Chapter 458: England
What kind of place was England? She had only seen it on TV before. The first time she set foot on this land, the feeling was completely different. Yu Linna looked at this unfamiliar land and smiled faintly. This was really a nice place.
The difference between this place and China was quite obvious, and the distance was also just as far. She had flown here from her home country alone, with no one to accompany her, and no translator. Normally, this situation would require the accompaniment of other members of Wenqing, but this year it did not. On the one hand, Shion-sensei did not need a translator. On the other hand, Yu Linna had taken the initiative to say that she would go alone.
As for the flowers that had to be sent every two days, she had already ordered them early. The flower delivery person would deliver the flowers to Ye Zhiyun’s company on time. Yu Linna was not flustered. At this stage, she still wanted to be with Ye Zhiyun.
A long-distance relationship was not easy, and it was hard to maintain, but Yu Linna hoped that she could maintain it.
“Hello, are you the receptionist? I’m Yu Linna, my pen name is Shion, a writer from China.”
The receptionist was a woman, with wine-red dyed hair, blue eyes, wearing a professional suit, with a capable look. She stared at Yu Linna for a while.
“Girl, you can’t be joking. You say you’re a writer from China. How do you prove it?”
“Why don’t you all believe me… hey, how are you? I’m a writer from China.”
To prove herself, Yu Linna had even used Chinese for the second half of her sentence.
Later, Yu Linna had taken out her ID card and also the proof of identity registered with Wenqing. Only then did this red-haired young lady believe her.
“Hey, hello. My name is Maria. Girl, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to Edinburgh. Our country has many special features. You will like it. Girl, if I’m not mistaken, your parents are British, right?”
“This… more or less, I’m a mixed-race.”
When asked this sensitive question, Yu Linna could only laugh it off.
Maria was a pure British person, and her profession was a senior editor at a British magazine, with many famous writers under her. She was now representing their magazine to receive Yu Linna. Hearing that Yu Linna was representing Wenqing to come to England to have an exchange with their magazine and also to learn from them, Maria had volunteered to be the person in charge. In any case, this was a matter of her own country’s face. She had to do it well.
Originally, she had thought that the person coming for the exchange would be a yellow-skinned man with glasses and a successful career. She hadn’t expected it to be a cute little blonde loli. And thanks to her appearance that was more inclined towards a European or American, Maria liked her very much.
Although this Shion-sensei from China had an American accent in her English, this did not hinder their communication. After all, this was such a cute girl. Everyone would like her.
“Time is a bit tight, Shion-sensei. Let’s go to the editorial department first. First, we have to take the subway. Do you mind?”
“I don’t mind.”
She didn’t mind what kind of transportation she took. If she had to take a noble private car, it wouldn’t be impossible, but she felt that there was no need to fight for face in this kind of thing. As long as she could get there, it was the same no matter what she took. She was not such a precious person.
The subway, this kind of transportation, was common in many places in the world. Yu Linna followed Maria into the subway station, squeezing in with a group of blonde, blue-eyed Europeans and Americans. Unlike in her home country, when she had squeezed into the subway before, someone would always take a few glances at her, and sometimes someone would even greet her in English. But here, she was no different from the people around her. They all had a European or American appearance. No one would deliberately put their eyes on her.
Plus, Yu Linna was only famous in China and Japan. Outside of these two places, not many people knew her. This long-lost feeling was also not bad. At least now she didn’t have to wear that damn mask and sunglasses.
“Shion-sensei, you’ve been staring at the subway. Is there something on the subway?”
“No, there’s nothing.”
Yu Linna lightly brushed it off. Actually, in her heart, she was recalling the memories of when she was with Ye Zhiyun.
The subway, this seemingly very ordinary place, had brought back a full of memories for Yu Linna. When she had just gotten together with Ye Zhiyun, they were still very much in love, and their relationship was particularly good. At that time, when they had had their first date in their home country, they had accidentally gone to a subway station. At that time, Ye Zhiyun had also said many sweet things to her.
At that time.
Ye Zhiyun was holding her hand, afraid that she would be squeezed away by the crowd in the subway.
“Hold on tight to my hand. Don’t get separated.”
She had said so at that time.
“If I disappear in the subway, will you come and find me?”
Yu Linna didn’t know what was wrong with her that day, to have suddenly asked this brainless question. Perhaps at that time, she really wanted to hear a few nice words from Ye Zhiyun’s mouth. After all, a girl in love would more or less have such thoughts.
“I will. No matter where you are, I will find you.”
“There are so many people in the subway. What if you miss your stop?”
“Then I’ll go and find you where you are. Wherever you are, I’ll go.”
“What if my phone runs out of battery?”
“Then I’ll keep looking, keep looking, until I find you.”
“The subway won’t be running until 12 o’clock.”
“Then I’ll look for you, until the subway stops running.”
“You’re annoying. You’re always saying such embarrassing things. You’re so cheesy.”
That was the memory left behind when they had first gotten together. Yu Linna still remembered it very clearly now.
Although it was just a subway, that day, Yu Linna had been moved by her. Perhaps it was from that time that she could no longer resist Ye Zhiyun. Although she was with Ye Zhiyun, for many reasons it was because of Ye Zhiyun’s firm attitude. But being with her, she had discovered many things she didn’t know about Ye Zhiyun before, and she also liked to be with such a her.
She came out of her memories and looked at the subway again. This subway was completely different from the one in her memory. Ye Zhiyun was not here either. It would be so great if she were here.
“Shion-sensei, what’s wrong? What have you been looking at on the way?”
“It’s nothing. Maria, we’ve arrived at the station. Let’s go.”
Yu Linna pretended to cough and brushed this matter aside.
After getting out of the subway station, under Maria’s guidance, Yu Linna came to their magazine office. This magazine office was called the Royal Periodical Society, and it was currently one of the largest novel magazine offices in England. The novels of English authors were published in the magazine every issue, and serialized every issue. When the popularity reached a certain level, it could be published as a novel. This was also the characteristic of this magazine office.
Yu Linna stepped into the door of the magazine office, met with the boss of the company, and talked with her about this work.
“Shion-sensei, welcome. I’m very happy, my friend. I’ve always wanted to have an exchange with a novelist from your esteemed country. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I think we will get along very well.”
The president of the Royal Periodical Society was a forty-year-old man with a pot belly, a British beard, and a large pipe, and the whole room was full of smoke. He was a traditional Englishman.
Yu Linna had a smile on her face, a very ladylike appearance, and had a friendly conversation with her.
“Your esteemed country’s novels have long been famous. I’ve long wanted to come and see. The famous writers of your esteemed company, can I meet them?”
Compared to a traditional Englishman, Yu Linna was indeed quite reserved. Although she had the appearance of a European, her behavior was no different from a Chinese person. Because she had grown up in China, her thinking was definitely more inclined towards a Chinese person.
The president of the Royal Periodical Society, Eddie Smith, looking at Yu Linna’s attitude, was actually quite unaccustomed to it. You say a girl with a European and American appearance, her behavior and manners are almost exactly the same as a Chinese person’s. He was really quite unaccustomed to it. How should he put it? This was really too out of place.
Yu Linna got what she wanted and met the authors under the Royal Periodical Society. She also met and had a few simple exchanges, and had many conversations on creation and literary stories. Yu Linna also got to know the different places of this country. England, in any case, was once a place of literary development. In the past, England, France, Italy, and other places were the hometown of literature.
In the past, no matter how she wrote, she would like to write it angst, and was often criticized by readers. Later, her style had changed a lot, and the plot was also biased towards comedy. The angst parts were less, at most just to move the readers a little. She didn’t play with literary plots much. But in England, this place was different. There were many literary stories here, and many of them ended in tragedy. Such stories could easily leave a deep impression on people. Although a happy ending was very beautiful, sometimes, a tragedy could often live longer in people’s hearts.
And these literary stories, she quite liked them.
“Shion-sensei, do you like our country’s novels? Our magazine office still has many. If you like, you can borrow them to read. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to read English books, right?”
“That’s not a big problem. These books are quite interesting. I want to read them at the hotel tonight.”
English literature was really amazing. After Yu Linna had personally read it, the feeling was different, completely different from when she was in Japan before. The novels on the Japanese side were mainly biased towards mainstream commerce, similar to the situation in her home country. But in England, she had seen few entertaining novels, and there was quite a lot of literary nature. Perhaps it was a bit similar to the French, who both had a bit of a literary thought.
Anyway, she quite liked to read them.
She finished reading all of them in one go. After that, her inspiration exploded, and she really wanted to type on the keyboard with her fingers and write a new story. But she also knew very well that if she wrote such a story, not many people would read it. It was more practical to give up. In any case, what people liked now were refreshing, simple, and crude commercial novels. To suddenly play such a literary style was absolutely not okay. Besides, since she had entered the novel industry, she had never tried a tragic ending.
Yu Linna held back her creative desire.
During her days in England, Yu Linna began to try to get used to it. It was just that Maria had asked her if she wanted to try to walk around in England, and at the same time to meet the great directors, screenwriters, and actors of England. Because besides being an excellent novelist, Yu Linna was also an outstanding screenwriter. This was also her opportunity to study in England. Yu Linna did not want to miss it.
