Chapter 21 The Dancing Girl of Izu

Ye Lan and Zuo Ziliang returned to the box and told Cheng Xing about their agreement and asked him if he had any objections. Cheng Xing was still immersed in Wang Zixu's script and didn't know if he heard it or not. He nodded hastily to show his agreement.

So Ye Lan forwarded Cheng Xing's draft to Zuo Ziliang, and Zuo Ziliang sent the draft to the speech therapists group.

As soon as the operation was completed, Ye Lan snatched Zuo Ziliang's phone. Zuo Ziliang frowned, and she smiled proudly and said:
"Sorry, I'll keep your phone for now so you don't give the speech therapist any hints. I'll be waiting here in 30 minutes from now. If more than three people raise questions, even if you win, we'll all accept the loss. How do you do that?"

Zuo Ziliang said: "Then give me back my phone first. I'm going to the bathroom."

Ye Lan said, "You go ahead. Leave your phone here. I'll keep it."

Zuo Ziliang said: "Ye Lan, it's boring if you do this."

Ye Lan said, "Damn it, Zuo Ziliang, who can't afford to play? Who wants to play tricks?"

Zuo Ziliang lay down and pressed his forehead. Ye Lan had a triumphant expression, she had the situation under control.

Zuo Ziliang raised his head and said, "Then let me add one more notice. If we just send it without marking the author, even if someone feels that the script is wrong, they will only think that the scriptwriter was perfunctory and will not think that the author has been replaced."

Ye Lan shook her head. She was determined not to let Zuo Ziliang touch his phone again.

"Zuo Ziliang, we just agreed that if you lose, you will accept the consequences. If you can't afford to play, don't play."

Zuo Ziliang said: "It's not that I can't afford it, but this gamble is inherently unfair to the little prince."

Ye Lan frowned, "Unfair to the little prince? Zuo Ziliang, what did you start this company for? It's enough to be fair to the company, why do you have to be fair to the little prince?"

Zuo Ziliang sighed and said, "I'm too lazy to talk to you."

……

Wang Zixu picked up the wine glass and pointed it in the direction of Guo Ranran.

"Xiao Guo, come to think of it, you toasted me just now and I haven't toasted you back yet, so I'll toast you a glass."

Guo Ranran picked up the wine glass, and the two of them clinked glasses in the air. Before drinking, Wang Zixu said:
"Xiao Guo, I am a few years older than you, but I am not taking advantage of my age. I read a sentence in a book and I would like to share it with you - it is better to put yourself in others' shoes than to judge them by yourself. I hope you will think about it more."

After that, he drank it all in one gulp. Guo Ranran held the cup in his hand, stunned for a long time.

After she pondered over the words, she felt that Wang Zixu was mocking her, saying that she was judging others by her own standards. She was so angry that her face turned red, but she could not refute it.

No one else at the table noticed this incident. Lin Feng lowered his head to eat, then raised his head and said, "Brother Wang, wait for me for a while. Let me eat a few bites of food to calm down, and then I will compete with you again."

A comrade who was inspecting the team nearby took the opportunity to pick up the cup and said to Wang Zixu:
"Brother Wang, you are even more powerful than we thought. I think we have to strengthen you. We can't let Mr. Lin deal with you alone. Come, I'll toast you."

Zhang Cangnian was amused and said, "Okay, you guys are going to use some tricks, right? Get Xiao Wang drunk, and he will be dizzy, and he won't be able to answer."

Originally, the others had not realized this, but after Zhang Cangnian pointed it out, they all came to their senses and raised their glasses to toast Wang Zixu.

Zhang Cangnian picked up the wine glass and said, "That won't do. Our unit has to move as well. We can't let them pour all their firepower on Xiao Wang alone, right?"

But after he finished speaking, no one responded to his call. The leader held the cup, undecided, not knowing whether he should help charge into battle.

A comrade who was inspecting the team nearby said, "That won't work. Even if you want to help with the firepower, we have to finish toasting Comrade Xiao Wang."

So the people on Lin Feng's side raised their glasses and took turns to toast Wang Zixu. Wang Zixu was forced to drink five or six glasses in a row. He was only slightly tipsy just now, but now he was completely dizzy and felt dizzy.

Lin Feng, who was standing next to him, finished his meal, patted him on the shoulder, and laughed:

"Brother Wang, you are very knowledgeable, but you need to improve your alcohol tolerance! I can still drink a little more than you, thanks to my comprehensive quality. Don't blame me for taking advantage of you. I will give you another difficult test, Dostoyevsky!"

Guo Ranran lowered her head and frantically checked Baidu on her phone, shouting, "Wait a minute, what? Hunchback what?"

"Dostoyevsky, Dostoyevsky, change the radical of the word hunchback into the word 'left ear knife'..."

Wang Zixu closed his eyes again, adjusted his breathing, and said, "No need to check."

Lin Feng looked back with a glimmer of hope: "Have you never heard of the writer Dostoyevsky?"

Wang Zixu said: "How could that be? I can vividly recall the plots of each of his books. "The Insulted and the Injured, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov. The Brothers Karamazov is his posthumous work, unfinished, but it is an eternal pearl in the history of literature."

Lin Feng held the cup in silence for a long time, then drank it all in one gulp.

Before Guo Ranran could type a few words, she saw that Lin Feng had already drunk it, and she could not help but put her hand down dejectedly.

The leader patted Wang Zixu on the back and asked, "Xiao Wang, are you okay? Can you hold on?"

Wang Zixu shook his head: "It's okay, continue!"

Lin Feng was already a little tongue-tied, and said: "Even Dostoyevsky can't faze you. It seems that I have to change my strategy a little bit."

After shaking his head and thinking for a while, he continued, "It seems that you are very familiar with Western writers. Then let me test you on an Eastern writer, Kawabata Yasunari!"

Wang Zixu said: "I don't read many Japanese writers."

Lin Feng showed a triumphant smile on his face, but before he could be too happy, Wang Zixu continued:
“Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, The Ancient Capital, Sound of the Mountain. These are some of his major works.”

Lin Feng's smile froze on his face.

Guo Ranran, who was standing by, suddenly jumped up holding her phone and said, "You missed one!"

Wang Zixu turned to look at her: "Which one did I miss?"

Guo Ranran said: "The Dancing Girl of Izu, Baidu Encyclopedia says this is his important work!"

Wang Zixu said: "I know. The Dancing Girl of Izu is his debut work. I have read it, but the reason why I did not mention this work is that it is just a short story, so it is not listed alongside the novellas."

Guo Ranran twisted her mouth and said, "Tsk, I've already exposed my name, so you can say whatever you want now? I also said that I've seen it too."

Wang Zixu said calmly: "I have indeed read it. And I can recite it by heart."

Guo Ranran opened her eyes wide and looked at him.

"The mountain road became winding and I was approaching Amagi Ridge. At this time, a sudden rainstorm covered the dense fir forest with bright white light and swept towards me from the foot of the mountain.

"'That year I was twenty years old, wearing a high school cap, a navy blue and white floral top and skirt, and a school bag on my shoulder. I was traveling alone to Izu, and it was already the fourth day. I rested for one night in Shuzenji Onsen, stayed for two nights in Yushima Onsen, and then climbed up Mount Amagi wearing high-heeled wooden clogs. The overlapping mountains, the primitive forests, the deep valleys, and the autumn colors were really dazzling. However, my heart was beating violently. Because a hope was urging me to hurry on...'"

After reading this long paragraph, the prince paused and said:
"This is the translation by Ye Weiqu and Tang Yuemei, and it is also the one I admire the most. Do you want me to continue memorizing it?"

The table was completely silent. Everyone stared at Wang Zixu as if he were a madman.

After a long while, Guo Ranran asked, "Why can you recite it?"

Wang Zixu said: "Because Kawabata Yasunari is the winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature."

This question and answer seem to be irrelevant, and only Wang Zixu knows the cause and effect relationship.

That was his lonely journey.

Lin Feng stood up, his expression serious, his left hand on Wang Zixu's shoulder, his right hand raised the wine glass, and said:

"Everyone, listen to me for a few words.

"If I hadn't come to your unit for inspection today, I wouldn't have known that there was such a rare person like Brother Wang in our city. I was really ignorant and inattentive before. Director Gou, a talent like him should have emerged in the literary world long ago. It's my fault as the vice president of the Writers Association that I didn't dig him out. Today I criticize myself and punish myself by drinking three cups of wine."

The leader beside him also stood up and said, "Boss Lin, you are too kind."

Seeing Lin Feng's eyes, he raised his glass and said, "I should be punished. If it weren't for today, I wouldn't know that Xiao Wang is so introverted, or that he doesn't pay enough attention to his comrades. I will punish myself with three glasses of wine."

The two most prominent figures at the table stood up, and the others also stood up and raised their glasses, with such momentum that they immediately blocked out all the light on the table.

Only Wang Zixu sat in the shadow formed by the crowd, like a piece of burnt wood, with wine stains on his chest and dirt on his body, all of which were the ashes after the fire.

(End of this chapter)

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