Literary Master 1983

Chapter 52 The fragrance of flowers drifted to olive green
In early December, Luo Yihe brought Yu Qie a new issue of People's Literature, and the list of winners was written on the last page.

All the novels that Luo Yihe mentioned were in it, but Yu Qie was more concerned about the magazines behind the novels: Kunlun, Youth, Shanghai Literature, Huacheng, October...

Publications from the capital and Shanghai actually occupied more than half of the market. If "Military Literature and Art" and "The Ugly Duckling" were included, the capital again accounted for the majority of the total.

It seems that China's literary world is in the capital. How can a writer not be in the capital?

In the capital, inside information is known one week in advance. In other places, it takes more than a week just to send letters of notification, which is about half a month.

Some people have already had a drink to celebrate, while others are still wondering if they have lost the election...

Yu Qie asked Luo Yihe: "Does this notification have to be so troublesome? Can't we use the TV... oh no, the radio?"

Televisions are really too expensive. A black-and-white Panda TV costs 600 or 700 yuan, and an average person would have to save up for two years to buy one. People can’t afford it.

Luo Yihe said, "Not every writer can write as fast as you, Mr. Yu. Some people have a very hard time writing and live in poverty, unable to even take care of themselves."

"So, we still have to send a letter?"

"Of course, sending a letter is the safest way. President Yu, will our New Reality Club still hold a meeting?" Luo Yihe suddenly changed the subject.

Yu Qie said, "Fuck it, everyone has run away."

It is now exam season at Yanda University and no one is playing anymore. In the dormitory corridors, some students are leaning against the wall, holding books and reading silently. The cafeteria is also very quiet. Everyone is flipping through books while eating, with their pens clasped on the rims of their bowls.

Because the lights in the teaching building were on all night, every classroom was full, and some students simply sat in the corridor with their mats to review.

Even the poets of the May Fourth Literary Society no longer engage in performance art. If they fail, they will be asked to leave.

Yu Qie was also busy writing a course paper. He had a course paper to write about the impact of the "dual track system", which was a hot topic. Some teachers at Yanda were also think tanks of the Academy of Social Sciences, so of course they would use their own research as test questions.

What is the “dual track system”?
Simply put, there is one price in society (high) and one price in the state-owned factory (low).

After the reform and opening up, the country quickly began to implement the "dual track system", but before 84, it was a dual track system for rural areas and means of production. It was not dramatically transmitted to urban residents, nor was the dual track system implemented on a large scale for consumer goods.

Because at that time we had not considered implementing a dual-track system for cities and consumer goods, but under the pressure of the current situation, we realized that we had to do it.

Let me put it this way, in the Department of Political Economy under the Department of Economics of Yan University, there was a man named Lin Yifu. He was from Taiwan and had already obtained a master's degree there.

Then, one day, Lin Yifu swam across the strait and came here to surrender. The Yenching University College immediately gave him a student status, and let him graduate with a master's degree in one year. He was sent to the University of Chicago in the United States to study under Theodore Schultz (Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 79), specializing in research on rural reform, and all the papers he wrote were related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers - it was obvious that he was entrusted with an important task.

He was the first scholar who received a complete modern economics education and returned to China to work. When he came back, he was dumbfounded because the cities had also been liberalized, and the impact was far greater than that in rural areas.

Do you still remember the richest man in Wanxian?

Mou Qizhong’s good days are coming soon, and the spring of profiteers is about to arrive.

Therefore, Yu Qie roughly described the consequences in his paper: there will be temporary pain, but it will be good in the long run.

why?
Yu Qie wrote in plain language in his paper:
The original economy was a single-track system, with the state setting prices and production. This system can no longer be implemented, but if it is completely liberalized immediately, it would be equivalent to "shock therapy" and there would be extremely violent inflation, which would cause urban residents to lose confidence in the policy and it would no longer be implemented.

The pain caused by the dual-track system is long-lasting and slow, but it will not kill people all at once. It is currently an undignified but most pragmatic choice.

As for how to relieve these pains?
Yu Qie really didn't know. History didn't have any answers for him to copy. In the next week, Yu Qie searched for information everywhere to support his point of view. This paper was his biggest task this semester. Rumor has it that the next dean of the economics department would mark the paper and assess the grade. So he had to show his level.

However, it cannot be too precise and only fuzzy predictions can be made, otherwise it will be difficult to explain.

There are born writers, but there are no born economists.

Two weeks later, the paper was finished, along with all the other assignments, and Yu Qie began working on his own novel "Da Saba".

At the same time, he continued to reply to letters from soldiers on the front line. After "A Moment of Romance" was selected as an excellent novella, more magazines began to reprint and comment on this novel, and it also brought Yu Qie royalties.

On the front lines, many soldiers are eager to see the shining points of women, and hope to have a wonderful relationship after returning, and not be let down... This is of course human nature.

A Moment of Romance has spread throughout the front. The commissars often say:
"If someone like Huadi who has gone astray can also find love, we are real heroes and will be loved by girls."

It has brought real spiritual strength to people.

Yu Qie knew that the novel became popular among the soldiers quite by chance, having been passed on by word of mouth by those who had read the novel, and the story itself had caused controversy.

But after "The Letter from the Fiancée" is published next year, it will probably cause a huge sensation. Wouldn't it mean that Yu Qie will completely become a representative writer of military literature?

This is truly an unexpected path.

The December issue of Military Literature and Art published writer Liu Zhaolin’s appreciation and review of A Moment of Romance:
“It’s not really a military story, but it has a floral scent that reaches olive green.”

"As an article reflecting current affairs, A Moment of Romance has unexpectedly been well received on the front line, demonstrating the excellence of its own story. The writer Yu Qi, with his delicate emotional description and fatalistic tragic tension, truly hits the mark of everyone's desire for sincere emotions in this era..."

"Huadi is a marginal character, unruly, born in the lower class, and full of resistance to society; while Qiaoqiao is a 'defector' from the family, she is innocent and brave, born in a wealthy family. The contrast between identity and character creates great narrative tension, coupled with the combination of romance and violence... However, this is not what we want to discuss in military literature."

"What I want to say is, why is it popular on the front line?"

"When it comes to violence, is there anything more violent than war?"

"When it comes to romance, what can compare to loyalty and waiting?"

"In terms of justice, what can be better than defending one's country?"

"The answer is obvious, because he gave the readers a special identity, transcending the ideal imagination of reality, and returning as a 'hero' to match their sincere feelings. This is probably something the author himself did not realize."

Yu Qie was stunned after reading this review. To be honest, after the novel was published, many people wrote reviews to make money, but none of them talked about the point.

It just so happens that this person wrote it correctly. He knows this novel better than I do.

So Yu Qie took the novel to the editor Luo Yihe, "Who is Liu Zhaolin?"

"He is a writer of military-themed works. He was also a soldier. Because he had a talent for writing novels, he worked full-time in the political department of the military region after retiring. He wrote Ah, the Sound of Gunfire in the Sauron Valley. In the first half of the year, his novels and those of Li Cunbao were the most popular on the front line."

Yu Qie said: "Isn't Ah, the Gunshots in the Valley of Sauron also an excellent novella? He is also one of the twentieth."

Luo Yihe said, "You write about military themes, but you surpass him. Isn't this the victory of neo-realism? You move people with true feelings. Soldiers are also ordinary people who long for love. That's why I like your novels."

(End of this chapter)