Literary Master 1978

This weekend, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu did not go to Tao's house, but Tao's family came to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

My sister's family bought a color TV, and Tao Yumo would of course promote it after returning home, so Tao Yucheng urged his parents to come to his sister's house for dinner on the weekend.

Thanks to the remittance vouchers received for the manuscript fee some time ago, Lin Chaoyang's family is now extremely rich in supplies. In the evening, he arranged a full table of dishes for his father-in-law's family.

Eating delicious food, the family watched the color TV and had a lot of fun.

In later generations, it is difficult for people to imagine that happiness is so simple.

It was around seven o'clock when CCTV-1 broadcast the "News Network" and the TV broadcast sports event news.

"On the 10th of this month, the annual National Go League was held in WZ City, ZJ Province. By the end of the competition yesterday, the men's champion was won by chess player Nie Weiping, and the women's champion was won by Yang Hui. Ma Xiaochun and Cheng Xiaoliu won the second and third place in the men's group; He Xiaoren and Rui Naiwei won the second and third place in the women's group."

The young Zhao Zhongxiang was broadcasting the news on the TV screen. In July this year, he just appeared on the "News Network" with Xing Zhibin.

The old-fashioned black suit, the beige pleated curtain background, the eyes are bright, and the face is solemn, which is very characteristic of the times.

"Nie Weiping won the championship again!" Tao's father exclaimed.

"It's not uncommon for him to win the championship. He has won so many in recent years." Tao Yucheng said, and he looked at Lin Chaoyang again, "Chaoyang, I heard from my mother that Nie Weiping came to our house that day, and he also praised you for playing Go well!"

Lin Chaoyang quickly said: "He didn't praise me for playing well, he just said that the layout was good."

"That's amazing enough, to be praised by the national champion." Tao Yucheng praised.

"Nie Weiping is not a national champion. He even beat the Japanese. The Asian champion is almost the same." Tao Yumo said for her brother-in-law.

While talking, "News Network" was over, and Tao Yumo went to the station.

Nowadays, color TVs don't have remote controls, and they have to be tuned by knobs or buttons. The Peony in Lin Chaoyang's house uses buttons to tune.

It's a pity that the color TV at home can only receive signals from three TV stations, namely CCTV-1, CCTV-2 and Yanjing TV.

On CCTV-2, the TV was playing "Face Painting Talk", a drama knowledge program taught by Li Binsheng.

"Watch this!" Tao's mother said.

Tao Yumo complained, "Mom, I want to watch a feature film."

There are very few TV series produced and imported in China now. Recently, Yanjing TV Station is playing the North Korean series of feature films "Unknown Heroes", and Tao Yumo is watching it with great interest.

Tao's mother was attracted by the programs on TV and didn't hear her daughter's words at all.

Tao Yumo sat down a little depressed, and then watched "A Brief Introduction to Masks" finish broadcasting, and then the Peking Opera "The Reconciliation of Generals and Prime Ministers" was broadcast.

She couldn't help but sigh, it seems that she won't be able to watch TV tonight.

As soon as the Peking Opera was over, Tao's mother was still not satisfied.

"This color TV is good, it's clear."

Tao Yucheng joked, "That's right, it's much clearer than black and white, and you don't have to worry about seeing people naked anymore."

Listening to his words, everyone immediately thought of the ballet costume blunder at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1978, and couldn't help but smile.

It was past nine o'clock at this time, and it was already late. After chatting for a few words, the Tao family was ready to leave.

The brothers Tao Xiwen and Tao Xiwu watched TV and didn't want to leave. They shouted the slogan "I want to watch color TV", and then they were punished by the iron fist of their mother Zhao Li's dictatorship and went out obediently.

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang came home from get off work and saw that there was one more person at home as soon as he entered the house.

"Brother-in-law!"

Du Feng saw Lin Chaoyang coming back and immediately stood up to greet him. Lin Chaoyang responded with a smile.

"Why are you free today?"

"My discharge procedures have been approved."

"So fast?"

It was only about a month since Du Feng mentioned that he wanted to retire.

Du Feng smiled and said, "My procedures are simple, and I am not even a platoon-level military rank. The army took care of me and said they would recommend me to the Public Security Bureau, but I didn't do it. I know they did it for my father's face."

Lin Chaoyang teased, "You are desperate!"

"Oh! I don't want to earn that little salary."

Du Feng came to the house for dinner and brought two bottles of wine, saying that his friend bought it from the Friendship Store.

"Brother-in-law, I plan to go to Shenzhen the day after tomorrow. Let's have a good drink tonight."

The ruby-red wine is placed in a teacup, which looks a bit rustic, but it does not affect the mood of the drinker.

The taste of the wine is sour and astringent in the fruity taste. It is not as fragrant as it smells, but it is much easier to accept than ordinary white wine.

Du Feng has not drunk this wine much, and he thinks it tastes good. After a few glasses of wine, his face turned red and he was a little drunk.

"Brother-in-law, do you know why I want to do business?"

Lin Chaoyang saw that he was spraying alcohol from his mouth and seemed to want to say something from his heart, so he followed his words and asked: "Why?"

"I just don't want to stay in the army. I feel depressed."

"Why depressed?"

"Everyone knows that my father is a leader in the army. On the surface, he is respectful to me, but I know exactly what they say about me behind my back.

I tell you, brother-in-law. I feel wronged. I am not ambitious, but I didn't do anything wrong by relying on my father's status!

Don't say it was random behavior, I can say responsibly, but I have never done anything out of the ordinary, I am afraid of bringing disgrace on my father's face.

The man I grew up with is now in the army. He uses the spare parts from his factory to save a good jeep and travels around the streets. When he sees a beautiful female soldier, he will slow down and strike up a conversation. His girlfriend will change in a few months.

I'm not jealous of them, I just can't stand it.

Not only the powerful and powerless like them, but also the female soldiers in our art troupe, who doesn’t dream of being the daughter-in-law of the chief?

Feng Juan... Feng Juan is with me, I can guess..."

Seeing that Du Feng's words were a bit out of shape, Lin Chaoyang said: "Let's not talk about this anymore."

Du Feng burped, "Brother-in-law, don't worry. I understand that there are no perfect people in this world."

"I just feel that this unit is becoming less and less pure and boring. I didn't feel this way before. I couldn't be happier just hanging out in the group all day long.

I don’t know what’s wrong. Sometimes I write letters and make phone calls to the comrades I met in the south. When I hear about someone’s life, it makes me sad.

I just can’t figure it out, why it’s like this…”

At this point, Du Feng's eyes were red and full of tears. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes wide, and let the tears that were about to flow out sneak back.

"I just thought, instead of hanging around in the army, it would be better to go out and have a try. After making money, we can enjoy life openly. How great would it be.

If I have enough energy left, I can help my impoverished comrades who have been on the battlefield after all and don’t live in such a miserable state. "

After saying these words, Du Feng smiled sheepishly at Lin Chaoyang and said, "I said some big words."

Lin Chaoyang said sincerely: "It's a good idea to have this idea. Whether it's a big lie or not depends on you in the future."

Du Feng nodded, "Yes."

After having a heart-to-heart talk, Du Feng felt much better. He drank a few more drinks with Lin Chaoyang and became even more drunk. Lin Chaoyang had to help him to the bedroom.

"He used to be quite good at drinking. Why did he get drunk so quickly today?" Tao Yushu asked in confusion.

"I'm feeling stressed! He said he doesn't care. In the future, if he doesn't have an iron job, he will have to rely on himself for everything." Lin Chaoyang said calmly.

"I quite admire him. I've always thought he was pampered since I was a child, but I didn't expect he still has such courage now."

"After being on the battlefield, you will always mature."

After talking, the couple cleaned up the dishes, washed and rinsed the dishes, took care of Du Feng for a while, and then went into the house to sleep.

In a blink of an eye, it was November, and taking advantage of the good weather, Lin Chaoyang took Tao Yushu to play outside for a day, and also took her to the filming set of "Wrangler" to see the excitement.

After a month of filming, the filming of "Wrangler" in Yanjing is coming to an end and will move to Shanghai in a few days.

According to the current progress, it will take several months before the movie is released.

After the National Day holiday, Zhang Dening came to his home again, not for a manuscript, but to tell Lin Chaoyang some news.

Li Qingquan was transferred away and went to "People's Literature" as deputy editor-in-chief, and "Yenjing Literature" had a new editor-in-chief, Yang Mo.

The personnel changes in "Yanjing Literature" have nothing to do with Lin Chaoyang, but it was Li Qingquan who made the final decision to publish "Wrangler". He heard Zhang Dening talk about the relationship between Li Qingquan and "People's Literature". He listened to this The news is inevitably sad.

"I wish Lao Li a bright future there." Lin Chaoyang said.

After talking about Li Qingquan's transfer, Zhang Dening talked about the situation of "Chess Master" again.

It has been three months since the novel was published. The July issue of "Yenching Literature" where the novel was published has sold a total of 1.5 million copies, setting a record since "Yenching Literature" was founded.

The influence of the work brought by such huge sales is naturally extremely powerful. During this period, the literary circle and reader groups have been discussing the novel with great enthusiasm.

After careful calculation, there are at least thirty or forty various commentaries.

This number is higher than "The Death of Van Gogh", which was published for more than half a year. After the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh", there were many positive reviews and some negative comments, which were mainly focused on pan-political criticism.

However, this kind of criticism is relatively restrained and has little influence.

In comparison, the criticism of "The Master of Chess" is much greater.

These criticisms are nothing more than two voices. One is aimed at the plot in the novel, which is too imaginative and divorced from reality;

One is self-proclaimed justice, believing that Lin Chaoyang's novels are overly sensational and are suspected of inciting patriotic sentiments, and some even label the content promoting patriotism as narrow nationalism and populism.

Among these criticisms, there are of course also voices of praise, and this voice is more powerful than the first two.

However, literary criticism is not a zero-sum game after all. If I have a voice, you will lose it. Those critical voices will always appear from time to time.

Listening to Zhang Dening discussing those commentaries from the outside world, Lin Chaoyang said nonchalantly: "In the future, these voices will become less and less. Who would discuss a novel that has been published for so long?"

Zhang Dening said: "Okay, okay, I just want to take the carrot and worry about it. The emperor is not in a hurry and the eunuch is, okay?"

Tao Yushu tried to smooth things over by saying, "That's just the way he is."

"I know." Zhang Dening glanced at Lin Chaoyang, "This time I can see that this great writer in your family is really popular. Not to mention the people in our PEN Club, Du Pengcheng, Feng Jicai, Lu Wenfu... There are writers everywhere speaking out for him, and they are not afraid of criticism at all.”

In the past few months, there has been a lot of heated discussion about "The Chess Master" in the literary world. Some writers who had known Lin Chaoyang before took the initiative to publish articles, and the content was basically praising it.

"What you said about Chaoyang seems to be forming a clique." Tao Yushu said unhappily.

"It's not about forming a clique, it's about opening a small stove to feed these people with enough oil and water."

Hearing Zhang Dening's words, Tao Yushu burst into laughter, "It's just your words! It's not a clique, it's a bribe, right?"

Zhang Dening sat at Lin Chaoyang's house for less than an hour before saying goodbye and leaving.

At noon the next day, Lin Chaoyang met Liang Zuo on his way back to the library from the cafeteria.

"Master, did you watch "New Sports" that came out yesterday?"

"New Sports" magazine was founded in 1950. It was the first sports magazine in New China. Before Buzzong, each issue sold more than 100,000 copies and was widely welcomed by readers.

After the reform and opening up, domestic athletes gradually emerged in the international arena and achieved results one after another that made countless people proud.

Today, when Internet media does not exist and TV media is not developed enough, "New Sports", which represents the print media, has naturally become one of the best channels for many people to learn about various sports events and results.

Therefore, the sales of "New Sports" have skyrocketed in the past few years, from hundreds of thousands of copies before the resumption of publication to hundreds of thousands of copies per issue now, and it has gradually formed a huge influence in the domestic sports community and the public.

Liang Zuo's question made Lin Chaoyang a little confused. He had never been in the habit of reading sports magazines. If Liang Zuo asked about literary magazines, he might still be able to read them.

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "No."