Just after sending Linde away, Xu Yuhan came back with Pengpeng.
"Dad, why are you at home?" Pengpeng shouted.
Seeing Zhang Zhong at home, Peng Peng and Xu Yuhan were a little surprised. Xu Yuhan said, "Didn't I say that Chairman Hilde came to Jiangyang today and you went to meet him? Why are you back so soon?"
Zhang Chong smiled and said: "Hilde went to the hotel to sleep, and I will be back first."
Xu Yuhan expressed her understanding: "Coming so far away is really tiring. So will you cook today or shall I cook?"
"I'll do it." When Xu Yuhan asked this question, Zhang Zhong knew how to answer.
"Well, I bought a seabass and steamed it. There are also pork ribs. I will make a pork rib soup and then stir-fry some vegetarian dishes." Xu Yuhan gave a few instructions, and then took Pengpeng into the room to do homework.
…
After eating, Zhang Zhong went to the study on the second floor.
Originally Xu Yuhan was going to take him upstairs to finish the unfinished painting today, but she was a little tired today, so Zhang Zhong was able to rest as well.
But Zhang Zhong did not choose to rest. He planned to take advantage of the time in the evening to transcribe the "Cat City" he had drawn.
In addition to its science fiction elements, the novel "Cat City" has its own language style that is very characteristic of Lao She.
Lao She's writing has always been plain, simple and humorous.
As he said himself, if the text is to be lively and interesting, humor must be used.
He also said that if dryness, obscurity, and boredom are the fatal wounds of literature and art, humor is of great importance. This is probably the reason why it has become one of the factors of literature and art.
Therefore, in Lao She's view, humor is very important to literature and art.
This may not be a golden rule, but it is something he insists on.
So in "Cat City", he also embodies humor through words.
But he was not very satisfied with the humor of "Cat City".
Lao She said that he never wrote prefaces to his works, but this sentence was written in the first sentence of the preface to "Cat City".
He said he was afraid of trouble and didn't know what to say.
Since what I want to say is all said in the book, why bother talking about it anymore?
I neither want to praise myself nor scold myself. After much deliberation, it is better to remain silent.
But he finally wrote the preface. In his own words, this was an order given to him by the bookstore.
He said that "Cat City" was well written because his second sister and nephew thought it was very good.
But he also said that he was a little dissatisfied.
The reason is - not humorous enough.
It can be seen that he is extremely dedicated to humor.
Then he excused his lack of humor. He said that the biggest reason why "Cat City" was able to be written was that he ate too much.
Since it is about eating too much, it is natural not to write too humorously, because if it is too humorous, you will laugh after eating too much, and your belly will be broken, and you will not be able to eat again.
Zhang Zhong felt that when he wrote this, Lao She was not in a state of fullness but rather of being hungry, thirsty and empty.
But since the original author said so, Zhang Zhong can only believe it, and it doesn’t matter anyway.
As for how to copy this book, Zhang Zhong had his own ideas.
Although the things expressed in this book are universally applicable to all eras, there are still some details that are not suitable for publication now.
For example, the beginning of the story.
The protagonist "I" of the novel took a plane to Mars with my friends. The plane crashed and he survived.
And they flew for half a month.
This is the limitation of the times. Lao She obviously thought too well about the performance of the aircraft.
As for whether there is life on Mars, no one can definitely tell the answer, but most people have the impression that there is no life on Mars. This is shown by the detection results over the years.
So it is obviously inappropriate to use Mars as the place where the story takes place.
If Zhang Zhong really wrote it according to the original text, a lot of people would definitely jump out and say that there is no life on Mars.
So we have to change to a planet farther away.
But these are just small things that can be changed later and won't affect anything.
This is also why some people think that "Cat City" is not a science fiction novel.
For example, there is no problem if the background of this book is placed deep in a forest or on a distant continent, because the science fiction knowledge involved in it is indeed very little.
In fact, this is exactly the same reason that people criticized "Dune" for not being a science fiction novel at the time. If "Cat City" cannot be classified as a science fiction novel, then "Dune" may not be immune to it.
In the novel, "I" was captured by the Cat Man after he woke up, and then was rescued by a Cat Man named Da Scorpion.
The reason why Scorpion saved "me" was not out of good intentions, but because he wanted "me", a foreigner, to help guard Miye.
On this planet, there are not only people from the Cat Kingdom, but also many other foreigners, such as the dwarves who later destroyed the Cat Kingdom.
Cat people are a bunch of dirty, lazy, corrupt, ignorant, and cowardly people.
They don't eat, they only eat the leaves.
Mysterious leaves are something that can make you energetic after eating them, and you don’t need to eat after eating them.
So after "I" refused to eat the mythical leaves, the scorpion could only provide "me" with other food.
To be honest, Cat Country is too much like China at that time. Of course, Lao She’s description is more exaggerated.
It seems that when Lao She wrote Cat Country, he was magnifying the shortcomings of China, and then created such an absurd world and country.
There is also the race of dwarves, which seems to have something to do with it.
In the end, the Cat Kingdom's politicians were having fun with their prostitutes during a meeting to discuss the enemy and forgot about the meeting, causing the Cat Kingdom's army to be defeated and flee.
Moreover, these defeated soldiers later ran back and rushed to surrender and offer the city, hoping to receive rewards from the enemy.
However, the dwarves eventually killed all the cat people.
The most ridiculous thing is that after the destruction, there were still a dozen cat people left who fled into the mountains.
If they lurk and recuperate, they may not be able to make a comeback.
But these dozen cat people do not share the same hatred, but are killing each other.
In the end, there were only two cat people left. When the enemy found these two cat people, they found that they were still biting each other.
Later, the enemy put them in wooden cages and they bit each other to death.
The Cat Kingdom was completely destroyed.
"I" also witnessed the entire process of Cat Kingdom completing its self-destruction from beginning to end.
Finally, Lao She wrote: I lived on Mars for another half a year, and then I met a French expedition aircraft, and only then could I survive my great, bright and free China.
Lao She said that this novel originated from a nightmare of his.
But when he read the last sentence, Zhang Zhong felt that it was more like a dream during the day.
Or perhaps, the last sentence was just added on purpose because he wanted to ease the pain this nightmare had caused him.