After shouting, he didn't even look at Lin Que's reaction, opened the car door, and slipped inside like a slippery eel.
The car door closed, the van slowly started moving, and glided into the traffic.
Under the streetlights, the boy watched the taillights of the van disappear around the corner.
He put one hand in his pocket and shook his head helplessly.
This girl is much more vibrant than before.
Pulling down the brim of his hat, he turned and blended into the contrasting night.
...
The days since returning from Nanjing have felt like jet lag.
That kind of intense mental exertion lasting up to eight hours has an astonishing aftereffect.
Even after a week, a sense of despondency, as if due to "brainstem deficiency," still lingered in some corners of Class 3, Grade 11.
Li Bowen didn't do physics problems during evening self-study for three consecutive days.
Instead, he stared blankly at the willow tree outside the window, supposedly to ponder whether there were any logical flaws in the plot twist.
It wasn't until Wednesday that this sense of dejection was dispelled by a bombshell.
The official Weibo account of the "Ink Rhyme Award" has pinned a post to the top.
There was no lengthy explanation, only a highly designed black poster.
In the center of the poster is a lonely little boat with a blurry human figure standing at the bow.
The accompanying text, though only two lines long, is full of wisdom:
Witness the brilliance of emerging talents and explore the depths of literature. Join us this Friday at 8 PM for the Ink Rhyme Awards!
This Weibo post was like a piece of boiling sodium being thrown into water.
It begins with the character “见” and ends with the character “深”.
Netizens are so sensitive.
In just half an hour,
The hashtag #JianShenAttendsInkRhymeAward# quickly rose to the top of the trending searches.
It was followed by a bright red "爆" (explosive) character.
The classroom erupted in chaos as soon as the morning exercises ended.
"Wow! He's alive! Boss Jian Shen is going to participate in the Ink Rhyme Award!"
Wu Di, holding his phone, was so excited he almost jumped onto his desk:
"What does the official statement mean? 'See you there!' Is this their first public appearance?"
"Really?"
The girl in the front row also turned her head, her eyes sparkling.
"It's all over the internet. Some say Jian Shen is a weathered old man, while others say he's a highly educated elite."
Regardless of which one, this is a mysterious and powerful figure in the literary world!
I don't think so.
Although Li Bowen said that, his eyes had already drifted to Wu Di's phone screen.
"Professor Jian Shen doesn't like crowds, and Xin Chao has done such a good job of keeping things confidential, so it might just be a video call."
"A video call is fine too! I'll be happy as long as I can hear your voice!"
The girl in the back row looked on with longing.
"A man who can write a sentence like 'If fate is a lonely river,'"
The voice must be incredibly magnetic, a deep, resonant bass, absolutely!
Lin Que, sitting in the back row by the window, paused for a moment.
Subwoofer?
He listened to the sounds coming from his own voice, which was still at the tail end of puberty, and had reservations about them.
These people probably have some misunderstanding about the mysterious deity.
"Brother Que, what are you thinking about?"
Wu Di leaned closer, looking mysterious.
"What exactly does Jian Shen look like? That kind of profound insight into human nature, do you think it could be written without forty or fifty years of life experience?"
Lin Que stopped what he was doing, turned his head to look at his deskmate, and said sincerely:
"I think so too. He might just be a burly man with a face full of wrinkles and picking his toes."
"Lin Que! Don't ruin my idol!"
Zhang Ya turned around angrily.
"That's just jealousy! Utter jealousy!"
Lin Que shrugged and said no more.
He pulled his phone out of his desk drawer; the screen displayed a large-scale advertisement for the Ink Rhyme Award.
That's business.
Capital is too good at manipulating people's hearts.
By using such ambiguous language, they pushed public expectations to the limit.
At that time, regardless of how Jian Shen "appears,"
Under such overwhelming emotional influence, it will all be interpreted as a kind of "looking down".
Since someone is promoting him, he has no reason not to finish the song.
Lin Que turned off his phone.
Outside the window, the first chirp of a cicada pierced the sultry heat of early summer.
The gentle breeze wafts through the alleyway where green locust trees stand, and the first cry of a new cicada can be heard.
Summer has truly arrived.
...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com