Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 171 The advantage is mine!

"What? Zhang Chao put 20 grams of gold in the book?" Wang Meng sighed after hearing the news and asked, "Should this meeting continue?"

After saying that, he smiled and looked at the other people in the conference room, especially Bai Ye.

Bai Ye's face was so dark that juice could be squeezed out of it, but he was also panicking inside. Although he didn't figure out Zhang Chao's purpose for doing this for a while, he was sure that the attack from the past few days had failed.

Moreover, he had a bad feeling that Zhang Chao's counterattack would definitely be more than this.

Today he was specially invited to attend a closed-door meeting within the Writers Association in order to do his work and try to resolve the conflict between him and Zhang Chao.

The reason why they went to Bai Ye first was because everyone felt that he had the upper hand this time. After Bai Ye had done his job, they would go to Zhang Chao and make him give in.

Just 10 minutes ago, Bai Ye said to everyone with a serious face: "The dispute between Zhang Chao and I is not a personal grudge, but a dispute of ideas and principles. To put it more broadly, it is a dispute between right and wrong, black and white."

"I know many of you value Zhang Chao very much, but we cannot compromise on matters of principle, we cannot blur the lines between right and wrong, and we cannot confuse black and white!"

These words were spoken in a decisive manner, making Wang Meng, Tie Ning, Jiang Zilong, Ye Xin and others present look embarrassed.

However, as the staff urgently reported the breaking news that "there is a golden house in books", the situation suddenly became unclear.

Seeing that Bai Ye was silent, Wang Meng kindly reminded him, "This will be disadvantageous to you. Xiaobai, why don't you give in?"

Bai Ye thought about it and felt that Zhang Chao had only resolved the crisis of "selling books at sky-high prices" this time. Wasn't he helpless in dealing with the previous doubts? Zhang Chao was just using the gold in the book to divert attention.

What’s more, there are 200 critics and writers in his QQ group, but Zhang Chao currently has only one person, and he has also declared that he “will no longer defend himself” - isn’t this just surrendering?

The advantage is mine!

Hearing Wang Meng's words, Bai Ye's heart was once again filled with nameless anger. He said coldly, "We should give in? How should we give in? Should we disband the Literary Criticism Research Association, or should we stop publishing the Literary Criticism magazine?"

This sentence made Wang Meng so embarrassed that she had to shut up.

Tie Ning was not as experienced as Wang Meng, but she quickly figured out the key point and quickly advised: "Teacher Bai, that's too much. Now you give way, and Zhang Chao, let's do our work, and he should give way too..."

Bai Ye interrupted, "Then you should go find Zhang Chao first. Sorry, I can't let him go! Sorry, I have to leave first."

After that, he stood up and left the meeting, leaving the vice chairmen looking at each other helplessly.

Jiang Zilong said: "Xiaobai is so angry that he is confused."

Ye Xin also said: "Yes, those who are involved are often confused. Zhang Chao has socialized the literary issue by doing this. Alas, why is he so stubborn!"

Seeing what Tie Ning was about to say, Wang Meng pressed her hand down slightly, signaling her not to speak, and said, "I think this time, no one should try to smooth things over. Think carefully, is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

The old writer Jiang Zilong was the first to react. He laughed and said, "Good news, of course it's good news!"

Ye Xin and Tie Ning also reacted and nodded in agreement: "Good thing, it is indeed a good thing."

Wang Meng said: "Since it is a good thing, we should be happy to see it happen. Don't forget, we are called the Writers Association, not the Criticism Association. We should find a way to make good use of the opportunity Zhang Chao has created for us this time."

Tie Ning hesitated and asked, "What about Teacher Bai?"

Wang Meng waved her hand casually and said, "Every failure makes one wiser. Maybe after this, writers and critics will really unite."

Bai Ye returned to the office of the Institute of Literature and Art of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in a rage. He took a long time to calm down behind his desk. The reactions of Wang Meng, Tie Ning and others just now made him feel fooled, as if "everyone is awake but I am drunk alone".

At this time, a phone call came in. Bai Ye saw that it was from Feng Zheng, so he picked up the phone and said, "Xiao Feng, what's the matter?"

Feng Zheng said: "Teacher Bai, do you know what happened this morning?"

"I see. Zhang Chao is really willing to spend money on this. Each book costs 20 grams of gold, so 300 books is almost 100 million. He is just being mysterious and panicking!"

"...Teacher Bai, you are wise!"

"Xiao Feng, stop hesitating. What's the matter?"

"Teacher Bai, do you remember another thing Zhang Chao said in his article "No Longer Self-Defense"?

"...You mean the reward?" Bai Ye vaguely guessed Feng Zheng's thoughts and suddenly asked in a stern voice: "You want to collect the 10 yuan?"

Feng Zheng was startled on the other end of the phone and quickly explained: "No... Teacher Bai... I... but..."

Bai Ye soothed him gently, "Xiao Feng, Zhang Chao's move is intended to divide us. Don't be fooled. After this matter is over, I will call your dean... You have a bright future in academia!

Moreover, the article “Don’t Let “Pornographic and Violent Publications” Take Over the Spiritual World of Young People” is the product of collective wisdom. I believe you are aware of this, right?”

Feng Zheng listened in silence and said, "Of course I know. Thank you, Teacher Bai." Then he hung up the phone. Bai Ye looked at the darkened screen of his phone and felt uneasy. Sure enough, before he got off work, he received a call from Chang Lihua. The other party's tone was obviously very panicked. She said, "Teacher Bai, it's bad. I can't log in to the account of 'Qin Xin Jian Dan'. It always shows that the password is wrong."

Bai Ye's scalp exploded, and he quickly asked: "Are you sure? Did you enter it wrong?"

Chang Lihua said: "I tried several other passwords, and they were all the same. Only, only..."

"Only what?"

"There's only Feng Zheng. I can't contact him. No one answered the phone, and no one responded to my QQ message."

"Feng Zheng, that bastard! He's going to be a traitor... (crossed out) a traitor!" Bai Ye quickly hung up the phone. He immediately called Feng Zheng's cell phone, but after a long wait, no one picked up the phone.

Bai Ye slammed the phone heavily on the receiver, slumped in his chair and gasped.

At this moment, Feng Zheng has arrived at the headquarters of Xinlang Company in Zhongguancun Software Park in Yanjing, and turned on his laptop in the office of the head of the Xinlang Blog Division.

"Here is my account number and password. Look, I can log in. My password is my date of birth. You can see my ID card."

"This is the registered email address, and this is the security email address. I can log in to both of them. You see, the 'FZ' in the email address is the abbreviation of my name."

“Here are the answers to 3 security questions.”

"This is the Word document for the article 'Mo Rang'. Look at the editing time of the document. This cannot be fake."

"besides……"

Chen Tong and Zhang Chao from Xinlang Blog stood behind Feng Zheng and watched his entire operation. Another staff member also recorded the entire process in audio and video.

In this era, blogs, emails, and QQ have not yet implemented real-name registration, so it is still quite troublesome to prove that an account belongs to you. However, Feng Zheng's entire operation was extremely smooth, enough to prove that "The Heart of the Qin and the Courage of the Sword" belonged to him.

After the demonstration, Feng Zheng turned around and said to Zhang Chao, "Is this all right?"

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "The evidence is sufficient. I fully agree. I thought this 'Qin Xin Jian Dan' was just an ordinary reader."

Feng Zheng smiled bitterly and said, "Teacher Bai said that we should be divided into two teams, the 'light' and the 'dark' teams. The 'dark' team is..."

Zhang Chao interrupted quickly, "Stop talking. I'm not interested either. If you sign a letter of commitment, I'll give you the 10 yuan right away."

Feng Zheng lowered his head and said, "Okay." He read the letter of commitment again, felt that there was no problem, and signed his name and ID number.

The letter of commitment was made in triplicate, with Zhang Chao, Feng Zheng and Xin Lang each keeping one copy.

Chen Tong asked: "Teacher Feng, do we really not need to hold a press conference together?"

Feng Zheng jumped up as if he had been bitten by a snake, and waved his hands in panic to refuse, "Don't do that! You promised not to let my name appear in any media."

Chen Tong said regretfully: "That's such a pity..."

Zhang Chao took a small bag and took out a bunch of 10-yuan bills, which were neatly tied together. Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Teacher Feng, each stack is 1 yuan, a total of 10 yuan, please count them. If you are worried, you can bring the money counting machine from the finance office."

Feng Zheng quickly said, "No, no, I trust you. You've given me so much gold, you won't do anything with this little money." Then he hurriedly stuffed 10 stacks of bills into his bag.

Zhang Chao said to Chen Tong, "Will you send a driver to take Teacher Feng back?"

Chen Tong readily agreed and immediately called to arrange a car.

Feng Zheng packed up the money, put the bag in his arms, zipped it up, and his bulging belly looked like he was pregnant. He looked at Zhang Chao with a complicated expression, sighed, and then turned and left the office. As soon as he went downstairs, he saw the Mercedes-Benz arranged by Chen Tong waiting downstairs.

As soon as Feng Zheng got in the car, he calmed down his excitement, took out his cell phone, and dialed a number: "Wife, I have good news for you - we have enough money for the down payment! You also need to take a day off tomorrow, and we will go to look at houses! We don't have to squeeze into a 10-square-meter dormitory anymore!"

Zhang Chao watched Feng Zheng's back disappear before he said to Chen Tong, "I didn't expect it was him..."

Chen Tong asked curiously: "Why? Is this person special?"

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "Human nature really cannot stand the test - by the way, how are you guys doing with the voting function I mentioned last time?"

Chen Tong said: "It's not difficult to achieve. Engineers are already doing internal testing. But are you really that confident?"

Zhang Chao said: "Confident? I'm just bold - but you must do a good job of preventing vote fraud."

Chen Tong said: "Don't worry, we have set up a three-layer anti-scam this time. The first layer is that duplicate IPs are only allowed to vote once..."

(There will be another chapter later)
(End of this chapter)