Chapter 146 Half of a man is a woman

Chapter 146 Half of a man is a woman

Chapter 146 Half of a Man is a Woman
Wang Zixu asked: "How do you feel?"

Ye Lan said: "Hmm..."

Wang Zixu asked: "Isn't it cool enough?"

Ye Lan said: "Well... let me take it slow first."

Wang Zixu said, "It's okay, don't hold back, just say it if you have any opinions, I can bear it."

Ye Lan threw the manuscript on the table and said, "This is the first time I've read such a long piece of literature. How can I comment on it? I don't understand it!"

Wang Zixu said patiently: "I'm looking for an amateur like you. You just need to tell me instinctively whether it's good or not, and whether you want to continue watching it?"

Ye Lan looked confused: "I don't know if it's good or not. This is the first time I've read this kind of literature book. In fact, I couldn't understand it for a long time at the beginning, but somehow I persisted and read so much. So if you ask me if it's good or not... I think it should be good, right?"

That day, Wang Zixu asked Ye Lan to meet him, and she came running over excitedly. She specially wore a white short-sleeved sweater that she never wore normally, a black polka-dot dress, grey stockings on her legs, and a pair of wedge-heeled leather shoes on her feet.

When they met at the agreed coffee shop, Wang Zixu turned around and took out a pile of manuscripts that were so big that she fainted, saying that he wanted her to appreciate them. When Ye Lan saw the densely packed words on the manuscripts, she suddenly had the panic disorder left by years of compulsory education. Wang Zixu persuaded her for a long time and made a promise, and she finally read tens of thousands of words in one breath.

Ye Lan complained, "I really don't understand. Why do you ask me to read it? Don't you have many friends who are interested in literature? Why don't you ask them to read it?"

Wang Zixu said: "My book does not lack professional opinions. I hope that it can be enjoyed by ordinary readers and even those who do not read books. It is just like Bai Juyi, who would show his poems to old women every time he finished writing them. His requirement for himself was that 'old women can understand'."

Ye Lan asked curiously: "What is an old woman?"

"It's the old lady."

Ye Lan got angry: "You said I'm an old lady?"

"This is a metaphor, a metaphor," Wang Zixu explained quickly, "Besides, I have already shown it to them."

Ye Lan asked: "Have you all seen it? Ning Cainu, Lin Feng, have they all seen it?"

"Correct."

Ye Lan raised his voice: "So you'll give it to me at the end?"

"It is not ruled out that I may meet new suitable candidates in the future, and I will show them to them as well."

Ye Lan took a big gulp of coffee and put the cup down heavily: "I'm so angry!"

Wang Zixu had no idea why she was so angry and felt very confused.

Wang Zixu prepared a revision notebook for his "Chinese version of "One Hundred Years of Solitude"". Every time he showed it to a friend, he would write down the omissions, errors and places that needed to be revised. Now, he has written hundreds of pages.

When I showed it to Lin Feng, he held the manuscript paper with a frown on his face. He pondered for a long time before saying:
"The previous changes looked perfect, but when it came to the spy part, it felt weird."

Wang Zixu's heart tightened: "What's so strange about it?"

Raymond Lam said: "What is Shen Ci's motive? Why does he keep obstructing the protagonist? Although it is very exciting, when I think about it carefully, I find that it does not stand up to scrutiny. It feels that the whole story is very floating and not as exciting as the previous ones."

Wang Zixu was silent for a while, then said, "I wrote before that Shen Ci had a personal plot, but later deleted it because it had too many words."

Raymond Lam said: "I think it's better to add it, otherwise I always feel that this character can't stand up, it's better not to write it at all."

Wang Zixu said: "There is a very important turning point later in the story that is related to this person, so I really have to write about it."

Lin Feng said: "Then let's add it."

Wang Zixu wrote it down in his notebook and said, "Well, the more I change the characters, the more there are."

Raymond Lam said, "Don't think about the word count. I read your book in one go and I think it's very good and inspiring. I think it's our Chinese version of One Hundred Years of Solitude. To say it's weird is nitpicking, because this part of the plot is very compact, but it doesn't stand up to careful thinking. If you think about it carefully, it will feel fake. I think it's better to have more words and be better polished."

Wang Zixu said seriously: "I want this book to be read more than once, so this problem must be solved. But the key is that even if this plot is added, I am not sure whether it can achieve the effect I want."

Lin Feng said: "Don't worry, there is still time, you can revise it first, I will help you check it as soon as I have time."

Wang Zixu asked: "Aren't you going to try for the Feishi Literature Award?"

Lin Feng smiled bitterly: "I tried writing a novel before, but it was such a mess that I was embarrassed to show it off. I think I am more suitable for reportage. The Reportage Society Literature Award will be announced soon, and I plan to apply for this award."

Wang Zixu felt sorry for him, but also understood his choice. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "What you are studying is also very meaningful."

Raymond Lam said: “No, my work is not as meaningful as yours. Your work is broader and can touch upon deeper social issues more deeply.”

After that, he sighed and said, "You must complete this work well. I have a feeling that this work will have a huge impact not only on you personally, but also on the entire society."

The prince smiled falsely and said, "Thank you for your kind words. I hope it will have a positive impact."

Lin Feng said: "By the way, you can also send it to Lady Ning for help."

Speaking of Ning Chunyan, Wang Zixu felt a headache. Seeing that he was silent, Lin Feng asked, "What's wrong? Did you have an argument?"

Wang Zixu was surprised and asked, "Arguing?"

Are he and Ning Chunyan close enough to bicker with each other? In Raymond Lam's eyes, are they so close?

This shocked him greatly.

Lin Feng smiled mysteriously: "Nothing. You can show her, her opinion is definitely more professional than mine."

Wang Zixu said: "I showed it to her. Her review was pretty good..."

He hesitated to speak. His headache was not about this manuscript, but about the manuscript about the little prince that he was going to submit to the New Appreciation magazine.

The manuscript was almost finished, but he didn't know who to give it to for comments.

Ning Chunyan would definitely not raise any objections. She had a filter, and would say "good, good, good" to any manuscript submitted by the little prince. She had said before at the magazine that even if the manuscript was a collection of dirty talk, she would still publish it as prose.

In addition to her, he could also give the manuscript to Cheng Xing or the poet, but they also had filters. Besides, he didn't want to talk to them about things other than work, which would increase the risk of exposure.

Then, the remaining candidates are very limited.

So he placed a stack of new manuscript paper in front of Ye Lan.

Ye Lan stared: "What is this?"

"Please help me read another novel," Wang Zixu said. "This one is not long, only about 10,000 to 20,000 words, and it is very light. Please give me some advice after you read it."

Ye Lan was furious: "Ten thousand or twenty thousand words is not long? I think even a 500-word Chinese reading comprehension material is long!"

Wang Zixu comforted him: "You don't need to do reading comprehension for this, just feel it, and then tell me what you think." Ye Lan turned his head away.

Prince Xu leaned over and said humbly: "I'll treat you to milk tea."

"I don't drink. I get fat from drinking."

"Then just tell me what you want. As long as I can afford it, I'll give it to you as a reward."

Ye Lan became happy: "That's what you said! I have a Yves Saint Laurent lipstick that I've been eyeing for a long time, buy it for me."

Wang Zixu nodded quickly and said, "Okay, okay, okay." Ye Lan then picked up his manuscript.

The tone of this article is completely different from the previous one.

The story takes place on a university campus. The protagonist is a young man who is muddle-headed, full of lies, awkward, narcissistic and self-deprecating.

He is very smart, has a lot of ideas, is talented, has read a lot of books, understands a lot of truths, and is very capable. But he is timid and lazy, and has never followed through on an idea. Therefore, when asked about his achievements, he is often speechless, just like many young college students.

One day, he met a girl.

This girl is strong, sincere, and not at all pretentious or vulgar. She understands all his humor and his inner arrogance and cowardice. If he has read a thousand books, then she has read two thousand; if he has watched a thousand movies, then she has watched two thousand; if he pretends to be something that is difficult for ordinary people to understand, she will pretend to be something that is even more difficult to understand.

About 30 people have pursued her, and she has dated two of them, but the relationship lasted no more than a week. Her biggest hobby is reading poetry, but she won't write it; her biggest worry is that she only has a B cup; what she expects most is that a decent person will appear who can understand her world.

Ye Lan turned the page.

Seeing this, she roughly guessed the next plot: this should be a campus love story, the boy will definitely chase the girl, and then get hurt.

Although she had guessed the next plot, she was still pushed by a mysterious force to continue reading. The male and female protagonists were both well-designed, and she felt very involved.

However, this story is not an ordinary romantic comedy. What follows is a super development that makes Ye Lan dumbfounded:

After the male protagonist completely messed up an event and was about to lose the female protagonist, he activated his super powers and went back to the past.

The male protagonist has the ability to go back to the past. He tried to use this ability to live a perfect life, but soon he found that the world was too complicated. Sometimes the seemingly perfect world was often a beautifully disguised trap. He had to keep going back until his memory became confused. Then one day he suddenly found that he was aging.

So he lay down, thinking that it would be better to stay in school than to waste his limited life in a complicated world. So he kept going back, changing schools every four years until he met the heroine.

Ye Lan continued reading.

Sure enough, the hero's plan went as planned. He thought he had God's authority and it would be easy to win a girl's heart, but he failed again and again.

In the end he discovered a huge secret: coincidentally, this girl also had super powers.

The heroine was actually born more than 100 years ago. Her ability is that she can delete the existence of the past like a snake swallowing its own tail, and the time squeezed out can keep her body forever young.

However, if she deleted her past, she would not remember what happened in the past.

So, the male protagonist, who only has a past and no future, falls in love with the female protagonist, who has no past but only a future.

The story reaches a deadlock here: if the heroine chooses to live with the hero, she will use up her time, grow old and then die.

In order to prevent her from dying, the male protagonist had to keep going back to the past, getting to know the female protagonist again, and reliving the separations and deaths that had happened before.

If the heroine chooses to live, the best way is to permanently delete the memory of the hero. She will continue to move towards the future like a train, while the hero will stay in the past and they will never meet again.

Ye Lan turned the page again.

"The whole article is finished."

The story ends here.

Ye Lan threw the manuscript paper away.

The prince asked in false alarm: "What are you doing?"

Ye Lan said frantically: "What about the rest? Why is there nothing in the rest? What happened to the hero? Is the heroine dead? Please finish writing it for me!"

Wang Zixu said depressedly: "It's already finished."

"No way!" Ye Lan grabbed his collar and gritted her teeth, "I don't want Yves Saint Laurent's lipstick anymore, you finish writing it for me, right now, right now!"

Wang Zixu opened her hands and said, "It's like this. I've already written down everything I wanted to express in this story, so it's time to end it here. The following content is just for your amusement, which actually undermines my expression..."

Ye Lan shook his shoulders: "I don't care! I just want to have fun reading it! You finish writing it for me... "

It took about half an hour for Ye Lan to calm down. Wang Zixu ordered her a cup of milk tea, and Ye Lan planned to have a good chat with him.

"Did you really write this?" Ye Lan asked, "I feel like it's different from the first one you gave me. I was more engaged in this one. Of course, I'm not saying the first one was bad, but I was so absorbed in the second one that I felt the plot could surpass those melodramatic TV dramas."

Wang Zixu said: "Well, you are right. The first one was written by me, and the second one was written by the little prince."

Ye Lan thought about it and said, "Oh, I see. You will write and publish the second article under the name of The Little Prince, right? That's great! This will definitely be a big seller. It may even be adapted into a movie."

Wang Zixu said: "I haven't thought about that."

All he wanted was to be able to report to Ning Chunyan.

Ye Lan slammed the milk tea onto the table with the force of a pile driver, frowned and said, "You have to think about it. I tell you, I was so invested in the beginning of this story, and I was so excited when I saw the end of 'The End'. If you don't want to be blasted by readers, just finish writing it!"

Wang Zixu had a headache: "Is it that serious? But I haven't figured out what to write next."

"Then think about it! Think about it quickly, and tell me as soon as you've made up your mind, preferably before tonight. I want to have a good sleep tonight."

After talking about this topic, Ye Lan brought the topic back to reality without further ado: "I saw a house in Donghai, 80 square meters, close to the company, move-in ready, 170 million, it's a bit too much for me to afford, I was thinking, you're going to move there anyway, we can buy it together, pay the mortgage together, and each own half of the property."

Wang Zixu was a little stunned after hearing this: "Is this possible? We are not related at all, can we buy a house together?"

Ye Lan rolled his eyes: "I don't like what you said. Aren't we partners? Am I afraid that you will run away? Think about it, you rent a house for 5,000 or 6,000 yuan a month, and the mortgage is also 5,000 or 6,000 yuan a month. You pay all the rent to the landlord, and after paying off the mortgage, you can get a house. Where can you find such a good thing?"

Wang Zixu said: "I'm just worried that it will be inconvenient to live together."

Ye Lan was anxious: "I don't even dislike you!"

Wang Zixu said he would think about it, and the two agreed to go house hunting together when they had time. Before leaving, Ye Lan repeatedly emphasized that he must finish writing the article "The Man Without a Future and the Woman Without a Past" and write a happy ending that would satisfy her, otherwise she would come to bother him if she couldn't sleep at night. Wang Zixu agreed absentmindedly.

As a result, on the way home, he suddenly remembered that he had just started reviewing for the postgraduate entrance examination, and there was still a large part of the "Chinese version of "One Hundred Years of Solitude"" to be revised. He originally wanted to give it to Ning Chunyan as a short story to be completed, but now a lot of workload has been added for nothing.

What to do next?
(End of this chapter)