Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

"Hilarious Daily" had opened up the market in Hong Kong, and further sales promotion no longer needed the painstaking efforts of Zhang Chunxue. A product that had withstood the market test attracted agents from all over the country to place orders in just a few days. Even without a promise of returns for unsold stock, the publisher received orders for over a million copies in just over a week. Of course, that was about the limit—the sales wouldn't likely rise more than two hundred thousand copies later on, as, after all, there isn't much awareness of copyright in the Great Heavenly Dynasty. Xu Qingfan didn't think piracy was a big issue; after all, in his previous life, he had often patronized pirated comic books. With "Hilarious Daily" priced at eight yuan a copy, not many students could afford it right now. The people who buy legitimate books and those who buy pirated copies aren't exactly in the same pool, so even if there were many pirated copies, it wouldn't really affect the sales of the Three Little Only comics much. He remembered that in his previous life, when the comic A Loser's Fire was a big hit, the little shop in front of the school started selling many pirated comics that were only slightly larger than a matchbox, selling for fifty cents each; buying one made you the coolest kid in class. Xu Qingfan had a clear strategy; the real money in comics was in the IP. As long as more people saw it, even if they freeloaded, he would never be at a loss. .... "Don't be nervous, it's just the final exam, you did well last semester, it's not that difficult," Xu Qingfan gently patted Wu Lingyu's trembling hand on the school bus. "Yeah." Wu Lingyu nodded gratefully, her gaze never leaving the test paper she was holding. Because the skewer stall had moved to Lianyuan Road, Li Mei Juan had moved her rented house to a place near Lianhua Courtyard for the convenience of setting up the stall, resulting in Wu Lingyu ending up on the same school bus as them. Since she had fallen out of the top twenty in her grade in the midterm exams, if Wu Lingyu wanted to continue getting a tuition waiver next semester, she needed to rank at least in the top twelve in the final exams this time to avoid increasing her family's burden. Recently, Wu Lingyu had been studying as if her life depended on it. Xiao Ruawen was equally anxious; having luckily made it into the top twenty of her grade in the midterm exams, she was also striving hard to secure a tuition waiver for the next semester. "Brother Fan, I don't understand this question!" "Let me see... One class wants to go rowing; if they add one more boat, exactly six people fit on each boat, but if they remove one boat, then each boat fits nine people. How many people are in the class?" Xu Qingfan read the question and was momentarily stunned: [Goodness, what kind of weird question is this; I can't see the answer at first glance!] "Well... er... you think about it this way, one more boat means six people, one less boat means nine people, right?" "Yeah, and then?" Xiao Ruawen blinked in confusion. "What does that tell us?" Xu Qingfan started to stall for time tactically. Xiao Ruawen fell into thought, and he hurriedly thought to himself: [What does that mean! It means three people have to come off each boat to fit onto the newly added ones!!] [Phew, I figured it out!] Xu Qingfan silently breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't know," Xiao Ruawen said after pondering for a while and then shaking her head. "Assume there originally were five boats, with one more that's six, and one less that's four, right?" Xu Qingfan paused, looking at Xiao Ruawen. Seeing her nod, he continued, "With four boats, each fits nine people, six boats fit six people each. You see, four nines are thirty-six, six sixes are thirty-six, isn't it solved now?" "Huh?" Xiao Ruawen looked puzzled, "Brother Fan, what are you talking about, why assume there were originally five boats?" "Er... because there were originally five boats..." With equations not yet taught, Xu Qingfan found himself at a loss for words for a moment. "Don't listen to his nonsense; let me explain it to you!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at Xu Qingfan and began her explanation, "Comparing one more boat and one less boat, isn't that a difference of two boats?" "Yeah yeah yeah!" "If each boat seats six people, then won't two boats together seat twelve people?" Xia Xiaoxiao continued. "Yeah yeah yeah!" "9-6=3, so does it not mean three people need to get off each boat?" "Huh?" "12/3=4, which means there are four boats when one is removed, four nines are thirty-six, so there are a total of thirty-six people, pretty simple, right!" Xia Xiaoxiao looked at Xiao Ruawen with a smile. "Hehehe~ let me think about it," Xiao Ruawen said with a polite yet awkward smile, taking her exam paper back from Xia Xiaoxiao's hands. [I guessed correctly during the midterm exam by chance, I can definitely do it this time too, 5555~] ... "Yay!!!" "The exams are over, summer vacation is here!!" "My sister is a college student; I'm going to visit the university during the summer!" "That's nothing, my sister is a graduate student!!" "You all are nothing compared to me, my sister works outside!!!" "My sister dares to eat poop!" "My sister does too!" "..." As they stepped out of the exam room, the elementary school students, freed like wild horses, eagerly shared their long summer vacation plans with their friends. "Finally, it's over~" Xiao Ruawen walked between the two, her expression a mix of exhaustion and surprise. "When are we going to record the song?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked. "Hehehe, I even dreamed at noon that our song made it to the Spring Festival Gala stage!" Xiao Ruawen said with a silly laugh. "You really dare to dream anything." Xiao Ruawen pouted and glared at Xu Qingfan, "Maybe! Brother Fan, didn't you tell Wanning that as long as we keep at it, anything is possible? Why are you being partial now?" "Hmph, that's just how he is. Lin Wanning and her group are already working on their second comic book, and he hasn't even written us a second song!" Xia Xiaoxiao said, pulling Xiao Ruawen away from the stinky Xu. Xu Qingfan muttered to himself, [Is that even comparable? 'Hilarious Daily' is generating income in the millions when run well, producing songs is purely for our own amusement!] But he couldn't say that aloud, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's not the loud quarrels that truly chill the heart~. I already wrote the second song long ago. I didn't expect you to think this way about me, oh well, forget it. It's not worth it." Xu Qingfan shook his head and didn't look at them again. "What?" Not yet corrupted by the internet, the innocent little girls thought Xu Qingfan was genuinely sad and disappointed. They quickly caught up with him, each grabbing an arm. "It is interesting!" "Brother Fan, we are sorry, please don't be mad, okay? We were just kidding!" Xu Qingfan felt secretly thrilled, [Is this the ease of having them in the palm of my hand?] "What about you, do you know what you did wrong?" Xu Qingfan looked emotionlessly at Xia Xiaoxiao. Xia Xiaoxiao clenched her fists secretly, and said reluctantly, "I'm sorry." "What? I can't hear you." "I'm sorry!!!" Xu Qingfan knocked his head against the little girl, "Why so loud? Will you do it again next time?" "No, I won't do it again..." Xia Xiaoxiao pouted her lips in grievance. [It's clearly because you're biased, Xu Qingfan, you're the worst!]