Literary Master 1983

Chapter 2 Making a Report

Submitting an article does not necessarily mean success.

The first draft during this period is like writing a thesis. Under the supervision of the editor, it may be reprinted, never revised again, absolutely not revised... and so on.

Novellas are the hardest hit. If the word count is neither too many nor too few, the editor may feel that your novel is not commercial enough, or that some characters are too bad, or even that some of the ideas and themes deviate from mainstream consciousness.

Comrade, please change it.

They will tell you so.

Of course, if you have a certain status in the industry, the above terms and conditions will not be so strict, and it is okay to write something unconventional.

Some authors even teamed up to create their own publications and write their own stories. This seems incredible to later generations, but it is not surprising now.

The authors consciously take on the concerns of current affairs and questions about "history", believing that God has given them a great mission and they should find ways to stir up trouble and criticize current ills. On the other hand, quarrels among writers are also a major feature of the current era.

They express the voice of the public and convey the attitude of the government. They are the traffic stars of this era and are keen on expressing themselves.

The manuscript of the novel "A Moment of Romance" was successfully sent out.

At around eight or nine o'clock in the evening, it was already completely dark. Less than ten miles away from home, Yu Qie met his father Yu Yuejin and younger sister Yu Xian.

Yu Qie then stopped and pushed the cart away.

Since the family's only flashlight was taken away, the two came in the dark, fearing that something might happen to this Yan University student.

The public security has been bad recently, not to mention places like Wanxian, even big cities outside the province are not safe.

To be honest, Yu Qie bought a pair of underwear with a purse. When the royalties came, he would stuff the money into his crotch. If he had to pay out a large sum of money, he would also take the money out from under his crotch.

This kind of underwear is very popular nowadays, both for men and women.

As soon as my younger sister saw him, she asked, "Did you send it out?"

Seeing Yu Qie nod, she asked again, "Can't Hua Di's ending be changed? He must die, can't he die peacefully?"

"Of course not."

They were talking about the ending of A Moment of Romance.

For the little girl, what she saw was a tragic love story. For Yu Qie, what he wanted to write about was a social phenomenon: those who are involved in gangs will not have a good end.

If it was changed to a story about a gangster getting the beauty, it would become a purely happy story, and the idea would be completely different. He doesn't write this kind of story.

Yu Xian is still in the first year of high school. She is very sad and cannot understand this.

The old father Yu Yuejin took the bicycle and discussed with Yu Qie about buying a ticket for the child to go to Beijing.

After receiving the notification letter, Yu Qie prepared to report to Beijing.

Beijing is a good place. In the 1980s, it was a far cry from a small county town. However, before going to Beijing, his father wanted Yu Qie to do one thing:
Go to the middle school where Yu Yuejin works to give a report.

The vast majority of employees, students and parents who hope their children will succeed were eagerly awaiting the report from the first Yanda student in the mountains.

Yu Qie came from a middle-class family of that era. His father, Yu Yuejin, was a mathematics teacher at a county middle school, and his mother, Xiang Xiaolan, was a front-line female worker at a local raw silk factory.

The couple's income is considerable in this city, otherwise they would not have been able to support their two children to finish high school.

Especially for the youngest daughter, Yu Xian, not many families at that time were willing to let their girls go to high school.

Both children of the Yu family are good at solving problems, but the eldest son was not so good at it. However, this time he performed exceptionally well and won the top spot in the city, and was admitted to Yanjing University, which caused quite a sensation in Yu Yuejin's unit.

As for giving reports, it is very enjoyable and extremely common.

Not only did Yu Qie have to make a big report, his father Yu Yuejin also had a small report to make, as did his mother Xiang Xiaolan, his class teacher... everyone had to make one.

There is a lack of entertainment activities, but the public likes to listen and the speakers like to talk.

"I haven't made a report yet. What are the requirements for the manuscript?" Yu Qi asked.

"There are no requirements. At most, don't write too low a score. It should reflect your level as a YNU student," Yu Yuejin replied.

"It's easy."

Then, Yu Qie thought of a good entry point:
A noble son comes from a poor family, and my life is determined by exams.

Getting into a big city and living a poor life in Gongcheng is still a pragmatic life plan in this era.

A time traveler with a conscience should encourage his friends in inland provinces to leave their hometowns, go to big cities to make a living and settle down. The times will reward their bravery handsomely.

Yu Qie thought so and did so.

After returning home and eating a few mouthfuls of food, he wrote a report titled "The Times Are Calling". The general content was "Young people, go to the cities, go to the big cities."

When the emotions were deep, I stitched together a few lines of modern poetry.

“The rails are laid out like endless questions/Every heartbeat is an expectation/The green train rattles/Carrying me across the river of time/How many stories are hidden within the city walls/Let me wander in my imagination…There is a piece of silence that belongs to me/Belongs to every soul that longs for change…”

The article quoted a very famous chicken soup saying in later generations.

"When you are memorizing words, the cod in Alaska are jumping out of the water; when you are doing math, seagulls in the South Pacific are flying over the coast; when you are studying at night, the polar regions of the earth are colorful; but my friend, dreams must be realized by you yourself, and those people you think you can't see and the scenery you think you can't encounter will eventually appear in your life..."

This report is done.

Chicken soup works very well, and people of this era believe in it. Yu Qie's sister Yu Xian saw the report left by her brother the next morning. She didn't care at first, but when she read it to the end, she couldn't help but burst into tears and said, "Brother, you wrote it so well! It's so well written!" "I have never seen such an expression. How can the polar circle of the earth, the cod in Alaska, and the seagulls in the South Pacific be connected? It's so romantic."

Yu Qie’s first stop for his report was the local county middle school.

“Warmly congratulate our Yanda admitted student Yu Qie for returning to school for a report!”

Large banners with white characters on a red background are displayed on the top of the school's Soviet-style auditorium, which was built in the 1960s. On this stage, all the local leaders have come, including Mr. Hu, who is suspected to have come, and, more precisely, the leader who was in charge of the Three Gorges Project at the time, who passed by and inspected the place ten years later.

For this reason, the nearby primary school was renamed Pengcheng Primary School.

And the person standing now is Yu Qie.

Wanxian was once one of the more developed areas in eastern Sichuan, with a good educational foundation. Since the resumption of the college entrance examination in 77, thousands of students from three districts and eight counties have gathered here. They are of different ages. Some students are only thirteen or fourteen years old, but more are candidates who are older than Yu Qie. They are young intellectuals, workers, farmers, and educated youth who were sent to rural areas or factories. They struggled to survive in the turbulent times and tried to find their own position in the new era.

In 1977, the number of applicants nationwide reached 570 million, and the admission rate was less than 5%. Now, some people have been admitted to the best universities in the country. Watching this living person in this auditorium, how can one not be moved?

The audience was silent, and everyone was looking at Yu Qie.

Among them was Mou Qizhong, 42 years old this year. He had heard that a Yanda student had appeared in the local area, so he rushed to see what was new. However, he did not expect that the person on the stage looked quite familiar.

Take a closer look, hey, isn't this the guy who fooled me that day?

He is actually a student from Yan University?

Why is he a student of Yanda University?
Mou Qizhong was obsessed with the college entrance examination because he had been frustrated. When he was 18, he took the college entrance examination but failed. He then went to a special college in Jiangcheng and finally succeeded, but dropped out six months later due to household registration issues.

Soon after, I heard that an art school in Xinjiang Province had enrollment vacancies. I took a train for several days to go there, but found that the art school had been closed long ago.

Therefore, Mou Qizhong had a certain yearning for knowledge and culture in his heart. As a result, he tried to pretend to be a knowledgeable and cultured person and make friends with knowledgeable and cultured people. In his heart, he had never actually let go of this hurdle.

Without any scientific research experience or academic background, Mou Qizhong always mentions "high technology" and "innovation", acting like a Confucian businessman. The more a person lacks something, the more he pretends to be that thing.

Now, there was a real top student explaining the truth, and Mou Qizhong couldn't help but move forward and listen carefully.

This is what the person on the stage said. It was a unique way of telling the story. There was no big talk, but it was touching.

"Last winter, my fingers got frostbite due to the severe cold. Every time I held a pen, it hurt like hell. However, I didn't dare slow down my writing. The kerosene lamp in front of the desk flickered faintly, illuminating my frostbitten hands - every crack seemed to be a mark engraved on the road to knowledge. I know that only by studying hard can I get through this long winter and welcome the spring that belongs to me. Even though my fingers are numb, my heart is burning in the ocean of knowledge."

"Sometimes, the pain would make the tip of my pen tremble slightly, but I never put down the book in my hand. Every word in the textbook is like a beacon in the distance, guiding me to a broader world. I told myself that physical pain can be endured, but the dream in my heart must be as firm as iron."

Yu Qie's reports have an oppressive style of questioning. He would start with small things, adjust the rhythm according to the mood of the audience, gradually strengthen the tone, and constantly let the audience think until he introduced the answers he had already preset.

When Mou Qizhong heard this, he swallowed. He had already been put into the story.

"We seem to be in an era of change, but we don't know what kind of great changes will happen. I don't want to miss them, so I can only grasp the only thing I can do right now, reading! But sometimes I also doubt whether reading is the right thing to do and whether it is necessary to read."

"Because a speck of dust from the times is like a mountain that weighs on a person, making him unable to move. Sometimes I feel lost and hesitant, especially when my studies are fruitless..."

People are more serious than ever before.

At that time, most people failed the entrance exam, so this statement was very relatable. Not to mention Yanda, even if you were admitted to a junior college, it was a big deal. College students are truly the chosen ones.

Of course, it is very common to see repeaters. Lao Yu, the founder of New Oriental, repeated his grades three times, but he was not the most exaggerated. There are many students who repeated their grades four, five, and at most seven times... There are even many who are over the admission age.

"Especially when there is no result, I can't help but ask myself, is it worth it? It's better to stop, to accept my fate, to let it go, to go with the flow. A narrow desk really can't hold my heart, but I can't fly either. I'm afraid of failure..."

Yu Qie paused for a few seconds to give the audience time to reflect, and then said loudly:
“But I finally chose to persevere. I persevered not because I was no longer afraid, but because my yearning for this beautiful world surpassed my fear of failure. The world is so big, I want to see it, and reading is my ticket. I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light.”

“Friends, when you are memorizing words, the cod in Alaska are jumping out of the water; when you are doing math, seagulls in the South Pacific are flying over the coast; when you are studying at night, the polar regions of the earth are colorful; but friends, dreams have to be realized by you yourself, and those people you think you can’t see and the scenery you think you can’t encounter will eventually appear in your life…”

Oh, what wonderful words!

When Mou Qizhong heard this, he felt his blood boiling, and an unexpected emotion filled his chest, like a sudden gust of wind. Not only him, but the entire audience in the auditorium was infected by these words!

The magnificent imagination of a beautiful world, linked to the chilblains on the radish hands on the small desk, spoken by a Yan University student who traveled from a small county to the capital, generated an unprecedented sense of motivation, which was simply dizzying.

Chinese people like this kind of story of ups and downs.

In order to express their love and recognition for Yu Qie's speech, they chose to stand up and applaud enthusiastically, which is a higher-level form of recognition, usually used on important occasions or to pay tribute to particularly outstanding reports.

Just like when the Chinese women's volleyball team defeated the powerful Japanese women's volleyball team for the first time, they all stood up. After the report, the audience gathered around Yu Qie and spontaneously shouted his name.

"Yu~qie~"

"Yu~qie~"

This made Yu Qie himself feel at a loss. He greatly underestimated the charm of the so-called golden sentences of later generations in this era.

What does it mean that "a speck of dust from the times is a mountain on an individual?"

What is Alaskan Pollock?
What are South Pacific Shearwaters?
What is the colorful polar circle of the earth?

The female reporter of Wanxian Daily at that time relied on her identity to break through the crowd and approach Yu Qie, trying to interview him: "Yu Qie... Comrade! I have never heard such good words, and never seen such a good report!"

"Do you want to go and write articles? You can definitely be a writer!" The reporter was very excited. She didn't know yet that Yu Qie had already submitted a manuscript a few days ago.

Yu Qie said honestly: "I wrote a novel and submitted it to Red Rock."

"Ah!" The reporter climbed over the one-meter-high stairs, her hands raised high, as if to touch Yu Qie, "You should become a writer. You can definitely write an amazing novel for this great college entrance examination!"

“You’re going to be a great writer!”

(End of this chapter)