I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Although Sang Jingxiong is only ten years old, he is already in the sixth grade.

He may not be able to understand some of the more obscure pure classical Chinese texts, but he can read vernacular novels easily.

His most treasured book is the vernacular version of "The Biography of Ji Gong".

Of course he could read the novel written by Sang Jingyun. He took the manuscript and read silently word by word.

Sang Jingyun noticed that Sang Jingxiong was reading the novel he wrote, but did not stop him.

Her family will know about her writing a novel sooner or later, so it wouldn't hurt for Sang Jingxiong to take a look.

Sang Jingying was also full by then.

He turned his head and saw Sang Jingxiong reading some papers.

He guessed that it was a novel written by Sang Jingyun, and was afraid that Sang Jingxiong might damage it, so he hurried over to take a look.

Then, he stood behind Sang Jingxiong and also saw this story.

Sang Jingying reads faster than Sang Jingxiong. She can understand the meaning of a book with just a glance. Seeing that Sang Jingxiong was taking a long time to finish a page, she couldn't help asking, "Have you finished reading?"

"Not yet!" said Sang Jingxiong.

The two of them got together and spent a lot of time to finish reading the 6,000 words written by Sang Jingyun.

By this time, it was already dark and the words on the paper were almost invisible.

It was quiet outside, but Sang Jingxiong was restless inside. He wiped the tears from his eyes and couldn't help asking Sang Jingyun, "What happened next? How did it go?"

The novel opens with a tragic murder of an entire family.

The protagonist Meng You's entire family was murdered, and he discovered that the murderer was his father's best friend.

He hid in the cellar, and in order not to make any sound, he bit his arm hard, causing it to bleed. He also desperately practiced the "Nameless Secret" taught by his father to put himself into a state of rest, and this is how he was not discovered.

In the days that followed, there were people walking around outside from time to time, so he could only continue to hide, while practicing the "Nameless Secret" non-stop.

Everyone in his family had practiced this internal energy technique, but because it was difficult to practice and the rate of increasing internal energy was very slow, everyone gave up soon.

He didn't like practicing this technique, but at this moment, only this Buddhist technique could calm him down and make him feel less painful, so he practiced it day and night.

After a while, he could actually practice his skills automatically in his sleep.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

When the food and water in the cellar, which would have provided him with seven or eight days' supply, were all gone, he opened the cellar and escaped.

His former home had long been destroyed, and his family members were taken away by unknown authority, with a grave built nearby.

More than a month has passed.

Such scarce food actually kept him alive for more than a month... While crying, Meng You realized that the martial arts he practiced was not simple.

They all said that his father was a liar and did not believe that this martial art was the legendary secret book, but he knew that this was the secret book!

He will practice hard, and sooner or later, he will kill his enemies with his own hands.

Sang Jingxiong had tears in his eyes and was very excited, and he was eager to see the sequel.

The bad guy is so hateful that he wants to see Meng You master his magical skills and take revenge.

When Sang Jingyun saw Sang Jingxiong’s reaction, he felt the appeal of online literature to primary school students.

Nowadays, many primary school students who are forced by their parents and do not want to read classics try their best to read online novels.

So is she.

There were few books she could read when she was a child, so she read a lot of classics.

But she never neglected sleep and food to read classics. The first book she stayed up late to read was a martial arts novel.

Later, after she came into contact with online literature, she no longer stayed up late to read martial arts novels, but only to read online literature.

Sang Jingyun took the manuscript from Sang Jingxiong's hand and said, "I won't tell you. Didn't you say before that I definitely can't write? Then why are you still reading the novel I wrote?"

Sang Jingxiong was angry again and ran upstairs "thump thump thump".

Sang Qian lit the oil lamp and saw this scene and shouted: "Sang Jingxiong, you haven't taken a bath yet!"

Sang Jingyun ignored Sang Jingxiong.

This kind of naughty kid becomes more and more interesting the more you pay attention to him.

Sang Jingyun asked Sang Jingying: "Aying, what do you think of this story?"

Sang Jingying's eyes were filled with tears, and she looked at the sparkling words under the candlelight: "Sister, you write so beautifully!"

When he read this story, it was as if he had become Meng You.

He wanted to see Meng You become stronger and take revenge.

Unfortunately, his sister hasn’t written the rest of the content yet, so he can’t read it.

Thinking of this, Sang Jingying said again: "Sister, your story is better than the one in the newspaper, it can definitely be published."

"Thank you for your good wishes." Sang Jingyun said with a smile.

The moon on August 16th was very round and big.

Sang Jingying and Sang Jingxiong were driven outside by Sang Qian to take a bath.

While taking a shower, Sang Jingxiong chattered about his thoughts: "Brother, I think Meng You will definitely master peerless martial arts and kill all those enemies."

Sang Jingying replied while rubbing Sang Jingxiong's back: "Yes."

"Brother, do you really have inner strength?"

"do not know."

"Brother, it would be great if I could also learn martial arts."

"Ah."

"Brother, do you think that was really written by me? She didn't copy it?"

"Pa pa pa" three times in a row, Sang Jingying slapped her brother's back three times.

Sang Jingxiong let out an "Ah" and ran away naked.

Sang Jingyun washed his body during the day and went to bed early that day.

She was speechless when she heard the noise outside.

Sang Jingxiong really deserves a beating!
Sang Jingyun didn't wake up until the next morning.

When she woke up, it was still dark outside.

Sang Qian, who was sleeping with her, had woken up and was tiptoeing out.

Seeing this, Sang Jingyun got up, went outside and lit an oil lamp.

"Ayun, don't you want to continue sleeping?" Sang Qian asked Sang Jingyun.

Sang Jingyun said: "Grandma, I went to bed early last night, so I'm not sleepy anymore."

The light from the oil lamp was very weak, but it was usable. Sang Jingyun took out paper and pen and wanted to write a picture book.

She originally wanted to write "Monkey King's Trouble in Heaven", but after thinking about the plot, she felt that it was too long and there were too many words to write, so she gave up. Writing is tiring, and she doesn't want to write more.

Sang Jingyun finally wrote "Tian Ji's Horse Racing". This story is quite interesting and does not require too many words.

By the time she finished writing, breakfast was ready and family members were getting up one after another.

Having given away all the money in the family yesterday, Sang Qian was reluctant to cook rice today and made a pot of porridge instead.

However, because the pumpkin at home had been eaten, she did not put pumpkin in the porridge.

Sang Jingyun thought this was a good idea.

The pumpkin porridge she drinks nowadays is cooked until it is soft and thick, and sugar is added, which is very delicious.
But their pumpkin porridge does not contain sugar and the rice used is not good, so it is neither sweet nor delicious.

Sang Jingyun felt that plain porridge was more delicious, so he just treated it as mixed grain porridge.

After breakfast, Sang Jingying and Sang Jingxiong went to the city with Sang Jingyun's newly written "Tian Ji's Horse Racing".

On the way, Sang Jingxiong read "Tian Ji's Horse Racing" and thought the story was not bad: "Brother, Tian Ji is really smart."

This story was not in his Chinese textbook and he had never read Records of the Grand Historian, so he thought the story was very novel and interesting.

Sang Jingying urged him: "Hurry up."

"I can't walk fast, my legs hurt." Sang Jingxiong stopped walking. His legs really hurt, probably because he chased Sang Jingying yesterday.

Sang Jingying said: "If your legs hurt, just walk more and they will be fine. I walked as usual when my legs hurt before."

Sang Jingxiong still didn't want to leave. Sang Jingying saw this and raised her hand high...

Sang Jingxiong suddenly jumped out.

At the same time, French Concession.

Hong Yongxiang got up early in the morning and went to find his good friend Fei Zhongxu who worked at a printing house.

Nowadays, there are new types of printing presses.

Most of the country's new printing presses are in Shanghai, and the Nancheng Bookstore where Fei Zhongxu works has one.

Hong Yongxiang worked as a reporter for the Shanghai Daily, which was printed by Nancheng Bookstore.

It was still early and the Nancheng Bookstore had not yet opened, so Hong Yongxiang went straight to Fei Zhongxu's residence and started knocking on the door.

Fei Zhongxu lived in a stable building next to a large mansion.

The stable building was originally a place for parking horse carriages in the old society. Now the person living in this mansion is a wealthy man with a car, so he has abandoned the horse carriages.
Now the bottom floor of this stable building is used to park cars, and Fei Zhongxu lives upstairs.

Because Fei Zhongxu was related to the wealthy man, he didn't have to pay rent.

Hearing the knock on the door, Fei Zhongxu opened the door sleepily. Seeing Hong Yongxiang, he was a little displeased: "Hong Yongxiang, why are you disturbing my sweet sleep so early in the morning?"

Seeing Fei Zhongxu like this, Hong Yongxiang felt a little guilty: "Were you on duty yesterday? I should have found you at another time." The printers of Nancheng Bookstore had to print the Shanghai Daily in the evening, so the staff of Nancheng Bookstore would take turns to work the night shift.

Fei Zhongxu said, "I wasn't on duty yesterday, but I went out drinking with someone. What do you want from me?"

"Don't you want to publish some books for children? My niece has drawn a picture book. I'll show it to you."

Fei Zhongxu yawned and took the picture book from Hong Yongxiang's hand. He first looked at the cover and then opened it.

He read a few pages and said, "Old Hong, this comic book is really good. Your niece not only has good handwriting and drawing skills, but also has clever ideas. This sentence is quite interesting to read."

Hong Yongxiang said: "Although this comic book was drawn by my niece, she was not the one who wrote the story, and the sentence was not her idea."

"Did you write this story?"

"No, it was written by the niece of my old friend." said Hong Yongxiang.

He was of the same generation as Sang Xuewen. When he learned that Sang Jingyun was only sixteen years old, two years younger than his eldest niece, he treated Sang Jingyun as his niece.

"She writes this vernacular story well! In my opinion, this is what books for children should be like," said Fei Zhongxu.

His grandfather was a scholar, but because he failed to pass the imperial examination, he placed his hopes on his descendants.

When these grandchildren were five or six years old, their grandfather would personally teach them.

They learned to recognize words by reading the Three Character Classic, as if they were learning a new language. If they were not afraid of the ruler in their grandfather's hand, they would not have wanted to learn a single word.

That would have been fine, but after they learned to read, his grandfather only allowed them to read novels like "A New Account of Tales of the World".

In his grandfather's opinion, "Journey to the West" is a waste of time and is not worth reading.

"Not as good as the willow catkins rising in the wind" and the like, it is really boring to watch, fortunately now, he has escaped from the clutches of the devil.

"Can this book be published?" Hong Yongxiang asked, "Yes, it can be published. I have told them that I will pay them for their royalties."

Fei Zhongxu did not answer and continued to read. After finishing, he said, "It can be published, but not just this one. I want to publish a whole set."

"A complete set of Journey to the West?" asked Hong Yongxiang.

"Yes, a complete set of "Journey to the West". You go and ask them. If they can make a complete set, let them do it. If not, I will find someone else to do it." Fei Zhongxu was very satisfied with the text and drawings of the picture book in his hand.

The text is very novel, and the drawings are different from the current illustration styles.

It would be best if the two little girls are willing to do it.

But nowadays women may not have the time to concentrate on doing this.

After thinking about it, Hong Yongxiang said, "I'll go ask tomorrow."

"Okay." Fei Zhongxu discussed the manuscript fee with Hong Yongxiang.

As for how to write the words and how to paint, he thought about it and didn't say much.

This picture book has a kind of unpolished rustic feel, which is also good.

That day, Sang Jingyun wrote more than 3,000 words and revised the entire story.

Her handwriting is not bad, but the revised manuscript still looks a bit messy.

Sang Jingyun knew that she should copy it, but she really didn't want to.

Since she was a child, she has disliked doing copying homework, and she even dislikes revising manuscripts.

After tidying up the manuscript and putting it aside, Sang Jingyun came to the yard and walked back and forth while basking in the sun.

After dying once, she became more aware of the preciousness of life, so she tried to move around and make her body healthier.

In those days there were no modern sophisticated medical instruments for physical examinations, no antibiotics, and there was a shortage of good doctors.

If your health is not good, you may lose your life due to a minor illness.

As Sang Jingyun was walking, Sang Xuewen asked, "Ayun, can I read the book you wrote?"

Sang Jingyun agreed: "Of course."

After saying this, Sang Jingyun suddenly remembered that Sang Xuewen was literate.

Although Sang Xuewen was a playboy, he had received many years of education and his handwriting was better than hers.

She doesn't want to copy the manuscript, so why not let Sang Xuewen do it?

(End of this chapter)