As Ding Yun, through her writing, completely took down those Qigong masters and subsequently sent many con artists, as well as those who caused illness by neglecting medical treatment in favor of practicing Qigong to their deaths, to prison.
Her grandparents finally gave up.
They no longer coerced or cajoled her into taking medicine and injections.
However, they couldn't stay in the city any longer, feeling uncomfortable without familiar faces, so they returned a few days before the New Year. They took with them over a dozen martial arts manuals, including the Tai Chi chuan manual handpicked by the "Little Science Popularizer" as a genuine secret text. While not incredibly powerful, it did have health-preserving effects.
That's right, although Ding Yun had targeted the Qigong masters.
She hadn't debunked all traditional martial arts secret texts.
Many training methods themselves were not wrong; the problem lay with the boastful and deceitful individuals. Therefore, Ding Yun specifically selected over ten manuals that she had verified as authentic and beneficial for health and exercise using her omniscient glasses.
At the same time, Ding Yun also issued a crucial reminder:
Health preservation is for health, and exercise is for exercise, but neither can cure illness. If you are sick, you must see a doctor!
However, Ding Yun did not reveal her identity as the "Little Science Popularizer" to her parents, and she had also requested confidentiality from the newspaper. Thus, apart from having more money in her hands and needing to carve out some time daily to complete her column, everything else remained the same.
In fact, due to the winter break.
Her days were quite leisurely.
After all, winter break homework was a breeze for her, and having completed it, she had no desire to skip grades or get ahead by learning new material for the next semester. Her days naturally became more relaxed.
Since she had free time and there weren't many good TV shows or novels to watch, Ding Yun took the opportunity to finish writing enough "Into Science" short stories and popular science knowledge articles for more than half a year. She then mailed them to the newspaper.
This way, they wouldn't pester her for submissions every few days,
fearing she wouldn't be able to keep up with their daily newspaper's publication schedule.
One had to admit, daily newspapers were troublesome; they had to be published every day. Unlike weekly or monthly publications, which came out once a week or even once a month, making things so much easier.
After Ding Yun mailed the manuscripts.
The date had already become the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month.
She quite naturally played along with her youthful innocence, celebrating the New Year with joy and merriment alongside her peers.
Laughing and playing carefree, setting off fireworks (which hadn't yet been banned), feasting on snacks prepared by her parents, elders, relatives, and neighbors, and sprucing up new clothes to wear.
These days, where she didn't have to worry about anything or be busy.
Were truly quite nostalgic.
The New Year remained the same New Year, and happy children remained happy children. Many people felt that the "New Year spirit" had faded, but in reality, it wasn't the New Year spirit that had faded; it was their own age that had grown, and they were no longer children.
They had passed the age where their worries were limited to homework and grades.
The mere shift from receiving red envelopes to giving them, and from playing to working, made it difficult to remain truly happy!
However, Ding Yun was fine; she was only fourteen.
No matter how you looked at it, after the New Year, she would only be fifteen.
She was in the prime of her youth.
Yes... precisely... that's how it was...
Unfortunately, happy times are always fleeting. Time flew by, and the New Year passed. The newspaper sent her the latest royalty payment and inquired if writing so many articles at once might deplete her inspiration or if she had any new ideas. Meanwhile, school was also about to start.
Ding Yun had no particular feelings about the start of school.
She believed in letting things take their natural course.
However, regarding the newspaper's inquiry about new ideas, Ding Yun actually had a few. But considering the hassle and slowness of exchanging letters, Ding Yun specifically found a phone booth to make a call for a discussion:
"Hello, I'm the author 'Little Science Popularizer.'
I'd like to speak with Editor Zhang. Is he available?"
"Oh, please wait a moment..."
Ding Yun waited for about half a minute before Editor Zhang came to the phone and said with a smile, "Little Ding, happy New Year!
The manuscripts you sent us before the New Year haven't been settled yet because the accounting work was already finished. So, the royalty payment you just received is from the previous batch. The remaining payment will definitely be settled by the end of the month."
Editor Zhang thought Ding Yun had called specifically to chase him for royalty payments, so he immediately explained in detail.
"Haha, happy New Year to you too, Editor.
But you've misunderstood. I'm not calling about royalty payments. You sent me a letter along with the remittance, asking if I had any new ideas.
I do have some new ideas, but I'm not sure what your thoughts are, so I specifically called to discuss the specifics with you."
Ding Yun also returned the New Year greeting!
Then she explained why she was calling.
"Oh, so that's what it's about!
How should I put it... let me think...
Didn't our newspaper's sales increase significantly due to our recent struggle against those Qigong master fraudsters and exposing their scams, which created quite a buzz? Although many people have subscribed for a year recently, the fervor is visibly declining.
Daily sales have also dropped considerably.
We're down by hundreds of thousands.
Of course, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying we're going to lower your manuscript fees or anything. I just wanted to ask if you have any suggestions, or if there are any other phenomena you find objectionable and want to expose. Feel free to write and speak boldly; we're not afraid of trouble!"
One had to admit, Editor Zhang was being very direct.
He was practically saying he wasn't afraid of negative publicity,
as long as there was attention.
His situation was like someone who had eaten delicacies and could no longer enjoy simple fare. Having experienced the thrill of being at the center of public opinion and guiding it, he found it difficult to accept the newspaper's current mediocrity.
"Uh... Editor Zhang, if I recall correctly, your newspaper is the "Science Daily," right? There are many things in this world that can be exposed or criticized, but fewer that are related to science.
Most are social issues or economic issues.
I can write about them, but they might not be suitable for your publication.
How about this, just tell me directly. What do you want me to write about, or what's the situation?
If it's really about poor performance,
I can accept a lower fee per thousand characters!"
Ding Yun felt that Editor Zhang, by mentioning the drop in sales by hundreds of thousands and then stating he wasn't intending to lower her fees, was actually hinting at wanting to lower her fees.
However, Ding Yun considered that most of her stories were borrowed from "Into Science" and didn't require much of her own brainpower. Furthermore, she had no immediate need for money. Therefore, she decided to be direct and replied.
If the royalty fee of five hundred per thousand characters were to be lowered slightly,
she could accept it.
After all, the cost of living wasn't high at the moment; pork was only about three yuan per catty. If sales had truly declined significantly, a reduction seemed quite reasonable.
"Uh, Little Ding, please don't misunderstand.
I truly don't intend to lower your manuscript fees. Oh, well, I'll be frank then. I want to make a change and add a new column, making you our daily newspaper's commentator.
We've collected some cases of feudal superstition, feudal superstition scams, and the like. You can then use those cases and scams as a basis, and just like before with the Qigong masters, provide sharp, in-depth, and well-reasoned evaluations and popular science explanations.
Of course, if you have any other issues or situations you wish to criticize, we would welcome them even more!"
To date, Ding Yun's "Into Science" mini-column remained the most popular with readers of their daily newspaper.
Although some people claimed the stories were a bit fabricated and others felt the lengthy buildup followed by such an anticlimactic conclusion was exasperating, many still read it. Therefore, Editor Zhang genuinely had no intention of reducing Ding Yun's royalty fees. His earlier remarks were simply habitual complaints.
He felt a touch of disappointment at the decline in sales.
As for proposing that Ding Yun become a commentator, this was a result of their discussions a while ago. They felt that by adding more real-life cases and sharp commentary, they might be able to generate more buzz and encourage reader discussion.
This, in turn, could increase sales.
That's right, what he actually wanted was Ding Yun's sharp commentary. Although he didn't know why, many readers had indeed responded that they preferred Ding Yun's previous sarcastic remarks and veiled criticisms of the Qigong masters.