Chapter 308 These are our good students

Chapter 308 These are our good students

Chapter 308 These are our good students
Jellos looks at The Little Prince.

You can observe his eyebrows, which are long and thick like two caterpillars. At first, the caterpillars are tangled together. Later, the caterpillars seem to be frozen to death and are in a stiff state.

Finally, the caterpillar's body became stiff and curved.

The complaints also decreased.

"The writing is childish and not rigorous at all. Is this the quality of China's number one genius?"

"How could there be such a small planet with breadfruit trees? Doesn't the author have any knowledge of geography?"

"I can't watch it anymore. I don't see any main plot at all."

"I……"

Halfway through the book, Jellos stopped complaining.

Good books have no borders, just like The Little Prince, which can be understood by people in Asia and Europe. However, the author has a nationality, and some of the narratives in the book are more in line with European and American values.

For example, the realization of individualism and egoism. The Asian cultural circle is roughly equivalent to the Chinese cultural circle, which emphasizes the difficulty of leaving one's hometown and returning to one's roots. If you don't like your hometown, then change yourself to adapt, or change your hometown.

In Europe and America, if you don't like your hometown, then pack your bags and go somewhere else! The Little Prince left his planet to explore the world and find personal meaning. Asian readers can understand this feeling, but the sense of substitution is not that great. But in Europe and America, there is a strong sense of substitution, at least in the UK and the US.

The little prince met many people, including the king, the drunkard, the businessman, the lamplighter, etc., all of which are satires of adult society.

Britain and the United States, two old capitalist countries, have a culture that is constantly critical of materialism and utilitarianism, whether in literary works or in public debates.

Therefore, Jellos reads very smoothly, even though he himself is the "businessman" satirized in the book.

The merchant in the book counted the stars because he wanted to save all the stars and turn them into his own wealth. And Jellos converted each word into pounds...

Of course, Jellos does not consider himself a businessman. He still considers himself a writer and literary critic.

Jellos finished reading the work of tens of thousands of words in just over an hour.

"This work..." After Jellos finished reading it, he felt that most of the critical perspectives he had previously had were gone.

"It's hard to imagine that such a work was written by a Chinese. What's even harder to believe is that such a work was written by a 16-year-old student."

Jellos began collecting information about the author on the Internet.

In fact, there was nothing else to search in English about Gu Lu. Jellos searched around and found Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

This student also wrote a second work about Sherlock Holmes, which was included in the Conan Doyle Foundation.

"A Chinese writer who likes Sherlock Holmes? It's possible that he could write this kind of work. After all, he likes British culture and is a person with advanced thinking."

Yes, even Jellos had the impression that China was backward in thought.

"What makes a rose special is the time you spend taking care of it." This sentence suddenly popped into Jellos's mouth when he was thinking about how to write a book review.

That's probably the case, and what Jellos said was not the original text.

"Okay, Gu Lu, I admit that you might really be a genius."

Jellos wrote a book review and submitted it to Metro.

For columnists, there are no big problems and they can basically pass.

So, the next day, such an article appeared in the Metro newspaper: We really need to learn from Chinese students. My thoughts after reading "The Little Prince"!
The article affirmed "The Little Prince" and Gu Lu, but still called Gu Lu a person used by China to promote ideology.

Also, how can an article possibly change the deep-rooted thoughts in the heart of a Huahei?

To be honest, Jellos is still too civilized.

Because newspapers such as the Daily Mirror and the Daily Morning Post also reviewed "The Little Prince".

The number of words in the article report is too long to be excerpted in full, even 10,000 or 20,000 words would not be enough.

So I will only give the more critical comments.

Daily Mirror: The Little Prince is a student who pretends to be mature. He has not entered the society, but says to the adults around him, "Come and listen to me." The content is not suitable for children, let alone adults. The worst fairy tale in history!
Daily Morning Post: If there are other choices, I will never choose "The Little Prince". Even if there is a book "Tractor Troubleshooting" next to it, I think it will be more interesting than this book.

And so on.

Yao Xiaoju saw this and said he was not surprised. It was like this, when Chinese books are exported, it is not that you can receive good reviews just because you write well. To put it more bluntly, national propaganda awareness is above all else!
Yao Xiaoju had no intention of making excuses for the negative reviews of the book. If they argued in the media, these people might even unite and report it to the British Book Society, and then remove the book from the shelves.

With extensive experience in overseas publicity, he simply continued to intensify the promotion of his two previous labels.

Therefore, British readers will have doubts in their minds. On the one hand, 80% of the print media say that the work is not good. On the other hand, it has sold more than 3 million copies in China, Japan and South Korea. So, is the content good or not?

Sales volume did not drop.

The agent is not in a hurry, but Jellos is.

My God, my Virgin Mary, my Virgin Mary Joan of Arc—no, Joan of Arc is French. Never mind! Jellos thought he was being very objective in his evaluation, and that the book was definitely valuable. How could someone lie with their eyes open?
Jeros directly attacked in his column: The satire of utilitarianism and materialism in The Little Prince is easy to understand, and even my ten-year-old nephew can fully understand it. As a fairy tale book, it has received absolutely positive feedback from readers. I even recommend that adults read it more, read it carefully, and read it well. If eyes are not an accessory to glasses, then they will understand that this is a good book!
This is followed by specific rebuttals to certain specific viewpoints.

The fighting power is very strong, Jellos can fight in a row without distinguishing between friend or foe!

Yes, when he was arguing with British book critics, he did not forget to criticize China.

Then the interesting part came, "Jeros is a fanatical pro-China activist. His personal criticism of China is just to infiltrate us. The real purpose is to promote the fairy tale book "The Little Prince" which has strong Chinese elements. For specific evidence, you can read the book reviews in the Metro newspaper column. He strongly recommends The Little Prince and Gu Lu."

It seemed to make sense. Looking at the evidence listed by the other party, Yao Xiaoju began to doubt. Is this Jellos a pro-China person, or a book reviewer paid by Puffin Books?

"From what we can see so far, the first-month sales of The Little Prince will not be less than 120,000 copies." Yao Xiaoju negotiated with the people from Haiqiao Books, "So I think if your company wants to publish Mr. Holmes, the royalties need to be increased."

Businessmen look forward. When seeing the benefits, Puffin Books immediately turned its attention to Mr. Sherlock Holmes. As we all know, Sherlock Holmes is a household name in the UK. As many people know Shakespeare, so many people know Sherlock Holmes.

The road to Europe and the United States is smooth. The parties concerned can sit at home and have the pie delivered to their mouths by the agent.

Time: Morning

Location: Office of the Principal of No. 8 Middle School
Characters: Only three people

"Student Zhou, if you have any problems, please communicate with the teacher in time. Let it go this time, but it won't be allowed next time," said Principal Chang.

"Originally, you would have been eliminated from the selection of outstanding students because of this incident," said Principal Chang. "But considering that your participation in the Model United Nations brought honor to the school and led the school to the Southwest Model United Nations Conference, your merits and demerits are offset."

"Thank you, Principal Chang." Zhou Lin thanked him.

She was not a fool, so of course she would not believe the principal's words. In fact, she saw the news in the Fog City Morning Post on the principal's desk. She immediately understood that it was her deskmate who did it.

"Well, club activities are important, but study cannot be neglected. In fact, for students, study is the top priority." Principal Chang said, "I heard from Teacher Gu that as long as you don't slack off, you have a great chance of being admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University."

"I understand." Zhou Lin was relatively quiet at this moment.

Then Principal Chang signaled with his eyes that Principal Hu had successfully captured the situation. He sent the student away, and he must have said some precautions on the way.

"Pioneer", "Fog City Morning Post", "Mountain City Daily", Principal Chang took his people away and he was the only one left in the office, looking at the four newspapers on the table.

Except for the Fog City TV station, the attention from other print media is comparable to last year's school anniversary.

"Student Gu is truly an outstanding student at our No. 8 Middle School and is truly capable." Principal Chang looked at the Youth Daily.

This is a national newspaper, even if he wanted to invite it, there is no way to get it. Principal Chang couldn't help but read it again.

The subtitle of Youth Daily is: "No. 8 Middle School in Fog City, a pioneer in education, takes the lead in developing a new education model!"

[Wudu No. 8 Middle School comprehensively promotes students' quality education. Focusing on the teaching and educating goal of "each club has its own characteristics and each student has his or her own specialties", it has established a number of campus clubs such as publications, basketball, Model United Nations, dance, and Hanfu, allowing students to cultivate their sentiments in a variety of activities.

In particular, the headmaster of No. 8 Middle School, Chang Yudong, in addition to the ordinary school anniversary activities, creatively launched the "Student Celebration". The students were fully responsible for organizing various club activities. This arrangement not only showed the diverse talents and enthusiasm of the students of No. 8 Middle School, but also further trained the students...]
It's not all praise, there are some criticisms. It's not criticism, it's more of a reminder. It reminds No. 8 Middle School that safety must not be neglected.

In addition, the Youth Daily also quoted Gu Lu's article in the Youth Digest, which defined the incident as "the training and benefits to students outweigh the harm it brings." The editor of the Youth Daily also gave a similar evaluation at the end.

"Student celebration - wait, can I make this a regular event?" Principal Chang was quick-witted. One year for school celebration, one year for student celebration + sports meeting, staggered. Isn't this a political achievement... is it for the students?

The more I think about it, the more feasible it seems. Principal Chang is really going to do it this way.

Why is President Chang so happy? Because the Youth Daily has 31 news bureaus across the country and resident reporters in five countries and regions (two more in 5).

It's not just about national coverage. The newspaper was nominated by Chairman Mao. For people in the system, the last time it was a positive news, it was really a political achievement. What is a connection? Gu Lu proposed something himself and asked the Youth Daily to repay it. This is a connection.

So it's normal to return the favor and take on President Wang's writing job, right?

"Dialects are the most beautiful language in China."

Gu Lu wrote down the title and continued writing.

Of course, I still need to look up some information along the way, because the main body of this article comes from a video that Gu Lu watched in his previous life.

[The beauty of language lies in dialect.]

……

In Henan dialect, light rain is called "dixing". There are more than 20,000 Song Dynasty poems and more than 40,000 Tang Dynasty poems, which describe drops of tears, drops of dew and drops of sweat, but no poet can describe "dixing".

The only person who combined rain and stars so beautifully was Xin Qiji, "Seven or eight stars in the sky, two or three drops of rain in front of the mountain. The east wind blows thousands of flowers at night, and blows them down like rain."

In Sichuan dialect, umbrellas are likened to flowers. When people mention umbrellas, they can only think of industrial products that are manufactured on a production line. When people mention flowers, they think of Yan Jidao's poem "Flowers fall and people stand alone, light rain swallows fly in pairs."

[…]
Gu Lu was still fast at writing, and he had typed out 3,000 words in a short while. If he had been this fast as a coder in his previous life, he would have definitely won several perfect attendance awards!

Of course, the first version is the first draft, and Gu Lu will need to make some modifications to the organization and wording of the article later.

The whole work took more than two hours. I typed quickly, but revised slowly. After all, it was an activity of the National Language Committee, and after all, it represented Bingcheng Qingtuanzi, so the content should be more refined.

It was already past 10 o'clock in the evening when we finished.

"Luckily I've moved my reading time to noon. Otherwise, after taking a shower and looking at the things that need to be dealt with in my mailbox, I wouldn't have time to read today."

After finishing everything, Gu Lu browsed Bilibili for a while.

Then I saw——

"Little thief, give me your life!" "I decided not to toss a coin for you for two months" "Have you noticed a problem? All the works that bring Gu Lu into the picture have terrible results. For example, at the beginning, the piggy bank in the short story "Smash the Pig" is called Guru"...

Readers whose novel Flowers for Algernon was criticized have already followed the trend to Bilibili.

The main reason is that Gu Lu only posts updates on Weibo and rarely responds. But on Bilibili, Gu Lu occasionally responds, so they come rushing over.

"Brothers, it's not that bad." Seeing this, Gu Lu was not panicked at all. His other reaction was, when will the Japanese version of Algernon be ready?

We can't just target our own people, we have to target Japan as well.

Adapted into a Japanese drama, it can be cut twice. The key is that after cutting, it can be sold for tens of millions of copies, which is really a lot of money.

After buying the nest, Gu Lu’s savings were gone, so he continued to withdraw the money.

Thinking of this, Gu Lu sent an email to Xiaolin Taishan.

Previously, he was a co-translator of science fiction short stories for SF Magazine. Because the cooperation was good and the price-performance ratio was good, Yao Xiaoju chose him to cooperate again.

Sent an email to inquire about the progress. However, according to the time difference between the two places, Xiaolin Taishan was probably asleep at the moment, so Gu Lu did not wait for a reply.

"If a TV station wants to buy Flowers for Algernon this time, we must let Brother Yao make a good profit from it!"

He was still thinking about this matter before going to bed, and slept until dawn. Gu Lu was in a good mood because everything was resolved satisfactorily.

Even though everything was resolved satisfactorily, Zhou Lin couldn't be happy at all.

When she returned home, there was no hot meal. When her grandmother was still alive, she would have food to eat when she returned home.

"Hey! Grandma, I'm back." Zhou Lin shouted loudly.

The room remained quiet.

Zhou Lin put down her schoolbag. Just be quiet. If someone really responds, won't they be scared to death?
Zhou Lin smiled when she thought of this - but if it was her grandmother, she probably wouldn't be afraid.

She would be hungry when she got home at night, so she made herself some instant noodles, ate, and washed up. It was already half past eleven.

"It's a bit boring..." Zhou Lin suddenly had an idea. How about making a bet with himself?
[Zhou Lin: Dad, you have stomach problems. No matter how busy you are, you must pay attention to your meals!

Zhou Lin: I ranked second in my grade in the mock exam today.

Dad: Haha, not bad, not bad, you are worthy of being my daughter. Try harder and get first place! I will pick a gift for you as a reward.

Zhou Lin: Dad, do you have time to come back for my birthday?
Zhou Lin: Will you come back during the National Day holiday?
Zhou Lin: Second place in Model United Nations, the club I led.

Dad: Are you that great? You are good at studying and you also participate in club activities. You have made progress in both aspects. What gift do you want? Oh, I was too busy before and forgot about it. Happy birthday. I will send this gift back to you together with your birthday gift.

[…]
Zhou Lin felt bored as he flipped through last year's text messages.

"I bet he will reply if I send this message." Zhou Lin clicked send.

[Zhou Lin: Dad, I got into trouble at school. I may not be selected as an outstanding student or a city's three best students this year.]
OK, sleep. Zhou Lin bet with herself that her father would definitely reply to her, because he cared about these things.

The TV in the bedroom was left on when I went to bed.

When her grandmother was still alive, Zhou Lin liked to sleep in silence. But now that she is alone at home, she doesn't even want to turn off the TV when she goes to bed.

The student celebration organized by Zhou Lin had a great impact.

A vivid example is the two cartoonists from Japan.

"Mr. Tsukuda, are you okay?" Fujimaki Tadatoshi asked hesitantly, looking at his friend who had not slept all night.

"It's okay! Of course it's okay. What could possibly happen to me?!" Tsukuda responded, "I'm feeling better than ever before."

"..." Fujimaki Tadatoshi felt a little guilty. He shouldn't have let his friend eat that honeydew melon stew.

"Fujimaki-san, I never thought that food could be so inspiring!" Tsukuda said, "The honeydew melon stewed with meat is so delicious. The sweetness of the honeydew melon can dissolve the greasiness of the meat very well. I asked Ma Xuanyou for the recipe."

That thing is delicious? Fujimaki Tadashi felt a stomachache when he heard the name. He hesitated and asked, "Why, are you going to promote this dish?"

"It's definitely impossible to promote it, so I just plan to go back and make it for myself," Tsukuda said, "and I suddenly got an idea for a new comic."

"Oh?" Fujimaki Tadatoshi said he was all ears. Since "Young Man's Drive", Tsukuda has not started to paint, and he doesn't know what to paint.

"My inspiration came from the fact that the entire campus festival of No. 8 Middle School was organized by the students themselves. I also want to create such a school and hold a food competition." Tsukuda said, "Don't you think food battles are very interesting?"

Fujimaki Tadatoshi seemed to understand, but also seemed not to understand.

"Cooking Master Boy?" asked Fujimaki Tadatoshi. As a Japanese, the first thing that came to his mind when he mentioned the food competition was this anime.

"I only have a rough idea at the moment," said Tsukuda. "The world view I want to create is a college where students can learn global cuisines, and the college is entirely run by the students. Status and rights are allocated based on the level of cooking skills!"

"It sounds interesting." Fujimaki Tadashi said, "Isn't your culinary school called No. 8 Middle School?"

Tsukuda was silent for a long time, then shook his head randomly, "The name Eighth Middle School doesn't have the unparalleled domineering aura. Let's just call it Totsuki Eighth Culinary School, or Totsuki College for short. The eight also meets our gourmet's requirement for food to be eight-fold."

The Eighth of Totsuki? That sounds interesting. Good, that's what comics should have.

"Have you thought of a name for this comic?" asked Fujimaki Tadatoshi.

"And I decided to name it Shokugeki no Soma!"

In Japanese cuisine, the battle between two chefs is called Shokugeki.

"I've also thought of a name for the protagonist, Yukihira Soma." Inspiration started to flow out of Tsukuda.

The name Soma echoes the word "rei". Fujimaki Tadashi, whose mother tongue is Japanese, understood it immediately.

Tsukuda said, "I want to add that classmate Ma Xuanyou to be one of the strongest students in the academy. His cooking ability is too strong."

"Then you can add Gu Lusang as well." Fujimaki Tadashi added.

Yes, for good luck. Tsukuda nodded, feeling that it made sense.

(End of this chapter)