Chapter 86 "Returning to the Ming Dynasty to Become an Empress" - An old-fashioned template and classic style...

The owner of the chicken wings soup shop wasn't exaggerating; the broth he brought back in bamboo tubes was excellent for cooking noodles and stir-fries. This made Yao Xiaoyu, unusually, not go around eating ready-made meals, but instead buy some vegetables and meat to cook for herself, something she hadn't done in a long time. When the last bit of broth was used up, it was time for Yao Xiaoyu to take the manuscript of her new book to the newspaper office as planned.

The story of Plum Blossom was completed before the New Year, and the label of unfaithful woman was firmly welded onto the head of the author, Little Fish. However, Yao Xiaoyu didn't care.

Even if someone is infamous, they're still famous. These people have brought a lot of sales to the Novel Daily, especially after the ending where Plum Blossom starts a new branch and rebuilds the ancestral hall, becoming the clan leader and entering the new hall, was published. It was a massive traffic explosion!

Yao Xiaoyu wasn't in charge of the newspaper and didn't know how many times the Novel Daily had been reprinted that day or how many copies had been sold. But when she returned to the Novel Daily's editorial office, she received forty silver dollars—Editor-in-Chief Bei had personally added a special price for those ten thousand words.

But this was just an appetizer. The real surprise was the contract that Pi Kangxiu presented: the author, A Little Fish, would receive four yuan per thousand words for his next book.

The 10,000-word increase is just a fleeting bonus; the royalties for a new book are a long-term business. The higher the royalties go, the more difficult it becomes. Yao Xiaoyu was prepared for the price to only increase to this level after the book after that, but now she has jumped straight to the next level.

She earns four yuan per thousand words, which is a guaranteed forty yuan a week. The current price of small yellow croaker is over thirty yuan, which means she earns more than one small yellow croaker per time!

The book title section on the two copies of the contract is still blank, but the editorial staff has already signed and pressed their fingerprints where they need to sign. It will only take effect once the new book title is filled in and Yao Xiaoyu signs and presses her fingerprint.

"Here, I will write 'Returning to the Ming Dynasty to Become an Empress'."

Time can be unpredictable, and things can change in the long run. Yao Xiaoyu didn't delay. She took a contract and signed it herself while instructing Pi Kangxiu to fill in the title. She thought that this sensitive subject might make Pi Kangxiu hesitate, but the editor finished writing it in a few quick strokes, as if he was afraid that Yao Xiaoyu would change her mind.

"Has the manuscript been written yet?"

Pi Kangxiu quickly put one of the contracts into his drawer and locked it. His movements were so smooth and familiar to Yao Xiaoyu that she had originally wanted to ask why the article didn't seem to attract attention this time. But Pi Kangxiu's interruption made Yao Xiaoyu forget about it. She subconsciously opened the box next to her and took out a stack of manuscript papers.

Pi Kangxiu quickly took it and carefully began to look through it.

As always, Yao Xiaoyu's naming style was straightforward and expressive. She originally intended to write the Infinite Flow novel in order, but considering the acceptance level of this era, Yao Xiaoyu decided to write a refreshing novel first to popularize the concept of time travel. After all, in a broader sense, Infinite Flow novels also fall under the standard of quick time travel.

"Traveling through time and space, transcending time, this concept is quite novel."

Pi Kangxiu briefly pondered the meaning of the word "time travel," then temporarily set it aside and focused on reading the manuscript.

The premise of time travel and an empress is not new in modern times. Readers familiar with the plot can even guess the middle and the ending after reading the beginning. After all, there are only so many plots in the world, and everyone is just putting new wine in old bottles. But in this era, it is groundbreaking.

The female protagonist of "Back to the Ming Dynasty to Be the Empress" is named Zhang Xiu. In Yao Xiaoyu's setting, she traveled from twenty years in the future, that is, the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China, to the Ming Dynasty in 1440, spanning nearly five hundred years.

Yes, this is still a story about traveling to ancient times.

Yao Xiaoyu did not write about the actual situation in 1936, but instead made drastic changes, without even needing to find a reason—it's a girl's fantasy, after all; it would be abnormal if it weren't beautiful.

In Yao Xiaoyu's setting, the production level in the 25th year of the Republic of China was roughly similar to that of the 1960s and 70s. The environment was relatively peaceful, and the country was strong and wealthy. However, these were only mentioned briefly at the beginning to lay the groundwork for the female protagonist's identity: Zhang Xiu before her time travel was a girl who successfully graduated from university by relying on student loans and part-time work.

"Universities do not admit women nowadays."

After reviewing Zhang Xiu's identity profile, Pi Kangxiu spoke to Yao Xiaoyu.

"I know,"

Yao Xiaoyu answered naturally.

"But that may not be the case in the future, since there has never been a girls' middle school before."

Yao Xiaoyu didn't mention anything about foreign universities admitting women; she simply stated the facts that Pi Kangxiu had witnessed firsthand. This wouldn't be long before, as she had returned from the beginning of history and knew that in just four years, the first batch of women would enter universities.

She simply wanted to plant a seed that women could also attend university; she didn't expect it to influence many people, but as long as the concept existed, perhaps one day in the future...

Yao Xiaoyu pulled back her increasingly wild imagination and gestured for Pi Kangxiu to continue reading the manuscript. Pi Kangxiu confirmed that she had no intention of revising the text, so he stopped struggling with it.

Yao Xiaoyu used the oldest, yet most understandable, setting for Zhang Xiu's time travel: the alignment of nine stars, a destiny predetermined!

While Zhang Xiu's soul transmigrated to another world, the Imperial Observatory in 1440 was enjoying wine and song, unaware that a phoenix's phantom had flashed across the sky. Inside the Ziwei Palace, the stars shone brightly but were obscured by thick fog. However, in a Taoist temple on the mountain, an old Taoist priest with a beard longer than his hair held a whisk, gazing at the sky and muttering to himself:

"The Purple Star shines brightly; this is someone destined by the Emperor. But why is it a phoenix? Could it be...?"

Yes, Yao Xiaoyu mainly uses an old-fashioned novel formula, but these things in the imperial city have nothing to do with Zhang Xiu for the time being. She is new to the city and has been given a very basic farming novel script - a father who is blindly filial, a mother who is cowardly, grandparents who favor the first wife, and a family that is like an old ox.

The little girl went fishing in the river to supplement the nutrition of the eldest son's literary star, but ended up with a fever. Her parents had no money and begged her grandparents on their knees, but they refused. Fortunately, she survived on her own. But this was just a facade. The little girl had already died. Zhang Xiu possessed her body and became the six-year-old Zhang Erya. Then, she used the excuse of amnesia to learn about the family's situation again.

Yes, everything is a classic among classics, a formula among formulas, and even the later plot has nothing new. Yao Xiaoyu even deliberately prepared some common-sense errors, such as six-year-old Er Ya being able to make a thousand meat buns a day—how could a girl who writes based on superficial observations know how much time it takes to knead the dough and steam the buns, how much ingredients are needed, and how many customers a place has?

The truth must be mixed with a lot of falsehood to prove that it was all fabricated. Yao Xiaoyu just wanted to make money peacefully and didn't want to be seen as a prophet and shot eight times in the back to commit suicide.

After all, the power of building high walls and storing up grain before declaring oneself king is too great. Yao Xiaoyu has to add more buffs to herself. She didn't even set the era to the Qing Dynasty because Jue Luo and Huang Magua are still alive - so what loopholes can be plugged in?

Yao Xiaoyu pondered which common-sense errors she could insert into the article, while Pi Kangxiu had already finished reading Zhang Erya's assessment of her position in the family.

The Zhang family wasn't large; only three generations lived together. The Zhang family grandparents had two sons and a daughter, but their social statuses were very distinct:

The eldest son, being the eldest son and responsible for supporting his parents in old age, was the most valued. Boys were allowed to study in town, while girls were permitted to bind their feet. The story depicts a society where bound feet were pampered and allowed to marry well, but productivity was still highly valued, unlike the current situation where girls were forced to bind their feet and work in the fields on their knees.

The youngest daughter had a slightly lower status, but she occupied the position of the youngest son. She was also very cute from a young age, and her parents hoped that she could marry into the town and bring honor to the family. So she never suffered any hardship. Later, she really got her wish and gave birth to the eldest son in the same year she married him, and her status became as solid as a rock.

The second son's treatment plummeted, and the family's life suffered as a result: they ate the least and worked the most. Zhang Erya jokingly called the whole family "old oxen," but how could their treatment compare to that of large livestock? Oxen only ate feed and were never allowed to be overworked. When they got sick, they would rush to call a doctor.

But what about them?

Zhang Erya was their own daughter, and she died of illness just like that.

Zhang Xiu, now Zhang Erya, looked at her parents who were taking care of her with mixed feelings. Her head was dizzy and she couldn't think of much, but one thought was very clear: separate the family!

Although she didn't know how she got here, she didn't want to die in misery because she couldn't afford medical treatment when she was sick!

What comes next?

Pi Kangxiu read the last line three times, making sure no more words would appear, before looking up and asking anxiously.

"It wasn't written down."

Yao Xiaoyu was telling the truth. Writing is like playing the piano; if you don't practice for a day, you'll get rusty. From before the Lunar New Year to after, she only wrote two short stories. She is still in the process of getting back into the swing of things. If she hadn't set a deadline of today, she wouldn't have even written 10,000 words.

"...If it's to be published, the title needs to be changed."

Yuan Shikai had only taken the throne a few months ago and had only abdicated a few days ago. It was fine to write the title on the deed, but if the fact that he was an empress was published so openly, Pi Kangxiu was really worried about Yao Xiaoyu's safety.

What do you think would be a more suitable change?

Yao Xiaoyu recalled the previous atmosphere of fear and decisively chose to agree. Dancing in shackles wasn't suicidal, and besides, Pi Kangxiu hadn't said that she couldn't become empress in the end, just that it couldn't be put in the title.

"Just remove the words 'become empress'."

Pi Kangxiu drew a horizontal line with a pencil, and Yao Xiaoyu glanced at it and nodded. The official title of the book was then decided as "Back to the Ming Dynasty". It was published twice a week as usual, totaling 10,000 words.

Forty heavy silver dollars were handed over, and Yao Xiaoyu took them, pondering the possibility of buying a house—her biggest obstacle now was not a lack of money, but the Yao family's debts.

On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month of the new year, Yao Xiaoyu accompanied Zhou Chunhua and Yao Tianrui to pay off their debts again, going door to door. This time, they paid off 143 silver dollars and still had 437.54 yuan left.

It would take at least two years for the Yao family to pay off their debts, but so much money sitting at home for two years...

Yao Xiaoyu walked along the road with a frown, her thoughts a jumbled mess, but her gaze was drawn to a child selling cigarettes by the roadside. The child didn't notice Yao Xiaoyu, but just waved his scarred arm and shouted energetically. When the smelly foot came by, he darted into the crowd and then nimbly popped out again a moment later.

There will always be a way.

Yao Xiaoyu looked at the child in the short jacket and said in a low voice. Tao Xiaoxiao followed behind Yao Xiaoyu. She didn't know why her mood had suddenly improved, but when she thought of the big meal later, her eyes unconsciously revealed anticipation.

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Author's Note: A jade pendant shining, mission failure, betrayal by sisters, and being stabbed in the back by a scumbag—four reasons why an assassin transmigrates.

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