"The prince used his love to awaken Snow White, who had mistakenly eaten a poisoned apple. He told the seven dwarfs that he wanted to marry Snow White as his wife, and the seven dwarfs attended their wedding. They sang and danced, celebrating the prince and Snow White living happily ever after." "But one day, the wicked queen asked the mirror again: Mirror, mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in the world? The mirror said: You are the most beautiful woman in this room, but in the kingdom beyond the forest, the newlywed Snow White is a thousand times more beautiful than you." "The wicked queen was furious. She rode her flying broomstick, intending to go to the neighboring kingdom to deal with Snow White. But having done too many bad deeds, as she flew over the forest, a bolt of lightning struck down and killed her."
Yang Yi was still using the unfinished story from yesterday to coax Xixi to sleep. The ending was happy, and Xixi felt glad for Snow White, but the little girl didn’t smile. She thought of herself. "I don’t like Snow White’s stepmother. She’s so mean," Xixi said, hugging her teddy bear tightly despite being very tired, speaking to her dad. "Daddy, please don’t separate from Mommy, okay? Xixi is scared."
The topic came up again. Yang Yi sighed quietly and said gently to Xixi, "Xixi, don’t be afraid. No matter what, Daddy will always protect you." "No matter who it is, Daddy won’t let anyone hurt you!" Yang Yi said firmly.
Xixi pouted, put down her teddy bear, and reached out her little hands. "Daddy, I want you to hold me."
Yang Yi’s heart softened. He quickly lifted the blanket, got onto the bed, and cradled the little girl in his arms. In her father’s arms, holding his big hand, Xixi finally felt at ease. Gradually, her breathing steadied, and she fell into a deep sleep. She had been too tired from shopping today—after all, she was still a little girl under four years old!
Yang Yi waited until Xixi was sound asleep before retrieving her teddy bear, slowly replacing his hand with it. Then he picked up the little girl and laid her back in her original position. Just as Yang Yi let go and was about to pull up the blanket, the little girl stirred. Yang Yi froze. Xixi curled her hands, hugging the teddy bear tightly, her long eyelashes pressed against her cheeks. She mumbled vaguely, "Daddy, Xixi doesn’t want a stepmother, don’t..."
For some reason, Yang Yi felt a faint ache in his heart—a feeling he had never experienced in his past life. "No, no," Yang Yi whispered, leaning down to gently kiss his daughter’s forehead. "Xixi, don’t be afraid." As if she had heard her father’s words in her dream, the little girl slowly relaxed her furrowed brow.
...
After coaxing Xixi to sleep, Yang Yi closed the door and went to the study. A few days ago, he had bought a computer and set up the internet, both placed in the study. The computer system in this world was rather poorly designed, with logic that felt counterintuitive. Yang Yi thought it wasn’t even as good as the bug-ridden Windows system from his past life, let alone his favorite Apple system. But he didn’t understand complex programming, so he couldn’t recreate the computer systems from his past life. Even though he preferred using Apple desktops for work, he had to adapt for now.
He turned on the computer, where there was a folder named *Soldier Assault*. Yes, over the past few days, whenever he had free time, he had been "writing" this novel. Thanks to his clear and complete memory of all his past life experiences, Yang Yi was essentially transcribing the novel from memory—a story derived from the drama and TV series *Erna Assault*. His efficiency was astonishing. The novel was over 400,000 words long, and he already had over 100,000 words saved on his computer, achieved by typing for just one or two hours each day. In less than a week, he could finish the entire manuscript!
But why did Yang Yi want to adapt this novel? Ever since his contact with Mo Fei, Yang Yi had felt a strong sense of crisis. This woman knew too much about his "past." She was fully aware of what kind of person Yang Yi used to be and his financial situation. So after Yang Yi’s personality changed, he could sense Mo Fei’s suspicion. But that was manageable. After a few clashes with her (whether intentional or not), Mo Fei had let her doubts go. Wasn’t Yang Yi, that stubborn guy, still the same as before, unchanged?
But the biggest flaw now was Yang Yi’s finances! Renting this small building was fine—thanks to Old Man Hu’s lease agreement, Yang Yi could afford the one yuan. But he had also bought a car, a big one worth 600,000 yuan. Mo Fei hadn’t seen it when she came yesterday, but she would find out eventually. On top of that, Yang Yi had bought so many clothes for Xixi today at Haihong Mall—none of them cheap, all over 1,000 yuan! Unless Yang Yi hid them all and never let Xixi wear them, Mo Fei would definitely notice something was off! The coffee shop hadn’t even opened yet—where did Yang Yi get such a huge sum of money?
But why would Yang Yi do that? Having money and not enjoying it wasn’t his style. Besides, he dared to buy clothes for Xixi and drive his Bawang around openly because he had already planned an escape route. That escape route was to earn royalties in this world by borrowing literary and musical works from his past life. This world had a strong awareness of copyright protection, which had fostered a thriving cultural industry. But Yang Yi was confident in the excellent works he had seen in his past life! Hadn’t the two songs *Long Time No See* and *Better Not to See* already caught the favor of the established Hong Kong singer Chen Yijie and the deputy director of Tianxiang Music? They had brought Yang Yi 160,000 yuan plus future dividends!
But Yang Yi didn’t plan to reveal this income too early. After all, Mo Fei knew that his past self didn’t like music—he needed at least some buffer time. So, given Yang Yi’s past identity and experiences, writing a military novel was the perfect choice!
When thinking of military novels, the first thing that came to Yang Yi’s mind was *Bright Sword*. But this wildly popular novel from his past life depicted a history that didn’t quite align with this world. Even if Yang Yi wanted to write it, he would need to carefully study this world’s history and adapt it thoroughly. Aside from *Bright Sword*, *Soldier Assault*—which first gained fame as a TV series and then as a bestselling novel adaptation—became Yang Yi’s top pick.
(PS: Xiao Han checked—*Soldier Assault* likely started as the book *Soldier* before the TV series, but the original book is hard to find. Xiao Han leans more toward the TV series plot of *Soldier Assault*, so let’s treat the adapted TV novel as the original!)
In his past life, Yang Yi didn’t have strong feelings for soldiers. He even read this novel just to pass the lonely hours. But in this life, as he "wrote" this novel word by word, his heartstrings were struck. This story was too similar to his past self’s experiences! His past self wasn’t as pathetic as Xu Sanduo, but he was just as simple, just as foolish, just as dull, just as much a country boy, just as much a clueless recruit mocked by his comrades, growing into a top soldier with countless honors! So, writing this novel felt like writing about his own memories of military life from his past self.
That was a bit of a tangent. Yang Yi snapped back to reality. He opened a web browser and went to the largest literary website in the country, Qiyue Literature Network, which was built on a copyright organization. Using his real name, he registered an author account. "Xu Sanduo’s journey begins now!"