Desperate Love of a Broken City 22
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“Worship the world!”
“Worship the Gao Teng!”
“Worship the couple!”1
With a ritual, Huo Ling could no longer support himself and Huo Qi held him back into the wheelchair. He lay down for too long. Plus his leg injury had not healed; just a few movements seemed to exhaust the whole body.
But he kept holding Jiang Nian’s hand, and he couldn’t be separated.
Mrs. Zhang was bawling. At the moment, she saw her son in a state of embarrassment and couldn’t bear to look over due to distress. Father Huo patted her on the shoulder and said, “The child has been lucky to wake up. Yes, don’t cry anymore.”
Mrs. Zhang quickly wiped her tears: “Yes, yes, as you said. we should thank God Huo Ling can wake up. I’ll raise him if he’s not good. I can raise him to be so big, I can still raise him white and fat! I don’t cry!”
Dad Jiang also cried into a tearful man, and was yelled back by Jiang Mother, “What are you crying these tears for during the big joy? Wipe!”
Dad Jiang nodded again and again: “Today is a good day, I don’t cry, we don’t cry! Don’t cry, my wife…”
“I didn’t cry, I am happy!”
As Huo Ling woke up, there were a lot of people crying and laughing at the wedding. The original heavy atmosphere was swept away, and they were all full of joy and excitement.
However, Huo Ling did not wait much. After the ceremony, he was sent back to the hospital for a precise examination. The doctor said that there were no obvious scars in his brain, and his awareness and cognitive ability were clear enough, so it should be fine. By the way, he mentioned the gunshot wound on his leg was more damaging. He lay for a few months and also caused invisible damage to the muscle texture. Although it did not affect his daily actions, it would still have some impact on his future work.
This result…
Huo Ling smiled. After experiencing life and death, his mind opened up. He held Jiang Nian’s hand and looked up at the beautiful wife. She was also looking at him nervously, seeming to be afraid he couldn’t accept this result.
Jiang Nian quickly hugged him with loyalty: “Baby, no matter what you become you’re my baby!”
Huo Ling smiled: “Don’t worry, I won’t think about it.”
Coming back is a gift from heaven. If all he had to trade was one leg, it is certainly worth it.
In fact, the shock of the injury on the leg was far from that of when he woke up and found himself at the wedding scene.
He saw the crying parents and relatives, and even the close brothers and friends. At that moment, he felt very clearly that the person who pushed him behind him and the person who walked him into the marriage hall together was Jiang Nian, his little girl.
Huo Ling did not expect Jiang Nian to be so courageous. In this case, she actually chose to marry him. Her attachment was so simple that he felt distressed. His heart seemed to be pinched, sour and swollen, and he couldn’t breathe.
How could she be so stupid; didn’t she think he would not wake up?
He had too much to say, and even wanted to scold her for being stupid. But when he saw Jiang Nian’s happy and happy appearance, he couldn’t say anything, let alone tell her one bad word.
In the end he worried her.
After the inspection, Jiang Nian felt awkward wearing a wedding dress and went to change clothes.
Huo Qi2, Zhang Xing3, and Huo Ping helped Huo Ling back to the ward, and changed his medical clothes by the way. After washing, he lay back on the bed.
Huo Ling had the opportunity to ask, “Is my family okay during this period of coma?”
Huo Qi reluctantly said, “You also know that if something goes wrong, how could your family be better? Yu were sent back for a while, and my parents couldn’t do anything but come to the hospital. They were worried that you would not wake up and didn’t dare to tell Jiang Nian about your situation.”
Zhang Xing took a chair and sat next to him, teasing, “At that time, didn’t you say that when Huo Wu was awake, the wife didn’t know where to go?”
When Huo Ling frowned, Huo Qi hurriedly said, “I’m wrong, can’t I be wrong? I said this wrongly; I admit it! At that time, I really didn’t expect Jiang Nian to take the initiative to set the marriage date today, ah! And sister…”
He had less time with Jiang Nian. He only saw his brother’s various worries as he cared for Jiang Nian. In his mind, Jiang Nian was a sick and charming girl who only needed to receive care and love. This time, when Huo Ling had an accident, Huo Qi had thought about what Jiang Nian would do. Even if Jiang Nian wanted to cancel the marriage contract, he could understand; after all, which woman was willing to live with a man with an uncertain future?
But, no matter what he thought, he never thought that Jiang Nian would be like this…Her performance greatly exceeded his expectations. In conclusion, Jiang Nian was kind-hearted, strong, brave, optimistic, and extremely……perverted?4
Huo Ling: “What’s wrong with Niannian?”
This was really not easy to say, right! Huo Qi opened the bedside table and took out a small book from inside but couldn’t help feeling that he was immoral. Huo Qi urged, “You said you found it yourself; it wasn’t from me!”
Huo Ling took it over, wondering, “Is this Niannian’s?”
Huo Qin replied, “You can see it by yourself.”
Huo Ling’s hand was still a bit hesitant. He opened it suspiciously, and he was inexplicably worried, but when he opened the book, he saw clearly.
“Baby didn’t respond to my first sentence, miss him.”5
……
“Baby didn’t respond to my first hundred sentences, so angry.”
……
“Uncle Huo didn’t respond to my 350th sentence, I’m going to blow!”
……
“Huo Ling didn’t respond to my first five hundred sentences, I’m mad enough to explode. He’ll have to coax hard!”
……
“Huo Ling didn’t respond to my seven hundred seventy-ninth sentence, I have exploded. When he wakes up, I will punish him to sleep on the sofa for an hour!”
……
“Uncle Huo didn’t respond to my first thousand sentences, I’m so angry that I have wrinkles. This problem is serious! I’m going to punish myself to sleep on the sofa to make him feel bad! ╭(╯^╰)╮”
……
Huo Qi said, “Sometimes I come to accompany you, and my sister-in-law is also there. I will sit here, and she sits there, and I will suddenly hear her yell at you, either ‘baby’ or your name, frightened me every time. I asked her why, she said that she wants to wake you up. The fierce tone is to let you know that she is angry, then you can wake up and coax her…”
Of course, he also heard Jiang Nian sometimes called Huo Ling very gently in his ears. In Jiang Nian’s words, it was “hard and soft”. There was always a method that would work.
He still remembered that Jiang Nian said seriously that she was even “coaxing and deceiving” to wake up Huo Ling. Wake him up first, and then slowly calculate the bill, and then pull the small book page by page to him see, and let him testify. The seriousness made him almost believe it. In fact, it looked funny and inexplicably sad.
Huo Qi originally thought that, in Huo Ling and Jiang Nian’s marriage, Jiang Nian took the advantage while Huo Ling suffered a loss. But, after this incident, he found that Jiang Nian and Huo Ling were suitable for each other. If you changed another woman, he doesn’t know what the other party would do, but he could be sure that he wouldn’t be able to find a second one like Jiang Nian.
He smiled and looked at Huo Ling who was staring at the notebook, and said, “Younger brother, you have to be careful; sister-in-law has a lot of grudges against you.”
Huo Ling looked at the words one by one, only to feel that the heartache was beyond remedy. He could only think of the little girl.
His Jiang Nian.
****
When Jiang Nian came back, Huo Qi, Zhang Xing, and Huo Ping were ready to go back to the hotel. After a long day of work, they hadn’t eaten a bite, and experienced great sorrow and joy. There were also guests over there. Mrs. Zhang and Ms. Jiang would probably be too busy and need someone to help take care of it.
Aside from the couple, only Jiang Nian’s assistant was left at the hospital, and they also asked the family to bring lunch to come. Huo Ling couldn’t eat anything else, only to drink white porridge and water.
The little assistant also had a good temper; seeing that everyone was gone, she did not stay to be an unsightly third wheel. The young couple experienced so much torture and finally came together that they much to say. She would not bother.
Huo Ling: “Niannian, come here.”
Jiang Nian looked at Huo Ling who was leaning on the bedside and giggled. She trotted over, Huo Ling reached out to her, and she put out her small. He gently put her in his arms, the man’s fingers were inserted into her hair, and the cool lips pressed.
He kissed deep and heavy, completely different from the previous gentleness, as fierce as he was venting the strong emotions from being almost separated from each other and unable to keep together.
Jiang Nian soon couldn’t breathe. He kissed and hugged tightly, his hands unconsciously burrowed into the skirt, stroking, feeling each other’s most real temperature.
The first time he was so barbaric, it hurt her waist, but she didn’t want to push him away at all.
Hugged for a long time, kissed for a long time, the breath was intertwined, and they didn’t want to part at all.
“Uncle Huo, it’s good. Our pair of bitter mandarin ducks can finally be together again!”6
Huo Ling caressed her soft long hair and kissed in the corner of her mouth: “I’m sorry, I worried you.”
Jiang Nian nodded: “I was really worried. You can’t scare me like that in the future.”
“Okay.”
Huo Ling kissed her lips again.
“Niannian, why are you so stupid?”
“Hmm?”
“If I didn’t wake up, what should you do today? Worship alone? If I never woke up in the future, then you’d have to face the living dead me alone? How can you be silly and give me your life regardless of the consequences?”
“How am I stupid? I am ambitious! Don’t you see that you are awake now, and you feel bad about me? You find that you love me more than before, and you will love me more in the future, right? You’ll be even better for me, won’t you?”
Huo Ling looked at her helplessly and shook his head: “How can this be counted like this?”
Jiang Nian: “Why can’t it? What I said is the truth.”
Huo Ling said quietly for a long time, only thinking she was a fool.
She touched the thin face of the man. He was really thin. The previous outline was sharp and deep. Now even the eye sockets were sunken. She lowered her head and kissed him on the face: “Baby, I want to raise you white and fat. I feel distressed that you are thin now.”
Huo Ling raised his hand and pressed the little girl against the shoulder socket, and said, “Okay.”
“Niannian, tell me, how did you live while I was in this coma? “”
“Of course, I thought about my baby.”
“What else?”
“What else??” Jiang Nian said excitedly, “Heaven and earth conscience, I have nothing but to think of you!”
“…………”
He was helplessly holding Jiang Nian’s face: “Speak people.”
Jiang Nian pouted her mouth: “I really miss you…”
Huo Ling froze for a moment, only to feel like he was stabbed in his heart. After a moment, he kissed her lips heavily again.
Jiang Nian soon became speechless and could only hug him with all her strength.
Not enough, no matter how deep the kisses and hugs were, it seemed that there was not enough, and nothing could be satisfied.
****
****
Huo Ling was in hospital only a few days after waking. Although he left the hospital, he still had to go back to the hospital for rehabilitation. Thanks to his constant massages during his coma, it wasn’t serious enough for him to be unable to walk.
Jiang Nian naturally went with Huo Ling. When they were at home, they could still accompany each other, and Jiang Nian finally had time to write a chapter of “God of Learning”. When the new chapter was issued, it naturally received Numerous comments. Jiang Nian secretly watched, secretly smiled. As one of the ten unsolved mysteries of China in the future, she must be stable, and she must not explode her identity!
In order to prevent herself from being tempted to fall into the dust7, Jiang Nian looked at the webpage and closed the page with pain. It happened that editor-in-chief Yang sent her a WeChat again, saying that the cover of Great Song had been finalized, and the book details was set as early as some time ago. It was just that Huo Ling was still in a coma at that time, and she didn’t have much control, and left it to editor-in-chief Yang.
Editor-in-chief Yang said that the cover, typesetting, and proofreading were now almost done, and they were already preparing to print the book to be released in a few months.
Speaking of which, this was Jiang Nian’s first novel. She was not sure what kind of achievements she would achieve. She was still very nervous.
But she had gone all out and strived to be the best, so she had a clear conscience. As for the result, she would know after the book is listed.
“Niannian, let’s go.”
“Oh.”
Hanging up the phone, Jiang Nian looked at the man standing with a cane. She trotted over and took his arm and said, “Come on, take a walk!”
Huo Ling needed to move around. They walked around every morning and night. Nowadays, no one in this compound didn’t know them. Anyway, they would be able to see the sweetness of the two of them as soon as the time came. After all, they also knew the truth and saw with their own eyes Huo Ling and Jiang Nian have walked through step by step, and it was inevitable that they would have such a good ending today.
During this period, Huo Ling’s merits also came down. Not only that, even the position was promoted to the university8 It was said that he had merit, and his ability was extremely outstanding, so he turned to the background.
In this way, his work would be much safer.
This time Jiang Nian was really relieved; he no longer had to suffer.
The two walked around the edge of the small lake, and Huo Ling heard Jiang Nian talk about the upcoming publication of Great Song.
“Uncle Huo, am I awesome?”
Huo Ling rubbed her with a smile Head: “Yes, amazing.”
“Of course, I believe readers will like it when they read it.”
Jiang Nian’s tail had been lifted to the sky, and she was very confident in herself.
The two went for a while. Mrs. Zhang came and called them back to dinner. Jiang Nian saw her from afar and took Huo Ling and walked back. Huo Ling looked at his wife and then at the mother not far away.
His life was already complete.
****
Just after Jiang Nian passed the exam, Great Song was finally released.
Jiang Nian did not know that the first few prefaces were written by several of her old professors from the capital. Editor-in-chief Yang also made some effort to find some historical novel authors to wrote recommendations. Jiang Nian was quite embarrassed. Editor-in-chief Yang said it was not embarrassing, because everyone was given a copy of the book and naturally read it, and after reading it, they chased him for the second volume!?
But editor-in-chief Yang was strict. They would wait for the second volume to be published next year. After all, the third volume hadn’t been finished yet!
As a result, Jiang Nian would inevitably receive a lot of reminder messages.
Of course, the students at the same level as Jiang Nian were very surprised when they heard that Jiang Nian’s novel was published, and they were particularly brave about buying a few copies to send to their friends. Even they couldn’t guarantee to write so well!
Classmate 1: “My God. I thought Jiang Nian wrote this novel casually, but I didn’t expect her Great Song to make me stunned both in writing and content.”
Student 2:” Me too, me too! When can I get the second one? I originally bought ten books for brothers and sisters, but now I have to not only send them, but also tell them they must read it! This book is really good.”
Classmate 3: “Suddenly feel ashamed. We are studying together at the university, why can Jiang Nian write two Great Song, but I have nothing?”
“………”
In a word, the group of students said was quiet.
They were obviously healthier than Jiang Nian, with more energy and strength, but Jiang Nian could finish two historical novels under so many difficulties, and each content plot in the novel had a historical record, which was enough to see how much thought and energy she spent! If they compared themselves again, what they did looked particularly trivial!
No, they must work hard and work hard, otherwise they would be nothing after being compared.
Great Song 1 achieved a good result under the praise of all parties. Although this result was only popular in the literary circle, it was enough to let Jiang Nian’s name be known!
And, every year since then, The Imperial Literature and Art Publishing House will publish a Great Song until the end of the fifth, and the sales volume of Great Song had stabilized the sales list of major book sites. Five novels sold at least one million copies.
By the time the five parts of Great Song were finished, Jiang Nian had already graduated from graduate school. In the same year, Great Song was nominated for the Mao Dun Literature Award.
The Mao Dun Literature Award was held every four years to encourage the creation of excellent novels and promote the prosperity of Chinese literature. It was one of the highest honorable literary awards in China. The gold content of this award was very high9, and there were nine other scholars nominated for the award who were very prestigious in the literary forum.
As soon as the news came out, it naturally shocked many people. How could they think that Jiang Nian would be nominated for the Mao Dun Literature Award?
Jiang Nian couldn’t be happier. She also called Huo Ping, Chen Yi, and Xu Lihai one after another. As her four grand front and back law protectors, they should be very proud at this moment!
“I’ll say that my reputation as a genius can’t be avoided wherever you go. Hurry up and raise your little chest. I can lend you my great reputation to show off your honor! Is it a great honor?”
Huo Ping: “…………” 🙂
Chen Yi: “………” 🙂
Xu Lihai: “………” 🙂
Although they didn’t want to admit it, it was indeed a good thing, especially considering Jiang Nian’s age. She graduated from college at the age of 22 and the first book came out that year. She was only twenty-seven now! How could it not be surprising that she achieved this at the age of 27? Although they were surprised, they were not surprised. In addition to her talents, Jiang Nian’s hard work and seriousness were all seen in their eyes. The five books totaled 1.5 million words. From the beginning to the end of the preparation, she spent eight years of time.
Eight years, this perseverance was also amazing enough!
Jiang father and mother were naturally more than happy, and quickly burned incense and told the maternal and paternal ancestors of the good news and thanked them for their blessing. Now they were also glorious. Regardless of whether or not she could win the award, this nomination was exciting enough. Grandpa and Grandma Jiang also walked with the wind and laughed every day, and everyone saw their golden teeth.
Not only the Jiang family, even Grandpa Huo and Mrs. Zhang who retired and rested at home had their heads up and mentioned it whenever they went out to dance with the old sisters. Especially the calm Grandpa Huo who couldn’t help but praise his little granddaughter-in-law whenever he played chess with the old guys.
The people around them felt their teeth ache from the acid.10
And during this period, Jiang Nian was on fire again. Her last fire was because she took the top entrance exam. This time, she was the youngest finalist for the Mao Dun Literature Award again!
Wu Wenwen did not expect that, one day, she could interview Jiang Nian again. She did not expect Jiang Nian to remember her, and even agree after hearing her request.
In fact, she really wanted to say that she watched Jiang Nian grow up step by step. She knew that Jiang Nian was a genius girl, but she didn’t expect her to achieve such remarkable achievements at such a young age.
After a lapse of nine years, she went to Jiang Nian again and interviewed Jiang Nian again in the same study.
Looking at the familiar study, Wu Wenwen couldn’t help but miss it. When she came to interview Jiang Nian, she was still just a fledgling young reporter, and Jiang Nian was just a little girl. After nine years, she sat firmly on the host’s position and Jiang Nian’s position was also dazzling and inspiring. The once delicate girl was already a beautiful woman with a gentle husband.
Instead of rushing to interview, she chatted with Jiang Nian and looked at the books that were about to fill up the study room: “Are these the books you are reading recently? Can I take a look?”
Jiang Nian smiled.
“Yes, you can just look casually.”
Wu Wenwen walked in front of the bookshelf, and the camera also moved. But when she walked to the desk, she couldn’t help but wonder how this desk was filled with high school Chinese? Math also? The Jiang family should not have any high school students in school.
Sure enough, learning God was not ordinary. She hadn’t forgotten her knowledge for years after graduating from high school.
She sighed with emotion and asked the photographer to give a few more shots.
The interview on this day was naturally a great conversation. What surprised Wu Wenwen the most was that Jiang Nian’s heart had not changed and she had still been struggling with fate. But, after waiting for the show to air, an unexpected thing went viral on the Internet.
Because the netizens with sharp eyes found that under Jiang Nian’s desk, there were several names written on the stack of wastepaper near the legs of the table, and a math question was listed. This was originally nothing, but these names were not ordinary; that math question was even more unusual. Wasn’t it the type of question that appeared in the latest update of Learning to Advance???!!!
Motherfu*ker! Jiang Nian, the nominee of the Mao Dun Literature Award, was the author of Learning to Advance, ‘My Big Baby’???
Who was ‘My Big Baby’? She had written a God level novel that had not been finished for eight years. What was more terrible was that she could bet on some college entrance examination questions every year! There were many students who came to worship every year. Now, in the past few years, her collection and comments of that article were in the millions!11 But for how many years this had happened, they didn’t even know who the big baby was, and the big baby had never said a word or shown a face! Who was Jiang Nian? Once the champion of both the high school and college entrance examinations— a high-caliber student from Capital University!
Now this big baby was actually Jiang Nian, the nominee of the Mao Dun Literature Award?! When the news came out, everyone was shocked!!
When Jiang Nian saw this news, she felt a thunderbolt! It seemed that a peal of thunder hit her smart head!
She turned around and cried in Huo Ling’s arms, desperately saying, “Baby, what should I do? My dream is broken!”
Abominable fate, she really didn’t want to live! QAQ
Footnotes
1. These three bows are what makes a couple ‘officially married’ in a traditional Chinese wedding- similar to ‘I do’ in Western weddings. Many of you might have read similar scenes in historical novels but basically the two people getting married bow/kowtow to the world (emperor), the Gao Teng (seat where their elders are located), and then each other. ^
2. His older brother ^
3. His best bud ^
4. This is always a difficult word for me to translate as it’s hard to convey the meaning while accounting for the presence/absence of any negative subtext. The rough literal translation is ‘neuropathy’, referring to someone with something very clearly wrong with their brain/mental state. But that’s not an English word used outside of a medical context, so I have to look for a partial equivalent. And most of those have trouble fully capturing the nuances of the word IMO, with my favorite, deviant, being a bit ill fitting in this context (if I called her devious, I think that conveys something very different from what I want to get across). But I try 🙂 ^
5. Fun little trivia: this word means ‘miss’, ‘want’, and ‘think/believe’. ^
6. ‘Mandarin ducks’ is a euphemism for lovers’ ^
7. Losing your identity/status ^
8. I left this as is because I wasn’t too sure what it meant. It may have literally meant university, as in educating high-ranking soldiers. Or it could mean university in the sense of accumulating/gathering knowledge and making decisions like general style. ^
9. ‘gold content’ = legitimacy/prestige of an award. As an easy to understand comparison: a high gold content award would be like an Oscar whereas a low gold content award would be a TV guide ‘movie of the month’ award or something ^
10. This is a layered pun/joke. 1st layer: too much acid hurts the teeth. 2nd layer: Where’s the acid from? Vinegar. 3rd layer: Why is their vinegar? Because they’re jealous. A similar English equivalent would be ‘eyes turned green with envy’ but I thought it was fun to share a new one with y’all. Plus, the added physical pain makes this version so much more unnecessarily dramatic lol. ^
11. Just in case you want to know what ‘collections’ means, check out my other novel, ABSML, that explains this concept (shameless plug) ^
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22/23
Chocolate Otaku 
Hahaha! If other people’s dream is to be recognise, Jiang Nian’s dream is to be a legendary ghost writer. 😂
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Poor you Jiang Nian you’re dream of becoming “Top 10 of china’s unsolved mysteries” is broken haha 🤣
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