Just after New Year's Day, on a weekday morning, people were coming and going at the entrance of the Humanities Society compound at No. 166 Chaonei Street.

Li Shuguang parked his bicycle in the carport, greeted his colleagues one by one and entered the building.

He put down his briefcase, wiped the table with a rag, and went to get a pot of hot water to make some tea. Colleagues arrived one after another. Some people stretched out their cups to ask for water, and Li Shuguang poured it for everyone one by one.

"Lao Li's service is really good," colleagues joked.

Li Shuguang chatted with everyone for a few words with a smile on his face.

After the prelude to each day's work, he sat down and prepared to work. He took out the manuscript that he had not finished reviewing yesterday from the pile of manuscripts piled on the right side of his desk.

He turned to the page with the bookmark and was about to continue reading when he heard someone calling him.

"Old Li!"

When Li Shuguang started, he saw Chen Zhihe from the publishing department of the company standing at the door with a smile on his face.

"Old Chen, why are you so happy?"

"Of course it's a good thing." Chen Zhihe walked into the office, sat opposite Li Shuguang, and picked up the tea can that he hadn't put away yet.

"What good thing?"

Chen Zhihe smiled and said nothing. Li Shuguang stood up and made him a cup of tea. "Can you talk this time?"

Chen Zhihe took a sip of tea proudly, but was burned when he didn't expect it. He put down the teacup with a trembling mouth.

"It's too hot for you."

"Can the hot water we just made not be hot? Let's get down to business. What good news?" Li Shuguang asked.

""Raiko's Summer" sold well."

"That's it? I think you're here to mix tea leaves, right?" Li Shuguang was a little dissatisfied after hearing this.

"Raiko's Summer" was originally published in "Contemporary" and helped "Contemporary" break the sales volume of 500,000 copies in one fell swoop. Although the sales volume of these issues has declined, the sales volume is still stable at more than 350,000 copies.

Compared with the 130,000 copies of "Raiko's Summer" before its publication, this number can be said to be as high as in the sky or underground. It is no exaggeration to say that "Raiko's Summer" can be said to have brought "Contemporary" from a quasi-famous magazine to a...

Above the level of famous magazines.

This is the magic of good writing!

"Raiko's Summer" can bring the magazine that published it to such a high level, and the novel's publication is selling like hotcakes. Is it any wonder?

"Hey, what is mixed tea leaves? I have a basis for saying that!"

"What's the basis?"

"The Yanjing Publishing House asked us to prepare for printing."

After hearing this, Li Shuguang finally paid attention and asked attentively: "How much do they want to order?"

"We're still counting. We'll probably notify you in two days. How about that? I'm not just talking nonsense, am I?"

Li Shuguang laughed and said, "Old Chen, you are still well-informed."

The publishing house mentioned by Chen Zhihe is the publishing department of Xinhua Bookstore, which happens to be connected with the publishing department of Humanities Society.

The print run of a book, especially the first print run, is not decided by the head of the publishing house with a slap on the forehead. It must be based on a certain basis.

This basis is generally that the publishing house first mails the order collection to the local distribution offices of Xinhua Bookstore, waits for the bookstores in various places to fill out the collection order, and then summarizes the order volume. This volume of order is the most important basis for the publishing house to print books.

Before the publication of "Raiko's Summer", the Humanities Society spent more than a month collecting subscriptions, and the results were gratifying. The subscription volume from bookstores across the country totaled more than 96,000 copies.

The Humanities Society is a national publishing house that publishes hundreds of books every year, but only a handful of them can reach this volume of subscriptions.

"Lai Zi's Summer" was first printed with 100,000 copies. Yanjing is the capital, and its book sales have always ranked first in the country. One-tenth of the 100,000 copies were placed in bookstores of all sizes in Yanjing.

It has just been a week since the novel went on sale. Even if the 10,000 copies have not been sold out, they are probably almost sold out. Otherwise, how could the publisher communicate with the publisher about additional printing?

Chen Zhihe asked: "I heard that you are reviewing another novel by Lin Chaoyang?"

"Yes. "Parental Love", he wrote it under another pen name."

"Which pen name will you use for publishing?"

"This... I haven't discussed this in detail. I should probably use the pseudonym under which I published it."

"Eh, no, no. I have to use the pen name 'Xu Lingjun'. His pen name has appeal.

He has published several novels, all of which are selling well. He uses that pen name. How many readers know that these are his novels?

In vain, a large number of potential readers were lost, which affected sales.”

Li Shuguang said: "You have to discuss this matter with Mrs. Wei."

"As a publisher, if I tell her about book publishing, aren't I going to get scolded? Go ahead and tell her."

Li Shuguang then understood and asked with a smile: "Is this why you're here?"

Chen Zhihe smiled and said nothing.

"Okay, I'll tell her later. We still need to communicate with the author about this matter."

After Chen Zhihe left, Li Shuguang came to Wei Junyi's office and told her about Chen Zhihe's proposal.

Wei Junyi only said, "The author's opinion is the main one." This made things simple. Li Shuguang only needed to confirm with the author Lin Chaoyang.

Just as he was about to leave, Li Shuguang's eyes suddenly noticed the stack of manuscripts in the upper right corner of Wei Junyi's desk. The name of the top manuscript caught his attention.

"Is this the new novel written by Chaoyang?"

"Um."

Wei Junyi's eyes fell on the manuscript, full of appreciation.

"There was a lot of commotion at "Contemporary" the past two days. Is it because of this novel?"

Wei Junyi raised her head and looked at him quietly, her eyes saying: If you have something to say, say it, if you have something to say, fart.

Li Shuguang immediately understood, "If you have finished reviewing the manuscript, can you lend it to me to look at?"

"It has to be returned to "Contemporary"."

"I'll return it. You can lend it to me first and I'll send it to them later."

"Then remember to return it to others as soon as possible."

"Don't worry."

Li Shuguang happily left Wei Junyi's office with the manuscript in hand.

When he returned to the contemporary literature editing room, a colleague saw the manuscript in his hand and asked, "Lao Li, are there any new manuscripts?"

"No, I borrowed it."

"Borrowed?"

Li Shuguang's words aroused the curiosity of his colleagues.

The Contemporary Literature Editorial Office is one of the editorial offices with the largest workload in the Humanities Society. It is usually too busy reviewing manuscripts, so Li Shuguang still has the heart to borrow manuscripts?

Someone came close to him, curious as to what manuscript Li Shuguang could take the initiative to borrow and read.

“The Death of Van Gogh?”

"Hey! Is this Lin Chaoyang's novel?"

"It should be it. Liu Yin from "Contemporary" was talking about this novel yesterday, and he was praising it so much."

Zhu Changsheng picked up the manuscript of "The Death of Van Gogh" from Lin Chaoyang more than a week ago, and first delivered it to Qin Chaoyang's house at night.

The editorial review process is based on a three-stage review system, which is divided into preliminary review, re-review, and final review.

According to the normal process, the editor in charge usually reviews the manuscript step by step after receiving it. However, in order to catch up with the first revised issue of "Contemporary" in January, Zhu Changsheng sent the manuscript directly to the editor-in-chief Qin Chaoyang.

Qin Chaoyang also attached great importance to this novel. He stayed up for two days and nights to review the manuscript, agreed to Zhu Changsheng's request, and decided to publish the full text of "The Death of Van Gogh" in "Contemporary" in the form of a special issue for the novel.

The first issue of the bimonthly literary magazine.

Originally, the manuscripts for the revised first issue of "Contemporary" had been fully prepared for layout and cover. However, something unexpected happened, and the editorial department was inevitably busy again.

Colleagues in the editorial department are also full of curiosity about this novel greenlit by Qin Chaoyang. Although the novel has been confirmed for publication, it does not prevent everyone from competing to read it.

Needless to say, the professionalism of the editors of "Contemporary" goes without saying. Many of them have edited famous works in the Chinese contemporary literary world.

For example, Rong Shihui, who loves to brag, was the editor of "Song of Youth" and "Lin Hai Xue Yuan" which were popular all over the country in the 1950s.

Since the establishment of "Contemporary", the Humanities Society has also given great support to it. Any good manuscripts will be first attached to this son.

It should be said that the editors of "Contemporary" are outstanding in the literary editing industry in terms of professionalism and knowledge. To say that they are well-informed cannot be overstated.

But when reading the novel "The Death of Van Gogh", their inherent concepts were broken again and again.

The first is the idea of ​​time travel. In fact, this idea is not uncommon in ancient Chinese literature.

For example, Huang Liang Meng in "The Story of the Pillow", Four Dreams of Linchuan written by Tang Xianzu, "The Purple Hairpin", "The Story of Nanke", "The Peony Pavilion" and "The Story of Handan", Pu Songling's "Liao Zhai" and Yuan Mei's "Zi Buyu".

In these works, there are more or less stories that use dreams as a medium to travel between reality and virtuality, between ancient and modern times, and in different spaces.

But in the creation of contemporary Chinese literature, very few people use this kind of creativity.

The idea of ​​"The Death of Van Gogh" is at least relatively rare in recent years, so when you see this kind of work unexpectedly, you will naturally be amazed.

Secondly, the structure and style of the novel have a heavy suspense element, which is also very rare in the literary world where realism is the mainstream.

The addition of this suspense element makes the novel far more readable than ordinary mainstream literary works. In the words of some editors of "Contemporary", it is addictive to read.

The plot of the novel is exquisitely designed, using Aaron's time travel and his encounter with Van Gogh in a tavern as clues, step by step revealing a series of secrets about Van Gogh's genius hidden in history.

It has the tight rhythm of fighting monsters and the suspense of deciphering Van Gogh's tragic life. It firmly captures the curiosity of readers and makes it difficult to put it down during the reading process.

Moreover, Lin Chaoyang also integrated rich European historical knowledge and artistic analysis into the novel, allowing these editors to enjoy the fun of deciphering and increase their knowledge at the same time.

Even if the novel is mixed with a certain amount of stream-of-consciousness creative techniques, it does not affect the overall storytelling of the novel at all.

Finally, there is the overall reading experience of the novel. Although it is mixed with many elements such as stream of consciousness, science fiction, suspense, etc., the reading experience is still dominated by the story.

The protagonist Aaron experienced a time and space journey. Not only did he have a close communication with his idol Van Gogh, but he also deeply understood what art is and strengthened his inner persistence and pursuit of artistic beliefs.

Especially at the end of the story, Aaron's figure overlaps with Van Gogh across hundreds of years. Looking at those intact works of art and listening to the infinite admiration of future generations for Van Gogh, Van Gogh witnessed his lifetime in Aaron's body.

I was unable to witness my own greatness with my own eyes.

The theme of the novel has been fully sublimated at this moment. Talent that transcends the times is always accompanied by doubt and loneliness. Only art is immortal.
Chapter completed!