Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 121 Fatalism (Two in One)

The next day, Yu Dong received a contract from Jimmy James.

The parties to the contract are Yu Dong and Guo Jianzhong.

Jimmy got Guo Jianzhong's contact information from Tan Kai before and immediately contacted him. After making an appointment to meet, he went directly to Hangzhou, where Guo Jianzhong worked.

According to Jimmy, the meeting between the two went very smoothly. Guo Jianzhong directly agreed to translate "Second World" without even asking about the fee.

In fact, this is easy to understand. For Guo Jianzhong, this is a good challenge.

In the field of science fiction literature, he always translated well-known foreign science fiction novels into Chinese and provided them to domestic readers.

But this time it was completely different. He needed to translate a domestic science fiction novel into English for foreign readers.

Throughout history, "Second World" may not be the first science fiction novel in China to be translated into a foreign language and published abroad, but in such a period, such a solid science fiction novel can be exported to foreign countries, which will definitely serve as an important contribution to domestic science fiction. Jie breathed a sigh of relief.

Moreover, Guo Jianzhong also has an additional benefit for taking this job.

He is not only a translator who often contributes to "Science Fiction World", but also a sci-fi fan. Naturally, he is always looking forward to "Science Fiction World".

Among Yu Dong's novels, "Closed Loop" is his favorite, followed by "Second World".Like thousands of readers, he is waiting for the latest serialization of "Second World" every month.

Now that he took over the task of translating "The Second World", he could get the original manuscript directly and see the whole picture of the novel before most readers.

That is, because he had to give him the full draft, he had this contract.

The content of the contract mainly stipulates Guo Jianzhong's confidentiality obligation. Before "Second World" is completely serialized, he is not allowed to disclose the follow-up content of the novel to anyone else.

Next, Guo Jianzhong's translation work will officially begin.

Because Guo Jianzhong has his own job, and the translation is only his deputy, so his speed is not fast.The entire "Second World" has more than 30 words, and it is estimated that it will take more than three months to translate it.

The English version of Second World will not come out until at least August.

……

At noon on Monday, Yu Dong went to "Zhongshan" during his break time.

When passing by the deputy editor's office, he took a look inside, and then froze for a moment.

Because the person sitting behind the desk was not He Yongle, but Liu Xuemin.

Was this a personnel transfer, or did Liu Xuemin come in and take this seat without authorization?

The possibility of the latter is unlikely, although Liu Xuemin is a little careless, but this kind of mistake should not be made.

Yu Dong glanced at the furnishings in the office again, and it was indeed different from when He Yongle was there.

With doubts, Yu Dong knocked on the door and walked in.

"Brother Liu?"

Liu Xuemin was dealing with the work at hand. He raised his head after hearing Yu Dong's voice, stood up with a smile and said, "Mr. Yu Dong, you are here, sit down quickly, and I will make you a cup of tea."

"No more trouble." Yu Dong waved his hand and said with a smile, "Brother Liu, are you promoted?"

"Hey, what is Gao Sheng? Editor-in-chief He is Gao Sheng. He has been transferred to a TV station to be the director of the news center. I just came here to take over a class. Now I am acting deputy editor-in-chief, and I still have the word agent on my head." Liu Xuemin Said with a smile.

"What is the agent or not? The deputy editor is different from the chief editor. Since you can be appointed as the acting deputy editor so quickly, the agent should be removed soon. I congratulate you in advance."

"Thank you for your good words. In the future, you will need a lot of support from great writers like you, Mr. Yu. This time, I read the full text of "Lu Xiulan" you published in our magazine. I have to say, Mr. Yu, although you are young, But it has already stood at the forefront of Chinese literature."

"Brother Liu praised you." Yu Dong smiled and looked at Liu Xuemin in front of him. Sure enough, the ass determines the head. He was careless before, but now he has just become the deputy editor, and he already looks good.

"Did you come to the club for something?" Liu Xuemin asked.

"I have a personal matter with Editor-in-Chief Su. There is not much time at noon, and I will go back after I finish looking for him."

"Oh, then you go, let's talk again when we have time."

"Okay, then I'm sorry."

Coming out of Liu Xuemin, Yu Dong turned a corner and entered Su Tong's office.

Su Tong should have heard Yu Dong's voice and was already making tea for Yu Dong.

After making tea, the two sat down facing each other. Su Tong said with a smile, "Have you seen Liu Xuemin?"

Yu Dong nodded, "Well, it's quite unexpected. It hasn't been long since I came last time, and this personnel transfer is too sudden. I heard that Editor-in-Chief He was transferred to the TV station as the director of the news center?"

"Well, I went to Jianglin TV Station."

"Jianglin TV Station?" Yu Dong was taken aback, "I thought it was Jinling TV Station."

Su Tong smiled and did not continue this topic, but brought up Zhang Yimou's matter, "I have confirmed with Director Zhang that he will come the afternoon of the day after tomorrow."

"Do you want me to pick it up?"

"They're coming by car, so you don't need to pick them up. But since you're the host, let you decide the hotel."

"Naturally." Yu Dong said with a smile, "Let's talk about them in advance so that I can make arrangements."

"He's the only one, you look at the arrangement."

"Well, that's a good arrangement. I'll book a small box at the Jinling Hotel later."

Su Tong murmured, "Tsk tsk, it's right to eat big families. In fact, it doesn't matter where you eat. According to what I know about Zhang Yimou, he is not very particular about these aspects."

"Well, I know." Yu Dong nodded, suddenly remembered something, and said: "By the way, I have something else to tell you, the big office I work in will have to re-wire the telephone line in two days. At that time, a telephone will be set up, so it will be convenient for you to find me in the future.”

"This is a good thing. Give me a number when you get the call back. But I still suggest that you install a phone in the dormitory. Although there is a phone in the office that can be used, you will definitely receive a lot of calls in the future, and it will take a long time." Colleagues will have opinions to some extent.”

Su Tong picked up his teacup and took a sip, then continued: "I didn't mention this before, because it was too expensive for you to install a phone at that time, and you just went to school, and it was easy to cause trouble if you suddenly installed a phone. Criticism. Now that all the conditions are met, you can simply mention it to Lao Wu and ask him to approve a note, and you will install one at your own expense."

Yu Dong nodded and seriously considered Su Tong's suggestion.

He also thought about installing a phone in the dormitory before, but he had the same concerns as Su Tong at the time.The current conditions are indeed more mature than before, and the domestic telephone business has developed rapidly in the past two years, and the installation of telephones has gradually become less conspicuous. The installation of telephones in their big offices proves this point.

"I'll go back and ask Principal Wu."

"This thing can definitely be done. Old Wu won't set up obstacles for you. Anyway, the school doesn't need to pay for it."

"Okay, then I'll go to Jinling Hotel to find a seat." Yu Dong got up and said.

Su Tong waved his hand, pointing to the phone in the office, "I'd better make a trip by myself, just make a phone call, and I'll find their phone number for you."

Then Su Tong personally called Jinling Hotel and booked a seat.

……

After returning to school from "Zhong Shan", Yu Dong went to the principal's office in the afternoon and told Wu Changxin about the phone call.

Wu Changxin readily agreed, and wrote a note to Yu Dong on the spot, and then Yu Dong took the note to the logistics department.

This is equivalent to the imperial decree, and the logistics department will arrange things properly after receiving the imperial decree.

It's not difficult. It just so happens that the school needs to install a few phones recently, and when the time comes, I'll tell the branch of the telecommunications company and ask them to install one more.

Yu Dong just came out of the logistics department when he happened to meet Cheng Yanqiu.

"Teacher Cheng." Yu Dong greeted with a smile.

Cheng Yanqiu nodded to Dong, hesitated for a moment and asked, "Will you still hold general education classes this semester?"

Hearing Cheng Yanqiu mention the general education course, Yu Dong couldn't help thinking about the past.During the first class, Cheng Yanqiu wrote his name on the information sheet.

At that time, Yu Dong thought that Cheng Yanqiu had made a mistake or was joking, but later found out that she was serious. For ten hours, she was present without missing a single one.

"It should be soon."

"En." Cheng Yanqiu turned to leave, but then turned back and asked Yu Dong, "Do you have time tonight?"

"Mr. Cheng, what's the matter with you?"

"I don't understand some things you said in class before, and I want to ask you for advice."

That's why Yu Dong smiled and said, "It's not about asking for advice, let's communicate with each other. How about you see this, we will meet at the gate of the first teaching building at seven o'clock in the evening."

"Okay, see you tonight."

After Cheng Yanqiu left, Yu Dong couldn't help laughing. It seemed that Cheng Yanqiu was really interested in literature class.

……

At seven o'clock in the evening, Yu Dong stepped to the door of the first teaching building, and Cheng Yanqiu was already waiting at the door.Yu Dong saw a person sitting on the steps from a distance, but when he got closer, he saw that it was Cheng Yanqiu.

She crossed her legs, put a book on her knees, rested her chin on the book, and was in a daze. She didn't pay attention when Yu Dong came to him.

The cover of the book was mostly covered by her head, but it could still be seen that it was the March issue of "Harvest".

Seeing that she didn't respond, Yu Dong took the initiative to say, "Mr. Cheng, I kept you waiting."

Cheng Yanqiu looked up at Yu Dong, then looked at his watch, shook his head and said, "You came just in time, I came early."

"Well, let's go in and find a study room to sit down and talk."

Cheng Yanqiu stood up, glanced inside the teaching building, and said, "There are people in the study room now, let's walk and talk while walking."

Yu Dong nodded, "Okay, listen to you."

Cheng Yanqiu said they were going for a walk together, but they didn't know where to go, so the two walked around the first teaching building casually.

After walking for a while, Cheng Yanqiu said, "Yu Dong, do you believe that life is immutable, is it a script that has already been written?"

This question made Yu Dong feel a little inexplicable. Didn't she say that she wanted to ask herself some questions about the course?

But although he was puzzled, Yu Dong still answered her: "I don't believe it."

Hearing Yu Dong's answer, Cheng Yanqiu looked at him in surprise, "I thought you would believe it."

"Why?" Yu Dong asked.

"I have read a science fiction novel you wrote, and it seems that the theme expressed is that fate cannot be changed."

What Cheng Yanqiu was talking about should be "Closed Loop", which surprised Yu Dong, she even read science fiction novels.

Seeing Cheng Yanqiu waiting for his answer, Yu Dong said with a smile, "I write science fiction only to provide a possibility, and it doesn't matter whether I believe it or not. And even if the trajectory of life cannot be changed, even if the script has long been Even if I write it, I won’t believe it.”

"Maybe your disbelief is also written into the script? All your thoughts are planned for you in the script."

Yu Dong shrugged his shoulders, "So what? Isn't life over?"

"If this is the case, don't you feel sad, or want to change?"

Yu Dong smiled and said: "Then this is not a paradox. Since my idea is already written in the script, isn't everything I do planned? If I really believe in fatalism, it will inevitably happen." Falling into skepticism because whatever changes I make can be said to have been planned because none of us read our scripts."

Cheng Yanqiu froze for a moment, she was thinking about Yu Dong's words.

Yu Dong spoke again, "Mr. Cheng, when you read a book, the story has already been written and will not change because of your reading. Will you lose interest in this book because of this?"

"No." Cheng Yanqiu shook his head, "If the story is good, I will read it more times."

Yu Dong smiled and said, "You can still maintain interest in a story made by others, and you can even read it several times. Why do you lose interest in your own life, which is only once?"

Speaking of this, Yu Dong felt that he had talked too much.In fact, he just felt that Cheng Yanqiu's state was too sad, and he shouldn't be so sad in this world.

Even if fatalism is true, it is already very interesting for a person to act out his own script seriously in his whole life.

This kind of mourning in Cheng Yanqiu can be seen in many people in later generations, and it is more or less related to fatalism.

After a while, Cheng Yanqiu said: "I'm sorry, I came to you to ask questions about the course, but I went too far."

As she spoke, she opened the "Harvest" in her hand and found "The Widow's Death", "You talked about it in class before..."

Later, Cheng Yanqiu never mentioned fatalism again, and instead asked questions related to drama seriously.

She was well prepared and had a little notebook listing her problems.

Yu Dong was also serious and answered her one by one.

It was more than an hour after Cheng Yanqiu finished asking the questions in the small book.Seeing that it was getting late, the two went back separately.

After returning to the dormitory, Yu Dong looked at the several mosquito bites on his hands, and couldn't help feeling that it was not a small price to walk with Cheng Yanqiu.

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(End of this chapter)