Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 261 Learn Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Well, and You Will Never Be Afraid of Writing

On January 2007, 1, the last Friday before the city's first mock exam for senior high school students, it should have been a crucial time for intensive review for senior high school students. However, Changfu No. 12 Middle School announced that all classes in the afternoon would be cancelled and students would bring their own chairs and gather in the playground at 3 o'clock.

The reason, of course, is that the most powerful alumnus in the history of No. 3 Middle School, Zhang Chao, is going back to his alma mater to give a speech.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused a sensation!
This is Zhang Chao – at the age of 19, he defeated the “New Concept Writing Competition” with his three brilliant essays. His book “Youth Like You” caused a sensation in the literary world and sold millions of copies. Yenching University and Yenching Normal University fought over him until they were bloodied.

In the next two years, he contributed more than 90% of the media exposure of Chinese literary circles, and almost no major literary event could bypass him.

After the 80s, for the first time, a writer appeared in the mainstream media so frequently and repeatedly raised the public's positive expectations of him.

Moreover, no matter how treacherous the situation is or how dangerous it is, Zhang Chao seems to be able to handle it with ease and accurately find the most ingenious breakthrough point, turning every crisis into a stepping stone for him to move to the next level.

Even in the film and television industry, Zhang Chao has achieved brilliant success. Both "Youth Like You" and "Your Name" were box office hits; he even started dating a movie star...

Every step he takes seems to confirm the saying "Literature changes destiny!"

Not only does No. 3 Middle School have a large number of students who are his fanatical fans, but how many middle school students in the entire Changfu County don’t have a few copies of Zhang Chao’s novels or "Youth" magazines?

How many boys dream of becoming famous with their talents and reaching the pinnacle of life one day; how many girls dream of having a romantic encounter with Zhang Chao on his "incognito" trip in the streets of Changfu one day...

All this is because Zhang Chao’s halo is dazzling enough for them, and the distance is close enough, which makes it too easy for people to have fantasies like “If I work hard, I can also…” or “If I’m lucky enough, I can also…”

Therefore, this speech not only touched the hearts of the students of No. 3 Middle School, but also the hearts of high school students across the county.

Two days before the speech, a magical scene occurred: many students with poor academic performance began to fall ill and ask for leave to go home; then in the Changfu student "black market", a set of No. 100 Middle School uniform + student card could be sold for a sky-high price of yuan...

Not only did the No. 20 Middle School begin to get agitated, but students from Changfu No. Middle School and No. Middle School in the county also began to get restless, expressing their dissatisfaction that their schools could not invite Zhang Chao to give a speech. Finally, under the dispatch of the Education Bureau, it was decided that No. Middle School and No. Middle School could each select outstanding students to attend the lecture.

Zhang Chao's speech still touched the hearts of the leaders of Changfu County. Although Zhang Chao has no official position and is not even a member of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles or the Writers Association, who in Changfu County can really regard him as an ordinary writer who relies on institutional allowances and subsidies and publishes most of his books at his own expense?

A writer may not have administrative power, but once his fame and literary status reach a certain level, the social resources he can leverage and the social circles he can contact are far beyond the reach of ordinary bureaucrats.

Just like Liu Zhenyun and his brother, one is a writer without any position or power, and the other is an official in charge of local judicial affairs. But when people introduce the two, they only say "Liu Zhenyun is his brother" and never use him to introduce Liu Zhenyun.

After all, there are only a few writers of Liu Zhenyun’s level in the country, and there are at least several thousand officials of his brother’s level.

Many people say that China is a "official-oriented" society. Actually, to be more precise, it is "official-oriented" at the bottom and "influence-oriented" at the top. And among influence, reputation is the main one.

At this level, Zhang Chao, Han Han and Xiao Si are completely divided into two categories of people - the latter can only be regarded as best-selling authors due to the limitations of their personal image and creative themes, while Han Han can still be regarded as a semi-opinion leader.

Zhang Chao has become a leader of the new generation of Chinese literature, representing the literary image of the entire young generation of the country. He has been caught up in controversy several times, and the issues involved are often very grand.

If in the first two years after Zhang Chao became famous, some people still compared him with other writers born in the 1980s, then since last year, such arguments have basically disappeared.

Even the harshest critics do not think that they are on par with Zhang Chao.

The network of contacts that Zhang Chao developed at Yenching was not a group of booksellers and performing arts companies surrounding them like Han Han and Xiao Si, but real teachers and elders.

These are the intangible resources surrounding Zhang Chao.

To put it simply, most of the officials in Changfu County would not leave a single line of words in the county annals; as long as Zhang Chao did not make any mistakes in principle, not only would his family tree have to have a separate page, but he would also have to write at least a few paragraphs in the county annals.

This is also the reason why Zhang Chao dared to refuse all other invitations when he returned home this time. As long as the people who were rejected were sensible, they would not feel embarrassed, not to mention that Zhang Chao treated everyone equally.

Therefore, the standard of this speech was naturally raised, and Principal Zhou would probably have to sit on the sidelines by then.

The provincial, municipal and county TV stations also sent teams to report on the speech and try to interview Zhang Chao after the speech. This was Zhang Chao's first public appearance after being "missing" for nearly three months.

In this way, under the attention of people from all walks of life, the day of Zhang Chao's speech finally arrived.

Just after 1 o'clock in the afternoon of January 12, the gate of No. 2 Middle School began to be busy. Various vehicles arrived one after another. Some had to register with the gate guard before they could drive in; some could only park outside the gate and people had to walk in on their own; some required school leaders to meet them at the gate to let them in.

Since Zhang Chao graduated, No. 3 Middle School has not been so lively. Principal Zhou was also very excited, but he vaguely remembered the days when he was doing reception work for Zhang Chao in the office...

The students of the high school department were all waiting to gather in the dormitory area. They were sitting in groups of three or four, holding chairs and chatting in the open space under the dormitory building. The topic was naturally the absolute protagonist of the day, Zhang Chao.

"Have you read the new issue of The Great Doctor? Recovery is the same as before, 10 pages per issue."

"I read it. But I like The Three-Body Problem serialized in Daguan magazine more recently. That one is more exciting."

"What's so exciting about that? I can't even understand it."

"I have nothing in common with a poor student like you who only got 8 points in physics."

"What's wrong with my 8 in physics? Zhang Chao also got 8 in math. He will become a great writer."

"Then take a piss and look at yourself to see if you have grown up to be like Zhang Chao."

"Hey, do you think Zhang Chao will bring his girlfriend?"

"Hiss~~ You mean Song Jia? She's really pretty. If I bring her here, I can see her in person."

"Disgusting, why are you still sucking saliva?"

"If you saw it, you would suck it too! She's a female celebrity!"

"What's wrong with female stars? If I'm willing, I can have a new one sleep with me every night!"

"Tsk~~ Those are posters! Forget changing one every day, changing three will do!"

This is obviously a conversation between boys, which is always easy to deviate from the topic and accidentally go straight to the topic of color.

"I heard that Zhang Chao hasn't appeared recently and is living in seclusion in the mountains?"

"Wow, where's the mountain?"

"I heard it's in Guizhou, there are no roads there."

"Why does he want to live in seclusion?"

"Maybe you are tired of the extravagant life and want to find your true self?"

"So classy looking."

"This is really something Zhang Chao would do!"

"This is what a writer is like! So unique."

"But the topic of his lecture this time is so boring. It's probably another motivational speech."

"Who cares what he says? The main thing is whether he will give us autographs later."

"Yes, yes, I asked my mother to give me a copy of "Youth Like You" and a copy of "Your Name"!"

“I have these two too!”

"Yeah, I said these two are the best..."

This is obviously a conversation between girls. The topic is clear, but it is very jumpy.

The radio in the playground started playing music. It was not the common "Athletes' March", but "Your Answer" written by Zhang Chao and sung by Song Shiyu. It can be regarded as a special tribute.

This has always been the signature piece of the No. 3 Middle School, and is especially played to inspire senior high school students before the college entrance examination.

As the melody of "The light of dawn will pass through the darkness, break all fears, and I can find the answer" reached everyone's ears, the students' discussion changed again - "Hey, why do you think Zhang Chao wrote this song?"

“Yeah, I haven’t heard any other songs he wrote since then.”

“Maybe songwriting is too easy for him.”

"How much money can you make by writing songs? Not even a fraction of what he earns from his novels."

"That's not the case. The main reason is that he was badly criticized by readers for writing songs! He doesn't dare to write anymore!"

"How can a reader scold me? Why haven't I heard of it?"

"It's not you readers, it's another group. It's amazing! They say his songwriting method is ten years out of date!"

"Really? This song is obviously quite nice and original, how can it be ten years out of date?"

"Alas, your nice words are useless..."

"Hey? Who are you? You're not from our class." The students who were chatting noticed something was wrong. They didn't know the tall boy who interrupted them. He was dark and thin, with a crew cut, a circle of stubble around his lips, and wore a pair of glasses.

"Oh, I'm in the arts and physical education class." "Dark, Thin and Tall" explained.

"You are a sports player, right? You also watch Zhang Chao?" The classmate was obviously a little surprised.

The tall, thin black man was obviously unhappy and said, "This is a bit disrespectful. Why can't we who practice sports look down on him?"

The questioning student panicked for a moment, fearing that he had offended the sports student, and quickly said: "That's not what I meant. I meant that you are so tired from training that you should not have time to read novels."

The tall, thin black man said, "Just relax. Besides, his writing is not that good."

After hearing this, someone immediately became unhappy. Not afraid of offending the sports student, he said dissatisfiedly: "Do you understand? You said Zhang Chao's writing is not good? If he doesn't write well, then who writes well? Xiao Si, Han Han?"

The tall, thin black man said aggrievedly, "Just because Xiao Si and Han Han are not as good as him doesn't mean he is necessarily good. Different people have different tastes! Why can't people be allowed to say he is bad?"

The classmate laughed strangely and said, "I don't care about people from other places, but you may be the first one to say bad things about Zhang Chao in No. 3 Middle School."

"Dark, Thin and Tall" said: "It's not good, it's not good. Don't you think that Zhang Chao's novels are too technical? When he writes popular novels, he uses all kinds of coincidences and sensationalism; when he writes serious literature, he uses all kinds of showmanship and mystification."

To sum up, when creating, either they are too burdened with idol image, or they are always thinking about how to cater to the market. The creative state is not relaxed or natural enough, and they are too showy and too artificial. "

After he finished speaking, everyone else was surprised. They didn't expect that this athlete had quite a lot of insights into literature.

The students who defended Zhang Chao were not convinced and quickly retorted: "Is it bad to use skills more often? That's... that's because people know these skills. What's the point of not using them? It's like a teacher teaches you a formula, but you don't use it when you solve a problem?"

This student obviously had very average literary attainments. He mumbled for a long time but only managed to say a few superficial things without making his point clear enough.

"Black, Thin and Tall" said: "It's certainly not bad to have skills, but having skills doesn't mean you have to use them all when creating. When you're writing an exam paper, if you see a question with three solutions, would you write them all down?"

This sentence choked the person on the other end so much that he was speechless. He could only say hatefully: "Just wait, I'll go call Qiu Xue from the Literature Club over and let her spray you to death." After saying that, he ran off to get help.

The "tall, dark and thin" man did not stop him. He just watched him leave in a hurry with a smile, and then hurriedly pulled over a pretty girl.

"It was him. It was him who slandered Zhang Chao, saying that the novels written by Zhang Chao were not good and were all showing off skills." The male classmate pointed at the "tall, dark and thin man" and said indignantly.

Qiu Xue frowned and asked, "You are not exaggerating, are you? - Do you really think so?" The second sentence was about "tall, dark, thin and tall".

"Dark, Thin and Tall" nodded and said, "It's about the same. I also think that Zhang Chao's writing attitude is not correct enough and he likes to please others. He often uses his precise control of readers' tastes to write things according to readers' expectations.

When the readers are the general public and teenagers, and when the readers are literary enthusiasts, experts, and peers, the spiritual outlook of his works is often different. Some people may appreciate this "professionalism", but the lack of a coherent writing personality may be harmful in the long run. "

"Dark, thin and tall" was a bit "out of scope" for Qiu Xue, the president of the Morning Bell Club of No. 3 Middle School. She was obviously not prepared, but she didn't want to belittle her idol in this way, so she could only rack her brains to refute:
"You, what you said is actually totally unfair to Zhang Chao, it's too harsh. Although many writers pursue 'no technique', in fact 'no technique' is also a technique, a technique that is concealed by a more sophisticated technique.

Zhang Chao's novels are very skillful, which may be his way to "no skill". Just like the great writer Wang Zengqi, his early novel "Revenge" used many stream-of-consciousness techniques. But when he wrote "The Rite" later, his skills were obviously more advanced, but people could not see the traces.

We cannot expect Zhang Chao to reach the level that Wang Zengqi reached when he was 20 or 60 years old when he was 70 years old..."

Qiu Xue spoke very slowly. It was the first time for her to make such a systematic literary exposition. Although she was already an outstanding student among high school students, it was still very difficult for her.

The more she spoke, the more curious she became about the "tall, thin, dark" man in front of her who was smiling gently. In recent years, she had been considered a "celebrity" in Changfu's middle school literary circle, and even opened a small column in the composition section of the "Southeast Morning Post". Everyone praised her for her hope of becoming a writer like Zhang Chao in the future.

After Zhang Chao became famous, the circle of middle school literature enthusiasts in Changfu County became extremely active. Not only were the literary clubs of various schools scrambling to get in, but many small societies were also established "among the people", and some even published their own literary newspapers - although they only lasted one issue before "going bankrupt".

Not to mention No. 3 Middle School, she knew almost all the writing-loving people of the same age in Changfu County, but this "tall, dark, thin" man in front of her... but...

But the more I look at it, the more familiar it looks! But it's not the kind of familiarity that comes from having seen it in person.

If you make this person's hair longer, his skin whiter, his cheeks rounder, and shave off his messy stubble, then that would be...

At this time, the music of "Your Answer" stopped, and the announcer's voice came from the radio:
"All students, please bring your chairs and gather on the playground immediately! All students, please bring your chairs and gather on the playground immediately!"

The speech was about to begin. Everyone stood up and walked towards the playground carrying their chairs.

Qiu Xue, however, was already frozen in shock and disbelief, and her little mouth stopped chattering.

The tall, dark-skinned man said gently, "What you said is actually quite good! Zhang Chao is indeed not as bad as I said. He is still young and has room for improvement."

The male classmate who brought Qiu Xue here thought that the “tall, dark and thin” man was really convinced, and said proudly: “I said, as long as Qiu Xue takes action, there is no literary problem that cannot be solved!”

Qiu Xue was embarrassed and wanted to find a crack to crawl into. She wanted to say something, but she saw the "tall, dark and thin" man gently shook his head, so she had to shut up again.

The male student carried a chair and said, "Let's go, it's time to gather at the market. Hey, why didn't you bring a chair? Do you want to borrow one?"

The tall, dark-skinned man also turned and walked toward the playground, leaving behind a puzzling remark: "Thanks, I'll be standing later, so I won't need a chair."

Leaving behind the confused boy and Qiu Xue who was excited.

After the “tall, thin and dark” man walked away, Qiu Xue slapped the boy’s head hard: “You…you…you…” The words came to her lips, but she couldn’t finish, because she didn’t know whether to scold him or thank him.

The boy cried out in pain, "I'm not smart to begin with, what if your beating affects my mock exam?"

20 minutes later, the boy finally understood why Qiu Xue patted his head. He saw that the "tall, dark and thin" man had taken off his glasses and walked onto the rostrum in the playground under the stars. He stood on the podium and began to introduce himself:

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhang Chao..."

The boy's head buzzed and he immediately lost consciousness. He turned around and saw that the other students who were standing next to him were also confused and shocked, so he felt relieved.

It took him a while to hear clearly what Zhang Chao said on the podium:

"I heard that the senior high school students will take part in the first mock exam next week. Believe me, no one knows more about the first mock exam than me!" With just one sentence, the whole playground burst into laughter.

Everyone knows that Zhang Chao embarked on the path of literature today because he was “angry for the first model exam”. To this day, his Chinese answer sheet with a score of 145 is still sealed in a transparent acrylic sheet and displayed in the school history museum.

Almost all the students in No. 3 Middle School have seen this answer sheet.

Zhang Chao continued, "The original theme the school gave me today was "Writing Changes Life, Youth Should Strive to Develop", but I decided to talk about something else, so today's theme is -

"Learn math, physics and chemistry well and you won't be afraid of writing at any time!"

Principal Zhou, who was in the audience, turned pale.

(End of this chapter)