Because it is indeed night in the United States, their meetings generally cannot last too long.
After Zhang Zhong ended the video conference, he poured himself a cup of tea, then turned off the big screen, opened the computer document editing software, and started today's work.
Originally, he had a relatively free time these two days, as the school had fewer courses, and some general courses did not start until May.
But he had some extra errands last night.
Last night, after dinner, I had nothing to do and used my points to draw a prize.
This time he drew a book that he was not familiar with, the title was "The Shadow Stealer".
He had heard of this book, written by the famous French writer Marc Levy.
Speaking of Mark Levi, many people may be unfamiliar with it, but they will definitely be amazed after knowing his achievements.
He has been named "France's Best-Selling Novelist of the Year" for eleven consecutive years. Each of his books won the sales championship of the year.
He is the absolute best-selling king in France.
"The Shadow Stealer" is his most famous novel.
However, Zhang Zhong is not very familiar with this famous novel.
Compared with "The Kite Runner", which has a similar name, Zhang Zhong knows the latter one better, and every time he sees the title "The Shadow Stealer", he will think of "The Kite Runner".
Although the names of the two novels sound similar and even seem to be companion pieces, the contents of the two books are completely different.
Zhang Zhong has an advantage, the novel he draws will be directly printed in his mind.
Therefore, it only took less than ten minutes to read through this 180,000-word novel in my mind.
The story takes place in an unnamed town, where there is an unnamed little boy who is weak, timid, sensitive and has low self-esteem.
The little boy is often bullied at school, but he rarely resists.
Then one day he discovered that he had a skill that ordinary people didn't have. He could "steal" other people's shadows and then communicate with them.
Yes, this is not a realistic novel, and the setting of the work seems a bit magical.
This can be seen from the fact that the protagonist has no name.
After "reading" this novel in his mind, what was most surprising to Zhang Zhong was why the novel never mentioned the name of the protagonist.
Mark Levy must have done it intentionally, and why he did it, Zhang Zhong felt that he did it to fit the theme of the book.
In the novel, the protagonist can "steal" other people's shadows and talk directly to them.
These shadows are actually the hearts of their owners, and the protagonist also penetrates into the hearts of other people when communicating with the shadows.
Therefore, for readers, it doesn’t matter what the protagonist’s name is, what matters is those shadows, those people’s true hearts.
The protagonist's name is Levi, Mark, or Ivan. Actually, any of them can be used.
In other words, the protagonist represents a group of people, not a certain individual.
In the minds of many readers, "The Shadow Stealer" is a heartwarming novel that shows a lonely boy's process of finding himself.
And this boy, in the process of finding himself, needs a lot of things. He needs Mark's shadow to give him courage, and Ivan's shadow to forgive himself, and the ability to steal the shadow is just an opportunity.
In fact, in the novel, although the protagonist has this ability, he has not used it a few times, and there is not much description of this ability.
Zhang Zhong tried to analyze Li Wei's creative process.
Perhaps, Mark Levy wanted to create a novel about a lonely person finding himself from the very beginning.
According to previous literary conventions, it is nothing more than that the protagonist is influenced by many people around him in the process of growing up, and finally changes drastically.
But Li Wei was definitely not willing to write like this. He hoped that the protagonist could have in-depth inner communication with other people.
How to achieve this?
Maybe Mark Levi had a flash of inspiration, or maybe he went through a long period of hard thinking. Anyway, he finally found a way to give the protagonist the ability to steal shadows and communicate with shadows.
However, this ability seems unrealistic. There is no such thing in the real world.
Moreover, if a person really has this ability, he will definitely use it.
But Mark Levi would not think about this matter at all, because he felt that it was not important at all.
Some sophisticated parties may jump out to accuse, but this is wrong and illogical.
But Livy had no need for realistic logic at all.
Zhang Zhong felt a little reluctant to meet this book too late. If he had seen this book earlier, he would have added another book to his reading list.
Mark Levy's writing style has always been simple, but he can always find the most suitable sentences to express and describe, giving readers a feeling of being at the scene.
Writing also requires talent.
Mark Levy studied at Université Dauphine in France, majoring in computer science and management, which is somewhat similar to Zhang Zhongxue’s major.
At that time, Mark Levy was definitely a high-tech talent. He founded a computer imaging company when he was twenty-two years old.
But this venture was not successful, and he eventually resigned from the company.
After that, he began a short creative period, but no works were published.
Later, he opened an architect firm with his friends.
This firm has been very successful and has grown very large within a few years. Many big brands have cooperated with them.
It was not until he was thirty-seven that he completed his debut novel "Join This Is True".
His sister, a screenwriter, suggested that he submit the film.
With the mentality of giving it a try, he submitted the manuscript to the publishing house, and it was immediately appreciated by the publishing house, and the novel was soon published.
Later, Steven Spielberg only read a little bit and decided to spend a lot of money to buy the rights to the book and make it into a movie "The Lover".
The sales performance of this book was also very good, and it directly won the annual sales championship in France that year.
With this success, Mark Levy's confidence greatly increased, and he left the office directly and became a full-time writer.
Later, he maintained a very high productivity, and every time he published a book, it caused a sensation, and the annual sales list became a common occurrence.
His novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, which is definitely the best in the world.
Even here at Haixing, authors who have sold tens of millions of copies must not be underestimated. Not everyone is a top best-selling author like Zhang Zhong, Lin De, and Yu Dongyu.
Most writers, in their lifetime, will not achieve sales of one million works, let alone tens of millions.