Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 226: Soy Sauce Rice is Very Fragrant

During the seven days in Huangdao, under the high-intensity daily supervision of Fu Yonglin and Zhang Dening, the writers' new works came out one after another.

The works written in such a short period of time are naturally all short stories. Among them, the most acclaimed one after publication is the short story "Migration" written by Wang Zengqi.

The novel tells the story of the characters from Wang Zengqi's hometown. Wang Zengqi has always been generous in writing about his hometown in his novels and essays. Moreover, because of his long-term and meticulous observation and strong nostalgia, the hometown in his works always makes people feel cordial, fresh and unforgettable.

After finishing the novel, everyone was finally freed from their shackles and could break out of the cage of the hotel and head towards the coast.

Huangdao's tourism resources have not yet been developed and there are few people. There are only claw marks of water birds and various shell creatures on the beach. The fine yellow sand feels very good and it is more comfortable to walk on it after taking off your shoes.

After holding it in for almost a week, two of them even put on their swimsuits and ran to the sea to swim. After swimming for dozens of meters, they disappeared. Fu Yonglin and Zhang Dening were so scared that they shouted loudly. The man then showed his head after a few seconds.

"Really? They are all in their 40s and 50s, but when they come out, it's like they are taking elementary school students with them.

They should not be allowed to go out, they should be locked up in the hotel. "

Zhang Dening’s complaint made Lin Chaoyang shudder. These editors are so cruel!

After complaining, Zhang Dening looked at him again, "Have you started writing that novel?"

"I haven't thought about it yet."

In the past few days, Lin Chaoyang has no idea how many times he has used this excuse to fool her and Fu Yonglin. He has said it so many times that it seems insincere.

Zhang Dening muttered, "Just pretend, I don't know you?"

Lin Chaoyang didn't give her a chance to express herself and changed the subject, "Everyone's novels are almost finished, when are we going back?"

"With Yu Shu here, will you still miss home?" Zhang Dening teased.

"I'm just thinking about the editorial department. With so many people eating and feeding, it costs a lot of money every day."

"You consider everything except novels, right?" Zhang Dening said sarcastically.

"I'm talking to you about business, why are you always going off topic?"

Zhang Dening said, "We'll leave tomorrow and go to Jinan first. We've been locked up on the island for so many days, so we need to let everyone relax."

"I still have a conscience."

Lin Chaoyang made a comment, earning a glare from Zhang Dening.

In the evening, we learned that we would be leaving the next day, and we couldn't help but feel regretful. We had been on the island for a week, and we had finally finished writing the manuscript and wanted to relax, but we had to leave the next day.

Everyone couldn't help but complain a few more times. Zhang Dening grabbed Li Tuo and said, "It's fine if others say so, but what qualifications do you have to say this?"

Lin Chaoyang came to the island without writing anything because "The Chess Master" had just been published in "Yenching Literature", but Li Tuo had really achieved nothing.

In the past two years, he has focused on studying film theory and writing film reviews, and has already fallen behind his peers in novel writing.

He had no inspiration at this writing conference and couldn't write anything.

He was not like Chen Jiangong, who could not write anything. He felt a little guilty when faced with the editor's urging for manuscripts. He said confidently: "Why am I not qualified to say this? Others wrote, and I wrote too, but I just didn't write it out."

Zhang Dening was speechless for a moment, "You are really good!"

"you are welcome!"

Li Tuo smiled shamelessly, causing everyone to laugh.

The next morning, when everyone was getting ready to set off, Fu Yonglin heard that Du Pengcheng was recuperating in Qingdao and revising his novel "The Peaceful Years", so he temporarily changed his itinerary. After leaving Huangdao, he came to the city of QD and led the writers to visit this literary predecessor.

Most people are not familiar with the name Du Pengcheng, but if you mention his representative work "Defending Yan'an", many people should have an impression of it.

"Defending Yan'an" is the first novel in the history of contemporary Chinese literature to describe the War of Liberation on a large scale and in a positive manner. It was later selected into the "Collection of 70 Novels in the 70 Years of New China".

Most of Du Pengcheng's novels are about major historical themes. Because of the main theme of his creative content and style, he enjoys a relatively high status and evaluation in the official value system.

Lin Chaoyang followed the crowd to Du Pengcheng's residence. The old comrade was very enthusiastic about everyone's arrival. When he saw Lin Chaoyang while greeting him, he praised with a smile on his face: "I was reading your new novel yesterday. The "Chess Master" is really well written. It has attitude and character!"

Originally, Lin Chaoyang was not very interested in official itineraries like visiting old writers, after all, they had never even met each other.

But now Lin Chaoyang feels that this trip is still very meaningful because he can listen to the teachings and guidance of literary predecessors.

Du Pengcheng's praise was not just polite words. After greeting Lin Chaoyang, he pulled Lin Chaoyang aside to talk about the novel "The Chess Master".

“The character of Jiang Nansheng is very interesting. I can tell from reading the novel that you put a lot of thought into this character, and judging by the result, he is well-developed.

From the indifference to worldly affairs in the early stage, to the rage in the middle stage, to the self-sacrifice in the later stage, the writing is smooth and natural, and it is completed in one go.

The emotions are built up layer by layer until they explode at the end, making people feel excited and moved while also feeling refreshed after reading it.

Many people in our literary world have written about the theme of the Anti-Japanese War over the years, but your novel starts with the game of Go, which is new and of high quality. How did you come up with the idea of ​​writing such a novel?

Du Pengcheng asked about the origin of writing novels, Lin Chaoyang didn't want to be too straightforward, and wanted to use the Spring and Autumn style to brush it off, but Tao Yushu told her everything that happened in Yanying Studio. She has always been upset about the practices of Yanying Studio, and today someone finally asked about it, so she told everything without hesitation.

This matter is actually not a secret. It has long been spread in the literary circles of Yenching, but writers from other places are not aware of it.

Listening to Tao Yushu's explanation of the whole story, Du Pengcheng pondered for a while and said, "Comrade Chaoyang is thoughtful!"

"Currently, China-Japan friendship is a trend and also the country's foreign policy. This cannot be denied.

But this does not mean that we should forget the past and forgive the crimes of the invaders.

After your novel "The Chess Master" is published, it will certainly be criticized by some people. But I think that such a novel, which is based on history and national suffering, will definitely be welcomed by readers. "

With Du Pengcheng's vision and knowledge, he could naturally see the reactions that might be triggered after the publication of "The Chess Master". He has always written mainstream works and has a natural liking for such works. He also gave a very high evaluation of "The Chess Master".

There were several writers visiting him today. After chatting about "The Chess Master" for a while, Du Pengcheng turned the topic to other people. After all, he couldn't ignore the guests.

After talking to everyone, Du Pengcheng said with satisfaction: "Great, your works have all won the National Excellent Short Story Award, and I have read almost all of them. In recent years, so many new people have emerged in the literary world, which is rare since liberation. There are talented people in every generation, and such a literary world is a broad world. You all have great potential!"

After the exchange, everyone boarded the train and traveled all the way to Jinan.

There were no tall buildings, no flashing neon lights, only uniform Zhongshan suits and bicycles filling the streets. Jinan in the early 1980s was like most cities today.

Perhaps the week of unscrupulous exploitation in Huangdao made Fu Yonglin feel guilty, and after arriving in Jinan he was willing to take everyone on a tour of the city. Unfortunately, the JN city area at that time was really unremarkable.

When it was time for dinner, everyone was lazily looking for a restaurant to eat at. At this time, private restaurants had just started to appear, and their storefronts looked as sneaky as thieves.

After searching for a long time, everyone finally casually entered a small restaurant with a canteen sign. There was a row of tables with a slightly greasy surface.

A middle-aged woman was sitting in the restaurant, eating near the door. In her left hand was a white coarse-glazed porcelain bowl, which contained rice of purple color, obviously colored by soy sauce.

There was no side dish on the table, so she just shoveled rice into her mouth, chewing it in big mouthfuls.

It’s obviously a very simple meal, but it makes people’s appetite grow, while at the same time making people feel sad.

Lin Chaoyang was sighing in his heart, but Cheng Zhongshi beside him was even more sentimental than him.

"When I was in middle school, I had to carry cornmeal buns to study in the suburban middle school 30 miles away every week. Sometimes the food I brought was not enough to last until Saturday, and sometimes the buns went bad due to the hot weather. My elder brother gave me 20 cents every week for emergency use.

At that time, what I looked forward to most was Friday afternoon after school. After I had finished eating the food I brought with me, I would still have two cents left in my pocket.

I met up with my classmates and went into a canteen. We each spent ten cents to buy four or two ounces of rice.

The white rice is fragrant and much more delicious than the cold and hard cornmeal buns.

My classmate picked up the soy sauce bottle from the cafeteria and poured it into the bowl. He also told me that soy sauce is free and it smells very good.

I also poured soy sauce into the bowl and stirred it. It tasted really good, the kind of taste I had never tasted before, I was so happy! "

Cheng Zhongshi's simple description touched everyone's hearts. After he finished speaking, he asked for a bowl of rice. Inspired by him, everyone also ordered only a bowl of rice, wanting to try the delicious rice with soy sauce.

Lin Chaoyang could only shake his head at the impracticality of these people and ordered a plate of fried double crispy dishes for himself and Tao Yushu.

The rice for other people was served on the table first. Everyone followed Cheng Zhongshi's instructions, poured the soy sauce into the bowls, stirred it evenly, and put it into their mouths with big mouthfuls of anticipation. Then there was a long silence.

Everyone ate their meal in silence, watching the fried crispy dishes ordered by Lin Chaoyang being served. He and the couple Tao Yushu took a bite of rice and a bite of vegetables, eating with such relish!

"Do you want to give them some?" Tao Yushu whispered to Lin Chaoyang.

"No need. If they want to eat it, they can order it. If they don't order it, it means they still like it. Look at them, they are eating so happily!"

Lin Chaoyang's tone was full of gloating sarcasm, which made everyone secretly hate him.

Cheng Zhongshi's nostalgia for soy sauce rice is like the legend that Zhu Yuanzhang missed the Pearl Jade Soup after he ascended the throne. What they missed was not the bowl of rice, but their lost youth.

Others also followed suit, wanting to experience the delicious taste of their simple boyhood memories, which was completely driven by the romanticism of the literati.

But memories and romance cannot support reality after all. It’s not that rice with soy sauce is really that unpalatable. After all, everyone has lived through hard times and survived the days of having no food to eat. It’s just that the gap between ideals and reality is too big, which caught everyone off guard.

Everyone ate the rice with soy sauce in silence, but Lin Chaoyang did not forget to show his hindsight.

"If you want soy sauce rice to taste good, you have to heat some animal oil and pour it in. You're not eating it the right way."

"Then you can do it for us next time."

Li Tuo put the blame on Lin Chaoyang. His words won the unanimous approval of everyone. They did not give Lin Chaoyang any chance to object. With everyone's unanimous agreement, Lin Chaoyang owed everyone a meal.

After staying in Jinan for two days, the group moved to Tai'an and Qufu. They spent the first week writing and the second week sightseeing. Finally, they managed to restore some of the reputation of Yenching Literature.

The writers' meeting finally ended after half a month. Before boarding the train, Tao Yushu bought two magazines at the newsstand at the train station for entertainment.

After getting on the train, everyone was chatting and laughing, but Tao Yushu pointed at the magazine in his hand and said to Lin Chaoyang: "Chaoyang, look!"

(End of this chapter)