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

Yu Wen recalled an interview with Mr. Yu Hua.

When Mr. Yu Hua's child was young, he loved Harry Potter, so he recommended Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Count of Monte Cristo, serialized in 1844, was the first work in human literary history to turn the "thrill of revenge" into a mature and commercially successful serialized novel, and it is the source template for all revenge-themed stories.

After reading it, the child felt that *The Count of Monte Cristo* was even better, and then went on to read from Dumas to Dickens...

Literature is something that always requires a gradual process.

If you start with Tolstoy or Dostoevsky... then you're doomed.

Such reading will not only be unpleasant, but will also be repulsive.

As children, we read fairy tales; as we get a little older, we read works with stronger storytelling, plot, and drama.

Whether it's popular literature or online literature, as long as it can make people willing to open the book, finish reading this page, and look forward to the next page, it has already taken the most important step.

As you read more and encounter more stories, your tastes will naturally change, and you will gradually understand why those seemingly dull or even heavy texts can be read repeatedly by generation after generation.

Yu Wen also recalled a quote from Dangnian Mingyue, the author of "Those Things of the Ming Dynasty".

"Those Things of the Ming Dynasty" could sell millions of copies at the time, while "Fortress Besieged" might only sell tens of thousands of copies a year.

But Mingyue himself knew that "Fortress Besieged" could continue to sell, even for two hundred years.

The reason why a classic becomes a classic and a masterpiece becomes a masterpiece is not because it only touches a certain group of people, nor because it just happened to be in a certain era.

Rather, it means that even after one generation of readers passes away, the next generation can still find something of their own in it.

However, before understanding those things, there must first be a book that interests children, telling an interesting story, so that children can discover that reading is not a boring thing.

Harry Potter is undoubtedly a perfect fit for such a story.

It has magic, adventure, and a group of children around the same age as Yu Yin and Chang Yandao.

The story is novel enough, but it doesn't come across as childish by pandering to children.

At least for these two children, nothing would be a better start to their next journey than entering a magic school.

……

"A magic school?"

As the saying goes, he immediately sat up straight.

"What kind of magic does it teach?"

"For example, spells, transfiguration, potions, and flying on a broomstick."

"What is a broom?"

As the saying goes, a hint of doubt appeared on his face.

The cleaning in his home has always been done by a bionic butler and cleaning robots, so he has never seen such tools that have long since disappeared from daily life.

Yu Yin seemed to have thought of something.

"Isn't it similar to a broom?"

She knew what a broom was, but had never heard of the word "broom" before.

"almost."

Yu Wen gestured briefly.

"It's a cleaning tool made of branches, bamboo strips, or grass. People used to use it to sweep the floor."

His usual expression suddenly became even stranger.

"They fly on cleaning equipment?"

"right."

Yu Wen smiled and nodded.

"No engine, and no energy core?"

"No, none of them."

Yu Wen said:

"All you need is magic."

The two children clearly struggled to understand why such a simple cleaning tool would be imagined as an aircraft.

Yu Wen didn't find it strange at all.

In the era in which the story was set, hovercars and personal flying devices were not commonplace.

For ordinary families, brooms are the most familiar thing.

People of that era would naturally use the most common things of that time to express their imagination of flying.

The fantasies of an era often bear the marks of life in that era.

However, these things don't need to be said in too much detail.

For children, knowing that magic can make a broom fly is interesting enough.

"The protagonist of the story is an eleven-year-old boy named Harry Potter."

He lost his parents when he was very young and was sent to live with his aunt.

Yu Wen begins with Harry's childhood as an orphan living under someone else's roof.

The family clearly had extra rooms, but they only let Harry live in the storage room under the stairs.

His uncle had a bad temper, his aunt was cold and mean, and his cousin Dali had always enjoyed bullying him since childhood.

Yu Yin frowned upon hearing this.

Why do they hate Harry so much?

"Because they were afraid of the things about him that made him different from ordinary people."

Yu Wen did not reveal the answer immediately.

"They didn't want Harry to know about his parentage either."

Harry has encountered some inexplicable strange things since he was a child.

Her badly cut hair grew back overnight, she inexplicably appeared at a high place when being chased, and she even understood what a snake was saying in the zoo.

But his aunt's family never explained it to him.

Just before Harry's eleventh birthday, a strange letter arrived at his home.

"It wasn't a message sent to the wristband, nor was it an email on the StarNet."

"It was a real paper letter."

As the saying goes, there are some unexpected things.

He had seen letters in old-fashioned video footage, but nowadays, apart from certain commemorative events, few people communicate in this way anymore.

"Who delivered it?"

"owl."

Yu Yin blinked.

The novelty of having a real bird deliver the message was far greater than that of a paper letter itself.

Yu Wen couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

People used to think of owls delivering messages as a magical fantasy.

For children of this era, a bird that is not controlled by a program and flies across real distances on its wings is more mysterious than instant messaging.

The letter accurately stated Harry's location.

But before he could open it, his uncle snatched it away.

Then, a second and a third letter appeared in succession.

No matter how much his uncle tried to stop him, or where he took Harry, the letters always managed to find him.

Finally, countless letters poured into the room through the doors, windows, and fireplace, forcing my uncle to take the whole family to a dilapidated house at sea.

But on the night of Harry's eleventh birthday, a giant man named Hagrid still braved the storm to find the place.

He brought Harry a birthday cake, and also a truth that had been hidden for many years.

"Harry is a wizard."

"His parents were also wizards, and both were students at Hogwarts."

"They didn't die in a normal accident; they were killed by an extremely dangerous dark wizard."

That dark wizard also tried to kill Harry when he was still an infant.

But something happened, his magic failed, and he disappeared, while Harry survived, with only a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead.

As the saying goes, one should immediately ask:

Why was only Harry the one who survived?

Yu Wen glanced at him, but did not answer, and continued his story:

"At that time, Harry himself didn't know either."

As the saying goes, even though one is very curious, one has no choice but to hold back.

Hagrid led Harry into the Wizarding Street, hidden behind the ordinary city.

The shops lining both sides of the street were filled with magic books, robes, cauldrons, and all sorts of strange and wonderful materials.

Wizards used gold, silver, and copper coins for transactions, and the bank was guarded by a group of clever goblins.

It was there that Harry received his first wand.

The wand was made of holly wood, and its core was a phoenix tail feather.

As Harry grasped it, a bright light suddenly burst forth from the tip of the staff.

Only at this moment did he truly believe that he was not the strange child his aunt's family had described.

He simply belongs to another world.

On the first day of school, Harry arrived at the station, ready to board an old steam train to go to school.

"A steam train?"

Yu Yin looked puzzled once again.

"A type of rail transportation in the past."

Yu Wen explained simply:

"It's not fast, and it doesn't have intelligent driving capabilities; it's propelled by steam generated from burning coal."

As the saying goes, one should frown slightly upon hearing this.

In the world he knows, transportation has long been fully intelligently controlled.

Such a train, which requires burning coal and relies on steam to move forward, seems cumbersome and outdated.

Yu Wen, however, felt that it was precisely the romance of the old era.

The black locomotive, spewing white steam, sped along the tracks into the distance, carrying a group of children to an unknown magic school.

If a high-speed hovercraft were used instead, it would certainly be more convenient, but it would also lose some of the feeling of embarking on a journey.

However, Harry's first task is to find Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, which is written on his ticket.

Although there are only platforms nine and ten in the station, the real entrance is hidden in the wall between the two platforms.

Just walk straight ahead, and you'll pass through the brick wall to see the deep red steam train parked on the other side.

Harry boarded the train, where he met Ron and Hermione.

Ron comes from a lively but not wealthy wizarding family and is very familiar with everything in the magical world;

Hermione, on the other hand, was intelligent and diligent. She had read all the textbooks before entering school and could always rattle off a lot of knowledge that others did not know.

However, the three of them had not yet become true friends at that time.

After the train arrived, the new students boarded small boats and crossed the dark lake.

On a distant cliff, a huge, ancient castle is brightly lit.

That is Hogwarts.