The older you get, the less aged you feel. Not only do people in later generations feel this way, but so do people today.

In the final analysis, it is not that the New Year has changed, but that my mood is different.

The Spring Festival of 1983 passed by in a flash, and it was already the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

Lin Chaoyang and his wife returned home with their children the day before yesterday, and when they came back they were followed by a tail.

According to Tao Yumo, she missed Xiao Dongzi very much during the past few days after returning to Langrun Lake Apartment, and she could dream of his cute little face in her dreams.

Unfortunately, she hugged Xiao Dongzi and fell in love with her for only two days before asking for leave from Tao Yushu, saying that her classmates invited her to the temple fair.

Tao Yushu took care of the children by himself today, and Lin Chaoyang made lunch.

After lunch, Lin Chaoyang received the manuscript fee slip from "Flower City". The standard fee this time was 20 yuan per 1,000 words. The full text had a total of 252,000 words, and the total fee was 5,040 yuan.

When he came back from outside, Tao Yushu had just put the child to sleep, and she said to Lin Chaoyang: "I have been on maternity leave for almost two months."

Lin Chaoyang naturally knew what she meant when she said this. After staying at home for more than a month, Tao Yushu's state could be described in Northeastern dialect as - idle with five spines and six beasts.

She prefers working to taking care of her children. She has been blowing wind in Lin Chaoyang's ear since her child was one month old.

Lin Chaoyang wondered: "It's okay to go to work, what should I do about Dongdong?"

"Isn't there jade ink?"

"Yu Mo will go to school in a while."

"Let mom take care of her during the day, and I'll take care of her at night."

Of course she would not be happy to ask Zhang Guiqin to help take care of the child. The old couple is willing to stay in Yanjing just to have a grandchild!

Tao Yushu has already prepared the draft and seems determined to return to the company.

"I have to go to work during the day and take care of the kids at night. I'm exhausted for you."

"What's so tiring? Focus on career with one hand and family with the other. This is what we call women of the new era."

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang had no objection, Tao Yushu said happily.

"Women of the new era, aren't you afraid that your son will not be close to you in the future?" Lin Chaoyang threatened.

"Kissing or not doesn't affect our mother-son relationship." Tao Yu's face was calm and calm, but there was still a bit of reluctance in her eyes. "He will grow up in the future, and we can't stay with him forever."

Lin Chaoyang joked: "If you live long enough, maybe."

The melancholy aroused in Tao Yushu's heart disappeared instantly after these words. She glared at Lin Chaoyang angrily, "You talk nonsense all day long!"

Tao Yushu wanted to go to work, so of course Lin Chaoyang couldn't stop her. Anyway, he wasn't working recently and had his mother to take care of him, so he could take care of her.

After the couple discussed it, Tao Yushu appeared in the editorial office of "Yanjing Literature" two days later.

During her 90-day maternity leave, Tao Yushu worked until she gave birth. Now, less than two months after giving birth, she has returned to work. Who can't help but say that she is dedicated to her job?

Colleagues who had been relaxed for more than a month felt an invisible pressure immediately after Tao Yushu came to work. She obviously didn't say anything or did anything, she just sat there.

This is probably the pressure of King Juan!

The eighth day of the first lunar month is February 20, which is also the day when the first issue of "Flower City" was launched in 1983.

The editing and proofreading of this issue of the magazine coincides with the end of the year, and the editorial department is inevitably busy during this period.

Compared with previous years, the first issue of this year’s magazine is particularly different.

Before New Year's Day, editor-in-chief Li Shifei took the opportunity of the Mao Dun Literature Award Ceremony to go north to compile manuscripts. In the end, he only brought back two manuscripts from No. 1 Middle School. This harvest seemed a bit pitiful.

But after returning, Li Shifei declared with full confidence that he had arranged to write Lin Chaoyang's manuscript, which was an excellent magical realism work.

It goes without saying that Lin Chaoyang is famous among the younger generation of writers, not to mention that he has just won the Mao Dun Literature Award. My colleagues in the editorial department were delighted when they heard the news.

According to rumors in the literary world, Lin Chaoyang's works are notoriously difficult to get appointments for.

One of the evidences is that almost all of his works have been given to several top domestic literary magazines and have never been published in local literary magazines.

Li Shifei praised the work Lin Chaoyang was writing into a flower, and his colleagues were naturally full of expectations.

Just after the twelfth lunar month, which was half a month after Li Shifei returned to Guangzhou, Lin Chaoyang's work was sent to the editorial department.

Li Shifei happened to be out on business that day, and the editors competed with each other for the opportunity to preview the manuscript. In the end, they had to divide the manuscript into several parts, forming a "flow" review. When Li Shifei returned to the editorial office, he couldn't laugh or cry when he saw this situation.

According to normal circumstances, a manuscript has to go through three reviews, namely preliminary review, re-review and final review. However, when Lin Chaoyang's manuscript arrived at the editorial department, it became a "public review".

Seeing how enthusiastic everyone was, Li Shifei didn't want to dampen everyone's interest. He just told them to read it and not delay the subsequent proofreading and typesetting.

Four days later, Li Shifei took some time to read the ending of the story that he had not seen in Yanjing, and called together several editors in the editorial department who had read the manuscript.

He asked everyone if they had any doubts about the quality of the manuscript and what they thought of the novel.

Everyone spoke in unison and praised each other.

Seeing everyone's reaction, Li Shifei felt happy and asked if there were any comrades who disagreed with the publication. Everyone shook their heads in unison.

If such manuscripts cannot meet the publication standards, no one will know what kind of works are worthy of "Flower City".

Once publication is confirmed, space must be allocated for the publication of this work.

"Flower City" is a comprehensive literary journal that mainly publishes novellas and also publishes outstanding works of other literary genres.

The magazine is priced at 1 yuan, has a format of 32 pages, and the total number of words in each issue is more than 300,000 words.

The full text of Lin Chaoyang's novel is 252,000 words. It is a solid long work. If it is published in one issue, it will not be a problem, but it will inevitably affect other scheduled published works.

Li Shifei wanted to publish it in one issue, which would be good for the readers' overall reading experience, and it could also be regarded as a courtesy to the novel's author, Lin Chaoyang.

After he expressed his thoughts, he immediately won the approval of his colleagues.

Everyone's approval is not only because of Li Shifei's prestige in the editorial department, but also because of their recognition of this novel.

Lin Xianzhi in the editorial department was originally a barefoot doctor in the countryside of Yangjiang. Li Shifei found that his articles were good and transferred him to the editorial department.

He said emotionally: "A good work like this should receive such courtesy. I believe that after it is published, it will definitely trigger a considerable response among readers."

Li Shifei nodded slightly, "It is certain that the response will be great. Lin Chaoyang's works have always been popular."

Someone asked again, "Lao Li, have you heard of that rumor?"

Li Shifei looked puzzled, "What rumors?"

"Some people say that as long as Lin Chaoyang's novels are published, the magazine's current sales will never be less than 1 million copies."

After the man said this, he immediately attracted discussion from others.

"I've heard this before. But I can't take it seriously. I remember that Lin Chaoyang also published novels under a pseudonym in "Shanghai Literature". I have never heard that the sales volume of "Shanghai Literature" exceeded one million copies.

!”

"But most of them have over a million copies, right?"

"This... is true."

Li Shifei waved his hand after listening to the discussion and said: "Whether it breaks one million copies not only depends on the work, but also has a lot to do with the influence of the magazine itself.

Don’t be superstitious about this kind of thing. For our magazine, the most important thing is to discover and introduce excellent literary works to readers.”

After listening to Li Shifei's words, everyone stopped talking, and then discussed and decided on the next issue of the magazine.

Just a few days after the New Year, the air in NJ City is still filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke.

Jinling Vocational University is a university that was just established two years ago. The purpose of its establishment was to alleviate the increasingly tight educational resources of higher education institutions in China.

Because the school has only been established for a short period of time, there are still no graduating students, and even the teachers are mainly young teachers.

Ye Zhaoyan was admitted to the Chinese Department of Nanjing University in 1978. After graduation, he was assigned to Jinling Vocational University. As soon as he joined the job, he was assigned to be the head teacher of two classes. This shows that the school's teaching staff is tight.

It is a holiday now, and today is Sunday. Ye Zhaoyan should have been at home at this time.

But now his parents are taking care of his grandfather in Yanjing, and the house is empty. It is deserted during the Chinese New Year, so he has been staying in the school dormitory. At least there are teachers and security guards on duty here to chat with.

The school cafeteria was not open during the holidays, so he first had breakfast outside the school in the morning, and then strolled to Xinhua Bookstore, one kilometer away from the school.

During the holidays, Ye Zhaoyan had plenty of time.

Ye Zhaoyan, who comes from a scholarly family, has had the habit of reading since he was a child. He studied Chinese in college and published several works, so reading has become his biggest hobby in daily life.

On days when major literary magazines were released, he would always come to Xinhua Bookstore to take a copy home. Occasionally, when money was tight, it would be a few days late, but he would always buy it and read it.

Today is the day when "Flower City" magazine is launched. I had some spare money during the Chinese New Year. Ye Zhaoyan came to Xinhua Bookstore and bought a copy of "Flower City". He happily paid the money and left the bookstore.

The journey back to school was a bit long, so he opened a magazine while walking.

After just one glance, he immediately discovered what was different about this issue of the magazine. The table of contents was much shorter than before. The top item was not the word "novella" as in the past, but "novel".

——"Crossing the Boat".

What caught his attention even more was the signature on the back, which clearly read the words "Xu Lingjun".

Ye Zhaoyan likes to read "Flower City", mainly because it often reprints the works of overseas writers.

Especially in recent months, because Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature, "Flower City" has promoted a large number of magical realism works.

Last night he just finished reading a copy of "The Collection of Short Stories by Juan Rulfo".

In the early years, Juan Rulfo was not well-known in China, and few of his works were imported. The collection of novels he read was published by Foreign Literature Publishing House in 1980. At that time, Foreign Literature Publishing House introduced a group of such foreign writers.

works.
To be continued...