Le Jing wrote down the last word, pounded his aching waist, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought too simply before. The task of updating 3,000 words a day was not an easy task for his current broken body.

It took him a whole week to complete the first draft of "The Fengtian Secret Chamber Murder Case", plus the subsequent revisions and lengthy transcription work. Even though Le Jing had spent all his time writing, it still took him ten days to organize the manuscript.

Fortunately, "Fengtian Miscellaneous News" is a daily magazine rather than a weekly or monthly magazine (this was also the most important reason why he chose "Fengtian Miscellaneous News" in the first place). As long as his article was selected by the editor, it would be published in the magazine the next day and he would receive the royalties soon.

If there was a chance that the manuscript was rejected, then Le Jing could only sell Li Shuran's jewelry as a last resort. Li Shuran had never been well-received since she was a child, and Wang had always treated her badly, so the jewelry she carried with her was not worth much, but it could be exchanged for two or three dollars, enough for them to rent a house and pay for a few days' food.

He could read and write, and was fairly fluent in English. By then he could hide his identity and work as an accounting clerk or something like that, and earn some money so he wouldn't starve to death.

Although he had already thought of the worst possible outcome, Le Jing was still very confident in the quality of his article. If it really did not meet the taste of the editor of Fengtian Miscellaneous News, then there would definitely be other newspapers that would like it. It was just a matter of time.

Li Shuran, who had been keeping quiet and not daring to disturb her brother's work, finally spoke up: "Brother, have you finished writing?"

Seeing Le Jing nod, Li Shuran looked at the densely written manuscript on the desk with a look of expectation and awe, "Brother, what is your article about?"

These days, Le Jing would take time out every day to teach Li Shuran some simple characters, but she was still far from being able to read books and newspapers. In modern times, Li Shuran's current level was not even as good as some kindergarten children. However, learning is a long-term career, and Li Shuran has a lifetime to work hard. Her future knowledge may not be worse than those who have started learning since childhood.

Le Jing thought for a while, organized his words, and told Li Shuran the story in a language that she could understand at her current level of knowledge.

"The Fengtian Secret Room Murder Case" as the name suggests, tells the story of a secret room murder case that took place in Fengtian City.

The story takes place in the home of a wealthy businessman named Wang. To celebrate Mr. Wang’s 60th birthday, many relatives, friends and business partners come to wish Mr. Wang a happy birthday.

Then at night, the protagonist Zheng Yuan and several other friends were warmly invited by Mr. Wang to stay overnight because their residence was remote.

That night, the people in the residence suddenly heard Mr. Wang's screams coming from the warehouse. They rushed to the warehouse but found the door was locked. They broke into the warehouse with great effort, but found that the warehouse was dark. For some reason, the power was out. On the wall facing them, four large bloody characters flashed - "Blood debt must be paid with blood". Everyone screamed, and then found that Mr. Wang was lying in a pool of blood and had not breathed.

The expression on Li Shuran's face kept changing as Le Jing described. When she talked about the bloody words on the wall, the little girl even cried out in shock and asked tremblingly, "Could it be a ghost claiming my life?"

Le Jing smiled and shook his head, and described the doubts of the case to Li Shuran in detail from the perspective of the protagonist Zheng Yuan. The murderer's method of crime became clear as time went by, and Li Shuran was stunned. Such an ingeniously conceived method of crime obviously subverted her thinking, and she couldn't recover for a long time.

Le Jing looked at the dazed look of the little girl, and his heart was more at ease. The murder trick in the locked room designed in his book was actually a common routine in later generations, but this kind of ingenious idea from later generations was still unheard of for the people of the Republic of China.

Although there are many works by famous European and American writers in the current era that involve closed-room murders to a greater or lesser extent, the concept of closed-room murders has not yet been proposed, nor has any school of thought been formed, let alone the development of various bizarre closed-room tricks like in later generations. Therefore, the criminal method written by Le Jing in "The Fengtian Closed-Room Murder Case" is an exquisite trick that transcends the times, and Li Shuran's reaction is a perfect example.

He sorted out the manuscript and prepared to go out to mail it. It was at this time that he realized that he had forgotten the most important thing - he forgot to choose a pen name.

What kind of pen name should I choose?

Almost at the same time, those three words appeared in Le Jing's mind.

Night watchman.

Le Jing traveled from the bright and glorious New China to the conservative and backward Republic of China.

He knew how this great country fell from the clouds into the quagmire and struggled in the darkness. He also knew that this country, which had fallen for too long, would finally stand up one day decades later, dispel the black fog and welcome the sunrise.

Let him watch in the cold night.

The long night has arrived. From today on, we will watch for the light, even though we are covered in wounds, until we die.

…

Zhao Xiaosong is a senior editor of Fengtian Miscellaneous News. His many years of editing career have enabled him to accumulate rich experience in manuscript review. He can often tell whether an article can be accepted after just a few glances at it.

That morning, he made a cup of fragrant tea and began to read the manuscripts sent to him that day while enjoying the lingering tea aroma.

"The Merry Concubine"? It was another erotic novel, but the writing was not quite up to par. The author needed to work on it more carefully. He picked up his pen and wrote down his rejection opinion.

"The Sequel to Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio"? It's another story about a female ghost and a scholar. The content is old-fashioned and not worth publishing.

"The Fengtian Secret Chamber Murder Case"? It was probably an erotic novel with a murder plot in the title. Ever since Mr. Chen's "The Affair and Dismemberment Case" became popular, countless people followed suit. He didn't know how many times he had read articles of this type.

The author's handwriting of this article can only be described as neat, it looks like a child's handwriting, most likely a student submission. It is estimated that there will not be any outstanding content. Although he thought so in his heart, due to the habit he had developed over many years of editing, Zhao Xiaosong still glanced at the content of the article casually, and then his eyes changed.

He began to read the content of the article almost eagerly. His mood fluctuated with the progress of the case. Sometimes he frowned, and sometimes he suddenly realized something. Until the end, he was amazed by the reasoning made by the protagonist Zheng Yuan after he identified the murderer.

He was just wondering, the warehouse where Mr. Wang stayed was locked from the inside, and only Mr. Wang had the key. There was no sign of the room being broken into from the outside, so how did the murderer get into the warehouse and kill Mr. Wang? He even thought about the ghost haunting him, but he never expected the truth to be like this.

It turns out that the murderer is Mr. Wang's housekeeper. The housekeeper was originally a child of a wealthy family, but his family was destroyed when he was young because of Mr. Wang's squeeze and calculation. In order to take revenge, he sold himself into the palace under an assumed name and became a slave. After years of planning, he finally won Mr. Wang's trust and became a housekeeper. He has been looking for an opportunity for revenge over the years.

But on that day, at Mr. Wang's birthday banquet, Mr. Wang forgot to lock the door of the storehouse due to negligence. When the housekeeper saw this, he was moved and knew that his chance had come. He knew that Mr. Wang had a bad heart, so he deliberately wrote "Blood debt must be paid with blood" on the wall with red fluorescent powder, and then locked the door. When Mr. Wang went to check the storehouse as usual in the evening, the housekeeper turned off the power switch, and Mr. Wang was startled by the blood words that suddenly appeared on the wall. He had a heart attack and collapsed to the ground.

Then when everyone came to check the situation, it was the butler who took the lead to break open the locked warehouse. When everyone was distracted by the bloody words on the wall, he approached the unconscious Mr. Wang in the name of checking Mr. Wang's condition and stabbed him directly in the heart with a knife. In other words, when Zheng Yuan and his men broke open the door, Mr. Wang was still alive, but just in a coma. It was the butler who was so bold that he killed Mr. Wang in front of everyone.

Such an ingenious plan had a fatal loophole, which allowed Zheng Yuan to find out the real murderer who killed Mr. Wang.

The butler was so nervous when writing with fluorescent powder that he did not notice that the fluorescent powder got on his sleeve. The red powder thus became the decisive evidence to convict the butler.

The story was over, but Zhao Xiaosong was still overwhelmed and could not calm down. The idea of this article was so ingenious that he had never seen it before. The housekeeper could come up with such a murderous plot. If it were not for Zheng Yuan's meticulousness, people would probably think it was a ghost. The same thing happened to Mr. Wang. He harmed the housekeeper's family, and his death was retribution. So this person should be kind and honest.

Based on Zhao Xiaosong's many years of editing experience, this article has an exquisite story, twists and turns in the plot, and profound educational significance. It is an excellent work!

The author's name was Night Watchman, a pen name he had never heard of. Looking at the neat and childish handwriting, he saw it as simple and elegant. Could it be that some famous writer had submitted an article to their magazine under a pseudonym? Looking at the author's letter address, it turned out to be the home of the famous scholar Li Tingfang!

This...could it be that Mr. Li submitted the article under a pseudonym?

But the writing style doesn't match that of Mr. Li... Could it be that the manuscript was submitted by a younger member of Mr. Li's family?

At this time, Zhao Xiaosong didn't know the truth. He just felt that the author who could write such a sophisticated story could not be a newcomer. Although he didn't know who the contributor was, since he chose to submit articles to their newspaper, they must win over the author in order to obtain long-term manuscript supply.

In their newspaper, the price for newcomers has always been 50 cents per thousand words. Now, in order to attract the author suspected to be Mr. Li, they can raise the price slightly. After thinking for a few seconds, Zhao Xiaosong finally made a decision - just give him a price of 1 yuan per thousand words. Too much is as bad as too little. This can also reflect the sincerity of their newspaper.

He immediately wrote an enthusiastic reply letter, in which he praised "The Fengtian Secret Chamber Murder Case" again and again, and repeatedly welcomed the author to submit articles to their magazine again. He then sent the letter to the author Night Watchman along with a seal for collecting the manuscript fee at the post office.

The author has something to say:

Get the first pot of gold√

Sure enough, I didn’t watch hundreds of episodes of Conan in vain. Isn’t this useful? (Plan Pass√)