Chapter 536: A Prophecy Comes True
The last issue of this year came out in early December, and the atmosphere in the editorial office of Contemporary became relaxed again.
Ale's "Dust Settles" has been published for a few days, and the feedback from bookstores across the country is very good. It seems to be another best-selling work.
Lin Weimin also relaxed during this period and spent some time and energy to complete the novel he was working on. During this period, Zheng Guolai urged him several times.
After finishing the novel, Lin Weimin handed it over to Tong Zhonggui. This time he wanted to keep the benefits within the family.
Colleagues read Lin Weimin's novels and found that he maintained his usual high level of creativity.
This novel was derived from the later film "Not One Less" directed by Zhang Yimou. In Lin Weimin's writing, the background of the story has not changed much.
Teacher Gao from Shuiquan Primary School has to go home to visit his seriously ill mother. The village chief asks Wei Minzhi, a 13-year-old girl from a neighboring village, to take over the class for a month. The chief repeatedly tells Wei Minzhi to take care of the students until Teacher Gao comes back.
Wei Minzhi didn't know how to teach. She asked students to copy texts all day and took a headcount every day.
In order to pay off his family's debts, ten-year-old Zhang Huike had to drop out of school and go to the city to work. Wei Minzhi remembered Teacher Gao's advice that no one should be left behind, and she set out on her journey to the city alone to look for her son.
In the city, Wei Minzhi finally found Zhang Huike, who had dropped out of school, after going through untold hardships. When she returned to school, Teacher Gao finally came back with good news: Shuiquan Village was going to build a Hope Primary School. With the efforts of the village chief and Teacher Gao, Wei Minzhi was transformed from a temporary substitute teacher to a private teacher.
Lin Weimin only added the element of Hope Primary School at the end of the novel, keeping the original flavor of the story.
When he watched this movie later, he admired Zhang Yimou's treatment and the story of the original work.
There are no earth-shaking plots, nor complicated techniques. It is just to tell a "single-minded" story. In particular, the film was shot entirely with non-professional actors, and the original documentary style presents an extremely realistic rural landscape.
Although this movie is often criticized for being sensational, it is hard for people who have watched it to forget the moving and lingering aftertaste it brings.
"Weimin, this novel is similar to 'If You Are the One'!" He Qizhi said this to Lin Weimin after reading the novel.
Lin Weimin nodded. The two stories were indeed somewhat similar in their core.
Wei Minzhi's stubbornness is because of Teacher Gao's admonition that "no one can be left behind", while Zhao Xiaoshuai's stubbornness in "If You Are the One" is for love, but the direction and handling of the two stories are completely different.
"I'm afraid this story is a bit unpleasant!" Zhu Changsheng said maturely.
Colleagues nodded when they heard this, thinking that Zhu Changsheng was right.
The story of "No One Left Behind" is very warm and touching, but how can I put it?
As for literary works, it would be a bit lacking if you just sing praises and glorify them.
Why do so many people like to watch Korean crime movies in later generations?
People only pick out the ugliness of human nature, and their scale is quite large. Don't worry about whether it is logical or clichéd, this thing is exciting!
To put it bluntly, it's just like watching a horror movie. It's a physical sensory stimulation, straightforward, and is meant to make you feel good.
"That's not the case. I think Mr. Lin's novel is a very talented work." Tong Zhonggui is a loyal fan of Lin Weimin. When he heard that his idol's novel was not well received, he immediately wanted to make a few remarks in rebuttal.
"The content of the novel reflects the current situation of our rural education very deeply, without any whitewashing or embellishment. By the way, there is also the story of Wei Minzhi going to the city to look for someone, which is a powerful satire on the phenomenon that people are increasingly losing faith in recent years.
The overall style of this novel is positive and uplifting, which may make many people who are accustomed to using literature to expose, criticize and satirize feel uncomfortable, but isn’t this the role of literature?
Who says literature can’t be warm and inspiring?”
Tong Zhonggui said this without hesitation, and it was obvious that he had been thinking about it in his mind for a long time. He has followed Lin Weimin since he joined the editorial department, and his creative ideas are deeply influenced by Lin Weimin. It is not surprising that he could say this.
"Xiao Tong's speaking skills are getting better and better now!" Liu Yin praised.
Yao Shuzhi asked Lin Weimin, "Weimin, as a master, can you tell me whether what Xiao Tong said makes sense?"
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Do you think I am embarrassed to praise Xiao Tong in front of so many people? You are wrong! Xiao Tong said it very well. Nowadays, when people talk about literature, if they are not careful, they may use big words to drag literature out of its original course. Literature cannot be defined superficially, it should return to common sense."
"Return to common sense? What does that mean?" Everyone became curious about the new term that Lin Weimin said.
"It's very simple. If you look at the literature about educated youth written by many people in recent years, don't you find that it feels more and more the same? Why is it so? Were these people persecuted by the same group of people at the time? Were they treated exactly the same?
In fact, except for a small number of people who have indeed been treated unfairly, most of them are just hearsay. The article is full of conjecture and exaggeration.
You must have seen quite a few of these, right? Let me give you an example. For example, a female educated youth slept with someone in order to return to the city. These people thought of the female educated youth, the return to the city, and the cadres, and they automatically associated them together. The initial association was naturally because they had heard some dirty things.
But the problem is, after writing for ten years and still writing this kind of thing, there is something wrong. This is against common sense and is also creative laziness.
The example I just mentioned is obviously used to advance the plot and shape the characters.
Let me give you another example of structure. Nowadays, some people often boast that they write stream-of-consciousness novels. The whole article is confusing and incomprehensible. They write thousands of words about a small matter, but they don’t consider the overall story structure at all. It is top-heavy and has no basic creative logic at all. These are all problems.”
Lin Weimin stopped talking here, "I can't help but complain when I start talking about it."
The colleagues laughed, and Liu Yin joked: "After all, they are young people. No matter what they talk about, they are always so passionate, even when they criticize others."
Before leaving get off work in the evening, Wang Shuo ran to the editorial office to find Lin Weimin.
"The Story of the Editorial Department" went from an idea last year to being completed this year, and has been confirmed to be broadcast on CCTV.
Haima Studio is going to hold a celebration banquet today and specially invited Lin Weimin.
The dinner was still held in Gongjian Hutong, which has become the base camp of Haima Studio.
After a year of development, the team at Haima Studio seems to have grown a lot.
Lin Weimin joked when he saw Ge You: "Youzi, no matter what I say, you will become famous after shaving your head!"
Ge You was confused, "When did I become famous?"
"Right away, just watch!"
Ge You looked at Lin Weimin with a suspicious look on his face. Teacher Lin was good in every way except that he was a little superstitious.
A few days later, Lin Weimin heard that Rong Shihui was sick, so he ran to Rong Shihui's house after work.
"I heard from Lao Zhang that you were sick. How are you?"
"It's okay. It's winter now. My lungs weren't feeling well. I went for a checkup and it's nothing serious."
Lin Weimin was relieved, "That's good."
He went on to say, "So, you should smoke less. You're so old now, be careful not to get lung cancer again..."
When Lin Weimin said this, he saw Rong Shihui's wife Jie Sutai winking at him, so he immediately understood and changed the subject.
Rong Shihui has not been idle after retirement. He occasionally helps the Writers Publishing House to review manuscripts. Lin Weimin said that "Contemporary" is preparing to publish Cheng Zhongshi's latest masterpiece.
"Old Rong, just wait and see, you will be shocked next month!"
Rong Shihui looked at him with disdain, "You brat, now you are better at boasting than me, from now on I should call you Lin Dachui."
"Look at you. You are so used to bragging that you think others are bragging too. You need to change this bad habit. This is called judging others by yourself. It is a mean-spirited mentality."
"Hehe, I think you are either here to visit me or to irritate me!"
The two of them quarreled for a while, and Rong Shihui's old habit came back again. He boasted about his recent hard work in practicing table tennis and his great improvement in skills.
We talked about table tennis for a while, then volleyball, and then the heroic deeds we did in our youth.
Lao Rong has a history of bragging in the Guowen Press. It is said that when he was in the Weapon (not a typo) Cadre School, there was an editor in the press named Ouyang Bai who was as good as him, and the two of them boasted to each other.
These two people never brag about their expertise, but prefer to brag about the farm work they are not familiar with.
One of them boasted that he could ride a stubborn ox to plow the fields when he was a child, and the other boasted that when he was young, he used his bare hands to separate two oxen that were fighting each other.
One of them boasted that he knew how to plant rice seedlings when he was five years old, and that his planting was straighter than the ink line drawn by a carpenter. Another one boasted that he was fast at planting rice seedlings, faster than the old masters, and could plant two acres of land a day.
The two of them never tire of bragging like this, and their colleagues around them also listen with gusto, trying to have fun in the midst of hardship. No one wants to spoil the fun by pointing out their flaws.
As a result, the story of the two men's bragging has been circulated in the Guowen Society for decades.
Although they were bickering, Lin Weimin just listened to Rong Shihui quietly without saying a word when he was reminiscing about the glorious past.
After talking for a long time, Rong Shihui sighed: "Life is so fast, I am old in a blink of an eye."
"You just said you could eat three bowls of rice!" Lin Weimin said sarcastically.
Rong Shihui changed his words and said, "Getting old doesn't delay eating. When Lian Po was eighty, he still..."
After chatting with Rong Shihui for a long time, Lin Weimin was ready to leave.
Xie Sutai pressed Rong Shihui down on the sofa and asked her to send Lin Weimin off.
After going out, Lin Weimin looked at Jie Sutai, knowing that she probably had something to say to him.
"Old Rong's illness..." Jie Sutai's face showed a bit of worry.
Lin Weimin's heart skipped a beat. "Is it serious?"
"After a pathological biopsy, it was confirmed to be lung cancer!"
Lin Weimin stood there in a daze. He never expected that his unintentional words would come true.
"Sister, look at me..."
"It's okay. It has nothing to do with you. This is the result of decades of accumulated problems. Now my family doesn't dare to tell him, for fear of scaring him."
Lin Weimin nodded slightly. A large number of people who get cancer are scared to death by the disease. He also understood that his family had decided not to tell Rong Shihui the news.
"Don't tell anyone about this news." Xie Sutai warned.
"Don't worry!"
After making his promise to Jie Sutai, Lin Weimin left with a heavy heart.
(End of this chapter)
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