Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 39: Young Babylon

But this time, there is no need for Zhang Chao to take action.

Yu Hua, who wrote "To Live" and "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", was the first to be interviewed by reporters. He clearly expressed his support for young writers to get high royalties, and kindly reminded publishers not to be fickle and the royalties of old writers should also be appropriately increased.

Then his good friend Moyan also published a short article in the newspaper. Taking the receipt of the first royalties in his life as the clue, he reviewed the tremendous changes that the income from writing had brought to his life. Finally, he kindly reminded publishers not to be fickle and the royalties for old writers should be appropriately increased.

Then came Han Shaogong, Su Tong, Ge Fei... Many great writers expressed their support for high royalties in various forms, and kindly reminded publishers not to be fickle and the royalties for older writers should also be appropriately increased.

They seemed to have discussed it, but in fact they didn't communicate with each other. It can be seen that the big names have suffered a lot from the publishing houses!

If Zhang Chao knew this, he would definitely shout: "What do you mean by having a great scholar debate for me?"

In addition to teaching, Zhang Chao writes every day. In addition, he teaches and explains questions to students in the "Senior Three Score Improvement Class."

I have to say that the elites carefully selected from each class are different. The lowest score is 118, which greatly improves his teaching efficiency.

A week later, Zhu Yanling from Huacheng Society came to No. 3 Middle School with the agreement, still in the small conference room on the third floor of the administrative building.

The content of the agreement had already been confirmed in advance, so the purpose was to sign it. At the same time, Zhang Chao showed Zhu Yanling the newly written 3-word manuscript, which still maintained a high standard, with a strong story suspense and tragic emotional conflicts, which made Zhu Yanling, an old editor, unable to stop reading.

However, Zhu Yanling came this time not only to sign an agreement with Zhang Chao, but also had an important mission - to ask Zhang Chao for articles on behalf of "Huacheng" magazine.

Zhu Yanling said: "I know you have a lot of creative tasks right now, but even if you can finish writing "Youth Like You" in February, the review, proofreading, design, typesetting, printing... basically it will not be available to readers until June. During these few months of blank period, you need to have works to maintain your reputation."

Zhang Chao thought for a moment and said, "June may be too late. I hope it can be done as soon as possible. How about this? I will write while you proofread and design the layout. How much earlier will it be?"

Zhu Yanling smiled and said, "It's not as simple as you think. Books can't be printed and sold just after they are written. After the manuscript is completed, it needs to be reviewed and proofread three times. This process will take at least a month, and then we can apply for a book number... Let's put it this way, we will review and proofread as soon as possible, but it is unlikely to be completed before April."

Zhang Chao said: "... Well, that does require a work... Mr. Zhu, don't worry, the novel will be handed over to you next week. It should be a short story, or a short novella."

Zhu Yanling was very surprised and asked, "You already have an idea?"

Zhang Chao did not answer directly. Instead, he walked to the window of the small conference room and stared at the weed-covered field outside. After a moment of distraction, he asked, "Do you know what this piece of land at No. 3 Middle School was originally used for?"

Zhu Yanling knew that Zhang Chao was not really asking her, so she just smiled and listened to him continue.

Zhang Chao went on to say, "This place, and the field behind it, used to be the site of the largest machinery factory in Changfu. At its peak, there were several hundred employees, and with their families, there were two to three thousand people. The factory had everything, including a cinema, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, and rows of small shops. At that time, many county towns had such state-owned factories, more or less, big or small. When I was in elementary school, I would return to the city from the countryside during the winter and summer vacations every year, and come here to play when I had nothing to do - because I could pick up all kinds of strange parts. At that time, there was a little brother who was an apprentice in the factory, and he often took me to hang out in the county town, and it would take most of the day. But I could only go out after I finished my homework. And when he wanted to play, he would sneak out of the workshop, although he would always be scolded by his master...

Others became masters in three years, but he studied for three years and three years and was still an apprentice. But I still admired him because he would tell me about which thug in the factory he won a fight with, which female worker he fell in love with, or which cigarettes he stole from his master..."

Zhu Yanling was born and raised in Nanjing. She studied Chinese in Nanjing University and went to Guangzhou after graduation. She worked as an editor at Huacheng Publishing House for 30 years. Therefore, she was very unfamiliar with the life of young people in the county town described by Zhang Chao, and was fascinated by what he said for a while.

Zhang Chao said slowly: "...In 1998, I graduated from primary school and the factory was gone. That young man suddenly disappeared from my life. Along with him, his endless stories that belonged only to the young people in the county town in the 90s also disappeared, as well as the Changfu County town that I once knew..."

Zhang Chao turned to Zhu Yanling and said, "Teacher Zhu, in our literature, rural and urban areas are the most popular two-dimensional space, and many famous writers have emerged. However, small towns like Changfu, which are sandwiched between rural and urban areas, seem to have never been noticed.

Small county towns are both "traitors" to the townships and "vassals" to the cities. The youth here are struggling in the cracks..."

Zhu Yanling chewed over Zhang Chao's narration in her mind for a long time before she said, "You are really very perceptive. It seems that you have indeed found a virgin land for our contemporary literary works. Be brave and write it. Submit the manuscript as soon as possible. I will help you get in line at Huacheng Magazine. If the quality is no problem, we will try to publish it next month."

"Huacheng" is known as one of the "Four Famous Stars" of pure literature journals, along with "Harvest", "Dangdai" and "October". Compared with the other three journals, "Huacheng" pays special attention to innovative literary works.

Huacheng is a bimonthly magazine, published on the 5th day of every odd month. It is already the beginning of February, and time is quite tight.

Zhu Yanling left with the electronic copy of "Better Days" which Zhang Chao had completed halfway, while Zhang Chao devoted himself to writing a new novel.

The story he narrated was not only his own real experience, but also resonated spiritually with the famous novel "Young Babylon" published by novelist Lu Nei in 2007.

The story of "Young Babylon" takes place in the early 20s, in a fictional small county called "Daicheng". The protagonist Lu Xiaolu failed to get into college, so he went to work in a saccharin factory under the manipulation of his father. He was a mess at work, following a master named "Lao Niu X" all day long, and he could only screw in screws and change light bulbs. He fought, chased women, and played pranks all day long.

Until the fresh and refined Bai Lan appeared in his life and instantly attracted him. After a series of coincidences, they came together. Bai Lan inspired Lu Xiaolu to consciously pursue the meaning of life. Finally, Lu Xiaolu applied for night university at Bai Lan's suggestion, and Bai Lan also went to Shanghai to study for a master's degree. So far, the two embarked on their own life journeys...

The original novel has a strong Wang Xiaobo style in terms of language, which is humorous, satirical and has a strong autobiographical color.

Zhang Chao decided to borrow the story framework of the novel "Young Babylon" to write a county town story with the temperament of the 90s in his mind. However, the original novel still focuses on the state-owned factory. Zhang Chao, who has experience of living in a small county town, a village and a state-owned factory, decided to express the special rise and fall relationship between the state-owned factory and the small county town.

The narrative perspective also changed from the first-person perspective of Lu Xiaolu, the protagonist of the original novel, to the stories of Lu Xiaolu that "I" as a child saw and heard during three winter and summer vacations.

(End of this chapter)