"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 stuck to him, feeling cold.

His impassioned speech just now was so passionate, but now he feels so scared. The key is that he is not mentally prepared to be tested.

"Test, 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 gave a more severe "tsk" than before, raised his eyebrows, squinted his eyes, and a light flashed in his eyes. Pu Yuyang shrank and did not dare to speak.

Li Minyang said: "What do you know? When you are alone with an acquaintance, you are in the most relaxed state, and you can see more things."

Pu Yuyang asked: "What did you see?"

"I haven't eaten anything this morning and my stomach feels a little uncomfortable. Are there any 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. His style is rather... out of the ordinary."

The prince said politely and against his will: "My favorite character is the old naughty boy."

Li Minyang's eyes flashed: "The affair between the old naughty boy and Gu Ying is not sincere, it is very hypocritical. The chivalrous men written by Jin Yong have their own appearance."

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 to Wang Zixu:

"I finished reading Fire in the Stone."

"Have you finished reading?" Wang Zixu repeated.

Calculating 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's a rough reading. 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 it in full. The only problem is the fee."

Li Minyang said slowly:

"Yesterday, someone had a very difficult time passing a message to our editorial department through someone he knew, informing us that there was a problem with your manuscript being rejected. After hearing what you said just now, I understand. There is no other reason than that you have offended me.

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 regarding the fact that you have offended Shi Tonghe."

Wang Zixu sat up straight: "Please speak."

"The first sentence is that since ancient times, literati have looked down on each other and there have been many authors who dislike each other, including some well-known writers. Lu Xun despised Bing Xin, Maugham despised Balzac, and Nabokov despised

Dostoevsky…”

"Woolf despised Joyce, Wilde despised Proust, Faulkner despised 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. There is a lot of tension between the two.

It’s thick, but readers don’t know it. Any conflicts you have with anyone have nothing to do with us. We only look at the quality of the work.”

The prince nodded weakly. That's exactly what it should be.

"The second sentence," Li Minyang said, "you think too badly about our "obtaining"."

Prince Xu sat upright like a primary school boy, 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 coolly? If he is not happy when we publish your article, then let him

Go and be unhappy, it's going to rain and my mother is getting married, what can he do?"

Li Minyang spoke enthusiastically, drank a gulp of coffee, and said: "The third sentence is, as a writer, you must have your own pride."

The prince bowed slightly: "You specifically mean..."

"Do you think you wrote well?"

"Well enough."

"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. Only then can we feel at ease by publishing your manuscript. If you don't believe it yourself, how can others believe in you?

Woolen cloth?"

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 precious about their own works, and after writing them, they look like nothing. You have no temper at all for your own works.

It won’t work. All future manuscripts will be submitted to “Get” and we’ll wait until the manuscript is rejected. If you don’t have the courage, don’t write it in the first place.”

"good."

Pu Yuyang went crazy: "Mr. Li, it's difficult for me to carry out follow-up work with you like this! Next, I have to discuss the revision of the draft 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 got 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 sticky notes. On average, there were underlines on 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 very 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 tell me, 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, but mainly I don't know how to offend him."

Pu Yuyang stared at him seriously for a long time and said, "You should think this way. In fact, he didn't do anything against you. If he really wants to deal with you with all his strength, then the matter will not be as simple as Teacher Li said."

Wang Zixun nodded, yes, he probably only used the strength of a fingernail to deal with me.

Pu Yuyang smiled: "Maybe it's less than that. It would take the strength of a fingernail as small as 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? Do you admire me for not having a job? Or do you admire me for waiting for royalties?"

Pu Yuyang turned to look at him: "I admire you for having a dream."

"Sounds pretty cheesy."

"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.

Achievements. Like me, even if I want to offend Shi Tonghe, there is nowhere to offend him."

Wang Zixu said: "The next time I see Shi Tonghe, I will call you. If you spit at him, you will definitely offend him."

Pu Yuyang chuckled: "Don't be arrogant. Hmm, but I feel like you are a little closer to the Wang Zixu in my impression now. You were too dull before. I remember you were quite sunny and 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, just like iron, sooner or later it becomes completely unrecognizable after being hammered down.

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 I not remember," Wang Zixu said, "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 pursue her, but couldn't. At that time, Xie Cong was in class

A lot of boys in bed have a crush on her."

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." Wang 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 the news about Pu Yuyang reach the ears of his old classmates and add to the commotion.

“Until now, our class Chinese teacher brags to the new students every year that he taught Chen Qingluo,” Pu Yuyang said. “I hope you can break through the current predicament and become a great writer that we can be proud of like Chen Qingluo.

.”

"Thanks."

Wang Zixu thought again of what Li Minyang said just now.

"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 have some pride of your own, but I feel like it's a little too arrogant?"
To be continued...