Literary Master 1983

Chapter 304 You Should Be a Cardinal

“Yu?” a man who looked somewhat like Márquez asked.

This man was named Mendoza, and he later received the Kafka Prize.

This is an award that Yu Hua has always dreamed of receiving.

Then he turned his gaze to Márquez: “We saved a seat for you, you damn it! You brought him along again. He must be very busy lately, unlike us.”

"In the past few months, I have written a novel of more than 400,000 words. I have never seen anyone in the world write so fast."

Márquez laughed heartily: "Yuch is a genius; he doesn't spend much time writing novels. I'm here today to celebrate that he has become a true Latin American writer!"

"He's divorced?" Vargas Llosa said.

"He learned to smoke cigars?" José Donoso, a well-known local writer nicknamed the "fifth general of the Latin American literary boom," said.

Márquez shook his head: "A strange female celebrity wrote to him..."

“Oh, he is! He must be!” everyone said in unison.

Yu Qie was speechless and could only briefly recount what had happened to Gong Xue.

“So, you want to save her? You want to be her God?” Vargas Llosa said.

Yu Qie remained silent.

He was considering whether this interpretation, from a Western perspective, would be easier for people to understand.

Vargas Llosa took it as Yuche's admission of the matter, saying, "When you save someone from a fire and then quickly abandon her, you are more despicable than Satan, because you have personally led her from one hell to another."

What kind of nonsense is this?
Is this the reason why you were born into the "Eight Families" in this lifetime?
When Vargas Llosa got divorced in his seventies and started dating a young model, it made headlines in Spanish-language literary circles at the time.

Yu Qie had no choice but to stop arguing, and everyone started playing bridge.

Bridge is a popular international game these days, and almost everyone knows how to play it. Today's gathering was convened by super agent Carmen, with the aim of uniting her writers to raise their voices against the "banana massacre."

Carmen viewed this as a major event that stirred up another storm in the Spanish-language literary world: after Vargas Llosa and Márquez fell out, Carmen's influence was greatly diminished, which also affected international book lovers' perception of Spanish-language writers.

Now she must use the "massacre" case to gild the writers' reputations again.

Soon, Carmen arrived at the scene. She said succinctly, “Now a difficult road lies before us, but the riches earned through sweat are the sweetest. Colombia is Márquez's birthplace, and it has witnessed several horrific massacres, but these events did not only occur in Colombia, but also in Chile, Honduras, Mexico…”

“Marquez contributed the most to this; now, I am also becoming a vital force for us; so, what else can the others do?”

The writers readily agreed.

This is a common goal that is already common.

Including those who tragically passed away, Carmen had over three hundred writers under her tutelage, including five Nobel laureates. These Nobel laureates would also recommend newcomers to their readers, thus maintaining the legendary popularity of Latin American literature.

Barcelona, ​​the Spanish city where Carmen lived, briefly became the "capital of literature" during that period.

Subsequently, Yuche and Márquez were grouped together, while opposite them were Vargas Llosa and the female writer Allende.

After taking the cards, Yu Qie quickly broke out in a sweat.

I lost several games in a row.

Marquez was a terrible bridge player, while the other two came from elite backgrounds and were very skilled at bridge. Despite Yu Qie's meticulous planning, he couldn't lead Marquez to a single victory.

After playing five rounds in a row, Marquez realized that his card skills were not good and asked to be replaced.

He looked around, seeing if anyone wanted to join the game. Unfortunately, few dared to meet his gaze.

Because everyone at this table is a successful writer; they are writers among writers.

Moreover, they weren't familiar with Márquez. In fact, Márquez was very shy and rarely smiled, so much so that in their eyes, he was a legendary figure.

The female writer Allende volunteered: "I'll do it."

Yu Qie stared at Allende with great interest.

In China, it's hard to imagine a president's niece writing novels.

Allende misunderstood his gaze and said, "I'm married. My husband is an American white professor."

Vargas Llosa suddenly said, "Wouldn't that be better?"

Márquez frowned: "We Latin Americans are rule-abiding; you should at least have a sense of first come, first served."

What kind of amazing people are these? Allende is twenty years older than me!

After Yu Qie's expression became visibly unnatural, Allende burst into laughter: "I was just kidding."

We lost again. But not as quickly. Because Allende wasn't that bad.

They made another substitution, this time with Vargas Llosa, and the two finally won together. Allende complained, "Gabo doesn't know how to play cards at all. Teaming up with him was the most unfair way to divide the cards."

Vargas Llosa, ever the chivalrous one, put Yuche and Márquez together again, and the two played for an entire afternoon, with Yuche losing more than he won.

Marquez said, "Yu, this is not my fault. I learn very quickly... Think about it carefully, in the last four games, we won two."

That's because I've figured out your playing style, I know how you're going to play, and I'm compatible with the lower-ranking players.

At this moment, Yu Qie misses Zhang Li and Chen Xiaoxu terribly.

Chinese people are quite adept at these math-based board games. How bad was Márquez? He even had to check with Yuqie every time he calculated the score because he was prone to making mistakes.

That evening, Carmen pulled off a spectacular performance: the middle-aged woman dressed up as the Pope, wearing a crown on her head. Her attire was extremely lavish, and she had an assistant specifically to hold up her train.

Then Carmen said, “I will appoint you as cardinals! From now on, when we sign literary contracts, it should be on the 7th, 17th or 27th of each month. I have studied astrology and found that these are our lucky days.”

“Gabo, you will always be the first archbishop!” Carmen said.

Marquez exclaimed excitedly, "Have you fallen in love with me, Carmen?"

"It's hard for me to say, because you alone account for 36.2% of our total revenue."

Although everyone already knew about it, Carmen's revelation still surprised everyone.

Carmen's attitude displeased Vargas Llosa, who said, "If Márquez is the Cardinal, then what am I?"

Carmen quickly added, "You're also a cardinal, Márquez is an alien, and you're the top student in our class." Vargas Llosa was clearly unhappy with this assessment, but since he hadn't won the Nobel Prize, which was a significant difference, he had no choice but to accept the title.

Soon, more writers came to ask themselves what level they had been granted a fiefdom.
Carmen enthusiastically assigned ranks to everyone, "You're a bishop!"

"Oh God, I should try harder."

"You're a bishop too!"

"..."

“Vazquez? You’re an archbishop! You have the potential to become a cardinal archbishop.”

"Thank you for your kind words, Pope Carmen!"

Yu Qie sat in the audience, completely stunned. He felt a surreal sense of having traveled back to the Taiping Rebellion era, where warlords were everywhere. Carmen was the most powerful literary agent after World War II; she was indeed a remarkable figure. Without her, many of the writers' rights we take for granted today wouldn't exist.

But why does it look so much like playing house?
The Chilean writer Allende asked Yu Qie, "I've read your novels, they're really well written."

"What? '2666'?"

"No! It's 'Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots.' Zhao Yi encountered many women along the way; he's a man among men."

Yu Qie couldn't hold back any longer: "This was written by Mr. Bettancourt, and I only did a little bit of help in it. The relationship between the two of us is like that of Aristotle and Einstein."

"Aristotle summarized the three laws of motion, while Einstein discovered the mass-energy equivalence equation. There was a gap of more than two thousand years between them."

Allende laughed heartily. "You mean, what you wrote has absolutely no connection!"

Then Yu Qie said, "By the way, do you know Neruda?"

“He was my uncle’s close comrade-in-arms.”

Do you think Mr. Neruda's death was suspicious?

“It’s strange, but nobody has any evidence. Many people want to find the truth, but we’ve lost our leader.”

—Just then, Yu Qie was targeted by Carmen.

He looked up and saw Carmen saying the words "cardinal," then a few seconds later she changed it to "archbishop." She said, "From the moment I read Gabo's first novel, I was convinced he would become an internationally renowned writer."

"This thought came to me again after I met you. Therefore, you should be the cardinal."

Yu Qie felt the atmosphere was unusually tense. This was strange, because it should have been a very ordinary gathering.

He was brought in by Márquez to play cards, that must be it.

However, Allende looked at him with considerable surprise, while Vargas Llosa and the others were neither surprised nor bothered. Ever since being outdone by Márquez, Vargas Llosa had remained outside this circle.

Only Márquez wore a pleased expression.

The group parted to allow Carmen to "award" Yuqie a medal. Strictly speaking, there is an appointment ceremony for the cardinal, with a rather complicated process. Here, it is simplified to Carmen giving Yuqie an air robe that does not actually exist.

Carmen was exceptionally serious and dignified, so much so that Yu Qie also kept a straight face. When he was given the "robe" to wear, the whole audience applauded.

Carmen even improvised an award speech on the spot:

"You are the owner of the Colombian gun, your wisdom represents the East, you are the first person for the public to come into contact with a modern Chinese writer... On your shoulders are the expectations of a billion people! You have developed magical realism, a genre of Latin American literature, to a milestone height. All of humanity's writing skills are contained in this one book. You are the most skillful craftsman and the most learned master."

The expressions on everyone's faces grew increasingly serious.

Marquez also held his breath.

Carmen finally said, "Therefore, you are granted the position of Cardinal Archbishop."

Then, cheap cannon salutes were fired, and everyone cheered and celebrated together that Yu Qie had joined the organization.

……

Yu Qie quickly learned what the "Archbishop's Game" was all about.

He noticed that the writers working under Carmen were starting to interact with him frequently, helping to promote his books without charging a penny.

The female writer Allende's attitude towards Yu Qie changed significantly. She dared not make those erotic jokes anymore and began to tell the whole truth she knew.

“Neruda was my uncle’s comrade-in-arms. After the coup, my uncle died in the presidential building. He ordered the soldiers guarding him to lay down their weapons, and he chose to take his own life by shooting himself. More than a week later, Mr. Neruda also died in his private clinic, and his mansion was emptied.”

“Mr. Neruda did suffer from some kind of chronic illness, and literature had consumed too much of his life; he and my uncle often fought side by side.”

"Therefore, we believe that Mr. Neruda may indeed have died of grief... although I myself am unwilling to believe it."

Yu Qie attended several more writers' gatherings organized by Carmen, and each time he saw Allende, and each time, as soon as he arrived, people would give him a seat.

“Mr. Yu,” they said.

Or, they might ask before calling out "Yu," "May I call you by this name? Because I'm worried it might be disrespectful to you."

This made Yu Qie realize that the "Archbishop Game" was an established order within their Latin American writers' circle.

These people gathered around Carmen in an orderly fashion, each contributing and receiving their share.

Some exceptionally powerful figures—like Márquez—might not care about Pope Carmen; in fact, they might need Carmen to appease them. This is because Márquez could easily establish his own independent movement at any time.

However, Márquez tacitly approved of this rule because he was also a beneficiary.

Now that Yu Qie is recognized as a "cardinal," and his novels are impeccable, he is naturally revered. In this organization, regardless of the order among archbishops, he is second only to the Pope.

Later, Yu learned from Allende about her own speculations and secrets, which involved the hidden secrets of the small country of Chile.

Having translated Neruda's poems, he was determined to seek justice for Neruda right now.

The situation is roughly as follows:

In this era, it was difficult to find Americans in almost any major event in a small American country: Allende was a leftist, and Neruda was a party member. The two were very close and jointly formed a left-wing government, representing their respective parties.

However, Allende's economic performance during his term in office was not good, because the economy of the entire Americas revolved around the United States, and world trade at that time was not as developed as it would be in the future.

The United States severed trade ties with Chile, deliberately economically suppressing the left-wing government and causing locals to lose confidence in Allende... However, this did not succeed, and Allende's vote share continued to rise.

The United States then resorted to its last resort—a coup d'état.

(End of this chapter)