When Four left for his apartment, Atman was alone again. He looked at his books and wanted to get rid of them. He felt he read them day and night and yet got nothing. He was still a security guard living in a basement of Deep.

    Atman threw several books out, but soon felt sorry for them. He picked them back and used towel to wipe them clean, however, still had no mood to read. He turned on his computer and tried to surf the Internet for a while.

    Getting tired of serious literature and history, he tried to find some relaxing novels to cheer up. He found a time travel novel and read several chapters of it, saying to himself, “The guy knows nothing about Tang dynasty and yet he had the courage to write about someone who travels to Tang dynasty. Really an ass!” He found it had already included two hundred chapters and wasn’t finished yet, “Oh, long and tedious crap.” The clicks ratio was really poor and yet the author continued to write daily as nothing happened. Suddenly Atman felt awe to him and thought he had the pious power to write.

    Atman felt he was lack of this kind of spirit and that’s why he became so impatient. He wanted to contact the man to have a chat and the man’s QQ happened to be there. He added the writer’s QQ to found him was a girl instead.

    The girl sent a message to Atman, “Who are you?” Atman replied, “A fan of your work.” Through the conversation, Atman knew more about the girl. The girl was a salesgirl in a clothes shop. When there was no customer, she typed her novel with mobile phone. Typing two hundred chapters with mobile phone? Really unbelievable. She liked writing and thought it was really the biggest pleasure to express the world in her heart. She didn’t care about other things too much and hence could write again and again with nobody paying attention to it. Of course she liked to be read by others, but if not, it was still OK to her; she could continue her writing without being influenced at all. Probably Atman was her first fan. There were so many writings such as hers on the Internet, yet Atman could pay attention to her writing and that moved her a little. It turned out the girl with name Cloud lived not far from Atman.

    Atman decided to meet her. There was no reason for him not to be moved by such a pious writer. Cloud didn’t object the idea. Though Yaoyao lived right opposite to him, Atman felt she was too noisy and they hadn’t much in common.

    Atman met Cloud near Purple Stone Bridge, which was right besides his residence. Cloud didn’t have attractive appearance obviously, also was thin and quiet. Atman came to the point, “I meet you today, and only want to tell you, your work is really horrible.” Cloud was still quiet and said gently, “I know. My work can’t convince me either. I keep writing every day and find I make no progress. I’m annoyed, but still like the feeling of writing.”

    Atman smiled, “Maybe you can write about your life. You even don’t know much about Tang dynasty and only write about it with your imagination. How could you move yourself and other people? Don’t write things you’re not familiar with.” He saw Cloud was emotionless and wondered why a young girl behaved like an eminent monk. Cloud seemed to get enlightenment and said, “Thanks. See you.” Atman watched she walking away and shouted to her, “I’m on the tiptoe of expectation to read your new work. There is no need to write heroic things. Just think of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Daily things can be classics too.”

    A young couple nearby ridiculed at Atman and thought he was a fool. Atman didn’t care and only stared at them to force them away for they were a little scared of his madness. Cloud came back after several steps.

    Atman smiled, “I know you’ll come back. It’s really hard to find a friend in the same camp. I guess you have the same feeling. Let’s sit on that stone bench to have a chat.”

    Cloud sat on bench with back leaning to a tree. She even had a invisible smile, “So, what do you like to talk about?”

    Atman teased, “It’s really expensive to buy vegetables these days.”

    “What?”Cloud opened her eyes widely in surprise.

    “I’m just kidding.”Atman grinned to show his white teeth.

    “Nowadays, if you talk about literature, it only means being poor. Literary youth isn’t commendatory term.” Cloud said with a little sadness.

    “Walking on road alone, even though you know the direction, still, it’s so lonely. So we need companion.”Atman thought he found a bosom friend. After a little sigh, he continued, “Have you ever heard of Schwarzenegger? He is a person with self-inspiration. He never needed to seek drive from other people such as relatives and friends. “

    Cloud didn’t say anything and looked at Atman to expect him to say more.

    Atman behaved like Yu Boya meeting Zhong Ziqi. He had read so much for all these years and failed to find a real listener. Now he got the chance to express himself.

    “Joking apart. Let’s talk about writing. Though I never wrote something besides composition in class during school days, I had my own opinion. Without reading other writers’ works, we can’t write well. Only reading other writers’ works, we’ll lose ourselves. The correct way is absorbing strong points from other writers to form our own styles. Just like changing pollen to honey.

    There’re two points of writing, one is content, and the other is style. Without content, we only write an empty vase. Without style, we only write an ugly potato.

    I used to read classical works of China a lot and ignored other works. Now I find it’s wrong. Life is limited, we don’t have energy and time to finish all works over the world. I guess you don’t like history. So I only talk about literature today.

    I have to talk about Tao Yuanming first for he not only influenced me on literature but also on my life. He described a perfect farming life for me. Every morning, I work in the field with rising son. Every afternoon, I go home in the warm glow of setting sun. During rainy days, I can read leisurely at home to listen to the raining drops on roof. During spring and winter, I don’t have much farm work to do. Always in the idleness to enjoy the nature and my books, my life is simple and happy. I can still recite his poems:

The myriad transformations

unravel one another

And human life

how should it not be hard?

From ancient times

there was none but had to die,

Remembering this

scorches my very heart.

What is there I can do

to assuage this mood?

Only enjoy myself

drinking my unstrained wine.

I do not know

about a thousand years,

Rather let me make

this morning last forever.”

    Atman forced a smile and continued, “The tree craves calm but the wind will not abate. There is no utopia for me to enjoy that kind of life and now I come out to seek my chance.

    Thoreau tried to seek peace with similar way, but he only lived for 44 years old. If the reclusive life was really so charming, there would not be so many people struggling hard to get away from it. One day, I can’t remember the exact date; I understood that I only needed that kind of mood, not that kind of life. No matter where you are, as long as you’re strong enough, you can always have that kind of mood.

    Sakyamuni Buddha had misunderstanding before. He thought he could find enlightenment through self-mortification and nearly starved himself to death. Finally he corrected himself to achieve enlightenment. “

    Cloud stood up and begged Atman to stop, “Sorry, I really can’t follow you. I’m only writing something to express my mood in leisure time. Sorry I can’t follow your literary talent.” She said goodbye to Atman and didn’t come back this time.

    Atman sighed, “Am I really wrong? Nobody is willing to listen to me.” He returned to his room and lay in bed sulkily. Yaoyao was watching TV and having popcorn merrily.

    Suddenly Atman heard Yaoyao screaming loudly. He hurriedly got up and found Yaoyao holding a mirror. Atman asked curiously and nervously “What’s wrong?” Yaoyao laughed, “Nothing. I only marvel at how pretty I am just now! Why am I so pretty?” Atman snorted, “Naïve.”

    Yaoyao didn’t care and only said teasingly, “You must meet some unpleasant things today. “”How do you know?””Judging from your horsy face.” Atman told her what happened exactly.

    Yaoyao said ironically, “You really know how to scare girls away. Probably you can open a school to teach people to do that.” Atman didn’t think so, “Yaoyao, not every girl is as shallow as you.”

    Yaoyao wasn’t happy to hear that, “Shallow? You call me shallow? Let me tell you what real literature is.” She drank a glass of water and told Atman to listen carefully.

    “There is a tall, rich and handsome guy. You have to make him protagonist and I’ll name him No.1 hero. People aren’t willing to read your short, poor and ugly man. If they have time to do that, I guess they’d rather look in the mirror to appreciate themselves, which is better than reading your work.

    Since Prince is tall, rich and handsome, you can’t make him behave as you. Surely he makes a lot of women fall in love with him, or else he’ll wasted resource. Those women fall in love with him voluntarily and No.1 hero doesn’t have to do anything to make them behave like that. If a woman isn’t pretty, she even has no qualification to fall in love with him. Your novel is written for film, or at least for TV drama, or else how could you make money? So, ugly people are used for comic effort only. Bestseller is your aim. No market, no value.

    Anyway, write things to people’s heart. Your novel can provide people with things they can’t get in real life and they’re willing to pay for your work. Let me tell you a joke. There is a soldier who always likes getting drunk. His captain told him, “If you had got rid of drinking, you would have been promoted as sergeant long ago.” The solider only answered, “When I was drunk, I felt I was captain.”

    Also, you need to make complicated plot. For example. No.1 hero’s father used to be lover of No.2 heroine’s mother. No.2 hero’s father was No.1 hero’s father’s rival in loving No.2 heroine’s mother. No.1 heroine turns out to be No.2 hero’s father’s illegitimate daughter. No.2 hero has a bunch of girlfriends and No.1 heroine is the only girl who captures his heart. “Yaoyao paused to have another glass of water.

    Atman was aghast and said, “Oh, my god! You’re really evil.”

    Yaoyao laughed loudly, “Ha, now you call me evil. I haven’t showed you my edition with strong favor yet. You only heard my edition with light favor. Though No.1 hero is tall, rich and powerful, he loves man instead of woman. He only gets married with No.1 heroine under the pressure of his father. No.1 heroine is ex-lover of No.2 hero’s father. No.2 heroine only loves No.1 heroine though No.2 hero loves her so much. No.1 hero’s natural father is actually No.2 hero’s father. No.1 hero and No.2 hero were mixed up in hospital. Probably you’ll say it’s illogic, I can explain to you then they were very poor and not as rich as now…”

    Atman really had enough of that and it’s time for him to beg Yaoyao to stop. Yaoyao was complacent, “What’s the use of your reading? No talent and no immunity. Call me Master Yao and I’ll stop.” Atman said “Master Yao” in hurry.

    Yaoyao ordered, “Go to your room. Don’t disturb me to watch TV. “

    Atman went to his own room like a mother’s boy. Though he didn’t think she was right, he had no mood to argue with her.