Chapter 202: Chapter 190: The Eternal God_1
Translator: 549690339
The reaction of Wei Long naturally drew everyone’s attention.
But Wei Long’s phrase “What about the three horse carriages” was rather arrogant, unintentionally sparking a lot of debate.
However, no matter the dispute, it couldn’t suppress everyone’s curiosity—
What sort of draft was it that made Wei Long lose his composure to such an extent, almost to the point of exaggeration?
Therefore, a meeting was naturally organized within the department.
Calling it a meeting was less accurate than calling it a novel reading.
Freshly printed copies of “The Necklace,” smelling faintly of ink, were distributed to every staff member at the editor-in-chief level and above.
A five thousand-word text wouldn’t require much time to read through.
Han Jimei was also reading “The Necklace.”
She was the first to receive the printed copies, so she was the first to finish reading.
But when she finished the entire novel, she fell silent for a whole minute.
It was unclear whether she was replaying the story in her mind or waiting for the comments and views of the other editors-in-chief.
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Gradually.
In the meeting room.
The other chief editors began to finish reading one after the other.
Instead of mirroring Han Jimei’s silence, everyone was in agreement, and there was even someone who cautiously stood up from his seat expressing his admiration to Wei Long: “This short story…”
He opened his mouth, wanting to critique it using specific terms but found himself lost for words.
It was Wei Long who calmly added two more words: “Classic!”
There was an uproar in the conference room.
“That’s right, it’s a classic, a real masterpiece, especially the ending, it’s as amazing as ‘The Gift of the Magi’!”
“The twist at the end is simply astonishing!”
“Even without the plot twist at the end, the story of a woman spending her whole life trying to pay off the cost of a fake necklace she thought was precious for a moment’s vanity is already very well written!”
“The ending is the cherry on top, raising the entire story to a new level!”
“This is the first short story to show the cost of vanity in such a detailed way!”
“In the face of this kind of story, even Feng Hua would be overwhelmed!”
“I underestimated Chu Kuang. We were all anxious and worried, unaware that the strongest was among us!”
“In terms of reputation and seniority, Chu Kuang can’t compete with Feng Hua, but if we compare the story, it’s hard to tell.”
“First, we likely can challenge them head-on!”
Everyone looked at Han Jimei.
Han Jimei was the most composed.
Everyone couldn’t help but admire her mentality as the Chief. No doubt she’s a leader. She shows no change of color even when Mount Tai collapses in front of her—
Unless one of her exquisite red false fingernails hadn’t broken off due to excessive force.
“Prepare for battle.”
Han Jimei calmly hid her broken fingernail, suppressing her surging emotions and said, “Focus on promoting ‘The Necklace’!”
“Understood!”
Everyone responded thunderously.
That night in the Tribe Literature section, a large banner was raised on the homepage saying:
[Get ready for the grand new masterpiece by superstar genius short story author, Chu Kuang]
The promotional banner took up a quarter of the screen.
This was the grandest promotion ever in the history of Tribe Literature.
After entering the topic, readers could see countless comments from the editors about this novel. All of them were praises and introductions to Chu Kuang’s previous works, without any spoilers…
Unsurprisingly, this promotion garnered much attention.
“Such a grand pomp, can I ask, who is Chu Kuang?”
This comment was obviously from someone in Qi Province.
Naturally, netizens from Qin Continent introduced, “Chu Kuang is a fantastic new author and considered a rising star in the area of short stories. You can check out his previous works. I personally recommend ‘The Gift of the Magi’, it’s one of the top three classics in my eyes!”
“Chu Kuang is indeed great, but don’t you think his promo is a bit too much?”
“A lot of big name short story authors are participating in Tribe Literature’s March event called Blossoming Dreams, there were many but judging from the treatment Chu Kuang seems to have the highest status, equal to Feng Hua from the blog novel section…”
“Is Chu Kuang more prestigious than teacher Wen Da?”
“On the side of Tribe Literature, the only ones who should be on par with teacher Feng Hua would probably be Wen Da, Shen Gongfang, or teacher Yue Mei.”
It was like deploying troops and perfecting armaments.
The Blog Novels highlighted Feng Hua, whose position and strength were obviously the leaders among the short story authors there.
However, over at Tribe Literature, to everyone’s surprise, it was Chu Kuang. Naturally, some readers were confused.
There were many great teachers in Tribe Literature as well.
The main promotion shouldn’t be Chu Kuang, although Chu Kuang is no longer a complete newcomer in the field of short stories, he did have a few excellent works, but this couldn’t cover up the fact that he was still relatively new to the circle.
“I have to say, it really piqued my interest.”
“Is Chu Kuang’s new work really good enough to rival Feng Hua?”
“That’s one of the three horse carriages.”
“I hope Tribe Literature isn’t just blowing its own horn. If they’re making such a big fuss, but the quality of the novel isn’t up to par, it will be embarrassing.”
It wasn’t so much doubt, anticipation was indeed aroused, but readers were inevitably hesitant, wondering if Tribe Literature was just playing a savvy marketing game.
In contrast.
Over at Blog Novels, they indeed felt a little scared. Would Tribe Literature have arranged such a grand promotion without being confident?
“Aren’t they afraid that when the work comes out, it would not meet the readers’ expectations?”
“It scared me so much that I had to read teacher Feng Hua’s draft again to calm down.”
“Teacher Feng Hua probably finds it strange too, what gives Tribe Literature the confidence?”
“I guess Chu Kuang really did write a great piece. I think Chu Kuang’s potential is terrifying. I tried to bring him over previously, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find his contact information.”
“Having Teacher Feng Hua is sufficient.”
Overall, they are more at ease with blog novels.
It’s not that they are looking down on Chu Kuang, they have so much confidence in Feng Hua!
At this moment.
The authors from the Literature Tribe also began to express surprise, with many discussing the matter in chat groups. A few of those with louder voices expressed their opinions—
Yue Mei: “Is our main promotion going towards Chu Kuang?”
Shen Gongfang: “I thought it would be Teacher Wen Da.”
Wen Da: “There must be a reason for it. Let’s see, I am quite looking forward to Chu Kuang. What if he really beats Teacher Feng Hua?”
No one was really dissatisfied.
Anyone facing Feng Hua would feel intimidated.
Since Chu Kuang was chosen, that can only mean one thing. Literature Tribe believed, among all the manuscripts this time, Chu Kuang’s work was the best!
So, instead of dissatisfaction, everyone was more curious to see just how good Chu Kuang’s manuscript was?
Carrying many people’s curiosity, March finally arrived as scheduled.
For ordinary people, this March is nothing special.
But for short story enthusiasts, this is a rare celebration.
Thus.
As soon as the pre-dawn morning passed, with the Literature Tribe and Blog Novels simultaneously publishing new works from famous short story authors, the traffic of both platforms suddenly increased!
Among these people, most readers couldn’t wait and directly opened Feng Hua’s work!
Long Fei is a short story enthusiast.
Long Fei is also a fan of Chu Kuang!
As a fan, Long Fei follows the competition between Literature Tribe and Blog Novels quite closely. He also knows that the Literature Tribe has championed Chu Kuang, directly pitting Chu Kuang against Feng Hua, one of the three leading voices in the short story realm.
Besides, the first work Long Fei opened was by Feng Hua.
Long Fei felt there was a hint of probing the enemy in his actions.
The work of Teacher Feng Hua is titled “Bianlian” (Face Changing).
The beginning of the story was not surprising in the least, merely about an ordinary case taken on by a patrolman—it was an unleashed dog that bit a passerby.
Being a patrolman, they naturally sought justice for the victims, so he begins inquiring about the situation, preparing to hold the dog’s owner responsible.
As a result, a passerby said the dog belonged to a certain general’s family…
Upon hearing this, the patrolman changed his complexion, firmly stating the passerby was at fault, even accusing him of kicking the dog and that he was committing a crime against animals!
Then another passerby spoke up and said the dog doesn’t belong to the general’s family.
The patrolman changed his complexion for the second time, deciding to kill the dog.
Then someone else asserted that though the dog is not the general’s, it was raised by the general’s brother…
For the third time, the patrolman’s face changed.
His stance several times flipped back and forth according to the bystander’s words.
By the end, somebody from the general’s family came to take the dog away.
Unexpectedly, the dog wrenched free from its owner’s hand and bit the patrolman’s leg.
As a result, the patrolman angrily cursed at the first passerby who got bitten, claiming that he had enraged the dog!
The story ends here.
In this very short story, just three thousand words in length, the language is engaging, especially the several face changes the patrolman went through, vividly portraying his hypocritical nature.
At the end, where the dog bites the patrolman, there are some thoughts to be provoked while finding it amusing.
Long Fei ruminated on this for a long time and finally sighed involuntarily.
The story is very clever!
Feng Hua truly deserves to be one among the three prevailing forces.
Such a simple plot, yet, through the patrolman’s several face changes, an ironic artistic vibe is brilliantly portrayed!
This kind of story reminds Long Fei of Chu Kuang’s previous piece, “Death of a Small Civil Servant.”
They both play with satire, but Feng Hua’s skill is by no means inferior to Chu Kuang’s!
Long Fei even feels that this story is a bit stronger.
Especially when considering Feng Hua’s status in the industry, his portrayal of satire can easily provoke readers to ponder, and the more they think, the more intriguing it becomes…
“Impressive!”
Long Fei couldn’t help but exclaim. However, in the midst of his admiration, Long Fei couldn’t help but feel worried for Chu Kuang.
When he logged into Literature Tribe.
Long Fei opened Chu Kuang’s new piece, a story called “Necklace.”
As he read through this work, Long Fei thought to himself:
“Chu Kuang is still young. Even if his work is not as good as Teacher Feng Hua’s, as long as the difference is not too great, it will still be a victory!”
After all, the opponent is one of the three leading forces.
And when the story is nearly finished, Long Fei’s mood gradually relaxed a bit.
It’s a delightful coincidence.
Chu Kuang also plays with satire, focusing on the material and vanity. Compared to Teacher Feng Hua’s “Bianlian,” the story is slightly stronger in narrative.
Despite missing by just a bit…
Long Fei’s mind suddenly halted as he read the last sentence of “Necklace.” Suddenly, the whole story took a dramatic twist!
Simultaneously.
In a fan group on Long Fei’s computer, a crazy fan of Chu Kuang, who liked him even more than Long Fei did, posted a code for a red envelope:
“Chu Kuang, forever the god!”