1979: My fiancée is a goddess

Chapter 394: Enthusiasm and exaggerated votes
The morning of March 10th.

Just when Cheng Kaiyan in Wutongyuan in Beijing was busy writing "Atonement".

In the new issues published on the morning of the 10th, "People's Literature", "Wenyi Bao" and "Children's Literature" announced the news of starting the selection of pure literature awards.

Led by the Chinese Writers Association.

The National Excellent Short Story Award sponsored by People's Literature Magazine;
The National Excellent Novella Award sponsored by the Literary Newspaper Magazine;
The National Excellent Children's Literature Award sponsored by Children's Literature Magazine.

The three pure literature awards began the selection process on the same day.

In their articles, various magazines have also strongly called on readers across the country to write to the magazines, hoping that they will cast their precious votes for their favorite works and their favorite writers.

As the news that voting for the three literary awards had begun simultaneously came out, it quickly attracted strong attention and heated discussions from writers, readers, and literature lovers across the country.

A certain university.

"Zhiyong, what are you doing?"

"Writing a voting letter? There are three literary awards this year!

I really don’t know which writers’ works will receive this honor, but it should be Mr. Jiang Zilong’s work.”

"Harusei, what about you?"

“I am writing too! I voted for Professor Wang Meng.

When I came back from the cafeteria just now, many sophomores and juniors were discussing this matter along the way.

I heard that some female students posted big-character posters everywhere, calling on everyone to vote for Cheng Kaiyan's Love Letter!

"Wow! It's so lively!"

"you do not say!"

Readers cheered for their favorite writers and canvassed votes for their favorite works. Some even published articles in newspapers and posted big-character posters in schools to promote voting.

Writers are looking forward to seeing their names and works on the list of nominees for literary awards in the near future.

After all, these are the only three pure literature awards in China, representing the highest achievement in Chinese literature. Winning them means having one foot halfway to the top of the literary world.

Even being nominated for a big award is no small honor!

The reason why people responded so enthusiastically is that this year's selection is particularly special.

Two new pure literature awards were added this year, and the number of winners is much higher than in previous years, giving many writers hope of winning.

One is the Mao Dun Literature Prize, established by the China Writers Association with a donation of 250,000 yuan from Mr. Mao.

The prize money is generous, and the selection of long literary works will officially begin next year.

The other is the National Excellent Novella Award, which was jointly established this year by the China Writers Association and the nationally renowned literary review magazine Wenyi Bao.

The selection of works has begun this year.

The National Excellent Novella Award is specifically for novellas published between 1977 and 1980 with a word count between and words.

The emergence of this award fills the gap in domestic literary awards and indirectly improves the rules of literary awards.

In the selection of the National Excellent Short Story Award in the past few years, medium and long works were often awarded short story awards.

But this year, this situation is unlikely to happen.

Moreover, the emergence of the Mao Dun Literature Prize also covers novels of more than 130,000 words.

It includes both short, medium and long ones, as well as children's literature awards.

At this point, the Chinese literary world’s literary awards have been completed.

……

Jiangcheng, "Fragrant Grass" editorial department.

It was noon and the office was about to close.

"Xiao Chen, what are you doing? Are you going to eat?"

Chen Shanshan lowered her head and wrote a letter, and heard her aunt colleague calling out from behind.

"No, I'm just writing a letter."

"Voting? Are you voting for Comrade Xiao Cheng who came to our magazine last year?"

The old lady asked curiously, holding her briefcase, with a hint of ambiguity in her eyes.

No wonder Chen Shanshan refused the blind dates introduced to him several times. It turned out that she was thinking about Comrade Xiao Cheng and didn't like any other gay men.

But that's normal. It's not easy to find someone like Comrade Xiao Cheng.

"Yes, vote for Cheng Kaiyan."

Chen Shanshan nodded.

"Hey, if Comrade Xiao Cheng's "Fragrant Grass" wins the award, then our magazine will have to go to the capital to attend the award ceremony this year? Tsk tsk, this is a big honor for the boss!"

The auntie suddenly raised her voice a few notches and spoke excitedly.

If she remembered correctly, Chen Shanshan was Cheng Kaiyan's editor at that time, right?
"Of course. I heard the awards were given at the People's Hall!"

When Chen Shanshan heard her say this, her heart started beating fast.

According to her understanding, when a work is nominated for an award, the organizer will also invite the editor-in-chief of the magazine and the editor responsible for the work.

Then wouldn't I be able to go to Beijing to attend the awards ceremony? !
I can also catch up with Cheng Kaiyan, whom I haven’t seen for a long time.

"Clap!"

As the two were chatting, the office editor-in-chief Yang Shuan walked in and clapped his hands loudly to attract the attention of the editors.

He announced with a serious face: "Everyone knows that the selection for the three literary awards has begun, right?!"

"understood!"

"In order to make our Fangcao Magazine famous, this year's National Excellent Novella Award must include Teacher Cheng Kaiyan's Fangcao! And the name of our magazine.

Comrades, please write a voting letter and call on your family and friends to vote for Teacher Cheng Kaiyan. "

"No problem Editor."

"Teacher Cheng Kaiyan will definitely win the award."

……

Southern Xinjiang.

The canteen of the military region art troupe.

Several girls in military uniforms prepared their meals and gathered together to chat.

"Xiao Zhuo, do you know that the selection for this year's literary awards is about to begin? There are three in total."

Lin Qingshui ate a piece of eggplant, broke the silence and asked Zhuo Yun and the others in front of him.

"I think I've heard of it."

Zhuo Yun held his chin and thought, "What's wrong? Sister Qingshui?"

"Let's vote for Kaiyan for all three literary awards! How do you think?"

Lin Qingshui's thin face was full of seriousness and solemnity, as if he was doing something huge.

"Yeah!"

The girls nodded in agreement. The only writer they knew was Cheng Kaiyan, who was also their former comrade-in-arms. Who else should they vote for if not him?
"Then let's submit Youth! Youth should be considered a novella, so we should send it to the Literary Gazette."

Amy Yip suggested that everyone vote for Youth. The more she watched the work, the more she liked it and the more she could taste its true flavor. Even her uncle said that this work was not simple. It seemed to be about the pain of youth and war, but in fact it was about the gradual collapse of a collectivist era. Her uncle also said that in a few years, the art troupe might really be cancelled.

When Amy Yip heard the news, she was shocked.

"Of course I voted for Youth! After all, this work is based on our art troupe and us!"

Lu Yuanyuan and others nodded and said it was a matter of course.

At first, they thought that "Youth" was smearing the people in the art troupe, but as time went on and there were many comments and analyses from military literature masters like Liu Baiyu and Wei Wei, everyone realized that the meaning of the work was by no means smearing or slandering, but rather reconstructing, reconstructing the heroes of a new generation.

"call……"

Lin Qingshui finally breathed a sigh of relief. She had been struggling with this matter for a whole day before she made up her mind to ask them for votes. Fortunately, they all agreed.

"I remember that Youth won the first prize in the military essay contest? It seems that the first prize can be adapted into a movie?"

"Yes, yes, Cheng Kaiyan will definitely come back by then!"

Lin Qingshui, who was usually taciturn, listened to the girls' chattering while eating lunch and staring at the orange tree outside the window. That was a tree that Xiaoyan liked very much.

As she looked, she seemed to see the thin boy sitting beside the orange tree, secretly picking oranges.

After dinner, I returned to the clinic.

There was a letter on the desk, which seemed to have been delivered by the postman. "Sender: Cheng Kaiyan... Hello, Sister Qingshui. Sister Xiaoli and I will be engaged in Beijing in May. Can you come and witness it?"

Lin Qingshui's dark eyes suddenly lit up, filled with joy.

……

Readers from many places not only Jiangcheng, Southern Xinjiang and Beijing wrote in enthusiastically to vote for Cheng Kaiyan's works.

Some people voted for "Love Letter", some for "Youth", some for "My Neighbor Totoro", and some for "The Alchemist".

There is also a large group of educated youth who focus their attention and enthusiasm on "Fragrant Grass".

A writer who was once an educated youth working in the countryside wrote an article in the newspaper, publicly praising and calling on readers to vote for Cheng Kaiyan's "Fragrant Grass".

He praised it in the newspapers:

"This work prompted the country to release all educated youth back to the city ahead of schedule, ended the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement ahead of schedule, and created a precedent for educated youth literature, which benefited and liberated countless people."

"This work is surrounded by too many halos and embodies the blood, tears, joy and laughter of too many people. It is unjust that he should not win the award!"

This literary review was quickly reprinted by local and nearby major newspapers.

As time goes by, its influence continues to expand.

Voting letters about "Fragrant Grass" and Cheng Kaiyan were sent to the capital from all over the world like snowflakes.

March 18th.

There is only one day left until the nomination list is announced.

The three organizing committees were busy and noisy, counting the votes.

At the same time, the judges of the judging committee are patiently waiting for the statistical results and preparing the list of nominated works to be announced soon.

Office of People's Literature Magazine.

The editors responsible for counting the votes for the works were dizzy and dazzled by the sacks of voting letters.

"How is it? Have the votes been counted? We'll have to publish it in the newspaper then!"

Zhang Guangnian walked into the office with a lunch box and asked while eating.

These lists are only preliminary statistics. In addition, they will be further reviewed by the judges and the nomination list will be officially announced to the public.

"Editor-in-chief, you are here. Look, there is a special situation!"

"What's going on? Let me see."

Zhang Guangnian looked at the statistics that were passed to him and soon saw more than fifty names and works that were circled.

There were several red circles that caught Zhang Guangnian's attention, and the name Cheng Kaiyan was marked on them.

"Hiss! So many votes?"

He glanced down, took a breath of cold air, and froze in place.

Cheng Kaiyan:
"Fragrant Grass": 42,137 votes

Love Letter: 27,601 votes

Youth: 25,100 votes
These three works were far ahead in the number of votes among all the works, especially "Fragrant Grass", which reached a terrifying 40,000 votes.

The number of tickets here is calculated based on letter stamps. What does 40,000 mean?!

Zhang Guangnian couldn't help but feel frightened. You know, last year's first place winner Jiang Zilong only had more than 20,000 votes, and Cheng Kaiyan had almost twice as many as him.

Does this guy Cheng Kaiyan have so many readers? !
Perhaps a large part of them are the educated youth who were able to return to the city because of "Fragrant Grass"?

Zhang Guangnian soon figured out the reason and was proud of his vision.

Wow, it’s worthy of being the work I like, it actually has 40,000 votes!

Zhang Guangnian was amazed, but soon his face turned pale and he discovered a big problem.

"No! Fangcao is almost 300,000 words long, a true novel. It can't possibly win a short story award! How come all these voting letters were sent to our People's Literature?"

Zhang Guangnian suddenly remembered that the voting rules of the previous two years had undergone tremendous changes due to the birth of the novella literature award this year.

Although last year when he was presenting the award, he joked with Cheng Kaiyan that you will definitely win the National Excellent Short Story Award next year.

But I didn’t expect that there would be a novella award this year, so the word count issue became the key issue.

"Fragrant Grass" is nearly 300,000 words, "Love Letter" is just over 100,000 words, and "Youth" is 150,000 to 160,000 words.

If it had been written in the past two years, it would have won the short story award without any problem.

But this year it’s not possible, so we can only go for the novella award.

The editors responsible for recommendations and the judges responsible for selection must be aware of the word count requirements for each award.

But the general public and readers are not very clear about this.

It seems that most people are voting the same way they did in previous years.

So now many people accidentally sent their voting letters, which were supposed to be sent to Literary Gazette, to People's Literature instead.

In this case, the actual number of votes for "Fang Cao" may be more than 40,000.

But now the number of votes is a small problem. The big problem is that all three works can only participate in the selection of the novella award, and according to convention only one can win the award in the end.

"You guys continue, I have something to do outside."

Realizing this, Zhang Guangnian's expression changed slightly.

Taking the list, he quickly left the office and went to the office to discuss the situation with Wang Meng.

in the office.

"What? They've all been sent to People's Literature? If there aren't enough votes for the novella award, then Cheng Kaiyan won't get the award this year..."

Wang Meng was shocked after hearing this and realized the seriousness of the matter.

"I don't think so. Readers' votes only serve as recommendations and participation. The judges are the ones who actually select the nominees."

Zhang Guangnian shook his head and explained, "What I'm worried about is that the novella award sponsored by the Literary Newspaper will not allow three works to be nominated."

“That would just bury good works in vain.

Although this has never happened, the purpose of literary awards is to reward excellent works and excellent writers.

Then writers should be allowed to have multiple excellent works nominated or even win awards.”

Wang Meng said with a serious face.

"That's what you say, but the Literature and Art Newspaper doesn't think so. Let's go talk to the leaders and the people at the Literature and Art Newspaper."

Zhang Guangnian took a puff of cigarette and took Wang Meng out of the unit.

The two went straight to the editorial office of the Literature and Art Newspaper.

"Comrade Lao Zhang, why are you here? What a rare visitor!"

When the editor-in-chief of the Literature and Art Newspaper saw the two people arriving, he immediately gave them a warm welcome.

"We came to see you for some reason, it's like this..."

Wang Meng and the other man looked at each other, sat down, drank tea, and started explaining.

"I see. Comrade Cheng Kaiyan's "Fragrant Grass" actually has more than 40,000 votes. We have received more than 20,000 votes. If it was not sent to the wrong address, wouldn't it be 60,000 votes?!"

"Comrade Cheng Kaiyan is really..."

The editor-in-chief of the Literary Newspaper was amazed.

"The problem now is that according to the length of the works, Cheng Kaiyan's three works are too long and can only be counted in the novella literature award..."

Zhang Guangnian expressed his concerns.

"In principle, each writer can only have one work win the award, but it is still possible to have multiple works shortlisted. But three works are too many. How about giving each of you one?"

The editor-in-chief of the Literary Gazette was also somewhat embarrassed and made the suggestion.

"This...should we ask the leaders of the Writers Association?"

Zhang Guangnian was somewhat tempted.

"Then just ask. If it doesn't work, then I'll have to inconvenience Comrade Xiao Cheng."

The editor-in-chief said with a smile, "Four or five works a year, all of them long novels. Comrade Xiao Cheng is really prolific!"

"you do not say!"

Zhang Guangnian and Wang Meng both laughed.

(End of this chapter)