The name is very common.
However, short stories do not need to have high-sounding names. What really matters to Wei Long is the content. After experiencing several disappointments, Wei Long now only hopes that Chu Kuang's manuscripts can maintain the usual standard.
Just keep the standard consistent.
Chu Kuang is a great general!
Although the blog has the added bonus of Feng Hua, if the overall level of tribal literature is not bad, it is not without a chance to compete. After all, short story lovers don't just read one novel. This is the only excuse Wei Long can use to comfort himself.
Click it.
Weilong started to watch.
The story begins from the perspective of a beautiful but poor woman. Because of poverty, this woman married a small clerk who also had no great ability, and the couple lived a tight life.
Women pursue material things.
Because of the shabby house, rough walls, old furniture, and vulgar clothes, she was always filled with sorrow. She dreamed of wearing gorgeous clothes, having countless servants to order around, and having delicacies from land and sea to enjoy...
Wei Long seemed to be thinking about something.
He roughly guessed that the purpose of Chu Kuang's story was probably to revolve around the topic of material things, which was in line with Chu Kuang's previous short story routine. He liked to use short stories to achieve a certain satirical effect. This was the high-level feeling in Wei Long's eyes, and his expectations were slightly raised.
Keep watching.
This day.
The husband took out an invitation with some pride and showed it to his wife: "The Minister of Education has the honor to invite Mr. Wang and Mrs. Wang to attend the evening party to be held at the headquarters building on Monday, January 18th."
Mr. Wang thought his wife would be happy as he had gone to great lengths to get the invitation.
There are so many colleagues in the Ministry of Education, but not everyone can be invited by the Minister of Education to attend the party.
However, the wife got angry for no reason.
At least this clerk working in the Ministry of Education could not understand his wife's anger.
It turned out that Mrs. Wang felt that she did not have decent clothes to attend this grand party.
The most embarrassing thing in the world is to look poor among many rich women.
This is Mrs. Wang’s explanation.
Mr. Wang had no choice but to negotiate and take out some money so that his wife could buy some decent clothes.
The wife said: Four hundred yuan is enough for me to own such clothes.
Mr. Wang's face turned a little blue.
Because he had this amount of money saved up to buy a gun so that he could go bird hunting on the plains with some hunting friends on weekends this summer.
"Four hundred dollars?"
Wei Long roughly converted some of them in his mind, and then roughly found the era when money and value corresponded.
Although Chu Kuang's novels do not specify which era the stories are set in, we can always find clues through the details in the articles.
only…
Is Mrs. Wang too materialistic
Mrs. Wang did have an almost morbid pursuit of material things, because that was what she considered respectable. After he made the clothes, he even borrowed a necklace from a wealthy female friend of his.
This is a necklace inlaid with diamonds.
In Mrs. Wang's eyes, this necklace is really beautiful. So this is the origin of the title:
necklace.
Wei Long couldn't help but think of a popular term nowadays, called "gold digger".
Having said that.
Mr. Wang is not much better.
He clearly had 400 yuan in his hand, but he only thought about buying a hunting rifle to go hunting, instead of saving the money to make his life more decent...
Look at the previous text again.
The couple even hired a maid at home.
The couple lives a tight life, yet they still have to hire a maid
To pretend to be rich.
It's better to suffer in life than to save face.
This is Wei Long’s feeling at the moment, which reminds him of the article "The Gift of the Magi".
The protagonists are also a couple.
But in that couple, both the man and the woman were willing to give up their own material pursuits for each other, which was completely opposite to the Wang couple!
How would Chu Kuang satirize it
Will this woman find a wealthy leader at the dance, causing the man to be abandoned
Maybe there will be a reversal.
The boss got tired of the woman and dumped her, and the woman had no choice but to return to her job as a clerk...
If that's the case, it always feels a bit off.
Wei Long couldn't help but feel a little worried.
This is a habit that many people who read novels have, which is to subconsciously associate the subsequent plot.
at this time.
The party has begun.
Mrs. Wang achieved great success.
She was prettier than most of the other ladies, stylish, charming, smiling constantly, and wildly happy.
The men stared at her in a trance, asked her name, and tried to get someone to introduce them to her.
All the staff in the confidential department of the department wanted to dance with her, and the minister also noticed her.
She danced with an intoxicated posture and excited movements. She was immersed in joy. She was satisfied with the victory of her appearance and the glory of her achievements. She was surrounded by happiness.
However, after the ball was over, she had to be transformed back to her original form.
Her life did not change because of this, and the glory of this night can probably only remain in her memory.
She and her husband shivered in the cold wind and took a rickshaw back to their residence.
She had to face reality again.
But something even more cruel than what was happening before our eyes.
That necklace was lost!
This is the turning point of the whole story.
Only at this moment did Wei Long realize the true meaning of the title "The Necklace".
"Interesting..."
Weilong's eyes lit up!
It's not a melodramatic story of family ethics infidelity and betrayal.
What Chu Kuang wrote was probably about a couple who paid a huge price for their vanity that one night!
This is indeed the case.
That's a necklace worth 40,000 yuan!
Especially after Wei Long thought about the prices of goods during that period, he deeply understood how huge a sum of money 40,000 yuan was for the Wang couple at that time!
what to do
Weilong thought of many possibilities.
Maybe the couple will default on the debt... Maybe the couple will find a fake to return the goods... Maybe the couple will go to court...
The result is neither.
This couple actually bought an identical necklace and returned it.
At this moment, Wei Long had some recognition of the Wang couple.
He even seemed to understand:
Whether or not a person is materialistic cannot determine his or her character. When problems arise, the Wang couple choose to face them.
Although the cost is indeed too high:
In order to buy the necklace and return it to its owner, Mr. Wang borrowed a huge amount of money, almost spending the rest of his life on it, and both he and his wife showed amazing heroism.
They decided to pay off these debts without missing a single word!
Mrs. Wang experienced the real life of being poor.
The poor couple fired the maid, moved house, and rented a cheap attic under a roof somewhere.
She began to do all the rough work in the house.
She washed the cups and dishes, wearing out her rosy fingers on the greasy bottoms of pots and pans.
She washed the underwear and rags herself with soap and hung them on the line;
She got up early every day, carried the garbage downstairs and brought the water upstairs. After walking up each floor, she had to sit on the stairs to catch her breath, and she was dressed like a common woman.
She carried her basket to the vegetable store, grocery store and butcher's store to haggle over prices, to be scolded, and tried her best to protect her pitiful change, copper dollar at a time.
Every month I have to collect a lot of IOUs and write a few new ones to postpone the dates.
Her husband transcribed accounts for a businessman in the evening, and often had to copy books that cost five copper coins a page until late at night.
This kind of life lasted for ten years.
Yes.
Mrs. Wang's brilliance that night came at the cost of the couple living in dire straits under enormous financial pressure for ten whole years!
Mrs. Wang seemed to have grown old.
Now, she has become a strong, tough and hardy woman from a poor family.
Her hair was in a mess, her skirt was tied askew, her red hands were exposed, she spoke loudly, and washed the floor with a large basin of water.
But sometimes, when her husband was in the office, she would sit alone at the window and think of the old party.
That ball, there, she had been so beautiful and so happy.
If she hadn't lost that piece of jewelry, what state would she be in now
Who knows
The story had not yet ended, but Wei Long felt it was very memorable and he thought it was an excellent short story.
Chu Kuang is still the same Chu Kuang.
He used a necklace and a party to depict the sad half-life of a young couple.
"The price paid for excessive pursuit of material things and vanity is too high."
Wei Long had countless emotions in his heart.
While expressing his feelings, Wei Long also read the rest of the content.
He thought that the story had ended after the couple had gone through ten difficult years.
but…
It doesn't seem to be the case.
Mrs. Wang met the good friend who had lent her the necklace. She was still as charming as she was ten years ago.
But by this time, Mrs. Wang had changed so much due to ten years of hard work that her friends could hardly recognize her.
The two greeted each other.
Her friends were shocked. Why did Mrs. Wang become like this in ten years
Mrs. Wang naturally explained the reason with a wry smile.
Unexpectedly, the friend was even more shocked. She took Mrs. Wang's hand and said, "Alas, poor sister, you know, my diamond necklace is fake and worth only five hundred yuan at most!"
The story ends here.
But Wei Long, who was reviewing manuscripts in front of the computer, felt as if he was struck by lightning, and his whole head was confused!
Fake…
The necklace is fake!
So the debt that the Wang couple almost sacrificed their lives on and had to work hard to repay was actually just a misunderstanding!
After figuring this out, Wei Long suddenly felt his scalp tingling!
He stood up suddenly, and because he used too much force, the chair behind him suddenly fell to the ground.
"bump."
The chair suddenly fell one meter away. This sudden movement attracted the attention of countless people in the department. Even Han Jimei, who was in the inner office, couldn't help but push the door to see what was happening outside.
Just when someone wanted to ask Wei Long a few questions, Wei Long suddenly shouted in a hurried voice, and the voice resounded throughout the department:
"What about the troika?"