Lu Weifu upstairs

Chapter 24

Liu Yu was panting angrily, and pushed the box into the house.

"What did you buy?" Mother came over and asked with a frown.

"The editor sent it over, and the reader sent... food." Liu Yusheng cut open the cardboard box with a knife, and it turned out to be a box full of snacks.

"So much!" Mother reached out and rummaged through the box, "This must be a lot of money!"

"Ah, right..." Fortunately, some readers had fed snacks before, and the editorial department also sent gifts during the Chinese New Year, otherwise Liu Yusheng really didn't know how to explain it to his mother.

The mother turned and walked towards the kitchen. After a few steps, she turned back.

Her brows were still furrowed, and she grabbed the apron in front of her with both hands: "Sheng Yu, is this reader a man or a woman?"

Liu Yusheng said awkwardly, "I don't know, I didn't leave a name."

"No name left? Spend so much money to buy food for you, and don't even leave your name?"

"I really didn't leave a name," Liu Yusheng had no choice but to take out his phone and show his mother the chat history between himself and the editor. "The editor said that this reader sent it anonymously, and the name on the courier slip was 'Candy'."

"'Candy'?" The mother's brows finally relaxed. "From the name, it's a girl, right?"

"Maybe……"

Liu Yusheng dragged the cardboard box into the room, sat on the small bench, and slowly counted the snacks inside.It's embarrassing to say it, he is a big man, but he actually likes to eat snacks.In the past, the family conditions were not good, he was in junior high school, and he only had ten yuan of pocket money every week.He broke the ten dollars into pieces, spent three dollars on stationery such as pen refills and notebooks, and left seven dollars for food: a bottle of Coke, a pack of crispy rice, and two packs of crispy noodles.He always saves the seven dollars until Friday night. There is no class the next day, and the seven dollars for snacks is enough for him to have a full meal, like a feast to celebrate Friday.

After dropping out of school and returning home, there were very few opportunities to eat snacks. When he received the first manuscript fee, he was very excited and bought three packs of Lay’s potato chips, one pack for him, one pack for each of his mother and stepfather.But I didn’t expect to be scolded by my mother for this. When my stepfather was not at home, my mother pointed to the potato chips on the table and said: “When you were in college, your family was poor. If your uncle hadn’t lent us money, you would have paid for tuition Not enough! Well, now that you are making money, you are rich and can afford this kind of food, why don’t you take out the money to honor him? He saved our mother and my son’s life back then!”

Liu Yusheng was dumbfounded: "Mom... I... only one thousand and two manuscript fees, not much..." He also wanted to buy some clothes for himself, but he hadn't bought new clothes for a long time.

Mother sighed: "Since you don't have much money, don't show it off! Your uncle and his relatives are all watching! It's a waste of money," she said, grabbing potato chips and shaking them, "You Look, such a big bag, more than half of it is air! Don’t buy such a waste of money! Do you really consider yourself a millionaire?”

"I..." Liu Yusheng wanted to say that he wasn't showing off. He saw other people's Amway cucumber-flavored potato chips on the Internet, and he wanted to try them a long time ago. Moreover, these three bags of potato chips are not very expensive...

But what his mother said next completely blocked him:

"Yusheng, think about it, my mother and I were already looked down upon by others because of your dropping out of school. In the past few years, Mom can't hold her head up in front of others! You make money, and Mom is happy for you, but We can't be too ostentatious, do you understand? Others are waiting to see the jokes of our mother and daughter!"

Liu Yusheng lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Mom, I understand."

After that, he never bought snacks at home.

Looking at the large box of snacks in front of him, Liu Yusheng already had some guesses in his heart. He and Lu Weifu called Lu Weifu yesterday at noon and said that he was hungry, and a reader fed him snacks today—what a coincidence?

But how did Lu Weifu know that he was a canned octopus—that's right, he could hear gossip about the author's identity, so Lu Weifu could naturally hear it too.

After his mother went out, Liu Yusheng dialed Lu Weifu's phone number, and the other party answered it quickly.

"Wei, Weifu," he stumbled, "I received a large box of snacks... Did you send it?"

The other party smiled, and it was the slightly deep female voice: "Well, I don't know what you like, so I just bought some in a mess."

"This is really...too costly," Liu Yusheng blushed, "Isn't it expensive?"

"It's not expensive," Lu Weifu said after a pause, "the Zhou Hei duck in Wuhan is quite delicious, but the vacuum-packed ones are not as good as the ready-to-eat ones, so I didn't buy Zhou Hei duck... I will try it when you come to Wuhan." Try it."

Liu Yusheng nodded: "Okay, I will definitely come."

Lu Weifu didn't speak, neither did Liu Yusheng. For a while, there was silence on the phone.After a while, Liu Yusheng said, "May I ask, how do you know I'm a canned octopus?"

"I heard it from others," Lu Weifu replied frankly, "the news from Haosheng's editorial department."

"Oh..." Liu Yusheng turned his gaze to the computer, and on the screen was the comment section of "President, I'm Really Wrong".

"Then you, too, know those things, right?" Liu Yusheng pursed his lips, "It's the things that were said online that I plagiarized."

"Well, I see. I think the novel you are writing now is better than Donaldson's "The Man Upstairs."

Liu Yusheng quickly explained: "I didn't mean that, I just—"

"It's really better than "The Man Upstairs"," Lu Weifu said in a serious tone, "I've also read "The Man Upstairs", and I can feel that you have created a different disabled hero—the two novels The male protagonist is quite unlucky, and he encountered many setbacks: disability, others laughed at him, and the departure of his lover... In "The Man Upstairs", all the setbacks he encountered did not have a reasonable explanation and resolution, as if he That's the way it should be. But in your story, the character is constantly questioning his own fate, he's trying to fight against that unluckyness, and he's... charming."

Liu Yusheng was stunned for a few seconds, then asked bluntly, "Don't you think I ruined that hero?"

"why?"

"I wrote him too...too dazzling. He is actually just an unlucky disabled person, but I made him a domineering president. He has the right to be rich... Maybe the heroine loves him, mostly just love His power and wealth, I am not saying that the heroine worships money, I mean, because he has the power and money, so he is more attractive, but if these external settings are removed, he is just an ordinary disabled person, he It's not so attractive, then maybe the heroine won't fall in love with him, or doesn't love him that much..."

"Then why give him the right to be rich?"

Liu Yusheng smiled wryly: "Because I know that readers like this kind of character design."

I don’t know why, but to Lu Weifu, he can’t help but reveal himself: “If you only write a story about an ordinary disabled person, readers will find it boring. It is only interesting if there is a contrast, just like disabled people usually belong to the society. Weak, but I let him have the right and status; just like I wrote about a genius heroine before, but the EQ is very low... The greater the contrast, the more exciting. And, actually, I don’t believe in my ability, if I let The male protagonist has nothing, so is he still worthy of being loved? Can he still be loved by the female protagonist to that extent? I’m afraid I can’t write a character who has nothing and is worthy of being loved, so I can only make him more glamorous... "

Hearing these words, Zhao Xin's breathing suddenly tightened: "If power and status are external settings, what about talent? Isn't talent? Is thinking? If you love someone, will you question Is it him who I love, or his talent? Especially... Especially, what if this person is just a talented disabled person?"

His heart was pounding. It turned out that Liu Yusheng had so much doubt and self-doubt about that character—would Liu Yusheng doubt himself like this?If he knew that the Donaldson he liked was just a disabled person who could only sit in a room and write novels, would he still like him?

Donaldson can't run, can't jump, must be careful to keep out the cold in winter, and must be careful to remove moisture in summer. If he has a lover, he can't even walk with him when the spring flowers are in full bloom.

He already had a depressing feeling that what Liu Yusheng, who was eighteen or nineteen, liked might just be a phantom: that was a normal Donaldson, healthy, confident, and brilliant.

Unexpectedly, Liu Yusheng smiled, and his tone became relaxed: "If it were me, this problem would not exist."

"why?"

"If I love someone, I don't just love one side of him, I love a whole person."

"What if this person is much worse than you thought?"

"It doesn't matter," Liu Yusheng said, "Because I love him, in my eyes, he won't be very bad."

Zhao Xin let out a long and silent breath.

He hadn't run before, but at this moment, he felt as if he had just completed a [-]-meter sprint. His body seemed to involuntarily secrete dopamine, which made him feel a burst of specific and real happiness.

Zhao Xin said: "So, even if your male lead is powerful, he may not be as glamorous as you think, right? Maybe he will be so suspicious of the question you mentioned, this kind of lack of self-confidence , can it be regarded as his shortcoming?"

Liu Yusheng: "But sometimes I feel very contradictory. If I write the characters very realistically, they will not be so attractive...Maybe what people want to see is the gorgeous robe, but I also wrote the lice on the robe .”

Zhao Xin said warmly: "I believe in the power of reality. It may not be so glamorous, but I think real things will have stronger and lasting power, and I believe readers can feel this power, although sometimes illusions are indeed It’s beautiful stuff, but there has to be some text that stands by the reader’s side when they have to face pain and truth.”