Literary Master 1983

Chapter 179 Xinhua Society

"Extra number, extra number!"

Newsboys rode bicycles to sell the Oriental Daily News from their columns, shouting:

"Young mainland writers will go to Hong Kong to participate in the literary salon organized by Ming Pao and have a dialogue with Mr. Cha Liangyong! Will they put aside their past grievances?"

"The program is broadcast on TVB channel "Happy Tonight", hosted by Fat Sister Lydia Shum! There are also big secrets revealed!"

"—a newspaper."

"Okay!" The newsboy handed over the newspaper, "Two dollars!"

After collecting the money, the newspaper boy looked up and said in surprise: "You are from the mainland? No...you, you...you are the person in the newspaper!"

"Shh!"

Yu Qie stretched out his index finger and put it under his nose. "Don't tell anyone!"

The newsboy was very happy. While pushing his bicycle, he kept looking at Yu Qie, reluctant to leave.

He changed the slogan of selling newspapers and rushed into the Hong Kong-style tea restaurant where Yu Qie worked. After a while, all the newspapers were sold out. The newspaper boy said goodbye to Yu Qie and bowed before riding away.

After getting the Oriental Daily, the white-collar workers and workers read the newspaper eagerly. I am afraid they would not have thought that the corner of the tea restaurant is right here.

Yu Qie and others who had already arrived in Hong Kong chatted with several comrades from the Xinhua Society's Hong Kong branch at that time.

The branch is one of the four major mainland agencies in Hong Kong and was first established in 1947. Han Li, director of the branch's culture and sports department, and staff members Peng Yan and Niu Zhao came to receive and interview.

Due to the economic gap between the two places at that time, these people all had good backgrounds that could stand the test and would have bright future careers.

Han Li has been in Hong Kong for several years and is a keen observer: "The newsboy just now is from the mainland."

"How did you know that?" Yu Qie asked.

"Hong Kong people value education and rarely let their children run errands and hawk goods. Today is a working day, and local children are all in school. Only those from the mainland are walking around the streets and working hard to make a living."

"Is this common?"

"A lot, of course not a lot. You've been to the Kowloon Walled City. How many mainlanders are there in there? The unlicensed dentist there might be a barefoot doctor from the mainland! Mr. Yu, you are already very famous in Hong Kong now. Oriental Daily is one of the three major newspapers in Hong Kong. They are willing to use your news as the headline, which shows how well-known you are."

"——And we are interviewing you, so of course we have taken advantage of it, and we will also publish our news in Hong Kong."

The interview began immediately.

According to the interview outline, female reporter Peng Yan asked, "Mr. Yu, your most satisfying work has become "The Way Out"? It made you known overseas."

Yu Qie shook his head and said, "I am most satisfied with the trilogy of "Big Scatter", "The Two of Us" and "Together with You", although they are not so well-known outside the mainland."

"why?"

"These books span domestic and foreign, urban and rural, and intergenerational relations, involving multiple classes. It will take a long time for their value to be revealed."

Peng Yan, who had probably read Yu Qie's novels, suddenly nodded excitedly: "These books will probably become an encyclopedia of Chinese people's lives in the 1980s in the future. It will indeed take some time..." After that, Peng Yan took out a copy of "Together with You" and turned to the first page.

It was Ba Lao's preface to the novel. It was about 2,000 words long, and the evaluation that Yu Qie mentioned was written by Ba Lao in the preface. Wang Meng wrote the preface for the first part of New Reality, Yu Qie's teacher Ma Shi Tu wrote the preface for the second part, and Ba Lao wrote the preface for the last part. At this time, except for Ba Lao, no one else had written their own preface after the first two.

A total of 17 publishing houses and nine printing houses across the country printed these books day and night, but they were still not enough to sell.

Angry readers went to the printing factory to "supervise" the work, but when they found out that the printing factory was already working three shifts, they gave up in frustration. Because the books were priced high, cheap "handwritten full copies" became popular in the campus markets of Yanda University, Beijing Institute of Technology, etc., claiming that they were "for females' personal use", and the school turned a blind eye.

Receiving the Thai King's Medal has significantly boosted Yu Che's reputation and greatly stimulated the national enthusiasm of mainland readers. In addition, it has prompted some Chinese businessmen to invest in the mainland, and they specifically mentioned Yu Che because they had read his novels... He is simply the spiritual nitrogen pump of a generation.

In Shekou, Shenzhen, a total of 15 cadres are being elected for the second management committee, who will be directly elected by more than 2,000 people.

Some people wrote down the name "Yu Qie" in their votes based on their impressions, which made Lao Yuan, the secretary of the management committee at that time, helpless: "Let's not discuss whether he can be employed first. Let's discuss whether we can afford to hire him with a salary of several dozen yuan..."

The voter said with a smile: "We have become an investment attraction 'enterprise' here, receiving Chinese businessmen from all over the country. The capable ones are promoted and the mediocre ones are demoted. Yu Qie is the best investment attraction salesman, and he can be the investment attraction 'boss'."

"But we really can't afford to pay Boss Yu's salary!"

"Let those Southeast Asian investors send Boss Yu a..."

Yu Qie has undoubtedly become the number one young writer. Even if we go back to the writers of an earlier era, no one dares to put on airs.

He then discovered that everyone was extremely kind to him.

Yanda University had been in school for a month, and the department head Hu Daiguang had never urged him. Ji Xianlin used to say to Yu Qie: "Yu Qie, you are better than my son... I am so stupid, really, I should have known it earlier, I really regret it, you are better than my son!"

Now, Ji Xianlin no longer compares his son with Yu Qie.

After all, his unfilial son might retort: ​​"Dad, what are you talking about? Yu Qie is better than you. How about I change my last name to Yu?"

Continue the interview.

Peng Yan asked about the winning rate of "New Reality" in the new Mao Dun Literature Prize:
"This award is only for novels, but Xinhua Printing House has already prepared the "New Reality Trilogy Collection", designed the layout, proofread it, and it will be available by the end of the year at the latest. It will actually become a whole novel... Mr. Yu, readers now have high expectations for you to receive this honor."

What works compete with Yu Qie?
"Bell and Drum Tower" is currently being written by Liu Xinwu, "Heavy Wings" is written by Zhang Jie, and "The Yellow River Flows East" is written by Li Jun.

The winning points of these novels are: structural innovation, a new peak of "factory director literature", and thorough exposure of the suffering of the Huanghuakou dam breach in history.

In the voting that year, "The Yellow River Flows East", which is full of historical weight, finally won the first place in the votes and became the de facto king of novels.

But the New Reality Collection is by no means inferior.

Yu Qie tried to be modest: "What the readers expect is what I expect as well. The Mao Dun Literature Prize is the highest literary award for novels in mainland China. It is impossible for any writer not to expect this honor."

Peng Yan wrote it down truthfully. After this article was published, it could not only introduce Yu Qie's other novels to Hong Kong readers, but also cleverly introduce the mainland's literary evaluation system.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, a quarrel between a couple was suddenly heard.

"Give me a cup of iced lemon tea!" a sweaty male worker shouted, "I'm dying of thirst... What the hell? Because there's a stain on my work card, they're going to deduct three days of my wages for moving goods! This is simply bullying, it's ridiculous!"

The woman screamed, "Another three days of deduction? How many times have I told you that the work card should be wrapped with oil paper! The writing on the denim jacket should be worn out!" The woman pulled off her apron, revealing the navy blue work clothes issued by the garment factory, with threads sticking to the cuffs.

It looked like the man was a porter and the woman was a garment factory worker. Moreover, one of them sounded like she was from Tianjin and the other from Guangzhou.

(End of this chapter)