The literary era since 1979

Chapter 293 So terrifying

In early September, Fangyan "escorted" Yu Hua from Shanghai back to Yanjing, and without hesitation locked him up in a small dark room at the October Literature and Art Publishing House, where he was tortured with a whip and a small stool.

Fang Xiaojiang, who had just returned from further studies in the United States, was no longer satisfied with the situation where the donkeys in the production team had absolutely no rest.

You must have the strength of a plantation slave owner!
Tian Zengxiang, Zhang Shouren and others were also willing to "aid and abet the evil", especially after reading the new outline of "The Seventh Night".

"Yanzi, your trip to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai was really worth it!"

Zhang Shouren gave a thumbs up, "Not only did you edit such a good novel, but you also helped the publishing house discover another great talent!"

Listening to their praises, Fang Yan smiled and said, "Good fellows, there must be something wrong with your praise. It must be something wrong."

Then he turned his inquiring eyes to Sui Lijun.

"No, no, no, no, I mean there is no fraud."

Sui Lijun replied: "Teacher Tian and Teacher Zhang just want you to treat us to a meal so that we can celebrate your winning the award."

Fangyan was very surprised, "Win a prize? What prize?"

"You are such a forgetful person. You forgot everything in just a few months!" Tian Zengxiang rolled his eyes. "Of course it's the first National Excellent New Poetry Award organized by the Writers Association!"

Once reminded, the dialect is understood.

When I went to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the jury informed and congratulated the winners one by one.

After layers of selection and discussion, 1979 outstanding poetry collections from 1982 to 10 were selected through final voting.

Ai Qing's "Song of Return", Zhang Zhimin's "Motherland, I say to you", Li Ying's "I am proud, I am a tree"...

The award-winning writers are basically veteran poets from the 20s and 30s, and the only young faces are him and Shu Ting.

"Once the list of winners comes out, you will be regarded as the representative of the younger generation of poets in the Chinese poetry world!"

Tian Zengxiang looked proud of it.

"No, not really."

Fangyan waved his hand, and compared with his own award, he was more keenly aware of the significance of Shu Ting's winning a mainstream award as a Misty Poet.

This means that after so many years of suppression and criticism, Misty Poetry and Misty Poets have finally been accepted and recognized by the mainstream poetry community.

"Iwako is absolutely right."

Yan Ming's eyes sparkled. "From now on, Misty Poets can float to the surface from underwater, completely ending their status as 'illegal publications' and publishing their works in mainstream poetry magazines without restrictions, just like other poems!"

Fangyan looked left and right and suggested:
"In that case, let's take advantage of the new poetry award and publish some of the best recent Misty Poems in October. Also, should the publishing house consider publishing some Misty Poems by Shu Ting, Mang Ke, Gu Cheng, Bei Dao, and others?"

"That's a good idea!"

Everyone agreed and immediately took action to take advantage of the popularity of the National Outstanding New Poetry Award.

But no one expected that such a huge problem would occur in the first poetry award event.

Originally, it is not impossible to divide the 10 works into first and second prizes. After all, whether a poem is good or bad is highly subjective.

If there is no controversy over the award results, it is not only impossible, but also somewhat abnormal, making people wonder if there is something fishy going on.

However, what caused people to discuss and wonder this time was not mainly about which one was good or bad, which one deserved but didn't, or which one won but didn't deserve it, but that the rules announced at the beginning only mentioned that there would be an award for outstanding works, and did not say that the award would be divided into two prizes.

What is even more difficult to understand is that the number of second prize winners is contrary to the norm and presents an "inverted pyramid shape".

Whenever there is an award, usually the lower the level, the more winners there are, and the higher the level, the fewer winners there are.

In this award ceremony, there were seven first prizes and only three second prizes. Qia Qia Fangyan and Shu Ting both won second prizes.

As soon as the list was announced, there was an immediate uproar of discussion.

Obviously, there is something fishy going on here!

However, despite all the discussions, no official has come forward to explain the situation, which made mainstream newspapers such as the Literary Newspaper and Guangming Daily unable to stand it anymore. They all stepped in to question and criticize the results of the first National Excellent New Poetry Award.

Bai Ruoxue and Suzuki Yoko also spoke up for the dialect, asking why the poetry collection "Love Life" couldn't win the first prize!

"There must be something fishy going on here, but we still need to investigate who did it."

Fangyan changed the subject and said, "Let's not talk about these unhappy things. Let's talk about my book "The Ring"."

Suzuki Yoko took it and looked at it, and immediately exclaimed: "Horror novel! You wrote a horror novel?"

Bai Ruoxue couldn't help but be surprised. She had unintentionally given Teacher Fang a suggestion, but she didn't expect that he actually took it seriously.

“This is more than just a horror novel.”

Fang Yan showed a mysterious smile: "Just read on and you will understand."

Bai Ruoxue and Suzuki Yoko looked at each other and passed the book around with great curiosity.

The background design is set in the early 21st century, which is also the era commonly used in horror, science fiction and other novels, especially science fiction literature.

Science fiction writers all over the world believe that in the 21st century, society will usher in a technological explosion, science and technology will advance by leaps and bounds, and it will no longer be a dream for humans to break out of the earth and head into the universe.

So science fiction works like "Blade Runner 2049", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "I, Robot" and so on, all set the time in the 21st century, but what they may not have expected is that the 21st century is not the time for human stars to shine.

It is an era of chaos and competition, just like I thought the Tokyo Olympics was already hellish enough, but I didn’t expect Paris to be even more abstract!
The Smurfs, the threesome in Paris...

But no matter what, the dialect is written in the 21st century.

The story is quite simple. A group of high school students bought an untitled videotape at a roadside stand. Seven days after watching the videotape, all the viewers died suddenly with terrified and even distorted expressions. The whole incident triggered a strong social panic.

Similarly, the public security police officers led by Shi Qiang were also alarmed.

The incident was too bizarre and strange, and there was no clue. In addition, the superiors were urging them to solve the case, so they had to ask for off-site assistance.

That is Luo Ji, his good buddy who is also a part-time amateur detective.

Yoko Suzuki raised her eyebrows. It was the classic “Holmes and Watson” partnership structure.

They worked together to investigate from the source of the videotape, and traced back to the source, where the videotape leaked from Neon.

After many twists and turns, under Neon's deliberate misleading, they "find out" the origin of the videotape and find the body of the videotape's maker, Sadako Yamamura, who possesses special powers.

She was an innocent girl who was thrown into a well and the well mouth was sealed with stones. The resentment of the dead Sadako turned into a curse, cursing everyone who watched the horrific video tape.

But the fact is not so!

The horrific truth and survival behind the videotape attracted the attention of Bai Ruoxue and Suzuki Yoko like a black hole, leading them into a world of horror and suspense. Although they were terrified, the more scared they were, the more they wanted to keep watching.

This is exactly the psychology of a masochist!
"Sigh~"

Yoko Suzuki was shocked when she saw Luo Ji dig deep and uncover the tip of the iceberg of the truth about the "Spiritual Realm" project.

Bai Ruoxue was also deeply shocked by the sudden change in style. "Science fiction? Teacher Fang, this is a science fiction novel?!"

Fang Yan nodded, "What do you think?"

"It's incredible!"

Yoko Suzuki couldn't help but sigh: "At first I thought it would be a horror novel, but after reading the first part, I felt it was more like a detective suspense novel. I thought it was like The ABC Murders, where the videotape was a clue left by the murderer, but after reading the latter part, I realized I was wrong."

Then he said excitedly: "It's weird and strange. Just reading the text gives people chills, but I never thought that the true identity of 'Sadako' was not a ghost, but a deadly virus cultivated in the computer world."

Bai Ruoxue shook her head and laughed: "Teacher Fang, your big reversal is really unexpected."

Fang Yan said happily: "It's unexpected, but it makes sense, isn't it?"

Yoko Suzuki was very curious, why could Mr. Fang use the elements of suspense and horror so well?

Fang Yan asked, "Hitchcock, have you heard of him?"

“I’ve watched his movies so many times!”

Yoko Suzuki immediately agreed.

"Hitchcock made psychological thrillers and suspense films. He once said, 'torture women'!"

Fang Yan said: "I don't know if you have noticed that many of his films, whether physically or psychologically, rely on scaring, torturing and killing women to create fear."

Yoko Suzuki couldn't help but recall that it was not just Hitchcock's films, but it seemed that most horror films focused on tortured women.

For example, Psycho, The Exorcist...

"Teacher Fang, why is this happening?"

Bai Ruoxue couldn't help but ask.

“This is the first.”

Fangyan analyzed: "When a woman plays a vulnerable and victim role, it is easy for the audience to resonate and sympathize with her. Moreover, the hysterical screams of women can make people feel more terrified. As for the second point, women can lead to many social problems, such as family relationships and emotional disputes..."

"Si Guoyi!"

Yoko Suzuki thought it made sense and her eyes lit up.

Fangyan smiled but said nothing. Fortunately, "female boxing" was not popular in Japan at that time. Otherwise, based on what she had just said, she might have been beaten by "righteous female boxing".

"Teacher Fang, can you lend me this novel?"

Before Bai Ruoxue could finish, Fang Yan raised his hand and said, "I was planning to let you guys translate it."

"Really!"

The two smiled at each other, filled with joy.

Fangyan asked seriously about the time needed for the translation, and at least translated the first part before visiting Japan.

"That shouldn't be a problem."

Suzuki Yoko bowed deeply, "Teacher Fang, thank you for giving me this opportunity, I will do my best to complete it!"

(End of this chapter)