Chapter 354: Better than Li Zicheng
Xie Mingqing looked at Lin Weimin speechlessly, and other people in the editorial department also cast curious glances at him.
Having known each other for several years, he knew Lin Weimin's temperament and character very well.
"What's going on? Is this a new masterpiece by the great writer Lin?"
"Look at your sarcastic expression. If you treat me like this, I won't submit this manuscript!"
With the manuscript in hand, what stands out is arrogance.
"Come, come, sit down and have some tea!"
Xie Mingqing judged the situation and decided to give Lin Weimin some preferential treatment.
"That's more like it!"
Lin Weimin took two sips of tea before taking out a thick stack of manuscripts and said, "Take a look!"
Xie Mingqing picked up the manuscript, took a look at it, and exclaimed: "Is this the novel you spent a year writing?"
"Less than a year!" Lin Weimin emphasized.
It’s almost been less than a year.
Xie Mingqing knew Lin Weimin's efficiency. It took him a week to write the more than 100,000 words of "Farewell My Concubine", which shocked the Guowen Publishing House for a whole year.
Later, when I was writing "The Horse-Trapping Man", the slowest process was completed, but it only took a little more than half a year.
But this novel took me nearly a year to write.
Xie Mingqing stroked the manuscript of the novel as if he was stroking the skin of a young girl, his heart filled with anticipation and excitement.
"The Ming Dynasty 1566!"
He read the title of the book on the first page of the manuscript and asked, "Why do you need to put a year in it?"
This is called Reesebai!
But if I tell this to Old Xie, he will definitely not understand. Lin Weimin said, "1566 is the entry point of my novel. You will understand after you read it."
Xie Mingqing nodded, feeling the thickness of the manuscript, "It should be at least 400,000 words, right?"
"Four hundred and fifty thousand words!"
Lin Weimin's expression was full of pride. Writing a big book is a proud thing for any writer.
“No wonder it took a year to write.”
"I told you, less than a year."
Teacher Lin must not lose the reputation of “quickshooter”!
“Yes, yes, less than a year.”
After submitting the manuscript, Lin Weimin is like a living ancestor and everything he says is right.
"There are so many manuscripts. I'll get back to you in a couple of days."
It takes time to review a manuscript, especially one of such a long length. Lin Weimin nodded and said, "Okay, I'll wait for your news!"
The novel in his hand was finally finished and handed over to Xie Mingqing. Lin Weimin felt a long-lost sense of relief.
A few days later, a piece of news spread from within the editorial department of People's Literature.
Lin Weimin's new novel is of astonishing quality, and everyone who has read it is applauding it.
The news quickly spread to other editorial offices in the company, arousing everyone's strong curiosity and everyone wanted to find out the truth.
Unfortunately, since the manuscript was only circulated within People's Literature, people in other editorial offices could only sigh in despair.
Some people could not resist their curiosity and went to the editorial department of People's Literature to take a look at the manuscript, but were asked to leave.
Ever since the incident of Wu Shiming plagiarizing materials from the New Literature Materials magazine, the editorial offices within the company have been very sensitive about the confidentiality of materials and manuscripts, and will not easily show unpublished materials and manuscripts to others.
Those colleagues who were interested in Lin Weimin's new novel were tempted and felt very anxious.
Since People's Literature couldn't get a say, a few people went to Lin Weimin to inquire about information and see if they could get ahold of the manuscript.
Early in the morning, Lin Weimin was blocked at the office door by several colleagues, his eyes shining, like a demon seeing Tang Sanzang.
"What are you looking at?" Lin Weimin was frightened.
Everyone laughed and said, "Sorry, sorry, I got excited for a moment!"
"Weimin, I heard your new novel is going to be published?"
"Well, thanks for the old man, it should be soon, right?"
"Do you have a backup?"
"Backup? Why would I need a backup?" He thought for a moment and his face changed. "Old Xie, he...didn't lose the manuscript, did he?"
"No, no." Everyone hastened to deny, "We are just curious. The People's Literature gave your manuscript a very high evaluation this time, so everyone wanted to see it first."
Lin Weimin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Then you can go find Lao Xie. He has the manuscript. I don't have it."
Everyone was disappointed when they heard this.
Unable to see the manuscript, they pestered Lin Weimin to tell them the specific content of the novel.
"I'm so busy at work every day, how can I have time to tell you these things! Don't make trouble!" Lin Weimin drove away these colleagues who had nothing to do after eating.
And this morning's scene was just the beginning.
In the following days, Lin Weimin's new novel became the hottest topic of conversation in the Chinese Literature Society.
The last time a topic gained this much attention was "whether Lao Meng can take over as president."
Any colleague who meets Lin Weimin will ask him about novels.
This unpublished new novel is like a beautiful lady half covered by a gauze dress, which makes colleagues in Guowen Press think about her day and night.
There were never any secrets in the Guowen Society. Within a few days, even Jiang Zilong who was far away in Tianjin wrote to him to inquire about the novel.
Lin Weimin, feeling both amused and helpless, wrote a letter back to Jiang Zilon, telling him that the novel would be published in the October issue of People's Literature.
While his colleagues were all paying attention to Lin Weimin's new novel, Lu Yao, who had lived on the third floor of the Guowen Publishing House for more than two months, finally finished revising the manuscript of the first part of "Ordinary World".
Lu Yao handed the revised manuscript to Lin Weimin, and said solemnly, "Comrade Weimin, I'm handing this novel over to you!"
Lin Weimin nodded and said, "Don't worry!"
He put the manuscript away and said to Lu Yao in a serious tone, "But you have to be mentally prepared for this novel. It may not be as popular as Life as soon as it is published."
"Why?" Lu Yao asked.
Lin Weimin did not answer him, but turned around and took out two manuscripts.
"This one is the new book Red Sorghum Family written by Mo Yan. This one, You Have No Choice, was written by newcomer Liu Sola."
Lin Weimin didn't say much, but Lu Yao understood what he meant. He couldn't take the unpublished manuscript away, so he could only read it in the office.
Lu Yao couldn't finish reading a novella and a novel in a whole day.
But after reading the first tens of thousands of words, he had completely understood what Lin Weimin meant.
Lin Weimin saw his disappointment and said, "You should have seen that compared with the popular writing methods, styles and contents, the content of Ordinary World is too old-fashioned and too rustic. It is not bad, on the contrary, it is very good.
But its goodness is not the most popular and popular one nowadays. It needs time to settle down and readers need to grow and understand. Do you understand what I mean?"
Lu Yao nodded silently.
Lin Weimin added: "I know you have high hopes for this work and have put a lot of effort and energy into it. The reason I tell you these things in advance is that I don't want you to be affected by the response after the novel is published. We writers are like chefs. We cook the dishes and serve them on the table. All the comments about it are up to the diners."
Lu Yao lit up a cigarette. Lin Weimin's words were not pleasant to hear. It was like you had just given birth to a daughter and you were overjoyed, but your friends around you said that your child would definitely be ugly when she grew up.
But he also understood Lin Weimin's good intentions. With the success of "Life" which was a national hit, he would definitely feel disappointed if "Ordinary World" did not achieve the corresponding results after its publication. It might even affect his mentality for the next creation, leading to the difficulty in producing the subsequent content of this novel.
After figuring out this, Lu Yao put out his cigarette and said, "I understand what you mean. I will treat this first novel as unpublished. After I return, I will concentrate on writing the second one. No matter what the outside world thinks of it, I must finish this novel."
Lin Weimin laughed at this time, "Don't be too stressed. I'm just giving you a shot of prevention."
"I see!"
"When I read your novel, I thought of Liu Qing's "The History of Entrepreneurship". Perhaps when you finish writing it, it may surpass "The History of Entrepreneurship" and become the highest achievement of contemporary literature in Shaanxi literary world. Perhaps it will also be the highest achievement not only in Shaanxi literary world, but also in contemporary Chinese literature."
There was a hint of sighing and fantasizing in Lin Weimin's words, which cheered up Lu Yao's originally depressed mood.
"Weimin, is my novel okay?" Lu Yao asked unconfidently.
"Why not?" Lin Weimin looked at him and said, "I said that your novel might not be widely welcomed after it is published. This is just based on my judgment of the current reading environment. However, readers' interests will not always be so excited and agitated. When they are tired of those gorgeous and gorgeously made-up women, you, a humble rhododendron on the Loess Plateau, will bloom one day!"
After listening to Lin Weimin's words, Lu Yao was finally completely excited.
"I will definitely write the second and third parts as soon as I get back. When readers have read my entire novel, they will give me a fair evaluation."
Teacher Lin was very satisfied when he saw Lu Yao's motivated expression.
This KTV event was very successful!
After talking about "Ordinary World", Lu Yao talked about Lin Weimin's novels.
"Is it called The Ming Dynasty 1566?"
"yes."
"I heard from everyone that it's very well written! Even better than Yao Xueying's Li Zicheng!"
Lin Weimin was shocked. "Don't talk nonsense."
"That's nothing. The shortcomings of Li Zicheng are so obvious that everyone knows it, but they just don't want to talk about it. On the contrary, I talked to several editors of People's Literature, and I didn't hear them say that your novel has any obvious shortcomings. At your level, you compete to see who has fewer shortcomings."
Lu Yao was a little outspoken, but his words were logical. The two of them were chatting privately, and Lin Weimin did not stop him.
When it was time to get off work, Lin Weimin asked, "When are you going to go back?"
"Tomorrow. I've finished revising the manuscript, and I have to go back and write the second part."
Lin Weimin was very pleased with Lu Yao's initiative, "Then I'll treat you to dinner tonight."
Lin Weimin pulled Lu Yao into the car, then went to Yanying Studio to pick up Tao Huimin, and drove to Maxim's on Chongwenmen Street.
"Why are you here again? Didn't you agree not to come?" Tao Huimin asked.
Lin Weimin smiled, pouted at Lu Yao, and said, "Give him confidence!"
Lu Yao laughed and said, "Weimin still understands me!"
When I came to Maxim's again, Manager Song Huaigui, who was still charming, was still standing at the door of the restaurant to greet and see off guests as usual.
She recognized Lin Weimin at a glance, but after the last experience of being rejected, she did not take the initiative to go forward and cause trouble. She just smiled and nodded at Lin Weimin.
Lu Yao spent half a year's salary on this meal. After walking out of Maxim's, Lu Yao sighed: "The food is really delicious, but it's too damn expensive!"
Lu Yao, who is always willing to spend money on food, couldn't help but burst out with joy, which shows Maxim's consumption level in this era.
He turned to Lin Weimin and said, "Weimin, I appreciate your kindness this time. I will be more motivated to write my manuscript when I go back!"
Lin Weimin laughed. This was the effect he wanted.
"Okay. If you need anything after you go back, just write to me. If you think I'm taking too long, just call me. I'm waiting for your manuscript!"
Lu Yao said solemnly, "Okay."
(End of this chapter)
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