Chapter 80

Using a shorter format to tell a story is precisely what is lacking, although the writing style of "Artificial Beauty" is not top-notch, its core is very touching, with a clever and profound theme.

The story roughly tells of a bar on the brink of bankruptcy. The owner, in order to attract customers, spent money to create a highly charming robot woman. After the robot woman was introduced, the bar's business improved.

The owner could recycle and reuse the alcohol consumed by the robot, continuing to sell it to customers. The robot woman looked just like a real person, but lacked intelligence, only able to drink and answer simple questions.

When a young man fell in love with the robot woman at first sight, he wasted all his savings on drinking. In his final attempt, he tried to kill the robot woman by poisoning the alcohol and asking her to drink it.

However, when the owner retrieved the recycled poisoned alcohol, he invited everyone in the bar to drink it. Everyone was poisoned to death, leaving only the robot woman waiting for the next person to greet her.

The content of the story is simple, but it is rich in imagination, novel and unique, and does not deviate from the realm of reason, establishing a typical image.

The ending of "Artificial Beauty" leaves much to the imagination, and no matter how many times you read it, it still has a lingering charm. It can make people feel uncomfortable, especially men.

The bar owner used a false entity to deceive many people's emotions and secretly reused the same alcohol to make money. In the end, he accidentally drank the poisoned alcohol, which was his retribution.

People need to have their own judgment and should not be immersed in illusions. The artificial robot woman is just a robot with a stunning appearance, unable to speak complex sentences, yet no one doubted her, and she captivated everyone with her looks alone.

The novel uses skillful dialogue to develop the plot, highlighting that "Artificial Beauty" can only repeat human language, lacking true human guidance, with an empty heart despite her beautiful appearance.

This indirectly portrays the foolishness and frivolity of the men who were deceived, lacking judgment and self-control, especially the young man who poisoned her, revealing the ugliness of human nature.

In the ending, the large, brightly lit bar is eerily quiet, with only the radio continuously playing cheerful music. The robot woman whispers "goodnight," leaving a profound and vivid impression, innovative and moving.

Lin Han was very satisfied with the structure of the novel, finding it delicate and suitable for publication in the Daily Mirror. His task was to act as a translator, translating the novel from Chinese to English.

When he first read the article, it was a Chinese translation from Japanese. Now, translating it from Chinese to English felt a bit strange.

However, Lin Han was not in a hurry to start. He had a month to translate the novel, so he took a break to rest for a moment.

Previously, he lacked a goal, but now that he had one, he could write it out gradually. First, he would write the Chinese version, then translate it into English, and the rest would be a matter of time and effort.

At this moment, his phone on the desk vibrated. He picked it up and found that the prize money for the writing contest had arrived.

However, this was not the hundreds of thousands of RMB from the Galaxy Award contest. It was the prize money from the Daily Mirror, originally 120,000 pounds, but after high taxes, only a little over 80,000 pounds remained, which made Lin Han very upset.

But 80,000 pounds is about 700,000 RMB, which is quite a good deal.

Of course, 700,000 RMB is still far from buying a house in Yanjing, but it was Lin Han's first large-scale income.

In fact, Lin Han's potential income was not small, but most of it had not yet been settled. The sales of "I, Robot" by the People's University Press had exceeded 380,000 copies, but the royalties were settled monthly.

January had just passed, and February was the Spring Festival, so he would have to wait until after the Spring Festival to receive the royalties from the People's University Press, which would not be a small amount.

At the same time, the procedures for the Galaxy Award prize were much more complicated. It took a couple of days to win, and the tax-deducted prize money was already transferred.

The English version downloads on Amazon were also high. Originally priced at $499 per book, it was now selling for $299, and the expected earnings would not be less than 80,000 pounds.

Once successful, various incomes would come pouring in. Now, Lin Han needed to wait for the settlements to truly fatten his wallet.

With such a broad sales channel, if he could sell the English and Spanish language rights, Lin Han would take another step forward, achieving a dream that many best-selling authors in China have not accomplished, stepping onto the world stage ahead of time.

"By this calculation, I seem to be a millionaire?"

Lin Han did not calculate in detail, but just the prize money from the two writing contests could push his total assets to the million RMB level, which was almost unimaginable.

It seemed that just a month ago, he was still struggling, but now he was considering buying a house in Yanjing.

From being penniless to becoming a millionaire, Lin Han only needed a few works, and if this efficiency were exposed, it would definitely shock the public.

Although the purchasing power of one million RMB is declining, the title of "millionaire" still sounds interesting. The list of wealthy authors this year can be anticipated.

Unlike other authors, who mostly earn from selling novel copyrights or other adaptations like films, games, and anime, Lin Han's novel derivative rights were almost ignored.

In fact, this is a weak point for science fiction novels. Other novels can generate a lot of derivative rights, but after the failure of science fiction film adaptations, they fell into a low, and even game adaptations and radio dramas were ignored.

One derivative right could mean a difference of several million RMB, no wonder science fiction authors are all envious, and some are even considering changing careers.

Receiving such a large sum of money, Lin Han naturally wanted to celebrate. He sent a WeChat message to his good friend Wang Hao in Yanjing: "Rat, are you free tonight? Let's go out for a drink and celebrate."

Good news makes one feel refreshed, and the loneliness of the Spring Festival made Lin Han want to gather with friends, so he was very proactive.

"Wow, you actually invited me for a drink? Of course, no problem. Don't chicken out tonight, I'll drink you under the table." Wang Hao knew Lin Han's situation, so he immediately agreed without any hesitation.

...