I Married the President

Chapter 124: Chapter 124: A Mere Rookie, How Could I Be Worthy?

The handwritten manuscript was over twenty pages long. It only took Claire Sinclair about forty minutes to type it all out, but she spent even more time proofreading afterward to prevent any typos.

After proofreading it several times and confirming there were no mistakes, she began to organize the story’s synopsis.

The story was generally about Old Mr. Roland and his wife, who were childhood sweethearts. Both shared the surname Roland and were from Roland Village, but Old Grandma Roland had actually been a foster child from another family. She only changed her surname to Roland after being officially registered in the household.

In that era, the villagers’ way of thinking was very conservative. Despite Old Grandma Roland being from another family, marrying someone from the same village was forbidden.

To force the two apart, the Roland Family tried to marry Old Grandma Roland off to a family in the neighboring village. Old Grandma Roland swore she would rather die than obey and eloped with Old Mr. Roland.

The two lived in seclusion deep in the mountains for ten years.

But fate was cruel. The year Old Grandma Roland turned twenty-five, she suddenly fell gravely ill and passed away.

Old Mr. Roland was once on the verge of taking his own life, but he couldn’t bear to abandon the wild animals in the sanctuary his wife had rescued before she died, so he persevered to this day.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that an expedition team conducting a geological survey deep in the mountains discovered this ”animal kingdom.” It housed many rare and endangered species, so they posted about it online. Only then did people learn Old Mr. Roland’s story.

Tragically, Roland Village had been hit by a landslide ten years prior, and everyone in the village was buried alive. Old Mr. Roland became the sole survivor.

All in all, it was a sad story.

For a realistic love story like this to be published on the Astoria Daily’s platform, it needed a certain degree of literary merit. It had to celebrate a simple, down-to-earth love while also highlighting an environmental theme.

Thinking about the story’s tragic ending, Claire Sinclair couldn’t help but feel sad. Still, she had to get the story organized and written.

First, she needed a catchy title. How about...

”O, Forest King, Forest King, Please Don’t Say Goodbye to the World!”

...

A little after 4:00 PM, Claire Sinclair printed out her first draft. She gave it a quick check for typos and, once she was sure it was clean, went to the resource room to find Teacher Hartwell.

Henry Hartwell read through her first draft, his brow furrowed. When he finished, he didn’t say a word.

Claire Sinclair assumed she had written something terrible, and her confidence instantly deflated. She said timidly, ”Teacher Hartwell, I’m sorry. I’ve disappointed you. How about I go back and rethink my approach—”

”No need.” Henry Hartwell suddenly cut her off, looking up to meet her eyes. ”Claire Sinclair, your angle is very fresh. It suits the aesthetic of today’s youth. It’s also quite literary—none of that melodramatic nonsense I hate, no flowery language. The style is natural and unpretentious. It might even win the Iron Pen Literary Award at the end of the year.”

Claire Sinclair: ”...”

’If he keeps talking like that, I’m going to get a big head.’

The Iron Pen Literary Award was the nation’s highest literary honor, equivalent to the Oscars of the literary world. It was held every three years, and every single person who won it was a seasoned veteran with profound literary skill.

’How could a rookie like her possibly be worthy...?’

Just as she was getting lost in thought, Henry Hartwell spoke again. ”But there are still a lot of issues. Come over here, I’ll walk you through some of the details.”

”Okay.”

Claire Sinclair followed him to a desk.

Henry Hartwell picked up a pen and began circling problematic areas. As he did, he said, ”The biggest taboo in writing is making grammatical errors. We are a legitimate news media organization, not some clickbait farm. And we are certainly not like some of those self-proclaimed ’queens of online romance’ who buy their own hype. They misuse idioms, are completely clueless about grammar, and write absolute piles of shit. Yet they still have the gall to get published, corrupting the youth of our nation. It’s an utter disgrace to us professional writers.”

————

Another book, *Rebirth into a Rich Family: The Doted-On Psychic Sweet Wife*, under the pen name ”White Jade Lord,” can be found on Hongxiu, Discourse Forum, and QQ Reading.