Chapter 46: Media Professionals' Standard Operating Procedure

"Tiantian, is the phone interview for the micro-fiction contest done yet? Lisa is rushing."

Inside an office building in Chaoyang District, Jingbei, Li Tiantian hurriedly replied, "Isn't the deadline tomorrow?"

"You know Lisa. It's been moved to today. It needs to be updated on the website by midnight."

Wearing round glasses and possessing a delicate face, the intern reporter for Sina looked somewhat flustered. As one of the most prominent companies of the current era, the competitive pressure among interns at Sina was quite intense, and job opportunities were precious.

It was not easy to find a job with a Chinese Literature degree.

In truth, the post-contest interview for the "Micro-fiction Contest" was a very trivial task; otherwise, it wouldn't have been handed to an intern to handle. But anyone who had ever worked a job knew...

Do trivial tasks well, and it amounts to absolutely nothing.

Fumble trivial tasks, and you get executed on the spot.

She hurriedly opened her email. Fortunately, the person named "Little Deer" she had contacted earlier had replied, but with the condition that she could only be reached after 9:00 PM.

Li Tiantian pushed up her glasses. Nine o'clock was way too late... Even if she was willing to work overtime, she wouldn't make Lisa's deadline.

She checked the time... Seven o'clock. Most places across the country had already finished work for the day. She might as well try calling a bit early.

Li Tiantian tentatively entered the mobile number and dialed.

She herself was quite interested in this author. The other party's micro-fiction was full of profound meaning, adorned with exquisite diction, and was both concise yet deeply meaningful, winning unanimous high scores from both public and expert judges.

It was practically a landslide victory in first place.

She remembered one of the professional judges, a teacher from the Chinese Department at Peking University, who had specifically asked them if it was written by some professional writer. To be precise, that piece could either be called "micro-fiction" or, with a slight rearrangement, an exceptionally fine "poem."

At the time, she had also read it repeatedly several times, and even after the results were announced, she decisively clipped a section of the text to use as her phone wallpaper.

"The setting sun sinks into the orange sea, the evening breeze falls into the city's forest."

The phone display showed it was connecting...

Before even a single ringtone could sound, the call dropped.

Li Tiantian looked at her phone in confusion... That was way too fast. Rather than the other person hanging up, it felt more like a signal issue or something similar.

So she dialed again.

The result was the same.

On the third attempt, someone finally answered.

"Are you sick? Who is this?!"

Li Tiantian quickly said, "Hello, is this Teacher 'Quilt Explorer'?"

"Call me later. I'm in evening self-study."

The phone was hung up again.

Li Tiantian held her phone aloft, thinking she must have misheard...

What did the other person say? Evening self-study?

She must have misheard, right? Was this... a prank?

Enduring two hours of agonizing wait, Li Tiantian organized the questions she had prepared, brewed a bowl of instant noodles in the pantry, clipped back her slightly greasy bangs, and finally, the clock struck nine.

The phone was dialed once more. This time, it took a long time before it was answered.

"Hello, may I ask if this is Teacher 'Quilt Explorer'? I am Sina reporter Tina."

"Speak Chinese."

"Uh... I am Sina reporter Li Tiantian."

"Didn't I say to call after nine?"

The voice on the other end was very young—so young that Li Tiantian was somewhat surprised. "I'm sorry, because the deadline is tonight, would you be available for an interview now?"

On the other end of the line, the young voice said, "I'm on my way home from school. If it's around ten minutes or so, that's fine."

So he was a student... What astonishing talent! To be able to write something like this at this age?

If he were a college student, that would be one thing, but if he were a high school student...

Li Tiantian instantly perceived the three essential elements of a news story.

Shocking! Shocking! And sheer shock!

Never mind a follow-up to an event; a news story like this had a chance of making it onto the main portal homepage of Sina, which would be a huge bonus for an intern reporter.

The tip of Li Tiantian's pen stood straight up as she immediately began digging for the story behind the scenes.

"Since this is our first communication, could you briefly introduce your basic background? Name, occupation, and things like that."

"Never mind my name, I'll just use my pen name. Occupation: student."

"Are you a college student?"

"High school student."

Li Tiantian's spirits surged! She immediately began digging for the backstory!

"What was the occasion that led you to pay attention to the 'Micro-fiction Contest'?"

"I didn't pay attention to it. A friend helped me submit it."

"Do you usually have a hobby of writing?"

"No, I occasionally write composition essays."

...

The call was very brief. The high school boy didn't show the nervousness of someone suddenly interrogated by a reporter, and several leading questions were simply brushed off.

Especially when the other party heard that the matter of "getting paid" wasn't managed by Li Tiantian, his interest in chatting visibly plummeted.

After merely ten minutes or so, the high school boy announced that he had arrived home and terminated the interview.

Yet Li Tiantian had still obtained plenty of information and, with some reasonable "polishing," began writing her draft.

In this era, "news" had long ceased to be such a solemn thing; it was merely a vehicle to capture public attention.

"A teenage boy from a remote small-county town writes thoughts-provoking prose—has the educational system buried a genius..."

"A mediocre-performing high school student wins the praise and recognition of a Peking University Chinese Department professor. Just how many such geniuses are out there... Why did school teachers fail to notice a rising new star?"

News, after all, told straight—who would read it? Otherwise, what would reporters and media be for?

"Mediocre academic performance" was her guess; "recognized by Peking University Chinese" was actually just something she casually asked about.

"Buried by the education system"... Wasn't that standard operating procedure?

Whenever a youth achieves something, steering it in this direction was always foolproof.

Li Tiantian didn't feel anything was wrong with what she was doing.

The clatter of the keyboard stopped. Li Tiantian looked over the result with satisfaction, yet still felt something was missing.

Finally, struck by inspiration, she added a sentence: "Will he become the second 'Han Han'?"

Then she changed the headline to: "Small-town boy becomes champion of the micro-fiction contest, yet another buried Han Han-style genius?"

Perfect! This flavor was spot-on!

A textbook-level media technique!

Then she appended a lifestyle photo sent by "Little Deer."

As for the accompanying "lifestyle photo," it was just a casual snap taken by Zhai Da and Lu Siwen on their way to school, and only Lu Siwen's N96 could capture a photo of passable clarity.

Because Zhai Da didn't care at all and simply let Lu Siwen casually snap a picture of his back on the way to school.

Ordinary, not handsome at all, and his face wasn't even shown.

Yet paired with Li Tiantian's text, it created a sense of "desolation."

It conjured the image of a youth blessed with talent, yet misunderstood by the world.

The more ordinary the photo, when paired with the exaggerated descriptions in the text, didn't that create an even stronger sense of contrast?

With her thoughts flowing like a gushing fountain, Li Tiantian's fabricated—no, exceptionally fluent writing quickly made its way to Lisa for review.

The news department prided itself on "timeliness," so even though it was very late, this news piece cleared several hurdles in succession and, amid Li Tiantian's fluttering excitement, successfully appeared on the website.

And what's more... right on the portal homepage! It secured a prime position!

As for how long it could stay there, that depended entirely on the click volume and feedback, but for an intern, this was undoubtedly a massive bonus.

Li Tiantian was too excited to sleep, lying under the covers with her little hands trembling all night.