Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 222: The Chess Master

The letter had just arrived, and the sender was Lu Wenfu, whom I met at the National Excellent Novella Award Ceremony.

After the award ceremony, Lin Chaoyang treated the winning writers to a meal, and his cooking skills won unanimous praise from everyone.

Some time ago, Liu Xinwu came to Lin Chaoyang to ask him to write a preface for "Longing for Life" and also mentioned Lu Wenfu. I don't know what this letter is about.

"Brother Chaoyang Wen: I am glad to receive your letter. I received a letter from Xinwu a few days ago, saying that you should give me a grand reception next time I come to Beijing. I have not yet thanked you for your hospitality last time, and I am really grateful.

After thinking about it, I don't know what to say in return. I wanted to send you some tea, but then I thought that it's not the right time since mid-spring has passed. I will definitely send you two pounds of freshly roasted Biluochun tea in the beginning of next spring.

......"

Lu Wenfu embodied the spirit of a traditional scholar, which was deeply reflected in the way he dealt with people. In his letter, he talked about inviting people to dinner and sending tea, and then stated the purpose of writing this letter.

It turned out that the dinner at the end of March gave him some inspiration. He also loves food and wanted to write a novel about food.

Of course, writing about food is not just about writing about food. It must inevitably involve social changes, historical development and the pulse of human nature. Lin Chaoyang understands both novels and food, so after having this idea, Lu Wenfu wanted to write to Lin Chaoyang to communicate with him.

After reading Lu Wenfu's design and ideas for the novel, Lin Chaoyang immediately thought of his most well-known masterpiece "The Gourmet".

"Gourmet" is a novella, and the timeline of the novel runs through the period before liberation to after the reform and opening up. However, it is not a grand work that reflects historical struggles, but starts from the subtleties. The protagonist Zhu Ziye is busy all his life with how to eat and how to make himself eat to his satisfaction.

In the old society, he was able to live a happy life relying on his ancestral inheritance, because he did not smoke opium, gamble, or visit prostitutes, and he only had a special liking for delicious food, which made him not suffer much from the buzzing noise.

After the reform and opening up, the times changed and Zhu Ziye unexpectedly transformed from a muddle-headed foodie into a celebrity gourmet.

On the surface, this novel is about "eating", but in its vivid descriptions of eating and drinking, it hides a very profound ideological theme, showing the variability of human nature, historical changes and social development.

After its publication, it quickly received praise from the literary community and caused a great response.

The plot described by Lu Wenfu in the letter has many similarities with the "Gourmet" that Lin Chaoyang has read. It seems that they should be from the same novel.

Lin Chaoyang never expected that a meal could enable Lu Wenfu to write his masterpiece ahead of time. He happily wrote a letter back to Lu Wenfu, affirming his idea and encouraging Lu Wenfu to write this novel.

Two days later, the final exams of major universities in Yenching ended one after another. The sisters Tao Yushu and Tao Yumo no longer had any study tasks, and the atmosphere at home became relaxed.

Tao Yumo was planning to go to Beidaihe during this summer vacation. Lin Chaoyang asked, "It looks like you've saved a lot of money?"

Tao Yumo immediately glanced at him warily, like a little squirrel guarding its food, "I haven't saved much money."

"As money-hungry as your sister."

"Do you believe me if I tell my sister?"

"You little traitor! Do you still want to make money?"

Hearing Lin Chaoyang's words, Tao Yumo's eyes lit up, "Another letter?"

In January this year, "The Death of Van Gogh" was published in the form of a special issue of "Contemporary". After the publication of the novel, it was warmly welcomed by readers. The final sales of the issue of "Contemporary" that published the novel reached 115 million copies.

Judging from the numbers alone, literary magazines such as People's Literature and Harvest can occasionally sell over a million copies, but the difference with this issue of Contemporary is that the original sales base of the magazine was not high.

"Contemporary" was founded in 1979. The sales of the first issue were 7 copies, and the second issue was 13 copies. The sales growth has been steady, but there is still a big gap compared with other well-known literary magazines.

In 80, "Contemporary" published Lin Chaoyang's novel "Lai Zi's Summer", and its sales exceeded 50 copies in one fell swoop. Since then, the magazine's sales have been hovering between and copies.

In recent years, literary magazines have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. It is certainly worthy of recognition that "Contemporary" has achieved such results within just one year of its founding.

But the problem is that this publication is backed by the behemoth Renwen Press. Since its preparation, Contemporary has been benchmarking against top literary magazines such as People's Literature and Harvest.

After all, such results are far inferior to the other two.

Not to mention compared with "People's Literature" and "Harvest", it is even slightly inferior to "October" and "Yenching Literature" which are also located in Yenching.

The first issue of "October" sold 55 copies. Although the influence of "Yenching Literature" is not as good as that of first-tier literary magazines, the sales of the magazine have always been good.

As a result, starting from January this year, the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh" was like a bolt from the blue, which quickly ignited a reading craze among readers and brought the sales of "Contemporary" to more than one million copies.

After this issue, the sales of the magazine declined, but still reached 700,000 to 800,000 copies, enough to compete with the two top magazines "People's Literature" and "Harvest".

The terrifying sales volume brought about a powerful influence. "The Death of Van Gogh" won a good reputation among readers and also received good reviews in the literary world.

If it weren't for a small group of people who made over-politicized criticism of some of the content in "The Death of Van Gogh", the evaluation of this novel among readers and the literary world could be said to be perfect.

Also because of the extremely high word-of-mouth reputation, the editorial department has been sending packages of letters from readers at regular intervals over the past six months. If you count carefully, there are at least fifteen or sixteen thousand letters.

With such a huge amount of letters, Lin Chaoyang certainly couldn't handle them all by himself, and most of them were handled by his sister-in-law, who was a cheap laborer.

In the past six months, Tao Yumo earned forty or fifty yuan by helping Lin Chaoyang handle letters.

Tao Yumo stared at Lin Chaoyang with shining eyes. He smiled and said, "It's almost time. The next novel will be published soon!"

"There's no rush. Even if it's published, it'll take at least half a month to get widespread feedback, and by that time I'll be done."

Tao Yumo asked again: "By the way, didn't my sister say some time ago that you two were going to attend the writers' meeting during the summer vacation?"

Lin Chaoyang looked nonchalant, "Zhang Dening is a man who is unpredictable in his words. I don't know when it will happen."

Lin Chaoyang's words were a bit arbitrary. The next day after he said this to his sister-in-law, Zhang Dening came to the Overseas Chinese Apartment and said that "Yenching Literature" was planning to hold a writers' meeting next week, and the location was set in Huangdao.

"Where is Huangdao?" Tao Yumo couldn't help but ask when he heard the name from Zhang Dening.

"Huangdao is in Qingdao. It used to be Jiaonan County, but now it has become Huangdao District of Qingdao."

“Oh, it’s Qingdao.”

Zhang Dening added, "This writers' conference will last about half a month. We will stay in Huangdao for a few days first, and then go to Jinan and Tai'an."

"Half a month!" Tao Yushu hesitated for a moment. She was on summer vacation now, so she had time. She could spend half a month at the writing conference and come back in time to learn how to drive a motorcycle. Zhang Dening asked Lin Chaoyang, "Is it okay for you to take half a month off?"

"can."

Now whenever something happens in the museum, they pull him out and use him as the mascot, it's the same when the men's volleyball team comes, it's the same when the Hong Kong Chinese University delegation comes. He can take leave now without any burden, I'm not the mascot for nothing.

"Then you guys should prepare in the next few days. We will meet at the train station at 9:30 next Monday morning."

"it is good."

After Zhang Dening left, Tao Yushu was busy packing up. Lin Chaoyang said, "There are still several days left. Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Let me see if there's anything I'm missing so I can buy some while I have time."

It is always more troublesome for women to go out than for men.

Seeing that her sister and brother-in-law were about to go out, Tao Yumo also hurried to plan her own itinerary. Since she couldn't get a free meal, she might as well go out and have fun.

Before Lin Chaoyang and his wife went to attend the writers' conference, she had already rushed to the train station with her luggage.

"Jianmei!"

From a distance, Tao Yumo saw his classmates and shouted excitedly.

Hearing the voice, Guo Jianmei also waved to Tao Yumo. Tao Yumo ran over with the luggage and greeted everyone one by one.

There were four girls and two boys traveling to Beidaihe this time. Among the six people, three were from the Law Department of 79, namely Tao Yumo, Guo Jianmei and a girl named Yu Hui.

The other two are Wang Zhiyong and Li Junling from the Law Department class of 77, they are boyfriend and girlfriend, and the last person is Liu Zhenyun, he came with his girlfriend Guo Jianmei.

The six people gathered and walked towards the station.

It was just the beginning of summer vacation these days, and the Yanjing Station was crowded. After ticket checking, several people finally squeezed into the car, and only sat down, panting, after putting away their luggage.

"Oh, there are too many people!" Tao Yumo complained.

Guo Jianmei said, "You don't take the train often. Every winter and summer vacation, we take the train home like this. We are used to it."

There were seven people in their group, only Tao Yumo and Yu Hui were from Yanjing, the other five were from other places.

"It's so hot!" Yu Hui fanned herself with her hands.

Tao Yumo took out a magazine from her bag and used it as a fan, which was much more convenient than Yu Hui using her hands. She was feeling proud of herself when she saw Liu Zhenyun take out a fan and hand it to Guo Jianmei.

"Zhenyun is really thoughtful!" Tao Yumo joked.

After she said that, Guo Jianmei and Liu Zhenyun felt a little embarrassed. Another couple, Wang Zhiyong and Li Junling, were much more generous than them. They not only wiped each other's sweat, but also drank a glass of water together.

The weather was hot and the carriage was full of people, so the temperature was even higher. Everyone was sweating profusely. They took a few gulps of boiled water that had been prepared in advance to quench their thirst.

As the train started to move slowly, a gentle breeze blew, and finally gusts of cool air came from the open window. Tao Yumo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's finally cooler."

The six people were sitting in a green hard-seat car with adjacent seats. After the car stabilized, Wang Zhiyong arranged for everyone to play poker together. Playing poker is now the best entertainment activity to kill time while taking a train.

The others all agreed, but Yu Hui didn't want to play. She picked up the copy of Yanjing Literature that Tao Yumo had used to fan himself when he got in the car, and said, "I'll read the magazine for a while, you guys play."

"You're such a killjoy. How are we going to play with five people?"

Tao Yumo complained to her and took the initiative to withdraw, allowing the other two couples to play.

"Hey, Yumo, does your brother-in-law have a new work?"

Yu Hui glanced at the table of contents and found that Lin Chaoyang's works were included in this issue of "Yenching Literature".

"Yes."

"Yenching Literature" is a monthly magazine. This issue of the magazine has been on the market for two days. Tao Yumo bought this copy at a newsstand when she was going out, intending to use it to kill time on the train.

Now that the magazine had been borrowed by Yu Hui, she could only watch the other people playing poker.

The train was noisy. Tao Yumo's eyes were on the playing cards, but his ears received all kinds of sounds.

"Great! This novel is really refreshing!"

"What novel?"

"Have you read "The Chess Master"? It's Xu Lingjun's new novel published in this issue of "Yanjing Literature". It's really well written."

"That novel, I just finished reading it yesterday, and I didn't feel very good about it."

"Not good? Why not? It looks good to me!"

"You don't play Go, do you? The things in that book are ridiculous. The protagonist Jiang Nansheng defeated nine Japanese Go players in a row. That's sheer nonsense. If Chinese Go players were at this level, would they have been suppressed by the Japanese for so many years?"

"It's a novel, so the plots are all fictional. Besides, I remember that Wu Qingyuan, the Go player, swept the Japanese Go world back then, didn't he?"

"Wu Qingyuan won the game in Japan, but in the novel it happened in China."

"What's the matter?"

Tao Yumo listened to the two voices arguing. She was familiar with the content of the argument, as it was the plot of her brother-in-law Lin Chaoyang's new novel.

My brother-in-law was right. It has only been two days since the novel was published and there is already controversy about the plot.

(End of this chapter)