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Chapter 66 0064 [Chen Guiliang is about to become an internet sensation]

"Young man, you still need to practice your calligraphy."

Dong Hongkang carefully put the poem away, shook hands with Chen Guiliang, and said, "Today is very meaningful. I'm going to have the poem framed. You're not holding a grudge against me, are you?"

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Thank you, Editor Dong, for giving me the opportunity to become famous."

"Hahaha," Dong Hongkang laughed, patting Chen Guiliang on the shoulder, "Wait for it to be in the paper the day after tomorrow. I'm off!"

Hu Weishi urged, "Editor Dong, there's still dinner to come."

"I'm not eating, goodbye!" Dong Hongkang said and left.

Many of the editors and reporters at Pen Club have this kind of temperament: they speak and act directly and efficiently.

The book "The Wounded," which pioneered scar literature, was first published in "Pen Club."

Bian Qin, author of *The Subverted Civilization* and *Who's Directing the World*, has also been a columnist for *Pen Club* since 2004. (These two books are anti-Western cultural hegemony.)
Furthermore, Ba Jin's first article after the humanitarian movement was published in "Pen Club." His last article before his death was also published in "Pen Club."

Therefore, it is clear that "Pen Club" cannot be defined by leaning to the left or the right.

This supplement has a huge influence, and many leaders have been subscribing to it for a long time!
Dong Hongkang drove back to the newspaper office; there was still half an hour before he got off work.

"What good news has happened? You look so radiant," asked Zhou Yi, a senior editor at the next table.

Zhou Yi, whose pen name is Fangfei, will be promoted to deputy editor-in-chief in two years.

Dong Hongkang smiled and said, "You have a fellow villager who writes very well."

"What fellow villager?" Zhou Yi asked.

Dong Hongkang said, "From Longdu City."

Zhou Yi laughed and said, "That's indeed quite close, right next to my hometown. Hasn't a lot of traditional writers emerged from there in recent years? There's only one, Wei Minglun, who only worked in Longdu and has already been transferred away."

Longdu City is indeed not very strong right now; for the time being, they only have Guo Xiaosi.

The abstract figures like Huang Xudong are probably still in university.

There is another female writer who is about to become famous this year, namely Rao Xueman, the author of "Left Ear".

Dong Hongkang took out the "Journey to the Sea" printed by the competition organizers: "First Prize Article of the New Concept Writing Competition".

Zhou Yi's eyes lit up, but then he questioned, "This poem is of such high quality, is there really no fluff?"

“So I checked it on the spot,” Dong Hongkang said, taking out a second poem with considerable pride. “The title of this poem is ‘Answering Editor Dong of Pen Club.’ I gave him four words: wild goose, small boat, river, and time, and asked him to write a classical poem about it.”

After reading it, Zhou Yi patted his desk lightly: "Good poem, good writing. Ask him to contribute more in the future, both poems and prose are fine."

“I plan to give him a page! I’ll publish the full text of his two poems, and I’ll write a commentary on them,” Dong Hongkang said.

Zhou Yi asked, "When will it be published?"

Dong Hongkang said, "The day after tomorrow."

"We might not have enough space for the day after tomorrow, how about we give it two-thirds of a page?" Zhou Yi said.

Dong Hongkang said, "That works too."

The two chatted until it was time to get off work, then went home for dinner.

After quickly filling his stomach, Dong Hongkang went to the study to write comments on Chen Guiliang's two poems.

After writing only two or three hundred words, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Liu Xuyuan called: "Xiao Dong, you've made an appearance on Riyue Guanghua BBS."

"What do you mean by 'sun and moon radiance'?" Dong Hongkang didn't understand.

Liu Xuyuan said, "It's Fudan's campus forum. I'm a Fudan alumnus too, so I often browse the forum. I just went in today and saw you. You even said you could compose a poem in seven steps, but now you've become the antagonist in the story."

"Haha, the news spread so fast?" Dong Hongkang laughed heartily upon hearing this.

"Go log in and see for yourself; there are quite a few students cursing at you," Liu Xuyuan said.

……

The news spread from the Mengya Forum.

The main users of this forum are middle school students, but there are also many college students and young adults.

The forum atmosphere was relatively harmonious.

The few times that the group engaged in online arguments, they all revolved around Guo Jingming.

The Mengya Forum has been particularly active these past few days due to the ongoing New Concept Writing Competition.

Some contestants actively shared their observations and experiences. Meanwhile, many middle school students with literary dreams enthusiastically asked questions in the comments section of the shared posts, with a wide variety of questions.

This afternoon, a post went viral: "Ten prestigious universities engaged in a fierce competition to recruit students last night, leaving us all dumbfounded."

"I won first prize this time, and last night I had the opportunity to inquire about admissions information from prestigious universities. The situation this year is terrible; not only is Tsinghua University out of places, but Nanjing University and Sun Yat-sen University are also out of places..."

"But there was one guy who wrote an article that was snapped up by all the schools on the spot."

"Tsinghua University, which had no openings, promised to hold a meeting to discuss a special admission for him. Nanjing University and Sun Yat-sen University, which also had no openings, said they could squeeze out a spot for him. Peking University promised to admit him based on the first-tier university entrance score, Fudan University promised to admit him based on the undergraduate entrance score, and Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, and Xiamen University directly admitted him without examination..."

"You have no idea how outrageous it is. That Director Yan from Beijing Normal University, he even said he could get guaranteed admission to graduate and doctoral programs. That guy can choose any major he wants once he gets in..."

"By the way, this person's name is Chen Guiliang, and he's a classmate of Guo Xiaosi."

This afternoon, while the seminar was still in progress, this post had already garnered hundreds of replies on the Mengya Forum.

"The original poster is bragging, confirmed."

"May my whole family die if I keep bragging!"

"The original poster is really bragging, he's even dragged his family into it."

“I can testify. Although I was only shortlisted and didn’t have the chance to see him in person, I heard the news last night and went to Chen Guiliang’s room to join the fun. There were so many people there that I couldn’t even squeeze in.”

"It's true. I won second prize, and I live in Taicang. I wasn't eligible to go on stage to receive the award today; the certificate was handed out privately this morning. After receiving the certificate, I took a bus and left, and I just got home. Anyway, I can't remember what he wrote; I heard it was an ancient poem."

"Why do I get the feeling that you guys are making up a story together?"

"I live in Yangpu District, Shanghai. I won second prize, my semi-final number was A009. The people above weren't lying. I've been staying at home these past few days. I went to pick up my award certificate this morning and heard about what happened last night. It sounds unbelievable, but it's true."

“I’m from Xuhui District. I was shortlisted and my semi-final number was A015. I heard about this this morning.”

"..." More and more participants replied, each speaking with great detail and conviction.

Gradually, no one questioned it anymore; instead, they inquired about the details and discussed the matter enthusiastically.

"What exactly did he write? Just a classical poem? I could do that too."

"There must be something going on inside. Maybe they leaked the questions in advance and had someone else write them for them."

"It's also possible that there are connections in the family."

“We asked him yesterday, and he chose the second question. Newbies who don’t know the question can look at another post. He wrote a fable using ancient poems. The bird symbolizes the virtuous and righteous people of all ages, the tree branch symbolizes the indomitable spirit of Chinese civilization, and the ocean waves symbolize China’s thousands of years of calamities.”

"That's it?"

"Incomprehensible."

"It's definitely because their writing is good. Even if one admissions officer is out of their mind, does that mean all the officers are idiots?"

"Just wait patiently, the anthology will definitely include it."

"I'll participate in the competition next year too, and try to get into Tsinghua or Peking University without taking the entrance exam!"

"Hey upstairs, it's not dark yet. You'll have a better chance of dreaming about it tonight."

"..."

As evening fell, Li Haiyang stormed into an internet cafe and posted an article titled "Seven Steps to Composing a Poem on the Spot with the New Concept Writing Competition—Are You Afraid?"

"I am A071, the first prize winner. I just left the hotel and posted at a nearby internet cafe. There was some big news at the seminar this afternoon. Dong Hongkang, the editor of Wenhui Daily's supplement 'Pen Club,' questioned Chen Guiliang's semi-final essay because it was too high and gave Chen Guiliang a question to write a poem."

"I won't post his two poems yet, but I'll just give you the title from Editor Dong. Try writing one yourself. Use the four images of wild geese, small boats, river water, and time to write a classical poem."

The previous post was already very popular, and Li Haiyang's post quickly received replies.

"Give us on-site questions for an assessment? That's so disrespectful."

"Holy crap. If it were me, I would have been completely dumbfounded."

"Is this guy surnamed Dong a lunatic?"

"Judging from the title of this post, Chen Guiliang wrote it in seven steps?"

"I'll give it a try. Wild geese fly south, breaking through the long sky, and passenger boats drag the red sunset. I want to write a letter home and throw it into the flowing water, but the west wind will send it first among the reeds."

"A fine poem from upstairs."

"Me too, me too. The misty waves carry us homeward, and the wild geese fly together in the evening sunshine. The spring waters at the ferry are green, and the oars stir the youthful spirit."

"Wow, everyone here is so talented! I'm still in my third year of junior high school, how can I learn to write classical Chinese poems?"

"OP, you're such a jerk! If you know what's good for you, just post Chen Guiliang's poems. I want to see what level he's at that that makes ten prestigious universities vying for him."

"..."

Seeing that the post had received over twenty replies, Li Haiyang finally posted Chen Guiliang's poem, deliberately omitting the details that had taken so long:
"Let me recreate the scene. When Editor Dong announced the topic, many people were worried for Chen Guiliang. Then they heard Chen Guiliang shout: 'Sister Weishi, pen, ink, paper, and inkstone!'"

"The staff brought over the brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Chen Guiliang took seven steps, picked up the brush and wrote: 'Boat sails on the vast misty waters, wild geese fly past the evening clouds. This life is but a temporary journey, why ask about the passing years?'"

After pressing Enter to send, Li Haiyang refreshed the webpage.

Although he saw new replies, the content was unrelated to the poem, so he refreshed the page four or five more times.

"Cattle!"

"so amazing."

"This one is just so-so, not much different from what other netizens wrote."

"Hey upstairs, why don't you sing one too?"

"It's so well written, you're definitely talented."

"阔 is an adjective, and 边 is a noun. The parallelism is not perfect and has flaws."

"Brother, you're nitpicking."

"I'm from the Chinese Department at Wuhan University, and I have a basic understanding of classical Chinese poetry. Different parts of speech can also be paired. For example, in Du Fu's 'Stars hang low over the vast plain, the moon surges in the great river', 'vastness' is an adjective and 'flow' is a verb, but they are still paired, complementing each other in terms of spatial and dynamic elements. In Chen Guiliang's poem, although 'vastness' and 'border' are different parts of speech, they can be paired spatially. This is a case of loose pairing."

Wow, GG, you're amazing! You must be a genius from Wuhan University!

"Senior, I also want to apply to Wuhan University."

"Great talent, could you explain this poem?"

"Wait a moment, I'll go check the reference books again."

The replies continued, but the talented student from Wuhan University remained silent, probably because he was looking for books and information.

A few minutes later, the talented scholar from Wuhan University replied again: "Strictly speaking, the last two lines are out of regulated verse, with the character '身' forming an isolated level tone. Simply changing '本逆旅' to '如逆旅' would perfectly salvage the situation when paired with the fourth line. But I think it's unnecessary to change it; the meaning is conveyed. Changing it would lose that detached and calm feeling. The author must have done it intentionally, otherwise there would have been no need to change the original line when adapting it."

"can't read."

What is "孤平"?

"Are the tones of Ru and Ben different?"

"I think I'll go back to writing modern poetry."

"You and Chen Guiliang are both very capable."

"A bunch of old fogies, who still writes classical poetry these days?"

"..."

The talented student from Wuhan University continued to reply: "OP, please post Chen Guiliang's semi-final essay."

"Wait a minute." Li Haiyang was copying and pasting in a new Word document.

The talented student from Wuhan University refreshed the webpage four times before finally finding Chen Guiliang's "Journey to the Seas".

He stared at the computer screen for a long time, repeatedly typing and deleting the words, finally replying with only two words: "Holy crap!"

Immediately, he quickly clicked to copy and paste, and posted the poem to the Luojia Mountain and Water BBS at Wuhan University.

(End of this chapter)