I am not a literary giant

Chapter 172 How the Steel Was Tempered

"Test?"

Sweat beaded on Wang Zixu's back, absorbed into his suit shirt, and his pores shrank back, the shirt sticking to him, cool and refreshing.

The more passionate his speech was, the more apprehensive he felt now. The key issue was that he wasn't mentally prepared to be tested.

"Test, test what?"

Pu Yuyang muttered to himself, "Teacher Li prefers this kind of dramatic entrance."

"Tsk."

Pu Yuyang said, "That's exactly right. We specifically arranged to meet at a coffee shop beforehand just to pretend we didn't know each other. I said it was unnecessary..."

"Tsk!"

Li Minyang clicked his tongue even more sternly than before, raising his eyebrows and glancing sideways. A glint of light flashed in his eyes, and Pu Yuyang shrank back, not daring to speak.

Li Minyang said, "What do you know? When you're alone with someone you know well, that's when you're most relaxed and can see more things."

Pu Yuyang asked, "What did you figure out?"

"I haven't eaten anything this morning, and my stomach is a little upset. Do you have any steamed buns here?"

"Teacher Li, this is a coffee shop."

Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and said, "Excuse me, this Mr. Li is known as the 'Old Rascal' in our editorial department. His style is rather...unconventional."

The prince, feigning reluctance but remaining polite, replied, "My favorite character is the Old Rascal."

A glint flashed in Li Minyang's eyes: "The affair between the Old Rascal and Ying Gu was not sincere at all, it was very hypocritical. The heroes written by Jin Yong are all show and no substance."

Wang Zixu immediately changed his tune: "I like the old rascal in Happy Planet."

Li Minyang leaned closer and whispered to Wang Zixu:

"I have finished reading 'Fire in the Stone'."

"Finished reading?" Prince Xu repeated.

If you calculate the time, it was less than a week since he sent the manuscript over, and he read 60 words, averaging more than 10 words per day.

"Of course, it's just a cursory reading. I'll read it carefully again later," Li Minyang said, taking a sip of coffee. "You could say I'm engrossed in it."

Prince Xu's tense nerves finally relaxed.

He was confident that anyone who read "Fire in the Stone" carefully would agree with the book.

"Your work is very good, so on the first day we received it, we decided to publish it. The next day, almost everyone agreed to publish the full text. The only problem was the payment."

Li Minyang then said slowly and deliberately:

"Yesterday, someone went through a lot of trouble to pass a message to our editorial department through an acquaintance, informing us that your manuscript had been rejected. After hearing what you just said, I understand now. The reason is simple: you offended Shi Tonghe."

The prince felt as if he had stepped into empty air.

"Don't worry," Li Minyang continued, seemingly anticipating his reaction. "Regarding the issue of you offending Shi Tonghe, I have three things to say to you."

Prince Xu sat up straight: "Please speak."

"The first point is that writers have always been prone to mutual disdain, and there are countless authors who couldn't stand each other, including some well-known ones. Lu Xun looked down on Bing Xin, Maugham looked down on Balzac, Nabokov looked down on Dostoevsky..."

"Woolf looked down on Joyce, Wilde looked down on Proust, Faulkner looked down on Hemingway..." Prince Xu continued, finishing his sentence.

"Yes. Yes." Li Minyang nodded. "There are many conflicts among writers. Our magazine has published works by many writers who have conflicts with each other, sometimes even in the same issue. The tension between the two is palpable, and the readers are unaware of it. Your conflicts with anyone else are none of our business. We only look at the quality of the work."

The prince nodded slightly. That's exactly right.

"My second point," Li Minyang said, "is that you think too poorly of our 'Achievement' journal."

Prince Xu sat upright like a primary school student, listening attentively.

"Shi Tonghe isn't a tiger. He's not going to jump into our editorial office and kill us all. Why are we so afraid of him? If he's unhappy after we publish your article, then let him be unhappy. It's like the sky wanting to rain or a woman wanting to remarry—what can he do about it?"

Li Minyang spoke with great enthusiasm, finishing his coffee in large gulps, and said, "My third point is that as a writer, you must have your own pride."

The prince bowed slightly: "What exactly do you mean...?"

Do you think you wrote well?

"Well enough."

"That won't do," Li Minyang said. "You have to write exceptionally well. You have to believe you are unique and unparalleled for us to feel comfortable publishing your work. If you don't even believe in yourself, how can you expect others to?"

Wang Zixu nodded and changed his words, saying, "I think my 'Fire in the Stone' has been revised beyond repair."

Li Minyang nodded and smiled, "Yes, that's how it should be. Even some mediocre writers are so proud of their work that they act all high and mighty after they finish writing. You can't be completely indifferent to your own work. From now on, submit all your manuscripts to 'Get,' and we'll deal with rejections later. If you don't have that courage, don't even start writing."

"it is good."

Pu Yuyang snapped, "Teacher Li, how am I supposed to proceed with this?! We still need to discuss revisions with him, and you've inflated his confidence. How am I supposed to communicate with him now?!"

Li Minyang chuckled and said, "You're in charge of saving this manuscript, and I'll be in charge of saving his entire writing career." After that, the three of them booked a business room and sat down together to revise the manuscript.

Wang Zixu believed that Pu Yuyang had prepared seriously. The manuscript was 60 words long, with two notebooks full of sticky notes, and there were underlines on every two pages. Even the punctuation errors were marked.

During a break from revising the manuscript, Wang Zixu got up to stretch and lit a cigarette on the outer balcony. Pu Yuyang followed him from behind.

"Actually, I'm very curious, how did you offend Shi Tonghe?"

Wang Zixu turned to look at her, and Pu Yuyang raised her hands and said, "I'm just curious. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

Wang Zixu looked a little depressed and flicked some cigarette ash into the corner: "It's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just that I don't know how I offended him."

Pu Yuyang stared at him intently for a long time before saying, "You should think of it this way: he didn't actually do anything to you. If he really went all out against you, things wouldn't be as simple as Teacher Li said."

Prince Xu nodded. Yes, he probably only used about the size of a fingernail to deal with me.

Pu Yuyang laughed: "Maybe even less, maybe the strength of a fingernail cut off to the size of a crescent moon to deal with you."

After saying that, she leaned on the railing and added, "Actually, I really admire you."

"What do you admire? Do you admire that I'm unemployed, or that I'm waiting for my writing fees to start my meal?"

Pu Yuyang turned to look at him: "I admire that you have dreams."

"That sounds pretty corny."

"No, no," she said. "I really envy you. You have a clear passion and motivation to do what you want to do. Most people just follow the crowd, but you not only take the initiative to do it, but you've also achieved a certain level of success. As for me, even if I wanted to offend Shi Tonghe, I wouldn't have anywhere to offend him."

Wang Zixu said, "Next time you see Shi Tonghe, I'll call you. Spit on him, and you'll definitely offend him."

Pu Yuyang chuckled: "Don't argue. Hmm, but I feel like you're getting closer to the Prince Xu I remember now. You were too dull before. I remember you used to be quite sunny and cheerful."

Prince Xu took a drag of his cigarette: "Right?"

If he were to walk past his 17-year-old self right now, he would definitely ignore him, thinking he was a boring and dull adult.

But it's not like this has happened overnight. It's like iron; if you keep hammering it, it will eventually become something you don't recognize.

Only a few are thrown into the furnace, heated to a high temperature, quenched and forged, and then turned into steel.

"I suddenly remembered," Pu Yuyang said with a smile, "Chen Qingluo used to be in our class, do you remember?"

"How could I not remember?" Wang Zixu said. "We even sat at the same table."

"You two actually sat at the same desk?" Pu Yuyang genuinely didn't remember anything about that. "I only remember that Xie Cong sat at the same desk with her. He really liked her and always wanted to pursue her, but he couldn't. Back then, a lot of boys in the class had a crush on her."

Wang Zixu pursed his lips, a bitter feeling welling up inside him: "Actually, she..."

"What's wrong?"

"What was I about to say? I forgot. Never mind, it must have been something unimportant," the prince awkwardly tried to cover up.

He originally wanted to say that he and Chen Qingluo worked in the same office, but after thinking about it, he decided not to reveal any extra information, lest Pu Yuyang spread the word to his old classmates and cause further trouble.

"Even now, our Chinese teacher still brags to the new students every year that he taught Chen Qingluo," Pu Yuyang said. "I hope you can overcome your current difficulties and become a great writer that we can be proud of, just like Chen Qingluo."

"Thanks."

Wang Zixu then thought of what Li Minyang had just said.

"Shi Tonghe!" Wang Zixu shouted towards the building across the street, "I'll step on you to win the award!"

After he finished speaking, he turned around and saw Pu Yuyang standing next to him, looking at him with an indescribable expression.

"Teacher Li just said that we should have some pride of our own, but I feel like that's a bit too arrogant?"

"A little," Pu Yuyang nodded slowly. "If you say it to his face, then a little. But shouting at inanimate objects is fine."

Back in his room, Li Minyang put down his manuscript. The old man raised his face, his white hair gleaming silver in the afternoon sunlight.

"I've been thinking about it," Li Minyang said. "Your article has a very high reading threshold. I don't know if its impact will be as expected once it's published."

Pu Yuyang asked, "You mean, you want it on the front page? Wasn't the front page for the next issue already reserved for Gu Zao?"

Gu Zao is a rising young writer who debuted earlier than Wang Zixu and is about the same age.

Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and asked, "Would you mind waiting another issue, until the one after that, to publish your article? Maybe then we can get a front-page spot."

Wang Zixu shook his head: "I want to release it as soon as possible."

If you want to compete for the Fei Shi·Sui Han Literary Award, waiting another month will be too late.

Li Minyang shook his head: "That's not what I meant. I was thinking... well, let's wait until the first episode is released and see the social reaction."

"If the response is good, I'm thinking of contacting the Writers' Association to hold a seminar to promote this work."

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