Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 15 An unforgettable night

January 2004, 1, the Little New Year in the South, is destined to be an unforgettable night
The first person who would never forget this night was Pang Yun.

The man was lost in the afternoon, and the name came out in the evening. After the "News Network" ended, his glorious image of panicking, half-open mouth, and silent, as well as the Mercedes-Benz that sped away, appeared in social news programs on many TV stations.

Of course, some TV stations still have a bottom line and put a black bar as thick as a chopstick between his eyes to protect his privacy.

Open any channel and you can see the hosts enthusiastically discussing what happened in today's semi-finals.

"… We found that the student who participated in the semi-finals of the 'New Concept Essay Contest' came from a very wealthy family. He not only wore famous brands, but also drove a luxury car. We can't help but ask, has the 'New Concept Essay Contest' become a literary game for the rich?"

"…Why did this student remain silent in front of the camera? You have to know that those who can participate in the semi-finals are all masters of writing. Such a dumbfounded image really contradicts the title of 'master of writing'. Think about Han Han and Xiao Si back then, who could talk freely in front of the camera. What happened to the 'New Concept Essay Contest'?"

"…The responses of Wang Meng, the chairman of the judging panel, and Zhao Changtian, the editor-in-chief of New Sprouts magazine, to the reporter cannot eliminate the doubts of public opinion and the public about the speculation and fairness of the New Concept Essay Contest. In particular, New Sprouts magazine is suspected of deleting articles through media relations and suppressing the voices of criticism and supervision of them. This is really an irony for a competition that claims to be 'free to play'."

……

"Snap!" Pang Yun turned off the TV. His mother kept comforting him:

"Don't worry, as long as we win the prize in the semi-finals and get admission to Yanda and Fudan University, who cares what they say!"

Pang Yun lay helplessly on the bed, not knowing whether he had heard it or not. At this moment, he hated that "Midnight Tide" and "Southern Weekend" in his heart. If it weren't for them, how could he have lost such a big person!

Only by winning the first prize in the semi-finals can he erase the shame in his heart at this moment.

The second group of people who will never forget this night are the judges of the semi-finals of the "New Concept Essay Competition".

Due to the report of Southern Weekend and the interview incident in the afternoon, the judges had very complicated feelings while reviewing the articles, and they read the articles much slower than usual.

Before the review began, Wang Meng, the chairman of the jury, specifically reminded everyone that this review was unusual. Any mistakes could become the focus of the media. Only when the articles reviewed were undoubtedly good works could the public opinion be calmed.

So everyone watched very carefully. If they had any questions, they would discuss them with other judges. Every score they gave was carefully considered.

Wang Meng was deeply moved as she watched the judges become more serious.

In fact, he himself has some opinions on the works of the "New Concept Composition Competition" in recent years.

As the operation of the competition matured and became standardized, in order to attract the attention of the judges, the articles written by participating students became increasingly weird and biased. Even I, an experienced writer who has been immersed in writing for decades, could not understand some of the expressions.

This is definitely not a good phenomenon.

The three articles written by the author named "Midnight Tide" in "Southern Weekend" may not be a bad thing for "New Sprout" magazine and the competition.

If New Sprouts magazine can take this opportunity to reflect, settle down and start again, perhaps this competition, which has special significance for Chinese youth literature, can be reborn from the ashes.

While Wang Meng was lost in thought, one of the judges, young writer Liu Danni, came to his seat with a manuscript and said, "Teacher Wang, please take a look at this manuscript. It's very interesting." Wang Meng took the manuscript and looked at the title first: "I'm happy here, why should I go south?" - "Not a bad title."

But the more he read, the tighter his brows furrowed. He quickly finished the article of less than 2,000 words, pondered for a while, and then asked, "What is your opinion?"

Liu Danni replied cautiously: "I think the style of the whole article is not unified enough. I just showed it to Professor Ma Yuan, and he also thought it was strange."

Wang Meng said: "Your feeling is correct. The language of the 'literary spirit' section of this article is obviously more mature and mellow than the language of the beginning and end of the title section. It should be the work of two people."

Liu Danni said: "You mean..."

Wang Meng said: "This student's 'preparation' is too 'sufficient'. Writing an essay like this has lost the meaning of the competition. Don't grade this essay. Leave it with me for now."

Seeing that Wang Meng took on the hot potato, Liu Danni happily returned to her seat to continue reviewing the manuscript.

The third person who will never forget this night is Zhang Chao.

During the evening self-study, he was anxious like a cat scratching. Today was the day for the semi-finals of the "New Concept Essay Competition" and the publication day of "Southern Weekend". Did his three articles achieve the expected results?
If his proposal falls on deaf ears, then his plan to become famous through writing and go to university would basically be considered a dead end.

The road to the literary world can be very cruel. It is not that you can become famous overnight just because you have talent. Many writers have spent countless years in newspapers and magazines before becoming famous, earning extremely meager royalties and having to endure all kinds of ridicule.

Opportunities and platforms are sometimes much more important than your talent.

If Han Han had really missed the rematch of the first "New Concept Composition Competition" six years ago, he would not be playing racing, writing books, and engaging in verbal battles with various people in the media today.

The most likely possibility is that he was expelled from school because he failed five subjects, and then stayed at home as a parasite, relying on the dozens or hundreds of yuan in royalties that were mailed to him from time to time to continue his dream of literature.

Zhang Chao almost counted the time on his fingers and finally made it to 11 o'clock.

Seeing that the other three roommates were lying on the bed, he turned over and got out of bed, muttering softly: "I failed the exam, I feel upset. I'm going to go out for a walk."

After that, he got out of bed, put on his clothes and left the dormitory. He sneaked all the way to the door of the dormitory building and saw that the dormitory manager Lao Liu was snoring as expected. He skillfully pushed open the half-open iron door and slipped out.

He sneaked into the computer room again, turned on the computer, opened the browser, typed in Xinlang's website, and found that "'New Concept Essay Competition' caught in public opinion storm and the integrity of the competition was questioned" was hot news, hanging on the homepage.

"It's done!" Zhang Chao was excited and couldn't wait to open the webpage. The first thing that appeared was a young face surrounded by microphones. Although his eyes were blocked, Zhang Chao could recognize that he was Pang Yun.

Zhang Chao: "..." How could such bad luck happen to Pang Yun? Zhang Chao said "goose rice tofu" in his heart, and forgave him for avoiding apologizing.

However, before Zhang Chao could take a closer look, the door of the computer room was kicked open and all the lights came on at once. The director of the security department and two security guards rushed forward and subdued Zhang Chao.

"I received a report that a student sneaked in here to surf the Internet after turning off the lights. Sure enough, I caught him!"

(End of this chapter)