Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 374 I Can’t Write It in My Life

Zhejiang, Haiyan County, Wuyuan Town.

The town’s health center is a two-story building. Although it looks small, it is one of the few multi-story buildings in the town.

Yu Hua was half an hour late in the morning. He was greeting people he knew along the way. When he entered the building, he happened to meet the dean coming down the stairs. He called out to him and their eyes met.

Although the dean didn't say anything, the look in his eyes still made him feel pressured.

When will I be able to live a life without worrying about working hours? Yu Hua sighed hopelessly.

When I arrived at the clinic, there were no patients yet. To be more precise, there have never been many patients.

Ordinary people nowadays usually don't go to see a doctor for minor illnesses, but go to big hospitals for serious ones. Yu Hua is a dentist. People nowadays don't pay much attention to oral hygiene. The most common job he does is extracting teeth, and he only does it when the pain is unbearable.

Yu Hua changed into a white coat and waited for a while. Seeing that no one came, he took out a magazine from his bag. This was the reason why he was late today.

Wuyuan Town is a small town and there is no bookstore in the town. If you want to buy books, you have to go to the Xinhua Bookstore in the county. It is better to buy newspapers and magazines, as they are sold in the town’s post office.

However, the types of newspapers and periodicals sold here are also very limited. Apart from newspapers and periodicals within the province of ZJ, there are basically national newspapers and well-known magazines, and the quantity of each newspaper and periodical is not large.

There are still a few more newspapers, but there are only ten or eight magazines. Once they are sold out, they are gone. If you want to buy more, you can only go to the county.

Yu Hua got up early today and waited at the door of the post office before it opened. He was the first to buy the freshly published magazine - "Huacheng".

His eyes fell on the cover of the magazine. There was nothing surprising about it. The secret was inside.

When I opened the magazine, the table of contents that took up a whole page in previous issues was gone. This issue's table of contents only took up one-third of a page, and there were only three columns.

"Novels", "Hong Kong, Taiwan and Island Literature" and "Flower City Forum".

There is only one work name under each column. This issue of the magazine is not marked as a "special issue", but it is not a special issue but it is better than a special issue.

Yu Hua did not pay attention to the two columns of "Hong Kong Bay Island Literature" and "Huacheng Forum", but focused on the dazzling title under "Novel" - "Crossing the Guandong".

Looking at the name, a floating figure emerged in his mind.

Yu Hua had met Lin Chaoyang twice, and each time they met he was always very lively. But for some reason, whenever he thought of Lin Chaoyang's image, this ethereal and otherworldly temperament would always appear in his mind.

He shook his head, shook off all distracting thoughts, opened the magazine, and immersed himself in the text.

It was not known how long it had been before he was called back to his senses. It turned out that someone wanted to pull out a tooth.

Extracting teeth is Yu Hua's job, but he doesn't like it. It would be too miserable to spend his whole life looking at people's open mouths.

After seeing the patient off, Yu Hua washed his hands and was about to continue reading a novel when he heard a teasing voice at the door.

"Hey! Is the great writer reading a novel?"

The only nurse in the hospital is named Zhang. She is over 40 years old and has much more experience than Yu Hua. She always likes to make fun of him when she speaks.

"Sister Zhang, please stop making fun of me. What great writer?"

"Why aren't you considered a great writer? You've published articles in People's Literature!"

When talking about People's Literature, Yu Hua couldn't help but smile, but he tried hard to hide it.

In March just past, his short story "Stars" was published in "People's Literature". This was of course a great thing that was worth being extremely happy about for him and Wu Yuanzhen as well.

In this small town with a population of only 20,000, few people discuss literature, let alone writing.

Yu Hua's peers' hobbies after work include smoking, drinking, playing cards, watching movies, watching TV... While his peers were enjoying the happiness that belonged to their age, he was the only one hiding in the room, silently concentrating on writing.

God helps those who work hard, his novel was published, and it was published in "People's Literature".

This piece of news was undoubtedly sensational in a small town like Wuyuan Town. Over the past few months, he has become the focus of heated discussions on the streets of the town and has become known as a "great writer."

Whenever Yu Hua heard such teasing from others, he felt happy but also a little helpless.

The publication of "Stars" in "People's Literature" was a historic moment in his writing career, but that was all.

This short story did not generate any influence or attention after its publication, let alone bring him any great fame.

Yu Hua also knew that if he wanted to become famous through a short story, it would undoubtedly require considerable talent and luck, and it was obvious that his talent was not high.

I was lucky enough to meet an editor like Mr. Tao who was willing to give young people opportunities.

When revising manuscripts at Yenching, Yu Hua became quite familiar with some editors in the editorial department of People's Literature, especially Zhu Wei.

According to Zhu Wei, his works "Stars" and "You Go, I Go" were actually a little far from the editorial department's acceptance criteria.

Tao Yushu felt that if we wanted to cultivate young writers, we had to give them opportunities, and he argued with the editor-in-chief Wang Meng.

When Yu Hua thought of this, he was filled with gratitude towards Tao Yushu, his mentor.

The last time he went to Beijing, he revised two manuscripts. Another one, "You Go, I Go Too," will also be published in People's Literature this month. With the experience of "Stars," Yu Hua calmed down and no longer dreamed of becoming famous with one work. Unfortunately, the ridicule and jokes from people around him always lingered in his ears.

These people may be well-intentioned or malicious, Yu Hua does not have the ability to distinguish, he only hopes that their ridicule will come true.

"Don't look at it yet, let's go eat." Sister Zhang said.

Yu Hua then realized that it was already noon.

After eating a quick meal, he returned to the clinic to continue reading his novel. He was not brought back to his senses until he was disturbed by a noise in the corridor.

Yu Hua looked at the time. There were still more than ten minutes before the end of get off work. No wonder there was noise outside. Someone in the unit had already found an excuse to leave early.

He was also immersed in the atmosphere and story created by the novel, unable to extricate himself.

This issue of "Huacheng" published only half of the content of "Crossing the Guandong". Yu Hua spent a whole day and only read one-third of this half of the content.

But even so, he could still see the excellence of this novel.

Watching "Crossing Guandong", he thought of Kawabata Yasunari, Kafka, and Lu Xun, whom he had read before...

Yu Hua didn't know how far "Crossing the Guandong" was from the works of these famous writers, but he now clearly realized that this novel would definitely leave a significant mark in the history of contemporary Chinese literature.

Such an idea may be a bit idealistic, but he believes that he has already taken a relatively rational perspective.

The clinic faces the street, and standing at the window on the second floor, he can see the street outside.

In the evening, the streets of the town were not busy, but they were quite lively, with people getting off work, buying groceries, and finishing school... It was full of the atmosphere of life, but Yu Hua felt an inexplicable sense of sadness when he looked at such a scene.

From a reader's perspective, "Crossing the Guandong" is a very outstanding novel, but when he looked at "Crossing the Guandong" from the perspective of the creator, the blow Yu Hua suffered when reading this novel was unprecedented, and he felt a sense of despair.

He may never be able to write a novel like this in his entire life!
This was different from the works of those writers he read. Those people were like stars in the sky, but Lin Chaoyang was by his side, and they even had meals together.

In his impression, that always gentle and calm figure became taller and taller, making him look up and feel that it was out of reach.

At this moment, he stood in front of the window and recalled the joy he felt when the novel was published a month ago. It was far from enough to offset the deep sense of gap and frustration in his heart now.

He then thought about his job, perhaps he was destined to look at the street outside for the rest of his life.

Ugh!
Before the long sigh ended, a shout was suddenly heard in the corridor.

"Yu Hua, phone call!"

The melancholy and sadness in his heart were scared away by the shout. Yu Hua calmed down his emotions and walked downstairs to the message room, wondering if it was a call from some editorial department.

He has always cast a wide net when submitting articles, and he has submitted articles to everything from top magazines to local magazines.

It’s just that because his work was recently published in People’s Literature, he has reduced this kind of haphazard submission. The call now is probably because his previous submission was noticed by some editorial department.

Thinking this in his mind, Yu Hua answered the phone.

The call turned out to be from the county cultural center. Yu Hua vaguely recalled the leisurely scene of him standing on the street and looking at the cultural center employees with envy, and then walking into the cultural center to go to work at nine o'clock in the morning.

Compared to my job as a dentist, the job of a cultural center employee is simply too happy.

Yu Hua had imagined countless times when he would become famous as a writer and be transferred to work in a cultural center. He never expected that this day would really come.

"...I heard that you have another work that will be published in People's Literature soon, right?"

The voice on the other end of the phone interrupted Yu Hua's recollection, and he nodded hurriedly:

"Yes, that's right. There's another novel called "You Go, I Go Too," which will be published in the next two days."

"Okay, our cultural center is in need of talent like you right now. We are processing the formalities here, and it should be completed within half a month. Just wait for the transfer letter."

The future leader on the other end of the phone was happy that his unit was about to recruit a young and promising writer, and Yu Hua was also excited that he was about to realize his dream.

He couldn't help but recall the hundreds of nights he spent writing, and the shabu-shabu mutton meal he had at Lin Chaoyang's house.

Wind, snow, waves and clouds, the romance unique to literati, all of this seems to be within reach.

Yu Hua put down the phone, walked out of the clinic and stood on the street.

Although the street market is small and narrow, it is bustling with activity, just like any other day.

Just now when he was standing upstairs and looking at this place, he suddenly felt that he had no future. In addition to the confusion of young people about the future, he was more hit by novels like "Crossing the Guandong".

After receiving the call, Yu Hua found that his future seemed to become brighter all of a sudden, and the street in front of him also became brighter and more lovely.

He knew in his heart that it was the two articles published in People's Literature that changed his destiny.

He suddenly felt a little uneasy, not knowing whether he would be able to publish articles in the future.

Teacher Tao, please bless me!
(End of this chapter)