The literary era since 1979

Chapter 31 The Father of Spy Warfare
March 3, Editorial Department of Yenching Literature and Art.

Fang Yan and Wang Jie sat opposite Zhou Yanru, watching her review her manuscript. With each page, she would catch all the punctuation errors and typos like catching bugs, and circle them with a red pen. She would not look up until she finished the last page.

"Not bad, Yanzi's manuscript only has two minor mistakes. It seems that you have already mastered the use of editing symbols."

"Thanks to Comrade Wang Jie for her good teaching."

Fangyan noted the mistakes circled in red.

There is a set of systematic and standardized symbols for written manuscript revisions. This is a compulsory course for editors and also the first course they take when they start working.

"Xiao Wang teaches well, and you learn quickly."

Seeing Wang Jie's chin raised, Zhou Yanru praised the two of them, "In the past two days, many film studios have called our editorial department, saying that they want to make your work into a movie. What are your plans?"

"I have already made up my mind. I will give The Shepherd to Shanghai Film Studio, and Yellow Earth Plateau will be produced by Xi'an Film Studio."

Dialects are spoken bluntly.

Zhou Yanru asked curiously, "The Yellow Earth Plateau is originally about the story of working in the countryside in northern Shaanxi, so it is very appropriate to hand it over to the Xi'an Film Studio. However, why did you think of handing The Shepherd over to the Shanghai Film Studio?"

"Shanghai Film Studio asked Xie Jin to shoot The Shepherd."

Fangyan did not mention anything about becoming a screenwriter.

"Xie Jin!?"

Master Wang Jie and his disciples were shocked.

Zhou Yanru nodded, "So that's how it is. If the director was Xie Jin, it would be hard for me to refuse."

"I think so too."

Fangyan spread his hands.

Xie Jin is the trump card that makes Shanghai Film Studio invincible in the competition with other film studios for scripts, and of course, he also receives generous screenwriter fees.

"So before the movie is released, The Horse Wrangler has come to an end. What are your plans for the next step in your creation?"

Zhou Yanru smiled and said, "I heard that Mr. Ba personally asked you to write an article."

"what?"

Wang Jie, who had been listening, shouted loudly, and her voice was so loud that it instantly attracted the attention of the two people, "Ba, Ba Lao wants to make an appointment with you..."

Fangyan waved his hands and said, "Mr. Ba is flattering me."

"The generation of old writers like Ba Lao have always been concerned about cultural undertakings and young writers like you." Zhou Yanru said, "How are you preparing? Don't let him down."

"There are some clues."

"What are you planning to publish in Harvest? Or a reflective novel like The Wrangler?"

"I feel that our Yenching Literature and Art magazine has published so many issues on the 'reflective literature' topic, and there have been at least dozens of reflective novels published across the country. One more or one less won't make much difference, so I am ready to explore new areas."

"new area?"

"Yes, I'm thinking of a spy story."

"Spy war?!"

Zhou Yanru was very surprised, and Wang Jie was even more confused:
"What is a spy war? Master, is there such a theme?"

"Let's put it this way. Counter-espionage is a branch of espionage warfare."

The dialect introduces the concept of "spy warfare" in detail, from "anti-espionage" to "undercover", and even inadvertently reveals "Infernal Affairs".

That is to say, both the enemy and us are lurking in each other's camp as undercover agents, you are in me and I am in you, and we catch each other's ghosts.

"Your term 'spy war' is quite novel!"

Zhou Yanru smiled approvingly.

"It was just a sudden thought."

Fangyan smiled.

"So, you're going to write a story about underground workers lurking behind enemy lines, like in 'Gunshots from the Secret Service'?"

Zhou Yanru put down the enamel cup.

"That's right, Mr. Zhou."

Fangyan nodded.

"Gunshots from the Secret Service" is a film adapted from the novel "Fighting in the Heart of the Enemy". It is one of the rare "undercover films" with underground workers as the protagonists. It stands out among a number of anti-spy films. It was released last year and the box office almost exceeded 2 million yuan.

The box office of "Shaolin Temple" in mainland China was only 1.6 million.

This shows how popular the "undercover" theme is.

"This is indeed an area that few writers have explored and created. However, your span is quite large, jumping from 'reflection' to 'spy war'. How did you suddenly think of this subject?"

Zhou Yanru was very excited.

Fang Yan said: "It was just a coincidence. My sister's factory is going to show movies in two days and asked me to go watch it. One of the movies is "The Fog City". It immediately inspired me why there are so many anti-spy movies where the enemy is hidden and we are in the light, but so few undercover movies where the enemy is in the light and we are in the dark."

"Your observation is very accurate!"

Zhou Yanru's tone was full of admiration.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhou, for the compliment."

Dialects are also welcome.

"Underground workers live in darkness, but their hearts are toward light. They shed blood and sacrifice their lives on the hidden front. Although their names may not be known to anyone, their deeds are very necessary to be remembered."

Zhou Yanru looked serious.

"right!!"

Wang Jie clapped her hands.

"What are you doing?"

Fangyan was startled and turned to look.

"Hehe, you guys said it so well that I couldn't help myself." Wang Jie felt the gazes from Zhou Yanru and Fang Yan, and stopped clapping, an awkward but naive smile on her face.

"I think so too, Mr. Zhou."

Fang Yan said: "We have so many inspiring stories of underground workers and so many legendary spy stories to explore, why not write about them? I believe that Ba Lao and the editors of Harvest will like them after reading them."

"I'm afraid there is no one in the country who wouldn't like your subject matter, but the key lies in whether you can write it well."

Zhou Yanru reminded, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, Teacher Zhou!"

Fangyan's mouth corners kept rising.

Just like the movie, when "Wolf Warrior 2" became popular, a series of main-theme military movies followed suit and emerged. The same is true in today's literary world. When scars became popular, a large number of people followed suit and wrote about scars. When reflection became popular, a large number of people followed suit and wrote about reflection, until the subject matter was worn out.

There are already such signs in reflective literature, but there is a blank in spy novels.

If I can fill this gap, I might have another title besides “the first person in reflective literature”.

The father of contemporary spy literature!

…………

In the evening, the afterglow shines on West Chang'an Avenue.

Fang Yan and Wang Jie pushed their bicycles and walked out of the gate.

"You've been staring at me since you came out of Teacher Zhou's room. Aren't you tired? We're all brothers, so just say what you want to say."

Fangyan felt a little uneasy when she stared at him.

"Now that I've finished writing for Harvest, is it my turn?"

Wang Jie narrowed her eyes, revealing murderous intent.

"what?"

Speaking casually in dialect.

"Did you forget, or do you want to default on your debt?" Wang Jie held up three fingers: "You still owe me three novels! Three novels!"

"I haven't forgotten, I haven't forgotten. I'll write it to you right after I finish writing this."

Fangyan secretly complained in his heart, this debt is coming!
"That's pretty much it."

Wang Jie glared at him. "But I won't push you too hard. You're going to the literature workshop on April 4st, so finish your work during that time. You don't need to submit three articles, just submit one first."

"Hey, that's great, thank you."

Fangyan said with a smile.

"Stop being funny." Wang Jie rolled her eyes. "Let's go."

"Okay, see you tomorrow!"

Fangyan got on the bike, pedaled very fast, and disappeared in a flash.

As soon as I got home, I went straight into my bedroom.

On the table, under the comic book "A Pair of Embroidered Shoes" was a pile of papers. On the top of the first page, it was clearly written:

"plot".

The reason for choosing "The Counterfeit" is that both the novel and the TV series are pioneering works of modern spy warfare themes, but more importantly, the novel "The Counterfeit" won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

A literary journal worthy of the level of Harvest!

However, the ending of "Before Dawn" is so bad that it is hard to justify itself.

Although the idea of ​​"Kite" is good, the plot of the TV series is a bit exaggerated, and all the characters are only there to highlight "Sixth Brother".

After much thought, Fangyan thinks that there are only a few works that are worthy of being published in Harvest, just like The Secret Calculation:
"Cliff", "Lurking", "The Sound of the Wind"...

But considering that "The Hidden Danger" and "The Cliff" started off strong and ended strong, and were more mature and exciting than "The Counterfeiter", they would naturally be the finale, and it would be best if they were published in "People's Literature", the most prestigious literary journal.

As for "The Sound of Wind", it was originally adapted from "The Counterfeiter".

"The Counterfeiter" is divided into three chapters: "The Wind Listener", "The Wind Watcher" and "The Wind Catcher". "The Sound of Wind" is adapted from "The Wind Catcher".

A staff officer of our army named Hu Haiyang sent valuable intelligence to our army using a corpse that looked similar to him.

Fangyan only wrote the "Wind Catcher" part on paper, but the plot is neither the novel version nor the movie version.

But it is the TV drama version starring Liu Yunlong.

The protagonist is called "Qian Zhijiang" and he has a son called "An Zaitian", who is also the protagonist of "The Listener" and "The Watcher".

His public identity is the chief codebreaker of the Shanghai Garrison Command, codenamed "Viper". When the white terror shrouded Shanghai, in order to revive the vitality of the Shanghai underground organization, Ruijin sent a special envoy to hold a secret meeting, but the news leaked accidentally.

The secret service department of the Fuxing Society set up a dragnet to catch them all in one fell swoop.

As the only person who knew about the incident, Qian Zhijiang was suspected by the station chief of the Shanghai station and was placed under house arrest along with others.

In order to pass the information to his subordinates and prevent the underground organization in Shanghai from being destroyed, he swallowed Buddhist beads and took poison to commit suicide, thus sending the information out with his death.

The reason for choosing the TV version is not only that the story takes place in Shanghai in the 20s, which fits the Shanghai city where "Harvest" is set, but also the plot of Qian Zhijiang's battle of wits and courage with the stationmaster is far more exciting, thrilling and real than "The Sound of the Wind".

What’s more important is the idea of ​​the ending, which is great!

The person who took out the Buddhist beads left in Qian Zhijiang's stomach was Qian Zhijiang's wife, who was a doctor. She opened his stomach with her own hands.

For the sake of everyone, I give up my own family. This is what I deserve.

For the sake of sacrifice and ambition, I dare to make the sun and moon change the sky.

This thoughtfulness!
This story is so interesting!
It's almost literary.

Fangyan twirled his pen, and an idea suddenly came to him: Got it!

　Thanks to the 100 Starting Coins that helped me conquer the world and bring sunshine after the rain.

　　Not choosing "The Hidden" does not mean I won't write it. Just be patient.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)