Time drifted by slowly, and in a flash, more than half a month had passed.
The morning light was faint, the dawn clouds beautiful and soft.
The morning sun rose from the distant horizon where sea met sky, dyeing both in brilliant gold. Seabirds rode the cool ocean breeze, flying over Liyue Harbor. Smoke from cooking fires rose slowly from many households in the harbor.
A ray of sunlight spilled through the window into Fang Qiu's room.
Feeling the strong light, Fang Qiu, who was draped in a blanket and slumped over the table, opened her sleepy, bleary eyes.
"Mmm... is it morning already?"
Fang Qiu muttered to herself, lifting her head to gaze blankly around the room.
It took a good while for her to come to her senses.
Oh, right. She had felt too tired after writing yesterday and had fallen asleep right there on the table. She wondered how long she had slept...
She hurriedly checked her physical condition, finding that aside from a heavy head and a slight chill from staying up all night, she was fine. Seeing no symptoms of illness, Fang Qiu breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, when she felt a bit cold while burning the midnight oil yesterday, she had grabbed two blankets—one draped over her back, the other covering her legs. That, combined with her clothes and the powerful heat-retaining function of the Jumpy Dumpty.
Otherwise, with her physical constitution, sleeping on a table all night would have definitely sent her reporting to Bubu Pharmacy today.
"Phew."
After exhaling a light breath of relief, Fang Qiu cast her gaze toward the thick stack of manuscripts on the table, a touch of delight in her beautiful eyes.
After fifteen days of continuous, day-and-night struggle, sometime in the unknown hours of last night, she had finally finished the grand finale of Sword and Fairy.
As long as she handed the manuscript to the editorial department and discussed it with her editor, provided there were no major revisions needed, she could live like a salted fish and properly vegetate at home for a long time to come.
It was just a pity that Liyue had no smartphones or Wi-Fi; otherwise, this life would be simply too cozy.
She could buy a cute kitten, wear fluffy panda pajamas, lie in bed petting the cat while watching lovey-dovey romance anime, accompanied by small cakes and fruit juice. When the weather was nice, she could even buy a watermelon and chill it with her Vision.
When her body got stiff from lying down, she could nestle into the Jumpy Dumpty. Occasionally, she could even ask Hu Tao and Xiangling to hang out.
Bathing in the twilight sun, drinking juice, strolling through the streets of Liyue Harbor.
Just thinking about it felt cozy. A slow-paced life—she liked it.
A few days ago, Bai Qing had visited her once, bringing two pieces of news.
The first piece of news was: Her royalties from last month, totaling over nine hundred thousand Mora, had been deposited into her account.
Over seven hundred thousand of that came from the sales of The Eternal, while the remaining hundred-thousand-plus was from Your Lie in April.
Fang Qiu was quite satisfied with this.
How should she put it...
Although the first-week sales of The Eternal were three times that of Your Lie in April, it didn't mean the first month's sales or total sales would be triple.
First off, a large reason The Eternal reached over thirty thousand copies in its first week was due to the reader base established by Your Lie in April. And since The Eternal and Your Lie in April were of a similar genre, the sales of The Eternal would also feed back into Your Lie in April.
So the final results of the two books wouldn't be too far apart.
And these were her fixed readers. As long as her next book didn't drop the ball, those people would likely continue to support her. It was equivalent to the 'average subscriptions' of web novels in her past life!
The second piece of news was the first-week sales of Sword and Fairy.
When she learned of the first-week sales figures for Sword and Fairy, she was so scared she almost sat down on the floor.
The sales of Sword and Fairy had reached a terrifying figure of over seventy thousand copies!
Seventy thousand!
Although it was just a little over seventy thousand, the first-week sales were fully double that of The Eternal. The results were more than six times that of Your Lie in April.
Converted into Mora, at twenty-one per book, seventy thousand copies meant 1.4 million. With her share, it would be at least five or six hundred thousand.
The money earned in the first week alone was actually more than Your Lie in April had made back then.
Buying a house in Liyue was just around the corner!
Or should she buy a boat first? She just didn't know how much a boat cost in Mora, or if one needed a license to sail it.
The weight of Mora was reassuring.
Thus, despite having stayed up all night, she had been so excited that day that she suffered from insomnia.
Starting today, she was a millionaire! No, a rich millionaire lady!
"Mmm..."
Fang Qiu placed the blankets on the Jumpy Dumpty, then stood up and stretched lazily. She pushed open the window, and a burst of cool sea breeze brushed past.
The sun hadn't yet climbed above the sea level; it seemed it was still early. The editors probably hadn't started work yet.
No rush.
So, Fang Qiu leisurely cooked a bowl of plain noodles. After eating, she rested for a good hour before finally setting off leisurely with the manuscript.
When Fang Qiu leisurely walked into the editorial office of the Liyue Publishing House, the editors were busy enough to burn their foreheads.
These editors were even busier than the last time she came to submit the manuscript for The Eternal. This forced Fang Qiu to doubt the work system of Liyue's state-owned enterprises.
It was one thing for the secretaries at Yuehai Pavilion to work overtime every day, but she hadn't expected the publishing house editors to be this tired too...
It was simply a decline in public morals, hearts not being what they used to be, a loss of morality!
Meanwhile, Bai Qing was sitting by the window in the office, reviewing manuscripts with a serious expression.
Before Fang Qiu could even speak, many editors present noticed her. They stopped their work one after another and cast their gazes toward her. Soon, the entire editorial department fell silent.
This commotion also alerted Bai Qing. She looked up to see Fang Qiu walking toward her, holding a thick stack of manuscripts.
"Sister Bai, good morning," Fang Qiu said with a faint smile.
"Good morning," Bai Qing said, standing up.
After speaking, Bai Qing cast her gaze toward the thick stack of manuscripts in Fang Qiu's arms, a hint of doubt in her eyes. She asked, "Is this the draft for the second volume? Isn't it a bit too much?"
Could it be that Fang Qiu had started padding the word count?
That would not be good news. Padding meant a drop in quality... She would have to have a good talk with Fang Qiu about this.
"This is the entire remaining content of Sword and Fairy. I wrote it all in one go," Fang Qiu said with a smile.
"Eh?" Bai Qing froze slightly and asked tentatively, "All of it?"
"Mm, all of it."
Fang Qiu nodded.
Bai Qing was stunned for a good while before she finally reacted. She took the manuscript and said, "I will finish reading it as soon as possible. If there are problems, I will come find you before noon tomorrow. If I don't come find you by noon tomorrow, it means there are no parts of the book that require your personal revision."
"Mm, then I'll trouble you, Sister Bai," Fang Qiu said with a smile and a nod.
The serialization contract for Sword and Fairy had already been signed, so the remaining manuscripts didn't require a new signing.
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