Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 90: The Popularity of Humanities Society

"Disappear? When did I say that?" Lin Chaoyang asked in surprise.

"I saw an article in the newspaper saying it was you who said it."

"I just said it would decline. You should look for the original article. The article I wrote about scar literature was published in October."

Gong Yun nodded with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

Tao Yumo asked curiously: "Gong Yun, which newspaper?"

Gong Yun looked at Lin Chaoyang, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Just be honest, it's just an article." Lin Chaoyang said with a smile.

"It was an essay published in the Yanjing Evening News, and its main content was to express my views on my brother-in-law's article in October.

I haven't read my brother-in-law's article. This article, um... seems to be not very friendly to my brother-in-law. He said that my brother-in-law became famous for scar literature, but he relied on belittling scar literature to attract attention, which is sensational... "

Gong Yun observed Lin Chaoyang's expression while she was talking. Seeing that Lin Chaoyang looked normal, she did not stop talking. Unexpectedly, Tao Yumo beside her was unhappy. "Who is that person? How can you say that?"

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand at Tao Yumo, "Yumo, Gong Yun was just delivering a message, why are you so excited?"

"Brother-in-law, this guy is going too far. You have no grudge against him, so what right does he have to say that to you? I think he is just trying to attract attention!"

Tao Yumo's anger made people feel that it was not Lin Chaoyang who was being scolded, but herself. "Gong Yun, which issue of the evening paper is that?"

Before Gong Yun could speak, Lin Chaoyang stopped Tao Yumo and said, "Okay, criticizing and being criticized is a normal thing in the literary world."

Tao Yushu also said at this time: "Don't worry about your brother-in-law's affairs."

Tao Yumo said unwillingly: "You can't just not talk back when someone scolds you!"

Lin Chaoyang shook his head and laughed, "What kind of scolding is this? If someone criticizes you, just listen if you want to. If you don't want to, just pretend you didn't hear anything. There are so many people in the literary world. If I respond to everyone who criticizes me, won't I be exhausted to death?"

Seeing Lin Chaoyang speak so easily, Tao Yumo's anger subsided. Gong Yun looked at Lin Chaoyang's performance and was full of admiration.

This is probably the writer’s mind!

Father Tao nodded with satisfaction after watching Lin Chaoyang's performance. It was rare for a son-in-law of his age to be able to remain calm and composed in the face of praise or criticism.

After Gong Yun and the other two left, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu entered the room. Tao Yushu said viciously, "He said such mean words to hurt others for no reason. This person has no manners."

What made Tao Yushu most angry was not being scolded in an article. The key point was that two people’s names were signed, so why did he not deserve it?
"It's just a commentary article, it's not worth getting angry about, isn't there a time to praise us?

I write a novel, and everyone can say something. But we can’t respond to every criticism, right? If we have to deal with every criticism in the evening paper, we will easily tire ourselves to death.”

Lin Chaoyang is not really magnanimous, he just has a bad mentality.

He writes novels to earn money, and fame is a by-product. If someone criticizes him, let him criticize, isn't that the money we earn?

Don't be like some stars in later generations, who make more money from making a movie than ordinary people can earn in their entire lives, but still wipe their tears on the screen, saying how difficult it is to make a movie, and how they want to call an ambulance when they get a skin cut on their finger, so as to buy a hot search.

Is it cheap?

"You have such a good attitude!"

"This is called the demeanor of a great general!" Lin Chaoyang boasted.

"You gasp when I say you're fat!"

The couple exchanged a few jokes and Lin Chaoyang no longer cared about the matter.

The next morning, Lin Chaoyang went to work at the library, and Tao Yushu also wanted to go.

She said it was cool to read in the library, and Lin Chaoyang didn't take it seriously.

When they arrived at the library, Lin Chaoyang went to work at the lending desk, while Tao Yushu went straight into the newspaper room.

"Yanjing Evening News...Yanjing Evening News..."

She muttered to herself and searched through a pile of newspapers over and over again.

After searching for a while, she finally found the newspaper that Gong Yun mentioned.

"Refuting Xu Lingjun's claim that "scar literature is doomed to fail"".

Tao Yushu read the article attentively. The article was not long, with less than two thousand words in total. The first one thousand eight hundred words were normal, but the second half was a bit distorted.

This author may be a senior fan of scar literature, or a creator. Later in the discussion, he could not control his anger towards Lin Chaoyang for speaking ill of scar literature. His words were sarcastic and had gone beyond the scope of discussion.

Besides scolding her husband, she also ignores me. How hateful!

However, after reading the article, Tao Yushu felt relieved.

The quality of the article is average, most likely written by an angry college student or an amateur creator of scar literature. There is no need to worry about this kind of article, as it is unlikely to have much influence.

She put down the newspaper, but then she thought again and felt that something was wrong.

To be honest, the content of my husband's article is pertinent, but it is also right to say that it is pessimistic about scar literature. Scar literature is very popular all over the country now, and my husband's article is like bitter medicine and honest advice, so there will definitely be many people who have opinions about him because of it, and there must be more than one such article.

She brought another pile of newspapers and started looking through them. After about half an hour, she actually found an article.

The title also seemed to be against her husband's opinion, but at least the article was within the scope of discussion. Tao Yushu put the article aside after reading it.

She was thinking to herself, this issue of "October" had been published for less than half a month, and she had already found two dissenting voices just by flipping through it in the library.

You have to know that newspapers have never been the main battlefield for discussing issues in the literary world; literary magazines and literary review magazines are.

Now that opposing voices have begun to appear in newspapers, it is estimated that in a month or so, there will definitely be discussions in magazines.

I am not afraid of some pure discussions, but I am afraid of articles published in the Yanjing Evening News. You can obviously talk to them peacefully, but they insist on making sarcastic remarks to you or even speaking ill of you.

Tao Yushu felt that she needed to prepare for a rainy day. Her husband didn't care about being scolded, but she couldn't help it.

It is obviously not advisable to scold the authors of each article one by one. In the end, you will get nothing except making yourself angry and wasting a lot of time and energy.

Tao Yushu thought to herself that if public opinion was overwhelmingly critical of her husband, it would not be a good idea. The best way was to muddy the waters so that both sides could say their own things. Naturally, no one would care about her husband's article.

She is not good at other things, but she is good at writing some review articles, and this is a good opportunity for her to practice. Lin Chaoyang, who was slacking off in the library, didn't know that his wife had already started to prepare for the downfall of scar literature after reading only two articles. He wrote a novel of 1,800 words in his spare time, and then he received a small note from downstairs saying that someone was looking for him.

When I went downstairs, it was Zhou Yanru.

After a few pleasantries, Zhou Yanru got straight to the point and said, "We have already discussed the issue of the single volume of Little Shoes. The novel is very popular now, and Renwen Press is also very willing to cooperate. If you have time one day, come with me to visit them."

"Tomorrow, I'll take half a day off and go over in the morning."

"Okay, then I'll wait for you at the entrance of the Humanities Society tomorrow. Do you know the place?"

"No. 166 Chaonei Street, who doesn't know it?"

Zhou Yanru nodded, and the two chatted for a few more words before she said goodbye and left.

The next morning, Lin Chaoyang came to No. 166 Chaonei Street. The five-story building of Renwenshe stood quietly on the side of the street. It was the time of the morning rush hour, and many people rode bicycles into the yard.

Not far away, Lin Chaoyang saw Zhou Yanru waiting at the gate with her bicycle.

"Old Zhou, have you been waiting for a while?" Lin Chaoyang stepped forward and greeted him.

"I just got here too, let's go!"

The two entered the courtyard and came to the door of the message room. Zhou Yanru shouted inside: "Old Zhai, register!"

It was obvious that he was an old acquaintance. The old man in the message room took out a notebook to register Zhou Yanru and glanced at Lin Chaoyang.

"You look unfamiliar, young man? Are you a new author?"

"You know Xu Lingjun, right?" Zhou Yanru introduced.

"Xu Lingjun, I've heard of it." Old Zhai said as he took the notebook where the two had registered.

After the two of them went upstairs, he glanced at the name on the book - Lin Chaoyang.

The boy's handwriting is quite good!

The contemporary literature editorial office of Renwen Press is on the third floor. Zhou Yanru took him into the contemporary literature office. There were eight or nine desks along the wall, with a group of editors sitting in front of them. Everyone's desk was piled with manuscripts, and there were also many manuscripts tied up in brown paper bags on the floor.

"Old Li, I've sent someone to you!"

Zhou Yanru's shout called out a square-faced middle-aged man wearing glasses. He stood up with a smile and opened his arms. He first greeted Zhou Yanru, and then shook hands with Lin Chaoyang enthusiastically.

"This is Comrade Xu Lingjun, right?"

"This is Li Shuguang, the deputy director of the editorial office. Your novel is under his management." Zhou Yanru introduced.

"Just call me Lao Li." Li Shuguang said.

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "You can just call me Chaoyang. My real name is Lin Chaoyang."

After a few pleasantries, Li Shuguang called out "Xiao Yue". A young man in the office stood up. He looked to be about 30 years old. Li Shuguang introduced him, "Yue Hongzhi, your editor-in-charge. I will be responsible for the second review, and the editor-in-chief will be responsible for the final review."

After a brief introduction, Yue Hongzhi found two stools, asked the two to sit down, and then busied himself pouring water.

"Don't be busy, he has to go back to work, let's make it short." Zhou Yanru said.

Actually, there is nothing much to talk about. Renwen Press wants to publish a separate volume of "Little Shoes", and it is nothing more than letting the author and editor meet and get to know each other.

They chatted about some family matters. When Yue Hongzhi heard that Lin Chaoyang worked in the Yanda Library, he was filled with awe. It was an amazing place.

After chatting for a few more words about the creation experience of "Little Shoes", a loud male voice was heard in the corridor.

"Has Xu Lingjun arrived? Where is he?"

The people who were talking stopped and looked towards the door.

I saw a middle-aged man with a serious face looking out the door. He glanced around the editorial office and his eyes immediately fixed on Lin Chaoyang.

There were only two outsiders in the editorial office, Lin Chaoyang and Zhou Yanru. Lin Chaoyang was a stranger, so he naturally spotted him at a glance.

Li Shuguang smiled bitterly and said, "I haven't finished talking yet!"

"It's okay, you guys chat first, I'll come over and take a look."

The middle-aged man said this, but his eyes were like a demon seeing Tang Monk's flesh, staring at Lin Chaoyang and not letting go.

Li Shuguang smiled at Lin Chaoyang and said, "You have become a hot commodity in our Humanities Society this time."

"Okay! There's nothing much to talk about. Xiao Yue will contact you if there are any problems later. You should deal with him first." Li Shuguang nodded towards the door.

Four or five days ago, Xu Huaizhong, a military writer in the army, ran to the editorial department of "People's Literature", found the editor-in-chief Zhang Guangnian, whispered for a while, and left a manuscript.

Zhang Guangnian assigned the manuscript to Cui Daoyi, who was in charge of the Northern Novel Group, and asked him to review it as soon as possible.

The editorial department's review system is a three-review system. Cui Daoyi is the head of the Northern Novel Group of "People's Literature" and is assisted by Wang Fu and others. Generally, the editors under him will conduct the initial review, and then he will conduct the second review.

Finally, it will be submitted to the editor-in-chief for final review. If there are works that are highly controversial or may cause impact, the editor-in-chief will also need to review them together.

Zhang Guangnian asked Cui Daoyi to review the manuscript right away. At first, he thought someone was trying to use a backdoor, and he felt very uncomfortable.

But after reading the manuscript for less than half an hour, he changed his mind.

After spending two days carefully reading the manuscript, Cui Daoyi can say with certainty that this is an extremely outstanding war-themed novel.

But when he looked at the signature on the manuscript, he was puzzled again. Of course he knew Xu Lingjun's name.

With last year's "The Horse Shepherd" and this year's "Little Shoes", this writer can be said to be very popular in the literary world, but why were his novels sent to him by the army?

Cui Daoyi found Zhang Guangnian to find out the situation. Zhang Guangnian was so exhausted by his questioning that he told him that this novel was originally sent to the army for review because it involved the ongoing war in the south. After reading it, the army leaders thought it was very good and wanted to find an authoritative literary magazine to publish it, so they sent it to People's Literature.

After understanding the situation, Cui Daoyi didn't say anything else, as long as it wasn't a backdoor.

When people in later generations talk about the literary heyday of the 1980s, they always mention the style of famous editors. At that time, there were four editors in Yanjing City who were called the "Four Famous Editors" by literary enthusiasts, and Cui Daoyi was one of them.

Cui Daoyi has his own persistence in his profession. He certainly does not want any unworthy works to be published in People's Literature, a journal that is a hall-of-fame in Chinese literature.

(End of this chapter)