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

Carter remained completely quiet in the hovercar on the way back.

He leaned back in his chair, his tie loose, his eyes still fixed on a page of "The Old Man and the Sea".

Chang Liren originally thought he was re-checking the original English manuscript.

After a moment, Carter suddenly chuckled softly.

"The most amazing thing about Teacher Yu is..."

Zhou Chenglin looked up at him.

Carter pointed to the screen.

"The things he wrote sounded too much like what locals say casually."

"for example?"

Zhou Chenglin asked.

"For example, salao."

Carter said.

"Bad luck, misfortune, bad luck."

"But it wasn't just ordinary bad luck."

"The old man hadn't caught any fish for eighty-four days. When people called him salao, it wasn't a statement of fact, but rather a mix of sympathy, avoidance, and neighborhood banter."

He paused, then added:

"You can look up the meaning of this word in a dictionary."

"But you don't know where to use it or when to say it."

Zhou Chenglin seemed to be deep in thought.

Carter continued:

"And that one, eighty-five."

"The boy said that 85 is a lucky number and he wanted to buy a lottery ticket with the last four digits being 85."

"This is not just about writing a number."

"That's how the people at the old port are."

"No fish today, but we'll have to go out to sea again tomorrow."

Even when I don't have any money, I still think about buying lottery tickets.

"Even though I know that life is unpredictable, I still want to believe that a certain number will bring me some good luck."

Zhou Chenglin nodded.

"That's somewhat similar to the Eastern region."

"We also use numbers here."

"right."

Carter looked at him.

"But the way they put it is different."

"When you people in the Eastern region talk about numbers, it's often for good luck and to ensure things go smoothly."

"The 85 here is more like a small stepping stone that poor people set for themselves."

"Not because he actually believed it."

"It's because if you don't believe, the next day will be too painful."

There was a moment of silence in the car.

Carter turned another page.

"And that fishing-related stuff."

"How deep should the line be cast, how should the bait be attached, how should the sardines be threaded, and how deep should each line sink?"

"These parts were not explained in the text."

"It's only because he doesn't explain that it seems real."

Zhou Chenglin smiled.

"Explaining it makes it sound like a tutorial?"

"That's right."

Carter said.

"People who truly make their living by the sea won't educate you while they're working."

"All he would say is, 'The line is at this depth, and the fish will come from this direction.'"

The more casually he spoke, the more it sounded like he'd done it all his life.

Chang Liren turned around from the front row and glanced at him.

Carter, however, couldn't stop.

"And they also talked about the sea."

"The old man mistook the sea for La Mar."

"Not El Mar."

Zhou Chenglin couldn't understand Spanish, he just looked at him.

Carter explained:

"It's the same sea, but different names for it."

"Some people see the sea as an adversary, something to be conquered."

"But older fishermen will use a more intimate way of speaking."

"Like a woman, like an old friend, like something that will feed you but can also turn on you at any time."

He looked at the screen, his voice lowered.

"If this part is written incorrectly, West Coast readers will immediately recognize it as fake."

Zhou Chenglin then truly frowned.

He wasn't completely oblivious to these things when he read Chinese.

But after Carter finished speaking, he realized that those seemingly insignificant words actually came with a threshold.

Carter added:

"Baseball too."

"You've all seen it before, so I won't repeat it."

"But what's really interesting is that when the old man talked about those players, it wasn't like a fan introducing their idol."

"It's more like a few poor fishermen sitting in a shed, drinking and spouting nonsense."

"Even without fish today, we can still talk about the Yankees."

"He has terrible luck himself, yet he still makes jokes about star players' injuries."

"That kind of street-style banter is very West Coast."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chenglin couldn't help but ask:

"Would these local slang terms be easier to spread if they were replaced with more standard English?"

Carter immediately shook his head.

"No."

He spoke quickly, then lowered his voice.

"Those non-standard aspects are precisely what make them more down-to-earth."

"Just like when you write about the way elderly people in the countryside speak in your Eastern region, if you change every sentence into standard formal language, the meaning is clear, but the feeling of intimacy is lost."

Zhou Chenglin understood.

It's like when someone can't hold on any longer, they say: I can't do it anymore.

In their more down-to-earth way of saying it, it's: "I'm not good enough."

Carter was still somewhat unsatisfied.

"Unfortunately, you don't understand."

……

When Chang Liren got home, it was already evening.

The living room was dimly lit.

As the saying goes, he was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, with a fairy tale book open in front of him and a half-eaten piece of dried fruit in his hand.

Hearing the noise from the entrance, he immediately looked up.

"dad."

Chang Liren paused in the act of changing his shoes.

"Um?"

As the saying goes, he stared at him for two seconds, as if he had already grasped some important information.

"Did you go to Yu Yin's house today?"

Chang Liren smiled.

"Yes, what's wrong?"

As the saying goes, he closed the book in his hand and moved his body forward a little.

"Shall we go see the story of 'The Old Man and the Sea'?"

Chang Liren walked into the living room and sat down on the other side of the sofa.

"Your information is quite accurate."

"Of course."

As the saying goes, he raised his chin.

"I have friends."

Chang Liren couldn't help but chuckle.

As the saying goes, ignoring his laughter, he continued to ask:

"So what exactly is 'The Old Man and the Sea' about?"

Chang Liren thought for a moment and said:

"The story is about an old man who went out to sea to fish alone."

"He hadn't caught any fish for many days, but he still went out to sea to a great distance."

Later, he caught a very big fish.

As the saying goes, I was originally listening very attentively.

Upon hearing this, his eyebrows slowly furrowed.

"Another elderly person?"

Chang Liren looked at him.

"What's wrong? Of course, 'The Old Man and the Sea' is about an old man."

As the saying goes, he leaned back on the sofa, somewhat disappointed.

"Why does Teacher Yu always write about old people?"

"To Live" is also about old people.

"The Old Man and the Sea is still an old man now."

He glanced down at the children's book beside him and muttered to himself:

"Why doesn't he write stories like 'The Little Prince' anymore?"

"I think that's good too."

"The planet, the rose, the fox, and the Little Prince."

His tone became noticeably more serious as he spoke.

"That's a story for children."

Chang Liren found it amusing.

"Didn't you say you weren't a child anymore?"

As the saying goes, look up immediately.

"I'm not a child."

He paused for a moment, then added:

"But I can appreciate sophisticated literature meant for children."

Chang Liren finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

As the saying goes, he looked at him with some dissatisfaction.

"What are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing."

Chang Liren waved his hand.

"Then I'll take you there next time, and you can ask him yourself."

"Ask Teacher Yu when he will write another story like The Little Prince."

He dismissed the common saying with a nonchalant expression.

"Dad."

He sat up straight, his tone carrying an air of self-assured confidence.

"I don't need to rely on you."

Chang Liren raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

As the saying goes, to put it seriously:

Yu Yin is my good friend.

"I can go by myself."

Just then, a laughing voice came from the direction of the stairs.

"Yeah?"

As the saying goes, the mother came downstairs, carrying a freshly folded coat in her hand.

She glanced at her son, her smile deepening.

"I heard from the housekeeper that you gave someone a rose last time?"

As the saying goes, there wasn't a trace of embarrassment on his face.

He put the dried fruit back on the plate, his expression as calm as if he were announcing a major principle.

"This is the romance that belongs to us, the post-60s generation."

Chang Liren had just picked up his water glass when he almost choked on his words.

As the saying goes, even the mother laughed out loud.

He remained calm despite the common saying.

He picked up the fairy tale book again and turned to the page with the bookmark.

"You don't understand."