At nine the next morning, Wos was pacing back and forth at home.
“Is it too early?” He looked at the clock on the wall.
“Maybe the editor hasn’t had time to read my manuscript yet?”
Tom sat on the sofa, watching helplessly as Wos spun around like a top.
This guy had been awake since six in the morning and had already asked the same question countless times.
Jerry lay on the table with his tiny paws propping up his chin, also getting a little irritated, infected by Wos’s anxiety.
“Maybe I should go to the publisher again?” Wos suddenly stopped.
“What if they forgot?”
Tom hurriedly jumped up, blocked Wos’s path, and made a “stop” gesture.
“You’re right, being too impatient isn’t good.” Wos took a deep breath.
“I should stay calm and trust my work.”
“Or maybe I should submit to a few more publishers?” Wos suddenly stopped again.
“I can’t put all my hopes on one publisher.”
The moment he finished speaking, a knock came from the door.
“Knock knock knock.”
Wos’s heart instantly leaped into his throat.
Tom and Jerry also became alert immediately, and three pairs of eyes were fixed on the door in unison.
“It can’t be the rent collector, right?” Wos muttered quietly.
“The rent isn’t due for two more weeks.”
The knocking came again, this time with more rhythm.
Wos gathered his courage and walked to the door.
Looking through the peephole, he saw a middle-aged man with glasses standing outside, and behind him was a man in a dark blue jacket.
“It’s Editor Osk!” Wos was so excited he almost jumped.
“He really came!”
He hurriedly straightened his clothes, took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and then opened the door.
“Mr. Osk! Hello!” Wos’s voice trembled slightly.
“You really came!”
“Of course, I said I’d give you news.” Osk pushed up his glasses, a gentle smile on his face.
“This is my friend Phil. He’s interested in your work too.”
Wos’s gaze shifted to the man behind Osk and he froze instantly.
That gentle face, that distinctive air, that familiar hairline…
wasn’t this Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
“Hello, I’m Phil Coulson.” Coulson offered his hand first.
“I’m a fisherman who goes out to sea, and I like reading in my spare time. Osk showed me your manuscript, and it’s very well written.”
A fisherman who goes out to sea?
Wos was shaken inside.
Could it be that in this world, Coulson hadn’t joined S.H.I.E.L.D.
yet?
Was he just an ordinary fisherman?
“Ah… hello, hello.” Wos quickly shook his hand. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“Please come in, please come in. It’s a bit messy at home, don’t mind it.”
The two walked into the living room and were immediately captivated by the scene before them.
Tom was sitting elegantly on the sofa, nodding in greeting like a gentleman.
Jerry stood on the coffee table, grooming his fur with his tiny paws, clearly tidying himself up to welcome the guests.
“This… is this your pet?” Osk’s eyes went wide.
“They seem very intelligent,” Coulson was surprised too.
“Was this cat just greeting us?”
Wos scratched his head awkwardly.
“Tom and Jerry really are pretty smart. Maybe it’s from being around people so much.”
Hearing someone praise him as smart, Tom immediately puffed out his chest proudly.
Jerry hopped over beside Tom, and the two little ones sat side by side as if showing off how well-behaved they were.
“Amazing.” Osk shook his head.
“I’ve never seen animals this human-like.”
Coulson crouched down and studied Tom and Jerry carefully.
“Their eyes are so lively, it feels like they can really understand human speech.”
“Ahem, please have a seat, you two.” Wos hurriedly changed the subject.
“Did you come about the manuscript?”
“Yes.” Osk sat down on the sofa.
“We’ve both read your pages, and they’re very good. Especially your grasp of World War II history and your understanding of Captain America, both are spot on.”
Wos’s heart began to pound wildly again.
“Then… does that mean?”
“We’d like to see the complete manuscript,” Coulson picked up the thread.
“If the quality can maintain this standard, we’re willing to consider publishing it.”
“Really?” Wos was so excited he almost jumped out of his chair.
“You’re really willing to publish my novel?”
Tom and Jerry could feel Wos’s excitement too.
The two little ones looked at each other, both with happy expressions.
“Don’t get too happy too soon.” Osk raised a hand to calm him.
“We need to see the complete manuscript before making a final decision. How many words have you written so far?”
“Fifty thousand!” Wos hurriedly ran over to the table and picked up the thick handwritten manuscript.
“I wrote through the whole night yesterday, from the protagonist’s transmigration to becoming Steve’s comrade, and the plot is quite complete!”
Coulson took the manuscript and casually flipped through a few pages.
“Handwritten?”
“Yes, I don’t have a computer,” Wos said, a little embarrassed.
“Money’s tight.”
“It’s fine, content matters more than form,” Osk comforted him.
“But if we’re going to publish, we’ll still need a typed manuscript.”
Coulson had already started reading seriously, nodding when he reached the good parts.
“The protagonist helps Steve train but doesn’t stand out too much. That sense of proportion is handled very well.”
Hearing the praise, Wos’s face turned red.
“Thank you, thank you. I think the protagonist should be Steve’s helper, not someone who steals his spotlight.”
“Right, that’s the clever part.” Coulson continued turning pages.
“A lot of similar novels make the protagonist too powerful, which ruins the charm of the original characters. Your setup is smart.”
Osk leaned over to look too.
“The protagonist’s inner struggle here is also very realistic. Knowing history but being unable to intervene directly, that sense of conflict is written very well.”
The more Wos listened, the more excited he felt, as if he were about to fly.
Tom noticed Wos’s excited state and, worried that he might say something wrong, quietly hopped up to his side and gently patted his leg with a paw to remind him to stay calm.
“If we decide to publish,” Osk put down the manuscript, “the royalty split would be like this: for new authors it’s generally 10%, but considering your work is of good quality and might become a hit, we can offer 20%.”
“Twenty percent?” Wos blinked.
“What does that ratio mean?”
“It means that for every book sold, you get 20% of the list price as royalties,” Osk explained.
“For example, if a book is priced at twenty dollars, you’d get four dollars.”
Wos quickly did the math in his head.
If he could sell ten thousand copies, that would be forty thousand dollars!
“There’s also an advance,” Coulson added.
“If you sign, we’ll first pay a 5,000-dollar advance.”
Five thousand dollars!
Wos’s eyes lit up.
That much money was enough for them to live on for several months, or he could use it to buy a phone and a laptop!
Jerry seemed to sense how important that number was too, and he excitedly hopped a full circle on the coffee table.
“Of course, all of this is based on the quality of the work,” Osk reminded him.
“We need to read the complete manuscript and confirm there are no quality problems before we can officially sign.”
“No problem, no problem!” Wos nodded again and again.
“When will you be able to finish reading it?”
“Give us three days.” Coulson closed the manuscript.
“Fifty thousand words, we need to evaluate it carefully.”
“If all goes well, we can sign this weekend.” Osk stood up.
“By then we’ll have the formal contract ready.”
Wos was so excited he didn’t know what to say, and could only nod over and over.
“Thank you! Thank you for giving me this opportunity!”
“Don’t thank us too early.” Coulson smiled.
“Let us finish reading first. But to be honest, the opening is really well written, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.”
After seeing the two of them off, Wos closed the door and collapsed onto the sofa.
“Oh my God, is this real?” He looked at Tom and Jerry.
“Are we really going to get rich?”
Tom hopped over beside him and gently stroked his arm, comforting and congratulating him.
Jerry pulled out a kaleidoscope from who knows where and fired off a blast toward the ceiling, celebrating Wos’s successful signing.