The literary era since 1979

The next day, the content of the "Desire" symposium was quickly reported in the newspapers.

The media, big and small, continued to promote Desire with all their might. One reporter at the conference even made up a catchy rhyme for Desire: "Big environment, small family. Things around us, love between children. Truth, goodness, beauty, ugliness, soul, joys and sorrows, separations and reunions are all about love."

With such fanning the flames, "Desire" would be playing on TV in almost every household in Beijing every night.

Even Fang Yan's home was no exception. Yang Xia and Fang Yan stared at the TV closely, while their hands were busy peeling the peanut shells bit by bit.

Fangyan strode into the house carrying a watermelon in a net bag, but found that he did not attract the attention of the two people.

"Ahem, Mom, Yan Zi, look what I brought here?"

"Hey, Iwako is back!"

Yang Xia shuddered suddenly.

Fang Yan's attention was temporarily attracted by the watermelon in his hand. "Brother, why didn't your sister-in-law come back with you?"

"The movie is now at its final stage. How can she have time to come back at this critical moment?"

Fangyan handed the watermelon to Yang Xia.

"We're still filming a movie..."

While Yang Xia took the watermelon out of the net bag, she told her daughter to quickly go to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife.

Fang Yan ran out quickly and ran back from the kitchen quickly, as if she didn't want to miss any scene of "Desire".

"Brother, how long will it take for you and sister-in-law to finish filming Farewell My Concubine?"

"If we take a picture, it will be fast."

Fangyan took the kitchen knife and cut the watermelon skillfully. "But shooting well is only the first step. We will be busy later. We need to do post-processing, editing, dubbing and translation for the film. This series of work must be completed before the registration deadline for the Cannes Film Festival."

“What is the Cannes Film Festival?”

Fang Yan blinked her eyes curiously, "Can I go with you and sister-in-law then?"

Yang Xia glared at him angrily, "Go away, stop causing trouble for your brother and sister-in-law!"

Fang Yan pouted and looked at Fang Yan aggrievedly, only to see him shrug his shoulders, looking helpless.

"When the Cannes Film Festival is held, you will probably be in school at that time."

"Study hard in class, and don't think about traveling abroad all the time."

Yang Xia immediately handed her the cut watermelon.

"Don't act pitiful in front of me and mom. Didn't I promise to take you to Hong Kong during the summer vacation?"

Fang Yan showed a playful smile, "Why, you don't want to go to Hong Kong?"

"Yes, of course!" Fang Yan immediately put her worries behind her, "Brother, when are we going to Hong Kong?"

"Wait a little longer. I still need to stay in Yanjing for a while."

Fang Yan glanced at the phone inadvertently and suddenly changed the subject, "I asked you to ask your teacher, did you ask?"

"I asked."

While eating watermelon, Fang Yan said that Shuimu University had actually long planned to design and develop a Chinese input method that was more convenient, more concise, and more intelligent than the Wubi input method. When they heard that Fang Yan was willing to donate money, they naturally welcomed his investment 100%.

"That's good."

Fang Yan nodded in satisfaction. "But brother, let me be frank with you," Fang Yan reminded him, "Although the development of Chinese input method is not as difficult as chips, Chinese cards, and computer systems, the funds required are definitely not something that can be solved with just 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. This is a lot of money!"

"I will discuss the specific amount with your dean and the principal."

Fang Yan touched his chin and his eyes fell on the phone again.

………………

Chengdu, Science Fiction World Publishing House.

Yang Xiao called a small meeting with Yao Haijun and other editorial leaders. There were several neatly written documents on the table.

Although the above content is very different, they all serve the same purpose, which is the 1988 World Science Fiction Convention.

"These are the plans we have selected over the past few months. Do you have any questions?"

"No."

"Editor-in-Chief Yang, I have no doubts about the content of the plan, but the question now is which plan should we choose?"

"Yes, the two proposals with the highest number of votes have exactly the same number of votes. Even the third proposal, which was one vote short, is actually quite good."

"In my opinion, why not choose between the two plans with the same number of votes and then have everyone discuss and choose again?"

"........."

Everyone was talking at once, chattering, and the entire conference room was noisy, but no conclusion was reached.

Yang Xiao raised his hand and said, "I have already discussed this matter with the Navy. Since we cannot finalize the final plan for the World Science Fiction Convention, we can simply go to Yanjing to consult Teacher Fang and ask for his opinions as well as those of Shi Tiesheng, Yu Hua, and Wang Shuo."

"Teacher Fang is in Yanjing?!"

Everyone present was shocked and had a look of joy on their faces.

"The newspapers have published news about the symposium on Desire, and one of the participants was Teacher Fang."

Yao Haijun smiled and said, "Just in case, I even called the editorial department of Mystery World and asked Tie Sheng to verify it."

"Yes, Mr. Fang is the chief screenwriter of Desire. He will definitely attend a symposium like this!"

"To be honest, the script of Desire is really well written. My whole family is following this TV series."

"That's right, but don't you see who made it?"

Seeing that the topic was going off topic, Yang Xiao coughed and drew everyone's attention back.

Yao Haijun said seriously: "In fact, the reason we went to Yanjing to find Teacher Fang was not only to ask him to make the final decision on the plan for the World Science Fiction Convention, but also to hope that he could write another masterpiece like The Three-Body Problem before the convention!"

"Just like the last World Science Fiction Convention we attended, we can bring out enough and substantial Chinese science fiction works and distribute them to audiences and guests from all over the world, so that they can appreciate and feel the charm of Chinese science fiction works."

Yang Xiao said: "So, relying solely on the novels of Liu Cixin and Ye Yonglie is not enough."

It was hard for everyone present to disagree. After all, even though Liu Cixin had made rapid progress, he was still far behind Fang Yan.

Suddenly someone asked, "Speaking of which, Mr. Fang's The Three-Body Problem should be on the shortlist for the Hugo Awards this time, right?"

"How could it not be there? Besides, it's a hot favorite for this year's Hugo Award!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Yang Xiao, Yao Haijun and others immediately started to imagine.

After all, China is the host of this World Science Fiction Convention. If The Three-Body Problem, which represents the highest level of Chinese science fiction literature, can win the Hugo Award for Novel, what a huge impact it will have on the entire Chinese science fiction literature community! (End of this chapter)