Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 149 Zhang Guangnian's Big Pie
Tao Yushu was of course happy that the family had a new washing machine.

Although it is a semi-automatic washing machine and it doesn't even have a water-filling function and you have to add water into the tub yourself, at least you don't have to wash the clothes by hand, which can save at least two or three hours a week.

Wouldn’t it be great if you can use this time to study or read?

In addition to the hostess Tao Yushu who was happy, Tao Yumo was also very happy. This time she had another reason to come to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

When he went home for dinner on the weekend, Tao Yucheng heard that their family had just bought a washing machine, so he excitedly dragged Zhao Li to come and take a look.

"This thing is really great. It's time for us to have a washing machine at home!" said my brother-in-law.

Zhao Li ignored him. She also wanted to buy a washing machine, but she needed money!

Just the little money that Tao Yucheng gives to his family every month still has to be given back, so the two of them haven't saved much money yet.

It is already early July, and the major universities in Yenching have entered the examination season again.

That day, Lin Chaoyang was slacking off in the library when he heard footsteps coming from the stairs.

Du Rong came up with an excited look on her face, waving a newspaper in her hand.

"Chaoyang, you're really popular this time!"

Lin Chaoyang didn't understand what she meant. Du Rong slapped the newspaper in her hand on the table and unfolded it. "Look!"

He looked carefully and discovered the reason for Du Rong's excitement.

The newspaper was the Liberation Army Daily, and on it was a short message the size of a piece of tofu.

The content of short reports in the news is relatively simple, the length is usually short, the text is concise, and it strives to report the facts as quickly as possible.

The content of the "tofu block" is only more than 200 words, and the content is exactly what Lin Chaoyang and Liang Junshu mentioned in their previous phone call - General Hu bought 3,000 copies of "The Wreath under the Mountain" at his own expense and gave them to the soldiers on the front line.

The official media’s habit has always been that the fewer words, the bigger the matter.

President Hu's purchase of books as gifts for soldiers is certainly not a big deal for the country, but it is indeed a big deal for Lin Chaoyang himself and the publishing houses, newspapers, and magazines.

Previously, newspapers and magazines from all over the country flocked to Lin Chaoyang to reprint "The Wreath under the Mountain", wasn't it because they heard this gossip?
Now that the rumor has been confirmed, everyone is naturally excited.

The authority of the military newspaper is unquestionable. The influence of "The Wreath under the Mountain" will inevitably expand further with the spread of this news, and it will be a widespread and nationwide expansion.

Their reprints found readers, people bought the books printed by the publishing house, and the author Lin Chaoyang was able to receive royalties. Because of the great love shown by the leaders for "The Wreath under the Mountain", everyone benefited from it.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk! You have caught the eye of the big boss!" Du Rong teased in an exaggerated tone.

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "It's not as exaggerated as you say. The leader just thinks that novels can be used to boost morale. It has nothing to do with who wrote it."

"Not bad, not bad. You have learned to be humble now."

After making a few jokes, Du Rong went downstairs.

The news from the People's Liberation Army Daily spread quickly. Within a day, everyone around Lin Chaoyang knew about it.

My family members were naturally proud when they heard the news, and my colleagues and friends were also full of envy.

These are the influences of the news on the people around Lin Chaoyang. The biggest impact of the news from the military newspaper is on the novel "The Garland under the Mountain" itself.

The single volume of "The Garland under the Mountain" has been published for more than four months, and its sales have experienced a period of explosive growth in the first two months and have gradually stabilized.

As soon as the news in the military newspaper spread, the sales of the single volume soared.

Not only that, many newspapers and magazines that reprinted the novel "The Garland under the Mountain" also received more letters from readers than before, expressing their love for the novel.

All of a sudden, the novel "The Garland under the Mountain", which had been published for almost a year, suddenly burst out with amazing vitality again, and set off a wave of enthusiasm among the general public that far exceeded the time when it was published and published.

Taking advantage of this trend, People's Literature contacted Lin Chaoyang and said it would hold a work seminar for The Wreath under the Mountain.

"The Wreath under the Mountain" itself was published in "People's Literature". Regardless of their purpose, it is understandable that they want to hold a seminar on the work.

Lin Chaoyang couldn't refuse, so he had to take time out to attend the seminar.

After the meeting, Zhang Guangnian pulled Lin Chaoyang aside and talked to him about joining the Writers Association.

In fact, Zhang Guangnian mentioned this matter to Lin Chaoyang after the National Excellent Short Story Award Ceremony. At that time, Lin Chaoyang did not express his opinion. Zhang Guangnian was busy with the award, so the matter was shelved.

This time, Zhang Guangnian brought up the old matter again, with even better conditions.

Originally, writers had to apply to join the Writers Association step by step, first joining the district and county level, then the city and provincial level, and finally the National Writers Association.

With Lin Chaoyang, there aren't so many troubles. You can become a member of the Chinese Association in one step.

"Chaoyang, if you join our Chinese Association, you will be the youngest member of our Chinese Association!" Zhang Guangnian said in a bewitching tone.

"Joining the Literary Association is certainly a good thing, but I don't like attending meetings, and I'm usually quite busy with work and writing."

Lin Chaoyang was not pretending to be noble, but after recently interacting with people from the Writers Association, he knew that this kind of official organization had to observe some organizational discipline, and it was inevitable that some time would be wasted on activities and meetings.

He didn't have much time and didn't want to be bound by that, so he wanted to refuse.

Lin Chaoyang has won two National Excellent Short Story Awards and his works have a huge influence, especially "The Wreath under the Mountain", which has attracted the attention of senior leaders. If such a talent is not absorbed into the team of the Writers Association, it would be a dereliction of duty on the part of the leadership of the Writers Association.

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang had no intention of joining the Literary Association, Zhang Guangnian wondered how to get him into the team.

"Chaoyang, you have achieved such success at your age, and you will definitely have a bright future after joining the Chinese Language and Literature Association.

Apart from anything else, we at People's Literature will be recruiting new editors in the future, and you will definitely be a key candidate for recruitment."

The editorial board of general magazines are internal members of the editorial department or publishing house, but authoritative magazines such as "People's Literature" are different.

Its editorial board members include three types of people. The first is the editorial staff of People's Literature, such as Zhang Guangnian, Ge Luo and other editorial leaders; the second is the older generation of writers in the literary world, such as Bing Xin, Sun Li, Zhang Tianyi, and Wei Wei; and the third is the more influential critics in the literary world.

If Zhang Guangnian really invited Lin Chaoyang to join the editorial board of "People's Literature", this decision would be a bold one.

Because this not only means that Lin Chaoyang is the first new editorial member after the resumption of publication of "People's Literature", but also the youngest editorial member of the "People's Literature" editorial board.

Before Lin Chaoyang, the youngest editorial member of the People's Literature editorial board was in his forties, and all of them were well-known figures in the domestic literary circles.

If Lin Chaoyang, who is only in his early twenties, were to join the editorial board, it would probably immediately cause a stir in the domestic literary world.

"Of course, the editorial committee thing is just an idea of ​​mine at the moment, but the prerequisite is that you must first be a member of the Chinese Association."

Listening to Zhang Guangnian's words, Lin Chaoyang was already eager to make a move.

Being an editor of People's Literature seemed quite exciting. But Zhang Guangnian's last words made him sober up. What he said was just empty talk.
Lin Chaoyang suddenly felt a little bored.

Old Zhang is such a dishonest person!
"I can't even think about being on the editorial board of People's Literature. I think I'd better forget about the Chinese Language and Literature Association."

Being rejected by Lin Chaoyang again, Zhang Guangnian was full of regret. Why don’t young people nowadays pursue progress at all?

A few days later, Lin Chaoyang saw a report on the seminar on the work "The Wreath under the Mountain" in the Literary Gazette.

The article is written in a flourish, which shows that the Writers Association and People's Literature attach great importance to this seminar, which must be in response to the actions of the previous senior leaders.

It’s summer vacation now, and the work at the library has become less busy, so Lin Chaoyang has plenty of time to read.

Originally, he had some motivation to write during the period after the New Year because he wanted to buy a house. Unexpectedly, his works were so popular that he earned more and more royalties. Not only did he earn enough to pay for the final payment for the house, but he also saved more and more. He even had enough money to buy a house for Lin Erchun and his wife.

During this period, Lin Chaoyang received requests from eight newspapers and magazines from all over the country to reprint "The Wreath under the Mountain", and once again received more than 2,500 yuan in royalties.

As his income from royalties grew more and more, Lin Chaoyang's creative motivation was no longer as strong. Tao Yushu was afraid that he would write too much and too fast, which would affect his future creative state, so he asked him to read more books and observe and experience life more.

In this way, Lin Chaoyang has completely let himself go.

He just reads books and does nothing at work. Recently, he has been obsessed with several collections of essays and cookbooks about food written by Ming and Qing literati. When he gets home from get off work, he thinks about cooking and often doesn't write a single word for several days.

After work that evening, he rode his bike to the vegetable market.

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the vegetable market, I saw farmers carrying loads of peaches on their shoulders and selling them. There are farmers growing peaches in the suburbs of Yanjing, and you can see these people selling peaches on the streets from July to August every year.

Peaches cost 2.5 cents a pound, and although they looked not as smooth and shiny as those of later generations, they were natural.

Lin Chaoyang tasted a peach and found it sweet and juicy, so he bought three pounds for 75 cents.

When he entered the vegetable market, he found someone selling mandarin fish. Coincidentally, the recipe he saw today included a recipe for mandarin fish, so he bought one. Mandarin fish costs 80 cents per pound, and the fish he bought weighed almost two pounds, which cost exactly one dollar and fifty cents.

Lin Chaoyang bought some vegetables and then went home.

When they got home, he started to prepare dinner. Tao Yushu wanted to reach out but he pushed her away.

"Today I will make you a dish of deep-fried mandarin fish."

"Which cookbook are you looking at again?"

Lin Chaoyang was going to cook, and Tao Yushu was happy and relaxed.

"Don't worry about which cookbook it is, I guarantee you'll drool while eating it." Lin Chaoyang vowed.

Tao Yushu didn't take his words seriously. He had been obsessed with cooking recently and had studied the recipes very thoroughly, but when it came to actual action, the probability of success was relatively low, and he would only succeed once out of three attempts.

Mandarin fish, like black fish, is a fish that eats fish. It is called flower fish in Yanjing. It has thick meat, few bones, and tender meat.

Generally, it tastes good when steamed, sweet and sour, or cooked as squirrel fish. The soup is as white as milk, thick but not greasy, and more delicious than ordinary chicken soup and duck soup.

What Lin Chaoyang is going to make today is the dry-fried flower bream that he just learned from the recipe, which is the way it is made in Jiangsu.

Tao Yushu cooked the rice, Lin Chaoyang fried the vegetables first, and then prepared the mandarin fish.

Heat oil in a pan, and when the oil temperature is right, deep-fry the whole mandarin fish in the boiling oil. The kitchen is filled with a mixture of fishy and fragrant smells.

He was frying fish when Tao Yumo came back and shouted as soon as he entered the room, "I smelled it in the hallway. Are you cooking fish today?"

She came to the kitchen door, sniffed her nose, and swallowed her saliva, "It smells so good!"

"Serve the rice!"

After Tao Yushu gave an order, she immediately put down her bag and swiftly went to serve the rice and set the table.

Lin Chaoyang brought the golden fried mandarin fish to the table. The aroma filled the air. Tao Yumo was almost drooling with greed and asked, "Brother-in-law, what kind of fish is this?"

“Dry fried mandarin fish!”

The food was served and the three of them ate.

Since it is dry-fried mandarin fish, there is naturally no topping or soup. The golden mandarin fish lies on the plate with pepper and salt sprinkled on the side.

Tao Yumo picked up a piece of fish, dipped it in some pepper and salt, and put it into his mouth.

"Hmm~" She couldn't help but let out a happy nasal sound, her eyes almost narrowed, "Brother-in-law, this mandarin fish tastes amazing."

After listening to her comments, Lin Chaoyang was not happy, but asked Tao Yushu to have a taste as well.

This girl is very conscious of her freeloading. Usually, any dish cooked by Lin Chaoyang is considered “delicious” and “gourmet”.

“It’s really delicious.”

Tao Yushu's evaluation was relatively truthful. Hearing her words, Lin Chaoyang showed a smug smile on his face.

Looking at Tao Yumo eating voraciously, the smile on his face became even wider.

It turns out that reading the book is not in vain.

Having successfully learned how to cook a dish, Lin Chaoyang felt quite accomplished.

After dinner, of course, the task of washing the dishes had to be left to Tao Yumo, because so many good things were not to be eaten for free.

Tao Yushu took out a letter. As early as the beginning of spring, Lin Chaoyang had told Lin Erchun and his wife about buying a house. The old couple was naturally very pleased.

Half a month ago, he and Tao Yushu discussed the issue of savings. Lin Chaoyang wanted Lin Erchun and his wife to come to Yanjing to live for a period of time this year to adapt to the environment and climate of Yanjing, and then bring them to Yanjing.

After the chat, Lin Chaoyang wrote a letter to the old couple, and today Tao Yushu received a reply at home.

Lin Chaoyang opened the letter and took a look. The gist of the letter was to tell the young couple to just live a good life and not to worry about home. They were doing fine in their hometown and would definitely not be used to going to Yanjing.

"What should we do?" Tao Yushu asked.

Lin Chaoyang smiled, not caring at all, "You can tell them verbally, they definitely won't come. When you go back during the holidays, buy the train tickets and put them on the table. If they don't leave, the fifty yuan will be wasted. Let's see if they will come!"

Tao Yushu couldn't help laughing after hearing his method, "Why does this look like kidnapping by bandits?"

"Which bandit reimbursed me for my travel expenses?"

(End of this chapter)