Evetrona's old stories

"I don't know," said Vogelmanning. "I haven't thought about what will happen after the book."

"Then this book..."

"Leave it to you to deal with." Fu Gemanning said, "but don't mention my name, just say that you wrote it yourself."

"why?"

"Every character in the work has its author's own shadow, and I don't want to be speculated."

"Then make up a name to be the author, what do you think?"

"Then it's called Saraiti." Fuge Manning said immediately.

"Is there any meaning in it?"

"In ancient Franto language, the white rabbit hidden under the snow." Fugemanning looked at the hat on Eve's head, "But it must be written in Kriging language, so the pronunciation is Saraiti."

"What about the title of this book?"

"Isn't it fashionable to use the heroine's name as a title? We can use it too."

"Aimang?"

"Emman Valsinde."

Thus, the title of the book and the author's name were finalized in this way.

Eve didn't plan to show this novel to others, so she planned to take the book to a publisher to try her luck.She copied the manuscript again, and couldn't help but revise the words and details during the period. As a result, when the copy was completed, the degree of completion seemed to be a bit higher.

After this incident, she understood that she could not do the book copying by herself, and it was difficult for an author who held the power of editing to refrain from revising her work better.So, she found Elvira and asked her to help transcribe two manuscripts. When the first transcribing was completed, Eve wanted her to give a brief evaluation of the content of the book, but Avella said that she was too busy transcribing and did not pay much attention to the content of the story; but when she finished transcribing the second time, she gave a positive evaluation of the novel. She thought the novel was well written. No wonder Eve wanted her to help transcribe. people.

On the recommendation of Gloda, she mailed the two manuscripts of the novel to two publishers respectively.One is in Xingthen City, which is not too far from here, and the other is in the farther East City, which is a large publishing house.

The postage is 10 cents per ounce, which is the price of two rounded square nickels, and the postage is fixed regardless of the distance.The original manuscript of Eve's novel weighs 300 grams in total, and the postage for the two books is rounded up, which is 220 cents, which is equivalent to the price of about 9 copper coins (1 copper coin is equal to 5 nickel coins).Buy a whole stamp worth half a silver coin from the post office, cut it in half, stick it on the two envelopes, and you're done.The postage of the two letters adds up to half a silver coin, which is undoubtedly a luxury for most people.Golta once suggested that she only send a part of the sample draft, because the editor of the publishing house would not have the patience to read the whole novel, but Eve finally decided to send the whole book.

Klickin's stamps do not have perforations due to technical reasons, but fortunately they are well-printed, so Eve spent a few silver coins to buy several different denominations to keep as a collection, and also bought a bundle of postal letters for letter writing, just in case.

The waiting time is long, especially in this era, the transportation of mail still needs to rely on steam trains and carriages, a letter, a long journey.

About a month and a half later, the publisher in Eastern City responded, and sent back the entire novel.Here, even if Eve hasn't read the letter yet, she knows it's not good news.

The text of the reply in the letter is friendly and stylized, and its content can be roughly summarized into a few points——

1. There is a problem with material selection.It is best not to set the protagonist as a dragon. There were also other powerful alien races during the Enbaien period, such as Qingkong clan and Xihai goblin. It is recommended to modify the protagonist's life experience.

2. The ending is not considered a success.An open ending is not recommended unless there is a clear intention to write a sequel, and many readers are not buying it these days, especially considering how harsh old readers are to new writers.

3. The name of the protagonist is not common, it is recommended to change the name to increase the recognition.

4. The novel itself is impeccable, but from the perspective of the publisher, its length is relatively short and cannot be bound and sold in the best-selling book format commonly seen on the market.It is recommended to increase the length by at least one-third, or add several short stories to be published together as a collection of stories.

5. Looking forward to your improvement and making the next submission.

In short, the meaning of the publisher is: the novel is not bad, but it is not to our taste. If you can make changes according to our requirements, then we still welcome it.In other words, if you want to publish it, you have to remake the protagonist as a whole, but this is obviously impossible.

The reply letter from the publisher of Xingthen City also came soon after, mixed with a pile of love letters, and was taken back to the apartment by Eve.

In the letter, the other party praised the novel and directly stated that he had the intention to publish it, but there were some "not big or small" problems that required an interview with the author, and he gave his address in the letter.

As the time approached the Qingming Festival at the end of May, the college gave a one-week holiday. Eve also took this opportunity to go to Xingtian City with Akanlu and her roommate Melina, and met with the editor of the publisher alone.

The other party was a middle-aged man in a well-fitting suit. Seeing that the author of this book was actually a little girl who seemed to have no hair, his expression became unnatural.

"Excuse me, are you Saraetti? The author of "Emman Valsinde"?" The other party poured tea for Eve, and asked out of caution.

"That's right, it's me." Eve replied.

The other party was silent for a moment before continuing: "I have a few questions I want to ask you, and I also have some ideas that I need to ask for your opinion."

"Please tell me." Eve nodded.

He opened the manuscript in his hand and asked, "What kind of dragon is an ancient dragon? I don't seem to have heard of it in other books."

"It's fabricated, but the prototype is the Proto-Dragon, the Proto-Dragon with two big horns."

"Oh, so that's the case." The man nodded. "There are many similar questions. To avoid misunderstandings, footnotes should be made in all these places. Then the next question-why do you use dragons as the protagonist of the story?"

"There must always be a protagonist in a story, and dragons are very interesting creatures. I am very interested in dragons."

"You created this novel independently?" The man hurriedly added before Eve opened his mouth: "Let me tell you in advance that I never mean to underestimate you. On the contrary, I admire you for being able to To make a piece of depth like this."

"It's... I created it independently, but I refer to many books for its content. As you know, the Knight Academy has a large library."

The man smiled and nodded. He lowered his head and stared at the manuscript in his hand, and then said: "I have a few more suggestions here, related to whether we can finally decide to publish it. Of course, it may be too early to talk about this matter. In the end, we just hope you can understand that we are very interested in this novel."

"Just mention it." Eve rubbed her hands, looking a little nervous.

"First of all, we hope that you can make the protagonist more evil." The man said, "You see, no matter whether it is famous or notorious, it is possible to meet the emperor in the end... Of course, the heroine's part There is no need to change it, after all, she needs to have a good impression of the protagonist. As for the saving of the last paragraph, it can also be understood as the influence of the heroine on him..."

"I don't quite understand, why do you want to change the character of the protagonist so drastically?" Eve finally couldn't help interrupting the other party when she heard this.

"Because, your work is suspected of beautifying dragons too much."

"and then?"

"Then?" There was an imperceptible hum in the man's nasal cavity, "We can't play around the edges of the law to weaken the vigilance of human beings against dragons today."

Eve closed her mouth, not daring to ask any more questions.She also realized that there seemed to be something very important that she had been ignoring until now.

"I know, you young people have good ideas about everything, but the real world is not. Do you know the Dragon Worship that was rampant in the south when the country was founded?"

Eve shook her head blankly.

"You see, you still don't understand the history of your country." The man slowed down his voice and said earnestly: "Back then, they persuaded the dragons living in the border and wilderness to cooperate with powerful dragons in order to overthrow Klicking's rule in the south. They promised the dragons that they would give them territory and even give them some population as slaves."

"Anything like that?"

"Not only that, they almost succeeded and slaughtered several cities in the south. Later, the Logos Academy sent a heavy army to wipe out the believers in the south, including many dragons, leaving no one alive. At that time, whether it was Human heads, or dragon heads, were hung above the city walls."

Eve just felt that her mind went blank, and what the other party said hit her hard.

"The Dragon Worship Cult has perished. Then came the tide of dragon slaying that lasted for more than 20 years. The government paid for the reward of dragon heads. Even some surrounding countries were affected by this. They slaughtered dragons from abroad and transported the dragon heads back to China to receive the rewards. The country accepted them all. And in the later period, some rich people even processed them into decorations for private collection..."

The man's words echoed and buzzed in Eve's ears.

"Nearly 80 years have passed, and some older southerners still have a great hatred for dragons." The man sighed, "So I think that if you have to use dragons as the protagonist, it's better Don't make him too likable, it's good for you too. We can tolerate evil protagonists, but not authors who promote evil. Who knew the Church of the Dragon wouldn't take advantage of such an opportunity to take advantage of someone as good as you How about a comeback?"

"I understand." At this point, Eve seemed to have no intention of continuing the conversation. She wanted to find a chance to leave, but the other party started to boast again.

"In addition, we have a more important point to discuss with you...Given your age and gender, what you are about to say may be a little offensive, but please don't think too much, everything is for your work to be published. Would you like to hear it?"

Eve's eyes were a little dull. She looked at the man speaking in front of her and nodded subconsciously.

"We want to add a little material to your novel. On the one hand, it can make the text look longer, and on the other hand, it can also attract more readers." The man's tone was very light, and he kept staring at the tabletop while speaking, hardly raising his head once.

"What do you mean? What are you adding?" Eve didn't quite understand the other party's words.

"Some interesting plots." The man gestured with his hands.

"Can you be more specific?" Eve was a little anxious for him.

"That's the...love scene between the male lead and the female lead." The man's expression was a little weird.

Eve couldn't help but widen her eyes.This time, the man's words were very straightforward.

"Of course, this part of the plot will be written by a professional person, but the author still only uses your name. If you allow, we will also disclose your information a little bit when promoting the book, such as gender and age, so as to ensure that the book will be a big seller..."

I don't know which sentence from the man hit Eve's sore spot, the girl stood up abruptly, and slammed the table, the sound startled the man.He saw the girl opposite was walking towards him and staring at him with a pair of blue eyes, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

"Sorry, no offense intended." He held up his hand.

While staring at him, Eve picked up the manuscript on the table and walked towards the door.

"If you change your mind, we welcome it!" the man said, standing up.

The girl shook her hand, and the door slammed shut.

So far, Eve has completely given up.After returning to Benlong Castle, she suffocated and confided all these recent things to Fuge Manning.

Fuge Manning didn't care about this, but found these things very interesting.

"They're going to make money anyway," says Fudgemanning, "and it's really hard for them to do this kind of stuff."

"Sorry, I didn't expect Kriging to have such a history." Eve asked him in a tentative tone, "Don't you hate Kriging people?"

"I don't have any idea about it. After all, I was not born at that time. I only heard some words from Tianke Annisi, but I didn't see it with my own eyes. In addition, the Kriging people around me are all good people, and I can't hate them."

"That's right." Eve jumped up, put her hands on a horizontally growing cone scale of Fugemanning, hung her body in the air, and began to swing.As she got acquainted with Fu Gemanning day by day, Eve's behavior became more and more presumptuous now.

"Eve, why don't you read it again." Fugemanning said, "After reading it, we will take all the manuscripts with us and scatter them into the sea."

Eve jumped back to the ground, feeling a little complicated.In order to complete this novel, she and Fu Gemanning paid equal efforts.They used to cherish the characters in their works so much that they couldn't bear to be destroyed by fate, and even argued endlessly for an ending, but now they want to throw them away as a pile of waste paper?

"Okay, let's do this." Eve took a deep breath and finally agreed.

[60] Cage of Destiny (Part [-])

Life has a time limit, and among all living beings, there are always unwilling people who try to leave something for this world.

A week later, Eve sat on top of Fugemanning's head with the thick stack of manuscripts, hovering above the rippling sea.

"Don't you humans often do like this?" Fugemanning said: "Build wooden blocks into the shape of a tower, and then pull out a piece from the bottom to watch it slowly fall; or set up the dominoes in a long row. , and then push it down from the beginning.”

"The wooden block is knocked down, and the same tower can be built again later, but if these manuscripts are thrown out, the same sentence will never be written again. Besides, the things that took a whole year to write are waved It's really a bit of a luxury to destroy it." Eve looked at the manuscript in her hand, and asked Fu Ge Manning: "Hu Ge, don't you feel any pity at all?"

"Based on your human standards, I am illiterate, I am illiterate. My pupils are too big and I can't distinguish the small words on the book, so the book is actually meaningless to me." Fuge Manning didn't answer her question directly, "Eve, I thought you had the same idea as me, that's why I said the other day, let you throw all these papers into the lake. Sorry, if you want to keep it, please keep it, you are more qualified to deal with these things than I am."

Eve nodded and remained silent.

"For me, the time we have been writing together this year has made me happier than ever before. I am looking forward to your arrival every day, so that I can read to me the fragments that were flat in my mind last time and turn them into more beautiful words." Fuge Manning's tone seemed to have a hint of exclamation, "For me, I never thought of showing the finished novel to others—Eve, as long as you can approve me, this novel will have fulfilled its mission. For me, this novel is written for me by you." , I wrote to you too."

"Of course I agree." Eve nodded, "Otherwise, why would I spend so much time on this?"

"It's mutual recognition." Fugemanning continued, "You human beings all value the recognition of your own kind. If you lack the attention and understanding of others, you may be unhappy, feel lonely, and even get sick. But I am different. Dragons have a long life and have time to do anything, so we are not afraid that we will be forgotten after death, and we will not deliberately consider the meaning of what we do; we hope to be satisfied in the process—a novel is never created just to complete a profound ending." Gemanning advised, "Eve, don't stop here, we should go do something else."

Indeed, Eve was so devastated by the publisher's suggestion that she is now in a deep hole without knowing it.Perhaps, as Fuge Manning said, we should not only focus on the results—Eve can be bothered about this matter because she has been doing things in accordance with her original logic of thinking without thinking, that is, the logic of utilitarianism; Eve does not look at writing purely like Fuge Manning.

Eve finally woke up.

Now that she has all the abilities, she has no worries about food and clothing, and is not burdened by money, so what exactly does she want?money?reputation?Number one in the world?Rule the world?Eve can't say what she wants, or in other words, what she wants is a more abstract thing, just like the "good" pursued by philosophers, which cannot be effectively defined.

She picked up a small stack of manuscript paper, tore one into two, and then into four, and threw it out.The expected scene of flying pieces of paper did not appear, perhaps because the number was too small, and the pieces of paper disappeared as soon as they were blown by the wind.So she tore more pages into shreds and stuffed them into her backpack.The first draft, the second draft, the final draft, the one copied by myself, and the two copies copied by Elvira are all here now.Since there were a lot of them, she took out the feathered dagger that Ji Xian gave her, and cut the manuscript in her hand very smoothly.

After breaking up all the shredded papers and putting them into the backpack, Eve stood up, supported Fuge Manning's cone scales and said to him, "Let's go up."

The dragon raised its head slightly and flew towards the sky.

Eve opened the backpack, and let the wind blow the pieces of paper in the bag, and the paper scattered all over the sky, as if it had snowed.

Eve looked at these pieces of paper flying in the air, and was in a daze. At this moment, she didn't want to think about anything, but felt a burst of relief in her heart for no reason.

"Let's go, I'll take you to a place." Vogel Manning said, and flew towards the northwest of the lake.

I don't know how far I flew, but a not-so-wide rift appeared as far as I could see. This rift is not very conspicuous on the plain, and I can only find it when I get close.

The rift valley presents a zigzag curved shape, with dense vegetation growing on both banks, and lush plants even grow down along the cracks, covering the rock walls on both sides with green.Several tributaries of the big river also pass here and pour into the valley, forming waterfalls of different sizes.The canyon was very deep, and Vegmanning put his wings together on both sides of his body, and swooped down into the rift.When you get close, you can hear the sound of the waterfall crashing against the rock wall. There are also some large birds and pterosaurs' nests on the rock wall. These creatures become restless as Vegmanning approaches or passes by, stretching their necks, flapping their wings and screaming.The place is really buzzing.

"This is called 'Hope Valley'. It used to be the old nest of the canyon dragons. Now that they are gone, other creatures have occupied their former lair."

Fuge Manning flew towards a cliff where water was splashing, and the water mist below was filled with darkness, and they passed through the water curtain, entered a dark gap with a closed top, and finally entered a wide conical cave. go.It was pitch black in the cave, and Vegmanning spread his wings, and dots of light appeared on the rock wall.This rock wall seems to have been polished, the cave wall and the ground are very smooth, and some places are even as smooth as glass, which does not seem to be formed naturally.

"The Dragon House in Benlong Castle is not the only place I live in. It's still too small." Fugemanning's voice echoed in the cave, "This was once the territory of the Benlong Royal Family, and now it belongs to me. If you can't find me in Runlong Castle one day, you might as well come here and have a look."

"Is this your secret?" Eve couldn't help being touched when he heard what he said.

"Indeed, after a long time, it becomes a secret." Fugemanning replied, "It seems that only Tianke Annisi and Mrs. Hyde know about it now, and now you know it too."

Here they remained silent for a while, as they had at the bottom of the lake.

"I heard that this place was burned down by the Xi Daolun people before. Is Benlong really extinct?" Eve asked him.

"That's not the case." Fuge Manning said, "This matter is a bit complicated, maybe you don't want to believe it, so I won't say it."

"I'd like to believe it, so just say it."

Fuge Manning did not respond to Eve's words, and the cave fell into silence again.

"Could it be that this matter is related to Dragon Worship?" Eve asked.

"Hmm..." Fu Gemanning sighed, "I didn't expect you to know this."

"Come on, I believe everything you say, you are more reliable than most people." Eve patted the scales on his forehead and praised.

"I will say it, but you have to promise me not to tell anyone about it, because it is very bad for Tianke Annisi."

"Could it be..."