1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 309 The King of Soft Rice

Early this morning, Lin Weimin was riding a motorcycle to work. As soon as he entered the Guowen Club, he felt strange eyes and whispers from the people around him.

After entering the back building, I came to the editorial department, and when I entered the door, I saw several colleagues gathered together.

"Did you really donate?"

"Good guy, 10 yuan! How many lifetimes does it take?"

……

Lin Weimin walked closer, "What are you doing?"

Everyone turned their heads to look at him, with shock and... gossip written all over their faces.

Liu Yin held a newspaper in her hand, "For the people, did you really donate?"

The others looked at Lin Weimin expectantly after Liu Yin asked this question.

What she held in her hand was today's "People's Daily". On the second page of this newspaper, there was a report about Lin Weimin's donation of 10 yuan to the All-China Literature Association for the establishment of the Chinese Literature Foundation.

Lin Weimin nodded, "Donated!"

Everyone roared, their eyes filled with disbelief.

"That's [-], donate if you say so?" Yao Shuzhi asked.

Lin Weimin joked: "Comrade Shuzhi, you are being superficial. I donate this money for the benefit of those in need."

Yao Shuzhi gave him a supercilious look, she would not believe Lin Weimin's nonsense.

"I'm afraid you don't want to be a part-time official in the Cultural Association?"

"You are judging the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain." Lin Weimin said.

Zhu Changsheng stood by Lin Weimin's side, "If Weimin wants to gain a foothold in the Cultural Association, he doesn't need to donate money, just participate in more activities. In a few years, his position will be indispensable in the Cultural Association."

"Old Zhu understands me."

Yao Shuzhi looked at Lin Weimin, but couldn't figure out that Lin Weimin was willing to donate so much money at once.

"Anyway, I'm definitely reluctant to let me go."

Liu Yin teased: "So, you are not expected to be a leader!"

Everyone laughed.

On this day in late June, the news that Lin Weimin donated a huge sum of money to help the National Association of Literary and Art Circles prepare for the establishment of the Chinese Literature Foundation appeared in the newspapers and attracted countless attention.

After several days of fermentation, it has become a hot topic of discussion across the country. The chats in the streets and alleys of ordinary people, and the jokes after dinner are inseparable from this topic.

In 1984, 10 RMB was enough for senior cadres or senior technicians with high wages to last them several lifetimes.

In this day and age, people generally don't have the mentality of hating the rich. Besides, Lin Weimin earns only manuscript fees, which is clean.

People's most sighs are two.

One is, being a writer really makes money!
Second, Lin Weimin really dared to donate!

This is not ten yuan and 20 yuan. If you donate 10 yuan, you can donate it. If you don’t have any courage, you can’t do it to yourself.

But people all over the country also know that Lin Weimin is also a rich writer among writers. It is said that his novels have been published in the United States and Nihong, and the manuscript fees are earned by hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Donating this money is right It may not be a big deal to others.

The effect of the donation continues to spread outward, and Lin Weimin is of course the one that has attracted the most attention.

In addition, another party involved in the incident has also received attention, that is, the National Association of Literary and Art Circles.

The report also mentioned the term "Chinese Literature Foundation". As the influence of the report spread, the Chinese Literature Foundation, which was still in its infancy, received great attention.

Public opinion from the outside world has little influence on Lin Weimin, the only personal influence is that he recently gained a nickname in the club——Lin Shiwan. After being teased by comrades in the club for a few days, the craze gradually faded away. go down.

Lin Weimin was reading the manuscript that day when an acquaintance came to the office.

"Hey, isn't this Mr. Shuo? But it's been a long time since I saw you!" Lin Weimin was very angry when he saw the other party.

Wang Shuo chuckled and offered a cigarette.

Seeing that his attitude was quite sincere, Lin Weimin took the cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and exhaled the smoke ring, not caring about the disgusted eyes of Liu Yin next door, and said, "What's the matter? The money is spent?"

Wang Shuo took out a post from his bag, and Lin Weimin looked serious, "Are you going to get married?"

"Nonsense, isn't the post here?"

Lin Weimin put the post aside, I don't care if you get married or not, what about the manuscript?
This has to be said tactfully, otherwise it is easy to be beaten to death.

"I've been busy with my marriage recently, so I don't have time to write a manuscript, right?"

"Isn't it? I met a bunch of relatives. Shen Xujia's family still doesn't agree with us getting married." Wang Shuo complained.

"What should I do?"

Wang Shuo said, "What can we do? Anyway, both of us have lost our certificates."

After speaking, he laughed twice again, with the pride of hugging the beauty on his face.

"Are you well off?" Lin Weimin asked proactively.

"I know you're rich, so I can read the newspapers. You're a fucking big dog, and you can donate 10 yuan!" Wang Shuo was full of envy and jealousy, and then said: "I don't need the money, I borrowed it last time and paid it back." I haven’t paid it back, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to borrow it again.”

What are you not afraid of?
There are still many small dark rooms upstairs!
Seeing that this guy was going to get married, Lin Weimin didn't press for the manuscript anymore, but he still couldn't help but said: "You just got married, and you will have a lot of money to spend in the future, so write more manuscripts to earn some money."

"Understood, I will write when I have time later." Wang Shuo perfunctory Lin Weimin very insincerely.

"Look at your foolish appearance, my sister-in-law is still counting on you to support me." Lin Weimin couldn't hold back when he saw his virtue.

Wang Shuo said heartlessly: "It's okay, it's the same if she raises me!"

After Wang Shuo said these words, the air in the office was quiet.

The eyes of colleagues looked at him together, and everyone said that they had never seen such a brazen person.

Eat soft rice so confidently.

Lin Weimin was very calm about this, and it's not like he hasn't seen soft rice that is more outrageous than this.

After seeing off Wang Shuo, Xu Gang from the Institute of Literature came to find Lin Weimin, and the Chinese language and literature class at Wuhan University has already been contacted.

Lin Weimin hurriedly contacted Cheng Shixu, and Shixu naturally thanked Lin Weimin for the mileage on the phone.

At the beginning of July, the fourth issue of "Contemporary" was published this year, and a short story in it won numerous praises from readers.

This is Ah Cheng's "The King of Chess".

Letters from readers like snowflakes were sent to the editorial department. Lin Weimin specially invited Ah Cheng to the editorial department, pointing to the letter left in a corner of the office.

"Those are your letters, take them away!"

Ah Cheng looked at so many letters and scratched his head for a moment, "There are too many."

"The more you write, the better you can write." Lin Weimin said.

It took Ah Cheng a while to sort out all the letters, tie them up, and then took out a manuscript.

"Can you see if this manuscript can be used?" Ah Cheng said to Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin immediately became happy.

Look, this is what is called an author with subjective initiative, and he does not need to be urged by the editor to submit the manuscript on his own initiative.

Think about Wang Shuo's swindle again, who blinded himself with his plum watch for nothing.

"Tree King?"

Lin Weimin has the impression that Ah Cheng's reputation in the literary world is based on the "Three Kings", "The King of Chess", "The King of Trees", and "King of Children".

Ah Cheng told Lin Weimin that "The King of Trees" was actually written before "The King of Chess", but it was always in a state of fragmentation. It was not until "The King of Chess" was published that Ah Cheng had the confidence to organize the novel and took it. come out.

Lin Weimin has read the manuscript, and the quality is as stable as ever. Ah Cheng is really the kind of writer whose debut is the pinnacle.

He gladly accepted the manuscript, and said to Ah Cheng: "There is no problem with the quality of the manuscript. After everyone has read it, it will be fine and I will notify you to collect the manuscript fee."

Lin Weimin planned to let Ah Cheng jump in the line this time, and it would be best if "The King of Trees" could be in the fourth issue in September.

For a publication, being able to promote a writer in one or two issues is extremely influential, and this opportunity is not easy to miss.

After Ah Cheng left, Lin Weimin went out of his way to talk to Meng Weizai and Tan Chaoyang. He kept letting Ah Cheng enjoy such special treatment. If the news leaked out, other authors would definitely have opinions, and the editorial department had to speak out in unison.

Meng Weizai and Qin Chaoyang read the manuscript of "The King of Trees" and agreed to this matter, and they chatted about the "Shanxi Writers' Special Account" again.

Zheng Yi's "Old Well" was edited and polished by Lin Weimin, with the consent of Zheng Yi, the original author, and reviewed by other colleagues in the editorial department. The writer's work has basically been finalized.

After several discussions, the "Shanxi Writers' Special Issue" was finally set as the sixth issue of the last issue of this year.

When Lin Weimin came back from Meng Weizai's office, he found a package on the table.

"Wei Min, you have an international package that arrived just now, and we will collect it for you."

International package?

These days it is a rare thing, Lin Weimin's first reaction was Random House, but after opening it, he found that it was not, but a package sent to him by Arthur Miller.

Inside the package was the English version of the script of "Untouchable", with some signatures on it, which seemed to belong to the cast and crew.

In addition, there are still photos of the performance, and the most common ones are the media reports after the performance of "Untouchable", which are all newspapers and magazines specially collected by Arthur Miller.

The last was a letter from Arthur Miller to him.

Lin Weimin opened the letter, and the general content was to report to Lin Weimin about the situation after the performance of "Untouchable".

After Arthur Miller brought "The Untouchable" to the United States, the preparation process was not smooth. The original work was a Chinese drama, which was not well-known, so the preparation of this drama was off-Broadway.

On both sides of Broadway, there are dozens of theaters. The locals call the theaters from 44th Street to 53rd Street Inner Broadway, while the theaters on Broadway 41st Street and 56th Street are called Outer Broadway.On Broadway, there are classic, popular, and commercial plays, while off-Broadway shows are some experimental, unknown, and low-cost plays.

Although Arthur Miller is a well-known playwright in the United States, it is not so easy to prepare an unknown Chinese work.

After all, drama requires investment. People's Art has funding from the state and Yanjing City, but Broadway does not.Every drama is also a business.

On Broadway, a play usually has only one chance to premiere, as if thousands of troops cross a single-plank bridge.If it fails, the crew may disband overnight.

According to Arthur Miller's letter, "Untouchable" performed well off Broadway.

Thanks to Arthur Miller's reputation in the United States, even though it was performed off-Broadway, the attendance rate of the first few performances remained good. After a few performances, the word-of-mouth effect of the performance gradually released.

"Untouchable" gradually gained fame off Broadway, and many drama lovers came here admiringly.

In this way, word-of-mouth has slowly accumulated in the process of performing again and again.

And Arthur Miller wrote to Lin Weimin this time to send a package. In addition to informing him of the performance, he also had a piece of good news to share with him.

(End of this chapter)