Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 361 The Price of Acting as an Elder
A large group of people from the Yenching Literary Association gathered at Chen Rong's house. The atmosphere was very lively. Everyone was vying to show off their cooking skills. Lin Chaoyang couldn't even get a turn, so he simply sat aside and chatted with Liu Xinwu.

"Chaoyang, does Huacheng really pay you 50 yuan per thousand words?" Liu Xinwu asked hesitantly.

The news that Huacheng paid Lin Chaoyang a sky-high fee of 50 yuan per thousand words was privately circulated for half a year, but Lin Chaoyang himself never said so.

When a friend came to verify it, he was also ambiguous, so he strongly suspected that the news was spread from "Huacheng".

He felt that there were at least two benefits to Huacheng doing this.

First, it can show the magazine's determination to attract more writers to contribute to the magazine;

Second, put pressure on those magazines or publishing houses that want to commission Lin Chaoyang to write for them. You want to commission an article, right? Learn from Huacheng and offer 50 yuan for a thousand words first.

This was a blatant conspiracy, and people spent real money on it. Lin Chaoyang had no way of verifying it with Huacheng, nor could he express his dissatisfaction.

He was not afraid of the news spreading. No matter how high the royalties were, they were all clean. What he was mainly afraid of was that someone would make a fuss about this matter and disrupt the literary world.

Lao Liu was an honest man, and Lin Chaoyang was embarrassed to lie to him, "The royalties are indeed high."

Hearing this, Liu Xinwu felt a little depressed. He really gave 50 yuan per thousand words as a remuneration? How could he get Chaoyang's manuscripts in the future? Isn't this just driving up prices?
"They are so bold to pay for articles. Is there no one above them to supervise?" Liu Xinwu complained.

Lin Chaoyang said: "Huacheng has a lot of say in their publishing house, and I heard from Lao Li that they are somewhat responsible for their own profits and losses. The key is that my novels can really make money for them!"

When he said the last sentence, there was a hint of confidence in Lin Chaoyang's expression.

How could Liu Xinwu not hear his subtext? He pursed his lips and said, "If I were in charge, I would definitely give you a high price!"

His heart was filled with regret. Their Yenching Publishing House had made a lot of money from "The Chess Master" and "Shutter Island". He couldn't say how much more, but it must have been several hundred thousand yuan. However, they were reluctant to increase Lin Chaoyang's royalties.

This is due to the lack of vision of the community leaders, as well as constraints from above.

It would have been fine if he had missed out on "The Crossing the Guandong", but now Liu Xinwu could feel the heavy epic atmosphere just by listening to Lin Chaoyang's talk about "Crossing the Guandong".

Thanks to the previous cooperative relationship between Yenching Publishing House and Lin Chaoyang, it is actually not impossible to obtain the publication rights of this novel.

Liu Xinwu has a feeling that this novel "Crossing the Guandong" will definitely set off a sensation in the entire literary world.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh at himself.

In fact, he didn't need to feel it. Whether it was Su Chen and Qin Mu's generous praise or their feelings about the story today, it had almost become an established fact. It's just that this fact would not explode until the day of publication.

"When you become the president, I will give you a manuscript!" Lin Chaoyang said jokingly.

Liu Xinwu smiled bitterly and said, "Then I won't have a chance in this life."

"Hey, Lao Liu, don't underestimate yourself. You still have to have dreams."

"Haha! I don't want to dream of becoming an official!"

Liu Xinwu tried to make himself happy in the midst of misery and chatted and laughed with Lin Chaoyang for a while, then Wang Meng called Lin Chaoyang over again.

"What?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

“Can’t I chat with you if I have nothing to do?” Wang Meng replied, and then said: “Now you are not only an editorial board member of our People’s Literature, but also a family member of our People’s Literature. Why don’t you think of us when you have a work?”

"You are not sincere in commissioning the work!"

Lin Chaoyang's works have been published in "People's Literature", and the editor-in-chief Cui Daoyi later asked him for manuscripts, but because of the issue of royalties, Lin Chaoyang never provided them with manuscripts again.

"50 yuan per thousand words, right?" Wang Meng's tone was full of sarcasm.

Lin Chaoyang said helplessly: "How come you know all this?"

Now that the news is spreading more and more widely, Lin Chaoyang can no longer pretend to be deaf.

"You dare to ask for royalties, and you're afraid of what people will say?" Wang Meng continued to tease him.

"What do I have to be afraid of? I'm just afraid of the jealousy of you magazines!"

Wang Meng said cheerfully: "You're scolding us for not being able to eat grapes and saying that the grapes are sour, right?"

"You said that yourself."

"Okay, okay, stop joking. I need your help with something."

Wang Meng put away her smile and started talking about business with Lin Chaoyang.

Since taking over from Zhang Guangnian as editor-in-chief of People's Literature in July last year, Wang Meng has been in office for more than seven months.

During these seven months, he had managed to straighten out the internal relationships of the editorial department by various means, but some of his ideas for reforming the magazine had not yet been realized.

He now has an idea to set up a creative correspondence center this year to hold a series of literary lectures and creative correspondence courses, mainly targeting those potential young authors of "People's Literature".

“In my opinion, it would be best if we could come up with a supplement. I have even thought of a name for it: People’s Friends of Literature.

This publication is equivalent to the textbook of the correspondence center. It can publish the teachers' creative theories and lectures. Moreover, the students' writing level is generally not very high, so it is not appropriate to publish it in "People's Literature". It would be much more convenient if there is this supplement. "

Wang Meng talked for a long time, then stopped here and looked at Lin Chaoyang, "I want Yu Shu to be in charge of this supplement, what do you think?"

Let Tao Yushu be in charge of the supplement?
This is certainly a good thing, but Wang Meng could have told Tao Yushuo in person, but he chose to come to him today to talk to him. Considering what he had said before about the correspondence center for creative writing, Lin Chaoyang already understood his plan.

"It's certainly a good thing that you, as a leader, value our Yu Shu. I'll tell her about this later, and she'll definitely be happy." Lin Chaoyang said with a smile.

Wang Meng added: "When the correspondence education center opens, how about you come and give lectures to the students?"

"How do you arrange your time?"

“We will hold a literature lecture in Yenching at that time and invite you lecturers to teach local students in Yenching. The lecture notes will be published in the supplement.

The frequency is the same as the publication frequency of the supplement, which is once a month. You only need to come to give a class once, and the time can be longer, one day, which is actually similar to the workshop of Yenching Literature. "

Lin Chaoyang nodded. In the 1980s, almost every publication held such so-called creative classes and workshops. The main purpose was naturally to attract and cultivate young writers.

Of course, there are also some publications that generate income by running classes.

People's Literature naturally does not need to use this method to generate income. What Wang Meng needs now is to dig out fresh blood so that he can show his talents in People's Literature. It's just a lecture, which won't take up much time. Lin Chaoyang readily agreed, "Okay."

Wang Meng was very happy to be invited to be a lecturer. The two chatted for a while while Chen Rong started preparing dinner.

The dining table at Chen Rong's house was an ordinary octagonal table. More than a dozen people came today and there was no room for them to sit. No one minded. Song Fan took the lead and led a few people to the sofa, took two dishes and started eating.

Everyone ate and chatted in a harmonious atmosphere.

At this time, a young man with an overbite and small eyes came in from outside the door. He nodded and bowed as soon as he entered the door, and greeted Yang Mo, Song Fan and others enthusiastically.

"Aunt Yang!"

"Uncle Song!"

……

Chen Rong introduced to everyone that this was her second son Liang Tian.

Song Fan teased, "Boy, shouldn't you be on duty at this hour? Why are you back?"

"Uncle, you have to let me eat while I'm on duty! You can't let your leaders eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks and not care about the lives of us soldiers!"

Liang Tian replied to Song Fan with a playful smile. Chen Rong scolded him for being disrespectful, but Song Fan didn't care. He smiled and said, "Then eat quickly so you can go back after you finish eating."

Liang Tian suddenly looked bitter, "Uncle Song, please don't make things difficult for me, just treat me like a fart!"

Chen Rong slapped him hard and said, "You are getting more and more outrageous. We are all eating."

Liang Tian is the second child in the family. His elder brother Liang Zuo and younger sister Liang Huan are both smart, except him, whose brain is not very good. However, he has one advantage: he knows that he is not good at studying and is very considerate at home.

Later, he joined the army after graduating from junior high school. He was demobilized the year before last. Chen Rong used his connections to get him a temporary job in the External Liaison Department of the Writers Association. His main job was to serve tea and water to the old comrades in the Writers Association.

Today is Sunday and the Literary Association needs someone to be on duty, so he took the responsibility. However, he was a sly guy and came back after being on duty for the whole morning.

Chen Rong apologized to everyone, "Our second child is always good at talking."

Knowing that today was a gathering for his mother and colleagues, Liang Tian found a set of bowls and chopsticks and did not go to the table. He picked up some food and sat in the corner of the sofa.

Yang Mo smiled and said, "Look how much you've forced the child to do this. Come on, come on, eat from me. I'm done."

Liang Tian quickly said: "Aunt Yang, no, no, please sit down, I'll just take a bite."

"You're welcome, come here."

Yang Mo called out to Liang Tian, ​​but he didn't come over. At this time, Lin Chaoyang, who was sitting next to Yang Mo, put down his bowl and chopsticks.

"Okay, don't be so modest, there's room here."

As he spoke, he stood up and made room for Liang Tian.

Seeing that all the seats were given up, Liang Tian finally sat over, squinting his eyes and nodded at Lin Chaoyang, "Thank you, I don't know how to address you."

"Call me Uncle Lin!" Lin Chaoyang said with a smile.

Liang Tian was stunned for a moment. He didn't know Lin Chaoyang. This man looked about the same age as him, but he actually asked him to call him uncle.

It's simply shameless!
But Liang Tian caught a glimpse of the interested looks of the uncles and aunts beside him, then looked at his mother Lin Chaoyang and said, "I call your mother Big Sister. Come on, call uncle."

Seeing that his mother didn't say anything, Liang Tian looked at the expectant expressions of the crowd and called out with difficulty, "Hello, Uncle Lin!"

Lin Chaoyang nodded, "Yes, he is a good and polite child."

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's praise, Liang Tian's face almost turned green, what a shameless guy!

Chen Rong finally spoke up at this time, and said to Lin Chaoyang: "It's New Year's Day, and the child has called me 'uncle', why don't you give him some New Year's money?"

"Oh, you're waiting for me here?" Lin Chaoyang pretended to be surprised.

Everyone laughed in glee. Li Tuo mocked, "This is the price you pay for pretending to be an elder."

Lin Chaoyang ignored him and took out a few bills from his pocket.

"Sister Chen is right. We can't call you 'uncle' in vain during the New Year. Come and take it."

Liang Tian swallowed his saliva in frustration as he looked at the "Great Unity" in front of him. He only earned more than 20 yuan a month doing odd jobs in the Literary Association, but this Great Unity was almost as much as half a month's salary.

Chen Rong didn't expect Lin Chaoyang to take her joke seriously, and hurriedly tried to stop him, but Lin Chaoyang waved his hand and said, "It's okay, happy New Year."

Seeing that his mother didn't say anything, Liang Tian took the bill from Lin Chaoyang after a brief mental struggle, and said in a well-behaved manner, "Thank you, Uncle Lin!"

"You're welcome."

This time, "Uncle Lin" sounded much more sincere than before. His money is really useful.

Lin Chaoyang waved to Liang Zuo and Liang Huan again, "It's better to leave a group behind than to leave one person behind. You two should come too."

Liang Huan called out "Uncle Lin" without any burden, and happily took a big unity card from Lin Chaoyang.

Liang Zuo was a little embarrassed, "Master, I don't need to call you, right?"

Lin Chaoyang was in high spirits. "Let's talk about our own affairs. From your perspective, you should call me Master. From your mother's perspective, you should call me Uncle."

Liang Zuo said helplessly: "Uncle Lin, Happy New Year!"

Lin Chaoyang had one less bill in his hand. Seeing that he would give ten yuan just by calling him uncle, Chen Jiangong came up to Lin Chaoyang and said shamelessly: "Chaoyang, why don't I call you uncle too."

Lin Chaoyang was filled with disgust when he heard this, "I'm afraid you'll call me bankrupt!"

Lin Chaoyang was generous just now, but now he became stingy. The strong contrast between before and after made everyone burst into laughter.

(End of this chapter)