Reborn in 1977

Chapter 636 Two Associations

Evening came, the sky darkened, and the lights of thousands of homes lit up.

In the brightly lit house, Jiang Tiantian finished washing the dishes, wiped her hands, and walked out of the kitchen.

She walked to the living room and saw Jiang Lili nestled on the sofa, engrossed in reading a newspaper. She couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking at?"

Jiang Lili didn't even raise her head. "Xiao Fan's novel has been published in the United States."

Jiang Tiantian's eyes lit up. She looked around first, "Where's Xiao Fan?"

Jiang Lili chuckled. Only then did she raise her head and say, "He's in the room writing a novel. He's been writing all afternoon. After dinner, he went back up to write. I went to find him, and he gave me this."

As she spoke, she waved the newspaper in her hand.

Jiang Tiantian walked over and sat beside her, putting her arms around her shoulders. Her gaze fell on the newspaper. After just a glance, she saw the report. "What does it say?"

Jiang Lili, feeling proud and with her head held high, smiled and said, "What else could it say? Of course, it's full of praise. Anyway, according to this report, both sales and word-of-mouth are very good. Total sales have exceeded 300,000 copies, and it's still in short supply.

The readers' reactions are also very good, with almost unanimous praise. Especially the cultivation system set in the book, which has even caused a cultivation trend at the social level."

Jiang Tiantian turned to look at her, a strange look flashing in her eyes, "Cultivation trend?"

She understood fashion trends, and she also understood behavioral trends, but a cultivation trend? What was that?

If it were a year or two later, she would understand what a cultivation trend was, but now, the Qigong craze that swept the entire 1980s and continued into the first half of the 1990s hadn't started yet.

Jiang Lili held up the newspaper, pointing to a section, and giggled as she said, "Look here, someone in New York has applied to the state government to register a Mage Association, and more than a hundred people have signed up to join on the first day.

At the same time, someone has also applied to register a Warrior Association, which is in direct opposition to the Mage Association. The heads of the two associations have even made a bet to see who can achieve cultivation first and produce the first extraordinary person."

Jiang Tiantian tilted her head and leaned on her sister's shoulder, groaning, "Are they just too bored? Someone actually set up this kind of organization?"

Chen Fan walked out of the stairwell with a cup in his hand, laughing softly, "The United States has a very strong occult background, and the people who study the occult are basically from wealthy families. Ordinary people don't have the conditions to find information and explore.

I guess these two associations were created by those who study the occult."

Watching Chen Fan walk over and sit down, Jiang Tiantian asked curiously, "Then what is their purpose?"

Chen Fan put the cup on the coffee table and shrugged, "It's nothing more than looking for the power of Battle Qi and magic."

Jiang Tiantian was very puzzled, "But isn't that fake?"

Chen Fan smiled, "Never underestimate the boredom of those who are rich and have free time. It's not a big deal to create two organizations for a little hobby."

Jiang Lili handed the newspaper to her sister, went over to take Chen Fan's cup, and returned shortly after, "Don't drink tea at night, drink some honey water."

Chen Fan looked up at her, his eyes full of smiles, "Okay."

Jiang Lili returned to her sister's side and sat down, asking curiously, "What is the occult?"

Chen Fan picked up the cup and took a sip, explaining, "To sum it up in one sentence, it is the knowledge discipline of all forces beyond nature, including special abilities, mysterious phenomena, magic, and various other supernatural phenomena, all of which are part of the occult.

Our country's spells, incantations, supernatural martial arts, and Feng Shui, etc., are also part of the occult in the eyes of Westerners."

He pointed to the newspaper in Jiang Tiantian's hand, "In the eyes of occult researchers, the Battle Qi and magic I wrote in the book are all real. It just so happens that I wrote detailed cultivation steps in the book, so it's normal for them to choose to believe and form associations."

In the West, in addition to "kung fu," which is well-known because of Bruce Lee, there is also a word that is very popular, especially in upper-class elite society. Not only is it well-known, but it is even studied seriously, and that is "feng shui."

In the 1980s, a book titled "Feng Shui Guide" published in Boston became a bestseller for many years, and most of its fans were from the elite class.

Many financial elites even spent a lot of money to take Feng Shui classes, using Feng Shui theoretical knowledge to speculate in stocks.

Even financial elites are so "superstitious," so naturally there are many real estate agents and architects.

It is difficult for a real estate agent who does not understand Feng Shui to do business with rich people. When many places build municipal projects, they also spend a lot of money to hire Feng Shui masters to help with site selection.

The reason why Feng Shui is so popular, in addition to the concept of the occult, has been sublimated into a philosophy in the eyes of the Western elite class. When philosophy and practicality are combined, it becomes "theology."

Of course, many experts and scholars believe that Feng Shui is an ancient "environmental science" discipline.

In addition to the Feng Shui craze among the people, many universities have also specifically opened Feng Shui courses, treating it as a major course for research and teaching.

(Feng Shui Principles Course)

It is precisely based on the strong occult background and the mysterious behavior that often occurs among foreigners that Chen Fan is not surprised by these two associations.

Isn't it just the Mage Association and the Warrior Association? If you have the ability, create a real mage and warrior!

After listening to Chen Fan's explanation, the two sisters looked blank.

Didn't they say that foreign countries are very advanced, especially the United States, which is a superpower that can compete with the Soviet Union, one of the two poles of the world today? Is it really so outrageous?

After chatting for a while, Chen Fan pointed to the newspaper and said to Jiang Tiantian, "Tiantian, keep the newspaper and take it to Old Ba tomorrow."

He didn't dare to collect this newspaper privately. Like this kind of foreign-related newspaper, each one has a number, and borrowing will also be recorded. Even if it is damaged, it must be returned intact, otherwise the borrower will be in big trouble.

He didn't want to cause trouble for Old Ba.

Jiang Tiantian had just finished reading the report, so she folded the newspaper and nodded, "Okay."

Then she asked, "So you are writing the second book now?"

Chen Fan smacked his lips, smiled, and sighed, "Old Ba called me over today and said that I was deviating from serious literature, only caring about making money, and not writing new works, so I plan to write a serious literary novel first to deal with it."

Dealing with it is secondary. His main goal is to strive for the next Lu Xun Literary Prize.

Since there was no important and authoritative literary award before, and the literary world will have an explosive development in the next ten years, Chen Fan suggested that the literary award be held once every two years when he proposed the establishment of the literary award.

The judging time of the Lu Xun Literary Prize is the same as in reality. It was also judged once every two years at the beginning, but later in 2014, it was changed to once every 4 years.

The reasons given were "higher requirements for the quality of works" and "more perfect judging rules."

To put it bluntly, the decline of serious literature means there aren't enough good works to choose from for awards. That's why they have to stretch the timeline, hoping more and better works will emerge.

Of course, that's not a problem now. Just the works from the previous 30 years… okay, subtract 10 years, but even the works accumulated in the previous 20 years, after removing the big names who voluntarily withdrew from the awards, the number of works is still considerable. There's no fear of not having enough to choose from.

He didn't have a chance to participate in the first awards because his full-length novel wasn't completed before this year due to timing issues. But he wants to compete for the second award.

Anyway, this award doesn't have a fixed number of winners. It's usually between 3 to 5 works. If there are indeed more outstanding works, that number will increase, so he's not afraid of taking someone else's spot.

Writing it now will also be a good way to respond to Ba Lao.

Hearing that Chen Fan is writing a new book, and serious literature at that, the two sisters' eyes lit up.

Especially Jiang Tiantian, her favorite thing is literary works, especially serious literature with thought, depth, and cultivation. She particularly liked Chen Fan's previous works like 'The Ferryman,' 'Reed Marsh,' 'Old Stories,' and 'The Sea.' On the other hand, 'Yunhu Love' and 'Shanghai Spy Shadow,' which had the highest sales, were slightly less appealing.

It's not that she dislikes them, just that they are slightly less favored in comparison. As long as it's Chen Fan's work, she likes it all.

Including 'The Legend of the Dragon Knight,' which caused a sensation across the ocean.

So, as soon as Chen Fan finished speaking, she couldn't help but ask, "What kind of story is it?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "It's set against the backdrop of an ordinary worker in a machinery factory. Through his personal growth and the changes in his family, it reflects certain problems in the development of society and the factory…"

If you were to find a similar story, perhaps 'A Lifelong Journey' would be closer, but it is still very different from the story he created.

Starting with 'Shanghai Spy Shadow,' he got rid of the constraints of 'borrowing' from a specific novel and instead drew inspiration widely, using the 'eight-legged essay' method to fill his works.

Serious literature actually has very obvious formulaic characteristics, basically focusing on a certain person or family in a certain region, using them as an entry point to slowly unfold a social picture.

The picture includes social changes, emotional conflicts, and even cultural or living conditions.

And there is a very important point, which is that it must have 'the breath of life.'

That is, to bring the characters and the social background to life, to make people feel that it is a real story that happened, and that every character in the book lived in the world, and even still does.

If these conditions can be met, then it is basically a qualified work of serious literature.

As for being excellent, it depends on the author's writing style and the judges' personal preferences.

There's no way around it. Some judges like to delve into details, so works that explore human nature are naturally more favored. And some judges like to pay attention to social events, so works that show social changes have a better chance.

Chen Fan is not worried about the judges' preferences. It's not that he wants to use connections, but that he plans to write all these things into it.

Writing it this way will have a lot of content, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, the second awards won't be until the 80s, so he can write it slowly.

If anyone says he doesn't value serious literature, he will throw the manuscript out and see what they say!

After listening to Chen Fan's introduction, a strange look flashed in Jiang Lili's eyes, "You are using the machinery factory as the background?"

Chen Fan shrugged, "There's no way around it. Of all the factories, I'm only most familiar with the machinery factory. When I was designing cars, I stayed inside for many days and often chatted with the workers in the factory to understand their lives. Only then can the articles written be convincing."

Like her sister, Jiang Tiantian's eyes were also full of regret at this time, "It would have been great if you had gone to the cotton mill back then."

Chen Fan looked at their speechless faces, sure enough, they were biased towards their own. If this book is written, the Yunhu Machinery Factory will definitely become popular, and they naturally hope to set the background in the cotton mill.

But that's impossible.

He stood up, stretched, walked over and rubbed Lili's hair, "Wash up and go to bed early."

Jiang Lili suddenly blushed.

When no one is around, she can let go of herself, but now her sister is here, so this intimate contact is definitely a bit embarrassing.

Jiang Tiantian didn't care much, at least on the surface.

She also rubbed her sister's hair and smiled playfully, "Her hair is so soft, no wonder Xiaofan wants to touch it."

Jiang Lili couldn't help but become angry and embarrassed, "Sister…"

Jiang Tiantian pulled her up, "Okay, okay, let's go up too."

…

Nothing happened overnight.

The next morning, Jiang Lili went out with her sister, then bought breakfast from the work-study breakfast stall at the school gate, and brought it back.

Chen Fan was used to waiting in the room, first teaching her a set of complicated martial arts moves, then gobbling up the breakfast that was already a little cold, and then preparing to go out together.

Jiang Lili hooked her fingers through her still slightly damp hair, took his hand and went downstairs, "Where are we going today?"

Chen Fan turned his head and glanced at her, "How long have you been in Shanghai? You're already picking up the Shanghai accent."

Jiang Lili chuckled, "Many of my classmates are locals. I talk to them a lot, so I can't help but pick up a bit of an accent."

After a pause, she asked softly, "Don't you like it?"

Chen Fan squeezed her hand and smiled, "What's not to like? Shanghai dialect is actually quite interesting. Girls sound a bit coquettish when they speak, which is quite nice to hear."

Jiang Lili said with a smile, "Yeah, there is a classmate from the Northeast who said that Shanghai women speak in a soft and charming voice. I didn't understand what a little woman was before, but now I've seen it."

Chen Fan, "This is the regional difference. In fact, when you design clothes, you can also refer to some regional elements. These elements are not only liked by the locals, but also by people from other places."

Jiang Lili was thoughtful, "Well, I understand. I will pay more attention to this aspect in the future."

After changing his shoes and going out, Jiang Lili opened the courtyard door, pushed the bicycle out, and waited for Chen Fan to drive out before closing the courtyard door.

Then she held the bicycle and looked at him, "Where are you going today, and when will you be back?"

Chen Fan looked around, found that no one was there, poked his head out of the window, kissed her gently, and smiled, "Go find Lao An, and bring him and Sister Ying back for dinner tonight. Prepare more dishes."

Then, after waiting for the blushing Jiang Lili to get on her bicycle, he drove away.