Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 147 What is going on
After mid-June, the weather in Yanjing became increasingly hotter.

During the break after lunch, many students would run to the bank of Weiming Lake. In the summer, it is always cooler to be by the lake and under the shade of trees.

Of course, in addition to the shores of Weiming Lake, the library is also a good place for Yanda students to cool off.

Except for the sun room, most of the library is cool.

After get off work in the evening, as soon as Lin Chaoyang came out of the library, he felt a heat.

When passing by the playground near the south gate, a group of people were playing basketball, and suddenly someone shouted to Lin Chaoyang.

He stopped his bike and saw Liu Zhenyun running out of the crowd.

He was wearing a pair of army green military pants and a red hurdle vest. He asked with sweat all over his forehead, "Chaoyang, when are you free? I want to ask you for advice on the creation of stream-of-consciousness literature."

"I'm always available, but you may not be available, right?"

The reason why Lin Chaoyang asked this was because at this time, in addition to a group of young men in the basketball court, there was also a girl who looked familiar. Lin Chaoyang remembered that she seemed to be a classmate of his sister-in-law.

When Liu Zhenyun ran towards him, the girl's eyes were following his figure.

Liu Zhenyun followed Lin Chaoyang's gaze and when he saw the girl, a slightly shy smile appeared on his face.

“That’s my fellow villager.”

"Fellow fellow!"

Lin Chaoyang's tone was teasing and suggestive, which made Liu Zhenyun even more embarrassed.

Seeing that he was a little shy, Lin Chaoyang said, "Okay, it depends on your own time. If you don't have enough time in the library, you can come to our house. It's not convenient for you to come back at this time, so the weekend is better."

"it is good."

After the two separated, Lin Chaoyang had just arrived at the school gate on his bike when someone called him from behind.

"Brother-in-law!"

Tao Yumo caught up on his bicycle and asked, "Why didn't you wait for me?"

She caught up with Lin Chaoyang, and the two rode their bicycles to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

Tao Yumo's bicycle had just been bought less than half a month ago. During this period of time, there was no one more free and easy in the Tao family than her. She was favored in three residences in turn: Langrun Lake Apartment, Yanda Dormitory, and Overseas Chinese Apartment. However, this also caused a problem.

It was okay when I was at Yanda, but it was quite a hassle to go to and from the Overseas Chinese Apartment. I either had to ride on Lin Chaoyang's bicycle, or take the bus and walk.

So since last month, Tao Yumo has been asking her father to buy her a bicycle.

The reason she used was very legitimate. When her sister Tao Yushu went to college that year, her father bought her a bicycle.

Of course, my sister also contributed some money, but most of the money and the bicycle ticket were paid by my father.

Now that it’s her turn, I can’t favor one over the other, right?

Buying a bicycle is easy for the Tao family, but bicycle tickets are a little more difficult to get.

It took several days for Tao's father to get a bicycle ticket for Tao Yumo, and then she became a car owner.

With a bicycle, Tao Yumo's life became more relaxed and comfortable. He traveled between Yanda and the Overseas Chinese Apartment every day and never got tired of it.

Especially as the weather has been getting hotter recently, she almost always lives in the Overseas Chinese Apartment because she can take a hot shower here every day.

Is there anything more refreshing than this on a hot summer day?

The two returned to the Overseas Chinese Apartment. Tao Yushu had just returned home and was cooking. Tao Yumo very consciously went over to help.

When the meal was almost ready, the phone at home suddenly rang.

The call came from the security room, saying someone came to visit. Upon asking, it turned out to be my brother-in-law.

When he got upstairs, he complained, "It's really inconvenient to come to your house. It's like going to work in a government office."

The access control of Overseas Chinese Apartments is strict. Unless you come in with the owner, everyone has to register and call to confirm. After all, the eight yuan a month property fee is not wasted.

The Overseas Chinese Apartments also provided each household with a telephone, which was installed to facilitate communication between the owners and the property management, and all of them were internal lines. Some overseas Chinese who were not short of money had external lines.

Lin Chaoyang's family has almost no need to use the phone, so the phone is only an internal line.

After complaining, Tao Yucheng started talking about business.

"Li Tuo will be moving next week, let's go and show our support."

"Okay!"

When Lin Chaoyang moved to a new house, Li Tuo came to congratulate him with gifts, and it was Li Tuo who helped Lin Chaoyang buy a bicycle. Since the other person is moving into a new house, Lin Chaoyang should naturally go and congratulate him, as a matter of reciprocity.

After Lin Chaoyang agreed, he asked Li Tuo why he moved.

Li Tuo's family used to live in a bungalow near Xiaoxitianer. Zhang Nuanxin was a director at the Yanjing Film Studio, and that bungalow was the studio's dormitory.

The reason why Li Tuo moved this time was that after he won the first National Excellent Short Story Award last year, he became a resident writer of the Yenching Writers Association and was allocated a house.

The house is near Dongdaqiao in Chaoyang District. It’s not big, but it’s a tube-shaped building. It’s definitely better than the bungalow in Xiaoxitianer.

The two chatted about Li Tuo's family affairs. Tao Yushu brought the food to the table and Tao Yucheng sat down very naturally.

Now that I'm here, how can I leave without eating?
While eating, Lin Chaoyang asked, "Yumo, what's the name of the female classmate you always walked with?"

"Brother-in-law, are you asking about Guo Jianmei?"

"Oh, her name is Guo Jianmei!" Lin Chaoyang nodded in understanding.

Tao Yumo asked curiously, "Why are you asking about her?"

"Nothing, I saw her at the basketball court today."

Tao Yumo instantly grasped the key message in Lin Chaoyang's words, and the gossip fire in his heart burned fiercely.

"Basketball court? She went to the basketball court? With whom?"

"Liu Zhenyun!"

"He!"

Tao Yumo had some impression of Liu Zhenyun, a man with small eyes and thin lips. He was a student of the Chinese Department, Class of 77, and had a good relationship with his brother-in-law.

"Why does Jianmei like him?"

Lin Chaoyang teased, "Why? Do they need your consent to date?"

"That's not what I meant. Jianmei is pretty, but it's a pity that she's paired with Liu Zhenyun."

"You are so young and you are judging people by appearance!" Tao Yushu scolded his sister. Tao Yumo said unhappily: "What do you mean by judging people by appearance? Jianmei has good education and looks, why can't she find someone who is more handsome?"

At this time, Tao Yucheng interrupted and said, "What's the use of being handsome? It can't make a living. Look at your brother-in-law..."

Halfway through his words, the atmosphere fell silent.

"Brother, eat some food!" Lin Chaoyang picked up a piece of food for Tao Yucheng.

Tao Yumo said, "What's wrong with my brother-in-law? He's so handsome!"

Lin Chaoyang glanced at his sister-in-law and thought, good, good, young people really have a bright future.

Tao Yucheng glanced at his sister and had a question in his mind.

Is my sister blinded by her talent, or does she have to bow her head under someone else's roof?
A few days later, Lin Chaoyang arrived at Li Tuo's new home in Dongdaqiao.

He heard noisy voices inside the house before he even entered. After entering, he found that nearly twenty people were crammed into the cramped space. Most of them were young and middle-aged writers in the Yenching literary circle, and there were also a few editors.

Some of them were people Lin Chaoyang knew, such as Chen Jiangong and Zhu Wei, while some he didn't know but had heard of, such as Zhang Chengzhi and Zheng Wanlong.

There was also someone in the group whom Lin Chaoyang knew, Zhao Zhenkai from Today.

In the past year or so, "Today", founded by Zhao Zhenkai, Mang Ke and others, has been very popular in the Yenching literary and art circles.

Although due to the nature of the publication, it has not been able to be circulated as widely as other publications, Today has a huge influence and appeal among the young readers of Yenching University, especially college students.

Also because of the influence of "Today", a group of writers and poets gradually formed around this folk publication, and Zhao Zhenkai was the leader of this group.

In March last year, Poetry Magazine reprinted Zhao Zhenkai's poem "Answer", and in April it reprinted Shu Ting's "To the Oak Tree". Misty Poetry is gradually moving towards mainstream literary media.

In May this year, Xie Mian published an article in Guangming Daily commenting on the "new poetry trend" set off by Misty Poetry, entitled "In the Face of the New Rise". The article gave a very high positive evaluation of Misty Poetry.

Although Xie Mian was only a lecturer at Yenching University, he had a high reputation in the field of modern and contemporary poetry research. He was also the first well-known scholar to support Misty Poetry in public media. Once the article was published, it naturally attracted widespread attention and discussion in the poetry community.

Nowadays, the development of Misty Poetry in China is very good. As a leading figure of the Misty Poetry school, Zhao Zhenkai is full of energy and vigor.

When chatting with everyone, he mentioned that Poetry Magazine will hold its first "Youth Poetry Festival" in July. Just from the name, you can tell that the so-called Youth Poetry Festival is almost equivalent to the Misty Poetry Festival.

Judging from the current situation, the development of Misty Poetry is indeed very good.

But Lin Chaoyang also knew that in the coming August, Misty Poetry would soon be involved in a protracted and fierce confrontation with the mainstream poetry world.

In fact, Misty Poetry has never stopped its confrontation with the mainstream poetry world in recent years. However, as Misty Poetry is developing more and more prosperously, it is bound to have more intense collisions with the mainstream poetry world.

Lin Chaoyang was not interested in the argument between the two sides. He was more of a listener when everyone was chatting.

During the conversation, Li Tuo mentioned the novel "Lai Zi's Summer" again, and his words were full of praise.

Others also became interested after listening to Li Tuo's praise of the novel.

Not everyone has read Lin Chaoyang's new novel. Some people don't know much about the novel and think that "Lai Zi's Summer" is a copy of Western stream-of-consciousness literature. As they chat, the topic turns to famous writers such as Faulkner and Woolf.

Today is Li Tuo's family's new house, and Lin Chaoyang hasn't decided what to buy for them. When he passed by their downstairs, he happened to see someone selling watermelons, so he bought two watermelons and brought them upstairs.

Everyone came to congratulate Li Tuo on his new house and bought him a lot of daily necessities. There is nothing wrong with that.

However, it is hot summer now, and Lin Chaoyang's watermelon can allow everyone to "enjoy life while it lasts", which naturally attracted unanimous applause from everyone.

Li Tuo took the watermelon to the washroom in the corridor and kept it there for a while. After everyone had finished the housewarming banquet, he took the watermelon back and cut it with a knife.

The sweet, cool and thirst-quenching watermelon immediately dispelled the heat from everyone.

After eating and drinking, everyone sat together and talked about literature and creation. The room was filled with smoke, but no one cared.

In a flash, the afternoon passed and Li Tuo suddenly became busy, saying that he wanted to go to Zheng Wanlong's house to eat noodles with soybean paste.

A group of people stood up and walked out the door. They walked along Chaoyangmenwai Street to Zheng Wanlong's home on Dongsi 4th Street. After eating the noodles with soybean paste, it was already past six in the evening. A happy day passed just like that.

Two days later, it was already the end of June.

The Tao Yushu sisters became busy and would read and study when they got home every day.

There are more students in the Yanda library than ever before because the final exams are approaching.

That afternoon, it was a hot summer day and Lin Chaoyang was taking a nap in the library when a note was passed downstairs saying that there was a phone call for him.

He went downstairs to the switchboard room and picked up the phone. The person on the other end claimed to be the editor of the Workers' Daily and said that their newspaper wanted to reprint "The Wreath Under the Mountain."

Nowadays, it is quite common for newspapers and magazines to reprint novels. However, it has been almost a year since The Wreath under the Mountain was published, and it took them a while to think about reprinting it. This reaction time is a bit too long.

Although Lin Chaoyang thought so in his heart, he agreed readily.

If the newspaper wants to reprint the novel, he can earn royalties from it, so why not do it?

After agreeing to the reprint request from the Workers' Daily, Lin Chaoyang did not take the reprint of the novel seriously, so he hung up the phone and went back to work.

The next morning, when he was at work, Master Xie from the message room found the front desk clerk again and asked Du Rong to pass a small note to him who was on duty in the library upstairs, saying that there was another phone call for him.

Lin Chaoyang went downstairs and answered the phone. This time it was the newspaper calling, but it was Dazhong Daily.

The purpose of their call was the same as that of the Workers' Daily, and they also said they wanted to reprint "The Wreath under the Mountain".

If a newspaper requests to reprint his article, Lin Chaoyang will not give away the royalties.

But two newspapers in a row suddenly wanted to reprint "The Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain", and this was nearly a year after the novel was published and the single volume had been selling for several months. He knew without hesitation that there must be a reason behind this.

Lin Chaoyang thought about it, called Cui Daoyi, told him about the newspaper's plan to reprint "The Wreath Under the Mountain", and asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because the single volume of 'High Mountain' has been selling so well recently."

Cui Daoyi's answer made some sense, but it did not satisfy Lin Chaoyang.

The two chatted for a few words, and then Lin Chaoyang hung up the phone and decided to call Liang Junshu from the Warrior Publishing House.

After waiting for almost half an hour, Liang Junshu called him back.

"Chaoyang, what do you want from me?"

"There is something I want to ask you..."

Lin Chaoyang then told Liang Junshu that the two newspapers were going to reprint "The Wreath under the Mountain" one after another.

After listening to him, Liang Junshu's hearty laughter came from the other end of the phone.

Lin Chaoyang was puzzled by his laughter and couldn't help asking, "Stop laughing, what's going on?"

(End of this chapter)