Le Jing thought about the selection of new topics for a long time. It must be down-to-earth enough so that people can feel involved, and it must be interesting enough to retain readers.
Finally, and most importantly, the subject matter must be able to allow readers to accept his ideas subtly.
Le Jing thought about it for a long time and finally remembered the theme of time-travel literature.
Ever since the great writer Mark Twain wrote the world's first time-travel novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", time-travel novels have been flourishing in the next hundred years or so, and have developed different genres. Among them, the most popular time-travel novels in China are those in which the author travels to the past to participate in or even change history. The originator of this type of time-travel novels is generally recognized as Huang's "A Step into the Past".
The story of the protagonist Xiang Shaolong traveling through the Warring States Period and getting to know and befriend various historical figures, and participating in and influencing history, was no less than a powerful stimulant for the people at that time, and is still talked about with relish many years later.
Time-travel literature is very common in later generations and has become a cliché. However, in this era of underdeveloped entertainment, it is still an absolutely novel subject matter that will definitely stand out and gain popularity.
In the era of entertainment explosion in later generations, Le Jing has read quite a few time-travel historical novels. In many of the excellent works, the authors would make reasonable deductions on the development of history after the changes and make reasonable discussions on the subsequent political and cultural developments. They are quite thought-provoking and interesting to read.
For popular fiction, being interesting is enough.
This is the kind of story that Le Jing wants to write, a time-travel historical epic that is magnificent, full of ups and downs, twists and turns, yet full of fun.
He wanted to make an immature discussion of the country's political system within the article, and he wanted to convey to readers the advanced experience he had gained a hundred years later through the plot of the novel.
Le Jing is a clean and honest person, who believes in the famous saying of Qidian governance - wear clean clothes but don't rebel, and put an electric drill into your anus.
So according to his idea, he really wanted to write a time-travel novel about traveling through the Ming Dynasty to change history and create the iron-blooded Ming Dynasty, but it was just a thought, and he was still rational.
After all, this is the Republic of China, a country at a historical turning point.
Reform and respect for the past, enlightenment and conservatism, advancement and backwardness, civilization and barbarism...all kinds of contradictory characteristics coexist in this country. It is only when they converge and collide with each other that dazzling sparks of thought are produced, and finally another ideological reform movement in Chinese history following the Hundred Schools of Thought.
Due to the reasons of the times and the amount of historical knowledge he has, Le Jing is destined to be unable to write a time-travel novel that travels through a real dynasty to change real history. Firstly, the Qing Dynasty had just fallen not long ago, and many old men and young men were still active in the political arena. If Le Jing dared to write such a "banned book" (regardless of whether any newspaper or magazine would dare to publish it), they would send people to assassinate him the next moment; secondly, Le Jing had not systematically studied relevant knowledge in modern times, and his current knowledge reserves were nothing but a show of skill in front of those cultural masters. Any rash writing would only be full of loopholes and would be a joke.
In this case, the fictional era is a good choice. Because it is fictional, all the settings in it are based on Le Jing's description, so there is no need to worry about the criticism of the nitpickers. Moreover, the fictional dynasty will reduce the sensitivity of the content of the article, so that his article will not easily become a banned book and be blocked by the government.
He also thought of the title of the article, which was called "The Rise of Dynasties". The name was very simple and crude, just to cater to the market and the audience. In fact, if he was not afraid of being banned by the government as a rebellious book, Le Jing would prefer to name it "After the Rebellion Succeeded".
As for the choice of the protagonist, in order to avoid being too shocking, Le Jing plans to set him as a professor at a university in the Republic of China, a pioneer whose theoretical ideas are incompatible with the current era, but who shines brightly in the time and space after traveling through time.
After determining the general outline of the article, Le Jing's inspiration suddenly flowed and he wrote for the entire morning. If Li Shuran hadn't called him to eat, he wouldn't have realized that so much time had passed!
He pounded his aching waist, and when he stood up, he felt dizzy and couldn't help but sigh again about the weakness of his body. He was only sixteen years old, but in terms of physical fitness, he was not as good as some middle-aged people in their forties.
He picked up the manuscripts and blew the wet ink off them, then carefully put them away. He had been very productive this morning, having written nearly 5,000 words. This way, he could probably collect 50,000 words in a week.
As a long serialized popular novel, "Dynasty Rise" naturally cannot be updated weekly like "Rat Eyes Look Down on People". Le Jing set the standard for it to be updated daily. This would be a heavy burden on his body, so now he can only try his best to save more manuscripts.
A simple and crude and refreshing work like "The Rise of Dynasties" naturally did not fit the style of "Literary Newspaper", so this time he planned to submit his work to another newspaper under a different pen name. He had already chosen the newspaper, "Peking Fiction Newspaper", a local newspaper in Peking that published many popular novels in series.
Le Jing had read the articles several times when he was free. The articles were all-encompassing, including the romantic novels of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, historical novels of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, and chivalrous novels of the Liangshan Heroes. Le Jing also saw early martial arts novels similar to the style of Huanzhu Louzhu. In fact, the martial arts novels of later generations by Jin Da Lao were also inspired by the predecessors such as Huanzhu Louzhu and developed on their basis.
From this we can see that Le Jing's article is a perfect fit for their newspaper.
Le Jing put down his pen and walked to the dining room to prepare to eat, but frowned the moment he saw the food. There were five dishes and one soup, with meat and vegetables, which looked very rich, but the smell was very bland.
Zhou Da's family was just poor people who had fled from famine. They usually didn't have enough food to eat. It was obviously difficult for Zhou Da's wife to have good cooking skills. Zhou Da's wife's cooking skills were limited to cooking rice. There were not as many seasonings as in later generations, so the taste was imaginable. Even though Le Jing would give Zhou Da's wife some advice from time to time in recent days, cooking skills could not be mastered overnight. Le Jing was not a person who valued food, but he was already thinking about finding another cook.
Le Jing was already tired after a whole morning, and he was too lazy to eat these unappetizing meals, so he waved his hand and said to the girl holding the bowl: "Come on, I'll take you to a restaurant."
Li Shuran asked: "Then what about the food..."
"Let Zhou Da and the others eat it."
Li Shuran was still a little hesitant: "It's not the New Year, it's too expensive to eat out."
Le Jing was stunned for a moment, and then began to reflect silently. Since coming to Peking, he first fell seriously ill, and then began to stay indoors to write and recuperate. Li Shuran still had to go to school. Usually, the little girl was considerate of his health and never asked to go out to play. The brother and sister had never gone out to play properly. The little girl lived a frugal life because of this, probably because she was scared by his serious illness.
"It's just a meal, so I still have enough money." Le Jing deliberately said in a nonchalant tone: "Your brother has made a lot of money writing articles recently, so it's time to enjoy it."
Li Shuran seemed to be a little worried, but she didn't say anything in the end.
This time, Le Jing planned to take Li Shuran out for a good stroll and have some fun. To put it bluntly, he was going out to spend money. He had saved nearly three hundred dollars in royalties during this period. Although it was not much, it was more than enough for him to go out and splurge. It was also because he was too careless about Li Shuran that he did not realize that Li Shuran had been raised to be a little petty. In Le Jing's view, it doesn't matter how much money you have, but you must have ambition and vision. These two things determine a person's future pattern and achievements.
So as soon as they went out, Le Jing asked a rickshaw to take them to an international hotel. Li Shuran stood at the door, almost staring at the luxurious decoration inside, and the blond and blue-eyed foreign waiters who came and went inside also made her feel particularly uneasy.
She carefully pulled Le Jing's sleeve, blushing and saying shyly, "Brother, this restaurant is too expensive..."
Le Jing held her hand and said in a soft but firm voice: "Hold your head high and keep your chest up. There is nothing to be afraid of. Although this restaurant is expensive, we can afford it."
He walked into the restaurant with the girl in his arms, sat down under the guidance of the waiter, asked the waiter for the menu in fluent English and started to order. Infected by Le Jing's calm attitude, Li Shuran gradually became less embarrassed. Although she still looked a little unnatural, she was no longer so timid.
After the appetizers were served, Le Jing naturally began to teach Li Shuran about Western dining etiquette and deliberately told a few jokes, successfully making Li Shuran relax.
While the brother and sister were chatting and laughing, the words "night watchman" floated into Le Jing's ears.
The brother and sister fell silent at the same time, and heard two guests at the back table talking about Le Jing's article.
"I think this night watchman is quite clever. Look at the content of his article. It's all about sensitive or taboo issues. He's trying to attract attention!"
"Brother Zichen is right. In my opinion, the night watchman is just an opportunist. The articles he wrote can only be circulated in the Eight Great Hutongs and cannot be published in the mainstream."
The two smiled at each other, and the topic became increasingly irrelevant.
"I think the night watchman is also a playboy. He might have written the story about the young prostitute for one of his old lovers!"
"That's right! I wonder how many prostitutes in the Eight Great Hutongs have cried because of this article. If the night watchman goes to visit a prostitute now, the prostitute might even give him change!"
Seeing that the two people's words were becoming more and more frivolous, Le Jing found it quite fresh and funny.
The sourness of these two lemon boys is about to spread to them. Since ancient times, there has been a strange circle in China. Men despise prostitutes, but at the same time they regard winning the favor of prostitutes as a topic of boasting. □□ is a glorious "ornament" for their masculinity.
There was one thing that surprised Le Jing. He didn't expect his article to be so popular among prostitutes, and quite a few of them actually understood it. This was a pleasant surprise to him.
Le Jing had a good attitude and didn't care about other people's sour words. After all, Li Shuran was still young, and her cheeks turned red with anger. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she trembled as she said, "They..."
"What nonsense are you talking about!" A clear and beautiful voice interrupted Li Shuran's words, "I don't allow you to slander Mr. Night Watchman like this!"
Le Jing turned around curiously, and saw a seductive woman in a bright red cheongsam standing up from the table to the right of the two men. She walked in high heels with a ruthless step towards the two people who had been talking bad about Le Jing behind her back.
The two of them were silent, staring at each other for a few seconds, and then one of them bowed to the woman and said, "May I ask what is the relationship between this lady and the night watchman?"
"It doesn't matter." The woman raised her chin proudly, her bright red lips curled into a cold smile: "I just admire your character, sir."
So Brother Zichen sneered and said, "Since you have nothing to do with the Night Watch, what qualifications do you have to talk to us? We have the mouth, aren't you being too overbearing?"
The woman snorted coldly, "You slandered the innocence of a gentleman out of thin air. Can't I help the injustice when I see it?"
"You said the night watchman was innocent, but I said he was a rat in the gutter who was not worthy of being seen by people!" Brother Zichen did not give in: "Why else would he hide his head and tail and not even dare to meet people?"
"You! That's because the master is being modest! Do you think everyone is a mean person who is vying for fame and fortune like you?" The woman looked him up and down with disdain and sneered, "People like you who only dare to speak ill of others behind their backs are not even worthy of carrying the master's shoes!"
The other person who had been silent all of a sudden asked, "This lady is so protective of the night watchman, isn't she also from the Eight Great Hutongs?"
This sentence was the most vicious humiliation for women in the Republic of China at that time. But the woman tucked a strand of curly hair behind her ear and smiled coquettishly: "My name is White Peony, and this gentleman looks very familiar. Could he be a frequent customer of one of my sisters?"
This girl turned out to be Bai Shaoyao, the famous prostitute who sent a letter to Le Jing that day!
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