Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 356 What kind of octopus is this?

In the evening, the sound of firecrackers outside became more and more frequent, and Lin Chaoyang also led his son to set off firecrackers in the yard.

Xiao Dongdong can just walk now and can’t run yet. He can only say “ba” and “ma”.

He placed a single firecracker on the ground, lit it with a cigarette, and with a "bang" sound, he was frightened and shuddered all over. Then he laughed loudly and clapped his two chubby hands together.

After setting off fireworks for a while, Lin Chaoyang took out a small firecracker and lit it. There was a crackling sound, which scared Xiao Dongdong, who was standing in the yard, so much that he turned around and ran away.

Unfortunately, his legs were not flexible. His left foot tripped over his right foot, and his right foot tripped over his left foot. His body made two circles and he fell to the ground like a dog eating shit.

"Mom! Mom!"

"This child, are his hands and feet uncoordinated?"

When Tao Yushu saw his son fall, he ignored his son's cries and did not help him. Instead, he frowned and said

Tao Yumo went over to help Xiao Dongdong up and said unhappily, "You two are really amazing! One of you set off firecrackers to scare the child, and the other just stood there watching the show, not even thinking of coming over to help!"

"It's not like he doesn't have arms. Just let him get up by himself."

Tao Yushu behaved like a tiger mom.

Seeing this, Tao's mother looked unhappy. She walked over and took the child from Tao Yumo, scolding Tao Yushu: "How can you raise a child like this?"

Turning around, he showed a distressed look again, "Grandma's eldest grandson, are you hurt from the fall?"

Xiao Dongdong fell down but didn't cry. Instead, he looked at Mother Tao with a smile.

Tao's mother felt even more distressed, "Oh my! Grandma's eldest grandson didn't cry even after falling down. He is so sensible."

"Mom, it was just a fall."

Mother Tao glanced at Tao Yushu coldly and said, "Then why don't you try falling down!"

Tao Yushu was speechless after being scolded by her mother. She came to Lin Chaoyang and muttered, "It would be better not to invite them!"

"Okay, Mom is worried about Dongdong too." Lin Chaoyang consoled her and changed the subject, "Haven't you noticed? Yumo is really becoming more and more like mom."

Tao Yushu nodded, "Indeed, she almost drank up all the Coke in the house."

Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, "So you still want her to pay?"

"You don't have to pay, just give me less New Year's money."

The couple chatted and laughed, then went to the kitchen to busy themselves for a while, and at around eight o'clock they put the New Year's Eve dinner on the table.

"Turn on the TV! Turn on the TV!"

Tao Yumo actively turned on the TV and tuned to CCTV-1, where the preview of the Spring Festival Gala was already playing.

With last year's success, this year's Spring Festival Gala seems to have a more sophisticated process.

This year's hosts have been replaced by a major cast, with Jiang Kun remaining the same, while the remaining three have been replaced by actresses Jiang Lili, Chen Sisi and host Huang Ayuan from Taiwan Island.

As for the content, it’s always the same shows.

The only difference was that Zhu Shimao appeared at around nine o'clock.

Lao Mao is still so handsome in his white sweater and beige windbreaker. In comparison, Chen Xiaoer next to him looks much more wretched.

Ugh!
Lao Mao, you have finally ended up on this old path.

A good movie star turned into a comedian. This is called meeting the wrong person.

But no matter what, the play "Eating Noodles" made the two actors Chen and Zhu famous, and also made the sketch art form shine on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

To some extent, it even affected the entertainment life of Chinese people in the next forty years.

"Unforgettable Tonight

Unforgettable tonight
Regardless of the ends of the earth

China embraces each other thousands of miles apart

......"

It was past midnight and the elders had already gone to bed, and little Dongdong was already sleeping soundly.

There were only Lin Chaoyang and his wife and Tao Yumo in the living room. The familiar and pleasant melody sounded, representing the end of the past year and the beginning of the new year.

"Okay, go to sleep."

After finally finishing watching the Spring Festival Gala, Tao Yushu just stood up yawning, and saw Tao Yumo running up to the couple and bowing deeply.

"Sister, brother-in-law, Happy New Year!"

Tao Yushu looked at his sister speechlessly, "Can't you wait until you wake up after sleeping?"

"Everyone wishes a happy new year after waking up. This is the first one of the new year, and it is full of sincerity." Tao Yumo said with a flattering face.

Lin Chaoyang smiled and touched his pocket, "Okay, take it."

"Thank you, sister, thank you, brother-in-law!"

Lin Chaoyang and his wife went to bed, and Tao Yumo also returned to her little room. She didn't care about sleeping, and opened the red envelope given by Lin Chaoyang, which turned out to be several big unity notes.

One, two, three...

Tao Yumo counted them and found that there were five, which was much more than the New Year's money he had received in previous years.

She thought about it and immediately understood that this must be a bonus given to her by her sister and brother-in-law in recognition of her dedication in taking care of the children.

As expected, working is not as fun as taking care of children. My eldest nephew is really my cash cow.

With joy in his heart, Tao Yumo kissed the sleeping Xiao Dongdong on the face twice.

After the child stopped drinking milk at night some time ago, he started sleeping with Tao Yumo.

At this time, most of the Yanjing city had fallen asleep, but the sound of firecrackers could still be heard from time to time outside the window. Tao Yumo looked outside and muttered to himself: They are still setting off firecrackers so late, don't these people want to sleep?
She was right, some people really don't sleep.

To be precise, it’s not that I don’t sleep, but that I can’t sleep at all.

Guangzhou, Yanjing Road, residential building above Taipingguan Western Restaurant.

In later generations, Guangzhou had a rich nightlife like a city that never sleeps, but nowadays, the city goes into a deep sleep after nine o'clock in the evening.

Even though it was New Year's Eve, the city was quiet until 11 o'clock, except for the occasional young people with nowhere to vent their energy setting off a few firecrackers, disturbing the peace. "Old Li, go to bed early, you have to go to pay New Year's greetings tomorrow." His wife He Xian admonished Li Shifei in a gentle tone.

Li Shifei answered her with a nasal tone, but his body did not move at all.

Looking at his condition, He Xian sighed helplessly.

My husband has always been very serious about his work, and he has been working even harder since he took charge of Huacheng.

Ever since he received the manuscript five days ago, he has never put it down and spends almost every day in this state.

Except for going to the toilet, he had to hold the manuscript even when eating. It was like he was possessed. I really don't know what's so good about it.

The New Year should be a time for family gatherings to be lively and joyful, but her husband was so absorbed in reading manuscripts that she had to take care of everything at home. She felt very upset when she thought about how busy she had been over the past few days.

The key point is that I have done so much, but no one even looks at it. Their eyes are all on the manuscript.

He won’t eat unless he is told, and he can’t put down the manuscript even when eating. He continues reading after eating, and won’t stop until the very last second before going to sleep. He will continue reading as soon as he wakes up and opens his eyes.

It's crazy! It's really crazy!

But no matter how angry she was, He Xian felt more distressed. Li Shifei was already in his fifties, and reading manuscripts at such a high intensity was simply suicide.

She stood there waiting for Li Shifei for a while, and seeing that he didn't move, she decided in her heart that she had to let him go to bed early tonight no matter what.

She was thinking about snatching the manuscript from Li Shifei, but she didn't have time to do it.

Li Shifei, who had been sitting calmly on the sofa, suddenly stood up and howled three times. He Xian was frightened by him and didn't know what was wrong with him.

Just as he was about to ask, he saw Li Shifei's tears pouring down, his face looked like crying and laughing, like a madman.

"Lao Li! Lao Li! Are you okay? Don't scare me!"

He Xian was extremely anxious and shook Li Shifei's arm with a worried look on her face.

After a long time, Li Shifei regained his sanity from his trance. He looked at his wife blankly, and saw that she looked worried and anxious, with tears on her face. He asked, "What's wrong?"

Seeing that he finally woke up, He Xian cried and complained, "You still ask what happened? You are crazy. You are crazy from reading the manuscript. Do you know..."

Before He Xian finished speaking, he heard the word "manuscript" and Li Shifei was immediately distracted, "Oh, right, manuscript!"

He turned around and searched for a long time, but couldn't find the manuscript. He immediately became anxious and panicked, "What happened? I just looked at it. How come it disappeared?"

As He Xian watched her husband "looking for a better job while still working", the anxiety in her heart faded away, replaced by a feeling of being at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

She reached out to grab the manuscript in Li Shifei's hand and said, "You've been scanning it with your eyes for so long, don't you know how to use your hands to search carefully?"

Li Shifei finally realized what was happening after being prompted by his wife's actions. He breathed a sigh of relief. "I was so scared. I thought the manuscript was missing."

He Xian looked at her husband's absent-minded and frightened appearance and complained again, "You are really crazy. Do you want to scare people to death during the New Year? You are so obsessed with reading a manuscript!"

Li Shifei knew that he had been paying no attention to what was happening outside these days because his wife was busy preparing for the New Year. Feeling guilty, he apologized to his wife.

After he apologized, He Xian finally let go of the resentment in her heart.

"Go to bed early, it's already one o'clock."

Li Shifei nodded. He Xian thought he was going to sleep, but then he heard Li Shifei say, "You go to sleep first. I'll write something."

He Xian was immediately dissatisfied when he heard this and asked, "What are you still writing? Don't you see what time it is? Are you going to die? Do you think you are still a young man in his twenties or thirties?"

Li Shifei did not dare to touch his wife's domineering attitude, and could only explain in a gentle voice: "I just finished reading the manuscript, and I have to write down my feelings while my mind is clear. I am old now, and I forget everything after a night."

Of course, this was Li Shifei’s excuse that he would forget it in one night.

The reason why he insisted on staying up late to write was because his body was still moved by the novel and his soul was still trembling. Only what he wrote at this time was closest to his actual reading experience.

After convincing his wife by saying “I’ll go to bed after writing for half an hour”, Li Shifei went to the desk and turned on the desk lamp.

He took a deep breath. He was in his fifties and had been up all night for several days. He was indeed physically exhausted. However, when he thought of the novel he had just finished reading, he became unusually excited.

Five days ago, the editorial department of Huacheng received a five-centimeter-thick manuscript from Lin Chaoyang.

When they first received the manuscript, everyone in the editorial department was a little surprised, because everyone knew that Li Shifei and Lin Chaoyang had agreed on two manuscripts last year.

One is the "Crossing Boat" which has already been published, and the other one, according to Li Shifei, he and Lin Chaoyang discussed a big plan, he wanted Lin Chaoyang to create a magical realism work like "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

When the editors first heard this statement from Li Shifei, they were not optimistic.

Ever since Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, magical realism has become a fashionable literary genre in China.

But no matter what, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is the most dazzling jewel in the crown of the literary genre of magical realism. You can write it just because you say so. Even if the person is Lin Chaoyang, you can't be so unreasonable, right?
But later, Li Shifei told everyone his ideas and everyone understood.

Magical realism is very popular right now, and it is a good thing that Lin Chaoyang is willing to give it a try.

It seems impossible to write a work like "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in one go, but "aim for the best and get the middle", with Lin Chaoyang's creative ability, if he really calms down and spends three to five years to produce a work.

Not to mention reaching the level of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", there will be no problem in surpassing his own level and that of contemporary literature.

Wouldn’t it be great to have such a work published in Huacheng?

After the publication of "The Boat Crossing", the sales of "Flower City" once reached a record of 200 million copies in a single issue, which made everyone feel reassured.

The single volume of "The Boat Crossing" was published in November, and exactly two months before the Chinese New Year, its sales reached an astonishing 11 copies.

Unlike the one-time sales of magazines, the sales of books can be said to be a steady stream. With the potential shown by "The Crossing", it is possible to be a super bestseller with sales of millions of copies.

For at least three years, this novel will become a golden goose for Huacheng Publishing House.

At first, everyone thought that Lin Chaoyang's basic remuneration of 20 yuan per thousand words and 7% of copies was too high. Now it seems that it is not high at all.

Compared with the millions of revenues that the publishing house may earn in the next few years, what is the small amount of royalties paid to Lin Chaoyang?
Because of the success of "The Boat Crossing", everyone at Huacheng Publishing House is looking forward to Lin Chaoyang's second work.

According to Li Shifei, this novel must have taken several years of time and effort, and everyone agrees with this statement.

But no one expected that they would receive Lin Chaoyang's novel manuscript before the Spring Festival in 83.

Counting the time it took to complete the manuscript of "The Boat Crossing", it has been less than a year!

The editors of Huacheng had only one feeling in their hearts when they looked at the manuscript, which was almost as thick as a dictionary.

What kind of octopus is this?

(End of this chapter)