I am not a literary giant

Ning Bingru glanced at the note again, this time putting on her reading glasses.

"Was this written in half a minute? When did Mei Rucheng develop such a command of classical poetry? Did he write it in front of you?"

Ning Chunyan, with his hands behind his back, said, "When did I ever say that this was written by Director Mei?"

"It wasn't written by Mei Rucheng? Was it written by one of the younger students in their research lab? When did their government office become so literary? Is this due to Shen Jianqiu's influence?"

Shen Jianqiu was the name of a high-ranking leader. Ning Bingru rarely spoke so much at once, and he looked at the note repeatedly with surprise and delight.

Ning Chunyan put away the note and said, "Dad, stop guessing. Just tell me what you think?"

"Very good," Ning Bingru said succinctly.

Ning Chunyan reached behind him and gently massaged his shoulders with her slender hand.

"To have you, a professor in the Chinese Department of Nanjing University, former deputy dean of the Faculty of Humanities, head of the Chinese Language Textbook Compilation Group, and president of the Li Bai Research Association..."

"That's enough, that's enough. Stop listing the dishes, we can't accommodate so many people." Ning Bingru reached out to stop her daughter's flattery.

Upon hearing "list the dishes," Ning Chunyan's heart stirred: "To receive your 'not bad' evaluation, that person will be overjoyed. Unfortunately, I will never tell him."

Ning Bingru stared at her daughter: "Who exactly is it?"

Ning Chunyan did not answer, returned to her room and slammed the door shut, then changed her clothes.

Ning Bingru shook her head. When Ning Chunyan came out, she was already wearing pajamas, a blue striped pajama top with a little bear embroidered on it, the little bear having two round black eyes.

Having shed her slender long dress and styled her hair, Ning Chunyan resembled a Renaissance Madonna statue, stripped of her divine aura and returned to the human world. It was a beauty different from what she had seen before.

Ning Bingru asked, "How many more days are you going to stay in Xihe? What are your plans for the rest of the trip?"

"I'll stay for another week. Nothing much planned, except I have to attend some kind of symposium tomorrow. It's rare for me to come back, and the local literary association is definitely going to keep pestering me, it's really annoying. By the way, where's Mom?"

Ning Bingru said, "Your mother went to play mahjong."

He picked up the book on the table again and said, "It's good to come back and participate in some literary and art association activities. It's a way to contribute to the literature of my hometown. Although Xihe has a strong literary tradition, the young people nowadays are becoming more and more impetuous."

Ning Chunyan didn't answer. She had no obligation to save literature, whether it was the literature of her hometown or anywhere else. She had a mountain of troubles of her own.

Ning Bingru said, "By the way, if you have time, how about we go out for dinner tomorrow night?"

Speaking of worries, Ning Chunyan's expression changed, and she said, "Is it going to be another blind date?"

Ning Bingru looked a little embarrassed: "I'm just introducing you to a new friend. He's the son of your mother's friend, about your age, a returned overseas PhD, a very outstanding person. You'll definitely have a lot in common..."

"ah!--"

Ning Chunyan covered her head and ran away, closing the door to her room. She couldn't be bothered to listen to her father's sermons.

Ning Bingru stood outside the door and said, "You can run away from marriage, but you can't run away from marriage forever. As long as you're human, there will always be such a day."

Ning Chunyan remained silent inside, offering no reply. She used silence to express her resistance.

Ning Bingru shook his head and left.

Ning Chunyan lay on the bed, playing on her phone, her legs raised and swinging in the air, her trouser legs falling down to reveal her fair and shapely calves.

Her literary style is very avant-garde, detached, and insightful, as if she sees through everything about life. However, when it comes to major personal life decisions, she cannot be as purely rational as her writing.

Moreover, the calmer she became, the more she felt that the union of the two of them contained a great terror.

If she had to choose marriage, she'd rather the other person be someone who would charge at her like a wild boar. At least that would stir something within her.

But everyone she's met so far has been too conventional, just ordinary people living by the rules of the real world. Eating, sleeping, making money, pleasing others, and craving to be pleased.

Being ordinary is understandable. She was ordinary too. But she longed for romance. She had a premonition that once she tied herself to another ordinary person, she would be trapped in an endless mundane life. That wouldn't be romantic at all. The Renaissance is long past, but humanity will always be a romantic animal.

She had no choice, nor could she escape.

There is a fable about two fickle young men who sought out Socrates, asking him how to achieve a happy marriage. Socrates took them to a wheat field and instructed them to walk along the ridge and pick the largest and plumpest grain of wheat.

However, once that grain of wheat is found, it cannot be changed, even if a larger, fuller grain is found later. Moreover, this path can only be traversed once.

The young men set off. The first one hesitated and didn't take a bite, always thinking there would be bigger grains of wheat later, but he missed out on the good grains and could only hurriedly grab one before the end; the other one had already selected his wheat almost as soon as he set off.

Eventually, the two returned to Socrates, each holding roughly the same amount of wheat, but one was filled with regret while the other remained calm.

This is a fable about marriage, and wheat is the most suitable partner. Ning Chunyan read this fable when she was very young. She understood the author's intention almost instantly, but she scoffed at it. She felt that she would not have such a sense of gain or loss.

However, as she grew older, she became more and more like the first young person in the fable. Even though she never intended to step into the wheat field, she only wanted to stand by the roadside and observe quietly. But she later discovered that everyone else was already in the wheat field.

Humans have no choice. Some people suffer because they don't have a uterus, while others suffer because they do. Whether or not one has a uterus is determined by birth. Humans have no choice.

She couldn't feel any urge to marry during blind dates. It was a carefully crafted setting where both parties were cautiously scrutinizing each other with an attitude of valuation or waiting for a better price, like looking at a house.

She didn't want to become a house, not even the house in the best location. So whenever her father brought up the topic of marriage, she felt a headache coming on.

Thinking about this, she became increasingly angry. She opened the WeChat friend she had just added and sent a vague message:

Just because you're married doesn't mean you're all that great!

A moment later, a small punctuation mark appeared on the other end: "?".

Imagining the bewildered look on the other person's face, Ning Chunyan felt a little better.

She turned on her phone and skillfully opened the "Wen'ai" app.

……

When Lin Feng called Wang Zixu, he had just woken up from his afternoon nap and was feeling bored.

On the other end of the phone, Lin Feng seemed a little embarrassed, and his speech was slurred, typical of someone who's had a hangover.

He invited Wang Zixu to meet that evening to discuss many things. "This time, it won't just be about literature," he said.

Wang Zixu readily agreed. Lin Feng had left a very good impression on him. It wasn't that he disliked socializing, but rather that he disliked socializing that drained his energy.

They arranged to meet at Xihe Park. When Lin Feng saw Wang Zixu, he gave an embarrassed smile, scratched his head, and said, "I drank too much yesterday."

Wang Zixu nodded: "It's alright, I was the one who made it."

Raymond Lam said, "You haven't heard any bad rumors, have you?"

Wang Zixu said, "I've heard some rumors, but whether they're 'bad' or not, I can't say."

Lin Feng sighed and said, "I'm sorry to have troubled you."

Prince Xu said, "I'm the one who's causing you trouble."

Lin Feng looked up in surprise: "What kind of rumor did you hear?"

Wang Zixu said, "I'm also curious about what rumors you've heard."

As the two strolled through the park, some people secretly pointed and whispered as they passed by on the sidewalk, as if they had discovered the embarrassing duo. Little did they know, they had become the hottest topic in Xihe recently.