Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 111 is so well written

That weekend, Du Feng came to Tao's house early in the morning and pulled Lin Chaoyang out of the door mysteriously.

Some time ago, Lin Chaoyang asked Du Feng to help him find a house. It has been two or three months, and there is finally some movement from his side.

"This is the house of my junior high school classmate's uncle. It is a three-room house bought by the older generation before liberation, and it has property rights."

Du Feng led Lin Chaoyang to the large compound near Weigong Village. It was originally a two-story compound with more than a dozen houses, divided among seven or eight families. There were many earthquake-resistant sheds in the compound, probably built during the earthquake a few years ago. The remaining dirt road was less than two meters wide.

It was morning now, and people were coming and going in the compound. Some people went out to empty their chamber pots, and the smell of their footsteps was more pungent than the biting cold wind that came with waking up that morning.

Some earthquake shelters have been converted into kitchens. People are cooking now. There is steam inside and outside the house.

Lin Chaoyang and Du Feng, two strangers, entered the yard, attracting the attention of several residents, and everyone's eyes were vaguely on the two of them.

Before even looking at the house, Lin Chaoyang's brows had already slightly furrowed.

The living conditions in the slums of that era were much worse than he had imagined!

Especially since it's still winter now, the conditions in my father-in-law's apartment are much better by comparison.

But since they were already there, he still followed Du Feng to take a look at the house.

The house consists of three rooms in the east wing, which together account for about 40 to 50 square meters. It is enough for Lin Chaoyang and his wife to live in. According to current housing standards, it will be enough even if they have several children in the future.

According to statistics, the per capita living area in Yanjing City was only 4.55 square meters in the late s and early s.

The owner of the household was not at home, and it was his son-in-law who took Lin Chaoyang and the other man to see the house.

After looking at the house, Du Feng saw that Lin Chaoyang looked normal, so he knew that he might not be very satisfied. He exchanged a few polite words with the owner's son-in-law, and then the two of them left.

"Brother-in-law, are you not satisfied?" Du Feng asked.

"Yeah, it's worse than I expected."

It’s not that Lin Chaoyang cannot accept poor housing conditions, but since he has already decided to spend money to buy a house, he naturally wants to improve the housing standards. Otherwise, he might as well be like everyone else at this time, "wait", "rely" and "ask".

"There's nothing we can do. There are indeed few people selling houses, and they can't be too far away from Yanda University and Yanshi University," Du Feng explained.

"I understand. Thank you for your hard work." Lin Chaoyang patted Du Feng on the shoulder.

"Actually, if you two are not afraid of the hassle, a colleague in our group has a courtyard house near Xisi. What they want is not expensive, only three thousand yuan will do."

Lin Chaoyang was inspired when he heard this. A courtyard house for three thousand yuan was very cheap even for the first person entering the house, and it was in West City.

"First come in? Why is it so cheap?"

"They live in the main house, and two families occupy the other houses."

No wonder it is so cheap, it turns out to be a historical issue.

When he thought about the distance between Xisi and Yanda, the idea that had just arisen in Lin Chaoyang's mind was extinguished.

He might be able to scrape together three thousand yuan after a while, but the ownership of the house was unclear and the distance was so far, it was too unrealistic.

What he and Tao Yushu have to solve right now is the practical housing problem.

After seeing the state of the siheyuan (large courtyard), Lin Chaoyang felt that the couple’s first choice for a house should still be an apartment or a tube-shaped building. Comfort is still the most important thing, and they can buy a siheyuan later.

On December 12th, Lin Chaoyang came to Yanshi University again after get off work.

"The World's Number One Restaurant" has been in rehearsal for more than 20 days, which is a long time for a student drama.

The rehearsal time for Yanda's "Beautiful Love" and "Conscience" is basically the same, but unlike the other two, "The World's Number One Restaurant" is a three-act play.

According to the previous rehearsal time, the performance time of the entire drama reached one and a half hours, and this was even after Lin Chaoyang repeatedly streamlined it.

With the December 9th Cultural Performance of the Capital's Universities just a few days away, Huang Huilin felt that it was time to get things ready and let the students perform in front of the audience.

Otherwise, if I wait until December 9th to go on stage for the first time, I'm bound to have tongue twisters and shaky legs by then, and it would be terrible if something unexpected happened during the performance.

"The World's No. 50 Restaurant" took nearly a month to prepare. The popular writer Lin Chaoyang was invited to write the script, and Huang Huilin, an associate professor of the Chinese Department, took the lead, mobilizing more than students from six departments of Yanshi University to participate.

Not to mention "Beautiful Love" and "Conscience", even ordinary theater performances rarely have such a large scale.

In order to have a smooth rehearsal of "The World's Number One Restaurant", Huang Huilin found Jia Zhen, a senior party official at Yanshi University. After some communication, the school opened the auditorium for students to rehearse the drama and approved a special fund of 2,000 yuan.

Just based on the fanfare surrounding the preparation of "The World's Number One Restaurant", it caused much more noise than an ordinary student drama.

As soon as the news of the premiere was released, it spread throughout the Yanshi University campus.

In the evening, students who heard the news surrounded the entrance of the auditorium.

Fortunately, school leaders came to watch the show today, and the security personnel reacted quickly, maintaining order in time and arranging for the students to enter in an orderly manner.

When Lin Chaoyang arrived outside the auditorium, there was a long line at the door. He wanted to enter the auditorium, but the security guard didn't recognize him and he didn't have a student ID, so he could only worry.

Lin Chaoyang was just about to ask the security guard to help him go into the auditorium and find someone to verify his identity when he heard someone calling him from behind.

"The sun is rising! The sun is rising!"

When Lin Chaoyang looked, he found that it was Chen Jiangong and Zhang Yaozhong.

"Why are you two here?"

"I heard that 'The World's Number One Restaurant' was going to be performed this afternoon, so I rushed over. You are so mean. You didn't even tell me that the play was about to premiere." Chen Jiangong complained after explaining.

In recent days, "The World's No. 1 Restaurant" has become very popular among teachers and students of Yanshi University, and some students have praised it in various ways, making it sound magical.

At this time, students from all major universities were in close contact, so the news naturally spread to other universities. However, word of mouth often fails to convey much useful information, especially since "The World's No. 1 Restaurant" is a script with relatively complex content and structure.

So despite its great reputation before, many people from other schools who were interested in this drama only knew that it was roughly based on Quanjude and told the story of the rise and fall of a roast duck restaurant.

"You... didn't go in either?" Chen Jiangong understood Lin Chaoyang's situation, and his smile was full of sarcasm as he spoke.

Before Lin Chaoyang could answer him, Tao Yushu came out of the auditorium. "Chaoyang!" She called Lin Chaoyang and saw Chen Jiangong and Zhang Yaozhong. "You are here too?"

"Let's come here to spy on the enemy!" Zhang Yaozhong joked.

Tao Yushu smiled and said, "Come in quickly."

With her leading the way, they finally entered the auditorium.

The auditorium of Yanshi University is almost the same size as that of Yan University, both with more than a thousand seats, and is now mostly filled with students from Yanshi University.

The students were full of anticipation for the upcoming play. They gathered together and whispered to each other, filling the huge auditorium with a deafening sound.

Lin Chaoyang is the behind-the-scenes hero of "The World's Number One Restaurant" and his seat was arranged in the middle of the front row.

Chen Jiangong and Zhang Yaozhong were those who got in for free, and were arranged to sit in the middle of the back row, with a good angle and view. The only regret was that it was a bit far from the stage.

Chen Jiangong looked around and saw that not long after he sat down, there seemed to be more people in the auditorium. He looked to the back and saw that because there were too many students entering, they seemed to have to occupy the aisle.

He stood up and scanned the seats around him and found several familiar faces, all of whom were activists from various universities who were keen on social activities.

"The students are really enthusiastic!" he muttered.

"It seems that everyone is looking forward to Chaoyang's script." Zhang Yaozhong said with a smile.

"It's been circulating for a month, everyone must be curious."

As the two were talking, the security guards were maintaining order and asking the students to be quiet.

At this time, in the front row, Lin Chaoyang was being introduced to several school leaders of Yanshi University and several senior professors of the Chinese Department by Huang Huilin.

"Thank you Comrade Chaoyang for your support to our Yanshi University." Jia Zhen, a senior party official of Yanshi University, said with a smile on his face as he shook hands with Lin Chaoyang.

"You're welcome."

Huang Huilin smiled and said, "Comrade Chaoyang and classmate Yushu have a deep love for each other. In a sense, they are also one family of our Yanshi University."

Jia Zhen laughed out loud when he heard this, "That's right, we are all family."

After a few casual chats, the atmosphere in the auditorium gradually quieted down, the curtain on the stage was closed, time slowly passed to half past six, the lights in the auditorium dimmed, and everyone knew that the drama was about to begin.

"In the summer of 1917, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, under the call of his people that 'the imperial system must be maintained and the people want their old master back', was escorted by the pigtailed general Zhang Xun and ascended the throne again.

The old and young people inside and outside the Forbidden City suddenly became excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood. They dug out the court robes that had been stored at the bottom of the boxes for years, put on their real and fake braids, and the streets were full of their ancestors.

According to the tradition of our Chinese nation, the only way to express a happy mood is to eat.

Therefore, the meat market in Qianmen became noisy again, as if it were a last gasp of life. "

The curtain opened with a female narration.

Zhengyangmen, also known as Qianmen, is located at the foot of the emperor, with a dense population and a prosperous market. It is the essence of the capital.

Shops, teahouses, theater stalls are lined up one after another. Crowds of people come and go during the day and the lights are bright at night. It has been prosperous for five hundred years and has been particularly lively in recent days.

There are restaurants lined up on both sides of the small alley called Roushikou outside Zhengyangmen. Each restaurant has unique delicacies. The most representative of them is the roast duck that is famous in Beijing. The old brand "Fujude" is located in Roushikou.

It was dinner time and the meat market was bustling with activity. The kitchens of various restaurants were frying, stir-frying and cooking. The waiters were busy greeting the guests and the diners were toasting each other, playing rock-paper-scissors and making calls.

The Tang family's business of Fujude has now been passed down to the third generation. Three plaques are hung side by side on the lintel in the middle of the door.

"Fujude" is in the middle, "Chicken and Duck Shop" is on the right and "Lao Lu Pu" is on the left. These are the three businesses of Fujude: roast duck, raw chicken and duck, and Su box.

There were two large wooden basins on the left side of the front hall, and apprentices were sitting next to them, plucking duck feathers skillfully.

Along the wall, a row of wooden racks were hung with freshly-ripened duck embryos. The ducks were inflated and painted with sugar color. Each one was plump, tender, white and very strong.

On the right side of the front hall is Fujude's century-old oven, with red bricks on the ground and the fire always burning. There is a couplet on the oven mouth: The golden oven keeps burning for a thousand years, and the silver hook always hangs a hundred delicious flavors.

The stage scenery was produced by Yanshi university students and school workers. The result was a bit rough, but when the lights were turned on, a lot of flaws were covered up, making it look decent and having some of the charm of a drama stage.

From the street, there was the faint sound of gongs and drums from Guanghelou opera, mixed with the sounds of eating, laughing, and playing rock-paper-scissors.

Drama is not only an art of performance, but also an art of stage setting and sound. The students have put a lot of effort into these street sounds.

The setting for the opening of the first act of "The World's Number One Restaurant" consumed a huge amount of energy from the students and school workers in the crew, but the results were remarkable. After only a few tens of seconds when the curtain was up, the audience was completely immersed in the drama.

The background of the first scene is that the emperor has ascended the throne again. Various characters appear in the meat market in Qianmen, including the policeman who takes advantage of the dragon flag, the old man Ke Wu who has become active again, the smart and sweet waiter Chang Gui, and the chef Luo Datou who relies on his merits and demands wages...

The old shopkeeper of Fujude is old, and the two young masters in the family are useless. Fearing that the family business will be ruined, the second shopkeeper Wang Zixi helps the old shopkeeper to find his fellow apprentice Lu Mengshi. But Lu Mengshi sees that Fujude is facing external and internal troubles, and does not want to take over this mess.

Finally, the old shopkeeper called out "Lu Mengshi"'s name when he was dying, and finally Lu Mengshi took over Fujude.

At this point, the first act ended. When the scene changed on the stage, Zhang Yaozhong came back to his senses and whispered to Chen Jiangong: "Jiangong, this play Chaoyang... is extraordinary!"

He held it in for a long time before he finally uttered this sentence.

Experts will know if there is one as soon as they take action.

Not everyone can write a good play, but everyone can watch a good play.

Although it is only the first act, the overwhelming contemporary atmosphere, the vivid characterizations, and the well-placed story all demonstrate the excellence of this drama to the audience.

Chen Jiangong had a complicated expression at this time. The light in the auditorium was dim. Zhang Yaozhong only saw his lips moving, and it took a long time before he made any sound.

"It's really extraordinary. Just this first scene alone is completely on a different level. I really didn't expect..."

There was some reluctance in his eyes, but he had to face the reality.

"... Chaoyang's script is so well written!"

(End of this chapter)