Chapter 172 How Steel is Made

Chapter 172 How Steel is Made

Chapter 172 How Steel is Made

"A test?"

Beads of sweat burst out on Wang Zixu's back and were absorbed into his suit shirt. His pores shrank back again, and the shirt stuck to him, feeling cold.

As passionate as his speech was just now, he felt as scared as he felt now. The key was that he was not mentally prepared to be tested.

"What's the test?"

Pu Yuyang muttered to the side: "Teacher Li prefers this more dramatic way of making an appearance."

"Tsk."

Pu Yuyang said: "That's right. We specially found a coffee shop to meet in advance just to pretend that we didn't know each other. I think it's unnecessary..."

"Tsk!"

Li Minyang made a more stern "tsk" sound than before, raised his eyebrows, squinted his eyes, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes. Pu Yuyang shrank back and dared not speak.

Li Minyang said: "What do you know? When you are alone with acquaintances, you are most relaxed and can see more things."

Pu Yuyang asked: "What did you see?"

"I haven't eaten anything this morning, and my stomach feels a little uncomfortable. Do you have any buns here?"

"Teacher Li, this is a coffee shop."

Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Li is known as the old naughty boy in our editorial department, and his style is rather...eccentric."

The prince said politely and hypocritically: "My favorite character is the old naughty boy."

Li Minyang's eyes gleamed, "The affair between the old naughty boy and Yinggu was not sincere, it was very hypocritical. The heroes written by Jin Yong were just for show."

Wang Zixu immediately changed his words: "I like the old naughty boy in Happy Planet."

Li Minyang leaned forward and said to Wang Zixu in a low voice:
"I finished reading Fire in the Stone."

"Have you finished reading?" Wang Zixu repeated.

Calculating the time, it took less than a week from the time he sent the manuscript to the end, and he finished reading 60 words, averaging more than 10 words per day.

"Of course, it's a quick read. I'll read it again in depth later," Li Minyang took a sip of coffee, "I can say I couldn't put the book down."

Prince Xu's tense nerves finally relaxed.

He is confident that anyone who reads Fire in the Stone carefully will agree with the book.

"Your work is very good, so we decided to publish it on the first day we received it. On the second day, almost everyone agreed to publish the full text. The only problem was the payment."

Li Minyang continued slowly:

"Yesterday, someone had a hard time passing a message to our editorial department through someone they knew, telling us that your manuscript had been rejected. After listening to you just now, I understand the reason. It's nothing more than you offended Shi Tonghe."

Wang Zixu felt like he had stepped on empty air.

"Don't worry," Li Minyang continued, as if he had anticipated his reaction, "Regarding the issue of you offending Shi Tonghe, I have three things to say to you."

Wang Zixu sat up straight and said, "Please speak."

"First, there have always been many writers who look down on each other, including some well-known writers. Lu Xun looked down on Bing Xin, Maugham looked down on Balzac, and Nabokov looked down on Dostoyevsky..."

"Woolf looked down on Joyce, Wilde looked down on Proust, Faulkner looked down on Hemingway..." Wang Zixu continued what he said.

"Yes. Yes." Li Minyang nodded. "There are many conflicts between writers. Our magazine has published many works of writers who have conflicts with each other. Sometimes they are even published in the same issue. The tension between the two is very strong, but the readers don't know. Your conflicts with anyone have nothing to do with us. We only look at the quality of the work."

The prince nodded. That's exactly what should be done.

"Second sentence," Li Minyang said, "You think too badly of us."

Wang Zixu sat upright like a primary school student, listening attentively.

"Shi Tonghe is not a tiger. Can he jump into our editorial office and bite us to death one by one? Why do you have to be so scared? If we publish your article and he is unhappy, then let him be unhappy. If it rains, it will rain. If my mother wants to get married, what can he do?"

Li Minyang spoke excitedly, gulped down his coffee, and said: "The third sentence is, as a writer, you must have your own pride."

Prince Xu bowed: "What do you mean specifically..."

“Do you think you write well?”

"is acceptable."

"That won't work." Li Minyang said, "You have to write very well. You have to think that you are unique and unparalleled in the world. Only then will we feel at ease to publish your article. If you don't believe in it yourself, how can others believe in you?"

Wang Zixu nodded and changed his words: "I think my "Fire in the Stone" cannot be changed any more."

Li Minyang nodded and smiled, "Yes, that's how it should be. Even some new writers who don't write very well are very proud of their works and act very arrogant after writing them. You can't be so indifferent to your own works. Submit your manuscripts to Get and wait until it's rejected. If you don't have the courage, don't write in the first place."

"it is good."

Pu Yuyang was getting mad: "Teacher Li, it's hard for me to carry out follow-up work if you do this! I still have to discuss the manuscript revision with him, and you've inflated his self-confidence. How can I communicate with him next?"

Li Minyang chuckled: "You are responsible for saving this manuscript, and I am responsible for saving his entire writing career." After that, the three of them checked into a business room and sat together to revise the manuscript.

Wang Zixu believed that Pu Yuyang had prepared seriously. The 60-word manuscript was filled with two notebooks of sticky notes. On average, there were lines drawn on every two pages, and even punctuation errors were marked.

During the break of revising the manuscript, Wang Zixu got up and walked around, went to the balcony and lit a cigarette, and Pu Yuyang followed him from behind.

"Actually, I'm very curious about how you offended Shi Tonghe."

Wang Zixu looked back at her, and Pu Yuyang raised his hands and said, "I'm just curious. If you don't want to tell me, there's no need to tell me."

Wang Zixu was a little depressed and shook some cigarette ash into the corner: "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, but I don't know how I offended him."

Pu Yuyang stared at him seriously for a long time and said, "You should think like this. In fact, he didn't do anything against you. If he really wanted to deal with you with all his strength, then things would not be as simple as Teacher Li said."

Wang Zixu nodded and said, yes, he probably only used the strength of his fingernail to deal with me.

Pu Yuyang smiled and said, "Maybe even less than that. Probably just the strength of a half-moon minus the size of my fingernail to deal with you."

After that, she leaned on the railing and added: "Actually, I admire you very much."

"What do you admire? Do you admire me for not having a job, or for waiting for my royalties to start rolling in?"

Pu Yuyang turned to look at him: "I admire you for having a dream."

"That sounds pretty vulgar."

"No, no." She said, "I really envy you for having a clear hobby and motivation to do what you want to do. Most people just go with the flow, but you not only take the initiative to do it, but also have made certain achievements. For me, even if I want to offend Shi Tonghe, I have nowhere to offend him."

Wang Zixu said, "Next time I see Shi Tonghe, I'll call you. You can spit at him and definitely offend him."

Pu Yuyang chuckled: "Don't argue. Hmm, but I feel that you are closer to the prince Xu in my impression. You were too dull before. I remember that you were quite sunny and cheerful before."

Wang Zixu took a puff of his cigarette: "Yeah."

If he passed by my 17-year-old self now, I would definitely ignore him as an uninteresting and boring adult.

But it has been like this for a long time. It's like iron. Once it is hammered, it will eventually become something completely unrecognizable.

Only a few will be thrown into the furnace, raised in temperature, quenched and tempered, and then turned into steel.

"I suddenly remembered," Pu Yuyang suddenly laughed, "Chen Qingluo was in our class before, do you remember?"

"How could I not remember?" Wang Zixu said, "We even sat at the same table."

"You two actually sat at the same table?" Pu Yuyang really didn't remember anything about this. "I just remember that Xie Cong sat at the same table with her. He liked her very much and always wanted to pursue her, but he couldn't. At that time, many boys in the class had a crush on her."

Wang Zixu pursed his lips, feeling a little bitter: "Actually, she..."

"What's wrong?"

"What did you want to say just now? I forgot. Never mind, it must be something unimportant." The prince covered up clumsily.

He originally wanted to say that he and Chen Qingluo worked in the same office, but after thinking it over, he decided not to reveal any extra information, lest Pu Yuyang spread the news to his old classmates and cause more chaos.

"Until now, our Chinese teacher brags to the new students every year that he taught Chen Qingluo," Pu Yuyang said. "I hope you can break through your current predicament and become a great writer like Chen Qingluo that we can be proud of."

"Thank you."

Wang Zixu thought again about what Li Minyang had just said.

"Shi Tonghe!" Wang Zixu shouted towards the building opposite, "I will step on you to win the prize!"

After he finished speaking, he turned around and saw Pu Yuyang standing beside him, looking at him with an unspeakable expression.

"Teacher Li just said that we should have some pride of our own, but I feel that it is a bit too arrogant, isn't it?"

"A little bit." Pu Yuyang nodded slowly. "If you say it in front of him, a little bit. It's okay if you shout at inorganic matter."

Back in the room, Li Minyang put down the manuscript. The old man raised his face, and his white hair shone silver in the afternoon sun.

"I just thought about it," Li Minyang said, "The reading threshold of your article is too high. I don't know if it can achieve the expected impact just by publishing it."

Pu Yuyang asked, "You mean, it should be published on the front page? Isn't the front page of the next issue already reserved for Gu Zao?"

Gu Zao is a popular young writer recently. He debuted earlier than Wang Zixu and is about the same age as him.

Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and asked, "Do you mind waiting for one more issue to publish your article in the next issue? Maybe we can get a front page spot by then."

Wang Zixu shook his head: "I want to send it out as soon as possible."

If I want to strive for the Fei Shi Sui Han Literature Award, it will be too late to wait another month.

Li Minyang shook his head: "That's not what I meant, I was thinking... well, let's wait until the first issue is released and see the social response.

“If the response is good, I wonder if I should contact the Literature Association to hold a seminar to promote this work.”

(End of this chapter)