British writer

the next day.

The rain hadn't stopped yet, it was tapping on the window, and the wind was blowing on the window frame, making a soft "click, click, click" sound.

Doyle woke up faintly,

"Hmm...have a headache..."

My throat was so dry that it was smoking,

He opened his mouth and tried to call his wife, but only a violent cough came out.

No doubt it was a cold.

Doyle pushed himself up and looked around the room.

Clothes were piled messily on the chair by the window, socks hanging on the back of the chair.

The curtains were closed tightly, and the cloudy sky outside made the light in the room very dark, making it impossible to judge the time.

Doyle stretched out his hand towards the head of the bed.

Not long after, he touched the clock and turned it towards himself.

Clock display:

09:45.

Doyle didn't expect that he would have no sense of reality at all after sleeping for so long.

At this time, the door was opened.

Hawkins walked in with a basin and a towel. When he saw her husband sitting there blankly, he quickly rushed to the bed, forcefully pushed him back into the bed, tucked him in, and criticized: "How can you do this on your own?" Woke up?"

Doyle opened his mouth.

"ah……"

My throat was so dry that I couldn't make a sound.

Hawkins glared at him, put a hot towel on his forehead, and then poured water.

"Drink."

Doyle seemed to have just stepped out of the desert. He drank it without hesitation, regardless of whether it was hot or not, and burped with satisfaction.

"Finally alive," he said.

Hawkins snorted.

"You, you, are obviously a doctor, but you don't know how to take care of your body at all. You are like a child."

Doyle quickly apologized and laughed.

"I'm an ophthalmologist~ Besides, "The Lord of the Rings" is so good."

He fell into memories,

Yesterday, he read the series in the rain, and couldn't help but read it again after returning home.

The memory after that was blurry. Judging from the current situation, I must have been too tired, and finally fell asleep (fazed) while leaning on the chair.

Hawkins on the side nodded,

"Well, "Lord of the Rings" is indeed very interesting."

Doyle:? ? ?

"Have you read it too?"

Hawkins couldn't help but roll his eyes at his husband and said, "I have to take care of you all night, so I have to find something to do, right?"

Only then did Doyle notice that his wife was a little lethargic.

He looked around the room,

"Where's the newspaper?"

Hawkins stood up, opened the curtains first, then walked to the bookshelf next to him, pulled out a hardcover "Sherlock Holmes", and pulled out a few newspapers from it.

Throughout the process, she remained cautious, like a pilgrim.

Doyle: "..."

The feeling of wearing an environmentally friendly hat is getting stronger.

Hawkins whispered: "You know that "Mirror" is difficult to buy, why don't you take good care of it?"

She handed over the newspaper,

"After soaking in water, I dried it first, then dried it with fire, then put it into a book and smoothed it out. But the result seemed not to be satisfactory."

Indeed, those newspapers were all crumpled;

Doyle flicked it,

The paper was brittle and made a soft sound.

Hawkins glared at him.

"What are you doing!?"

As he spoke, he snatched the newspaper back and put it away carefully.

Doyle: "..."

Fortunately, I had a cold and didn't have the energy to get angry, otherwise I would have been so angry that I would vomit blood.

He asked his wife: "Do you also think that book is well written?"

Hawkins also seemed to realize that his performance was a bit over the top, and said sheepishly: "Well, I like The Hobbit better than Roger Mystery and No One Survived. So, I also like The Hobbit more." The Lord of the Rings.”

Doyle asked again: "What about "The Country Teacher"?"

Hawkins tilted his head and thought for a while.

"Can you understand? Not to mention those weird weapons, even the three laws of classical mechanics are still in a state of confusion. For example, Niu's three laws, can you recite them?"

Doyle couldn't recite it before.

But after watching "Country Teacher" so many times, it's hard to recite it.

Of course, those are not important.

Doyle chuckled,

"Standing on those concepts that you can't understand means that you haven't understood the core of "Country Teacher". That's all, let's not mention those."

He waved his hand somewhat condescendingly.

Hawkins complained: "Pretend! Just pretend!"

It's normal for old couples to bicker.

As she talked about her husband, she helped him change the towel on his forehead.

Doyle felt that his strength was slowly recovering and his appetite was coming back. He smiled and said, "Is there anything to eat? I want to eat sausages!"

Hawkins looked helpless.

"Okay, okay, I'll prepare it for you."

As she said that, she walked towards the door,

While holding the door handle, she turned around as if remembering something and said: "By the way, there is another tabloid on the street now. I bought it. Do you want to read it?"

Doyle thought of his unexpected encounter with Bucker yesterday.

"Probably a newspaper affiliated with The Times."

Hawkins nodded,

"Old Met said the same thing. By the way, Old Met is also sick. It seems that yesterday when I was buying the Mirror, I saw Lu's new book, so I walked into the store while reading it, and I was so absorbed in it. , stopped at the door of the bookstore to read, and finally..."

Doyle was speechless;

He thought it was outrageous enough that he was sick, but he didn't expect Old Met to be even more outrageous than him.

Hawkins smiled and said, "Okay, I'll give you the newspaper."

She handed the tabloid to Doyle and headed out.

The name of the tabloid is "Daily Times", which means "Daily Times", and it just needs to print the words "I am the little brother of "The Times"" on the masthead.

Doyle couldn't help but want to laugh and looked at the first page.

Instantly, he was attracted by the article.

"Fake!" Fake! Fake! 》

Fake! Fake! Fake!

It was a powerful headline, no less impressive than the most eye-catching ones in the Mirror.

Doyle muttered: "Tsk...Baker has learned the essence of the Mirror. It is 'news', but it is also a veritable 'fake news'."

He looked back at the subtitle of the article,

"From sales to headlines to content, what is true about a tabloid?" 》

Isn’t the only tabloid newspaper published now, the Mirror?

Doyle:? ? ?

"Is Bucker crazy? This is a direct attack!"

He began to read the text of the article.

The first paragraph talks about sales.

——

Newspaper and magazine circulation is calculated in two ways:

1. Calculate the maximum printing volume;

2. Calculate actual sales volume.

But in the usual concept, the actual sales volume of newspapers and magazines is the real circulation volume.

For example, if you print 100,000 copies, sell 50,000 copies, and return 50,000 copies,

So, the actual circulation was 50,000 copies.

To get real data, you must go to the printing factory to understand the printing volume, and then go to the bookseller to understand the "inventory volume", so that you can get the actual circulation volume.

——

The drunkard’s intention in this passage is not wine;

On the surface, it is to popularize the actual circulation calculation method, but what it implies does not need to be stated clearly.

What's more, "industry insiders" later broke the news that the average daily sales of a certain tabloid of 100,000 must be fake, because the newspaper was only founded less than ten days ago, and it is impossible to have such a large circulation.

After all, the Times, which was born on New Year's Day in 1785, has only had its daily sales exceed 100,000 a few dozen times.

A senior master can't beat a junior, it's impossible if you think about it.

As for who the "certain tabloid" in the article is talking about, it's just a matter of naming the Mirror.

"Tsk..."

Doyle was speechless.

"It's interesting!"

He had accepted the reality that he was not as good as Lu Shi, so he transformed into a Lezi man,

What he likes most now is the smell of gunpowder.

He cheered up and continued reading.

Next, "Fake!" Fake! Fake! 》Criticized two more points,

First of all, the names of the reports should not be too outrageous. We even took the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" as an example and chose three extremely absurd names:

"What can I use to wake you up, my love";

"Hey, the sleeping girl!" Waiting eagerly to finally meet your lover! 》;

"A spinning needle causes tragedy, and the infatuated brother overcomes obstacles to awaken his sister."

Doyle burst out laughing on the spot.

But because the serious illness was not recovered, it turned into a series of coughs.

At this time, Hawkins walked in, put the dinner plate on the bedside table, patted her husband on the back, and said, "What's so funny? I don't know how to restrain myself..."

Doyle pointed to the Daily Times.

"That's it. Read the article on the front page, the 'Sleeping Beauty' paragraph."

Hawkins picked it up and looked at it.

"puff!"

She burst out laughing too.

Doyle picked up the dinner plate, ate a piece of sausage by himself, and said vaguely: "What's the content behind it?"

Hawkins glanced at it briefly and said: "I was also criticizing the Mirror later, saying that the content was untrue, such as talking about the Queen's love history, which is a rumor and goes against the newspaper industry's tradition of not digging into the privacy of honorable people. "

Doyle chuckled,

"What? The Mirror was mentioned by name?"

Hawkins shook his head,

"'Tabloid'."

Doyle smiled wider and took another bite of scrambled eggs, leaving his beard covered in residue.

He said: "The Mirror did not mention the Queen, it only mentioned 'a certain princess'~ So, the accusation made by the Daily Times is completely unreasonable."

Hawkins: (ˉ▽￣~)Cut~~

"This is too hypocritical!"

After saying that, she thought about it and realized that there was no journalist who she had ever come across who was not hypocritical.

On the contrary, there are many sincere people among the reporters and editors working below.

Hawkins stopped reading the article "Fake!" Fake! Fake! 》, turn to the back,

Suddenly, she stopped what she was doing.

"Some people criticize Lu."

"Pfft! Ahem..."

Doyle just took a bite of bread and choked.

"What did you say?"

"It appears to be a piece of literary criticism," Hawkins said.

She read out the title of the article: ""Are all novels suitable for serialization? Some profound thoughts on "The Lord of the Rings""."

Doyle's movements paused;

a long time,

"It's true that The Lord of the Rings isn't necessarily suitable for serialization."

Hawkins looked up;

"Why?"

Doyle pondered for a moment and said, "Let me give you an example. Which one is more suitable for serialization, "The Sherlock Holmes" or "The Scarlet Study"?"

Hawkins replied without thinking: "The former! Of course it is the former! Because it is a collection of short stories."

Doyle nodded solemnly,

"Then, what about "Scarlet Study"?"

Hawkins was silent.

"..."

"..."

"..."

There was silence in the room, as if you could hear a pin drop.

After a while, Hawkins said: "The Scarlet Study was first published in the Beeton Christmas Annual in 1887, so I can't assume the history. But considering the structure of The Scarlet Study, Maybe serialization is not impossible. Because the novel is divided into two parts, the first half tells the case, and the second half reveals the motive, so it can be serialized separately."

Doyle nodded.

"Let me give you another example, "Roger's Mystery"."

Hawkins was silent again, closing his eyes and thinking,

This time the silence lasted longer than before, and Doyle even thought his wife was asleep.

finally,

"Not suitable. "Roger Mystery" is not suitable for serialization."

Hawkins gave his own answer.

Doyle said: "Yes, because of the narrative trick. It is true that this trick is unparalleled and groundbreaking, and even upgrades detective adventure novels into real mystery novels, but it has one characteristic - pretense."

Hawkins corrected: "It's not called 'mysterious', it should be called 'unfathomable'."

Doyle: "..."

I always feel that my wife loves Lu Shi's works more than her own.

This feeling is super unpleasant.

He suppressed his emotions and continued: "In short, this kind of novel with layers of suspense will be very refreshing if you read it smoothly. But what if it is serialized? When the reader finally reads that the murderer is 'my' in the novel How will you feel when you do that?”

"You probably feel cheated," Hawkins said.

Doyle nodded repeatedly.

"That's right. Many readers will feel that there are too many foreshadowings in "Roger's Mystery" that the author could not recycle, so he ended it hastily in a very irresponsible way."

Just a different publishing method can drastically change a book's reputation?

Although Hawkins thought so too, he still didn't believe it.

"Really?"

Doyle shrugged.

"Of course this is only temporary. Because a masterpiece is a masterpiece and is immortal. If "Roger Mystery" is serialized, it will be questioned a lot, but the content is excellent and it will eventually gain the reputation and achievements that match it. Lu is still the one who created it Genius of narrative trickery.”

Hawkins said "Yeah\

,""But even so, 'Roger's Mystery' is still not suitable for serialization. It can, but it's not necessary."

Doyle agreed: "Bingo!"

Hawkins asked again: "Then what is suitable for serialization?"

Doyle said: "Do you even need to think about it? Of course it is a collection of short stories or the category of "The Count of Monte Cristo". "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a story of hatred and revenge. The main plot has ups and downs, twists and turns, and several evolutions have evolved from it. The subplots and vignettes are compact and exciting, but they don’t overwhelm the focus..."

In the words of online novels, the rhythm is good, there is a small climax every few chapters, and the pretentiousness and slap in the face are just right.

Therefore, it is also said that "The Count of Monte Cristo" was a brainless novel of that era.

Of course, this must be nonsense,

The plot of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is bizarre, but it does not violate the reality of life. It is a "refreshing" novel, but it has nothing to do with "brainless".

Hawkins glanced briefly at the literary criticism.

She said: "This author's views are very similar to yours. Even the examples he gave are the same as yours. He used "The Mystery of Roger", "The Count of Monte Cristo" and your "Sherlock Holmes".

Doyle chuckled,

"Heroes think alike~"

Hawkins added: "He also predicted that there would be big problems in The Lord of the Rings."

As soon as he said this, Doyle waved his hands repeatedly.

"Heroes see things differently. Haha...hehehe..."

It’s not that he can’t understand the author’s thoughts;

Judging from the first few chapters of the serialization, "The Lord of the Rings" written by Lu Shi was intended to create a real magical world.

Even if there is the great epic "The Ring of the Nibelung" as the background, this kind of "making something out of nothing" still requires the author to have extremely high control over the article.

And serialization, is it really possible?

There is a contradiction between the previous and later settings. Will Lu Shi eat the book?

To be honest, from a rational perspective, Doyle thinks this is bound to happen.

However, from a perceptual perspective...

"Won't."

Doyle was adamant.

Hawkins was surprised,

"What can't you do?"

Doyle just smiled indifferently and said: "After all, he is a great writer who makes me sincerely convinced. If he can't, he won't."

Hawkins:? ? ?

I was confused by my husband’s rambling words.

"You don't have a fever, do you?"

Doyle waved his hand and said, "What is the name of the author of this article?"

Hawkins looked at it and said: "It looks like a pen name, Luser, L——U——S——E——R——, there should be no such word."

Doyle chewed on the pen name and sneered: "Hiding the head but hiding the tail is quite offensive. Loser, the loser, changed the first two letters 'L' 'o' into Lu's pen name, as if he wanted to Prophecy."