When he was in the first year of junior high school, Chen Qing called him and said he wanted to meet a writer who was recommended by Zhao Re.
It was so mysterious at the time that it aroused Zhang Zhong's interest, and he asked Chen Qing to tell him about it after seeing it.
Chen Qing called him after seeing him that day. Zhang Zhong still remembered Chen Qing's tone at that time, and he was 120% surprised.
"That Qin Zhao turned out to be an eleven-year-old boy."
Zhang Zhong was also surprised when he heard Chen Qing say this, because it is difficult for ordinary people to associate the title of writer with an eleven-year-old boy.
However, the person was recommended by Zhao Re. Chen Qing made a special trip on New Year's Day, which was definitely not a joke.
So, this eleven-year-old boy is indeed extraordinary.
However, Zhang Zhong also wondered where Zhao Re found this little boy. After all, if he had works and was very talented, the news would have been reported long ago. It is impossible that he and Chen Qing had no impression at all.
Chen Qing told Zhang Zhong that Zhao Re saw Qin Zhao's article in a magazine and contacted him because he thought it was interesting. At that time, Zhao Re did not expect that the person he contacted would be an eleven-year-old boy.
Zhao Re told Chen Qing that Qin Zhao was very talented in literature, even better than he was back then.
This is a real compliment. Zhao Re himself is a very proud person. For him to say such words is definitely his recognition of Qin Zhao.
Curious, Zhang Zhong went to read Qin Zhao's article.
The article was published in a little-known magazine "Sea Breeze". The full text is more than 2,000 words and is in the style of a novel.
The title is "Swift", the text is in the first person, and the perspective is that of a swift.
Qin Zhao uses the perspective of "I" to describe the life of a swift.
Swifts' legs are very short, and the protagonist's legs are even shorter than those of other swifts, and he has almost completely lost the ability to walk.
Because it has no ability to walk, it spends most of its time flying in the sky. Even if it wants to stop, it has to find a high place, because only with the help of high places can it take off again.
Therefore, in addition to flying, the protagonist's life is searching for high places and struggling with flat ground.
But this swift fell in love with a garden.
"I like the big garden between the two buildings. I often fly over it, and the flowers below look up and smile at me. The grass on the ground waves and welcomes me, but I can only disappoint them.
Because I know that once I land, I will never be able to look back..."
At the end of the novel, Swift gradually became unable to fly. He felt that he was about to die, so he traveled day and night, hoping to land in the garden for the only time before his death. However, by that time, it was already snowing heavily and the flowers were withered.
After reading the novel at that time, Zhang Zhong was very touched. When he thought that it was written by an eleven-year-old child, he was even more shocked. Such a young child could use symbolism so sophisticatedly, which many adult writers cannot do.
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If you interpret it further, the novel uses Swift as the protagonist, which to a certain extent challenges the concept of "human beings are the primates of all things" and is critical of human centrism.
Of course, only Qin Zhao himself knows whether Qin Zhao had this purpose when he created it.
But no matter how you say it, the language of this novel is concise, the structure is mature, and the expression is strong. Even if it is written by an adult, it is definitely a masterpiece, not to mention that the author is a child, which is definitely a bonus.
After reading the novel, Zhang Zhong also remembered a movie called "Days of Being Wild", which contained such a line.
"There is a kind of bird in this world. It is born without legs. It can only fly in the sky all its life. When it is tired, it sleeps in the wind. This kind of bird can only land once in its life, and that is when it dies."
Obviously, the bird described in "Days of Being Wild" was inspired by the swift, but it is more exaggerated.
Zhang Zhong also wanted to meet Qin Zhao, but he had already returned to his hometown and it might take some time before he could come back.
But there is also good news. Qin Zhao recently wrote a novella and said that day that he would send the manuscript to Chen Qing in two days.
Now this email contains the manuscript of Qin Zhao's new book.
Zhang Zhong opened the email with great interest, then downloaded the document and started reading it slowly.
There are not many words in this novel, and there are more than 43,000 words marked on it, plus punctuation marks.
Zhang Zhong spent less than an hour reading this novel.
The name of the novel is "Underwater Kingdom", and there is a bracket after the name, with the word "preliminary draft" written inside the bracket, which probably means that the name may be changed.
The novel of more than 40,000 words tells the story of a kind of underwater creature, which is different from humans but also different from fish. They have their own civilization and have formed a country with a strict hierarchical system.
It's just that their density is too high, their mobility is poor, and their lifespan is short, so they can neither surface nor move along the seafloor to land.
They don't even know land exists.
And the king of a certain generation finally made a decision to move the whole country, moving in one direction without stopping for generations. He wanted to see if the place where they lived had an end.
However, the king's decision was not supported by all his subjects. Some opponents felt that such a move was a waste of national power, a waste of people and money.
However, the tough king still defied all opinions and launched the migration.
The end of the story does not explain what happened after the migration. Did they finally find the border? Or were the people tired and gave up the migration plan after several generations of migration? Or was the kingdom's regime overthrown by opponents?
If you classify this novel, it should belong to the category of science fiction, but there is not much content about science fiction, and it is more about philosophical thinking.
The talent Qin Zhao showed in this novel is even better than that of "Swiss".
After reading the novel, closing the file, Zhang Zhong sent Chen Qing an email with only four words: extremely high quality.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he sent these four words, Chen Qing's reply came: Agree.
Although there are only two words in this, Zhang Zhong can feel Chen Qing's joy. After all, he has another author with strength and potential.
The most important thing is that this young author does not need Chen Qing to put any effort into packaging. His age alone is a huge selling point.
Zhao Re was a big help this time. Who would have thought that he could find such a good seedling just by searching casually.
Zhang Zhong put aside his naïveté and posted on his own Weibo first. He wanted to promote his own little author.
Zhao Re was treated like this last time when he joined. Of course, we can't treat him favorably this time.