Chapter 519: The Press Conference

After a simple opening interview to set the mood, the press conference officially began.

The female host asked: "Why did you think of writing a novel?"

Li Heng replied concisely: "To earn money and improve my high school meal allowance and family conditions."

The host asked: "Was your high school life really that bad?"

This question instantly drew everyone's attention, because now Li Heng was a major celebrity with high social status, making his past the most captivating topic.

Li Heng answered carefully: "It wasn't good, but I was still lucky."

The host asked: "How do you interpret those two statements?"

Li Heng recalled: "My life back then truly wasn't good. Like college, high school had a big cafeteria, but it was closed-campus, so we couldn't eat outside."

I clearly remember our school's dishes were divided into four tiers. The cheapest tier cost eight fen—mostly potato shreds, radish shreds, and cabbage, with not a trace of meat.

Dishes like tomato and egg or tofu cost fifteen fen. The third tier was twenty fen, and that's when meat started appearing—chicken, fish, and so on.

Above that was twenty-five fen, which was extremely luxurious for me—dishes I craved most: twice-cooked pork, braised pork belly, pork balls, and pig's trotters.

But I was just a rural kid from the mountains—my monthly meal allowance never exceeded five yuan. With that budget, I never dared touch the twenty-fen or twenty-five-fen dishes.

And what I loved most was tofu.

But even that tofu, I could only eat once every two days—because my budget was tight, and I feared suddenly getting a fever, cold, or illness during school and not having money for medicine."

"Wow!"

"Whoa!"

At these words, a wave of incredulous gasps and murmurs swept through the audience.

Many quickly calculated in their heads: the cheapest dish was eight fen, one dish per meal, so twenty-four fen per day.

Ten days totaled two yuan and forty fen.

Thirty days a month meant seven yuan and twenty fen.

Rural folks might understand—some in the audience had endured similar hardship and knew the bitterness well.

But urbanites couldn't fathom it—not even five yuan a week, let alone five yuan a month.

It was simply unimaginable to live on less than five yuan a month.

Many looked at Li Heng with complex emotions; some saw echoes of their own past and felt resonance.

Others waited for his next words: how did he survive with so little money?

The host had done the math too and pressed urgently: "According to your school's minimum meal standard, your budget was far too low—how did you manage?"

Li Heng smiled: "That's where the second part comes in. Though my situation wasn't good, I had a few well-off friends, I was good with words, and I knew how to get along—I often pigged out with them."

Suddenly, someone in the audience shouted: "Were your friends boys or girls?"

The question sparked laughter; everyone fixed their gaze on him, eager for the answer.

Sun Man whispered quietly: "You don't even need to ask—it's mostly girls, right? With his face, plenty of girls were happy to let him tag along for free meals. I remember one girl who regularly brought him black chocolate."

At the mention of black chocolate, Ye Ning covered her mouth and smiled, as if she knew exactly who it was.

Sure enough, Mai Sui's cheeks flushed crimson, her hands nervously interlaced over her abdomen to hide her embarrassment.

Zhou Shihe glanced at Li Heng, then at Mai Sui, as if she could picture the beauty of those three high school years.

Ye Ning asked: "Manning, didn't you say you were desk partners for two years? What did you give him back then?"

Sun Man snorted: "Me? I gave him nothing—I wasn't striking enough to even get a chance."

Indeed, she had no chance—during first and second year, Chen Zijin always took care of Li Heng; if she had a bite to eat, she'd split half—or even more—with him, never leaving him out.

By third year, Chen Zijin was gone. Mai Sui and Chen Lijun were diligent, always bringing dishes home; Song Yu occasionally brought food too.

Also, Zhang Zhiyong had a bit of pocket money.

Most importantly, there was an English teacher—hmm—sometimes inviting Li Heng over for private meals, treating him to special dishes. Rumors spread around school that Li Heng and the English teacher were involved.

Speaking of this, Sun Man actually admired Li Heng—he never touched Wang Runwen. The English teacher was too sexy; if she were a man, she'd probably have given in after prolonged alone time.

But then she thought it made sense—Song Yu and Xiao Han were so beautiful, Chen Zijin and Mai Sui weren't far behind—why would he go for Teacher Wang?

It made no sense.

Li Heng answered the male audience member's question: "Hmm, that's a sharp question. But honestly, my friends were both male and female—some are even here today, and they helped me a lot back then."

Hearing "here today," many thought of Xiao Han—rumor said they'd been high school classmates.

Ye Zhanyan glanced at Xiao Han, feeling deep envy—if she'd been Li Heng's classmate in high school, she'd have found a way to lock him down.

The host asked: "I heard your father was unwell back then, unable to do heavy labor—is that true?"

Li Heng replied: "Yes. He had a spinal issue and couldn't exert himself."

The host asked: "How many siblings do you have? Who else lives in your household?" Li Heng answered truthfully: "I have two older sisters. Also my grandmother and mother."

The host asked: "How did you earn money? How did you sustain the household?"

Li Heng replied: "Farming, raising pigs and cows to sell."

The host asked: "What was your annual grain harvest? How many pigs and cows did you raise?"

Li Heng said: "About forty dan of rice. Usually four pigs. Cows were unpredictable—sometimes one, sometimes two or three."

The host asked: "Since your father couldn't work, did all these chores fall on your five family members?"

Li Heng hesitated, then nodded, then shook his head.

The host asked: "Why shake your head?"

Li Heng answered frankly: "I didn't like farm work—I did relatively little and often slacked off."

"Whoa!"

The audience erupted again, stunned—he'd actually admitted this?

Rural families favored sons, and many boys were spoiled, avoiding farm labor—but even then, Li Heng should've hidden it.

Who'd be so foolish as to say it outright?

The host was flustered, thinking she'd messed up—she hadn't expected Li Heng to be this blunt.

The hall suddenly fell quiet.

The leaders, reporters, and alumni below all stared intently at Li Heng.

Mai Sui grew anxious.

Zhou Shihe lifted her head, watching him with serious attention.

Many who cared for him began to worry—fearing he'd damage his reputation.

Only Xiao Han remained calm—she knew her honey too well; he was sharper than a monkey, and there had to be more to come.

The host exchanged a glance with Principal Sun, then forced a smile: "I used to slouch too, but my parents always dragged me to sweep and wash dishes. Do you have a secret slacking technique?"

Li Heng replied: "Definitely."

The host asked: "Tell us—everyone's curious."

"Reading."

Li Heng explained: "My parents were both college graduates; we had over a thousand books at home. Whenever I didn't want to work or got tired, I'd sneak into my father's study to read."

The female host breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then teased: "So you pretended to read just to avoid chores?"

"No."

Li Heng shook his head: "I read seriously. First, I genuinely loved reading—each time I picked up a book, I felt life was full and meaningful.

Second, I feared my parents checking up on me, asking what I'd read. So I didn't just read word for word—I had to understand it deeply to answer their questions."

The host asked: "Did they ever check?"

Li Heng said: "My parents occasionally did, but not often. My second sister couldn't stand my laziness—she'd randomly quiz me, either herself or by urging my parents to. Ugh…"

Everyone sat up straight, utterly captivated.

The host asked: "Why sigh?"

"It's too painful to recall. My second sister was… I don't know how to describe her—but she was a troublemaker, always coming up with tricky questions to trap me. I failed many quizzes as a kid and got beaten by her often." He sighed again, looking utterly pitiful.

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

The hall erupted in roaring laughter; many clutched their stomachs.

So even slacking had its price.

This made sense—now everyone felt reassured, their balance restored.

Ye Ning asked Mai Sui and Sun Man: "His second sister's beautiful—when she stayed in Lushan Village last time, she smiled at me every time we met. Was she really that cruel?"

Zhou Shihe turned to her friend, eager for the answer.

Before Mai Sui could speak, Sun Man blurted: "According to the idiot, in their village, he fears no one except Li Heng's second sister. They say he's been beaten many times."

Ye Ning's mouth dropped open: "His second sister beat Zhang Zhiyong? He's an outsider!"

Sun Man grinned: "She beat him anyway."

Ye Ning told Mai Sui: "So brutal, Sui Sui—you better watch out."

Zhou Shihe glanced at Mai Sui, smiled quietly, then turned back to Li Heng on stage.

PS: Posted first, revised later.

Already posted ten thousand characters. Had some matters yesterday and today, so updates fell short of my goal. Now on the bus home, I'll stop here for now—will post more tomorrow.

(End of chapter)