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

Compared to the nervousness she felt on her first day in the new class, Yu Yin has clearly relaxed a lot in the past two days.

After putting down her schoolbag, she washed her hands first, and then habitually ran to the window to take a look.

There was a small flowerpot there.

On the silver-gray metal base, a blue breathing light flickers on and off, and a nearly transparent nanofilm quietly envelops the rose.

The roses are still in full bloom.

Under the care of temperature control and automatic nutrient regulation systems, it does not wither quickly like ordinary flowers; its petals remain open, fiery red and beautiful.

It didn't need watering, nor was it because Yu Yin could help in any way, but because the rose was there, as if reminding her that some beautiful things can truly be preserved.

When Yu Wen came out of the study, he saw her standing by the window.

Yu Wen smiled and asked, "How did things go in class today?"

"Um."

Yu Yin thought for a moment and said, "The teacher told me not to rush to get to know everyone, just take it slow. Some classmates even lent me their class notes."

She paused for a moment, then added softly:

"However, some people still ask me if I am Yu Huashi's sister."

Yu Wen raised an eyebrow.

"Then what will you say?"

I said no.

Yu Wen was slightly stunned.

Yu Yin raised her head, her eyes bright, but her tone deliberately sounded very serious.

"I said, I am the younger sister of the great writer Yu Huashi."

Yu Wen paused for half a second, then finally couldn't help but laugh.

"You certainly know how to give me titles."

Yu Yin smiled with her lips pursed, as if she was a little embarrassed, but she couldn't hide her little bit of pride.

On the windowsill, the rose blooms quietly in the glass.

Seeing the smile on his sister's face, Yu Wen felt relieved.

This is already good.

A new class, a new environment, and new classmates—none of these were easy for Yu Yin.

The fact that she could come back so happily and make him laugh with such words shows that things are gradually getting better.

Aunt Zhang called them to eat from the dining table, and the two siblings didn't chat anymore.

After dinner, Yu Yin went back to her room to do her homework. Aunt Zhang cleared the table, and the room gradually quieted down.

Yu Wen returned to his study and looked at the screen again.

The book title is already written at the very top of the document.

The Old Man and the Sea

The original English manuscript has been completed.

"The Old Man and the Sea" is originally an English work.

An old man, the sea, a boat, a fishing line, a shark, the taste of salt, loneliness...

What truly made Yu Wen stop was the Chinese version from the Eastern region.

The focus of "The Old Man and the Sea" is on the West Coast.

However, it will also be available in the Eastern region at the same time.

The Eastern region is indeed in a mess due to capital, with copycats using the same name, keyword pollution, AI-generated plagiarism, and ranking battles turning the phrase "The Old Man and the Sea" into a complete mess.

But Yu Wen never considered temporarily avoiding the Eastern region because of these reasons.

He is not afraid of the so-called backlash from traffic.

Whether it's criticism, doubt, or keyword contamination, those things have never truly stopped since "To Live" began.

What he truly cared about were the readers of "To Live".

Those people accompanied "To Live" from being an unknown figure in the lower district all the way to the top of the charts. They spoke up for him during the plagiarism controversy, and fought back for him after the live broadcast. They also used subscriptions, tips, and recommendation votes to gradually lift him and Yu Yin out of their suffocating lives.

Yu Wen is not someone detached from worldly affairs.

He knew very well that the fact that he was able to sit here writing a book, that Yu Yin was able to go to a new school, that there was hot food on the table, and that there was medicine in the first-aid kit was not due to luck falling from the sky.

He relied on those who were willing to read his books.

Book lovers are our bread and butter.

Therefore, we must focus on the West Coast, and we absolutely cannot be perfunctory in the Eastern region either.

However, there are simply too many Chinese translations of "The Old Man and the Sea".

Yu Wen's first thought was Eileen Chang's translation.

It was a very early translation, carrying the atmosphere of an old era, as well as the detachment and desolation characteristic of a writer's translation style.

In that version, the old man is called Santiago.

Then he thought of Yu Guangzhong's translation.

Yu Guangzhong was a poet whose writing was elegant and highly literary, with a polished luster in his sentences.

In Yu Guangzhong's writing, the old man is called Santiago.

There is also a Hai Guan translation.

This is a classic translation from the early days of the People's Republic of China, and one of the earliest publicly released Chinese translations of "The Old Man and the Sea" in mainland China. It is highly colloquial and highlights the sense of heroism.

It is also an important reference for Wu Lao's translation, like an old reef that has long stood in the history of Chinese translation.

Finally, there is Wu Lao's translation.

That's also the version that Yu Wen remembers most vividly.

Wu Lao himself is a translator who specializes in studying Hemingway. His translations are not pretentious, nor do they deliberately pursue elegance. Many sentences even appear simple and straightforward.

But it is precisely this straightforwardness that is closest to the minimalist, restrained, and rigid writing style of Hemingway's original text.

Hemingway's writing was not built on rhetoric.

Wu Lao's translation has just that flavor.

More importantly, it is also intertwined with Yu Wen's own classroom memories.

In Wu Lao's translation, the old man is called Santiago.

The name Santiago has also appeared extensively in textbook summaries, after-class exercises, test papers, and character analyses.

One is the old man in the complete translation.

One is an old man from my classroom memories.

Yu Wen knew, of course, that these things were just traces left over from his original era.

But sometimes people are struck by such marks.

The smell of ink from paper textbooks, the key points highlighted by the teacher on the podium, the character analysis question on the test paper, and that sentence that countless people have written into their essays...

A person can be destroyed but not defeated.

These memories themselves have nothing to do with literature.

Yet it is precisely what literature has left behind.

Yu Wen stared at the blank Chinese manuscript on the screen, not touching it for a long time, as if recalling a certain summer.