Chapter 32: Half a step to a masterpiece!
Chapter 32: Half a step to a masterpiece!
"I thought you were going to skip class and tell Teacher Li to invite your parents." Teacher Yan said, "Gu Lu, although you are preparing to participate in the finals of the essay competition, you can't be late. Do you hear me? And Wang Hongming, the same goes for you. Practice your dance well. Isn't the special treatment that Teacher Li has given you enough?!"
When talking to Gu Lu, his tone was a little gentler.
"We were late at noon because we wanted to help others," Wang Hongming explained. "An elderly man's bicycle flipped over and oranges were all over the ground."
"Then we helped pick up the oranges," Zhang Yudong nodded quickly, pointing at the oranges in Chen Xue's hand and saying, "This is what the old man gave us."
"That's enough!" Teacher Yan scolded, "Zhang Yudong, you were late for morning reading last time, and you said your mother was sick and in the hospital, so Teacher Li called you worriedly to ask about it. Do you still need me to tell you the result?"
Damn! Is he so filial? Gu Lu glanced at Zhang Yudong.
"It's true, we..." Chen Xue was interrupted by Teacher Yan before she could finish her words, "Stand outside as punishment. Since you are so late, it proves that you don't want to go to class. Don't enter the classroom for two classes."
"Where were we just now?" Teacher Yan turned around and continued teaching, not wanting to pay any more attention to the group of five.
Chen Xue wanted to say something, but Zhang Yudong pulled her hair, stopping her from saying anything else.
This guy always likes to pull girls' hair, so he is always chased and beaten...
Zhang Yudong knew that the credibility of this group of poor students in the eyes of the teachers was too low. No matter how much he said, it would be useless. Besides, it was just a punishment of standing. He was a professional and his highest record was standing for four classes!
Among the five people, Gu Lu and Fan Xiaotian did not say a word. The latter was timid, while the former was mentally prepared.
Thus, the most "beautiful" scenery in the corridor is Wang Hongming, who has a fresh face and a tall and straight figure from learning classical dance. He looks very stylish even when standing against the wall.
It is said that some girls from other classes call him the class flower of Class 5. However, Gu Lu would like to state that all the male students in Class 5, including himself, do not agree with this title.
"What an idiot! I would have helped you if I had known earlier." Chen Xue muttered softly, "Standing for two classes, this old witch is also an idiot."
Zhang Yudong and Wang Hongming nodded in agreement. How tiring it must be to stand in the classroom for two classes!
"Standing as punishment for one person is a punishment, but if there are more than one person, then the meaning of the punishment is different." Gu Lu said.
"What's the difference?" Fan Xiaotian asked.
"If two of us are punished, then you and Cao are the only heroes in the world. If three of us are punished, we will stand in Peach Garden and swear brotherhood, and be brothers for life and death." Gu Lu said, "If four of us are punished, then we will be the four kings of the class!"
"What about those five people?" Zhang Yudong's eyes lit up.
"Five of you are the heroes of the world gathered here!" Gu Lu said, "You are all ambitious people, but you have no way to serve your country."
Good! Zhang Yudong likes this kind of second-year tone, and he also starts to mutter about heroes and so on.
Gu Lu looked at Zhang Yudong with a serious expression. Good man, he wouldn't take it seriously, would he?
However, these words relieved the depression of Chen Xue and others, and they were not so unhappy anymore.
As the punishment team fell silent, Gu Lu's thoughts returned to the original work, and he found out why "When the Stars Shine" was triggered, it was because of fruit, in the chapter of the novel "Golden Country". "Golden Country" tells the story of John Sutter's discovery of gold in California, which triggered the gold rush. That place is today's San Francisco.
"It mentioned that Surter owned and planted a lot of fruits... This time one thing is basically confirmed." Gu Lu discovered another rule of the golden finger.
[To own the objects that appear in the work], you must own them; just touching them is useless.
After all, he and Fan Xiaotian had touched it more than once when they were moving things in the center, but he didn't react at all at the time, and the same was true when he was picking up oranges.
"Well, I don't know when the next trigger will come. It's too random. But this time it's a big surprise..." Gu Lu thought to himself.
"When the Stars Shine" is close to being a masterpiece. If we use the language of Internet fantasy novels, it is a masterpiece that is halfway to reaching the ninth level of perfection!
Of course, if a Chinese person wrote it, it would be strange if there was no Chinese person in the book, so we should be very careful. We should not encourage the West and destroy our own prestige.
“This content can’t be sent out casually,” Gu Lu thought.
First of all, you should at least buy some relevant foreign history books, right? At least you should be well prepared, and you should be open about it.
Even if he is a genius, a genius is not God, and he can be born with knowledge. And then he cannot publish his works in Story Club. Zweig's works are of such high quality that they can definitely impact literary magazines such as Harvest and October.
"Now is not the time."
Gu Lu knows how to wait for the right opportunity and will not publish works mindlessly. Currently, he still has a short story by Edogawa Ranpo to publish.
"Publishing my short stories in magazines can guarantee my basic living expenses, and the Ye Cup and Bing Xin Cup will allow me to enter university. The arrangements are very good at the moment and there is no problem at all."
"Then the next step is to accumulate fame. Story Club is not a long-term solution."
It’s not that Gu Lu looked down on it. In fact, Story Club also had its advantages. Among magazines that generally took two or three months to review manuscripts, its fast review process was unique.
The story club has a fatal flaw. There is no way to accumulate fame as a writer. I have never heard of a writer who came out of the story club. Besides, Gu Lu is no longer so short of money.
In the future, when you want to submit your work, you need to choose a book like "Years of Reasoning", because if the serialized feedback is high in popularity, the editorial department will take the initiative to contact you about publishing and other related matters, and then both your fame and income will increase.
“We must seize the period from 12 to 17. Otherwise, when the short video era comes, it will be difficult to become famous through physical books. After all, not everyone is Da Bing, the God of Shadow Clone.” Gu Lu called the years from to the author’s black iron age, the last chance.
On Earth, the decade just after the millennium saw the emergence of young writers such as Guo Xiaosi and Han Han; that was the Silver Age.
As for why it is not the golden age - that is impossible, it cannot compare to the 1980s and 1990s in any case.
"Take your time. I'm not in high school yet. There's no rush."
Gu Lu had tried to find a loophole before. He wrote down a paragraph and asked his deskmate to read it out loud, but it was of no use.
In his future plans, the first math class was over, but when the bell rang, no students walked out of the classroom, and it was obvious that the teacher had kept the class going.
About five minutes later, the students swarmed out, and Zhang Yudong and Wang Hongming's friends were laughing nearby.
"Be careful. Even after you are discharged from the hospital, you must take good care of yourself."
It just so happened that Xu Meili was supported by her younger sister, but her younger sister's nagging made her a little impatient.
Just be in a daze for two classes and it will pass if you bear with it.
At the end of the day, Gu Lu rummaged through the drawers and cabinets at home again, touching things everywhere... but found nothing.
The next day, the sky was bright.
In the morning self-study of Chinese, students recited the ancient poems and classical Chinese texts that they had to memorize.
"I have loved studying since I was young. My family was poor and I had no access to books. I would borrow books from people who had collections of them and copy them by hand, returning them on a certain date. It was very cold and the inkstone was frozen solid, so my fingers could not bend or stretch, but I never stopped. After I finished copying, I would run to send them back..."
The sound of reading aloud.
"Is anyone late?" Teacher Li asked the class monitor Chen Na.
"...Gu Lu hasn't come yet." Chen Na could only answer truthfully.
Teacher Li frowned. Teacher Yan had just told him yesterday that Gu Lu, Zhang Yudong and four others were late. Why were they late again today?
Could it be that he got cocky after winning the essay contest? Teacher Li decided to have a good talk with him, otherwise his mentality would affect his performance in the finals. You know, pride always leads to failure!
"Gu Lu is really brave. He's late today." Zhang Yudong muttered to himself.
About ten minutes into the morning self-study session, Gu Lu finally arrived. But this time he was not alone. There was another person following him...
Zhang Yudong, Chen Xue, Fan Xiaotian and Wang Hongming all know that person!
(End of this chapter)