July 2010.
Zhou Yuwen had just finished the college entrance exam, turning eighteen this year. Holding the two hundred yuan his mother had just given him, he felt somewhat nostalgic, never expecting he would still be spending his mother's money in this lifetime.
Zhou Yuwen grew up with his mother after his parents divorced. Though life was somewhat modest, they were not destitute. His mother worked as an accountant in a state institution, enjoying comprehensive social security benefits. They never lacked for necessities like rice, flour, oil, and salt during festivals and holidays.
However, as a single mother raising a child, there were still financial pressures. From a young age, whenever his mother had money, she would invest it in buying houses. When funds were insufficient for new properties, she bought rundown second-hand houses, borrowing money from others when needed.
Houses in the early 2000s were not worth much, especially those in small county towns, priced at tens of thousands of yuan per unit.
Borrowing from relatives and friends, Zhou's mother managed to purchase five houses for the family. As houses were gradually demolished and debts repaid, Zhou's mother had some money left and owned about three houses.
Regarding these three houses, Zhou's mother told Zhou Yuwen that if there were any more demolitions, there would be no need for compensation. She planned to exchange each demolished house for a new one, keeping them for Zhou Yuwen's future marriage.
Actually, it hasn't been easy for Zhou's mother to raise Zhou Yuwen all her life. Zhou Yuwen's father, the cheapskate, disappeared from the scene when Zhou Yuwen was two years old. Growing up, Zhou Yuwen doesn't even know what his father's name is.
"He~tui!"
"Scumbag!"
In his previous life, Zhou Yuwen didn't really cause his mother any worries during university. In his freshman year, he made some money writing novels online, and in his sophomore year, he even sold the copyright for over a hundred thousand yuan.
At that time, his mother suggested, "Sell the house in our hometown to add some money for you, and buy a property in Jinling City."
But Zhou Yuwen replied, "Why buy another house? We already have one. With this money, I'd rather buy a comfortable car."
Let me know if there's anything else you need!
In his sophomore year, Zhou Yuwen bought a second-hand, beat-up Audi. Later on, just the maintenance costs alone were enough to buy a new car. Relying on writing novels, Zhou Yuwen made a lot of money during university. However, after graduation, he realized it was time to buy a house. To his surprise, the money he earned wasn't even enough for a down payment.
Eventually, his family's old house was demolished, allowing him to barely afford a property in Jinling. It was the first time in his life he regretted something, not because of Su Qianqian, but because he hadn't bought a house back then.
Now, sitting in his bedroom with the morning's vomit already cleaned up, Zhou Yuwen wrote his first life goal in his notebook: Buy a house! But he didn't have enough money on hand and didn't want to rely on his mother's money. He thought about other ways to make money.
Buying lottery tickets?
Trading stocks?
Buying lottery tickets is impossible for Zhou Yuwen. He has never dealt with those long strings of numbers. Perhaps he could try his luck during the World Cup a few years later.
Selling the house and buying a lottery ticket for Korea to win the World Cup.
As for trading stocks, Zhou Yuwen has some experience, but without much capital, he hasn't made much profit. You can't always catch the big market moves.
In his previous life, Zhou Yuwen majored in computer science and achieved success two years after graduation. Later, he comfortably withdrew from the limelight, almost forgetting everything about coding. While he can still write code, it's the Android 2.0 era now, and there's probably no one interested in his work.
Moreover, Zhou Yuwen doesn't see himself as someone who can defy fate. Honestly, he's just an ordinary person. Even after crossing over, he's just a slightly better version of himself, not someone who can suddenly rise to great heights.
At thirty years old, Zhou Yuwen takes life lightly. He doesn't seek great wealth; he just hopes to live better than in his previous life.
In the previous life, he flirted with women everywhere; now, flirting again wouldn't be meaningful.
At least live up to the title of being a time traveler.
Radiate his masculine charm and let women come to him.
Zhou Yuwen spent every day pondering how to make money. After careful consideration, he realized that even though he had traveled through time, he couldn't find any shortcuts to make money. Indeed, he was just a useless person.
Currently, Zhou Yuwen believed that the most profitable thing for him was his old profession.
In 2010, it was the golden age of writing novels. In his previous life, Zhou Yuwen was also a fan, having read numerous time-travel novels. Many just copied novels straight away without nonsense. They started with "Battle Through the Heavens," then "Douluo Dalu," and the really impressive ones even copied world classics.
But as a former struggling writer, Zhou Yuwen felt there was no need to play like this. Apart from the sheer quantity, even if you could copy them, there was no guarantee you'd become popular. Zhou Yuwen started writing novels in his freshman year, half a year later than in this world. He knew clearly that before 2012, you could write anything, but after 2012, you couldn't touch sensitive topics.
So while novels were easy to write, Zhou Yuwen quickly seized the opportunity to make some money. He didn't even need to plan an outline; he could just start the story with the protagonist time-traveling.
Initially set in the Three Kingdoms era, the protagonist travels back and immediately gains the respect of generals. He starts by conquering Jingzhou, then takes over Yizhou! He sits back and watches as Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fight each other to mutual destruction.
Having spent four years writing novels in college, Zhou Yuwen didn't have any pretensions of being literary. He summarized a few key points: only accepts women, doesn't reject them; insists his own woman must be a virgin. Even if she's already married, he would write her husband as impotent.
The protagonist unexpectedly gained some benefits.
Then some readers were unhappy and complained, "What kind of rubbish is this stupid author writing? Can't he write?"
Such readers are best ignored.
Writing books is for happiness, and reading books is for happiness too.
Why poison yourself and others?
For example, there's an author who likes older sisters. He wrote about taking his older sister to a bar, and the result was that an extra touched her thigh.
Zhou Yuwen really threw up when he saw this.
But if someone were to write a novel for Zhou Yuwen and there was an older sister, he would definitely prioritize "his field".
2010 was the golden age of writing novels. Before, Zhou Yuwen's million-word novels could be written here for two million words, and he wasn't tired. Writing "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms," collecting generals, and attacking and occupying cities with 200,000 words would work.
The remaining 1.8 million words could write about Cai Wenji, Zhen Mi, Diao Chan, Sun Shangxiang, Daqiao, Biao's wife, Gan's wife, Mi's wife, and Empress He, etc. This way, we're pretty much done.
Oh, yes, novels shouldn't be written on big websites. Zhou Yuwen had a clear idea of it all; he's looking to make money. You definitely can't make money on a big website. There are only 300,000 free words. Would you take a life to make money?
It's better to have a small site. Register one and put up 100,000 words, then go find a colorful website and copy and paste it. You can't paste it all, you can't just be too much, a little bit better.
That's a crime, can't do it.
As the saying goes, "It's like holding a lute with half-covered face," making you want to see more after you've seen it.
Zhou Yuwen wrote more and more energetically. On the first day of time-traveling, he wrote ten thousand words.