Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Wang Qian was extremely tired. He was handling a customer that was difficult, and upon seeing Zhang Zian walk down the stairs, he hurriedly called him over.
Zhang Zian waved his hand. “I have something to do. Just deal with it however you deem fit.”
When he passed by the cashier counter, Lu Yiyun took up a stack of printer paper and said, “Mr. Shopkeeper, I just checked the stock in the storeroom. Take a look…”
Zhang Zian did not stop walking. “Just deal with it however you see fit. Things that need to be ordered, order them; things that need to be dealt with, deal with them.”
He quickly walked outside the shop, then jogged towards the north side. There used to be a newspaper stand that was open all year round, but he did not know if it was still there. After all, he had not bought newspapers in very long time.
“Mister, do you have the newspaper for today?” After he reached the stand, even though the newspaper stand was still there, what was on display were colorful manga magazines. They were mostly targeted at young women and secondary and primary school children. There were very few newspapers.
“What kind do you want?” the old man stretched his head out and asked as he flipped through a magazine.
Zhang Zian said the name of the magazine, and was confident the newsstand would definitely have the biggest newspaper that was the most distributed in the country. He did not expect the old mister to shake his head and say, “There’s no more. It’s sold out.”
“What? You don’t even have a single copy?” Zhang Zian felt disappointed in his heart and confirmed with the man again. He thought, Such a serious newspaper is so popular? Logically, besides middle-aged and older people, no one read it…
The man said, “Nope! That newspaper is hard to find, so I only order two copies every day. The nearby old people buy them. After it sells out every day, there aren’t anymore.”
Zhang Zian said, “No wonder… Do you know if there are any other places that sell newspapers nearby?”
“That I’m not so sure about. Go and find someone else to ask about that.” The man’s gaze landed on the newspaper again, and he ended the conversation.
Nobody read newspapers anymore. Newspapers and kiosks could no longer be described as a sunset industry. They were already dying sun industries. It was not easy to find another kiosk. Moreover, even if he found one, they may be sold out as well. He usually bought newspapers in the morning because they were organized by importance.
Zhang Zian was a bit troubled standing at the head of the street. He wondered whether he should use his public account to ask for help from his customers, like the last time when he was trying to find fresh crucian carp to help the mother cat produce milk… Out of all the people that followed his public account, there had to be one or two people that ordered that newspaper, right?
“What are you here for? Are you contacting the underground cats?”
When Zhang Zian heard a voice from behind him, he turned his head back and didn’t see anyone. He then lowered his gaze and saw Vladimir.
“What the heck are underground cats? I want to buy a newspaper, but this newsstand has sold out,” he replied.
“Newspaper? You still read the newspaper?” Vladimir looking down on him made him feel defeated, but he could not argue. He normally did not read the newspaper.
Zhang Zian coughed dryly and explained, “The main thing is that today’s newspaper has a piece of very important news. I want to find it to take a look.”
“What news? Did the country approve of the protecting small animals law?” Vladimir asked curiously.
“No… Not that fast. It’s actually something concerning Pi.”
Talking to a cat on the streets drew too much attention. He brought Vladimir to the alleyway and simply explained to it what had happened before it arrived.
“Oh, I understand now. You wait here for a while.” Vladimir understood. It instantly jumped onto a wall and disappeared.
A few minutes later, it jumped back down from the wall, a newspaper in its mouth. “Is it this one?”
Zhang Zian took the newspaper from its mouth. Although there were bite holes from its teeth, it was indeed the right newspaper.
“You really helped me a lot! Let’s go back. We can talk about it in detail when we get back.”
He did not ask about where the newspaper came from. He and Vladimir walked back to the shop, and when they passed by the cashier counter, he instructed Lu Yiyun, “I have something to do now. If someone is looking for me, say that I’m not here. I went out.”
Lu Yiyun nodded.
He whistled, and Zhan Tian, who had received orders, obediently laid at the bottom of the stairs to stand guard.
Upn entering the room, he first asked Pi, “Pi, how is it? Are there any changes?”
“Zhi zhi.” Pi was unable to sit still while it waited, and it anxiously shook its head.
Zhang Zian laid the paper down on the table, and Pi came over to take a look with him. Vladimir also jumped onto the table.
At the beginning of the article, the author briefly reviewed the birth and development of cyber literature and affirmed the influence of cyber literature. Followed by a turn of the pen, he listed ten crimes of cyber literature, such as overemphasis on entertainment, theme hollowness, subject repetition, vulgar content, similar details, strict style, lack of criticism, lack of correct values for teenagers, etc. It was even mentioned that website features were not clear, and editorial quality needed to be improved urgently.
What shocked him the most was what he saw at the end of the article. It had listed a few books that needed to be heavily critiqued, and one of the books was Pi’s short story.
After reading it carefully, Zhang Zian skimmed through it quickly again to prevent himself from missing anything. He was deep in thought.
To be fair, the ten crimes criticized in the article were not entirely empty. After all, flies did not bite seamless eggs. There were many people in society who complained about the vigorous development of online literature. It was not wrong to put forward criticisms. It took time for a new thing to move from disorderly to normal. But all the books that the article focused on were written by gods of literature, except for Pi’s novel. How could Pi’s novel be juxtaposed with them?
Besides, there were so many books on the website that clearly conformed to the ten counts. Why did the article focus on Pi’s novel? In Pi’s novel, besides Richard’s suspected vulgarity, other characters, including Zhang Zian, were all great and glorious characters that were not considered distasteful…
Anyway, the article used Pi’s novel as a target and harshly critiqued it, which was strange and unconvincing.
Pi read the article halfway and could not bring itself to continue reading. It was so sad it squatted in the corner and drew circles on the ground.
It was clear that the reason the recommendation was replaced at the last minute by other books due to the fact the article named and criticized Pi’s novel.
That was hard to deal with… An arm could not manage to squeeze more than a thigh, but that thigh was like an elephant’s leg. Its thin arms could not win the author over.
Zhang Zian sighed and wanted to find words to comfort Pi, but he could not find any suitable words no matter how hard he tired. Any book critiqued like that by a person that was such a famous figure in the country, even if it did not die, it would surely be skinned.
Vladimir finished reading the article slightly slower, then raised a paw and pressed it onto the name of the author. It asked, “Who’s this person called Zhu Jisheng?”
