Chapter 210: Accidentally Entering the White Tiger Hall
Chapter 210: Accidentally Entering the White Tiger Hall
"Miss An said that she invited Shi Tonghe to attend your seminar."
The amount of information in this sentence was so great that Wang Zixu forgot to breathe for a moment, and it took him a while to recover.
"What? Shi Tonghe wants to attend my seminar?"
The driver said: "I am just repeating what Miss An said."
"Why would she do such a thing?!"
The driver said: "I don't know, I just came to pick you up."
Wang Zixu took a deep breath and spoke his mind:
"No, she's sick!"
The driver looked innocent: "I said I didn't know!"
Wang Zixu thought An Younan was sick. Her driver did not agree, but he did not deny it either.
What does this mean? It means that An Younan is indeed ill, and most likely seriously ill.
This seminar was shrouded in ominous clouds from the very beginning of its preparations: first, his archenemy Shen Qingfeng was going to attend, and then just before the meeting, a collective crusade against "Fire in the Stone" was suddenly launched.
Although Ning Chunyan said that criticism is better than no attention, he still has a faint hope that the seminar can help "Fire in the Stone" to have a turnaround in its reputation.
If Shi Tonghe attended the meeting, it would be equivalent to engraving a monument for "Fire in the Stone", and then covering it with a board and stamping it: He will never be able to turn over again.
He took out his cell phone and sent a message to editor Pu Yuyang, asking whether Shi Tonghe was really going to attend the meeting, but there was no response for a long time.
So he felt a glimmer of hope and thought that Shi Tonghe might not really come.
Who is he? He is too embarrassed to attend his own son's seminar, so how could he attend his own?
What's more, An Younan and Shi Tonghe have no friendship, so how can she convince him?
After a while, news came from Pu Yuyang:
"Yes, how do you know?"
"Let's talk later. We're in a meeting."
The prince looked as pale as death.
He said to the driver, "Take me there."
The driver was waiting for him to say this.
The car left all the way and arrived at Fuxing Shangpin.
This time he was familiar with the route. He knocked on An Younan's door again, and a beautiful face that seemed to be painted with fine brushwork appeared behind the door.
The last time they parted, they had a cordial conversation barefoot and barehanded, mixed with philosophy and poetry. This time, Wang Zixu did not care about literature and art, and said bluntly:
"What on earth do you want to do?"
The owner of the beautiful face seemed to have anticipated his anger, and covered her mouth and laughed wantonly: "Don't be angry~"
Wang Zixu said: "You want to threaten my real identity and force me to cooperate with you in the identity of the little prince."
An Younan said: "I don't think so."
Wang Zixu said: "An Younan, let me tell you, I am born in the year of the donkey. The more you threaten me, the less likely I will cooperate with you."
An Younan said: "I dreamed of you last night."
This unexpected turn of events almost made him lose his words, but he did not forget the purpose of his visit:
"Does this have anything to do with what I said?"
In the blink of an eye, An Younan walked into the house to the rhythm of "Colorful Skirt and Feathered Coat". Only her cheerful voice could be heard from inside the house:
"Come in, come in~~"
An Younan's frivolity and leisurely attitude, in this situation, is as willful and inappropriate as the trumpet creeper blooming between the ribs of steel and concrete.
Wang Zixu stood at the door and just sneered. He would not be fooled so easily this time.
An Younan, who had not been seen for a long time, ran back and saw him still at the door. He was surprised and asked, "Why are you coming in?"
"What if I enter this door and you accuse me of molestation? Won't I be caught by you again?"
"Ouch! There's nothing obscene about that! Am I that kind of person?"
An Younan stretched out his hands and pulled him in, but Wang Zixu stood still like an iron tower.
"If you have anything to say, you can talk at the door."
"But... I'm cold!" An Younan complained in a low voice while frowning, walking with the delicate gait of a young deer crushing spring ice.
It is indeed cold on winter nights.
A north wind blew into the corridor from an unknown source, found the hem of the girl's skirt and playfully stirred up a wave.
So the prince softened for a moment. In just this moment of relaxation, he was dragged into the house by An Younan.
He wanted to resist, but she pushed him with her butt and closed the door with her backhand.
Wang Zixu felt like Lin Chong, who was deceived and mistakenly entered the White Tiger Hall.
There is a joke recorded in "The Records of the Three Kingdoms" that says that after Liu Bei entered Shu, he strictly prohibited alcohol and anyone who had wine-making utensils at home would be punished.
One day, Jian Yong and Liu Bei went to the street. Jian Yong pointed at a man and a woman and said, "Catch them quickly, they are about to commit adultery."
Liu Bei was shocked and asked how they could commit adultery in broad daylight. Jian Yong replied that although they did not commit adultery, they had adultery tools on them.
According to this standard, Wang Zixu could be considered to have entered the White Tiger Hall armed.
Just now at the door, Wang Zixu smelled the fragrance from An Younan's lips, which contained alcohol. She had obviously drunk a few glasses before he came.
At this moment, she was humming a song while busying herself behind the bar, her golden earrings swaying gently, trapping the light from the crystal chandelier. A touch of rouge spread over her snow-like neck and floated onto her cheeks, like clouds on the hillside at dusk.
"Donkey, do you drink wine or whiskey?"
Wang Zixu remained silent. Seeing that he did not answer, An Younan tilted his head and smiled:
"Donkey, why are you ignoring me? Didn't you just say you were a donkey?"
This woman would deliberately leave loopholes in her words, and Wang Zixu knew that he could not refute her.
If you try to refute her, you will fall into her trap. She will start talking to you, and after a while, you won't be able to hate her anymore.
This was the little prince's usual trick.
"It seems that donkeys don't like drinking, so let's drink red wine. Red wine doesn't count as alcohol." An Younan said to himself.
The scarlet liquid rushed into the glass, hit the wall of the glass, ran in vain, and finally turned into an unsuccessful vortex.
"Well, what did you say?"
Wang Zixu said stiffly: "Just now I mentioned your motive for inviting Shi Tonghe."
"Why don't I remember it?"
An Younan walked towards Wang Zixu gracefully with a wine glass in each hand, and stuffed one of the glasses into his arms without saying a word.
Wang Zixu said calmly, "Logically, Shi Tonghe would not attend a seminar of this level. He is too proud of his status to attend. How did you convince him?"
"Teacher Shi is not easy to invite," An Younan breathed warmth into the red wine glass, "I exchanged it for 300 units of Xunyi's traffic."
The corner of Wang Zixu's mouth twitched fiercely: "Who is the traffic for?"
"Of course it's Shi Shuqiu's work, Yesterday's Star."
After saying that, An Younan covered his mouth and said pretentiously: "Oh, you forgot that you are competitors. This way, he has a greater advantage, right?"
Wang Zixu didn't want to say anything.
"After talking with Professor Shi Tonghe, I learned that the National Collection is not just a false title. Once a work is included in the collection, it will be listed in a separate plan by the publishing house and will be reprinted every certain number of years. It is like a long-term meal ticket."
An Younan smiled after he finished speaking: "He was trying so hard to get this spot in order to leave a way out for his son. How pitiful are the parents in the world!"
Wang Zixu's tone was still stiff: "Enviable."
"Will Wang Zixu fight for these for his children?" An Younan lay on the sofa and looked at him sideways.
"My mom disappeared when I was very young, and my dad's way of disciplining me switched seamlessly between the two extremes of letting me do whatever I wanted and being very restrictive. So unfortunately, I don't know."
There was no trace of guilt or sympathy on An Younan's face, and she said in a cheerful tone: "Younan is almost the same." When Wang Zixu heard this, he looked up and glanced at her 200-square-meter house in the center of Donghai City, then rolled his eyes at her.
At her age, this kind of house is something that is destined for her. If she is born with it, she will have it. If she is not born with it, she will not have it. Who would believe her when she says that she has no parents to take care of her?
"Hehe, don't glare at me. My life is much harder than you think."
"I'm not here to talk to you about life or ideals," Wang Zixu said, "We should have said before that the matter is written off, right?"
"Really? I fell asleep and don't remember."
"You are so dishonest. It seems that I was right not to cooperate with you."
An Younan stretched out a finger, shook it in the air, and made a "tsk tsk" sound with his mouth.
“What I said before was that if you satisfy me, I will let you go. You haven’t even collected customer feedback yet, and I haven’t said I’m satisfied.”
The prince raised his eyebrows falsely: "Then you are not satisfied?"
An Younan avoided answering this question: "Let's take a step back and say, even if I am satisfied, the fact that you can still stand here openly is proof that I let you go."
Wang Zixu asked, "What about Shi Tonghe?"
"That's another matter. I used my connections to invite a respected teacher to support the writer I admire. What's wrong with that?"
Wang Zixu said, "Stop pretending. Just tell me straight. How long are you going to pester me?"
"Wang Zixu, Wang Zixu, you are so cute."
An Younan let out a long sigh, curled up lazily on the sofa, and spoke in a low voice.
"Of course I know that you have a grudge against Shi Tonghe. But I don't care what he thinks. I don't care what you think of me either.
"If you ask me why I do this, there is only one reason: because I am happy! I am just a spectator, and of course the bigger the show, the better!"
She stood on tiptoe and her plush slippers made a dangerous move in the air.
Wang Zixu stood up and said, "Then why did you come to talk to me?"
"Don't be impatient. After all, it was you who offended Shi Tonghe. As for me, since I'm just watching the show, it won't be fun if it's one-sided, so of course I'll give you a chance."
Under Wang Zixu's gaze, An Younan stood up, walked to the door of the study, knocked on the door, and said:
"Teacher, that person has arrived."
A cunning look flashed across An Younan's eyes, and Wang Zixu felt a sense of dizziness coming over him - it turned out that there was someone else in the study.
No wonder An Younan's breath smelled of alcohol. How could someone like her be so lonely as to drink alone at home?
Only then did he realize that An Younan had never trusted him and had never given up on plotting against him.
If he had revealed his identity or done something in the heat of the moment, he would have been caught red-handed.
This whole house was an unsigned agreement prepared for him.
An Younan seemed not to understand the chill on his back. He knocked on the door with a smile on his face:
"Teacher Gu will also attend your seminar tomorrow, so I specially arranged for you to meet. As for how much favor you can win from him, it depends on your performance. Teacher Gu, Teacher Gu?"
Finding that Xiaokou's door had not been opened for a long time, she knocked on the door harder and harder, but there was still no response.
She finally couldn't help it, she pushed open the door, and then stood there in a daze.
Wang Zixu couldn't resist his curiosity, so he put down his wine glass and walked forward to the door to find out what was going on.
The first book Wang Zixu saw was "Grasses and Trees in the World" by Wang Zengqi.
A book titled "Grasses and Trees in the World" was spread out and placed on a certain face.
The owner of that face had naturally curly hair and a slender figure. At this moment, he put his legs together and crossed them on the sandalwood table.
His body was leaning straight on the recliner, forming a V shape, which seemed to be intertextual with the V-shaped "Grasses and Trees on Earth".
The man was wearing a long-sleeved, pure cotton T-shirt. The T-shirt was pure white, with only four eye-catching words embroidered on the chest in 48-point font:
“I don’t eat chopped green onions.”
When the two saw this scene, they fell silent, and the sound of the man's long breathing floated in the air.
"Teacher Gu..." An Younan felt somewhat ashamed, but also somewhat worried about his desk.
An Younan picked up the bookshelf hook beside the table, poked the man's jeans, and then the man and "Grass and Trees in the World" rolled under the chair at the same time.
"Hmm? Who? The case is solved? Who's the murderer?"
"Teacher, wake up, you are not Maori Kogoro."
The man started pounding his head in frustration: "Your wine is not good. How could I get drunk after just one glass? Good red wine won't make you drunk."
An Younan said, "How could that be? It's 1 per bottle."
"Then you've been deceived."
An Younan brought the topic back to the point: "Teacher Gu, let me introduce you, this is Wang Zixu, the person you mentioned you wanted to meet before.
"Wang Zixu, this is my teacher, a leader among young writers, the topic champion of Caiya Serious Literature for 9 consecutive years, the dry-humored nuclear power plant manager, the ruins version of Cao Xueqin..."
"Alright, alright..." Gu Zao stopped her from reading out the names of the dishes. "That's enough. There's not much space here. If you say a few more, we'll run out of oxygen."
After saying that, he rubbed his face and looked Wang Zixu up and down.
"Are you the author of Fire in the Stone?"
"Yeah." It was the first time Wang Zixu met a male writer of the same age (excluding Lin Feng), and he felt a little reserved.
"Let me ask you a question," Gu Zao said, "The fire in your stone has been burning for a hundred years. Has the stone finally been scratched, or has the fire burned half the sky?"
After all, he is a leading figure among young writers, the topic champion of Caiya's serious literature section for 9 consecutive years, the dry-humored nuclear power plant manager, the ruins version of Cao Xueqin... The questions he asked are full of literary and artistic flavor that cannot be washed away even if you jump into the Yellow River.
If you ask at another time, Wang Zixu might be confused; if you ask at another time, he might give a completely different answer.
But now, Wang Zixu just said: "The stone turns to ashes, and the fire burns and goes out. But there are always new stones. The fire in the stone is still the fire in the stone."
After listening to this, Gu Zao sat in the chair without moving, as if the computer had crashed. He seemed to be embedded in time and space. For two minutes, he did not even blink.
Then, his phone rang.
"Hey, what?! Zhang Ailing is pregnant with Kafka's child? Okay, I'll be right back."
After saying that, Gu Zao decisively put down his phone and said resolutely: "I have something urgent to do, so I'm leaving first."
"What's the emergency??"
"Kafka is my cat," Gu Zao said as he packed his things, "and Zhang Ailing is my other cat. What's happening now is that one cat got pregnant with the other cat's child unexpectedly, which is terrible."
This is indeed bad, but it is inappropriate. As Gu Zao rushed to the door, An Younan whispered to Wang Zixu:
"Just try your best to attend tomorrow's seminar."
After saying that, seeing that he was indifferent, An Younan simply reached out and grabbed Gu Zao.
"Teacher Gu, there are more important things here than Kafka and Eileen Chang."
Gu Zao turned around: "What?"
An Younan pushed Wang Zixu forward. He opened his mouth slightly, frowned, and after a few seconds, he said solemnly:
"I hope Zhang Ailing and her child are safe."
Gu Zao said: "Zhang Ailing and her child must be safe, but Kafka's little brother is definitely dead. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
After saying that, he closed the door. An Younan turned around and put his hands on his hips.
"Well, it's your own fault. Don't blame me for picking on you later."
Wang Zixu felt as if he was floating in the air, a little detached: "I don't blame you, I blame myself. I think he and I may not be the same kind of people."
"Just because we are not of the same kind, why bother asking him for help?" An Younan was surprised. "You are such a donkey. If you had told me before that the little prince was a donkey, I would definitely not believe it."
"Another reason is," Wang Zixu said, "I don't know how to ask others to do things for me."
(End of this chapter)