Chapter 3
I wrote without stopping for a week, somehow produced fifty thousand characters, and handed the manuscript to the bookshop.
The manager read it through and was very pleased.
He offered me one tael per thousand characters, stressing that the serial could not miss an installment: I had to keep supplying new material.
I held those fifty taels of silver in a daze.
Just like that, I had fifty taels?
What on earth had those twenty years of studying been for?
And that was not all.
A week later, the manager sent me a banknote for another two hundred taels. He told me my rate would rise to five taels per thousand characters, with a share of the sales as well.
“Sir, The Rakish First-Place Scholar and the Pretty Third-Place Scholar is selling like mad!”
The first volume had a print run of a thousand copies. They sold out within two hours.
Three thousand more were printed the next day. Those sold out too.
People who had failed to buy a copy packed Harmony Bookshop so tightly that no one could get through, all demanding another printing.
Those who had bought one gathered in twos and threes, discussing it eagerly.
“Episode One, ‘The Third-Place Scholar Charms in Women’s Clothes; the First-Place Scholar Spends a Fortune for His Smile,’ is so delicately written. It really touches the heart.”
“So the person drinking and playing music with our young poet Long that day wasn’t a princess at all. It was Academician Hua dressed as a woman.”
“And Episode Two: ‘Reunited Lovers Cannot Contain Their Passion; One Night in a Carriage Is Worth a Fortune.’”
“Does that mean the man in the carriage with Hua Yingxiu that day wasn’t Prince Rong, but Long Aotian?”
“Two handsome, talented men—a match made in heaven!”
…
The book was a roaring success.
At home, I collected so much in royalties my hands grew tired.
With money in my pocket, my back stopped aching, my legs stopped trembling, and I no longer stooped.
The musicians no longer frightened me. It was as though heavenly music had cleared my ears for a moment.
Even the stinky tofu smelled much sweeter.
The Censorate’s memorials became positively entertaining.
By day, I impeached Long Aotian for his complete lack of restraint in affairs with men and women, including getting a female bandit pregnant.
By night, I wrote about Long Aotian getting Hua Yingxiu pregnant.
By day, I impeached Hua Yingxiu for having affairs with both Prince Jing and his son, corrupting the court.
By night, I wrote about Hua Yingxiu having affairs with both Long Aotian and Long Aotian’s son, becoming the son’s beautiful young stepmother.
Soon, The Rakish First-Place Scholar and the Pretty Third-Place Scholar, Volume Two, went on sale.
Readers following the series bought copies and opened them at home. They were so worked up they pinched their own thighs.
“Academician Hua really is an exceptional man. He can even have children?”
“Exactly! Who says a man can’t give birth?”
“I don’t know why, but I simply cannot put this book down…”
“Indeed! Do you think Assistant Director Long and Academician Hua really are having an affair?”