I am not a literary giant

Chapter 168 Spark in the Stone, Body in a Dream

Lu Qingxuan asked in surprise, "How do you two know each other?"

Du Kezhu blinked for a long time before finally saying, "History books say that through seven people, one can get to know anyone in the world."

"There's no mention of this in historical records, and what does this theory have to do with what I just said?"

Du Kezhu blinked even more rapidly, like a butterfly that had landed on someone's wig while trying to collect nectar, then awkwardly fluttered its wings and flew away.

Finally, she asked, "Are you always as serious as if you were taking an exam in your daily life?"

"what?"

"I feel so awful."

After Du Kezhu finished speaking, she walked away quickly.

"Ugh!" Lu Qingxuan felt as if she had been shot in the chest. She covered her chest with one hand and waved the other hand helplessly in the air a few times.

She had never suffered such a sincere and humiliating blow, so sincere that it was hard to refute, and so humiliating that she was unwilling to admit it.

She quickly followed, saying in a low but hurried voice, "I'm not being serious, I'm being earnest. I've always been earnest. Isn't it good that I'm earnest? What's so annoying about it?"

Du Kezhu rolled her eyes at her smugly: "Can't I just simply hate it when people take things so seriously?"

"No, you have to give a reason. Unjustifiably venting hostility on others is bullying."

Du Kezhu sighed: "Fine, don't worry about it. I don't hate you, I hate everyone equally. I'm the most hateful one, I even hate myself. Can you please stop dwelling on this?"

"No, what's so annoying about you? You're so popular, so many students in the department like you. You're just belittling yourself to avoid my questions."

Du Kezhu clutched her head; it was the first time she had ever met such a difficult person.

"I don't hate you, okay? I just said I hated you to shut you up so I could run away, alright?"

Lu Qingxuan nodded in satisfaction: "Hmm, that's more like it..."

Halfway through her sentence, she realized something was amiss: "Wait a minute, what did I do to offend you? You're just trying to get rid of me; you're being a bit unfriendly."

Du Kezhu said, "You're only just realizing I'm unfriendly? I have a notoriously bad temper. I punch and kick kindergarteners and nursing homes, snatch lollipops from kids and take seats for disabled people. I'm absolutely awful, let me tell you."

Lu Qingxuan shook her head: "I don't think you're like that. I think you should have a kind heart."

Du Kezhu gasped, "Don't be so mushy, I... I can't stand it."

The prince heard the two chatting casually, and he couldn't help but sigh, "The friendship between girls is so wonderful."

……

The postgraduate entrance examination consists of four subjects: ideological and political education, foreign language, and two professional courses.

Wang Zixu applied for the Ancient Literature major, with two professional courses: Ancient Chinese Literature and Fundamentals of Chinese and Foreign Literature. The first day's exams only included Ideological and Political Education and a Foreign Language.

By 8 a.m., a large crowd had already gathered outside the examination hall, with numerous organizations distributing postgraduate entrance exam brochures and leaflets along the way. People looked solemn and quiet; some sat on the edge of flowerbeds, cramming for the exam, while most waited expressionlessly.

Wang Zixu blended into the crowd and stood there for a while before realizing that he couldn't concentrate on the upcoming exam at all. His mind was in turmoil, unable to tear himself away from the manuscript he had just sent to the editor of "Get".

The draft was not finalized until 3 a.m., after agonizing over it for a full 5 hours.

This monumental work was ultimately completed at 598,000 words, with each word, including punctuation, meticulously crafted more than twenty times. Looking at this work is like looking at a newborn baby; one feels its infinite potential, yet fears that improper upbringing might squander its potential.

Its title gradually became clear during the final revision, and his hands almost trembled when he finally changed the file name.

He originally planned to name it "Dongfang Bai" (Eastern White), although he preferred the origin of the three characters. However, the three characters had too much political connotation and many people would understand them too superficially. After much deliberation, he finally decided on the name "Shi Zhong Huo" (Fire in Stone).

The phrase originates from Bai Juyi's poem "Drinking Alone": "What is there to contend for on a snail's horn? This life is but a fleeting spark." Su Shi's poem "Xingxiangzi: Expressing My Feelings" contains the lines: "Fleeting fame and fortune, vainly toiling and worrying. Alas, life is but a fleeting moment, a spark in a stone, a dream."

After finishing the book, he revisited it. A century had passed in the blink of an eye as he turned the pages. A gentle breeze carried the weight of history and made him realize the insignificance of an individual and the brevity of life, like a spark bursting from a stone.

Some people spend their entire lives harboring earth-shattering ideas and acting outrageously, but in the end, their stories are merely like sparks from a stone being ground. The difference is that one person's spark is brighter, while others' is dimmer, and most are barely noticeable, disappearing into the dust.

However, we must never say that life is meaningless. Countless sparks flicker and fade, eventually forming a vast expanse, shimmering into the boundless Milky Way.

He wrote the poem from which the original name originated on the first page of his work:

Humans and apes parted ways.

Only a few stones were used to grind it, during my childhood.

Flames surge within the bronze and iron furnace; when will I be able to guess their meaning? Only a few thousand cycles of heat and cold.

Laughter is a rare treat in this world; on the battlefield, we draw our bows to meet.

It flowed all over.

Blood in the suburbs.

After reading it, my head felt like it was covered in snow.

But I remember only the scattered spots and lines of old traces.

The sacred deeds of the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns have deceived countless travelers. How many illustrious figures have they actually accomplished?

After the legendary bandits Zhi and Zhuang Qiao gained their fame, King Chen rose up and wielded the yellow battle-axe.

Before the song was finished,

The East is white.

……

Lu Qingxuan stood at the entrance of the examination room with a stern face, reminding each student to hand over their phone. Wang Zixu threw all his belongings at the front of the classroom and sat down in his seat.

Besides Lu Qingxuan and Du Kezhu, there was a slightly older male teacher standing in front, who spoke in a deep voice:

"Please carefully check your exam number and seat number. Leave any books, materials, or other items unrelated to the exam at the front of the class. Do not whisper or wander around. We will now read out the exam rules. First, candidates must enter the exam room before the start of the exam; no one may enter the exam room ten minutes after the start of the exam. Second…"

He basically meant that there was nothing he could do but stare blankly. So Prince Xu stared blankly.

He sat in a seat towards the back of the lecture hall, surrounded by energetic and vibrant bodies. Sitting among these people, he couldn't help but feel anxious about his age. The wind blowing in from the window made the curtains billow.

Du Kezhu walked into the classroom wearing a baseball cap, with a few strands of green hair sticking out from under the cap—this was the greatest respect she could show to the examination rules.

Several students stared at her, rubbing their eyes hard and then staring back at her, wondering if they were seeing things. Wang Zixu lowered her head, thinking to herself that she shouldn't be as distracted as they were.

The clock hanging in the middle of the wall ticked away, and Wang Zixu felt the time growing increasingly unbearable. He realized that he was in terrible shape and couldn't concentrate on the upcoming exam at all.

Since finalizing the draft in the early hours of the morning and sending it to the editor of "Get" at 8:30 a.m., he had been checking his phone. At 8:45 a.m., the message showed that the other party had received the file, but there was no reply.

Just before handing in his phone, he checked it one last time, but still received no reply. He tried to reassure himself that his novel, "Fire in the Stone," was a full 60 words long, and even a cursory reading would take several days; the editor certainly wouldn't respond so quickly.

Even though it was such a thing, he still couldn't help but check his phone messages over and over again. After handing over his phone, he felt empty inside, as if he had lost something.

He knew his behavior was stereotyped, like a brown bear in a zoo circling endlessly, or a chimpanzee running and jumping back and forth. He was like an animal enslaved by literature; his writing journey had been filled with repeated failures, which had robbed him of all confidence. He desperately wanted the editors of *Get* magazine to give his masterpiece a definitive verdict: whether it was good or bad. If it was good, he would have no regrets even if he died; if it wasn't, it would at least give him a quick end.

"Now we will distribute the answer sheets. Please fill in your name and exam number in advance, and be careful not to make any mistakes."

Wang Zixu thought to himself that if it didn't work out in the end, he would submit his manuscript to Xihe Literature and Art Publishing House for serialization. Since winning first place in the Xihe Literature and Art Association and becoming the vice chairman of the Xihe Literature and Art Association, no one dared to delay his manuscript anymore, and Xihe Literature and Art Publishing House would definitely publish it in full.

The Xihe Literature and Art Publishing House only has a circulation of one or two thousand copies. If no one reads it, so be it. Let the big shots in Xihe have some fun and see what the vice chairman of the Writers Association is capable of.

Lu Qingxuan's slender hand flashed before his eyes, gently placing the answer sheet in front of him. Even though she and he were already quite familiar, she showed no sign that they knew each other. Typical college student, even her movements were so gentle. Wang Zixu opened his pen and began filling out the answer sheet.

"Now we will distribute the test papers. Please check that the sealed bags are intact."

He didn't look up to check. He continued thinking that after his work was published in Xihe Literature, he would stop writing, rent out his house in Donghai, and go on a round-the-world trip. He would cycle from Donghai all the way to Kashgar, cross the vast uninhabited area to Tehran, pass through Damascus, and head west all the way to Amsterdam. Then he would abandon his bike, board a ship, cross the Cape of Good Hope, head east across the Indian Ocean, and finally stay in Saadmandu to build Nepal.

When he came to his senses, he suddenly realized that he had already answered several questions on his test paper. He was shocked and went back to check, only to find that he had answered them all without any problems.

This year's political science exam questions were quite tricky, especially the material analysis section, which included several newly proposed concepts and was closely related to current affairs, driving this year's candidates almost crazy.

Diao Yiwen sat in the examination room, one of those scratching her head in frustration. She clearly remembered the content, but it was vague and unclear, like seeing something in a fog in her mind. She seemed to have seen it with Xiao Xiurong, but she could never quite grasp the clue.

As she wrote, she began to have a mental breakdown and started to regret: Why did I choose to work for some lousy company in Xihe? If I hadn't had this extra year, but instead taken the exam as a recent graduate like many other students around me, without any gaps in my learning and maintaining a lifelong attitude of learning, would I be in this headache now?

Of course, Prince Xu only found out about all of this later.

At that moment, he snapped out of his reverie, looked around the examination room, and saw the candidates scratching their heads, then lowering their heads, their pens trembling, and the answers flowing out naturally.

Despite the tricky questions, these concepts were nothing special in the Xihe City Research Office, especially since they were written by Mei Rucheng. Politics itself is all the same stuff, and Mei Rucheng's material was broken down and explained clearly, so what was a new concept to others was an old viewpoint to him.

Wang Zixu worked at the unit for nine years. Every year, he helped draft and organize the Party building and reporting materials. At that time, it was naturally very tiring, but it also honed his writing skills and gave this science student a solid foundation in politics.

A few years ago, he would have thought that writing reports was just busywork, a waste of time, formulaic and purely a waste of time. He never imagined that one day he would take the postgraduate entrance exam and use all of this knowledge.

As long as you keep it in mind, all the experiences in your life will come back to you in some form at some point, allowing you to live the life you want.

……

In the afternoon, several candidates were visibly fewer in the examination room, and Lu Qingxuan decisively removed the draft paper from her seat.

Deserter. Humph. That's what she thought. Then she filled in "absent" on the sign-in sheet.

However, this year's exam questions were indeed quite obscure, and she was a little worried about her two colleagues.

As an invigilator, she would wander around the exam room, sometimes deliberately going near Diao Yiwen and Wang Zixu to see how they were doing.

But she was afraid of affecting their mentality, so she deliberately stood one or two rows behind them—which put a lot of pressure on the guys in the two rows behind them. Judging from their answering, Wang Zixu wrote quickly, but it was unclear whether he was right or wrong. Diao Yiwen was more careful when answering, but she didn't seem very confident.

Two days passed in a flash. Perhaps considering that Wang Zixu was taking exams and they were afraid of affecting his mindset, everyone tacitly refrained from contacting him—I wonder if that's why even the editors of "Get" magazine didn't contact him.

His submissions seemed to disappear without a trace; he received no feedback, not even a simple "received." This made him increasingly depressed.

After the last exam, the students were finally relieved, and so was Lu Qingxuan. No longer needing to pretend she didn't know them, she collected the exam papers and asked Diao Yiwen and Wang Zixu:

"How did the exam go?"

Diao Yiwen's face was grim, and she was very upset: "It was a complete mess. I felt okay about the two exams today, but the two exams yesterday were just awful. I almost didn't want to come today."

Lu Qingxuan asked, "Have you checked the answers?"

"No, I'm afraid it will affect my mindset."

"Forget about that, relax after the exam," Lu Qingxuan said. "Xiaochun told me she's treating you two to dinner tonight to reward you."

Diao Yiwen asked, "Who are they? Just a few from our magazine?"

"Yes, I heard she even calls Editor-in-Chief Chen by his name."

"Okay, I'll go."

"I won't go," Wang Zixu said, his eyes glued to his phone as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. "I have something to do."

Lu Qingxuan pleaded, "Is there anything more important than eating?"

"It's big news." Wang Zixu stared intently at his phone screen. "Please tell Chen Qingluo and Ning Chunyan that there's a chance my manuscript will be approved."

On the phone screen, a message from the editor of "Get" magazine was prominently displayed:

"The manuscript is good. Would you be interested in meeting?"

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