Literary Master 1983

Chapter 406 Curse
Since Diana married Charles, the couple has had two children together, and they have no third.

So why did Diana have her third child carved on the sculpture?

What humiliates a man is when his wife is pregnant with another man's child, and she does so willingly.

Charles was deeply hurt. He approached Diana and said, "The Virgin Mary conceived without a man, and the child she carried was Jesus... Are you pregnant recently?"

"No."

"And who is this child?"

“I felt that William and Henry were not enough to reflect my passion for charity because I have been helping children in areas outside the West for a long time. I found a designer who said that having only two children would make me seem lonely, so he wanted to design a third child to keep me company.”

"What kind of bullshit logic is this? And what does it even represent?"

Charles found it utterly absurd! He looked at Diana and felt that this princess was now a complete stranger. She seemed like the kind of person who, during the sexual revolution of the 1960s, would abandon her husband and children for a single word from an idol.

Oh no! Charles suddenly remembered that Diana was indeed born in the 1960s! She might have been influenced by her surroundings from a young age.

Diana, of course, disagreed: "This means that I am great beyond maternal love; my love is not limited to William and Henry."

If things had progressed this far, it might seem that they could still be glossed over with the guise of charity. But things took a strange turn when the statue was exhibited outside the office of the Royal Legion Veterans Charitable Foundation.

Charles drove to the statue early in the morning and carefully examined it.

This was a statue shaped like a constellation surrounding the moon, with Diana's bronze statue standing at the very center, her hands clasped around William and Henry; behind her was a third child, tugging at Diana's clothes. Charles focused on the appearance of the "third child," and for some reason, he kept thinking that the child looked like Yu Qie.

She really looks like Yu Qie!

Once he had this thought in his mind, he couldn't shake it off.

Charles and Yu Che had clashed online many times these past few days, and he knew exactly what Yu Che looked like. Although Yu Che was rugged-looking, he didn't have the exaggeratedly long nose of a Middle Easterner. Although he had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a well-defined jawline, he didn't have the big, round chin like in cartoons.

Overall, Yu Qie is slightly softer than the traditional Western tough guy.

After he became famous, the media believed that Yu Qie's slightly narrower eye slits represented "high intelligence" and "mystery," while young British women who were interested in literature thought that Yu Qie's profile looked melancholic, which aroused their maternal instincts.

Yes, women can be that brainless when they're infatuated.

Charles sneered inwardly: a man who had killed South American agents, a man who dared to go to the battlefield, and they naively believed that he was fragile and needed their maternal love to protect him.

Like the female agent who went to assassinate Castro, not only did she become pregnant with his child, but she also threw away the poison and tremblingly threw herself into Castro's arms. The CIA brainwashed this agent for a whole year, but it was all over the moment they met.

Charles asked his bodyguard, "Do you think this child looks like Dongfang Yu?"

The bodyguard broke out in a cold sweat. In fact, he also thought it looked like it, but he didn't dare to cause trouble and could only say, "Prince Charles, I have an eye condition and know nothing."

"Did I drive you here this morning?"

"My eye condition hadn't flared up yet at the time..."

"Let's be honest, what if I really want you to give me an answer?"

"It seems somewhat similar, but not quite... similar." The bodyguard carefully chose his words. "Don't you think everyone looks alike?"

"We are all God's children."

is it?

Then why don't I look like my handsome and dashing father?

His father, Prince Philip, captivated the Queen at first sight, and she insisted on marrying him. From then on, Philip lived off her, and no matter how noble the Queen was in public, she was always Philip's beloved wife at home! Equestrian rides, luxury cars, palaces... all of these were paid for with the Queen's own private treasury.

Charles scoffed, "I don't think so."

Charles was furious, almost to the point of vomiting blood, but he managed to hold on until the foundation officially opened. Media reporters swarmed in, and Charles's two sons were also there; William and Henry were particularly interested in their newborn brother.

Especially the grandson William, who innocently asked, "Mom, do I have a little brother?"

Diana smiled and patted his head: "You can think of him as your younger brother; he's my child too."

Henry, still an infant, reached out and touched the bronze statue of the third child, as if the family were enjoying a happy time, waiting for the distant, newly rich baron to return from his inspection of his Scottish ranch.

The reporters, of course, also noticed how strange the scene was. And the statue did indeed resemble an East Asian, with softer facial features than the locals.

A reporter shouted, "Princess Diana, there are some strange rumors going around...you've probably heard them too."

Diana turned her head and said, "Of course I've heard. Ask me anything you want!"

"This statue is..."

“This statue looks just like a Chinese person!” Diana’s words made Charles vomit, and all the reporters were thrown into disarray. Then she said, “I am surrounded by three children, which represents the influence of the title of Princess on the world! As a humanitarian ambassador, I am always committed to global philanthropy.”

"Why must it be designed to look like a Chinese person?" the reporter asked.

He actually wanted to ask if it was related to Yu Qie, but seeing how things had developed and the Crown Prince was in so much pain, no one dared to bring it up directly.

Diana said, "As an advocate for philanthropy, I have always been concerned about children in underdeveloped areas. I believe they represent hope! Chinese children make up a large proportion of all newborns worldwide each year, and they are among the smartest! This is supported by scientific evidence!"

"If there were a third child to represent children all over the world, I think it would be more appropriate to have a child from China."

“They are my sons too.”

The reporters were stunned speechless by this bizarre answer. When they tried to ask Charles what he thought, they found him being helped into a car by bodyguards. His vomit was left at the scene, suggesting he had suffered a severe shock and nearly vomited up his internal organs.
-
The news from London stunned Yu Qie.

He barely met Diana and kept his distance from the princess. Unexpectedly, the royal couple still met with a tragic end.

The two were supposed to separate publicly four years later, and it was Diana who initiated it. Now, it was Charles who publicly declared in the media, "I can't stand her anymore! There are no feelings left between us!" This model couple separated in a devastating way.

The media later uncovered more details, such as the fact that Diana and Charles never had any feelings for each other... At his great-uncle Mountbatten's funeral, Charles appeared sullen, so Diana went up to comfort him.

Charles pursued Diana relentlessly, and under the royal spotlight, they quickly entered into marriage. Throughout the process, they only met privately about ten times. Diana soon discovered the hypocrisy of the royal family, and Charles only treated her as a canary. Her protests, such as hunger strikes and self-destruction, were of no use. In the end, she had to devote all her time to charity work in order to stay away from the royal family.

This was a two-way choice between Diana and the royal family.

"Now I finally understand why Diana was so bold!" Yu Qie suddenly realized.

He pointed to a newspaper article about Princess Diana, which listed her astonishing actions:

She embraced children with AIDS in Africa, shook hands with patients with infectious diseases, and walked through minefields wearing makeshift protective gear, all to express her anti-war sentiments… All of this led the British to believe that Diana was like a holy angel.

But Yu Qie doesn't think so.

Carmen, who was with him, asked, "Why?"

"Diana suffered from depression, which could have been a way for her to self-destruct. Of course, the royal family was happy to cooperate because it was good for their image."

Carmen was also shocked: "Can I include this in my future memoirs?"

"What? You want to be a writer too? Why does everyone want to be a writer?"

“Yu Qie, we’ve been through so much together, and I really want to write a book to describe you, to describe Márquez… and all our past glories.”

"I advise you not to do this; now is not the time."

"When will that be?"

"When the Queen passes away, and the British Royal Family no longer has its current influence, and mainstream newspapers start revealing royal secrets like tabloids..."

"That'll be soon. I'm sure I'll live past her."

Yu Qie looked at Carmen with a complicated expression: No, you didn't.

In his memory, Carmen died young, and her later years were unknown.

At her peak, Carmen could buy up American publishers at will; but by the end of her life, the Latin American literary empire had long since collapsed, and Carmen sold all her agency rights for a million dollars.

After touring his honorary fiefdom in Scotland, Yuche had one more literary prize to compete for: the Booker Prize, the highest award in the English-speaking world.

This award requires the winner to be a Commonwealth writer. It is possible that 99.9% of the world's population are both Commonwealth citizens and hold Commonwealth nationality. Yu Qie is now facing a bug: he is not British, but he is within the British aristocracy.

He was an old Scottish nobleman.

If anyone prevents him from running, it's clear that person has an intention to divide Scotland and England... Nobody wants to take the blame for that, so Yu Qie's English novels are also eligible for consideration.

Carmen excitedly announced, "I will do everything in my power to promote your honors, and I believe you will reach even greater heights!"

Then, Yu bought a nearby plane ticket back to China. He felt that Diana had done too much and was a little afraid to return to London, since Diana's lovers were later all ordered to be eliminated by the royal family.

British media are now calling this the "third child" incident, which will likely become a famous meme in the Chinese-speaking world, much like the "neighbor Wang" meme.

Logically, nothing should have happened; after all, he hadn't actually had sex with Diana. But he couldn't stop Charles from going crazy. Because nobody believed that Yu Qie hadn't done it.

In the eyes of the British public, Charles is the kind of incompetent husband. And even someone like Charles has a few trusted confidants. I believe the British royal family won't do anything, but Charles himself is another matter.

He made a secret phone call back home. Back home, Yu Qie's speculation was taken very seriously. Someone laughed and said, "So you're finally scared! I thought you didn't think anything of it!"

"I can't stay in the UK any longer; this matter can't be delayed."

With the embassy's mediation, Yu Qie nominally returned to London, but in reality, he took a private plane owned by a wealthy Chinese man, transiting through Germany from a local airport in Scotland to return to Beijing.

Scotland is a wonderful place, historically known for its frequent attempts at independence, and it has little connection with England. The media rarely focuses on it, which is why Queen Elizabeth II often spent her later years in Scotland.

Unexpectedly, I ran into a reporter from The Times at the airport. The reporter asked Yu Qie whether he had a relationship with the Princess.

Yu Qie said firmly, "It has nothing to do with me. I haven't seen her privately at all."

"Is it possible that it was a one-sided Platonic love? The Queen once sent a letter to your government. This was a letter from the Queen to the Wanli Emperor 390 years ago. In it, the Queen humbly expressed her desire to establish trade relations with China... However, it was not until 86 that it was actually delivered to you."

"Alright!" Seeing Yu Qie's desperate attempts to clarify, the reporter had no choice but to drop the subject.

Finally, he asked Yu Qie whether the saying "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight" implied that Prince Charles would succeed to the throne in the future.

Because Yu Qie had said many similar things in the past. The most famous of these was his prediction of a major economic collapse in Japan.

Yu Qie laughed and said, "Prophecy and curse are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes it is a prophecy, and sometimes it is a curse. After the Japanese stock market crashed, I saw some investors believe that I used my influence in public opinion to cause a substantial impact—that is to say, if I hadn't made the prophecy, Japan wouldn't have collapsed; but if I had made it and people had seen it, Japan's economy would have collapsed."

"Therefore, my prophecy is now seen as a curse by some people."

"So, is what you said a prophecy or a curse?" the reporter asked.

“My friend, only time can answer that question,” Yu Qie said.

The conversation was published in The Times the following day, and Charles saw it as soon as he woke up.

“He must be cursing me!” Charles cried out frantically. “He thinks I’ll never be king, or that I’ll only become king on my deathbed… He’s cursing me!”

Charles's answer also became material that the media remembered.

When the Gulfstream plane arrived in Berlin, Yuche met with Gu Bin, a sinologist with whom he had worked closely, and had a brief interview with him.

(End of this chapter)