Chapter 935 Extra: I am studying on the island (1)

Hainan, Boundary Island.

The sea breeze, the waves, the seagulls, the girl with headphones humming a little tune, looking extremely happy. She came to the bookstore by the sea and pushed the door open. There was no one here yet. When she was standing in front of the bookshelf choosing a book, a spirited and capable man walked into the bookstore.

"Fang Qi!"

"Hey! Hello, Teacher Su Tong!"

Fang Qi turned around and responded.

After a few pleasantries, Fang Qi introduced the origin of the bookstore to Su Tong. This was originally an old house on Fenjiezhou Island. It originally had three rooms. After the rooms were connected, the middle room became a reception area. Both sides were filled with bookshelves. There were more than 5,000 books in this small bookstore, all of which were mailed by enthusiastic readers of the program.

While the two were chatting, Xichuan walked into the bookstore. He is also one of the regular guests of "I Read on the Island" this time.

After entering the library, Su Tong was interested in the books and desks. He sat in front of the desk facing the sea and was unwilling to move. However, Xichuan had a special liking for the records in the library and kept flipping through them.

"Hey, they're all here!"

Yu Hua walked to the door of the bookstore. He was wearing a black T-shirt on the upper body, large flowered shorts on the lower body, and a pair of flip-flops. He did not have the consciousness that he was recording a program at all, and looked like he was here on vacation.

Before he entered the study, Fang Qi saw him and greeted him. The originally quiet atmosphere in the study instantly became lively.

Everyone talked for a while and started arguing about the name of the library. After arguing for a while, they finally decided to name the library "Fenjie Bookstore".

More than half an hour later, the content in the library was almost recorded, and the director reminded us that it was lunch time.

The cameras did not stop as several guests had lunch in the open-air dining area next to the library.

Everyone ate and chatted, and it was usually Fang Qi who took the initiative to bring up the topic every time.

"I Read on the Island" is a documentary reading program produced by Jiangsu Satellite TV. The format of the program is different from traditional variety shows, and Fang Qi's role is equivalent to that of a host.

She previously participated in a music variety show. Because her meaningful comments formed a sharp contrast with those judges and guests on the show who only knew how to quarrel, she became a little popular and was fortunate enough to be qualified to participate in the show "I'm Reading on the Island".

"Teacher Su Tong and Teacher Yu Hua are colleagues, right?"

"We were colleagues before." Su Tong said.

Yu Hua said: "I have to emphasize this point."

He said to Fang Qi, "We used to work at Guowen Press. He was the editor of Contemporary, a journal under Guowen Press, and I was the editor of Heroes of Nine Provinces, a journal under Tongwen Press, a subsidiary of Guowen Press. Do you know why he emphasized that we were colleagues?"

Fang Qi shook his head, "Why?"

"'Jiuzhou Heroes' is a popular fiction magazine, and 'Contemporary' is a mainstream literary magazine. He was emphasizing that his background was better than mine, but later he was transferred to Wenhua Film and Television." Yu Hua's tone was somewhat teasing.

Su Tong was afraid that Fang Qi would be fooled by Yu Hua, so he explained seriously, "Don't listen to his nonsense. He used to be the deputy editor-in-chief of Guowen Press. When I was at Guowen Press, I was just an ordinary editor. The main reason is that we both left Guowen Press around the same time 10 years ago."

Fang Qi nodded and looked at Xichuan again, "Teacher Xichuan, were you familiar with the two teachers before?"

Xichuan, Yu Hua and Su Tong looked at each other and said, "We have met before, but we are not very familiar with each other. However, we have some common friends. Ouyang Jianghe is a common friend of Yu Hua and me, and there are many more..."

"That's right." Yu Hua rushed to say, "Xichuan is still cooperating with our Guowen Press. Have you forgotten that you published a collection of poems for Haizi?"

Xichuan patted his head and said, "Yes, yes, yes."

Fang Qi listened to the conversation between the two, with a curious look on his face.

Xichuan said to her: "It was in the early 1990s. I was still working at the company. One day I suddenly received a phone call. I forgot the exact date. The person on the other end introduced himself as an editor of the Guowen Publishing House. He said that the editor-in-chief of the Guowen Publishing House wanted to do a special topic on Misty Poetry and publish a few Misty Poetry collections..."

Fang Qi asked: "Editor-in-chief of Guowen Press? Is it Mr. Lin Weimin?"

"Yes." Xichuan stopped introducing and answered Fang Qi's question. Yu Hua beside him smiled and said, "When it comes to 'editor-in-chief of Guowen Press', the person that people think of the most seems to be Teacher Lin."

"Teacher Lin's contribution to the Chinese Literature Society is indeed invaluable," said Su Tong.

Speaking of the name Lin Weimin, Fang Qi was full of curiosity and asked again: "I heard that Teacher Su Tong is Teacher Lin's student, right?"

Su Tong was about to answer when he heard this, but Yu Hua spoke for him, "What student? He joined Contemporary because of work. Teacher Lin only taught him for a period of time. It's all a business relationship."

Sensing the subtle jealousy in Yu Hua's words, Fang Qi asked jokingly, "Teacher Yu Hua and Teacher Lin have a very good relationship. You have known each other for many years, right? I remember you mentioned this in an interview before."

Yu Hua showed a bit of complacency on his face. "Well, it's OK. Teacher Lin was my editor at that time. He had just been the deputy editor-in-chief of Contemporary Magazine for a short time. One day he called me and said that my manuscript was well written, but the ending was a bit gloomy and might need to be revised. I said that as long as it can be published, you can let me make it bright from beginning to end."

Fang Qi laughed and said, "I saw you mentioned this in an interview. It's very interesting."

"So strictly speaking, Teacher Lin is my mentor!" Yu Hua said with emotion.

At this moment, Su Tong finally couldn't help it and said, "Teacher Lin has discovered many talented people, but I am the only editor he has."

He and Yu Hua quarreled and neither of them gave in, but Fang Qi was most interested in Lin Weimin.

"I've heard of this too. It seems that many writers who became famous in the 1980s and 1990s were discovered by Teacher Lin."

Su Tong stopped arguing with Yu Hua after hearing this and said, "Yu Hua is one of them, as are Mo Yan, Wang Shuo, Hai Yan, Er Yue He... and Ma Yuan. There are also many writers who were already well-known in their own region and became famous nationwide through the promotion of Contemporary and Teacher Lin, such as Lu Yao, Cheng Zhongshi, Jia Pingwa and others."

Yu Hua smiled and said, "Speaking of Ma Yuan, I thought of something interesting."

Everyone looked over, and he continued, "Teacher Lin told me that in 1980, when Ma Yuan was still a college student, he once ran to the editorial office of Contemporary. Ma Yuan was tall and strong, and he blocked the door of Contemporary's office at the time, looking aggressive. Lin Weimin thought at first glance that this guy was looking for trouble.

He had submitted a manuscript to "Contemporary" before but it was rejected. After he introduced himself, Teacher Lin actually had an impression of what he had written, but deliberately pretended not to know him.

Ma Yuan was indeed not convinced that day and wanted to come to Teacher Lin to argue, but unfortunately his level was not up to par in front of Teacher Lin, and after a few words he was led away by Teacher Lin.

Ma Yuan felt that he had to show some momentum, and he said in a particularly firm and unquestionable tone that Hawthorne was the greatest writer in the world.

After saying this, Ma Yuan was very proud. You know, when he used this trick before, no matter how good-tempered the other person was, they would definitely argue with him. He loves reading books, and the books he reads are all kinds of books. As long as he enters this process, he is almost 100% sure to win.

But Ma Yuan never expected that Teacher Lin would say, "That makes sense."

When Yu Hua said this, the people around him couldn't help laughing as they imagined the scene where the tall and strong Ma Yuan went to Teacher Lin to argue with him, but it seemed like all his strength was hitting cotton.

"Then what? Then what?" Fang Qi asked.

Yu Hua's smile widened, and he continued, "Then Teacher Lin asked Ma Yuan: You said you have read more than 2,000 novels. Have you read "The Jumping Frog"? Ma Yuan shook his head. Teacher Lin asked again: What about Sand Dune? Ma Yuan shook his head again. Ma Yuan was so depressed and frustrated at that time. Don't even mention it. He always boasted that he read a lot, but Teacher Lin said that he hadn't read two books in a row. The most amazing thing was at the end, Teacher Lin looked at him with pity and said: Your reading range is a bit narrow!"

Yu Hua vividly recreated the scene in the editorial office of "Contemporary" at that time, and the people around him burst into laughter.

“Haha, this is so interesting.”

"I've heard about this from Sister Yao before." Su Tong said.

Fang Qi asked curiously, "Teacher Yu, Dune is that famous science fiction novel, right?"

"Yes. Dune is a novel by Frank Herbert, and The Jumping Frog is a novel by Edgar Allan Poe. One of these novels is science fiction, and the other is mystery. At that time, young literary people admired serious realistic literature the most, so Ma Yuan naturally hadn't read it."

"It's so interesting. I didn't expect there was such a story between Teacher Lin and Teacher Ma Yuan." Fang Qi looked very interested.

"There are many interesting things like this. You are young, so you may not know that Teacher Lin's collection of manuscripts was a unique one in the Chinese literary world. Su Tong must know it."

Fang Qi looked at Su Tong, who had a happy smile on his face. He recalled: "Teacher Lin is really good at this, and his experience in collecting manuscripts is very mysterious."

When he said this, Fang Qi's eyes became even more curious.

"For example, Haiyan used to be a policeman. One day, he passed by Guowenshe and suddenly wanted to write a novel. He kept thinking about it at home for more than a year, and he finally wrote it. Then he took the manuscript to Guowenshe to submit it, but it was not accepted.

It took more than a year to write this work, but the publishing house didn't want it. Hai Yan squatted at the door of the Chinese Literature Society building, worried.

At this time, Teacher Lin came out and saw him like this, so he talked to him. When he learned that Haiyan was submitting an article, Teacher Lin accepted his article.

The quality of the manuscript was average and not up to the level to be published in "Contemporary", but Teacher Lin felt that it had some shining points, so he asked Haiyan to revise it and publish it in the selected series of books at that time.

Later, it was adapted into a TV series, which you may have heard of, called "Plain Clothes Police."

When Fang Qi heard this, his eyes sparkled, "So this is how "Plain Clothes Police" came about!"

"The same thing happened to Er Yuehe. He heard that CCTV was going to film Dream of the Red Chamber, which was the 1987 TV series. He took a special leave to come to Beijing to offer suggestions for the filming of Dream of the Red Chamber. However, he was not even allowed to enter the CCTV gate. The CCTV guard did not recognize his letter of introduction and was stopped at the door..."

Fang Qi was delighted to imagine that a not-yet-famous writer was stopped at the door by the security guard because of the problem of the letter of introduction.

"At that time, Teacher Lin happened to be the consultant for the TV series Dream of the Red Chamber..."

At this time Fang Qi interrupted and said, "Teacher Lin should be the youngest consultant in the advisory group of Dream of the Red Chamber at that time, right?"

"You know a lot!"

Fang Qi had a little pride on her face, "I'm Teacher Lin's fangirl!"

"At that time, Mr. Lin and Mr. Wan were both in the advisory group, which was considered an anecdote in the Chinese cultural circle at that time." Su Tong sighed, and then continued: "Er Yuehe was stopped outside the CCTV door at that time. When Mr. Lin came out of CCTV and saw him squatting at the door, he asked curiously."

"Then you picked up another great writer?" Fang Qi asked.

"Almost. Hey, let me tell you something!"

(End of this chapter)