All-rounder Artist

At the same time, they invited thirty renowned short story authors to compete on the same stage.

Such a big event, naturally, Tribe Literature had done a worldwide promotion for it.

Many short story enthusiasts started anticipating it from the moment the news was released—

For them, this would be a gluttonous feast.

A large number of insiders in the field of short stories were also paying attention to this event.

However, when the event started, everyone found out that Tribe Literature played a shrewd move!

The event announcement contained the following statement:

[Each user has three heart-ratings, you can give a heart rating to the work at the end of each article, you can only give one heart rating per story, expressing your support for the work in this way. The ranking of the work is determined by the number of heart-ratings. But for the fairness of the final ranking, we have intentionally hidden the author’s name. Please make the most impartial selection based on the content. When the final ranking is determined, we will announce the authors of these works.]

Why is this move considered cunning?

Because every writer invited to participate in the Tribe Literature competition has fans.

There exists something known as a fan-filter.

Many fans will only vote for their favourite authors, not their favourite works.

So, to prevent this situation from happening, Tribe Literature simply hid the author’s name.

“Quite interesting.”

“Some authors have peculiar writing styles, hence readers could still guess who they are, but no one is certain, as many authors have similar writing styles.”

“This must be why Tribe Literature has not revealed in advance who are the thirty authors who are participating.”

“I initially had no interest in this event, now I’m starting to become intrigued.” II II

After discussions, everyone began reading.

The length of a short story is generally about three to five thousand words, so readers can finish them quickly.

Tribe Literature gave full authority to the readers to decide the ranking.

Everyone enjoyed being jurors, so they didn’t feel impatient when reading the stories, instead, they had a strange sense of mission.

“My heart-rating will decide the future of a work.”

Many people participated in the vote with this belief.

Gradually, someone noticed the short story, “Death of a Small Civil Servant.”

This was to be expected, it would have been strange if this story hadn’t caught the reader’s attention, as Blue Star’s artistic appreciation standard is higher than Earth, they wouldn’t have missed out noticing the strength of this story.

It’s important to know that.

This is a representative work from the early creation period of Chekhov, one of the three great masters of short stories on Earth!

Lev Tolstoy once described Chekhov like this: “I can say without any false modesty that, in terms of technique, Chekhov is far more skilled than I am!”

There’s no first place in literature, nor is there second place in martial arts.

Westerners don’t like modesty too much.

Being able to get such commendation from Lev Tolstoy, Chekhov must have been really skilled.

Chekhov is famous for his critical realism, and “Death of a Small Civil Servant” is such a representative work.

With more and more people reading “Death of a Small Civil Servant”, the comments section of this novel gradually became lively.

Although the author’s name was hidden, people could still comment on the story.

“This novel is quite powerful.”

“Although it’s only over a thousand words, I read it three times. The first time I found it funny, the second time I found it tragic, and the third time, I surprisingly felt empathetic, because I felt that if I were in the small civil servant’s shoes, even though I might not keep apologising, I probably would lose sleep for one week at least.”

“Seemingly criticising the old feudal autocratic system, it’s actually satirising the present.”

“Yes, satirising the present, it took me a while to think of this term, and all I could think of was ‘WTF.\'”

“In our modern society, there are many people like the small civil servant; the story just uses an exaggerated method to portray it.”

“I don’t even think it’s exaggerated. Those with personal experiences might feel even more empathetic. Fear is a scary emotion; it can indeed destroy a person. This is why we emphasise on mental toughness.”

Amid the discussions, everyone started to get curious about the author of the novel.

“Tribe Literature hiding the author’s name was truly a cunning move. I can’t determine which author this story came from solely based on the writing style.”

“It should be a well-established author.”

“The author’s skill is unequivocally undeniable, to be able to captivate readers with just over a thousand words is not something easy, but I’m captivated. Heart-rating offered.”

“The scary part lies here; this novel is only a little over a thousand words!”

“I almost wanted to give all of my three heart-ratings to this novel, but unfortunately, the rules of Tribe Literature do not allow me to do so; each novel can only receive one heart-rating.”

“I’ve started to get curious about who the author is; there’s a feeling of anticipation in me, haha.”

The next day, “Death of a Small Civil Servant” was conspicuously ranking first!

But the second and third place were not far behind in terms of heart-rating quantity, so the competition remained intense.

Confronting such results, not to mention the readers getting curious, even within the circle of authors in the field of short stories, they all started to get curious. Numerous small groups began discussing:

“Whose work is the one at the top?”

“Just based on the writing style, I can’t tell who it is.”

“Could it be 01′ Zhou’s? Tribe Literature must have invited him right?”

“01’ Zhou indeed participated in the competition, he refused to tell me which one of the works was his, but he just asked me if I know who wrote ‘Death of a Small Civil Servant.\'”

“No one admitted?”

“These guys are cunning as hell, anyway, ‘Death of a Small Civil Servant’ was definitely written by one of the authors we are familiar with. Tribe Literature has guaranteed that the participating authors are all relatively experienced in the industry.”

“Did anyone inquire about it from Tribe Literature?”

“I tried asking, even on the Tribe Literature side, at least someone of editor-level had to be in the know about who the authors are. But they kept their lips sealed, refusing to reveal any information about the authors.”

“We can only wait until the final reveal.”

“Speaking of which, the writing level of ‘Death of a Small Civil Servant’ is really high, the text is humorous, but its satire is sharp. Despite having a short length, its content is profound.”

“It’s likely to take first place.”

“Hard to say, the second place is a detective novel, it has a strong story, and the final twist was unexpected, there is a chance of a comeback.”

“The third place isn’t bad either, it’s about two middle school students who start dating, one is a top student and the other is failing. To stay together, the high-achiever studies hard and performs remarkably in the exam to get into the best high school in the county, while the other deliberately does poorly to enter a relatively bad high school. But I feel that this story has a familiar echo of ‘The Gift of the Magi,’ which was popular not long ago.”

The discussions were heated, and the Tribe Literature event was filled with the fun of a guessing game — “guess who I am..”