Chapter 1: those years
Li Chen seemed to have been stimulated by something recently.
He actually started studying on his own, which not only surprised Li Chen's mother but also shocked his closest friends he had grown up with.
He stopped going to the arcade, stopped going to the internet cafe, and even stopped participating in the rare co-ed group activities.
Don't get the wrong idea; the group activity was just rollerblading.
Of course, the extra reward was that you could take the opportunity to hold a female classmate's hand.
This made his friends mock him, saying he was showing off.
Actually, Li Chen wasn't showing off; he was just clear-headed.
He saw his future twenty years from now: achieving nothing.
Yes, he had been reborn.
Since he had been reborn, instead of letting his youth go to waste, he might as well become a loner now and just focus on studying.
This is 2001; he is in his second year of high school, with one year left until the college entrance exam.
He didn't want to fail, repeat a year, and end up in a third-rate university.
Fortunately, he wasn't stupid; in his previous life, he was just too playful, otherwise he wouldn't have managed to get into high school while playing around.
Three months passed, and summer vacation began.
Li Chen's mother finally completely believed that her child had truly turned over a new leaf.
Meanwhile, his three close friends privately said that Li Chen was possessed by a ghost.
Although his final exam results were not ideal, seeing his son's change, Li Chen's mother was only happy.
During the summer vacation, Li Chen continued to review his lessons while thinking about how to get his first pot of gold.
He had made up his mind that this life he would live Starlight Splendid.
He planned to apply to Beijing Film Academy next year, with the short-term goal of becoming a great director and the long-term goal of becoming a capital mogul.
Not like his previous life, where he was so ordinary it was as if he had never existed in this world.
So, the first pot of gold was very important; he wasn't a rich second generation and couldn't rely on his father, so he could only rely on himself.
If he had known he would be reborn, he would have damn well written down a few sets of double color ball numbers.
In that case, he would have been the protagonist of a multi-million dollar lottery win, something he had only seen in the news in his previous life.
Wouldn't that have given him his first pot of gold? Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
QQ hadn't been listed yet this year, but Moutai had, though its stock price was truly indescribable.
Li Chen's family was a simple working-class family, so Moutai stock...
Hiss...!
Couldn't afford it!
If he remembered correctly, Li Chen's father's Foshan Lighting stock was held for over a decade before he sold it.
He didn't remember how much money he made, but it definitely didn't keep pace with inflation.
After much thought, Li Chen decided to write web novels.
Most computers at this time were 'big-butt' desktop computers like the one Li Chen's family had.
It was good enough to even have one; his family's unit was a second-hand one his father bought when he got into high school.
He turned on the computer, the familiar sound started, the screen showed Windows 98, it was agonizingly slow.
He registered an account on Rongshuxia.
Qidian and ZhuiLang had not yet been established; at this time, Rongshuxia was the most famous.
This platform was the earliest original literature platform in China.
Rongshuxia Literature Network began large-scale cooperation with publishing houses in 2002.
Li Chen remembered that Cai Zhiheng's 'Luo Shen Hong Cha' was published by Rongshuxia.
By the way, Cai Zhiheng's famous work was 'The First Intimate Contact'.
Perhaps not many people know Cai Zhiheng.
But if you mention 'Qingwu Feiyang, Pizi Cai,' probably no 80s generation doesn't know them.
Young people who hadn't read 'The First Intimate Contact' back then were definitely the kind of good students who paid no attention to anything outside their studies.
Li Chen's mind went through all the novels he could 'plagiarize,' or rather, write.
Finally, after much consideration, Li Chen made up his mind.
He began to skillfully type on the keyboard, and several large characters appeared on the computer screen: 'those years, The Girl We Chased Together'.
He didn't know how popular this book was back then, but the later film adaptation directly sparked a craze for youth films.
Eventually, it became unstoppable, with countless imitators.
Such as the so young series, tiny times series, and so on.
Li Chen slapped his forehead.
That's right, so young can also be written.
This novel and those years began serialization in 2007 and 2006, respectively.
He had read both of these books.
Because of the film's immense popularity, he had read both books five or six times from beginning to end.
For the two books, he only needed to slightly modify the names of people and places.
As for whether Jiubadao would find it strange that the events in the novel were so similar to his own experiences, Li Chen didn't care.
Whoever writes it first gets credit!
those years totaled 160,000 characters, and so young was 250,000 characters.
Li Chen planned to type only 3,000 characters a day, so it wouldn't affect his studies.
He could basically finish typing those years during the summer vacation, and then upload and serialize it.
Time flew by, and in a blink of an eye, two months had passed since school started, and those years also began to be uploaded.
Based on the website's feedback, the response was quite good.
But it certainly couldn't compare to Taiwan, after all, Rongshuxia had only been founded for about three years.
In the blink of an eye, it was time for the 'thousands of soldiers crossing a single-plank bridge' (the college entrance exam).
Success or failure depends on this one attempt! It all comes down to this moment.
After finishing the last comprehensive science exam, Li Chen walked out of the examination hall, letting out a soft breath, knowing he was secure.
He knew how well he had performed; before the Spring Festival, he had already applied for Beijing Film Academy's Director Department on the Beijing Film Academy admissions website.
Now it just depended on whether his college entrance exam scores could reach the admission line.
When he returned home, his mother had already prepared a table full of her specialty dishes.
Li Chen's father had been on a business trip in Hainan for years, only returning for a month or two each year.
It had always been just him and his mother living together.
"How did you do on the exam?"
Li Chen smiled: "Don't worry, Mom. I can't say Tsinghua or Peking University, but I'm quite confident about passing the first-tier university line."
Li Chen's mother's face instantly lit up with joy; since his father was dispatched to Hainan year-round in 1996, his mother's heart had been entirely focused on him.
"Really?"
"Is that even fake? You've been to elementary school; after the exam and leaving the exam hall, don't you know if you messed up?"
Li Chen's mother chuckled, not minding her son's teasing: "Hurry and eat, after eating, call your dad, he just called asking if you were back."
No sooner had the mother and son finished eating than the phone rang.
"Go ahead and answer, it must be your father."
Li Chen looked at the caller ID; the area code wasn't 0898, but a cell phone number.
He casually replied to his mother: "It's not my dad."
Then he picked up the phone: "Hello."
A male voice came from the other end of the line: "Hello, is this Mr. Li Chen's home?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"Haha, I'm an editor from Rongshuxia."
Li Chen's heart stirred: "Is there something I can help you with?"
Li Chen's mother asked curiously from the side: "Who is it?"
Li Chen shook his head slightly, and the voice on the other end continued: "It's like this, Mr. Li, your work those years is very popular with readers."
"The website is starting large-scale cooperation with publishing houses this year, and I'm calling to discuss the publishing fees with you."
Li Chen felt a bit excited; it had finally arrived.
When he signed with the website initially, he didn't sign the 'indentured servitude-like' Class A contract.
Instead, he signed the more autonomous Class B contract.
Because he knew this novel would definitely become popular; although he was a novice, the novel was a masterpiece.
So, the copyright, adaptation rights, film rights, etc., must be held in his own hands.
Good wine needs no bush; someone would come knocking sooner or later.
The website only had the electronic copyright.
To publish, they would have to negotiate with him.