Chapter 44: The Micro-Fiction Won an Award?

On the way to school, Zhai Da was toying with a metal playing card, deftly bending it with one hand and flicking it into the air before catching it again with his advancing feet.

Yet, his mind was entirely occupied with yesterday's tutoring session.

Whether he actually learned anything was debatable...

All he could remember was how pretty Lu Wei's hands were, and how wonderfully fragrant she smelled...

With his mind wandering, his hands naturally lacked any precision, causing him to have to bend down and retrieve the flicked card seven or eight times out of ten.

Although the principles in the magic book had been memorized, he was still a long way from mastering them.

Even though the special effect "Spotlight" of the [Joker Card] had not yet been unlocked, Zhai Da's antics still managed to draw the attention of passersby, including quite a few students from Maofang Middle School.

Zhai Da, however, didn't mind. He figured it was just good for building his persona, which would serve as a nice setup for future unlocking tasks.

He had already prepared a few simple card tricks and planned to find someone to perform for once his practice was sufficient enough.

The system only specified performing ten close-up magic tricks without getting exposed; he wondered if performing them for the exact same person would count.

Due to its special material, the card emitted a faint humming sound as it soared upwards. This time, the toss was a complete success, and the card came spinning back down. Zhai Da caught it smoothly, and just as he looked up, he happened to spot the literary girl waiting for him on the pedestrian bridge.

Lu Wei still wore her characteristically sweet expression, leaning against the railing and watching eagerly. She looked slightly surprised when she saw Zhai Da's card-flicking stunt.

"Zhai! Good morning! What was that?"

Zhai Da briefly flashed the [Joker Card] right in front of Lu Wei's eyes. "Cards. Magic cards."

Lu Wei asked in astonishment, "Zhai knows magic too?"

Zhai Da thought for a moment, drew a single card, and waved it before her eyes.

Time to test his skills.

The special effect "Spotlight" unlocking task required him to perform ten "close-up magic tricks" without being exposed.

"Watch closely, this is the Ace of Spades."

Lu Wei nodded, her eyes filled with anticipation.

With a rapid sweep of his right hand, he blurred the card into a streak of afterimages before suddenly coming to a halt.

"Now there is an Ace of Spades and an Ace of Hearts. Magic over."

Lu Wei's expectant expression froze on her face, but after a momentary pause, she still enthusiastically gave a little polite clap.

"So cool! That's amazing!"

Zhai Da checked the system interface, but it remained completely unresponsive, leaving him utterly baffled...

Does Lu Wei not count as a person?

Why doesn't this count as a success?

"I have some good news to tell Zhai today."

"Oh? You're finally giving me that fountain pen for good?"

Lu Wei hesitated. "Uh... I really can't do that. That pen has special meaning to me..."

Quickly recovering her disrupted rhythm, Lu Wei started over. "The results of the micro-fiction contest are out! Congratulations to Zhai! You won first place, just as expected!"

Zhai Da showed little interest. "Oh... that..."

He didn't care about it at all. Entering the contest was merely a means to get closer to Lu Wei in the first place. He had way too much on his plate lately: his studies were back on track, he had acquired a fun new [equipment], he had gained an eighteen-year-old female roommate, and last night, he even acquired an eighteen-year-old female tutor.

Compared to all that, a minor micro-fiction contest was something he had long since thrown to the back of his mind.

So what if he got first place? Did it give him extra points for the college entrance exam?

With over a decade's worth of accumulated copywriting experience ahead of this era, taking first place in some amateur contest was hardly surprising. That micro-fiction piece alone had blended at least three top-tier copywriting styles, far surpassing anything the current era's amateur-dominated "micro-fiction" could offer.

"Aren't you happy, Zhai? This is a Starwave Blog contest, with thousands of participants nationwide!"

Zhai Da thought to himself: *Ah, so it's a blog... basically the predecessor to Weibo.* Even though it would eventually fade into total obscurity in later years, in this current era, blogs were the main battleground of the internet, with plenty of celebrities and prominent figures active on them.

He had assumed it was hosted by some traditional newspaper.

He hadn't even submitted the entry himself; Lu Wei had done it for him. He didn't have the habit of browsing blogs daily either, which explained why he hadn't heard a peep about it from start to finish.

A few thousand people... The internet age hadn't fully arrived yet. What good were numbers like that?

"Mm, that's great. I'm very happy."

Lu Wei added, "First place comes with a thirty-thousand-yuan prize!"

Zhai Da's voice instantly pitched up by a full octave.

"Hm? I am ecstatic! How do I claim it?"

According to Lu Wei, this was the contest's inaugural year, and micro-fiction was still considered a relatively novel concept at the time.

Participants simply published their entries as blog posts, which made the process quite straightforward.

Interestingly, for a supposedly online event, the judging wasn't based purely on netizens' likes. Clearly, "Starwave" hadn't fully figured out internet traffic yet, and the people of this era hadn't completely embraced the digital world either—

Not even the internet companies themselves.

They had actually appointed a public jury of 200 people alongside a professional jury of 30 people...

The public jury consisted of 200 college students, while the professional jury was made up of professors from Chinese literature departments.

How should he put it? Every single aspect exuded the sloppy, makeshift vibe of the times, while also serving as a tentative step toward the dawn of the internet age.

Still, the prize money was undeniably substantial!

"Where do I collect the thirty thousand? Do I need to provide a bank account number? Is it taxable?"

Three questions in a row, hitting straight at the core of the matter.

Lu Wei was a remarkably responsible young girl and had prepared in advance.

"A Starwave staff member left me a message. I told them I was only submitting on behalf of someone else and wasn't the author, but they explained the details to me anyway."

With that, she pulled out a small notebook filled with detailed notes.

The very first item on the list left Zhai Da utterly speechless...

"First of all, Zhai needs to interact with the official account on the blog, publish a blog post expressing his acceptance speech, and promise to become an active user. I asked what counts as being active, and they said one blog post a week, regardless of length... We have to support their work for at least the first few months, after which they won't care anymore."

Zhai Da's initially delighted expression rapidly transitioned into the face of the classic subway-elder meme.

"Secondly, they will conduct a phone interview... and Zhai will need to provide a personal lifestyle photo of himself, which they'll turn into a short news piece for the website."

It would probably be buried in some obscure corner of the page, serving merely to declare the event a "complete success."

"Once these two things are done, they can wire the money, though he didn't seem to mention anything about taxes..."

Zhai Da thought to himself: *This is such a massive pain in the ass!*

Yet... thirty thousand yuan... was still worth getting.

Right now, his main focus was on his studies, but he couldn't let slip any opportunity to make some extra cash. Thirty thousand yuan...

That was equivalent to about two and a half years of Lu Wei's salary...

Out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, he was reminded of Teacher Shen Rui's question...

"Zhai? Zhai?"

A fair, delicate hand waved back and forth in front of Zhai Da, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Oh, sorry, I zoned out... If I remember correctly, blogs can only be accessed using a computer, right? There probably isn't a mobile version yet."

Lu Wei nodded.

"That's a bit troublesome then. I don't have a computer at home. Could you help me post things? I'll give you some content every week, and you can just hop on a computer and publish it for me."

Lu Wei's bright, expressive eyes rolled thoughtfully.

She had already guessed that Zhai Da didn't have a computer, and was actually planning to proactively lend him a laptop...
She had several at home anyway.

Besides, following Zhai Da's suggestion... wouldn't that give her countless opportunities to communicate with him?

So, harboring a slight sense of guilt, she opted for the new plan: "Sure! Just let me know whenever you're ready. Posting things is very easy."

As for the phone interview, Zhai Da pinched his nose and accepted it; it would probably just consist of a bunch of harmless, repetitive platitudes.
Lu Wei just needed to give him a heads-up beforehand about the schedule.

Along the way, Zhai Da briefed Lu Wei on the content to be published on the "blog."

As for the first blog post, there wasn't much to say: thank the contest organizers, thank Starwave, thank the judges, and thank Cangjie (the mythical inventor of Chinese characters).

As for the weekly content going forward, he would think it over and send it to Lu Wei for her to post on his behalf.

When they reached the high school senior floor of the teaching building and were about to part ways, Lu Wei asked with hesitation, "Zhai, that long story you mentioned before... how is the writing coming along?"

The girl was eager for her regular installment of literary rations.

Prepared in advance, Zhai Da tossed her a school notebook and swaggered into Class 8 of the senior year.

Lu Wei caught it and saw four handwritten characters on the cover: *The Long Journey of Lu Tu*.

"Lu Tu... is that the protagonist's name? Judging by the title, sounds like it's a travelogue?"