Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 388 People pay for regrets throughout their lives
The news that Zhang Chao's new novel would be published in "Harvest" spread among the editors of literary journals in just one week, and the effect was comparable to throwing a firecracker into a dry toilet during the Chinese New Year.

Moreover, news came from the editorial department of "Harvest" that Zhang Chao wrote a short story of extremely high quality, and used a completely new technique that is rarely seen in China.

At the same time, news came from within the "Youth School" magazine that Zhang Chao was not writing short stories on a whim, but that he would focus all his creative energy on short stories for a long time in the future.

The first to get restless was Huacheng. As the magazine that published Zhang Chao's first novel, Zhang Chao started to contribute to magazines other than Qingchun Pie again. Surprisingly, Huacheng was not his first choice, which made the president and editor-in-chief Xiao Jianguo hard to accept.

He immediately found Zhu Yanling and asked, "What's going on? How did Zhang Chao's new work go to Harvest? Haven't you been in touch recently?"

Zhu Yanling was actually confused, and she didn't understand Zhang Chao's intention, but as a senior editor, she understood the president's intention and immediately said, "I will contact Zhang Chao now and ask him how many more articles he has."

Xiao Jianguo nodded and signaled Zhu Yanling to do it quickly.

After all, the first article has been given to "Harvest" and it cannot be caught back. We can only wait and see who can grab it in the next article.

At this moment, Xiao Jianguo recalled the sensation caused by "Young Babylon" after it was published in "Huacheng" four years ago. He couldn't remember how many times that issue of the magazine was reprinted. He only remembered that the final sales volume remained at the exaggerated number of 4 million copies, setting a sales record for pure literature magazines after the 128s.

The decision at that time to temporarily increase the number of pages in the magazine and publish "Young Babylon" had become a legend in the industry. He boasted about it for a whole year, and would take a copy to give to people wherever he went to a meeting, just to brag about it.

Now that the opportunity to replicate this miracle has slipped away from him, how can he not be heartbroken?
At this moment, Xiao Jianguo felt a little "blame" towards Zhang Chao in his heart. It was bad enough that he didn't give "Homeland" to Huacheng Publishing House, but he didn't even give the new short story to "Huacheng". It turns out that love can change, right?
Of course, Huacheng is not the only one that is anxious.

Li Shidong, the editor-in-chief of "Youth Literature", who had a close relationship with Zhang Chao, also wanted to get Zhang Chao's later manuscripts.

In recent years, with the entry of Zhang Chao, a "big catfish", the originally dying pure literature market has been revitalized and the sales of many magazines have increased.

Especially those young writers who "graduated" from "Youth" magazine and the two most recent "New Concept Composition Competitions", many of them have demonstrated great creative enthusiasm and a high level of creative ability.

Not all of them joined "Tide Culture", and their works were scattered among different magazines.

In addition, in recent years, various magazines have also paid great attention to absorbing this young force, so there is really a thriving trend. After all, there are hundreds of literary magazines in China. In addition to the first-tier stars such as "People's Literature", "Contemporary", "Harvest" and "Huacheng", there are many second-tier, third-tier and local magazines waiting to be fed.

Take Youth Literature for example. Since it published Zhang Chao's Your Name, it has become one of the magazines that many young writers who like to write fantasy works are keen to submit their works to.

The selection criteria of "Youth Literature" originally tended towards "realistic" themes, but after tasting the sweetness, it consciously shifted a little towards fantasy literature. Almost every issue has 1 to 2 fantasy works, which have been very popular among young people.

Sales volume also gradually increased from less than 2 copies to nearly 4 copies, which is completely at the level of a domestic first-tier pure literature journal.

What Li Shidong hopes most now is that through Zhang Chao's new works, the sales of "Youth Literature" will be increased to a higher level, for example, 5 copies per month? In this way, the position of the "Four Little Flowers" of domestic pure literature journals may have to be taken by another magazine.

Relying on his convenience in Yanjing, he simply called Zhang Chao directly and asked him out for dinner.

But the answer he got was - "I'm not in Yanjing, maybe next time."

A similar situation also happened with Mengya Magazine. As the journal with the deepest “grudges” and “origins” with Zhang Chao, it certainly hoped to get Zhang Chao’s new novel, but Zhang Chao “read but did not reply” to text messages or emails, and simply did not answer phone calls.

In addition, "People's Literature", "Contemporary", "October", "Yenching Literature", and even "Fuhai Literature" and "Xiadao Literature" in Zhang Chao's hometown, all hope to obtain Zhang Chao's new works through various relationships.

In just a few weeks, the Chinese literary world, which had been calm for a long time, began to be turbulent again.

Zhang Chao, who "muddied" the waters with his own hands, was neither in Yanjing, Shanghai, nor in his hometown of Fuhai. Instead, he drove to Shenzhen alone and lived in a house he had just bought some time ago. Then, like an ordinary person, he began to experience and observe this familiar yet unfamiliar city.

He was familiar with the city because he lived and worked in Shenzhen for a full 10 years in his previous life, moving six times. He traveled to several areas including Futian, Nanshan, Bao'an, and Longgang, so he had seen many aspects of this city.

The reason he felt strange was that he had only come to Shenzhen in 2014 in his previous life. At that time, Shenzhen had the noble appearance of an international metropolis. However, Shenzhen in 2008 still retained some of its wild and rough vigor.

Zhang Chao's next novel, "Letter from a Stranger Woman", is set to start in Shenzhen in 2009, so he felt it necessary to experience life there.

Of course, he also wanted to visit those places where he had "struggled" in the past, such as those urban villages that redefined the one-bedroom apartment, those old buildings full of small cram schools, and the Longjiang pork trotter rice that was full of memories... It seemed that they were not available at this time, but there were Shaxian snacks everywhere, which looked familiar, but he was not very appetizing.

If I have any selfish motive, it is that in this city where everything is about money, there are very few people who pay attention to literature, and even fewer who can recognize their own.

People won’t watch CCTV when they have free time. They would rather watch TVB and Jade Channel received by a big dish.

So Zhang Chao feels most at ease in Shenzhen! Whether he wakes up at 9 o'clock in the morning, wears flip-flops, a vest and shorts to go to the rice noodle shop downstairs for breakfast, strolls to Nanrong Restaurant for breakfast at noon, or goes to Shengjisuo for a bowl of snake soup or a plate of cold-mixed snake skin in the evening, there is no risk of being recognized.

In addition, the weather in April was neither too hot nor too cold, so climbing Wutong Mountain or going to Jiaochangwei or Dameisha to enjoy the sea breeze was a real pleasure. At that time, many of the later "Internet celebrity attractions" in Shenzhen had not yet been developed, and the relatively simple style was retained, which made Zhang Chao feel like he was enjoying it so much.

So no matter whether editors from major magazines called, sent text messages or emails, he almost never responded. Even if he occasionally answered a call, he would never reveal where he was.

Otherwise, if someone comes to Shenzhen, should I receive him or not? It's all troublesome. I might as well treat everyone equally regardless of their relationship.

Anyway, my second novel has not been written yet, and I haven't decided where to submit it. If I agree to anyone now, it will be "offending" others. Of course, the most important thing about coming to Shenzhen is to collect materials for the novel. After all, "A Letter from an Unknown Woman" is not like "The Last Lesson" where I can draw on my own experience, and there is no original text to inherit, so if I don't come here to experience it, I really can't write it.

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is the representative work of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and also a very charming short story.

The main content of this novel is about a well-known novelist "R" who suddenly received a letter from a strange girl. This strange woman, at the last moment of her life, wrote this long and sad letter with a lifetime of infatuation, revealing her desperate love to R.

When she was a teenager, it was the young and handsome R who opened her heart and let her taste the beauty of first love; after she became an adult, she returned to Vienna alone and "ran into" R many times, and finally had three days of lovemaking with him - but R never recognized that she was the girl next door back then.

When the girl realized that the writer loved to abuse his love to all women but was unwilling to make any sacrifices, she didn't want the writer to feel that he was a burden or even hate her for it, so she gave birth to the child in a poor hospital and took on the burden of life alone.

She wanted the writer to have no worries when he thought of her, to be the only one among the women he had ever loved, and to miss her with love and gratitude forever.

But later, no matter how hard she tried, how many white roses she gave him, and even how she created another affair and spent a night with R, and hinted at him many times, R never remembered who she was, and he even paid the woman.

This finally made the woman heartbroken and desperate.

It was not until she was about to die that she used words to weave this love into a torrent with a resolute, turbulent, and unreserved momentum, and put all the sexual entanglements between herself and R for half a lifetime into this letter. At the end of the letter, she only made a humble request:

Every year on R's birthday, buy yourself some roses and put them in a vase, just as she used to do for him.

But even after reading the letter, R didn't remember what the woman looked like, only some vague feelings.

When Zhang Chao read this novel for the first time, he mistakenly thought that this woman's love was so humble that she would spend half her life crawling by R's side, waiting for R's response at any time.

To describe it in the popular terms of the time, it is the tragic story of "a naive innocent meeting a sea king", or to put it more simply: a dog licks a dog, and in the end, he is left with nothing!
However, as he experienced life and human nature more deeply in his two lives, he suddenly realized that the emotion harbored by that "strange woman" was not a completely humble emotion; on the contrary, it was an extremely pure pride and extremely powerful courage.

No matter how much she desired it in her heart, she never took the initiative to ask R for anything, and at most just gave hints; she only acted according to the voice of her heart throughout her life; in fact, in her mind, she was the only protagonist, and Mr. R was just a supporting role who cooperated with her to perform the "ideal ultimate love".

After all, she didn't give her whole life for R, but for the love in her heart.

Zweig was not superficial enough to write a shallow and erotic story to please the world. He was always exploring the most subtle and moving part of human nature.

So when Gorky read "Letter from an Unknown Woman", he actually burst into tears; the whole of Europe was also fascinated by this novel.

To some extent, it is even more difficult for Zhang Chao to parody this novel than "The Last Lesson".

On this day, after eating a bowl of beef rice rolls with egg, Zhang Chao came to the sales hall of "Nanshan District Guanhaitai" wearing flip-flops!

There was no way around it. In 2008, Shenzhen experienced a round of plummeting housing prices due to policies and other factors.

When you open the newspaper, you can see advertisements of different real estate projects with words like "price reduction", "special offer", "sales promotion", "market rescue" everywhere; words like "starting from 4988 yuan/square meter outside the customs" and "starting from 7380 yuan/square meter inside the customs" make Zhang Chao, who only has memories of Shenzhen housing prices after 2014, feel like it is a dream.

These days, every time I want to "experience life", I can't help but turn into the sales hall of a nearby property.

Just like the "Nanshan District Guanhaitai" located on Houhai Road, with 4 bedrooms and 2 living rooms, 140 square meters, it costs "only" 200 million.

It seems to be even more "valuable" than the "Peninsula City-State" of 350 square meters for 220 million yuan that he bought two days ago.

Fortunately, it was in Guangdong. Not only was his lazy appearance not looked down upon by the sales ladies, but when he walked in, their eyes lit up and they rushed over as if they wanted to eat him up.

Zhang Chao knew that he was probably mistaken for a demolished resident of Gangxia Village or somewhere else...

After swiping the card and walking away under the sales lady's glaring gaze, Zhang Chao smiled to himself, thinking that people really have to pay for their regrets for the rest of their lives.

In his previous life in Shenzhen, Zhang Chao moved every one or two years due to rent increases, job changes, etc., and was always "homeless". As a result, when he sees a house in Shenzhen now, he can't help but buy one, especially those properties where he used to tutor students.

Because the amount of credit card swipes was too large and too frequent, the bank's business manager called him specifically and said, "Hello, Mr. Zhang Chao, we recently noticed that you have multiple consumer expenditures of 350 million yuan. Did you do this yourself..."

"Yes!" After Zhang Chao said this word, he hung up the phone, leaving no chance for the other party.

The bank manager on the other end of the line could only stare at the busy beeping phone with frustration. He couldn't help but feel chest tightness and shortness of breath before he could finish the sentence "The property market has been volatile recently and investing is risky. Why don't you consider our bank's financial products..."

After buying a house and hanging up his phone, Zhang Chao felt refreshed and could finally experience life with peace of mind, driving around the city. At this time, the roads in Shenzhen, especially the main roads, were basically the same as they would be a few years later. Even without navigation, he would not get lost.

Since it is "Letter from a Stranger Woman", the main content of this life experience is of course women!
Zhang Chao stopped the car and looked at the building in front of him with a satisfied smile...

On May 2008, 5, the third issue of Harvest was published as scheduled. A strange phenomenon occurred: no copy of Harvest stayed on the shelves of bookstores and newsstands for more than 15 minutes...

(End of this chapter)