At home.
It was past ten in the morning.
His parents had gone to work, leaving Zhang Ye alone at home.
After Zhang Ye opened the door and entered the house, other than taking a sip of the leftover tea on the table, he did not do anything else. He went straight to his bedroom and switched on the computer. He searched for "Dream of the Red Chamber". There were a lot of search results. There were also a lot of ancient manuscripts. Finally, he sorted out a total of 120 circulated manuscripts.
That's right!
That's it!
Zhang Ye could not help but open one of the most widely published books on the internet. Then, he gave it a rough look and scanned through it a few times. After spending an hour, Zhang Ye finally confirmed that there was no mistake. This world's version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was exactly the same as his world's. Even the typography of the text did not differ much. Although many things in this world had changed, the Four Great Classical Novels, which had such a huge influence, were still around. This was something that Zhang Ye confirmed once again. There was absolutely no problem with it!
But what was going on?
Why would Professor Zeng say that?
Zhang Ye looked up some lectures related to "Dream of the Red Chamber". Indeed, it was as Professor Zeng had said. There were not many detailed lectures on this work in this world. There were some, but some people would just casually talk about the first ten chapters, analyze it, and then it was gone!
It can't be that serious, right?
What are you guys doing?
What about those Redologists? What about those experts who specialized in researching 'Dream of the Red Chamber'? Where did they all go? Did you guys go and study 'Jin Ping Mei'?
This was something that Zhang Ye could not understand!
As the head of the Four Great Classical Novels, how did 'Dream of the Red Chamber' end up in such a state?
Suddenly, Zhang Ye saw a piece of information regarding "Dream of the Red Chamber". After being stunned for a few seconds, he was dumbfounded. It said — As the first of the Four Great Classical Novels, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", its achievements and influence in the country … The latter part was no longer important. Zhang Ye was stunned by the first half of the sentence. Your sister, when did the first of the Four Great Classical Novels become "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"? The literary value of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was publicly number one in his world. It was an indisputable number one, so how could it be "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"!
No!
There must be a story behind this!
This world's cultural works were different from his previous world, but the standard of appreciation was the same. There would not be such a low-level judgment. Even those experts and scholars who spent their entire lives studying the Three Kingdoms would not dare to say that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was more literary than "Dream of the Red Chamber"!
What went wrong?
What was the problem?
To Zhang Ye, this matter was no less than a paranormal incident. This was because he could not figure out the reason no matter how hard he racked his brains. Hence, he hurriedly went online to search. The more he searched, the more speechless Zhang Ye became. He realized that not only was "Dream of the Red Chamber" not the most famous novel in this world, it was ranked last among the Four Great Classical Novels. Even "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" were ranked before "Dream of the Red Chamber"!
There was an authoritative review that wrote:
"I have always believed that 'Dream of the Red Chamber', which is ranked last among the Four Great Classical Novels, could actually go one step higher. It might even be ranked first, but unfortunately, there are many mysteries in this work that we have yet to unravel. For example, Jia Baoyu's poem that does not match his character, or the major flaw in the seemingly 'perfect' ending, etc. No one even knows if it was a typo by Mr Cao Xueqin, or if it was deliberately written that way. Maybe Mr Cao Xueqin fell ill in his later years, and could no longer support his meticulous work. Hence, there are so many problems and flaws. To Redologists who love 'Dream of the Red Chamber', this is a huge pity!"
Major flaw in the ending?
What the hell does the flaw in the ending have to do with your mother, Cao Xueqin!
The person who published this review was a professor from Tsinghua University who researched literature. This review made Zhang Ye feel that something was amiss. He immediately found the crux of the matter and had a very bad guess!
It can't be?
It can't be, right?
Zhang Ye hurriedly checked and finally received confirmation. That's right! It was exactly as he had guessed! It was written clearly on the internet and related books. In this world, everyone believed that the 120 circulated chapters of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' were all written by Cao Xueqin!
F * * k!
What about Gao E?
Gao E was eaten up by you guys!
Zhang Ye checked Gao E's name and found that there really was such a person. This period of history had not changed, but in everyone's impression of Gao E, he was just a person in charge of organizing 'Dream of the Red Chamber'. As for the rest … the rest had nothing to do with him. Many of the ancient manuscripts of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' that had been passed down were not as complete as Zhang Ye's world. The most famous Zhiyanzhai edition only had about a dozen chapters and some comments. On this point, there was a gap in history! Regarding Gao E's continuation of 'Dream of the Red Chamber', there was a lot of heated discussion and debate in Zhang Ye's world. Some people said that the last 40 chapters were either continued by Gao E or written by Cao Xueqin. Some people also said that it was written by Gao E and others, with Gao E being the final person in charge of organizing it. But after so many years of research and verification in his world, there was no longer any debate about Gao E's continuation. Most Redologists agreed, and all sorts of historical verification pointed to this point. However, in this world, in this world that had been modified by the game ring, some of the relevant historical evidence had disappeared. The last 40 chapters had become Cao Xueqin's original writing!
Wasn't this nonsense!?
How could the last 40 chapters be written by Old Cao!?
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. He was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Only now did he understand why Professor Zeng had said that. Only now did he understand why this world's Redologists only did their research in silence, and rarely spoke about 'Dream of the Red Chamber' in detail. Even the most basic understanding of it was wrong. Even the starting point was skewed. What was the point of research? There was no way they could carry on researching it! The 120 circulated chapters of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' were not written by one person. You want them to match each other perfectly from beginning to end? Isn't this an international joke!? 'Dream of the Red Chamber' had too many problems? That's right! Of course! You f * * king researched the 120 circulated chapters of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'. It would be a wonder if there weren't any problems!
This world's understanding of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' was fundamentally wrong!
Now, the only person who knew the truth was probably Zhang Ye alone in this world!
'Dream of the Red Chamber'?
No one dared to talk about it in detail?
Ha! No one dared, but I dared!
This bro will tell you all about it this time!
Zhang Ye was the kind of person who knew that there was a tiger in the mountain, but he still went for it. The more difficult it was, the more no one dared to do it, the more excited this fellow was!
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