I asked you to write a light novel, but you wrote about living?

This sentence quickly rose to the top of the search results.

It's neither a compliment nor a criticism, yet it accurately expresses the feelings of many people.

"To Live" didn't excite them, didn't give them a thrill, and didn't offer any immediate emotional rewards.

On the contrary, it makes many readers need to stop and take a break after reading a chapter.

Some readers who read about Fugui being conscripted into the army commented that they finally understood why readers in the Eastern region said this book didn't feel like a novel, but rather like an old man sitting in front of you telling you about the past.

When someone read about Youqing's incident, they left half a page of angry comments.

He cursed the author, cursed fate, and cursed himself for clicking on the book.

Some people, upon reading Jia Zhen's words, remained silent for a long time, leaving only one sentence:

My mother is that kind of person too. She never complains about how hard she works, but everyone in the family knows how hard she works.

Similar comments are becoming increasingly common.

But at the same time, another voice is becoming increasingly clear.

Many West Coast readers acknowledge that To Live is well-written, that it is completely different from those AI-generated works, and that they felt something pressing down on their chests after reading it.

But they still felt there was a barrier between them.

That is a cultural and historical barrier.

It's good, but I find it hard to fully immerse myself in it; it's too Eastern.

I know this book is amazing, and I know it couldn't have been written by AI, but the land, the famine, the family relationships, the suffering of the old era—it felt to me like watching images left behind by another civilization.

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. I can understand Fugui's suffering, but that is not our suffering.

This is probably why it became a huge hit in the Eastern region, while only spreading to a niche audience on the West Coast. It is indeed a remarkable book, but it's not rooted in their culture.

The most upvoted comment among these voices came from an account called "Coastal Old Bookseller".

He wrote a long piece, and his tone was very serious.

In an era dominated by mindless wish-fulfillment novels, *To Live* is undoubtedly a remarkable book.

Unlike the AI ​​texts we encounter daily, it doesn't give you a thrill in the third second, it doesn't orchestrate a protagonist's counterattack in the tenth second, and it doesn't immediately reward you after every painful experience.

It is slow, heavy, and cruel.

I admit that Carter's translation preserved a very rare sense of life. Unlike AI translation, which simply reproduces the correct sequence of events, it truly made me feel that an old man named Fugui, somewhere far away from me, was telling me about his life.

But precisely because of this, I am even more aware of distance.

This is a good book, perhaps even one of the best books of our time.

Unfortunately, it is not our civilization.

This comment was pushed to the top of the book review section.

Countless people gave it a thumbs up.

Most of the replies below also expressed agreement.

That's so accurate. It's not that I disagree, it's just that we're worlds apart.

It's normal for the Eastern District to go crazy for it, because that's their land, their history, their pain.

We can be moved, but it's hard to truly break through our defenses.

It's great, but unfortunately it's not ours.

When the operations manager of the West Coast branch saw the most upvoted post, he actually felt relieved.

This at least proves that their previous judgment of the market was correct.

"To Live" does generate discussion on the West Coast, and there is indeed a group of readers willing to read it carefully, but it is unlikely to become a true cross-regional hit.

The ocean of culture is too vast.

It's not something you can easily skip just by reading the English version of a book.

Carter looked at the comment, but he wasn't disappointed.

All of this was within his expectations.

"To Live" isn't fireworks; it won't explode into the night sky over the West Coast with massive traffic.

It wasn't originally intended for a leaderboard.

It was more like a seed that he had personally brought from the Eastern District and planted in unfamiliar soil.

The current outcome is actually better than he initially expected.

For Carter, the translation was worthwhile if it could make a small group of readers who were initially just curious stop and seriously think about Fugui as a person, and seriously think about the meaning of "living".

The communicator on the desktop suddenly lit up.

The caller was Chang Liren.

Carter raised an eyebrow and connected the call.

The light screen unfolded, and Chang Liren's holographic image appeared in the center of the office.

"Carter, congratulations."

Chang Liren got straight to the point, with a sincere smile on his face.

"The English version of 'To Live' is very well done."

Carter leaned back in his chair, holding his coffee and smiling.

"Chang, you know what? If you had called a few hours earlier, I might have thought you were calling to comfort me."

His Chinese had a slight West Coast accent, but his tone was relaxed.

"The operations department on the West Coast was nagging me all night yesterday. They felt that I had turned something that could have been a cross-regional marketing event into something like an old-fashioned library check-in system."

Chang Liren chuckled.

"At least the borrowing register looks alright now."

"not bad."

Cardi nodded, without feigning modesty.

"It doesn't generate much discussion, it doesn't make it onto the overall charts, and it doesn't have a large readership, but there are some things in the book review section that the AI ​​can't detect."

He paused, his tone becoming more serious.

"However, the operations department is right about one thing."

Chang Liren looked at him.

Carter put down his coffee cup and said:

"To Live is still too unfamiliar to the West Coast."

"Unfamiliar land, unfamiliar history, unfamiliar family structure. Many readers can admit that it is good and can be moved by it, but in the end they will still stop at that sentence."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and tapped on the screenshot of the most upvoted review in the book review section.

The phrase, "It is not our civilization," floated quietly between the two.

"This is the most accurate feedback right now."

Carter looked at Chang Liren, his smile fading slightly.

"So, Chang, you didn't come here today just to congratulate me, did you?"

Chang Liren did not deny it.

He paused for a moment before speaking:

"That's definitely not the case."

Carter picked up his coffee, waiting for him to continue.

Chang Liren said:

"Yu Wen's next book will be published in the West Coast region."

Carter paused slightly.

"The next one?"

He looked up, a hint of surprise in his grey-blue eyes.

"You mean... 'The Old Man and the Sea'?"

"To be precise, it's 'The Old Man and the Sea'."

"What???"