A Literary Life Starting from the First Year of High School

March 1st, Wednesday.

When Lin Shubai arrived at the school, the magnolia trees at the school gate had already sprouted flower buds, and the wind no longer had the biting force of winter; it felt soft and gentle on his face.

As soon as he entered the teaching building, he saw Mr. Zhao from the printing room standing at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor, carrying a large bag in his hand.

Master Zhao saw him and waved to him, "Lin Shubai! Perfect timing! Your 'Hope' magazine is printed, twenty sample copies. I was going to have someone deliver it to you, but I ran into you on the first floor. You can take it up yourself."

Lin Shubai walked over. The bag was heavier than he had imagined. He tried to lift it with one hand but couldn't. He had to use both hands to lift it.

"Thank you, Master Zhao."

Master Zhao patted the dust off his hands. "What are you thanking me for? Your printing is actually quite good. It's much better than those forms from the Academic Affairs Office. I've been printing those forms for over ten years, and I'm sick of them."

Lin Shubai carried the bag to the activity room. He pushed open the door, placed the bag on the long table, and unzipped it. Twenty sample magazines were neatly stacked inside, with the covers facing up. The cover was dark blue, and the boy's profile was looking up at the starry sky. The word "Hope" was embossed in silver and reflected slightly under the fluorescent lights.

He took out a book and opened it.

In the foreword, he wrote "Speaking of Hope." He flipped through the pages, going through each section: Campus Stories, Book and Film Highlights, Poetry and Youth, and Starry Night. The family stories in Yu Xingzhi's group were quite touching, and one of the book reviews in Zhao Lin's group was about "The Little Prince"—yes, it was about his "The Little Prince." The author was a girl he didn't know in her second year of high school, and she wrote quite insightfully.

The back cover lists the editorial board members, with Lin Shubai as the chief editor and Chen Jianming as the supervising teacher, followed by the names of the group leaders.

Lin Shubai closed the sample copy, took out his phone, and first sent a text message to Lao Chen: "Teacher Chen, twenty sample copies have arrived." Then he informed the group leaders.

After sending the message, he glanced at the clock on the wall—there were still three minutes before class. He zipped up the bag, stuffed it under the long table, locked the door, and hurried toward the classroom.

During the break, Old Chen arrived.

He appeared at the classroom door, waved to Lin Shubai, and Lin Shubai stood up and walked out.

In the hallway, Old Chen took a sip of water. "Where's the sample copy?"

"Activity room".

Once inside the activity room, Old Chen quickly flipped through the pages. "Who designed the cover?"

"Shen Yue, a second-year high school student."

"It's a very good drawing."

"Alright, let's go see the principal."

Lin Shubai took two more sample copies from the bag and followed Lao Chen out of the activity room.

Zhou Zhiyuan was sitting behind his desk, answering a phone call, when he saw Lao Chen and Lin Shubai standing at the door. He waved them in, signaling them to come in and sit down.

Zhou Zhiyuan hung up the phone, stood up, and walked around the desk. "It's here? Where's the sample copy?"

Lin Shubai handed him a book.

Zhou Zhiyuan took the sample copy, but didn't rush to flip through it. He looked at the cover first, and after a couple of seconds, asked, "Who designed this cover?"

"Shen Yue, a second-year high school student."

"Okay, okay." Zhou Zhiyuan nodded, then opened the book. He read things much faster than Lao Chen, flipping through the pages as if he were looking up words in a dictionary.

After reading it, Zhou Zhiyuan sat down on the sofa and placed the sample copy on the coffee table. "Not bad. When do you plan to officially release it?"

Old Chen answered for Lin Shubai, "If there are no problems with the sample copies, they can be sent out next Monday."

Zhou Zhiyuan thought for a moment, "Next Monday is fine, while everyone is still relatively free and has time to look through it."

Lin Shubai added from the side, "Three hundred copies of the inaugural issue were printed. Five copies were given to each class to put in the book corner, and the rest were put in the library reading room."

Zhou Zhiyuan nodded. "Is the funding sufficient?"

"enough."

Zhou Zhiyuan leaned back on the sofa. "That's enough. Do a good job with this publication. If you do well, the school will continue to support the second issue."

"Thank you, Principal."

When Lin Shubai came out of the principal's office, he still had a sample copy of the magazine in his hand. He handed it to Old Chen, saying, "Teacher Chen, please keep this one."

Old Chen took it and tucked it under his arm. "When it's distributed next week, have the group leaders keep an eye on things. After it's distributed to each class, make sure no one takes it away without permission. The books in the book corner belong to the book corner, and whoever borrows them should register it."

"it is good."

At noon, the activity room was packed with people. All the sample copies were brought out and spread out on the long table, with everyone holding one and flipping through it.

Lin Shubai leaned against the window, watching the people around the long table—Yu Xingzhi was flipping through the sample magazine page by page, her expression as focused as if she were taking an exam; Zhao Lei had read the articles in the Starry Night column several times, then picked up a pen and wrote a few words on the title page of his own copy; Zhou Yutong turned to the page on Poetry and Youth, her finger slowly tracing the table of contents, as if she were counting on troops; Shen Yue stood at one end of the long table, holding a sample magazine, and was telling the classmate next to her, "This cover looks better than I imagined."

Su Wan sat in the innermost seat, a sample magazine spread out in front of her, engrossed in reading it.

Yu Xingzhi looked up, holding a sample copy of the magazine. "Lin Shubai, in the Campus Story section, 'The Backseat of My Father's Car,' was half a sentence missing during typesetting? I remember there was another sentence at the end of the original text."

Lin Shubai walked over, took the sample copy and glanced at it. Sure enough, the last half sentence of the last line had been cut off.

"I'll go back to the printing shop and make some changes. We can still adjust it before the official printing."

Yu Xingzhi nodded, put down the sample copy, picked up a pen and made a note in her notebook. Zhao Lei leaned over from across the long table, "Lin Shubai, for Xingye's article submitted from another school, I wrote his pen name 'Lu Li,' is that okay?"

Lin Shubai recalled that when he first transmigrated, he had also considered whether to use a pen name. In his previous life, he had used a pen name; what online novelist uses their real name? But this life was different. When he first submitted his work to *Story Club*, Lü Jia asked him whether to use his real name or a pen name. He said "real name" without any hesitation. At that time, he hadn't figured out why, but now he understood—because he wanted to be responsible for every word he wrote, not to the readers, not to the editors, but to himself. Signing his name meant that those words were his.

"No problem, we'll use whatever author requests for attribution."

Zhao Lei nodded, then looked down at the manuscript again.

The door to the activity room opened, and Old Chen walked in. He glanced at the people in the room, walked to the long table, and asked, "Still watching?"

Yu Xingzhi looked up. "Teacher Chen, we are checking for any formatting errors."

Old Chen nodded. "I just looked through it in the office. The story 'Father's Backseat' in the campus stories is missing half a sentence at the end."

"We just discovered it; we'll have the printing room fix it later."

During the last self-study period in the afternoon, Su Wan was about to go to the activity room to check on Lin Shubai, but he hadn't shown up yet. Curious, she asked, "Aren't you going to the activity room today?"

"No, I won't go. The group leaders can just summarize the problems and send them to me."

"Alright, Editor-in-Chief Lin's official airs are getting bigger and bigger."

Lin Shubai gave her a speechless look.

Su Wan smiled and went to the activity room.