The world of film and television begins with Zhou Bingkun in the human world.

Zhou Bingkun's first article was about educated youth sent to the countryside.

Of course, the content is all made up. It's nothing more than a story about a certain educated youth who, after learning about the rural policy, actively went to the countryside. After arriving, the educated youth lived in harmony with the village where they lived, worked hard, and jointly created a better future.

It was a very formulaic article. In fact, Zhou Bingkun even bought a lot of newspapers and read enough similar articles to write this one.

It was the weekend again, and Zhou Bingkun excitedly took his completed article to submit for publication.

After submitting his article, Zhou Bingkun wandered around outside for a while and unknowingly ended up near the movie theater again.

"Give me a skewer of candied hawthorns!" Zhou Bingkun took out a dime and handed it to Zheng Juan.

"Give!"

After chatting with Zheng Juan for a few minutes, Zhou Bingkun happily ate his candied hawthorn and left.

Zheng Juan stared blankly at Zhou Bingkun's departing figure, lost in thought, until someone came to buy candied hawthorns, which interrupted her.

Zhou Bingkun submitted his articles to the Jichun Daily, a daily newspaper that has a high demand for articles.

Therefore, they are happy to accept submissions from outside sources.

After confirming that Zhou Bingkun's article did not have any issues with public opinion, the editors found that although his writing skills were slightly lacking, they were still within an acceptable range, so they accepted Zhou Bingkun's article directly.

Soon, Zhou Bingkun received a reply from the Jichun Daily.

Looking at the light letter in his hand, Zhou Bingkun was extremely excited and thrilled.

Your journey to making money begins right now!

When Zhou Bingkun opened the letter, a slip of paper floated out and landed on the table.

The note was quite simple. It simply stated that it accepted Zhou Bingkun's submission, thanked him for it, and then—that was it!

Zhou Bingkun couldn't help but pick up the envelope and search it thoroughly, but there was nothing there, just a note with a thank you note on it, and nothing else!

"Could it be that the publisher forgot about the royalties?" Zhou Bingkun couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"The letter didn't mention any payment for the manuscript. How much is it per thousand words?"

"Or are the royalties paid in installments?"

Two more days passed, and even after Zhou Bingkun saw his article appear in the newspaper, there was still no further news. Zhou Bingkun grew anxious and couldn't help but write a letter to inquire.

Then Zhou Bingkun received a reply that told him that there was no payment for writing articles these days!

Whether it's an editor at a publishing house or an external author, once a submitted article is published, the publishing house will not pay a single penny in royalties.

The editors at the publishing house are alright; writing articles is their job, and they get a monthly salary. If they write well and publish a lot of articles, they can also get bonuses.

However, outside authors, no matter how good their articles are, don't receive a single penny in royalties; it's all just pure enthusiasm, or rather, working for free!

Zhou Bingkun was stunned; he couldn't accept it.

These days, there's no payment for submitting articles!

Even when his articles are published in newspapers, the publishers won't give him a free copy.

Zhou Bingkun nearly fainted from anger.

Creative freedom is inherently limited. Not only is the writing awkward and unnatural, but after putting in so much effort—a whole month of repetitive writing—and finally getting an article published without receiving a single penny in royalties, who could possibly accept that? At least Zhou Bingkun absolutely could not.

I'm not writing anymore!

"I worked so hard, spending a whole month writing and revising, writing so many words over and over again, using up so much ink and paper. Look, my hands are even calloused from all that writing! And the newspaper didn't even pay me a single penny for publishing what I wrote! Don't you think they're being incredibly unreasonable?"

While complaining, Zhou Bingkun took a big bite out of a hawthorn.

As Zheng Juan listened to Zhou Bingkun's complaints, a faint smile appeared on her face, and her eyes held a hint of admiration as she looked at him.

For someone like Zheng Juan who had never been to school, being able to read and write was already quite impressive, let alone the fact that Zhou Bingkun's writings could be published in newspapers. She even thought that Zhou Bingkun was a legendary great writer, like Lu Xun. For a time, she admired Zhou Bingkun to an extreme degree.

"Sigh, why is it so hard to make money these days!" Zhou Bingkun muttered to himself.

"You think making money is hard? You work in a soy sauce factory and earn eighteen yuan a month. You still say it's hard to make money? Do you think it's harder than me?" Zheng Juan couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"..." Zhou Bingkun was speechless at Zheng Juan's words. Indeed, Zheng Juan's situation was much more difficult than his.

After finishing his candied hawthorns and venting his frustrations, Zhou Bingkun said goodbye to Zheng Juan and left.

Zheng Juan stared blankly at Zhou Bingkun's departing figure, her eyes filled with admiration, and even a faint, almost imperceptible, hint of affection.

Beautiful women love talented men; it's an age-old truth.

The fact that Zhou Bingkun's writings could appear in the newspaper was indeed a powerful impact on Zheng Juan.

However, when Zheng Juan thought about her own situation, her eyes couldn't help but dim.

She sighed softly; she had even lost interest in selling candied hawthorns.

When Zhou Bingkun returned home, he immediately began studying, learning everything he could, including math, physics, chemistry, and even Chinese.

When he got tired of studying, he habitually took out paper and pen, but after writing only a few words, he realized that there was no payment for writing articles these days, which made him lose the desire to write immediately.

However, after writing for about a month and producing an article that could be published in the newspaper, Zhou Bingkun began to get used to writing.

He felt a little awkward and empty when he stopped writing.

"Forget it, just write. Write whenever you want. No royalties, no royalties. Consider it practice. I'll get royalties eventually anyway. I'm just practicing now. If I improve my writing, I can become a writer when the policy changes. It's not bad to be like that 'Scribbled Little Dog'."

After muttering to himself for a while, Zhou Bingkun decided to continue writing.

Developing a habit is one thing, but making money from it in the future is another.

In addition, when he complained to Zheng Juan about the newspaper not paying him for his articles, he could sense the admiration in Zheng Juan's eyes. To be honest, it felt pretty good to be looked at with admiration by a woman.

Of course, there is also the most important reason: there is simply too little entertainment available in this era!

Writing helps him pass the time and makes his daily life less boring.