Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 103 The more money you have, the less you can spend
Comrade Chaoyang's loyal performance moved Tao Yushu so much that he enjoyed his tender love that night.

Then, he took on the arduous task of creating a drama for the Chinese Department of Yenching Normal University, a task for which he received no pay.

This is the power of love.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang went downstairs from the second-floor library to prepare for dinner. Hu Wenqiong said to him, "Chaoyang, this issue of Literary Gazette has a review of The Wreath Under the Mountain."

Nearly one and a half months have passed since the publication of "The Wreath under the Mountain". During this period, the eighth issue of "People's Literature", which published the novel, has sold more than one million copies, creating the highest sales volume in the history of the magazine.

This novel has been widely welcomed by readers and has also had a great influence among the people, but its voice in the literary world does not seem to be as loud as among the readership.

During this period, although many local newspapers and literary journals have published review articles on "The Garland under the Mountain", there are few heavyweight reviews.

Military-themed novels or reportage have never had a particularly high status in the literary world, and are often considered by some readers and literary figures to lack literary and ideological qualities due to the official nature of the works.

Although "The Garland under the Mountain" has made a great breakthrough compared with previous works of this type, the prejudice in the literary world will not disappear overnight.

After dinner, Lin Chaoyang found this issue of "Wenyi Bao". After taking a look at it, he knew why Hu Wenqiong specifically mentioned this review to him.

"The Most Magnificent and the Most Precious - Reading the novella "The Garland under the Mountain", written by Feng Mu.

A famous literary and artistic activist, critic, and essayist, these are just Feng Mu's achievements in literature and art. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Literary Gazette and the deputy leader of the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Given Feng Mu's fame and status, the importance of this review is naturally self-evident.

In particular, he gave extremely high praise to "The Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain" in his article.

“This is indeed a good work, a work filled with lofty revolutionary sentiments, capable of elevating and purifying people’s minds, and a work that truly excavates and reproduces the magnificent and precious spiritual qualities that our heroic fighters possess.”

Feng Mu was the first big shot to speak out for the novel after the publication of "The Garland under the Mountain". His review article is also the most important review article about "The Garland under the Mountain" so far.

After reading the article, Lin Chaoyang felt much more relieved.

Who doesn’t want his or her novel to be popular with readers? Who doesn’t want his or her novel to be highly praised?

Thanks to Comrade Feng Mu, it was another day full of emotional value.

That afternoon, Li Shuguang called the library's message room and told Lin Chaoyang that the subscription volume for the single volume of "Little Shoes" had come out.

36561 copies.

This number may seem insignificant, but these days, subscriptions from publishing houses are probably equivalent to reservations on video platforms in later generations. Generally speaking, the final sales results will be much higher than this number. How much higher depends on the quality and influence of the novel itself.

The subscription volume is over 30,000 copies, which is definitely a bestseller.

In the past few years since the Buzz Buzz, Chinese people have started a reading craze, with various classic masterpieces selling hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies.

In comparison, the sales of contemporary literary works are not so outstanding. The sales of most less famous contemporary literary works are less than 10,000 copies.

The better ones will only have sales of tens of thousands of copies, and only those works that have formed a certain influence nationwide will have sales of over 100,000 copies.

Since the publication of "Little Shoes" in "Yanjing Literature and Art", it has caused a huge response among readers, and the sales of the current issue of the magazine that published the novel exceeded one million copies.

According to Li Shuguang's estimation, it should be easy for the single volume of "Little Shoes" to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. If it sells more, no one can say for sure.

After sharing this joyful news with Lin Chaoyang, Li Shuguang told him that the single volume would be sent to Xinhua Bookstores in various places in two days, and should be available on the shelves of bookstores in another week. At the same time, Li Shuguang did not forget to mail him two sample copies.

"What did the army say about the single volume of "High Mountains"? " Li Shuguang asked urgently.

"Look at my bad memory. I forgot to ask. Wait a moment and I'll ask you right away."

Lin Chaoyang hung up the phone, called the military district and contacted Du Ruolin.

Hearing that Renwen Publishing House was going to publish a separate volume for "The Wreath Under the Mountain", Du Ruolin said thoughtfully: "It is only right to publish a separate volume. After all, it is such a good work, but don't rush into it."

Du Ruolin obviously had something to say, and judging by his attitude it must be a good thing, but it might not be convenient to say it right now, so Lin Chaoyang didn't ask any further questions.

"Well, I'll reject the Humanities Society first."

"Ah."

After getting Du Ruolin's reply, Lin Chaoyang called Li Shuguang again.

Upon learning that the army seemed to have some ideas about "The Garland under the Mountain", Li Shuguang felt regretful, but there was nothing he could do. After all, published at this point in time this year, the novel was indeed a bit sensitive.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang received the manuscript fee and sample book for the publication of the single volume of "Little Shoes".

The standard for payment is the same as for publication, which is 7 yuan per thousand words. The full text of "Little Shoes" is 58,000 words, and the payment of 7 yuan per thousand words is 406 yuan.

The last time Tao Yushu counted their savings, excluding the 950 yuan given by Lin's father and mother, the couple's savings were close to yuan.

Over the past few months, "Little Shoes" and "Wreaths under the Mountain" have contributed more than 900 yuan in income to their small family, and Tao Yushu has also earned nearly 100 yuan from writing reviews. Together with the remaining wages and student aid, the couple's savings now firmly exceed the 2,000 yuan mark.

After calculating this number, Tao Yushu jumped up excitedly and pulled Lin Chaoyang around in circles.

"Are you so happy?" Lin Chaoyang put down his pen and followed her dancing. "Of course I am happy. If we work, we may not be able to save this much money in ten years."

Tao Yushu stood still and looked up at Lin Chaoyang, "Chaoyang, you are awesome!"

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Haha!" Tao Yushu laughed heartily, "Arrogant idiot!"

While feeling happy, Tao Yushu began to imagine their future life.

"When we have our own house, we won't need to buy another bed. We can just move this one in, along with this wardrobe and desk.

However, we need two large bookshelves, preferably the kind that cover one wall. The current bookshelf at home is too small and the space is also limited.

I also need to buy a TV, which costs another three or four hundred yuan..."

After calculating over and over again, the longing on her face turned into distress. "I thought I had a lot of money, but how come I can't help spending it after calculating it?"

"It takes other families decades to accumulate this wealth, but we only need one or two years. Why should we be dissatisfied?"

Tao Yushu thought back to what he had said and laughed, "It seems to be true."

The next day, Tao Yushu went out in the morning and took out one of the two copies of "Little Shoes" sent by Renwen Publishing House and mailed it to the Northeast.

This has become her habit. Every time Lin Chaoyang's work is published, she will send a copy to Lin Erchun and his wife who are far away in the Northeast.

Doing so is not only about sharing joy, but also about making the two elders feel at ease.

Their son entered Yanjing University and was becoming more and more promising, so they had no reason to worry.

The only problem is that in the last few communications, Ms. Zhang Guiqin's speech and manner have become increasingly wild. Lin Chaoyang and his wife can imagine through her words how she is now domineering in Xiaoyangtun.

In the past two days, in order to enhance the professional capabilities of librarians, the library specially invited two senior librarians with strong professional capabilities, Kan Fajian and Cheng Sumei, to provide training for everyone.

Although Lin Chaoyang has been working in the library for a year, he is still a new staff member and is naturally also included in the training.

The training lasted for two days, which was roughly equivalent to two days of fishing.

Just after get off work that day, Lin Chaoyang came out of the library and met Xie Daoyuan waving at him.

"curator!"

"Let's go for a walk together."

Lin Chaoyang followed Xie Daoyuan out of the library.

Now most of the autumn in Yanjing has passed, and the autumn atmosphere is strong in Yanyuan.

The broad leaves of the trees on campus gradually turn golden, including many yellow ash and maple trees. The golden color continues to form a flaming red, extending from Yanyuan to Weixiuyuan, all the way to the northwest to the Summer Palace, Yuquan Mountain and Xiangshan Mountain.

The sky is filled with overlapping yellow and red colors with distinct layers, elegant and luxurious, forming the most beautiful autumn scenery in Yanjing.

"I heard from Lin Geng that you often attend classes in the Chinese Department," Xie Daoyuan asked.

“Thanks to my colleagues’ help, I have time to attend classes.”

Xie Daoyuan gave Lin Chaoyang the green light to audit classes in the Chinese Department. He was very pleased that Lin Chaoyang was able to maintain his unremitting enthusiasm for learning.

"I went to the Chinese Department and sat there for a while that day. Hong Zicheng even praised you for your profound knowledge of contemporary literature. It seems that you have really studied hard."

"Brother Zicheng, thank you for the compliment. I just happen to be writing, and the library is such a convenient environment."

Xie Daoyuan nodded, "That's right. Your situation is somewhat similar to that of Professor Jin Kequn back then. It's okay to have a low starting point, the most important thing is to be attentive. Now it seems that you really have some talent, and you have achieved so much in such a short time."

Lin Chaoyang savored Xie Daoyuan's words. The word "as expected" concealed a lot of information. The first reaction in his mind was that Father Tao must have praised himself a lot in front of Xie Daoyuan.

"It's all thanks to the support and care from you, the curator, and all the teachers."

Xie Daoyuan smiled and waved his hand, "Okay, let's stop saying these polite words."

He added, "I called you here today because I have something to tell you. At the beginning of next year, the library department will resume enrolling students through correspondence courses. Although you may not continue to develop in this direction in the future, it will always be helpful to get a diploma."

Although the Library Department is not a popular major, it is under the name of Yanda after all, and correspondence education qualifications were not rampant in those days. Its weight was much heavier than in later generations, and there were real companies that would recognize it.

According to Xie Daoyuan, the enrollment scope of the correspondence course of the library department is not wide, and it is mainly aimed at library staff within the Yenching City area. The librarians of the Yenching University Library are those who are close to the water and get the moon first.

Although correspondence courses require exams, the exam content is almost all about the librarians’ daily work and accumulated experience. Combined with advance preparation, it is almost equivalent to no exam required.

As I said, it is easier to get things done if you have someone in the court.

(End of this chapter)