Ning Chunyan has been waiting for Chen Qingluo to discover a truth: it is very impolite to suddenly live in someone else's home for no reason.
It is now the second day that Chen Qingluo has stayed at her house. Chen Qingluo has begun to learn to take the initiative to serve meals on her own without being called upon.
Chen Qingluo will sleep in the same bed as Ning Chunyan at night, but she usually goes to bed when she is tired from writing, and she often gets tired very late, and will wake Ning Chunyan up when she climbs into bed.
But Ning Chunyan didn’t want to reason directly with Chen Qingluo. Because if you speak directly, it will appear particularly unhospitable. And she suspected that even if she told her, Chen Qingluo wouldn't listen.
This woman is now possessed. Except for creation, no matter what you say to her, those words will line up first and enter her mind, and then flow out of her mind like water. She didn't care at all.
There is a reason why Chen Qingluo lives in her house. Because the novel Chen Qingluo is currently working on was written in her home at the beginning, she will stay in her home until the novel is finished.
She claimed that if she rashly changes the creative environment, her state of mind will also change accordingly. When her state of mind changes, the taste of the words she writes will also change. This will not form a consistent creative style and will lead to a complete collapse of the novel.
Ning Chunyan didn’t know if this was true, but she didn’t dare to let a work that was qualified for the Mao Dun Literature Award fail for such a ridiculous reason. So she could only accept it and at the same time pray in her heart that she could write faster.
Fortunately, Chen Qingluo’s beauty made everything not look so bad. The Ning family quickly accepted this uninvited guest. Ning's mother would also ask about Chen Qingluo's taste and bring her favorite dishes to the table.
But Chen Qingluo was indifferent to these good intentions. She muttered and babbled every day, sometimes frowning, sometimes laughing, sometimes mumbling, sometimes walking around the room, and doing some simple actions repeatedly.
Ning’s mother was very worried about her mental state. She thought about asking several times, but Ning Chunyan stopped her.
She told her that writers are like this. Because creating requires placing oneself in another world, she seems to be eating on the table and walking on the ground, but in fact she is in other places, doing other things.
In other words, her body is still alive at this moment, but her soul inhabits some distant possible universe. This is the prerogative of the creator. It’s also the creator’s curse.
Every time Chen Qingluo writes a batch of first drafts, Ning Chunyan prints them out and circulates them to her parents. After Ning's father and Ning's mother are busy with their work, they will take a special period of time to read and study this work, and will also raise some questions and opinions.
The three Ning family members became the first readers of Chen Qingluo’s story.
Chen Qingluo’s work is called “Beauvoir’s Dedication”. Beauvoir was Jean-Paul Sartre's soul mate and lifelong lover. The two live in a wonderful relationship.
Beauvoir and Sartre love each other, but both are celibate. Moreover, Sartre also pursued passion. He proposed to Beauvoir that although we are each other's lifelong soul mates, I hope I can have other lovers.
Beauvoir suggested that in this case, I should also have other lovers. What she didn't expect was that Sartre agreed.
So, both of them have their own lovers. But the two always believe that each other is the only one for each other.
Beauvoir said when she was old, I had never been happy in such a relationship. She always only loved Sartre. Like a traditional woman, she wanted to stay with Sartre.
But whether she liked it or not, because of her romantic affairs and chaotic relationships, she was called a slut at the time.
Even though they were doing the same thing, she received more infamy than Sartre.
Later, she published some books about women’s rights and was regarded as the pioneer and standard-bearer of the women’s rights movement. Sartre's "gaze" theory also led to a familiar word that will be labeled and commonly used in the future - male concentration.
But Chen Qingluo’s book does not write about Beauvoir, nor about Sartre, nor about men’s rights and women’s rights. What she wrote was just a love story. In academic terms, Beauvoir is just a symbol. In popular terms, she is selling sheep's head as dog's meat.
In Chen Qingluo’s book, the male and female protagonists are a man and woman who have agreed not to marry for life. The two are in Platonic love and have always kept in touch with each other. Until one day, the heroine received an invitation to the hero's wedding - and the story begins from here.
The heroine felt betrayed, but she still chose not to get married. However, the non-marriage before the male protagonist's marriage and the non-marriage after the male protagonist's marriage gave her completely opposite feelings. She began to feel that she was preserving her virginity for the male protagonist, and no longer for her own free will.
Therefore, the title of the book is "Beauvoir's Dedication".
In fact, the plot of the story is not the focus. Chen Qingluo is not a popular writer, or in other words, the transcendent part of her is far greater than the popular one.
The valuable thing about writers is not the stories they can weave, but the unique perspective they can provide. It's the sociologist's job to solve problems; it's the writer's job to point them out. Moreover, asking questions is sometimes far more difficult than solving them.
Every day during lunch, the Ning family would discuss Chen Qingluo’s works at the dining table. Chen Qingluo also sat at the same table, but she always ate in silence, not listening to what they were saying at all. Sometimes you need to be reminded by Ning Chun Banquet to prevent food from getting into your nose.
Ning Bingru has also read Wang Zixu's "Wild Weeds". He also gave a high evaluation to this short and medium-length novel, and sometimes even compared the two novels.
""Wild Weeds" is also shocking at first glance, but compared with Qingluo's, it feels a bit lower, or there are a lot of chicken thieves. You will see that this author wrote it to be recognized."
Ning Chunyan said: "But "Wild Weeds" also has social value. I feel that "Beauvoir's Dedication" seems to be a response to this work."
"In other words, the two works respond to each other." Ning's mother said.
Ning Bingru said: "Where does Wang Zixu plan to invest "Wild Weeds"?"
Ning Chunyan said: "He only wants to vote for "Xihe Literature and Art", but I want to vote for "Mountain City"."
Ning Bingru nodded, then shook his head: "As for "Mountain City", the level has actually declined in the past two years, I recommend voting for "September"."
Ning Chunyan frowned: "" Will "September" be accepted? "
Ning Bingru said: "The quality of some manuscripts in "September" is not as good as this." Ning Chunyan said: "You are not talking about me."
Ning's father smiled "haha" and did not answer.
Ning Ma said: "Why not vote for "Yangtze River"? This is a publication from our province, and its quality is not bad. This prince is just starting out, so maybe it will be better for his development if he joins a magazine from this province?" "
Father Ning and Ning Chunyan looked at her at the same time. Mother Ning said, "What's wrong? Am I right?"
" Mom, you are so right, why didn't I think of it? "
Ning Bingru smiled bitterly: "The main reason is that he is a newcomer."
Chen Qingluo suddenly raised her head, her hair fell from her mouth, her eyes widened, and she didn't know who she was talking to in the possible universe:
"You will eventually return to your wife, and I will eventually merge with other people's lives. The era of freedom is over. Everything is irreversibly moving toward vulgarity."
...
At the Wenwen small base 40 minutes' drive away, thousands of books are already in place, and the selected speech therapists are also arriving one after another.
In fact, when it was proposed to form a team of scripters, all the speech therapists in the group showed great enthusiasm and actively submitted manuscripts to the operators.
After a night of screening, Zuo Ziliang and Wang Zixu selected 10 finalists, and finally cut them down to five, including Cheng Xing.
In the end, it was the five people standing in front of Wang Zixu.
Wang Zixu stared at the first person from the left. He squinted and looked at the 1.8-meter-tall, muscular man for a long time before asking:
"Are you the sunny and cheerful Sakura-chan?"
The strong man Grinning: "My current online name is Smart and Witty Sakura-chan, you can just call me Sakura-chan."
Wang Zixu nodded, then looked at a fair boy next to him: "Are you Xiaoba?"
The boy nodded timidly, seeming extremely shy. My feet are a bit boxy.
Wang Zixu looked at the girl chewing gum at the side. The girl had long pink hair and skin as white as a vampire. She had a pair of huge sunglasses on her face and was wearing a leather jacket. She was very cool and coquettish.
"Are you a guilty poet?"
The girl said: "Now you are a guiltless poet. Just call me poet."
Wang Zixu looked at Cheng Xing, who was staring at him, feeling helpless.
These people are a little different from what he imagined.