One week ago, after the recording for I Am a Writer, Please Mock Me at Your Heart, Contestant No. 7's breakroom.
Feng Bujue, who did not write a single word in the last round, was unquestionably eliminated. After chatting with the other contestants for a while, he returned to the breakroom with a face full of joy, drinking canned coffee. Once the interview was over, he would take the subway home …
Not long after, Oscar led two cameramen, one lighting engineer, and one sound engineer to knock on the door of the breakroom.
Feng Bujue went to answer the door. After they all walked in, they started to set up the cameras and set up the lights.
Oscar walked in and shook hands with Feng Bujue like he was being inspected by a leader. "Thank you for your hard work …"
Feng Bujue said, "Not at all, thank you for your hard work …" He paused and asked, "Hmm? You still need to do seven interviews, right? "
"No, no, I only want to interview you," Oscar replied. "This is the director's rule. I am responsible for interviewing the eliminated contestants. The remaining six will be recorded by the editor or assistant director. "
"Oh, okay." Feng Bujue nodded.
There were several fixed camera positions in the breakroom. The two folding chairs that the host and the writer would sit in during the interview were placed in the corner of the room. There were lines drawn on the floor that accurately marked out where the chairs should be placed. The few workers worked skillfully for a while, and the preparation for the interview was quickly completed.
Oscar held a manuscript and sat across from Feng Bujue. With his back to the camera, he said, "Then … shall we begin?"
Feng Bujue replied, "Okay." He was the one who was in a hurry to go home, so naturally, he wanted to finish the interview as soon as possible.
"When you received the invitation, were you nervous or … stressed?" Oscar followed the script that he had prepared and started to ask questions.
"No."
"Then, did you hesitate?" Oscar asked. "After all, you are a famous writer. Hearing that you will be competing with other writers on this stage, did you feel weird?"
"Compared to them, I'm just a nobody. What's there to hesitate for?"
"Haha …" Oscar laughed. He picked up the portable player beside him, clicked on it a few times, and placed it in front of Feng Bujue. On the screen was a previously recorded video. "Back then, why did you give this episode the title?"
"It's probably because he had a premonition of what would happen next …" Feng Bujue replied.
Oscar then asked, "Let's take a look again …" He fast-forwarded a few more images. "Why would someone write something like that in the first round?"
"Why can't I write?" Feng Bujue replied with a smile, "Just like what you said at the time, it's hard to come up with an unexpected answer for the three keywords war, hero, and character. Then I'll write a character that no one can think of."
Oscar nodded and pushed the progress bar at the bottom of the video player. "When the voting results are announced, what do you predict your ranking to be?"
"Last place …" Feng Bujue said, "I've already said that it's a little overboard."
Oscar then asked, "During the second round, I noticed that you didn't have a single word on your console."
"That's because the outline is here." Feng Bujue tapped his temple lightly with his finger.
"How many minutes did you take to come up with that story?" Oscar asked.
"Actually … I only started coming up with it when you asked me to announce the answer," Feng Bujue replied.
"I think so too." Oscar laughed. "Haha … But to be able to come in second on the spot means that you're really good."
"If you do this a second time, it won't be as effective." Feng Bujue said, "This time, it's because the audience has never seen such a strange way of playing. That's why it left a deep impression on them and I got more votes. If there are other contestants who imitate me in the future, they might be unlucky. "
Oscar then turned around and gestured. The two cameramen paused their filming and the sound engineer put down the microphone. "Let me ask a personal question … After the second round, Director Fei secretly chatted with you for a while. What was it about?"
Feng Bujue obviously wouldn't mention the words "under-the-table manipulation". He replied calmly, "Oh, at that time … He thought that I would definitely be eliminated if I did this, so he talked to me about the revival contest. After that, we talked about the fight club, Schubert, and syphilis."
Oscar's mouth twitched a few times and signaled for everyone to continue filming. He dragged the progress bar on the video player again. "In the third round, did you really finish reading the entire book?"
Feng Bujue smiled proudly. "When you came in, I realized … you hid my envelope inside your shirt pocket, didn't you?" He pointed at Oscar's suit. "Since you came prepared, why don't you give it a try?"
Oscar smiled awkwardly and took out the envelope. He took out the stack of A4 papers and flipped to one of them. "He said in a proud tone, 'My stupid servant, your father is …'"
Before the man could finish, Feng Bujue finished. "Your father is a hunchback, your mother is a prostitute, your sister is a retard, and you are lucky enough to be a noble, which means you are my servant. What more do you want? "
Oscar was genuinely surprised. "Teacher Bujue, your memory is amazing." He flipped the stack of papers over and over again. After confirming that he couldn't see anything from the back, he added, "It's more than enough for you to join the talent show."
"Haha … Not interested." Feng Bujue laughed. He seemed to be conflicted about the novel before him, so he added, "The writing of the book is not bad, but the plot is too cliché and lacks a highlight. Other than that, there is a small part of the story that is copied from Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, but it changes the year and characters and changes the bridge bombing into an assassination. When I read it, I felt a sense of déjà vu. When I saw the sentence 'no one is complete, no one is an island', I understood it. When the man reached the thirtieth chapter, he basically didn't know how to continue, so he borrowed a plot from another book. After that, he came up with a rather boring story and couldn't continue. "
Oscar was stunned. He thought, So, you've not only finished the book, you've been quite serious about it.
"Are you really … that unwilling to write the final chapter of the book? Even if you just write it casually, you will get a certain number of votes, right? "Oscar asked.
"I don't like to touch other people's work, especially this kind of eunuch's work." Feng Bujue replied. "The feeling this kind of novel gives me … is like a child from another family. The child hasn't grown up yet, but the parents have abandoned him and tossed him onto the street to fend for himself." He shrugged. "Now, you want me, an outsider, to pretend to be his parents and raise him? I'm not going to do that. Since the child's parents don't cherish him, what am I going to do? First of all, I'm not the same kind of person as those parents. "
"Okay, I think I understand now." Oscar added, "One more question, what do you think about being eliminated? Do you feel any regret? Do you regret not answering the questions in the third round? "
Feng Bujue couldn't say that he was playing for the sake of elimination. He scratched his head and decided to say a few words. "Hmm … I think it's good enough that I was able to participate. Thank you for thinking of a small character like me. As for regret … Thankfully, there's no regret. As for regret … Since I've already done it, I won't regret it. "
The interview went on for about fifteen minutes. There were quite a lot of things to record. For example, there was an evaluation of the other contestants' performance at a certain moment and some questions and answers.
At the end of the interview, Oscar looked at the script in his hands. He had asked most of the questions, so he operated the portable player. "Before I ask the last question … I have a video clip of all the other writers when they first came to I Am a Writer. It's a remixed version. I hope you can take a look at it."
…
"A writer is …"
"A writer?"
"Hmm … It means to me …"
"A writer is …"
"A person who uses words to build dreams."
"It's a job, but it's also a career."
"A communicator of ideas."
"It's my life."
"It's very ordinary, but it's also very extraordinary …"
"It means a path of no return? Haha … Cut this part out. "
"You said that other people's novels are not good here and there. Then, when you write your own, can you do it well?"
"Because I like to write, naturally, I persevered."
"Everyone starts from the same place. We're chasing the same dream. However, many people took a detour, or … gave up halfway. But I believe, those who can persevere until the end, we'll all reach the same destination. "
"I have to remind myself that I'm a writer. This is not a talent show; we're professionals. We're here to show how a writer should be and not for others to tell us how to write. "
"If anyone can write, then what's the point of us professional writers?"
…
"Based on tradition, all the writers who come to our show have to answer this question …" Oscar paused. "Teacher Bujue, what do you think … the term writer means to you?"
After Feng Bujue finished this short video, he suddenly felt like this was a difficult question to answer. "Let me think about it." He had a very serious expression on his face, which was something he had never shown during the entire recording process.
After a long silence, Feng Bujue finally said, "I've made up my mind."
The sound technician raised the microphone again. Oscar turned to tell the cameraman, "Give me a close-up here." Then he turned to face Feng Bujue. "Okay, go ahead."
Feng Bujue said, "For me, a writer is … someone who can use words to change the world.
As long as you believe in that and stay true to yourself, you can turn your dreams into reality. "
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