighteen thousand words sent over, which was the total word count for the first volume.

Last night, Zhang Pa finally scraped together those eighteen thousand words, so he contacted Pencil bright and early this morning. Pencil immediately replied: "Sending messages at the crack of dawn, trying to get me killed?"

Zhang Pa straight out stated his purpose. Pencil said, "Outline, content synopsis, your contact information, followed by the main text. Get it all sorted out and send it to me, and I'll forward it for you."

Zhang Pa agreed, opened the document to add the content, wrapped it up in twenty-some-odd minutes, and eagerly sent it to Pencil. Ten minutes later, Pencil said it had been sent off and told him to wait for news.

Right, waiting. When you are obscure, when you are a bottom-tier writer, you can do nothing but wait whenever any opportunity arises.

Oh right, the website had changed editors. The editor in charge of Zhang Pa was switched to someone else. His previous editor had once asked Zhang Pa for a work pitch, but he never received a reply to this day. It was probably dead, sunk to the bottom of the sea where no one knew. In other words, that waiting had yielded nothing.

Pencil spoke up again: "When are you free? A friend of mine says we're going to the countryside to eat dog meat. It's super fat and ultra-fragrant. Count you in."

Zhang Pa said, "Please don't count me in. Meat other than beef, mutton, pork, chicken, duck, and goose—I don't touch any of it."

Pencil scoffed and asked, "You don't eat fish? You don't eat shrimp?"

"Aren't you just splitting hairs? I meant livestock and poultry," Zhang Pa retorted.

"Forget it then, you miss out on the good stuff. Another day we'll do barbecue, and I'll treat you to 'money meat'. This is beef, so you can't find an excuse not to eat it."

"What is money meat?" Zhang Pa asked.

Pencil sent an astonished emoticon: "Can you possibly be any more ignorant?"

Zhang Pa didn't reply right away; he searched online first, then asked, "Is it donkey whip?"

"Pretty much, whatever they call it, it's very nourishing," Pencil sent a smiley face.

Zhang Pa said he wouldn't eat it.

What popped up online was a donkey's penis; according to what Pencil said, the bull's version must also be called money meat. He had no interest in tasting such refined cuisine.

Pencil sent a despising emoticon: "Next time I'm going to drink you under the table."

Zhang Pa said thanks. Pencil sent another despising emoticon: "Disgusting."

The two ended their chat. Zhang Pa glanced at the time and got up to fetch his teaching notes.

Principal Qin and Vice Director Qi had racked their brains over his job placement; if he didn't put in some effort, he really wouldn't be able to face their kind hearts.

He brought back his notes and started working on his own preparation as well. Luo Shennan finished playing with her phone, stood up, and walked over to take a look: "Do you really have to study this hard?"

"Not studying hard, just taking a look," Zhang Pa replied.

"Just taking a look?" Luo Shennan intentionally ignored the injury on Zhang Pa's head and asked, "Are you trying to win Outstanding Teacher of the Year?"

Zhang Pa said he wasn't.

Luo Shennan smiled and didn't press further. After a moment of thought, she suddenly asked, "Tonight my classmates and I are going singing, you should come too."

Zhang Pa said, "I won't go. I don't know anyone, how awkward would that be?"

Luo Shennan said, "They're my college classmates, a bunch of music majors, all beauties. Or do you prefer men?"

Zhang Pa coughed lightly: "You really know how to chat." Then he asked, "Is your partner not going?"

"He's going, bringing a few friends along. With my classmates, it'll be about a dozen people. Adding one more like you won't make a difference, come on," Luo Shennan said.

Zhang Pa understood; it wasn't a particularly sincere invitation, just idle chatter to fill the silence. He smiled and replied, "I sing off-key, I won't ruin it for you guys, thanks."

Luo Shennan grunted acknowledgment, realizing she genuinely couldn't hold a conversation with this guy, and sat back down on the bed to play with her phone.

Soon it was time for the Chinese class. Zhang Pa walked into the classroom and was surprised to see Liu Fangfang there as well.

Liu Fangfang was the former homeroom teacher of Yun Zheng's class, who had been brought over by the principal to substitute teach for a while.

Seeing Zhang Pa enter, Liu Fangfang smiled and said, "You're back. Perfect timing, you can take over the class."

Zhang Pa said thanks.

Liu Fangfang smiled: "What's there to thank? Go ahead and teach." She packed up her things and stepped down from the podium.

Zhang Pa said thank you again. Liu Fangfang whispered, "Actually, I really admire you. Truly, I should thank you." With that, she walked out of the classroom.

Zhang Pa turned his head to watch her go, dazed for a brief moment, then stepped up to the podium: "Randomly pick an unlucky soul to repeat what Teacher Liu just went over."

"The teacher hasn't even taught yet, she just walked in and left," a student called out.

Zhang Pa said, "I'm talking about the past, the previous classes." As he spoke, he took off his sunglasses, boldly revealing a face full of cuts and bruises.

Yu Yuan suddenly stood up: "Teacher, did you get beaten up? Who did it? We have to beat them back."

Zhang Pa smiled at him: "Such great eyesight, you can see clearly from this far away?" Then he said, "It's you. Are you coming up to recite, or reciting from down there?"

"Huh?" Yu Yuan thought for a moment: "Teacher, my stomach hurts, I need to go to the restroom."

"Stomach hurts? I give you permission to crap in your pants," Zhang Pa said calmly. "Recite."

"Teacher, you can't do this to me. I'm asking out of genuine concern, you can't screw me over." Yu Yuan protested.

"I'm screwing you over anyway." Zhang Pa announced loudly to the whole class: "Here's a task for you all: before class ends today, as long as someone can get Fatty to recite the material Teacher Liu covered a few days ago, I'm treating everyone to barbecue."

Hearing this, Yu Yuan's face turned green: "Teacher, you're placing me in opposition to the masses. That's a bad and wrong thing to do."

"I don't mind, let's ask for the classmates' opinions."

"Fatty, just recite it," Wang Jiang said calmly.

"Comrade Yu, we have high hopes for you," Sheng Yang smiled.

"I'm not threatening you, but if you make us miss out on barbecue... otherwise, you treat us?" Li Shan said.

"Damn it, where would I get money?" Yu Yuan thought for a second and asked Zhang Pa, "Business has to be negotiated, you name a price and I get to bargain."

Zhang Pa said, "Go ahead and bargain."

"Today is Tuesday, can I recite it by next Tuesday?" Yu Yuan asked.

Zhang Pa smiled: "You could recite it by next year for all I care, the question is whether the classmates are willing to wait until next year to eat this barbecue." He added, "I've been quite wealthy lately, maybe I'll eat meal after meal. If you drag this out and out, you might only get to eat once. Doesn't that feel a bit like a loss?"

Yu Yuan said hatefully, "You're too sinister." He then cupped his fists toward the surrounding classmates: "Brothers, cut Fatty some slack, can we do next week?"

"No way. We'll allow you to drag it until Saturday noon. If you can recite it, we go party right at noon. If you can't recite it, we'll use you as a punching bag," Yun Zheng said.

"Agreed," the students shouted in unison.

Zhang Pa said, "Listen to that. That is the voice of the people."

Fatty Yu snorted: "Cruel bastard." He sat down indignantly and asked the surrounding students who had notes.

Naturally, none of them did. Expecting a group of unrepentant bad students to suddenly become diligent and take study notes... were they living in a fairy tale?

Seeing the students' spirits thoroughly stirred up, Zhang Pa cleared his throat and continued: "Actually, you know, I feel like doing this is a bit unfair to Comrade Yu."

"Exactly, exactly! Teacher, you're a good person!" Yu Yuan shouted loudly.

Zhang Pa smiled: "Therefore, I've made another tiny decision. This Saturday morning, there will be a little quiz. Don't worry, it's not a real exam, just picking five or six students to stand up and answer questions. It won't be too hard, but if more than half of them answer incorrectly or can't answer at all, likewise, the barbecue plan is canceled. I hope you're mentally prepared."