Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 29 An unexpected entrant

But things don't always develop as Zhang Chao expected.

On the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year, when Zhang Chao was concentrating on typing, his father came in with a copy of the Southeast Morning News. On page three of the newspaper was a very eye-catching report with the title:

The truth behind "Midnight Tide": The low-scoring candidates who attracted attention

The main part of the report is that the reporter of the newspaper interviewed a senior high school student of Changfu No. 337 Middle School who did not want to reveal his name and had a strong sense of justice. This student told the reporter that Zhang Chao's total score in the mock exam was only points, and he could not even get into a good junior college;

At the same time, he also revealed to reporters how Zhang Chao behaved recklessly while in school, such as using intimidation and other means to coerce school leaders to punish another kind-hearted student who had intended to have friendly exchanges with him;
In addition, he has a tendency to fall in love early and once dated a girl in public.

At the end of the report, the reporter asked a deafening question:
"A low-scoring student who only scored 8 points in math was dubbed a "literary genius" because of media hype; a rogue student with bad morals was protected and even promoted by the school, and he was rampant on campus.

Let me ask, is it our literature, our media, or our education that has problems? Zhang Chao is just a poor imitation of the rebellious teenager Han Han! "

Zhang Chao was not surprised that his mock exam results were "exposed". There is no such thing as a wall that is impenetrable. It is only a matter of time. But it was not in his plan to do it so early.

Before the Chinese New Year, the Southeast Morning Post published a report highly praising Zhang Chao, written by another of their reporters. Unexpectedly, after the Chinese New Year, when a new reporter was replaced, the attitude changed.

The Southeast Morning Post's report made reporters and editors from other media love and hate it. They loved it because it provided a brand new news gimmick, but they hated it because it was only the third day of the Chinese New Year, during the Spring Festival holiday, and many reporters had to work overtime.

Therefore, on the fourth and fifth days of the Chinese New Year, many reports that followed suit and questioned the trend were released; some media chose to wait and see, and made some bland and irrelevant remarks.

After all, it was only a few years ago that Han Han's lesson was passed. Who knows if Zhang Chao is the same kind of person as Han Han who doesn't care about food or meat. When the time comes, he will be scolded to death, and the newspaper's mailbox will be filled with protest letters from fans all over the country.

The chain reaction brought about by this report is not limited to this. The Southeast Morning News is the second largest morning newspaper in Fuhai and has a particularly large influence in the local area.

There is no big problem in scolding the literary world, because it is directed at a specific target. Zhang Chao has no school or sect now, so he cannot be considered a real member of the literary world.

It is not a big problem to criticize the media for hype, because hype is just a passing fad; the city and county TV stations interviewing Zhang Chao was originally a task assigned by their superiors.

Scolding education is a big problem - Zhang Chao is just a senior high school student.

Therefore, the principal of No. 3 Middle School, Wu Xingyu, received a call from the leader of the superior department at noon that day, asking him to handle the public opinion caused by this incident.

Wu Xingyu was in a dilemma. How should he deal with this? He didn’t know how to do it!

The only way he could think of was to use his connections to suppress the media reports. But now Zhang Chao was working with the national media, and as the principal of a small local school, he could not handle this explosive package.

If you can't carry it, throw it away! Thinking of this, Wu Xingyu took out his cell phone and dialed a number...

Zhang Chao's parents were also extremely anxious at this moment. What they were most worried about was not that their son's reputation would be ruined and his literary career would be cut off; rather, they were worried that their child would do something stupid under such pressure.

But Zhang Chao seemed not to care at all. He ate and drank as usual every day. When he was full, he would go into his room and type on the keyboard. All the ups and downs of the outside world were blocked out from his small bedroom which also served as his study.

At about 1:00 p.m. on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, there was another knock on Zhang Chao's door. When Zhang Chao's mother opened the door, she saw a girl with short, neat hair and a cool and elegant face. When she saw Zhang Chao's mother, she asked, "Is this Zhang Chao's house?"

Zhang Chao's mother nodded and said, "Yes, you are his classmate, right?" Just as she was about to let the girl into the house, she handed her a piece of letter.

The girl said, "I still have to go to class, so I won't go in. Auntie, just give this letter to Zhang Chao." After that, she turned and left.

Zhang Chao's mother thought it was strange. How could she not see that her silly son had such great charm? In just a few days, two such beautiful girls came to see him.

Zhang Chao heard his mother's description and knew that it was Song Shiyu who was sending the letter. He opened the letter and saw a dozen lines of words written in beautiful handwriting:

Reply
Despicable is the pass of the despicable,
Nobility is the epitaph of the noble. Look, in that gilded sky,
Floating with the curved reflection of the dead.

……

I came into this world,

With only paper, rope and figure,

In order to before the trial,
Read out the voices that have been sentenced:
Tell you, world,
I do not believe!

……

This poem is "Answer" by the poet Bei Dao, and is naturally well known to anyone who knows something about Chinese literature and modern Chinese poetry. The whole poem is full of grief and indignation and cold determination, denying all attempts to impose violence on thought.

The first two sentences have become proverbs.

Zhang Chao naturally understood the meaning of Song Shiyu copying this poem for him. Although he was not really hurt by the outside public opinion, he was still very moved.

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, the phone at Zhang Chao's house rang. When he picked up the phone, it was Lan Ting calling.

"Zhang Chao, are you okay now?"

"It's okay! What could possibly happen to me? Oh, by the way, I have to thank you for your computer. It makes typing much more comfortable for me."

"…That's not what I meant. I meant, those reports…"

"Let them report what they want. Han Han called me a 'dog', but I'm fine. They're still being polite."

"I'm glad you're okay. I asked my uncle, and he said it's best for you not to 'get noticed' now. The news media will see that there's nothing to hype about, and slowly die down. There's so much news every day, and soon no one will remember this incident."

"You mean, I'm going to be a coward now?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant..." Lan Ting was anxious and quickly explained.

"I'm kidding. Don't worry, since I've chosen this path, all these causes and consequences will naturally come to an end. It's not like someone forced me to take the test at gunpoint to get such a bad score. You can hide from it for a while, but you can't hide from it forever."

"then you……"

"The mountain man has his own clever plan."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Chao was quite emotional. Since his rebirth, he had wanted to move forward along the path of the past, but he was deviating more and more.

How can destiny be planned so easily?
After thinking about it, he picked up the phone again and dialed a number starting with "010":

"Hello, is this Mr. Dongfang Xing? I'm Zhang Chao. I'm going to post a blog tonight..."

"Okay! Just go ahead and post it. I'll help you pin it to the top of the homepage."

"Why don't you ask what the article is about?"

"Whatever you write now, there are hundreds of thousands of people waiting to read it. Publish it quickly! I'll help you contact newspapers and reporters!"

(End of this chapter)