Chapter 7

In the following two days, Lu Yang did not go to the internet cafe again. Every day after military training and dinner, he would carry paper, pen, cigarettes, and tea to the top floor of the 3rd teaching building, which was the least crowded at night. He would enter a classroom with the fewest people and sit in a corner, quietly writing his manuscript. Occasionally, he would light a cigarette or take a sip of the gradually cooling tea.

Enduring loneliness and solitude is something a novelist must bear.

There are few shortcuts to success; everything depends on the quality of one’s work.

This is an industry where only strength speaks!

Before his rebirth, one of the main reasons Lu Yang was so obsessed with writing novels was precisely because of this.

Strength speaks! It is the greatest fairness.

Lu Yang liked fair competition!

As long as it was fair, he would have no regrets, regardless of the outcome!

In two days, Lu Yang wrote more than 12,000 words, adding to the 6,000 words he had already written each night.

On the third day, the two-week military training was coming to an end.

After the inspection of the training results, Lu Yang did not go to the 3rd teaching building to write his manuscript as he had done the previous two nights.

Because tonight, the school was hosting a grand welcome party for the freshmen in the activity hall.

Before his rebirth, during his first year of college, Lu Yang did not participate in this welcome party.

To be precise, during his college years, Lu Yang did not attend any party hosted by the school.

At that time, he had only novels in his eyes and heart. In the first semester of his freshman year, he was still as obsessed with reading novels as he was in high school. After the second semester, he was either reading or writing novels.

His life was always very monotonous.

So monotonous that he did not want anything else to take up his time.

However, this time, he did not want to miss the welcome party.

He wanted to experience everything he should have during his college years and did not want to leave any regrets.

Because he was preparing to attend the welcome party tonight, after dinner, Lu Yang, as usual, took a shower and changed into clean clothes, then waited in the dormitory.

The other five roommates also gathered in the dormitory, waiting for the party to start.

When the time came, Lu Yang joined the surging crowd and entered the largest activity hall on campus.

With thousands of freshmen and some old students who liked to join in the fun, the hall, which could hold four to five thousand people, was packed.

Such a grand scene surprised Lu Yang. He did not expect that this unremarkable university could gather so many people for a welcome party.

The party started at 8:00 PM as scheduled.

It began with a beautiful dance and song performance.

The scene of over a dozen young and beautiful girls dancing and singing on stage made Lu Yang sigh that his college life before his rebirth was a waste. He had never attended a school party and did not know that there were so many beautiful girls in this university he had never paid attention to. A simple dance and song performance could gather so many young and beautiful girls.

The performances that followed were all highlights. Lu Yang sat quietly in the middle of the hall, watching the young and beautiful seniors and juniors, so many that they made his eyes dazzle.

Each had their own charm, like spring orchids and autumn chrysanthemums.

Lu Yang truly felt the meaning of "beautiful flowers can be found everywhere."

The ancients were not deceiving him.

There are indeed countless beautiful women in the world.

As long as a man is excellent enough, he will never lack for women!

A man of high moral character, why should he worry about not having a wife?

He often heard such confident words from the ancients in films and TV shows, and now he realized that they indeed made sense!

With this thought in mind, when Lu Yang saw the various beautiful women who appeared on stage later, his heart no longer fluttered as it did before.

He knew that he did not yet have the means to possess those beautiful women. Regarding love, he did not want to repeat the mistakes of his previous life.

The party did not last long, ending after about two hours.

After it ended, Lu Yang returned to the dormitory, picked up his paper, pen, and cigarettes, and went to the 3rd teaching building. Since it was still some time before midnight, Lu Yang wanted to write more. Since he had made up his mind, he would not allow himself to waste time.

...

Time flows like water, regardless of whether people pay attention to it or not.

Soon, a week had passed.

Lu Yang had nearly 60,000 words of manuscript in hand. On this night, after finishing his writing, he stopped at around midnight.

Lu Yang habitually took the manuscript he had written that day and went to the back of the school to eat spicy hot pot. Recently, Lu Yang had been feeling a bit overheated, so he had been eating noodle soup with gravy for the past few nights, including tonight.

After finishing a bowl of noodle soup with gravy, Lu Yang hesitated for a moment. Instead of going back to the dormitory as he had done for the past week, he took the manuscript to the Star Rain Internet Cafe.

The manuscript had been submitted for twelve days, and Lu Yang had been thinking about it all along.

Lu Yang remembered that two publishing houses in Taiwan had very fast manuscript review times. While other publishing houses took half a month or even a month to review, these two publishing houses often took only a week and a day.

And these two publishing houses were among the ones Lu Yang had submitted to this time.

He casually chose an empty computer and opened it, then nervously entered his NetEase email.

The email opened, and the inbox showed two new emails.

Using the mouse to open the inbox, Lu Yang saw that the two new emails were indeed from the two publishing houses with the fastest review times.

Did it pass?

Before opening the emails, Lu Yang felt his heart rate suddenly increase. He could almost hear his own heartbeat.

At this moment, Lu Yang suddenly realized that he was not as confident as he thought. In critical moments, he would still get nervous, just like when he submitted his first manuscript before his rebirth.

He had great confidence in the novel "Wasteland" he had written this time, but at this moment, he was still worried that it would be rejected by both publishing houses.

These two publishing houses not only had the fastest review times but also the lowest standards for accepting manuscripts.

In other words, if a novel was rejected by both of these publishing houses, it would almost certainly be rejected by any other publishing house in Taiwan, with a 90% chance.

Therefore, although he had only received replies from two out of the five publishing houses he had submitted to, these replies almost completely determined the future of his novel.

If both publishing houses rejected the manuscript, his novel "Wasteland" would only be able to be published online.

In 2003, a novel that could only be published online, even if it could be successfully listed for sale, would not earn much money.

At this time, the electronic subscription for online novels had just begun, and there were very few users willing to pay for subscriptions.

The fact that this novel would not earn much money was not a big problem for Lu Yang now, but the problem was that if the novel could not be published, it would be a huge blow to his confidence!

He would inevitably doubt the path he had chosen after his rebirth.

He would seriously doubt his judgment of the market and his ability to write.

With a nervous heart, Lu Yang first opened the reply from Publishing House E.

"Hello Wen Chou! Thank you for submitting your manuscript to our publishing house. Our editors have reviewed it, and we are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has passed our final review. Please contact us as soon as possible to discuss the publication and signing matters. — Best wishes for a steady flow of inspiration, Ying Ying."

Publishing House E was the publishing house that published Lu Yang's first novel before his rebirth.

Seeing the message of approval from Publishing House E, Lu Yang's heart, which had been hanging, finally settled.

With this confirmation, it meant that his novel "Wasteland" would have no problem being published.

After his heart settled, Lu Yang opened the reply from Publishing House F.

"Hello Wen Chou! First, thank you for submitting your manuscript. We have good news for you. Our editors collectively believe that your work 'Wasteland' has good market value and can be published. Please contact us as soon as possible. — Best wishes for good health and a steady flow of inspiration, Da Yong."

Another message of approval.

Both emails were messages of approval.

This completely put Lu Yang's mind at ease.

Indeed, as I expected! My judgment was correct!

Lu Yang let out a sigh of relief, smiled, and leaned back in the computer chair, looking at the two emails on the screen. His confidence was fully restored.

His decision to continue writing novels after his rebirth was even more firmly resolved.