Chapter 186 Everything is just right

Chapter 186 Everything is just right

Chapter 186 Everything is just right

"If you can't remember, then just starve to death!" Wang Zixu spread his hands.

Xiao Mengyin quickly grabbed his arm: "Although I can't remember it, this kindness will turn into a long-lasting river, subtly changing the relationship between us. Although I can't repay you, good and evil will be rewarded in the end..."

In the end, Wang Zixu decided to take her to eat spicy hot pot. Not for reward, but because she was talking incoherently and he was afraid that she would really freeze to death in the cold November night at Nanjing University.

He realized that this guy was actually quite talkative. She was not always the ruthless character who would pour cold water on others during a game of throwing eggs, and she had many different ways of making people hate her.

Xiao Mengyin staggered, pulling at Wang Zixu's clothes all the way.

Her defeated look and embarrassed movements showed that her self-esteem had been pierced and her arrogance was shattered. The cold coat that wrapped her superficial figure was torn off, revealing her weak and empty essence... If Wang Zixu was Ning Chunyan, he would surely have the happiest moment in his life. It's a pity that Wang Zixu is not Ning Chunyan, so he didn't feel very happy.

Outside the north gate of Nanjing University, there is a place that is always filled with smoke, that is Fallen Street. There are many vendors and pedestrians, and the smoke rises to the sky, licking the stars and the moon, and lingering in this corner; mashed potato and meat rice, lotus leaf rice, thick-cut cheese toast, crispy egg and meat burgers, all of which are all kinds of devil food with attractive aroma and appearance. Once you come here, you can't help but eat it, making your body and mind heavy.

That’s why it’s called “degeneration”.

Wang Zixu took Xiao Mengyin into a spicy hot pot restaurant. She skillfully picked up two shrimps, a crab stick, a piece of fish tofu, a big meatball, a handful of knife-cut noodles, five slices of beef, five slices of lamb, and five slices of cabbage from the cold cabinet, and finally ordered a fried egg.

She took her bowl and waited at an empty table. She sat there blankly, her stomach growling, and did not speak to Wang Zixu. When her bowl was served, she immediately drank the soup from the edge of the bowl in small sips, then picked up the fatty beef and started eating. She looked extremely hungry.

She ate with relish. Wang Zixu watched her for a while and said, "I thought you were not good at eating this kind of food for ordinary students."

Perhaps having recovered some strength, Xiao Mengyin answered him: "What kind of image do you think of me?"

"A very artistic and petty-bourgeois girl, like a piece of gilt-rimmed porcelain."

"Your description is very stereotypical, but since you treated me to spicy hot pot, I won't say anything about you."

“People are very complicated,” Wang Zixu said. “Before you fully understand a person, you can only generalize them using stereotypes, otherwise you won’t be able to remember who that person is.”

"Oh, you are a thinker."

“I think the most important task for a writer is to think, and then to write.”

Xiao Mengyin's eyebrows fluctuated, and she stared at him for a long time with blurred eyes. Wang Zixu didn't know that it was because he said something similar to what she said today, and he looked at her strangely, thinking that she didn't agree with him.

Xiao Mengyin picked up a piece of fish cake with chopsticks and said, "I thought about it today. Regarding your "Fire in the Stone", I think you went a little too far. Why don't you withdraw from the competition?"

Wang Zixu was even more puzzled: "How did I go too far? Why should I withdraw from the competition?"

"Your Fire in the Stone is so well written that it's too much."

“As a writer, it would be too much if you don’t write well.”

"But as a young writer who has just started in the literary world, it is very excessive to go against the grain in such an extreme way without considering the consequences."

"Extreme?" Wang Zixu spread his hands, looking as surprised as if he had been accused of murder.

"How can it not be extreme?" Xiao Mengyin lifted the noodles in the air. The hot steam from the noodles lingered with the air, and the edges of the noodles gradually became ambiguous under the light. "Have you read Yesterday's Star? Do you know how many words are in Yesterday's Star?"

"I've read it. About 10 words."

"Less than 10 words," Xiao Mengyin said, "I won the award last year, and the work was also 10 words, but he couldn't write 10 words, the most he could write was 8 words. He even asked me to help him polish it, and the final word count didn't increase by much."

"Oh." Wang Zixu was very unhappy. He felt that writing should be a one-person battle, but Xiao Mengyin made it sound so normal that she helped with polishing.

"He only wrote less than 10 words. How many words did you write? 60 words. This number of words was even published in Get. What is it like? It's like you holding a knife to your stomach, standing in front of the judges of Fei Shi, and saying, if you don't choose me, this knife will stab in from here, and then pull it out from this side. If you don't choose me and choose Shi Shuqiu, it's like asking Shi Shuqiu to help me make up for the mistake."

"is it so serious?"

"Yes." Xiao Mengyin nodded deeply. "You wrote 60 words with all your heart and soul. You are not an insignificant person. Even if the judges are heartless, they cannot ignore your work. On one side is less than 10, and on the other side is more than 60. You put yourself and Shi Shuqiu on the two ends of an extremely unbalanced scale. This game of following the procedures has become a large-scale conscience-searching scene for the judges. Do you think you have gone too far?"

Wang Zixu was dumbfounded for a long time. Xiao Mengyin seemed to think he was too stupid and said angrily, "Do you understand? I mean you have a chance to win the first prize. It's not like you have no chance of winning. I admit that you have a chance now!"

This is good news, but Wang Zixu was not moved and was still immersed in what he had just said:
"But, but, that's not what I meant at all. I didn't write so much just to win an award. It's just that this work happens to have 60 words, and I just happened to write it. I didn't write it to compete with Shi Shuqiu, and I certainly didn't write it to torture the judges' consciences."

Xiao Mengyin looked at him with eyes that seemed to see through his childish thoughts:

"And Shi Shuqiu happened to compete with you on the same stage. He also happened to be the son of Shi Tonghe, and Shi Tonghe also happened to be the leader of the literary world - if there is a leader in the literary world - is it any use for you to plead your innocence to me?"

After saying that, Wang Zixu fell silent. Xiao Mengyin used her fingers to push away the black hair that hung beside her cheek, and put her lips close to her to eat the noodles.

Wang Zixu felt that this situation was familiar. He returned to the time when he submitted the manuscript for "Ancient City". So many "coincidences" created this situation. If he wanted to find a solution, he had to tell himself that it was okay, Shi Tonghe was not that kind of person.

But is Shi Tonghe really not that kind of person?
Now he doubted.

Xiao Mengyin said, "Then, let me tell you something. In the spring of next year, the Literary Association will publish a list of national book collections, and I will be eligible for the first prize of the Feishi Literature Award. Don't you think everything is just right?"

Her tone was very casual, as if she was saying, "This crab stick is delicious," and then she added, "Don't tell anyone else about this."

Wang Zixu choked for a moment: "What does it mean to be included in the collection list? To be recorded in the history books?"

"Well, it will go down in history. Don't laugh, I'm not kidding. After it's recorded, your work will be stored forever in the National Library. As long as the library doesn't collapse, your work will last forever and one copy will be passed down forever. This is a national honor."

"Then, there should be a next time, right?"

"Yes, there will be a next time, 20 years later." Xiao Mengyin said, "The last time I entered the collection of books was 20 years ago, when I sorted out the excellent literature since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The next time, I guess, will be 20 years later, hehe."

"What the hell are you laughing at?" Wang Zixu suddenly became in a bad mood.

"Why are you so fierce? No more giggling."

Xiao Mengyin finished his noodles and continued, "The last time the works were entered into the national collection, the standards were very strict. Shi Tonghe's works just happened to have no entries for some reason. He has won many awards and recognitions, but not this one. So I think this must be a pity for him."

"So he hopes that Shi Shuqiu can win this honor." "So he will do whatever it takes." Xiao Mengyin almost finished the bowl. "Hey, so I say, you really won't withdraw from the competition?"

Wang Zixu thought for a moment, and then he stared at Xiao Mengyin drinking the soup. After the woman had finished the entire bowl of soup, he said to her as she put down the bowl:

"I still think that if the judges think I wrote well, they should give me the award; if the judges think he wrote well, they should give him the award. It's a simple thing to select the best for a competition. Why should it be like this?"

Xiao Mengyin rolled her eyes: "Haha, if you say so, then everything in the world should be very simple, but the world is so complicated."

"Yeah, the world could be simple."

"Goodbye, idealist, goodbye." Xiao Mengyin wiped her mouth, threw the tissue on the table, and stood up. "Thank you for the spicy hot pot."

Wang Zixu stared at her for a while and said, "It's 48 yuan in total. Remember to transfer it to me tomorrow."

Xiao Mengyin paused: "Can't you just invite me?"

"Ever since I got cheated when I invited Hao Chengliang to dinner last time, I won't invite anyone to dinner unless they have a very good relationship with me."

Xiao Mengyin bit her lip for a while and decided not to ask him what the story was between him and Hao Chengliang. She sat down, took out a pen from her chest pocket, took out a tissue, wrote down a string of numbers on it, and then threw it to Wang Zixu.

"My phone, add me on WeChat, I'll transfer the money to you when it's charged."

"Okay." Wang Zixu put away the tissue.

"I will mark you as the stingy prince Xu."

Wang Zixu wanted to retort, and he thought of a particularly vicious remark, but it was too vicious, and he himself couldn't stand it. In the end, he simply smiled with relief and said: "I will mark you as the talented woman Xiao Mengyin."

As a result, Xiao Mengyin was so shocked by his repaying evil with kindness that she stood there in a daze for a long time.

This meeting basically ended in bad mood, but Xiao Mengyin provided him with a lot of information, which made him upset. He was walking alone on the cold and degenerate street, but Xiao Mengyin called him from behind.

"Hey, that stingy ghost king."

"I can understand being a stingy person, but what does the Ghost King mean? I don't understand."

"Wang Zixu," Xiao Mengyin ran over and grabbed his sleeve again, "If you don't want to withdraw from the competition, I suggest you go pay a visit to Shi Tonghe."

"A visit?"

"He lives in Yunchi Villa. You should go visit him. Be polite and talk things over. Sometimes you have to work on things other than poetry. Competitions are competitions, relationships are relationships, and enemies should be resolved rather than created. If you go talk to him now, maybe your relationship with him will be different."

"is it?"

"Really? Go meet him." Xiao Mengyin suggested seriously, "People of his level are bound to be a bit arrogant. It must be difficult for him to come to you, but it will be easy for you to go to him. Maybe he even wants you to go to him."

……

I have to admit that Xiao Mengyin's suggestion is indeed very tempting. But all night long, Wang Zixu's mind was full of thoughts about the collection of the National Library.

"A work of art lasts forever, and a book will be passed down forever." This standard marketing slogan was said by Xiao Mengyin half-jokingly, but it was like a cigarette butt burning a hole in the carpet, which was deeply engraved in his heart and he could never get rid of it from then on.

This honor comes once every 20 years, 20 times rarer than a Nobel Prize in Literature and 5 times rarer than the Olympics. If you win, you will be remembered in history. You may not be remembered like Cao Xueqin, but at least you will leave something behind.

No Chinese person could resist such temptation.

He suddenly became very restless, and at this moment he could even understand Shi Tonghe's persecution of him.

Because of this, he almost did not sleep all night. In the second half of the night, he was in a state of half asleep and half awake, and had some dreams that were half clear and half confused. It is possible that they were not dreams, but simply his fantasy.

At 10 o'clock the next morning, the phone rang like a death sentence, as if it had dealt him a heavy blow. He jumped up from the bed and answered the call. Ning Chunyan angrily questioned him from the other end:
"Didn't we agree to come out today? I've been waiting for you for an hour! Wang Zixu, what are you doing? Are you trying to stand me up?"

Wang Zixu then remembered that he had made an appointment with Ning Chunyan yesterday to rehearse how to apologize to Chen Qingluo.

He quickly put on his clothes and went out, speeding all the way until he saw the angry Ning Chunyan under the Xiaonanmen overpass.

Today she was wearing a sky blue long woolen coat, with a white corseted dress with a cross collar underneath. The coat was solemn and expensive, and the dress was pure white, looking very refreshing, revealing her snow-white skin on her chest, with a sparkling pearl pendant.

Wang Zixu watched from afar, thinking that if "feeling" had a scent, it should be the same scent as opera macarons, the kind sprinkled with almond powder and icing sugar, sweet and refreshing.

When I got closer and smelled it, I found it was the morning dew scent of a certain brand. It was different from what I imagined, but it was also fragrant.

"Look, you're lucky you came to rehearse. If you were asked to apologize to Qingluo directly, what would happen? You were more than an hour late and failed at the start of the game. Qingluo would have to kill you." Ning Chunyan complained angrily, "It's so cold!"

"Qingluo wouldn't be that stupid. She waited for 20 minutes and when she saw that I didn't show up, she went straight home."

"I was the one who called Qingluo, why are you calling her that?" Ning Chunyan said, and suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait a minute, are you calling me stupid?"

"What I mean is," Wang Zixu quickly corrected himself, "she wouldn't be that kind."

After saying this, Ning Chunyan's expression still showed that she was dissatisfied, so Wang Zixu continued to change his words: "Gentle? Kind? Kind, kind? Generous, broad-minded, beautiful, intellectual, elegant and moving..."

Ning Chunyan was finally satisfied and tugged at his clothes: "Look at what you are wearing. Luckily you came to rehearsal today. If you were dressed like this and didn't take yourself seriously at all, Qingluo wouldn't want to talk to you after seeing you. Your apology success rate would drop by 78 percentage points."

Wang Zixu looked down at his clothes and said, "It's OK. I have my shirt and pants, and everything is fine."

"I think you have a good brain." Ning Chunyan said with disdain, "Forget it, let's go to Qingshan Square first."

Wang Zixu asked: "Aren't you buying office supplies?"

"You are stupid. I asked you to come out to buy office supplies, but you can't just buy office supplies. You've finished the job in no time. How can you have a chance to apologize to her? Stop talking nonsense and just follow your sister."

(End of this chapter)