Chapter 518

September 16, 1988.

Today is the day Li Heng makes his first public appearance before the media since his rebirth.

The weather is clear and refreshing, and the sun is bright, foreshadowing a perfect beginning and a successful conclusion to this joyous day.

At this time, the campus path is even colder than in the morning; one didn't even run into a single person along the way. The vast campus is terrifyingly quiet.

Li Heng couldn't help but mutter to Mai Sui and Zhou Shihe beside him, "Could it be that all the teachers and students in the school have run to Xianghui Hall? Have they all gone to wait for me like waiting for a rabbit to hit a tree?"

Mai Sui gave a soft, charming smile.

Zhou Shihe also followed with a smile.

Obviously, both women had the same thought.

Li Heng asked, "Where are Manning and Ye Ning?"

Mai Sui said, "They met up with Senior Ye, and they should be at Xianghui Hall now too."

Li Heng nodded and gave an instruction, "I won't worry about you two later; find a seat for yourselves..."

Halfway through, he laughed and teased himself, "Today is the day of my official debut; I'm afraid there won't be any seats left. Sigh, it's just so helpless to be so popular."

Both women laughed and didn't respond.

When Li Heng, Jin Yong, the old Mr. Ba, Chief Editor Liao, Sister Xiao Lin, Mai Sui, Zhou Shihe, the secretary, and others arrived at Xianghui Hall, everyone was a bit dumbfounded.

It's so dense; there are just too many people!

Before coming, I thought of many people, but I didn't think there would be this many.

Looking over, it's all black heads, even more than at the school gate in the morning.

The vast Xianghui Hall is packed and bursting at the seams. Never mind seats, even the aisles and the space in the back are filled with men, women, old, and young of all heights.

But there's no help for it. After more than two hours of spreading the word, the students at Fudan University who were sleeping in this morning all know who the writer "December" is! Out of curiosity, they all ran over to take a look.

And it wasn't just students from Fudan University who came to watch; even students from several other nearby universities ran over in droves. This resulted in the packed scene at Xianghui Hall.

Originally, it was very lively and noisy inside. Many students were waiting for today's protagonist to appear while chatting with their roommates; some were even eating snacks, cracking melon seeds, and so on.

As soon as they entered the door, they ran into Lin Shusen, Zhao Menglong, and other members of the Student Union. It was obvious they were waiting for Li Heng's party to appear to do the welcoming and guiding work.

Seeing them appear, Lin Shusen didn't say a word, greeted them with some polite remarks, and led them straight to the front.

Zhao Menglong's gaze remained on Li Heng, his expression conflicted; looking at him, he seemed to have something to say, but it seemed he couldn't say it.

Li Heng felt it, thought for a moment, moved two steps, and asked, "Senior, are you looking for me for something?"

Zhao Menglong waved his hands in a panic, "Nothing, nothing. You go ahead and get busy; I'll find you later."

Then this senior added, "Mai Sui and Zhou Shihe, come with me. The Student Union has saved seats for you."

Mai Sui and Zhou Shihe exchanged a look with Li Heng, then said thank you and agreed.

Li Heng said, "Then I'll go first. Let's go home together for lunch later."

Both women nodded.

It was also at this moment that someone shouted, "Look, Li Heng is here!" And then a bizarre scene appeared in the back area of Xianghui Hall.

The noisy, chaotic scene from just a moment ago suddenly became silent, becoming deathly still.

Everyone, as if they had discussed it beforehand, unified their gaze and moved in unison, turning their heads to look over together.

In an instant, those chatting stopped chatting, those eating snacks stopped eating; several girls had melon seeds halfway in, but they stayed at the corners of their mouths, as if time had frozen! The picture was still!

Hundreds and thousands of eyes fell on Li Heng, giving him a gaze of attention.

After a good while, a small portion of the girls couldn't help it and asked their companions quietly:

"Is he Li Heng from your school? I've heard of him so many times; I've finally seen him in person."

"How does it feel? Is he better looking than on the Spring Festival Gala TV?"

"Better looking? You're too superficial! With his status, even if he were a monster, I'd be willing to have his children."

"Disgusting, you're just after his fame and money!"

"Yes, I'm disgusting. If he suddenly ran over and told you he wanted to date you, would you have the courage to refuse?"

"..."

"..."

The movement in the back area was soon noticed by other areas.

So the next instant, the entire Xianghui Hall presented an unforgettable scene.

Tens of thousands of people, like marionettes, all turned their heads back, all faces turned back, all eyes slanted at the corners, shooting at Li Heng like countless rays of light.

The scene was like a horror movie, making one's scalp tingle.

These gazes were pervasive—inside and out, of all kinds—as if they wanted to eat people, as if they wanted to tear Li Heng into a thousand pieces and fight over the scraps.

But who is Li Heng? He's an old hand. For someone who has lived two lifetimes, this kind of scene is just a drizzle; he's not afraid at all.

The school leaders and reporters in the front also noticed something was wrong and stopped chatting to get busy, taking photos and receiving guests.

Today isn't just about Li Heng; there's also Jin Yong and the old Mr. Ba. These are big shots who cannot be neglected, so Sun Xiaozhang came out in person.

Like lightning and sparks, the group walked along the aisle toward the front.

The aisle, which was originally impassable, was forcibly cleared out, and the boys and girls in the middle of the aisle automatically leaned to both sides.

He was a bit surprised; many people he didn't expect came to the scene today.

For example, Aunt Shen Xin, and beside her followed a middle-aged woman dressed very appropriately.

For example, Huang Zhiyun, for example, Wei Quan.

For example, the two sisters Li Wang and Li Xi.

For example, Que Xinyan and Yangcheng; they were a small group, and a rough glance showed eight or nine of them, all of whom were people from Shaodong No. 1 High School, Class of '87, who came to Shanghai to attend university.

Wait, Xiao Han and Zhang Haiyan were actually among them.

Li Heng paused, and then under the gaze of the whole room, he branched off a short distance to Xiao Han's side and asked:

"Wife, when did you arrive?"

The word "wife" filled the belly-black face with smiles.

In such an occasion, Xiao Han felt a bit constrained for no reason, and she gave a sweet smile, "Not long after arriving."

Li Heng looked at her, half-believing.

Zhang Haiyan beside her testified, "Great writer, Hanhan and I really just arrived. We weren't free today; we were called by Professor Wen Yan to observe a surgery at the hospital, but after learning the news about you halfway through, Professor Wen arranged for someone to send us over."

Li Heng listened and asked, "Why didn't you go to Lushan Village to find me?"

Xiao Han cleared her throat and said crisply, "Afraid there wouldn't be enough time, so we didn't go to Lushan Village and came straight here."

Li Heng always felt something was a bit off, but he couldn't say where, but the occasion wasn't right, and time couldn't be wasted, so he gave another careful instruction and left.

Li Heng left, but many people's gazes remained on Xiao Han.

These gazes scanned up and down like infrared rays, as if they wanted to peel off all the secrets on Xiao Han's body.

Student Union area.

Ye Ning, who didn't know the inside story, said to Mai Sui with a sense of injustice, "Sui Sui, you can't be like this anymore; you have to work harder, otherwise Li Heng and Xiao Han will be completely bound together."

Although the distance was far and one couldn't hear what Li Heng and Xiao Han were discussing.

But in front of so many people, and on such a major occasion, Li Heng himself was late, yet he still had to run over to say hello to Xiao Han. This treatment was too heavy and too special, making people too envious.

Even an outsider like Ye Ning was envious.

Sun Manning had the same thoughts as Ye Ning but didn't say it out loud. Because she knew that even if she squeezed Xiao Han out, it wouldn't be Mai Sui's turn to be in the first position now; she could only stare.

Mai Sui smiled, but she saw things quite openly.

Zhou Shihe looked at Xiao Han with her simple, honest eyes, and then looked at Yu Laoshi walking with Li Heng. After a while, she withdrew her gaze. Her calm face hid a mind where the scene of the two of them living in the same room in Beijing and him calling her name in his sleep suddenly popped up.

Being clever, she knew very well what it meant for a man to call her name in his sleep; it went without saying.

Thinking and thinking, Zhou Shihe pouted her clever little mouth, looked up at Li Heng again, then lowered her eyelids, slowly closed her eyes to rest, and cleared all distracting thoughts.

After a short while, Mai Sui noticed her state and asked with concern, "Shihe, is there something wrong with your body?"

Zhou Shihe said quietly, "No."

Mai Sui asked, "Are you tired from cooking?"

They got up very early this morning and made a lot of dishes, cooking for several hours without stopping. Mai Sui herself felt her legs were a bit tired from standing.

"It's alright."

Zhou Shihe replied, smiled gently, and changed the subject, "After lunch, accompany me to Jing'an."

Actually, she was thoughtfully giving Sui Sui a step down.

Xiao Han had arrived suddenly, and with Sui Sui's non-competitive nature, she would naturally make room for those two.

And people are made of flesh and blood; in terms of romantic feelings, who can truly be as calm as an ancient well?

Even if one is selfless, seeing one's sweetheart with another woman, it's hard to avoid emotional fluctuations.

Zhou Shihe was just afraid her best friend would be uncomfortable, so she took the initiative to distract her.

Mai Sui knew her good intentions and agreed.

Seeing Xiao Han, Shen Xin frowned obscurely; but when she saw her daughter walking with Li Heng, Shen Xin's eyebrows relaxed again.

Unlike what her mother thought, Yu Shuheng was thinking at this time: I must block the mouths of these reporters and media; I cannot let the photos of Li Heng and Xiao Han meeting just now spread to the newspapers.

Although Li Heng and Xiao Han's conversation just now was very normal, she also believed that the reporters and media in front couldn't hear that "wife."

But everyone isn't stupid; they will all fill in the blanks.

With so many people, Li Heng doesn't care about anyone else, yet he talks to Xiao Han, not to mention Xiao Han's features are so exquisite and beautiful, which makes it even more worth talking about.

Of course, Yu Shuheng wanted to block the photos from leaking, firstly for the sake of his reputation.

Because the little boy is already recognized as a couple with Song Yu at Peking University, if the news that he is dating Xiao Han spreads now, not only will he be embarrassed, but Song Yu and Xiao Han will be embarrassed too.

The Song family of Dongting Lake will also be embarrassed.

In addition, it cannot be denied that Yu Shuheng also had selfish motives; this man is the husband she wants to marry in the future. Due to some unavoidable special reasons, she can turn a blind eye to his current philandering, but she cannot let his emotional affairs be disclosed to the outside world too early, which is disadvantageous to her.

Huang Zhiyun stared at Xiao Han for a long time. Although she knew of Xiao Han's existence before and had seen photos, she had to admit that the real person was more beautiful and feminine than the photos.

Although Mother Huang was now out of danger and had woken up, she was still lying in the hospital bed, waiting for further observation.

Second sister Huang Zhiyun came today to find an opportunity to talk to Li Heng and wanted to talk to him openly about her younger sister's affairs.

To see if there could be a turning point?

After all, her younger sister was stubborn and didn't want to cause trouble for Li Heng. Then she had to find another way, start from Li Heng, the source, and try to find a solution that the Huang family could accept.

At this very moment, there were many boys and girls in Xianghui Hall looking at Xiao Han. Especially the girls, they were almost envious to death, and their jealousy couldn't be hidden at all, and they were all thinking: With so many women in the world, why is it that only Xiao Han's life is so good?

She grabbed a high-quality man like Li Heng before entering the school gate? Not giving everyone a chance, is this letting people live?

Girls with average conditions might just feel sour in their hearts.

But those girls with good conditions were miserable to death, wishing they could replace Xiao Han and have a perfect partner like Li Heng.

Noticing the gazes around, Zhang Haiyan reached out and pulled Xiao Han's sleeve on the ground, "Hanhan, did you notice? You're almost becoming a public enemy."

Xiao Han had always been a pretentious girl with a graceful demeanor and calm self-restraint in front of people, but inside she was worried while her surface was indifferent. Fortunately, my Mr. Li didn't let this beauty down today.

The reason she didn't run to Lushan Village was that she wanted to test him by appearing suddenly.

Test the bottom line!

Test how much her honey could still remember her after she wasn't at Fudan University? Had he been completely corrupted by Mai Shuhe?

Obviously, Li Heng's performance just now was full marks; she couldn't pick any flaws.

The only thing she was unhappy about was that Yu Shuheng was like a tail, following him wherever he went. Hey, hey, hey! You are so shameless to pester my man, are you really shameless? Does your father know?

She didn't mention Yu Shuheng's mother because that old thing was even more shameless; the 8 ways to chase a husband in "Jane Eyre" were now in her hands.

Actually, Xiao Han was sometimes quite frustrated. He was clearly her man, but she didn't have a background like the Yu family and couldn't give him too much help in his career, which was her shortcoming.

It was also the shortcoming of Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Song.

Under the gaze of ten thousand eyes, Li Heng walked like a star on the red carpet, and the aisle seemed particularly long.

Actually, it was very short; it took only two minutes to reach the front row.

When passing by the Statistics Class 2, Li Heng didn't pretend to be aloof and greeted his classmates with a smile.

Passing by two joint dorms, fortunately, the things he was worried about didn't happen.

The young men in Dorm 325 were still as happy as ever, and Li Guoyi was still shamelessly blowing him a kiss.

This caused a burst of laughter around.

Actually, thinking about it, it's the same. Although his status is different now and there is a gap between him and his brothers in the dorm, how many of the professors at Fudan University these days are mediocre? Many are famous big shots nationwide, so they have long been used to seeing great people; what's the harm in having one more?

Moreover, he is a great person from their own dorm; it's too late to hug his thigh, only a fool would deliberately avoid him.

Besides, they are also top students at Fudan University after all, once all top students in various places, and they all have their own pride. Life is long, and they can show their skills after graduation. They admire Li Heng from the bottom of their hearts, but they also have a spirit of not admitting defeat.

Li Heng's huge achievements will make them confused and hit them in the short term. But after adjusting their state, they will only work harder to strive not to be the most incompetent one in the future.

This is the gold content of college students these days. They have suffered since childhood—they have been poor, frozen, hungry, sick, beaten by their parents, and looked down upon by others, but they have firm wills, and they have never thought of escaping.

Otherwise, why would China in the future usher in a technological explosion and the rise of China's rejuvenation? It is because this generation has a tenacious spirit of struggle and progress. Facing difficulties, they are cockroaches that cannot be killed.

Liu Yanling's look at him was a bit off, and Li Heng, who had been rolling in the flowers for many years, felt it. But he pretended not to know and smiled at the girls in Dorm 107 before walking past.

Wu Siyao also sneaked in. When she saw Xiao Han, she was not depressed but had an excitement of sudden enlightenment.

She stood on tiptoe to look at Zhou Shihe, then looked at Xiao Han, and sure enough, it was the same as what she had inquired about: Zhou Shihe was not his girlfriend, that woman was.

That woman was said to be far away at Shanghai Medical College, so far from Fudan, while Tongji University was very close to Fudan, did that mean she had a chance? Would there be a chance if she worked hard to dig the corner?

Wu Siyao thought so. She decided not to sneak to the bus to block him anymore and wanted to come to Fudan University openly to chase him.

Hurrying and rushing, Li Heng's party finally arrived at the front of Xianghui Hall and came to the stage.

At this moment, there was a row of seats facing the audience on the left side of the stage; counting roughly, there were 8 seats.

Li Heng was the protagonist today, and this press conference was specially held for him, so he naturally sat in the middle, occupying the C-position.

He wanted to be modest, letting Mr. Jin Yong sit there, or the old Mr. Ba, or Chief Editor Liao and Sun Xiaozhang, or someone from the establishment.

But everyone was an old hand who had been in society for many years, so they still had this bit of insight. Li Heng's modesty was a matter of human relations, giving them enough face in front of everyone, but they couldn't really sit there.

Otherwise, whoever sat there would be a fool!

After Li Heng took his seat, Jin Yong, Sun Xiaozhang, the old Mr. Ba, Chief Editor Liao, Yu Shuheng, and two people from the establishment sat in a row one by one.

Whoa! This lineup can be described as quite luxurious!

It's just one point: Yu Shuheng looked quite eye-catching among them. But those in the know understood that she was qualified to sit there.

Why? Why?

Because her surname is Yu, is that enough?

Because all along, Yu Laoshi has been Li Heng's external spokesperson to some extent, is that enough?

Today's host was not a student but a young female leader of the Youth League Committee, who looked quite atmospheric and had affinity.

Due to the tight schedule and the fact that Li Heng's party was half an hour late, fearing that reporter friends and the vast number of students would have resentment, the host sensibly only briefly introduced the situation in her opening remarks.

Then she shifted the focus of the whole audience to Li Heng.

The hostess invited Li Heng to the center of the stage, handed him a microphone, and asked with a smile, "December? Can I formally call you December now?"

"Aiyo, don't use 'you' (polite form), you're killing me. I'm still young, Teacher, just call me by my name." Li Heng first apologized to the audience and reporter friends for being late, and then replied modestly.

The hostess laughed heartily, "Alright, then let's be straightforward and skip the 'you' (polite form); I'll call you December directly."

"Eh, I'll listen to Teacher." Li Heng agreed fully.

The hostess smiled at the audience, "Everyone heard it, the person beside me is quite something; he is the legendary writer December who wrote 'To Live', 'The Great Stubborn', 'Cultural Bitter Travel', and 'White Deer Plain' in the past two years..."

After a series of introductions, as expected, a thunderous applause sounded from below.

And after the applause, the hostess saw Li Heng's expression was a bit wrong and asked carefully, "December, your expression is strange; is there something wrong with the introduction just now?"

Li Heng asked back, "I wrote 'The Great Stubborn' secretly under a pseudonym; how did you know, Teacher? Who betrayed me?"

"Hahaha..."

There was another burst of laughter below.

The host looked at Chief Editor Liao cooperatively.

Li Heng turned to Chief Editor Liao, pretending to be a bit unkind, and fired a series of shots, "My dearest senior brother, was it you? Just stabbing me in the back like this? What about the credibility we agreed on? Did the dogs eat it?"

"Hahaha..."

The audience laughed.

There were microphones on every seat, and Chief Editor Liao picked up the microphone and said, "Last night, Fudan University specially came to me to understand your situation, and I accidentally let it slip."

To adjust the atmosphere, Li Heng didn't want to let him off like this, but held on to it, and said in a gloomy tone:

"At the beginning, I had an agreement with your publishing house that 'The Great Stubborn' could not disclose my identity to the outside world, not even if I died. May I ask my good senior brother, is there such a thing?"

Everyone looked at Chief Editor Liao, wanting to see how he would explain it?

Chief Editor Liao said embarrassedly, "My fault, how about I punish myself with three cups at noon?"

Li Heng waved his hand, "How is that possible? Are the three cups of wine free? Drinking for nothing? You wait for the court summons."

Chief Editor Liao immediately had a bitter face.

This time, the whole Xianghui Hall was not just happy, but crazy happy!

The leaders on stage were happy, and the teachers and students below were even more overjoyed.

With just a few words, Li Heng's image became clear, not so cold or unreachable in everyone's hearts. Not only did they forgive him for being half an hour late, but their favor for him increased greatly.

After the laughter, the topic returned to the hostess.

The host asked curiously, "Honestly, if Chief Editor Liao hadn't mentioned 'The Great Stubborn', we wouldn't have known there was such a book.

I flipped through this book specially last night, and it's quite interesting. Why didn't you want to admit it?"

Everyone at the scene was curious about this question.

Li Heng said, "Since Teacher has read it, then you should know the difference between 'The Great Stubborn' and my other three books, right?"

The hostess said, "Yes, the wording, tone, and writing style are completely different. Why is that?"

Li Heng lowered his head and sighed, "This is a not-so-glorious past; I actually don't want to mention it."

The host encouraged, "You can mention it; everyone loves to listen."

Li Heng asked, "Can Teacher remember a sentence: 'The invaders can go, and I can go too'?"

The host nodded, "Emperor Wu of Han said it when fighting the Xiongnu. What does this have to do with this?"

Li Heng said, "When I just wrote 'To Live', someone was always nagging in the newspaper, saying this and that about me, saying I couldn't write the life atmosphere of Beijing.

Actually, I know that person just wanted to ride on my fame, wanted to blackmail me, and take advantage of me. At that time, my high school principal even ran over to comfort me, telling me not to care, to write well, and to study well for the exam. Originally..."

At this point, he stopped, selling a suspense.

The host asked hurriedly, "My appetite has been whetted by you, don't sell suspense, hurry up and say the following, originally what?"

Li Heng continued, "Originally, I had let this matter go, it didn't matter. But who knew, the principal who persuaded me to let it go just before changed his face, and the old man, who was eager to protect his calf, went to confront that old Wang from Beijing, starting a scolding war with him in the newspaper.

The scolding war was very tragic and lasted for a long time. Both sides scolded for more than 20 days, and as a result, my high school principal didn't win. So he called two more teachers to write articles to help him scold, but as a result, he still didn't win..."

Before he finished speaking, the stage and the audience were full of laughter, everyone laughing until they were swaying, automatically imagining the scene of the three heroes fighting Lu Bu in their minds.

Everyone laughed for a long time, for more than half a minute.

When the laughter became smaller, Li Heng, under the hostess's questioning, continued to speak, "After learning the situation, I felt that it couldn't be like this, I couldn't watch the three elders who loved me suffer this bird's anger, so I decided to change my pen name to write a down-to-earth novel to slap the face of old Wang from Beijing."

The host nodded, "This is a unique form of communication for literati. In order to vent for the teachers, so there was 'The Great Stubborn'?"

Li Heng said yes.

The host asked a question that everyone was eager to know, "What was the result later?"

Li Heng said, "Result? Didn't I say it before? 'The invaders can go, and I can go too', the offense and defense have changed. After I changed my pen name and published 'The Great Stubborn', that old Wang from Beijing kept praising me in the newspaper, praising that this was the novel written by a real man, writing out the market atmosphere of Beijing.

Speaking of which, old Wang from Beijing is quite interesting. He specially compared 'The Great Stubborn' and 'To Live' in the newspaper, kept praising 'The Great Stubborn', and kept stepping on 'To Live'.

He even called out to me across the air, wanting me to learn from the writer who wrote 'The Great Stubborn', saying this is the real literary work."

"Clap clap clap..."

There was a round of applause from the audience, everyone laughing and clapping wildly!

Clapping for Li Heng's spirit of not admitting defeat, clapping for Li Heng venting for the three teachers.

And even more clapping for that old Wang from Beijing; this person is too funny, I didn't expect to be slapped in the face like this.

It can almost be foreseen that when today's press conference is reported, the face of that old Wang from Beijing will be absolutely wonderful, and he will absolutely have no face to see anyone.

What is wisdom? This is what is called wisdom!

I don't scold you like a shrew, hey! I will write a book, let you praise me in turn, let you scold yourself, and let you slap your own face.

Xiao Han stared at her honey with a sweet smile, feeling he was too cute.

Sun Manning quietly said to Mai Sui, "Your man is full of lies, but I feel comfortable listening to it. I'll call home later and tell my dad not to let the secret out."

The three words "your man" made Mai Sui's ears a bit hot, and she inadvertently looked at Xiao Han, who was separated by a large group on her left, and didn't make a sound shyly.

Zhou Shihe lowered her eyelids slightly, and her pure and bright eyes also flashed with a faint smile.

Shen Xin below the stage liked Li Heng more and more as she looked at him. This son-in-law was too much to her taste; not only was he talented, but his conduct was full of cleverness.

The host asked, "Why is he called old Wang from Beijing?"

Li Heng said, "Because he lives in Beijing."

PS: Posted first, edited later.

(More to come)

(End of chapter)