Chapter 170 The Desperate Writer

Chapter 170 The Desperate Writer

Chapter 170 The Desperate Writer
"Yesterday, Yao Duanyang, the old editor, said that Xin Shang is a popular magazine that young people like. He praised it openly but criticized it secretly. He thought I couldn't hear it. What he wanted to say is that we have no depth and only young people like us. After the trend is over, we are nothing."

"Well, you're smart."

"Isn't it the number one magazine in the South? Just wait and see. Sooner or later, our New Appreciation will beat Ancient City, step on Yangtze River, and even surpass Modern."

"pass."

"Qingluo, you are a little immodest. We are still not as good as Modern Times. I know this very well."

"I know that, because what I mean is... forget it, you're drunk, I won't bother with you."

"I'm not drunk. Look, I can still spin around."

Wang Zixu's advice was correct. Ning Chunyan could only drink three cups of wine, and he could get drunk even if he drank beer.

After watching Ning Chunyan perform a circular motion and then lie smoothly on the ground, Lu Qingxuan worriedly asked Chen Qingluo if she needed help, but Chen Qingluo said no.

She skillfully carried Ning Chunyan and stuffed her into the car without hitting her head.

If you only look at her appearance, you would never imagine that Chen Qingluo, with her small body, can do physical work so skillfully.

She took Ning Chunyan's phone and went to pay the bill, which meant the banquet was over and everyone had to go their separate ways.

Lu Qingxuan asked outside the car window: "You really don't want my help?"

"No need," Chen Qingluo started the car, "If you go back late, you will miss the school's curfew, and you will have to sleep on her sofa."

"Ok."

After watching the car leave, Lu Qingxuan said to Du Kezhu: "It's just the two of us left."

"Go back to school."

"Hey, the dormitory doors are all closed now, right? Are you sure you can convince the dormitory manager to open the door for us later?"

"No."

"Hey, you should be very experienced, right?"

"…What gave you the illusion that I often come home late?"

"your hair."

The green hair fluttered under the street lights, and its color and texture were somewhat similar to phosphophyllite.

Du Kezhu said: "I thought you were the president of the student union and had the privilege of asking the dormitory manager to open the door at any time."

"No."

"There's none."

"I'm sorry, student, you'll be disappointed."

After they walked for a while, Lu Qingxuan finally mustered up the courage to ask, "You just said you were doing a part-time job?"

"Did I say that?"

"Well, when Sister Xiaochun invited you to the magazine just now, you said," Lu Qingxuan took a deep breath, "I actually know what you are doing."

Du Kezhu still looked nonchalant and said, "What?"

"I discovered it by accident, too. It's not because I care about you that I went to find out, it's just that I happened to know it..." Lu Qingxuan stared at her, "Innocent poet, right?"

Du Kezhu stopped.

Lu Qingxuan was a little nervous: "I don't mean to threaten you with what you did, I'm just chatting, you know, I just want to chat."

"How did you learn that?"

Lu Qingxuan's breathing stopped suddenly. Because Du Kezhu's voice suddenly became as cold as ice, she was as silent as a grasshopper feeling the first breeze of autumn.

Du Kezhu turned his head to look at her, his dark eyes shining like stars. It was a dark street after 11 o'clock. The charcoal fire in the oven was gradually cooling down, the sewage was flowing slowly along the roadside ditch, and the vendors were closing their doors with a clanging sound.

"Who did you hear that from?"

Lu Qingxuan was pushed one step closer and felt a drop of cold liquid on her back. She took a half step back with a flickering look in her eyes:
"It doesn't matter who you heard it from! I won't tell anyone, but I'm curious why you did that. You don't look like someone who needs money."

Du Kezhu blinked, as if she had said something very stupid.

"What gave you the illusion that I have enough money?"

Lu Qingxuan glanced at her hair and her tone rose involuntarily:
"I mean, of course you can have too much money, but the value of some things cannot be measured by money, especially for students from the University of Southern California. What I mean is that you must give up some things for this 'part-time job', such as self-esteem, integrity, and so on. I don't think you are so short of money that you need to give up those things, because in my eyes, you have always been..."

"enough."

The words interrupted Lu Qingxuan's passionate statement like an ice knife. The innocent poet placed his hands on her shoulders. Then, she felt an irresistible force coming. She staggered and was pushed into the alley on the side of the street, her back against the wall.

"Just tell me, who told you that?"

Lu Qingxuan stammered, "I heard it from someone else..."

"Who told you that?"

"I promised someone..."

"I don't care who you promised, I just want the name."

Under her aggressive gaze, Lu Qingxuan finally compromised in frustration:

"Duan Xiaosang."

Du Kezhu frowned.

"Duan Xiaosang is a well-known book marketer..."

"I know." Du Kezhu said, "Why does she know my ID? And what do you and her want to do?"

Lu Qingxuan swallowed her saliva and said very quickly: "She found me a few days ago and said that she knew your online alias and that you were a top V on Wenmi, so she guessed that you must know the little prince. She offered me a very tempting condition to help her get information about the little prince from you. To be honest, I am not interested in that condition at all. I am very curious about the true identity of the little prince, but I am more curious about why someone like you would do such a thing?"

Du Kezhu blinked for a long time and asked, "What did you say she wanted to do?"

"She wants to know the little prince's true identity through you."

A gust of wind blew by, and Lu Qingxuan subconsciously pressed the hem of her skirt.

Du Kezhu frowned and relaxed his brows, and finally asked in a tone of doubt: "Are you kidding?"

"No, what's so funny about this?"

Du Kezhu stared at her for a long time, as if he was examining a rare item.

The identity of the little prince was unremarkable. He sat in their office and was usually no more than 3 meters away from Lu Qingxuan.

But she actually went the long way around, went around in such a big circle, and ran towards me at full speed like a round-trip sprint to get an answer.

From her perspective, this was hilarious anyway. Too hilarious.

But it was such a ridiculous reason that led to her being opened, and it was offline. It's really funny to think about it.

Du Kezhu gave up and said, "You are such a silly girl."

"What?!"

Lu Qingxuan's face gradually turned red, and in a blink of an eye, Du Kezhu was already four or five meters away.

"Du Kezhu, you have to give me a reason!"

Lu Qingxuan chased out of the alley, but could only see the back of his opponent walking away resolutely.

"You haven't answered my question yet!"

Lu Qingxuan shouted in vain at Du Kezhu's back again, and many passers-by on the street were drawn to this side. She couldn't understand why the famous "non-emperor" wanted to be an "innocent poet". Maybe she was really writing poetry, but was she really "innocent"?

At least in the eyes of the public, she is not innocent.

The poet did not answer and disappeared into the night.

……

The poet returned to the dormitory, and one of his roommates grumbled and complained, then turned over and went back to sleep. The poet gently closed the door, followed by the white moonlight, and sat down in front of the computer.

She gently lowered the bed curtains and turned on the desk lamp to the lowest brightness. Their dormitory was a four-person room with a bed on top and a desk below. In order to prevent the lights from working at night from affecting her roommates' sleep, she bought blackout curtains, but she could not avoid hearing complaints from her roommates.

Before this time, renting a house off campus became a very tempting option, but every time she calculated her income and expenses, she would give up the idea.

Pulling out her phone, she noticed two red dots on the unread messages, which were from her mother. After a while of preparing herself mentally, she clicked on them.

What immediately caught her eye was a hospital diagnosis sheet. She opened it and saw the following words:

"The texture of both lungs is clear, and a small nodular dense shadow can be seen at the right lung apex; patchy and flaky increased density shadows can be seen in the right middle lobe and left upper lobe..."

Du Kezhu pursed his lips, trying to suppress his impatience, and typed on his phone:
"what happened?"

The reply came quickly:
"I went to the hospital for a checkup. The situation is quite serious. I don't want to delay your studies, so I'll send it to you."

Du Kezhu said: "The diagnosis here says there may be inflammation. If it is just inflammation, then it is fine."

Mother: "What's good? I don't dare to tell you because I'm afraid it will affect your studies. I feel like I can't breathe these days."

After a while, another message came over:
"I live alone in the hospital with no one to take care of me. My money keeps increasing. I think there is no point in living. I might as well go home and wait to die."

Du Kezhu held her breath and asked, "Where's your husband?"

"He's busy at work and needs to make money. We're already poor, and if he doesn't make money, are we all going to starve?"

One year after Du Kezhu's biological father died, her mother found a boyfriend. His clothing style was very shabby and he claimed to work in a freight company. Later, the mother and daughter found out that he was actually unemployed.

After living together for a year, the two got married secretly because Du Kezhu had always opposed it. Later, Du Kezhu found their marriage certificate at home, and her mother officially admitted it to her.

The stepfather said that girls don’t need to have a high level of education, as it would be difficult to get married if they have too much education. Du Kezhu is so beautiful, she should meet more people while she is still young and get married early. By the time she finishes her studies, everyone will be old.

My mother said, your father is right. How much money can you make after you graduate? How many years will it take to cover the family expenses? You should stop studying after high school.

Du Kezhu didn't think so. She felt that ever since her mother got married, her head was full of shit. She spent all the family's money on drinking and carousing with that man, but she felt that she couldn't afford the money for her studies.

So she wrote, studied, made money, and took the entrance exam to Nanjing University.

At first, her family had a negative attitude towards her writing, thinking that it was impossible to make money from writing and that she was wasting her time. Until that day, she put the royalties into a luggage bag and threw it on the dining table at home.

It was indeed fun at the time, but it also became the thing she regretted the most. From then on, her family asked her for money every other day, so she had to change her identity again and again.

If she wasn't in a hurry to leave her family, she wouldn't be in a hurry to buy a house. If she wasn't in a hurry to buy a house, she wouldn't have bought an unfinished building because she didn't do enough homework.

If she hadn't bought an unfinished building, she wouldn't have had to work as a concubine.

Du Kezhu replied: "Just tell me what you want."

"If I need to be hospitalized, I will have to hire a nurse, and there will be nutrition fees, medicine fees, oxygen fees..."

"how much is it?"

"It should be at least 5."

After the transfer, the other party suddenly fell silent and the good night fell into silence.

Lu Qingxuan's words echoed in my ears again, "You must give up some things for this 'part-time job', such as self-esteem, integrity, etc. I don't think you are so short of money that you need to give up those things..."

Du Kezhu smiled bitterly.

Sorry, she doesn't think she needs to abandon her self-esteem to make money.

If she really needed to throw away her self-esteem to make money, then she had no self-esteem in the first place.

If she doesn't make money, she will lose her self-esteem.

……

"Hello, I'm Wang Zixu, the author of Fire in the Stone... No, it's a bit dry."

"Hello, I'm Wang Zixu. I wrote Fire in the Stone... It's weird."

"...Hello, I'm Wang Zixu, the one who wrote "Fire in the Stone"... um..."

Wang Zixu practiced in front of the mirror several times, but the results were not satisfactory and he always felt something was weird.

He glanced at his watch. It was 8:08 in the morning. There were still two hours before the scheduled meeting. He looked into the mirror and said:

"Hello, I'm Wang Zixu, I wrote Fire in the Stone... No, thanks to my work Fire in the Stone, we have the opportunity to meet... Ugh..."

He began to dry heave into the washbasin, but nothing came out. His stomach felt like it was filled with a bag of stones, colliding with each other and making a "clattering" sound.

He turned on the tap and washed his face, and shuddered.

What he had experienced during this period had made him paranoid. Although he had received an unexpected and beautiful promise on the phone yesterday, he always felt like he was on the edge of an abyss, as if his next step would be to miss a step.

In a blink of an eye, the appointed time arrived. Wang Zixu waited outside the train station for a long time. During the anxious wait, he received a call. The editor said that she had already left the station and got in a taxi, and asked him to meet at a coffee shop.

Wang Zixu hurried over and as soon as he entered the store, he saw a woman standing up and waving her hand high at him.

The woman had short hair, light makeup, and a little baby fat on her face, which made her look cute. When she saw Wang Zixu, a smile appeared on her lips:

"It's you, sure enough. When I saw your name, I wondered if it was you, and it turned out to be you."

Wang Zixu stared at her, stammering. He opened his mouth for a long time. Her name was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't say it.

"Pu Yuyang, do you still remember? Old classmate."

The woman stretched out her hand and shook his. Wang Zixu finally said, "I didn't expect to see you here."

The woman was his high school classmate. They had some interactions in high school, but had lost contact since college. Neither of them had expected to meet here, and in this way.

Wang Zixu sat down opposite her. Behind him sat an old man who was well-dressed and drinking coffee. He kept leaning towards him, but he didn't pay much attention. The two talked about the past and both felt very sad.

"Do you still remember Xiao Fei? The one who always ranked first in the exams, I heard he got into South China University of Finance and Economics, and now he's his own boss. And Ye Ting, after graduating from China University of Finance and Economics, went to study in the United States, and after returning, he worked in foreign trade... And, Xie Cong, aren't you very familiar with him?"

When Pu Yuyang talked about his school days, Wang Zixu was a little hesitant. He had lost contact with his classmates for a long time, and when he talked about those things, he felt as if he was in another world. The more he listened, the more he felt that he had achieved nothing in his 30 years of life. Fortunately, Pu Yuyang quickly returned to the topic.

"When I was talking to you on the phone yesterday, I was thinking, your name looks so familiar, is it you? But looking at your writing style, it doesn't seem like the impression you gave me before, so I'm afraid you might have the same name, so I don't dare to recognize you. I didn't expect you to go down the path of literature, and write so well, it's unbelievable. I remember you were applying to a science and engineering school, right?"

Wang Zixu nodded: "I studied at Beijing Institute of Technology. By the way, do you remember what universities all your classmates got into?"

Pu Yuyang smiled: "Some students who had a deep impression of it still remember it."

Wang Zixu secretly sighed, this is truly a talent.

"How did you end up being an editor at Get?" Wang Zixu asked.

"Why, I can't be one?" Pu Yuyang said with a smile, "I like literature, and I majored in Chinese in college. If I don't take the civil service exam, I can only be an editor."

Wang Zixu was very envious of her experience and nodded, "That's great."

"Let's get back to the topic," Pu Yuyang took out his manuscript of "Fire in the Stone" from his bag, "Many editors in our editorial department have read your work and are all amazed by it, but we have a question."

Wang Zixu became nervous: "You ask."

"I noticed that you didn't submit this manuscript to our magazine "Get" at first, but to "Ancient City". May I ask why?" Pu Yuyang came over cautiously and asked.

(End of this chapter)