Chapter 620: Brother Gluten and Wandering Poet
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
That Friday evening, w.a.n.g Ling brought back the notification form for the summer camp in Devil Valley “Beast King’s Remains” and went to find Father w.a.n.g to get it signed. Like before, Father w.a.n.g didn’t even look at it before he brandished a pen elegantly and signed his name “w.a.n.g Jiao” in one smooth flourish; what was impressive was that he had joined the characters together in cursive writing without lifting the pen off the paper.
When w.a.n.g Ling looked at Father w.a.n.g’s signature, it was still the same as before: he couldn’t make out the two characters as “w.a.n.g Jiao” at all. He sighed in the depths of his heart; when all was said and done, this was a senior artist in the online novels circle!
After signing, Father w.a.n.g put down the pen and returned the notification form to w.a.n.g Ling. “Learn my signature, you can sign this type of form yourself in the future. Also, the same rules apply to this activity: be a little more low-key in doing things, and if you encounter any danger, remember to leave the other party alive. You’ve already put three people in jail; you can think about sending another in for them to play mahjong.”
w.a.n.g Ling: “…”
Then, w.a.n.g Ling watched as Father w.a.n.g turned around in his chair and began typing. w.a.n.g Ling didn’t pay attention to the content on the screen. In any case, it didn’t seem like Father w.a.n.g was typing his ma.n.u.script, but was writing something else instead.
After returning to his bedroom and putting away the notification form, w.a.n.g Ling used his King Eye to take a peek through the door and realized that Father w.a.n.g was putting together an article for his official account. As a top-level guru on the Internet, the numbers on his official account were unlike those on other platforms. Basically, every article he published would get millions of views.
But Father w.a.n.g very rarely took the time to write articles for the official account; it was already pretty good if he wrote one or two articles a month. Given this type of target audience, Father w.a.n.g would write short stories off the top of his head based on recent popular events. Some were full of warmth, some were funny, and some were satirical… Among the several short stories Father w.a.n.g had released, the one that got the most hits at more than ten million views was the one t.i.tled: “w.a.n.g Situ’s Imagining of Brother Gluten and Wandering Poet 1 .”
Crafting this type of creative short story was a lot harder than those “chicken soup writings”!
A brief introduction to “Brother Gluten and Wandering Poet”: This was the story of a beggar poet who survived by picking through rubbish for things to eat and who encountered and got to know Brother Gluten, a roadside singer. It was just like the lyrics of that song: “Happily eating my gluten in the morning, I met this brother who was eating rubbish… What he eats is rubbish, what he thinks about is the past. I dare not imagine what he went through before… Bake the gluten, tell me what’s in your heart, bake away all your years of grievances and vicissitudes…”
Recalling this summary of the short story, w.a.n.g Ling remembered hearing the song that was featured in it. When Father w.a.n.g had finished writing the lyrics back then, his powerful book friends had immediately created a cover song.
This short story, which was a creative adaptation of true events by Father w.a.n.g, was still fresh in w.a.n.g Ling’s mind.
In the story, Brother Gluten, who dreamt of becoming a musician, met a beggar poet brother. When he saw this beggar brother picking through rubbish on the roadside for something to eat, Brother Gluten felt very distressed, and thus took this beggar brother along with him to take part in a music audition for “The Voice of Cultivation.”
The two brothers met, grew to know each other, and encouraged and supported each other. Whenever Brother Gluten was feeling frustrated, the beggar brother would recite poetry to him and help open the depths of his heart…
After three years of endless effort, Brother Gluten finally won the third season of “The Voice of Cultivation” compet.i.tion. However, it was during that s.h.i.+ning moment that his best brother Wandering Poet chose to leave without saying goodbye…
For many years, in order to find this brother of his, Brother Gluten used the money he made from his music career to invest in a large amount of cultivation resources and to travel around looking for clues on his beggar brother Wandering Poet.
While missing him, Brother Gluten not only sang and cultivated, but also remembered to cultivate his gluten baking techniques to their utmost. The day he found his poet beggar brother, he wanted to use his most developed technique to bake gluten for his brother to eat…
Later, Brother Gluten’s actions moved an Almighty named Daoist Mieba. Daoist Mieba told him that there was a spell to instantly make the person he missed most appear in front of him, but Brother Gluten would have to collect different spirit stones representing power, time, s.p.a.ce, soul, reality and heart.
For over ten years, Brother Gluten traversed the entire world to gather these six precious stones. Finally, he ground them into powder and mixed it into the flour for baking gluten to create an Infinity Gluten Glove.
In the final scene in the story, the excited Brother Gluten recalled his past with beggar Wandering Poet, and snapped his fingers…
And then, there was nothing…
That was how the story ended.
No one knew whether Brother Gluten, after snapping his fingers, was really able to find that brother whom he missed the most, like Daoist Mieba said he would.
No one knew whether these fellow brothers ever saw each other again.
More than that, no one knew whether Brother Gluten’s diligent training paid off; cultivating his gluten baking techniques to their utmost for the sake of making the ultimate gluten when the two brothers met again, no one knew if it turned out delicious or not…
Anyway, w.a.n.g Ling remembered it was an open ending at the time, which gave Father w.a.n.g’s story an awesome twist.
But now, it seemed that Father w.a.n.g was writing a sequel to “Brother Gluten and Wandering Poet.”
w.a.n.g Ling secretly took a look at it in his bedroom. What was it like to be the son of a smash hit writer? He could read the new stuff first before anyone else…
It was obvious that Father w.a.n.g had already been thinking about this plot for a long time. He didn’t get the least bit stuck as he typed. Roughly an hour later, he finished writing the short story.
As Father w.a.n.g checked it for any typos, w.a.n.g Ling took the opportunity to read the sequel, “Brother Gluten and Wandering Poet 2.”
In this story, Father w.a.n.g revealed the reason why Wandering Poet had left without saying goodbye back then.
The second story said: The day before Brother Gluten won the compet.i.tion that year, Wandering Poet learned that someone meant Brother Gluten harm. In order to protect his good brother, Wandering Poet prayed before a barbecue stall and was willing to become unable to eat gluten for the rest of his life in exchange for Brother Gluten’s safety…
This act moved Daoist Mieba, who showed up and gave Wandering Poet a solution.
As long as Wandering Poet was willing to split himself into six spirit stones representing power, time, s.p.a.ce, soul, reality and soul, he would be able to bring out the fullest power of his prayer request.
If one day a person could gather the six stones together and create a glove from it, Wandering Poet could be brought back to life with one snap of the fingers.
The price, however, was that the person who snapped their fingers…
Would become the six new spirit stones instead…