Chapter 29: The Angry Wen Leyu

Li Ye knew that the little spy at his desk was peeking at his writing, but he had no intention of stopping her.

After all, he would need a long time to write this novel, and with Wen Leyu so close by, it was impossible to hide it from her anyway.

Besides, why hide it from this little girl who gave him a twelve-point satisfaction rating?

Not only would it make things awkward, but it would also be a waste of energy.

With that energy, he might as well polish the historical discrepancies in *Lurking* to make them cleaner and more meticulous, so as to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

It was 1981, a time without the internet, and much of the historical knowledge that would be common sense in later generations should not be known by a 19-year-old boy in a small northern city.

For example, the identity of the novel's main character, Yu Zecheng.

Yu Zecheng was a graduate of the Qingpu Special Training Class in the 26th year of the Republic of China, later joined the Action Division of the Nationalist Military Bureau in Chongqing, and was subsequently transferred to become a section chief in the Confidential Division of the Tianjin Secret Service Bureau.

Just the names of these three units were not points of knowledge that an ordinary person in the eighties should know.

If Li Ye copied every detail from the *Lurking* TV series, he would certainly arouse great reading desire in his audience, but at the same time, it would also invite suspicion from many.

How do you know this so clearly?

You say you have a grandfather who fought in the war? Your grandfather is an illiterate old brute; does he understand this?

What? In the end, Yu Zecheng even went over to "that side"?

Therefore, regarding this type of knowledge and specific plot points, Li Ye definitely had to blur things out, and he had to do so without affecting the reader's experience—which was quite a challenge.

【Bang~】

【The gunshot alerted Yu Zecheng. At this moment, the telecommunications monitoring officer responsible for replacing him, Zhang Mingyi, appeared... Zhang Mingyi was shot in the back...】

Li Ye had already reached the climax of the first chapter and was writing furiously when his elbow was lightly nudged by his desk mate, Wen Leyu.

A writer hates being interrupted when their plot logic and descriptions are flowing, but who could stay mad at the little mute? He couldn't be angry!

Li Ye turned his head to look at Wen Leyu and found that her expressive eyes were filled with a serious look.

A note was pushed over, on which was written: "Is this Yu Zecheng the protagonist of the novel? If he is, do you know that this will bring you big trouble?"

The little girl had quite a high level of awareness.

Li Ye was quite happy; for a girl to genuinely consider things for you, that sentiment alone was rare.

Of course, in this regard, Li Ye's awareness was even higher than Wen Leyu's.

He had seen the "Great Crab" gods of the later generations; let alone these issues of political stance, even certain descriptions in the novel, Li Ye would distinguish them meticulously.

For example, the Director Dai who appeared in the first episode of the TV series had a very strong aura—after all, he was a big shot! He had to have that "kingly" air.

But if Li Ye were to describe his personal aura extensively in the novel now, let alone whether it would pass censorship, the trouble wouldn't necessarily be small.

And when it came time for Zuo Lan to appear, he would have to use heavy ink to thoroughly and completely highlight the vigor and positivity of the new era's youth.

This was in line with the values of the era, and besides, this was commercial writing! Making money and art both had to be balanced; it wasn't easy, but it wasn't shameful either.

Seeing the look of worry in Wen Leyu's eyes, Li Ye wrote on the paper: "It won't, justice will surely triumph over evil."

Wen Leyu looked at Li Ye's writing, watched him frown slightly, and after a few seconds, she suddenly wrote on the paper: "This Yu Zecheng, is he underground, isn't he?"

Little sister, are you trying to make me give you spoilers?

Li Ye wrote on the paper: "The quality of a novel's reading experience lies in whether the plot's uncertainty is strong enough, so I cannot tell you the answer."

Wen Leyu's eyes blinked, her little mouth pouted, and she turned her head away from Li Ye, her little bottom even sliding to the other end of the bench, distancing herself from him.

She was angry, clearly angry.

An angry little beauty was quite interesting. Li Ye sighed inwardly: "It's not that this old man lacks willpower, it's just that the beauty is too alluring."

Li Ye didn't deliberately coax Wen Leyu; he believed that a good girl would regulate her own bad moods.

Sure enough, Li Ye hadn't been writing for long when the angry Wen Leyu secretly "slid" back from the other end of the bench.

It was just that she didn't stretch her neck to continue peeking at Li Ye's novel, retaining a bit of her own little temper and dignity.

Li Ye picked up the few pages of letter paper he had written and pushed them in front of her, saying: "Help me out, help me proofread, and then copy a version; I'll need it when I submit it."

Wen Leyu was caught off guard, but she took it quickly, and the smile curling at the corners of her mouth signaled the happiness in her heart at that moment.

Li Ye hadn't told her the "answer," and she had thought Li Ye didn't trust her as a friend, but now that Li Ye was letting her proofread, wasn't she just overthinking things?

Proofreading meant finding typos and inappropriate word choices in the article, which was a test of one's language foundation.

Wen Leyu's language skills were actually stronger than Li Ye's; Li Ye was strong in test-taking ability, while Wen Leyu's range of reading and accumulation of words truly surprised Li Ye.

It seemed that over the years, not only had Teacher Ke put effort into Wen Leyu's education, but the little girl was also a good student who loved to learn.

But what Li Ye didn't know was that Wen Leyu, this little academic star, would soon be completely impressed by him.

After she took Li Ye's draft and letter paper, she began to proofread and copy carefully, but before she had even finished copying one page, she forgot her proper work and became deeply immersed in the novel's plot.

【Zhang Mingyi collapsed to the ground, the gunshot wound and bloodstains on his back were shocking, but Yu Zecheng didn't even look at him again, instead quickly retreating to the blind spot on the right side of the door, drawing his gun, bending his arm, and aiming forward...】

【This shooting stance allows for flexible adjustment of the shooting angle, and it's not easy for people to launch a surprise attack and knock it away...】

Wen Leyu had never seen such a novel descriptive technique. Just by reading the words on the paper, she imagined a vigilant dog of a spy making sharp tactical firearm movements when facing sudden danger.

In '81, there were already martial arts novels pirated from Hong Kong on the market.

But whether it was masters like Jin, Gu, or Liang, or more ordinary novel authors, their writing techniques were very different from the high-quality web novels of forty years later.

Jin, Gu, and Liang's literary foundation went without saying; their classic masterpieces could leave readers with endless aftertaste.

High-quality web novels might not have such deep foundations, but they won with novel plots and wild imaginations.

High-quality web novels might be looked down upon by orthodox martial arts, but if orthodox martial arts were placed on a web novel site, they would also suffer from "acclimatization" issues. (The martial arts channel on a certain site was truly very cold.)

Wen Leyu read quickly, finishing the three pages of letter paper in no time, and then she went back to read it from the beginning again.

After finishing it again, she habitually nudged Li Ye with her elbow and asked excitedly: "Li Ye, have you ever fired a handgun? How are you so skilled at writing this?"

Hmm, I am very skilled; as long as a teacher I like releases a new episode, I definitely have to be skilled at "firing" once.

"Cough, cough, my grandfather once killed dozens of enemies, so I heard him talk about some of it when I was young..."

Li Ye quickly spoke to cover up, while taking a deep breath and silently reciting "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" to completely restore his calm.

This body was too kind and honest, a little "innocent" one; just thinking about it wouldn't do.

Wen Leyu was also a pure girl and didn't notice Li Ye's abnormal reaction at all. She even moved closer again and asked Li Ye: "Will there be plots like this in the future?"

Li Ye said: "Not necessarily, but there will definitely be similar plots."

Since Li Ye had weakened some sensitive background information while writing this novel, he had to compensate in other areas.

Therefore, he decided to highlight tactics and reasoning in the field of special warfare. Spy novels would emerge one after another in later generations, and the common-sense reasoning knowledge within them would definitely be breathtaking in this era.

For example, in the work of the "big brother" of spy novels, Ivy, there was once a plot about catching a Japanese spy.

Ning the King of Hell had already determined that the other party was a woman and found that she had made a public phone call at a grocery store.

However, the grocery store owner couldn't describe the woman's physical features.

Ning the King of Hell, however, utilized a woman's psychology of comparison and questioned the grocery store owner's wife.

Women looking at women have different angles than men; men look at "xxx," while women look at clothing, hairstyles, perfume, shoes, and other external features.

Sure enough, the owner's wife made accurate descriptions of the woman's clothes, cosmetics, and hairstyle, and even pointed out features like the very expensive fabric of the qipao the woman was wearing.

Thus, Ning the King of Hell deduced the target's accurate features and found the hidden spy among the VIP customers of a high-end clothing store.

This kind of reasoning plot could draw cheers from readers even forty years later, let alone in '81.

Look at the spy movies of this era; hiding a radio in a popsicle box could cause gasps, so the meticulous reasoning, plot twists, and cliffhangers of later generations would surely fascinate readers.

Wen Leyu was captivated by Li Ye. Unknowingly, she pressed against Li Ye's side.

Watching Li Ye write the novel slowly, word by word, the anxious little girl wished she could open his brain to see the subsequent plot to her heart's content.

But when Li Ye looked over and asked her a question, Wen Leyu woke up to the fact that her work wasn't finished yet.

"You're done copying? Let me see!"

"What? I... I'll copy it right away." Chapter 30: Big Business