563: Chapter 563 Wang Family Steamed Bun Shop

There were only 12 hours left until the public reading channel closed.

No one spoke in the computer lab of the Qingbei School of Literature.

Thirty computers glowed with cold light, paper scraps from last night were stuck in the keyboard crevices, and even the frequency of the mouse wheel scrolling was slower than yesterday.

A countdown hung in the top left corner of the large screen; every time the number ticked down, the invisible pressure in the air grew heavier.

The data panel for "qin opera" sat steadily in the right column.

Effective reading completion rate: 77.4%. Number of long reviews: 489. Subscription conversion rate: 25.7%.

The three curves stuck together, like a quiet river, flowing at a steady pace in a stable direction.

But on the homepage of the literature forum, Chu Pengshu's article, "The Rules and Disorder of Youth Literature," remained pinned in the third recommendation spot.

The number of reposts was stuck at just over four thousand, and the comment section was still scrolling.

Tang He refreshed the "qin opera" comment section and flipped down three pages. Her fingers froze.

The latest comment was posted six minutes ago.

"Finished reading it, it's truly moving. But from a professional literary perspective, Chu Pengshu's questioning makes sense. Does this article actually have a structure? Being moved is one thing, but technique is another."

Tang He continued to scroll down.

"Same question. Auntie Song's qin opera singing is good, and Old Zhao's silence is moving, but can these fragments strung together count as a complete narrative?"

"Support Teacher Chu. Good literature cannot just have the impact of life; it also needs a skeleton."

"The person above is right. A strong sense of realism doesn't mean strong literary quality."

Tang He withdrew her hand from the mouse, her shoulders aching from tension. "Here we go again."

Her voice was very soft, but Yuan Ningning, sitting in the front row, heard it and turned to look at her.

Tang He tilted her screen toward Yuan Ningning. Yuan Ningning scanned it, her expression darkening.

"These people were led by Chu Pengshu." "Not entirely."

Xu Changge was sitting in the middle of the second row, his voice very low.

"Some are indeed just following the trend, but some are genuinely thinking."

He pulled the comment section on his screen to the bottom and pointed to one of them.

"This person spent forty-seven minutes reading it and wrote a three-hundred-word long review. The last sentence is 'I was moved, but I can't say why it's good'."

Xu Changge withdrew his hand. "This kind of reader is the easiest to be led astray. They aren't paid trolls, they aren't following a trend; they really finished it, they were really touched, but Chu Pengshu gave them a framework in advance, making them unable to confirm their own feelings."

Chen Jiahao leaned over from the back row. "I checked the ratio. These types of comments started appearing early this morning; there are about sixty or seventy of them now, accounting for about fifteen percent of the new comments."

"It's still rising." Dan Yi's voice came from the window. He took off one headphone, his gaze falling on his own screen.

"Similar comments have appeared in my comment section, saying the emotion is there, but what about the structure?"

The computer lab was silent for a few seconds. Tang He looked up at the chair in the middle of the second row. Lin Que was sitting there, half a cup of cold water by his hand.

His gaze was fixed on the large screen, not looking at the comment section, but staring at the completion rate curve.

"Lin Que." Tang He's voice was tight. "The effect of Chu Pengshu's article is starting to seep in."

Lin Que nodded. "I see it." "Aren't you worried?" Chen Jiahao leaned over.

"Once this label of 'lacking structure' starts rolling in the comment section, when the judges' backend system scrapes it..."

"Jiahao." Lin Que spoke slowly. "Do you think, if a reader spends nearly an hour reading the full text, and after finishing says, 'I was moved but can't say why it's good'—is that statement a deduction or an addition for the judges?"

Chen Jiahao was stunned for a moment. Lin Que picked up his cup and took a sip of cold water.

"The fact that the reader can't explain why it's good shows that they were first struck by the text itself. As for why they were struck, someone will break it down for them."

"But Chu Pengshu will take this as evidence of 'lacking structure'," Xu Changge said.

"He can say that." Lin Que put the cup back on the table. "But the judges are not Chu Pengshu. People who can sit on the judging panel for the Kunpeng Award won't let an external long-form article be their eyes."

He didn't continue. The countdown on the large screen ticked down another digit. 11 hours and 47 minutes. The computer lab fell silent again. Everyone knew that the last twelve hours were the window of time that would decide everything.

...

Forum homepage. 11:28 AM. A new post appeared at the bottom of the "Kunpeng Youth Award · Reader Discussion Area" section. Its initial popularity was zero, but because the poster had just finished reading "qin opera" in its entirety, the system tagged it into the "High-Credibility Reader Feedback Pool."

The title was short: "I'm not an intellectual, but I want to say a few words." Poster ID: The Wang Family Steamed Bun Shop. Registration time: Three years and four months. History of posts: 12, all concentrated in the "Food Reviews" and "Life Chat" sections. Never posted in the literature discussion area before.

The body of the post was less than eight hundred words.

"I don't know what structure is, what realism technique is, or what a narrative skeleton is. I don't understand any of those words."

"I only know that I spent an hour and a half reading 'qin opera.' I didn't stop in the middle."

"My father worked in the mines for twenty-three years. In 2004, the mine collapsed. His back was broken, and he lay in bed for eight months. Later, he could walk, but he could never stand straight again. He said it hurt. He never talked about it."

"Reading the part where Old Zhao stood in front of the stone tablet, I don't know why, but tears just came down."

"I can't tell you what's good about this article; I can't say those high-level words. But I can tell you that I know the people written about in this article. I've seen that kind of silence."

"You intellectuals are always holding magnifying glasses, looking for structure, rules, this technique, or that skill."

"We ordinary people only look at one thing: does this story resonate? Can it make people think of the people in their own families who don't know how to speak up?"

"I can't say what techniques it used, but I didn't skip a single word, and after reading it, I couldn't recover for a long time. To me, this is a good article."

After the post was published, within fifteen minutes, the view count was less than two hundred. The first reply appeared in the seventeenth minute.

"Well written. You said everything I wanted to say."

The second reply was in the nineteenth minute. "My mom was laid off from an electronics factory. When I read the part about Auntie Song's qin opera, I couldn't hold back either."

The twenty-third minute. The number of replies broke through thirty. The twenty-eighth minute. The post was bumped to the second page of the section.

The thirty-fifth minute. The post rushed into the top ten hot posts of the "Kunpeng Discussion Area." Number of replies: 247.

The fortieth minute. Third place among hot posts. Number of replies broke four hundred.

An ID popped up from the corner. "I drive a taxi. The day I finished reading 'qin opera,' I sat in the car for half an hour before starting the engine."

"A miner's kid passing by—this article brought my dad's generation to life. Whatever structure or no structure, you guys take it and discuss it; I only know he wrote the truth."

"I also can't say why it's good, but I read the whole thing without skipping a single word. That should be enough, right?"

"I've been laying bricks on construction sites for twelve years. I finished reading it lying in the work shed at night. It's been a long time since I've seen an article about people like us."

"Intellectuals can argue, sure, but don't use magnifying glasses to negate our emotions. Our tears are real."

Within an hour, the real readers who had once been brought in by the Dream Weaver began to repost this thread. The number of replies broke through 1,200, and on the ranking of hot posts on the forum homepage, it forcefully pushed its way to the first spot. It sat right on top of Chu Pengshu's "The Rules and Disorder of Youth Literature."