Chapter 468: Life is beautiful no matter what
The moment Lin Weimin submitted the manuscript, he felt that the eyes that had been following him like a shadow finally disappeared, just like the ending of a horror movie, where the vengeful spirit disappears and the protagonist is successfully rescued.
In order to prevent errors during the mailing process, printed versions of the manuscript were sent out. There were two copies, one with an address in France and the other in the United States. The real manuscript was kept by Lin Weimin.
The Toshiba T100 that had been idle for more than a year finally came in handy this time. Lin Weimin even purchased floppy disks and printers specifically to print manuscripts.
This configuration is unique in the domestic literary circle!
Lin Weimin's novel is based on a classic movie of later generations, "Life is Beautiful".
The film tells a story during World War II. Guido is a Jewish youth who looks clumsy but is kind and optimistic. He and his friend Filuccio drove a broken car from the countryside to the small town of Arezzo. When they passed a barn tower, the young and beautiful girl Dora suddenly fell from the tower into his arms.
Once again, Guido accidentally knocked Dora down while riding his bicycle. The two met again and ignited the flame of love in Guido's heart. He lost no time in expressing his love to Dora.
After a period of pursuit, Guido finally got his wife. After marriage, good things happened one after another. The bookstore that Guido had always dreamed of opened, and they had a well-behaved and lovely son, Joshua. When Guido was free, he often played games with his son, and the family lived a happy life.
But the good days didn't last for a few years. On Joshua's fifth birthday, the National Socialists arrested Guido and Joshua because of their Jewish ancestry and forcibly sent them to a Jewish concentration camp. His wife Dora was spared because she had no Jewish ancestry, but she volunteered to be arrested in order to be with Guido and his son.
In the brutal concentration camp, Guido tries every means to find an opportunity to contact his wife in the women's prison and report his safety to Dora, while at the same time protecting and caring for the young Joshua. He tricks his son into believing that this is a game, and those who abide by the rules will eventually get a real tank to go home.
Guido and his son endured hunger, fear, loneliness and all the harsh environment. When liberation came, late one night the National Socialists were about to escape. Guido hid his son in an iron cabinet and repeatedly warned Joshua not to come out. He planned to take advantage of the chaos to go to the women's prison to rescue his wife Dora.
But unfortunately he was discovered by the National Socialists. When the National Socialists escorted Guido past Joshua's iron cabinet, he walked forward optimistically with big strides, hinting to his son not to come out.
The optimistic Guido eventually died tragically at the gunpoint of the German National Socialist Party. At dawn, Joshua climbed out of the iron cabinet and stood in the yard. At this time, a real tank rumbled in front of him.
Lin Weimin was left with a very deep impression of this film, because its first 105 minutes were as beautiful as a fairy tale, but all the sadness came surging in when Guido took comical strides in front of the iron cabinet.
The more joy and happiness you feel, the stronger this sadness will be. The thread of this movie is deeply rooted in the essence of literary creation.
In Lin Weimin's writing, except for Guido's name being changed to Gallian and the American soldiers at the end being changed to Soviet soldiers, the rest of the content basically maintained the narrative structure and style of the film.
A comedy of 200,000 words is laid out just for a tragedy of a few hundred words at the end.
Just tell me, is this knife sharp?
Compared with novels like "To Live" that heal from beginning to end, novels like this one are truly healing.
What Lin Weimin likes most is the core of this work. The name of the movie may be chosen for publicity reasons, and "Life is Beautiful" is used, which lacks some charm.
Lin Weimin was very willful in writing novels and directly quoted the original words of Russian proletarian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
"No matter what, life is beautiful."
The Toshiba T100 that Lin Weimin brought back from the United States had been gathering dust for two years, but it was finally put to use.
He didn't even install a Chinese card, he just wrote the English version directly.
After all, the content of this novel is completely set in a foreign context, and the Chinese version might not be that popular.
The most important thing is that compared with domestic publishing, foreign publishing is really profitable!
Guowen Publishing House recently reprinted and republished six or seven million copies of his novel, but the total royalties for the number of copies printed were only a little over 400,000 yuan. The royalty bills are still piled up in the unit's financial office, but Lin Weimin has not gone to collect them.
The royalties for printing millions of copies were only 400,000, which is not even enough to print 200,000 or 300,000 copies abroad.
When it comes to making money, rice and knives are of course more popular.
The effect of the Goncourt Prize is also very strong overseas. Lin Weimin's novels have recently been selling like hot cakes in countries covered by Gallimard and Random House channels.
Because his works had always sold well, Lin Weimin was already somewhat famous in these countries. Now that he has won the Prix Goncourt, his fame has reached a new level. He is no longer the slightly famous Chinese writer he used to be, but a new winner of the Prix Goncourt.
With high reader recognition, sales will naturally increase.
In addition to the explosive sales of the award-winning work "Lover", the sales of other published novels have also increased to varying degrees.
The sales volume brought by the Goncourt Prize was at least one or two million copies, and Teacher Lin earned two million US dollars with tears in her eyes.
After finishing the novel, Lin Weimin's life returned to being idle. His work was suspended and he ran around everywhere every day.
On the Laba Festival, he drove Shi Tiesheng to Lu Yao.
Ever since he was diagnosed with early-stage liver cirrhosis at Union Hospital, Lu Yao has not moved for the past six months. He has been recuperating in the house arranged for him by Lin Weimin for half a year.
During this period of time, Lu Yao's condition has improved greatly as he has given up high-intensity creative work and rest and diet and has become more regular. In addition, he takes medication every day, does regular activities, and goes to the hospital for check-ups.
This was the first time that Lin Weimin had come to visit Lu Yao since he went abroad. Seeing that he looked much better, Lin Weimin was happy for him.
The six months that Lu Yao's family lived in Yanjing were a rare happy time for them.
Lu Yao no longer neglected his wife and daughter because of his hard work on writing like before. He spent plenty of time with them every day. The family would occasionally walk around Yanjing City, and their days were free and comfortable.
Lin Weimin observed that the wrinkles on Lu Yao's wife Lin Dan's face seemed to have smoothed out.
Such a life was extremely rare in her and Lu Yao's more than ten years of marriage.
After talking about Lu Yao's health, Lu Yao became concerned about Lin Weimin's award.
"You really launched a big satellite this time!" Lu Yao said with a laugh.
"The influence of the Goncourt Prize is indeed huge. But after winning it, that's all. What impact can it have? It's nothing more than selling a few more books, but it brings a lot of troubles. A lot of people come to you all day long, which is very annoying!"
After Lin Weimin said this, Shi Tiesheng and Lu Yao mocked him, saying that he didn't know how lucky he was.
When they heard that Lin Weimin had written another novel in English, they were puzzled.
Lin Weimin had no choice but to explain the background and content of the novel. "I will definitely write a Chinese version when I have time, but the overseas market is quite hot right now, so let's focus on that first. This is called earning foreign exchange for the country!"
When it comes to royalties, Lin Weimin is naturally enviable. He said to Lu Yao: "The sales of Ordinary World are also good, and the royalties are not small this year."
The first two volumes of "The Ordinary World" have been published. The earliest volume has been sold for almost two years, with sales of hundreds of thousands of copies. Moreover, as the influence of the novel grows, sales are still steadily increasing.
In the past two years, Lu Yao has received more than 20,000 yuan in royalties from printing.
The most annoying thing is that he spends money lavishly and can hardly save any money.
Especially this year, the necessary expenses for medical treatment and recuperation in Yanjing are too high and the financial pressure is not small.
Fortunately, the third part of "Ordinary World" will be published soon, and will be published soon afterwards, so there will always be royalties.
While they were chatting, Lu Yao did not forget to turn on the radio and tune in to China National Radio. This had become his habit over the past few months.
The first and second parts of "The Ordinary World" have been completed in the past six months and have been broadcast on the "Long-running" program of China National Radio.
The broadcast started in September 1987 and it is now January 1988, and the second part of "Ordinary World" has come to an end.
During this period, China National Radio received tens of thousands of letters from listeners from all over the country, setting a record for the number of letters from listeners of the "Long-running Broadcast" program.
The audience also gave a very high evaluation of "Ordinary World". Lu Yao's work results were recognized by the audience, and he felt extremely gratified.
The broadcast of the anthem version of "The Ordinary World" has once again expanded the influence of this novel, making the influence of this novel not only limited to a group of young literary people, but also reaching a wider group of young readers and entering the spiritual world of ordinary people.
Following China National Radio, several provincial radio stations rebroadcast this work. The powerful media communication aroused widespread and strong social repercussions.
As a result, the sales of the novel have also increased steadily in the past few months.
During this period of time, Lu Yao has not been idle except for recuperating from his illness. He has taken out two hours every day to revise the manuscript of the third part of "Ordinary World" and has completed it and sent it to the editorial department of "Contemporary".
Two days ago, Ye Yongmei just took the second proofreading copy of the novel from Guowen Publishing House. The production of the third part is already underway. China National Radio will broadcast this work during the Spring Festival, which shows the importance attached to this novel.
In addition to the broadcast of the novel, the third part of "The Ordinary World" will also be published in the February issue of "Contemporary", also in the first issue.
The same author, the same novel, was published three times in the same issue of "Contemporary", a top domestic literary magazine. Lu Yao's record is unprecedented, and it is unknown whether there will be anyone else who can match it.
When talking about this matter, Lu Yao felt more grateful than sighing.
Without Lin Weimin's strong efforts against all odds, the novel "Ordinary World" would not have been published in such a decent manner.
His idea was correct. The publication of "The Ordinary World" was indeed full of countless hardships and twists and turns. Fortunately, the final result was good.
They stayed at Lu Yao's house until the evening and had dinner. Lin Dan prepared a sumptuous dinner to entertain Lin Weimin and Shi Tiesheng.
When the meal was almost over, Lu Yao said to Lin Weimin: "Weimin, we plan to return to Xi'an next week."
"Does the doctor agree?" Lin Weimin asked.
Lu Yao nodded, and Lin Dan said, "His condition has improved a lot now, and the doctor has agreed for us to go back. But we still can't work too hard after we go back. If we want to recover completely, we have to take care of him for a few years."
Lin Weimin pondered and said, "I'm not worried about anything else. There are mainly two points. One is the medical conditions in Xi'an, and the other is whether he can control his diet and work and rest."
Under his wife's gaze, Lu Yao spoke with difficulty: "It's okay. After getting sick once, I also understand the importance of health. After all, your life is your own. As for the conditions of the hospital, you don't have to worry. I am now in the stage of recuperation, and I have improved. Our Xi'an is the provincial capital after all, it's okay."
"Okay. Then you can leave in two days and I'll take you there."
(End of this chapter)
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