1978: A Literary Giant Who Began His Military Service

Chapter 139 National Outstanding Novellas
Since the First-Class Merit Award was awarded, everyone in the school now knows Zhou Xu, the legendary guy who went back with a First-Class Merit Award after only half a year of schooling.

Among them were many envious and jealous glances.

Jealousy is understandable, after all, it's just that the first-class merit awarded to the cultural troupe is not as valuable as the real money earned on the front lines. Of course, Zhou Xu also received a first-class merit from the front lines!

Yu Wenyong asked, "Comrade Zhou Xu, are you really not planning to go to the Nanjing Military Region? Their commander personally came here to award you a First-Class Merit Medal! Aren't you afraid of offending them?"

Zhou Xu brought hot water into the room, and while soaking his feet, he said, "I still stick to my original point of view: as long as I don't choose either side, I won't offend anyone!"

"Besides, there's still a year until graduation! What's the rush?" Ye Huawei chimed in.

Zhou Xu nodded.

After returning to school for the Chinese New Year, I quickly got back into study mode.

I also went out once during that time.

A few days later!

At this time, the literary and art federation and the writers' association at No. 2 Shatan North Street were restored in 78.

The original office building was occupied by the Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company, but it was absolutely impossible to get them to give it up!
In the end, they had no choice but to find this compound and build a wooden house with a few planks, which served as their temporary office until the Writers' Association's first new building was completed in the late 1980s.

Of course, the Writers Association regained the publishing rights to *People's Literature* from its rebellious son, People's Literature Publishing House, and then gave them to Writers Publishing House. As for *Contemporary*, it was a new son that People's Literature Publishing House later established itself.

After People's Literature returned to the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, it has now moved into these rows of simple wooden buildings!

The award ceremony for the first National Excellent Short Story Award was held in Beijing on March 26, 1979, and was organized by the People's Literature magazine on behalf of the China Writers Association.

At the beginning of this year, the Writers Association, while continuing the National Excellent Short Story Award, added a National Excellent Novella Award. This award is still primarily organized by *People's Literature* magazine, in conjunction with People's Literature Publishing House—a top domestic publisher—and six other influential publishing houses and magazines to form a joint organizing team.

As one of the first national literary awards to emerge after the reform and opening up, the National Excellent Short Story Award has attracted much attention since the year Liu Xinwu's "The Class Teacher" won the award.

The launch of the inaugural National Excellent Novella Award has drawn the attention of the entire society: countless young writers are eager to gain industry recognition and establish themselves in the literary world through this award.

In the current context, it seems difficult to be considered a truly accomplished writer without winning a major award. More importantly, the award's selection criteria are closely linked to the mainstream trends in literary creation, and its social influence and public attention are naturally considerable.

Therefore, any oversight or unfairness in the award process could lead to inaccurate awards and damage to public trust.

In contrast, many literary awards in later generations gradually fell into a self-enclosed predicament, unable to regain their original vitality and influence. But things are different now; the current award for outstanding short stories is selected based on public votes using reader opinion forms.

The public made up a certain percentage, and the remaining portion was comprised of the judging panel.

The judging panel included a number of prominent figures in the domestic literary world, such as Ba Jin, Liu Baiyu, Chen Huangmei, Feng Mu, and Sha Ting.

Upon entering the editorial office, Cui Daoyi asked, "Zhou Ming, have you finished compiling the evaluation forms you were in charge of?"

Zhou Ming, who was also the director of the fiction section of *People's Literature*, was naturally responsible for some of the opinion forms. He said, "The statistics are almost complete. First place is Zhou Xu's *Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain* with 27,000 votes! Second place is Wang Meng's *Butterfly* with 15,000 votes, and third place is Chen Rong's *Middle Age* with 7,800 votes..."

This sequence was predictable. Zhou Xu's "Garland Under the Mountain" attracted widespread attention in society and even won the opportunity to be studied by the entire army!
As for the individual volumes, the number of copies sold was 500,000 in the middle of last year, and it has already exceeded one million this year!
One million copies a year is a terrifying number. You have to understand that Yu Hua's "To Live" only sold a few million copies a year in the later moderately prosperous society. Not to mention that not many people have the opportunity to buy books now!
Wang Meng, who came in second, needs no introduction; he had already achieved some success, so he had a lot of supporters.

The third is Chen Rong, someone everyone is familiar with, Liang Zuo's mother! "Middle Age" is also Chen Rong's most representative work!

Cui Daoyi had an expression that said, "The statistics from the PLA Publishing House are out too. Their unit's number one book is also 'Wreath Under the Mountain.' Just as expected!"

“But Comrade Wang Meng is going to be outdone this time?” Zhou Ming stroked his chin.

"Let's see what the judging panel thinks. What if Comrade Ba Jin thinks Wang Meng's work is better?"

"It's unlikely they'll take care of the newcomer and give the first place title to Zhou Xu!" Zhou Ming said.

As mentioned earlier, the literary world has always followed the rule of yielding to the more capable, and this is no exception here. Therefore, if Zhou Xu is in first place in the public vote, the senior figures will not deliberately push Zhou Xu down to second place!
Moreover, even if Zhou Xu receives fewer votes than Wang Meng, the judges will deliberately rank Zhou Xu ahead of Wang Meng!

Cui Daoyi shook his head and said regretfully, "Oh? 'Nanjing Photo Studio' and 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' are both excellent works! It's a pity we at 'People's Literature' haven't encountered them!"

Hearing this, Zhou Ming smiled. Indeed, the story of Cui Daoyi was known to literary editors all over the country!
People's Literature is now also thinking of asking Zhou Xu for a manuscript, but they feel bad about offending him!
“However, when he comes to present the award, I think you can have a good talk with him!” Zhou Ming said with a smile.

Of course, "Lurking" is also eligible for awards, but "Lurking" is 200,000 words long, and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is 120,000 words long! The other novels are all short stories of 20,000 to 30,000 words.

The current standard for novellas is 30,000 to 100,000 words. Originally, there was some leniency around 100,000 words, but these works exceed 100,000 words, so they naturally lost the opportunity to be selected!

Cui Daoyi nodded. He did feel somewhat regretful. In fact, even if "Lurking" wasn't so literary, it could still bring good sales to the magazine. It turned out that keeping Zhou Xu around hadn't been a bad thing.

in the afternoon.

All the magazines responsible for collecting reader opinions nationwide brought their findings to the editorial department of People's Literature. The editorial department of People's Literature then tallied the results again, and the top-ranked book was still "Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain".

Of course, once the statistics are completed, these matters are no longer their responsibility.

A group of people dumped all the tasks on the judging panel.

The judging panel officially convened its meeting in this small wooden shack.

"..."

Time flies, and it's already the end of April.

After the judging panel finished its meeting, it handed over the list to various publishing houses and magazines, asking them to contact their authors.

"Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain" was also published in "Liberation Army Literature and Art" back then, and Liu Jiaju was naturally the reviewer!

He made a phone call directly to the Nanjing Senior Army School! Of course, his attitude was much more cautious than when he called the company level, after all, the school was of a very high level.

"Hello! I'm here to inform Zhou Xu from your school! He's won the National Excellent Novella Award!!"

"What?" The political director was a little surprised, but with a look of delight on his face, he went straight to Zhou Xu's dormitory.

We're inside!

The political director then said to Zhou Xu, "Congratulations, Comrade Zhou Xu!!"

Zhou Xu was taken aback, and looking at the director, he immediately asked, "Is there something you need, Director?"

"Congratulations, Comrade Zhou Xu, you've won an award!" Director Ding, who shared a strong sense of honor, immediately exclaimed loudly!

Zhou Xu was a little confused and quickly asked, "What award?"

"Oh! I heard from the PLA Literature and Art Publishing House that your 'Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain' won the National Excellent Novella Award! Congratulations, Comrade Zhou Xu!"

At this point, Director Ding led Zhou Xu toward the office, saying, "Come with me!"

After all, Zhou Xu winning the award is also an award for the military!
Naturally, we all share in each other's glory!
They arrived at the office quickly, and Liu Jiaju from the editorial department began to tell Zhou Xu about his award. There was no suspense.

"The National Outstanding Novella Award ceremony will be held at the Great Hall of the People. On behalf of the magazine, I would like to invite you to attend the ceremony?"

Zhou Xu looked at his director with a questioning gaze.

The political director is responsible for these trivial matters! Besides, after the misunderstanding with Zhou Xu last time, Director Ding has learned his lesson and his attitude towards Zhou Xu has changed a lot.

After the Nanjing Military Region commander awarded Zhou Xu the medal, he also had a great deal of goodwill towards him: "Is this considered a business trip? It's not a leave request. I'll give you half a month to go to the capital, take care of everything, and come back after you receive the award!"

Zhou Xu nodded immediately.

He was already quite pleased with the award, but now that he's on vacation, he's even happier than with the award itself. After all, who doesn't enjoy a vacation and going home to play?
"The military should be able to prepare the train tickets soon. The awards ceremony will be held in May. You should go back and prepare now," Liu Jiaju said as he heard that Zhou Xu had already been given leave.

Zhou Xu nodded and immediately returned to his dormitory to start packing his things.

"Hey? What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the capital to receive an award! You guys need to hurry up with the training!" Zhou Xu said this before leaving.

"To the capital?"

"Okay, I'll leave tomorrow!!"

The few who remained were filled with envy, since Zhou Xu had gone on leave.

(End of this chapter)