Literary Master 1978

The older you get, the weaker the New Year atmosphere becomes. This is not only the feeling of later generations, but also the same for people today.

In the final analysis, it is not that the New Year has changed, but that the state of mind has changed.

The Spring Festival of 1983 passed by in a flash, and it was already the fourth day of the New Year.

Lin Chaoyang and his wife took their children to visit their parents the day before yesterday, and when they came back, they were followed by a tail.

According to Tao Yumo, she missed Xiao Dongzi very much during the days when she returned to Langrun Lake Apartment. She could dream of his cute little face.

Unfortunately, she only loved Xiao Dongzi for two days, and then asked Tao Yushu for leave, saying that her classmates invited her to the temple fair.

Tao Yushu took care of the child by herself today, and Lin Chaoyang made lunch.

After lunch, Lin Chaoyang received the manuscript fee bill sent by "Huacheng". The standard of this manuscript fee was 20 yuan per thousand words. The full text was 252,000 words, and the total manuscript fee was 5,040 yuan.

When he came back from outside, Tao Yushu had just coaxed the child to sleep, and she said to Lin Chaoyang: "I have been on maternity leave for almost two months."

Lin Chaoyang naturally knew what she meant by this. After staying at home for more than a month, Tao Yushu's state can be described in a Northeastern dialect as - idle.

Compared with taking care of the child, she prefers work. Since the child was one month old, she has been whispering in Lin Chaoyang's ear.

Lin Chaoyang said in embarrassment: "It's okay to go to work, but what about Dongdong?"

"Don't we have Yumo?"

"Yumo will go to school in a while."

"Let mom help take care of the child during the day, and I will take care of it at night."

Of course, she was not happy to let Zhang Guiqin help take care of the child. Isn't it for the old couple to stay in Yanjing to enjoy their grandchildren!

Tao Yushu had already prepared a plan in mind, and it seemed that she was determined to return to the unit.

"You have to work during the day and take care of the children at night. I feel so tired for you."

"What's so tiring about this? You can focus on your career and your family at the same time. This is what a new-age woman is."

Tao Yushu said happily when she saw that Lin Chaoyang had no intention of objecting.

"A new-age woman, aren't you afraid that your son will not be close to you in the future?" Lin Chaoyang threatened.

"Whether we are close or not does not affect our mother-son relationship." Tao Yushu looked calm, but there was still some reluctance in her eyes, "He will grow up in the future, and we can't accompany him for the rest of his life."

Lin Chaoyang joked, "If you live long enough, maybe."

The melancholy in Tao Yushu's heart disappeared instantly after this sentence. She glared at Lin Chaoyang angrily, "You talk nonsense all day long!"

Tao Yushu wanted to go to work, and Lin Chaoyang certainly couldn't stop her. Anyway, he didn't work recently and had his mother to take care of him, so he could take care of everything.

After the couple discussed, Tao Yushu appeared in the editorial department of "Yenching Literature" two days later.

Tao Yushu worked until she was about to give birth after 90 days of maternity leave. Now, less than two months after giving birth, she is back to work. Who can't help but say that she loves her job and is dedicated to it?

Colleagues who had been relaxed for more than a month immediately felt an invisible pressure after Tao Yushu started working, even though she didn't say anything or do anything, she just sat there.

This is probably the pressure of the volume king!

The eighth day of the first lunar month is February 20, which is also the day when the first issue of Huacheng in 1983 was published.

The editing and proofreading of this issue of the magazine caught up with the end of the year, and the editorial department was busy during this period.

Compared with previous years, the first issue of the magazine this year is particularly different.

Before New Year's Day, editor-in-chief Li Shifei took the opportunity of the Mao Dun Literature Award Ceremony to go north to collect manuscripts, and finally brought back only two manuscripts, one for Zhonghua and one for Duan. This harvest seems a bit pitiful.

But after returning, Li Shifei confidently declared that he had made an appointment with Lin Chaoyang's manuscript, which is a very excellent magical realism work.

Lin Chaoyang's reputation among the young generation of writers is naturally needless to say, not to mention that he has just won the Mao Dun Literature Award. The editorial colleagues were delighted to hear the news.

According to rumors in the literary world, Lin Chaoyang's works are notoriously difficult to get.

One of the evidences is that his works are almost all given to several top literary magazines in China, and have never been published in local literary magazines.

Li Shifei praised Lin Chaoyang's work as a flower, and his colleagues were naturally full of expectations.

Just after the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, that is, when Li Shifei returned to Guangzhou for half a month, Lin Chaoyang's work was sent to the editorial department.

Li Shifei happened to be out on the same day, and the editors were fighting for the opportunity to see the manuscript first. In the end, they had to divide the manuscript into several parts, forming a "flowing" review. Li Shifei, who returned to the editorial department, saw this situation and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Under normal circumstances, the manuscript should go through three reviews, namely the initial review, the re-review and the final review, but Lin Chaoyang's manuscript became a "public review" when it arrived at the editorial department.

Seeing everyone's enthusiasm, Li Shifei didn't want to spoil everyone's fun, but just told them to read it without delaying the subsequent proofreading and typesetting.

Four days later, Li Shifei took some time to finish reading the ending of the story that he didn't see in Yanjing, and called together several editors in the editorial department who had already read the manuscript.

He asked everyone if they had any doubts about the quality of the manuscript and what they thought of the novel.

Everyone praised it in unison.

Seeing everyone's reaction, Li Shifei was happy in his heart, and asked if there were any comrades who disagreed with the publication, and everyone shook their heads.

If such a manuscript could not meet the publication standards, everyone would not know what kind of work would be worthy of "Huacheng".

After confirming the publication, we have to make room for the publication of this work.

"Huacheng" is a comprehensive literary journal that mainly publishes novellas, and also publishes excellent works of other genres.

The magazine is priced at 1 yuan, with a 32-page format, and the total number of words in each issue is more than 300,000 words.

Lin Chaoyang's novel has 252,000 words in total. It is a long work. If it is published in one issue, it is not a problem, but it will inevitably affect other works that have been published.

Li Shifei wanted to publish it in one issue, which would be good for the overall reading experience of readers, and it would also be a courtesy to the author of the novel, Lin Chaoyang.

After he said his idea, he immediately won the approval of his colleagues.

Everyone's approval is not only because of Li Shifei's prestige in the editorial department, but also because of their recognition of this novel.

Lin Xianzhi in the editorial department was originally a barefoot doctor in the countryside of Yangjiang. Li Shifei found that he wrote good articles, so he transferred him to the editorial department.

He said excitedly: "Good works like this deserve such courtesy. I believe it will cause quite a stir among readers after it is published."

Li Shifei nodded slightly, "It is certain that the stir will be great. Lin Chaoyang's works have always been popular."

Someone asked again, "Old Li, have you heard of that rumor?"

Li Shifei looked puzzled, "What rumor?"

"Someone said that as long as Lin Chaoyang's novels are published, the sales volume of the magazine will not be less than 1 million copies."

After the man said this, he immediately attracted the discussion of others.

"I've heard that, too. But don't take it seriously. I remember that Lin Chaoyang published a novel under a pseudonym in Shanghai Literature, and I've never heard of Shanghai Literature's sales breaking a million copies!"

"But most of them still break a million copies, right?"

"This... is true."

Li Shifei listened to everyone's discussion and waved his hand, saying: "Whether it breaks a million copies is not only due to the works, but also has a lot to do with the influence of the magazine itself.

Don't be superstitious about this kind of thing. For our magazine, discovering and presenting excellent literary works to readers is the most important thing."

After listening to Li Shifei's words, everyone stopped talking, and then discussed and decided on the next issue of the magazine.

Just a few days after the New Year, the air in NJ City was still filled with a hint of gunpowder.

Jinling Vocational University was established just two years ago. The purpose of its establishment was to alleviate the increasingly tight education resources of colleges and universities in China.

Because the school was established a short time ago and there is no graduating class, even the teachers are mainly young teachers.

Ye Zhaoyan was admitted to the Chinese Department of Nanjing University in 1978. After graduation, he was assigned to Jinling Vocational University. As soon as he started working, he was assigned by the school to be the head teacher of two classes. This shows the shortage of teachers in the school.

Now it is a holiday, and today is Sunday. Ye Zhaoyan should be at home at this time.

But now his parents are in Yanjing to take care of his grandfather. There is no one at home. It was deserted during the New Year. He stayed in the school dormitory. At least there were teachers and security guards on duty to chat.

The school cafeteria was not open during the holiday. He first had breakfast outside the school in the morning, and then wandered to the Xinhua Bookstore 1 km away from the school.

During the holiday, Ye Zhaoyan had plenty of time.

Born into a scholarly family, Ye Zhaoyan has had the habit of reading since he was a child. He studied Chinese in college and published several works. Therefore, reading has become his biggest hobby in daily life.

On the days when major literary magazines are released, he always comes to Xinhua Bookstore to take a copy home. Sometimes he buys a copy a few days later when he is not well-off, but he always buys it to read.

Today is the day when "Huacheng" magazine is released. He has some spare money during the Chinese New Year, so Ye Zhaoyan came to Xinhua Bookstore and bought a copy of "Huacheng". He happily paid for it and left the bookstore.

The journey back to school is a bit long, so he flipped through the magazines while walking.

With just one glance, he immediately found out what was different about this issue of the magazine. The catalog was much shorter than before, and the first one was not the words "novella" as in the past, but "novel".

——"Crossing the Boat".

What caught his attention even more was the signature at the back, which read "Xu Lingjun".

Ye Zhaoyan likes to read "Huacheng", mainly because it often reprints the works of some overseas writers.

Especially in recent months, because Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, "Huacheng" has promoted a large number of magical realism works.

Last night he just finished reading a book called "Juan Rulfo's Short and Medium Stories".

A few years ago, Juan Rulfo was not well-known in China, and his works were hardly introduced. The collection of novels he read was published by the Foreign Literature Publishing House in 1980, when the Foreign Literature Publishing House introduced a batch of works by such foreign writers.

But now the situation is different. Juan Rulfo's fellow countryman Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which made magical realism literature famous all over the world, and it was enthusiastically sought after by Chinese literary youth in China.

As a representative figure of Latin American magical realism literature, Juan Rulfo naturally became the object of everyone's pursuit.

This collection of novels, which was introduced to China two years ago, originally lay quietly in the library of Nanjing University, with few people interested in it. However, the frequency of borrowing in recent months has been surprisingly high. Ye Zhaoyan waited for several days before borrowing it.

Ye Zhaoyan looked at the words in the catalog and couldn't help but be curious. He didn't expect that "Huacheng" would publish Lin Chaoyang's works.

It was arranged at the front of this issue of the magazine. He didn't even need to turn the pages deliberately to find the first page of the novel.

Under the three words "Duzhou Ji", there is a 300-400-word editor's note.

The editorial department of "Huacheng" rarely has the habit of writing "editor's notes", and Ye Zhaoyan couldn't help but read it curiously.

The general idea is that after Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, magical realism literature has not only been popular among domestic readers, but also attracted the attention of many writers.

Lin Chaoyang (Xu Lingjun) dared to try a new literary style and created this new work. The story revolves around the young man Du Sanjiang and his family to escape the war, telling the story of his 277-day wandering life on the sea with a tiger.

When Ye Zhaoyan saw the name "Duzhou Ji", his first feeling was a sense of Zen, which reminded him of the naming methods of some Chinese classical novels.

But looking at the brief summary of "Editor's Note", this is a survival story similar to "Robinson Crusoe".

With curiosity in his heart, Ye Zhaoyan's eyes plunged deeply into the novel.