I am not a literary giant

Although Xie Cong disliked Wang Zixu, there was one thing he remembered correctly: Wang Zixu's ideal in high school was to become an extraordinary person and live an extraordinary life.

When he first uttered this ideal, Xie Cong was immediately filled with rage. Even now, thinking about it later, he still feels that rage. Because he could never have come up with such a pretentious statement. Even if he could, he'd be too embarrassed to say it in public.

But what he didn't know was that for Prince Xu, those words weren't just boasting. On the contrary, they contained immense pain.

For Prince Xu, his life could be one of shining brightly above others, or one of sinking into the mire and collapsing midway—in other words, good or bad is not important, what is important is that he must be different from others.

To achieve that kind of life, Prince Xu was prepared to pay a price. Even a huge price.

There was only one reason why he sought to be different—Chen Qingluo was different.

He knew he didn't possess Chen Qingluo's talent. Chen Qingluo had become extraordinary effortlessly, while he, in order to achieve the same level of distinction, would inevitably have to make enormous sacrifices. He had to work incredibly hard to catch up with Chen Qingluo's past achievements.

However, unexpectedly, when he turned 20, he never lived a single day for himself again.

Father, girlfriend, bank, boss... Tangible and intangible responsibilities, heavy pressure, being pushed along by the flow of life, it's hard to even live out your own identity.

He then realized how heavy that vow he made in high school had been. In this world, not many people have the right to be themselves.

The first cigarette Wang Zixu ever smoked was Xuanhemen. It was during a crisis when he was facing a government job crisis, and he and his father were smoking it in the toilet. At the time, he was too busy coughing up phlegm. When he smoked it again at age 30, he found the flavor too weak, lacking the intense, sharp throat hit of Dafengshou (a brand of cigarettes). This contrasted sharply with his wild spirit and the emptiness of his mundane life. Xuanhemen was packaged inside a Dafengshou box; the cigarette itself wasn't even part of the brand.

He realized that the reason people want to be themselves is because they are not themselves at present. Any conventional attempts he made in his current identity would revert to their original state due to inertia.

If he wants to be himself, he doesn't have to be himself first; he can be the Little Prince first. Because there is no Little Prince in the world, becoming the Little Prince is far easier than becoming himself.

So he went to Watsons and bought a black cotton face mask to cover half of his face.

As he stepped out of the store, he saw his reflection in the glass window. He was wearing a plaid shirt with faded cuffs and drab gray work pants. This was his usual attire for many years, which had almost become synonymous with his image and was practically ingrained in him.

He realized that even if he walked into the store like this, there was still a possibility of being discovered, so he strode into the store and gestured wildly at the clerk, saying:

"Are there any clothes that are completely different in style from what I'm wearing, something really revolutionary?"

The shop assistant thought for a moment, then nodded heavily: "Yes."

She walked to the clothes rack, then returned to Prince Xu, holding up a dress in her hand.

Wang Zixu said, "Uh, that's not what I meant. I just wanted to break free from my established image, not my established gender. I meant you should at least wear men's clothing, right?"

The shop assistant thought for a moment, then clapped his hands: "I've got it!"

After a while, she returned with a gray trench coat.

The prince casually touched the material of the trench coat, finding it rather ordinary, and asked, "What's so special about it?"

The shop assistant said, "It's extremely expensive."

"..."

The salesperson then said, "Didn't you want to completely transform your image? Wearing all those cheap clothes, buying something expensive would be a far more transformative experience!"

Wang Zixu felt that her words were hurtful, but they made a lot of sense.

Twenty minutes later, Wang Zixu, wearing a gray trench coat and Nike sneakers, walked out of the store. He had a pair of coated sunglasses on the upper half of his face and a black mask covering the lower half. He no longer looked as poor as before.

Actually, this outfit wasn't very expensive, only two thousand yuan in total, which wasn't even as much as the gifts he received when visiting his father's house for the holidays. But this was the first time in so many years that he had bought himself such a complete set of clothes all at once. Before, it was always just plaid shirts, plaid shirts.

Looking at himself in the shop window, Wang Zixu put his hands in his pockets and thought to himself: You haven't been defeated by consumerism. Even under layers of labels, your core remains unchanged.

He called Zuo Ziliang and said he was 1 kilometer away from the company and would be there soon.

……

Wen'ai Company: A storm is brewing.

Inside Wen'ai Company, the central air conditioning unit's ribbons swayed, and the only sounds in the offices were coughing, whispering, and the occasional boiling sound of water from the water dispenser.

My colleague leaned closer and whispered, "Do you think the Little Prince himself will come?"

Huang Da glanced at the conference room: "They'll probably come. President Zuo and Manager Ye are both here, we've been waiting for so long. Besides the Little Prince, who else has such a high profile?"

It was noon, and usually the employees would take a nap at this time, but today was different.

Perhaps because Zuo Ziliang and Ye Lan hadn't left, or perhaps because they'd heard that someone was coming, taking a nap wasn't a big deal anymore.

After hearing Huang Da's assessment, the colleague nodded and shrank back. Two minutes later, he slowly leaned back and asked, "So, what does the Little Prince actually look like?"

Huang Da said, "How would I know? To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if someone showed up at the door later, whether it was a university professor or someone who won the Mao Dun Literature Prize."

My colleague said, "The Little Prince can't be too old, can he?"

Huang Da said, "Who knows? Some people get better with age. Their writing style and so much so that it takes more than ten or twenty years of experience to learn."

Another colleague joined the discussion: "Yeah, who says older men can't pick up girls? Take Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, how many girlfriends has he had? They were all young ladies. Age doesn't matter, it's all about charisma."

"Charm? If I had Leonardo DiCaprio's money, I'd date twenty-year-olds every time. No, I'd date eighteen!"

"You beast! You're looking for someone who's eighteen? Eighteen people are still in high school!"

"Shouldn't someone who's eighteen be in college by now?"

"You're a senior in high school, aren't you? You're chasing after all the girls in your senior year. You're a real beast."

Huang Da frowned and said, "This is off-topic again! Is this even the important point?"

The colleagues stopped whispering, and the operations manager next to them shrank back: "Are they coming or not? I'm getting anxious."

Outside Wen'ai Company is a corridor, and directly opposite the corridor are floor-to-ceiling windows. To preserve privacy, the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling windows are usually drawn, leaving only the lower half exposed.

Huang Da and the others saw the hem of a trench coat fluttering in the corridor, a pair of new shoes creaking, and someone walking briskly towards them.

"The Little Prince is here!" Huang Da playfully punched his colleague. "The Little Prince is here!"

The employees in the office all looked up and peeked out from above their computers, like a group of Timon from The Lion King.

A thin man, his face completely hidden by sunglasses and a mask, appeared at the door with his hands in his pockets.

He stood with his legs apart in the doorway, looking around as if he wanted to ask something, but ultimately decided to remain silent. At that moment, the conference room door opened, and Zuo Ziliang appeared in the doorway. He was about to reach out to greet him, but upon closer inspection, a suspicious look appeared on his face.

When the man saw Zuo Ziliang, he ran over to him, but twisted his ankle halfway there. He then limped into the conference room as if fleeing something.

The employees watched the man enter the meeting room. Huang Da frowned and said, "Who spilled water at the door today? Little Prince almost fell over!"

My colleague said, "Is that really the Little Prince? He looks much younger than I imagined!"

"You guys used to laugh at me for wearing Nikes, but the Little Prince wears Nikes too, doesn't he?" a colleague said, sticking out his foot.

……

Wang Zixu rushed into the conference room, took off his sunglasses, and gasped for breath.

The first half was going quite well, but then I got nervous and tripped over my own foot, causing the whole thing to fall apart.

Ye Lan sat on the sofa, smiling as she stared at him: "Why are you dressed like this today? Who are you trying to impress with all that handsomeness?"

Prince Xu sat down without showing any emotion, feeling a sense of satisfaction. He twirled his hand in the air and said, "It's just a disguise, not a special outfit."

Ye Lan leaned over and touched his sleeve: "The long trench coat suits you quite well, but the color combination is terrible. You should have bought a black one."

Zuo Ziliang tapped the table with his pen and said, "You can discuss fashion sense later. This is our first meeting since the establishment of our new board of directors, and we need to address a few serious issues."

Wang Zixu sat up straight, while Zuo Ziliang lowered his voice and said, "This month, our app's performance hasn't been very good; the risks outweigh the opportunities."