Chapter 28: Will it be Crushed in Reputation?

For several days in a row, Cao Sheng had been asking himself: Is the quality of my book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*, any good?

Compared to *The First Intimate Contact* by Pizi Cai, will it be completely overshadowed?

He felt a bit uncertain.

After all, before his rebirth, although he had been typing for many years and had achieved a little success, and considered his writing style passable, he was a writer of fast-paced, gratifying stories and had no experience writing literary or pure romance novels.

And *The First Intimate Contact* by Pizi Cai was a leader among pure romance novels, having conquered countless literary youths.

These past few days, he had been repeatedly reviewing the plot of his book, *Living with a Flight Attendant*, trying to judge the quality of his book from the plot itself.

When he was constructing the outline for this book, he had put his heart into it.

For example: when setting the main plot of the book, he considered several stages of a romance. Although he had no experience writing pure romance, having lived for 40 years, his romantic experience was still rich.

He knew that most romances basically go through several stages.

The first stage should be the passionate love period.

During this period, couples basically only see each other's strengths, such as: being pretty, handsome, having a good figure, being positive and sunny, being humorous, being generous, and so on.

During this period, couples are like glue and lacquer, wishing they could be stuck together every day.

The second stage, he believed, is the rational stage.

In this stage, the passionate love period has already ended; one of the partners might have seen certain flaws in the other, or they might be under pressure from the outside world, such as interference or discouragement from parents, relatives, or friends.

In short, one of the people in the relationship gradually regains their reason and begins to use logic to reflect on this relationship.

Of course, it is also possible that one of them at this stage realizes that their career is more important and that they cannot be completely immersed in love.

Anyway, one of the people in this stage is no longer as enthusiastic as in the passionate love period; many people will break up at this stage, while a small number can persist to the next stage.

The third stage, Cao Sheng felt, should be the independent stage.

If the second stage is when one of the partners gradually regains their reason.

Then the third stage is when both partners have regained their reason.

Both can clearly examine this relationship.

Both have already handled the impact of this relationship on their own lives; they work when they should, and in their spare time, they may not necessarily stick together all the time. Both have a certain amount of personal space. The relationship at this stage lacks the heat of the passionate love period, and also lacks the bumps and mutual harm of the second stage; getting along with each other becomes relatively harmonious.

The fourth stage, he felt, is the stage of mutual influence and mutual support.

Couples who can persist to this stage have habits that have converged, and even their way of speaking and thinking about things have started to become a bit like the other's.

Both have become accustomed to the other's existence.

Both have truly entered the other's heart.

Couples at this stage begin to consciously or unconsciously support and influence each other in life and career.

This was Cao Sheng's many years of romantic experience.

He dared not say that all romances are like this, but he felt that most romances are.

No one can stay in the passionate love period forever.

Having no experience in writing pure romance, he integrated his own experience of love into the plot development of this book.

For example: at the beginning of the book, the protagonist Ding Yang and Ran Jing meet in a bar, and Ding Yang is attracted by Ran Jing's appearance, figure, and temperament.

Ran Jing, who had just lost her lover, is amused by Ding Yang's feigned maturity yet clumsy attempt to strike up a conversation.

During this meeting, they both remembered each other.

Afterwards, Ran Jing sees a roommate notice and finds Ding Yang's place; the two meet for the second time, and they become roommates in name, but cohabitants in fact.

For a long stretch of the following plot, Cao Sheng wrote about the various trivial matters of the two living together.

He tried his best to write in an interesting direction.

For example: in the process of Ding Yang trying to show his strengths to Ran Jing, he makes one joke after another.

For example: Ran Jing, who lost her lover and was heartbroken, still maintained her inner kindness and tolerance. During the time she lived with Ding Yang, when she washed her own clothes, she would also wash Ding Yang's dirty clothes; every time she returned from a business trip, while carefully cleaning, she would sometimes also clean up Ding Yang's messy doghouse; when she cooked, she would also make an extra portion for Ding Yang.

But, heartbroken, she did not respond to Ding Yang's pursuit.

Until she had health problems and a sudden illness, Ding Yang nervously sent her to the doctor. For more than half a month, he was busy taking care of her, little by little knocking open her tightly closed heart.

In these plots, Cao Sheng tried hard to present the process of the male and female protagonists falling in love, writing in great detail, trying his best to present Ran Jing's beauty, gentleness, and virtue, as well as the sorrow in her heart.

He also tried hard to present Ding Yang's hilarious pursuit process.

As well as Ding Yang's attentive care while Ran Jing was hospitalized.

Cao Sheng felt that a pure romance novel should at least first make the reader believe that love truly exists between the male and female protagonists.

Otherwise, what kind of pure romance novel is it?

After this plot, Cao Sheng used some ink to describe the warm life of Ding Yang and Ran Jing after they started dating.

The relationship between the two enters a sweet stage.

Ran Jing slowly walks out of the heart-wound of losing her lover and slowly truly falls in love with Ding Yang.

But...

As a pure romance novel, it cannot be written as a fast-paced gratifying story, and even less as an erotic one.

Therefore, the next stage of the plot must have a turning point.

The turning point Cao Sheng arranged was: by chance, the protagonist Ding Yang discovers Ran Jing's past—she had a lover she loved very much. Although that person died, Ran Jing, as a flight attendant with a decent income, had come to rent a room with him because she had used all her savings to pay for her previous lover's medical treatment. Because she had spent her savings on that man, she could not afford her original apartment and had to go out to find a place to share.

This discovery finally lets Ding Yang know why Ran Jing's eyes always inadvertently revealed sorrow in the past. He begins to doubt whether Ran Jing really loves him, Ding Yang? Is the person she loves most in her heart the man who is already dead?

In this part of the plot, the scenes Cao Sheng arranged were all trying to highlight Ding Yang's inner suspicion and struggle.

Ding Yang loves Ran Jing.

But he suspects that the person Ran Jing loves most is not him, Ding Yang.

This kind of suspicion is very heartbreaking.

Ding Yang begins to consciously or unconsciously test Ran Jing repeatedly; sometimes he cannot control the irritability in his heart and inexplicably loses his temper at Ran Jing.

But after calming down, the love for Ran Jing in Ding Yang's heart takes the upper hand again, and he begins to try every means to ask for Ran Jing's forgiveness.

Ran Jing during this period is pitiful.

She is exhausted by Ding Yang's various neurotic operations.

She also tries hard to make Ding Yang believe that she has truly fallen in love with him.

But this kind of self-proof is the hardest; sometimes it backfires and has the opposite effect.

After this plot, the main plot of the book reaches its end.

In the following plot, Cao Sheng arranged another turning point.

—Ran Jing falls seriously ill, a terminal illness.

Upon learning that she has a terminal illness, Ding Yang finally stops acting out. The love and reluctance for Ran Jing in his heart completely occupy his entire mind. He begins to try every possible way to raise money and find the best doctors to treat her, even selling a work of his own heart's blood, for which he had been reluctant to sell the copyright, at a low price, all just to raise money for Ran Jing's treatment.

At the end of the story, Ran Jing dies.

Ding Yang, alone, comes to the bar where he and Ran Jing first met. He sits alone in the seat where Ran Jing once sat, drinking alone with sorrow in his eyes, just as Ran Jing looked when he first saw her.

Just then, a young woman comes over with a wine glass to strike up a conversation, just like Ding Yang did to Ran Jing years ago.

And Ding Yang, just like Ran Jing rejected him years ago, opens his mouth to reject the woman who came to strike up a conversation.

In these last few days, Cao Sheng has repeatedly recalled these plots he wrote, asking himself over and over in his heart: Is the story I wrote okay? Will it be completely crushed by *The First Intimate Contact* in terms of reputation?