Weng Kanya was a newly tenured editor at Happy Children Magazine.
Thus, she had the most work every day and was always the last to leave.
That day, all her colleagues at the magazine had left, and only then did Weng Kanya finish proofreading the manuscripts in her hands. She had just packed up her things and was preparing to leave when, as she walked out, her eyes casually glanced over and spotted a letter that had been left in the trash bin.
Since the trash bin was right next to the desk and the letter looked brand new and unopened, Weng Kanya instinctively thought it must have fallen into the bin by accident when a colleague was handling their mail.
With that possibility in mind, Weng Kanya’s brows furrowed tightly. She muttered inwardly, not knowing which colleague could be so careless.
If she hadn’t noticed it, by the time the cleaner came the next morning, the letter would probably have been thrown away.
Muttering to herself inwardly, Weng Kanya walked over to the trash bin and picked up the unopened letter.
Sure enough, it was a submission letter.
Weng Kanya originally planned to place it on the desk of the colleague next to the bin, but when she saw the elegant and graceful handwriting on the envelope, she immediately felt a spark of fondness.
Looking at such beautiful handwriting, Weng Kanya grew curious about what kind of fairy tale the person who wrote it could create.
Driven by curiosity, Weng Kanya sat back down at her desk and opened the letter.
But once she tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter paper inside, her attention was no longer drawn to the beautiful handwriting. All of it was captivated by the fairy tale story on the paper!
Although Weng Kanya hadn’t been working at the children’s magazine for long, her family had always been in the magazine publishing business.
From a young age, she had been exposed to more storybooks than most people, and as a child, she had read plenty of fairy tales, both domestic and foreign.
Yet, even with all those fairy tales under her belt and being so ‘well-versed,’ she was still stunned by the plot of this one.
The reason was simple: compared to the formulaic fairy tales they usually saw, this story was far too fresh and imaginative.
The little protagonist was a mischievous girl named Ningning. After saving a self-proclaimed pink one-eyed rabbit from an alien world, she casually wished her parents would disappear, sparking a series of magical adventures.
Though the story was only about fifteen hundred words, its content was incredibly rich. Even after finishing it, Weng Kanya felt reluctant to put it down, with a lingering sense of wanting more—she thought it could have been longer and more detailed.
No fairy tale had ever given her that feeling before.
“This story is really too good…”
Weng Kanya read it three full times before finally setting the letter paper down.
At that moment, she felt extremely fortunate for that casual glance that spotted the manuscript in the trash bin, and equally fortunate for opening it out of curiosity to discover such a fresh and wonderful fairy tale.
“Qiao Xiaoqiao…”
Looking at the pen name, Weng Kanya’s mind instantly conjured the image of a quirky, lively, and adorable girl.
For some reason, she had a premonition that this unheard-of new author would surely become the brightest new star in the fairy tale world this year!
Tomorrow, she had to find the chief editor first thing and secure this new author for herself.
She really liked this author named Qiao Xiaoqiao so much—the handwriting, the story, even the pen name; she loved it all!
Qiao Shu had no idea that someone who hadn’t even seen her face was already so blindly smitten with her~!
The next morning, Weng Kanya arrived at the magazine early, her heart pounding as she wondered if the chief editor would think a newbie editor like her wasn’t worthy of handling an author who could write such an excellent fairy tale.
However, to her complete surprise, the magazine’s chief editor agreed to her request without even looking at the fairy tale she had personally recommended, directly assigning Qiao Xiaoqiao to her.
“Xiao Ya, you’ve just been tenured. I trust your eye and ability. Since this is a first-time submission from a new author, take good care of it. This is your first author under you—work hard from now on.”
Hearing Editor Zhu’s words, Weng Kanya’s eyes lit up instantly, as if boundless energy had been injected into her body. She perked up completely.
“Yes! Chief Editor! I will do my best! I’ll work even harder from now on!”
Weng Kanya had originally not been too fond of this pot-bellied Editor Zhu, thinking he had gotten the position purely through connections.
But now… maybe she had been too hasty in judging.
Actually, Editor Zhu was a pretty good guy~!
However, once Weng Kanya left the chief editor’s office, the amiable smile on Editor Zhu’s face vanished instantly.
“Chief Editor, I heard you let Weng Kanya handle the newbie manuscript?”
Not long after, a skinny, scrawny man walked in.
“Isn’t it a bit much for a newly tenured rookie like her? What if something goes wrong…”
Before the man could finish, Editor Zhu let out a light humph.
“Hmph! If something goes wrong, just tell her to pack up and leave. The magazine’s performance hasn’t been great lately, and they’re planning layoffs from above anyway.”
Hearing Editor Zhu’s words, the man’s eyes darted around, and he got the picture.
So this wasn’t Editor Zhu suddenly turning kind; he was digging a pit for Weng Kanya to fall into. No wonder—he had wondered how Editor Zhu, with his needle-like pettiness, had changed his tune.
“Then… us old staff won’t interfere with her.”
The man decisively sided with him, grinning obsequiously.
“Mm, she’s a graduate from a top university, full of talent. She doesn’t need you teaching her.”
Editor Zhu said with a fake smile, dripping with sarcasm.
The man nodded and bowed, hurriedly agreeing with Editor Zhu.
But inwardly, he grumbled: It really was a new boss, new favorites. Weng Kanya had been a promising talent specially favored by the previous chief editor, who had kept her on and groomed her personally.
She had even squeezed out someone Editor Zhu, then deputy chief, had wanted to bring in.
Now, after all the twists and turns, the old chief was gone, and Weng Kanya probably wouldn’t last long either—Editor Zhu was about to kick her out~!
But that was on Weng Kanya for being so clueless. She had offended Editor Zhu from the start and hadn’t even sent gifts to butter him up.
Tsk tsk tsk, she’d regret it plenty once she got fired!
Yet, at that moment, none of them could have imagined that the one who would truly regret it in the end wouldn’t be Weng Kanya, but themselves!
And it all stemmed from the newbie author ‘Qiao Xiaoqiao’ they had overlooked and belittled~!
…
“Little Aunt, aren’t you tired of writing so much every day?”
He Anning watched as Qiao Shu had been sitting at the desk writing stories since waking up that morning, and she just didn’t get it.
After all, in her view, the most annoying thing in the world was writing homework~!
But her family’s Fairy Little Aunt seemed to love writing.
“Not tired at all, Ningning. Even though you’ve finished your summer homework, that ugly handwriting of yours needs practice. Next time, let’s go to the bookstore together and buy some copybooks to practice.”
Qiao Shu thought that she had waited a week already, and the local children’s magazine in the Capital still hadn’t replied. Should she stop by the post office while at the bookstore and send her manuscript to other magazines?
“Ah??! Still have to write characters?!”
Hearing that her summer homework was done early, yet her Fairy Little Aunt still wanted to buy copybooks for her to practice, He Anning’s face fell instantly.
She wilted completely, but she didn’t dare protest—after all, that was her favorite Fairy Little Aunt!
“Good girl, as the old saying goes, a person’s handwriting is a reflection of their character. So we have to practice it well. See, Little Aunt’s handwriting is so pretty—you like looking at it too, right?”
Qiao Shu patted He Anning’s drooping little head and pulled Jiang Lekang out as her little sidekick.
“Kangkang, don’t you think Little Aunt is right?”
“Mm-hmm! Little Aunt is always right!”
“Then does Kangkang want to practice writing too?”
“Mm! Kangkang wants to practice too! Write characters as pretty as Little Aunt’s~”
“Our Kangkang is such a good boy~! Little Aunt likes our Kangkang the most.”
Qiao Shu said with eyes curved in a smile, and He Anning, who had been reluctant about practicing, saw how affectionate Qiao Shu and Jiang Lekang were. Jealousy instantly soured her mood.
Her previous reluctance vanished, replaced entirely by: She couldn’t let that Jiang Lekang kid get all the advantage and hog Little Aunt’s affection! Hmph! It was just practicing writing!
“Little Aunt, let’s buy copybooks! I want to practice writing!”
“I knew our Ningning was the most obedient! Little Aunt likes you the most too~!”
Seeing He Anning’s determined little face, like someone facing death unflinchingly, Qiao Shu was amused inwardly, but she still praised her. After all, she had to keep things fair and spread the love evenly~!
Ever since marrying into the Feng Family, she had found that the ‘act very fond’ approach her mother taught her was incredibly effective!
Especially with these two little ones, He Anning and Jiang Lekang~!
As long as she said she liked them, the kids were incredibly obedient.
Thinking of that, Qiao Shu felt a great sense of accomplishment. Being a stepmom… didn’t seem that hard after all!
While Qiao Shu wrote her story and chatted distractedly with the two children, she heard a knock at the door, followed by the voice of the orderly Xiao Li.
“Comrade Qiao, you have a letter.”
Qiao Shu’s eyes lit up instantly.
Her letter had finally arrived!