Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 54 A Youth Love Story with a Happy Ending

It was almost the end of March, and the most important thing Zhang Chao had to face was undoubtedly autographing... (crossed out) - participating in the second model test for senior high school students in the city.

This is also the time to test the "Senior Three Chinese Language Score Improvement Group" led by Zhang Chao.

During this period, no matter how heavy the writing task was, Zhang Chao never missed the group class. This was the reason why he could continue to use the small classroom - although he doubted that the principal would continue to let him use it even if his classmates did not improve their grades.

The day the exam ended was a Saturday. After class in the afternoon, the students in the group reviewed the exam content in a small classroom and were generally full of confidence.

Lan Ting smiled and said, "Your 'base' is saved."

After chatting and laughing for a while, everyone went back to the dormitory to change clothes and prepare to go home.

Lan Ting deliberately fell behind and walked with Zhang Chao. After everyone had gone far away, she whispered, "Do you... have anything else to do tonight?"

Zhang Chao smiled and replied, "I have a commissioned article to write... but there is no rush for it. There is nothing else to do."

Lan Ting's eyes lit up and she asked again, "Then come out with me tonight. I have some questions for you."

Zhang Chao readily agreed and said, "Okay. When and where shall we meet?"

"Let's go to the small park at 7:30, is that ok?"

"Okay! See you there."

"See you there or see you."

After Zhang Chao returned home and had dinner, he told his parents that he was going to meet his classmates. Before he left, Zhang Chao's mother asked, "Is it Chen Huan? The college entrance examination is coming soon. You should study more and play less ball."

"It's not him. It's Lan Ting. The one with long hair who came to our house last time." Zhang Chao replied, put on his shoes and left.

"Eh? Eh!... Why don't you comb your hair... and change your clothes..." Zhang Chao's mother just reacted, but she couldn't stop her son. Zhang Chao had already disappeared at the entrance of the alley.

It only took Zhang Chao ten minutes to walk from his home to the park. Before he crossed the road, he saw Lan Ting looking around under the big banyan tree in the park. When she saw Zhang Chao, she waved to him.

It was obvious that Lan Ting had dressed up specially - a lovely blue and white princess dress with her long hair tied into a high ponytail, which fully showed off her outstanding advantages such as her round and small face, high and full forehead and bright big eyes, making her look pretty, lively and exquisite.

Zhang Chao said: "I'm late."

Lan Ting smiled sweetly: "I just arrived too. Let's just walk around here."

So the two of them walked quietly in the small park, and Lan Ting chatted with Zhang Chao in a casual manner.

"Have you ever thought about where to go after the college entrance examination?"

"Probably, probably go to Yanjing. I went to Yanjing University this time and I thought the atmosphere was pretty good."

"But……"

"But, my grades are too bad, right? Haha, we are so familiar with each other, just say it directly."

"Okay... so you want to go to Yanda?"

"When you get to the top of a mountain, there will always be a way out... At worst, I can just sit in on the class."

"Is that okay?"

"Yenchi University has had a tradition of auditing classes since Cai Yuanpei was president. At that time, university tuition was expensive and enrollment was limited, so many poor students could only watch and sigh. President Cai Yuanpei tacitly allowed outsiders to 'eavesdrop', or to put it nicely, 'audit'."

"It's too bad to be an eavesdropper, so be an auditor. You will definitely be the most amazing auditor in the history of Yanda University."

"...If you knew who had attended the class, you wouldn't say that."

"?"

"Shen Congwen, Feng Xuefeng, Jin Kemu, Li Kuchan..."

"...Okay. But you won't be bad either."

"You have so much confidence in me?"

"That's for sure." "By the way, didn't you say you wanted to ask me a question? What question?"

"Hmm... Hmm... I suddenly don't want to ask anymore. By the way, I have finished reading "Better Days". I will return the book to you next time."

A few days ago, Zhang Chao lent the sample book sent to him by Huacheng Publishing House to Lan Ting.

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "It's okay, you can keep it. Does it look good?"

Lan Ting asked: "It's beautiful. It made me cry several times. But how can I put it... Cheng Nian and Xiao Bei, why don't you let them get together in the end?"

Zhang Chao wrote "Better Days", in which the biggest difference from the previous movie version is that he did not follow the original ending and let Cheng Nian and Xiao Bei get married.

Zhang Chao patiently explained to Lan Ting: "After going through so much, Cheng Nian and Xiao Bei's bond is now as strong as the bond of life and death, and there is no need to define it as love anymore..."

After listening to this, Lan Ting said quietly, "I understand all this. But I still feel sad. And in your article "Young Babylon", Lu Xiaolu and Lan Bai were also separated in the end."

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Perhaps regret is the underlying color of youth."

Lan Ting looked up at Zhang Chao and asked, "Why can't you write a youth love story with a happy ending? Are you afraid that it's too cliché?"

Zhang Chao laughed and said, "Whether it is vulgar or not depends on who writes it! If I write it, it will definitely be vulgar."

Lan Ting said: "Then write one!"

Zhang Chao said: "Okay! Let's write it!"

"It's a deal?"

"A word is settled!"

Zhang Chao looked at the girl in front of him, his heart filled with warmth and slightly sad feelings.

After hearing Zhang Chao say "it's a deal", Lan Ting suddenly shook off her previous depression and became lively again. She jumped forward two steps, turned around and asked Zhang Chao with a smile: "So what do you want to write? You are so confident, you must have thought about it?"

Zhang Chao pondered for a moment and said, "The story I want to write is different from the previous ones."

"Oh?" Lan Ting became more interested.

Zhang Chao continued, "Although I only stayed in Yanjing for two days, it gave me a lot of inspiration. I was thinking, what would it be like if I wrote a story about a boy living in a big city like Yanjing falling in love with a girl who lives in a small town thousands of miles away?"

"Ha, there are a lot of stories like this. You said you wouldn't write in a clichéd way."

"What if this boy and this girl met because they exchanged souls and experienced different lives in each other's bodies?"

"Ok?"

"What if two people are not actually in the same time and space, but are three years apart?"

"what?!"

"What if two people exchanged souls to save a huge disaster?"

Lan Ting was completely confused. She still couldn't understand what story Zhang Chao was telling. It seemed very complicated, but her intuition told her that it must be very interesting.

Lan Ting asked, "Is it science fiction? Or fantasy?"

Zhang Chao replied: "It's not quite accurate to say which one. It might be more accurate to use a novel term that has just been introduced in recent years in the island country - light novel."

"Light novel? I don't think I've read it."

"Wait until I write it out, and you'll know."

"One last question. What's the name of the novel? Have you decided on one?"

"I've decided, let's call it - Your Name."

(End of this chapter)