Literary Master 1978

September has already passed halfway, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is three days away.

There is no holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival now, but it does not hinder the strong festive atmosphere.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and the library has been busy distributing benefits to employees early.

The benefits of the unit these days are very simple, and they are all things that can be used in daily life, not those flashy gift boxes.

What the employees are most looking forward to is the distribution of rice, flour, grain, oil and other things. These days, you need coupons to buy everything, and daily diet is related to the quality of life of every family. Things that can be distributed without coupons are the best.

As the workhorse of the library, Lin Chaoyang was busy early in the morning and moved the benefits back to the library with several young colleagues.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival benefit is a bag of 10 kilograms of Fuqiang flour. After the 1950s, domestic flour had no brand name, and it was uniformly changed to first, second, and third grade flour, named Fuqiang, Jianshe and Production respectively.

Fuqiang flour is first-grade flour, fine, high in gluten content, and less impurities, similar to high-gluten flour in later generations.

At this time, few people are willing to buy it, and they all wait for the unit to distribute it. I seldom eat them, and I only use them to entertain guests.

In addition to a bag of flour, there is also a box of Daoxiangcun snacks, about two kilograms, and two bars of soap.

Colleagues chatted and laughed while receiving benefits, but some individuals complained.

"Why give out snacks? Can you give me a few more kilograms of rice and flour? At worst, coarse grains will do!"

Needless to say, this must be because there are many people in the family.

Snacks are scarce in this era, but this thing is a kind of icing on the cake, that is, it can whet the appetite of the elderly and children, and it is not as practical as rice, flour, grain and oil.

Lin Chaoyang listened to his colleague's complaints, and his heart moved. He pulled the complaining person aside and said a few words, and then one of them took out money and the other handed things, and Lin Chaoyang had one more box of snacks in his hand.

Du Rong asked, "Chaoyang, did you buy snacks?"

"Yes. There are many people in the family, and they all love sweets. It just so happens that someone doesn't want them. He took the money to exchange for some food coupons, which is the best of both worlds." Lin Chaoyang explained, and asked Du Rong, "Do you sell snacks?"

Du Rong hid the snacks behind her, "Don't think of me. It's been more than a year. This is the first time to distribute snacks. I haven't tasted them yet."

The joys and sorrows of life are different. Some people are worried about the snacks, while others are worried that the snacks are not enough.

"Chaoyang, do you want more snacks?" Zheng Tongjiang asked.

"Yes!"

There are only two boxes of snacks. There are so many people in the family. How can they be enough?

After get off work in the evening, Lin Chaoyang first came to Langrun Lake Apartment with his things. As soon as he got downstairs, he saw Wu Zuxiang standing downstairs.

The days since Lin Chaoyang moved out, the old man's life has been difficult. The tobacco and food are intermittent, which makes people feel anxious. Only old smokers can understand that feeling.

Lin Chaoyang silently took out two boxes of cigarettes and was about to put them into the old man's pocket, but the old man grabbed his hand.

"Why is it Hongmei?"

"You have sharp eyes. What's wrong? Don't you like to smoke?"

"Hongmei tastes light and is not easy to smoke."

"Don't be picky. It's good that I didn't give you a big cannon."

Big cannon is a way of smoking loose cigarettes rolled with calendar pages. It is a last resort for old smokers when they have no cigarettes to smoke.

Lin Chaoyang was too lazy to listen to the old man's hypocrisy and stuffed the cigarettes into his pocket.

Wu Zuxiang said dissatisfiedly: "Did I give you lessons for nothing? The cigarettes are getting worse and worse. I think you are deliberately fooling me."

"You are complaining about rotten food. If you do this again, I will not care about you."

Lin Chaoyang's threat worked a little. The old man's arrogance was restrained. Lin Chaoyang said: "Do you think foreign cigarettes are so easy to get?"

Wu Zuxiang looked regretful. From Lin Chaoyang's tone, he might not be able to smoke foreign cigarettes in the future.

He touched the red plum in his pocket, and it actually tasted pretty good.

After dealing with Wu Zuxiang, Lin Chaoyang carried the things upstairs.

In the past, Lin Chaoyang lived in the Tao family, and the benefits issued by the unit were directly brought back.

Now that Lin Chaoyang and his wife have moved out, he still sent the benefits back to the Tao family, which surprised the family.

"Your eldest brother and I have both received benefits, and you can take your benefits home yourself." Tao's father said.

"Yushu and I are just two people, and we don't eat much on weekdays."

Lin Chaoyang put the things down, and the boxes of snacks in the welfare were the most eye-catching. The brothers Tao Xiwen and Tao Xiwu stared at them as soon as he entered the door, and even Tao's mother looked at them sideways.

"Chaoyang, why are there so many snacks?" Tao Yucheng asked curiously.

"Someone in our unit didn't want snacks, so I bought them, and they didn't need snack tickets. They took the money to buy some food coupons, and everyone benefited from each other." Lin Chaoyang explained.

Tao Yucheng thought that his brother-in-law must know that his mother loves sweets, so he changed the snacks to flatter her.

But he was also happy that the three children of the Tao family, influenced by their mother, all like to eat sweets.

Lin Chaoyang brought back four boxes of snacks today, and the family had to eat two meals.

Today is Saturday, and Lin Chaoyang and his wife have to go home for dinner. Not long after Lin Chaoyang arrived, the sisters Tao Yushu and Tao Yumo also came back one after another.

Seeing several boxes of snacks, Tao Yumo also became excited, "Brother-in-law, your unit is bleeding this year!"

"No, your brother-in-law changed it specially." Tao Yucheng said for his brother-in-law.

Tao Yumo gave Lin Chaoyang a thumbs up, "Brother-in-law, you are generous!"

After dinner, the family sat together and began to sit in a row and share the fruit.

Lin Chaoyang brought back a lot of snacks today, and the family ate freely, so they only ate two boxes.

Before leaving, Lin Chaoyang was about to go downstairs empty-handed. Father Tao said, "Take the things away."

"We still have noodles at home, but neither of us can eat the snacks, so you can eat them." Lin Chaoyang said.

After some hesitation, Tao's father left a box of snacks. Lin Chaoyang watched as he handed the box of snacks to Tao's mother.

No need to ask, this must be the ration left for my wife.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, what a maniac about doting on his wife!

The National Day comes immediately after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Lin Chaoyang is currently planning to write a new novel.

In the past six months, in addition to going to work and attending classes, he spent most of his spare time reading and reading newspapers. He also took enough breaks. When he didn't write for a long time, he became a little too restless.

Coincidentally, in the evening of that day, Zhu Changsheng came uninvited and came to talk to Lin Chaoyang about his new work.

"After the publication of "Raiko's Summer", the response was very good. Now everyone regards you as a leading figure in domestic stream-of-consciousness literature. I hope you will continue to create in-depth creations in the field of stream-of-consciousness literature."

Lin Chaoyang wrote "Raiko's Summer" because the story just needs an atmosphere, and stream-of-consciousness novels are full of nonsense, so they can cheat royalties.

He thought for a while and said: "Of course I am happy that "Raiko's Summer" has been loved by everyone, but I haven't decided yet whether to write another work of this type."

Zhu Changsheng said: "As an editor, we are very much looking forward to you writing another work like "Lai Zi's Summer". "Lai Zi's Summer" created a new concept of 'Chinese-style stream-of-consciousness literature' , there is hope to create a trend, if you can dig deeper, maybe you can start a sect. "

Lin Chaoyang didn't believe the nonsense of their editors at all, and laughed loudly: "If you can start a sect so easily, wouldn't there be great masters in the literary world everywhere?"

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang was not impressed at all by the cake he drew and had a firm attitude, Zhu Changsheng couldn't help but feel regretful.

He asked again: "Do you have any thoughts recently?"

"It's brewing."

Seeing his relaxed expression, Zhu Changsheng couldn't help but joked: "You are confident now. The novel "Garland Under the Mountain" alone is worth ten thousand yuan."

The term "household with ten thousand yuan" has just become popular. In April this year, Xinhua News Agency published a newsletter article "Spring in Yantan".

The article mentioned that at the end of 1979, Lanzhou Li Dexiang received 10,000 yuan from his team, and the members called his family a "ten thousand yuan household."

This term was widely spread with the circulation of the article, and in less than half a year it became the most familiar new term among the Chinese people.

If we were to select the hot words of 1980 at this time, the word "household with ten thousand yuan" would definitely be on the list.

For most people in this era, this is still a very distant goal, but Zhu Changsheng knows that this is not a problem at all for Lin Chaoyang.

Not to mention other works, the income from the single book of "Garland Under the Mountain" alone this year is probably enough for Lin Chaoyang to make a lot of money.

Lin Chaoyang smiled, "It's not that exaggerated. There is a special reason why "High Mountain" sold so well."

"I don't care what the reason is. You actually got the royalties. You earned more from this novella than anyone else from writing two full-length novels."

Zhu Changsheng's tone was partly sighing and partly envious.

For most writers, Lin Chaoyang's income is unimaginable.

The royalties for a novella these days are usually three to five hundred yuan. After publication, publication depends on luck, and you can't count on the royalties for the number of print runs.

Even if 100,000 copies are sold, the royalties are only 20% of the print run. Despite the current strong reading atmosphere in China, it is actually not easy for ordinary books to achieve this sales volume.

"Garland Under the Mountain" sold more than two million copies in half a year. It was the right time, place and people. Even if it is placed in a national publishing house like the Humanities Society, it is an extremely rare situation.

“Some people in our club have recently said that we really should not have let go of the hen that lays the golden eggs of ‘Mountain’.

But we also have "Raiko's Summer", and the club is currently holding a symposium on "Raiko's Summer".

I should talk to you about the publication of "Raiko's Summer" in a while, and it will cost me a large amount of royalties. "

Zhu Changsheng was the editor of "Contemporary" and was not responsible for the book publishing business of the Humanities Society, so he just let Lin Chaoyang know.

Lin Chaoyang shook his head and said: "That's a lot of royalties. Do you still think that the sales volume of "Laizi's Summer" can be on the same level as "Wreaths Under the Mountain"? It's not like you don't know how much your magazine has sold. "

"Raizi's Summer" was published in the second issue of "Contemporary" this year. It was published as the headline and finished in one issue. The treatment was unique.

After the novel was published, it was widely welcomed by readers and literary circles, especially the response from critics, which was almost unanimously praised.

The main reason is nothing more than the mature techniques displayed by Lin Chaoyang in the novel, which allowed critics to see that a masterpiece of stream-of-consciousness literature was born in the Chinese literary world.

You must know that before this, there was no widely influential stream-of-consciousness literary work in China.

Moreover, Lin Chaoyang has well integrated Chinese cultural elements into the novel and created a unique work rich in Chinese culture, which surprised the critics even more.

When critic Yan Gang called out the concept of "Chinese-style stream-of-consciousness literature", he quickly received responses from his colleagues.

Various critical articles have sprung up in the pages of major domestic literary magazines and literary criticism magazines.

In the past few months, the term "Chinese stream of consciousness literature" has become popular in the Chinese literary world, and people are keen to evaluate and discuss such a topical and excellent work.

The literary world's enthusiasm for "Lai Zi's Summer" has continued to spread outward, and has also greatly affected the readership. Many readers who were not interested in stream of consciousness literature chose to read this novel because of those colorful reviews.

The support of these readers also helped to push the second issue of "Contemporary" which published "Lai Zi's Summer" to a final sales volume of 530,000 copies.

This number has extraordinary significance for "Contemporary", because before this issue, the sales volume of "Contemporary" was only 130,000 copies.

In just one issue, the sales volume soared by more than 300%, which is a terrible record for any publication, and in this process, "Lai Zi's Summer" played a great role.

With such a huge success, "Contemporary" and Renwen Press naturally want to continue their cooperative relationship with Lin Chaoyang.

This is also the reason why Zhu Changsheng visited Lin Chaoyang every now and then during this period of time.

Of course, 400,000 copies and a 300% increase are indeed terrifying, but this is only relative. With People's Literature and Harvest in front of it, the sales of Contemporary still have a lot of room for improvement.

And compared with the strong trend caused by Lai Zi's Summer in the literary and critical circles, the response of this novel among ordinary readers and the wider public is much smaller.

In this regard, Lai Zi's Summer and The Wreath Under the Mountain are in sharp contrast.

Lin Chaoyang is very clear that if Lai Zi's Summer is published in the future, it will definitely be highly praised and well-known in the literary world and among some literary lovers, but if it comes to sales, it is probably difficult to compare with The Wreath Under the Mountain.

The amazing sales of The Wreath Under the Mountain are blessed by unique conditions, and Lai Zi's Summer is far behind in this regard.

"Let's not talk about royalties and sales. After talking for a long time, tell me about your ideas." Zhu Changsheng begged.

"I told you I'm still thinking about it. I haven't thought it through yet."

"When will you think it through?"

"How should I know?" Lin Chaoyang was a little impatient with his questioning, "I didn't tell you about my novel."

Zhu Changsheng is different from Zhang Dening. He is cunning and sly. He didn't get angry when he heard Lin Chaoyang say that.

"I know, I know. If you have an idea, you can tell me. I'll give you a reference. I've been in this industry for more than 20 years."

"Wait until you have an idea."

"Okay, I'll come back after you think it through in two days."

If Zhang Dening's manuscript collection style is straightforward and Liu Xinwu's manuscript collection style is bloodless, then Zhu Changsheng's manuscript collection style is a dog-skin plaster, which makes people unable to get angry with him even if they want to.