1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan used the news broadcast to explain, and the effect was very obvious. Chen Derong immediately realized the importance of this meeting.

At the same time, Chen Derong also became curious about Zhou Yan's status in the mainland literary circle. She had never read Zhou Yan's works before and thought that Zhou Yan was just an ordinary writer who had written a few articles.

Now it seems that her previous idea was not quite right.

In fact, Zhou Yan's position in the literary circle is very special. He certainly cannot be compared with top writers such as Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng. After all, his output is small. In all these years, he has only published a few works in the past two years.

However, compared to ordinary writers, he is very famous, and this fame comes from his identity as a musician and director on the one hand, and from the successful adaptation of his works on the other.

Two of Zhou Yan's novels were adapted into movies. One was "The Knife in Clear Water" produced by Chang'an Film Studio. That movie was much less famous, had average box office, and did not win any international awards, but it received good reviews from the industry and also won some domestic awards.

Another one is "Tree Hole", which was very successful and Wu Ziniu also won the Best Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival for this movie.

Because it won the award, the box office performance was good, the copyright sold very well, and now some TV stations still broadcast this movie from time to time.

From the perspective of film and television adaptation, Zhou Yan has surpassed most writers.

Among Zhou Yan’s many fans, some are his readers, who have always been regretting that Zhou Yan has not published any new works in recent years.

Both "Yenching Literature" and "Huacheng" can still receive letters sent to "Zhou Chan". Readers hope that Zhou Yan can publish more works and not waste his literary talent.

They believe that Zhou Yan can make better progress in literature.

Hua Yang would occasionally call Zhou Yan to ask if he had any plans to publish new works.

In recent years, Hua Yang has made good progress in Yenching Literature and has been promoted to the leader of the novel group.

When Hua Yang came to Zhou Yan to ask for the manuscript, he actually saw other manuscripts in Zhou Yan's drawer, so he kept calling Zhou Yan, because he knew that as long as Zhou Yan was willing, he could take the manuscript out of the drawer and publish it.

……

They chatted for a while, and when it was time for dinner, they went to eat together.

After dinner, Yu Hua pushed Shi Tiesheng away, while Wang Zuxian and Chen Derong followed Zhou Yan back to his office.

Chen Derong stood in front of the bookshelf in the office, looking up and down at the books on it, and asked curiously, "Are there any books by the two writers mentioned earlier?"

Before Zhou Yan could say anything, Wang Zuxian walked over and took out a copy of "To Live" and another copy of "The Altar of Earth" from the bookcase. "This one is from Brother Yu, and this one is from Brother Tie Sheng."

"Which one is good?" Chen Derong asked.

Wang Zuxian smiled and said, "I can't answer you this question. Everyone has different aesthetic tastes."

Chen Derong couldn't help curling her lips, "When you fall in love with a writer, your speaking style gradually changes. Which one do you like?"

Seeing Chen Derong asking questions, Wang Zuxian thought for a moment and said, "When I am in a good mood, I like "To Live" more. When I am in a bad mood, I like "The Altar of Earth and Me" more."

Chen Derong turned around and asked Zhou Yan, "Brother-in-law, what about you?"

Zhou Yan looked up and smiled, "To Live is more humorous."

"I guess so." Chen Derong raised his chin, looking confident. "That brother Yu Hua gives people a more humorous feeling. It's very interesting to listen to him talk."

Looking at Chen Derong who looked confident, Joey Wong pursed her lips tightly, trying not to laugh.

Finally, she managed to say, "You guessed right."

"Then I'll look at this first."

Chen Derong put down "I and the Altar of Earth", held "To Live" in her arms and walked to the sofa and sat down.

Wang Zuxian asked in surprise, "You want to read here?"

"Well, I'll watch here for a while. I won't disturb my brother-in-law's work."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and smiled, "It's okay, let her watch here."

Wang Zuxian said helplessly, "Okay, I'll find a book to read too."

Then she looked up and searched on the bookshelf, and soon found a book called "Red Rock". The reason she chose this book was because it was placed on the far right of the first shelf, and there was a bookmark in the middle of the book.

Usually the books placed in this position are the ones Zhou Yan has read recently.

She didn't have any particular book she wanted to read, so she chose to look at the book Zhou Yan was reading recently.

Chen Derong was right when she said that when you are in a relationship with a writer, you will pay more attention to things in the literary circle. She also gradually started reading books after she got together with Zhou Yan.

Seeing the two girls reading the book seriously, Zhou Yan ignored them and focused his attention on the storyboard in his hand. There was not much time left before the filming started, but the storyboard had not been completed yet.

However, Zhou Yan was not in a hurry. To him, drawing storyboards was just a mechanical and time-consuming job, which could definitely be completed within his planned time.

Zhou Yan originally thought that the two girls would either read the book quietly and seriously, or would not be able to continue reading and put the book down directly.

In his opinion, the latter situation was more likely.

Chen Derong doesn't seem to be a person who likes reading, and reading seems to have a low threshold, but in fact the threshold is higher than people think.

Most people think that as long as you know the characters, you can read, right?
But in fact, reading requires training. If a person does not develop the habit of reading, it is difficult to concentrate on reading, especially serious literature.

Later, Yu Hua suddenly became popular. For a while, it seemed that everyone on the Internet knew Yu Hua and his "To Live". But in fact, how many of those people actually read "To Live" from beginning to end? Not to mention Yu Hua's other works.

Some people just read a few minutes of novel interpretation or watched the movie, and they feel that they have read the novel, understood Yu Hua, and even understood literature.

As for Joey Wong, she has been quite fond of reading recently, but Zhou Yan thinks that "Red Rock" may not be her favorite type of book.

During the first few minutes, the office was indeed quiet. The two girls were reading books seriously, and Zhou Yan was also drawing storyboards seriously.

But soon, Chen Derong suddenly slapped the sofa.

"Snapped!"

Zhou Yan was startled by the sudden loud noise, and the pen in his hand shook.

He was currently drawing the hero's final farewell to his father, and his hand shook so that he drew the hero's father's nose crooked.

Looking at the crooked nose of the protagonist's father on the paper, Zhou Yan frowned and looked up at Chen Derong, only to hear Chen Derong yelling with disgust: "How shameless!"

After she finished speaking, Chen Derong also realized that something was wrong. She looked up and saw Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian looking at her. She said a little embarrassedly, "Sorry, sorry, I was too excited."

After saying that, she closed the book again and said, "No, no, this book is not suitable for me."

Zhou Yan smiled but said nothing, then lowered his head to draw the storyboard. He did not modify the crooked nose he had just drawn.

After putting down "To Live", Chen Derong sat on the sofa for a while. Feeling it was boring, she ran to the bookshelf to find another book to read.

She did not pick up the book "I and the Altar of Earth" because she did not like the title. It sounded like the title of an elementary school student's composition, and seemed like a narrative without substance.

She searched the bookshelf for a long time but couldn't find the book she was interested in. She stood by the bookshelf and wandered for a while. Finally, she returned to the sofa and picked up "To Live".

When she picked up "To Live", she secretly glanced at Joey Wong and Zhou Yan again. Seeing that one of them was reading seriously and the other was working seriously, she breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, she had just said she would not read it, and now she picked it up again, which was a bit embarrassing. The reason why she cursed just now was because she saw Fugui riding that prostitute to "pay respects" to his father-in-law.

Chen Derong had never read this kind of book since she was a child, and this plot had too much of an impact on her.

Not only had she never seen a plot like this before, she had never seen a writing style like this before. This book was different from all the books she had read before.

Anyway, it gave people a very strange feeling. She almost felt sorry for Jiazhen while cursing Fugui in her heart as she continued to watch.

……

Half an hour later, Zhou Yan raised his head and looked at Joey Wong. She was still reading "Red Rock" seriously. This surprised Zhou Yan a little. He didn't expect that she could really get into this book.

As for Chen Derong's performance, Zhou Yan was even more surprised. This girl actually started watching "To Live" again, and had already watched a lot.

Many people say that reading "To Live" is tear-jerking, but for Chen Derong, it seems to be more tiring. She kept gritting her teeth while reading, and her expression was terrifying.

With the intensity with which she gritted her teeth, her cheeks would probably cramp after she finished reading a book.

Zhou Yan didn't know whether he underestimated Chen Derong's reading ability or underestimated the appeal of "To Live" to ordinary readers.

Speaking of the appeal to ordinary readers, Zhou Yan thought of Yu Hua's self-deprecation. He said that the reason why the language of his novels is concise is because he has little literacy.

This is pure bullshit.

But many ordinary readers actually believed this sentence, thinking that Yu Hua's writing style is average, and even extended it to mean that writers do not need writing skills.

But is Yu Hua’s writing style really just average?

What exactly is writing style?
Zhou Yan doesn't like to talk about writing style, he prefers to talk about the writer's sense of language and rhythm.

There are two and a half contemporary Chinese writers whose sense of language and rhythm most impressed Zhou Yan, two of whom were in his office this afternoon.

The other half is Wang Xiaobo, who wrote "The Golden Age".

This sense of language and rhythm requires not only talent, but also a lot of reading accumulation. Many people only remember that Yu Hua said that he didn't know many words, and they took it seriously, but they don't know that Yu Hua also said that he had read a large number of Chinese and foreign literary works.

Of course, this is also a problem of public opinion guidance, because it is not uncommon for a writer to have read a large number of literary works, but it is rare for a writer to know few words. The media naturally knows which news to report to attract more readers' attention, and they don't care whether Yu Hua is talking nonsense.

Zhou Yan originally planned to finish today's work at nine o'clock, but because he saw Chen Derong and the others were reading very seriously, they did not rush to leave work, but continued to work. He wanted to see how long Chen Derong and the others could finish.

"To Live" is not long. Zhou Yan thought that with more than three hours, Chen Derong should be able to finish reading it, but he didn't expect that she didn't finish the book until half past ten.

Later, it was Wang Zuxian who closed Red Rock first and said, "It's getting late, let's watch it tomorrow."

Chen Derong came back to her senses at this time. She turned to the last page and looked at it. "There are less than 30 pages left to read. Can I take the book back to the hotel to read?"

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "As for the rest, I suggest you look at it tomorrow."

"Why?" Chen Derong asked curiously, "There aren't many left. It won't take long to finish reading them."

Zhou Yan shook his head and stopped trying to persuade Chen Derong. He just said, "If you like this book, I'll give it to you. It also has Yu Hua's signature in it."

"There's also an autograph." Chen Derong asked in surprise, "Where is it?"

"Next to the title on the title page."

Chen Derong turned to the title page and pouted, "So this is a signature. I thought someone accidentally rubbed it out with a pen."

Zhou Yan laughed, "His signature is indeed sloppy."

"As long as it's signed, I'll be happy with it. Thank you, brother-in-law. I'll finish reading it when I get home today. I think the ending will be good."

The place she saw was exactly the place where Erxi told Fugui and his wife that their daughter Fengxia was pregnant.

Since Youqing's death, until now, Fugui's family seems to be heading towards a happy life.

After all, there are only less than thirty pages left in this book. To be precise, there are twenty-six pages left. Nothing unexpected can happen. If something unexpected happens, can I finish writing these twenty pages?

The formatting of this book is very loose, and the remaining twenty pages are estimated to be only about 10,000 words.

After hearing what Chen Derong said, Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian looked at each other and said nothing.

"I'll drive you back."

Zhou Yan took the car keys and stood up.

The distance from the studio to the hotel where they stayed was very close, and it took less than ten minutes to drive there.

Chen Derong originally wanted to read it again after returning to the hotel, but she couldn't help but open the book on the way and continued reading from the original place.

She originally thought that after Fengxia became pregnant, Fugui's family's life would get better and better, but what she didn't expect was that just one page later, Fengxia encountered problems during delivery. The doctor came out and asked whether to save the eldest or the youngest child. Erxi said to save the eldest child.

But one page later, Fengxia passed away.

Seeing this, Chen Derong was stunned. She didn’t expect the misfortune to come so quickly.

She thought again of Zhou Yan's meaningful expression and his advice to watch it tomorrow, and suddenly she understood something. It turned out that Zhou Yan had already figured out what she had seen.

Thinking of this, she couldn't bear to read on, because she always felt that things were not that simple.

She no longer underestimated the following twenty pages.

Yu Hua only used two pages to describe Fengxia's life from pregnancy to her death in childbirth. Who knows what he could have done in the following twenty pages.

She read two more pages in a daze, and then the car arrived at the hotel entrance.

……

More than half an hour later, Chen Derong lay on the bed, buried her head under the pillow, and sobbed.

Joey Wong was sitting next to her, scratching her head, thinking that she should have stopped her from looking down.

In the last section of the book "To Live", characters die the fastest. It only takes twenty pages to kill Fengxia, Erxi, Jiazhen and Kugen. On average, one protagonist dies every four or five pages.

Life seems to have become a diary, with bright colors and extremely eye-catching.

Chen Derong had never seen such a scene before, and was completely stunned by Yu Hua's hacking.

She buried her head under the pillow and cried for a long time. Suddenly she sat up and asked Wang Zuxian with tears in her eyes, "Does my brother-in-law also write this kind of novel?"

What kind of novel is this?

Wang Zuxian thought for a moment and said, "What he wrote is quite different. It is more interesting."

Chen Derong didn't believe it at all. "Just now you said that this book is humorous."

"This time it's real, I'm not lying to you."

Chen Derong stared at Wang Zuxian's eyes for a long time, and finally nodded, "Well, I'll see what he wrote later." (End of this chapter)