Chapter 93: Mostly Harmless

Chapter 93: Mostly Harmless

Chapter 93: Mostly Harmless

Chen Qingluo said that Wang Zixu was smart in some aspects, but overall he was a fool.

A fool is not a person with a bad brain. A fool can have a good brain, but it takes a fool half his life to figure out things that others can easily figure out. By the time he figures it out, he has already suffered a loss for half his life. What else can this be but a fool?
Wang Zixu is such a fool. He didn't figure out what Chen Qingluo figured out until he was 30. After figuring it out, he had a sudden realization and felt that he had lived in vain.

He used to think that a person should have integrity and that writing should have attitude. For example, when he was asked to conceive an essay on "dream", he could only think of the conflict between the father's will and the son's dream, because this conflict was the purest and best reflected the theme.

If Chen Qingluo, Ning Chunyan, or even Shen Qingfeng were to write this story, it would never be so simple.

Chen Qingluo will let the little boy be hit by a car and become disabled, and then win the championship at the Paralympic Games after getting prosthetic limbs; Ning Chunyan will let the little boy be confused for a while after experiencing the decadence of the upper class, and then suddenly wake up; Shen Qingfeng will write that the little boy later dated many girls and met many awesome people, and finally the mystery is solved: the little boy is himself.

The stories they wrote not only operate within the areas they are good at, but also contain some extremely emotionally stimulating parts. Chen Qingluo is bitter, Ning Chunyan is noble, and Shen Qingfeng is arrogant, all of which are very eye-catching.

Wang Zixu is not eye-catching. Whatever he writes seems ordinary, and you have to savor it carefully to appreciate its meaning. This is a disadvantage.

If Yu Hua were to write this story, the little boy would have been gifted in running, the first to donate blood, and then be beaten to death by an unscrupulous doctor. This is his "To Live".

If Marquez were to write this story, the little boy would become an underground boxer, get beaten black and blue but still not make any money, and when he tried to steal something to eat out of hunger, he was shot dead by an old woman with a revolver. This is "Tuesday Siesta".

Depending on the author, this story could become The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, or even The Dragon. There are too many stories in this world that feature an unlucky child with infinite visions for the future.

Writers are a group of extremely cunning people, and Wang Zixu lacks this bit of cunning. The most cunning thing he has ever done in his life is to put the Dafengshou cigarettes in the box of Xuanhemen.

On the second floor, a door was opened and warm yellow light poured out. A head popped out from the crack of the door. It was a poet. Another head popped out. It was Ye Lan.

“Is he still writing?”

"It seems so."

The two women sighed. Ye Lan said, "He has worked 12 hours today, right?"

"17 hours," the poet said. "He got up at 17: in the morning, not counting the time for running, so he worked for hours. He didn't take a nap."

Ye Lan said: "Should we go and persuade him? What if he gets exhausted?"

The poet said, "It is best not to disturb him now. He is going through a tribulation."

Ye Lan stared at the poet: "Surviving the tribulation?"

The poet nodded. "He is getting stronger. Can you notice? Serious men usually become very handsome. He suddenly became handsome just now."

After she finished speaking, both women thought what she had just said was very funny, so they both laughed foolishly at the same time.

After laughing, Ye Lan asked curiously, "Before he became stronger, he could increase the retention rate from 6% to 16%. If he becomes stronger, what will happen? What kind of industry legend will he create?"

"I don't know. Someone has to create a myth. Of course, he might collapse from exhaustion tomorrow and never recover from it."

Ye Lan sighed sadly and said, "Let him sleep all day tomorrow. I'm not feeling sorry for him, but he still has 19 days to go."

The poet said, "I don't have any objection. I made 100,000 today, and after deducting taxes, I still have 70,000 or 80,000. Don't ask me to eat and live for free in the next few days. I can pay the rent."

The two of them shrank their heads into the door. The warm light in the shape of the crack in the second floor door disappeared. Wang Zixu in the living room was still working hard, not noticing what was happening upstairs.

The poet did not ask Ye Lan why she sobered up so quickly, and Ye Lan did not ask the poet why he did not expose her. Women are born writers, and even more cunning than writers.

……

Lin Feng didn't know why he came to Shen Qingfeng's homestay. It had an elegant name, "Qingfengju". This was his second time here.

The first time he came, he was invited by Shen Qingfeng himself - at that time Shen Qingfeng had just joined the Literary Association and invited everyone in the association to be his guests, including Lin Feng. Later, Lin Feng became a competitor, and he was no longer qualified to come here.

Although Lin Feng hated Shen Qingfeng's opportunistic and two-faced character, he had to admit that Shen Qingfeng had a good business sense.

In the first year when Qingfengju settled in Xihe, Shen Qingfeng invited all the important people in Xihe to stay here for one night. Soon, Qingfengju became a prosperous business, and the price rose layer by layer, gradually becoming something that Lin Feng could not afford.

Qingfengju is not just a house, it also has a courtyard, a pavilion, a restaurant, a pond, a bonfire, a mahjong table, and sometimes there are many young ladies dancing. Not only can you see Shen Qingfeng here, you can also eat, play cards, go fishing, and if you are lucky, you can even pick up a young lady, so everyone loves to come here.

When people in Xihe talk about this place, they all think that being able to come here is a very face-saving thing.

This does not include Raymond Lam.

Lin Feng was sitting in the car, and when he saw Gou Yingbiao and Shen Qingfeng laughing as they walked into Qingfeng Residence, he gritted his teeth and slammed the steering wheel: "How disgraceful! How disgraceful!"

After a while, he got out of the car stealthily and strode into Qingfengju with his head held high. The receptionist in cheongsam immediately walked over gracefully, with her long legs sticking out from under her skirt, shining so brightly that Lin Feng could hardly open his eyes.

After he looked at the price list, he couldn't open his eyes anymore. He paid the deposit with half-closed eyes, followed the receptionist upstairs, found an excuse to slip away, and then wandered around the B&B, looking for Shen Qingfeng and his group.

Finally, he heard Shen Qingfeng's voice from the door of the foot bath room. He pretended to be a guest who had lost his phone and walked around the room, but there was no sound from the room. He went outside, and fortunately, Gou Yingbiao's loud voice floated out of the window. He was overjoyed and hid in the bushes. As soon as he squatted down, the mosquitoes hiding in the dark kissed him like enthusiastic streetwalkers, wishing to suck him into a man.

Lin Feng endured the pain, took out his mobile phone, turned on the recording, and recorded the intermittent sounds coming out of the window. He just happened to hear Gou Yingbiao solemnly reciting:
"The Xihe Literary Gathering was packed with talented scholars and beautiful ladies.

"The joy of writing is so great, and the talent of writing is so brilliant.

"The literary ideas are gushing out like a spring, and the poetic and picturesque ideas are shocking everywhere.

"This meeting is unparalleled in the history of the world, and will forever make Xihe famous!"

"Good! Great!"

"Director Gou is truly talented! I admire you so much!"

"I didn't expect Director Gou to have such talent. This small place called Xihe is really home to many hidden talents!"

There was a brief burst of applause in the room, which made Lin Feng outside the window groan.

Gou Yingbiao said: "After all, I have followed Director Mei, so I have learned a few tricks. I am usually too busy with work and really have no time to polish my creations. There are some young people in our unit who look down on me. Humph, I don't bother with them."

Lin Luo said: "This poem by Gou Ju is really full of talent, especially the line 'His free spirit is so great that he writes beautiful poems, and his talent is so great that he composes a brilliant chapter'. It is indescribably wonderful and makes one salivate when reading it. It is really a good poem."

Gou Yingbiao said, "Actually, this sentence was revised for me by Xiao Diao from our unit. I originally wrote 'Leaders from all walks of life sit and watch, and the young and old men write articles'. What do you think? Which one is better?" Director Gou looked at Lin Luo expectantly. Lin Luo hesitated for a moment and said:

"The original sentence is quite... majestic. Although it is also a good sentence, it has too strong a personal style and may not match the tone of our literary gathering. I have no choice but to compromise like this."

Director Gou smiled and said, "Really? I also think Xiao Diao's words are quite good, so I used them."

Shen Qingfeng said: "Gou Ju is a talented general. He knows how to make choices and cut things out."

"Yes! Director Gou is magnanimous because of his tolerance!" Lin Luo gave a thumbs up.

Lin Feng was listening outside the window and felt angry and amused at the same time. He shook his head and sighed repeatedly, cursing in his heart, "How disgraceful."

Lin Luo is Lin Feng's junior, quite talented. It was Lin Feng who recommended him to the Literary Association. But this kid was lured by Shen Qingfeng, turned against him, stabbed Lin Feng in the back, and became Shen Qingfeng's younger brother, serving him day and night, and learned all kinds of slick skills from Shen Qingfeng.

Shen Qingfeng turned around and said, "Lin Luo is a really capable kid. To be honest, I want him to be the vice president during this term change."

Liu Rensong, a senior member of the Writers Association who had been silent, said while lying on a chair:

"Okay, as long as Lin Luo can leave a good impression on the leader at this literary meeting, it will be easy for him to become the vice president, right?"

Shen Qingfeng leaned over to him and said with a smile: "But doesn't that require the support of Teacher Liu?"

Liu Rensong said lazily: "Support from senior leaders is more effective than anything else."

Shen Qingfeng cursed in his heart, thinking that this damn Liu Rensong is really a pretentious stinky scholar. He accepted my gift but was so shy and didn't even want to say a word to express his attitude. I invited him in vain and let such a young and beautiful technician serve him - he should have let the oldest and ugliest old aunt massage his feet.

He turned around and said to Lin Luo in a cold tone: "Lin Luo, did you hear me? You must win first place in this essay contest to prove yourself!"

Lin Luo said calmly: "Don't worry, Brother Feng. Ning Chunyan and Chen Qingluo are not participating this time, so there are basically no strong opponents. Xihe is left with mediocre people, who are nothing to be afraid of."

Shen Qingfeng said: "It's good to be confident. But don't forget, your goal is to get first place, not just to be shortlisted. Are you sure you can beat your old senior Lin Feng?"

Lin Luo sneered: "I know his tricks very well. What can he write? It's nothing more than a rural kid going to the city to work, the boss is a good man, and the boss's wife eventually became a widow..."

There was laughter in the room.

Lin Feng was crouching outside the window, his teeth chattering. In this world, the people who know you best always hurt you the most. Now he realized how well Lin Luo knew him, and at the same time, what a terrible enemy he was.

It was true that what he wrote was about rural children going to the city to work, but he swore that the boss's wife did not become a widow in the end.

Shen Qingfeng added: "There is another person worth noting this time. Speaking of which, Director Gou knows this person."

"Oh? Who is it?" Director Gou asked.

Shen Qingfeng said: "He is a person with a histrionic personality and is very good at publicity and marketing. Last time Lin Feng went to your unit for inspection, didn't that guy take the opportunity to become famous?"

Gou Yingbiao's tone gradually turned cold: "Oh, you are talking about Wang Zixu."

"Yes, that's him."

Outside the window, Lin Feng's body gradually became colder.

He understood why Gou Yingbiao appeared here. This small gathering was not only for him, but also for Wang Zixu.

He began to blame himself. If it weren't for him, Wang Zixu wouldn't have been involved in this long-suffering disaster. With sweat in his palms, he eavesdropped on how Shen Qingfeng planned to deal with Wang Zixu.

"Let me be frank. There's something very wrong with this Wang Zixu," Gou Yingbiao said. "He even dared to slam the table in front of me recently."

Shen Qingfeng raised his voice an octave higher: "He actually dared to slam the table at you?"

"Yeah. It's really weird. This Wang Zixu..." Gou Yingbiao sat up and adjusted his posture. "If I had to describe it, Wang Zixu used to be very honest, silent, and never got into conflicts with anyone. But ever since Lin Feng came over last time and showed him his skills, he has become more arrogant."

Lin Luo said: "What's that saying? When villains succeed, they become arrogant."

"Ah."

Although Gou Yingbiao nodded, he was still puzzled in his heart - after all, Lin Feng's patrol alone could not explain why Wang Zixu had changed so much, and he didn't "successfully" either?

Besides, Shen Qingfeng and the others had an extremely arrogant first impression of Wang Zixu, but Gou Yingbiao knew him. Wang Zixu used to be too honest, as honest as if he had been possessed by another spirit now.

If Wang Zixu could be included in Baidu Encyclopedia, the record about him in the encyclopedia could summarize his first half of life in just one sentence - basically harmless.

It has no ability to harm people, and it is not worth paying attention to. If you don't pay attention, you will skip over this person's life, as if he never existed. Basically, harmless.

I don't know what medicine he took wrongly. He suddenly turned from a harmless insect into a pest, and it was so annoying. Gou Yingbiao was completely confused.

Shen Qingfeng said: "Director Gou, he is so arrogant, don't you plan to deal with him?"

Gou Yingbiao felt a little embarrassed, scratched his nose and said, "I won't argue with him."

Shen Qingfeng said: "You are too magnanimous."

Director Gou said that he would not argue with him, but in fact, he did not know Wang Zixu's background. Why did Director Mei support him? Why did the big boss know his name? Before he figured out these things, he could not take action against Wang Zixu.

But he didn't plan to confide these things to Shen Qingfeng. Otherwise, he would appear to be particularly incompetent.

Gou Yingbiao said: "Although his personal character is low and low, at least he has not made any mistakes in his work. For the time being, I can't find any evidence against him. I will handle the matter impartially. It is difficult for me to deal with him."

Shen Qingfeng raised his head and laughed: "Director Gou, you are so kind-hearted. As his superior - I am not in the system, so I am just saying this - is it not easy for you to deal with him?"

Gou Yingbiao was a little embarrassed and asked, "What do you mean?"

Shen Qingfeng said: "Let me ask you, is this Wang Zixu married?"

(End of this chapter)