Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 224 Little Dark Room

Including the trip and the return trip, Tao Yumo's trip took a total of four days. Except for the miserable experience of diarrhea on the first day, the trip was quite successful.

It was evening when she returned to Langrun Lake Apartment. She was carrying ten kilograms of crabs, looking like a general who had won a great victory.

"Mom! Add more food today!"

As soon as he entered the door, Tao Yumo carried the crabs into the kitchen and shouted loudly, fearing that his family members couldn't hear him.

"Oh my god, I'm like a coal ball turned into a spirit!"

Tao Yucheng came out of the room upon hearing the noise, and screamed when he saw his sister.

Upon hearing this, Tao Yumo's face suddenly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"You've only been out for a few days, how come you're so dark?" Tao Yucheng continued without knowing the consequences.

Tao Yumo glared at her brother fiercely, and then shouted to the kitchen, "Mom, my brother didn't get any crabs!"

Hearing her threat, Tao Yucheng immediately gave in and put on a smile, "Are you tired from playing outside these days? Look at how tanned you are!"

As he said this, he wanted to help Tao Yumo with the luggage, but Tao Yumo disdainfully pulled his hand away.

Nowadays, logistics are underdeveloped, and in places deep inland like Shaanxi and Shanxi, many people have never eaten seafood in their entire lives.

Yanjing is a little better, after all, it is the capital and is relatively close to the Bohai Bay. But even so, I can only eat seafood a few times a year.

Tao Yumo brought back ten kilograms of crabs, a total of thirteen crabs.

When Tao's mother was steaming crabs, the pot was not big enough, so she could only steam four crabs at a time. After steaming two pots, Tao's father asked Tao Yumo to give the remaining five crabs to the neighbors upstairs and downstairs.

Crabs are cold in nature and cannot be eaten too much, but they cannot be kept forever, so they are perfect as gifts.

"I bought this with my own money. If you want to give it away, just give it away." Tao Yumo muttered.

Father Tao was too lazy to listen to her complaints and asked, "How much?"

"Sixty cents." Tao Yumo answered without hesitation.

Tao's father took out two yuan from his pocket. At this time, Tao Yucheng reminded him: "Dad, don't listen to this girl. The fishermen in Beidaihe sell it on the beach. It's very cheap, less than 30 cents."

Seeing that the money was about to be in hand, the eldest brother came out to make trouble. Tao Yumo was furious, "You are talking nonsense, spend thirty cents to buy me one and see!"

"That's 40 cents, no more."

Father Tao interrupted the quarrel between the brother and sister with a smile, "Alright. You brought it back from far away, so you should be given some errand fees, right?"

As he said that, he handed two dollars to Tao Yumo, who happily took the money and happily went to deliver crabs to every household, receiving a lot of compliments from the neighbors, who also chatted with him a few more times.

When I got home, the food was already on the table.

While eating, Tao's mother stared at Tao Yumo's face and asked, "Why are you so dark and thin after going out for a few days?"

Tao Yumo felt mixed emotions after hearing his mother's words. He was worried because he had become darker, but he was happy because he had become thinner.

Tao Yucheng said: "Mom, being darker makes you look thinner. This is the same as the lighting when we shoot a movie..."

Before he could finish his words, he felt someone stepped hard on the instep of his foot. Judging from the strength of the kick, it was definitely not Zhao Li.

Tao Yucheng glanced at his sister, and saw a fierce look in her eyes.

He sucked the crab leg in his hand and said, "It has indeed become thinner."

Only then did Tao Yumo nodded with satisfaction.

While chewing on the crab, Tao Yumo suddenly thought of his sister and brother-in-law, "Have my sister and brother-in-law left?"

"They left yesterday. They didn't have a good time!"

Tao Yumo rolled her eyes at her brother again, "We're going to Qingdao, how can we not have seafood to eat?"

The writing session of "Yenching Literature" was held in Huangdao District, Qingdao. The day before Tao Yumo returned, the two boarded the train to Qingdao.

For this writing conference, Yenching Literature invited many people, all of whom are well-known writers who have been active in the literary world in recent years.

On the train from Yenching to Qingdao, in addition to the two editors Fu Yonglin and Zhang Dening, there were several familiar writers, including Wang Zengqi, Li Tuo and Liu Jinyun.

Wang Zengqi and Li Tuo are acquaintances. Liu Jinyun won the National Excellent Short Story Award this year with "Stupid Wang Lao Da" and met Lin Chaoyang at the award ceremony. He did not attend the dinner due to work reasons.

When talking about the time when Lin Chaoyang treated them to a meal, Liu Jinyun couldn't help but look regretful.

There were more than 20 writers in the dinner at the end of March. As writers, exaggeration is the norm and being surrounded by flowers and splendor is their pursuit. Plus the atmosphere was good that day, which cast a filter over everyone. After returning home, these people praised Lin Chaoyang's cooking skills to the extreme.

This group of people came from all over the world. After several months of spreading the word, at least half of the Chinese literary world, if not the entire country, knew that Lin Chaoyang was an excellent cook, and was a rare talent in the writer circle.

The train went all the way from Hebei to Shandong. It was very hot in the dog days of summer and it was quite painful even if we sat in a hard sleeper.

After arriving in Qingdao, everyone stayed in a guesthouse for one night, because the writers' club invited not only writers from Yenching but also writers from other places, so they had to wait for the writers from other places.

After waiting for a day, everyone finally arrived, including five writers from other places, including Cheng Zhongshi from Shaanxi and Kong Jiesheng from Guangdong.

Huangdao is across the sea from Qingdao, and you have to take a boat to get there.

Most of the people who came to attend the writers' conference this time were from the north. Several older comrades felt dizzy as soon as they got on the boat. Lin Chaoyang and his wife were the youngest couple on the trip. They were fine, but instead leisurely enjoyed the sea scenery, which made people envious.

"You two have such a carefree life, the husband sings and the wife follows."

On the boat, Li Tuo sat behind the couple. Seeing that they were so relaxed and happy, he couldn't help but make a joke.

Zhang Dening smiled and said, "It's not that the husband sings and the wife follows, but that the wife sings and the husband follows."

"What do you mean?"

"Without Yu Shu, we can't invite Comrade Lin Chaoyang. Before we set off, People's Literature specifically invited him to participate in the writers' meeting, but he refused."

Wang Zengqi said: "People's Literature? Is it going to Chengde?" "Did Old Wang also receive an invitation?" Zhang Dening asked.

"Yes. It's a good time to go to Chengde now. You can escape the summer heat."

"Isn't it a good place? I won't go to Chaoyang. This is what they call a wife follows her husband."

Zhang Dening's joke made everyone smile knowingly, even Tao Yushu had a sweet smile on his face.

"People's Literature" found their home two days before they set off. The person who came was Cui Daoyi, who specifically explained that the writers invited to this writing conference were all "key writers" and the standards were much higher than ordinary writing conferences. The time happened to be staggered with the Qingdao writing conference of "Yenching Literature".

It was originally a good idea, but Lin Chaoyang refused without hesitation.

The commuting and accommodation conditions at that time were far worse than those of later times. The writing club of "Yenching Literature" was held because they invited Tao Yushu, and there was no way to refuse.

Therefore, he made up his mind not to attend the Chengde Writers' Conference of People's Literature.

In this way, Tao Yushu felt even more that her husband valued her from the bottom of his heart. How could she not be happy and sweet?

Listening to the conversation between the few people, Cheng Zhongshi, Liu Jinyun, Liu Guochun and others on the side had envy flashing on their faces.

He refused the invitation to the writers' club from People's Literature, and Lin Chaoyang was probably the only one present who had the confidence to do so.

There were thirteen people in this writing conference. "Yenching Literature" sent two editors, Fu Yonglin and Zhang Dening. Shandong Writers Association sent its deputy leader Jiang Shumao to receive them. He was famous for writing about life on fishing islands.

The other ten people were writers invited by Yenching Literature. The oldest was Wang Zengqi, who was in his sixties, and the youngest was Li Tuo, who was in his thirties. Lin Chaoyang and his wife, who were in their twenties, stood out among the group.

But despite Lin Chaoyang's young age, his achievements in writing are very impressive. At least he is outstanding among the writers invited to participate in the writing conference.

Most of these writers have won national outstanding short story awards. Lin Chaoyang not only won two awards, but also won two. This was the case not only last year, but also this year. The only difference is that last year he won the short story award, and this year he won the novella award.

In addition to awards, the influence of his works cannot be underestimated. For example, "The Garland under the Mountain" alone has sold more than 4 million copies.

If you count carefully, it is also a leader among the military-themed works after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The last one that caused such a sensation was Qu Bo's "Lin Hai Xue Yuan".

His debut novel The Shepherd has already led to a craze for scar literature and reflective literature, not to mention that he also pioneered the concept of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature. Nowadays, many people in the literary world are vying to imitate him, including many famous writers.

For example, Wang Meng has mentioned many times in public the influence of "Lai Zi's Summer" on his creation of stream-of-consciousness literature.

In the past two years, Wang Meng has been studying stream-of-consciousness literature and has successively published a number of works with obvious stream-of-consciousness literary colors, such as "Buli", "Butterfly" and "Sound of Spring".

Lin Chaoyang can be said to be an all-round player who has everything including literary awards, reader reputation, and influence of his works. At any time, his status and fame are determined by his strength.

Especially when you think about the fact that Lin Chaoyang is only in his early twenties and has a beautiful wife and relatives by his side, how can one not be envious?
As everyone was chatting, the ship docked at the shore.

Huangdao is not large in area. It was transferred from Jiaodong County to Qingdao's jurisdiction only two years ago. A sports hotel has just been built in the center of the island, and Lin Chaoyang and others stayed here on this trip.

In the evening, Jiang Shumao, on behalf of the Shandong Literary Association, hosted a welcoming banquet. The main food at the banquet was fish, shrimp and crab, all of which were caught by fishermen from the island and delivered directly to the hotel after being caught from the sea. They were so fresh.

Drinking is essential for the welcoming banquet. The brewery in Qingdao was built by the Germans in 1903, and the locals are used to drinking beer. At the welcoming banquet, a large glass of draft beer was placed in front of each person, but Lin Chaoyang declined the offer and watched everyone take a bite of seafood and a sip of beer, feeling terrified.

The "gout meal" has a bad reputation, so he thinks he should just eat some seafood.

Everyone was eating, drinking, chatting and having a great time.

Sitting next to Lin Chaoyang was Tao Yushu, but his style was completely different.

"Yushu, try this!"

"This clam is delicious, you should try it."

The couple picked up food for each other and were so affectionate that Zhang Dening's eyes turned red when he saw them.

"I say, you two, you have arms, can't you eat your own food?"

Lin Chaoyang glanced at her and asked, "Does our meal bother you?"

"I'm just reminding you guys not to be too cheesy."

The four words "Don't be too mushy" can be translated as "Don't abuse the dog", but the couple turned a deaf ear to it and continued to do as they pleased.

Wang Zengqi teased, "De Ning, do you regret not bringing your spouse with you?"

"I would like to bring it, but I need the leader's approval!" Zhang Dening sighed.

"Wouldn't it be enough if you become a leader?"

Zhang Dening said happily: "When I become the editor-in-chief, I will ask you all to bring your families with you."

Everyone clapped their hands, "This is a good idea!"

Fu Yonglin looked at Zhang Dening speechlessly, "It's a good thing I didn't let you become an official. Even if you became one, you would still be a confused official."

Everyone was chatting and laughing, and before they knew it, the table was filled with various seafood shells. Cheng Zhongshi and his fellow writers who had been living in the mainland for many years ate the most.

After the welcoming banquet, everyone thought that the next step would be a relaxing trip to enjoy the scenery. The next morning after breakfast, Wang Zengqi, Li Tuo and others were dressed neatly and ready to go out, but were stopped by Fu Yonglin.

"Why go?"

"Let's go out for a walk!"

"Huangdao is a small place with not much to see. I might as well write more if I have the time."

Wang Zengqi and others: ???

The situation was already set, and Fu Yonglin had no more scruples, but he still felt a little guilty. After being stared at for a while, he said uncomfortably: "The focus of the writing meeting is communication and creation. I hope everyone can achieve good results in the next few days."

What is a “good result”?
Of course it’s the manuscript.

Lin Chaoyang whispered to Tao Yushu, "What did I tell you? Do these magazines have the good intention to invite you to travel? They just want to lock you up in a small dark room and make you do hard labor."

Tao Yushu nodded sympathetically.

(End of this chapter)