Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 192 Losing to a Japanese, Disgusting

While Zhang Chengzhi and Lin Chaoyang were chatting, several more people arrived with gifts, all invited by Li Tuo.

Lin Chaoyang was not surprised to see Chen Jiangong bringing Liu Zhida to his home. Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong knew each other, but he was surprised to see Wang Zengqi and Lin Jinlan also coming.

Lin Chaoyang stood up and shook hands with Wang Zengqi and Lin Jinlan, and greeted them warmly.

"The last time I came here to have dinner with Yanru and the others, I couldn't stop thinking about your cooking skills!" Wang Zengqi said with a smile.

People who are familiar with Wang Zengqi know that he has studied food in depth. The fact that he received such high praise from him is enough to show Lin Chaoyang's cooking skills.

Lin Jinlan smiled and said, "I was chatting with Zeng Qi a while ago and heard him talking about your cooking skills, so I came here to have a meal."

"welcome!"

Seven guests came to my house today, and the living room suddenly became crowded. Everyone was chatting about everything, and the atmosphere was lively and festive.

At around ten o'clock, Lin Chaoyang went to the kitchen to prepare food, and Wang Zengqi volunteered to help.

"It's a good thing that you're here today. Take a look at my Zhenjiang pig's trotter dish."

Lin Chaoyang took out the pig's trotters that he had cut in the morning and showed them to Wang Zengqi. This was a dish that Wang Zengqi taught him when he, Zhou Yanru, and Zhang Dening had dinner at Lin Chaoyang's house last time.

"The lean meat is deep red, and the fat is as white as mutton fat." Wang Zengqi first looked at the color of the pig's trotter meat and nodded, "The color is fine."

Lin Chaoyang picked up a small piece for him. After he took a bite, Wang Zengqi savored it carefully with a smile on his face. "Not bad, not bad. The meat is firm and chewy, and not greasy. It would be even better if it were served with aged vinegar and shredded ginger."

"what to eat?"

As the two were talking, Li Tuo came over and saw the pig's trotters on the plate looked great and had an attractive color. He couldn't help but grab a piece.

"The food hasn't even been served yet, can you be a little more particular?"

When others saw Li Tuo's actions, they followed suit. The plate of pig's trotters was snatched away by everyone before it was even served.

Lin Chaoyang was holding the empty plate, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "You guys are the reincarnation of starving ghosts!"

Chen Jiangong gnawed on the pig's trotter, his mouth full of oil. "This shows that your cooking skills have been recognized by us. The title of Xunweizhai's owner is not in vain."

"So, when you come to our house for a meal, I should thank you for appreciating my cooking skills?" Lin Chaoyang teased.

"How can you call it freeloading? We are guests after all, and we came with gifts."

When Chen Jiangong came, he brought two bags of peanuts, which was the cheapest thing among everyone. His words drew a look of contempt from Lin Chaoyang.

Jokes aside, the atmosphere at the party was actually very good.

Since they were all writers, the topics they talked about when they met were mainly literature and writing. Before they even started eating, Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong poured two glasses of beer.

There was no beer at Lin Chaoyang's house, so this beer was brought by Liu Zhida.

In the early 1980s, the bottled beer that is now common to people could only be found in foreign-related hotels and some larger state-owned restaurants.

Liu Zhida brought draft beer, 56 cents per liter.

At this time, many restaurants and snack bars have glass beer cups, a large cup is one liter, and last year, extra-large plastic beer cups began to appear, each cup is two liters.

Liu Zhida brews beer in a thermos, each kettle is nearly two liters.

It looked like a lot, but in fact it was less than the amount of four bottles of beer. Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong each poured a large glass, and only half of it was left, so they drank it happily.

Lin Chaoyang brought a plate of cold-mixed pig ears and said, "I've never seen you guys be so impatient. If you don't know me, you might be a drunkard."

Li Tuo took a bite of the pig's ear, which was salty, spicy and slightly fragrant, with a crispy texture.

"I haven't eaten your cooking for several months. I'm craving this."

"That's right. With Chaoyang's cooking skills, it would be a shame if he didn't open a restaurant."

While everyone was chatting and laughing, the dishes were served one after another. Eight dishes filled the table, four meat and four vegetarian, four cold and four hot, and they looked delicious.

Chen Jiangong took the initiative to stand up and pour wine for everyone. He first took Liu Zhida's thermos and just walked to Wang Zengqi, but Wang Zengqi held the rim of the cup.

"I don't drink horse urine!"

Ever since draft beer came out, many Yanjing people who loved drinking had been calling this stuff horse urine. It was not until the mid-1970s that it was gradually accepted by young people.

But for Wang Zengqi, who is used to drinking white wine, this stuff is still horse urine.

"Then drink this, which Li Tuo brought." Chen Jiangong poured him a glass of white wine.

The food and wine were ready, and everyone raised their glasses to toast Lin Chaoyang to thank him for his hard work.

While eating, everyone kept talking about the topic. Chen Jiangong talked about his feelings after watching "The Death of Van Gogh" some time ago.

More than two months have passed since the novel was published. The first issue of Contemporary magazine in 1981, which published "The Death of Van Gogh", sold 115 million copies.

Not only did it more than double its peak sales, it also made a qualitative leap in the influence of the magazine "Contemporary".

You have to know that before the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh", although the development momentum of "Contemporary" was still good, it could not be compared with top literary magazines such as "Harvest" and "People's Literature". They could not even compare with "Yenching Literature".

However, with the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh", one issue of the magazine sold millions of copies, making "Contemporary" the hottest literary magazine at the beginning of 1981.

This issue is a special issue on novels. The sales of the magazine are all supported by "The Death of Van Gogh". All readers buy "Contemporary" because of this novel.

Over the course of two months, the influence of "The Death of Van Gogh" continued to grow, with thousands of letters from readers pouring into the editorial department of "Contemporary" and receiving rave reviews.

Over this period of time, many writers and critics in the literary world have published their views on this novel in various magazines, and "The Death of Van Gogh" has also gained a very high reputation in the professional field.

"…I think Chaoyang has mastered the stream-of-consciousness technique. In fact, the stream-of-consciousness style of "Death of Van Gogh" is obviously not as prominent as "Lai Zi's Summer", but this change does not make people feel abrupt, but rather feels reasonable.

Because he put all the rupture and interweaving of the time and space order, inner monologue and free association into the character of Van Gogh, and Van Gogh's mental state was not so stable. This setting is really wonderful, it is simply natural!"

Chen Jiangong shook his head and said, everyone became interested. Zheng Wanlong asked: "Chaoyang, many critics are saying that you are the first person in our country to write stream-of-consciousness literature. I sometimes practice this kind of writing technique, but I always feel that it is not good enough. Do you have any experience?"

Hearing this, everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang. Stream of consciousness literature is still a fashionable genre in China today. Especially after Lin Chaoyang started this trend, many writers are eager to try it, but few can grasp the essence of this genre's creation.

Lin Chaoyang shook his head. "What experience do I have?"

“In fact, stream-of-consciousness literature itself is somewhat anti-literary. This is because literary expression must be concrete, and often appeals to the senses.

However, when dealing with text, stream-of-consciousness literature often prefers abstract processing. If this degree is not grasped well, it is easy to lose its literary characteristics and become a philosophical science. "

Everyone listened to Lin Chaoyang's words thoughtfully. Zheng Wanlong asked, "Then how do you balance this scale?"

"Always remember that I want to tell you a story first. Let me give you an example. A house is on fire, and the servant runs to his master in a panic and says, 'Oh no! It's on fire!'

This is an abstract way of writing. The reader does not receive the information, but feels the emotions first.

This is certainly not to say that it is bad, but emotions need to be progressive.

Suppose you write that the servant says: There was a fire in the house, the house burned down, and the young master could not be rescued.

At this point, the events and scenes are there, the sense of picture comes immediately, and the triggers for emotions are also there, then the character comes alive and he can open his mouth and speak. "

The examples Lin Chaoyang gave were very vivid and everyone understood them immediately.

Lin Chaoyang's speech focused on theory. Most of the people present had achieved some success in creation and were actually not bad in practice and skills, but few of them paid attention to theory. When they heard his words suddenly, they all felt refreshed.

"Chaoyang, you put it well. Say more, say more!" Li Tuo urged.

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand. "There's nothing much to say. In fact, it's a problem that everyone encounters in daily life. It's just that I'm used to summarizing it."

Seeing that he refused to say anything more, Chen Jiangong sighed, "I think Chaoyang is good enough to teach now."

Zhang Chengzhi said with a big smile: "There will be no problem teaching Chinese."

After this topic ended, everyone changed to another one, and Li Tuo talked about Kafka.

Wang Zengqi sat among a group of young people who were ten, twenty, or even thirty years younger than him. He seldom spoke, but mostly listened, occasionally eating a bite of food and drinking a glass of wine with Lin Jinlan next to him.

The two old comrades know how to drink and love to drink. Today is a day when there are many people around and the atmosphere is lively. The two of them are in the midst of the noise, but they are content and keep toasting each other.

Compared with these young people's eager and hasty attitude towards literature, these old writers in their fifties and sixties are like old oxen. They have experienced too much in the first half of their lives and what they need now is constant rumination and digestion.

After a few drinks, Wang Zengqi looked at everyone's excited state leisurely, with a mischievous smile on his face, and asked Lin Chaoyang in a low voice: "Do you think they look like they are being chased by a dog, unable to pull up their pants, but still enjoying it?"

Wang Zengqi's metaphor is very accurate. After being suppressed for too long in the past few years, we finally have the opportunity to absorb knowledge. Everyone has a sense of urgency to achieve everything in one go.

Lin Chaoyang smiled. There was nothing wrong with this. Such an atmosphere would not exist again in a few years.

Everyone drank and chatted for half an afternoon and then went back home. In the end, all the food and wine on the table were gone, and everyone moved to the living room to drink tea and talk.

It was not until the evening when it got dark and the drunkenness had almost subsided that Wang Zengqi was the first to get up and said, "It's getting late. I think we should just leave it at that for today and let Chaoyang and his family rest early."

After eating delicious food, drinking wine and chatting, everyone stood up together.

Lin Chaoyang saw everyone off. Lin Jinlan took Lin Chaoyang's hand and said, "Thank you for hosting me today. Zeng Qi and I will host you some other day. Let's go to Donglai for a meal."

Wang Zengqi teased, "Your 'some other day' is too insincere. When is that other day?"

The two old friends were used to undermining each other, so Lin Jinlan simply said, "Then next week, let's go to Donglaishun, I'll treat you."

"Good!" Wang Zengqi tricked his old friend and applauded.

Li Tuo heard the conversation between the two and came over, "Take me with you!"

“We can’t afford to hire too many people.”

Lin Jinlan rejected Li Tuo's request out of hand, which made him feel indignant. "You have money when you invite Chaoyang, but you don't have money when you invite me?"

"He treated me to a meal. Did you treat me too?"

"You treat me this time, I'll treat you next time." Li Tuo said cunningly.

After chatting and laughing for a while, everyone left.

A week later, Lin Jinlan invited Lin Chaoyang to Donglaishun for a mutton meal.

In such chilly weather, there is nothing more soothing than a meal of mutton hotpot. Li Tuo finally got a meal of mutton despite Lin Jinlan's teasing.

A few days after this meal, all the major universities in Yenching entered the new school season, and the long-silent Yenching University campus was filled with young and energetic figures.

That afternoon, Du Rong had been discussing the issue of applying for professional titles with several colleagues, a topic in which Lin Chaoyang had no interest at all.

When it was time to get off work, he was riding his bike home. When he passed by the International Students Building, he saw Liang Zuo walking out of the building with a gloomy and indignant look on his face.

When he saw Lin Chaoyang, he took the initiative to say hello.

"Going to watch TV again?"

Lin Chaoyang thought that Liang Zuo was trying to steal the TV but failed, so he acted like that.

"No, I went to play Go."

"This is a loss? It's not a big deal!" Lin Chaoyang comforted.

Liang Zuo shook his head. "Losing is not a big deal. The key is losing to a Japanese. This is disgusting!"

(End of this chapter)