The literary era since 1979

Chapter 4 Is he really a genius?

"It's time to eat."

Following Li Yue's shout, Ji Xiuying and Huang Zhongguo, who were busy reviewing manuscripts, raised their heads and put down the work at hand.

"Let's continue after we finish eating. Did you bring your rice bowl?"

Wang Jie took out a shiny aluminum lunch box from the drawer, and at the same time looked at Fangyan who had been concentrating on revising the manuscript. She saw him nod, and took out an enamel rice bowl with red words "The world is vast, there is much to do" printed on it from his green shoulder bag, which was filled with steamed corn bread.

“I’ll just eat this.”

"How can this be done!"

Seeing them staring at each other, Ji Xiuying shook her head and laughed, "Xiao Wang, Comrade Xiao Fang doesn't have a meal ticket."

"Ah, I forgot!"

Wang Jie slapped her forehead and pulled the long drawer in the middle of the table. A bundle of yellow and green meal tickets was tied with rubber bands.

These days, every company canteen has its own meal tickets.

Without this ticket, you will not have any meals. Even if you are an employee of a company, the canteen will not serve you meals without a meal ticket.

"No, I can't use yours."

Fangyan waved his hands and pretended to reach into his pockets, "How about I exchange money and food coupons with you?"

Ji Xiuying said, "No, this is specially prepared for you to revise the manuscript. It is paid from the official account, so feel free to use it."

"Yes, come on, I'll take you to the cafeteria."

After Wang Jie said this, Fang Yan's heart was completely at ease. He followed Li Yue and others to the cafeteria to line up. Although the meal tickets were provided by "Yanjing Literature and Art", they were only for one meal and one dish at most.

If you want meat dishes, you have to pay extra.

At Wang Jie's strong recommendation, Fangyan ordered a dime worth of "coral cabbage". The soup was thickened with starch and shone with an amber luster, and the cabbage was immersed in the sauce like Hetian jade.

Take a bite, it’s sour and spicy, very delicious!
"How about it, not bad."

In the editorial office, Wang Jie was holding a lunch box with a smile on her face.

"It's so fragrant!"

In the dialect of a man who is busy eating, he raised his thumb and wrote something.

Ji Xiuying and the others smiled at each other, with heartache in their eyes. When they saw him, they couldn't help but think of their own children who were working in the countryside.

"How's your change going?" Wang Jie asked while eating.

Fangyan said seemingly casually: "I have finished writing it."

"what?"

"I've already revised the manuscript."

"Ah! You have already corrected it!"

Wang Jie blurted out, her voice echoing throughout the room.

All of a sudden, it attracted everyone's attention.

In just one morning, or to be exact, in just over an hour, the manuscript was revised? This is really the first time I've seen this!
"Do you want to take a look?"

Fangyan looked harmless and blinked his eyes innocently.

"Cough cough."

Ji Xiuying kindly reminded: "Comrade Xiaofang, check again, don't be so anxious, eat first."

"Oh, yes, eating."

Fangyan seemed to have just woken up from a dream and continued to eat.

Wang Jie rolled her eyes in annoyance. How come he was so mature when discussing with Zhou Yanru, not like a youngster, but now he was like a fool eager to show off? She felt shocked and suspicious.

"Well, let's take a look."

Li Yue said with a smile: "It's a good opportunity to take advantage of this meal time to read this novel that your novel group values. How about it?"

"Or...let's watch it after dinner."

Wang Jie couldn't help but feel anxious.

Once a good novel is seen, the entire editorial department will circulate it. If all editors agree that the novel is well written, the writer will receive full attention from the entire magazine. This is how Fangyan gained recognition from the entire novel group.

From Zhou Yanru, to Ji Xiuying, and to herself, they all had high hopes for him and did not want him to be rash and make a fool of himself.

"You can watch it while eating, just as a snack."

Huang Zhongguo knew that the novel group attached great importance to this novel and had long wanted to take a look at it, but Wang Jie kept it tightly covered.

"Dang, Dang."

Wang Jie's hands froze, and the chopsticks scraped against the lunch box, making a scraping sound. She glanced at Fang Yan, her face still calm.

How can you be so calm!

Without even bothering to eat, he hurriedly picked up the second half of "The Horse Shepherd", spread it out page by page, and read directly to the end.

"what?"

Ji Xiuying took a quick look and her expression changed instantly, becoming more and more solemn. She put down her chopsticks and didn't care about eating. She had also seen The Shepherd.

The originally gloomy ending was cleverly changed into a dispute between father and son by the dialect. The two sides represented the East and the West respectively. One side was the United States, where gold was everywhere, and the other side was the impoverished motherland. One side was about material and enjoyment, and the other side was about spirit and faith. Due to the difference in the two concepts, the father and son finally reached a reconciliation because of the blood ties and the feelings for their homeland.

Even Xu Lingjun's father was persuaded to buy a piece of land for a cemetery in China so that he could return to his roots.

However, Xu Lingjun sternly rejected his father's offer and returned to the simple Qilian Mountains to become a rural teacher.

bright!

It’s really so bright!
Especially this sentence, Ji Xiuying looked at the last piece of manuscript paper and saw it clearly written:

"Why do I always have tears in my eyes?
Because I love this land deeply."

As if they had telepathic connection, Wang Jie recited it aloud, then looked at the man who was eating the rice stuck in the rice bowl, and asked impatiently:
"Did you write this poem?"

"No, this is a poem by Ai Qing and Lao Ai."

Fangyan wouldn't dare to impersonate someone else like this.

"show me."

As the leader of the poetry group, Li Yue immediately leaned forward and asked, "What's the title of the poem? Do you remember the whole poem?"

“I Love This Land.”

Facing his burning gaze, Fangyan cleared his throat and said, "If I were a bird..."

"Wait, wait, I need to write this down."

Li Yue threw down the rice bowl with half of the food left, and immediately picked up a piece of paper and a pen, "You read, continue reading."

"Ahem, if I were a bird, I would sing with a hoarse throat... Why do I always have tears in my eyes?"

Fangyan said: "Because I love this land deeply."

Wang Jie looked left and right, and was surprised to find that Ji Xiuying, Li Yue and Huang Zhongguo had red eyes with tears in their eyes.

"As expected of Mr. Ai, it's really well written."

Li Yue wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "Your novel is also very good. This poem is quoted just right, just right!"

"I just happened to see this poem. I never thought it would come in handy here."

Fangyan grinned and said, "I Love This Land" may be known to everyone in the future, after all, it was selected into the primary school Chinese textbook, but in this day and age, there are so many pearls like this that are covered in dust.

"It's not modesty."

Huang Zhongguo smiled with satisfaction.

Carefully examining Fangyan, Ji Xiuying raised her eyebrows. She was surprised that he could write such a work at such an age. He knew so much about literature at such a young age and could revise the manuscript so well so quickly.

Is he really a genius?

Li Yue and Huang Zhongguo had similar thoughts as she did. They looked at each other, and then stared at Fang Yan as if he had found a treasure.

"Why are you all standing here?"

Zhou Yanru walked out of the small room with an aluminum lunch box in her hand. When she saw the people from the editorial department surrounding Fangyan in a circle, she couldn't help but feel curious.

"Master, Fangyan has revised the manuscript, please take a look."

Wang Jie took her lunch box and said, "I'll go get you some food. It's the same as always. Braised eggplant, right?"

"You."

Seeing her apprentice's impatient look, Zhou Yanru shook her head lovingly and turned her gaze to Fang Yan: "Writing so fast?"

I try to speak the dialect as lively as possible. "Thanks to Mr. Zhou's guidance, inspiration came all of a sudden and I couldn't stop it."

"Okay, let me take a look."

Zhou Yanru took out her reading glasses from her glasses case and put them on. Like Wang Jie, she skipped directly to the end and read it carefully.

Fangyan poured water into the rice bowl and took a sip. She was seen reviewing the manuscript. Li Yue and the others were staring at her, eating while she read.

The whole house was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

When Wang Jie came back from the cafeteria after getting her meal, Zhou Yanru put down the manuscript and said, "You've revised it very well. Before, The Horse Herder was a scar novel, but now it looks like a scar novel, but it doesn't have the negative and heavy tragedy of scar novels."

“I don’t write scar literature.”

Fang Yan said seriously: "I want to reflect on the various scars and find the positive side that can inspire people and make them move forward. "The Shepherd" is an attempt to do just that."

"Oh, is the author of The Horse Herder here?"

At this moment, a strong voice came from behind. The man who spoke was wearing round-frame glasses and standing at the door. Next to him was an old man with silver hair, hunched over with his hands behind his back.

"Teacher Li!"

"Teacher Wong!"

Wang Jie came back from the cafeteria after getting her meal and was immediately startled when she saw the two men standing in the editorial office in the corridor.

　Thank you Yuan Lai for the 5000 starting coins!!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)