My Mr. Mermaid

Untitled Part 11

Chapter 11: Ideals and Pursuits
May 05, 2019 by ryuxenji

Yun Duo produced two manuscripts from the things she experienced at the Sports University. The first manuscript was the report on the National Sports Employees Communications Exchange, while the second was an introductory piece on Tang Yi-Bai. The length of the second manuscript was ... 3 times that of the first manuscript.

She had maintained an objective and fair approach in writing the article, but the end result was like a brain-dead diehard fan gushing over their idol. Yun Duo was rather resigned about it. Tang Yi-Bai was not perfect — for instance, his habit of 'teasing reporters' just could not be helped — but she could not write about those things.

She had depicted Tang Yi-Bai as a 'top scholar among athletes'. Even after removing the qualifier field of 'swimming', when taking the entire professional sports circle into consideration, Tang Yi-Bai was still deserving of the title of 'top scholar', without question.

An athlete who did not skip classes, had no failures, excelled in every class, while guaranteeing his performance in his sport at the same time — how refreshing! How inspirational!

When she was done with her manuscript, Yun Duo proudly looked it over twice. She decided that when this manuscript was published, she would first send a copy to Tang Yi-Bai.

Teacher Sun was out for an interview, so Yun Duo could only go out with a colleague, Cheng Mei, for lunch. Cheng Mei was a Chinese Language major, and she was a fresh graduate just like Yun Duo. They were also the only two girls among the new hires of their news agency this year. The newspaper agency had given all of the hired fresh graduates a deadline to report for duty. Yun Duo had indulged in a period of wild fun before graduating, only reporting in for duty right before the deadline was up. In contrast, Cheng Mei had reported in two months in advance.

In short, she had put in much more effort than Yun Duo.

This was why although they were both newbies, Cheng Mei had already been at Sports Weekly for more than half a year and had more experience than Yun Duo. Her role in the agency was as an editor. All manuscripts the reporters wrote had to pass through the hands of an editor. For instance, the two manuscripts Yun Duo had written would first have to be sent to the editorial department for an editor to write a reasoned recommendation for it, After that, a meeting would be called for a selection of the recommended manuscripts. Once the chosen news manuscripts were confirmed, the editors would have to edit the manuscripts according to the quality of the manuscript and the requirements of the publication layout.

In this time and day when paper media were heading towards an inevitable decline, the selection and editorial work involved with producing news had not become any more streamlined. If some change had to be pointed out, it would be: there were fewer and fewer people willing to work for a newspaper agency ...

Neither Yun Duo nor Cheng Mei planned to eat at the canteen of the newspaper agency. They were girls, after all — they were pickier. The two of them exited the newspaper agency's office building and made their way through two small lanes to enter a street lined with restaurants. Yun Duo had an arm hooked around Cheng Mei's, and the two girls chatted as they walked. Cheng Mei told Yun Duo that she had highly lauded Yun Duo's manuscript on Tang Yi-Bai when she had written her recommendation for it, so it was likely that the article would be published in the very next issue. Yun Duo was very happy to hear that, and she proclaimed that she must treat Cheng Mei for their meal.

She did not particularly care about her commission for the manuscript; she was just especially hopeful that this manuscript would be published — it was fine even if she wasn't paid for it!

Yun Duo and Cheng Mei were discussing what to eat when they passed by a western restaurant. An inadvertent turn of Yun Duo's head caused her to look through a clear floor-to-ceiling window to see someone.