HDIEUMDBTSB **Chapter 14: The First Step Towards Being a Poet**

 **Volume 1: The Road to Fame**

Chu Zhi organized his little treasury. Last night, he completed the achievement of eating spicy food ten times with a late-night snack delivery. He gained three personality coins for achieving the "Ruthless Butcher" title. For the "Smoke King" title, he still needed to smoke twenty more cigarettes to reach a hundred. As for the "Drunken Immortal" title, he needed two more drunken episodes.

Originally, the body didn't smoke, but suddenly smoking a pack a day made his throat feel phlegmy. So, he gradually reduced it to half a pack a day. Regarding getting drunk twice... as mentioned earlier, Chu Zhi was afraid of talking nonsense when drunk, so he avoided alcohol outside.

"If smoking and eating spicy food are damaging to the throat, does eating something cold and stimulating count?"

He decided to try it out and ate two ice creams but to no effect.

"I was careless. The system is essentially a personality star system. The measure isn't bodily harm. If a star likes to eat ice cream, it wouldn't seem surprising. It might even become a cute point."

Chu Zhi spent the afternoon researching achievements but, unfortunately, couldn't come up with any new ones. As night fell and the sun bid farewell to the sky, Chu Zhi began his layout in the poetry field. He couldn't waste having drawn "The Stray Birds." It's the most famous poetry collection of short poems in the world, bar none. Not just in China, but abroad too, it's unmatched.

The formidable Li Ao, who criticized everything, still praised "The Stray Birds."

Posting it on Weibo... the platform has a large user base, but its copyright awareness is weak. Without any surprises, it wouldn't become famous. It's better to find a professional site. After searching online for half a day, Chu Zhi discovered the platform "Chinese Poetry Network."

It's not a shady site; it's hosted by China Publishing Group and is a key national cultural project. The homepage claims to have the highest daily manuscript fees. But upon entering, he found it pitiful. The weekly champion of the poetry hot list had only 33 appreciations. Poetry had fallen from grace.

"I knew poetry was out of favor, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. It could be used to chill beer," Chu Zhi frowned. The era when good wine needed no bush was long gone. Nowadays, relying solely on a website wouldn't cut it.

He couldn't find the website's exact daily active users, but the daily keyword searches were traceable. "Chinese Poetry Network" had about two to three hundred daily PC searches and about a thousand on mobile, which was very limited. Simply put, even if the entire internet read his poems, it wouldn't make him famous.

"It has to break through. 'The Stray Birds' was originally published in English, and I have the original text. I'll find a way to post it on foreign websites to attract readers there first, or win an award, and then bring the fame back here." Chu Zhi quickly devised a plan. For now, he registered an account.

What name should he use?

Chu Zhi looked at the poets on the leaderboard, many named something like "so-and-so scholar" or "so-and-so hermit."

He couldn't use his real name. The plan to regain fame had just taken a small step. The name "Chu Zhi" currently brought nothing but trouble.

Thinking it over, a disgraced artist with a terrible public image starting to write poetry would get "bad reviews" before anyone even read it. People have such rich emotions because of preconceived notions, which lead to things like "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"Huainan," as in the saying, "Oranges grown south of Huai River are oranges, those grown north are trifoliate oranges," fitting with his Weibo name: Eat a Big Orange. There's a connection, but not too obvious.

After registering, he found the website's traffic was low, but it was a key cultural project after all. The page layout was quite elegant. The top sections included: Daily Good Poems, New Works by Famous Poets, Classical Poems, Electronic Poetry Collections, Rankings, Poetry Weekly, Daily Selections, Chinese Poetry Translated into English, Editor's Recommendations...

The site's famous poets were from this world, having won the Lu Xun Literary Prize or having columns in renowned domestic poetry journals like "Stars" and "October." Judging by the introductions, it seemed legitimate.

As mentioned earlier, this world's culture diverged after the 19th century. Lu Xun shouldn't exist, yet he did. Chu Zhi wondered if the system had erased the poets to make it easier for him to copy.

Probably not.

The system shouldn't have such exaggerated abilities. Chu Zhi logically understood it as the modern poetry development in this world being different from Earth.

He checked the poetry news for current submission contests. Three were ongoing: the "2019 Cross-Strait Poetry Meeting – Write a Poem for Hainan Free Trade Zone and Free Trade Port" for Hainan's promotion.

The second was the "High-speed Rail Poetry Contest," which also wasn't suitable.

The last one was "The Sound of Nature." Chu Zhi clicked to check the third contest, which allowed praising the beauty of nature or telling stories about nature. It seemed fitting. The organizer was also the "Poetry Journal," and winning works could be published in the weekly journal. Original work and no plagiarism were prerequisites, with the rule: "Each person can submit one to four poems, each not exceeding 30 lines. Each person is limited to one submission, multiple submissions are invalid."

"Each poem not exceeding thirty lines. That's short for even ordinary modern poems, let alone a series." Chu Zhi pondered the somewhat peculiar requirements, perhaps the contest had other purposes.

Don’t think thirty lines is a lot. The well-known poem "Rainy Alley" by Dai Wangshu is over forty lines, which is more than allowed. Chu Zhi put aside his research thoughts. He knew he had this habit: liking to research things thoroughly even if unrelated, which could be a waste of time.

Focusing on the task at hand, Chu Zhi selected a few suitable poems from "The Stray Birds" for submission.

**Topic: Short Poems.**

**"Love"**

The fish in the water is silent.

The beast on the land is noisy, the bird in the air is singing.

But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the land, and the music of the air.

**"Forging"**

Only those who have undergone hellish trials can forge the power to create heaven.

Only fingers that have bled can play the world’s greatest music.

**"Untitled"**

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.

"Three poems should be enough." Chu Zhi submitted them.

The short poems in "The Stray Birds" don’t have titles, so Chu Zhi added them himself. He chose the Chinese version translated by Zheng Zhenduo. When this translation was introduced to China, it sparked a craze for short poems. Bing Xin’s "Stars" and "Spring Water" were among the best, highly recommended as extracurricular reading in middle school, so their popularity should be high.

After selecting the option to participate in the "Sound of Nature" event and successfully submitting, Chu Zhi closed the website. He knew well that even Tagore wouldn’t become instantly famous. Poetry needs time to ferment, and short poems of two or three lines are similar to the currently popular three-line love poems on the internet, which seem easy to write.

High expectations require patience, especially since he hasn’t translated the poems for foreign websites yet.

After washing up, Chu Zhi went to bed early. Sleeping before 2 AM was considered early.

Tomorrow at 8 AM, "I Am a Singer" would be broadcast, marking the first test of his efforts.

"Good night, Makka Pakka," Chu Zhi said to the air. Perhaps crossing into another world was a bit boring, so he uttered this nonsensical phrase.

"Good night, Migu Bigu," the system responded.

"??" The response was unexpected. Did the system think "Makka Pakka" was a nickname he gave it? Or was it trying to alleviate the host’s boredom? Either way, it didn’t matter. Chu Zhi drifted off to sleep while pondering this.

He dreamt of not only regaining his fame but also becoming an Asian superstar, effortlessly making money with a concert tour.

The next day, the weather was bad, accompanied by drizzling rain.

Even if it hailed, it wouldn’t affect the broadcast of the variety show. This season of "I Am a Singer" had a viewership rating of 1.4, almost reaching 2 at the premiere. Although it couldn’t compare to the overwhelming 3-point-something rating when the show first came out, it still lived up to its reputation as one of the top four music variety shows based on its market share.

"I Am a Singer" had two main audience groups: twenty-something professionals who, after a tiring day at work, ordered takeout and watched variety shows on their tablets or phones while eating; and teenagers who watched to follow their idols or whatever show was popular, without any particular preference.

"Welcome everyone to the live performance of 'I Am a Singer,' sponsored by Pure Victory Organic Milk. I am singer Gu Nancy, and I will be your host tonight."

With the opening sponsor advertisement, the show officially began airing on TV.

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