A widower's entertainment

Chapter 337 [The Golden Age] (Please Subscribe)
The year 1991 arrived without major upheavals, but it was actually fraught with crises. The international community felt like it was walking a tightrope, one wrong step and it would fall. At the end of that year, the Northern superpower was set to disintegrate—something no one had anticipated. Meanwhile, a series of external events kept everyone on their toes, creating an incredibly tense situation. Various disputes and conflicts were constant, and the entire society felt like it was on the verge of exploding.

Amidst this constant anxiety, the courtyard houses in Xinghua Hutong in Beijing remained relatively peaceful.

Lin Zhaoqing is taking the high school entrance exam this year, and he is under a lot of pressure. Of course, this is also because his older sister, Lin Zhaoxi, was admitted to Yenching University Affiliated High School. It would be really bad if Lin Zhaoqing didn't get into high school.

Lin Zhaoxi, as the older sister, would naturally tutor Lin Zhaoqing, hoping that he could successfully get into a good high school.

Compared to Lin Zhaoqing, who has to take the high school entrance exam, the younger children are still enjoying their carefree childhood.

Lin Youcheng, as a father, did not stop writing just because he had reached two collaborations with film companies in the United States and received substantial copyright fees. After all, regardless of whether his daughter Lin Zhaomei would become a director or win the Palme d'Or in the future, he was still thinking about establishing a film company.

Of course, no matter what kind of film and television company it is, the most important thing is capital, and Lin Youcheng is very clear about this.

Lin Youcheng also knew very well what investments would be most profitable.

However, for Lin Youcheng, some investments are not in a hurry. Right now, the most suitable investment for him is still the manuscripts in his hand, for books themselves are a treasure trove of knowledge.

"Xiaobo, congratulations! Your film 'The Golden Age' won an award in Taiwan!"

Since Wang Xiaobo and Cha Haisheng came to Xinghua Hutong for a visit, Lin Youcheng naturally had the opportunity to exchange and discuss some literary matters with them.

This naturally leads to a discussion of Wang Xiaobo's novel, "The Golden Age".

It's worth noting that Wang Xiaobo's *The Golden Age* is truly a remarkable book. It was serialized in the supplement of the *United Daily News* in Taiwan and subsequently published there, even winning the *United Daily News* Literary Award for Novella. However, when it was published in Hong Kong, it was renamed *The Romantic History of Wang Er*, with the cover labeled "Romantic Series." Despite being categorized as an erotic novel by the publisher, it sold well in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, receiving consistently positive reviews.

The reason it was only published in Hong Kong and Taiwan for a century is because publishing in mainland China was genuinely difficult. The content involved extensive sexual descriptions, written in a direct and undisguised style, which deterred many publishers. Even though many editors recognized the book's excellence, they hesitated to publish it due to pressure. What was even more agonizing was that some editors accepted the book, only to have it withdrawn just before publication, causing Wang Xiaobo immense distress.

Upon hearing Lin Youcheng's words, Wang Xiaobo waved his hand and said, "Forget it, my book will be difficult to publish in mainland China."

There's nothing we can do about it. You see, while Lin Youcheng's novel "The Reader" does contain some sexual descriptions, it's still not as direct and intense as "The Golden Age."

Lin Youcheng knew that it might take more than two years for Wang Xiaobo's book to be published, and it was only after Chief Editor Zhao of Huaxia Publishing House overcame all opposition that it was finally published. At that time, it was no easy task for Chief Editor Zhao to publish this book. He invited many experts and scholars to evaluate the content of the book, and they finally concluded that the "surname" described in the book was natural and healthy.

Even so, no one expected that after publication, the editor-in-chief would be severely criticized, and Editor-in-Chief Zhao would be secretly retaliated against by many people in his workplace. Even more unexpectedly, after publication, the book was banned from participating in book fairs and large bookstores—practically a ban. Wang Xiaobo, along with his family and Editor-in-Chief Zhao, had no choice but to sell the book at stalls. Surprisingly, readers liked it, and some even bought it as gifts. Gradually, the book began to circulate among the general public, but it remained unknown in mainstream literary circles.

Even when Wang Xiaobo passed away, the book was still not sold out.

Lin Youcheng glanced at Wang Xiaobo, then at Zha Haisheng on the other side. Wang Xiaobo's fate was similar to Zha Haisheng's: not very famous during his lifetime, but became famous after his death. His novel, *The Golden Age*, was especially popular, with many even saying that *The Golden Age* had killed all previous novels with explicit sexual content! Many highly recommended the book. However, the mainstream literary world still held a certain taboo against it, mainly because of the excessive sexual descriptions. Some readers even mistook it for erotic literature, which was quite amusing.

Clearly, this book, *The Golden Age*, has not yet entered its true golden age.

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "As times change, opinions may change. Lu Yao's 'Ordinary World' was also heavily criticized, but it still won the Mao Dun Literature Prize."

Wang Xiaobo said, "It's already very good that it can be published in Taiwan."

Lin Youcheng could hear the relief in Wang Xiaobo's words. Sometimes, there would be some controversy over some explicit sexual descriptions. Whether it was Wang Xiaobo's "The Golden Age" or the later "Ruined Capital" which was banned after publication due to controversial content, these were all controversies over some explicit descriptions.

It's worth noting that even Lin Youcheng's "The Reader" faced similar criticisms before, given that it contained descriptions of sex between a teenager and a middle-aged woman. Fortunately, Lin Youcheng's descriptions weren't particularly numerous, and they weren't as direct. The sex scenes were read aloud beforehand, ensuring that the "sex" described in the book was natural and healthy. Of course, the main reason for this was the limited length of the descriptions.

In fact, Lin Youcheng had previously considered writing another story about a boy and a woman, namely "Malèna," but he felt that the story didn't contain much love and was more about human nature.

Although "Malèna" is a love story set against the backdrop of war, it delves deeper into the human condition.

The story, told during World War II, revolves around thirteen-year-old Renato, who falls for Malena, a much older woman in the town. Her husband is at the front, and her beauty attracts jealousy and rejection from the local women. The boy fantasizes about recreating romantic scenes from movies with this older woman. In reality, news of her husband's death arrives, forcing Malena to sell herself to survive. In the eyes of the townspeople, she becomes a source of unhappiness, bringing desire, jealousy, and anger. A storm, a mixture of sunshine and fury, begins to sweep through this small town untouched by war.

Seeing Malena had lost everything, Renato mustered a courage he had never known before and decided to use his own strength to help Malena escape the mire of her life in an unexpected way...

Lin Youcheng wondered if the story was to be adapted into a novel called "Malèna," and if most of the youthful and innocent descriptions in it were to be banned, or if it were to be written directly into a screenplay, but such a screenplay would probably be even more difficult to pass censorship.

Seeing that Lin Youcheng seemed to be deep in thought, Cha Haisheng couldn't help but ask, "What are you thinking about?"

Lin Youcheng poured a cup of hot tea for Cha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo, and said with a smile, "Thinking about other stories again."

Upon hearing Lin Youcheng's words, Wang Xiaobo couldn't help but ask, "What story? It's not your novel 'Love,' which we don't even know if you'll ever write, is it?"

Clearly, Wang Xiaobo still remembered what Lin Youcheng had told them before, the foreshadowing he had planted in the novel "The Reader," and wanted to know what kind of story "Love" was, which might or might not be written.

Upon hearing this, Lin Youcheng shook his head and replied with a smile, "No, that's a different story."

"Could it be a script for a film company in the United States?" Clearly, Cha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo also knew that Lin Youcheng had reached a cooperation agreement with a film company in the United States, that the novel would be made into a movie, and that the movie script had also been sold to the United States.

Cha Hai-sheng said with a smile, "Yes, Youcheng, I've heard that the movie script you sold to the United States is quite something."

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "That's just a relatively novel idea."

Lin Youcheng then chatted with Cha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo about his ideas for "Every Day" and "Inner Beauty." Clearly, both Cha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo were pleasantly surprised, not expecting Lin Youcheng to come up with such a unique story. He truly deserves to be recognized as a genius in the literary world for his imagination.

Even if no one considers Lin Youcheng, this middle-aged widower, to be a genius in learning English, he is a recognized genius in literary creation, especially in terms of creative imagination. His novel "The Devotion of Suspect X" has already shocked countless people with its unimaginable criminal methods.

"Youcheng, you are really too strong."

Lin Youcheng was chatting with Cha Haisheng and Wang Xiaobo about literary creation and the golden age of literature.

On the other side, Lin Zhaomei was making new friends at the Children's Palace with her younger sister, Lin Zhaohuan.

Lin Zhaomei introduced her younger sister to her friend Gao Yuanyuan, saying, "Yuanyuan, this is my younger sister, Lin Zhaohuan."

Gao Yuanyuan and Lin Zhaomei are about the same age, with Gao Yuanyuan being two years younger than Lin Zhaomei. Moreover, their birthdays happen to be on the same day, which is why Lin Zhaomei and Gao Yuanyuan have a very good relationship at the Children's Palace.

Gao Yuanyuan was originally from Beijing. She met Lin Zhaomei at the Children's Palace. Because their birthdays were coincidentally close, they gradually became acquainted. Gao Yuanyuan also knew that Lin Zhaomei had several siblings. It could be said that Lin Zhaomei had all four types of relatives: older brothers, older sisters, younger brothers, and younger sisters. More importantly, they were all from the same parents and were definitely her biological children, which made Gao Yuanyuan very envious.

Gao Yuanyuan had previously mentioned that she would visit Lin Zhaomei's home in the future to see if Lin Zhaomei really had that many brothers and sisters.

Gao Yuanyuan greeted Lin Zhaohuan with a smile, saying, "Hello, Huanhuan."

Lin Zhaohuan, the little boy, naturally raised his head obediently, blinked his eyes, and sweetly called out, "Sister Yuanyuan."

Whether it was because Lin Zhaohuan was sweet-talking or genuinely from the bottom of her heart, she added, "Sister Yuanyuan, you are so beautiful."

Hearing this, Gao Yuanyuan was naturally very happy. She squatted down, looked at Lin Zhaohuan, touched Lin Zhaohuan's two little braids, and said with a smile, "Thank you, you are very pretty too."

Lin Zhaomei patted Lin Zhaohuan's head and said, "Haha, you have such a sweet tongue! Your sister Yuanyuan is so pretty. Yuanyuan, I told you before that you could also go and check out the children's film studio. They hold children's film and television performance training classes."

Last year, Lin Zhaomei had told Gao Yuanyuan that she could attend a children's film and television performance training class. Last year, a domestic children's film studio held such a training class in Beijing, and many aspiring actors like Haizi attended. Lin Zhaomei was aware of this, as people from the film studio had also approached her about the young actress, but at that time, Lin Zhaomei didn't want to go and declined.

Clearly, Lin Zhaomei didn't know that if she agreed to sign up, she might meet another child surnamed Yang who was much younger than her.

Gao Yuanyuan immediately shook her head and said, "I definitely can't."

Gao Yuanyuan, of course, knew that Lin Zhaomei had acted in movies before, and said, "But Zhaomei, why don't you go?"

Lin Zhaomei raised her head, looked at Gao Yuanyuan, and said, "I don't want to be an actress, I want to be a director."

"The director?"

Well, Gao Yuanyuan didn't know much about directors either, but she just smiled and said, "You're so capable, you can definitely do it."

Upon hearing Gao Yuanyuan's words, Lin Zhaomei couldn't suppress the smile in her eyes. She took Gao Yuanyuan's hand and said, "Thank you for believing in me."

"When I grow up and become a director, I'll ask you to act in my movies, okay?"

Gao Yuanyuan said somewhat embarrassedly, "I... I can't act."

"It's okay, we can learn it, we can all learn it."

Lin Zhaomei smiled and said, "My dad always said that the most important thing is to study. As long as you study hard, you will definitely make progress. My dad is so old, and now he is learning English, and he is getting better and better."

Clearly, Lin Zhaomei also used the example of her friend Lin Youcheng, an elderly father, learning English, to encourage her good friend.

Listening to Lin Zhaomei's words, Gao Yuanyuan didn't know if she wanted to be an actress, but seeing the smile on her good friend Lin Zhaomei's face, she took her hand and finally nodded.

At that moment, Lin Zhaomei saw Gao Yuanyuan nod, her lips curl up, and the smile in her eyes shone like stars.

In Beijing in 1991, in different locations, it wasn't just the children in the courtyard houses of Xinghua Hutong who were moving forward. And after that, perhaps it would be a golden age apart from literature.

(End of this chapter)