Chapter 79 Beauvoir's Dedication

Chapter 79 Beauvoir's Dedication
Ning Chunyan has been waiting for Chen Qingluo to discover a truth: it is very impolite to live in someone else's house suddenly for no reason.

It was the second day that Chen Qingluo had been staying at her house. Chen Qingluo had already begun to learn to sit at the table and eat without being called.

At night, Chen Qingluo would sleep in the same bed with Ning Chunyan, but she would usually sleep only when she was tired from writing, and she would often get tired very late, so she would wake Ning Chunyan up when she climbed into bed.

But Ning Chunyan didn't want to reason with Chen Qingluo directly. Because it would seem particularly unhospitable. And she doubted that even if she did, Chen Qingluo wouldn't listen.

This woman is now possessed. No matter what you say to her, except for writing, the words first queue up to enter her brain and then flow out of her brain like water. She doesn't care at all.

Chen Qingluo had a reason to live in her house. Because the beginning of the novel that Chen Qingluo was currently working on was written in her house, so she had to live in her house until the novel was finished.

She claimed that if she rashly changed her creative environment, her mood would change accordingly. If her mood changed, the taste of the words she wrote would also change. This would prevent her from forming a consistent creative style and would lead to the complete collapse of the novel.

Ning Chunyan didn't know if this was true, but she didn't dare to let a work that was eligible for the Mao Dun Literature Prize fail due to such a ridiculous reason. So she could only accept it and pray in her heart that she could write faster.

Fortunately, Chen Qingluo's beauty made everything seem not so bad. The Ning family quickly accepted this uninvited guest. Ning's mother also inquired about Chen Qingluo's taste and served her favorite dishes on the table.

However, Chen Qingluo was indifferent to these good intentions. She muttered and talked nonsense every day, sometimes frowning, sometimes laughing, sometimes muttering to herself, sometimes walking around the room, and repeating some simple actions.

Mother Ning was very worried about her mental state and wanted to ask about it several times, but was stopped by Ning Chunyan.

She told her that writers are like this. Because writing requires putting oneself in another world, she may seem to be eating on the table and walking on the ground, but in fact she is somewhere else, doing something else.

In other words, her body is still alive in the present moment, but her soul resides in a distant possible universe. This is the privilege of the creator. It is also the creator's curse.

Every time Chen Qingluo finished a batch of drafts, Ning Chunyan would print them out and circulate them to his parents. After finishing their work, Ning's father and mother would take some time to read and discuss the work, and would also raise some questions and opinions.

The three members of the Ning family became the first readers of Chen Qingluo's story.

Chen Qingluo's work is called "Beauvoir's Devotion". Beauvoir was Jean-Paul Sartre's soul mate and lifelong lover. The two lived in a wonderful relationship.

Beauvoir and Sartre loved each other, but both of them were single. Sartre was also pursuing passion, and he proposed to Beauvoir that although we were each other's lifelong soul mates, I hope I can have other lovers.

Beauvoir suggested that if this was the case, then she should have other lovers. To her surprise, Sartre agreed.

As a result, both of them had their own lovers, but they always believed that they were the only one for each other.

Beauvoir said in her old age that she had never been happy with such a relationship. She only loved Sartre and, like a traditional woman, she wanted to be with him.

But whether she was willing or not, she was called a slut at the time because of her romantic affairs and chaotic relationships.

Although they were both doing the same thing, she received more criticism than Sartre.

Later, she published some books on women's rights and was regarded as a pioneer and standard-bearer of the feminist movement. Sartre's "gaze" theory also led to a familiar word that would be widely used in the future - male gaze.

But Chen Qingluo's book is neither about Beauvoir nor Sartre, nor about patriarchy or feminism. She just wrote a love story. In academic terms, Beauvoir is just a symbol, and in popular terms, it is a dog's meat under the guise of sheep.

In Chen Qingluo's book, the hero and heroine are a couple who have agreed not to marry for life. They are in a platonic relationship and have always kept in touch with each other. Until one day, the heroine receives an invitation to the hero's wedding - the story begins here.

The heroine felt betrayed, but she still chose not to get married. However, her decision not to get married before the hero got married and her decision not to get married after the hero got married gave her a completely different feeling. She began to feel that she was preserving her chastity for the hero, not for her own will.

So, the title of the book is "Beauvoir's Devotion".

In fact, the plot is not the point. Chen Qingluo is not a popular writer, or rather, her transcendental side far outweighs her popular side.

The value of writers lies not in the stories they can tell, but in the unique perspective they can provide. Solving problems is the job of sociologists, and the job of writers is to point out problems. Moreover, raising problems is sometimes much more difficult than solving them.

Every day at lunch, the Ning family would discuss Chen Qingluo's work at the table. Chen Qingluo also sat at the same table, but she always ate in silence, not listening to what they were talking about. Sometimes Ning Chunyan had to remind her not to eat the food up her nose.

Ning Bingru has also read Wang Zixu's "Wild Creepers". He also gave high praise to this short story, and sometimes even compared the two novels.

"When I first read Wild Grass, I was also shocked. But compared with Qingluo, I felt that it was a little lower, or in other words, it had too many cunning parts. You can see that the author wrote it for the sake of recognition." Ning Chunyan said, "But Wild Grass also has social value. I think Beauvoir's Devotion seems to be a response to this work."

"Or the two works respond to each other," said Ning's mother.

Ning Bingru asked, "Where does Wang Zixu plan to submit "Wild Creepers"?"

Ning Chunyan said: "He only wanted to submit to Xihe Literature and Art, but I wanted to submit to Shancheng."

Ning Bingru nodded, then shook his head: "As for Mountain City, its quality has actually declined in the past two years. I suggest you submit it to September."

Ning Chunyan frowned: "Will September be accepted?"

Ning Bingru said: "The level is definitely good enough. Some of the manuscripts in September are not as good as this one."

Ning Chunyan said: "You are not talking about me anymore."

Dad Ning just laughed and didn't answer.

Ning's mother said, "Why not submit to Yangtze River? This is a publication in our province, and the quality is not bad. Wang Zixu is a rookie, so submitting to a magazine in our province may be a better choice for his career development."

Father Ning and Ning Chunyan looked at her at the same time, and Mother Ning said, "What's wrong? Am I wrong?"

"Mom, you're so right, why didn't I think of that?"

Ning Bingru smiled bitterly and said, "It's mainly because his level is so high that I almost forgot he's a newcomer."

Chen Qingluo suddenly raised her head, her hair falling from her mouth, her eyes widened, and she was talking to someone in the possible universe, without knowing the beginning or the end:
"You will eventually return to your wife, and I will eventually merge with other people's lives. The era of freedom is over. Everything is irreversibly heading towards mediocrity."

……

At the Wenai base, a 40-minute drive away, thousands of books have been put in place and selected speech therapists have also arrived one after another.

In fact, when the idea of ​​forming a team of scriptwriters was proposed, all the speech therapists in the group showed great enthusiasm and actively contributed their works to the operators.

After a night of screening, Zuo Ziliang and Wang Zixu picked out 10 finalists, and finally whittled them down to five, including Cheng Xing.

In the end, there were these five people standing in front of Wang Zixu.

Wang Zixu stared at the first person from the left, squinting his eyes and looking at this 1.8-meter-tall, muscular man for a long time before he asked:
"Are you the sunny and cheerful Sakura-chan?"

The sturdy man grinned and said, "My current online name is Smart and Witty Xiaoyingjiang. You can just call me Yingjiang."

Wang Zixu nodded, then looked at a fair-skinned boy next to him: "Are you Xiao Ba?"

The boy nodded timidly, seeming extremely shy, with his feet slightly turned inward.

Wang Zixu looked at the girl who was chewing gum nearby. The girl had long pink hair and skin as white as a vampire. She wore a pair of large sunglasses on her face and a leather jacket. She looked very cool and charming.

"Are you a guilty poet?"

The girl said, "Now I am an innocent poet. Just call me a poet."

Wang Zixu looked at Cheng Xing who was staring at him, feeling helpless.

These people were a little different from what he had imagined.

(End of this chapter)