Chapter Eleven: Starting to Make Money

  At noon, we went to eat together. Afterwards, I had to go learn national standard dance. Zou Ze seems to be planning to follow me all the way through.

  There are already several people learning national standard dance, but they all seem to have learned for a while. Ji Xin'an is new because she is a beginner. The teacher also needs to give her one-on-one guidance.

  Every time others start practicing, they come in front of Ji Xin'an to teach her some basic dance steps.

  Zou Ze couldn't help but laugh at Ji Xin'an's stiff movements, earning a cold stare in return. He didn't dare to laugh again and instead shifted his gaze to the other people, watching as they danced in pairs, thinking it was quite beautiful.

  Looking at Ji Xin'an's solitary figure again, he felt that she should have a dance partner. Then, he suddenly imagined himself embracing her and dancing under the lights of the ballroom. With this thought in mind, he took action and walked towards Ji Xin'an.

  "Look at you, so lonely here, and I happen to have time on Saturday morning. If you come begging to me, I'll reluctantly be your dance partner!" Zou Ze raised his arm with a smug expression, standing there.

  Ji Xin'an looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile, and Zou Ze was made to feel somewhat unnatural by her gaze, so he hastily ran off to find the teacher.

  When they returned, Zou Ze was much more natural, and the two beginners began their awkward yet happy career in national standard dance.

  Years later when they thought back on that moment of embracing and dancing together, they felt that the time was surprisingly warm.

  The days passed slowly, and she arranged her time to be full. Her parents also became more relaxed because of Ji Xin's increasing maturity after entering junior high school, so they basically let go.

  This made Ji Xin'an feel like she was being let loose by her parents, although it was good in a way, but lacked her mother's nagging and father's occasional strict guidance, which made Ji Xin'an still a bit unaccustomed.

  Ji Xin An's violin learning had always used the teacher's violin, although it was very handy, but she still wanted to buy her own, and Ji Xin An didn't even think of asking her parents for money, so making money became a priority for the first time since her rebirth.

  Although she had a vision beyond this era, her time was now fully scheduled and she didn't have the capital, which made her feel somewhat frustrated. She was reborn after all, and she remembered that those reborn people back then didn't they just get money delivered to their hands like it was sent? Why couldn't she do the same now?

  In sports class, everyone else was either playing ball or gathering together to play something, but Ji Xin'an had no interest in activities and sat stupidly on the parallel bars, thinking hard about his money-making plan.

  Just as she was lost in thought, Zou Ze suddenly appeared from behind her, jumped onto the parallel bars and sat down beside her.

  "What are you thinking about? I've seen you sitting here for half a day." He had just finished playing ball, and the sweat on his face was still dripping down.

  Ji Xin'an took out a handkerchief from her body and helped him wipe the sweat on his face. Now there were no paper towels, Ji Xin'an had also slowly gotten used to this 'ancient' thing. Zou Ze felt a bit embarrassed, said "I'll do it myself" and took it over. "Why don't you play basketball anymore? I think you're pretty good at it."

  "Did you see that? How was it, wasn't it professional level?" After hearing Ji Xin'an's words, Zou Zele's teeth were all showing.

  "How virtuous!" Ji Xin'an rolled her eyes disdainfully.

  "Hey, by the way, I've got something to show you." He said, taking out a magazine from his backpack and quickly flipping to a page. "Look at this article about writing, I thought it was pretty good when I read it, take a look."

  Ji Xin'an took the magazine and his eyes landed on something that wasn't the article he was talking about, but rather a tofu-like recruitment notice on the side, which suddenly enlightened Ji Xin'an.

  "What's wrong? It can't be that good, right?" Zou Ze asked strangely, apparently also noticing her change.

  "Zou Ze, you're really my lucky star. Thank you." Ji Xin'an excitedly jumped up from the ground and turned back to shout at Zou Ze: "Lend me the magazine for now, I'll return it tomorrow."

  Watching Ji Xin'an walk away, Zou Ze finally came back to his senses. "It's just a magazine! Why get so excited!"

  Zou Ze didn't understand why Ji Xin'an was so excited, but he wouldn't probe further. Since sitting there was pointless, he went to play basketball again.

  Ji Xinan bought several different magazines after school in the evening, and when she got home, she flipped through them one by one. As expected, they all had some information about soliciting manuscripts. That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing now.

  Because in past lives during those years of going to work, basically all spent on reading various long and short articles.

  Although there are abundant resources online, sometimes I still get anxious and start typing away on websites like Keyboard Under the Banyan Tree or Starting Point. Although they didn't become super popular, they did have a decent number of clicks.

  Ji Xin'an believes that although his writing is average, he excels in creativity. The articles he has read online over the years are incomparable to this era of information scarcity.

  As a result, every night, Ji Xin'an had an additional task, which was to write manuscripts. Originally, with Ji Xin'an's speed, writing two or three articles in one day was not a problem, but unfortunately, there was no keyboard to type on now.

  Every time this happens, Ji Xin'an would loudly exclaim, "Computer! Printer! Where are you?!"

  So Ji Xin'an can only complete one task per day, and the topics she submits are diverse, ranging from discussions on learning methods in student magazines to inspirational articles for readers, and even short love stories. Whatever comes to mind, she will write about it. Among these, she is most confident in writing love stories, believing that readers who have just come into contact with this type of article will definitely be moved to tears after reading them.

  Every night, she would finish writing a letter, put it in an envelope and drop it into the mailbox on her way to school the next morning. Then she wouldn't think about it anymore, because she knew how slow mail was at that time, so even if she was anxious, there was nothing she could do but wait slowly. She didn't leave the school's address, but instead left the address of Guo Rong's place with her agreement, which would save a lot of unnecessary trouble.

  It wasn't until class was dismissed that Ji Xinan remembered that Zou Ze's magazine hadn't been returned yet, so she casually tossed the book onto his desk. "Thanks, you said you'd just borrow it for a look, but it's been so many days and you still haven't even looked at it?"

  "It's okay, I've read it. You like this book so much, just keep it." Zou Ze thought of that day on the double piers as soon as he saw this magazine and couldn't help but laugh at her appearance back then.

  "I like it? ...Oh, I've already finished reading it, you can take it back." Ji Xin'an was stunned for a moment after hearing him say that, and then thought about what happened that day. He smiled, thinking he might have misunderstood, but didn't explain anything.

  Just then, Chen Zhaoji came over and pulled her out together. Ji Xin'an got up and left.

  Zou Ze saw her leave and put away his book, then lowered his head to continue reading his notes.

  "Hey, big brother, isn't this a bit too much? Such a big thing and you didn't even tell your own brother?" Zhang Tao came over and pushed him.

  Zou Ze listened with a confused expression, "What's going on?"

  "Alright, stop pretending. I saw everything that happened between you two at Shuanggou that day." Zhang Tao had a gossipy look on his face as he leaned in close to Zou Ze's ear and whispered, but his voice was loud enough for everyone around them to hear.

  As expected, as soon as he finished speaking, Yu Yao and Shi Lin simultaneously turned their heads to look at Zou Ze, the former with some suspicion, while the latter was furious.

  Zou Ze ignored them but had to retort at Zhang Tao's words. "What did you see? We're just saying a few words, aren't we?"

  "Is that all you said, but boss, can you tell me why you only said a few words and our beautiful Ji Xin'an just laughed and ran away?" Zhang Tao emphasized the word "only".

  Zou Ze couldn't think of anything to say, and if he really had to explain, he wouldn't be able to come up with a reason either, because the thing that happened that day still seemed pretty strange to him.

  Zhang Tao's guilty expression made Zou Ze even more annoyed. "Go, go, go, study your books, if you had put this much thought into learning every day, you would have been first by now."

  Ji Xin'an felt that the atmosphere was a bit eerie when she came back, and Yu Yao and Shi Lin's eyes on her were even more off.

  "What's going on? Everything seems so strange?" Ji Xin'an couldn't help but ask Zou Ze.

  "I don't know, nothing's going on anyway." Zou Ze's tone was very bad.

  Ji Xin'an helplessly shrugged his shoulders.