Exciting 1979!

Chapter 98: Xiao Ming, you don’t need to go to college, as long as you speak

No. 675, Julu Road, Shanghai, the editorial office of Harvest.

Editor Lao Kong looked at the pile of readers' letters on Li Xiaolin's desk and said happily, "Haha, every novel of Xiao Wei's is extraordinary. The readers' letters of all other authors combined are not as many as his."

Li Xiaolin said helplessly: "I should have written at the end of the article: Wei Ming is in Peking University. I have to take the trouble to forward it to him."

Another editor laughed and said, “Try to remind him before forwarding it. If possible, don’t tear it down. Otherwise, he might be scolded.”

Li Xiaolin smiled and said, "That's not the case. Of the letters sent to the editorial department by readers regarding The Story of Two Donkeys, only 30% were negative, and about 50% were praising it from various angles."

There are still 20% neutral.

Because the author portrayed a not-so-positive image of educated youth, many simple-minded educated youth simply believed that the great writer was smearing the educated youth group and was generalizing, and they wrote articles to condemn him.

Those with poor writing skills can write to "Harvest", and those with good writing skills can submit articles to newspapers and magazines. You can even make money by criticizing others.

There was a lot of discussion about this novel in newspapers and magazines across the country, making Ye Xin's "Our Generation of Young People", which was also a work of educated youth literature, have a very weak presence in the same issue.

What he wrote was the kind of serious educated youth literature, but it was considered to be relatively positive among the educated youth literature. However, compared with Wei Ming's unconventional "The Story of Two Donkeys", his writing was overshadowed by the others, and this was still the finale.

Among them, there is a famous review article about "The Story of Two Donkeys" in a literary newspaper in Yenching. The title roughly means "If you are not an educated youth, why are you writing literature about educated youth? Do you know how hard it is for educated youth?"

This article, written from the perspective of a youth who had been in the countryside for ten years, describes in detail the hard life he had lived during those years, including working even though his hands were blistered, getting up before dawn to go to the fields, and working hard for three hours under the scorching sun. When he returned to the youth cadre center, he could not even read a book and fell asleep as soon as he touched the kang.

Of course, there is also the classic story of unrequited love, where the educated youth girl is forced to marry the son of a village cadre, etc.

This article describes almost all the miserable experiences that educated youth might encounter when going to the countryside. It is truly a classic among classics and was quickly reprinted by many newspapers. It gained a lot of sympathy and quickly went viral.

However, a rebuttal article soon appeared, and the title was also very clever.

"I don't know how hard it was for the educated youth, but I know you certainly didn't have it as hard as I did. I'm the son of a farmer."

Damn, what a killer kill!

The article describes the daily life of a farm boy from his family's perspective, and this daily life written in a plain tone is obviously much more tiring and difficult than the description of the educated youth.

The author even had a little sister who died at the age of four due to poor medical conditions, which adds to the author's sympathy and makes people cry after reading the story.

When it comes to hardship, no one can complain about it in front of Chinese farmers!
The publication of the two articles with opposite views pushed the popularity of "The Story of Two Donkeys" to a new height.

But Dai Jinhua is very depressed. It seems that you guys are arguing and quarreling but you haven't touched the core of "The Story of Two Donkeys".

Wei Ming clearly wrote a wonderful satirical novel, but you are discussing whether the educated youth or the peasants suffered more. You are missing the point!

What made her even more sad was that the manuscript she wrote to "Literary Review" was rejected.

What a lack of vision!
So she simply submitted it to her school's magazine "Wenming Lake", and luckily it was accepted and will be published in the third issue in December.

As for Liu Zhenyun's article, he submitted it to Yenching Literature and Art, even earlier, but there has been no response so far.

He was quite worried and even consulted with Wei Ming: "Do you think I should go to Yenching Literature and Art to ask, and treat Senior Sister Zhang to dinner?"

Wei Ming: "It's just a few dollars, is it that important to you?"

"No, I'm just afraid that the popularity will fade and my article will be wasted."

Wei Ming picked up a newspaper at the gate and glanced at it.

"Don't worry, I think I can hold on for a while longer."

Just relying on those two emotionally infectious commentary articles, one positive and one negative opposing viewpoints, he has completely stirred up the heat, and this heat is expected to last for a long time.

That’s right, those two articles were actually written by Wei Ming under a pseudonym, and the correspondence address was also fake.

The purpose is not simply to create hype, although it did achieve that effect.

He did this because he thought that articles criticizing "The Story of Two Donkeys" would definitely use the suffering of the educated youth as their point of view, and then use moral blackmail to not say anything bad about the educated youth.

Since someone will write about it sooner or later, okay, I will write it for you, and it will be exactly like the experiences in the typical educated youth novels.

But the farmers who lived in the same space as the educated youth had almost no voice, so Wei Ming wrote another article from their perspective to speak on their behalf.

What they write are all real experiences, so it’s only fair.

Another day passed, and Liu Zhenyun held up a remittance slip for ten yuan and said excitedly in front of Wei Ming: "Brother Ming, I passed, I passed, and they gave me one thousand five hundred words!"

Now he is the first student in his class to have his publication published in Yenching Literature and Art, which makes him very proud.

Wei Ming was also happy for him: "According to the rules of our dormitory, when we receive royalties, we usually have to treat our guests in the Changzheng Canteen."

Liu Zhenyun stopped laughing and said, "I thought that I would send the royalties back home to improve my family's living conditions. Next time, next time for sure."

Wei Ming: Why do his words sound so familiar?

Shit, isn’t this the first time I asked for my lyrics when I was asked to pay for my work?
Liu Zhenyun was so scared that he ran away, and Wei Ming continued to watch the gate.

He is now on duty at the west gate. A colleague of his has some urgent matters at home, so Wei Ming switched shifts with him.

It has been a while since I last stood guard at the gate, and I miss it quite a bit. However, he can only do this kind of work for one day at most. If he works one more day, I am afraid that some "fans" will smell the scent and come to see him.

Three short stories in a row became hits, plus two poems, which made him very influential among the Yenching University students. He was no longer suitable for such a high-profile job as a gatekeeper. Because this place was close to Shaoyuan, many foreign students who were familiar with him would tease him when they passed by.

Just after I saw off the American guy A Mao, I saw a little old man coming towards me carrying a big suitcase. He was dressed simply and looked very kind.

Wei Ming went over and asked, "Uncle, do you need any help?"

"No, no, it's not heavy."

The old man said, "I'm a little confused. I want to ask which gate of Peking University this is?"

Wei Ming: "This is the west gate."

"Oh, so that direction is west, and the inside is east."

"Yes."

"Are you looking for someone or just passing by?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a job. No, that's not right. Someone has already found a job for me." The old man pointed inside the door.

Wei Mingle: "Then the person you are looking for must be capable. Peking University is now recruiting young people."

Suddenly, Wei Ming realized: "Are you a new professor in some department?"

"Hahaha, do you think I look like a professor? No, I don't." The old man smiled and went in.

Wei Ming thought that maybe he was an old craftsman with some special skills.

After waiting for the replacement to come, Wei Ming returned to the South Gate and saw Uncle Ping'an also at the gate.

He pulled Wei Ming outside: "Xiao Ming, I want to tell you something."

"What's the matter? I've said it many times, that girl is just an ordinary friend."

"It's not that, it's a big deal!" Uncle Ping An said mysteriously, "Xiao Ming, whether you want to go to college or not, as long as you want to go, there is a good opportunity in front of you!"

"Oh, what chance?"

"The school just held a meeting and decided that the library department will resume correspondence education next year!"

Correspondence education focuses on the "correspondence", which means correspondence. You don't even need to attend classes, but can complete your education through self-study and exams.

However, it is somewhat far-fetched for correspondence students to call themselves students of Peking University. But if you are a great writer, Peking University will certainly be eager to recognize you, and you can even use your status as a correspondence student to become a real Peking University graduate student.

After listening to it, Wei Ming was indeed tempted. If it wasn't too much trouble, it would be no problem to make one.

Although this correspondence course does not provide classrooms, dormitories, vehicles and meals, and also charges tuition fees, which is completely incomparable to regular students, Wei Ming is not short of that little money.

Now it has only been confirmed that correspondence courses have been resumed, and the follow-up regulations have not yet come out. Hearing Wei Ming's ideas, Wei Ping'an said that he would continue to keep an eye on it for him.

Today is the last day of February.

The next day, the first day of December, Wei Ming and Gong Xing made an appointment to go to Yenching Zoo.

It is estimated that Gong Xing also saw the excitement of "The Story of Two Donkeys". Wei Ming was a little worried that she would be influenced by the comments and think that he was belittling their group of educated youth.

Gong Xing also spent a few years as an educated youth, and she suffered a lot from the hardships of that life.

As a result, Gong Xing had no negative impact at all. She even told Wei Ming: "I have also seen male educated youth like Ma Jie in your novel. There are tens of millions of educated youth with all kinds of personalities. It is normal for one like him to appear. I have seen worse ones."

"Oh, how bad is it?"

Gong Xing sighed, "He's been murdered."

"what!"

"She was still a young girl. He fell in love with her, but she refused, so... But he was beaten to death by the girl's family. They were from the educated youth camp next door to us."

After that, Gong Xing advised Wei Ming not to be affected by negative comments, "You write really well."

"Oh, look at this," she pulled out a copy of "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art" from her bag, "Look, people in our army have published articles praising you."

Wei Ming glanced at the title: "The Story of Two Donkeys". After reading this, I don't need to read any other novels about educated youths!

Wei Ming looked at the author's name again and was stunned. Wang Shuo? Was it the Wang Shuo he knew?

He knew that Wang Shuo was preparing for the college entrance examination in the army last year. While practicing writing essays, he accidentally wrote a novel, which was published in "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art". As a result, he was seconded to "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art" as an editor.

With such an extreme title and the writing style in the main text being somewhat similar to that of "The Story of Two Donkeys", hey, it's probably really him.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that he praises "The Story of Two Donkeys" so much. Maybe he can even surpass his master as he learns from him, and then be nicknamed "Little Wei Ming".

After walking around, Wei Ming insisted on treating him this time. How could he bear to let Sister Xue spend money on her salary?

After finishing the meal and parting ways, Wei Ming immediately rode his bike to the Institute of Health to find another good sister...

(End of this chapter)