Looking around the room, an entire storeroom of copyright reserves… no, an entire room of fellow writers, filled Wen Ying with exceptional delight.
Some people did want to sell their film and television rights and sidled up to ask for details. Wen Ying treated everyone equally, regardless of fame.
Others could not hold back and asked about the Blue Whale situation. Even readers could see that Crown of Thorns had plagiarised Galaxy and You; professional writers spotted it even more clearly. Some wanted to know how Wen Ying planned to handle it.
“Xiao Yu, we can’t let plagiarists get away with it. If you need any help with this, we’re absolutely duty-bound to assist!”
“Thank you, thank you everyone. I have a plan in mind. Just sit back and watch for now.”
When writers gathered, the conversation flowed thick and fast. Wen Ying returned to her room very late.
She rang Xie Qian, but he did not pick up.
She had to send a text instead: Your uncle came to see me tonight. I was so surprised!
Xie Qian only rang her back the next morning. “I had no idea he was going to meet you. What did he say?”
“He just chatted about you and Aunt Zou in Rongcheng, asked a bit about my situation, nothing else really. Oh, and he gave me his contact details. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she heard Xie Qian laugh down the phone.
“Of course it’s all right. It means he really likes you.”
Wen Ying’s ears inexplicably grew hot.
Pfft!
Nothing to be embarrassed about. She was naturally likeable anyway.
Wen Ying mentioned Zhang Nan. “She says she’s coming to find me, that she has something to ask.”
“Treat her exactly as you did before. She’s not the scheming type.”
“No scheming” equalled easy to fool. Xie Qian trusted Wen Ying could handle Zhang Nan without difficulty. Even so, the thought of Wen Ying spending her days and nights at the Academy with young writers like Mu Fan made his time in Shanghai particularly hard to bear.
“I’m coming back to Beijing tomorrow.”
Wen Ying was startled. “Really?”
Without realising it, her voice lifted with pleasure.
She was already thrilled at discovering a whole treasure trove of copyrights. After the call with Xie Qian she felt even happier, and that good mood lasted right through until lunchtime.
She had only been at the Academy two or three days, yet this cohort had already split into numerous little cliques.
Wen Ying was closest to Mu Fan and Shui Mingyue, and could joke around with several other bestselling authors. A separate group of younger writers pursuing pure literature remained at odds with Wen Ying’s circle.
For the moment, however, the two sides simply kept their distance. They still greeted each other politely and maintained surface harmony.
That was already very good. They stayed in their own lanes; as long as they did not interfere with each other, preserving surface peace counted as mutual respect!
At lunch in the canteen, Wen Ying sensed something odd.
The little cliques sat in twos and threes, whispering about something. When her gaze swept over them, the discussions stopped at once.
“Don’t you think today’s atmosphere is really strange?”
Wen Ying set down her tray and asked Mu Fan and Shui Mingyue quietly.
The pair exchanged a glance. Shui Mingyue looked embarrassed, so Mu Fan steeled himself and spoke. “Didn’t you go out last night? This morning someone said they saw you and a man in a suit checking into a room across from the school…”
Checking into what?
What room?
What man?!
Wen Ying nearly spat blood. She slammed the table hard. “What bloody room? An uncle of mine came to see me. He didn’t want to disturb my training so he specially invited me to the tea house opposite for a chat! Who is so vile as to spread that kind of filth? Have they no shame as intellectuals?”
Wen Ying stood tall and unafraid of crooked shadows. She slammed the table loudly and spoke even louder.
She wanted the entire canteen to hear!
She claimed not to know who started the rumour, but she already had a suspect. Last night, after finishing with Xie Yuping, Secretary Zhong had walked her back and they had run into He Xin at the gate.
Could it have been He Xin?
He Xin looked down on writers who made their fortune from commercial fiction and youth literature, believing such works had no value.
Yet He Xin was, after all, an instructor at the Academy. Wen Ying did not want to assume the worst of her character.
Mu Fan raised his voice too. “So it was your uncle visiting. Yesterday a relative brought you pastries as well. You sneaky thing, did you go out last night for a private feast?”
Shui Mingyue added softly, “The pastries your family made were delicious. Are there any more?”
Both were helping Wen Ying clear things up.
Wen Ying sat down, still fuming, and whispered “thank you”. Mu Fan comforted her. “Wherever writers gather, gossip never stops. Yours is just hearsay. I know a true story that’s a hundred times more explosive than you supposedly checking into a room with a man across the road… In a previous advanced workshop, a male and a female writer fell in love over the course. They went public and became a couple.”
“What’s explosive about that? A perfect match, a beautiful romance!”
Mu Fan chuckled. “It would have been beautiful, except they met too late. Both were already married with families before the workshop. Love struck so suddenly they couldn’t help breaking through moral constraints. At the height of passion they agreed to divorce their spouses and be together properly once they got home. The female writer did divorce, but the male writer returned to his family. Both writers are quite famous. Practically everyone in the industry knows the story. Tell me, isn’t that far more explosive than your little rumour?”
Everyone knows?
Wen Ying considered herself a country bumpkin who had only recently clawed her way into the literary world and had never had the chance to hear such gossip.
Shui Mingyue said she hadn’t heard it either. “The female writer was unlucky and had poor taste in men. But she has only herself to blame. After all, she cheated too. Affairs may be thrilling, but they usually end in a complete mess. The real victims are their respective spouses, of course. It’s perfectly normal for love to arrive after marriage. Meeting your true love after you’re already wed isn’t strange. But if that happens, please get divorced first and settle everything properly before pursuing the new love, all right? Compensate where compensation is due. Without betrayal or deception, a person can at least be called courageous, whether man or woman!”
In her previous life Wen Ying had loved Shui Mingyue’s novels, and now she liked the person even more.
Shui Mingyue’s main readership was teenagers, but that did not make her childish. Shui Mingyue was a clear-headed woman.
Unfortunately, Shui Mingyue would soon stop writing.
At the end of this year her final novel would be published, and for more than ten years afterwards she would release nothing new.
She vanished from social platforms online and never appeared at commercial events.
Some said she had earned enough seed money from writing, retired to go into business, became a big boss, and now looked down on the petty earnings of novel-writing, too lazy even to respond to readers who still loved her.
Others said she had emigrated, made her money domestically and spent it abroad, becoming a thorough “foreigner” who had abandoned her country and the readers who adored her.
All those readers’ youth, all the innocent affection of their teenage years, seemed fed to the dogs.
No matter the rumours swirling outside, Shui Mingyue acted as if she heard nothing and never once spoke up to defend herself.
Now Wen Ying was extremely curious. Why exactly would Shui Mingyue retire from writing?
For the moment, Shui Mingyue showed absolutely no sign of wanting to retire. If she planned to quit, why bother attending the workshop at all? She wouldn’t be writing any more anyway.
Wen Ying studied Shui Mingyue from every angle until the latter grew uneasy, hugged her arms, and asked what Wen Ying wanted.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t start the rumour!”
Wen Ying grinned. “I just wanted to ask when your next book comes out and whether you could give me a signed copy when it does.”
Shui Mingyue relaxed her arms. “You scared me. I thought you were going to say something serious. The new book will be out in the second half of the year. I still have three books left on my contract with the publisher. I have to publish one a year.”
Then why on earth would she retire before even finishing the contract?!
