I am not a literary giant

Prince Xu stood frozen in place, but no one noticed him.

Shen Qingfeng said with a sly smile:

"Yesterday, Raymond Lam went to a unit for an inspection. During dinner that night, for some reason, he got into a literary argument with a clerk."

Ning Chunyan said, "How can literature be compared?"

Shen Qingfeng said, "Yes, how can you compare literary works? That clerk has never published any articles; he's just a literature enthusiast. He's probably just not convinced by Lin Feng and insists on comparing his reading volume."

Ning Chunyan said, "Some literature enthusiasts read quite a lot."

Shen Qingfeng said, "Alas, many enthusiasts are like this. They always think that there are hidden masters among the people, and that because they read a lot of books, they are better than famous writers. They came up with a way to 'compare literature' by reciting the names of dishes."

Ning Chunyan asked, "List the names of the dishes?"

Shen Qingfeng said, "Yes. Lin Feng says the author's name, and the clerk says the work. If he gets it right, Lin Feng drinks a glass; if he gets it wrong, the clerk drinks a glass as punishment. Is it like reciting a menu?"

Ning Chunyan said, "This is probably to test the readership. Hmm, I understand why you said it was just reciting a list of dishes."

Shen Qingfeng continued, "And then guess what? The clerk actually answered all the questions correctly, drinking one cup after another, until he finally knocked Lin Feng out."

Ning Chunyan tilted her head and asked, "Then why was he kicked out of the house by his wife?"

Shen Qingfeng said, "Who knows? What happened next was quite funny. He was reciting Li Bai's 'The Road to Shu is Hard' on the street. Our patriarch lived next door to him and asked him what was wrong. He replied, 'There are so many talented people in the world who are not appreciated. How sad!' Our patriarch was dumbfounded."

After saying that, Shen Qingfeng slapped his thigh and laughed loudly.

"I don't know what happened to writer Lin that triggered his melancholy mood this time, but he somehow managed to empathize with a clerk. Anyway, the whole of Xihe is talking about it, and I've been telling everyone I meet today. It's hilarious..."

"Prince Xu".

A humble yet firm voice suddenly rang out from a corner of the office.

Shen Qingfeng and Ning Chunyan turned their heads at the same time to look at Wang Zixu.

Wang Zixu said, "That clerk's name is Wang Zixu."

Wang Zixu was deeply moved.

He never imagined that his story would spread throughout Xihe in just one night. He also never imagined that Lin Feng would stand up for him like this behind his back.

But he also felt deeply saddened—even in his own story, he wasn't the protagonist, he didn't even have a name. He even appeared as a clown. Just like Sancho, the character from Don Quixote's tale.

Fortunately, he's gotten used to it. Sancho is doing well too.

"Who cares?" Shen Qingfeng said. "I don't know what to call him, so let's just call him Brother Caiming. And Lin Feng even posted something on his WeChat Moments this morning, look."

He handed the phone to Ning Chunyan, who leaned to the side and looked at it very carefully.

Shen Qingfeng said, "Then I commented on him, 'Have you heard of Zheng Yuanjie? He wrote Pipilu and Luxixi. I feel like I'm also a talented person who hasn't been recognized.' But he didn't reply to me, haha."

Wang Zixu interjected, "The same books 'Wisdom Tooth' and 'White Guest' were also written by Zheng Yuanjie. They're adult fairy tales, quite interesting."

Shen Qingfeng glanced at him: "You don't need to recite the names of the dishes here."

The prince kept his mouth shut. He then continued reading his speech.

Ning Chunyan asked, "Then, exactly how many works did that Prince Xu mention?"

Shen Qingfeng said, "It's not important. What's the use of reading a lot of books? Talented people don't need to read books; they write for themselves. If they were truly talented, they would have made a name for themselves long ago. How could they be stuck here as lowly clerks at 30?"

He continued, "What's the use of reading so many famous books? When I wrote 'Hey Girl, Let's Hold Hands,' I hadn't read a single famous book. A truly awesome life can be defined by oneself; there's no need to read books."

As soon as he finished speaking, as if a starting gun had been fired, the office door was pushed open again, and at the same time, the landline phone on the desk rang.

Wang Zixu quickly answered the phone, and Xiao Fang's voice came from the other end:

"Hey? Is Brother Wang still there? Sorry, the boss has made a new request, it's quite troublesome. I'll send you the document first, then you'll have to revise it yourself. By the way, has anyone from the secretariat come looking for you?"

Wang Zixu turned to look at the person who had just entered. He was wearing glasses, had slightly dark skin, and was staring at him with a serious expression.

He turned on the speakerphone and asked the man, "Are you from the secretariat?"

The man nodded silently. "I'm Chen Bin. Are you new here?"

Wang Zixu said, "I came from another unit to help out."

Xiao Fang said on the phone, "Hurry up, finish making the changes and print it out for him. He'll deliver it directly to the site. You open the document first."

Wang Zixu frantically operated the computer, while Chen Bin beside him said, "I'm dizzy, are you guys still not done?"

While operating the machine, Wang Zixu said, "It still needs some modifications."

The secretariat asked, "How long will it take?"

"have no idea."

"Damn it!" the secretary exclaimed, looking up at the sky. "The meeting starts in half an hour! What are you guys doing? This is unbelievable!"

On the other side of the office, Shen Qingfeng and Ning Chunyan both looked over curiously.

Xiao Fang said, "Brother Wang, I sent you a modified version. Open it first."

Wang Zixu opened the document, his palms sweating. When he opened the revised draft, he was immediately dumbfounded.

Compared to the original draft, the revised draft has many paragraphs, broken lines, and punctuation errors. Some sentences only have one or two keywords, making it unclear what the original draft is trying to express or how to start revising it.

Wang Zixu said into the phone, "What does this mean?"

Xiao Fang's tense voice came through the phone:

"Here's the thing, Director Mei and Section Chief Liu found the lines to be too scattered, so the original framework needs to be scrapped and rewritten. The sentences here are still the same, but the order has been changed. You need to copy the sentences from the original manuscript, change the order, and then copy them onto the revised manuscript."

After comparing the two sentences for a while, Wang Zixu finally understood what he meant and then asked, "What does the sentence with only one or two keywords mean?"

Xiao Fang said, "Those are the original texts from the original manuscript. They didn't have the conditions or time to copy and paste them while working on-site, so they just wrote down a few keywords and told us to find them in the original text ourselves."

Behind Wang Zixu, Chen Bin covered his face and said, "Damn it, they don't have time to investigate, but we do? It's starting in half an hour! I still have to drive there!"

Prince thought for a moment, then turned and asked, "How long will it take you to drive there?"

Chen Bin said, "At least twenty minutes."

Prince Xu said, "There's still time."

He skillfully adjusted the body text size to 3, the font to Fangsong GB2314, the line spacing to 28 points, the first line indent, the paragraph to 1.5 lines indent, the title font size to 22, and the font to Fangzheng Xiaobiao Song Simplified.

Then, he pinched his fingers and began to expand on the fragmented sentences in the revised manuscript.

Chen Bin, standing behind him, asked, "Did you write it yourself?"

"No. These are all sentences from the original manuscript," Wang Zixu said, his hands still moving.

Chen Bin glared at him: "You didn't even read the original manuscript?"

Wang Zixu said, "I just looked at it."

He typed for a while, then casually pressed enter, and said, "I just read the original manuscript three times."

"So you can memorize it?"

"I've memorized it."

Chen Bin crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.

Behind them, Shen Qingfeng and Ning Chunyan curiously approached. Shen Qingfeng pointed and said, "Heh, this kid types pretty fast."

Prince Xu did not speak.

He never thought about the issue of typing speed.

By the time he was writing 15 words a month, he had already developed his speed.