No. 74, Shaoxing Road, Shanghai.
Two leafy camphor trees guard this single courtyard, which is quiet and secluded. Inside is a three-story building with a sign hanging at the door: Story Club Magazine!
Early in the morning, He Chengwei rode his bicycle to work. He joined the magazine in 1974 and was the youngest editor.
"Good morning editor-in-chief!"
"Morning!"
He Chengwei went up to the second floor and sat in his seat. There were not many people in the magazine. There were only twenty people in total including editors, art designers, and publishers.
As a bimonthly publication, it is reasonable to say that he has plenty of time to write articles, but he lives a very stressful life every day.
Because there are too few manuscripts available.
The current "Story Club" has no columns. Each issue serializes five long stories, two are manuscripts, two are old revolutionary stories from the past, and only one is a new story.
When the editor is in a hurry, he can only write it himself or collect materials from everywhere.
He Chengwei went to Chongming Island yesterday to visit a man who liked to brag and tell stories. He dug out a dozen short stories from his stomach and memorized a full book.
.
"Xiao He, look at this manuscript. Can you publish it?"
"OK!"
The editor threw him a worn-out notebook. It was very thick, the handwriting was messy, and the pages were torn.
He Chengwei is already very used to it. From the beginning of the year to now, he has read too many manuscripts, all of which are "banned books" from special periods. Like the "Second Handshake" mentioned earlier, as well as "The Green Corpse" and "A Pair of Books"
Embroidered Shoes", "Plum Blossom Party", "Girl's Heart", etc.
How passionate are you about manuscripts?
It is said that an educated youth learned that a man had "The Second Handshake" in his hand. He walked 20 miles to borrow it, made a broken oil lamp with an ink bottle, and hid in a stuffy barn at night to read it secretly. There were many mosquitoes in summer, and he
So I put on thick clothes, soaked my feet in the bucket, spent five nights, and finally finished reading "The Second Handshake".
"Girl's Heart" is even more famous. It tells the story of two young people falling in love and also contains sexual descriptions.
The so-called sexual description is actually very funny.
It is unknown what the earliest version was. In short, during the process of circulation, these turbulent men and women saw the passionate parts, couldn't help themselves, used their imagination, and added a lot of sexual descriptions themselves.
But they have little sexual experience, and the things they write are laughable and generous, and they are nothing more than smacking their tongues, touching their dicks, and watching the gurgling stream.
Just like some current Internet article authors, who can write virgin literature such as "I rubbed my girlfriend's breasts from C to B"...
However, at that time, "Girl's Heart" was no less than a scourge of spiritual food. Countless people circulated it, and many people were poisoned. It is said that a student in Shanghai read this book and began to pursue his sister and imitate the plot in the book.
Being a hooligan was sentenced to death.
He Chengwei finished flipping through the manuscript as quickly as possible.
He only needs to confirm what kind of story it tells and whether it can be published. As for whether there is any prohibited content, he will conduct a detailed review later.
“This story could work!”
"Okay, you take responsibility."
It's already noon to get this done.
He Chengwei had lunch and went for a short walk outside. When he came back, he was looking at the postman.
"There are more and more letters from your magazine. I read every issue of "Story Club". Come on!"
"Thank you comrade!"
He Chengwei took the package upstairs and opened it. There were letters from readers and submissions in brown paper bags.
He read the submissions first. The first one was a new story, written by an amateur writer from Jiangsu who claimed to be a worker. He wrote a story about the factory security office, catching thieves, chasing factory flowers and so on.
“The standard is acceptable!”
He marked it, kept it, and then looked at the second one.
"Sent from Lushan..."
As soon as He Chengwei turned over the manuscript paper, he knew that it was about 20,000 words. The handwriting was not very beautiful and could barely be read. The title of the work was written at the beginning:
Kapok cassock!
"What is this? What a strange name."
He read the first sentence again.
"It is said that in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the people were in dire straits and traitorous ministers were in power. They continued to impose excessive taxes regardless of the lives of the people. The righteous men from all over the country took up the banner of Shaolin True Story and fought against it. The traitorous minister Wang Cheng hated this so much that he summoned the Wudang traitor Qi Tianyuan and ordered him to go to the Shaolin Temple to seize the power.
Kapok cassock…”
He Chengwei perked up.
This is a great storyteller!
"Story Club" is called a magazine, but it actually publishes oral literature, which must be easy to understand, fast-paced, and have climaxes one after another, much like today's Internet articles.
When writing a novel in "People's Literature", for example, describing a woman, it might be: "She is in her 20s, tall and fair, with picturesque eyebrows and beautiful eyes..."
But in "Story Meeting", it is "a woman, she is very beautiful."
This is also the reason why "Story Club" is looked down upon by others. It is called a reading book for migrant workers and the first choice for blind migrants. Even Sister Feng in the United States never forgets it. She still reads "Story Club" after going abroad.
He Chengwei continued to look.
The following article also maintains this popular and lively style. The writing is very simple and it actually tells a martial arts story.
It is said that when Bodhidharma traveled eastward, he brought a kapok cassock. It has been passed down from generation to generation in Shaolin Temple that whoever owns this cassock can be the abbot. Qi Tianyuan, a traitor to Wudang, shaved his head and sneaked into the Shaolin Temple with the intention of obtaining the cassock and becoming the abbot.
The words are divided into two parts.
Ding Mo, a lay disciple of Shaolin, was traveling around and met a horse dealer named Lin Cangbo.
Lin Cangbo had four daughters, all of whom had extraordinary skills, especially the eldest daughter Lin Ying, who was as beautiful as a flower and was both civil and military. On this day, Wang Cheng's men suddenly arrived and wanted to force horses.
Lin Ying secretly encouraged the herdsmen to frighten the horses.
In the vast grassland, thousands of horses galloped, and Wang Cheng's men had no way to catch up, so they had to give up. Lin Ying and her three sisters gathered the horses. Ding Mo met Ding Mo by chance and came to help. Lin Ying saw his extraordinary prowess and secretly fell in love with him.
Ding Mo also had a good impression of her, and the two exchanged tokens.
Ding Mo learned from Lin Cangbo that Wang Cheng might deal with the Shaolin Temple, so he left in a hurry and went south to Songshan Mountain.
On the other side, Qi Tianyuan wanted to become the abbot, but he fought with Master Yuanhui of Shaolin, but was defeated. Wang Cheng led his troops and ordered a strong attack on Shaolin. Ding Mo arrived in time, rescued Master Yuanhui, and retreated to the Sutra Pavilion.
Master Yuanhui handed the cassocks to Ding Mo and several other disciples and asked them to leave first.
Wang Cheng led troops to capture the Shaolin Temple, detained a group of disciples, and threatened Master Yuanhui with their lives to hand over his cassocks. Master Yuanhui resolutely walked into the blazing flames.
"Abbott!"
"Abbott!"
"I came with a clean body, and left with a clean body, facing mountains of swords and seas of fire, what can I do to you?"
Amid the lamentations of his disciples, Master Yuanhui stepped into the sea of ​​fire and chose to immolate himself and pass away.
Ding Mo and his brothers fled, and the imperial hawks and dogs were in hot pursuit. Ding Mo made a fake cassock and diverted the pursuers alone, but he was defeated by Qi Tianyuan and was knocked off the cliff...
"oops!"
The story was written so smoothly that He Chengwei felt happy and sad at the same time. When he saw Ding Mo falling off the cliff, his heart tightened. He couldn't wait to see what would happen next, but the result was...
"No more?"
"Yaoshou!"
He Chengwei was as restless as a wild donkey in heat. Isn't this torture? What happened after he fell off the cliff? It broke!
Chapter completed!