526: Chapter 526 The First Examination of the Literary World

For the next half of the class, the lecture hall was so quiet that only the sound of pen nibs rubbing against paper remained.

The ruler that is the Kunpeng Award was truly pressed before everyone's eyes for the first time.

Dai Shengzong spoke from narrative distance to perspective ethics, and from realistic material to literary structure.

Every time he dissected a section, it was as if everyone had been forced to sit at the judging table of the Kunpeng Award in advance.

Lin Que took three pages of notes.

Many of the viewpoints had corresponding ideas in his previous life, but Dai Shengzong's way of expressing them helped him calibrate the literary coordinates of this era.

Chen Jiahao also took notes very seriously, even circling the words "Reality is not the finished product" three times.

Five minutes before the end of class, Dai Shengzong closed his materials.

"One last thing to remind you of."

The students in the classroom looked up.

"There are already voices outside regarding the Program collectively submitting to the Kunpeng Youth Literature Award."

Offstage, the students exchanged glances.

"In the last few days, forums, group chats, and official accounts have all been discussing this. Some support Qingbei going all out, some are waiting to see a joke, and some are directly naming Lin Que..."

The students offstage looked at each other, their eyes filled with complex emotions.

Dai Shengzong looked at them.

"These voices will only increase."

"Next, you will be questioned, scrutinized, and compared to the most mature batch of young authors under thirty."

"This is very normal."

His tone was steady, but it carried more weight than a reprimand.

"Don't rush to explain, and don't rush to counterattack."

"Make your manuscripts tough."

"Tough enough that when they are placed on the judging table, before others extend their blades, they fear breaking their own edges."

The bell rang.

The classroom did not immediately become chaotic.

Many people were still sitting in their original seats, looking down at their notes.

Lin Que closed his notebook, not in a hurry to leave.

He flipped through the content he had just recorded from beginning to end, adding a small question mark next to "The Scene Before Old Zhao's Monument".

In that scene, he still wouldn't let Old Zhao speak.

But Dai Shengzong's reminder was right.

Old Zhao could be silent,

but that monument, that half-smoked cigarette, that rain,

had to carry the weight of twenty years for him.

"Lin Que."

Xu Changge's voice came from the side.

Lin Que turned his head.

Xu Changge had sat in the empty seat to his right at some point, holding his own class notes.

His handwriting was still neat.

But the annotations in the margins were clearly denser than before.

"How do you understand that part where Dean Dai talked about perspective power?"

Xu Changge pushed the notebook over, his movements more direct than in the past, even the reserve of a scion from a prestigious family had faded quite a bit.

His fingertip pointed to a line of text.

"Perspective selection is, in essence, the distribution of power."

Next to these words.

Below, there was another line of small text, followed by a question mark:

[When perspective and character status are misaligned?]

Lin Que looked down for two seconds, picked up his pen, and wrote a sentence in the blank space.

Perspective distribution is about how much information the reader can obtain, and who they will stand with.

Xu Changge stared at that line.

His gaze changed quickly.

"So, if I use the eyes of a lower-class character to look at someone of higher status, the key point is not to write out the inner thoughts of the higher-status person."

"The key is, what I let the reader see, and what I let the reader temporarily not see."

Lin Que nodded.

"The part that is seen will form a judgment."

"The part that is hidden will form pressure."

"The difference between these two is the narrative tension."

Xu Changge's breathing clearly slowed by a beat.

The rules were still on his face, but he couldn't suppress the eagerness in his eyes.

It was as if he had finally touched a door that could truly be pushed open.

"Your understanding is too complete."

Xu Changge stared at his handwriting, his voice dropping.

"It's like someone dismantled the entire methodology and taught it to you completely."

Lin Que put the pen back.

"I read a wide variety of books, and occasionally I piece together some scattered ideas."

Xu Changge looked at him for three seconds.

In the end, he didn't continue to ask.

He lowered his head and quickly wrote new annotations next to that line.

The pen tip glided across the paper, the sound very light, but very urgent.

Lin Que watched him, not disturbing him.

Xu Changge had indeed changed this month.

The Gobi Desert had worn away some of that overly proper layer on him.

Now, he was still restrained, but he dared to reach out and grab things he previously dared not touch.

The people in the classroom gradually left.

The setting sun slanted into the window, illuminating the edges of the desks in dark gold.

Xu Changge finished writing the last line and closed the notebook.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The two walked out of the lecture hall one after the other.

The light in the hallway had already darkened, and the emergency lights cast cold white shadows.

When they reached the stairwell, Xu Changge suddenly stopped.

"There's something you might not have seen yet."

Lin Que turned back.

Xu Changge took out his phone and opened a page.

"On the Wenyuange Forum, someone posted a long article specifically dissecting 'folding beijing'."

He turned the screen around.

"The author is called Chu Pengshu."

Lin Que's eyes flickered.

"Chu Pengshu?"

"Someone from the young critic circle."

Xu Changge's tone was steady.

"The article is written very toughly. No insults, no steering the narrative, it's all textual close reading."

"He starts from the setting structure, pointing out several technical gaps and character logic issues in 'folding beijing'."

He paused.

"The popularity is rising very quickly."

Lin Que took the phone and glanced at the title.

"On the Setting Self-Consistency Defects and Narrative Logic Breakpoints of 'folding beijing'."

The title was very direct.

And very cold.

Like a scalpel placed on a table.

Lin Que only scanned a few paragraphs before returning the phone to Xu Changge.

"Got it."

Xu Changge looked at his face.

Lin Que was neither angry nor surprised.

He was as calm as if he had just read an ordinary book review note.

Xu Changge's lips moved, but in the end, he only said one sentence.

"It's a coincidence that he posted this now."

Lin Que nodded.

"Indeed a coincidence."

Xu Changge didn't say anything more and went downstairs first, clearly wanting to investigate Chu Pengshu's background in more detail.

Lin Que stood where he was and took out his own phone.

WeChat messages popped up one after another; the Qinglan small group and the class group were all flooding the same name.

The most conspicuous was Chen Jiahao.

[Chen Jiahao: Damn! Who hung Master Que's book on the forum and dissected it?]

[Chen Jiahao: @Lin Que Master Que, did you see it?]

[Chen Jiahao: Who is Chu Pengshu? Why did he take a knife to 'folding beijing' as soon as he came up?]

Lin Que didn't reply.

He put his phone back in his pocket and carried his notebook towards the dormitory building.

The door to Room 303 was ajar.

As soon as Lin Que pushed the door open, Chen Jiahao from the next room rushed over.

"Master Que!"

He held up his phone, his face flushed red.

"You're finally back!"

Chen Jiahao shoved the screen directly in front of Lin Que.

"It's this! Over 12,000 words, specifically dissecting your 'folding beijing'!"

"Now the Wenyuan Pavilion homepage is full of this, and several young authors have also shared it."

"The Kunpeng Award list just spread, and he posts an article to dissect you at this time—the timing is too precise!"

Lin Que put his notebook on the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

He took the phone and read the article again.

Chu Pengshu's profile picture was pure black.

The ID was also his real name.

The beginning of the article didn't start by belittling 'folding beijing'.

On the contrary, he first used three paragraphs to affirm the avant-garde nature and class imagination of this work.

Then, the blade turned.

Energy consumption of the folded space.

The time difference loopholes in the city's operating mechanism.

The institutional resistance when Third Space characters cross-zone move.

And the protagonist's several almost lucky passages at key nodes.

For every point, he pasted the original text.

For every point, he provided arguments.

Calm, accurate, with the sharpness unique to a critic.

Chen Jiahao was rubbing his hands in anxiety nearby.

"What do you think?"

"Is this guy doing it on purpose?"

Lin Que returned the phone to him.

"The article is well-written."

Chen Jiahao was stunned.

"Huh?"

Lin Que leaned back into the chair.

"Technically, it's dissected quite accurately."

Chen Jiahao was even more anxious.

"Master Que, everyone outside is saying that finally, someone has pointed out the problem of 'folding beijing' being praised too highly."

"Some people are also saying you didn't think the setting through at all in the beginning."

"How can you still praise him for dissecting it accurately?"

The bedroom door was pushed open again.

Xu Changge walked in, still holding the notebook full of annotations in his hand.

He glanced at Chen Jiahao, then looked at Lin Que.

"I've investigated this person, Chu Pengshu."

Chen Jiahao immediately turned his head.

"What's this guy's background?"

"Graduated from the Qingbei Journalism Department, later turned to literary criticism."

Xu Changge put the notebook on the table.

"Last year he published an article in 'Literary Review', specifically analyzing the narrative loopholes of contemporary young authors, and it had a big response in the circle."

"He is good at textual close reading, and many people call him a textual anatomist."

Chen Jiahao frowned.

"So he's dissecting Master Que now?"

Xu Changge nodded.

"From the perspective of his profession, it's considered normal."

He looked at Lin Que.

"I just read it quickly, and the several questions he pointed out are indeed controversial."

"After all, the setting of 'folding beijing' is too big, and the length is short, so some mechanisms can only be touched upon."

Chen Jiahao opened his mouth.

He wanted to refute, but he couldn't say anything.

Xu Changge was proud, but he rarely brought emotions into text judgment.

If he said it existed, then there was really a problem.

"Then what should we do?"

Chen Jiahao's voice lowered.

"We can't just let this article hang there, right?"

"Those people outside won't care why you wrote it that way at the time; they'll just say your setting isn't rigorous."

Lin Que picked up the cold water on the table and took a sip.

"Let it be!"

Chen Jiahao widened his eyes.

"You're really not responding?"

"Respond to what?"

Lin Que put down the water cup.

Chen Jiahao and Xu Changge looked at him.

Lin Que looked out the window.

"In some places, I indeed didn't seal it into an iron plate."

"That city was supposed to make people feel stuck, disconnected, and unable to arrive smoothly."

"What that work really needed to press out was the suffocating feeling of the class allegory. If the rules were too smooth, it would instead make people unable to feel the stuttering and fracture of that city."

Chen Jiahao was bewildered.

Xu Changge slowly realized.

Chu Pengshu was fixated on the logical interfaces, but Lin Que was guarding the breath that couldn't be caught while reading.

"But some people don't know that."

Chen Jiahao was still unwilling to let it go.

"They only see someone taking a knife to dissect you now."

Lin Que stood up and walked to the window.

The leaves of the phoenix tree had all fallen, leaving only black branches pressing into the twilight.

"Let them argue first."

His voice was calm.

"The louder the noise, the more serious the judges will be when they open 'qin opera'. This commotion might not be a bad thing."

Chen Jiahao was stunned.

Lin Que turned back to look at him and Xu Changge.

"The Kunpeng Award is still a month and a half away."

"No matter how beautifully Chu Pengshu dissects 'folding beijing', it won't affect 'qin opera'."

He paused.

"The one that should really respond to him is the next manuscript."

The bedroom fell silent.

Chen Jiahao clutched his phone, not speaking for a long time.

Finally, he let out a long breath.

"Alright."

When he reached the door, he looked back at Lin Que again.

"Master Que, your heart is truly steady."

Lin Que smiled.

The door closed.

Only Lin Que and Xu Changge remained in the bedroom.

Xu Changge didn't speak immediately.

He reopened the notebook and wrote another line next to the "Perspective Power" page.

[External questioning will change the reader's stance when entering the text.]

Lin Que returned to the desk and sat down.

Chu Pengshu.

This name, he had not heard of in his previous life.

In the materials Xu Changge just sent, Lin Que saw that Chu Pengshu, a textual anatomist in the young critic circle, was also a participating author in this year's Kunpeng Youth Literature Award.

Lin Que looked at the darkness outside the window and chuckled softly.

The judging table for the Kunpeng Award hadn't even turned on its lights, yet the first knife had already been handed to Lin Que.