1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 2: Literary Era
"What have you been busy with today?" There was an imperceptible cautiousness in the tone of old lady Rao Yuemei.

"I got a job at the labor service station. Tomorrow I'll go to Qiansanmen to dig earth for someone who's building a corridor."

Upon hearing this, Rao Yuemei took a breath and looked much more relaxed.

"That's fine. Working people are the most glorious. We won't be picky. We'll just do the work when there's work to do."

"Yeah, yeah." Jiang Xian hurriedly went out and dived into the house to study the system.

The so-called inspiration synthesis system is a system that can synthesize literary works.

The mechanism is simple and clear. The system will reveal the synthesis path. Jiang Xian collects the inspiration required for the path. If he successfully collects it, he can synthesize an unknown novel.

[Educated Youth] and [Chess] are the inspirations needed on Jiang Xian's current synthesis path. After collecting them, you can unlock the unknown short story "???", and this novel must be constructed by the inspiration on the path.

For example, the synthesis path is: [Grand View Garden] + [Love Tragedy] = novel "???".

Then as long as you collect the two inspirations of [Grand View Garden] and [Love Tragedy], you can combine them to get "Dream of Red Mansions".

The same reason.

[Young man] + [Cha 猹] = "Young Runtu"

【Father】+【Buying Oranges】＝《Back View》

[Rickshaw Driver] + [Ups and Downs] = "Camel Xiangzi"

[Landlady] + [Conscience] = "Kokoro" (Natsume Soseki)

"A short story. What is it?" Jiang Xian was curious, but more than that, he felt an excitement that went deep into his bones.

"This can also be regarded as: when the time comes, heaven and earth will work together!"

What kind of era was 1978?

Feng Jicai once said: It was an extraordinary era, but also an abnormal era; an era of mixed feelings, but also an era of longing; an era of materialization, but also an era of pure spirit and thinking; an era of intervention in reality, but also an era of idealism.

In fact, most people living in the era find it difficult to realize what kind of era they are living in.

At that time, there were no young ladies, no short videos, no mobile phones, and even televisions were rare. Dumplings were only eaten during the New Year and other festivals. Fruits were particularly rare, and canned food was common. The average housing area was 3.9 square meters, and several members of a family lived in one room. No one had independent space, and they had to use a urinal when they got up in the middle of the night.

But you cannot ignore that this era has a slow pace of life. Unless it is a genetic problem, most people have thick black hair. People demand simplicity and genuine smiles. Everyone believes that hard work can make them rich. Struggle is for ideals, not for buying houses. Love is sincere and simple. There is no bride price fraud. Once a promise is made, it will be remembered for a lifetime and put into practice.

More importantly, the decade from 1978 to 1988 is known as the era of New Period literature.

During this early period of reform and opening up, in this country where there were only eight model operas for a decade, the people's desire for literature was no less than that of a shipwrecked person for water.

This also gave rise to a real literary boom.

"I must get this novel!" Jiang Xian squatted on the bench, waving a simple round palm-leaf fan.

This is really the trend of the times!

Later, writers were worse than dogs, but now literature is a very popular profession.

To be more mundane, more down-to-earth, and more realistic, how much is a short story worth?
In 1977, the remuneration system was restored, with the remuneration for manuscripts ranging from 2 to 7 yuan per thousand words.

What does 1 yuan mean? It can be converted into 7.6 catties of rice, 1.17 kg of pork, and barely 1/10 of a bottle of Maotai. In theory, if you spend frugally, 7 yuan is enough for one person to live for a month.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xian could no longer sit still. With his bare chest, a white shirt swinging in his hand and slippers on, he paced back and forth in the room for a few times. It seemed as if every cell in his body was jumping with excitement.

There are many different ways to get inspiration.

Probably because he had been an educated youth, and educated youth was an achieved identity, so [educated youth] had already been collected successfully.

But the [Chess] inspiration still shows a progress bar of (0/100).

How does progress increase?
This is the question Jiang Xian needs to study right now. "Mom, come and take a look at my brother."

He turned his head and glanced at his sister Jiang Ke.

No one knew when this girl entered the house. She obviously didn't know that her brother had removed her from the household registration book during the day and that she was no longer in the house. She stretched her neck and shouted outside the house.

"Keep your voice down." Jiang Xian put his arm around her head and rubbed it, then pushed the door open and went out.

It was completely dark and he turned left and right along the alley.

The shade of the trees is often big enough to cover the entire alley. The silvery leaves rustle overhead like a light rain. People can be heard whispering in the dimly lit windows, and there are a few cigarette butts swaying on the ground.

Enduring the smell of sweat and body odor, I joined a group of gentlemen and watched them play chess at the chess stall for a while.

Until Jiang Ke came to call him for dinner, the progress of [Chess] (0/100) did not move at all.

“It’s not enough to just watch others. You have to participate yourself to get inspiration.” He summed up a rule while slurping noodles.

He, Rao Yuemei and Jiang Ke had dinner together.

In fact, there are five people in his family. His father is in the mountains of Huairou, researching microwave devices and is away from home all year round. I heard that he will be able to move back to Beijing next year. He also has a sister who is three years older than him and has already married.

After dinner, Rao Yuemei washed the pots and dishes, then went visiting neighbors to chat with them, leaving the brother and sister at home.

Jiang Xian took out the chess set and placed it on the table in the inner room to study it, while also supervising Jiang Ke, who was about to be a freshman in junior high school, to do his homework.

After setting up the chess pieces for a while, there was still no progress.

When he looked up, he caught a glimpse of Jiang Ke turning her head, chewing on the butt of a Zhonghua pencil, and winking at him.

"Come over for a while?"

"So I won't do the questions today?"

"If you stay with me for the next night, you don't have to do today's homework."

"My son is the one who lied." The little girl packed up her notebook neatly before sitting down opposite him.

"What are you talking about? Can you play chess?"

"Cannons are in the lead, horses jump, horses move in the sun, elephants move in the fields, cannons fire across the mountains, chariots move in a straight line, generals do not leave the city, and soldiers never return home."

"I remember these sentences more clearly than the textbook."

The two of them arranged the chess pieces.

Jiang Xian is a terrible chess player. In his era, Go champions played cyber Go every day, and no young people would bother to play chess. So there was no need to think three steps ahead. The only thing he did was to capture if he could, and to check if he could.

Jiang Ke’s skills weren’t that high, and he quickly used up all his chariots, horses, and cannons.

Jiang Xian used his two cannons to block the attack with his chariot.

"Checkmate."

At the same time, a heavenly reminder popped up in his mind.

"Inspiration [Chess] progress +1, current progress (1/100)"

Jiang Xian's spirits lifted.

I immediately summarized the simplest and most brutal way to get inspiration:

Play one hundred games of chess.

(End of this chapter)