Chapter 55: Fan Fiction

Xu Chengyue's actions once again made her readers acutely aware of how truly malicious her heart was.

Readers with mild temperaments were content with just a touch of anger, but some of the more fiery ones marched straight to the entrance of the Shanhai Bookstore to protest, demanding that the proprietor give them a proper explanation.

"Proprietor, you must give me an answer today! Why can't you just finish writing the whole story before publishing it? When is there ever going to be an end to reading this bit by bit?" A burly fellow banged furiously on the counter of the Shanhai Bookstore, spitting as he ranted angrily at the proprietor.

Judging by his rugged appearance, one could never imagine him as the type of person who read popular fiction.

Trembling with fear, the proprietor scrambled to grab a handkerchief to wipe away the cold sweat beading on his forehead, his pale lips quivering as he carefully weighed his response to avoid provoking the man.

If this brute were to start throwing punches in the street, his own little life would surely be forfeit.

The more the burly man scolded, the angrier he grew. His eyes bulged wide, veins throbbing at his temples, and with another fierce punch landing heavily on the wooden counter, he produced a loud *bang* that rattled the other books displayed upon it.

Startled, the proprietor took two steps backward and nearly tumbled to the floor.

He lamented inwardly that his life was truly at its end.

Lady Xu, Young Master Lü, he had sacrificed far too much for the sake of the Shanhai Bookstore!

Who could have expected that right after unleashing a roaring bellow, the burly man would suddenly put on a tearful expression, blinking hard as he tried to squeeze out a few drops of tears.

"Proprietor, I beg of you! You must know what happens next, right? Won't you please tell me? I swear I will never tell a single soul."

Having failed miserably at faked crying, the man pointed toward the heavens and made a solemn gesture of guarantee.

The proprietor let out a sigh of relief, steadied his trembling legs, and put on a troubled look. "What the valiant hero says makes sense, but this humble one is of low status and merely earns a monthly wage. If I were to spill the details to you, I fear I wouldn't even be able to collect my wages hereafter."

The man had initially held little hope, but upon realizing that the proprietor truly knew, his eyes suddenly lit up with sharp brilliance. His tone ceased to be furious and became vastly more polite. "I am not a man who makes things difficult for others. How about this: I shall ask a few questions, and the proprietor can see if he is able to answer them."

What else could the proprietor do? He could only nod in agreement.

"What manner of men are those encountered by Young Master Jiang? And what did they say to him?" The burly man launched straight in with a grand inquiry, probing for the primary content of the upcoming volume.

The proprietor found himself in the perilous position of being interrogated. By all rights, he ought to have been gripped by fear and cowardice, yet amidst those emotions, a spark of smug pride arose within him.

"The valiant hero has likely already guessed it—those men are none other than General Su's political aides," the proprietor said cryptically, concealing and erasing the crucial details with a knowing tone.

The burly man struck his left palm with his right fist, wearing the expression of sudden enlightenment. "Just as I thought."

Contemplating the plot of the following chapters, the proprietor wore a mysterious smile, imagining that when the big man before him reached that part, he would weep bitter tears just as he himself had done.

"As for what they said, it was nothing more than petty jealousy. Seeing that Young Master Jiang receives far more favor than they do, they were simply consumed by envy," the proprietor stated honestly.

Indeed, they were merely bickering out of jealousy. He was an honest man, after all, and would never tell a lie.

The burly man caught the drift instantly and followed up with the question he cared about most: "Does it have a happy ending?"

The proprietor had also once asked Lady Xu this very same question out of curiosity, and back then, she had stated with absolute certainty that it was bound to be a happy one.

With no need to stall or deceive this time, the proprietor provided a definitive affirmative.

Joy radiated across the burly man's face, completely stripping away his previous thunderous rage. He raised his hands in a courteous, formal salute. "It was my discourtesy earlier. Many thanks to the proprietor for clearing up my confusion."

"Not at all, not at all. Safe journey, valiant hero." The proprietor cupped his hands in return.

Watching the burly man skip away in high spirits, the proprietor felt a momentary pang of conscience, which quickly morphed into anxiety for his own safety.

Once the big man read the upcoming chapters, would he fly into a rage and come back to beat him up?

Yet there was simply no helping it; how could he possibly spill the entire plot all at once?

***

When subsequent visitors came to inquire, the proprietor used the exact same rhetoric to brush them off.

.

If things were like that at the bookstore, needless to say, it was even more intense at Xu Chengyue's end.

Fortunately, her pseudonymous identity was tightly guarded, and not a single soul knew her actual dwelling place.

Whenever she visited the Shanhai Bookstore, she always took the back alley, avoiding the notice of others.

It was just that the volume of letters demanding new chapters had doubled yet again.

The letters she received nowadays differed from the past. Previously, people would fill multiple pages and seal them carefully inside envelopes.

Perhaps because they wrote so frequently later on, not everyone enjoyed such lengthy essays, yet they still longed to say something, prompting them to switch directly to small slips of paper inscribed with merely a sentence or two.

Consequently, what Xu Chengyue received now was a massive mountain of letters alongside an enormous pile of memo strips.

Xu Chengyue was well-acquainted with this sort of thing—were these not simply comments?

The majority of these comments expressed a turbulent mix of love and hate toward her, urging her to hurry up and write the next volume.

Whenever Xu Chengyue lifted her aching wrists, she knew she *could* write, but her poor wrists simply could not take the strain.

Besides, no matter how fast she wrote, the release dates were firmly fixed, so they wouldn't be able to read them any sooner anyway.

Furthermore, the next volume had already been written, fully printed, and would be hitting the shelves very soon.

Within the storyline of this upcoming volume, the female protagonist's conduct was not quite so repellent, which managed to redeem her public reputation. In fact, her fearless, overbearing, and dominant demeanor actually won over the affections of quite a few young ladies.

[If only I had a friend like General Su, I would never have to fear predatory villains when walking out.]

[No gold is pure, and no man is perfect. General Su has her flaws, but that does not stop her from being a fine general.]

[I am sorry, Master Yuming; I take back the words I wrote previously. General Su is truly a female general with immense charisma.]

Xu Chengyue was not surprised in the slightest upon reading these remarks. Her character design for the female protagonists in her first two books had actually struck a relatively moderate and non-extreme middle ground.

In this book, however, the heroine's persona was considerably more radical, meaning some would adore her while others would utterly despise her; she was bound and determined not to win everyone's affection.

It was essentially a case of loving someone so fiercely as to wish them life, yet hating them enough to wish them death.

The content of the short reviews mostly consisted of urging her to churn out manuscripts swiftly, along with brief critiques and discussions concerning the characters in the book.

Among the long-form reviews, however, was a single letter of such extraordinary amusement that even Xu Chengyue, a modern soul, was deeply shook.

Could this perhaps be considered an ancient version of fanfiction?

The reader in question seemed overwhelmingly confident in her own sequel, offering a preface of explanation before her draft, strongly condemning the agonizing cliffhangers Xu Chengyue employed, and boasting proudly that her own writing was bound to surpass the original.

She even told Xu Chengyue not to feel inferior, as this was simply a gift from the heavens.

Xu Chengyue found it both mildly amusing and immensely curious as to what exactly the woman had written.

Turning the pages of the letter, Xu Chengyue began to read at a leisurely pace.

Scanning the first page at ten lines a glance, she felt a flicker of genuine astonishment; this reader was by no means blowing empty wind—she genuinely possessed a degree of natural talent.

Her literary style was actually quite good, though compared to plain vernacular, her phrasing leaned far more heavily toward pedantry, featuring an ornate prose style that favored heavy stacking of descriptive vocabulary.

Within her text, detailed descriptions were lavished upon the female protagonist's attire and household furnishings, right down to the intricate patterns on the heroine's belt. In fact, actual plot progression was sparse, with descriptions of the environment and external appearances occupying the vast majority of the space.

***

The conceptualization of the plot showed genuine imagination. Though brief and simple, it already possessed a proper shape, complete with a coherent introduction, development, turning point, and conclusion.

Upon reaching a certain passage, she burst out laughing aloud, "Hahaha! A prodigal who returns is more precious than gold—this is cracking me up!"

Splendid, simply splendid! Highly visionary indeed—what else could it be if not a prodigal returning to the fold?

She handed this manuscript over to Xue Zhenrui overnight, instructing her to publish it in the morrow's newspaper so the public could read it prior to the next book launch.

They had already given readers advance notice that any entertaining reader correspondence deemed interesting would be featured in the newspaper, with a modest manuscript fee awarded based on word count.

Setting that particular letter aside, another piece of correspondence captured Xu Chengyue's attention.

It was a love letter. Identical letters had appeared one after another on multiple occasions, bearing the exact same handwriting and originating from the very same person.

Most readers' expressions of affection were subtle and reserved, conveying their fondness for her novels and extending that admiration to her as a fiction creator.

Only this particular submission was wildly different. Its tone and phrasing were ambiguous, lingering, and exceptionally direct, with the subtext of every line suggesting that the two of them were already romantically entangled.

The reason she used the pronoun "she" was because Xu Chengyue was firmly convinced this was a female reader, a fact clearly discernible from her diction.

In the missive, the writer referred to herself as "this concubine" and addressed Xu Chengyue as "Young Master Yue"—not using the ordinary term reserved for gentlemen, but directly addressing her as her own sweetheart.

She even depicted scenes of their trysts beneath flowers in the moonlight, deeply in love and pouring their hearts out to one another.

In this specific letter, the writer first complained that when she had written to "him" previously and arranged a rendezvous at a certain location, "he" had failed to show up, which left her heartbroken.

Yet it did not matter, for she knew "him" to be exceedingly busy and that it was not intentional. She then rambled on about the trivial matters of her daily life, pouring out her deep longing for "him."

Finally, she wished "him" robust health and hoped that their bond would endure as long as the mountains and rivers.

It gave Xu Chengyue goosebumps just reading it. When she received this letter for the very first time, she had even blushed, assuming it was penned by some bold and unrestrained young lady.

Yet later on, the contents of the letters grew increasingly bizarre, careening wildly toward unpredictable directions—especially regarding various events that had never actually transpired, yet were written down as if they were absolute truth.

Upon careful reflection, it was genuinely terrifying. Xu Chengyue suspected the sender suffered from some form of psychological disorder, hallucinating entirely non-existent occurrences.

The author was clearly a reader of hers, and her address was written on the envelope, seemingly awaiting a reply.

Yet Xu Chengyue dared not reply at all. This fanatical and delusional mental state reminded her of the obsessed *sasaeng* fans from the entertainment industry of her past life.

What if replying to her letters only worsened her condition and incited an even greater frenzy?

Thus, cold-treatment was her only option.

.

The Chang'an branch of the Shanhai Bookstore had previously lacked a newspaper.

Because Chang'an was bound to differ from Luoyang, newspapers in Luoyang often depicted local affairs unsuited for circulation in Chang'an.

Consequently, an entirely separate editorial team had to be assembled. Cultivating a newspaper editor was far from as simple as hiring workers for other tasks, which delayed the launch date of the Chang'an newspaper considerably.

Fortunately, certain contents within the Luoyang newspapers remained applicable to Chang'an, requiring only the substitution of specific segments, which vastly reduced the difficulty.

And thus, Chang'an's very first newspaper rolled off the press, fresh and crisp.

Many individuals who had previously heard rumors of this novel creation rushed over eagerly to "taste" the novelty firsthand.