331: Chapter 331 An Inescapable Fate

At 5:50 PM,

the broadcast in the first-floor lobby of the Shanghai Century Book City sounded on time, reminding readers that the building would soon be closing.

The exclusive exhibition area for New Tide Publishing House on the left had long been empty.

The first batch of stock for ordinary world allocated to Shanghai had been snapped up by frantic readers by around 2:00 PM.

Even the promotional posters, which had originally been stacked like a small mountain, were taken by several fanatical fans as souvenirs.

In the red carpet exhibition area on the right, however, the situation had completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

Xiao Liu, an officer from the Writers Association, leaned against an empty cardboard box,

staring intently at the newly printed sales report in his hand, unable to utter a word for a long time.

The first nationwide printing of the Fu Zhi Yao Competition collection was twenty thousand copies, distributed across four cities.

As the main venue where the authors appeared, Shanghai received the largest share—eight thousand copies.

And by the end of today, Lin Que's folding beijing alone had managed to sell three thousand nine hundred copies,

almost devouring half of the Shanghai division's stock.

Under the extreme siphoning effect orchestrated by the ten-million-level grandmaster 'Jian Shen',

the debut physical book of a seventeen-year-old high school student had managed to snatch a group of readers from that terrifying siphoning effect.

This wasn't just a 'glorious defeat'; in the publishing world, this was practically a miracle of snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

Hu Yizhao rushed onto the signing stage, grabbed Lin Que's hand, and shook it vigorously up and down.

The Director of the Shanghai Writers Association's Publicity Office was beaming with joy, not even bothering with his usual formal bureaucratic tone.

"Student Lin Que, you've done a great service for our Writers Association today!" Hu Yizhao's voice was slightly strained, and he was so excited he was almost incoherent.

"Over three thousand copies! With this achievement in the national system, our Shanghai division definitely has the most prestige!"

"You haven't just helped the officials save face; you've directly shown the backbone of our young writers!"

Several other contestants looked at Lin Que with full admiration.

Although their respective books had sold some copies, the combined total wasn't even a fraction of Lin Que's sales.

Lin Que withdrew his hand and said in a calm tone:

"Director Hu is too kind. It's because the officials provided a good platform, and the readers were willing to give us young people a chance."

Hu Yizhao looked at Lin Que as if he were looking at a priceless treasure.

This youth not only had a mature writing style, but even this calm and steady temperament far exceeded those of his peers.

He decided on the spot to host a victory banquet at the best hotel in Shanghai that evening to properly reward these young literary sprouts.

Lin Que politely declined Hu Yizhao's warm invitation.

He pointed at Wu Di and Li Bowen, who were standing below the stage and were still in a state of extreme excitement.

"These two classmates of mine took a hard-seat train all night to come and support me. I need to get them settled first."

"I won't be attending the Writers Association's banquet. Please bear with me, Director Hu."

Hu Yizhao looked where Lin Que was pointing and immediately remembered the passionate 'market protection operation' from earlier that day.

He nodded understandingly and even specially arranged a private car to take them away.

As evening fell, the lights of Shanghai's streets began to glow.

Lin Que led Wu Di and Li Bowen out the back door of the bookstore discreetly, avoiding the media reporters who had not yet dispersed from the main entrance.

He paid out of his own pocket to find a well-known, old-fashioned Shanghai Benbang restaurant nearby and requested a quiet private room.

He ordered a table full of hearty dishes for the two who had sat on a hard-seat train all night and still carried the unique scent of train-travel fatigue.

Lin Que felt that no delicacies could be more satisfying than this meal.

"Brother Que, what you said on stage today was absolutely cool!"

Wu Di shoveled rice into his mouth, his cheeks bulging as he didn't forget to exclaim.

"All those people in the other line came running over to our side. I'll never forget that scene for the rest of my life!"

Li Bowen pushed up his glasses, put down his chopsticks, and added:

"Three hundred books have already been sent back to Jiangcheng via courier."

"By the way, Lin Que, did you know? The people in our class are now split into two factions."

"Half are cheering for your achievements, while the other half are still discussing in the group chat about when ordinary world will be back in stock."

Lin Que bit his chopsticks and almost choked on those words.

He looked at these two brothers who had sat on a hard-seat train all night just to 'oppose Jian Shen' for his sake, and a very complex feeling welled up in his heart.

The 'enemy' they were trying so hard to help him against

was currently sitting right across from them, serving them food.

Lin Que could only swallow this absurdity.

He didn't say much polite nonsense; he directly filled three cups with tea and took the initiative to clink them together:

"I won't say anything else; it's all in this cup. I, Lin Que, will remember today's support."

"This meal is on me. After we eat, I'll send you to the hotel for a good sleep, and you can head back tomorrow morning."

The atmosphere at the dinner table was lively.

And while they were feasting, the direction of the wind on the internet was undergoing a drastic change.

Media interviews and on-site recordings from the daytime launch ceremony had been edited by major state media and portal websites and were now being fully rolled out.

In particular, the short video of Lin Que standing in the middle of the red carpet, holding a microphone and looking directly into the camera as he said, "This wall is called class," immediately sparked high-intensity circulation on Microblogging platform and major forums.

Netizens' views on this 'clash of the century' had originally been surprisingly consistent;

they all felt it was a tragedy of capital crushing a newcomer and felt great sympathy for Lin Que.

With the frantic forwarding of the short video, along with readers who had bought the book on-site posting real feedback on major platforms, the public opinion quietly shifted.

The screen, once full of sympathy and ridicule,

was cut off by the constantly rising search index and overwhelming exclamations.

Several trending topics related to Lin Que hit the hot search list one after another—

#SeventeenYearOldHighSchoolStudent#

#ThisWallIsCalledClass#

In the top comments section, the one with the most likes read:

"I thought he was Bronze, but it turns out he's a King. The moment this high school student spoke, I got goosebumps."

The second comment following closely behind had a sudden change in tone:

"Seriously, a seventeen-year-old kid wrote this kind of social insight? I'm not questioning it; I'm just really curious about what he's been through."

The word-of-mouth spread like wildfire, completely igniting the entire internet's desire to read.

At 10:00 PM, after settling Wu Di and Li Bowen into a budget hotel near the bookstore, Lin Que returned alone to the residence arranged by the Writers Association.

Having just showered and changed into a loose bathrobe, Lin Que sat down at the desk, preparing to organize tomorrow's sales plan.

Just then, the phone on the desk vibrated.

The screen lit up, and a 'Special Following' pop-up from Microblogging platform jumped out.

Lin Que followed very few people on his private Microblogging platform account. Besides a few editors, only one person was set as a special following.

That piano girl from Jinling.

Lin Que picked up his phone and swiped the screen open.

Upon seeing it, he became completely wide awake.

A massive traffic nuclear explosion was fully taking shape across the entire internet.

Ye Xi's verified personal Microblogging platform account had posted a long article two hours ago.

This three-thousand-word long review titled "What is Folded is Not Just Space, But Our Inescapable Fate"

had exceeded 120,000 shares in less than two hours since its release.

The comment section was flooded with tens of thousands of messages, and it had directly broken into the seventh spot on the Microblogging platform hot search list,

and the ranking was still climbing.

Lin Que clicked on the long image and quickly browsed the content of the article.

After reading just a few paragraphs, Lin Que's thumb stopped moving across the screen.

He stared at the words on the screen, his brow furrowing slightly and then slowly relaxing.

The writing in this book review was extremely sharp, with a deep sense of compassion permeating the lines.

Ye Xi not only perfectly dismantled the class metaphors of the first to Third Spaces in the book,

but also analyzed the struggles and helplessness of the low-level character Old Knife in the folding space to the fullest extent.

...

[Space can be folded, but the chasm of class is indestructible.

The money Old Knife exchanged his life for cannot buy a ticket to cross classes; it can only buy the qualification to continue lingering on in the dark.]

...

Between the lines of the article, there was no empty preaching, only the coldest dissection of reality.

It precisely sliced open the core pain point of folding beijing,

placing that heavy realist core directly in front of tens of millions of netizens across the web.

The comment section had completely exploded.

"This is written so thoroughly! After reading this book review, I want to go buy a physical copy immediately."

"By the way, is this really something a seventeen-year-old high school student can write? This kind of insight into social structure is terrifying."

Lin Que continued to slide down the screen.

When he reached the very bottom of the article, his gaze stopped on the final part.

The end of the long review was accompanied by a slightly blurry selfie from the scene.

In the photo, a girl wearing a black mask and a low-pressed baseball cap showed only a pair of clear and lively eyes looking at the camera.

When Lin Que saw the background behind her,

his thumb couldn't help but hover over the screen.

...