Chapter 232: Passing Through the Dense Forest Surrounded by Tigers

Chapter 232: Passing Through the Dense Forest Surrounded by Tigers

Chapter 232: Passing Through the Dense Forest Surrounded by Tigers

"Zhuang Die."

Xiao Mengyin read out the pen name on the paper, with no visible change in expression.

Based on Wang Zixu's understanding of her, she must have a lot of secret anecdotes to explain about this name, but she didn't say it.

Because her current personality is that of a cool, gentle, and beautiful…a genius literary girl who was forgotten later.

Zhuang Die threw down the pen casually and used her index finger to pick up the hair on her forehead: "Senior Xiao Mengyin knows me?"

"Your song 'The Wild Rose Before Dawn' is so popular, it's hard for me not to have heard of your name."

Wang Zixu felt a little ashamed after hearing this. Xiao Mengyin said that this book was very popular, but this was the first time he heard of it.

Xiao Mengyin continued, "You were invited here just by virtue of one book. It seems that the literary world recognizes you very much."

Zhuang Die smiled politely: "It's all thanks to everyone. Besides, didn't the person next to you get an invitation to come here just by reading a book?"

After he finished speaking, everyone's eyes focused on Wang Zixu.

It was hard to tell whether Zhuang Die's voice was sarcastic or complimentary, but Wang Zixu felt a little uncomfortable.

Because he knew that he was not invited because of a book. He was invited because of An Younan. This made him feel inferior and unconvinced.

He even had the urge to find "The Wild Rose Before Dawn" and watch it on the spot to see how this work was better than "Fire in the Stone".

The female writer next to Zhuang Die looked at him carefully with her big brown eyes, as if she was trying to test his character through the expression on his face.

The woman was wrapped in a wine-red satin dress that looked like flowing clouds. The collar was decorated with pearl buttons and fastened below the collarbone, just enough to cover her snow-white swan neck. Her long hair fell to her waist like ink, with the ends of her hair curled in a lazy arc.

From the moment they met, she didn't say a word, but just looked at everything curiously with an inquiring look, her eyes were clear and moving.

Xiao Mengyin looked at her and said, "You are..."

The woman did not answer directly, but turned around, picked up the pen on the table, and wrote her name on the sign-in sheet:

"Meng Xin (Meng Xin)."

When Wang Zixu saw this name, he was shocked. He had heard of this name before.

Meng Xin is a modernist poet. Her poems have bizarre imagination and strange imagery, but through the tense surface structure, one can see the flesh and blood full of tenderness and passion.

Wang Zixu rarely reads poetry, but he has seen her poems in many places:
"A silver coin floats in the night sky. We take turns licking its hot rust. The back is engraved with the sound of the tide before Christ, and the front is oozing out the year as transparent as pine resin"...

"You show me those kisses that are weathering - the archaeological team is excavating more lost grammar from between our tightly clasped fingers"...

Wang Zixu did not understand poetry and did not know how to appreciate it, so it was difficult for him to comment on how well these poems were written.

But the impression he formed in his mind about the poet when he read the poem was that of a middle-aged man with an unshaven beard - he never imagined that it was actually a girl with skin as delicate as a baby's?

Meng Xin dropped the pen, stood back to her original position with her hands behind her back, and her feet were in exactly the same position as before.

Xiao Mengyin looked at her, wanting to say something but stopping himself, his heart filled with fear.

Beautiful, young, talented, and quiet... this guy...

She has the same personality as me!

Xiao Mengyin also searched her face with his eyes. Subjectively, she was more beautiful, but from an objective point of view, it was hard to say... It was not until his eyes fell on Meng Xin's chest that Xiao Mengyin breathed a sigh of relief.

At least one place has won.

"You are a celebrity now," Zhuang Die stared at Wang Zixu, "I have seen your video on the Internet."

"Oh." Wang Zixu didn't know what to say, but felt he should say something, so he could only say, Oh.

Zhuang Die did not give up and continued, "How should I put it? I feel that you are very arrogant. This kind of arrogance is a little difficult for me to accept, but it is obvious that the audience likes it. In fact, your popularity is accidental. If you want to show your face, everyone can become popular on the Internet, but no one does it."

Wang Zixu was a little surprised. Why, you want to battle with me now? Unfortunately, he was not interested.

"I agree." Wang Zixu said.

Zhuang Die looked at him with amusement. From his point of view, this was Wang Zixu admitting defeat first. Then he said:
"The topic of this discussion is very broad. It would be difficult to support it without a lot of reading. I thought that there would be very few people participating, but I didn't expect that there would be so many people."

After he finished speaking, no one responded.

Among the three people present, two of them were aloof. The remaining one, Wang Zixu, didn't want to talk. But Zhuang Die was obviously very talkative and could even chat with herself.

“I am actually very glad to be invited here because I love reading. You and I are both writers, and you should know that reading is actually a very lonely thing.

"The more I read, the more I think, and the more I think, the more I isolate myself. Whenever I finish reading a good book and return to the world, I always feel like I am floating in a sea of ​​people. I can't hear what others say, and others can't understand what I say. So it's very painful.

"My pain only reached a small plateau when I read 10 billion words, and reached a peak when I read 20 billion words. Now that I have read 50 billion words, I can only be numb to this pain."

Wang Zixu's eyebrows almost flew into his bangs when he heard this. 50 billion characters is equivalent to 7142 copies of Dream of the Red Chamber. If he reads one copy a day, it will take 19 years to finish it... How did this guy read it?

He looked at the people around him, hoping to find the same doubt on their faces, but he heard Xiao Mengyin say:

"Have you ever participated in "The Brain"? "

Zhuang Die was very happy to be reminded of this: "Yes, have you seen it?"

“I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard of it.”

Zhuang Die chattered on and on: "They said I was well-educated, so they invited me to go. In fact, my reading volume at that time was only half of what it is now. They didn't invite me to be a contestant, but a guest. There was a quantum speed reading in that episode..."

The staff reminded them that they could take their seats in advance, so they walked along with Zhuang Die talking all the way.

As Wang Zixu walked, he suddenly figured it out - no wonder Zhuang Die was somewhat hostile to him, both overtly and covertly.

It turns out that it’s because their personalities are similar.

……

An Younan stood on the second floor, overlooking the venue, holding a highball glass in his hand with a thin layer of Dry Martini at the bottom.

She waved her other hand, which was holding the wine glass, in the air. Sometimes she made gestures like conducting a symphony, and sometimes she turned into a two-legged little person leaping in the air. Her fingertips brushed across Wang Zixu's scalp below.

She smiled, and her cheeks were flushed. It was unclear whether this flush was due to the Dry Martini or Wang Zixu.

"Xiao Mengyin is really stupid. She just brought him to the discussion meeting. I don't think she has thought it through."

"What didn't you figure out?" Duan Xiaosang said beside her. "He is a fat sheep now." An Younan squinted his eyes and said, "He has the traffic and the topic now. Now he is a natural stepping stone when he goes to this event, right?"

Duan Xiaosang thought for a moment and said, "Yes, and he even embarrassed the old senior in public. He already has all the characteristics of a villain in anime."

An Younan smiled and said, "This discussion will be edited into a video and put on streaming media. There will always be smart people who will figure it out and then jump up and stomp on his head."

Duan Xiaosang asked: "Aren't you going to remind him?"

"Why remind?"

Duan Xiaosang looked at her tentatively: "That's your boyfriend. How could you bear to see him being trampled into dust?"

"Who is the little boyfriend?!" An Younan raised his voice.

Some people in the distance looked over following the sound.

Duan Xiaosang lowered his voice: "Oh, he's not your boyfriend yet."

"That's not true." An Younan waved his hand, "I feel like you have a big misunderstanding."

"What I mean is, you have worked so hard to cultivate an internet celebrity," Duan Xiaosang said, "If he fails here, the huge traffic will be cut in half, and he will die midway. Don't you think it's a pity?"

An Younan shook his head: "How could I have trained him? I think you have a big misunderstanding."

After a pause, she continued, "I just like to see him suffer. It makes me feel inexplicably excited."

Duan Xiaosang showed an undisguised expression of disgust on his face.

After a moment, she said, "I'm going to be busy making connections, so I won't play with you anymore."

As a "copyright broker", the annual Ancient Xuanhua Salon is a place where she enjoys a great deal of pleasure.

"Go, go." An Younan waved his hand and looked towards the first floor.

Wang Zixu and others have already taken their seats.

There are 12 main chairs in total for the discussion meeting, arranged in a circle, corresponding to the 12 scales on the clock. When they are full, it looks like some kind of ceremony is being held, and it is very solemn and dignified.

When the discussion officially begins, if An Younan's guess is correct, this round table meeting will become a place where Wang Zixu is surrounded by fierce tigers.

……

Zhuang Die was chatting intimately with them just now, but after sitting down, she somehow found herself right opposite Wang Zixu, at the 12 o'clock position. Meng Xin was sitting next to him.

Xiao Mengyin turned her head and glanced at Wang Zixu. He had a blank expression on his face and a solemn profile. If you only looked at the top, it would give people the impression that he had a lot of serious topics circling in his mind.

But his hands were folded on his thighs, and his thumbs were circling in circles - from this we could see that he actually had no ideas, and was at a loss, and feeling very miserable.

Xiao Mengyin wanted to remind him not to forget to maintain his personality and strive for more speaking opportunities during discussions. But no one was talking to each other at the scene, and she hesitated for a moment, and lost the opportunity to talk forever.

The seats were filled almost instantly.

Next to Wang Zixu is Xiao Mengyin, and on the other side is a woman wearing a forest-style long skirt and a beret, who is about 40 years old. Over there is a man in a suit who looks very scholarly.

Except for them, the average age of all the participants in the conference was around 40 years old. So it seemed that they were the youngest.

Because it was going to be broadcast on streaming media, cameras were also carried over, with several camera positions scanning the faces of the seated people.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but the camera was focused on his face for a particularly long time.

The host's voice rang out in the room. It belonged to a dark-faced, thin man. Wang Zixu didn't watch variety shows. If he did, he would recognize that this man was a well-known host from a certain TV station.

After the famous host gave an opening speech, he announced the start of the discussion. The man sitting at the nine o'clock position was the first to stand up and speak - the discussion began suddenly while Wang Zixu was in a trance.

The crowd slowly gathered around, and in an instant all the seats for spectators were filled.

At first, Wang Zixu wanted to listen to the speeches of these celebrities carefully. He even regretted not bringing a notebook with him. But after listening to the speeches of several people, he became a little drowsy.

The topic of discussion revolved around "Nobel Prize in Literature Works", but the speeches of the first few people focused too much on reading sharing, either choosing to talk about a few important figures, or picking on an unpopular character to talk about.

Xiao Mengyin had just repeatedly emphasized to him that the level of this discussion was very high. He treated it as a formidable enemy, but then he found that he had overreacted.

Judging from the expressions of the people who were listening, this discussion might indeed be of great interest to them, but for Wang Zixu, it was indeed a bit boring.

The speaking order was in clockwise order, and soon it was Zhuang Die's turn at 12 o'clock.

“I think the points raised by the teachers just now are very good and have broadened my horizons. I am very fortunate to be invited here to exchange ideas with different people.

"We are all readers, and we should all have the same experience as I do - reading is a lonely thing. The more you read, the more you feel like a lone boat floating in the sea of ​​people, unable to blend in with worldly conversations, isolating yourself..."

Wang Zixu listened halfway, Xiao Xiong spread his hands, turned to look at Xiao Mengyin, but Xiao Mengyin didn't look at him.

Isn't this what I just told them? !

Xiao Mengyin sucked her lips and rolled her eyes. Zhuang Die was using them as a test field. He had already prepared the content of his speech, and just telling them again was considered a rehearsal.

He really isn't pretending at all.

“…However, the sharing of the teachers just now focused on less popular authors that are less known to domestic readers. Rather than sharing less popular authors, I prefer to find new perspectives from some important works.

“So what I want to talk to you about is And Quiet Flows the Don, a work by Mikhail Sholokhov.

"He was only 21 years old when he published his first volume."

After a pause, Zhuang Die turned her gaze towards Wang Zixu and said:

"I don't know what you feel at this age, but I feel a sword beam that penetrates the mist of history. That's right, a sword beam, a sharp, cold sword beam that pierces my self-esteem.

“And Quiet Flows the Don was written a hundred years ago, but its analysis of human nature is still relevant today, and the author is only 21 years old. What kind of talent is this?
“What I want to say is that for writers, the most valuable thing is talent, not traffic. Talent is something that can stand the test of time.

“I just said that I was honored to be invited, but when I saw one of the authors here, I felt very honored.

"This author made his debut at the age of 30 with a 60-word work. He took advantage of the public's natural distrust of literature and publicly criticized his predecessors to shape his own image and gain huge traffic.

"How can I feel honored that such an author has also been invited to sit here and discuss the same topic with us?"

Zhuang Die's lightning-like gaze shot straight towards Wang Zixu from a distance of several meters.

At the same time, the camera lens also turned over at the right time, giving a close-up of Wang Zixu's face. On the background screen, his entire face was magnified.

(End of this chapter)