Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 237 It suddenly becomes clear
(I will try to update earlier starting tomorrow... I can't stand it anymore...)
As the bell rang, the semi-finals of the 8th "New Concept Essay Competition" officially ended. Even the most procrastinating students handed in their works.

The stenographer was very efficient and it took only two hours to convert all the manuscripts into electronic copies and print them out as required. After dinner, the judges came to the meeting room for marking the papers and saw a thick stack of manuscripts on their seats.

Although Zhang Chao did not participate in the judging this time, he was still present. After giving a few instructions, he said "please", bowed to everyone, and then left. He knew that tonight would definitely be a sleepless night.

As the door to the conference room was tightly closed, Alai said in a deep voice: "Let's get started. Everyone hurry up, the results will be out tomorrow morning."

Of course, it is impossible for one judge to read all the manuscripts in one night. The sum of the number of manuscripts assigned to each person is exactly three times the total number - that is, each manuscript is read by at least three judges, to ensure that no gems are missed due to personal aesthetic bias.

In the first round of judging, each judge will select the works that they think can win the first and second prizes. Works that are not selected by the three judges will automatically be included in the category of Excellence Award.

In the second round of review, manuscripts that are favored by all three judges will directly enter the third round. Then the remaining manuscripts that are selected by only one or two judges will undergo a cross-review, and some will be screened out to enter the third round. Those that do not enter the third round will also be included in the Excellence Award.

The third round of review mainly involves cross-evaluation again, and then after sufficient discussion, the first prize works will be selected, which is about 10-15% of the number of semi-finalists. The rest of the works will be included in the second prize.

For each round of review, the manuscripts are reprinted to ensure that the judges are not influenced by other people's scores.

This process was more rigorous and complicated than the previous ones. However, there were nearly as many staff members on site as there were judges, carrying five or six notebooks and two large commercial printers, which compressed the time of all transition links to the extreme.

To the point that the judges didn’t even notice any gaps between rounds and they just slid right by.

"How did you come up with these methods? They are much more scientific than before. In the past, we all read students' manuscripts. Many students' articles were good, but their handwriting was so ugly. And how did some manuscripts win first or second prizes? I was confused in the end." Su Tong took advantage of the gap between the first and second rounds to come out and smoke a cigarette, and happened to meet Zhang Chao who was bringing midnight snacks to everyone.

Upon hearing this question, Zhang Chao was stunned. He then asked the staff to bring in the midnight snack for him. Then he started talking about "follow-up reading", "recommended position", "new book PK", "monthly ticket", "first order", "order ratio"... which became more and more confusing.

Su Tong was bewildered, and could only think that there was a generation gap between him and Zhang Chao, and that he did not understand the world of young people. But it was strange that Zhang Chao spoke of these things with such grief and indignation, as if he had suffered a great deal.

Zhang Chao could only sigh and could not explain. But he turned around and sent a long text message to Wu Wenhui of Qidian, which began with: "Brother Wu, I think we need to introduce some new mechanisms at Qidian..." Since he had only experienced the hardship himself, he might as well let others experience it in advance. (Just kidding, don't take it seriously)
After a long time, Zhang Chao's phone buzzed. He took it out and saw that it was a reply from Senior Brother Wu. There were only a few words: "When will you update again?"

Zhang Chao swallowed his saliva and slapped his head. He thought that he had been too busy recently and had completely forgotten about the online novel... So he quietly put away his phone and pretended he didn't see it.

It was almost 11 o'clock in the evening when Xiaoye entered the venue. The most time-consuming first and second rounds of judging had just ended. A total of about 150 candidates for the first and second prizes were selected.

There were a wide variety of midnight snacks, including tofu pudding, fried dough sticks, pan-fried buns, seafood porridge, wontons, and several kinds of drinks. Crayfish were not popular at that time, and grilled and fried stinky tofu had a strong smell, so Zhang Chao chose light food.

The judges had been reading the manuscripts for three or four hours and were all tired. But when they saw such a sumptuous meal, their eyes lit up. They took some without hesitation and started to feast on it.

Chi Li took a bite of the tofu pudding and exclaimed "Wow!" in disbelief, "Why is Shanghai tofu pudding salty?"

Li Qigang said with a confused look on his face: "Isn't this tofu pudding? Tofu pudding is originally salty. Is there any other flavor?"

Chi Ligang put the tofu pudding back with a look of disgust, and immediately retorted after hearing this: "Who said tofu pudding is salty? It should be sweet. How can you eat it salty?" At the end, her Wuhan accent came out.

Han Shaogong was drinking soy milk and eating steamed buns. He leaned over to take a look and immediately agreed, "This should be sweet. Sweet things go down the throat better. Who wants salty tofu pudding?"

At this time, some people who like salty food were not happy and immediately defended themselves by saying, "Tofu pudding tastes better when it's salty and goes well with other snacks. How can you eat other food if it's too sweet?"

For a while, the "sweet party" and "salty party" argued in the conference room, which was more lively than the discussion of the manuscript. In the corner of the scene, Ma Boyong, a "foodie", suddenly got an inspiration and quietly opened a new document. Before he thought of a title, he entered the first line of text:

[Whether to pour soy sauce or sprinkle sugar on tofu pudding is a serious matter, second only to the Holy Heart...]

Zhang Chao, who had already slipped back to the hotel, didn't know that his unintentional act of packing up a portion of snacks from the nearby night market had actually brought forward the "Tofu Pudding War" that was supposed to happen on the Internet by several years.

It even gave birth to a best-selling book that didn't exist in the previous life...

However, the controversy in the conference room was actually a way for the judges to vent their stress, and it was not necessarily about who was right or wrong, so as the food on the table was consumed, it soon came to an end.

In the end, everyone burst into laughter at the same time, and all the previous fatigue was swept away.

Alai smiled and said to everyone: "The students wrote so happily today, we judges can't read the manuscripts with a sad face. It's just right now, just right!"

Chi Zijian said at the side: "It's not just right - it's almost there."

Alai asked, "What's missing?"

Chi Zijian smiled and said, "We're still short of some wine! Zhang Chao shouldn't just give us drinks, he should give us a few bottles of wine. I saw several good articles today, and every time I want to go to the bathroom."

Alai knew Chi Zijian was joking, but he still followed up on the topic and said, "A good article certainly deserves good wine, but we have to wait until tomorrow night. The next step is the hard battle. Everyone continue!"

The staff quickly cleaned up the desks and neatly placed the newly printed manuscripts neatly on the judges' seats. Everyone then got back to work.

In the third round of review, the disagreements among the judges were greater than in the first two rounds combined. After all, the idea of ​​the first two rounds was to "screen the levels", while the idea of ​​the third round was to "classify the highs and lows".

They are all veterans in the literary world, and they all have sharp eyes, and they can make almost no difference in their judgments of "good" and "bad". But "how good" depends on their own aesthetic tastes and values.

"Look at this passage - "Life is not a cake. Although a cake has many layers, no matter which layer, the only difference is the sweetness; but life has all five flavors." This student is very perceptive. He caught a 'flaw' in Zhang Chao's question and started the story from this 'flaw'. The angle is very clever and deserves the first prize. "

"This one is wonderful. Look at its ending - "My article is finished, but my cake is still complete - even though it was cut from a huge mother, it is complete to me. Just like my youth, even though it was torn and bleeding, it is still sweet to me when I taste it myself."

This article depicts the subtle and complex relationship between the ‘individual’ and the ‘collective’. The rebellion of every adolescent is actually a process of gradually ‘peeling off’ from the ‘family’ matrix and becoming an independent ‘individual’. It may seem painful to outsiders, but the experiencer does not think so…”

"Isn't this the same old thing as youth literature? I think since this year's competition is new, we shouldn't repeat the previous selection criteria - in Zhang Chao's fashionable words, we shouldn't be 'path dependent'.

On the contrary, I think this article is good. It should be written by a student from Hong Kong.

"The cake will not change its taste when it is cut, but the land will. The land I live in has an unusually complex taste. Walking in the streets, you first taste the traditional Chinese sweet-scented osmanthus cake; but when you look up, you find that you are actually walking on 'Aberdeen Street', 'Staunton Street' and 'Hollywood Road', as if you were sprinkled with a spoonful of British honey. ..."

This author writes about the complex cultural feelings of Hong Kong people in a delicate, concrete and vivid way. I was very moved after reading it. It does not have the usual routine of youth literature that many mainland students have, that is, it does not have that kind of "sour taste." "

"This article is good, but it cannot be used to negate the efforts of other students. Youth literature is not wrong, what is wrong is the routine and greasy youth literature. In fact, every young person, as long as he writes his own story and his own ideas, belongs to "youth literature". Look at this text -

"Coming to Shanghai, everything makes me feel insignificant. Buildings that are so tall you can't even see the top, streets where more than a dozen cars can run side by side, two-story buses... When I got to the scene, wow, even the cakes were twice as tall as me and several times wider. But I still want to write about my little village..."

This student's language is not so beautiful, but it has a simple and high-spirited temperament. I think it is not too much to give this kind of "youth literature" a first prize, right?"

"Director Alai said that the first prize of this competition must be truly 'the best in the world', and make everyone convinced. So we must choose works with good literary talent and ideas. I think this one is good enough -

"As the saying goes, 'Great success begins with imperfection'. Imperfections lead to progress. Trying to be perfect is like standing still. This big cake may only be one's own life in the eyes of ordinary people, but in my eyes, it is the whole world. ..."

Other people’s writings are all about one person or one place, but this work is magnified to the entire universe. At such a young age, writing articles with such a pattern and argument is really applaudable! ”

"Isn't this a bit of an exaggeration? It's fine for movie dialogue, but it feels a bit empty and exaggerated when used as an article."

"It is just a beautiful vision to convince everyone. Not everyone likes the RMB, let alone a highly subjective article. I think the first prize work does not have to be all-encompassing and be a barrel without any shortcomings.

As long as it has one aspect that is long enough and the other aspects are not particularly weak, it can win the first prize. For example, I think the form of this article is particularly outstanding. I simply don’t write a novel, a poem, or an essay, but a recipe, the recipe of this big cake.

The recipes are all his own thoughts on society - "The cream is made by mixing three parts of human feelings, three parts of courtesy, two parts of bitterness and one part of indifference. It is spread on the outermost surface of the cake base to make everything look greasy and shiny. ..."

Literature needs this kind of imagination to break through existing constraints and give people a refreshing feeling. "

"What imagination? Actually, this form has already appeared in the college entrance examination two years ago. However, the essay that received full marks in the college entrance examination was about 'medical history', not 'recipe'. But it's basically the same."

"Really? I don't believe it!"

"Don't believe it? It's all on the news. That guy, Xiao Ma, show him on the computer..."

Listening to the heated debate, Alai was actually filled with joy. These debates were at least evaluated from a literary perspective, and the types of articles were obviously more diverse than in the past. The participation of students from Hong Kong and Macao also brought a completely different and fresh atmosphere to the competition.

He had a hunch that the winners of this "New Concept Essay Competition" would become the most important and solid new force in Chinese literature for a long time to come. And he happened to be the chairman of the jury for this competition.

Thinking of this, Alai really felt that he needed to "clarify himself" in order to comfort his current joy and contentment.

However, as the chairman of the jury, he naturally had the courage and wisdom to make the final decision when there was endless debate. Alai waved his hand to everyone and began to say: "Whether it is 'comprehensive' or 'very long', I think from a literary perspective, 'stylization' is more important?
After all, we are not just selecting students who are good at writing, but also potential newcomers who can become writers in the future, so you might as well consider this factor more. ..."

Not to mention the commotion in the judging room, Zhang Chao couldn't sleep at all even though he returned to the hotel. He was worried about problems with the judges, which turned out to be too late; he was also worried about accidents at tomorrow's award ceremony.

I was in a daze until dawn, and then I managed to take a 2-hour nap. But I was woken up by a phone call before 9 o'clock.

Zhang Chao picked up the phone and saw that it was Alai calling. He picked up the phone immediately and asked hastily, "Teacher Alai, how did the review go? Is there any problem?"

Alai said, "It's basically over. There's only one article left that's still controversial, and we're still discussing it. Do you want to take a look?"

Zhang Chao couldn't help but hesitate. Alai's words were very tactful, but his intention to "help" was also very obvious, otherwise he wouldn't have made this call. The disagreement on the "controversial" article must have been so huge that even Alai, the chairman of the jury, couldn't reconcile it.

This is also the disadvantage of choosing a young writer to preside over the review. After all, the other judges have similar qualifications or even slightly higher than him. If Wang Meng is the chairman of the jury like two years ago, then his words will basically be final.

As the organizer of the competition, it is understandable that Zhang Chao went to the judging site to "care" about the progress. However, he is not a judge and his identity is so special. If he rashly intervened and influenced the final result, it would be against the rules.

But it was no use letting the judges remain in such a stalemate, so Zhang Chao finally decided to go and said to Alai, "You and everyone else wait for me for a while, I'll be there soon."

After saying that, he hung up the phone, hurriedly got up, washed, put on some clothes casually, and took a taxi to the review meeting room.

As soon as he entered the room, Zhang Chao felt that the atmosphere was not right. The judges were divided into two groups, confronting each other, and neither of them would give in. When Alai saw him coming, he hurried forward and handed over the article in his hand.

Zhang Chao quickly waved his hand and said, "I won't read this article yet. I'll take a look at the first prize article that has been selected."

(Two chapters combined into one. Except for a short passage from The Grandmaster, all the passages from the semi-finals are original. I have tried my best to write in different styles. If it is not good enough, please forgive me.)
(End of this chapter)