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A few days after his birthday, Zhang Sushang’s editor Igor came to visit.

From the way he banged on the door, someone would think he was after someone’s life.

Zhang Sushang, busy cooking spiced rabbit, was so surprised that he almost jumped out a window.

Back when he wanted to end Divine Detective Ilya, Igor talked with him for a long time and only reluctantly left when he promised to start a new project.

Now that they’d finished moving, Igor came again. “Chyushka! What’s your new book about?”

Seeing the editor’s eager expression, Zhang Sushang warily replied, “I want to write something with a female protagonist.”

“A story about a woman?” Igor repeated doubtfully. “Will that… sell well?”

Their newspaper wasn’t trying to create a masterpiece; they only wanted good sales. They were interested in earning money, not some grand ambition.

“Do you remember Katarina, from the fourth case?”

Igor paused. “The single mother with a daughter, that Katarina? And her daughter is Sasha, right? I remember that she eventually got into the mathematics department at Kiev State University.”

By now, Russia had implemented the eight-hour workday for many years. With the addition of good welfare for workers and a robust social support system, even a single mother could work to support her daughter while attending night school and eventually get admitted to a prestigious domestic university, thus changing her life.

Katarina’s background may be a fantasy in other countries but it worked in Russia. Rather than accusing it of being unrealistic, people would only praise her for her hard work and diligence.

“The story begins when she graduates from Kiev State University,” Zhang Sushang nodded.

He didn’t intend to abandon his previous worldbuilding, but he couldn’t make the righteous faction fight the thieves forever. That would make the police seem too incompetent.

It was only a change of protagonist — if necessary, he could also bring the original protagonist out for a spin. His inspiration for following different characters in the same world came from a manga series called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, where the author went through everyone from the great-grandfather to the great-grandson, and even opened a parallel world.

In this setting, the woman enlisted as a soldier to serve her country.

Up until this point, her experiences were extremely similar to those of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the only woman among the world’s top ten snipers, but then the story took a different turn.

Katarina joined the Air Forces.

Zhang Sushang planned to write about a heroic female pilot who would become the Fujiwara Takumi1Protagonist of Initial D and a super good driver of the skies, able to shoot down enemies even if she were piloting an outdated plane. Her strong mathematical ability would allow her to accurately calculate air currents, weather, and other factors, making her invincible in the air.

This was purely a Mary Sue-style protagonist. He planned to give her a refreshingly cool story trajectory, the kind that would make people’s scalps tingle when they read it. And not only was Katarina a Mary Sue, her daughter Sasha was also a maths prodigy. Later, the scumbag who abandoned her would return to pursue his wife, but find that she already had a better man and he didn’t even have the chance to brush her hand. It was filled with those kinds of cool scenes.

Throughout history, apart from supremely profound works, the most profitable genre had always been these power fantasies. Since Zhang Sushang couldn’t produce masterpieces, he could only devote more effort into the latter.

This was precisely why he and St. Petersburg Morning Post matched so well. Everything was easier when everyone was focused on money.

He immediately got to work, spreading out some manuscript paper and spending an entire afternoon to write out the first chapter.

In the spring of 1920, she fell in love with a popular, handsome man who invited the 16-year-old her to a dance…

“Why would we let women onto the battlefield? It’s illogical!” Igor protested.

Zhang Sushang scratched his head. “Just think of it as her being too good, so no logic can stop her.”

The editor choked back his words and was about to say something else, only for Zhang Sushang to wave a hand.

“Hey, how do you know it won’t be popular if you don’t publish it? Just give it a try.”

He felt that this novel was more fashionable for this era than his last one; actually, Wu Yeming’s setting was even more fashionable, with the protagonist directly blasting off into space, but unfortunately, Wu Yeming was also more meticulous in his writing and still hadn’t finished his outline yet.

It’s not that your story isn’t fashionable, it’s that it’s too fantastical, Igor thought. Everyone would read it if it featured a male pilot, but he insisted on writing a female pilot. Would male readers still buy it?

He returned to the publishing house with apprehensions, a new manuscript, and a rabbit leg inexplicably stuffed into his hand. Chief Editor Iosif took the manuscript and examined it for a while.

“Hm, this story…”

“Chief, is this story okay?” Igor asked tentatively.

Iosif adjusted his glasses. “As a voracious reader, I find it quite interesting, but it’s hard to judge the audience response. Let’s try publishing it first.”

They were only willing to do so because Chyushka’s previous work was so popular.

The fact was that most people were willing to buy exciting novels. In times like this, it was impossible to be picky about gender — it was good enough to have something to read at all.

Zhang Sushang had given Igor two chapters. The first chapter described how the female protagonist met a man, his pursuit of her, and his many promises, but after the marriage, his true nature as a spoiled brat and domestic abuser was revealed, cheating on her during her pregnancy and ultimately abandoning her. The second chapter told of how she helplessly returned to her family yet was despised by her parents and brothers. At the end of the arc, after giving birth, she decided to find work to support herself and her daughter.

The contents of the first and second chapters were actually quite depressing. Chyushka vividly portrayed a scumbag whom people would hate at first sight as well as an overcrowded, poverty-stricken family. But at the end of the second chapter, in that moment when the protagonist stepped out the door, it seemed to imply that fate was about to turn, making people unable to stop reading.

How can this woman, having been dealt so many bad cards, turn things around?

In the famous play A Doll’s House, the protagonist Nora, as a woman born into the middle class, never had a reason to worry about food or clothing until she discovered that her husband didn’t see her as ‘human’, only an obedient doll to love. Only then did she choose to leave home to find herself.

But Katarina was much more miserable. Life forced her to go out and find work.

Lu Xun once commented on Nora’s story, believing that Nora would be forced to either return to her family or become a prostitute unless she could find a means to make a living. No woman could stand upright without economic freedom.2The speech What happens after Nora leaves home

Yet how could a cruel feudal society allow a woman the opportunity to work and support themselves? Katarina’s only advantage over Nora was that she lived in the new Russia.

In this time and place, as long as she was willing to endure hardship and work hard, she could support herself and her child.

This was an inspiring story about women, but behind it lay Zhang Sushang’s strong commitment to socialism. As a child raised under the red flag, perhaps no one in this era understood better than he how precious this path could be.

Alexei, being Zhang Sushang’s flatmate, was the first to read The Aviatrix. Afterwards, he felt that although his flatmate always said that he could only write for entertainment, he was actually very attentive to what he wrote.

In his opinion, not only was the writing of The Aviatrix more mature than in Divine Detective Ilya, it also carried loftier ideals while simultaneously being more relatable.

Katarina’s early experiences were encountered by many women of this era, and her path out was also something they could do.

So when Iosif and Igor were still fretting that Zhang Sushang’s new novel would flop, Alexei had already confidently assured him, “Chyushka, this novel will be even more successful than your last one.”

“I’ll believe in your good words,” Zhang Sushang said, happily putting a big chicken drumstick in his bowl.

When Misha was finally discharged from the hospital, Zhang Sushang wasted no time in his rehabilitation.

If it were Zhang Sushang himself, he would probably start training as soon as he was 70-80% healed, still covered in bandages. Competition in later generations was too fierce, it was impossible to stand out if he didn’t put more effort in.

He was much more lenient with Misha, only asking him to pay attention to his diet and watch his weight while recovering. He also arranged all the costumes and music for him, ready for him to familiarise himself with them as soon as possible.

After a month of training with Zhang Sushang, Misha’s anxiety settled.

The best way to stabilise an athlete’s mind was to let them recognise their absolute strength, or at least that they held overwhelming advantages against their opponents. When Misha recovered completely, his dear coach Chyushka taught him an important new technique — tightening the upper body.

Jumping was an action that turned bodies into something resembling bullets. Athletes had to use enough power to ensure height and distance while also rotating in the air.

Rotational speed was one of the secrets to completing high difficulty jumps. If a thick wooden stick and a thin wooden stick were placed on a slope at the same time, the thin stick would reach the end faster because it had a smaller radius. Thus, many figure skaters worked hard to lose weight and maintain a slender body. This was because one, they didn’t want to be too heavy which would place strain on their joints when landing; and two, they wanted to have a smaller radius.

However, weight loss had its limits — once body fat reached the single digits, further loss became exponentially more difficult and could even result in death. Given this, the only way to increase rotational speed was to tighten their core.

Although double axels weren’t easy, Misha’s foundation allowed him to reach a 70% success rate, and with the tightening technique, it jumped to 80%.

He couldn’t stop smiling for three full days upon discovering its benefits, and was even eager to challenge a triple jump.

Zhang Sushang: “Your ligaments only healed a few days ago, take it easy.”

When the weather got a little colder, the domestic competition would take place.

As previously agreed, Zhang Sushang would go with Misha to Moscow for the competition.

Author:
What happens after Nora leaves home is a speech delivered by Chinese writer Lu Xun at Beijing Women’s Normal College in 1923. Even someone of his generation saw clearly that women can only be mere ‘dolls’ if they didn’t have economic rights. I’m grateful to this society for allowing me to work. I love working, I love making money.

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