Chapter 680
Brother and Sister
Chapter 680 Brother and Sister
After sending Yi Yunshui to school, Li Zhuangsheng hired another online store customer service representative for 5,000 yuan a month. However, the peak purchasing season had passed, and the customer service representative's work had become much less demanding. Li Zhuangsheng then asked her to organize audience feedback whenever she had free time.
After Li Xiuyu got his driver's license, Li Zhuangsheng and Li Xiuyu discussed it and decided that Li Xiuyu would buy him an Audi A6. Li Xiuyu felt that luxury cars were too flashy and that driving one into school would make him look like a fool. Li Zhuangsheng felt that the car he bought for Li Xiuyu didn't need to be cheap. So, after some discussion, they bought the A6 in full.
Li Zhuangsheng sat in the new car, leaning against the window. Li Xiuyu was still a novice driver, and his foot swayed unevenly, making him, who was already prone to motion sickness, feel even more nauseous.
"You've ruined such a nice car..." Li Zhuangsheng said sarcastically.
"Why don't you do it!" Li Xiuyu said irritably.
“I was driving without a license, and you’re instigating me to commit a crime?” Li Zhuangsheng exclaimed. “After driving this car for seven or eight years, it’ll be just the right time to switch to a BYD.”
Li Xiuyu glanced at him sideways: "Did the CEO of BYD save your life? You like BYD that much? BYD, that name... Ha, isn't it stupid to choose that name?"
Li Zhuangsheng wanted to refute, but he was so carsick that he couldn't be bothered to speak. For a Han chauvinist like Li Zhuangsheng, his fondness for BYD began with the BYD Han logo and name.
He would casually recite ancient Chinese proverbs that Han sympathizers must memorize, such as "When the barbarians are without men, the Han dynasty prospers," "The barbarians have rulers, but it is better for the Chinese to have none," "The Han dynasty holds power and prestige, leading all nations, and all under the sun and moon are its subjects," and "The virtue of the Tang dynasty is great! It covers the entire world, and all its subjects are its subjects, extending to the seas and beyond, with no state or county among them."
Therefore, it's easy to imagine the impact the Han had on Li Zhuangsheng when it first came out and achieved success. However, at the time, the BYD Han started at around 200,000 yuan, firmly placing it in the mid-to-high-end market. Li Zhuangsheng had even fantasized that the Han and Tang could gradually climb to over 300,000 yuan and even become domestic luxury cars… who knew it would reverse course and drop to around 100,000 yuan?
BYD has so many models, why did you have to use the Han Tang model to reduce its sales volume? You could have at least used a different model. This reduction has completely ruined the Han Tang's mid-to-high-end image; it's a real disgrace.
It's like a pure and innocent young woman taking off her clothes in public. But taking off your underwear is easy; putting it back on is difficult. It's the same with the Meizu phone he uses. Meizu couldn't release the Meizu 22 in two years, but the low-end models succeeded first. It seems the industry is withering away; the products he likes are all going downhill.
"What are you thinking about?" Li Xiuyu glanced at Li Zhuangsheng, who seemed lost in thought.
“I’m wondering why I’m so cynical,” Li Zhuangsheng said.
"Haven't you always been like this?" Li Xiuyu said dismissively. "Otherwise, why would you choose to make poetry animations? You should be making anime-style big-breasted beauties who all like useless guys."
“That kind of thing is destined to be just temporary fun. I want to contribute to society, even if it's just to make one more person interested in poetry after watching my animation,” Li Zhuangsheng said quietly. “But sometimes I wonder, isn’t this a kind of imposing my ideas on others? Besides, what good is memorizing poems and essays? What kind of contribution can it make?”
"At least this can improve people's artistic cultivation and language skills, right? Don't just see a waterfall and say 'Wow, awesome!' all you do is think about these vague and unrealistic things. According to you, humans will eventually die, and humanity will eventually perish. It's impossible for us to exist for billions of years like the universe. So what contributions did Newton and Einstein make to humanity?"
Li Zhuangsheng remained silent for a long time.
"Why are you silent now? Do you also think what I said makes a lot of sense?"
"...I'm going to throw up."
Li Xiuyu was startled and quickly braked to pull over to the side of the road. Li Zhuangsheng, no longer caring about the heat, opened the car window to let in some fresh air, thankfully without vomiting.
“Let’s go, I’m fine now.” Li Zhuangsheng took a sip of water. “Speaking of waterfalls, the Tang Dynasty poet Xu Ning also wrote a poem called ‘Lushan Waterfall’.”
"I've never heard of this poet. What are the poems about?" Li Xiuyu rarely dampened Li Zhuangsheng's spirits and always gave him a chance to show off.
“A waterfall plunges straight down from the void, thunderous as it rushes into the river without pause. Through the ages, it flies like a white ribbon, a single line shattering the green of the mountains.” Li Zhuangsheng said with his eyes closed, “I think it’s alright, at least not bad. Xu Ning was actually quite famous in the Tang and Song dynasties, of course, not as famous as Li Bai and others, and even less so in modern times. But I know him because of Su Shi and Li Bai.”
"He and Li Bai were good friends, weren't they?"
"No, the two were from different eras. He was good friends with Yuan and Bai."
"Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi?"
"You actually figured out who Yuan Bai is so quickly."
"If I heard you say these things every day, even a thief could remember them! You lie buried beneath the earth, your bones turned to dust, while I remain in this world, my head covered in snow."
Li Xiuyu never followed Li Zhuangsheng's interests. Li Zhuangsheng liked poetry and anime, but she didn't. She never memorized classical poems except for exams, and rarely watched anime; at most, she'd occasionally glance at it when Li Zhuangsheng was watching. Even though she knew Li Zhuangsheng was writing a novel, she couldn't be bothered to read it.
But the two still managed to get along well. Li Xiuyu was interested in everything Li Zhuangsheng talked about, genuinely enjoyed chatting with him, and thus developed a certain understanding of poetry and anime.
Li Zhuangsheng couldn't help but laugh: "In short, Xu Ning was quite famous at the time, and he also wrote about the Lushan Waterfall, which happened to be written after Li Bai's. So perhaps it led to comparisons between the two by later generations. Maybe some people said that Xu Ning's poem was better, and it's even said that Bai Juyi praised this poem as very wonderful. Anyway, it prompted Su Shi to personally defend his idol and criticize Xu Ning. He said: 'The Emperor sent down a stream from the Milky Way, only the banished immortal has written such a poem since ancient times. How much spray and foam does the flying torrent have? It cannot wash away Xu Ning's bad poem.'"
"Is it that harsh, and why name names specifically?!"
"Haha, that's really rare. Xu Ning himself didn't do anything. The reason is simply that Xu Ning wrote a poem on the same theme as a certain top-tier literary figure, and then was criticized by another top-tier literary figure hundreds of years later. Many treacherous officials and villains have never enjoyed this kind of treatment. Oh, by the way, when Su Shi criticized Xu Ning, he even took the opportunity to put down Bai Juyi, who was rumored to have praised Xu Ning, saying that although Bai Juyi's works were simple, his level of appreciation was not that low."
"Fan circles are really outrageous, even Su Shi is no exception... Xu Ning is quite pitiful."
"It's a good thing he was born in ancient times. If he were born in modern times, being attacked by a super popular figure like Su Shi would probably make him depressed and leave the entertainment industry. What's even more infuriating is that he really can't compete with those two in terms of strength. Sigh, the weak are always humiliated by the strong! I'm thinking, should we make animations of Li Bai and Xu Ning's Lushan Waterfall and let the audience vote on whose is better?"
"You really love making things worse."
"Haha, I was just kidding. It's easy to get tired of seeing two similar works in a row. And the result will definitely be an overwhelming choice for Li Bai. In fact, most people don't have a high level of literary appreciation. Their only basis for judging whether a poem is good or bad is the author's fame."
"From what you're saying, you prefer Xu Ning, huh?"
"No, I could recite Li Bai's 'Viewing the Waterfall at Mount Lu' when I was in elementary school. I'm so familiar with it that I've lost all sense of it and can't appreciate its merits anymore. It's like how many people can't objectively evaluate their own appearance."
Li Xiuyu snorted softly: "I think I'm very beautiful, isn't that objective?"
Li Zhuangsheng smiled and kissed her on the cheek: "You know you're pretty because of what others say, but actually there are many ugly people who think they're pretty just because others are being polite. It's said that 80% of girls think they're in the top 20% when it comes to looks, which is the new Pareto principle."
(End of this chapter)