I am not a literary giant

Chapter 179 A Young Man's Journey

Shi Tonghe's black sedan slowly drove into the campus. He glanced out the window; mountains connected to buildings, and buildings connected to mountains, undulating under the azure sky.

"parking!"

He waved to the driver, and the car screeched to a halt on the road. He rolled down the window and waved to the back of the car.

A car followed and stopped next to his car.

"Brother Hanlin, how have you been?"

The car window opposite rolled down, revealing a smiling face: "Brother Tonghe, how have you been!"

"It's been seven years since I last saw Brother Hanlin, hasn't it? I never imagined we'd meet again today. I'm so happy, so very happy!"

"And it's all because of your son's works that we're reuniting, which is quite touching. Tonghe, it's been... about 5 years since you last published a piece, hasn't it?"

Shi Tonghe nodded, his smile still lingering, and sighed, "Alas, my white hair hangs in vain, old age is approaching, and I am indeed frail. With the new generation rising, how dare the old generation block my way?"

The man in the car opposite, "Brother Hanlin," stopped smiling and said, "An old steed in its stall may still aspire to gallop a thousand miles."

"Alas, those days of youth are gone!"

As the two were sighing, they suddenly heard a sharp shout from behind: "Are you going to leave or not? You're blocking the way!"

Shi Tonghe composed himself and said, "Brother Hanlin, why don't you come to my carriage for a chat?"

"well."

The two sat in the back seat, closed the car windows, and their conversation became much more open and comfortable than before.

"Tonghe, you've really gone to great lengths to pave the way for your child this time."

Shi Tonghe shook his head: "There's nothing I can do. I had a son late in life. If I don't worry about him, what more can I ask for?"

"Yes, you've won all the awards you could possibly win, except for the Nobel Prize. You have no other desires."

Shi Tonghe shook his head: "I have no chance of winning the Nobel Prize. Besides, I haven't won any foreign awards either. Compared to others, I can't compare to Mo Yan and Yu Hua."

"Brother Hanlin" is Fang Hanlin, a well-known editor of Modern Times and now the editor-in-chief of Songs. He is quite famous in the literary world and is one of the heavyweights invited by Shi Tonghe.

In short, his positive review was very important to Shi Shuqiu.

However, since Fang Hanlin became the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Gexing", he has been in a semi-retired state and is not easy to invite.

You can't buy off someone of this caliber by offering them any benefits. They're waiting to retire, and there's no need for them to risk their reputation by promoting their products so vigorously.

Shi Tonghe was able to persuade him to come out of retirement by appealing to his emotions.

The two had collaborated several times and published a number of excellent works. At that time, they were both in the rising phase of their lives, so their memories were filled with a glow and were very beautiful, recalling the glorious years of the past.

Fang Hanlin said, "You're being modest. In terms of quality and literary merit, your work is no worse than theirs."

Shi Tonghe shook his head with a wry smile: "No one can decide whose work is better; only time will tell. I don't want to compete with others right now; I just want to do my part to help the children."

Fang Hanlin sighed and said, "I understand how you feel. When I was young, I didn't know why my father was so busy. Now that I'm this age, I've become just like him, all for the sake of my children."

"It's all for the children. A ruthless person isn't necessarily a hero."

"How can Lianzi not be a husband?"

The two smiled at each other.

Shi Tonghe felt that some things didn't need to be said outright; saying them outright would only diminish their beauty. He preferred to maintain a tacit understanding with Fang Hanlin, leaving room for interpretation in their words. The two chatted for a while, then began talking about everyday matters.

"You seemed quite excited earlier, did something happen?"

"Brother Tonghe understands me best." Fang Hanlin couldn't suppress the smile on his face. "We recently discovered a very promising new talent and really want to recruit him. Fortunately, someone in our editorial department knows him, so we think we should be able to get him some articles."

"Oh?"

Shi Tonghe raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. A promising newcomer, perhaps even better than Shi Shuqiu?

"Who is it? How do you know they're a promising newcomer?"

When Fang Hanlin talked about work, he suddenly became enthusiastic and his speech became faster: "This person, less than a year after his work was published, got published in 'Get,' and it was on the front page! Goodness, guess what? It's a long piece, 20 words long."

"20?" Shi Tonghe narrowed his eyes slightly. "I guess only 'Get' magazine in the industry would dare to do something like this, right?"

"Yeah, even we at 'The Ballad of Songs' wouldn't dare arrange it like this," Fang Hanlin said with a smile. "And guess what? It's not finished yet! This is only the first episode!"

Shi Tonghe said, "That's really impressive. What's it called?"

"It's called 'Fire in the Stone'."

"I asked, 'What's the author's name?'"

"His name is... surnamed Wang. I had my editors handle the contact, which is why I rushed over here." Fang Hanlin said, "As soon as today's 'Achievement' was published, our editorial department started studying 'Stone Fire.' According to their analysis, it's definitely a work worthy of the Mao Dun Literature Prize."

"That's very high praise!" Shi Tonghe said. "Then I wish you success in getting this author a regular contributor."

Fang Hanlin shook his head: "That's a bit too difficult. I reckon countless magazines in the country are trying to contact him right now. Who wouldn't want to snatch such a valuable author? It's already good enough if you can get one article through connections. In the end, where his truly heavyweight articles are published depends on which magazine has the most prestige."

"Look at a work as large as 'Spark in the Stone,' they dared to submit it to 'Get' magazine. In the past, who would have dared to do something like that?"

Shi Tonghe lost interest in the topic, glanced at his phone, and sent a message.

After sending the message, he explained to Fang Hanlin, "He's also an editor friend who greeted me, so I had to reply."

Fang Hanlin waved his hand: "It's nothing. Who was it?"

"Hao Chengliang."

"From 'The Ancient City'?"

"Yeah. He's quite young, kind of like a little brother."

……

Spring breeze ripples through the flowers, and green vines entwine the branches.

One with a flowing long dress, the other with long black hair reaching her waist, they flanked Prince Xu on either side.

However, he was dressed like a tattooed man, and his steps were even more cautious than Lin Chong of Wild Boar Forest.

If Sartre were here, he would definitely laugh and scold him, saying, "Two beautiful women serve you, how lucky can you be?"

Prince Xu told Sartre to get lost, saying what did foreigners know? He swore he had never experienced such a bizarre atmosphere.

During this time, his phone kept ringing in his pocket, but he didn't dare to take it out to check the messages. Finally, a phone call relieved him, and he took out his phone as if he had been granted a pardon.

"Hello, Raymond Lam?"

"Brother Wang, congratulations!"

Wang Zixu never expected that, besides Xiao Mengyin, the first person to send him blessings today would be Lin Feng.

"I just saw your work, 'Fire in the Stone,' in the front page of 'Get' magazine. Congratulations on realizing your dream!"

"Not at all, it's still a long way off," Prince Xu quickly said modestly.

(End of this chapter)