On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Yu Dong arrived at Julu Road very early.
Because he arrived too early, he did not go to the editorial office of "Harvest" immediately, but went to the writer's bookstore first.
When he arrived at the Writer's Bookstore, there was a little girl cleaning behind the counter.
The little girl probably didn't expect that in such weather, someone would come to the bookstore so early. She held a rag in her hand and smiled at Yu Dong: "Welcome."
Yu Dong nodded in response, and then started walking around the bookstore.
Today's writer's bookstore is completely different from the ones renovated in later generations. Not only is the area smaller, but the decoration is also much older.
It doesn't even look like a bookstore at all, there isn't even a sign outside.
If someone unfamiliar walks by the roadside, they will just think it is a cafe.
The reason for this is because this bookstore is opened by the Shanghai Writers Association.
Although the bookstore is also open to the public, it mainly provides services to members of the Writers Association.
The first floor is a coffee shop, and the second floor is the bookstore. This arrangement actually shows the Writers Association’s intentions. They don’t want more ordinary people to know about this bookstore.
Yu Dong went up to the second floor again, found a copy of "Lord of the Flies" on the bookshelf, then found a place to sit down and read.
This "Lord of the Flies" was published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House in 1985. Yu Dong bought a copy before, but lost it when he took it to Yanjing.
The book "Lord of the Flies" has a special charm. When I first read it, I just felt it was mediocre. But every time I read it again, I can find something I haven't discovered before.
Yu Dong understands that this is actually a characteristic of symbolic techniques. Since they are symbols, readers need to dig deeper to know what these symbols actually represent.
Even sometimes, readers can read something that the author did not intend to express.
Symbols can be so confusing sometimes.
Yu Dong had just read a few pages when heavy footsteps came from the stairs.
The owner of the footsteps, a middle-aged man, stopped at the last step of the stairs. He looked a little surprised when he saw Yu Donghou.
Probably he didn't expect someone to come so early.
The middle-aged man walked around the bookshelf twice, finally selected a copy of "Harvest" magazine and sat down not far from Yu Dong.
Time passed little by little.
When the sun shone through the glass on the pages of "Lord of the Flies", it had been an hour since Yu Dong entered the writer's bookstore. He suddenly remembered that he still had business to do today, so he hurriedly put down the book and looked towards the back.
Walk to the Writers Association Center.
When he went to Cheng Yongxing's office, Ge Fei had already arrived first.
Cheng Yongxing said with a smile: "Young people are still active, others may have to wait a while."
Then he introduced Yu Dong and Ge Fei to each other, and they finally got to know each other.
Ge Fei is a few years older than Yu Dong, and is less than thirty years old this year. However, he has been teaching at East China Normal University for seven years, and is Yu Dong's senior in terms of qualifications.
Moreover, Ge Fei has already made a name for himself in the literary world. After the publication of his "Brown Birds" a few years ago, it once caused controversy in the literary world. At that time, East China Normal University even held a seminar to conduct various studies on this novel.
Ge Fei likes to play with the structure of novels, constructing novels like a maze, which is also the charm of his works. It seems that in his eyes, only complex structures and profound language can retain the meaning of language to the greatest extent.
However, Ge Fei himself gave people a different feeling from his novels. He seemed humble, low-key and peaceful, and he didn't like to talk much. When Cheng Yongxing introduced each other to them before, he just smiled and nodded.
There is an incomprehensible cunning in his eyes, but his face is full of the honesty and honesty of an honest man. When the two are put on the same face, it does not make people feel inconsistent.
After hearing that Yu Dong was working in Jinling, he became interested and asked Yu Dong about Jinling.
He is from Jiangsu Province, but he has been living in Shanghai since college and rarely goes home. So when he heard that Yu Dong was working in Jinling, he regarded him as half a fellow countryman.
After chatting for a while, Yu Dong discovered that it was not that Ge Fei didn't like to talk. He might just be unaccustomed to talking too much with strangers. Now that he has become familiar with it, it is difficult to close his chatter box once he opens it.
After all, he has been a teacher for several years. Once he talks, it is difficult for others to interrupt. Moreover, once he says he is happy, his speech speed will become faster. In addition, his articulation is relatively lazy and his mouth opening and closing is relatively small, so there are some problems.
Yu Dong couldn't understand what he said either.
Listening to him speak at this time, the feeling is somewhat similar to the feeling of reading his novels.
Later, as the three of them chatted, other people came over one after another, and Ge Fei's words began to decrease again.
Most of the people who came first were relatively young, some of whom Yu Dong knew, and some of whom had never heard of their names at all.
There are actually not many well-known local writers in Shanghai, but because the Shanghai Writers Association has well-known magazines such as "Harvest", "Grudge" and "Shanghai Literature", many writers come to Shanghai with dreams.
Some people simply live near the Writers' Association, living a miserable life, hoping that their manuscripts will be published every day. Perhaps they think that being close to the Writers' Association will help them in their literary creation.
But as far as Yu Dong knows, many young writers have worked hard to become famous, but they get together to play mahjong every day. And they always play mahjong during the day and then write at night, leading a hazy life.
Yu Dong also saw a "familiar face" among the visitors. This "familiar face" he had just seen in the morning. In the bookstore before, there was the middle-aged man who came to the bookstore behind Yu Dong.
After being introduced by Cheng Yongxing, Yu Dong found out that the other party was actually Sun Ganlu.
Sun Ganlu was still very famous in the literary circles in Shanghai. He later served as vice chairman of the Writers Association and president of the "Grudge" magazine.
It's just that Yu Dong has only heard of his name and has never seen him. Today is the first time he saw him.
Sun Ganlu was a little surprised when he saw Yu Dong. They had just met in the bookstore in the morning, but they didn't expect to see them again now.
Not long after Sun Ganlu arrived, Wang Anyi and Yan Geling also came together.
Yu Dong thought it was quite interesting. There seemed to be an unspoken rule in the order in which people arrived at the magazine. Generally speaking, the more famous people were, the later they arrived.
And Wang Anyi and Yan Geling came together, which seemed to solve another troublesome problem: everyone no longer had to judge the fame of the two of them based on the order of arrival.
When Wang Anjing saw Yu Dong, he was very happy and even ran to Yu Dong to talk to him: "Youzi, I should have thought that you would come too. I have been thinking about you since the last draft meeting. Later,
I was even more surprised when I saw your "Mending the Sky"."
Chapter completed!