10: Chapter 10 Signing the Contract

Chen Fan opened the comment section again; there were already over a dozen comments by now.

[What genre is this? I've been looking for a while and can't find the category.]

[What does "High Martial Arts" mean? Can someone explain?]

[Good read, following. Please update more!]

He noticed one comment had been upvoted to the top, posted by a user named "Bookworm Old Zhang":

[I've read five chapters and still can't figure out the genre. It feels like Xuanhuan, but the setting is a modern city. It feels like Urban, but there's a Martial Arts College Entrance Exam and Combat Power Rankings. Regardless, it's great; I read all the way to the latest chapter in one go. Keep it up, author, don't drop it.]

Chen Fan clicked the reply box, thought for a moment, and typed a few words:

[Don't worry, I won't drop it.]

After posting, he closed the comment section, opened the author's backend, and uploaded ten more chapters. The novel's word count reached nearly sixty thousand.

Starting tomorrow, Chen Fan planned to upload 10,000 words a day. On Qidian Chinese Website, keeping the free chapters going longer helped retain more readers after the book went premium. Once it was monetized, he would switch to 30,000 words a day.

After uploading, Chen Fan opened a Word document and continued typing.

5:00 AM.

Chen Fan checked his word count for the day—50,131.

Having reached his goal for the day, Chen Fan was now exhausted. He saved his work and left the internet cafe.

After pulling an all-nighter and resting during classes during the day, he had recovered his energy.

In the evening, Chen Fan went to the internet cafe as usual.

He started a machine and logged into his QQ account. A friend request immediately popped up in the bottom-left corner. He clicked it and saw the note: Qidian Editor: Xinghe.

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment before accepting the request.

As soon as he accepted, a message arrived.

[Hello, Pen name. I am Xinghe, a Qidian editor. Your work has met our contract standards. We contacted you through the backend, but you didn't reply. If you're free now, we can discuss the contract.]

Seeing the message from Editor Xinghe, Chen Fan froze. Then, remembering something, he quickly checked his backend messages. Sure enough, there was a message about signing a contract, and the QQ number provided matched Xinghe's.

To Chen Fan's surprise, it was already past 8:00 PM. Normally, work hours would be over, yet this guy was still responding. Were Qidian editors really this dedicated?

He opened the chat window with Xinghe and replied.

[Chen Fan: Sorry, I haven't been checking my backend messages. I can sign the contract now.]

[Xinghe: Alright, let me give you a brief overview of the contract situation. Your work meets our standards. If everything is okay, I'll send you the contract.]

[Chen Fan: Okay, thank you for your help.]

[Xinghe: First, let me ask—this book is your original work, right?]

[Chen Fan: Yes, it's original.]

[Xinghe: What about your future update schedule? Roughly how many words do you plan to write?]

Chen Fan thought for a moment: [I expect it to be around three million words, with a guaranteed daily update of ten thousand words.]

There was a pause for a few seconds on the other end.

[Xinghe: Ten thousand?]

[Chen Fan: Yes.]

[Xinghe: That's a solid update volume. Alright, I'll send you the contract. Fill in your personal information. Make sure to use your real name and ID number, exactly as they appear on your ID. Print it out, sign it by hand, and mail it to this address—]

Xinghe sent an address: To the Contract Department, Qidian Chinese Website, No. XXX, XXX Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai.

[Xinghe: The contract is in duplicate. Mail them both after filling them out. We'll stamp them and send one copy back for your records.]

[Chen: OK]

Looking at the Word document Xinghe sent, Chen Fan was momentarily speechless. Everything was so inconvenient these days; they didn't even have electronic contracts. Having grown accustomed to electronic contracts, Chen Fan found this a bit hard to adjust to.

But he had to adapt regardless. He would find time tomorrow during the day to print it out and then mail it.

After finalizing the contract details,

he exited the comment section, opened the work backend, uploaded ten more chapters in one go, then cracked his knuckles and continued typing.

Over the next two days, Chen Fan maintained a steady routine: typing all night and sleeping during the day.

However, his daily word count dropped from fifty thousand to forty thousand. Due to the consecutive all-nighters, his energy was flagging, forcing him to reduce his typing time.

This made Chen Fan want to get an energy potion to try even more.

His updates never faltered, though. He uploaded three chapters a day, steady as a rock. After two days, his total uploaded word count had exceeded fifty thousand.

...

Early the next morning, Chen Fan didn't go to the classroom. Instead, he endured his sleepiness and went to Teacher Zhou's office.

He was there to ask for a leave of absence.

The office door was ajar. From inside came the sound of rustling paper and an occasional cough. Chen Fan knocked.

"Come in."

He pushed the door open. Teacher Zhou was sitting at his desk with a math book in front of him. He looked up and was surprised to see Chen Fan.

"Chen Fan? What is it?"

"Teacher Zhou, I'd like to ask for a leave of absence."

Teacher Zhou put down his pen and leaned back in his chair, his gaze behind his glasses falling on Chen Fan's face. "Leave of absence? For what reason?"

"I'm not feeling well. I'm dizzy and keep feeling nauseous." As Chen Fan spoke, he deliberately acted weak. Coupled with his pale complexion from several consecutive all-nighters, he looked very convincing.

Teacher Zhou's eyes lingered on his face for several seconds before he opened a drawer, pulled out a leave request form, and pushed it toward him.

"Write down the reason for the leave clearly."

Seeing this, Chen Fan knew his request would be granted.

After finishing, he handed the slip back.

Teacher Zhou took it, glanced at it, and said nothing more. He pulled a fountain pen from his pen holder and signed his name in the "Homeroom Teacher's Signature" column. Once finished, he handed the slip to Chen Fan.

"If it's serious, you should go to the hospital."

"I will, Teacher."

After leaving school, Chen Fan first found a print shop and spent six yuan to print the contract. After filling in all the details and double-checking everything, he hurried toward a postal branch.

In these times, if you wanted to mail a document, you had to go to the post office.

When he arrived at the postal branch, there was no one at the counter. Behind it sat a young woman in her twenties wearing a uniform.

"Hello, I'd like to mail something."

The woman looked up. "Document or package?"

"Document, a contract." Chen Fan showed her the contract in his hand.

She pulled out a large manila envelope, the kind specifically for the post office, and handed it over. "Put it in here."

Chen Fan took it, folded the contract, and tucked it inside. Once he was done, the woman asked, "Regular mail or EMS Express?"

"How much for regular, and how much for express?"

"For regular, a registered letter is a bit over three yuan and takes four or five days. EMS is faster, arriving in about two days, but it's twenty yuan."

Chen Fan thought about it; arriving early was safer. Although it was much more expensive, he decided to use the express service.

Last Saturday, Chen Jianjun had given him 50 yuan. He had only spent a little over ten yuan then, so he had over thirty yuan extra for this week's expenses—enough to cover the 20 yuan.

"I'll go with express."

The woman took the money, pulled a blue EMS detail form from a drawer, and pushed it toward him.

"Fill this out. Be detailed with the sender's address, and make sure the recipient's address and phone number are clear."

Chen Fan took the pen, filled it out, and after double-checking, handed the form back.

The woman looked it over, typed a few things into the computer, then tore a barcode from a nearby machine and stuck it on the envelope. She stamped it a few times and finally tore off a receipt to hand to him.

"Keep the tracking number; you can check the progress online later. It should arrive within three days at the latest."

Chen Fan took the receipt and looked down. A string of numbers was printed on it: EMXXXXXXXXXXX.

He folded the receipt and put it in his pocket.