Chapter 67: Chapter 67 - 64 Classic Essays i

Translator: 549690339

After a few seconds of stupor, Han Jimei regains her senses.

She never imagined the ending to be like this…

The lady sold her beautiful long hair to buy a watchband for her husband. The husband, on the other hand, sold his beloved watch to buy a hair comb that his wife had long coveted.

They sacrificed their most valuable possessions for each other, but the gifts they gave each other simultaneously lost their original value.

Such an ending could be cruel, but ultimately it leaves one with mixed feelings of laughter and tears—

Yet, amidst such a humorous contradiction, the love between the man and the woman unfurls across the page in all its vigorous intensity!

What a desirable love story.

Han Jimei closes the magazine thoughtfully.

She suddenly wonders:

A good story like this should appear in the literature section of the Tribe, just like Chu Kuang’s “Artificial Beauty”.

“Why did we end up missing out on Chu Kuang?”

He clearly chose our platform at the start.

A gleam flashes in Han Jimei’s eyes as she presses the green button on the top left corner of her desk: “All editors meeting in five minutes.”

Why has the literature section of the Tribe constantly been lukewarm?

Because the quality of the stories in the literature section couldn’t compete with that of the magazines in the market.

Upon deep introspection, the reason is that the literature section of the Tribe does not have enough appeal for excellent writers!

How can she change this situation?

Easily, by stealing stories, stealing authors!

Outstanding authors like Chu Kuang are worth fighting for, and Han Jimei believes that she can eventually persuade writers of such caliber.

With this in mind, Han Jimei commences the editors’ meeting.

The first question she raises in the meeting is, “Why is the Tribe’s literature not the writers’ first choice platform for creativity?”

This really is the most important question.

The editor on her right laughs: “Beyond the unique nature of the literary section as an online publishing platform, the most significant reason is that we don’t offer the authors enough remuneration.”

After all, writers also need to make a living.

The tips from the online platform alone are not sufficient.

Han Jimei gets up, lays her hands on the table, leaning slightly forward, “I’ll apply for funding from above, do you guys know what you need to do?”

“Poach talent!”

The editors nodded in understanding.

Han Jimei smiles faintly: “Tonight I want to see your target list for headhunting, the first batch of authors should not be less than thirty, let’s play a big game.”

“It seems we’re going to be competing for talent with all the major magazine publishers.”

The editors smile, they have no lack of writer contacts, if they have sufficient funding, it won’t be hard to attract excellent writers.

“Very good.”

Han Jimei straightens up: “It seems you all have your targets, 1’11 recommend one person for your headhunting list.”

“Who?”

“Chu Kuang.”

The editors are stunned, they thought Han Jimei had made some mistake: “This short story writer is hardly famous, he writes youth fantasy novels, last time’s ‘Artificial Beauty’ was just a random short creation, although it was not bad…”

“Then you read this.”

Han Jimei puts the “Fun Reads” magazine on the meeting table, sweeping her gaze across everyone: “You guys can decide on who you want to approach, but Chu Kuang is my first target.”

As the story recommended on the cover of the magazine, “The Gift of the Magi” was not only noticed by Han Jimei, many readers of the magazine gradually read this story as well.

Almost a week later, discussions burst open on the internet.

The first platform to focus the heated discussions was the official message board of the magazine section of the Silver Blue bookstore.

This message board functions like a fiction forum.

“The quality of this issue of the magazine is very high, especially ‘The Gift of the Magi’, I really liked it, it is so moving.”

“It’s worthy of being the cover story, it does not disappoint!”

“I haven’t read such a good story in a long time, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is excellent.”

“I was fortunate to read ‘Artificial Beauty’ on the Tribe during the New Year, and 1 remembered a writer named Chu Kuang, I didn’t expect to read another piece by him so soon. It’s even more splendid than his last story, I have even become a fan.”

“Such a good short story… is written by Chu Kuang…”

“Only after looking up Chu Kuang’s profile did 1 find out he’s a writer specializing in youthful fantasy themes, it’s rare.”

“As a reader who loves both youthful fantasy and short stories, seeing Chu Kuang’s works in both fields is truly a delightful experience, 1 have become his fan.”

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The wave of discussions quickly spread, and “The Gift of the Magi” was widely welcomed, as expected.

The direct result of this was that the first week’s sales of the latest issue of “Fun Reads” were 50% higher than the previous issue!

Perhaps the subsequent sales of “Fun Reads” for this month are also something to look forward to.

And the pen name Chu Kuang, for the first time, entered the vision of short story enthusiasts.

Even some authors in the short story field, because of “The Gift of the Magi”, secretly remembered the name Chu Kuang.

At this point, Chu Kuang can be said to have become somewhat known in short story circles.

Isn’t it true that Chu Kuang had written “Artificial Beauty” before?

Indeed, that’s true, but at that time, Chu Kuang was labelled as a young adult fantasy writer. The fame of “King of the Net” to some extent overshadowed the excellence of that short story

A specific identity with apparent brilliance can cause this kind of situation.

So it was only when Chu Kuang ventured into short story writing for the second time that everyone truly realized:

Chu Kuang is actually this talented.

But one undeniable point is that whether in the field of short stories or youthful fantasy, Chu Kuang is still a newcomer.

He has a long way to go.

And the crowd that maintains expectations for him is gradually growing.

Some people may say, isn’t “The Gift of the Magi” a very famous short story on Earth? And readers are just casually amazed?

This kind of simplistic view is also understandable.

However, those who make such a statement should first think about how difficult it is to write a novel that amazes readers. Moreover, they should realize that in reality, it is very difficult for artistic creation to reach its pinnacle all at once.

In fact.

Countless classics that were later worshipped only caused a brief discussion when they were initially published. When people hear that a certain work is a world-renowned masterpiece, they should first consider how long it has been since it was first released—

There are too few contemporary canonizers.

Unless they already have a high influence.

Most of the time, it is time that gives rise to classic masterpieces.

And when these classic masterpieces were first born, the creators only had the potential to be canonized. To truly become canonized, they might lack recognition from Nobel, or more classics of the same quality.

Or perhaps… their death..