Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 779 The First Lu Prize Award Ceremony

The first Lu Xun Literature Prize award ceremony was also held in the Great Hall of the People. More than 11 outstanding literary works were selected in 70 categories, which was an unprecedented event.

Many of the award-winning works are by Fang Minghua’s friends or acquaintances, such as Shi Tiesheng, the author of the short story “Notes on the Old House”, Chi Zijian, the author of “The Cowshed in the Misty Moon”, Tie Nian, the author of the prose “Women’s White Night”, and He Shen, the author of the novella “Before and After the New Year”.
Especially Chi Zijian, her novel "The Cowshed in the Misty Moon" has won the Best Short Story Award at the 3rd Chinese Literature Award, and this time she won the Lu Award, which made her very popular.

The award ceremony is also a good opportunity for old friends to get together and chat and talk about literature, which is a very happy thing.

Shi Tiesheng came in a wheelchair. More than 20 years of wheelchair life had made him accustomed to everything, and he was smiling when he saw his old friends.

Fang Minghua was also very happy. Although Shi Tiesheng still could not stand up, compared with history, he suffered less physical and mental torture without uremia, but the words he wrote were still full of imagination and speculation.

"Tie Sheng, how is the writing of the 'Work Notes' that you collected last time, which is similar to the one you are currently writing, going?" During the ceremony, seeing that others were not paying much attention, Fang Minghua asked in a low voice.

"The draft is basically finished, but it still needs to be revised," said Shi Tiesheng.

"Once you have finished revising it, call Shu Bin of Shengshi Books and ask him to arrange for it to be published for you so that it can meet readers as soon as possible."

"Okay, Shengshi Books is very powerful now. Some people jokingly say that Shengshi's publications must be high-quality, especially the Cloth Tiger series." Shi Tiesheng said with a smile.

"Just put this in the book!" Fang Minghua said.

"Hey, what are you talking about?" A woman's voice came. Fang Minghua turned around and saw it was Chi Zijian.

"Tiesheng and I were talking about his new book."

They were all old acquaintances, so Fang Minghua did not hide anything and told Chi Zijian about the publication of Shi Tiesheng's almost finished novel.

"Oh Minghua, you are so biased. You introduced Tiesheng's novel for publication, but why did you introduce my book to Shengshi Books for publication?" Chi Zijian said with a hint of joking in his tone.

"You can't blame me for this, right? You knew the phone number of the president of Shengshi Books, right? You didn't tell me, nor did you call Shu Bin. You just sent the novel directly to Su Provincial People's Publishing House. It was only after the novel was published that I found out that Chi Zijian had published a new book." Fang Minghua explained.

"I was just kidding you. I wrote that book as an experiment. It doesn't seem to work very well. Fortunately I didn't ask you for help. Maybe you would have laughed at me."

Just last year, Chi Zijian wrote a novel "Morning Bells Ringing in the Dusk", which changed her previous style of writing about rural sentiments and natural scenery and turned her attention to the city.

The novel is about a divorced university teacher who falls in love with a cool female thief, a reporter who is self-disciplined and self-righteous who commits suicide due to mental illness after being sexually assaulted, and even the most beautiful life, Song Feiyang, the son of Song Jiawen, falls to his death. All the evil and ugliness are torn apart here, and all the hope is exhausted here.

This can be considered as Chi Zijian's transitional work, but overall it is not successful. She is still not good at this kind of urban type of subject matter, and it looks like an ordinary romance novel.

Of course, Fang Minghua's words at this time were really a real eyesore.

"Zijian, don't forget to look for Shu Bin for your next book," Fang Minghua said.

"Okay, I think what I wrote is okay, so I'll go directly to Shu Bin!" Chi Zijian replied.

A very cheerful woman.

Not pretentious, Fang Minghua likes this kind of personality.

"Okay, stop chatting, the awards will be presented soon."

The award ceremony was still held in the Great Hall of the People. The authors of the winning works took turns to go on stage to receive their awards and give their acceptance speeches.

After the ceremony, Fang Minghua was not in a hurry to leave Yanjing. Usually, he would come here to do some things, such as meeting friends.

Just now, I took a taxi back to the General Political Department compound to visit Song Tangtang’s grandparents, and the cell phone in my pocket rang.

"Hello, who is it?"

"Minghua, I'm Yu Hua. Is the Lu Xun Literature Award Ceremony over?"

"It just ended. I was going to visit my wife's grandparents. What's the matter?"

"Of course, we've agreed long ago that I'll treat you when you come to Yanjing." "Haha, you haven't forgotten to go yet, when?" Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"Let's do it tomorrow afternoon. We don't have to go out. Just come to my house. I'll ask Chen Hong to cook some dishes and we'll have a couple of drinks!" Yu Hua said on the phone.

"Tomorrow afternoon? Okay, I'll come over then."

"It's settled then."

The reason why Yu Hua invited us to dinner was because he won the Mao Dun Literature Prize last year and called Fang Minghua to express his gratitude, saying that he must be invited when he comes to Yenching.

At around five o'clock the next afternoon, Fang Minghua left the General Political Department compound and took a taxi straight to Yu Hua's home.

Yu Hua lives in Fangzhuang, Fengtai, which is known as the most modern and largest residential community. It is said that many celebrities have settled here, including the famous movie star Zhang Fengyi, crosstalk artist Xiao Lin, and so on.

Fangzhuang is divided into four large areas, the four largest of which are called Fanggu Garden, Fangcheng Garden, Fangqun Garden and Fangxing Garden.

Yu Hua lives in Fangguyuan community, and when you drive in by taxi you can see a sign that says "Welcome to Fangzhuang".

According to the address Yu Hua gave, Fang Minghua came to a high-rise, took the elevator to the 21st floor, rang the doorbell, and soon a young woman with an apron wrapped around her waist appeared at the door.

It’s Chen Hong.

"Teacher Fang, you're here? Please come in." Chen Hong greeted warmly.

"Do you want to change your shoes?" Fang Minghua asked as he walked into the entrance.

"no, I'm fine."

Fang Minghua walked into the living room and asked, "Where's Yu Hua?"

"I'm going to pick up my child from the kindergarten. I'll be back soon. I'll pour you some tea." Chen Hong greeted warmly.

Fang Minghua was sitting on the sofa drinking tea. A few minutes later, the door opened and she saw Yu Hua walking in with her son, who was carrying a small schoolbag.

"Minghua, you're here." Yu Hua said with a smile, and then called out to Chen Hong who was busy in the kitchen: "Chen Hong, are you done?"

"Just accompany Teacher Fang and it will be ready soon!

After a while, Chen Hong brought out some cold dishes and hot dishes from the kitchen, as well as a bottle of wine, which was indeed Moutai!

"I told you not to drink Erguotou, but Moutai!" Yu Hua said.

"Okay, Moutai is Moutai!"

The two of them started chatting while eating. Chen Hong sat beside them. Not long after the meal, she went to take care of the children. Fang Minghua and Yu Hua were left drinking and chatting.

Yu Hua's alcohol tolerance is not very good. After a few glasses of wine, his face turned red. He only said: "Minghua, you were my teacher and helped me a lot in literature. I am very grateful."

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Fang Minghua stopped him, "Don't flatter me."

"I'm not trying to flatter you. I mean you are very knowledgeable and well-informed. Please help me solve the problem."

"What confusion?"

"Look."

Yu Hua put down his chopsticks and looked at Fang Minghua: "This year is 98, the st century is about to arrive, everyone is looking forward to the new century and a new life, but I suddenly feel that I can't seem to write anything."

(End of this chapter)