Chapter 100

The situation escalated.

Who could have imagined that what was originally a heartwarming story of a fan asking for a role for their idol and receiving a response would gradually turn into an accident, and an accident with a huge scope of repercussions?

A week has passed, and the matter has not only not stopped, but more and more marketing accounts and passersby have started to get involved, especially Zhou Xun's fans who are indignant.

They had always wondered why their brother, who had won an award and was on the verge of becoming a sensation, had suddenly disappeared from the scene in recent years. It turned out that he had been threatened and refused to yield.

-We definitely didn't choose the wrong person to support.

The fans felt both proud and heartbroken, and these complex emotions ultimately transformed into overwhelming fighting power as they charged towards the enemy lurking in the shadows.

"Brown Bear Media's stock has fallen sharply."

Luo Ying also came to Shanghai these past few days, not for any other reason than to be with Zhou Xingyun. The two had just gotten engaged, and this was a time of intense affection between them.

Zhou Xingyun joked, "February is still the best; she played a royal flush right away!"

The reason why Zhou Xun's incident was exposed to the public can be traced back to the fact that Eryuetian kindly replied to a fan's private message. Such a simple sentence caused such a big uproar, which was really unexpected.

"Don't make fun of me," Xu Ying said with a wry smile.

Nowadays, her online reputation has turned her into God's favorite daughter, someone you absolutely cannot mess with.

Anyone who gets along with her ends up in a bad way, like Zhang Sandao who was so arrogant last year, or the group of people who wanted to harm Zhou Xun this year.

In February, one group wanted to protect Zhou Xun, while another group wanted to harm him. Naturally, the other group would suffer the consequences.

Xu Ying: "......"

Although Zhou Xun's experience was indeed tragic, her original intention in sending this message to her fans was not to protect him.

Of course, since she has inadvertently protected the other party, it is her honor.

In her eyes, everything was just a coincidence, but in the public eye, too many coincidences are no longer coincidences. The comments people are making now are all saying things like, "Never offend Eryuetian, or you won't even know how you died."

February Sky won't directly retaliate against you, but her father, God, will take action.

Xu Ying knew it was just netizens teasing her in a good-natured way, but to her surprise, quite a few people in the industry actually believed it and even contacted her out of the blue, asking if she wanted to collaborate.

She was immediately at a loss for words, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

I had heard that people in the industry believed in feng shui and metaphysics, and now I've seen it for myself.

Luo Ying said, "Thinking about it carefully, they weren't wrong. You really did have divine help along the way."

Luo Ying studied architecture in college, and he actually held feng shui in high esteem. In addition, he was friends with Xu Ying, and considering Xu Ying's experiences over the past few years, he felt that what netizens said made sense.

"Take Zhang Sandao for example. He slandered you time and time again, but you didn't do anything to him. You were thinking of having a fair fight when the show aired. Who knew that he would be reported just a few days before the show aired? Isn't that fate?!"

Zhou Xingyun agreed. Her family owned an entertainment company, and her father believed in this kind of thing. She was skeptical at first, but after this incident, she was completely convinced.

"Whatever, you two can leave now, I still have to work," Xu Ying waved her hand, trying to kick these two idlers out of the house.

With these two people around, she couldn't even continue writing; she was too busy chatting with them.

"Okay, okay, we'll be going now, we won't disturb your work," Zhou Xingyun said, linking arms with Luo Ying and walking away with a laugh.

As soon as the two left, the living room fell silent.

Xu Ying sat on the sofa for a while and watched the trend of online public opinion before getting up and going to the study.

In "Traveling to the Ming Dynasty to Take the Imperial Examinations," she has already written up to the point where the male protagonist, Cao Hongjing, is preparing to enter school for his first education. The silk case that shocked the whole country finally came to a conclusion in the second year after he came to this world.

As a result, the majority of the taxes required for silk production per capita were borne by Shexian County, with the remaining portion drawn from other taxes collected by Huizhou Prefecture.

In addition to summer and autumn grain taxes, people in the Ming Dynasty faced many other complicated taxes. As time went on, many of these taxes were simply carried over to the old system.

Even if the tax category no longer exists, taxes are still being paid.

For example, this "tax relief for soldiers in Chizhou Prefecture by the Jinqu Road" was a sum of money that the local government paid to the Jinqu Road for help when bandits invaded decades ago.

Later, the soldiers responsible for guarding Huizhou Prefecture arrived. In principle, this batch of pay should have been stopped and transferred to the local soldiers. However, the local military commissioner was cunning and collected two separate payments for the same tax.

The people, not understanding the situation, assumed that the different names meant different taxes and thus paid them naively for decades.

Because the silk case caused such a big stir, the military commissioner was worried that some serious people would find out about this tax, so he took advantage of the case to include this tax in the 'personal silk tax' to make up for the shortfall.

The military commissioner thus easily eliminated the trouble and even gained a reputation for magnanimity.

Cao Hongjing, who was well-versed in history, listened to her family praising the benevolence and righteousness of the soldiers and sighed silently in her heart. This was not benevolence and righteousness, but clearly a fear of getting into trouble!

These intricate details of officialdom are beyond Cao Hongjing's control at the moment. What he needs to do now is to let his family see his talent for studying so that they will take the initiative to send him to school.

Huizhou Prefecture is a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery, and Wuyuan County is the hometown of Zhu Xi, so the atmosphere of learning and education here is still very strong.

Just as Cao Hongjing drew a few big characters on the ground with a stick, his mother excitedly hugged him and praised him for his skill. When they learned that he had overheard something outside the school and taught himself, his family was even more excited and exclaimed that their Cao family had produced a genius!

And so Cao Hongjing's wish to go to school was fulfilled.

......

*

Song Yilian returned to her dormitory, washed up, and went to bed. Only then did she take out her phone and open Feihong Novel Network. Eryuetian's "Traveling to the Ming Dynasty to Take the Imperial Examination" had started, and she had only learned about it from someone else today.

She's been too busy lately with experiments and various projects, so much so that she hasn't had time to keep up with February Sky's updates. Naturally, she didn't know that February Sky started a new story two weeks ago. Her memory of February Sky is still stuck on "The Ming Dynasty," which started filming at the beginning of this year.

Many people online are not optimistic about this male-oriented drama written by a female screenwriter, but she is different. She believes that women understand women better, and that the drama might be very popular with female viewers after it is released.

Song Yilian leaned against the headboard and first opened the table of contents of "Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty to Take the Imperial Examination". Sure enough, it was a novel that had only been serialized for a short time, with less than twenty chapters in total.

She sighed softly, thinking she had accidentally written a novel, but it turned out that this one had only just begun. It seemed that she was about to embark on a long journey of following the updates.

Song Yilian clicked on the first chapter and started reading from the beginning.

This book is different in style from all of February Sky's previous novels, but it's just as good.

She especially loved the descriptions of the customs and traditions of the era interspersed in the protagonist's life; they were written so simply and realistically that it seemed as if such a world truly existed.

This is February Sky's unique talent.

She had long noticed that Er Yuetian seemed to be able to write incredibly realistic novels no matter what genre they were writing, and that alone made her the envy of countless authors.

......

Cao Hongjing successfully enrolled in the school and became a formal student at a nearby school.

He thrived in the school.

Unlike other children, he was not afraid of the serious and rigid middle-aged teacher. Instead, he became more courageous in the face of setbacks. Whenever he did not understand something in the books and classics, he would raise his hand to ask questions and even pester the teacher for a long time to get his answers.

The Master liked him very much.

His exceptional comprehension and memory talents were noticed by the teacher and many students. Word spread quickly, and Cao Hongjing has now become a shining star in Caojia Village.

"Maybe Dalang will be able to study at Ziyang Academy in the future!"

Ziyang Academy is a renowned academy in Wuyuan. Originally called Huian Academy during the Yuan Dynasty, it was later renamed Ziyang Academy in honor of Zhu Xi, who also had the pen name Ziyang. Students at the county middle school considered it an honor to study there.

......

Song Yilian was inexplicably excited, perhaps because she was also an educated person; who hasn't dreamed of going back in time and dominating the world?

Of course, in the end, it's because February Sky was written so well.

Aside from Er Yuetian's novels, she rarely reads other novels, partly because she doesn't have time, and partly because she finds them too unrealistic and can't get into them.

February Sky's novels wouldn't give her that feeling.

To put it simply, take the Ziyang Academy she just visited as an example. This academy, which was only mentioned briefly by the protagonist's family, was given a story and anecdote by Er Yuetian in the novel.

It turns out that this academy existed as early as the Yuan Dynasty. Later, in order to commemorate the great Zhu Xi, it was renamed after Zhu Xi's pen name.

The brief description of Ziyang Academy in February, though seemingly simple, imbues the academy with a profound historical depth, instantly making one understand why this academy, standing in Wuyuan County, has been so admired by students throughout the ages.

There's also the Silk Case, a major case that shocked the entire country. The book doesn't describe its origins, process, or outcome in great detail, but it's precisely this half-revealed corner of the story that allows readers to witness the passion of ordinary people and the cruelty of officialdom amidst the torrent of the times.

Shuai Jiamo, who initially raised doubts and spoke up for the people of Shexian, was sentenced to military service and exile after everything settled down. Cheng Yiqing, the scholar who stood up for the people of Wuyuan and occupied the academy to act as a council, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

The authority of the government cannot be challenged.

To the common people, these people were speaking out for them; to the court, however, they were defying authority and had to be severely punished as a warning to others.

Cheng Yiqing was the only person in this case to be sentenced to death.

Fortunately, the people of Wuyuan remembered Cheng Yiqing's contributions, and countless local gentry and officials lent a helping hand and secretly worked to extend his death sentence to more than twenty years. Cheng Yiqing lived a life of comfort and ease in prison...

These are all things that happened later, things that were only briefly mentioned in the text. But Song Yilian was deeply moved when she read it. This is the story that Er Yue Tian wrote, cruel yet hopeful.