Literary Master 1983

Chapter 278 The Last Piece of the Puzzle

Now that the situation has developed to this point, both sides have begun to agree on a time for the meeting.

Yu Guangzhong was not only a poet, but also the head of the literature department at National Taiwan Normal University, and he also had political aspirations. He brought together those who longed to communicate with mainland writers and were not afraid of offending the authorities, and together they discussed a specific timeframe.

Among these people were well-known writers such as Li Ao and Lin Qingxuan, as well as painter and essayist Xi Murong and her teacher Jiang Xun, some editors of the literary journal *United Literature*, and prominent publishers from various publishing houses. This took almost half a month, and by then, Yu Qie's novel had already created a sensation in Taiwan.

Contemporary writers and works from mainland China are shrouded in mystery for the locals, rarely being introduced to the mainstream. Precisely because of this, once introduced, they unleash an incredible power.

Yu Qie's novels are like the Latin American literary movement that suddenly erupted in the 1950s and 60s, creating a "big bang" here! His series of novels such as "Da Sa Ba", "The Fiancée's Letter", and "New Reality Series" have been introduced, which is simply dazzling for readers. Every piece is a beautiful piece of writing!
The local literary journal, *United Literature*, serialized two of Yu Qie's articles in each issue. Initially worried that readers wouldn't accept it, it unexpectedly became very popular. Later, even young men serving in the military had their novels found among them. Military police apprehended those reading the novels, saying, "Who is this? This is Yu Qie! How can you read his novels?"

"I haven't read his novels; I'm reading our literary journal, United Literature!"

"Nonsense! You've never read a literary magazine before, except for buying adult pictorials. I don't believe you came here to read literature at all! You must be reading Yu Qie's serialized novels."

"But how do you know there's some leftover on it?"

"Huh?! I..."

The mainland Chinese film "The Battle of Taierzhuang" has been reproduced in many copies and shown in major cinemas. While the audience praised the film, they also asked why they had never heard of the actors in it. Some people pointed to the male lead in the film and said: "This man is both refined and heroic. He seems to have the talent to play important figures. How come I have never seen him before?"
The cinema said: This is a film from mainland China.

The audience was terrified: How can they show a film from mainland China? I'm not going to get arrested!
The movie theater staff said, "This is something we specifically bought to show. We show it everywhere, so you can guarantee there won't be any problems! If we're going to arrest people, are we going to arrest everyone? Don't worry!"

A group of local fishermen went out to sea and traveled quite far, where they encountered fishing boats from the inland. Due to the nature of fishing, this was one of the few professions where such encounters were possible. According to relevant regulations, they were not allowed to speak or communicate with each other. Moreover, upon returning, they had to submit a report and write a statement detailing their experience. If they spoke and were reported, they would face serious trouble, including repeated interrogations and investigations.

So usually, when they meet, they remain silent, turn their boats around, and go fishing elsewhere. This time was no different; they left immediately after their first encounter. Then, they fished from morning till night. However, the early spring catch was not plentiful. In the East China Sea, autumn has the most diverse catches, followed by spring and summer, with winter having the fewest.

Fishermen's work is very arduous. Every trip to sea is an ordeal. The conditions for eating, living, and sleeping are all very poor, yet they have to exert all their strength to fish every day. If they don't catch enough fish, they not only won't make any money, but they also won't be able to cover their original costs.

After trying several different spots without success, the group gritted their teeth and returned to their original location. Unexpectedly, they both had the same idea. Coincidentally, an undercurrent arose in that area, stirring up nutrients from the seabed and attracting several large schools of fish.

They cast their nets and quickly filled both boats. Plump mackerel and yellow croaker jumped high on the deck, and they even caught a group of expensive yellow croaker and grouper. It was a bumper harvest! There were still many fish left to catch.

The fishing boats in the mainland are a generation or two behind. These boats were products of the 1970s, replacing wooden fishing boats. Their design was not very reasonable, and compared to the boats on the other side, they had less space, especially the shallow cabins for people. However, they had a lot of space for carrying fish. Even when the boats were full, the inland fishermen were still trying to find ways to haul in another group of fish.

On the island, a sailor who had read Yu Qie's novels was quite surprised—the mainland fishing boats were clearly inferior, yet they managed to take away more fish. Wasn't this just like what was described in Yu Qie's novels? The sailor suddenly couldn't help but say, "Hello, you 'Yu Zecheng' types over there! You guys are really amazing!"

What will become of me?
People on the other side of the strait also watch "Lurking"!

The people on this side looked at each other, then excitedly waved...

The local private newspaper, The Times, published the news on its front page, titled "The First Meeting with Yu Zecheng," and surprisingly, it did not receive any punishment. Subsequently, another private newspaper, United Daily News, also published the news of the fishermen's meeting, along with photos of a boat full of fish and the fishermen's smiling faces... and it did not receive any punishment either.

Suddenly, everyone felt that something had changed.

------

My First Meeting with Yu Zecheng!

After reading the article, Jiang Xungang, the editor-in-chief of United Literature, sighed to himself: A good novel can spread quickly, and whether it is a fisherman or an entrepreneur, everyone can see its beauty.

The time for the ice to melt is probably not far off! Yu Qie, a writer from mainland China, is like that giant furnace!
Why do you say that?

Because Yu Qie's current situation is similar to that of Cha Liangyong back then.

Cha Liangyong was previously considered a leftist writer, and his novels were not allowed to circulate publicly. Therefore, despite Cha Liangyong's great fame in the Chinese-speaking world, any newspaper or periodical that dared to publish his novels would immediately be punished.

About four or five years ago, the United Daily News, which was behind United Literature, promoted the open circulation of Cha Liangyong's novels in Taiwan. They discovered that there were pirated copies of Cha Liangyong's books everywhere on the black market, and readers would rather go to jail than miss reading martial arts novels... Why make things so tragic and turn down money?

The United Daily News boldly published martial arts novels. Initially, to circumvent censorship, they changed Cha Liangyong's pen name to "Quan Yong" to skirt the rules and published Cha Liangyong's novel "Liancheng Jue"... which was indeed very popular. Subsequently, other newspapers followed suit, creating a trend, and for a time, Cha Liangyong's novels were published everywhere.

Then the United Daily News discovered that, surprisingly, nothing had happened to them. They immediately realized that things had changed and sent out lobbyists to persuade the author, Cha Liangyong, to leave the country, allowing martial arts novels to enter the market openly and legitimately.

Yu Qie is going through this process.

After *United Literature* began serializing Yu Qie's novels, other newspapers and magazines quickly followed suit. To skirt the rules, "Yu Qie" was changed to nicknames like "Yu Xian," "Zheng Qie," "Zheng Xian," and "Yu Ge." So far, no one has been reported to have been punished.

It wasn't like this before!
In the early 1980s, there was a surge of interest in mainland Chinese writer Shen Congwen in European literary circles. Seeing this, the United Daily News, which was behind United Literature, published a special issue on Shen Congwen. However, shortly after the special issue appeared on the market, it attracted the attention of the authorities, causing trouble for the United Daily News. They had no choice but to suspend the coverage.

Now, however, nothing has happened. Clearly, Yu Guangzhong is not far from being publicly praised and affirmed; in fact, something even bigger is about to happen. Yu Guangzhong can even organize meetings with mainland writers! He's the director of a normal university; he's part of the system!

United Literature has become very popular in recent months because of Yu Qie. The newspaper conducted a survey, and the feedback letters received showed that most readers came because of Yu Qie. They were shocked that they had never discovered such a great writer before. He simply blows away a bunch of small but fortunate essayists and novelists in Taiwan. Reading Yu Qie's novels is like being on drugs for them. They are completely addicted.

Taiwan pays top writers very high royalties, and Yu Qie, being a literary giant like Akutagawa, has that kind of prestige. The internal rate offered to Yu Qie by *United Literature* is 3,000 "coins" per thousand words—an astronomical sum! That's roughly $115 per thousand words.

Currently, they need to pay Yu Qie a total of 46,000 US dollars in royalties, but they don't know how to pay Yu Qie.

Someone at the newspaper office said: "Yu Qie is from the mainland, and he'll never get paid for his writing anyway, so let's not pay him."

This opinion was immediately rejected. Yu Guangzhong, who was also the founder of United Literature, came over and slapped the man after hearing about it.

Then another suggestion came up: send the money to the mainland.

However, at this time, the newspaper had many misunderstandings about the mainland. They did not believe the reports in the mainland report "People Want to Be Yu Qie"... The Bridgestone bicycle worth two thousand yuan, the French red wine, and the big villa were all fake, all nonsense from Lao Lu!
They believe that Yu Qie is living the "impoverished" life that mainland writers should have, where no matter how much royalties he receives, they will be taken away, and then he will be given a meaningless certificate of merit.

It just so happens that I'll be meeting with Writer Yu in the US soon. Under these circumstances, everyone at the newspaper is brainstorming ideas on how to personally hand over the $46,000 to Yu: Should we give him the dollars directly? Of course not! Customs has regulations regarding the amount of cash.

Opening a Swiss bank account for Yu Qie in the US? That probably won't work either, as he'll never be able to withdraw that money from mainland China.

Finally, the group discovered that Yu Qie had once received the Thai King's Medal—a large medal made of gold and jade. There's also a scene in the TV series "Lurking" where the question arises: "Which of these two gold bars is noble, and which is despicable?"

They came up with an outrageous idea: take $46,000 to the market, buy gold of equal value, then make gold and silver jewelry, and have the Taiwanese writers who visited the United States wear it. When they met Yu Qie, they would take out the jewelry and give it to him on the spot.

They hadn't even spent all the US dollars on these jewelry pieces, and there were still some scraps left. So they made a large gold medal with jade inside, and gave this medal to Yu Qie as well.

After all these things were prepared, Yu Guangzhong also roughly set the time, April. At this time, Nie Hualing's writing exchange was about to begin, and Yu Qie also had ample time to come to the United States. Yu Guangzhong wrote a letter to the mainland asking for Yu Qie's opinion: This letter traveled across the ocean and when it arrived in the capital, everyone was overjoyed, and Yu Qie immediately replied with a letter of agreement.

The great pioneers are about to set off.

After that, he began to cram on the history of America and Latin America.

For Yu Che, this visit was connected to Colombia. His correspondence with Márquez was a well-known story in mainland China. Yu Che was a representative of the friendship between China and Colombia, and between China and Latin America. Since he had already gone to the United States, he naturally had to visit the Latin American brothers who had been oppressed by the United States for a long time.

The president of the country has extended an invitation to Yu Qie, a writer, to visit this small country that has now been "completely transformed".

Security in Latin America is quite worrying; warlords are still fighting in many places, and it would be ridiculous if Yuche were killed. Security in the US isn't good either. Although Boston is a predominantly white city and not far from New York, it has shown signs of becoming increasingly predominantly Black in recent years. Who knows, a group of drug addicts might randomly target someone one night.

Moreover, the conflict in the south has not completely subsided, and who knows if someone will hire someone to commit murder; Yu Qie's novels have offended many places, and Malaysia may also take care of this Chinese wolf warrior in order to maintain social harmony.

There's also the worry about those extreme fans who both love and hate him—six years ago, rock singer John Lennon was killed by one of his die-hard fans.

In short, the outside world is fraught with danger!
The cultural authorities kept Yu Qie's visit extremely secret, even arranging for an undercover officer to accompany him and protect his safety. In 86, many people from various sectors of mainland China visited the United States; almost every month, a large group went to the US for exchanges. Yu Qie and his entourage remained hidden among them, using aliases.

During this process, Huang Jinyan and Shen Guozheng, who had previously translated "One Hundred Years of Solitude," were added to the list. Qian Zhongshu, fluent in Spanish and knowledgeable in Latin American literature, was also invited to attend. Several reporters from the Hong Kong branch were also invited to document this moment.

At the end of the month, someone in Hong Kong somehow got hold of news that the writers might be exchanging ideas in the United States. This news was immediately shared by all Hong Kong media outlets, making the news known worldwide. Although there's a 99% chance that they weren't tight-lipped and leaked the information first.

However, Wang Meng and his group were still criticized. Wang Meng was furious – “I repeatedly emphasized that discipline and secrecy are essential, why couldn’t you do it?”

Yu Qie saw Wang Meng's lips trembling: "If they know our itinerary, it would be easy for them to sabotage us, and it might even threaten the personal safety of our comrades. Some people are just careless."

Yu Qie's situation was the most dangerous; he was a key figure. Someone from above came to him: "Should we postpone it for a while?"

"Let's do it right now, no delays."

Yu Qie's training program has now added another live-fire exercise. Colombia has seen many changes of government throughout history, and each time it has been anything but peaceful. For example, after making his fortune, Márquez actually lived in Mexico, which shows that he trusted the conscience of Mexican drug traffickers and was unwilling to believe in the ruthless practices of the Colombian warlords.

In extreme circumstances, Yuqie might have to take up arms to protect himself. Yuqie got a gun license, and there was a shooting range nearby, where he practiced every day.

A few days later, an old friend came to visit him. Upon seeing him, Yu Qie was stunned: "Ning Ke!"

Ning Ke was the original captain of the assault team who actually killed the Vietnamese, a top soldier serving on the front lines.

(End of this chapter)