Chapter 6 (2/2)

All the students were shocked.

How could he admit that he had plagiarized sounding so righteous and reasonable while standing on the moral high ground?

Then, Fang Yuan’s next sentence shook the entire building.

“What I meant to say is, I am ‘I Eat Tomatoes’!”

“What did you say?!”

Hades’ voice rose by an octave.

Fang Yuan slowed down when he said, “I said, I’m the author of this novel, ‘The Coiling Dragon’. ‘I Eat Tomatoes’ is one of my pen names.”

The crowd was in an uproar.

“Fang Yuan’s pen name is ‘I Eat Tomatoes’?”

“That’s impossible! When I had lunch with him a few days ago, he hadn’t even started writing his graduation thesis.”

“The writing style of this novel is so authentic. How could it be written by a Chinese person?”

“I don’t believe it either. It doesn’t sound reliable and feels like a shoddy lie that was made up in a moment of desperation.”

“If he’s ‘I Eat Tomatoes’ then I’m Shakespeare!”

“If Fang Yuan is the author of ‘The Coiling Dragon’, I’ll eat this keyboard!”

Hades waved his hand and signaled for the students at the door to be quiet.

He just looked straight at Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan’s eyes were clear and sincere. He did not seem to be faking it.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, nor am I saying that I believe you.”

Hades continued, “You need to prove yourself by today. Otherwise, I won’t be able to accept your graduation thesis.”

“It won’t take a day, Hades.”

Fang Yuan took out the publishing contract he had just received from Rainforest Literature from his briefcase.

Then, he took out ‘The Coiling Dragon’ sample book and flipped to the copyright page.

The author was clearly written in black and white on the copyright mark.

[ Pen Name: I Eat Tomatoes. ]

[ Real Name: Fang Yuan. ]

This hard evidence was irrefutable.

“Hahaha! Good, good, good!”

Hades’ attitude did a 180-degree turn. His face, which had been expressionless all year round, was actually brimming with a proud smile.

He even said “good” three times in a row.

“I didn’t expect this masterpiece to be written by you, Fang Yuan. I’m really proud of you, and I apologize for the misunderstanding just now. I hope you don’t mind. I’m just too excited. After all, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen such an excellent work like ‘The Coiling Dragon’.”

Fang Yuan waved his hand to indicate that he did not mind.

Hades was a straightforward person, so his anger vanished just as quickly as it appeared earlier.

“The annual Creative Writing Workshop in Iowa will be held soon. Writers from four nearby states will gather here to participate in the essay writing competition. The reward for the winner is very bountiful, but unfortunately, I can’t reveal it at the moment. I have a VIP pass because I’m a judge.”

As the tutor spoke, he took out a black silver-plated card from his shirt pocket.

On it was a picture of Minerva’s owl taking off at dusk, which symbolized inspiration and wisdom.

“Initially, I wanted to choose the most outstanding graduation thesis for the competition, but now there’s no need for that because it belongs to your book, ‘The Coiling Dragon’.”

“Keep it. I’m looking forward to your performance in the workshop!”

Hades patted Fang Yuan’s shoulder and sent him out of the office.