But the pleasant conversation always came to an end in the end, and the final topic inevitably came to the trivial things that happened to Chu Chuan recently. What surprised Chu Li was that Chu Guxuan could not have been unaware of Chu Chuan's recent situation, and it was impossible for him not to know that his son was in a fragile stage...
It can be seen that even Zhuchuan's mother was very cautious when talking to him, but Zhu Guxuan was still very straightforward and said whatever he wanted to say.
"Although you have been shortlisted for the Flower and Branch Award, you don't have to be complacent. This work is still a few levels away from winning the award," said Zhao Guxuan calmly. "I know that you media now like to flatter authors. When promoting, you use all kinds of titles to blow up the news. It has become a common practice to exaggerate sales figures, so they are trying their best to exaggerate your nomination. What's the point of doing an interview? In our era, all achievements were based on hard work. I submitted my work to the competition, so there was no time when I didn't get shortlisted. Ah, then why didn't anyone interview me?"
Zhuo Chuan ate his rice without even shaking his chopsticks. Hearing this, he raised his head and glanced at his father: "I don't know, maybe the reporter is afraid of being pissed off by you? What's wrong with wanting to live a few more years..."
Chu Li kicked Zhu Chuan under the table.
Judging from the movements of Mrs. Zhou's upper body, she either kicked Zhou Guxuan under the table or reached out and pinched his thigh.
Zhuo Guxuan ignored him and continued to talk back to himself, and continued to educate himself: "Don't be so arrogant that you think that the fact that "Luohe Divine Book" was shortlisted is all because of your own strength. Think about it, if Chu Li hadn't put a knife to your neck and forced you to submit your work for the review, what would you be doing today?"
Zhuochuan held the bowl without saying a word. He looked down at Chu Li, who was a little nervous.
"She didn't put a knife to my neck, she just cried and wanted to send me off," said Zhao Chuan in a steady voice. "I didn't want to send her off at first, and I didn't want to, but you know, women's tears are the most powerful."
The atmosphere eased a little, and Mrs. Zhao started to laugh. Chu Li blushed and pulled his sleeve, lowering her voice to warn him, "What are you talking about?"
"You are so good at getting something for nothing," Zhu Guxuan pointed at Zhu Chuan with his chopsticks, "Chu Li really deserves the most credit for this."
“I didn’t write this article.”
"So what if you wrote it? You just caught up with the right time. The literary world has been opening up to more categories in the past two years. No matter what, this year's Flower Branch Awards must make some statement - I also read Xiaocheng's new book, which was also written by Chu Li, right? It sold well and was written with inspiration. It's just that you didn't catch up with the right opportunity. Otherwise, I think he would have been nominated as well."
...It's over. It's over.
If it weren't for the fact that he was in front of his elders at this moment, Chu Li really wanted to hold his forehead and rub his eyebrows. Teacher Zhu Guxuan was really the same as the rumors said. Zhu Chuan had to say whatever he hated to hear the most.
………………No wonder Chu Chuan says every day that Jiang Yucheng is “the kid next door”, it seems to be true.
"Jiang Yucheng's book, including the signed copies, has 50,000 fewer copies than mine, which is considered a good sale. Why didn't you praise me for selling well? For me, it's just exaggerating the sales volume. Hey, didn't he boast about a million copies?"
Zhuochuan looked at Chuli.
Chu Li's lips twitched. If she didn't stand by Zhu Chuan's side, he would pickpocket and flip the table. So Chu Li could only silently say "I'm sorry, teacher" to Jiang Yucheng in her heart, then nodded and said honestly: "...I blew it for a while."
Zhuchuan pointed his nose at his father.
Zhao Guxuan snorted, "Don't be offended by what I said. Did I say something wrong? Writers nowadays are impatient and impatient. Before they prepare to write something, the first thing they think about is not what they want to express through their work, but whether they can become famous by writing this way... If they think this way, what good work can they create?"
Zhao Chuan smiled and said, "Isn't this Xiao Cheng next door that you are talking about? Yesterday, he even pulled me aside to discuss the highlights of a wave of popular topics... catering to the market, catering to exam-oriented education, and catering to old men with outdated ideas are exactly what Xiao Cheng next door is good at."
Zhuo Guxuan: "Who do you say is the old man?!"
Chu Chuan: "Why are you making such a loud noise if you don't feel guilty?"
Zhuo Guxuan: "You are so rebellious. With this kind of behavior, no wonder so many people on the Internet scold you!"
Zhuo Chuan: "They also scolded you for being disrespectful to your elders and writing for your son."
Zhuo Guxuan: "I can't write a shit for you!"
Zhuo Chuan put down the bowl and said, "Yes, you should do an interview right away and tell those people about it. No matter whether they believe it or not, they will have to believe it based on the deep hatred on your face."
Zhuo Guxuan: "Give up, I won't go, let them continue to scold you."
Zhuo Chuan: "As if you could scold me to death - if you don't want to help me, then why did you ask me to come back? Isn't the air ticket free?"
Zhuo Guxuan: "I want to see Chu Li, who knows why you came back?"
Zhuchuan: “…”
From the harmonious and friendly atmosphere at the beginning of the meal when Chu Li was at the main stage, to the conversation between Chu Chuan and his son Chu Guxuan as if they were the only ones around, the atmosphere was like running wildly from the equator to the Arctic Circle, and no one could pull it back no matter how hard they tried.
The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder.
The scene that Chu Li imagined, "the stern old father stood by his son for a rare occasion and condemned online violence with him, firmly supporting his son, and the son cried and hugged his father tightly, saying that although they always quarreled over the years, he was still my father," did not appear...
Teacher Zhou Guxuan said: Let them continue to scold you.
Teacher Zhuchuan said: It seems like he can scold me to death.
………………Well, strictly speaking, maybe what teacher Zhu Guxuan said also inspired Zhu Chuan's will to survive in another way?
After dinner, it was 9:30 in the evening.
On the way to send Chu Li back to the hotel, Zhu Chuan glanced at Chu Li who was hesitant to speak... He held the steering wheel with one hand and patted the girl in the passenger seat with the other hand: "Don't comfort me, I'm used to it."
After Zhu Chuan said this, Chu Li suddenly felt that he was even more wronged, so after returning to the hotel, Zhu Chuan followed her into the room without saying a word, and she turned a blind eye and did not chase him away...
When I closed the door, I was pressed against the wall behind it.
The man's kisses fell on her cheeks like raindrops, and finally pressed against her lips, the tip of his tongue easily pried open her teeth and penetrated - the man's big hands pressed against her waist, sliding under the hem of her shirt, and she trembled slightly when the cold touch pressed against her warm and delicate skin...
"Zhu, Zhuchuan..."
"Um?"
"Not here..."
"Then get on the bed."
“…”
That's not what she wanted to say -
But think about it, well, tonight I saw with my own eyes how her baby was wronged, and I couldn't say "get out of here" no matter what... So I was pressed into the soft bed silently, letting his big hands caress and wander around her waist and belly, his fingertips vaguely touching the small piece of bulge under her underwear that was squeezed out after it moved slightly up due to the pushing...
We arrived at the hotel at ten o'clock, and finally Chu Chuan left at about eleven-thirty.
The two of them were like try-ers who had just come into contact with something new. Every tiny new discovery could keep them dawdling for a long time without getting bored... Although it always felt like the time and place were a little weird, and they didn't make it to the end in the end, it didn't matter that the entire hotel room was messed up by the two of them...
Finally, with red eyes, Zhaochuan climbed up and kissed the red lips of the person in his arms, and said in a hoarse voice: "I'm going to the toilet to take care of it."
Then he got up and went to the bathroom.
Chu Li was lying on the bed, her chest heaving. She turned over and the sheets were filled with the scent of her perfume and Zhuo Chuan's breath... Her face flushed red as she looked at the bathroom door that had just been closed. She got up as if possessed by a ghost, and without wearing slippers, she trotted to the door and lay down on it.
The bathroom is a sliding door.
The sliding door can be opened with a slight pull. Chu Li bent over and put her ears to the door, listening to the blushing noises coming from inside, as well as the man's slightly heavy breathing...
Standing on the soft carpet with her toes curled, Chu Li's heartbeat quickened, the blood in her body began to flow faster, and her legs felt a little weak.
The impulse to open the toilet door recklessly, open her arms, and roar at the man "Come on, I'm not afraid" almost burned her brain... Chu Li staggered away from the toilet door, lay back on the bed, hugged the pillow, bit her fingers tightly, and curled up.
…
At the same time.
Zhuo family.
Mrs. Zhao brought the sweet soup and placed it in front of her husband. She watched him take a sip of the sweet soup and finally couldn't help but poked his back with her finger. She complained: "Why did you talk like that today? I asked you if we had agreed before you left. You should have said a few polite words today?"
Zhuo Guxuan was prodded and shook for a moment, raising his eyelids: "What are you talking about? You have been talking to yourself from the beginning to the end. Did I promise you?"
"Oh, you old fogey, you still think you're right - I don't know how badly people are scolding our son online. Not only did you not comfort him, but you also kept saying that his being shortlisted is not something to be happy about. So, he was envied and strangled for nothing?"
Zhuo Guxuan drank a sip of sweet soup and laughed at his wife's words: "He comes to me for comfort?"
Mrs. Zhao was left speechless by this rhetorical question.
"He knew what I would say before he came," Zhou Guxuan put down the bowl, "It's impossible to expect me to comfort him. You shouldn't do anything to comfort him as if he has suffered some kind of sin - you women don't understand..."
"I don't understand. Tell me what you mean."
"At this time, the more cautious we are, the more burden we will put on him. We should just do what we can. Ah, those people on the Internet said that he had someone else write the letter for him. So, is it really someone else writing the letter for him? Is it true or not? Isn't it clear to him, us, and the people around him?"
“…”
"It's all nonsense, not worth mentioning." Zhu Guxuan said calmly, "This is not enough to defeat Zhu Chuan. Rumors will never hurt a person. As long as he stands straight, he will never fall."
"...Oh, you old antique," Mrs. Zhou was stunned for a moment, "you are quite good at talking."
"That's my son," Zhuo Guxuan put down the bowl, pinching his nose and swallowing the extremely sweet soup. "If I don't understand, who else would understand? ... Maybe he is taking advantage of you women's excessive sympathy and trying to take advantage of you. You, are you still counting money for him after he sold you out?"
…
In the hotel.
Chu Li sneezed slightly while hugging the pillow, raised her hand to rub the tip of her nose, and kept looking at the half-open door of the bathroom.