Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 803 802 "Sexy Times Restaurant"

Fortunately, Fang Minghua called Su Tong, Wang Anyi and Mo Yan successively, and they all happily accepted the invitation.

Then he called Wang Shuo.

On the other end of the phone, Wang Shuo smiled and said that he was now a free man and could be called at any time.

Wang Shuo returned to China last fall and only stayed in the United States for half a year.

After returning to China, he has become quieter and no longer quarrels with those writers in newspapers like before. At the beginning of this year, Shengshi Books published a book of his, "Selected Works of Wang Shuo", which includes classic works such as "Floating Out of the Sea", "Half Sea Water, Half Flame", "Die After Having a Good Time", and "I Am Your Father".

After publication, sales were good, about 30 copies, and Wang Shuo also received a considerable amount of royalties, so he was naturally happy.

The last call was to Jia Pingwa.

According to regulations, one-third of the reading class judges for the World Chinese Literature Award are randomly replaced every year. This year, both Fang Minghua and Jia Pingwa were replaced, so there is time.

He picked up the landline and dialed Jia Pingwa's cell phone directly.

The call was connected soon, and the voice over the microphone was Jia Pingwa's Shangluo dialect, which didn't sound like Shangluo dialect, and Xijing dialect, which didn't sound like Xijing dialect.

"Which one?"

"I, Minghua, and Brother Jia, are treating you." Fang Minghua said as soon as he opened his mouth.

"I have invited you, who told you to go to the United States and not come back?"

"No, you have to invite me alone."

It turned out that in June this year, Jia Pingwa received an invitation letter from France. His novel "Wasteland" won the French Femina Literary Prize, and he was invited to go to Paris, France in August to attend the award ceremony.

The Femina Prize is also a famous literary award in France. Jia Pingwa is the first Chinese to win this award.

The special thing about the Femina Prize is that its jury is composed entirely of women!
But it is not the so-called "female fist". Judging from the results of the selection in 2017, the vast majority of the awards were given to male authors.

Jia Pingwa was proud of winning this award which has a certain influence internationally. Several of his good friends won the Mao Dun Prize in China, which made him feel very embarrassed as he wrote the most but won the fewest awards.

Now that Fang Minghua came back and asked him to treat him, he was very generous: "Okay, let's set a time and have another meal together!"

“This weekend then.”

Fang Minghua certainly didn't call to ask Jia Pingwa to treat them. The two chatted for a while before Fang Minghua told him about inviting him to be a judge in my online competition.

"Ouch. I just got rid of the World Chinese Language Award judges, and now I am asked to be a judge for online literature. Let me first state that I don't know much about online literature."

"There's nothing special about it. It's just like any other literary competition." Fang Minghua explained.

"Okay, then, does online literature have to be read online?" Jia Pingwa asked another question.

"Yes, I will send the manuscript to your mailbox via email and you can read it slowly on your computer."

"Haha, luckily I bought a computer and got online, otherwise I wouldn't even be qualified to be a judge. Okay, that's it."

The domestic literary scene was very lively in 1998.

At the beginning of the year, the first Lu Xun Literature Award ceremony was held in Yenching, and more than 70 literary works of different types won the award.

Then in April, the long-awaited fourth Mao Dun Literature Prize was finally decided, with five novels including White Deer Plain winning this honor. It had been seven years since the third Mao Dun Prize was awarded.

In early June, the call for submissions for the 10th World Chinese Literature Award was officially launched. What was shocking was that the prize money for the winning novel would be increased from 20 yuan to yuan, making it the highest prize money for domestic literature awards! At the same time, another major literary award also quietly appeared in the public eye.

"The first online original literature competition under the banyan tree!"

The competition includes a literary award and a best novelist award, with first, second and third prizes respectively, with prize money of 10000 yuan, 5000 yuan and 2000 yuan. In addition, candidates can be invited to attend the award ceremony held in Shanghai, with food, accommodation and transportation all included.

As the organizer, Rongshuxia website not only published the call for papers on its main site, as well as literary websites such as Shuimu Tsinghua and Xici Hutong, but also placed call for papers advertisements on emerging portals such as Sohu and NetEase!

This immediately attracted the interest of the first generation of domestic netizens, and many literature lovers were eager to try it out.

A middle school in Xiangfan, Hubei Province.

Shang Ailan is a Chinese teacher in this middle school. She is in her early thirties and is no different from other Chinese teachers. She teaches diligently, likes to read literary books, and occasionally writes something herself, but has never published it publicly.

But she also has a hobby, surfing the Internet.

Since the school purchased a batch of computers last year, two of which can access the Internet, this has become her hobby, and she often uses her spare time to use the Internet.

Browsing various websites and forums, she saw another world.

Of course, her favorite are literary websites, such as Under the Banyan Tree, Xici Hutong, and Jin Yong Inn. Her favorite is Under the Banyan Tree.

This website claims to be the largest literature website in China. What makes it different from other websites is that the novels it publishes are all original, including novels, essays, and poems. And its literary quality is better than that of other websites.

After reading so many works, she also had an urge to submit her own work, until she saw the call for papers for the online original literature competition posted on the website.

Or, just submit your article directly?

Anyway, I usually write a few things, so why not pick one and send it over?

With the idea in mind, Shang Ailan took action immediately. She carefully selected a short story from her daily articles, titled "The Little Hotel in the Sexy Era".

The title of the novel is very eye-catching, but the content is indeed rather dull. The male protagonist "Mouse", the female protagonist "Female Colleague" and "Colleague of Colleague", three vague characters, hurriedly chat, surf the Internet, and even have a one-night stand.
It brings together all the hot topics related to the Internet in this era.

Well, that's it.

This afternoon, Shang Ailan had no classes, so she secretly ran to the school's computer room, put on slippers, typed the novel into a Word document, and then sent it out according to the address published on the website.

Although it was only about 5,000 words, her lack of typing skills took her the entire afternoon.

She let out a long sigh and looked at her watch out of habit.

Oh, it’s half past five. My daughter has already finished school. I have to go pick her up.

Writing this stuff myself is a small matter, but delaying picking up my daughter is a big deal!
Her daughter is nine years old and in the third grade of primary school. In addition to picking up and dropping off her daughter and helping her with her homework, Shang Ailan also has a very important job: guiding her daughter in writing articles.

It’s not an essay, it’s a novel!

Just last summer vacation, my daughter wrote several essays one after another. She is planning to compile a collection of essays and is looking for a publishing house to publish it.

She is proud to have such a smart and talented daughter.

She gave her daughter a nice name, Jiang Fangzhou.

(End of this chapter)