Knock, knock!!
With the sound of knocking, a woman in her thirties walked in.
"Chief Editor, good news! A stall owner just called to restock. I checked with a few other stalls—they all said sales were great and they want more copies too."
"Immediately tell the printers to run another 2000—no, 3000 copies. Once they're ready, deliver them straight to the stalls."
Hu Zhiwen was so excited he nearly jumped up, giving instructions on the spot.
The woman acknowledged and left.
Seeing this, Lin Baicheng asked cautiously:
"Chief Editor Hu, won't printing another three thousand copies be too much? Isn't newspaper sales usually highest in the morning?"
"Ah, Lin Sheng, you don't understand," Hu explained happily. "We originally printed three thousand copies, and now some stalls are already sold out. That means the others must be nearly the same. Printing another three thousand—so what if they don't all sell today? They can still be sold tomorrow or the day after."
"Remember, our focus isn't current news—it's serialized fiction. People will still come back to buy today's issue later after hearing recommendations from friends about the first chapter. And besides, it's not impossible that today's reprint might still sell out."
"I see."
Lin nodded. "You're the expert here. We'll go with your call."
Hu praised him:
"Lin Sheng, your idea really worked wonders."
But Lin waved it off:
"Success today doesn't matter. What's important is after the rebate period ends. If sales remain strong without stall owners pushing it, that's when we'll know we've truly succeeded."
Hu nodded. He understood, but as he said—this was a good start. Better this than seeing sales flop on day one.
Lin didn't stay long at Star Daily. Once he was confident sales wouldn't be poor, he chatted a while more with Hu and then went home.
Back home, Lin resumed writing his novel. Nowadays he could manage around 10,000 characters per day, but writing continuously wasn't possible—he'd need breaks, otherwise his hands would cramp from the strain.
That evening, Hu informed him that the day's sales reached over 5,300 copies—a number close to Star Daily's peak in its heyday.
The main reason they sold so many was thanks to the rebate strategy and stall owners' enthusiastic recommendations. The novel itself hadn't yet had much impact—it was only day one. It was unrealistic to expect immediate word-of-mouth frenzy where everyone rushed to buy.
In the following days, Star Daily's sales kept rising.
By the fifth day—the last day of the rebate period—circulation even broke 11,000 copies. While stall owners' push was still the main driver, this time a significant portion of readers were clearly drawn in by the novel itself.
Because sales surged, more newsstands began cooperating with Star Daily. But starting tomorrow, rebates would end. Naturally, stall owners wouldn't keep pushing the paper so strongly, which made the next day's sales crucial.
If circulation collapsed, it would show that few people were buying for the novel alone—meaning the story couldn't yet sustain the paper. Sales must not fall below 5,000 copies.
But if sales held above 5,000, it would mean readers were hooked—willing to keep buying without rebates or active promotion. That would prove the novel could support the paper's survival and profitability.
Thus, the next day's issue was extremely important. Lin was very focused on the outcome.
That day, Star Daily initially printed 5,000 copies—a cautious move to avoid losses if unsold stock had to be dumped at low prices.
Unexpectedly, sales were as strong as ever. With more cooperating stalls and fewer initial prints, by 9 AM stalls were already calling to restock.
Hu quickly ordered another 5,000 copies. Those too sold out by 3 PM, leading to yet another 3,000 reprint.
This final batch didn't completely sell out on the same day, but about 2,200 copies did, with the rest easily sellable the next morning.
That day's total circulation reached over 12,000 copies—a thousand more than the previous day. Both Lin and Hu were overjoyed. They knew now: they had succeeded.
This surge was largely thanks to the expanded stall network, which broadened their reach and increased their potential reader base.
Over the next half month, circulation continued to rise by over 1,000 copies daily, stabilizing only after surpassing 30,000 copies. From there, growth slowed to just a few hundred copies a day.
During this time, Lin stopped worrying about the paper and poured his energy into writing.
On the day he was certain Star Daily would survive, he asked his family for money and hired two copyists. He dictated, and they transcribed. With two people alternating, his daily writing output doubled.
Lin never hid things from his family—they knew he wasn't receiving manuscript fees, only a share of the paper's stock. Now that circulation kept climbing, they weren't worried about him earning nothing.
Hiring professional copyists made a huge difference. Though each cost several hundred HKD a month, Lin could now produce around 20,000 characters per day.
As Star Daily's circulation soared, Wind and Cloud: Conquering the World naturally grew more and more popular. Otherwise, sales couldn't have risen like this.
Unsurprisingly, the novel drew the attention of the publishing world. Many recalled the young man who had appeared only a month earlier—and were shocked his novel had exploded in popularity so fast.
As a result, plenty of people reached out to Lin. Some to build connections, others hoping to secure serialization rights for his next novel.
Lin, of course, turned them all down—politely brushing them off, saying just enough to keep appearances.