1985, the year of the great writer, began with Infernal Affairs!

Chapter 101 Xie Lu, Why Did You Kill People Off in "Infernal Affairs"?

Xie Lu nodded and said, "Thanks."

"No need to thank me." Chu Yunfei waved his hand. "But in the future, when you write something, could you let me see it first? Before it's published, just show it to me when you're done."

After thinking for a moment, Xie Lu said, "Okay."

Chu Yunfei immediately smiled, a very satisfied smile.

Chu Yunfei's thinking was simple: Xie Lu's writing was all good stuff, and he could read it immediately. He wouldn't have to fight for the monthly magazine anymore; this treatment couldn't be better.

The two people stood in that corner, the light dim and yellowish.

Occasionally, someone would walk by at the other end of the corridor, their footsteps muffled, and no one paid any attention to this side.

"Alright, let's go back. If we don't go back soon, the boss will think we've been fighting."

He turned and walked towards the dormitory, but after taking two steps, he turned back and said, "Fourth brother, you have to remind me about the prequel next month. I'll be the first to buy it."

Xie nodded.

Chu Yunfei then left satisfied.

Xie Lu followed behind, watching his cheerful figure, and suddenly felt a little touched.

This show-off usually seems unserious, but when it comes to a real matter, he's actually quite reliable.

The two returned to their dormitory one after the other.

As soon as the door opened, Chen Xiangdong and Zhou Wenbin both looked over.

"Where did you two go?" Chen Xiangdong asked first.

"It's nothing." Chu Yunfei lay down on his bed as if nothing had happened.

Zhou Wenbin looked at him, then at Xie Lu, and felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Xie Lu took a washbasin and went to the washroom to wash up.

When they returned, Chu Yunfei was already lying down, his eyes closed, as if he were asleep.

Xie Lu lay down on his bed, closed his eyes, and thought about what he had written that day.

The part about Sun Shaoan and Tian Runye needs to be revised again tomorrow.

It's time for Sun Shao-ping to make his appearance...

As I thought about it, I slowly fell asleep.

Time flies and it's already the end of the month.

Xie Lu's life has been very regular these days.

I go to class in the morning, and when I don't have class in the afternoon, I go to my little room to write until it gets dark. After dinner, I go back to my dorm to sleep.

The cycle repeated itself endlessly, without a single day's break.

He wrote "Ordinary World" more smoothly than he had imagined.

More than 1.1 million words sounds daunting, but when I actually write, I write at least 20,000 words a day, and sometimes more than 30,000 words. I've written almost 900,000 words so far.

We still need about 200,000 yuan, and we can finish in about ten more days.

The manuscript paper was piled up in several thick stacks on the table, taking up most of the tabletop.

As Xie Lu wrote, he would sometimes stop and glance at his work.

These words, which he had read countless times in his previous life, now flowed from his pen one by one, landing on the manuscript paper and transforming into something new.

The characters, the story, the scenes—everything was exactly the same as he remembered.

He wrote about the part where Sun Shaoan and Tian Runye broke up.

Runye came to find Shaoan, stood at his door, and said she had something to tell him.

Shao'an led her to the riverbank outside the village, and the two of them stood there, neither of them speaking.

Runye lowered her head, her face flushed, and after a long pause, she finally managed to say, "Brother Shao'an, I want... I want to spend my life with you."

Shao'an was stunned.

He likes Runye; they grew up together. How could he not like her?

But he knew he wasn't good enough for her.

He was a farmer, and she was a candidate to become the daughter-in-law of a county leader. The gap between them was greater than the distance between several mountains.

He remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Runye, I'm just a peasant. If you follow me, you'll suffer."

Runye raised her head, her eyes reddening: "I'm not afraid of suffering."

Shao'an shook his head: "Whether you're afraid or not is your business, I can't let you suffer."

He turned and left, walking quickly without looking back.

Runye stood by the river, watching his figure grow smaller and smaller as he walked away, tears streaming down her face.

Xie Lu stopped writing at this point.

He looked at the few lines on the manuscript paper and remembered how he felt a tightness in his chest when he first read this passage in his previous life.

Runye is so good, Shaoan is so good, but they just can't be together.

It's not that anyone was wrong, it's fate.

He put down his pen and rubbed his eyes.

A sniffing sound came from the side.

Xie Lu turned his head and saw Chu Yunfei sitting in the corner, holding several sheets of paper in his hands, his eyes red.

I don't know when he arrived, but he moved a small stool, sat there, and watched without saying a word.

Chu Yunfei has been coming every day these days. He comes over whenever he doesn't have classes in the afternoon, pulls up a small stool, sits in the corner, and watches him write.

Xie Lu writes a page, and he reads a page.

After looking at it, he didn't say anything, just sat there and waited for the next one.

Sometimes Xie Lu felt that he was like a cat waiting to be fed.

"Finished reading?" Xie Lu asked.

Chu Yunfei nodded, his voice a little hoarse: "I've finished reading it."

"How do you feel?"

Chu Yunfei was silent for a moment, then said, "It's too bitter."

He paused, then said, "How could Shao'an be so foolish? Runye said that, and he still..."

"If it were me, I would definitely stick to it."

Xie Lu did not respond.

Chu Yunfei looked at the manuscript in his hand again and sighed, "It's really well written."

Xie Lu picked up his pen and continued writing.

Chu Yunfei sat there, lost in thought for a while, then leaned over to look again.

Sun Shaoan later married He Xiulian.

Xiulian is from Shanxi. She doesn't want a bride price; she only wants Shao'an.

She said to Shao'an, "I've taken a liking to you, just don't look down on me."

Shao'an didn't say anything at the time. Later, he spent most of his life with Xiulian, sharing hardships and joys. They had children, built a new house, and started a brick kiln.

In the end, Xiulian became very ill from overwork and eventually developed lung cancer.

Xie Lu wrote that when Xiulian was sick, Chu Yunfei was sighing beside her.

"This woman is so wonderful, how did she get sick?"

Xie ignored him and continued writing.

Things aren't going well for Sun Shao-ping either.

He went to Huangyuan to find work, carrying stones, hauling cement, and doing all sorts of hard and tiring jobs.

Later, I went to a coal mine and worked underground digging coal.

He met Tian Xiaoxia, the daughter of a local official.

Xiaoxia asked him, "Shaoping, what do you want to do in the future?"

Shao Ping said, "I don't know, let's just stay alive for now."

Xiaoxia said, "You are an ordinary person, but you don't have to be mediocre."

As Xie Lu wrote these words, Chu Yunfei repeated them several times: "You are an ordinary person, but you can be extraordinary... That's so well said."

Xiaoxia later died. While reporting on flood relief efforts, she was swept away by the flood while trying to save a child who had fallen into the water.

When Xie Lu wrote this passage, he also felt a little sad.

He wrote slowly, one word at a time, and once he finished a page, he would put it aside.

After reading this page, Chu Yunfei remained silent for a long time.

After a long while, he finally said, "Fourth brother, why do you keep killing off characters?"

Xie Lu didn't turn around and said, "I didn't write it."

"If you didn't write it, who else could have?"

Xie Lu was taken aback for a moment, but did not explain.

Chu Yunfei didn't press further, but simply sighed again.

Days passed by like this.

Xie Lu wrote, and Chu Yunfei read; the two of them wrote and read without disturbing each other.