CH 27

"The four greatest literary works and Ming and Qing novels have the greatest influence, can increase my literary reputation and make the most money. However, firstly, there are too many words, secondly, it needs to cultivate the market, and thirdly, there are some things in it that I have never encountered before and need to buy some related books to cover up. Therefore, at present, it is most suitable to publish those Tang Dynasty legends of medium and short length, which are seamlessly connected in time. After cultivating some readers for Tang Dynasty legends, I will write those long masterpieces. In the future, I can write history as a novel, which will be more convenient to use poetry and allusions."

Fang Yun thought about it and set his sights on the most influential Tang Dynasty legend, "The Story of Yingying". The famous Yuan Dynasty opera "The Romance of the Western Chamber" was adapted from this novel. The historical and literary status of this novel is extremely high, and it will definitely cause a sensation in the current Holy Origin mainland once it is published.

The famous literary critic of the Qing Dynasty, Jin Shengtan, once evaluated the "Six Talented Scholars' Books", putting "The Romance of the Western Chamber" on par with "Water Margin", "Records of the Grand Historian", and Du Fu's regulated poems.

"However, the original text of 'The Story of Yingying' is too short, only a little over 3,000 words, which cannot be published and sold at a good price. This short story has a tragic ending and the story does not suit the taste of readers in the current Holy Origin mainland."

"The adapted 'Romance of the Western Chamber' has a happy ending. Since it has the greatest influence and the story is stronger than 'The Story of Yingying', it should be the main focus. However, elements that are not suitable for the Holy Origin mainland cannot be retained." Fang Yun thought.

Therefore, Fang Yun began to search for novels or Yuan Dynasty operas related to "The Story of Yingying" and "The Romance of the Western Chamber" in the world of strange books, and then slowly pieced together a new novel on his own.

The full text of "The Romance of the Western Chamber" is over 50,000 words, but it is, after all, a Yuan Dynasty opera, so it needs to be reduced a lot to be written as a novel.

At this time, the book only had 160 characters per page, and Fang Yun decided to compress the numbers to around 30,000 words, making it a hundred pages, which is considered a long novel in this era.

After an hour of busyness, Fang Yun extracted the essence of "The Story of Yingying", "The Romance of the Western Chamber", and other books, removed or changed the elements that did not suit the Holy Origin mainland, and then wrote a new "Romance of the Western Chamber".

This story is similar yet different from the original "Romance of the Western Chamber". It tells the story of a noblewoman, Cui Yingying, who was forced to marry the son of the Left Chancellor to save her father. Before the wedding, she met a poor scholar and they fell in love. Later, the poor scholar became the top scholar in the imperial examinations and competed with the Left Chancellor's son in war poetry, finally winning and marrying Cui Yingying.

"The story of the loser defeating the rich and powerful and winning over the beauty is indeed an eternal theme throughout history. Should I write a period drama version of 'Titanic'? Or maybe not." Fang Yun couldn't help but laugh.

A new "Romance of the Western Chamber" was included in the world of strange books, and Fang Yun began to study calligraphy and writing.Fang Yun named the poor scholar in "The Story of the Western Wing" "Fang Zhiyun". Cui Yingying's name remained the same, but the Left Chancellor's son was changed to "Liu Zizheng". Whenever Fang Yun thought of Liu Zicheng's expression upon seeing this book, he wanted to laugh.

In this way, without Fang Yun having to explain too much, everyone would speculate that he must have been oppressed and humiliated by Liu Zicheng, filled with resentment, and wrote this book based on his own experience.

The entire book was written in the world of strange books, and Fang Yun didn't need to think, just continuously wrote on paper.

Books in this era didn't have punctuation marks. Fang Yun added commas, periods, and colons for the first time in a book. He didn't add any other punctuation marks, but he also divided the paragraphs, making the reading experience better.

"With a moving story and astonishing punctuation, I don't believe this book won't become popular! The Confucian scholars here are much more enlightened than those on ancient Earth. Once they realize that punctuation marks are more convenient than sentence breaks, they will surely apply them quickly, especially the military, because punctuation marks can minimize misreading and ambiguity, avoiding problems with military orders. This novel may not have much talent, but it should at least reach the prefecture! After it spreads for a long time, it will surely resonate throughout the state. However, I must keep the original manuscript safe this time."

Fang Yun wrote rapidly and unconsciously wrote until evening. He quickly ate dinner, had Yang Yuhuan leave him a midnight snack, and continued writing.

It was already dark, but he had night vision and the night had no effect on him. He still wrote with a fast pen.

Fang Daniu went to bed before him, and Little Fox never woke up.

Late at night, Fang Yun finished his midnight snack and continued writing until dawn. He wrote for a full twelve hours, and his arms were sore. He couldn't write anymore and had to sleep.

This novel is available on "pawread dot com".

He only slept for three hours before getting up, eating breakfast, and continuing to write.

As noon approached, the room was filled with the aroma of food. Fang Yun rubbed his sore wrists and stopped writing.

Writing with a brush for a long time was very tiring. If it weren't for the nourishment of talent in recent days and eating well, he might have gotten sick from exhaustion.

"Ying..."

Fang Yun looked towards the sound and saw that the little fox in the bamboo basket had already woken up. It was looking at Fang Yun with its shiny black eyes, showing an innocent and cute expression, looking silly.

The little fox sniffled and kept smelling, turning its head towards the door where the scent was coming from.

Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, "You're awake? Did you wake up hungry?"

The little fox immediately showed a shy expression, lowered its head lightly and didn't dare to look at Fang Yun.

Fang Yun was surprised in his heart. Could this little fox understand human speech?

"Come, I'll carry you to eat." Fang Yun walked over and said.

Unexpectedly, the little fox struggled to run away, but its limbs were like stepping on cotton, with no strength. In the end, it could only curl up its body and look at Fang Yun with a terrified and pleading gaze, as if asking him not to hurt it.

Fang Yun slowly reached out his hand and put it in front of it, not touching it.

The little fox felt that Fang Yun had no malice, and the fear in its eyes disappeared, but it still had a pleading expression."If I wanted to harm you, would you still be alive now, outside the city?" Fang Yun said.

The little fox immediately showed a thoughtful expression, its pleading gaze gradually fading.

Fang Yun reached out and touched its head, and it showed a reluctant but helpless expression.

"Let's go." Fang Yun reached out to hold it.

But the little fox didn't like being held by Fang Yun and struggled, but unfortunately, it was too small, and Fang Yun's one hand was enough to keep it from struggling.

"If you move again, I'll throw you outside the city and let the monsters chasing you eat you."

The little fox's body suddenly trembled, and it stopped struggling, looking pitifully at Fang Yun, its eyes even shining with tears.

"If you behave and listen to me, I'll leave you here. You can choose to leave or stay after you've healed, it's up to you, okay?" Fang Yun asked.

The little fox nodded subconsciously.

Fang Yun smiled and asked, "Can you understand the language of our human race?"

The little fox was stunned for a moment, and its bright black eyes turned gently in a circle, then shook its head firmly as if to say it couldn't understand.

Fang Yun was amused by the silly fox.

But the little fox showed a confused expression, as if to say, "Why don't you believe me even though I shook my head?"

"From now on, I'll call you Little Fool Fox," Fang Yun said with a smile.

Unexpectedly, the little fox immediately changed its face and angrily protested against the name.

"If you don't tell me your name, whose fault is it? Little Fool Fox."

The little fox became anxious and hurriedly called out, "Nu Nu! Nu Nu!"

"You're called Nu Nu?" Fang Yun was surprised that a fox would have such a name, but it sounded pretty good.

The little fox immediately nodded happily, and even looked a little proud.

"Nu Nu, let's go eat together."

Nu Nu immediately nodded vigorously, its two eyes unusually bright.

Fang Yun held Nu Nu with his left hand and went to open the door with his right hand, but Nu Nu suddenly let out a soft cry.

Fang Yun looked down and saw that Nu Nu had become shy again, and the snow-white fur on its face seemed to have turned pink, and it covered its face with its two small paws.

Fang Yun couldn't understand why Nu Nu was shy. He took a few steps and found that his left hand was warm, as if he was holding Nu Nu's stomach.

"Could it be that she's shy because of this?" Fang Yun immediately moved his fingers and rubbed Nu Nu's stomach.

"Ying ying..." Nu Nu's voice was both shy and urgent, with a hint of grievance.

Fang Yun cleared his throat and stopped teasing Nu Nu, and walked towards the main house.

At this time, the style of ordinary houses was basically the same, with houses divided into east and west rooms, and both rooms had earthen beds.

The main house was located between the two rooms, with two stoves on the left and right near the door, which could be used for cooking or heating in winter. The main house had a dining table and other items, serving as both a living room and dining room, but it was relatively small.

Fang Yun guessed that this fragrant fox was not an ordinary animal, but a demon, but since the Holy Temple of the Prefecture did not suppress it, it proved that it was harmless, so he felt at ease bringing it to eat.Yang Yuhuan was very happy to see the little fox wake up. She said to Fang Yun, "You stayed up late last night and wrote all morning. I was afraid you wouldn't have enough to eat, so I stewed an extra chicken. Your appetite has grown since you became a Child Scholar, so I wasn't sure."

The servant looked curiously at Yang Yuhuan, then surveyed the main room with a hint of caution in her eyes.

"Thank you, Sister Yuhuan," Fang Yun said.

"You don't need to thank family," Yang Yuhuan said.

The servant's eyes lit up when she saw the pot with two chickens. Her gaze seemed to stick to it.

"Let's all eat together. Jiang Auntie, prepare a small bowl for the servant, and only give it to her from now on," Fang Yun said.

"Okay."

Fang Yun put the servant on the ground and placed an empty small bowl in front of her.

The servant obediently sat in front of the small bowl, looking up at Fang Yun like a child, but there seemed to be a hint of drool at the corner of her mouth.

The four of them sat down one after another. Yang Yuhuan put a chicken leg in Fang Yun's bowl and said, "You can have all four chicken legs."

Although Fang Yun's status was different now, he did not look down on Jiang Auntie and Fang Daniu. In his eyes, they were still relatives and neighbors. Perhaps in the future, the two of them would not dare to eat with him at the same table, but since they were eating together now, he would treat them as guests.

"One chicken leg per person, neither more nor less. Sister Yuhuan, you can distribute the rest," Fang Yun said.

"Okay." Yang Yuhuan gave the other two people a chicken leg each.

"Young Master is truly a kind person," Jiang Auntie said, unable to stop smiling.

"Hehe," Fang Daniu laughed foolishly.

Both of them had not dared to eat too much meat yesterday, and had only taken a few bites and mostly ate vegetables.

Ji County was ultimately a poor county. While there was enough grain, meat was still considered a luxury.