Chapter 112: Guangzhou Evening News

A long discussion of the “great hero” nearly left Reporter Liu dizzy.

From the very beginning, Zhang Tan had made no attempt to keep a low profile or deliberately affect the naivety of a teenager. Anyone capable of writing stories like The Four Great Constables and The Legend of the Condor Heroes would never be believed if he claimed to be an inexperienced youth. He might as well tear away the disguise and present himself as mature.

In theory, at sixteen, being a little precocious was hardly any different from being an adult.

There were even people who had children at fourteen.

In Zhang Tan’s Qiao’an Community, there was a boy who had married and become a father at fourteen.

In the countryside, there were countless people who married and had children at seventeen or eighteen. Unable to do well in school and unable to find work, they loafed around at home all day. Their parents simply helped them find wives so they could have children early. Once the child was born, the family had accomplished the great task of carrying on the bloodline, and the parents no longer asked much about what their son did afterward. Raising the grandchild became the proper priority.

So, at his age, there was nothing particularly shocking about Zhang Tan seeming a little extraordinary.

It was not as if he would attract the attention of the central government and be taken away as a laboratory specimen.

Once they had finished chatting about great heroes, the interview came to an end.

It was nearly noon.

Zhang Tan played host and took Reporter Liu to the Zhen Nan Grand Hotel, where they enjoyed a feast and drank several bottles of beer. After the meal, Reporter Liu, slightly flushed with alcohol, repeatedly assured Zhang Tan that he knew exactly how to write the article and that Zhang Tan could rest easy.

And with that, Reporter Liu departed contentedly by car.

After seeing the reporter off, Li Yan did not leave. She still had something to discuss with Zhang Tan.

“Zhang Tan, what arrangement did you make with The Legend of the Past and Present regarding the serial publication?”

“You mean the serialization? One story of sixty thousand words per issue. Why?”

“Did you know that The Legend of the Past and Present has been changed to a semimonthly publication?”

“Of course.” Zhang Tan smiled. “Speaking of which, the revision of The Legend of the Past and Present: Martial Arts Edition owes a great deal to me. Without The Four Great Constables, the magazine wouldn’t have caught fire so quickly. But why did you suddenly ask about this, Sister Li?”

Li Yan replied, “I wanted to tell you that we may need to change the way the novel is serialized. You know that The Legend of the Condor Heroes has already been printed and will soon go on sale. If one volume is published each month, each volume will contain only one hundred and fifty thousand words. But you are serializing one hundred and twenty thousand words in the magazine every month, which means the two versions are nearly synchronized. That will have a major impact on sales of the physical books.”

Zhang Tan raised his eyebrows. He had not considered that. “You’re right. Serializing too much would affect the physical books. But I’ve already agreed on the schedule with the magazine, and the first half of the August issue has already begun serialization. It wouldn’t be good to go back on my word.”

“You wouldn’t need to go back on it. We could simply change the schedule from once every half month to once a month. That way, you would release only part of the story, whetting the readers’ appetites while encouraging them to buy the physical books.”

“All right. I’ll talk to Wang Conglun and change it to one installment a month—or perhaps serialize thirty thousand words at a time.”

Between magazine serialization and sales of the physical books, Zhang Tan naturally favored the latter. The serialization fee was fixed, while the more physical books he sold, the more money he earned.

Even an elementary-school student could do that calculation.

Besides, Zhang Tan had already gained a modest reputation and could now take the route of publishing books directly. Serialization served merely to expand his fame. Once The Legend of the Condor Heroes became popular, whether it was serialized or not would make little difference.

Zhang Tan immediately called Wang Conglun and discussed the matter with him.

Wang Conglun subsequently decided to continue serializing The Legend of the Condor Heroes in every issue, but reduced the length of each installment from sixty thousand words to thirty thousand. At that rate, The Legend of the Condor Heroes would take at least a year and a half to finish in The Legend of the Past and Present: Martial Arts Edition.

“To be honest, I never expected that you would achieve so much after writing for our magazine for less than a year. Once The Legend of the Condor Heroes is completed, publishers will probably be fighting to reserve the rights to everything you write afterward.” Wang Conglun’s voice was filled with emotion over the phone. “I won’t stand on ceremony with you. In the future, please don’t forget our magazine. You’re always welcome to publish your work in The Legend of the Past and Present: Martial Arts Edition.”

“Haha, Old Wang, you’re too kind.” Zhang Tan was somewhat moved as well. “The Legend of the Past and Present was where I got my start. I won’t forget it. Whenever I have the opportunity, I’ll certainly publish work there. By the way, besides writing my novel, I’ve also written a few short stories. I’ll send them to you sometime for a look.”

“Wonderful. We welcome short stories too.”

The short stories were Zhang Tan’s own creations, and he felt fairly good about them, but he could not guarantee that they would be accepted.

“I’m better at writing novels. I only dashed off the short stories for fun, so the quality may not be very high. Use your own judgment. Publish the ones you think are suitable, and throw away the rest. You don’t have to spare my feelings.”

“I couldn’t bear to throw them away.”

“Seriously, Old Wang. If they’re not good, throw them away. Don’t publish anything that isn’t compelling. I’m worried it might damage my reputation.” Zhang Tan’s tone was half joking and half serious.

“All right. I’ll screen them carefully.”

…

Following the Hefei Evening News, reporters from the Jianghuai Morning News, the Xin’an Evening News, and Anhui Daily arrived one after another to interview Zhang Tan. Even the correspondent stationed there by the Yangcheng Evening News came to speak with him.

For some time afterward, Zhang Tan paid close attention to all those newspapers.

Apart from the Yangcheng Evening News, which he had to buy in the city, his grandfather, Zhang Henong, subscribed to the other papers, so Zhang Tan could simply look through them at home.

“From First-Year High School Student to Famous Writer: Zhang Tan’s ‘Heroic’ Culture”—this was the title of an article published on the fourth page of the Hefei Evening News, bearing the name of Reporter Liu.

The article could essentially be divided into three sections.

The first focused on Zhang Tan’s position in mainland martial-arts literature, the popularity of his works, and the praise he had received. He was described as the new grandmaster of mainland martial-arts fiction, the standard-bearer of the region’s martial-arts literature, and the leader of a new martial-arts trend. The article praised him so extravagantly that it practically proclaimed him the undisputed king of martial-arts fiction.

The second section emphasized that Zhang Tan was a first-year high school student and, more importantly, a native of Hefei. He had grown up in an ordinary family, yet his achievements were anything but ordinary. His intelligence and talent were extraordinary—he could be called a genius.

The third section served to promote his new book. It reported that Zhang Tan’s latest novel would soon be released and described the kind of story it told.

The article ended with a summary, and that was that.

Essentially, it had unearthed every news angle available: a first-year high school student, earning money by publishing books, gaining both fame and fortune, and accomplishing it all right there in their midst.

It sounded almost like a Hefei version of the American Dream.

A boy born into an ordinary family, relying on neither connections nor backdoor favors, but solely on his own talent and diligent writing to become famous overnight and change his fate.

It was an intensely relatable story.

After reading the Hefei Evening News article, many people wanted to buy one of Zhang Tan’s novels and read it carefully, to see what exactly this first-year high school student had written that had made him both famous and wealthy.

Although the other newspapers covered the story in different ways, they likewise prompted many people to rush out and buy his books.

More impressive still, the Yangcheng Evening News had also published a report about Zhang Tan.

As one of the world’s twenty largest newspapers by circulation, the Yangcheng Evening News had a readership, influence, and reach into Hong Kong and Taiwan that ordinary newspapers could not hope to match.

The headline in the Yangcheng Evening News was rather plain:

“Sixteen-Year-Old New-Generation Martial-Arts Novelist Zhang Tan”