Chapter 129: A Date, Every Step of the Way

The gift Yue Yao intended for Zhang Yurong was supposed to arrive in the afternoon, but it came in the morning. While everyone was chatting after lunch, a delivery arrived. Yue Yao announced that her gift had come, and upon Zhang Yurong and Li Yan’s curiosity, they opened it to find a book!

Zhang Yurong never had high expectations for the value of gifts. She knew that Yue Yao ’didn’t have much money’ and has always considered Yue Yao an intellectual homebody and internet writer. So, receiving a book from her wasn’t too surprising.

"Books are the best gifts. Thank you, Yue Yao." Zhang Yurong took it with joy, quickly expressing her gratitude to prevent Yue Yao from feeling that the gift was shabby and becoming self-conscious.

Sure enough, Yue Yao seemed a bit shy and hesitated to speak.

Li Yan took the book from Zhang Yurong’s hand, examined it, and exclaimed in surprise, "Did you write this book?"

"What?" Zhang Yurong was surprised, grabbing it back and seeing the author’s name was indeed ’Yue Yao’. She exclaimed with delight, "Yue Yao, you’ve published a book? And hid it from us!"

Yue Yao smiled awkwardly, "Actually, I haven’t published it... I’ve been updating a book off and on on the Girls’ Channel of Qidian Chinese Network. I was pondering what gift to get you, thinking if I had published a book, gifting you a copy would be meaningful, but I didn’t... This is a self-funded print."

Li Yan and Yurong’s smiles turned a bit awkward, realizing it was a self-funded publication!

Seeing their expressions, Yue Yao shook her head again, "I’m not self-funding a publication! I’m just self-funding a print."

Zhang Yurong and Li Yan exchanged glances, "Is there a difference?"

Yue Yao briefly explained it, and Zhang Yurong understood, while Li Yan was unaware.

"I understand now, you’re not buying an ISBN from a publisher for self-publication, just privately printing books. You can only collect it yourself or give it as gifts, but if it’s sold in stores, it would be illegal publishing!" Zhang Yurong realized.

"Exactly. Self-publishing is expensive, costing at least tens of thousands, without a sales channel, printing in large quantities results in waste. My private printing channel is much cheaper, and it doesn’t require a large quantity, even making just one copy."

"Ah, a knockoff!" Li Yan commented.

"Hehe, you could say that."

Zhang Yurong cheerfully held the book, inhaling the scent of ink, "Whatever, knockoff or not, Yue Yao specially made a book for me, which is a great honor. Why don’t you write a book, knockoff-publish it for me?"

"Heh... Yue Yao made a knockoff book, didn’t I make a knockoff movie?"

Upon hearing Li Yan’s remark, recalling his gift, everyone laughed.

"I rarely read novels, what kind of novel is this? Would it be like ’To Live’ or ’One Hundred Years of Solitude’?" Zhang Yurong eagerly flipped through it while asking Yue Yao.

Despite teaching himself through many profound books, Li Yan seldom read classic novels, preferring leisure entertainment occasionally. At the moment, he couldn’t boast anything but had some knowledge about Qidian’s Urban Novels and the Girls’ Channel.

"Yue Yao, did you really write this? I’ve heard that many novels on Qidian’s Girls’ Channel feature Qing Dynasty time travel themes."

"Qing Dynasty time travel?" Zhang Yurong asked, puzzled.

"It’s when a girl travels back to the Qing Dynasty, coaching heirs of wealthy families, princes, and nobles..."

"No way?" Zhang Yurong felt her skin crawl.

Li Yan thought inwardly, can’t she handle that?

Yue Yao burst into laughter, "Li Yan, who knew you liked reading girls’ channel novels?"

Li Yan recalled Xu Ping’s coaxing about Qidian Urban Novels, giving a cheeky smile, "I like reading Qidian Urban harem novels..."

"Harem? Isn’t a harem supposed to be an Imperial Palace? How is this urban?" Yurong was completely unaware.

"Haha, it’s like the male protagonist is an emperor with many women loving him, living happily together..." Li Yan imagined his future harem plans and took the opportunity to explain such a scenario in front of Yurong so she wouldn’t be caught off guard, opinions needed to change gradually!

"That’s so gross!""

Seeing him repeatedly mention it, Zhang Yurong suspiciously eyed him, "Do you want to have multiple marriages? No need for so much trouble and risk, just tell me, I’ll fulfill your wish!"

This couldn’t be done overnight, just a slight influence would suffice... Li Yan quickly laughed, "Not at all, I could never... By the way, last night’s incident got rather chaotic, you were the guest last night. I’m stepping out first!"

Zhang Yurong successfully switched her attention. Seeing him stand up to leave, she quickly reminded, "Change your clothes! Going out like that?"

Li Yan deliberately glanced down, "Haha, true, going out like this makes it easy to get ogled by female wolves, better wear something more serious!"

"..."

...

Driving out, Li Yan calculated the time in his head, he had to head to Wen Qianyi’s place first for an early lunch, then return to Duan Haibo’s to pick up his stuff, before heading out to the movies with Yurong...

Time was tight, and any delay in any step would leave insufficient time for the rest.

While driving, he didn’t waste any time, slowing down near some cinemas to glance at the latest movies playing. To avoid being undecided upon arrival, he realized he had never seen a movie alone with Zhang Yurong yet, having seen movies with Yu Xiaodi, Li Jie, including the night before with Wen Qianyi, Hai Fu, Huang Ying, and others, but not with his wife, which felt somewhat unacceptable.