Time passed slowly...
Lin Zheyu practiced the Bull's Fist for two to three hours every day, then consumed a large amount of meat.
After the enhancement of Source Power, his body had already formed a foundation. With sufficient nutrition, he would recover and strengthen at an astonishing speed.
Three days passed, and all five doses of medicinal soup had been used up, replenishing the deficient qi and blood.
Lin Zheyu's body became stronger and stronger, his muscles tight and powerful.
During these three days, he remained vigilant, carefully guarding against Jia Yanyong coming to find him.
He carried chili powder with him and set up many traps at home.
However, several days passed without seeing any sign of the other party.
...
Overflowing Fragrance Teahouse.
Jia Yanyong sat casually opposite Jia Yanming.
"Brother, I'm back," he shouted into the teahouse.
Unlike last time, there was a stronger smell of blood on him, and there was an additional wound on his neck, wrapped in gauze.
"Your injuries are okay?" Jia Yanming walked out of the teahouse and saw the wound on his brother's neck, furrowing his brow in concern.
"No problem, just a minor injury. It'll be fine in a few days," Jia Yanyong said indifferently.
"Be careful in the future. Don't always rush to the front in fights."
"Life belongs to oneself, money belongs to others. Why fight so hard?" Jia Yanming said.
"Brother, you don't understand."
"They're all my brothers. I can't just watch them get killed for nothing," Jia Yanyong shook his head.
On the road of cultivation, righteousness comes first. One must be willing to sacrifice for their brothers!
"Foolish!"
"They're just drinking buddies, how can they be true brothers? I'm your real brother!" Jia Yanming lectured, having seen all sorts of darkness as a businessman, he sneered at Jia Yanyong's talk of brotherly loyalty.
"Brother, you don't need to worry about my affairs."
"You wanted me to teach a lesson to... uh... right, Lin Zheyu!"
"I'm free now. After I rest for a couple of days, I'll help you beat him up the day after tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll go easy on him then."
Jia Yanyong chuckled.
...
Bidan Teahouse.
Lin Zheyu agreed to Liang Song's request to tell a story about martial artists.
"During troubled times, wars erupted everywhere, with the Song Dynasty facing threats from all sides..."
This was Grandpa Jin's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," telling stories of great heroes who fought for their country and people.
Through this period of understanding, Lin Zheyu found that although Liang Song looked unkempt and unrestrained on the surface, he had a heart of justice.
He admired Yan Chixia's free and easy spirit, full of righteousness, traveling the world to slay demons and monsters, as well as Zuo Qianhu's honesty and integrity.
Telling this story was much more troublesome than telling supernatural stories. The background of the supernatural stories was vague and almost non-existent.
But "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was different; the background of the era was extremely important.
Lin Zheyu made some revisions and did some simple world-building.
"Along the vast Qiantang River, water flow endlessly day and night. It passed by the Niujia Village on the outskirts of Lin'an, flowing eastward into the sea."
"On the riverbank, rows of..."
"...Let's talk about Bao Xiruo being saved by the mysterious man who called himself Yan Lie. After being saved, she wanted to commit suicide to accompany him, but was persuaded by Yan Lie's kind words."
"Under Yan Lie's promise of fine clothes and food, she followed him out of Lin'an in a daze."
Lin Zheyu stood on the storytelling stage, speaking eloquently.
This story was long, and as he narrated, the content gradually unfolded.
At first, the guests were uncomfortable not hearing the usual stories of scholar's romantic encounters. How could this be allowed!
They had come specifically for stories of scholars' romantic encounters!
However, as they listened, they gradually became engrossed.
"Despicable!"
"How could Bao Xiruo follow that guy? It's... it's shameless, immoral..."
Someone slammed the table in anger.
He was a scholar, his face flushed as he listened.
"Don't make noise, be quiet and let Mr Lin continue."
Hearing the discussion below, Lin Zheyu smiled faintly, then slapped his palm: "To find out what happens next, stay tuned for the next installment."
"..."
"Oh, that's it!"
"No, you can't stop now, what happens next?"
"How can you stop halfway through a story, Mr Lin, please continue!"
Lin Zheyu saw the excitement of the crowd and quickly made his escape.
Don't kid yourself. Storytelling is different from writing novels.
In novels, if you leave out a chapter, at worst you'll be called a cliffhanger-loving writer.
But in storytelling, if you accidentally leave out a part, you might be dragged back by the excited crowd to continue. Lin Zheyu had once experienced this.
"The opening was good, very exciting," Liang Song commented.
Lin Zheyu smiled and said, "As long as you enjoyed it."
After chatting with Liang Song for a while and clarifying his doubts in martial arts, he left.
Exiting the door, he walked about two hundred meters along the Hundred Flavors Street before turning and entering a tavern.
He had arranged to meet someone here.
Lin Zheyu scanned the room and sat down at one of the tables.
"Gentlemen, have you considered it?" Lin Zheyu looked at the three middle-aged scholars in front of him.
The men wore blue robes, had beards, and their faces were wrinkled from years of experience.
Their robes were washed to a pale white, with inconspicuous patches in some places, indicating their somewhat impoverished status.
These were the storytelling scholars Lin Zheyu had found in the past few days, all of them lacking in background and struggling to survive in Songyi City.
"Can you guarantee that the stories will be as exciting as the ones you told at the Bidan Teahouse?" the man on the left asked.
"The style of the stories are different, so it's hard to say which is better or worse. But they're definitely fresher and more exciting than the old clichés you're used to!" Lin Zheyu said.
Competition in storytelling was fierce, and many scholars who failed the imperial examinations or couldn't make ends meet turned to storytelling.
Those storytellers with outdated stories, poor storytelling skills, and weak empathy couldn't attract customers.
The three storytelling scholars Lin Zheyu had found were all good at storytelling, with decent emotional expressive abilities. However, the stories they told were relatively old and lacked novelty.
This world lacked good stories.
Or perhaps there were good stories in this world, but due to the lack of efficient information circulation, they were only circulated in small areas.
The stories that circulated in Songyi City were all too familiar to the people.
This was also why Lin Zheyu was able to become popular so quickly.
"Can we see the content first before making a decision?" another person spoke up.
"Of course."
Lin Zheyu took out several sheets of paper filled with densely packed words from his pocket, giving each person a copy. These copies all contained the same content.
"You can take a look first. With the manuscript I provide, you can tell stories and make a living. Each chapter is priced at 80 wen, and if you agree, you can sign the contract." Lin Zheyu said.
This was the money-making method he had pondered before, which was to cooperate with others in storytelling.
However, stories in this era had no copyrights. Once they were told and spread, they belonged to others.
It was precisely because of this that Lin Zheyu found it difficult to sell at high prices.
Storytellers of moderate skill earned 70 wen a day, and with tips and the like, they could earn around a hundred wen.
Based on this, Lin Zheyu set the price at 80 wen.
Because good stories often received tips that surpassed their wages.
"...This incident happened in a lane south of the West Fourth Pavilion, where two brothers lived, surnamed Ta. One was the elder Ta, and the other was called Ta Er.
Ta Er worked as a runner in the Prefectural Office, while the elder was a chef..."
This was a classic story from the past, "The Case of Nine Heads."
The three men began reading the papers, and the more they read, the brighter their eyes became.