Writing Novels Will Make You Invincible-Chapter 1 : Ten Years of Flop, Nobody Bats an Eye

Ten Years of Flop, Nobody Bats an Eye
Staring blankly at the reader count on his author dashboard, Chu Tianxing’s face was etched with bitterness.
It had been twenty-four hours since his new book launched and the highest single-chapter read count was frozen at "77," a number that had not changed for an entire hour.
He had published a burst of twenty chapters for the launch, and the total read counts were, by a curious coincidence, "777," which calculated out to an average read count of only about 39 a chapter.
After staring at the two numbers for a long while longer, Chu Tianxing blinked his dry eyes and gave a self-deprecating smile.
“The numbers may be dismal, but at least it’s not zero…”
He picked up the bowl from his computer desk and took a bite of the caviar mixed with rice that had long since grown cold. The usually palatable Beluga caviar now felt like bitter grains in his mouth.
Was it truly not zero?
Aside from the courtesy from his author friends in their group chat for failed writers, was there a single genuine reader among those 77 readers?
Putting down the now-tasteless caviar and rice, he pulled a bottle of Macallan whisky from under his desk and downed the remaining half in one go.
Letting out a long breath, Chu Tianxing wiped his mouth and murmured to himself, “Ten years of flops... Am I really that untalented? It’s been ten years. It’s time to let go of dreams and all that… It's time to go home.”
He set down the bottle and after a moment of hesitation, pulled out his phone and dialed his dad’s number. The call connected as quickly as his father’s deep, slightly weary voice came through the phone.
“Tianxing, why are you still up so late?”
“Dad.” Chu Tianxing’s lips trembled as he spoke in a strained voice, “I… I’ve failed again.”
“Oh.” His father sighed. “You’ve been writing novels for ten years now, haven't you? Ten straight years of failure… Maybe that’s proof of something?”
“Yes. I know. I understand now. I’m really…” Chu Tianxing pressed his lips together, and with a trace of reluctance mixed with a hint of relief, he finished his sentence, “…not cut out for this line of work.”
“Have you thought it through?”
“I have. I’ve already spent ten years doing what I love. I won’t be so willful anymore.”
“Good. Then come back.”
His father’s voice was still deep and weary, but now held a touch of relief. “Rest at home for a while first. If you want to start your own business, I’ll give you a billion to practice with. If you just want a job, come to the group headquarters and start as my secretary; work has been very busy lately, and I often work late into the night. You can help me with some of the minor tasks when you come back… Oh, right. I’ll have someone buy a flight plan right away and send our family’s private jet to pick you up.”
Ten years of willfulness, and Dad still loves me so much!
Chu Tianxing’s eyes stung and his voice grew choked. “Let’s skip the private jet, that’s too high-profile. I’ll just fly back myself. Just book a first-class ticket for me…”
After talking with his father a while longer, Chu Tianxing hung up.
He cast one last glance at his author dashboard before resolutely shutting his computer down and washing up to go to bed.
***
In a daze, he felt the sensation of sunlight on his face.
Chu Tianxing groggily wiped his face and muttered to himself, “I remember closing the curtains before I went to sleep; how is sunlight getting in?”
He tried to roll over and continue sleeping, but as he did, he unexpectedly felt a void beneath him and fell to the ground with a thud.
Jolted awake, Chu Tianxing sat up and opened his eyes and looked around.
To his astonishment, he wasn’t in his modest 120-square-meter apartment, but in… a park?
Soft grass pressed from below and beside him was a long bench where he had just been sleeping.
“What’s going on?”
Chu Tianxing patted the grass and dust from his clothes as he stood up. He gazed around in confusion. “Wasn’t I asleep? How did I inexplicably end up here? Is this a dream? But if it is, it’s far too realistic.”
Just as he was trying to make sense of it, a strange ringing sound reached his ears. After a brief hesitation, Chu Tianxing stepped onto the tree-lined path before the lawn and followed the sound.
Soon enough, his view suddenly opened up.
A small lake appeared before him.
A few swan boats drifted on the water, and the faint, youthful laughter of boys and girls could be heard from them. Near a small grove by the lakeside, a gentle-looking old lady in training clothes was practicing with a two-handed sword. Her steps were firm and her form was elegant, her movements as fluid as flowing clouds and running water, appearing almost like a dance. Yet when she thrust her sword forward, the sword would always make a strong metallic humming sound.
Chu Tianxing stared blankly at the sword-wielding old woman, a feeling of unreality washing over him. “The ring of a sword? A solid two-handed sword is creating that sound from a thrust? And the sound carries so far that I could hear it on the grass dozens of paces away? This… this has to be a dream, right?”
As he stood there in disbelief, the voice of an adolescent boy reached his ears. “Hey! You guys are the worst! How could you take the boat out without waiting for me?”
Chu Tianxing followed the voice and saw a boy of about fourteen or fifteen standing by the lake shouting at one of the swan boats on the water. In response to his shouts, a bright, cheerful girlish face peeked out from the swan boat. She grinned and waved at the boy. “It’s your fault for being late! Come on over yourself!”
Chu Tianxing assumed the girl was telling the boy to swim over and thought it was just a joke between friends.
But to his astonishment, the boy bent down to take off his shoes and socks before rolling up his trousers and then stepped barefoot into the lake with his shoes in hand.
And then Chu Tianxing watched as the boy walked across the water. With each of the boy’s steps, water splashed and formed the illusion of lotuses blooming.
Chu Tianxing saw it clearly.
The deepest the boy’s feet sank was only to his ankles.
“…”
Chu Tianxing blinked blankly. “The lake is only ankle-deep? Impossible… there are several boats floating on it…”
He looked at the old woman still practicing her swordplay leisurely by the grove, then at the swan boat from which cheers and laughter emanated.
For a moment, he was unsure of where he was.
“I am definitely dreaming.”
He muttered this to himself and was just about to pinch himself when his phone began to ring. He pulled a simple mobile phone from his trouser pocket and was surprised to find it was a keypad phone; although it had a color screen, it was pathetically small, taking up only half of the phone's body.
“Isn’t this a model from over a decade ago?”
Frowning at the phone, he then looked at the caller ID—the two characters for “Zhuzhu” (Piggy).
Something stirred in Chu Tianxing’s heart. He pressed the answer button, and a crisp, clear female voice rang out.
“Chu Tianxing, where are you? You promised you’d go with me to sign up for the Martial Arts Tournament. Why weren’t you waiting for me at home?”
Listening to that familiar yet distant voice, Chu Tianxing hesitated for a moment. “Are you… Qin Ling?”
“Huh?”
The clear and vibrant voice on the phone suddenly shot up an octave with indignation. “What do you mean by that, Chu Tianxing? You’re using a question mark? You didn’t save my number on your phone? Even if you didn’t, shouldn’t you recognize my voice?”
The corner of Chu Tianxing’s mouth twitched slightly.
Yep, that’s her, alright.
This girl was indeed Qin Ling, his classmate from elementary school all the way through high school. Because she was six months younger than him and her zodiac was the pig, and was chubby-cheeked when she was a kid, Chu Tianxing had always called her “Zhuzhu.”
But…
They had practically lost all contact ever since they had gone to different universities and it’s moreso ever since she had once flown from her university’s city to visit him and have a talk.
What was going on today?
Why was Qin Ling, with whom he hadn’t been in contact for years, suddenly calling him?
And why did her voice sound exactly as it did in their high school years?
Also, what was this about “signing up for the Martial Arts Tournament”?
It had to be a bizarre dream, right?
There are so many questions swirling in Chu Tianxing's mind that it made him speechless for a long moment.
But the Qin Ling on the phone didn’t get angry.
After a couple of “hellos,” her voice actually softened.
“Tianxing, are you okay? You’re not still moping about the exam, are you? Didn't you say it yourself? You only messed up the exams because you were sick and didn't perform well, and haven't you already decided to repeat a year and try again? You were so determined when you made that decision. You’re not still upset over something that’s already in the past, are you?”
The exam? And I bombed it?
How is that possible?
Although Chu Tianxing considered himself average in talent and was far from an academic prodigy or top student in high school, he had at least managed to get into a top-tier university back then.
On the contrary, it was Qin Ling who had performed poorly on the exam to the point where she barely scraped past the cutoff for first-tier universities. It was she who had decided not to repeat a year and had enrolled in an ordinary university.
How was it the other way around here? Now
I’m
the one who bombed the exam?
So this really had to be a dream.
“Tianxing, say something! Where are you right now?”
Hearing that Chu Tianxing still had not replied, Qin Ling’s voice sounded slightly panicked.
Chu Tianxing paused in thought for a moment before finally speaking. “I’m in a park.”
Qin Ling quickly pressed, “Which park?”
“I don’t know.” Chu Tianxing looked around. He searched his memories but couldn’t recall any park in his hometown that had a similar-looking small lake. “There’s a small lake here with some swan boats on it.”
Qin Ling replied immediately, “I know where you are. Don’t move. Wait for me.”
After hanging up, Chu Tianxing thought for a moment, then opened his phone’s camera before pointing the phone at himself.
Looking at the fair-skinned, handsome youth on the screen, Chu Tianxing raised an eyebrow. “It really is my high school face… Wait a minute, don’t tell me I’ve regressed?”
He still suspects this was all a dream, but how could a dream be this lucid?
But if it wasn’t a dream…
If that old woman whose sword thrusts rang out, if that boy who walked on water that didn't go past his ankles, and if what Qin Ling said about “bombing the exams” and a “Martial Arts Tournament” wasn’t a dream...
Then...
He gave himself a pinch and clearly felt the pain.
He bent down and plucked a blade of grass before sniffing it. The fresh scent of grass was clear to his nose.
He walked to the edge of the lake and dipped his hand in the water. The water was undeniably real.
Taking out his phone again, he glanced at the date; it was indeed the date from after his exam that year.
“So, it's not a dream, but a regression? I’ve returned to… my high school days?”
Chu Tianxing stood blankly at the lakeside, his thoughts in a complete turmoil.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before Qin Ling’s alarmed shout suddenly came from the opposite shore. “Chu Tianxing, don’t do anything stupid!”
Stunned, Chu Tianxing looked up toward the opposite shore only to see a beautiful, short-haired girl with long, fair legs dressed in denim shorts and a T-shirt staring intently at him with a nervous expression.
She strode into the lake and rushed toward him as if gliding upon the water's surface.
This girl was even more incredible than the boy who had walked on water earlier.
As she sprinted across the lake, the soles of her feet didn’t sink into the water at all; it looked as though her shoes weren’t even getting wet.
And she is, indeed, Qin Ling.