While Zhang Chengzhi and Lin Chaoyang were chatting, several more people arrived one after another carrying gifts, all of which were from Li Tuoyue.
Lin Chaoyang was not surprised to see Chen Jiangong and Liu Zhida coming home. Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong also knew each other, but he was very surprised to see Wang Zengqi and Lin Jinlan also coming.
Lin Chaoyang stood up, shook hands with Wang Zengqi and Lin Jinlan, and exchanged warm greetings.
"Last time I had dinner with Yan Ru and the others, and I have never forgotten your craftsmanship!" Wang Zengqi said with a smile.
Anyone who is familiar with Wang Zengqi knows that he has a deep understanding of food. To get such a high evaluation from him is enough to illustrate Lin Chaoyang's craftsmanship.
Lin Jinlan smiled and said: "I was chatting with Zeng Qi some time ago and heard him talk about your craftsmanship. I also came over to have a meal."
“Welcome welcome!”
Seven guests came to the house today, and the living room suddenly became crowded. Everyone was chatting and the atmosphere was lively and festive.
At around ten o'clock, Lin Chaoyang went to the kitchen to prepare meals, and Wang Zengqi volunteered to help.
"It just so happens that you are here today. Let's see how my Zhenjiang dish is doing."
Lin Chaoyang took out the pig's trotters that had been cut in the morning and gave Wang Zengqi a look. This was a dish that Wang Zengqi and Zhou Yanru taught him during the last meal at Lin Chaoyang's family.
"The lean meat is dark red, and the fat meat is as white as mutton fat." Wang Zengqi first looked at the color of the pig's trotters and nodded, "The color is okay."
Lin Chaoyang gave him a small piece. After eating it, Wang Zengqi tasted it carefully and said with a smile, "Not bad, not bad. The meat is firm and elastic, chewy and not greasy in the mouth. It would be better if it is paired with mature vinegar and shredded ginger."
.”
"What to eat?"
While the two were talking, Li Tuo came over and saw that the pig's trotters on the plate looked so good and attractive in color that he couldn't help but grab a piece.
"The food hasn't been served yet, can you be more careful?"
Seeing Li Tuo's move, others followed suit. A plate of pig's trotters was snatched away before it was even served.
Lin Chaoyang was holding an empty plate and couldn't laugh or cry, "You guys are reincarnations of starving ghosts!"
Chen Jiangong gnawed on the pig's trotters, his mouth full of oil, "This shows that your cooking skills have been recognized by us, and the title of Master of Xunweizhai is not in vain."
"So you come to our house to have dinner and I have to thank you for recognizing my craftsmanship?" Lin Chaoyang teased.
"How can you call it a meal? We are also guests after all, and we came with gifts."
Chen Jiangong brought two bags of peanuts when he came, which was the shabbiest among all the people. His words attracted Lin Chaoyang's disdainful eyes.
All joking aside, the atmosphere at the party was actually very good.
Everyone is engaged in writing, and the main topics of conversation during the meeting were literature and writing. Before dinner, Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong poured two glasses of beer.
Lin Chaoyang's house didn't have beer, so Liu Zhida brought this wine.
In the early 1980s, bottled beer, which was common in later generations, could only be found in foreign-related hotels and some larger state-owned restaurants.
What Liu Zhida brought was real beer, 50 cents per liter.
At this time, many restaurants and snack bars have beer glasses made of glass, and a large glass is one liter. Last year, extra-large beer glasses made of plastic appeared, and a glass of two liters.
Liu Zhida's beer is brewed in a thermos, and each pot is nearly two liters.
It looked like a lot, but in fact it was less than four bottles of bottled beer. Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong each poured a large glass, only half of it was left, and they drank happily.
At this time, Lin Chaoyang brought a plate of cold pig ears, "I've never seen you guys be so anxious. I don't know, I thought you were a drunkard."
Li Tuo took a bite of pig ears, which were salty, spicy and slightly fragrant, with a crispy texture.
"I haven't eaten your cooking for months, and I just miss this one bite."
"That's right. With Chaoyang's skills, it would be a pity not to open a restaurant."
While everyone was talking and laughing, the dishes were served one after another. The table was filled with eight dishes, four meat and four vegetables, four cold and four hot, which looked delicious and delicious.
Chen Jiangong took the initiative to get up and pour wine for everyone. He first took Liu Zhida's thermos, and as soon as he walked to Wang Zengqi, Wang Zengqi held down the rim of the cup.
"I don't drink horse urine!"
Ever since real beer came out, many Yanjing people who loved drinking had been calling it horse urine. It was not until the mid-1970s that it was gradually accepted by young people.
But to Wang Zengqi, who is used to drinking liquor, this stuff is still horse urine.
"Then drink this, Li Tuo brought it." Chen Jiangong poured him a glass of white wine.
After the food and wine were ready, everyone first raised their glasses to Lin Chaoyang to thank him for his hard work.
While eating, everyone kept talking about the topic. Chen Jiangong talked about his experience watching "The Death of Van Gogh" some time ago.
More than two months have passed since the novel was published. The first issue of "Contemporary" in 1981, which published "The Death of Van Gogh", has sold 1.15 million copies.
Not only did it more than double its peak sales volume, it also made a qualitative leap in the influence of the publication "Contemporary."
You must know that before the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh", although the development momentum of "Contemporary" was pretty good, it could not be compared with top literary magazines such as "Harvest" and "People's Literature". They even did not compete with "Yenjing Literature"
None can compare.
However, with the publication of "The Death of Van Gogh", one issue of the magazine sold millions of copies, making "Contemporary" the hottest literary magazine in the beginning of 1981.
This issue is dedicated to novels. The magazine's sales are all supported by "The Death of Van Gogh". All readers bought "Contemporary" because of this novel.
In two months, the influence of "The Death of Van Gogh" continued to grow. Thousands of letters from readers poured into the editorial office of "Contemporary" and received rave reviews.
During this period of time, many writers and critics in the literary world have expressed their opinions on this novel in various magazines, and "The Death of Van Gogh" has also achieved a very high reputation in the professional field.
"...I think Chaoyang's stream of consciousness creation techniques have reached the point of perfection. In fact, the stream of consciousness style of "The Death of Van Gogh" is obviously not as outstanding as "The Summer of Raiko", but this change does not make people feel
It's unexpected, but it feels reasonable.
Because he put the rupture, interweaving, inner monologue, and free association of the sequence of time and space into the character of Van Gogh, and Van Gogh's own mental state was not that stable.
This setting is so wonderful, it’s almost natural!”
Chen Jiangong shook his head and said, and everyone became interested. Zheng Wanlong asked: "Chaoyang, many critics are now saying that you are the first person in stream-of-consciousness literature in our country. I sometimes practice this creative technique, but I always
It feels a little weird, do you have any thoughts?"
Everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang after hearing this. Stream of consciousness literature is still a fashionable genre in China today, especially after Lin Chaoyang started this trend. Many writers are eager to try it, but few can grasp this trend.
The creative essence of the genre.
Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "How can I feel anything?"
"Actually speaking, stream of consciousness literature itself is somewhat anti-literary, because the expression of literature must be concrete and often appeals to the senses.
However, when stream-of-consciousness literature deals with text, it often prefers abstract processing. If this degree is not grasped well, it will easily lose its literary qualities and turn into philosophical science."
Everyone listened thoughtfully to Lin Chaoyang's words, and Zheng Wanlong asked: "Then how do you balance this scale?"
"Always remember that the first thing I want to tell is a story. Let me give you an example. There was a fire in the house. The servant went to the master in a panic and said: Oh no! Oh no! It's on fire!
This is an abstract way of writing. The reader does not receive the information, but feels the emotion first.
Of course this doesn't mean it's bad, but the mood needs to be improved.
Suppose you write to the servant: There was a fire in the house, the house was burned down, and the young master could not be rescued.
At this time, the event and the scene are created, the sense of the picture comes immediately, and the emotional triggers also come, and then the character comes to life and he can open his mouth to speak."
The examples Lin Chaoyang gave were very vivid, and everyone understood them immediately.
Lin Chaoyang's speech focused on theory. Most of the people present here are people who have made achievements in creation. They are not bad in practice and skills, but few people pay attention to theory. When listening to his words, everyone is stunned.
It feels refreshing.
"Chaoyang said this well, please say more, say more!" Li Tuo urged.
Lin Chaoyang waved his hand, "There's nothing to say. In fact, it's just a problem that everyone encounters every day. It's just my habit to summarize it."
Seeing that he refused to talk any more, Chen Jiangong sighed: "Looking at Chaoyang's current level, I can just teach."
Zhang Chengzhi laughed and said: "It will definitely be no problem to teach the Chinese department."
After this topic ended, everyone changed to another topic. Li Tuo talked about Kafka.
Wang Zengqi sat among a group of young people who were more than ten or twenty years younger than him, or even in their thirties. He rarely spoke and mostly listened, picking up food from time to time and drinking a glass of wine with Lin Jinlan next to him.
The two old comrades know how to drink and love to drink. Today, there are many people and the atmosphere is lively. They are in the hustle and bustle, but they are at ease, pushing glasses and changing glasses.
Compared with these young people who treat literature with a hunger and thirst for literature, these old writers in their 50s and 60s are like old scalpers. They have experienced too much in the first half of their lives, and what they need now is constant rumination and digestion.
After drinking a few glasses of wine, Wang Zengqi leisurely looked at everyone's excitement, with a narrow smile on her face, and asked Lin Chaoyang in a low voice: "Do you think they are being chased by dogs?
Pants, but still enjoying it?”
Wang Zengqi's metaphor is very accurate. In the past few years, I had been depressed for too long, but now I finally have the opportunity to absorb knowledge. Everyone always has a sense of urgency to eat a fat man in one go.
Lin Chaoyang had a smile on his face. There was nothing wrong with this. This kind of atmosphere would not be the same again in a few years.
While everyone was drinking and drinking, they went back for half the afternoon. At the end of the day, all the food and wine on the table were gone, and everyone moved to the living room to drink tea and talk.
It wasn't until the sky got dark in the evening and the wine was almost sober that Wang Zengqi was the first to get up and said: "It's getting late, I think that's it for today, let Chaoyang and his family rest early."
After the delicious food was eaten, the wine was drunk, Tian'er chatted, and everyone got up together.
Lin Chaoyang sent everyone out, and Lin Jinlan pulled Lin Chaoyang and said, "Thank you Chaoyang for the hospitality today. Zeng Qi and I will be hosting another day, and let's go to Donglai and have a good time."
Wang Zengqi joked: "You are so insincere when you say 'another day'. When is another day?"
The two old friends were used to trying to undermine each other. Lin Jinlan simply said: "Then next week, I will go to Donglaishun next week and I will treat you."
"Okay!" Wang Zengqi clapped her hands as she tricked her old friend.
Li Tuo heard the conversation between the two and came closer, "Take me with you!"
“We can’t afford the invitation because there are so many people.”
Lin Jinlan immediately rejected Li Tuo's request, which made him feel unhappy, "If you invite Chaoyang, you will have money, but if you invite me, you will have no money?"
"He invited me to dinner, did you invite me?"
"You invite me first this time, and I'll treat you next time," Li Tuo said.
After joking for a while, everyone left.
Another week later, Lin Jinlan invited Lin Chaoyang to Donglaishun for a mutton meal.
There is nothing better than a meal of mutton boiled in a copper pot on a cold day. Li Tuo finally had a meal of mutton despite Lin Jinlan's teasing.
A few days after finishing this meal, major universities in Yanjing entered the semester, and the campus of Yanjing University, which had been dormant for a long time, was full of youthful and energetic figures.
This afternoon, Du Rong had been discussing with several colleagues about applying for professional titles. Lin Chaoyang had no sense of involvement in this topic.
When he got off work, he was riding his bicycle to go home. When he passed by the international students building, he saw Liang Zuo walking out of the building angrily and with a gloomy look on his face.
When he saw Lin Chaoyang, he took the initiative to say hello.
"Are you watching TV again?"
Lin Chaoyang thought Liang Zuo was trying to catch TV but failed, so he acted like this.
"No, I'm going to play Go."
"Is this a loss? What a big deal!" Lin Chaoyang consoled him.
Liang Zuo shook his head, "It doesn't matter if you lose. The key is losing to a Japanese. This is disgusting!"
Chapter completed!