1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When Zhou Yan went to the restaurant for breakfast, he found that there were not many people. He only met one person he knew, Wang Anyi.

Seeing Zhou Yan coming out to eat breakfast alone, Wang Anyi asked curiously, "Why are you alone? Where are your two best friends?"

Zhou Yan smiled. He didn't expect that he, Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng were all close friends in Wang Anyi's eyes.

"They are probably still sleeping at this moment. I'll come to eat first and bring some back to them right away."

"Tsk tsk, you are so considerate."

The two of them walked to a table with their breakfast and sat down. Wang Anyi asked again, "Will you attend the meeting this afternoon?"

"Probably not." Zhou Yan shook his head.

"You are still free. All you had to do yesterday was sign in and show your face." Wang Anyi looked envious.

She also didn't want to stay in the Xijiao Hotel for meetings every day, but she was from the Shanghu Writers Association's creative studio and was a full-time writer of the association. Unlike ordinary members, she had different obligations and was relatively not as free as Zhou Yan.

"The weather has been bad these days. Even if we don't have a meeting, we can't go out and play." Zhou Yan comforted with a smile.

It would have been fine if he didn't comfort her. After he comforted her, Wang Anyi felt even worse. "This is even worse. If the weather is good, we can go out and play some time. By the way, your new movie is about to be released, right? I heard Yu Hua tell me about it yesterday."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Sister Anyi, I was just about to ask you if you have time to attend the premiere."

Wang Anyi agreed readily, "No problem. The Writers' Congress will be over by then anyway, so it's a good opportunity to go and watch a movie for free. I'm really looking forward to your love movie."

"I'll ask Sister Anyi to give me some advice when the time comes. Everyone knows that you are good at exploring themes of love."

Wang Anyi said with a smile, "Actually, there is very little romance in my works."

Zhou Yan nodded. "Well, the women you write about are more like spokesmen for the city. They exist to write about the city's culture and history."

Hearing this, Wang Anyi's eyes lit up, because this was exactly what she was thinking.

This year is a very prominent year for her. After the release of "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", she came into the vision of more people and her popularity increased a lot.

More and more ordinary readers are seeing her works, and more and more people are discussing her works.

The Song of Everlasting Regret tells the story of a woman in the old times and the city of Shanghai. The heroine was once the third lady of Shanghai, the mistress of a certain important person, and had a child out of wedlock...

But no matter whether it was the war-torn period before liberation, the 1950s of vigorous construction, the special period of xxxxx (revised), or the 1980s of xxx (revised), she relied on her female intuition to get through it safely.

In this book, the story only revolves around the heroine's small world, far away from politics, far away from the ups and downs and bloody storms of the times, and it only writes about some daily trivialities.

"Have you read 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow'?" Wang Anyi asked.

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "Of course, I have another copy at home. I'll have to ask Sister Anyi to sign it for me when I get a chance."

"Of course I can sign for you, but to be fair, you have to sign for me as well. I bought the collection of novels you three had."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay, I'll get them both to sign for you later."

"Then I have to take it back and frame it."

……

After breakfast, Zhou Yan packed some breakfast and went to room 318, which was the room where Shi Tiesheng lived.

He knocked on the door, and a silver-haired old man opened it.

Zhou Yan said in surprise, "Editor-in-Chief Zhang."

This silver-haired old man is Zhang Shouren, the deputy editor-in-chief of October. It is said that the news of Xu Chi’s death also came from him.

Zhang Shouren was not particularly old, only in his early sixties, but his hair was already full of silver.

Seeing that it was Zhou Yan, Zhang Shouren smiled and said, "You are here to look for Tie Sheng, come in."

He stepped aside and let Zhou Yan in.

Shi Tiesheng had already gotten up and was sitting in a wheelchair, holding a book in his hand that came from nowhere.

Seeing Zhou Yan coming, he put down the book and said with a smile, "You are here."

Zhou Yan raised the breakfast in his hand and said, "I was afraid that you would get up late and miss breakfast, so I brought some for you."

"I've already eaten, but you can send it to next door. They haven't gotten up yet."

Zhou Yan nodded, but did not go over immediately. He turned to look at Zhang Shouren and said with a smile, "When we came here yesterday, we were still guessing who Tie Sheng's roommate was. We didn't expect it to be you, Editor-in-Chief Zhang."

Zhang Shouren said with a smile, "I knew my roommate was Tie Sheng, and I was wondering why you didn't come to check in. When I came back last night, I saw someone lying on the bed, and I was shocked."

"Editor Zhang, have you eaten yet?"

"I went there with Tie Sheng. As we get older, we sleep less and wake up earlier. We went there right after the restaurant opened and had the first bite of the hot food." Zhang Shouren waved his hand, motioning Zhou Yan to sit down, and then asked Zhou Yan, "Do you have any new works recently? Have you ever considered submitting an article to our October magazine?"

Zhou Yan secretly sighed that Zhang Shouren was worthy of being known as one of the four great editors in Beijing, as he was the first person to invite him to submit his manuscript.

This is also the professional habit of editors. When they meet a writer, they want to ask the writer for the manuscript.

What editors like most is to cast a wide net. After all, they will try their best to get your manuscript. Whether they will use your manuscript in the end is another matter, but they should never stop asking for your manuscript.

Regarding Zhang Shouren, Zhou Yan heard Yu Hua tell a story that was related to Mo Yan.

Mo Yan had previously become famous for his novel Red Radish, and Zhu Wei, the editor of People's Literature, was very optimistic about him. When he learned that Mo Yan was going to write a novel about the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he told Mo Yan to give it to him after he finished writing it.

However, after Mo Yan finished writing it, Zhang Shouren happened to see it, so he took the manuscript back to read.

After reading it, Zhang Shouren said he wanted to publish the manuscript in October.

This made Zhu Wei very anxious, so he ran to Zhang Shouren to ask for the manuscript back. Of course Zhang Shouren refused, and the two sides started arguing.

Later, the leaders of the two magazines were alarmed, and after coordination, the novel was published in "People's Literature".

The novel they were fighting for was the sensational "Red Sorghum".

This incident shows that these editors have a strong desire for good works.

The situation of snatching manuscripts happens frequently, but the situation like that of Red Sorghum is relatively rare. In most cases, editors reserve the spots in advance.

Zhang Shouren asked Zhou Yan this question naturally because he wanted to reserve a spot in advance. If Zhou Yan had any works recently, wouldn't it be a good opportunity for him to take a look?

Facing Zhang Shouren's invitation, Zhou Yan shook his head and said with a smile, "Nothing recently..."

Before he finished speaking, Shi Tiesheng suddenly said, "He actually wrote a lot of works, but he never published them."

Zhou Yan was stunned. When did Shi Tiesheng like to "meddle in other people's business"? This was not like his style.

As expected, I was influenced by Yu Hua after spending too long with her.

Zhang Shouren heard what Shi Tiesheng said and looked at Zhou Yan curiously, "Really? Why didn't you publish it?"

Zhou Yan's mouth twitched, and he said, "Because I'm not satisfied with the works, I feel there is no need to publish them." Zhang Shouren looked at Shi Tiesheng again, "Tieshen, have you seen his works?"

"I've seen one page." said Shi Tiesheng.

"One page?" Zhang Shouren looked surprised.

Not only Zhang Shouren was surprised, Zhou Yan was also surprised. He didn't know when Shi Tiesheng had read his unpublished novel, and it was only one page.

The only possible place is in his office.

There are some unpublished manuscripts in the drawer of his office.

But if Shi Tiesheng had flipped through his drawer, he should have read more than one page.

"What page are you seeing?" Zhou Yan asked.

"There is not much content on that page, but you can tell that the story takes place in a rural school," said Shi Tiesheng.

"Oh." Zhou Yan nodded.

He already knew what Shi Tiesheng had seen. In the drawer of the studio office, there were actually only two and a half works.

Two of them are short stories, and half is a novel of only tens of thousands of words, all of which were written in his spare time.

What Shi Tiesheng saw was just one page from the novel.

Zhou Yan adapted that novel from Never Let Me Go, but he only wrote half of it before he felt it was boring and stopped writing.

Zhang Shouren asked, "What kind of novel is that?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's a science fiction novel, definitely not suitable for publication in October."

A magazine like October certainly wouldn't publish science fiction.

Zhou Yan thought that Zhang Shouren would definitely not ask any more questions after he said this, but he obviously underestimated the thirst for knowledge and curiosity of an old editor.

When Zhang Shouren heard Zhou Yan say it was a science fiction novel, he was not disappointed. Instead, he became more interested. "Really? What kind of novel is it? How long is it? Is it finished?"

"Well, it's a long novel, but I only wrote a few tens of thousands of words, and there's still a lot to be written."

“Why didn’t you continue writing?”

"No time." Zhou Yan made up an excuse.

"You are indeed very busy." Zhang Shouren nodded, and then asked eagerly, "Since you have written tens of thousands of words, can you show it to me?"

"This... the subject matter isn't really suitable for 'October'." Zhou Yan once again brought up the issue of inappropriate subject matter.

Zhang Shouren said with a smile, "Even if the subject matter is not suitable, can it satisfy my curiosity as an ordinary reader? Of course, the manuscript is yours, and the decision is yours. I can't force you."

Generally speaking, October does not publish science fiction novels.

But that is under normal circumstances. If it was written by Zhou Yan, it might not be the case.

Zhang Shouren has no prejudice against science fiction as a subject. He believes that all subjects are just a carrier, and what ideas can be expressed depends on how the author writes.

For example, Mr. Lao She’s "Cat City", although it is a science fiction novel, is definitely an excellent satirical and allegorical novel.

If an ordinary person said that he had written a science fiction novel, Zhang Shouren probably would not be interested.

But the situation is different when the other party is Zhou Yan.

Zhang Shouren has read Zhou Yan's works and particularly likes "Tree Hole" and "Death of the Mayor".

He even believed that if Zhou Yan was not too young, both novels would have a chance of winning the Lu Xun Literature Prize.

There are very few writers who can write mature works like "Death of the Mayor" and "Tree Hole" as soon as they debut.

So even though Zhou Yan said his novel was science fiction, Zhang Shouren was still very interested.

When Zhou Yan was struggling with his thoughts, Shi Tiesheng said, "The writers' congress is for us writers to sit together and communicate. Zhou Yan, don't hide your works. Show us your works. Even if the manuscript is not suitable for October, you can share it with us. It is better to share happiness with others than to enjoy it alone. How can you write a manuscript and hide it from others like this?"

Looking back at Shi Tiesheng, Zhou Yan curled his lips. Shi Tiesheng was really a little abnormal today.

But after he said this, Zhou Yan couldn't refuse, so he nodded and said to Zhang Shouren, "Okay, I'll send the manuscript to you when I have a chance."

He thought that it would be no problem to agree now, since there was no mention of when the delivery would be delivered, so if he just kept dragging it out, Zhang Shouren might forget about it later.

But Zhou Yan underestimated Zhang Shouren's enthusiasm again. Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Zhang Shouren said directly, "Don't bother looking for time. I heard from Tie Sheng that you guys are going back to the studio today. How about this, after the meeting this afternoon, I'll visit your studio. How about that? It just so happens that I have to go home tonight, so it's on my way."

Zhang Shouren said this, Zhou Yan had no way to refuse, he could only nod, "Okay, then I'll wait for you in the studio."

Seeing Zhou Yan's agreement, Zhang Shouren nodded with a smile, "Then it's settled. We'll meet this evening."

At this point, Zhang Shouren stood up and said, "Well, I have something to do with Lao Feng, so I'll be out first. You guys can chat."

"Okay, go ahead."

……

After Zhang Shouren left, Zhou Yan looked at Shi Tiesheng and asked, "When did you see that page of the manuscript?"

"Yu Hua showed it to me. He had run out of cigarettes that day and wanted to look for cigarettes in your drawer. But when he opened the drawer, he saw a pile of manuscripts."

"So you watched it?"

"At first he thought it was a document, so he closed the drawer. But then he thought it was a manuscript, so he couldn't help but open the drawer and found that it was indeed a manuscript."

"So you only read one page?"

"According to what Yu Hua said, if you look at one page, it can only be said that you stumbled upon it by mistake, which is excusable. But if you look at the rest of it, it's a bit hard to explain."

Zhou Yan rolled his eyes, "You guys are quite ethical."

"Haha, I was afraid you would say that, so I never asked about it."

"Then why did you say it today?"

"I just thought I should say it." Shi Tiesheng took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit one for himself. "Editor-in-Chief Zhang doesn't smoke, and it makes me feel uncomfortable."

"I don't smoke either." Zhou Yan said unhappily.

"You're different." Shi Tiesheng waved his hand and smiled, "In fact, we know that you usually write a lot of things, and there should be more than those manuscripts in the drawer. Logically, you should decide your own affairs, and we can't butt in, but we can't help it, and we are actually quite curious about what you usually write. You always actively share your music with us, so why not your literary works?"

Zhou Yan heard the concern in Shi Tiesheng's words and understood his thoughts. In fact, Zhou Yan was not angry about him "betraying" himself.

After a moment's silence, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "If you have any questions in the future, just ask me directly. Even if my work is not published, I can still show it to you."

Shi Tiesheng nodded, "Yes, I remember it." (End of this chapter)