Chapter 123 First of all, we should be kind

Chapter 123 First of all, we should be kind

Chapter 123 First of all, we should be kind (7200)

Wang Zixu was hit by the name "Chen Qingluo" again at an unexpected time.

He felt bad, so he ran away. After he ran away, he remembered that he still had things to do with Ning Chunyan.

But he didn't want to go back like this, so he walked on the side of the road, kicking stones, and was in a stalemate with himself.

Today is the fifth day since he quit smoking, but he has to smoke under the circumstances. He is not looking for excuses for breaking his vow. If he can only smoke one day in his life, he will choose today; if he can only smoke one cigarette in his life, he will choose now.

He bumped into a small convenience store on the side of the road and told the owner he wanted a box of Big Harvest.

The boss slapped the cigarette box on the table: "6 yuan."

"6 yuan?!" Wang Zixu held onto the counter, "Isn't it 3 yuan?"

"The price has gone up." The boss said concisely.

"How can it double like this?"

The boss patted the cigarette box and said, "How can you calculate it like that? From an absolute value point of view, isn't it just a 3 yuan increase? Liqun used to be 14 yuan, now it's 19, and Hongtashan used to be 8 yuan, now it's 13. Which one hasn't increased more than Dafengshou? Besides, what can you buy with 6 yuan now?"

Wang Zixu had to admit that the boss was right, so he asked the boss to take a box. After getting the boss's consent, he lit a cigarette on the spot, then coughed and stared at the cigarette in his hand in doubt.

The price increase is acceptable, but how can we tolerate the change in the smell of cigarettes! Even a small cigarette cannot stick to itself, what is wrong with this world?
The boss seemed to see through his thoughts and smiled:

"The taste has changed, right? I told you they've upgraded their technology."

Wang Zixu hesitated and took another puff, frowning in disbelief: "But you can't become so... so without personality, can you?"

The boss smiled, as if he understood his feelings: "I am also an old smoker. Let me tell you, the taste of cigarettes is always changing. There is no point in protesting. Moreover, once the taste of cigarettes changes, it will never change back. Even if they use the original factory's original machine, the taste will still be different. There is no need to be upset. You can only blame yourself. Who told me not to take a few more puffs when I liked it in the first place?"

"If you have cigarettes to smoke, smoke them now. Don't wait until they have lost their flavor and become a waste of worry."

Prince Xu was speechless. Damn, a mere convenience store owner could actually say such philosophical words, which was really extraordinary.

Then, the boss' next words made him take back his admiration: "Of course, you can't return it. You've already smoked one."

Wang Zixu walked out of the store with a cigarette in his mouth. Looking back, he saw that the name on the sign of the store was "Bai Yueguang Supermarket".

He accidentally dropped the cigarette in his mouth to the ground. In frustration, he crushed it with his foot, picked it up and threw it into the trash can at the door.

It's just a 10-square-meter convenience store, and it doesn't even have a refrigerator. Why is it called "White Moonlight Supermarket"? But now he understands why the boss speaks in that tone. "White Moonlight Supermarket", humph, he is a small supermarket owner with a story.

The sunlight shone through the treetops at the door to the ground. He looked at the swaying shadows of the trees at the door and thought of his boss's words. At this moment he suddenly realized that last night was gone forever.

Time flies, good times never come back. There will be stars and moons like that again, but there will never be a night as dreamy as that again.

He would remember the banner left by Li Tingfang, and he would also remember Ning Chunyan's beautiful Hanfu. Of course, most importantly, he would remember the few words that Chen Qingluo said to him that night.

You have grown taller.

But what are you doing so tall?
Wang Zixu placed his palm on top of his head and flattened his hair.

It's not his fault that he's taller, it's a matter of genes and nutrition. This sounds unreasonable.

But this sentence kept echoing in his mind all night, causing him to suffer from severe insomnia.

Compared to high school, he was indeed a little taller. I still remember that back then, Chen Qingluo could still look straight at his nose, but now she can only stare at his Adam's apple.

In any case, she seldom looked up at him. It seemed that in her world, Wang Zixu should be the same height as her, so she stubbornly refused to raise her head, looking straight at the position where she imagined Wang Zixu's eyes should be.

His height has not changed for many years. When he was smaller than Chen Qingluo in height, the world he saw with his eyes was definitely different from today. He has long forgotten what the experience was like back then.

With just one sentence, she brought him back many years.

This way you will never forget it.

He will always remember that the first words Chen Qingluo said to him when she saw him after an absence of 12 years and 3 months were: You have grown taller.

Just as he still remembered the last words Chen Qingluo said to him 12 years and 3 months ago:

"The most important thing is that we should be kind first and honest second. Promise me that you will do this for the rest of your life, understand?"

Wang Zixu nodded slightly and said, "I understand." But in fact, he didn't understand, because he hadn't read The Brothers Karamazov at that time.

It was not until one day many years later, when he suddenly remembered this scene while taking a shower, that he realized what Chen Qingluo meant. At that time, he had read The Brothers Karamazov for a long time. He suddenly connected the two. He stood there in a daze, letting the water droplets from the shower run across his cheeks.

Chen Qingluo's words come from The Brothers Karamazov. The original sentence is:
"The most important thing is that we should be kind first, honest second, and never forget each other."

Yes, this is also Miss Chen Qingluo’s usual trick, playing guessing games.

No one knew what unknown thoughts she was thinking as she looked straight at Wang Zixu's Adam's apple.

Fortunately, although he did not guess the riddle at that time, he still did it all. He did not forget her.

But even if it was done, so what?

Later, whenever he reread Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, he could not help but burst into tears when he read the last chapter.

"So first of all, we must remember him for the rest of our lives. Even if we are busy with important things, have a prominent position, or fall into some great misfortune - no matter what, we must not forget that we were here and how wonderful it was.

"A beautiful memory is the noblest, strongest, healthiest, and most beneficial thing for future life in the world. If a person can bring such beautiful and sacred memories into his life, he will be saved for life.

"A good memory stays in our hearts, and maybe at some moment, it can be a means to save us. Maybe we will inevitably become bad people, but as long as we think about him and how much we love him, this memory will come out and prevent us from doing the worst thing."

"Chen Qingluo, remember? The most important thing is that we should be kind first, honest second, and third, we should never forget each other."

He couldn't tell whether he was moved by Tuo Weng's writing style or by the beautiful memories he kept in his heart. Those memories of Chen Qingluo were indeed the noblest, strongest and healthiest things in the world. It saved him more than once.

He hadn't forgotten. Had she, too?
The Porsche slowly slid over, the window rolled down, revealing Ning Chunyan's face wearing sunglasses:

"Hey! That rich man Wang Zixu, why are you running so fast? Aren't you going to take Professor Zhong to the high-speed rail station later? Are you planning to walk there by yourself?"

Wang Zixu calmed himself down, and without saying a word, he obediently returned to the passenger seat and fastened his seat belt properly.

Ning Chunyan wanted to tease him, but seeing how obedient he was, he could not say anything. He just complained in a mixture of anger and amusement:

"Why is it that every time you hear the name of a literary giant, your first reaction is to run away? What, are you socially phobic?"

Wang Zixu said: "In the usual sense, I should be a little socially anxious. But from my personal perspective, I am just not good at socializing. And I am afraid of everything I am not good at."

"You're quite honest."

"I'm still kind."

Ning Chunyan gave him foot oil: "Since you lent me money, I agree that you are kind. But you just said you want to resign, have you really thought it through? Is it really okay for you to resign at your age? I can guarantee that as long as the magazine doesn't go bankrupt, I can keep paying you, but I can't guarantee that my magazine won't go bankrupt when you are old!"

Wang Zixu said, "I haven't agreed to go to your place yet."

Ning Chunyan glared: "Don't be so arrogant, you social phobia! When you become famous and successful in the future, you will definitely get to know many literary masters. What will you do then?"

Ning Chunyan thought that he avoided Chen Qingluo because he was afraid of his advanced colleagues. It was not that she was too stupid to guess that Chen Qingluo and Wang Zixu were old acquaintances, but mainly because both Chen Qingluo and Wang Zixu insisted that they did not know each other. With her personality, she really couldn't imagine that there were people with such personalities in the world, and there were actually two of them.

Wang Zixu shook his head and changed the subject: "Let's go to my unit first. I have something to pick up."

Today is a wonderful Saturday, a day off and the company is closed, so he probably won't run into anyone. And since it's on his way, he thought it would be a good opportunity to go back and deal with his personal belongings.

When he arrived at the office, he found that except for the two or three people on duty, there were a lot of people there, which was very different from what he imagined. By the time he realized how lively it was, it was too late. Diao Yiwen was sitting in the office and her eyes met his, catching him red-handed.

The girl was stunned, obviously not expecting him to come to the office, but she said nothing. Wang Zixu thought to himself that if he turned around and left now, he would be looked down upon, so he walked forward with his head held high. When he passed by the director's office, the door just opened and Gou Yingbiao came out with a cup of water, and the two bumped into each other head-on.

Gou Yingbiao was very embarrassed for a moment, but Wang Zixu was fine. He only paused for a moment, then walked past him with his head held high. He no longer needed to greet him, since he didn't even want the money, so there was no need to bow down.

Gou Yingbiao, however, took the initiative to greet him with a smile on his face, and his attitude was quite respectful: "Wang Zixu, are you still coming to work today? Isn't today a day off?"

"Ah."

Wang Zixu nodded and turned away.

Since someone greeted him, he subconsciously returned the greeting. He regretted it as soon as he sat down in his office. He felt that he was too polite.

Gou Yingbiao was a two-faced person who was always playing dirty tricks behind his back. What was there to bother with? He even replied with a "hmm". He should have missed a single word.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He had the urge to point his finger at Gou Yingbiao's nose and scold him again. But firstly, he had already scolded him last time, so there is no right to punish a crime twice, so this time he was unjustified; secondly, Gou Yingbiao did not take the initiative to cause trouble, so if he scolded him this time, it would be his fault if it got out.

He had no choice but to smooth over his own faults and remind himself, "First of all, we should be kind."

"Wang Zixu."

Just as he was packing his things, Gou Yingbiao appeared at his door like a ghost, and came over to talk to him.

"You won first place in the literary competition this time, congratulations."

He had seen Gou Yingbiao's ability to adapt to the situation. Wang Zixu lowered his head and continued to pack his things:

"No, no, I was just eliminated from the qualifying round, and I had to hold a whole-unit criticism meeting to make self-criticism. I just got first place by luck this time, so don't praise me."

Gou Yingbiao's face turned red and white at being teased in front of him, but he rarely got angry. He whispered, "No, no, you are too modest. I asked a lot of people and inquired about the situation at the scoring site that day. They all said that you deserved the first place. They all said that you are extremely talented."

Prince humbly thought, knowing that Shen Qingfeng must have tipped him off again. The old man was now worried and fearful that he would be appreciated more by the big boss and report him behind his back.

Wang Zixu raised his voice: "How can I compare with your talent, Director Gou? The poems you posted in the group are unparalleled and rare in the world. You have been in the unit for so many years and you have not discovered any talent in me, a fake gem. Other people's comments must be just a show. I don't believe it."

Wang Zixu deliberately turned up the volume, and the discussions floating in the corridor stopped. It seemed that someone came out to inquire about the situation here. Gou Yingbiao felt panicked, fearing that Wang Zixu would lose control again and scold him.

But he also found a way to save face, and said with a laugh: "It seems that you are not in a good mood today. I will talk to you in a good way another time."

Prince waved his hand and said, "Director Gou is very busy, so I don't need to bother you with my psychological counseling. I plan to submit my resignation report in the near future, so please hold a meeting to review it in advance."

Gou Yingbiao's face turned pale: "You want to resign?"

"Ah."

"why?"

Wang Zixu said nothing. He didn't need to explain the reason.

Gou Yingbiao gritted his teeth and lowered his voice, "Wang Zixu, I heard that you had a private chat with the leader for a long time that night. What did you tell him?"

Wang Zixu knew that he had been practicing Tai Chi for a long time just to ask this question, so he sneered and said, "We talked about everything."

Gou Yingbiao said: "I asked directly, have you told your superiors anything about me?"

Wang Zixu raised his eyes and looked at him: "What I told the leader and what the leader thinks are not your concerns, Gou Yingbiao."

Gou Yingbiao's face suddenly turned ugly. Only then did Wang Zixu realize that he seemed to have a lot more wrinkles on his face. This was caused by excessive thinking and mental exhaustion. He looked very bad, maybe he didn't sleep at all last night.

Gou Yingbiao showed an expression of begging for mercy: "Wang Zixu, you may have some misunderstandings about me. I am actually very tolerant of you. I will slowly compensate you for your past losses in the future at work. Is it necessary to make it a fight to the death?" Wang Zixu showed a mocking smile on his face: "You are tolerant? How can you be tolerant? You just can't do anything to me."

He added: "Gou Yingbiao, do you think I don't know about your little tricks? You are planning to use my wife as a pawn to deal with me behind my back, do you think you can really do it without anyone noticing?

"Gou Yingbiao, I have never seen anyone more disgusting, mean, and stupid than you. I don't know whether the fish will die or not, but the net will definitely be broken, so please stay tuned."

Gou Yingbiao felt a chill down his spine: "How did you know about this? Who told you?"

Wang Zixu said: "If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself. You should understand this principle, right?"

Gou Yingbiao panicked. The other methods were fine, they were all exposed, but this matter, if it got out, would be the worst blow to his reputation.

He began to check in his mind who betrayed him, but after checking again and again, he found that everyone present that day was a suspect. Even Shen Qingfeng was a suspect.

At this moment, Diao Yiwen pushed the door open, giving Gou Yingbiao a startled start.

"Won't you knock before you come in?"

Diao Yiwen was stunned by Gou Yingbiao's harsh words, but she quickly regained her indifference. This made Gou Yingbiao very strange. Although Diao Yiwen had a great background, she was not as stiff or even numb as Wang Zixu in her daily life.

"Director Gou," Diao Yiwen handed over a piece of paper, "This is my resignation letter."

Her words startled both of them. Gou Yingbiao shouted, "Why are you resigning too?"

"also"?
Diao Yiwen noticed the details in Director Gou's words, glanced at Wang Zixu, and said, "I have other plans for my career."

Gou Yingbiao lowered his voice and said, "Xiao Diao, don't make a sudden decision. Have you discussed it with your parents? You still have a service period to serve."

Diao Yiwen said: "I haven't finished my probation period yet, so please speed up the process. In another month, my probation period should be over."

Gou Yingbiao suddenly became nervous. He suddenly realized that the current situation was very unfavorable to him.

The first and second place winners of the literary competition came to the office and collectively asked to resign the day after the award ceremony. How bad would it be if this got out? Especially for him, would it leave the impression on the boss that he was "not a good person"?

Of course, there was something even more difficult. Wang Zixu might have told his superiors something. If both of them resigned at this juncture, then he would be in trouble.

Wang Zixu sat and watched Gou Yingbiao sweating anxiously. He just smiled slightly and stood up to send them away: "You two go out and talk. Today is a day off and my office is about to close."

Before leaving, he took a last deep look at his workstation, then locked the door and left.

The resignation process is not that fast, now is not the time to say goodbye.

After going downstairs, Ning Chunyan was waiting in the car and asked, "Why is it so slow?"

"I ran into some people upstairs."

He had just sat in the passenger seat when Diao Yiwen rushed up from behind, stood in front of his window and said, "I have something to tell you."

Wang Zixu lowered the car window and said, "Follow me?"

Diao Yiwen nodded, and then said: "Yan Zishan asked me to bring you a message. He said, go to the East China Sea."

"To the East China Sea?"

Wang Zixu repeated these four words, and then he and Ning Chunyan looked at each other.

Ning Chunyan looked at him and asked, "Do you still know Yanzi Mountain?"

Wang Zixu shook his head. He had hardly read the works of this senior writer in China. Because he was not on the list of "writers who have won the Nobel Prize", and he was not in the first tier of "writers who have the chance to win the Nobel Prize".

Diao Yiwen said: "He said, you will understand."

Wang Zixu looked bewildered. He felt that Yan Zishan might have overestimated him.

Diao Yiwen stared at Wang Zixu for a while, and suddenly felt a little angry at his ignorant expression.

She wanted to announce loudly: Do you know who you defeated at the literary conference? It was Yan Zishan! Your work even surpassed Yan Zishan and won first place!
But she would not tell. Wang Zixu would never know that he had such an honor in his life. No one except her and Yan Zishan himself would know.

Wang Zixu saw that her expression was a little strange: "Are you okay?"

Diao Yiwen shook her head, turned around, threw away her braids and walked away.

Ning Chunyan stared at him with a strange expression: "What happened to you?"

Wang Zixu said: "I'm fine!"

"If you're fine, why are you so excited?"

"I've been wronged, and I'm not allowed to get excited?"

"I didn't say what happened to you. Why were you wronged? Look, you feel guilty, don't you?"

"I feel guilty. I feel guilty."

"You have to remember," Ning Chunyan shook his finger, "you are married, you can't just do something to a little girl."

Wang Zixu felt a tightness in his chest, and silently pretended to be a Buddha in the passenger seat. Ning Chunyan smiled secretly, this guy was so easy to control.

As a result, she drove out fifty meters, and Wang Zixu suddenly said, "Can you just do whatever you want to a grown-up girl?"

Ning Chunyan almost stepped on the brakes: "You were holding it in for a long time, and this is the only thing you can think of?"

"No, I thought of it at the beginning, but I was too embarrassed to say it."

"How come you have the nerve to say it now?"

"I just can't hold it in any longer."

He didn't tell the truth. It wasn't that he couldn't hold it back, but he used his experienced ability to read people's expressions to observe that Ning Chunyan was going to let him go, so he dared to argue even more.

Secondly, we should be honest. But I think such a small lie should not be considered dishonest.

Ning Chunyan really let him go. After a while, she asked, "What does 'go to the East China Sea' mean?"

Wang Zixu said, “I don’t know.”

Ning Chunyan said: "Didn't Yanzishan say you knew?"

Wang Zixu said: "I'm not familiar with him."

After that, he added: "I'm also wondering what this means. I can think of two allusions to this sentence structure. I don't know which one he is talking about."

"Which two?"

"One is Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse."

"Oh! Yes, let's go to the lighthouse." Ning Chunyan nodded, then showed an embarrassed expression, "Have you seen it?"

"To be honest, it's not easy to understand." Wang Zixu said, "Her stream of consciousness is a bit unique, I don't quite understand it. So if Yan Zishan's words contain this meaning, I may not be able to understand it."

Wang Zixu was very honest. Generally, people who talk about literature don't dare to say that they don't understand Woolf. How can you talk about literature if you don't even understand stream of consciousness? Generally, when talking about literature, if you say you don't understand stream of consciousness, you are at the bottom of the contempt chain and are at risk of being despised at any time.

So people usually say they understand it very well. Proust, Faulkner, Woolf, Joyce, the more difficult the writer is to understand, the more people will sneer and look down on him, and then say quietly, "It's too simple. These are such popular authors, and you haven't read them?"

Wang Zixu was one of the few people who honestly admitted to Ning Chunyan that he didn't understand Woolf very well, and at the same time, he did read a lot. So when he said that he didn't understand, Ning Chunyan felt warm and moved, and said:

"To be honest, I don't really understand it either. I also did some research on Canxue for my graduate thesis, and it really gave me a headache. I felt like I was dying just by reading the book."

The prince nodded humbly and sincerely: "Canxue is indeed difficult to understand. In comparison, Kant seems simple."

Ning Chunyan turned around and said, "Wait, why are we talking about Kant?"

Wang Zixu said: "Canxue's brother is Deng Xiaomang."

Deng Xiaomang is a well-known researcher of Kantian philosophy in China.

Once Wang Zixu's thoughts diverged, it was hard for others to follow him. Ning Chunyan could barely keep up a little bit, as this kind of chat was still within her comfort zone. She even felt that it was very enjoyable to chat like this.

"By the way, you just said this sentence structure and you can think of two allusions. What's the other one?"

Wang Zixu said: "Another one is 'going to America' in Crime and Punishment. This is even more intriguing. Because 'going to America' in the book symbolizes depravity and is a code word for suicide."

"I've read Crime and Punishment. Dostoyevsky was very patriotic. He believed that 'going to America' was a betrayal of his Russian mother. America symbolizes a corrupt place that breeds evil. From this perspective, does Yan Zishan think that Donghai is a place that breeds corruption? Hmm...it's possible. After all, Donghai is so decadent and extravagant."

Wang Zixu said: "But Yanzishan himself has lived in the East China Sea for a long time."

Ning Chunyan nodded: "Yes. They are not very similar."

Wang Zixu closed his mouth. In fact, if we only analyze it literally, Yan Zishan's words have a sense of prophecy. Because the core of his next life is indeed "going to the East China Sea".

During this period, Wen Ai is planning a big event and will move to Donghai soon. By then, both his work and life will be completed in Donghai.

But Yan Zishan certainly didn’t know this, so why did he ask himself to “go to the East China Sea”?

incomprehensible.

Ning Chunyan stopped at the entrance of an unfamiliar neighborhood. Wang Zixu looked around and asked:
"Isn't Professor Zhong at the Plaza Hotel?"

"Yes."

“This isn’t the Plaza Hotel, is it?”

"Of course not, who said this is it?" Ning Chunyan said, "This is my home."

Wang Zixu asked carefully: "May I ask why we came to your house?"

"Tsk." Ning Chunyan raised his face towards him, "Who would invite a married prince like you to my house?"

"Oh, that's just my own fault. But why are we coming to your neighborhood?"

Ning Chunyan had no intention of explaining to him. She unbuckled her seat belt, stretched out in the seat, made a comfortable sound, and arched her back like a cat. Her slender waist curved into a youthful curve, which shocked Prince Xu. He quickly looked away.

After stretching, Ning Chunyan said, "We invited Professor Zhong here, so it's time for us to send them back. This is called having a beginning and an end."

"Both of us?"

Wang Zixu made a puzzled sound, and soon he realized that the "two of us" she mentioned did not include him, but someone else.

Because he saw, from afar, Chen Qingluo, with an expressionless face, moving quickly towards this side.

The big girl really came.

(End of this chapter)