Chapter 21: Fragmented Words

An hour later, after posting the final 20,000-word update, Xu Ze replied to Warm Breeze, “That’s all for today. I have classes this afternoon and won’t have time to write.”

The readers, who had been following the drama, were instantly stunned.

“What? Xiao Yan is still a student?”

“Looks like he’s probably a college student.”

“A university student writing such incredible xianxia? I thought the author was at least forty.”

Everyone was amazed at Xu Ze’s age. Warm Breeze quickly replied, “Alright, that was exhilarating. When you go premium, I’ll send you a special gift.”

A special gift?

Xu Ze suddenly felt that online novel readers were truly the most adorable people in the world.

In just one morning, Warm Breeze had rewarded him with 300,000 yuan. After the platform’s fifty percent cut, he would still net 150,000 yuan! The money would be transferred to his account the following month.

He couldn’t help but wonder what the special gift would be when the novel went premium. Another Gold Alliance, perhaps?

Feeling perfectly content, Xu Ze put down his slightly smoking keyboard and massaged his aching fingers. He hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now that he’d stopped, he felt soreness not just in his fingers but in his shoulders and waist as well.

“It seems I shouldn’t do these explosive updates too often. My body can’t quite take it.”

He then checked the backend and found that the number of favorites for “Immortal Execution” had skyrocketed from sixty thousand to three hundred thousand! The novel had also shot straight to the top of the new releases chart.

This achievement utterly eclipsed all the so-called masters. The second place on the new book chart, “The Strongest Abandoned Son” by a top-tier author, only had two hundred thousand favorites.

If not for the bestseller list’s rule that only premium books could be listed, he might have taken first place there as well.

The power of the Gold Alliance was truly terrifying.

Meanwhile, in the chat group of the renowned author “Darkest Me”—

“Boss Dark, we’ve been utterly crushed!”

“Our spot at the top of the new releases chart was snatched by ‘Immortal Execution’!”

“And the author is only level one.”

“Is it someone’s alternate account?”

“Could be, otherwise how would a rich fan pour in so much money?”

“Should we try to reclaim first place?”

“With what? They got hundreds of thousands in rewards just this morning.”

“Boss, can’t you pull that rich fan into our circle?”

…

The author, Darkest Me, watched his group’s heated discussion with a helpless smile.

He’d just asked around—Xiao Yan wasn’t an alias of any famous author, just a newcomer. And this newcomer was relentless, updating so fiercely before even going premium. By the time the book went premium, it would already have five or six hundred thousand words, meaning he’d lose out on a lot of subscription income; he might even end up at a loss.

But if it were him, and someone rewarded a Gold Alliance for extra chapters, he’d do it too.

Such prestige! Even if it meant giving up some subscription money, it was worth it.

Darkest Me shook his head and replied in the group, “Brothers, we can’t beat him during the new book period. We’ll have to wait for the premium release to make our move. I’ll add an extra chapter today to keep everyone entertained.”

Afternoon.

Xu Qing dragged her exhausted body into the classroom to teach her students. She was used to napping every day at noon, but today she hadn’t managed to sleep at all.

As a result, she was physically drained, though her mind was still buzzing with excitement.

“What a spectacle, truly astonishing.”

She was still replaying the reward-and-update war from lunchtime in her mind. A wealthy patron had suddenly appeared, showering “Immortal Execution” with rewards, and the novel had instantly updated with several dozen chapters.

“There’s no way to finish it all, simply impossible!”

She’d been so excited that she barely touched her lunch, focusing instead on snatching treasure chests.

She hadn’t expected that sly author to have so much content stockpiled.

Though everyone insisted that Xiao Yan was writing those updates on the fly, Xu Qing didn’t quite believe it. How could the quality remain so high with so many last-minute updates?

So she was convinced the author had a massive backlog, deliberately using it to tempt rich patrons into rewarding him.

“If only there were patrons like this every day, so ‘Immortal Execution’ would update explosively every time,” Xu Qing thought gleefully. She was certain Xiao Yan had plenty of chapters left in reserve.

Sadly, she wasn’t a wealthy benefactor herself—otherwise, she’d squeeze every last chapter out of that author.

“Ding…”

The bell rang for class.

Xu Qing snapped back to reality and prepared to start the lesson. She glanced at the seats below.

“Hm, where’s Xu Ze?”

Had he skipped class?

Last night, her friends had all pestered her for Xu Ze’s contact info after learning she was his teacher, but she’d sternly refused them all.

Because… she didn’t even have Xu Ze’s WeChat herself.

Had he missed class to record a show? But he hadn’t asked for leave.

Was Xu Ze getting cocky? Should she mark him absent?

A mischievous thought occurred to her—she could mark Xu Ze absent and use it as an excuse to threaten to dock his participation grade.

“Ha, Xu Ze, you wouldn’t want to fail your final, would you?”

A sly grin appeared on Xu Qing’s face.

At that moment, the other students were searching for Xu Ze as well. When they realized he wasn’t there, many were disappointed—they’d been looking forward to having a celebrity classmate.

In their eyes now, Xu Ze was a star.

“Excuse me!”

Suddenly, a voice called out. Xu Ze appeared at the doorway, panting.

Oh? He actually showed up.

Xu Qing nodded, then said gently, “Come in.”

As Xu Ze entered, the whole class turned to look at him curiously. Several girls surreptitiously took out their phones to snap pictures.

Xu Ze casually found a seat. The girl beside him was instantly overjoyed.

Sitting down, Xu Ze felt a bit uncomfortable—this was his first time being the focus of so much attention.

Xu Qing lightly tapped her desk, smiling as she said, “Class is starting, everyone. Some of you girls, mind your drool.”

At her reminder, several girls instinctively wiped their mouths.

Class began.

On the podium, Xu Qing began, “Today we’ll be discussing ‘As If in a Dream: Last Night the Rain Was Sparse and the Wind Was Harsh’ by Li Qingzhao.”

“As you know, Li Qingzhao left behind two poems titled ‘As If in a Dream.’ One, ‘Often I Recall the Dusk at the Stream Pavilion,’ is a complete poem. But the other, ‘Last Night the Rain Was Sparse and the Wind Was Harsh,’ is regrettably missing a final line.”

Behind her, the screen displayed the poem.

“Last night, the rain was sparse and the wind was harsh. Heavy sleep could not dispel the lingering effects of wine. I asked the one who rolled up the curtain, and she replied, ‘The crabapple blossoms are as before.’”

Xu Qing went on, “Many believe this poem is missing its last line. Scholars speculate that the final line should have the same format as the ending of her other ‘As If in a Dream’ poem:

‘Struggling to cross, struggling to cross, startling a shoal of egrets.’

Something in that vein.

To this day, many great writers have tried to supply a final line, but none have won general acceptance.

So some propose that perhaps Li Qingzhao never wrote a last line for this ‘As If in a Dream.’ Otherwise, after all these years, someone might have found a suitable addition.”

Hearing this, Xu Ze was astonished: In this world, this poem by Li Qingzhao was still missing its last line.

After all, she was the greatest female poet in history—her work could hardly be so easily supplemented.