In the spring of 1980, Lin Chaoyang finally became a regular employee of Yanda Library. The biggest benefit was that his salary increased from the original 47 yuan per month to 53 yuan.
However, this money is of little help to Lin Chaoyang at present. During the Chinese New Year, the couple went back to his hometown and spent more than 100 yuan. The first payment for buying a house was 4,000 yuan given to Lin Fugui.
The couple now has 1,200 yuan left in their hands, which seems to be quite a lot, but there is still 6,500 yuan left in the house payment.
During this period of time, you have to spend a few yuan or dozens of yuan to clean up the house in the overseas Chinese apartment. It adds up to a big expense, which is not a small expense.
Lin Chaoyang is now looking forward to the manuscript from "Contemporary" being passed as soon as possible and the royalties being paid as soon as possible. In the past few days, he is also preparing for his next novel.
Before the news from "Contemporary" came, he received a sample book of "Garland Under the Mountain" from Liang Junshu, editor of Warrior Publishing House.
In addition to the sample book, Liang Junshu also wrote a letter to Lin Chaoyang, informing him that the single volume of "Garland Under the Mountain" will be available in Xinhua Bookstores in various cities in the country in a few days, with an initial printing of 300,000 copies.
The situation is similar to what Lin Chaoyang speculated. The first printing of "Garland Under the Mountain" was 300,000 copies. It seems that the publisher is indeed very confident in the sales of this novel.
He wrote back a letter to Liang Junshu and then dropped the matter.
Unexpectedly, two days later, Du Feng came to Tao's house with a happy face. When he entered the door, he shouted: "Where is my brother-in-law? Where is my brother-in-law?"
The family members were attracted by his voice. At this time, Lin Chaoyang came out of the room and asked, "What's wrong? Why are you so happy?"
"Hey! Let me show you something good!" Du Feng took out a piece of paper from his arms with some excitement, "Take a look!"
Lin Chaoyang took it and saw that it was a red investment document.
"Notice on organizing troops to read the novel "Wreaths Under the Mountains"":
After the publication of the novella "Garland Under the Mountain" written by the famous writer Xu Lingjun, it aroused strong repercussions both inside and outside the military.
This work successfully portrays the image of new socialist men emerging in our army in the new era by showing the struggle life of the Vietnam ZWF war. It is an excellent military-themed literary work, and it is also a tribute to patriotism and revolutionary heroes for the troops.
A vivid teaching material for the education of doctrine and communism.
It is hoped that all units will seriously organize army cadres and soldiers to read and comment on this work, better utilize the educational role of this work, further enhance the patriotism and communist consciousness of the majority of cadres and soldiers, and serve to promote modernization and regularize the construction of the revolutionary army.
While Lin Chaoyang was reading the document, brother and sister Tao Yucheng and Tao Yumo came over curiously. After reading the contents of the document, the brother and sister were immediately shocked.
"Is this a Hongtou document?" Tao Yumo asked in surprise.
Tao Yucheng said anxiously: "The red investment documents are not important, the important thing is the signature."
He asked Du Feng: "Is this really a document issued by the General Department?"
Du Feng yelled: "My birthday girl eats arsenic - do you think your life will be long? How dare you make fun of you with a fake one?"
He took the documents from Lin Chaoyang and showed them to the Tao family one by one.
"This notice was personally sent by the Cultural Department of the General ZZ Headquarters. It is guaranteed to be genuine!"
Tao Yumo asked: "Brother, what does this mean? Is it for the whole army to learn?"
Du Feng laughed and said: "That's pretty much what it means, but the novel is not the spirit of a document, nor is it a model figure, so it is a call to reading."
Tao Yucheng exclaimed: "Dear me! Chaoyang's novel is already popular enough, and this is what I want to add to it!"
"I can't help it. Who asked my brother-in-law to write this novel well?"
Du Feng transformed into the first "Lin Chui" at this time. When he saw Tao's mother's eyes falling on the document, he wanted to read it but was afraid of appearing too eager, so he handed the document over, shook his head and said: "Auntie, take a look!
This is a call for the entire army to read."
Mother Tao took the document and looked at it casually, "It's an honor for the whole army to read it."
"Of course it's an honor, and it's a top honor." Du Feng said in an exaggerated tone, "After all these years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, this has never happened before."
"Wouldn't Chaoyang set a precedent?" Tao Yucheng said with a smile.
"Definitely!"
The two sang and harmonized, making the atmosphere in the Tao family lively, and everyone happily passed around the documents.
After a long time, Du Feng put the documents away and warned: "Because this is my brother-in-law's novel, my dad made an exception and asked me to bring the documents to you, so you don't spread it."
After saying this, he felt that he had done a good job in announcing the good news today, and said to Tao's mother: "Auntie, cook me some more dishes tonight."
"Mom, take the money and I'll buy groceries!"
Tao's mother gave the money and Tao Yucheng went to buy groceries. Tao Yumo asked: "Brother, my brother-in-law has called on the whole army to read this novel. Is there any reward?"
"The whole army reads it, what an honor this is, what kind of reward is it?" Du Feng said matter-of-factly.
"Ah? Just verbal honor?" Tao Yumo was a little disappointed.
Du Feng's expression was a little awkward, "Um...everyone reads it. The sales volume of my brother-in-law's novel will definitely be the same. It's hard for all the grassroots soldiers to get a copy."
Tao Yumo rolled his eyes and asked Lin Chaoyang: "Brother-in-law, do you get paid for the number of prints now?"
"Well, 2% of 10,000 volumes." Lin Chaoyang nodded.
"Then if you sell one million copies, you can get double the royalties."
Du Feng shook his finger, "More than that, it must be more than one million copies, I dare to bet you!"
Tao Yumo rolled her eyes at him, "Do you think I'm stupid? There are two to three million troops!"
"Hehe, you're really not stupid."
The brother and sister were laughing and joking, and Tao Yushu was also murmuring to Lin Chaoyang. If "Garland Under the Mountain" could really sell one or two million copies, wouldn't the hole that the couple had to buy a house be filled in all of a sudden?
Tao Yushu thought it was a bit unreal when he thought about it. How could he repay the remaining several thousand yuan by relying on the royalties from the printing of a novel?
This unexpected joy made her feel relieved a lot.
Two days later, Lin Chaoyang was at work and met Zhu Changsheng.
Before the Chinese New Year, Lin Chaoyang handed over his newly written novel to "Contemporary", and it has already been almost a month.
When Zhu Changsheng saw Lin Chaoyang, he praised: "Chaoyang, this novel is really well written!"
Lin Chaoyang is now extremely wary of the editors of Contemporary, including Zhu Changsheng.
These old guys were as sweet-talking as the eunuchs of the previous dynasty, and he was really afraid that one day he would accidentally fall into their trap again.
"What's so good about it?" Lin Chaoyang asked politely.
Zhu Changsheng did not expect Lin Chaoyang to ask such a question. He hesitated for a moment and looked thoughtful.
"Your novel is a typical work of stream-of-consciousness literature. Under your delicate writing style, the story is like a prose poem flowing in the summer heat wave.
It makes people's thoughts wander freely as if they were drifting in the wind, and has a dreamlike and unreal feeling, but at the same time it also has a deep emotional resonance. This is my overall feeling after reading the novel."
Zhu Changsheng paused here, and then said: "To be more specific, I feel that the words in your novel are like a soft sponge, full of emotional moisture, making people feel like they are tightly wrapped in a rich
feelings in the emotional atmosphere.”
"I don't know how many stream-of-consciousness novels you have written before, but I think you have a very unique talent in the creation of stream-of-consciousness literature.
Your writing always has an ability similar to that of a microscope, revealing subtle changes in the inner world of the characters in detail. This feeling is very similar to the feeling I had when watching "The Wrangler" and "Little Shoes".
As a creator, you are able to accurately capture every emotional change and inner turmoil of the characters in the novel. This precise portrayal of the characters' psychological state far exceeds that of most contemporary writers I know.
This allows readers to follow the characters' thoughts and experience the ups and downs of their emotions when reading your novel, as if they are in the depths of the characters' consciousness and empathize with their joys, sorrows and joys.
And the poetic construction of words…”
Lin Chaoyang thought Zhu Changsheng was just being polite, but he didn't expect that he could organize his words in a moment and narrate the novel's highlights and his feelings after reading it. What's even more rare is that his words are meaningful and insightful.
Accurate.
Although people are flattering, they are indeed on point.
"Okay, okay, I'll be embarrassed if you praise me again."
Zhu Changsheng was interrupted by Lin Chaoyang, and he said with a smile: "The novel is indeed well written! What's even more rare is that this is a rare stream of consciousness work in China. Your novel should be the first real novel in China.
The stream-of-consciousness novel can be said to be the first of its kind."
Lin Chaoyang waved his hand, "It's not that exaggerated. Foreign countries have been writing about it for half a century. We are just picking up others' wisdom."
In the past few years after the reform and opening up, Chinese people have gradually learned to see the world with open eyes, especially in the cultural world, this trend is even stronger.
Originally it was a good thing to open our eyes to see the world, but many people inevitably go too far in the process. They admire foreign countries, especially Western countries, to the point of being blind and belittle themselves.
Zhu Changsheng didn't see anything like this in Lin Chaoyang. Although he wrote about stream of consciousness, he seemed to only regard it as an ordinary literary style, a tool that could be used whenever he wanted.
He thought about the reason why Lin Chaoyang behaved like this. After much deliberation, he finally settled on the word "confidence".
Only with true inner self-confidence, self-confidence in one's own literary skills, and self-confidence in national culture, can one be able to approach and accommodate imported things with an equal and modest attitude, and have such a clear understanding and attitude.
After chatting for a while, Zhu Changsheng told Lin Chaoyang that his novel had passed the review of "Contemporary" and would be published as a headline in the second issue of "Contemporary" this year, which is the April issue.
This is the purpose of his coming today.
"Fees..."
"Ten bucks for a thousand words!"
Li Shuguang had already told Zhu Changsheng that Lin Chaoyang was very concerned about royalties.
The quality of the novel cannot be overemphasized, and it is a rare type of stream-of-consciousness literature in China. Although the concept of stream-of-consciousness literature was introduced to China relatively early, its development has not been ideal, and no influential works have been produced so far.
At the public level, readers know even less about this type of literary works. Starting from the end of last year, "Foreign Literature and Art" began to organize and plan to introduce this literary genre to the general readership.
Lin Chaoyang's novel has been reviewed three times by the editors of "Contemporary" and editor-in-chief Wei Junyi. Everyone generally believes that this is a rare masterpiece even among foreign stream-of-consciousness literature.
After the novel is published, it will definitely bring new opportunities and a large number of readers to the development of domestic stream-of-consciousness literature.
Therefore, "Contemporary" did not have too much entanglement in the standard of remuneration, and directly gave Lin Chaoyang the highest standard.
After hearing the remuneration standards revealed by Zhu Changsheng, Lin Chaoyang beamed.
Chapter completed!