Qiao Shu, who had originally planned to take the two little ones home, agreed under He Anning’s pleading. She thought that going to the bookstore wasn’t a bad idea at all.
If the children wanted to go to the bookstore to buy books, then they would go buy some. After all, she quite liked browsing bookstores herself.
And so, she temporarily instructed Xiao Li to drive to the nearest Xinhua Bookstore in the area.
“Yay! Fairy Little Aunt is the best!”
Seeing that Qiao Shu had agreed, He Anning happily cheered and hugged Qiao Shu’s arm, acting spoiled.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lekang on the side followed her example, hugging Qiao Shu’s other arm and saying in a childish, milky voice that he liked Little Aunt the most.
Looking at these two little ones acting spoiled toward her, Qiao Shu couldn’t stop the smile on her face no matter what.
Soon, amid the cheerful atmosphere of the two little ones competing for her affection and acting spoiled, the car arrived at the bookstore.
When the car stopped, Qiao Shu almost thought Xiao Li had parked in the wrong place.
Because—
“Brother Xiao Li, are you sure this is the bookstore? Why are there so many people…”
Qiao Shu looked at the people lining up outside the car window, her face full of confusion.
After all, every time she came to a bookstore, not only was there no line at the entrance, but there were hardly any customers inside.
But today, there was actually a line at the bookstore entrance.
“Comrade Qiao, wait a moment. I’ll go ask.”
Xiao Li hadn’t expected this situation either, so he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car to ask what was going on.
Because the bookstore was so crowded this time, and Qiao Shu was still with two children, she stayed in the car for safety reasons.
But soon, Xiao Li returned.
“Comrade Qiao, I just asked around. These people are all buying a children’s book called Fairy Tale Princess. They say this children’s magazine is really hard to get, with super high sales. If you don’t line up quick, it might sell out again. So everyone’s lining up to grab a copy…”
As he spoke, Xiao Li suddenly felt that the name of this children’s magazine sounded a bit familiar. Had he heard it somewhere before???
The culturally illiterate Xiao Li, who rarely read books, scratched his head in bewilderment, his eyes full of confusion.
But he didn’t stay puzzled for long. He Anning’s words soon made him realize—that Fairy Tale Princess was none other than the fairy tale book written by Qiao Shu!!!
“Wow! Little Aunt, you’re so awesome! Everyone’s here to buy the book you wrote!”
“Little Aunt is awesome! Little Aunt is amazing!”
He Anning and Jiang Lekang both looked at Qiao Shu with sparkling eyes, their tones full of adoration.
Hearing the two little ones’ words, Qiao Shu herself, the person involved, was a bit dumbfounded.
Although Weng Kanya reported to her every day about how amazingly well the magazine was selling, she really had no real sense of it!
She hadn’t expected that in this era of scarcity, where people weren’t very well-off, so many would still be willing to spend 25 cents to buy her children’s magazine.
And there were so many of them—even though Fairy Tale Princess had been on shelves for a while, the enthusiasm was still so high, with crowds still lining up to buy her magazine.
For a moment, Qiao Shu felt a complex mix of emotions. Amid her happiness, she wanted to do something more for her readers to repay their love for her.
Especially after she wrapped a scarf around her face to cover the lower half, held the two little ones’ hands, and joined the line in front of the bookstore like everyone else to buy Fairy Tale Princess. Listening to the praise and affection from the parents and children around her made her want to do even more.
“Hey, Aunt Wang, you’re here too? Are you buying the latest Fairy Tale Princess for your granddaughter? Didn’t expect you to dote on her so much—this magazine isn’t cheap!”
“Aw, I’m buying it for my little grandson. That little ancestor cried and fussed until I had no choice but to come to the bookstore. But it’s amazing—my grandson used to be such a rascal, impossible to placate when he threw a tantrum. Now he’s super obedient to his sister, especially after I promised to buy him the book. He’s even filial, picking meat for me to eat and everything!”
“Eh, your kid too? Mine’s the same! He said he read the magazine and realized the benefits of having a sister, and now he knows to be filial to his parents. Before, he was spoiled rotten by his grandparents, always hogging food and super willful. But now he’s so obedient and filial—I figure if the magazine has such great effects, I have to buy it!”
“Is this children’s magazine that powerful? My kid hasn’t read it yet. I thought Fairy Tale Princess sounded like something for girls, not boys, but the school teacher strongly recommended it, so I came. Turns out it’s really a great book…”
“My relative who works at the Education Bureau recommended it, saying it’s an excellent fairy tale book for educating kids. So I came to buy it, and wow, it’s actually that impressive.”
“Looks like we gotta buy every issue from now on—such a great children’s read!”
“Too bad there are so many people buying it. I couldn’t grab one last time…”
“For the kids’ sake, no matter how hard it is to get, we have to line up and buy it!”
…
Qiao Shu, standing at the back of the line, listened to these parents’ words and looked at the children ahead, led by their parents—their clear eyes sparkling with anticipation for the book. Her heart felt warm.
She felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment.
Before, when Weng Kanya kept praising her, she hadn’t thought her fairy tales were that great. She just felt like she was standing on the shoulders of giants.
She had treated it merely as a job to make money.
But now, she discovered that the stories from her pen could bring such positive changes to people—educating children’s character and values through stories, changing their bad habits. She suddenly realized that her previous mindset had been too narrow.
Since she had come to this era with ideas far ahead of others, and so many fresh, interesting stories in her mind, why not use them to help this generation of the motherland’s flowers grow better???
With that thought, Qiao Shu suddenly recalled the current and future wave of going abroad, where many people never came back.
She thought of the future cultural invasions from Japan and Korea.
Since she had abilities others didn’t in this lifetime, why not stand on the shoulders of giants herself and let her country’s culture “invade” other nations too?
With these thoughts, Qiao Shu, who had originally written purely to make money, suddenly harbored some different ideas.
An idea to use the pen in her hand to slightly change the future of this world…