Exciting 1979!

Chapter 30: Different Educated Youth Literature
Chen Rong did not really enter the literary world until she was 40 years old, but she is best known for her children.

She has two sons and a daughter.

The eldest son, Liang Zuo, is a famous screenwriter. The second son, Liang Tian, is a famous actor. The youngest daughter, Liang Huan, is a screenwriter and the third wife of the famous director Ying Da.

Liang Zuo and Ying Da had both seen Wei Ming when he was on guard duty. One of them was from the Chinese Department in 77, and the other was from the Psychology Department in 79.

The key is that he was very close to Song Dandan during those years at the People's Art Theatre, and he often heard her scolding the Yingda couple~
"Excuse me, I have read your work "Evergreen", so I'll just call you Teacher Chen." Because Chen Rong is also a middle school teacher.

"No, no, no, just call me Big Sister. I entered the industry late, and people say I am a young writer," Chen Rong smiled. She looked at Wei Ming curiously: "Then I can call you Little Wei, okay?"

"of course."

"Did you just arrive today?"

"Yes, how long have you been here?"

"It's been a week and I still haven't finished the revisions." She sighed, feeling a little homesick.

"Then it seems that I am too optimistic. I was thinking of getting it done within five days."

"Maybe I'm just a bit tangled. By the way, where are you from?"

"I'm from Hebei, and I came from Yanjing."

"I'm from Yanjing, too." Chen Rong felt closer and asked, "Are you a college student?"

"No, I'm guarding the gate at the university."

"real or fake?"

"It seems that there is indeed something wrong with my personal temperament. Everyone's first reaction is to doubt my identity." Wei Ming said helplessly.

Since he said so, Chen Rong had no choice but to believe him and asked, "Which university do you work at?"

"Peking University."

"Peking University! My son is in Peking University!"

"Which department? Maybe I know him." Wei Ming asked knowingly.

"He's from the Chinese Department, Class of 77, his name is Liang Zuo, he's not tall, he's fat, he wears glasses, he smiles a lot when he sees people, he has a good temper," Chen Rong described his son, and finally added, "He's not very good looking."

Wei Ming smiled and said, "I have an impression of him. I think I have seen him before, but I am not familiar with him. I have only been on the job for more than half a month and I am still just a temporary worker."

"You are going to publish a novel in Harvest. You don't need to worry about your future job. You definitely have a bright future."

"Haha, then I'll take your kind words, big sister."

Chen Rong had finished eating, and then she exchanged room numbers with Wei Ming. They agreed to communicate with each other if they encountered any difficulties, and they both lived on the second floor.

After finishing his meal, Wei Ming went upstairs and took a nap. He did not visit the editorial office of Harvest for the second time until around four o'clock in the afternoon.

Li Xiaolin took out Wei Ming's original manuscript and a dozen suggestions for revisions he had listed, the first of which was the name of the novel.

"Donkey five, donkey six, you are trying to mock the educated youth five, person six."

"Yes, isn't it allowed to be sarcastic?" He deliberately changed the names of the two original donkeys from Black Six and Black Seven to Black Five and Black Six.

Nowadays, most of the literature about educated youth is about the miserable lives of this group in the countryside from the perspective of the educated youth. As there are more and more such voices, Wei Ming wants to write something different, about the lives of the educated youth who steal and cheat in the countryside and are despised by everyone.

Both of these two kinds of life exist, and there are widespread real cases of both. However, those who can write novels are basically educated youth who have returned to the city. Their voices are loud enough, and what they write about are naturally the deep pain of their own suffering. Therefore, at this stage, novels like "Donkey Five and Donkey Six" are rarely seen.

Li Xiaolin fell in love with this novel at first sight. One of the important reasons was that it had a novel perspective and was different from the popular educated youth literature at the time.

However, she still does not recommend directly cursing the novel's title: "It is easy to expand the conflict. After all, many young writers in the literary world today have become famous through traditional educated youth literature."

Wei Ming also humbly accepted this suggestion and changed the original name back to "The Story of Two Donkeys". Then there are the sexual descriptions in the novel, donkeys and donkeys, men and women.

Wei Ming may have been influenced by Northwest writers such as Jia Pingwa and Chen Zhongshi, and his portrayal of sex is wild and primitive.

It may be better in a few years. The reform has just started now. Wei Ming is moving a little too fast and ordinary people can't keep up with his pace, so we can only weaken it a little. Several suggestions for revision are because of that incident.

After arguing with reason, some of the details about the man and the woman were deleted, but the details about the donkey and the donkey were retained. These were his precious life experiences and also the local knowledge that city people would never be able to access in their lifetime.

Have you ever seen the guy mopping the floor?

The following conversation touched upon the core of The Story of Two Donkeys, the oppression of individuals by the system and the resistance of individuals to the system.

From this perspective, whether it is the educated youth Ma Jie or the donkey brothers Heiwu and Heiliu, they are all mules and horses and are worthy of sympathy. On the contrary, the greatest evil comes from Captain Dalian.

This character is very symbolic. When creating it, Wei Ming drew inspiration from Zhao Chunlai, the captain of Gouzitun, and made him more autocratic and overbearing than the movie version.

Li Xiaolin hopes that Wei Ming can hide his intentions more deeply and not reveal them so obviously.

The other modifications are minor issues. This is what Li Xiaolin wants to say. We cannot erase the author’s ideas, but we must also try our best to protect them and find a win-win solution.

Wei Ming pondered and said, "Well, I'll think about it when I get back."

After talking about the parts that needed to be revised, Li Xiaolin began to praise: "Your novel is full of black humor, and the writing style is also unique. It can be said to be similar to Lao She, but it is closer to the masses than his style. This kind of Beijing-style and stinky writing is very attractive. Maybe many people will imitate your style in the future."

In response to the praise, Wei Ming just smiled and seemed to be still thinking about how to make changes.

"Don't worry, this should be your first time in Shanghai, you can relax first, maybe you can get some other creative inspiration."

"Let's get to work first, Editor Li. If I finish the revisions quickly, can it be published in the November issue?" Wei Ming asked.

"Why, are you in a hurry to use the money?"

"That's one thing. Another thing is that I don't have any representative works right now. I'm embarrassed to raise the price when other magazines ask me to write for it. Yenching Literature and Art has also accepted a novella of mine, but I don't know if it can be published next month. It's really frustrating."

"Yenching Literature and Art is a monthly magazine, and it is published at the beginning of the month, so it must be published earlier than us~"

Li Xiaolin followed up with a sentence, and suddenly realized: "You mean you were no longer a newcomer when The Story of Two Donkeys was published, so the royalty rate cannot be based on the newcomer standard, right?"

Wei Ming smiled naively: "I don't really understand this either, just give it to me as you see fit."

Li Xiaolin laughed. From the moment Wei Ming accepted the two dollars bet without any hesitation when they first met, she knew that this guy was not the kind of person who regarded money as dirt.

Wei Mingxin said: If I had too much money to spend, I would definitely treat money as dirt.

When Li Xiaolin sent Wei Ming downstairs, he said, "I will argue with the editor-in-chief and give you a price that is worthy of this manuscript."

“And try to send it as early as possible.”

"I know, I know. Go back and revise the manuscript quickly." Li Xiaolin didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

After returning to the guesthouse, Wei Ming immediately spread out the paper and started writing.

Two hours later, there was a knock on the door.

When I opened the door, I saw it was Professor Qu. She came to get the luggage.

"You are finally back. Here is the key. Room 205 next door."

Professor Qu saw that Wei Ming had already laid out the manuscript on his desk and asked, "Are you starting to revise the manuscript now?"

"No, I wrote a short story," Wei Ming said, "It's only about 2,000 words. Please help me submit it to Story Club and see how much money I can get~"

(End of this chapter)