1990: Starting from Baojia Street

"Of course." Yu Hua added, "Only if I can read the second half of the novel."

Liu Zhenyun nodded. "I agree with you this time, and the sooner I see the latter part, the higher my evaluation will be."

Shi Tiesheng asked with a smile, "What song is the one with the lyrics 'Don't Let Me Go' mentioned in the novel?"

"That's a fictional song." Zhou Yan laughed.

"Don't Leave Me" also appears in Kazuo Ishiguro's original work. Zhou Yan really doesn't know which song it is. He only knows that it is a jazz song, which seems to be a jazz song from the 1950s reinterpreted by Dashun Xizi.

"It's actually a made-up song..." Mo Yan raised his eyebrows, "I thought it was an old song."

"Because the novel is always about memories, that's why it gives you this feeling." Shi Tiesheng smiled, "In fact, this novel doesn't have a specific time point."

"The setting should be the 1990s, as the 1960s and 1970s are mentioned in it." Liu Zhenyun guessed, "I mean, when the protagonist was 31 years old, it should be the 1990s."

"In addition to the time, I am more curious about where this Haier Xiangshe School is. At first, when I saw that the protagonist was called Yang Kebei, I thought it was in China, but later on I felt like it was in Europe. Some places give people a British feel, and some of the descriptions of the buildings in it have a British style." Yu Hua said.

"Yes, there won't be any school called Haier Xiangshe in China." Mo Yan nodded.

In Kazuo Ishiguro's original version, the story was actually about a British coastal city, but Zhou Yan made some changes in this version.

He combined several cities he had visited to create an integrated city.

The environment around Haier Xiangshe is all cities that Zhou Yan has experienced. For example, the farmhouse mentioned in it was fictionalized by Zhou Yan based on the scenes he saw in Plymouth, Devon, England.

Some of the buildings that appear in it may resemble cities such as Houston and Dartmouth.

The world in this novel is completely virtual, a combination of many countries in the East and the West.

Another point that Zhou Yan made some improvements on is the knowledge about "cloning".

Kazuo Ishiguro is not a real science fiction writer after all, and he knows very little about cloning technology.

But Zhou Yan is different. He has experienced the era of "cloning fever" and "GMO fever", as well as the era of information explosion. Although he is not a person of relevant profession, he knows more about cloning than Kazuo Ishiguro.

Of course, the improvement in this area is limited, after all, he is not a person with a relevant profession.

Moreover, this is not a popular science book, nor even a real science fiction novel. It would be a problem if these things were written in too much detail.

"The environment here is all fictionalized by me based on some cities I have visited," Zhou Yan said.

"Where's the time?"

"The city is fictional, so does time still matter?"

Mo Yan nodded and said, "Zhou Yan is right. When readers read this work, they will definitely think that the background is the present era, and they will feel the emotions conveyed by the characters more deeply."

Liu Zhenyun pondered for a moment, "What will Yang Kebei and the others face next? What will they donate?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing.

He didn't say anything, Liu Zhenyun didn't ask any more questions, and others tried not to talk about the story later. Keeping this sense of mystery is a kind of respect for the readers later.

If I spoil the story now, it will be less interesting when I read it later.

Many things are more interesting if you explore them yourself.

"You said that song was fictional. Are you planning to write one yourself later?" Shi Tiesheng brought the topic back to this song.

Before Zhou Yan could answer, Mo Yan smiled and asked, "Tie Sheng, why are you so interested in that song?"

The reason why Mo Yan was confused was that in the manuscript they saw, "Don't Let Me Go" only appeared once, the length was not long, and there was not much description of the song. After all, even the lyrics only appeared in one sentence.

Shi Tiesheng smiled and said, "I always feel that this song is very important."

Mo Yan looked at Zhou Yan, "Is he right?"

Zhou Yan nodded with a smile, "Yes, because I was originally going to name this book "Don't Let Me Go"."

When they heard Zhou Yan say the title of the book, they looked at each other. They all felt that the title was a bit ordinary.

In fact, few domestic writers today title their books like this.

But at this time they didn't worry about the title of the book. Besides, even if they did, what difference would it make?

A work is like a child to a writer. Naming the child is the author's own business. How can others easily interfere?

"Since this song is so important, should we write it later?" Mo Yan asked.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's uncertain whether this book will be published, let alone the song."

Yu Hua rolled his eyes. "If you say you don't have time to write the last 100,000 words of this novel, I can still believe you. But if you say you don't have time to write a song, I don't believe it at all. I dare say that if I give you a piano right now, you can play that song."

Seeing Yu Hua speak so confidently, Mo Yan was surprised and asked, "Is it really that fast?"

Yu Hua nodded affirmatively, "He is just so fast in this regard."

Liu Zhenyun turned to look at Zhou Yan, "Is he right? Are you fast?"

Zhou Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes. When Liu Zhenyun said this, he always felt that something was not right.

"If it's just the melody, it really won't take too long. Popular melodies are simple. Of course, I can't guarantee whether the public will accept it."

"you are too humble."

Shi Tiesheng said, "Let's write the song as well. I feel this novel deserves a piece of music."

Yu Hua also nodded and said, "Well, the writing style of this novel has a bit of a musical narrative feel."

Liu Zhenyun opened his mouth and said, "Yu Hua, when did you start studying narrative techniques? Also, what is this musical narrative? Can you explain it to me?"

"Anyway, this novel has a sense of polyphonic counterpoint."

Even Zhou Yan was surprised. "You even know polyphonic counterpoint?"

"of course."

Zhou Yan nodded. It seemed that Yu Hua did spend time studying music theory.

He looked at Zhang Shouren who was still reading the manuscript seriously and said with a smile: "I don't know when Teacher Zhang will finish reading the manuscript. I have to go to the cafeteria to talk about the serving time."

It was already a little after five o'clock. If Zhang Shouren was slow in reading the manuscript, they would have to eat later.

Originally, Zhou Yan asked the kitchen to start serving the food at 5:30, but now it seems that may not be possible.

Yu Hua smiled and said, "I think he will be able to finish reading it in less than an hour."

Mo Yan also nodded, "Almost." Since they all said so, Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay, I'll tell the cafeteria to start serving the food at 5:50."

Mo Yan waved his hand and said, "No hurry, let's wait a while until Editor-in-Chief Zhang finishes reading the manuscript."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. This was the first time that Mo Yan took the initiative to offer suggestions since he met him.

He didn't ask why and just nodded in agreement.

……

For the rest of the time, everyone suddenly stopped talking about the novel manuscript.

The main reason is that they only watched less than half of it, so there is a lot that can’t be discussed.

It is very uncomfortable to read a novel halfway through, because the novel sets up a vague suspense from the very beginning.

What exactly do these students at Haier Xiangshe do?

What exactly do I mean by the donation I mentioned?
In the book, because of the ideas instilled in them since childhood, the children have actually been in a vague stage of "both knowing and not knowing" about their future.

They know they have a special mission, but they don't know what it is.

Mo Yan and the others could guess that it was not a good thing, but they couldn't figure out what exactly it was.

Like the students, they are in a state between knowing and not knowing.

If readers read this book more than 20 years later, they would most likely find clues from the text and guess that these students might be clones.

The so-called donation should be donating organs to the prototype of the clone.

Because this kind of plot setting often appears in later novels and literary works, there is a movie specifically about this called "Escape from the Island".

But now it is 1996, and people's ideas about cloning are completely different from those of later generations. For no reason, it is difficult for Mo Yan and others to think of cloning.

They may not even know what "clone" is.

……

About forty minutes later, Zhang Shouren, who was lying on the sofa, suddenly let out a long breath.

The sound of his exhalation was loud, attracting the attention of others.

Yu Hua smiled and said, "Editor-in-Chief Zhang, have you finished reading it?"

Zhang Shouren nodded, "I've finished reading it."

"How about it?"

Zhang Shouren pondered for a moment, then asked, "Is this a science fiction novel? What's the point of science fiction?"

After reading the manuscript, Zhang Shouren was very confused as to where the science fiction aspect of this novel lay.

He also thought that science fiction was in the latter part.

But the question is, is it possible for a science fiction novel to have no science fiction elements in the first tens of thousands of words? Can such a science fiction novel still be called science fiction?

When Zhang Shouren asked this, the other people couldn't help but nodded. When they were discussing it just now, they didn't regard this novel as a science fiction novel at all.

They discussed the novel purely as a serious novel.

Zhou Yan smiled and replied, "The science fiction elements are in the back."

Zhang Shouren held the manuscript, looked at the others, and suddenly said to Zhou Yan, "Zhou Yan, is there a place where we can talk for a moment?"

Before Zhou Yan could answer, Yu Hua stood up and said, "Don't bother with that. Let's go out and leave the place to you. I just want to go to the recording studio and watch them rehearse."

After saying that, Yu Hua went to push Shi Tiesheng's wheelchair, and Mo Yan and Liu Zhenyun followed him out.

After they left, Zhang Shouren said, "Zhou Yan, your manuscript is too short. I'm afraid I can't put it in our magazine for serialization. There must be more to this story."

Zhou Yan was a little confused by what he said, because he didn't say he would put the manuscript in "October".

Zhang Shouren also said when he came before that he just wanted to see his manuscript as a reader. What is the situation now?

"Teacher Zhang, actually I..."

Zhang Shouren interrupted Zhou Yan just as he started to speak. "However, I want to talk to you about the rest of the story, which will help me make a judgment. In fact, I am very optimistic about this manuscript. At first I thought it was a bit long-winded, but after reading about 20,000 to 30,000 words, I suddenly felt that this kind of long-windedness was just right. If I read a complete story today, then I think October will definitely accept it."

This time, before Zhou Yan could speak, Zhang Shouren continued, "I see that you don't seem to plan to finish the manuscript. This is of course your personal wish, but as an editor and a reader, I think it's a pity."

Zhou Yan pursed his lips and said, "Editor-in-Chief Zhang, is this novel suitable for your magazine?"

"What's inappropriate about it?" Zhang Shouren smiled. "You don't want to send this novel to a science fiction magazine, do you? To be honest with you, no science fiction magazine would accept your novel."

Zhang Shouren's words were very direct, but they were also true, because the science fiction flavor was too shallow.

Not to mention the first half, even if you read the entire novel, you won’t feel that it has a strong science fiction flavor.

Moreover, domestic readers' understanding of science fiction is basically spaceships, robots, or "talking computers" and the like.

If a book like "Never Let Me Go" was put in a science fiction magazine, no one would read it.

“What about the length?”

"October" generally only includes novellas shorter than novellas.

“It’s not like we haven’t serialized novels before. Although we are not as good as other magazines such as Harvest in this area, we have also serialized some well-known novels.”

Zhou Yan was silent for a while, then said, "This novel is mainly about cloning."

"clone?"

Zhou Yan thought Zhang Shouren didn't know what cloning was, so he prepared to give him some scientific knowledge, "Cloning is..."

Zhang Shouren waved his hand and said, "I know. It's just copying, right? This is not a new concept. It has already existed abroad."

In fact, it also exists in China. For example, in July this year, "Science Fiction World" published a novel titled "City of Clones". For science fiction fans, cloning is certainly not a new concept.

"Yes, it's cloning, which is also the science fiction element in this novel."

"Oh, I should have thought of that. Sure enough, the protagonist is a clone kept in Haier Xiangshe? Then, in the second half of the novel, did the protagonist resist? Did he try to escape?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "No."

"I should have thought of this, otherwise Yang Kebei wouldn't have become a caregiver. She has accepted her fate. Your novel has a dystopian feel." (End of this chapter)