Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 403 You can know a person’s face but not his heart!
"Recently, any 'suspicious' manuscripts should be transferred to my mailbox!" Wang Zhanjun solemnly instructed the editors.

As the editor-in-chief of October magazine, it would be a lie to say that I am not jealous of the recent Harvest and Contemporary. After all, in today's declining pure literature, one issue of the magazine can sell 600,000 or 700,000 copies, which is equivalent to a year's sales, and can help the publishing house solve many problems.

For example, advertisements in magazines.

In recent years, there are fewer and fewer products and businesses willing to advertise in literary journals. The remaining ones are some old customers with connections, and they don’t cost them much money in a year, so they are put aside for the time being.

In the past, you could still find some companies willing to print color pages in magazines, but now there are basically no such companies.

After all, the sales volume of a single issue of the magazine is only tens of thousands, which is not even as large as the audience of a municipal TV station. Yet they are willing to put advertisements on it. It really shows that sentiment is more important than publicity.

But with the traffic brought by Zhang Chao’s submissions, things are different!
"Harvest" and "Contemporary" contacted advertisers in advance before publishing Zhang Chao's novels, and color pages were inserted into the current issues of the magazines, making a lot of money.

When a magazine has money, it can do many things with ease, such as organizing writers to go on field trips, organizing new awards, publishing a few additional supplements... These will make it easier for the magazine to commission articles in the future.

More importantly, Zhang Chao's novels can help the magazine win young readers.

Literature is certainly a belief, but the editor-in-chief must not only control the quality of the magazine, but also find ways to increase its sales, only then can the job be considered qualified.

At present, Zhang Chao’s two manuscripts have been submitted to "Harvest" and "Contemporary" respectively. Among the "Four Famous Actresses of Pure Literature", only "Huacheng" and "October" have not received his submissions, which is indeed a bit puzzling.

You know, there is a lot of affection between Huacheng and Zhang Chao...

"So what kind of manuscript is considered 'suspicious'?" asked the young editor Xu Changchang.

Wang Zhanjun answered patiently: "Novels like Zhang Chao's are all 'suspicious'."

He then further explained: "It is obvious that Zhang Chao's series of novels are parodies of famous short stories. He borrowed the titles to write his own stories, and these stories are all related to his vision of the future.

"The Last Lesson" and "Letter from an Unknown Woman"... It seems that he prefers novels from the late 19th century and early 20th century, so you should pay special attention to them.

Everyone, tell me, which one will he parody next? "

Xu Changchang was the first to speak: "Could it be Ball of Fat? This is the most famous short story that has appeared in recent times."

However, her statement was immediately denied by another editor: "Daudet of The Last Lesson and Maupassant of Boule de Suif are both French. He might avoid them."

Xu Changchang said unconvincedly: "Avoiding Maupassant in short stories? Doesn't that mean missing a lot of famous works - "Boule de Suif", "The Necklace", "My Uncle Jules", "Mademoiselle Fifi", "Father Milon"..."

Wang Zhanjun felt a headache after hearing this, and quickly waved his hand to stop him, saying, "Stop reading, it's not like you're reading out the names of the dishes. Zhang Chao has an eccentric personality, and no one can be sure which one he will imitate, so just be careful."

Okay, everyone go back to work. -Xiao Xu, please stay for a moment.

After everyone left the meeting room, Wang Zhanjun looked at Xu Changchang expectantly and said, "I heard that the editor of Contemporary Magazine who received Zhang Chao's manuscript is a graduate like you...

Zhu Yanling, who got the copy of "Youth Like You" from Zhang Chao, is also a young editor.

Xu Changchang blushed a little now, and said awkwardly: "How can that be certain? He is a famous writer now..."

Wang Zhanjun encouraged him, "It is well known that Zhang Chao likes to interact with young people. I think you have great potential. So, why don't you try to send him a letter inviting him to write an article? Maybe he will agree to it."

Xu Changchang's eyes suddenly lit up and asked, "Is it really possible?" You know, generally only senior editors can commission articles from writers on behalf of a magazine - because commissioning an article usually means it will definitely be published.

For a bimonthly magazine like October, which has only six issues a year, every page is very valuable and every inch of space is worth a lot of money. It is impossible to publish any random manuscript. If the quality is not good, it will damage its reputation.

Therefore, newcomers like her who have just completed the internship period will have to endure at least another five, ten, or even longer years before they can join the ranks of editors who commission articles from writers.

Wang Zhanjun said, "Just do it boldly - by the way, do you have his private email address? If not, I'll copy it for you."

Xu Changchang nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice. She indeed did not have Zhang Chao's private email address - the previously public work email address of "Chaotide Culture", it was said that he had not replied to any emails a long time ago.

Wang Zhanjun took out a pen and quickly wrote down Zhang Chao's email address on a note. He tore it off and handed it to Xu Changchang, saying earnestly, "Young man, be brave! When Zhang Chao was your age, he had already fooled the editors of various publishing houses... and had a very good relationship with them!"

Xu Changchang was so surprised that she didn't hear clearly what the editor said next. She just said "hmm" and left excitedly with the note.

Wang Zhanjun's words just now are actually very problematic - what does "when Zhang Chao was your age" mean? Xu Changchang is a graduate student of the Chinese Department of East China Normal University. She is already 26 years old this year, and Zhang Chao is not even as old as her!
However, no one probably will notice this detail, because now almost no editors of humanities magazines will treat him as a 24-year-old young man, and his treatment is basically the same as that of top writers.

Wang Zhanjun looked at Xu Changchang's back and kept repeating in his heart: "Let's try it out!"

It's not that he didn't try to call Zhang Chao and send him an email, but Zhang Chao didn't answer his calls and his emails fell on deaf ears. He didn't feel unbalanced because he knew that other people were treated the same as him.

Even Zhu Yanling of Harvest and Li Shidong of Youth Literature, who had a close relationship with Zhang Chao, failed to get Zhang Chao's promise.

This time, Zhang Chao seems to have made up his mind to launch a guerrilla war of real and fake, true and false. No one knows where his next novel will be directed - not to mention that he still has "Youth" waiting to be published.

He can't just leave all his manuscripts out there, can he?

So he didn't have much hope when he let Xu Changchang try, and he mainly wanted to train the newcomer.

……

Xu Changchang returned to his seat, looked at Zhang Chao's personal email address again and again, and thought about how to write this letter of invitation.

She opened her email, entered Zhang Chao's email address, then chose a "letter paper" style that she thought was quite formal, and typed the first line:

Dear Mr. Zhang Chao:

Zhanxinjia!
I am Xu Changchang, editor of October Magazine. I am glad to hear that you have published many excellent works recently...]

Having written this, Xu Changchang stopped typing on the keyboard, and the image of Zhang Chao emerged in his mind - 1.8 meters tall, with neat short hair, angular features, and always with a smile on his face... Xu Changchang blushed.

What she never told anyone was that one of the main reasons why she decided to take the postgraduate entrance examination was Zhang Chao. As a die-hard fan of Zhang Chao's books, her dream was to review Zhang Chao's manuscripts one day, and then say to him when they met:
“You know, I’ve been waiting for this article from you for X years!” The “X” here is an arbitrary number, but the smaller the better.

But once she entered the magazine, she realized how far-fetched this goal was. Famous writers all have their own editor friends and would not easily submit manuscripts to others; the younger generation has their own way of doing things and only occasionally submits manuscripts to traditional literary magazines.

It will take her a long time to review Zhang Chao's manuscript.

But she didn't expect that this opportunity would come now... However, she was very suspicious of her letter of invitation to write, which was so gloomy and old-fashioned. Zhang Chao probably read the summary of the content displayed in the inbox and directly put her on the blacklist.

No no no!

Xu Changchang thought for a long time and typed another line of text:
【Zhang Chao:
Hello! This is a letter for an article request! I am Xu Changchang, the editor of October magazine. But I heard that even our boss couldn't get your article, so it's even more impossible for a small pawn like me to do so.

But don’t close the page in a hurry. Although we may not have the fate to commission an article, we can still talk about literature, right? I want to talk about my own views on your two recent novels…】

Xu Changchang was very nervous when she wrote this opening. She didn't know whether this "unstable" style would really attract Zhang Chao's attention, and she didn't know whether Zhang Chao would have the patience to read her work.

You should know that there are now a lot of articles and papers on Zhang Chao's works. Graduates of Chinese majors especially like to use Zhang Chao's novels to write essays and graduation theses in contemporary literature courses.

However, as his thoughts unfolded, Xu Changchang's typing speed became more and more stable, and his expression became more and more coherent.

[Zhang Chao, the county teacher you wrote about, is very similar to many middle-aged people around us who are pushed by the times. I thought of the math teacher in my hometown middle school - he resigned from the position last year and opened a beef noodle restaurant, which was quite popular among students.

But Zhang Chao in the novel had no such escape route. The educational chaos he got involved in after moving south to Shenzhen was like a sharp scalpel that cut through the surface of the "involution" that we are accustomed to. 】

[You used the classic title "The Last Lesson" but told a completely opposite story. Mr. Hamel, as described by Daudet, used his last lesson to protect the dignity of the nation, but your teacher Zhang Chao lost his dignity in the last lesson - this sense of absurdity makes my back cold. What's more painful is that this absurdity is gradually becoming a reality...]

[However, I am also a little confused. The description of the education and training industry in the second half of the novel, such as parents forcing their children to take "genius medicine" and teachers taking students to brothels, although these extreme plots are very shocking, I am worried that ordinary readers will regard it as a curiosity story.

Perhaps you moved too fast in balancing reality and absurdity, leaving some readers in a metaphorical fog. 】

[You used Zweig's classic title to wrap up a completely different story. This contrast itself is like Xiao Yang dressing up and buying flowers and gifts just to see her mother: at first glance, it seems to be the protagonist's clumsy imitation of secular rules, but a closer look reveals an exquisite deconstruction.

When the "strange woman" in the novel changes from a lovelorn woman to a "forced" mother, and when the affectionate epistolary form turns into a ferocious red scar, you really summoned the ghost of literary history to the handshake building in the urban village. 】

[However, the final twist of the novel - Xiao Yang finally discovered that his mother wrote to him to ask for his kidney, and he had already sold his kidney - the dramatic twist, although shocking, is somewhat detached from the logic of real life.

Because tragedies in reality are often more silent - most of the left-behind children I interviewed did not encounter such extreme lives, but slowly withered away in day-to-day neglect.

Maybe next time, you can try to use a more restrained brushstroke to write about the pain that doesn’t explode. 】

[However, what shocked me the most in the two novels was your use of "same name, different context". Teacher Zhang Chao in "The Last Lesson" shares your name and family background, which is like burying a broken mirror in the text.

When readers try to piece together the complete picture of the mirror, they will unconsciously put themselves into the author's perspective. This dangerous game reminds me of Borges. But you are more ruthless than him - Borges trapped readers with a maze, but you gave a scalpel to every lost person. 】

If I must add an ending to this letter, I would like to borrow a sentence you wrote in "Homeland": "All those who seek their hometown will eventually become their hometown itself."

Right now, you are probably using words to build a new "hometown", where there are tears of a boy who sold his kidney and ashes of a gold medal teacher. And young editors like me are secretly picking up bricks from outside the wall of your hometown, thinking about building my own little house one day.

So no matter how slim the hope is, I still hope to get your new work for October magazine! 】

Before he knew it, Xu Changchang had written nearly 3000 words - this is probably the longest letter of invitation in the history of October magazine!

After typing the last character, Xu Changchang didn't even dare to check for typos. She clicked the "Send" button almost with her eyes closed - she was afraid that if she delayed for a second, her courage would disappear.

Xu Changchang opened his eyes only after the prompt sound indicating that the email was sent successfully rang.

Fifteen minutes later, a sharp, high-pitched scream of a young woman was heard in the editorial office of October magazine.

"Ah~~~~"

Not only did it scare the colleagues, it also attracted the editor-in-chief Wang Zhanjun.

After he saw who was screaming, he said with some dissatisfaction: "Xiao Xu, don't be so startled, it's not decent!"

Xu Changchang was speechless at this time: "Editor-in-chief, come... come and see..." Her voice was trembling, as if she was about to cry.

Wang Zhanjun's heart moved, and a thought that he never dared to think of squeezed through the cracks in his heart, flowed along the artery, and flowed into his brain: "No way..."

He no longer cared about his manners or the looks from other colleagues, and quickly walked to Xu Changchang's office and asked in a deep voice, "What's wrong?"

Xu Changchang pointed her trembling fingertips at her computer screen. Wang Zhanjun looked over and saw that there was only an email page opened on the yellowed screen of the old 17-inch CRT monitor. Due to the "1024x768" resolution, the font looked a bit rough, but every word on it could still be seen clearly.

There is only one word on it:

"it is good"

Wang Zhanjun suddenly turned around and looked at Xu Changchang, and asked in disbelief: "His?"

Xu Changchang nodded.

Wang Zhanjun bent down and first took a look at the sender's address. It was indeed a familiar line of English letters, which he had copied in person two hours ago.

Then I saw that this email had an attachment with the title:
Painted Skin

(End of this chapter)