"That's right! You're so incompetent, you're just jealous of others!"
"This is outrageous! How dare they slander Professor Wang!"
"I think he's just deliberately causing trouble!"
Everyone condemned Xu Kuo, filled with righteous indignation, as if Xu Kuo had committed some heinous crime.
Xu Kuo snorted coldly, completely ignoring the clamor of the crowd. He picked up his pen, quickly marked a few places on the textbook, and then threw it back to Professor Wang with a "thud".
"Take a look for yourself, aren't these parts wrong?"
Professor Wang was so angry that he trembled all over. He grabbed the textbook, took a closer look, and his face turned deathly pale.
The places that Xu Kuo marked were indeed grammatical errors! And they were all very basic errors!
How...how is this possible?
Professor Wang felt as if his face had been slapped repeatedly, burning with pain. He had just been swearing that his textbook was without error, but now Xu Kuo had caught him red-handed. This was worse than death for him!
"This...this..." Professor Wang stammered, trying to explain, but found himself speechless.
“Professor Wang, you are being very rude.” Xu Kuo’s tone was calm but full of pressure. “Even if your textbook has some minor grammatical errors, it is still much better than the textbook I wrote casually. Why are you so persistent?”
The group exchanged awkward glances, wishing they could disappear into the ground. Just moments before, they had been praising Professor Wang and belittling Xu Kuo, but now Xu Kuo had delivered a resounding slap in the face. The feeling was worse than swallowing a fly.
Professor Wang's face turned pale and then flushed.
Professor Wang snorted coldly.
"Even if there are a few grammatical errors, that's normal. After all, I only spent a year on it, and I haven't even checked it yet. Once I've checked it, these grammatical errors will be corrected, right?"
"Wow, Professor Wang is really amazing! He can write a textbook in a year. That's incredibly efficient!"
"Indeed, he truly deserves to be the pillar of our publishing house!"
"Professor Wang, you've worked so hard, we all appreciate it!"
His colleagues immediately began to flatter him, praising Professor Wang to the skies. They knew that at this moment, sucking up was the right thing to do.
Professor Wang, flattered and elated, glanced smugly at Xu Kuo, his chin held even higher, his nostrils practically pointing to the ceiling: "Young man, and you? How long did it take you to finish that 'draft'? A month? Two months? Or... three months?"
He deliberately dragged out his words. In his view, Xu Kuo couldn't possibly be faster than him.
Wenwen couldn't stand it anymore and blurted out, "Brother Xu Kuo only took one morning!"
"What?!"
"A whole morning?!"
"That's impossible!"
"Little girl, are you kidding me?"
The crowd immediately erupted in uproar.
A whole morning? Forget writing a textbook, you wouldn't even have enough time to copy one! This girl, is she talking in her sleep?
He stared wide-eyed at Wenwen, then shrieked, "You little brat, what nonsense are you spouting? A whole morning? Do you think writing textbooks is child's play? You think you can just scribble a few lines and call it a day?"
He felt his intelligence had been insulted. How dare a country girl spout such nonsense in front of him? It was simply outrageous!
"Enough!" Professor Li couldn't stand it any longer and sternly stopped Professor Wang, "Old Wang, calm down!"
Professor Li excitedly grasped Xu Kuo's hand: "Comrade Xu Kuo, on behalf of the publishing house, I formally appoint you as the chief editor of our English textbook writing group! What do you say, are you willing?"
He was eager to bring Xu Kuo, such a talented individual, into his team. A textbook, a morning—what incredible speed! Missing out on such a talent would be a huge loss for the publishing house!
Xu Kuo hadn't expected Professor Li to be so decisive. He paused for a moment, then nodded in acceptance.
"Great! Excellent!" Professor Li rubbed his hands excitedly, then quickly picked up a piece of paper from the table, which listed several sections of the textbook. "Comrade Xu Kuo, look, this is our preliminary framework for the textbook, including phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, reading, and writing. What do you think?"
Xu Kuo glanced at it and replied decisively, "No problem, I'll start writing right away."
He found an empty seat, picked up a pen, and began to write furiously.
Professor Li and Professor Wang stood on either side of Xu Kuo, ostensibly to help correct his mistakes, but in reality, they also wanted to see how Xu Kuo managed to write a textbook in such a short time.
Time passed by, and Xu Kuo's pen flew across the page, producing clear and fluent lines of English.
The two professors stared wide-eyed at every word and sentence Xu Kuo had written. The more they looked, the more astonished and impressed they became.
At first, they tried to find fault with Xu Kuo, but they soon realized they were nitpicking. Xu Kuo's textbook was not only error-free, but also better than any textbook they had ever seen before!
"This...this grammar point, how come I didn't think of it?" Professor Li suddenly pointed to a sentence written by Xu Kuo and exclaimed in surprise.
"And this word, it's used so brilliantly!" Professor Wang couldn't help but exclaim.
They discovered that not only had they failed to correct Xu Kuo's mistakes, but Xu Kuo had also corrected several issues that they had previously overlooked!
The two men exchanged a glance, both seeing shock and shame in each other's eyes. They then realized that the difference between themselves and Xu Kuo was simply worlds apart!
As the sun set, its afterglow filled the entire room.
Xu Kuo finally put down his pen, let out a long sigh of relief, and handed the completed teaching material to Professor Li: "It's finished."
"Is...it finished?" Professor Li and Professor Wang stammered, their voices trembling slightly. They took the textbook, flipped through it several times, and still couldn't believe their eyes.
"This...this really only took an afternoon?" Professor Wang's voice trembled.
"This is incredible!" Professor Li murmured to himself, as if he had lost his soul.
They originally thought that compiling a textbook would take at least several days, or even weeks or months. But Xu Kuo did it in just one afternoon!
Just then, the office door was pushed open, and Secretary Wen walked in.
"Hello, Secretary Wen!" Everyone quickly stood up to greet him.
Secretary Wen waved his hand with a smile: "Everyone has worked hard. Comrade Xu Kuo, I've found you a place to stay. Come on, let me show you."
Xu Kuo was taken aback: "Living place? What living place?"
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