Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 8 Stance and Basis

Tianjin City, HX District.

"...The ground beneath my feet is moving, the water beside me is flowing, yet you always laugh at me for having nothing!"

Wang Zhongqi hurried a few steps, trying to shake off the awful voice, but the awful singing clung to him like a leech, following him into the editorial office of the Popular Fiction Newspaper.

This is a three-story building built during the Republic of China era. It is full of the four old things: stuffy, damp, dark, and dirty. The only thing worth mentioning was that the building was right next to People's Park, and there were beautiful views everywhere you opened the windows.

But ever since the '1990 Modern Music Concert' was held in Tianjin at the beginning of the year, with six rock bands taking the stage one after another and setting off a rock music craze, the streets and alleys have been filled with howling and wailing, and People's Park has been the hardest hit area.

They sang this song incessantly day after day, which even annoyed young people like Wang Zhongqi, let alone the older editors.

So as soon as Wang Zhongqi entered, he heard several senior colleagues complaining:
"I really don't know what these young people are thinking these days. It's one thing to join in the wailing and howling of ghosts, but there are even young girls who are eager to throw themselves at those demons and monsters."

"Not only that, I heard that some people sleep on a large communal bed at night, and once the lights are off, no one recognizes anyone. Men and women just... tsk~ don't they feel disgusted!"

"Yes, a few years ago, this would have been enough to get him shot!"

"You two don't understand, do you? There's an old saying that goes, 'If you rush things, you won't wash the mud off the radishes.'"

Upon hearing this vivid and humorous remark, Wang Zhongqi couldn't help but burst out laughing.

The old editor turned and glanced at him, saying indifferently, "We're opposing vulgarity, not promoting it. Don't write this down, Xiao Wang."

Wang Zhongqi's smile froze on his face. He wanted to explain, but the other veterans were already chatting away, leaving him no room to interject.

Wang Zhongqi could only sit down at his workstation, feeling dejected.
He was transferred from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles last year. His main job at the time was to urge the editorial department to carry out anti-vulgarity and anti-obscenity rectification. Although he has now become a formal editor, the editorial department still treats him differently.

This can be seen from the responsibilities that Wang Zhongqi assumed.

He was in charge of reviewing novels in the editorial department, while as is well known, Popular Fiction Newspaper has always focused on short and medium-length novels.

Long novels are already undervalued, and coupled with Wang Zhongqi's dire situation, not a single manuscript he has managed to get approved in the past six months.

"Brother Wang."

At this moment, Xiao Liu, who was in charge of odd jobs, came over and placed a new submission on Wang Zhongqi's desk, casually reminding him, "There's a meeting at ten o'clock this morning, don't forget to attend."

"You're discussing changing the bimonthly publication to an odd-monthly publication, right? I understand."

Wang Zhongqi verbally agreed, but inwardly he was quite annoyed.

Normally, only the editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief, and two senior editors are allowed to attend these meetings, but he, as a newcomer, is always required to attend as an observer.

This was not preferential treatment; rather, it was treating him like a 'military supervisor eunuch'.

Frustrated, Wang Zhongqi opened the submission and saw the five large characters "Dream of the Red Chamber Detective," which made him unconsciously frown.

Dream of the Red Chamber? Famous Detective?

What do these things even have to do with each other?!
With preconceived biases, Wang Zhongqi initially skimmed through the book without paying much attention, but soon he was drawn in by the witty remarks and his reading speed slowed down considerably.

When he saw the later cases, they were all related to characters from the original novel, confirming the hype of the famous detective from "Dream of the Red Chamber." Wang Zhongqi couldn't help but secretly marvel.

So this is how you can write fanfiction about Dream of the Red Chamber!

Of course, what he found most enjoyable was the part about copying poems to show off, and the 'witty remarks' found throughout the book, such as the phrase 'warm heart' used when referring to Qin Zhong...

"Wang Zhongqi, what's wrong with you?!"

Just then, a furious shout reached his ears. Wang Zhongqi looked up blankly and saw the old editor who had previously criticized "the three vulgarities" glaring at him with hostility.

Seeing that Wang Zhongqi was confused, the old editor said impatiently, "What time is it? How long do you want everyone to wait for you?!"

Wang Zhongqi then realized that he was so engrossed in reading that he had forgotten he had a meeting at 10 a.m. — and given his current situation, naturally no one would remind him.

So he quickly got up to apologize, grabbed the paper and pen from the table, and hurriedly followed the old editor into the conference room.

After some self-criticism, Wang Zhongqi, as usual, sat at the end of the table, only to realize that in his haste, he had brought along the novel he hadn't finished reading.

He had just seen the fourth case, and this case was even more exciting than the previous ones, making it hard to put down.

Adding to the issue of changing from a bimonthly to a monthly publication, he couldn't get a word in edgewise, and his itching desire was unbearable, so he couldn't help but secretly flip through the novel and take a peek.

And then he was hooked again at first glance. Seeing the protagonist meticulously unravel the mystery, deducing that the murderer hid behind the door shouting and then silently blended into the crowd, Wang Zhongqi was almost bursting with admiration.

Then, with Xue Pan's 'assistance,' the protagonist used a box of adult products specifically for male concubines as evidence to reveal a distorted truth, leaving him speechless and shattering his worldview.

It was only then that he finally understood why the novel had been submitted to Popular Fiction Newspaper instead of Legends of Today and Yesterday.

"Xiao Wang, Xiao Wang? Wang Zhongqi!"

At this moment, the editor-in-chief Feng Jingyuan's repeated calls startled Wang Zhongqi from his reverie, and he then realized that everyone was staring at him.

Oops!

Wang Zhongqi immediately broke out in a cold sweat. He had already arrived late, and now he had been caught daydreaming during the meeting. If this were to be taken too seriously...

"Editor-in-Chief!"

In his haste, he could only bite the bullet and preemptively say, "I just received a novel with a very exciting story, a novel theme, and many memorable lines. I think it's perfect to feature it as our main content and give our monthly magazine a great start!"

Disrupted by his preemptive strike, editor-in-chief Feng Jingyuan instinctively asked, "What kind of novel is it? What's the general plot?"

"Uh~"

Upon hearing this question, Wang Zhongqi seemed somewhat unsure of himself and mumbled, "This is a time-traveling, mystery-solving fanfiction of Dream of the Red Chamber."

"What the hell did you say?"

Feng Jingyuan thought he had misheard. What was all this about?
"This……"

Wang Zhongqi didn't know how to explain, so he simply said, "I'll bring you the manuscript, and you'll see what's going on when you take a look!"

As he spoke, he rushed out and grabbed the first half of the novel.

Everyone was speechless, thinking that young people are just impulsive, but due to Wang Zhongqi's special status, editor-in-chief Feng Jingyuan reluctantly took the manuscript and started reading it.

As a result, once they looked, they were unable to stop the car.

Seeing this, the deputy editor-in-chief and two senior editors also took the manuscript that Feng Jingyuan had read and flipped through it. Then, the meeting to discuss the supplement naturally turned into a collective review.

By the time everyone had finished reading the submissions, it was already past 1 p.m.

However, no one cared about being hungry; they were all excitedly discussing the novel's plot, writing style, and the endless stream of memorable quotes.

The point about time travel and copying poems is what everyone talks about the most. They are all cultured people. They don't care much about time travel, but when you combine time travel with copying poems to show off, they immediately yearn for it.

Actually, there have been some pure literary works in the past that have touched on the theme of time travel, but their purpose was not to explore human nature, but to witness some grand history. This kind of time travel with the trope of copying poems to show off is unprecedented.

As the discussion was in full swing, someone suddenly said, "The book is indeed a good book, but isn't the level of the fourth case a bit too much by today's standards?"

The lively atmosphere in the meeting room came to an abrupt halt.

Wang Zhongqi also calmed down immediately. He had been so focused on striking first that he had overlooked the issue of combating vulgarity.

But now it's impossible to take it back.

Putting aside the issue of him breaking his promise and contradicting himself, the reason the editorial department ostracized him was because he spearheaded last year's major "anti-vulgarity" campaign, offending everyone in the department.

If he were to use the excuse of "anti-vulgarity" to reject this novel that everyone unanimously praises, it would be even more difficult for him to maintain his position in the editorial department in the future.

Therefore, after much deliberation, Wang Zhongqi gritted his teeth and said, "Any classic work must have some sharp edges. I think that a good work like this, which is full of golden quotes and is groundbreaking, can be given leeway—after all, this part is mainly about disclosure and exposure, not about deliberately promoting or showing off."

Between taking a stand and establishing a foothold, he ultimately chose to establish a foothold first.

However, Wang Zhongqi was not stupid. He knew that it was okay to open a door, but he absolutely could not give people something to talk about. Otherwise, if others used his words as an excuse to push things further and further, it would be troublesome.

Therefore, he deliberately added the two qualifiers "full of memorable quotes" and "groundbreaking" before "good works"—not to mention popular novels, even in pure literature, there are probably very few works that can meet these two requirements at the same time.

People were naturally not very satisfied with this approach, which seemed to open a loophole but was actually impossible to exploit. However, given Wang Zhongqi's awkward position, it was quite remarkable that he could say such a thing.

So Feng Jingyuan didn't press the issue, but instead took the initiative to say, "How about this, Xiao Wang, you contact the author first and see if you can invite him to Tianjin—after all, it's a novel that's expected to be 500,000 words long, so we need to control the subsequent plot and scale to avoid being caught off guard halfway through."

(End of this chapter)