Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 136: Discussion of the Script of "Mr. Donkey"
On August 20th, Liu Yimin received a package from France containing the French translation of "Hachiko: A Dog's Tale." Marseille Dani, the editor at Flammarion Publishing, had sent the translation to Liu Yimin for review as soon as it was completed, but unfortunately, Liu Yimin didn't understand French.

Liu Yimin went to the Department of Western Languages ​​at Yenching University and found a professor there who was fluent in French to take a look at the translation. The professor told Liu Yimin that the French translator had basically respected the original text and had not included any personal interpretations.

Before publication, the translated manuscript was shown to Liu Yimin, as they had agreed beforehand, because Liu Yimin was worried that the translation would be messed up during the translation process.

It turns out I was being a bit petty.

No problem. Now all that's left is to wait for it to be published in France. I just don't know when Liu Yimin will receive the royalties. Once that money arrives, Liu Yimin will have a home in Yenching.

After leaving Yenching University, Liu Yimin returned to Beijing People's Art Theatre. At the entrance of the theatre's gatehouse, a man kept looking around nervously.

Liu Yimin glanced around and prepared to go inside. The person in the gatehouse saw him and immediately chased after him, calling out, "Comrade Liu Yimin, someone's looking for you!"

The man at the gatehouse, upon hearing that the young man before him was Liu Yimin, spoke in a Shaanxi accent: "You're Comrade Liu Yimin? Hello, hello. I'm Wang Weiguo. I've come specifically to thank you."

Wang Weiguo? Lu Yao?

Liu Yimin stopped and carefully examined Lu Yao. His Zhongshan suit wasn't torn, but it was slightly sloppy. His skin was the typical brownish color of someone from Northwest China. He had long hair, a wide face, and slightly thick lips. He carried fruit in one hand and a stack of books wrapped in kraft paper in the other.

"Hello, hello, are you Lu Yao?"

“Yes, Cui, the deputy editor-in-chief of People’s Literature, asked me to revise the manuscript. He told me that the magazine would not have asked me to revise it if it weren’t for you. It just so happens that your book has been published, and I’m here to deliver a sample copy to you on behalf of the magazine.”

Liu Yimin took the package of books and invited Lu Yao inside. All three individual volumes were out; these were sample copies sent by the publisher to Cui Daoyi. Cui Daoyi had originally intended to deliver them, but he had some things to do, and Lu Yao happened to be nearby, so he volunteered to do it.

On the way here, Lu Yao was conflicted. She wondered if what she was doing was considered ingratiating, but then she hardened her heart and told herself that she was an editor of "Yanhe". Even if it wasn't to express her gratitude, she still had the pretext of asking for a manuscript.

Following behind Liu Yimin, Lu Yao began to feel uneasy looking at this young man who was younger than her but more famous.

Lu Yao, who came from a poor background, was insecure. The reason he became so flamboyant later was to cover up his insecurity.

Liu Yimin led him to his room, handed him a stool, and said, "Sit down, Lao Wang, how's your manuscript revision going?"

The word "Old Wang" made Lu Yao feel very close to him, and he smiled as he talked about revising his manuscript: "I arrived at the beginning of the month and have been revising for more than ten days. I have finally discovered something: revising a manuscript is even more difficult than writing it."

"That's normal. Writing is like creating a person, and revising is like making changes to that person, like making their eyes bigger or their height taller. But you can't just fix the eyes. If you fix the eyes, you have to change the face too. Otherwise, if the eyes are bigger than the face, how can that work?"

Hearing Liu Yimin's words, Lu Yao felt relieved and smiled easily, "That makes sense, that makes sense. Comrade Liu Yimin, you have no experience in revising manuscripts, but you can explain things very well."

Even if you've never eaten pork, you've always seen pigs run!

"I finished revising the first version today, so I'm just looking for an excuse to get some fresh air. Want a smoke?" Lu Yao handed a cigarette to Liu Yimin.

"I don't smoke, just call me Yimin!"

Lu Yao held the cigarette under her nose and smelled it: "I can't write without smoking!"

"Deputy Editor Cui has extensive experience as an editor; I estimate you'll be able to finish revising it in less than a month!"

Taking advantage of the conversation, Lu Yao started talking to Liu Yimin about the plot of his novel. Liu Yimin gave him a brief analysis, and Lu Yao happily invited Liu Yimin to dinner, but Liu Yimin refused.

"I'll see you off after you finish revising the manuscript!"

Lu Yao's meager salary, including revision subsidies and royalties, hasn't been paid yet. He has to grit his teeth to eat out, let alone treat Liu Yimin to a meal.

Tightening your belt isn't done like this; you can't just tie it around your neck!

Seeing that Liu Yimin refused, Lu Yao persisted and insisted on taking him to dinner. He could only refuse by saying that he was going to Cao Yu's house for dinner.

Lu Yao left People's Literature and Art Center with regret. Before leaving, Liu Yimin gave him a ticket to a play and invited him to come and see the play when he had time.

In the days that followed, aside from writing, Liu Yimin spent almost every day in the rehearsal room. Since he took them to meet Master Ma last time, Zheng Rong's skills had improved significantly.

So every few days he would go to see Master Ma. When Liu Yimin saw him, hey, Master Ma was about to get a lot fatter!

While watching the play in the rehearsal hall, Cao Yu walked in and said, "Shan Zun, Lao Lan, how's the rehearsal going?"

Ouyang Shanzun stood up and said, "Lord Jiabao, we can't rush the progress of such a grand production. We've only just gotten the hang of it! To truly bring out the flavor, it will take at least another half month, and for that flavor to become a real aroma, it will take even longer."

"Then you can pickle it slowly, Yimin. Come out with me for a bit."

Cao Yu came to the rehearsal hall mainly to find Liu Yimin. Following Cao Yu to the office, Cao Yu sat down and said, "The Drama Association is holding a script seminar for 'Mr. Donkey' and would like to invite you to attend!"

"seminar?"

"The research focuses on the script of 'Mr. Donkey' itself, but not on the script itself. The Drama Association wants to explore the direction of adapting novels into plays and encourages major drama troupes to find suitable novels for adaptation to make up for the current shortcomings of drama troupes' scripts. If we really rely on the playwrights of those drama troupes to write them, the actors of those troupes will be left with nothing!"

"When?"

"The last day of the month!"

"Okay, I'll get ready."

"Come home for dinner tonight. Wanfang is coming over today and will give you your royalties!"

After Liu Yimin went out, he bought some things at the nearby supply and marketing cooperative. For ordinary families, their rations wouldn't be enough to support Liu Yimin's frequent free meals.

The script for "Romance on Lushan Mountain" published in the "Script Monthly" magazine was paid by word count. For the 90,000-word script, Liu Yimin received 630 yuan. The 63 pages were packed in an envelope, a thick stack. Wan Fang joked, "Yimin, I think none of the writers in China earn as much money as you do right now. I'm waiting for you, senior sister, keep submitting your work!"

"If Yimin could write Peking Opera, that would be great. Then I could even perform on stage!" Li Yuru said with a smile.

Writing about Peking Opera? If Liu Yimin can write about Peking Opera, he'll truly be a versatile and multifaceted individual.

Upon receiving the script from Liu Yimin, the Shanghai Film Studio immediately convened a team to discuss the script for "Romance on Lushan Mountain." Ultimately, under the leadership of the studio director Xu Sangchu, they unanimously decided to begin filming.

"However, some parts of the script still need to be revised. Given Comrade Liu Yimin's position and his duties at the Beijing People's Art Theatre, Comrade Meng Zhao, please have everyone discuss the script. We'll hold another meeting tomorrow to compile all the necessary revisions into a single document."

"You go to Yanjing and personally communicate with Comrade Liu Yimin. Come back after the script is revised!" Xu Sangchu said, tapping the table with his hand.

Zhang Mengzhao nodded: "Comrade Yimin is very easy to communicate with. He will definitely accept our opinions. However, in order to speed up the revision of the script, we need to review our opinions ourselves first to see which ones really need to be changed and which ones do not need to be changed after discussion."

"Just do it!"

Zhang Mengzhao left the meeting room and first ran to send a telegram to Liu Yimin: [To Comrade Liu Yimin: Our factory has received the script and confirmed its use. He will be traveling to Yanjing soon to discuss script revisions.]

Back in Yanjing, Lu Yao found Liu Yimin again. Cui Daoyi informed him that the revised manuscript had finally been approved. He immediately went to Liu Yimin to share the good news, and then insisted on taking him out for a meal.

"Comrade Liu Yimin, don't worry, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Cui has already paid me the manuscript fee. I have money now. The manuscript fee is four yuan per thousand words, so I can afford to treat you to a meal."

Lu Yao was afraid that Liu Yimin would think he had no money, so he took the money out of the envelope from his bag, his neck red, and waved it in the air.

Since he's already done all that, it would be really unreasonable for Liu Yimin not to go.

Lu Yao wanted to take Liu Yimin to Lao Mo, but he persuaded her not to: "It's too far, let's just eat something nearby!"

Lu Yao clicked his tongue and looked at a state-run restaurant not far away: "I want to try something foreign. When I was in school, I always met students from Beijing who kept talking about Moscow. I want to see the world."

Liu Yimin pushed him into the state-run restaurant and said, "A writer's worldly experience doesn't lie with Lao Mo!"

During the meal, Lu Yao tentatively asked, "I heard from Deputy Editor-in-Chief Cui that you said you would help write a review if my novel was published?"

Seeing his cautious manner, Liu Yimin smiled and said, "Old Wang, it's true. When will your novel be published? I'll write a review for you. Don't blame me if it's not good."

"How could I dare? It's already quite an achievement to be able to write at all." Lu Yao, with a cigarette between his fingers, poked a lock of hair near his temple with his thumb and said, "I guess it'll be around issue 11 by then!"

Generally speaking, magazines like *People's Literature and Art* don't lack manuscripts; they'll schedule the next one or two issues in advance. Even exceptionally good manuscripts have to wait in line, so it's rare to see someone like Liu Yimin consistently getting published so quickly.

Cui Daoyi did not give Lu Yao a definite answer, only saying that it could be the 11th term or the 12th term.

“There’s enough time. I’ll give it to Deputy Editor-in-Chief Cui directly. You’re going back soon, right?” Liu Yimin asked, picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks.

Lu Yao ordered three meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, which was a bit wasteful for just the two of them. However, Lu Yao didn't care at all; he felt he had made a fortune during this trip to Yanjing. At the standard rate of four yuan per thousand words, he received over a hundred yuan in royalties, plus revision subsidies, bringing his total to nearly two hundred yuan.

That should last him a while!
“I’ll stay in Yanjing for one more day, and I’ll go back the day after tomorrow. I’ll come back to Yanjing to see you when I have the chance. Revising this manuscript is tough, but before I leave, I’m already thinking about the next time. Revising a manuscript means it will be published. You don’t know how we feel when we receive a notice from the magazine to revise our manuscripts.”

The way Lu Yao said it made it sound like Liu Yimin wasn't in the same social class as them.

They chatted until after 7 p.m. before the two came out of the restaurant. After waving goodbye, Liu Yimin turned and went back to the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

Upon seeing Zhu Lin standing at the entrance of the Beijing People's Art Theatre, looking around, Liu Yimin asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Didn't you see anything? Yimin, who were you having dinner with just now?" Zhu Lin turned around and followed behind Liu Yimin, asking with a smile.

"You saw that writer who came to Yanjing to revise his manuscript? Why didn't you call me? We could have gone out to eat together!"

"You're all discussing literary creation, wouldn't it be awkward for me to sit here!" Zhu Lin said, waving his hand before heading backstage to prepare for the performance.

After returning to his room and lying down for a while, Liu Yimin began to think about commenting on the title, "One Must Have a Passionate Heart—To Comrade Lu Yao." He analyzed the work from its background and its unconventional perspective.

The Chinese literature department doesn't train writers, it trains literary critics, so Liu Yimin is a professional at writing reviews. He wrote over two thousand words of book reviews in three hours straight.
After reading it through myself, I revised and edited it until the early hours of the morning before finally finishing the comment, which was 2,500 words long.

On August 31st, a seminar on the script of "Mr. Donkey" was held in the conference room of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. The Dramatists Association, as a subordinate unit of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, shares offices with it.

The Federation of Literary and Art Circles' offices are now located on Shatan North Street. Originally, the Federation had a large building near the Beijing People's Art Theatre in Wangfujing, but unfortunately, it was dissolved within ten years. The building it built was given to the Commercial Press for use, and after ten years, the building was never returned.

They could only squeeze into the wooden houses on North Beach Street.

Liu Yimin followed Cao Yu into the venue, where banners were displayed and about a dozen people were seated. Apart from the leaders of the Dramatists Association, the rest were heads of drama troupes and professors from the Central Academy of Drama.

Cao Yu chaired the meeting, which immediately elevated the level of the seminar.

Many drama troupe leaders stood up to greet Liu Yimin: "Comrade Liu Yimin, we heard that the script for 'Wolf Smoke Over Beiping' is already in rehearsals. We hope that our drama troupe can also participate."

"The comrades at the Beijing People's Art Theatre are working overtime to rehearse. If you have time while you're in Beijing, you can go and see them!" Liu Yimin said with a smile.

"Easy to say, easy to say!"

Once the atmosphere had settled down, Cao Yu cleared his throat and announced the official start of the seminar.

"Comrades, as you all know, the current situation of major drama troupes is that they are short of scripts. Some drama troupes don't even have a new script and are still using old ones. Of course, old scripts have their advantages, but we can't let the audience keep watching old scripts."

(End of this chapter)