Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 126 Everyone Speaks So Nicely
Lin Chaoyang was stunned for a moment before he realized that "Contemporary" was also published by Renwen Press. This magazine, which was later known as one of the "Four Famous Stars" in the literary journal industry, was just founded this year.

"Old Li, it's not right for you to favor one over the other." Lin Chaoyang teased.

Li Shuguang shook his head and said helplessly: "After all, People's Literature is led by the Literary Association. The Literary Association has decided to hand over its distribution rights to Writers Publishing House starting next year. It will have little to do with our Renwen Press in the future."

It turned out to be the case.

But this is not the focus of Lin Chaoyang. "I want to give the novel to October. It has nothing to do with whether it is given to People's Literature or Contemporary."

"October doesn't give you much in royalties," Li Shuguang said.

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang was unmoved, he advised again: "Chaoyang, I am also an old editor. I know the twists and turns of being an editor better than you. You are still young, so don't be fooled by some people. What they like most is to make you feel that you owe them a favor. In this way, you will feel embarrassed to think of them when you have manuscripts in the future."

"I'm telling you, you must not think like that. Writers write manuscripts, editors review them, this is everyone's division of labor. You try to be friendly with them, but they won't be friendly with you. If your manuscript is not good, they will still reject it."

When Liu Xinwu asked for an article to diss Li Xiaolin, there was no sense of worldly affairs, and he was a very secretive person.

Li Shuguang's playing style is completely different from his. He went straight to the lower three lanes. It can be said that he has no moral integrity at all.

If Old Liu heard what he said, he would probably want to fight him to the death. However, what Li Shuguang said was not completely nonsense.

As a writer, it is ultimately his works that speak for him. No matter how good his relationship with the editor is, it will be of no use, and vice versa.

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang was silent, Li Shuguang did not persuade him anymore and said, "Well, go to the agency to re-sign the contract tomorrow, and we can talk about the manuscript later."

Lin Chaoyang nodded.

The next day he took a special leave and came to Renwen Press, signed a new contract, and then immediately received a receipt for his royalties.

"The stock of Little Shoes has been almost sold out these days, so we're going to print another 100,000 copies. It's just right for you to come today and collect the royalties."

"'Little Shoes' is selling so well?" Lin Chaoyang said in surprise.

"It's really good. The main reason is that you have a great appeal among the readership. From The Horse Herder to The Little Shoes, and then to The Wreath Under the Mountain, each of your works has not only received high reviews, but also been welcomed by readers. This is the most rare thing."

Li Shuguang has worked at Renwen Press for many years and met too many writers. Many of them wrote very good works and received very high reviews from critics, but when it comes to sales of their works, it is hard to describe. The publishing house may not even be able to earn back the royalties. In fact, it is very stressful for the publishing house to cooperate with such writers.

Lin Chaoyang's works have caused a wide impact since his debut, and this has been the case for several consecutive works. He has gradually established a good reputation and influence among readers.

In the future, as long as nothing unexpected happens, publishing houses will not have to worry about losing money when cooperating with him.

"Is your single volume of "The Wreath under the Mountain" coming out yet?" Li Shuguang asked anxiously.

"It has been handed over to Warrior Press."

"Oh." Li Shuguang felt a little regretful, but he also understood the situation.

After receiving the royalties, Li Shuguang saw Lin Chaoyang out. Before he reached the door of the building, he saw a middle-aged man with a kind face standing at the door.

As soon as he saw Li Shuguang and Lin Chaoyang, he stepped forward and extended his hand enthusiastically, "This is Comrade Chaoyang, right? Oh, you are indeed a young and promising young man, a young and promising young man."

Lin Chaoyang was confused by the middle-aged man's enthusiasm, so Li Shuguang introduced him, "This is Zhu Changsheng, the editor of Contemporary Magazine."

Lin Chaoyang looked at Li Shuguang meaningfully and said that he would never believe that the two people had not communicated with each other beforehand.

Li Shuguang faced his gaze with a calm expression, and it was obvious at first glance that he was a veteran who had been through many battles.

After Lin Chaoyang gave Li Shuguang a look, he no longer cared about him. Zhu Changsheng was a little too enthusiastic and insisted on dragging him to the editorial office of "Contemporary" to sit down.

Lin Chaoyang was dragged to the editorial office of "Contemporary" in the back building of Renwen Press without knowing what was going on. At that time, "Contemporary" had just been established for half a year and there were not many staff members, but almost all of them were the elites of Renwen Press.

Compared with People's Literature, the adopted daughter, Renwen Publishing House has spared no effort in supporting Contemporary Magazine.

A few months before each issue goes out, the editor-in-chief Wei Junyi would hold a pre-editing meeting, attended by Renwen Press's deputy editors-in-chief, directors of various editorial departments, and heads of editorial groups. They would report what manuscripts they were prepared to provide. It can be said that the entire press is working together to publish Contemporary.

Of course, Renwen Publishing House’s emphasis on “Contemporary” has also reaped rich rewards. In July this year, the inaugural issue of “Contemporary” was published, and all 7 copies of the magazine were sold out.

By the second issue, sales had reached 110,000 copies and were in short supply.

At this rate, it would take less than a year for Contemporary to become a heavyweight literary magazine with national influence.

Contemporary is now a quarterly magazine, and it has shown its potential to become a famous magazine after only two issues, but the editorial department is still under great pressure.

It is no exaggeration to say that Renwen Press is the highest temple of Chinese literature. If the entire society fails to publish a magazine, wouldn't it be the biggest joke in the world?
But after all, "Contemporary" cannot always rely on humanities publishing house for financial support. After this stage, it must be independent, so the editorial department is eager for external manuscripts at this stage.

Zhu Changsheng pulled Lin Chaoyang into the office, and he was immediately warmly welcomed by the editors. Everyone even put down their work and chatted with him.

"I can't believe that Comrade Chaoyang is so young."

"The novel "The Horse Herder" is really well written. I was deeply impressed when I read it. It can be regarded as the pinnacle of scar literature."

"I particularly like your play Little Shoes. It is fresh, timeless, and unconventional, like a clear spring in summer."

"I think The Garland Under the Mountain is the embodiment of Comrade Chaoyang's creative strength. The appearance of this novel can be said to have broken the conventional creative mode of military-themed novels. It is quite groundbreaking."

……

Lin Chaoyang vaguely remembered that he had a very pleasant conversation with the editors of Contemporary Magazine, but he didn't know when he had left the editorial office with someone following him.

"Chaoyang, let's go!" Zhu Changsheng urged.

"Where are we going?" Lin Chaoyang asked blankly.

"Get the manuscript!"

Get the manuscript?
Oh, by the way, he just promised to give his new novel to Contemporary Magazine.

Eh? What did I agree to at that time?

The only thing Lin Chaoyang remembers is that he was intoxicated by the editors' effusive praise. Everyone spoke so nicely!

I'm sorry, Lao Liu!
Lin Chaoyang took Zhu Changsheng back home and got the manuscript. Zhu Changsheng was overjoyed.

"Chaoyang, I'll take the manuscript back first. I'll give you feedback as soon as possible."

Zhu Changsheng gave some instructions and prepared to leave, and happened to bump into Tao Yucheng who was returning home from get off work.

After Zhu Changsheng left, Tao Yucheng asked, "Who is that comrade..." "The editor of Contemporary Magazine, here to pick up the manuscript."

Tao Yucheng asked in surprise: "You are writing a new novel again?"

“Yeah, I just finished writing it.”

"A short one?"

"No, it's a long one."

Tao Yucheng was dumbfounded when he heard this. He remembered that Lin Chaoyang was still busy writing the script and rehearsing for "The World's Number One Restaurant" two months ago. How could he have written a novel in less than two months?

After being shocked, Tao Yucheng said to Lin Chaoyang: "Chaoyang, I have a friend who wants to visit you."

"Who?"

"Li Tuo."

Lin Chaoyang was familiar with the name Li Tuo. He had heard this name when chatting with Chen Jiangong, and he had also heard this name from the editors of "Yenching Literature and Art" and "October".

He was a worker at the Yenching Heavy Machinery Factory in his early years. He began to publish novels in 75. This year, he won the first National Excellent Short Story Award for his short story "May You Hear This Song" and was transferred to the Yenching Writers Association to become a resident writer.

According to rumors, Li Tuo is a very smart person, very warm and charismatic. He is very popular in the Yanjing literary circle and even has a good relationship with some underground poets who are not welcomed by the mainstream. He is a very successful figure in the Yanjing literary world.

Li Tuo's wife is Zhang Nuanxin, a director at Yanjing Film Studio, and his elder brother-in-law works at the Central Academy of Drama, so it's not surprising that he knows him.

"What do you mean by visiting or not? I've heard friends and editors mention him. Why don't I go with you to meet him tomorrow?"

Lin Chaoyang took the initiative to ask to meet Li Tuo, which made Tao Yucheng feel very proud. "Okay, let's go to Xiao Xitian after get off work tomorrow, and you two can get to know each other. He's a nice guy."

"it is good."

The two decided to go find Li Tuo together tomorrow. Lin Chaoyang returned to the room and gave Tao Yushu the royalties he had retrieved from Renwen Publishing House today.

She looked surprised and asked, "What is this money?"

Lin Chaoyang told her what happened today, and she looked surprised.

The remuneration for the number of copies of "Little Shoes" printed was not much, only 80 yuan, but this was a good sign. As long as "Little Shoes" was still selling, Lin Chaoyang would have a steady income.

Having received three payments for his writings during this period, Tao Yushu became more and more confident about buying a house.

The next day, Lin Chaoyang went to Xiaoxitian after work, where the Yenching Film Academy and the China Film Archive are located.

Li Tuo lived in a bungalow behind a small alley next to the Film Academy. Tao Yucheng seemed to be very familiar with Li Tuo. When he arrived at his door, he pushed the door open without any courtesy, and shouted, "Li Tuo, look who I brought to you?"

Li Tuo's house has two rooms, one serves as the living room, kitchen and dining room, and the other is the bedroom for him and Zhang Nuanxin.

When the two entered the room, Li Tuo and Zhang Nuanxin were preparing dishes. Li Tuo was extremely happy to see Tao Yucheng and Lin Chaoyang coming.

"Comrade Chaoyang, nice to meet you!"

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Li Tuo introduced another guest who was visiting their home to Lin Chaoyang. The guest was Zhu Wei, a young editor of China Youth.

Zhu Wei came to visit today because he admired Li Tuo. It was also the first time he met Li Tuo. Li Tuo and his wife were about to cook a meal to entertain Zhu Wei.

Seeing Tao Yucheng coming with Lin Chaoyang, Li Tuo quickly asked his wife Zhang Nuanxin to go out and buy some vegetables.

Tao Yucheng said bluntly: "I think these dishes are enough, just buy some steamed buns and it will be fine."

While Zhang Nuanxin went out to buy steamed buns, the few of them chatted for a while.

Li Tuo wanted to meet Lin Chaoyang because he had recently read "The World's No. 1 Restaurant" which was published in "October".

"I read The Horse Herder and Little Shoes before, and I thought Xu Lingjun's novels were really well written, different from many Chinese writers who write about deep hatred and deep suffering.

But what surprised me the most was "The Best Restaurant in the World". Your script is full of color, fragrance and taste. It is beautiful, really beautiful!"

As soon as Li Tuo sat down, he started praising Lin Chaoyang. Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "I'm just playing around. I was just helping my wife and her friends put on a student drama."

"Your hobby is no simple matter. It has shocked the entire Yanjing theater community!" Li Tuo laughed.

Zhu Wei, who was standing by, had been looking at Lin Chaoyang with curiosity while the two were talking. From last year to this year, the three words "Xu Lingjun" seemed like a whirlwind sweeping through the Chinese literary world.

In front of him today was the man behind this pen name.

Although both of them write novels and scripts, Zhu Wei feels that the quality of Lin Chaoyang's works is much higher than that of Li Tuo.

Of course, he couldn't say this directly.

Li Tuo was chatting with Lin Chaoyang and mentioned that he and his wife Zhang Nuanxin had submitted the film script "Fly, Seagull" that they had collaborated on to "October" and it was expected to be published in the next two months.

This year is the first year of the Chinese women's volleyball fever. In September, the Chinese women's volleyball team went to Hong Kong for the first time to participate in the Asian Championships.

Facing the host, the former Asian world champion Japanese women's volleyball team, they eventually defeated the Japanese women's volleyball team with a score of 3-1, achieving the first great victory in Lang Ping's sports career and making the whole nation immersed in the spiritual carnival of the women's volleyball team finally defeating Japan.

The script of "Fly, Seagull" tells the story of the women's volleyball team, and the story itself is of course fictional.

Compared to writing novels, Li Tuo is more interested in movies, which may also be because of his wife Zhang Nuanxin.

This year, he also collaborated with Zhang Nuanxin to write an article entitled "On the Modernization of Film Language", proposing the concepts of "changing film language" and "getting rid of dramatization and becoming more cinematic", which caused quite a stir in the domestic film industry.

Li Tuo talked incessantly about movies. Lin Chaoyang didn't know much about film making and spent most of his time listening. However, Tao Yucheng enjoyed chatting with Li Tuo.

After Zhang Nuanxin came back with the steamed buns, everyone ate and chatted. Li Tuo found that his topic had neglected the guests, so he brought the topic back to literature.

"Has Chaoyang written anything new recently?"

"I just finished writing a novel and submitted it to Contemporary Magazine," said Lin Chaoyang.

Li Tuo asked curiously: "What story does the novel tell? Is it still a continuation of your previous style?"

(End of this chapter)