A widower's entertainment

Chapter 367 [His New Book] (Please Subscribe)
Xinghua Hutong, Beijing.

It wasn't unusual for Zhang Wei to commission a manuscript from Lin Youcheng. As an editor, Zhang Wei would ask Lin Youcheng about his new manuscripts from time to time, and even if Lin Youcheng had just published a new book, Zhang Wei would still ask about his ideas for the next novel.

Lin Youcheng was also considering his next novel. In fact, Zhang Wei was right. Some stories could be written as novels and published before being adapted into movies. Of course, some stories could be written directly as screenplays, such as "My Brothers and Sisters" and "Love". There were also "Every Day" and "The Truman Show" that were bought by American companies.

Lin Youcheng felt that he could still write novels that would be adapted into movies and TV series, and there could be more than one.

Because Lin Youcheng no longer writes manuscripts by hand, but has started using a computer to type, which is very advanced in the literary circle. He is a role model for many authors. After all, Lin Youcheng has started using a computer to type, which will naturally influence other authors to some extent. However, after these authors learned about the price of computers, many of them sincerely chose to write manuscripts by hand.

Xie Shuhua placed a cup of tea on Lin Youcheng's desk. Watching Lin Youcheng type faster and faster, she couldn't help but admire him. Then, glancing at the line of text on the computer screen, she raised an eyebrow and began to read it carefully.

"To be honest, their workplace is actually located near a county town under our jurisdiction, perhaps in the mountains."

I had heard before that there was a large, mysterious organization in the county, located deep in the mountains. After they moved in, no one in the county ever went back, including the villagers who used to live there; they all moved away. Because of this, no one could say for sure what kind of organization it was. There were many theories: some said it was involved in propaganda, some said it was a government palace, some said it was a security agency, and so on—there was no consensus.

Such a mysterious unit…

Clearly, Xie Shuhua felt that Lin Youcheng was writing a spy story.

Lin Youcheng was typing when he turned around and saw Xie Shuhua seemingly looking at the text on the screen. He couldn't help but smile, picked up the cup of tea on the table, stood up, took a sip, and said, "Why don't you sit and read it?"

"no need."

Xie Shuhua shook her head and asked with a smile, "Is this your new novel?"

Lin Youcheng nodded. He was indeed writing a new novel called "Plot Against," which was also a spy novel and had won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Without a doubt, "The Plot" is literature that belongs to the people. The story is about those underground heroes, and it is a story that the people should know.

Speaking of the novel "The Conspiracy," which won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, it can actually be divided into three short stories: The Listener, The Watcher, and The Catcher. Each part contains several story chapters and seven narrators, each telling their own story in the first person. The protagonist, a journalist and one of the narrators, cleverly connects them. Through this strange and mysterious narrative style and suspenseful plot, the story seems to realistically present a spy war and surveillance world that is different from people's preconceived notions, and reinterprets the tragic fate of those intelligence workers.

Lin Youcheng was well aware that the novel was quite successful. It was not only adapted into a TV series of the same name, but the "Wind Listener" part was also adapted into a movie called "Wind Listener". This may be what Zhang Wei meant when he said that the story was written as a novel and then adapted into a movie or TV series.

Lin Youcheng has only written the Listener section of "The Conspiracy" so far. In fact, the whole novel tells the story of the security department 701. Through the three chapters of Listening to the Wind, Watching the Wind, and Catching the Wind, it describes the legendary figures in the three departments of the special unit 701: the Surveillance Bureau, the Decryption Bureau, and the Action Bureau.

Among them, "The Listener" tells the story of Ah Bing, a blind eavesdropper who was both the most brilliant and the closest to madness in the history of the surveillance bureau. At a time of extreme tension between China and foreign countries, he detected 107 secret enemy radio stations, making a tremendous contribution to the nation and bringing himself unparalleled glory. However, this genius was also fragile and foolish. He was impotent, believing that simply sleeping in the same bed with his wife would result in her pregnancy. Fearing divorce, his wife had an affair and gave birth to a child. His extraordinary hearing allowed him to hear the baby's cries, leading him to believe he had been cuckolded, and he committed suicide as a result.

As for the story told by the observer, it recounts the tale of Chen Erhu and Huang Yiyi from the Decryption Bureau. Huang Yiyi was known as the "Problematic Angel" within the Bureau; she deciphered advanced codes in the North with a secrecy period exceeding ten years within a year, yet died from a spring-loaded door in a hospital restroom. Within Unit 701, Huang Yiyi's existence and departure were legendary. Chen Erhu, who later achieved the greatest success in the Bureau, developed an occupational hazard after retirement, treating daily life like a code, relentlessly searching for truth and falsehood, becoming hopelessly entangled in the labyrinth of decryption. Ultimately, he died of a heart attack after successfully deciphering an abandoned code.

Finally, two stories from *The Wind Catcher*: one involves how our comrade used the body of soldier Weaver to deliver false intelligence to the enemy, leading to our victory; the other involves "Pigeon," an agent infiltrating the enemy's secret service, who was exposed and arrested because she involuntarily called out her deceased husband's name during childbirth.

In fact, it can be said that "The Plot" is completely different from common spy novels. There are no particularly deified heroes in this novel. Instead, it takes a different approach and tells the story of the fate of people with special talents. It describes the magical performance of individuals in a closed and dark space and reinterprets the sublime.

It can be said that the entire novel does not set up a grand historical background of binary opposition between enemies and friends for the protagonist's activities. Instead, it designs a series of special spaces—highly confidential research institutes, underground work scenes behind enemy lines—thereby creating a special, rather than traditional, perfect hero.

It could even be said that neither Abing nor Huang Yiyi were true heroes; they were forced into heroism by the demands of their work. Chen Erhu might have been a hero, but his workaholic tendencies led him to a mental hospital and caused him to lose himself. Wei Fu's posthumous fame was entirely a fabricated hero. Lin Ying's hesitation about having children and her emotional turmoil tarnished even this hero. The entire story contains the flaws of these heroes: Abing's impotence, Huang Yiyi's promiscuity, Chen Erhu's rigidity, Wei Fu's unrequited love, and Lin Ying's marriage. It can be said that the story simultaneously creates new heroes while simultaneously stifling those emerging ones.

The suicides of Abing, the murder of Huang Yiyi, the deaths of Chen Erhu and Wei Fu, and the sacrifice of Lin Ying—each death takes a different form. Abing, while gaining heroic respect, found his physical defects more acutely apparent, unable to return to a normal life, leading him to suicide as a way to escape. Huang Yiyi's murder occurred when she unconsciously slammed her head against a door in the toilet for her rival. Chen Erhu paid the ultimate price for his fervor after resuming work following retirement. Wei Fu, who failed to achieve great things for the song's fame in life, posthumously made a significant contribution; his death was perfectly timed, fulfilling all the necessary elements. Lin Ying's sacrifice stemmed from revealing her true husband's name while unconscious during the birth of her daughter. These deaths, written in the book, are sudden, accidental, and unnatural. Superficially, they are all caused by the unique weaknesses and mistakes of the deceased. It could be said that their weaknesses and mistakes preordained their deaths, dispelling the moral curse of heroic deaths in grand narratives and guiding heroes back to normal life. Of course, in terms of artistic features, "The Plot" fully demonstrates the artistic charm of the novel with its mysterious special agent subject matter, magical characters, and suspenseful spy plot. The mystery of the entire story subject matter undoubtedly makes the novel "The Plot" more attractive. The imagination of the strange people and anecdotes on the hidden front in the distant war years during peacetime inspires the impulse to verify, and this impulse transforms into the reader's reading expectation, which coincides with the mysterious and realistic subject matter of the novel.

Of course, Lin Youcheng was well aware of his current situation and knew he had to be careful with certain plot points. After all, some of the stories were not from the past, but were not far removed from the present. Of course, the entire story spanned a long period of time and space. The three seemingly independent but closely related books, "The Listener," "The Watcher," and "The Wind Catcher," interweave five distinct spy legends. Such legendary stories are inherently full of mystery, a mix of reality and illusion.

Xie Shuhua didn't look closely, but knew that Lin Youcheng had started writing a spy novel again. She smiled and said, "If Zhang Wei knew that you're writing a new manuscript now, he would be very happy, especially since it's a spy novel."

Without a doubt, Lin Youcheng's two previous novels, "The Message" and "Lurking," are undoubtedly classic spy novels that are loved by readers and have a considerable influence in the literary world. If the literary community knew that Lin Youcheng was writing a new spy novel, they would definitely be very excited.

This includes herself; she is naturally very much looking forward to Lin Youcheng's newly written spy novel.

With masterpieces like "The Message" and "Lurking" preceding it, it remains to be seen what kind of story Lin Youcheng will tell in his latest work, "The Plot."

"This is not just one."

"Not one?"

Xie Shuhua was somewhat surprised, not expecting that Lin Youcheng had written more than one book.

Lin Youcheng smiled and said, "It's a novel composed of three short stories. After I finish writing the first part of 'The Conspiracy,' titled 'The Wind Listener,' I'll show it to Zhang Wei. If it's not accepted, I'll submit it to another magazine."

Hearing Lin Youcheng's words, Xie Shuhua couldn't help but laugh. She didn't think Zhang Wei would reject Lin Youcheng's manuscript. However, looking at some of the content of Lin Youcheng's "The Wind Listener," which seemed to be written in the first person as a recollection, she couldn't help but ask, "Is this a first-person recollection?"

Lin Youcheng nodded. He already had some literary creation discussions with Xie Shuhua, so he naturally told Xie Shuhua the whole story of "The Plot".

What makes this novel special is that the entire story begins through the protagonist, a reporter. However, the reporter is not the true protagonist of the story, but rather the narrator who introduces the story. Moreover, each story is told from the first-person perspective, making this narrative technique quite unique.

In particular, recollection, being a retelling of events, alters the original pattern of how events occurred. Recollective narration compresses the originally multifaceted nature of life into a linear narrative, allowing the narrator ample time to exercise their critical thinking, evaluating and discussing the events or characters. When the first-person narrator tells their own story or experiences, their subjective feelings guide the pace and pacing of the narrative. This allows first-person narrative novels to truly break free from the constraints of the original plot, organizing the story not through a plot line but through an emotional one, thus showcasing the full charm of the first-person narrative style.

Lin Youcheng was well aware of this, and naturally, he wouldn't change this narrative style. Throughout the novel, he deliberately emphasized the narrator's presence, portraying them as participants or witnesses with intricate connections to the narrated characters. They might be acquainted, have emotional ties, be mentors or apprentices, or comrades-in-arms. It was this close relationship that gave the narrators a particularly nuanced understanding and special emotions towards the narrated characters. This lyrical narrative style was unique, emphasizing the narrator's subjective perspective and inner feelings. The emotional narrative contained reflection, judgment, and expression of emotion, and the aesthetic appeal permeated the plot itself, making the storytelling profound, full of vitality and power.

This is why the spy novel "The Plot" won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Although Xie Shuhua was really looking forward to Lin Youcheng's novel, she also wanted Lin Youcheng to finish writing the manuscript first before they could discuss it. Of course, if Lin Youcheng wanted to discuss it with her, she would naturally do so as well.

Of course, Xie Shuhua had no intention of bothering Lin Youcheng at the moment, and wanted Lin Youcheng to focus on writing his manuscript.

Clearly, Lin Youcheng has started writing a new novel in the courtyard house, and Zhang Wei will naturally come again. He will then find out that Lin Youcheng is writing a new spy novel, which naturally makes him very excited.

After all, the entire literary world is well aware of just how impactful Lin Youcheng's novels "The Message" and "Lurking" were. Now that Lin Youcheng is rewriting a spy novel, how could Zhang Wei and the editors of "People's Literature" magazine not be filled with anticipation?

In particular, Zhang Wei heard from Lin Youcheng that this spy novel was composed of three short stories, which meant it could be considered as three novels.

This naturally made Zhang Wei even more excited, because this meant that Lin Youcheng was going to publish three novels in a row, which was unprecedented!

(End of this chapter)