Doesn’t he look like him?
No, not in appearance.
He inherited more of his scumbag father’s looks.
There is no way around it. If Xie Qian could choose, he would rather look like his mother.
“It’s just a shell.”
There was little fluctuation in Xie Qian’s voice. “Someone like you is best at seeing the essence through appearances. Although my surname is Xie, you can consider me part of the Zou family.”
Old Fu involuntarily looked at Xie Qian twice.
When people live to a certain age and experience enough, they naturally can hear the subtext in others’ words. Moreover, Xie Qian did not intend to hide it.
Xie Qian was asking Old Fu to see the essence when dealing with Wen Ying, not to be influenced by the outside comments. Yes, Old Fu must already know about the media reports, the literary community’s criticism of Wen Ying, and even the fierce doubts from that senior literary figure.
Even if Old Fu had no time to read the papers himself, the Fu family surely was paying attention to the essay contest and had informed Old Fu about the recent storm of public opinion.
Old Fu had agreed to be a judge for the contest. If the public opinion went wrong, it might affect his reputation and threaten his late career.
The Fu family certainly did not want to see such a situation.
At first, the Fu family did not even want Old Fu to be a judge, but Zou Weijun moved Old Fu with sincerity.
Now that things were such a mess, Old Fu could take the chance to refuse since the news had not been made public yet.
Could this be the reason?
Because of this, the outside world was in chaos, but Old Fu had not spoken.
Old Fu understood Xie Qian’s subtext, understood his plan, and saw through Xie Qian’s cleverness. The old man asked, “Did you come here for your mother?”
Xie Qian could lie, but he did not intend to.
Lying in front of such a literary giant would also be a form of disrespect.
“No, I hope you can take a look at Wen Ying’s work.”
If he had come for Zou Weijun, Xie Qian’s actions would be considered filial.
Xie Qian denied this.
So the reason why this young man took a plane here was quite interesting.
“Oh…”
The old man’s tone seemed a bit teasing, “You two have a good relationship. She is very important to you, so you came to see me. Someone criticised and attacked her in the newspapers, which made you very angry, right?”
Of course, she was important. Wen Ying was his good… no, his closest friend!
Xie Qian nodded in agreement, and Old Fu’s tone became even more teasing.
“I see your sincerity, but I am an old man, my eyes are not as good as yours. A 300,000-word novel might take me a week to finish reading. Would that delay your main business?”
A week just to read it.
After reading, he would have to digest it, write an article to rebut that old writer, and then send the article to the newspaper for publication. Altogether, wouldn’t that take about ten days?
Not to mention, even one more day of delay means Wen Ying has to endure one more day of abuse.
Xie Qian pursed his lips and then relaxed them. “If you agree, I can read it to you.”
In Old Fu’s case, listening was definitely better than reading with his eyes.
However, Old Fu was quite picky about reading aloud: “You can’t do it. You are too calm, too mature for your age. You have no emotion when reading aloud! Don’t think I’m making it difficult for you. Without emotional ups and downs in the voice, how can the audience empathise? A book that could get 10 points, if you read poorly, I might only give it 6.”
Six points was just barely passing.
Why would Old Fu endorse such a work of that level? That would lower Old Fu’s taste!
Xie Qian suspected Old Fu was teasing him, but he had no evidence.
Even if he did, what could he do? Now he needed Old Fu’s help, so he had to cooperate with the teasing.
Xie Qian accepted his fate.
“I will try my best. If I don’t read well somewhere, please point it out in time.”
Old Fu agreed and gestured for Xie Qian to start anytime.
Xie Qian gave up on the short story and chose Young Idol. After adjusting his mindset and emotions, Xie Qian began to read aloud.
Xie Qian’s voice was always pleasant. This was not Wen Ying’s illusion under the male god filter but a fact.
The Creator especially favoured Xie Qian, giving him a good-looking appearance and a pleasant, distinctive voice. Such a person reading a novel attentively was truly an auditory enjoyment.
Old Fu was quite satisfied, immersed in the story Xie Qian read aloud.
Outside the study, the Fu family listened to the reading coming from inside and looked at each other.
After a long time, one of the Fu family broke the silence and whispered, “What’s up with the old man? Isn’t Young Idol a book that was already…”
“Shh!”
Another made a shushing gesture.
“The old man is rarely happy. Don’t spoil the mood.”
What’s wrong with reading a novel once?
Some people want to read; the old man may not even want to listen.
Bad works, reading to the old man is just mental pollution.
If the old man is willing to listen to a book a second time, that means he quite likes it!
…
While Xie Qian was acting as Old Fu’s page, the anti-Yu wave was still fermenting.
With that senior writer’s public criticism, it seemed to encourage other literary critics. More and more people joined in, wanting to stir the water for their own gain.
Literary critics live by reviewing others’ works; the sharper their words, the easier it is to be remembered.
As for what happens to those criticised, they don’t care. In the pursuit of fame and fortune, some stepping stones must be sacrificed.
Wen Ying was a very good stepping stone.
Shallow experience, young age, but great fame.
Jumping out as a frontrunner without deep connections in the literary world, wasn’t she targeted by everyone like prey?
By stepping on Wen Ying, critics gained great fame.
The only ones defending Wen Ying were the Rongcheng Publishing Group, which shared her interests. Critics hoped to stomp on Wen Ying together.
Some were quite happy to see Wen Ying have bad luck.
For example, Han Qin, who lost two lawsuits in a row.
Han Qin’s reputation was ruined, she could no longer be a magazine editor. After leaving Aige magazine, no other magazine wanted to hire her. She became a freelance writer.
A freelance writer means, as the name suggests, she could submit articles to anyone. With a pen name or pseudonym, no one knew it was Han Qin.
Having lost lawsuits, lost jobs, and money, Han Qin had become cautious.
At least when questioning the essay contest’s blacklisting of Wen Ying, Han Qin learned to keep to a limit.
No personal attacks, no malicious insults. Control the limits and you won’t get caught!
Especially now, with so many critics attacking Wen Ying, Han Qin was hidden in the anti-Yu wave under a pseudonym, not standing out at all.
Han Qin was not the only one who hated Wen Ying.
There were people like Wen Hongyan and the mother-daughter duo Shu Lu, who hated Wen Ying so much they were itching to fight but had no way to do so. Without Zhao Dong’s help, what could the mother and daughter do for revenge?
In the past, they could only watch Wen Ying shine. Now that Wen Ying was caught in a public opinion storm, the mother and daughter gathered to applaud happily.
This was a mental victory. They couldn’t take revenge themselves, but others could do it for them, which made them feel better.
They didn’t think that even if Wen Ying was crushed by the criticism over being a judge, with a bestseller like Young Idol, Wen Ying’s achievements were beyond Shu Lu’s reach.
It was unclear what the mother and daughter were happy about. Instead of celebrating Wen Ying being attacked, they might as well work hard for their own future!
They were not on the same level at all. What did the mother and daughter’s joys and sorrows have to do with Wen Ying? These were sneaky underhanded moves.
Those who disliked Wen Ying were not only these people but also Zhao Qian.
Zhao Dong left Rongcheng to develop in Modu, and Zhao Qian transferred from Beijing to Modu so the siblings could live together again. Zhao Dong chose the camp of Xie Jinghu’s mistress, so Zhao Qian and Xie Qian had no chance.
Zhao Dong advised his sister to give up and look for another target. Zhao Qian cried and threw a tantrum. To make her give up, Zhao Dong forced Wen Ying and Xie Qian into a couple in everyone’s eyes.
Except for Xie Qian and Wen Ying, who were clueless, everyone was forcing the ship.
Zhao Qian naturally could not accept it.
She had seen Wen Ying.
Wen Ying looked dark and fat. How could she stand beside Xie Qian?
Losing to Wen Ying was completely unacceptable to Zhao Qian.
No matter whether Wen Ying had titles like bestselling author and young screenwriter, in Zhao Qian’s eyes, these titles brought Wen Ying far less wealth than Zhao family’s two or three generations combined!
Zhao Qian truly believed her brother’s words only after Wen Ying’s promotional video for the essay contest aired.
Seeing Wen Ying in the video, Zhao Qian fell silent.
The dark, fat girl transformed like this?
If last year Wen Ying had appeared like this, Zhao Qian would have already been on full alert!
Such a Wen Ying, coupled with titles like bestselling author and young screenwriter, standing beside Xie Qian was tolerable… Believing her brother Zhao Dong’s words did not mean Zhao Qian would generously bless Wen Ying and Xie Qian.
The spoiled Zhao Qian was furious.
Not wanting to see Wen Ying advance further through the essay contest, Zhao Qian used her private savings to hire people to write opposing comments online, all insulting Wen Ying.
When the organisers announced Wen Ying as a judge, Zhao Qian was even more furious.
More money, more money, spend more money, and definitely ruin Wen Ying’s reputation!
The colleagues’ siege and enemies’ fuel made the “anti-Yu wave” more and more intense.
Young Idol sold even better, Rongcheng Literary Publishing House printed 400,000 more copies for the third time!
This was probably the only good news.
Wen Ying tried not to be affected by public opinion and reviewed manuscripts with Zhang Guangzhen.
Wen Ying’s psychological endurance surprised even Zhang Guangzhen. If it had been Zhang Guangzhen being criticised like this, he might not have been able to hold on!
Wen Dongrong read the critical articles in the newspapers and was very unhappy, but he had just arrived at his new unit in Rongcheng and was really too busy. He stayed up late writing two rebuttal articles, which were published. However, since he used an unknown pen name, they had little effect.
Although Song Foxiang was jokingly called Wen Ying’s protector prime minister on her path to success, he was only one person. Facing so many critics, even dragging editor Wan along to counterattack was hardly effective.
Seeing this battle of public opinion, Wen Ying’s side was about to collapse. In front of Wen Ying, Chen Ru said nothing. Behind Wen Ying and Wen Dongrong’s backs, Chen Ru called old friend Wu Chunqin for help.
Wu Chunqin’s husband was Professor Shen at a famous Modu university. This school cooperated with the organisers of the New Concept Essay Contest, so Professor Shen must know people in the literary circle.
Chen Ru asked Zou Weijun and Mrs Wang, the public relations manager of Tianjiao, and knew that at this time, they needed a heavyweight figure to speak up for Wen Ying. This would relieve much of Wen Ying’s pressure!
Chen Ru secretly asked Wu Chunqin, “If there is still a way, I definitely wouldn’t trouble you…”
Yes, Chen Ru had always been proud at school, and for Wen Ying, this was the second time she had asked Wu Chunqin for help.
The first time was for the New Concept Essay Contest. Wu Chunqin wanted to help, but Wen Ying refused.
This time, Wen Ying’s situation was even more severe than during the New Concept Essay Contest.
Wu Chunqin was worried.
While worried, Wu Chunqin did not lose her reason. Thinking of the public pressure Wen Ying was under, her voice was hoarse:
“Have you considered asking Wen Ying to resign from the judge position?”
