Why Is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?

"When I am gentle, I'm like a cloud wearing trousers." - Vladimir Mayakovsky

The principal's daughter x the gatekeeper's son

Years later, Jiang Nan was sharing this story from her high school days with a young intern at her company who had become the target of vicious gossip. Just then, a fly landed on the cream cake in front of them.

Flies are hateful not only because they're ugly, noisy, and brazen, but because they always show up at exactly those moments you were looking forward to most, the happiest and most worth celebrating.

With nothing more than a quick rub of their hands, they can ruin delicious food and beautiful flowers, adding a little shit to life's sweetness.

The people she'd encountered were just like those flies, shameless and without a shred of remorse.

She met Xu Qingkai during the most miserable stretch of her youth.

One was an extreme egoist; the other, a people-pleaser struggling to stay afloat. They seemed like two parallel lines that could never meet.

Though the rumors claimed they'd been together for ages.

Later, the egoist became an extreme altruist when it came to her, and the people-pleaser only ever tried to please him and herself.

*

Years later, at a class reunion.

Someone deliberately asked, "You two are both financial whizzes. So who manages the money at home?"

Xu Qingkai: "I can calculate anything under the sun, except my wife."

Everyone teased him, "Boss Xu, are you afraid to calculate it, or can you just not beat her?"

Faced with one trap after another, Xu Qingkai remained calm. "If you hadn't asked me today, the thought wouldn't even have crossed my mind."

After being dazzled by all that public affection, everyone gave him a thumbs-up. "Impressive! As expected of Xu, the guy who always gets a perfect score!"

*

Maybe in twenty years, no one will care what the top student and the school beauty look like when they're old. But to each other, they'll always be the beauty and the hero.

Blurb screenshot: 2022.11.06

Notes:

1. The full manuscript is complete.

2. "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" is from the Chinese translation of a line in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

3. No intimate scenes while the characters are underage.

Theme: Ordinary people can live brilliant lives.