Literary Master 1983

Chapter 183 Self-Criticism
After the program was interrupted, Cha Liangyong chased after Yu Qie and said, "Yu Qie, you were going to write about Kowloon Walled City? Are you criticizing me for writing a novel just because I wrote an article?"

Many audience members stopped and pricked up their ears, trying hard to hear clearly what was happening at this moment.

Reporters also held up their cameras, not wanting to miss any moment.

Yu Qie honestly admitted:

"Because Mr. Cha has such a great influence, if I don't write novels and just speak without any evidence, no one will believe me first."

"It is indeed so!" Cha Liangyong sighed, "You are an honest man."

He repeated this several times, and then lowered his voice to an inaudible level, "Alas! You are just like me when I wrote editorials before. I used to be dissatisfied with everything... But it is always easy to criticize, but it is difficult to do something practical."

After saying this, he felt extremely lonely, as if the air around him had been sucked dry. Everyone within his sight looked at him with pity. This was already a very unsuccessful debut in his new career.

God knows whether others will still trust him to be a good committee member in the future.

Cha Liangyong seemed to have taken part in a live broadcast too easily; when Yu Qie threw out one historical piece after another, his witty remarks and eloquent speech suddenly disappeared.

He maintained his demeanor and waved goodbye to Yu Qie, but he did not have time to say goodbye to his friends in the newspaper office. He also ignored Wen Ruian in the studio at this moment, and he fled from here. Several of his friends and the driver followed him all the time, so after Zha Liangyong got in the car, he actually found two or three more people in the car.

"How did you get up here?"

"We were behind you the whole time, Mr. Cha, you didn't notice."

“Did I do a bad job in the interview today?”

The people he asked about were Zhang Jianbo, the business manager at the time, and Dong Qiao, the editor-in-chief of Ming Pao. These people had previously suggested that Cha Liangyong change his mind about Yu Qie and not speak carelessly, but Cha Liangyong did not listen.

And now, he had indeed messed up - but how could he tell him so directly? Mr. Cha was originally confident about this meeting. He thought that he could defeat the enemy with one move by using the throat-sealing sword.

"Don't tell me about Yu Qie. I don't really want to hear about him today... Let's talk about something else."

Dong Qiao asked: "Mr. Cha, where should we drive to?"

"Newspaper office... forget it, I don't want to deal with official business!" Cha Liangyong changed his mind, "Let's go home. Tell me in the car now and get off later."

Several people looked at each other in bewilderment: What else can we say now that things have come to this? Is Mr. Cha in a trance?
We are confused too!
For a moment, I couldn't find anything to say.

Cha Liangyong waited for a while, and finally lost his patience: "Forgive me for not being gentlemanly today, but I am no longer in the mood to share with you. Perhaps I have thought too simply about the path of politics. Let me take a nap and think about what to do tomorrow."

That night, Cha Liangyong was restless and had a strange dream.

He dreamed that he was robbed by a masked gangster when he went out. The gangster didn't care and started punching him. He shouted, "Don't hurt me. I'll give you all the money you have, but please don't hurt me."

The criminal said, "We are the ones who stole 300 copies of Ni Shui Han. Since Qi Shaoshang is not dead, I am relieved. But I came here today to seek justice from you. Why are you speaking for the British?"

"I am not speaking for the British. I am also speaking out of kindness. You have to be reasonable."

The criminal conjured up a hammer and said, "You are already on the ring with Yu Qie. I have no intention of distinguishing right from wrong. You give me your life!"

"Wait!" Cha Liangyong yelled, "Let me see who you are?" When the gangster lifted his mask, it turned out to be Wen Ruian!
"Brother Wen! I'm just participating in a literary talk. Why are you doing this to me? You don't smoke or drink. You're a kind person!"

The man was persuaded by him and tore off his face, turning into another person, Yu Qie! At this time, the hammer in his hand also turned into a 64 pistol.

"Yu Che! We just have some common disagreements. I talk to people about this every day. Why would we resort to violence?"

Yu Qie ignored him, loaded the gun, and said, "That's enough!" Zha Liangyong was so frightened that he said in panic, "I apologize to you, I apologize to you!"

As a result, the gun was fired but there was no bullet, and Yu Che turned into Cha Liangyong's ex-wife, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, crying and stabbing at him.

Cha Liangyong continued to apologize.

This person transformed into the appearances of many different people. Sometimes he was Liang Yusheng (he had had a public quarrel with Liang Yusheng over their creative ideas), and sometimes he turned into several Taoists on Mount Qingcheng, and monks with scars on their heads... They rushed over, shouting all kinds of reasons.

Cha Liangyong apologized for everything and nothing happened.

Finally, the man transformed into a child he didn't recognize, carrying a schoolbag. The child stopped him and said, "Mr. Cha, where is my home?"

Zha Liangyong was already in shock at this time: "I don't know either. You can tell me and I'll ask someone to take you there."

The child cried, “My home has been demolished and turned into a park. Because my family is an unregistered refugee, they did not provide resettlement housing and drove me away…My parents had a hard time making a living, so they burned charcoal after having a full meal, and I died on the beach in Victoria.”

"Impossible! How could I watch these things happen? I am a committee member, a great novelist, you write me a letter, I write an editorial, and everyone will see you."

"Mr. Cha, I can't read yet. Today is my first time going to school."

The child had no power to hurt him and soon disappeared. However, Cha Liangyong found a bullet hole in his body, accompanied by a deafening gunshot, and blood was gushing out. The bullet that had been fired by Yu Qie before had hit him right in the middle. This moment was so real that he could not calm down for a long time after waking up.

------

The next day, Cha Liangyong came to the newspaper office as usual, ignored others, and went straight into the office.

He would read the news of the day every day to keep up with his reading, so there were always news from all over the world on his desk. However, the local news today was all interviews from yesterday, and the people in the newspaper office were afraid that Cha Liangyong would be upset after reading them, so they deliberately didn't deliver the newspaper today.

Unexpectedly, Cha Liangyong's voice rang out: "No news today?"

The newspaper was delivered quickly. Half an hour later, Cha Liangyong came out again and asked, "Where is our Ming Pao? Why is this the only newspaper missing?"

Everyone had no choice but to give the Ming Pao of that day to Cha Liangyong. The front-page headline was not an interview between the two writers of "Happy Tonight", but an introduction to the recovery of the port after the heavy rain not long ago, and several families of boat owners who went out to sea unfortunately lost their lives.

The boat dwellers are refugees from the lowest level of the harbor, a more marginalized group of people. As the name suggests, they live on boats because they cannot afford to buy houses and have no place to live. Whenever there is a storm, if they cannot dodge in time, their boats will be destroyed and they will die.

The interview from the previous day was just reported in a small tofu block in the entertainment section.

"Last night, martial arts novelist Zha Liangyong and mainland writer Yu Qie had a conversation about the demolition of Kowloon Walled City. The main dispute was about who would take the lead. Both sides held their own views. Our reporter xxx reports to you..."

Cha Liangyong was extremely disappointed after seeing this and announced, "Let's have a meeting!"

(End of this chapter)