When you're lonely, who do you think of?

Author: Rao Xueman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Because of habit, when we are not online chatting, we float like submarines in solitude in the office. Because of habit, when we are not playing online games, we suddenly realize how lonely we are when looking at the elderly in the park. Because of habit, when we are not spamming, we find that everything around us is so dull and monotonous. Because of habit, without realizing it, we can no longer adapt to life without the internet. We even get used to pouring out our hearts to the text jumping out of the chat box, trusting the unfamiliar ID on the other end of the computer, and imagining a romantic online love affair, thinking it is love. We forget how many days there are tomorrow, forget how far forever is, forget that reality and fantasy are often just a hair's breadth apart. What remains is just habit. She is Rao Xueman, known as the "Word Witch." Those who love her say her words have magic, while those who don’t love her say she is just another writer producing textual waste. Perhaps we have grown accustomed to exercising our increasingly indifferent hearts in the modern steel-and-concrete walls through sensational online literature, and we have grown accustomed to masking ourselves with the bizarre words and emotions of these alternative writers. When Xueman’s simple stories and straightforward words appear, I forgot about "habit" and immersed myself in Xiaoyi’s every day until I finished it in one breath. When You’re Lonely, Who Do You Think of? is a simple love story, except for some deliberately fabricated plots of betrayal and conspiracy, it is just a story about a beautiful and talented female college student entangled in love and sorrow with several outstanding and humorous men or boys. Interwoven among them are the moods set against the background of popular songs and such idol drama-style lines as, "I can endure all this, endure all of it, but please, please don’t leave me, okay? Ye, I believe you have your reasons, tell me why, can you? Can you?" To be honest, Xueman is a girl with a lot of spirit. So, although the structure of the story still has some shortcomings, the character development and creation are quite successful. Especially the girls in the story, whether it’s Xiaoyi or Lan, or even the two supporting female characters, are vivid and lifelike. They make you smile at the corners of your mouth when you finish reading, yet you can’t help but sigh as the plot changes. However, I’ve heard that this is Xueman’s 30th book, and I can’t help but worry. Behind this speed, for a female writer in her early 30s, there might be a risk of losing her original nature in the rapid pursuit of fame and fortune. When Xueman says, "Writing is a habit for me," when emotions are drained, will we see a more skilled best-selling author who has mastered the craft, or will we see a best-selling author who is content with solitude and moves us with her heart and words? We worry, but we also look forward to it. When more and more things that are not habits become habits, and when more and more habits become things that are not habits. Xueman, really, sometimes the distance between moving and sincerity is just the length of one book.