Exciting 1979!

Chapter 97 "Double Donkeys" was published, and the sales were off the charts (guaranteed 2 more chapters)
"Huacheng" is a literary magazine from Guangzhou. It was founded in March this year. The November issue is the third issue in total. The circulation has reached 3 in just three issues, which is indeed terrifying.

When Wei Ming was on patrol, he saw a book from Chen Jiangong, so he borrowed it to take a look. Hey, there was another short story by the old man, "Curved Water".

This guy seems to have reached the peak of his creativity. He can be seen in magazines every month, and they are all major magazines.

However, Chen Jiangong's short story is not the main reason why Huacheng has such a high circulation.

Wei Ming saw the name of a future Nobel Prize winner in the catalog and wondered if it was he who sparked the sales.

In addition, both the cover design and the layout style of "Huacheng" are much more fashionable and pleasing to the eye compared with those in the north.

In addition to traditional novels, poems, and essays, there are also two units: Overseas News and Hong Kong Communications.

These overseas literary information and overseas consultations are also very attractive to domestic readers. This is the vision of the old open city.

In fact, after "Erniu" proved his strength, "October", "Huacheng" and "Zhongshan" all sent letters to Wei Ming asking him to write for them.

However, he gave "The Shepherd" to "Contemporary". For the time being, he has not thought about writing any serious literature, and he feels that he cannot control the long novel he is planning.

So now he has started writing popular literature to change his mindset. After writing a paragraph every day, he will talk about it in the dormitory and listen to the opinions of the target audience.

Zhao Debiao felt that the protagonist was too cowardly and afraid of his wife, and was not as majestic as himself. But Brother Ming said that the character of The Young Wife was based on Yan Zi, and the martial arts she used were the snake fist and double swords that she was good at. He immediately felt that there was no problem with that.

Mei Wenhua feels that these characters' martial arts are not as impressive as the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms and the Divine Art of the North Sea, but the details they depict can make people's blood boil.

When writing the fighting scenes, Wei Ming borrowed the description methods of national martial arts in online novels. It is indeed better in mobilizing emotions, and it is well-reasoned, as if ordinary people can really practice it. There is a kind of dreamlike feeling that is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and...

"This is a low-level martial arts novel. You can talk about that later when I write a high-level martial arts novel."

Isn’t it just written in a more mysterious way? It’s not a difficult thing.

Qiao Feng liked it very much. He liked stories like the anti-Qing and restoration of Ming the most. Moreover, the young men were all brave, smart and just. He felt that these were the qualities that the younger generation needed.

The next day, Qiao Feng was going into the city again.

Wei Ming felt it was a little strange. When did you two become so affectionate? You can't wait to see each other three times a week.

Brother Feng is the team leader and doesn't have to work the night shift. Unless he wants to go into the city on Sundays, he has to use his vacation time. Does this mean he doesn't plan to celebrate the New Year?
However, he had no right to interfere in the couple's affairs. He estimated that Zhu Lin had almost finished listening to the tape, so Wei Ming asked Brother Feng to help him deliver a new tape to Sister Lin.

Ten dollars for two plates a month, she should be able to bear it.

~
"Oh, I can't stand it anymore!"

Following Mu Rong's shout, Qiao Feng completely calmed down.

After a while, they turned off the recorder that was still speaking.

The tape recorder was borrowed from a colleague. When they heard that Qiao Feng brought a foreign music tape that Wei Ming gave to Zhu Lin, they wanted to hear what magic this music had.

Then, accompanied by the exciting "Kung Fu Fighting", the two of them performed passionately.

This is the hit song of the year that came into being as Bruce Lee became popular in the West, with sales reaching 1100 million copies.

Although he didn't understand the lyrics, Qiao Feng felt more energetic.

When Mu Rong gave the tape to Zhu Lin at work, Zhu Lin was overjoyed, thinking that the boy had forgotten about him.

But when I heard the first song on the tape, I thought, forget it, you'd better forget about me. What the hell, I don't even want to give you money.

Fortunately, except for the first strange song, the following songs were very gentle. I won't owe him this time. But I will pay him back when I have time to go to Peking University.

~
At this time, Melinda had returned the manuscript of "The Magic Book" to Wei Ming and gave it a high evaluation.

"When do you have new works, let me see them."

"Oh, soon." Wei Ming thought for a moment, "A novella will be published in a few days."

At this time, the November issue of "Harvest" has entered the countdown to release, but the number of copies for the first print run has not yet been finalized.

The small "Huacheng" is quite courageous. 37 copies, can you sell them all?

The intention to step on the big brother to get to the top is too obvious.

After some discussion, it was finally decided that the first print run would be 40 copies!

This is also the highest number of first print runs since the resumption of publication.

As for why he was so confident, Wei Ming, who was still a newcomer at the time, was an important reason.

Wei Ming made his debut in just over two months in September, but he has already made a great name for himself in the literary world with "The Duck Prophet" and "Two Cows". Coupled with his two poems, he has some die-hard fans.

Moreover, "The Story of Two Donkeys" is not only the most popular educated youth literature novel at present, but also Wei Ming's true debut work, which will definitely bring considerable attention to the magazine.

In addition to Wei Ming, other authors in this issue of "Harvest" are also very strong.

There is also a novella by Feng Jicai called "Ah!"

Feng Jicai, 37, has not been in the literary world for long. He used to be the center of Tianjin Men's Basketball Team. After being injured, he turned to the art world and worked as a painter in Tianjin Calligraphy and Painting Society. The first time he started writing was because he studied the history of the Boxer Rebellion and co-wrote a book called "The Boxer Fist", which also laid the foundation for his later creation of "The Divine Whip".

It was only this year that Feng Jicai truly became a writer. His scar novel "The Flower-Paved Crossroads" was published in the March issue of "Harvest".

The same theme "Ah!" is even better and can be regarded as his early representative work.

In addition to Wei Ming and Feng Jicai, there is another young writer Ye Xin, whose long serial novel "Our Generation of Young People" will publish its finale in this issue of "Harvest".

Wei Ming is not a professional writer of educated youth literature, but Ye Xin is considered the most representative figure in educated youth literature.

The next year, his film "Wasted Years" directly brought "Harvest" to the peak of millions of circulation, and was later adapted into a TV series.

Although these three people have not been in the industry for long and are not veterans in the literary world, the high circulation of "Huacheng" is not due to them.

The old man’s writings and stories are out of touch with today’s readers; the literary world is dominated by the new generation.

On November 11, 25 copies of Harvest began to be distributed in bookstores, newsstands, and post offices across the country.

Although not all of them were sent out on the first day, the 40 did not last long, and the popularity had already been formed.

~
The old man at the newsstand outside Peking University had been prepared. He knew Wei Ming's popularity in Peking University and heard that Wei Ming had published another work, so the number of issues of "Harvest" he prepared this time was twice as much as the previous issue.

But when Dai Jinhua from the Chinese Department of Class 78 came to buy the magazine at noon, it was out of stock.

Fortunately, after returning to the dormitory, she saw that her roommate had bought a book and put it on the table, so she started reading it while she was taking a nap.

Of course, you should read Wei Ming’s “The Story of Two Donkeys” directly.

This is a very cheerful novel when you first read it. Dai Jinhua couldn't stop grinning while reading it.

Ma Jie, an educated youth who went to the countryside from a big city, is a handsome guy who shouts slogans loudly but likes to be lazy.

Although the classic lines from "How the Steel Was Tempered" are often mentioned, no one does anything about it.

In order to be lazy, he wanted to be a breeder. In order to be a breeder, he stole several times the amount of anesthetics that an adult could use from the health center and gave an injection to Heiwu, the breeding donkey in charge of breeding for the production team.

Later, he pretended to be a ghost and "woken it up", thus gaining the trust of the captain and successfully taking the position.

These scenes are very lifelike and funny. Ma Jie gives people the feeling that he is both bad and likable. His words and deeds are very similar to those kids from the Yenching compound, very ruffian-like.

When Ma Jie and the breeder discussed why Black Five could be a breeding donkey, using toothpicks and chopsticks as metaphors, Dai Jinhua could not help but blush. This description was too vulgar.

I don’t know if Wei Ming is the first writer to use toothpicks to make this kind of portrayal.

However, as the plot goes on, the funny elements of the plot decrease, the conflict begins to intensify, and Dai Jinhua's expression is serious, as if he is thinking.

Because of Ma Jie, when Heiwu lost his ability to breed, Captain Dalian, who had been very fond of him, suddenly changed his attitude. Because he was making trouble and not cooperating, he decisively let Ma Jie end his life and everyone shared the meat.

On the contrary, Ma Jie felt a kind of sympathy for Heiwu, but he could not resist the threat from Captain Dalian, and ended Heiwu's life in the quickest and least painful way.

All of this was seen by Hei Liu who was tied to the side.

Black Six is Black Five's brother, but because he doesn't have as strong abilities as his brother, he just does hard labor.

However, this donkey doing hard labor did something terrible next. It actually started to take revenge on Ma Jie for its brother.

Ma Jie was tortured afterwards, and his scandal with the beautiful rural girl Caifeng was exposed to the whole village, so he had no choice but to marry far away.

So the struggle between one man and one donkey began.

In Wei Ming's writing, Hei Liu is simply amazing, even exaggerated to the point of being beyond measure, but Dai Jinhua knows that at this moment Hei Liu is no longer just a donkey, it is an image-based symbol.

A horse and a donkey, in fact, they are the same, both are the lowest-level producers. In front of those in power, they fight and hurt each other.

But in the end, Captain Dalian, who stood at the top of the power of the production team and decided the life and death of Heiwu, sat back and did not suffer a single scratch.

Finally, smelling the dried skin of brother Heiwu, Heiliu seemed to know who to attack, so he set himself on fire, burning all the production team's grain harvest for the year, and he himself was burned until only a standing skeleton was left!

Dai Jinhua thought the novel was very interesting and consistent with his usual impression of Wei Ming.

So she immediately picked up her pen and prepared to write a novel review to submit.

At the same time, her classmate Liu Zhenyun had finished writing the literary review and gave it to Wei Ming for correction.

"Can I earn this money?" Wei Ming asked cautiously after reading it.

Wei Ming: "It's an improvement over last time. We can try a bigger newspaper now."

"The Story of Two Donkeys" is an atypical article about educated youth. It also creates a vivid image of Ma Jie, who is completely different from the educated youth in the past who were either glorious or tragic. This novel quickly sparked a heated discussion in the literary world.

Unlike "Two Bulls" which was almost all praised and affirmed, "The Story of Two Donkeys" still received a lot of negative reviews...

(End of this chapter)