592: Chapter 592 A landslide will make everyone turn back

The lights of the defense hall fell on Lin Que.

Xue Hongchuan's question still hung in the air.

In the hall outside, the closed-circuit broadcast camera was firmly locked onto Lin Que's face.

The update speed of the delayed news feed visibly slowed down, as if even the person typing was waiting.

Chen Jiahao squeezed his mineral water bottle until it dented.

Xu Changge stood in the back row, arms crossed, his gaze heavy.

He knew the weight of this question better than anyone.

It had no standard answer.

It wasn't testing technique, logic, or source material tracking.

It was testing an eighteen-year-old writer's ultimate positioning of his own pen.

This question had no standard answer, but every word he said would enter the final evaluation.

If answered clearly enough, the entire literary world would remember the direction this pen chose.

Dan Yi had his hands in his pants pockets, lips pursed into a line, staring motionlessly at the screen.

Tang He's breathing was shallow and rapid; her fingernails had already dug four white marks into her palms.

Inside the defense hall.

The timer screen began to tick.

One second.

Two seconds.

...

Lin Que did not lower his head.

His gaze landed steadily on Xue Hongchuan's face, as if looking at a senior, and also as if looking at someone who truly cared about the answer.

Four seconds.

Five seconds.

He spoke.

"Chairman Xue, what you are asking about is 'the people who are seen' and 'a larger world'."

Xue Hongchuan nodded slightly.

Lin Que's speaking pace was not fast, and every word was placed very steadily.

"Between these two options, there is an implicit assumption."

"That is, 'the people who are seen' are small, and 'a larger world' is big."

He paused for half a beat.

"This student does not accept these two options."

At the judging panel, Elder Jiang's pen stopped.

Professor Zhang looked up.

Xue Hongchuan did not interrupt, signaling him to continue.

Lin Que looked at the annotated manuscript on the table that had been opened countless times.

"I stayed in Muchuan Town for a month."

"That place is not big. An old factory area, a patrol line, an old worker who stood guard for twenty years, and Auntie Song, whose voice could barely sing anymore."

"In terms of geographical area, it's not much bigger than a city block."

"In terms of population, there are fewer than two hundred workers left there."

"For many years, it only left traces in local archives and the scattered memories of old workers; it rarely entered the public eye."

He tapped his fingertips lightly on the table.

"But it is such a small place."

"From the factory's prosperity to its shutdown, the youth, injuries, and separations of hundreds of workers were all crushed into that same old factory building. It hides a grey stone tablet that no one knows about, engraved with many names."

"On the tablet remain Liang Shoushan and those fellow workers who could not walk out of the accident scene. Outside the tablet, Old Zhao wore out nine pairs of rubber shoes in twenty years, and Auntie Song's high-pitched voice grew narrower year by year. The rise and fall of the factory ultimately fell upon specific people."

Lin Que's gaze moved away from the annotated manuscript.

"Chairman Xue, what I want to say is..."

"The size of the world never depends on how grand the subject you write about is."

"It depends on how deep you see when you put pen to paper."

No one in the defense hall made a sound.

The numbers on the timer screen were still ticking, but no one was looking at it anymore.

Lin Que continued.

"Muchuan Town is small. But Liang Shoushan's sacrifice is not small. Old Zhao's twenty years of persistence is not small. The crack in Auntie Song's voice when she starts singing every day is also not small."

"When the wheels of the era rolled over that land, no one stopped to take a look."

"I just got a chance to stop."

"Old Zhao was willing to open that iron door, so I earnestly recorded the parts he allowed me to see."

He paused for a beat. His tone did not become heavier; instead, it became lighter.

"In my opinion, this already belongs to the big world."

"The full picture of an era is always composed of countless specific people."

"It is bigger than any grand narrative."

"A mountain collapse will make everyone turn around. For a person left behind by the era to regain their name often takes many years. For a writer, the latter is equally heavy to the hand."

As these words fell, the air in the defense hall seemed to be drained away.

Elder Jiang's pen stopped on the paper.

Professor Zhang raised his eyes, re-examining the youth on the defense stand.

The recusal area remained quiet, and no one had yet submitted the three observation comment boxes.

In the hall outside, the delayed news feed refreshed with a line of text.

The comment section under the post froze for two seconds, then flooded in like a floodgate opening.

[He said the size of the world depends on how deep you see. I will remember this sentence for a lifetime.]

[Damn, I'm impressed. If I had to answer this question, I'd get myself dizzy three times over. He found the entry point in six seconds.]

["A mountain collapse will make everyone turn around" — is this something an eighteen-year-old can write?]

Inside the defense hall, Xue Hongchuan did not respond. His gaze remained on Lin Que's face, waiting for the second half.

Lin Que felt the expectation in that gaze. He was not pushed around by that expectation.

"So my answer is very simple."

His voice was level and steady, like a step on solid ground.

"In the future, no matter what subject I write about—be it science fiction, realism, or history."

"My pen tip will always be close to the ground."

"I will not hover above suffering. Nor will I stand on top of the characters and look down."

"I will stand beside them. I will stand long enough until the things worth remembering float up on their own."

"Then I will write it down, adding little flourish, preserving the original pressure of the facts, and leaving the final judgment to the characters and the readers."

"This is the bottom line I have drawn for myself."

The last word fell. The defense hall was silent for a long time. So long that the timer screen jumped a full seven seconds, and no one moved.

Elder Jiang was the first to put down his pen. He stared at Lin Que for three seconds, then turned his head to look in Xue Hongchuan's direction.

His lips moved. His voice was much lighter than before.

"Hongchuan."

Elder Jiang changed his form of address. "This child..." He did not finish his sentence.

Professor Zhang's expression relaxed by more than a degree. He turned to the scoring terminal page, his fingers hovered over the keyboard for a breath, and then landed. Only he knew what he wrote.

Xue Hongchuan unclenched his fingers from the tabletop. He picked up the microphone in front of him. His movements were very slow. It was as if he was leaving himself a little time to digest what he had just heard.

"Lin Que." His voice was half a degree softer than at the start.

"The younger generation is to be feared." He said the four words very slowly.

"Your writing has the weight of a thousand jun." Another four words.

Then he put the microphone back on the table. "The defense is concluded."

The moment those three words fell, a sound wave that had been suppressed for too long erupted in the hall outside.

Chen Jiahao sprang up from his chair, kicking over the water bottle next to him, which he didn't notice at all.

"Master Que!"

Dan Yi pulled his hands out of his pants pockets. His gaze was still nailed to the screen, the curve of his lips very light and shallow, but it was definitely there.

Tang He's fists, which she had clenched for the whole session, finally relaxed, and the four white marks on her palms slowly turned red. She didn't speak, just took a deep breath, like someone who had been holding their breath under water for too long.

Inside the defense hall. Lin Que stood up. He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair and draped it over his arm. Then he bowed slightly toward the judging panel. The movement was small. His posture was upright.

Just like when he walked in, there were no extra expressions, no extra words. He turned and pushed open the door of the defense hall.

The lights in the hallway were much softer than in the defense hall. Lin Que's pace was very steady. Neither fast nor slow. The sound of his heels hitting the floor was crisp and even.

The door closed behind him, and Lin Que slowly exhaled the breath that had been pressing on his chest. What needed to be prepared and what needed to be answered, he had already given it all.

The delayed news feed updated with the last entry. [Chairman Xue's personal comment: The younger generation is to be feared; your writing has the weight of a thousand jun.] [Defense concluded.]

The refresh count of the news page suddenly multiplied several times, the comment section stuttered briefly, and new replies kept flooding in.

[The toughest defense I've seen this year.]

[To say "A mountain collapse will make everyone turn around" at eighteen. I couldn't come up with that at thirty-eight.]

[Well-deserved. If this isn't first place, I'm giving up reading.]

[Did anyone notice he didn't say a single empty word the whole time? From the first round to the last, every answer was rooted in the ground.]

[Don't forget he's only eighteen. Only eighteen!]

In the hall outside. The door to the waiting area opened. Lin Que walked out.

Chen Jiahao was the first to rush up, opening his mouth to shout something, but the sound got stuck in his throat and couldn't come out. He stood in front of Lin Que, his lips trembling twice, and finally just patted Lin Que's shoulder hard.

Tang He stood in place, arms crossed over her chest, and nodded at Lin Que. Her eyes were a little red.

Dan Yi leaned against the wall, and when Lin Que looked over, he nodded slightly.

Xu Changge walked over from the back row. He walked up to Lin Que and stopped. The two of them looked at each other from a distance of one step for a breath.

"Lin Que," he said. "That sentence you said inside. 'The size of the world depends on how deep you see.'" He paused. "I will remember it for a long time."

Lin Que looked at him, his mouth twitching. "That Gobi patrolman of yours isn't bad either. Seven knots, three times written explicitly, four times hidden in the wear and tear. Tough enough."

Xu Changge smiled. Very light, very short. The smile was very faint, carrying the calmness of meeting a fellow traveler.

Inside the defense hall. The door closed. On the judging panel, Xue Hongchuan reopened all the terminal screens. The full records of the ten candidates were neatly arranged. Each file was marked with the follow-up round, keywords, judge annotations, and system timestamps.

"Everyone," Xue Hongchuan swept his gaze across the room. "The final scoring phase begins."

...