Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 134 The Whole Army
In the early spring of 1980, Lin Chaoyang finally became a formal employee of the Yanda Library. The biggest benefit was that his salary increased from 47 yuan per month to 53 yuan.

However, this money is of little help to Lin Chaoyang at the moment. During the Chinese New Year, the couple went back to their hometown and spent more than 100 yuan to give Lin Fugui 4,000 yuan as the first payment for the house.

The couple now has 1,200 yuan left, which seems like a lot, but they still have 6,500 yuan to pay for their house.

During this period, it costs a few dollars or dozens of dollars from time to time to clean up the Overseas Chinese Apartment. It adds up to a considerable expense.

Lin Chaoyang is now looking forward to the manuscript being accepted by Contemporary Magazine and the royalties coming in. These days, he is also preparing for his next novel.

Before he received any news from Contemporary Magazine, he received a sample copy of The Wreath under the Mountain from Liang Junshu, editor of the Warrior Publishing House.

In addition to the sample book, Liang Junshu also wrote a letter to Lin Chaoyang, informing him that the single volume of "The Wreath under the Mountain" would be available at Xinhua Bookstores in various cities across the country in a few days, with the first print run being 300,000 copies.

The situation is similar to what Lin Chaoyang speculated. The first print run of "The Garland under the Mountain" was 300,000 copies. It seems that the publishing house is indeed very confident about the sales of this novel.

He wrote a letter back to Liang Junshu and then let the matter go.

Unexpectedly, two days later, Du Feng came to Tao's house with a happy face, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: "Where is my brother-in-law? Where is my brother-in-law?"

The family was attracted by his voice. At this time, Lin Chaoyang came out of the room, "What's wrong? What are you so happy about?"

"Hey! Let me show you something good!" Du Feng excitedly took out a piece of paper from his pocket, "Take a look!"

Lin Chaoyang took it and took a look, and it turned out to be a red investment document.

"Notice on Organizing Troops to Read the Novel "The Wreath under the Mountain"":
After the publication of the novella "Wreath under the Mountain" written by the famous writer Comrade Xu Lingjun, it caused a strong response both inside and outside the military.

This work successfully portrays the image of new socialist men emerging in our army in the new era by depicting the struggle life in the war against Vietnam. It is an excellent literary work on military themes and a vivid teaching material for educating the troops on patriotism, revolutionary heroism and communism.

I hope that all units will conscientiously organize military cadres and soldiers to read and comment on this work, so as to better play the educational role of this work, further enhance the patriotism and communist consciousness of the majority of cadres and soldiers, and serve to promote the construction of a modern and regular revolutionary army.

While Lin Chaoyang was reading the document, Tao Yucheng and Tao Yumo, brother and sister, came over curiously. After reading the contents of the document, the brother and sister were shocked.

"Is this a Red Investment document?" Tao Yumo asked in surprise.

Tao Yucheng said anxiously: "The red-voted document is not important, what is important is the signature."

He asked Du Feng: "Is this really a document issued by the General Party?"

Du Feng shouted, "I, the old man, ate arsenic - do you think I'm too old? How dare you joke with you with a fake one?"

He took the document from Lin Chaoyang and showed it to each member of the Tao family proudly.

"This notice was personally issued by the Ministry of Culture of the General Administration. It is absolutely genuine!"

Tao Yumo asked, "Brother, what does this mean? Do you want the whole army to learn from this?"

Du Feng laughed and said, "That's pretty much what I meant. However, the novel is not a document or a role model, so it's a call to read."

Tao Yucheng exclaimed: "Oh my god! Chaoyang's novel was already popular enough, and this is going to add fuel to the fire!"

"I can't help it. Who can blame my brother-in-law for writing such a good novel?"

Du Feng was now the first "Lin Blower". He saw Mother Tao's eyes on the document. She wanted to read it but was afraid to show too much enthusiasm, so he handed it to her and said, "Aunt, take a look! This is a call for the whole army to read it."

Mother Tao took the document and glanced at it casually, "It's an honor for the whole army to read it."

"Of course it's an honor, and it's the highest honor." Du Feng said in an exaggerated tone, "Anyway, this has never happened before in all the years since the founding of the country."

"Doesn't Chaoyang set a precedent?" Tao Yucheng said with a big laugh.

"Definitely!"

The two of them sang in unison, making the atmosphere in the Tao family lively, and everyone was happily passing the documents around.

After a long time, Du Feng put the file away and warned, "This is because it is my brother-in-law's novel, so my father made an exception and asked me to bring the file to you to read. Don't spread it to others."

After he finished speaking, he felt that he had done a good job in announcing the good news today, and said to Mother Tao: "Aunt, please cook a few more dishes for me tonight."

"Mom, take the money, I'm going to buy groceries!"

Tao's mother gave him money, and Tao Yucheng went to buy food. Tao Yumo asked, "Brother, my brother-in-law has called on the whole army to read this novel. Is there any reward?"

"It's such a great honor to be read by the entire army. What other rewards do we need?" Du Feng said as a matter of course.

"Ah? Just verbal honor?" Tao Yumo was a little disappointed.

Du Feng looked a little embarrassed. "Well...everyone has read it. My brother-in-law's novel must have sold well. It's possible that every grassroots soldier has a copy."

Tao Yumo rolled his eyes and asked Lin Chaoyang, "Brother-in-law, you guys are getting paid for the number of copies printed now, right?"

"Yes, 2% per copies." Lin Chaoyang nodded.

"If we sell one million copies, we can get twice the royalties." Du Feng shook his finger, "More than that, definitely more than one million copies, I bet you that!"

Tao Yumo rolled his eyes at him, "Do you think I'm stupid? There are two to three million soldiers in the army!"

"Hehe, you're not stupid."

While the brother and sister were laughing and joking, Tao Yushu was also whispering to Lin Chaoyang that if "The Wreath under the Mountain" could really sell one or two million copies, then wouldn't the money they saved for buying a house be filled in no time?
Tao Yushu thought it was a little unreal. Could he pay back the remaining several thousand yuan just by relying on the royalties from the print run of a novel?
This unexpected surprise relieved a lot of the pressure in her heart.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang met Zhu Changsheng at work.

Before the Chinese New Year, Lin Chaoyang handed his newly written novel to Contemporary, and it has been almost a month.

As soon as Zhu Changsheng saw Lin Chaoyang, he exclaimed: "Chaoyang, your novel is really well written!"

Lin Chaoyang is now extremely wary of the editors of "Contemporary" including Zhu Changsheng.

These old guys were as sweet-talkers as the eunuchs of the previous dynasty. He was really afraid that he would fall into their trap again someday.

"What's good about it?" Lin Chaoyang asked bluntly.

Zhu Changsheng didn't expect Lin Chaoyang to ask this. He hesitated for a moment, looking thoughtful.

“Your novel is a typical stream-of-consciousness literary work. With your delicate writing, the story is like a prose poem flowing in the summer heat.

It makes one's thoughts wander freely in the wind, with a sense of unreality like a dream, but at the same time there is a deep emotional resonance. This is my overall feeling after reading the novel."

Zhu Changsheng paused for a moment, then continued, "To be more specific, I feel that the text of your novel is like a soft sponge, full of emotional moisture, making people feel as if they are tightly wrapped in a rich emotional atmosphere."

“I don’t know how many stream-of-consciousness novels you have written before, but I think you have a very unique talent in creating stream-of-consciousness literature.

Your writing always has a microscope-like ability to reveal the subtle changes in the characters' inner world in great detail. This feeling is very similar to the feeling I had when I read "The Horse Shepherd" and "The Little Shoes" before.

As a creator, you are able to accurately capture every emotional change and inner turmoil of the characters in the novel. This precise portrayal of the characters' psychological state far exceeds that of most contemporary writers I know.

This allows readers to follow the characters' thoughts and experience the ups and downs of their emotions when reading your novel, as if they were in the depths of the characters' consciousness and empathize with their joys, sorrows, anger and happiness.

And the poetic construction of words..."

Lin Chaoyang thought that Zhu Changsheng was just being polite, but he didn't expect that he could organize his words in a short time and talk endlessly about the highlights of the novel and his feelings after reading it. What's more rare is that his words are meaningful and his vision is accurate.

Although they are flattering, they are really to the point.

"Okay, okay, I'll be embarrassed if you praise me again."

Zhu Changsheng was interrupted by Lin Chaoyang. He smiled and said, "The novel is indeed well written! What's more rare is that it is a rare stream-of-consciousness work in China. Your novel should be the first true stream-of-consciousness novel in China. It can be said to have set a precedent."

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand, "It's not that exaggerated. Foreign countries have been writing about this for half a century. We are just copying what others have said."

In the past few years since the reform and opening up, Chinese people have gradually learned to open their eyes to the world, especially in the cultural circle, where this trend is even more prevalent.

It is a good thing to open your eyes and see the world, but many people inevitably go too far in the process, praising foreign countries, especially Western countries, to the extreme and becoming blind and self-deprecating.

Zhu Changsheng did not see the slightest bit of this in Lin Chaoyang. Although he wrote stream of consciousness, he seemed to treat it only as an ordinary literary style, a tool that could be used at any time.

He thought about the reason why Lin Chaoyang behaved like this, and after thinking about it, he finally came up with the word "confidence".

Only with true inner confidence, confidence in one's own literary skills and confidence in national culture, can one approach and accommodate imported things with an equal and humble attitude, and have this clear cognition and attitude.

After chatting for a while, Zhu Changsheng told Lin Chaoyang that his novel had passed the review of "Contemporary" and would be published as the headline in the second issue of "Contemporary" this year, which is the April issue. This is the purpose of his visit today.

"Manuscript fee..."

"Ten dollars per thousand words!"

Li Shuguang had already told Zhu Changsheng that Lin Chaoyang attached great importance to royalties.

The quality of the novel is beyond reproach, and it is a rare stream-of-consciousness literature in China. Although the concept of stream-of-consciousness literature was introduced to China relatively early, its development has not been ideal, and no influential works have been produced so far.

At the general public level, readers know even less about this type of literary works. Only since the end of last year has Foreign Literature and Art started to introduce this literary genre to the general readers in an organized and planned manner.

Lin Chaoyang's novel was reviewed three times by the editors of Contemporary and the editor-in-chief Wei Junyi. It was generally believed that this was a rare masterpiece even among foreign stream-of-consciousness literature.

After the novel is published, it will definitely bring new opportunities and a large number of readers to the development of domestic stream-of-consciousness literature.

Therefore, "Contemporary" did not dwell too much on the remuneration standards and directly offered Lin Chaoyang the highest standard.

After hearing the remuneration standards revealed by Zhu Changsheng, Lin Chaoyang smiled happily.

(End of this chapter)