Chapter 172 How is steel made?
"Test, test?"
The sweat on Wang Zixu's back burst out and was sucked into his suit shirt. The pores shrank back again, and the shirt was cold when it was pressed against him.
His impassioned speech just now was so enthusiastic, but now he feels so scared. The key is not being mentally prepared to be tested.
"What is the test?"
Pu Yuyang muttered from the side: "Teacher Li prefers this more dramatic way of appearing."
"Tsk."
Pu Yuyang said: "That's right, I specially found a coffee shop to meet in advance just to pretend that we don't know each other. I think it's unnecessary..."
" "Tsk!"
Li Minyang said "tsk" more sternly than before, his eyebrows raised, his eyes squinted, and a light flashed in his eyes. Pu Yuyang shrank and did not dare to speak.
Li Minyang said: "What do you know? When facing acquaintances alone, that is when a person is most relaxed and can see more things."
"I haven't eaten anything in the morning, and my stomach is a little uncomfortable. Are there any steamed buns here?"
"Teacher Li, this is a coffee shop."
Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and said: "I'm sorry, this Teacher Li is known as an old naughty boy in our editorial department. , the style is quite... out of the ordinary."
Wang Zixian said politely, "My favorite character is the old naughty boy."
Li Minyang's eyes flashed: "The affair between the old naughty boy and Ying Gu was not sincere. It was very hypocritical. The chivalrous characters written by Jin Yong were only superficial."
Wang Zixu immediately changed his mind: " What I like is the old naughty boy in "Happy Planet""
Li Minyang leaned over and lowered his voice and said to Wang Zixu:
"I have finished reading "Fire in the Stone"."
"Have you finished reading?" Wang Zixu repeated.
Counting the time, it was less than a week since he sent the manuscript, and he had read 600,000 words, averaging more than 100,000 words per day.
“Of course, it is a rough reading, and I will read it intensively later,” Li Minyang took a sip of coffee, “It can be said that I can’t let go of the book.”
Wang Zixu’s tense nerves finally relaxed.
He is confident that as long as he carefully reads "Fire in the Stone", anyone will agree with this book.
"Your work is very good, so we decided to publish it on the first day we got it. The next day, almost everyone agreed to publish the full text. The only problem is the fee."
Li Minyang said slowly:
“Yesterday, someone had great difficulty in passing a message to our editorial department through someone they knew, informing us that there was a problem with your manuscript being rejected. After hearing what you said just now, I understand that the reason is that you have offended Shi Tonghe.”
Wang Zixu felt that he had missed the mark.
"Don't worry," Li Minyang continued, as if anticipating his reaction, "I have three things to say to you about the fact that you have offended Shi Tonghe."
Wang Zixu sat up straight and said, "Please speak."
"The first sentence is that since ancient times, literati have looked down upon each other and loved each other. There are many authors who dislike each other, including some well-known writers. Lu Xun despises Bing Xin, Maugham despises Balzac, Nabokov despises Dostoevsky..." "Woolf despises Joyce, Wilde despises Proust, Faulkner despises Hemingway..." Wang Zixu continued.
"Yes. Yes." Li Minyang nodded, "There are many conflicts among literati. Our magazine has published many conflicting writers' works, sometimes even in the same issue. The tension between the two is very strong, but the readers don't know it. Your conflicts with anyone have nothing to do with us. We only look at the quality of the work."
Wang Zi nodded. Just as it should be.
"The second sentence," Li Minyang said, "you think too badly about our "getting"."
The prince sat upright like a primary school student, listening attentively.
"Shi Tonghe is not a tiger. How can he jump into our editorial office and bite us to death one by one? Why do you have to talk so hard? If he is not happy when we publish your manuscript, then let him be unhappy. It is going to rain and my mother is getting married. What can he do?"
Li Minyang talked enthusiastically, drank the coffee in a big gulp, and said : "The third sentence, as a writer, you must have your own pride."
Wang Zixu bowed: "You specifically mean..."
"Do you think you wrote well?"
"It's okay."
"This won't work." Li Minyang said, "You have to write well. You have to think that you are unique and unparalleled in the world, so that we can feel comfortable publishing your manuscript. If you don't believe it yourself, how can others do it? Why do I believe you?"
Wang Zi nodded and changed his words: "I think my "Fire in the Stone" has been irreversible."
Li Minyang nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, that's how it should be. Even some novices who don't write well are very proud of their own works, and after writing them, they look like nothing. You have no temper at all for your own works. No, all future manuscripts will be submitted to "Get". If you don't have the courage, don't write it in the first place. "
Pu Yuyang went crazy: "Mr. Li, it's hard for me to carry out follow-up work with you like this! Next, I have to discuss the revision of the manuscript with him. You have inflated his self-confidence. How will I communicate with him next?"
Li Minyang laughed and said, "You are responsible for saving this manuscript, and I am responsible for saving his entire career as a writer." After that, the three of them opened a business room and sat together to revise the manuscript.
Wang Zixu believed that Pu Yuyang had carefully prepared the 600,000-word manuscript, with two notes posted on it. On average, there were underlines every two pages, and even punctuation errors were marked.
During the break of revision, Wang Zixu got up to move around and went to the balcony to light a cigarette. Pu Yuyang followed from behind.
"Actually, I'm curious about how you offended Shi Tonghe."
Wang Zixu looked back at her, Pu Yuyang raised his hands and said, "I'm just curious. If you don't want to say it, there's no need to tell me."
Wang Zixu was a little depressed and shook some cigarette ashes into the corner: "It's not that I don't want to say it, mainly I don't know either. Why did you offend him? "
Pu Yuyang stared at him seriously for a long time and said, "You should think so. In fact, he didn't do anything against you. If he really wanted to deal with you with all his strength, it would not be as simple as Teacher Li said."
The prince nodded, yes, he probably only used the strength of a fingernail to deal with me.
Pu Yuyang smiled: "Maybe it's less than that, maybe it takes the strength of a fingernail to take off a half-moon to deal with you."
After saying that, she leaned on the railing and said, "Actually, I admire you quite a bit."
"What do you admire, admire me for not having a job, or admire me for waiting for royalties?"
Pu Yuyang turned to look at him: "I admire you for having a dream."
"Sounds quite vulgar."
"No, no." She said, "I really envy you for being able to have clear hobbies and motivation to do what you want to do. Most people just follow the crowd. You not only took the initiative to do it, but also made certain achievements. Like me, even if I want to offend Shi Tonghe, I have nowhere to offend." His spitting will definitely offend him. "
Pu Yuyang chuckled: "Don't be arrogant. But I feel that you are closer to the Wang Zixu in my impression. You were too dull before. I remember you were quite cheerful before."
Wang Zixu took a puff of cigarette: "Yeah."
If he passed by his 17-year-old self now, he would definitely ignore him as a boring and boring adult.
But it didn’t happen in a day or two. It’s like iron. Sooner or later, if you hammer it down, it will turn into something you don’t recognize at all.
Only a few people will be thrown into the furnace, the furnace temperature will be raised, quenched and tempered, and then turned into steel.
“I suddenly remembered,” Pu Yuyang suddenly smiled, “Chen Qingluo was in our class before, do you still remember?”
“How could you not remember,” said Wang Zixu, “we also sat at the same table.”
"You actually sat at the same table?" Pu Yuyang really didn't remember this aspect, "I remember that Xie Cong sat at the same table with her at that time. He liked her and wanted to chase her, but couldn't. Many boys in the class had a crush on her at that time."
Wang Zixu pursed his lips, feeling a little bitter: "Actually, she..."
"What's wrong?"
"What did you want to say just now? Forgot. Forget it, it must be unimportant." Zixu concealed it clumsily.
He originally wanted to say that he and Chen Qingluo worked in the same office, but after thinking about it, he decided not to reveal any unnecessary information, lest Pu Yuyang spread to the ears of his old classmates and add to the commotion.
"Until now, the Chinese teacher of our class brags to the new students every year that he has taught Chen Qingluo," Pu Yuyang said, "I hope you can break through the current predicament and become a great writer who can make us proud like Chen Qingluo."
"Thank you."
Wang Zixu thought of what Li Minyang just said.
"Shi Tonghe!" Wang Zixu shouted to the building opposite, "I will step on you to win the prize!"
After saying that, he turned around and saw Pu Yuyang standing next to him, looking at him with an unspeakable expression.
“Teacher Li just said that you should be a little proud of yourself, but I feel like it’s a little too arrogant?”
"It's a bit." Pu Yuyang nodded slowly, "If you say it in front of him, it's a bit. It's okay to shout to inorganic things."
Back in the room, Li Minyang put down the manuscript. The old man raised his face, his white hair glowing silver in the afternoon sun.
“I just thought about it,” Li Minyang said, “The reading threshold for your manuscript is too high. Just publishing it, I don’t know whether the influence can achieve the expected effect.”
Pu Yuyang asked: "You mean, you want it to be published on the front page? Hasn't the front page of the next issue already been reserved for Gu Zao?"
Gu Zao is a popular young writer recently. He debuted earlier than Wang Zixu and is about the same age as him.
Pu Yuyang turned to Wang Zixu and asked: "Do you mind waiting for one more issue to publish your manuscript in the next issue? Maybe we can get a front page at that time."
Wang Zixu shook his head: "I want to send it out as soon as possible."
If you want to win the Feishi Suihan Literary Award, it will be too late to wait another month.
Li Minyang shook his head: "That's not what I meant, I was thinking... Well, let's wait until the first issue is released and see how the society responds.
"If the response is good, I think I should contact the Literary and Art Association to hold a seminar to promote this work. ”
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