Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 385 China Produces a World-Class Writer

In the afternoon, filming continued at the restaurant. Li Jun and Liu Yimin sat next to each other, discussing the plot and their opinions.

The notebook was filled with detailed shooting instructions. Liu Yimin read it through and felt that Li Jun's approach was flawless.

"Director Li, when will the crew get a break?" Liu Yimin asked with a smile.

Li Jun said, "It's the 29th of the lunar year, right? If we film for one more day, the actors in the crew can get one more day's subsidy. Although the August First Film Studio's profits are not bad this year, each crew member only received a bag of apples and a bag of cabbage and radishes. If we want to have a good New Year, we need to earn more money."

Liu Yimin also received some rice, flour, and oil from Yenching University this year. In addition, the Writers Association sent Liu Yimin a bag of apples from its Creative Home in Beidaihe.

The Creative Home also prepared a small apple tree for them, which will be transplanted into the courtyard in the spring.

Li Jun suddenly looked at Liu Yimin: "Yimin, how about we also make 'The Best Restaurant Under Heaven' into a TV series? Turning 'The Era Trilogy' into 'The Era TV Trilogy', I think that could become a legendary story of our time, what do you think?"

"Director Li, it will take several more months to finish filming this script!"

Li Jun joked, "I need to find a job for myself a few months from now!"

"I have no problem with the script. You just need to discuss it with the factory," Liu Yimin said with a smile.

He wrote the trilogy himself, and Li Jun filmed the trilogy. It was indeed a wonderful story when it got out.

Li Jun smiled and said, "Then let's agree on this. There shouldn't be any problem with the factory. I talked to Director Liu about this a few days ago, but unfortunately, the General Political Department has too many meetings to attend lately, and Director Liu is too busy."

That's one of the reasons I invited you to the film crew this time.

"Director Li, just say it!" Liu Yimin said.

Li Jun looked at the film crew and then pointed to the restaurant: "This is also part of your film crew, you can't just not come and take a look!"

As it was almost time to leave work, the crew was about to film the evening scenes, so Liu Yimin didn't stay any longer and went to the Beijing People's Art Theatre to pick up Zhu Lin.

On January 19th, snowflakes drifted down from the sky over Yanjing. The black mud in the alleyways and the "New Year's oil" flowing from each household mixed together, emitting an unpleasant smell.

Fortunately, the roads in Nanluoguxiang Hutong are paved with blue bricks, so even if there are occasional broken bricks, your feet won't get covered in mud.

Liu Yimin rode his motorcycle, with cabbages and radishes tied to the back. This year, instead of going home for the Spring Festival, Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin had to prepare some New Year's goods like residents of Yanjing.

We planted cabbages in the yard, but after eating them all, there are only two or three left, not enough to last until the New Year.

The two of them couldn't eat too much, unlike the old residents of Yanjing who would drag their families along in farm carts to bring cabbages or radishes home.

Laughter filled the alley. Parents who were cooking meat sneakily went to the alley entrance and whispered to their children to go back inside. They secretly tore off a large piece of meat and stuffed it into the child's mouth, telling him not to run around while eating.

After wolfing down his food, the child stared intently at the cutting board.
When they arrived at the door, Aunt Liang greeted Liu Yimin while wiping her hands.

"Spending the Spring Festival in Beijing this year?"

"Yes, Aunt Liang, my wife is pregnant, so it's not convenient for us to go back home. We'll be spending the New Year in Yanjing this year," Liu Yimin said with a smile.

"Have you bought everything for the house? I see your wife's belly is getting bigger and bigger, you should be careful. You cultured people have such nice way of speaking, 'my wife,' we usually say 'my husband,' hahaha."

Aunt Liang, wearing a green headscarf, was laughing so hard she was bent over. Nearby, some children were glancing left and right at Liu Yimin's motorcycle. Aunt Liang stretched out her arm as if to hit them, and then scolded them all.

After chatting for about ten minutes, Liu Yimin rode his motorcycle back to the courtyard house, threw the cabbage and radish into a corner of the kitchen, and went out to buy some dried vegetables, dried shrimp, and other things.

After getting off work in the evening, Zhu Lin looked at the things in the kitchen and smiled, "Teacher Liu is really good at managing the household. Let me see if there's anything I forgot to buy."

"It's just the two of us, we can't eat much," Liu Yimin said, brushing the snowflakes off his clothes.

Zhu Lin nodded: "That's true, that's good enough."

Mr. and Mrs. Zhu originally planned for the two to stay at their place for the Chinese New Year, but the two felt it was inconvenient. Furthermore, Mr. and Mrs. Zhu's place is quite a distance from the Beijing People's Art Theatre, and with the bad weather making commuting difficult, they didn't go.

Zhu Lin handed the tickets issued by the Beijing People's Art Theatre to Liu Yimin. The tickets included meat and fish coupons. Meat, eggs, and other supplies, which were usually plentiful, became scarce again during the Lunar New Year, and were difficult to buy without coupons.

After finishing their meal, the two chatted in the study for a while before running back to the bedroom, where the snow had accumulated into a thick layer on the ground.

Back in the bedroom, the two lay on the bed, and Zhu Lin touched her belly, asking Liu Yimin to guess whether she was carrying a boy or a girl.

“Boys or girls are fine,” Liu Yimin said.

Zhu Lin got interested and asked Liu Yimin to come up with a name in advance. Liu Yimin was a beat slow to react, so Zhu Lin pushed Liu Yimin's arm and started to act coquettishly.

"Alright, alright, stop shaking me, or I'll get dizzy. The boy's name is Liu Lin, which means 'two trees in the forest,' and the girl's name is Liu Yu. Yu and Lin together make up your character 'Lin.' What do you think?" Liu Yimin said, putting his arm around Zhu Lin's shoulder.

Zhu Lin wrote the two names on Liu Yimin's palm with her finger. After writing them, she looked at Liu Yimin happily and said, "Good, the meaning is good. These two characters must be complete."

"Do you think the child will look like you or me?" Liu Yimin asked with a smile.

Zhu Lin tilted his head: "It'll definitely look like us!"

"I thought you'd analyze it for me using your medical knowledge!" Liu Yimin rubbed his cheek against Zhu Lin's forehead.

"Medicine? I've become rusty in my field." When medicine is mentioned again, Zhu Lin seems to think it's something very distant.

Liu Yimin reached out and turned off the light: "Go to sleep, Comrade Zhu Lin, you have to go to work tomorrow."

"Teacher Liu, lie down and hug me!" Zhu Lin said softly, placing her feet on Liu Yimin's thighs.

Liu Yimin turned around, afraid of touching Zhu Lin's stomach, so he could only put his hands together.

In San Francisco, USA, an airplane slowly drove onto the runway and, accompanied by the roar of its engines, successfully took off.

Niki Neuss of China Book and Periodical Publishing House was sitting on this plane, holding the latest issue of The Paris Review.

The cover of this issue of The Paris Review resembles that of a horror novel, with a dark color scheme interspersed with a few streaks of bright red, whip-like bloodstains. Upon closer inspection, these bloodstains are held in the hand of a dark figure, confirming that it is indeed a whip.

A dark figure rode a strangely shaped horse, beneath which lay a swaddled infant bleeding.

The blank space at the top of the cover bears a prophecy: "The best American novel of 1984 will be published in the spring issue of The Paris Review in 1984."

There is also a line that reads: "From the pen of the Eastern writer, Liu."

Niki Noyce turned to the page of "Beloved" in the magazine, and the content, which she read three times, still piqued her interest.

Liu Yimin thought that the Paris Review would publish his novel in the winter of 1983, but unfortunately it did not. The editorial department of the Paris Review believed that it would be more meaningful to publish it in the first issue of 1984.

By the time the plane arrived in Tokyo, where Niki Noyce lived, she had already reviewed the contents again.

“God, how did he write that!” Niki Noyce closed the Paris Review magazine, her eyes filled with disbelief.

I recalled a speech I gave at a university, where an American professor challenged Liu Yimin and other Eastern writers, claiming they couldn't write magical realism.

She still remembers Liu saying, "I will write it!" She feels that so much time has passed that she has forgotten Liu Yimin's expression when he said those words, or whether those were his exact words.

She believes that the professor who provoked Liu Yimin back then has forgotten the scene and only regards it as a joke.

But unexpectedly, this young man from the East actually wrote it. Three days after its publication in the spring issue of The Paris Review in 1984, the title of the novel "Beloved" appeared alongside Liu Yimin's name in major American newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Undoubtedly, major American media outlets reported on this novel with words like "shocking" and "astonishing".

The New York Times published a front-page commentary titled "An Epic of Freedom and Its Cost."

Time magazine described The Beloved as presenting the complexities of racial oppression in an extreme and intricate way.

The Paris Review sold 100,000 copies across the United States within a week, becoming its best-selling issue in recent years.

Even the editor-in-chief of The Paris Review remarked at a writers' ball held in his private apartment: "This is a novel that will be forever remembered in American history, and its author is a Chinese from the East. China has produced a world-class writer!"

The following day, major newspapers across the United States published comprehensive reports on Liu Yimin under this headline, with various headlines detailing different aspects of his life.

Many of the sources of information came from Chinese students studying in the United States. By piecing together various sources of information, along with Liu Yimin's performance in the United States in 82, Americans gradually pieced together the overall picture of this Eastern writer.

However, there are many controversial aspects. Some people think that Liu Yimin is an internationalist who loves peace and freedom; others think that Liu Yimin is a fanatical nationalist.

The only point of consensus is that this Eastern writer is eloquent and has excellent writing skills, produces a wide variety of works, and is extremely prolific.

Since the publication of "The Paris Review," Niki Noyce had been following the developments on television and in newspapers. After two weeks of observation, she saw the enormous commercial value of "The Favourite."

Black people often wear copies of *The Paris Review* close to their chests during television interviews. At Martin Luther King Jr.'s tombstone lies a copy of *The Paris Review*, with a rose tucked into the *Beloved* section, symbolizing love and freedom.

Niki Noyce could no longer sit still. She immediately went to the consulate to apply for a visa and bought a plane ticket to fly to China.

China Book and Periodical Publishing House has made a lot of money publishing several of Liu Yimin's novels. "Green Book", "Triumph at Midnight", and "Old Man and Dog" are the best-selling, especially "Old Man and Dog", whose story brought tears to the eyes of countless Americans.

Many environmental organizations took this book to tell the US government and China how hard they are working to protect the environment, how much they are willing to go to any lengths and at any cost.

"The Old Man and the Dog" once surpassed "Triumph at Midnight" and "Green Book" to become the best-selling book in the United States for several consecutive months.

Nicky Noyce and her brother Henry Noyce believed months ago that Liu Yimin's influence in the United States was already established, and that his next novel could be published as long as it did not involve any issues related to the US government's publishing ban.

Now that they've seen "Beloved," they're convinced it will become one of the best-selling books in American history.

This kind of bestseller isn't like the bestseller "Green Book," but rather a bestseller that far surpasses others. The American literary market isn't large, but it still produces hundreds of thousands or even millions of bestsellers, just not many.

Riding the wave of "magical realism," it will surely shine brightly in the global publishing market.

Thinking of this, Niki felt even more eager to get to Yanjing.

Because she was holding the novel "Beloved," the passengers next to her couldn't help but strike up a conversation with her.

“Madam, I’ve also read this novel. I think it could be a history textbook; it explores the harm slavery inflicted on individuals and communities. I feel saddened that my grandfather harmed Black people, and that my grandfather also repented for his grandfather’s crimes,” said the passenger next to me.

Looking at the white man next to her, Nikki said with empathy, "We have hurt too many people. I don't know if you have done anything for them."

“Our family is kind and has long worked to alleviate the suffering of slaves. According to my grandfather, in order to reduce the amount of cotton they picked each day, he stopped whipping them and switched to using sticks instead. You know, whips hurt much more than sticks.”

Nikki glanced at the white man's age and calculated the timeline; his grandfather must have inherited the plantation after the Civil War.

“Sir, your grandfather is truly kind,” Nikki said sarcastically.

"Madam, this was absolutely the most merciful thing at the time. Other plantations nearby were not so kind. They would impregnate Black women, humiliate them in front of their husbands, and abort their children. The whips were soaked in pepper spray before they went to work."

Niki Noyce turned her head to look out the window: "Sir, please stop talking, my scalp is starting to tingle!"

“Okay, madam, I won’t say it, but I won’t say it still exists. They say God helps good people, but my grandfather was so kind to black people and didn’t get a good reward. He became the first white rancher in their area to lose his business. Because other white ranches had lower cotton costs and fewer people used it, giving them an advantage over my grandfather.”

Niki stopped listening and just wanted to find Liu Yimin as soon as the plane landed and sign the publishing agreement for "Beloved".

The white man got off the plane in Shanghai, and Nikki spent the rest of her time in Beijing in relative peace and quiet.

Nikki wondered whether this white man was a racial egalitarian or a white supremacist. His words seemed to be full of resentment towards his grandfather, who could have inherited a large fortune if his grandfather hadn't gone bankrupt.

Upon arriving in Yanjing, Niki felt the chill of the city and couldn't help but shiver; Yanjing was much colder than San Francisco.

When Niki arrived at the Yanjing Hotel, she immediately called Liu Yimin. Liu Yimin, who was busy in the courtyard, thought he had misheard Niki's voice.

Liu Yimin put down his work, rode his motorcycle to the Yanjing Hotel, where Niki was eating in the restaurant.

“Ms. Nikki!” Liu Yimin greeted Nikki.

Niki invited Liu Yimin to sit down for a meal and said with a smile, "My father told me that when you come to China, you should treat Chinese people to a meal. That way, it will be easier to do anything."

"Are you used to this Chinese food?" Liu Yimin asked.

“I think I have Chinese genes. I also make a point of eating at Chinese restaurants in the United States. The food I eat in China is more authentic.”

After finishing her meal, Niki asked what the Chinese people were doing, noting that they all seemed quite happy on their way there.

"The Chinese New Year is coming soon, so everyone is naturally happy," Liu Yimin said.

Nikki happily said, "Then I must experience the Chinese New Year properly."

Next, Nikki took out several newspapers from her bag, all of which were about "The Favourite".

Liu Yimin said with a smile, "So you came here for 'Beloved'!"

Liu Yimin just received his payment today from The Paris Review, totaling $5,000. In the letter, the magazine again invited him to contribute, praising him as the most internationally-minded Chinese writer.

“Yes, this novel is so popular in the United States that I wish I could fly over right away, but unfortunately my visa has been delayed for a long time,” Nikki said.

"Logically, you should have a good relationship with the consulate, so you shouldn't have to wait so long!"

"The consul said there were too many applicants, and many Chinese people were applying for temporary visas to return to China, so mine was late."

Niki hoped that Liu Yimin would give the copyright of "Beloved" back to their China Book and Periodical Publishing House. After pondering for a moment, Liu Yimin asked her to increase the royalties.

Niki smiled wryly and said, "Liu, yours is already quite tall."

“Ms. Niki, I don’t think mine is the highest. I put a lot of effort into this novel, ‘Beloved.’ I’m not concerned about a few percentage points difference. Rather, as a writer of talent, I cannot allow myself to be lower than writers of equal talent.”

"I think after 'Beloved' is published, I'll be qualified to negotiate with you based on my strength and status. Of course, the publisher should also respect the author," Liu Yimin said, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair.

After a moment of contemplation, Niki concluded that as long as the proportions were within the acceptable range, the publisher would always make a profit.

“15% it is!” Niki said through gritted teeth.

Liu Yimin continued, "Ms. Niki, the percentage is 15% for paperback books, but for hardcover books, I demand 20%. You will have exclusive rights to publish 'Beloved' in the United States."

Niki looked at Liu Yimin but didn't say anything. Instead, she poured herself a cup of tea.

(End of this chapter)