A Literary Life Starting from the First Year of High School

Zhou Min was curled up on the sofa in her rented room, her laptop on her lap. She had just finished showering, and her hair was still wet, wrapped in a towel.

She didn't want to work today. She had been writing copy all day, and her brain felt completely empty, like it had been squeezed dry. She opened her browser and browsed through her bookmarks—Taobao, Tianya, Renren, Tudou—but none of them piqued her interest. Finally, she clicked on the official forum of "Story Club".

She's been registered on this forum for three years, her ID is "Jasmine Tea," and her profile picture is a photo of a cup of tea she took herself. She doesn't post much, mostly just lurking, and occasionally she'll reply to an article she likes with a comment like "The author writes really well." The forum isn't very popular, but it has a good atmosphere, unlike Tianya where people often engage in heated arguments.

The forum layout is still the old-fashioned Discuz! template, with a blue and white color scheme. The header is a cover image of "Story Club" magazine, but the resolution is low and the edges are a bit blurry. The homepage lists several sections: "Work Discussion", "Submission Exchange", "Author Zone" and "Casual Chat".

Zhou Min habitually clicked on the "Works Discussion" section first. The pinned post was from last month, titled "Collection of Reading Notes on 'Spring Blossom Noodle Shop'". There were already more than 300 replies. She had left a comment on this post, saying, "After reading it, I want to go to Nanjing Road to eat a bowl of noodles." As a result, she actually went and waited in line for a long time.

She scrolled down, and when she got to the third item, her finger stopped.

The post was titled: "Does anyone know Lin Shubai? He's the author of 'Spring Blossom Noodle Shop,' his book is being published tomorrow!"

The poster's ID is "Bookworm Aqiang", and the time is 2:17 PM today.

Zhou Min clicked on it.

The main post reads as follows:

"RT (as the title says), I thought this author wrote well when I read 'Story Collection' before. 'The Most Precious Gift' and 'Lunch' were both quite good. Today I saw news online that a new book will be released tomorrow called 'Charlotte's Web,' and the author is also Lin Shubai! And it's a fairy tale! A short story writer suddenly publishing a long fairy tale? Does anyone know about this book? Is it worth buying? Waiting for your reply online."

There are already more than twenty replies below.

2nd floor: First! I saw this news too. I saw it on Dangdang.com. The pre-sale page is already there. The cover is quite nice, light green, with a spider on it.

3rd Floor: Bench, Lin Shubai? Isn't he the one who wrote "Chunhua Noodle Shop"? I cried while reading that article, and I still remember the ending line, "The snow is still falling outside, and the lights in Chunhua Noodle Shop are still on." Is he going to publish a fairy tale? It'll be available tomorrow? I'll go buy it after get off work!

4th Floor: Floor, OP (original poster), are you out of touch? This news has been around for a while, okay? I saw it on Weibo. Someone posted a picture of the book and said, "The book written by one of my classmates will be released tomorrow." The comments below were all asking who it was. The person said it was Lin Shubai. I thought it was just a coincidence of names, but when I checked, it turned out to be the same person, a 16-year-old high school student.

5th floor: What did you say upstairs? Lin Shubai is a student? A high school student? Please explain!

6th floor: Replying to 5th floor, yes, first year of high school. You've heard of the National Middle School Students' Innovative Writing Competition, right? Lin Shubai won the national first prize, and I heard his essay was published in "People's Literature." Yes, that's "People's Literature." Sixteen years old, you're welcome.

7th Floor: ??? I'm also sixteen this year, and I can't even write a proper weekly journal, yet they've published a book? ??? Is this world fair? ???

8th floor: Replying to 7th floor, the world has never been fair, face reality, young man.

9th floor: On a side note, does anyone know how much this book costs? I'm thinking of buying it tomorrow.

10th floor: Replying to 9th floor, the price is 25. It seems that online bookstores can offer discounts. It seems to be 21 yuan on Dangdang. I just placed an order and chose delivery tomorrow. It should arrive tomorrow.

Zhou Min glanced at her bookshelf, which was filled with several rows of books, including literature, social sciences, and some magazines. On the top shelf was her collection of "Story Club," which she had kept every single issue since January of this year. She had bought two copies of the issue of "Spring Flower Noodle Shop," one of which was worn out from being read so many times, and the other was still in its plastic wrapping, both neatly arranged on the bookshelf.

She continued scrolling down.

11th Floor: I just searched for information about this book online. It's published by the Children's Publishing House, and the first edition printed 12,000 copies. 12,000! It's pretty good that a new publisher can print that many copies these days.

12th Floor: What's 12,000? I bet it will be reprinted within three months. Lin Shubai is currently riding high, with the foundation of "Story Club", the halo of the essay competition, and the boost from that article in "People's Literature". It would be an injustice if this book didn't become a hit.

13th floor: Hey upstairs, stop jinxing me. If you jinx me and I die, are you going to take responsibility?

14th floor: Hahahaha, the saying "milked to death" is hilarious.

...

19th Floor: I have a basic question: what age is this book for? My nephew is eight years old, can he understand it?

20th floor: Replying to 19th floor, it should be possible. The text in the sample chapters is not difficult, there are illustrations, and the story is not complicated. An eight-year-old should be able to understand it, but adults will not find it childish. I am twenty-five years old, and I want to buy it after reading the sample chapters.

As Zhou Min scrolled down, she saw a rather long analysis posted by a netizen with the ID "Literary Novice".

26th Floor (Literary Novice): Personally, I think Lin Shubai's strength lies not in how ornate his writing is—to be honest, his writing is rather simple, without the piling up of fancy adjectives. His strength lies in two points:

First, he knows what to write and what not to write. Many authors are eager to explain every detail, afraid that readers will not understand. But Lin Shubai is not like that. He leaves blank where he should and concludes where he should conclude.

Secondly, his endings are always very powerful, not in a deliberately sentimental way, but in a way that lingers in your mind even after you've finished reading and closed the book. The line from *The Most Precious Gift*, "Of all those who give gifts, those two are the wisest," and the line from *Spring Blossom Noodle Shop*, "The snow is still falling outside, and the lights in Spring Blossom Noodle Shop are still on," are both examples of this—one line is worth a thousand.

There were more than a dozen "likes" under this reply. Zhou Min also clicked the "like" button and continued scrolling down. The forum page needs to be manually refreshed every once in a while to see new replies. She pressed F5, the page refreshed, and there was a long list of new replies at the bottom, one of which was a supplementary comment from the previous "literary nobody".

27th Floor (Literary Novice): Just to add, I just checked the book's page on Douban. It hasn't been rated yet, but over twenty people have already marked it as "want to read." The synopsis reads: "This is a story about friendship, life, death, and promises. A little pig, a spider, a web, and a journey that begins in spring and ends in autumn." Just those few sentences have already hooked me. I'll go buy it as soon as the bookstore opens tomorrow.

28th floor: Could you please share the Douban link?

29th floor: Reply to 28th floor, just search it yourself, I'm too lazy to post it.

30th floor: Are you going to buy it tomorrow? Remember to write a review after you buy it.

Floor 31 (Bookworm Aqiang): Buy it! I have to buy it tomorrow. Anyone in Shanghai want to go to the bookstore together? It's no fun going alone.

32nd floor: I'm from Hangzhou, it's too far. Friends in Shanghai, you guys should form your own teams.

33rd floor: Shanghai +1, OP, which bookstore are you planning to go to?

34th Floor (Bookworm Aqiang): The Xinhua Bookstore on Nanjing Road is a good option. It's close to that noodle shop, so you can grab a bowl of noodles after you buy your book.

35th floor: Hahahaha, you've planned this route well. After buying the books, you can go eat noodles. You've got both spiritual and material nourishment.

She glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the screen—9:40 PM. People were still replying to posts on the forum, and the number of online users was 52. For a literary forum, this number was already considered lively. She refreshed the page again, and there was another reply below, posted by a user named "Onlooker Ding".

Floor 47 (Observer Ding): I searched for Lin Shubai's information online and found that besides the three articles in *Story Club*, he also published one in *October* called "Life on a String," which seems to be coming out in the next issue. Then *People's Literature* will also publish his essay next month, "A Young China's Manifesto." Do the math: a high school student, within half a year, has appeared in *Story Club*, *October*, and *People's Literature*, and even published a book—what does that mean? I've lived for thirty years and haven't published a single article.

48th floor: Stop talking, or I'll get depressed.

49th floor: I'm thirty-five years old, and I've never even been featured in my company's internal publication.

...

53rd floor: I'll just lie down and give it a thumbs up. I'll buy a book tomorrow to show my support, so I can at least say I've participated in history.

54th floor: Hahahaha, the idea of ​​"participating in history" is great. I can tell my grandson later, "Your grandma was one of the first to buy Lin Shu-pai's debut novel."

55th floor: Wait, wasn't your debut work "The Most Precious Gift"?

56th floor: That was a short story. This is the first book, so it's different.

She refreshed the page again and found a new post titled "Just confirmed with Lin Shubai's classmate, the book will definitely be available tomorrow." The poster's ID was "Passerby A is Also A," and the post read: "A friend of mine goes to the same school as Lin Shubai, and he said the book will be available tomorrow. You can buy it at the bookstore near the school. He also said Lin Shubai is a nice person, not aloof, just not very talkative, and quite good-looking." People were already urging her to comment—"How good-looking? Describe it in detail." "Any photos?" "Please take a candid photo."

Zhou Min didn't read any further. She turned off her computer and closed her laptop. She wasn't particularly concerned about Lin Shubai's appearance; whether he was good-looking or not was irrelevant to her. She was reading a story, not watching a person.