After sending Zhang Yingying back to the girls' dormitory, Huo Yaowen walked straight towards the teachers' dormitory building.
Huo Yaowen smiled to himself, not speaking, about Zhang Yingying saying she was also a fan of Mr. Hu Shih. People who genuinely like Mr. Hu Shih generally wouldn't call him 'Mr. Hu Shih'; they would either call him 'Mr. Shizhi' or 'Hu Shizhi'.
In his previous life, Huo Yaowen had read 'Hu Shih's Oral History' written by Tang Degang. The preface recalled a saying of Mr. Hu Shih in his later years: he said that young people calling him 'Mr. Hu Shih' indicated a sense of distance, and a more formal or better way to address him should be 'Mr. Shizhi' or 'Hu Shizhi'.
That's why Huo Yaowen, who had always loved 'The Collected Works of Hu Shih', paid more attention to this kind of information. Moreover, one important point that attracted Huo Yaowen the most about Mr. Hu Shih was that he wasn't a scholar at heart, but more of a socialite.
Simply put, he was a 'man of letters'.
Huo Yaowen's earliest contact with Mr. Hu Shih was an excerpt from 'Hu Shih's Diary' that he stumbled upon online. The most amusing part was that the entire diary contained no bright sunshine, no nationalistic sentiment, and no academic thoughts; it was mostly about 'daily life'.
For example:
February 5: 'Liu Qianli called to invite me to play cards.' (A friend invited me to play cards, I must go!)
April 29: 'The weather suddenly warmed to over eighty degrees, making it impossible to read. Played cards with Mr. Shen and Mr. Chen, and then played Chinese cards with Mr. Liu and Mr. Hou for amusement.' (It's so hot, eighty degrees Fahrenheit, let's play cards.)
May 14: 'Played cards with Liu Qianli and others at night. Mr. Liu has graduated and said he will return to his homeland next Tuesday.' (Mr. Liu is graduating, let's play cards to send him off.)
July 2: 'Too hot to work, played cards for amusement.' (It's hot again, played cards.)
July 3: 'Today the weather is one hundred and ten degrees. Played cards.'
July 8: 'Nothing to do. Played cards. The weather is slightly cooler.' (The weather is cooler, nothing to do, played cards.)
August 4: 'The fourth chemistry quiz was very unsatisfactory; this was the worst exam I've ever taken. Played cards.' (Didn't do well on the exam, feeling bad, played cards.)
August 5: 'Played cards.'
August 10: 'Went to bed early at night; for several days, whether reading or playing cards, I usually went to bed at midnight. Today I felt unwell, so I rectified it.'
September 4: 'Today is Labor Day, a day of rest. Played cards.' (Labor Day, so I need to rest, let's play cards.)
It was precisely these seemingly hilarious diary entries that attracted Huo Yaowen to read many articles and collections about Mr. Hu Shih, as well as later generations' recollections of him, or personal autobiographies.
Let's not talk about trivial matters.
After Huo Yaowen found his single room in the teachers' dormitory building, he went inside to take a look. Besides a wooden bed without bedding, there was only a pitifully small aisle and a desk tightly next to the bed.
Compared to the large bunk beds in the four-person rooms of the student dormitory, this was extremely poor!
However, Huo Yaowen didn't mind. Although the place was a bit small, at least there was a bed to sleep on, which was much better than sleeping on the floor at home.
After simply tidying up some discarded newspapers, papers, and other scattered trash in the room, Huo Yaowen went out to the university's general store to buy some soap, shampoo, towels, and other daily necessities. He placed them one by one on the table, then thought about what to bring back home, before turning around, locking the door, and leaving.
...
By the time he took the ferry back home again, it was already 12:30 PM. Mother Huo had already taken the food to Chengcai Bookstore to deliver lunch to Father Huo, and Grandma, having nothing to do, had gone downstairs to watch the neighbors play cards by the corridor.
Only Sai Mui Xi Mei Huo Tingting was in the house.
Huo Yaowen opened the door and walked in, noticing that Sai Mui was writing something at the dining table and hadn't noticed his return. He raised an eyebrow, quietly walked over to her, and peeked through a small gap at what Sai Mui was writing.
'...Seeing Li Shuheng's pale, bloodless face, Zhang Wanrong's heart ached. Tears streamed down her cheeks like raindrops. She sobbed softly and said sadly, 'Brother Shuheng, how could you be so careless? Your body hasn't recovered, yet you still treat yourself so badly. What's so good about Li Xiaohua? She's just an ordinary farmer's daughter. Besides being somewhat pretty, she can't even read. How is she worth you paying such a high price and sacrificing yourself to save her?!'...'
'Hahaha...' Without even finishing reading, Huo Yaowen burst out laughing.
Sai Mui Xi Mei Huo Tingting heard the laughter and immediately turned her head sharply. Seeing Ah Ge laughing unrestrainedly, she was curious at first, then realized something. Her delicate face turned red, and even her earlobes flushed pink. She said in a fit of pique, 'Ah Ge, why didn't you say anything when you came back! What's so funny about laughing?'
'No... haha... nothing.'
Huo Yaowen covered his mouth, trying to suppress his laughter, but in the end, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
This completely infuriated Sai Mui Xi Mei Huo Tingting. She stood up, extended her hands, as fair as jade, and fiercely pinched Huo Yaowen's arm, saying, 'Laugh, Ah Ge, what's so funny? Didn't you tell me to write? Now that I've written, you're still secretly laughing. Hmph, if you laugh again, I won't talk to you.'
'Okay, okay, no more laughing, no more laughing.' Huo Yaowen said this, but his heart was still blooming with joy. He never expected that yesterday, when he told Sai Mui to try writing a romance novel, she would start writing today.
Judging by the plot, it should be set in a modern city, but the dialogue is neither classical nor vernacular, and it's trying to imitate dream of the red chamber, which is not good. The writing isn't good enough, making it laughably bad.
Of course, these were just Huo Yaowen's thoughts. He didn't want to overly dampen Sai Mui's confidence, so after thinking for a moment, he said, 'The writing is still okay, but I just quickly glanced at it. Your female protagonist should be that farmer's daughter, right?'
'Yes.' Huo Tingting glanced at Ah Ge's face and, seeing that he wasn't laughing, felt relieved.
'How should I put it? The narration is fine, but the dialogue is neither classical nor vernacular, and most importantly, your plot is too clichéd.' Huo Yaowen said very bluntly.
There are too many stories like this, about a rich young master and an ordinary girl. Throughout history, most influential romance novels feature male and female protagonists with somewhat forbidden relationships to capture people's attention, because everyone has forbidden desires and loves in their hearts, the most common being the teacher-student relationship.
Qiong Yao's first full-length novel, 'Outside the Window', tells the poignant love story of a female student and a teacher. Huo Yaowen hadn't read the original book, but he had seen the movie 'Outside the Window' with the same name and story, starring Brigitte Lin. He really liked Jiang Yanrong, played by Brigitte Lin in the movie; she was so pure and lovely.
Hmm, perhaps... maybe... it was just a simple feeling for Brigitte Lin in her youth.
'Too clichéd?' Huo Tingting frowned, not understanding what Huo Yaowen meant by that sentence.
'Yes, it's just too boring.' Huo Yaowen thought for a moment and then said, 'How about this, I'll draw up an outline for you later, and then you can try writing it.'
'You'll draw up an outline for me?' Huo Tingting raised an eyebrow and said, 'Ah Ge, didn't you say you wouldn't write these kinds of romance novels?'
'It's all for you!' Huo Yaowen said irritably, 'I don't want my sister to submit an article only for it to be rejected.'
Hearing this, Huo Tingting's face lit up, and she quickly hugged Huo Yaowen's arm, saying, 'Ah Ge is the best to me! But it's too difficult for me to write. Ah Ge, you write it, and I'll help you submit it then.'
'I don't have time.' Huo Yaowen didn't have that much time to write romance novels now. Drawing up an outline was simple, tens of thousands of words would be enough, but writing a full-length romance novel would require hundreds of thousands of words to finish, and he also had 'ghost blows out the light - Grave Robbers' Chronicles' to write.
If he had a computer, Huo Yaowen might try, but now he had to rely on handwriting, which was simply too much. He had considered a typewriter, but typewriters were too expensive, he couldn't afford one now, and he hadn't used one before, so he didn't know if it was good to use.
Huo Tingting clutched Huo Yaowen's hand tightly, not letting go. Pouting, she pleaded pitifully, 'Please, Ah Ge, I really want Qiong Yao and Yi Shu's autographs. All my classmates have them, and this morning I bragged to them that my Ah Ge would definitely win first place. If they find out you didn't even submit anything, I won't be able to hold my head up in front of them.'
Huo Yaowen was an only child in his previous life and had never experienced the bond between siblings, so suddenly seeing Sai Mui Xi Mei Huo Tingting's mournful, tearful plea, his heart instinctively softened. He sighed and said, 'Just this once.'
'Okay, just this once.' Huo Tingting smiled happily, her tear-streaked face now beaming with joy, and even a bubble formed at her nose.
Huo Yaowen pretended to step back a few paces in disgust, releasing Huo Tingting's hands that were clinging to him, and said, 'Alright, you're a big girl now, don't you know how to be shy? Look at how you're crying. Go wash your face quickly, so people don't see you and think Ah Ge bullied you.'
'Mm.' Huo Tingting casually wiped her nose, discovered snot, and her face flushed red. She turned and scurried out the door, heading to the public restroom to wash her tear-stained face.
'Sigh, what is this! How could I have been soft-hearted enough to agree!! I'll never fall for this girl's tricks again.'
In the room, only the depressed Huo Yaowen remained.
When Huo Tingting returned after washing her face, she saw Ah Ge writing something with his pen and paper. Just as she was about to go over and look, she suddenly remembered something and hastily said, 'Oh, Ah Ge, someone called for you on the downstairs public phone this morning. I went down to answer it for you. The person claimed to be an employee of Oriental Daily News and said they hoped you could visit their newspaper office this afternoon.'