Literary Master 1983

Chapter 156: Half Fire, Half Sea Water

When we arrived at the editorial office of October, Wang Shuo, Zhang Shouren and others were reading the manuscripts.

"Oh, Teacher Yu is here." Wang Shuo stood up excitedly. I really did call Yu Qi over.

He is really loyal.

If I had known that he would hit me with a brick, I would have depended on him for the rest of my life.

Yu Qie naturally had no idea what Wang Shuo was thinking, so he went straight to Zhang Shouren to ask for the manuscript: "What manuscript did Wang Shuo submit?"

A few pieces of paper were brought to Yu Qie. There was no title, just a story outline: the abnormal love between a ruthless pimp Wang Yao and an innocent girl Li Chuan...

Just by looking at the name “Wang Yao”, you can tell that it was written by Wang Shuo himself at home.

This novel was historically called "Half Flame, Half Sea Water". It was very large in scale and involved many violent plots. It was originally published in a literary journal sponsored by the hat department "Woodpecker" (a bit incredible), and it received quite a response after its publication.

In fact, Wang Shuo is a writer who wanders between popular and traditional novels. He is more of a commercial writer, the Han Han and Guo Xiaosi of the 1980s. Therefore, Wang Shuo's status in the literary world can be said to be nonexistent, but his novels are very popular and can boost the sales of October.

In Wang Shuo's manuscript, the story only has the beginning, which is just like writing an online article and submitting it to other publications after writing the three golden chapters.

Zhang Shouren was very dissatisfied with this attitude, but he also felt that Wang Shuo's novel style was very different from that of others.

Zhang Shouren was in a dilemma: "I feel that this novel has many 'golden sentences', but the story is advanced entirely by the dialogue between the characters, and there is relatively little information outside the dialogue."

Yu Qie nodded: "That's right. This may be Wang Shuo's writing style. He relies on dialogue to write stories, which is suitable for adaptation into film and television dramas."

"Yu Qie, do you think his novel is suitable for our October magazine?"

Yu Qie left the choice to Zhang Shouren: "His novels are not very literary, but they may be more popular with young people. I don't know whether to accept his manuscript or not. It will be decided by professional editors."

Zhang Shouren believed in Yu Qie's judgment. He read the beginning of Wang Shuo's novel again, and then put the manuscript on the table: "I want it. Um... Wang Shuo, please finish the manuscript and send it to me. I will write a review draft for you and show it to the entire editorial department... If it is finally approved, your article can be published in October."

Wang Shuo was so excited that he wanted to call Yu Qie "Dad".

He took out the remaining few dollars and food coupons and wanted to treat Yu Qie to a meal, but Yu Qie didn't have time to chat with him. After a few polite words, he asked Wang Shuo to leave.

Wang Shuo was tactful and left quickly.

Yu Qi's novels "Together with You" and "The Grandmaster" were about to be published in "October" and "People's Literature" respectively, and he was in Thailand at that time.

If a publishing house came to Yu Qie for cooperation, Zhang Shouren would be Yu Qie's agent. Some literary commentary articles would also be guided by Zhang Shouren.

"These are some reviews of your 'New Reality' trilogy. Everyone is paying close attention to your third novel. It seems that the hot sales of the single volume 'Big Scatter' have also aroused other people's expectations for your other novels." Zhang Shouren cut out some reviews that he thought were worth reading and left them for Yu Qie.

Yu Qie flipped through the comments for a while and found that among these review articles, some articles had begun to discuss Yu Qie's status.

Yu Qie was surprised and said, "They are discussing the value of this trilogy and how to define this trilogy!"

Zhang Shouren smiled and said, "You will understand it at a glance. The beginning of next year is the year when the Mao Dun Literature Prize is awarded every few years. From now on, novels that deserve attention should be brought out as 'hot dishes' for the judges to see and smell."

"Writers are a circle game, and everyone will choose which novels can be selected! You regret that "Letter from the Fiancée" and "Kiss of Death" are not novels, otherwise they would definitely win awards - because there must be long military novels that win awards, which is a political task. Speaking of this, where is your "Bloody Battle of Laoshan"? "

Yu Qie said helplessly: "It's hundreds of thousands of words. I'm afraid I can't finish it in a short time."

Zhang Shouren knew he couldn’t do it that fast. Lu Yao spent six or seven years writing Ordinary World, and it only had a few hundred thousand words. If Yu Qie could finish a novel in one or two months, his fans of military literature would even think that Yu Qi was not serious.

Next, Yu Qie carefully read the review articles written for him by these literary predecessors.

For example, Wang Meng published two articles in a row, namely "New Literature Has Arrived" and "I Hate Stagnant Water", in which he quoted Yu Qie's novels several times and praised him for being a pioneer in the literary world.

"Yu Qie's novels are different from others in terms of creation, whether it is Western music, cities or studying abroad... these are things that no one has written before, and they really happen around intellectuals. The only pity I have is that the characters in these novels are too high-brow. No one is a real nobody, and no one is talking about family matters, grain, oil, soy sauce, vinegar and tea!"

"I say this because I have too high expectations of him. If we use music to describe literature, let's think about it, isn't the little girl's song 'Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the setting sun beyond the mountains' better than most of the decadent music? Isn't 'Let's Row the Boats' more heart-stirring than the 'dance music' in Hong Kong?"

This is definitely due to Wang Meng's desire to change People's Literature, but also his sincere appreciation.

If Liu Xinwu can be the "number one young writer", why can't Yu Qie do it?
Yu Qie asked Zhang Shouren: "Who are the judges of the Mao Dun Prize?"

"I don't know, but the chairman of the jury last time was Ba Lao. I don't know about this year... It's confidential, at least it's still confidential now."

Maybe Yu Qie was going abroad again, Zhang Shouren was a little emotional, and talked to Yu Qie for a long time. He had a hunch that Yu Qie might get close to many other magazines in the future. This was certainly a step that Yu Qie would take, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Zhang Shouren said: "The New Reality Trilogy can actually be combined into a long novel, just like we will not forget any of the parts when we mention Family Spring and Autumn. From the beginning of their creation, they aimed to combine them together."

According to Zhang Shouren, Yu Qi's novel may be awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

For Yu Qie, this did not bring any obvious material benefits, but he gained a lot in terms of honor. The Mao Dun Literature Prize was awarded to many people in the past few years, and these awards were the most valuable.

Afterwards, Yu Qie said goodbye to Zhang Shouren and returned to Yanda to rest for a night. There was no one in the dormitory, as everyone went to the next room to watch TV.

Yan University students gathered in the TV room under the International Student Dormitory, extended the TV cable, moved the TV to the lawn outside the TV room, and turned up the volume to the maximum. International students from various countries watched the Olympics with Yan University students. The TV screen was not as big as Yu Qie's Panasonic color TV, but the students watched it very seriously.

Look closely at what you can see, and rely on your ears to listen to what you can’t see, and imagine the picture based on other people’s descriptions.

Wang Qiang, an English teacher at Yanda, and Yu Minhong, a repeater, were sitting here. Yu Minhong grabbed a seat and was kicked out. Wang Qiang had gotten a seat thanks to his ex-girlfriend Lucy, but he had a quarrel with Lucy and was kicked out as well.

The two brothers sat on the lawn far away from the TV screen, trying hard to listen to the sounds and understand the battle situation.

For example, when the Chinese cheered and the Americans and Japanese stamped their feet in fear, they knew that the Chinese team had temporarily gained the advantage.

The Americans cheered, the Mexicans cheered, and they knew that it was over, they had not performed well in this round.

Yu Minhong was puzzled about Wang Qiang's experience: "Wang Qiang, why were you kicked out again?"

Wang Qiang said: "Lucy asked me if I wanted to go to the United States. She might take me there. I was so happy. I said I dreamed of going to the United States!"

"You and Lucy are getting along well, so why should we chase you away?"

"Lucy asked me to cheer for the American players. How could she humiliate me like this? I got anxious and said, 'Fuck you, I won't. Go for the Chinese team. Xu Haifeng will win.' Then I was kicked out! Yu Minhong, Yu Qie is right. I can't be an American unless I become their dog and shoot bullets at my own people. Only then will they let me watch TV with them."

After listening to this, Yu Minhong pursed his lips and said, "This is fucking bullshit."

"The competition has begun. Let's see how Xu Haifeng performs. I read the newspaper this morning and Xu Haifeng said his favorite writer is Yu Che because Yu Che has the worst temper and always inspires him."

(End of this chapter)