1980 My literary era

The call came from Jie Sutai. Lao Rong was gone. After fighting the disease for more than a year, he finally passed away.

Rong Shihui stepped down from the position of deputy editor-in-chief of Writers Publishing House before his death. Writers Publishing House is preparing a memorial service for him, which will be held in the morning the day after tomorrow.

Lin Weimin put down the phone. Lao Rong had been ill for more than a year. He visited him many times. Every time he saw him, he was weaker than before, but his spirit was always optimistic. He always believed that he could defeat the disease.

Unfortunately, manpower is sometimes scarce.

"It's okay if your hair falls out. It can grow back in the future. This is what the doctor said, and it's true!"

"I am the one who caused the disaster by smoking. You must quit smoking. It is not difficult to quit. Don't believe in the nonsense about 'quit smoking candy' or 'quit smoking tea'. The key is your own will. You can get used to it after a few days." "

"This disease is really fucking painful, it's heart-wrenching pain! But it's getting better soon, so just keep holding on."

"You're so busy at work, so don't come here. Come pick me up on the day I'm discharged from the hospital, and I'll ride on your car again."

…

Lin Weimin recalled Rong Shihui's voice and smile in a daze, and his heart was filled with sadness.

After waiting for a long time, he got up and called his colleagues in the editor-in-chief's office, and explained: "Our senior editor and editor, Mr. Rong Shihui, has passed away. A memorial service will be held the day after tomorrow. The family members will come to the agency to post an obituary later. 伱Let’s go notify our colleagues in the club and if anyone wants to attend the memorial service, we can go together.”

After the explanation, Lin Weimin went to inform Cheng Wuchun again, and then came to the gate of the hospital and waited for more than half an hour. When Rong Shihui's son came, he brought an obituary.

Lin Weimin first took him to chat with Cheng Wanchun for a few words, and then the two of them posted the obituary on the bulletin board in the courtyard.

In less than an hour, the news of Rong Shihui's death had spread throughout the Chinese Literature Society.

When the two posted the obituary notice, many people gathered around them, their faces heavy and their words full of regret and sadness.

Two days later in the morning, Lin Weimin went to attend Rong Shihui's memorial service.

Today is the weekend, and more than a hundred people have come to the memorial service. In addition to Rong Shihui's relatives and friends, most of them are colleagues from the Chinese Literature Society, but not many people from the Writers' Publishing House.

Rong Shihui spent most of his working life at the Chinese Literature Society, and was transferred to the Writers Publishing House for only a few years.

After the memorial service, Lin Weimin waited for a while and came to the grieving Jie Sutai. After a few words of comfort, he prepared to leave.

However, Jie Sutai called Lin Weimin aside, "Weimin, I have something to ask you for help!"

"Sister, don't say that. If you have anything to do, just say it directly."

Jie Sutai wiped her tears and said: "You know Lao Rong. He has been an editor all his life and made wedding dresses for others all his life. I thought I could leave some time for myself and write something when I am old, but no one thought... "

She said a few words, but before she got to the point, she choked up.

Lin Weimin roughly guessed what she was going to say. Jie Sutai paused for a few seconds and continued: "Old Rong has written a lot in the past few years since he retired, but he has high demands on himself and has torn up many of the unsatisfactory things, leaving only Download his fables. I wonder if the club could consider publishing a book for him?"

After Jie Sutai finished speaking, there was a bit of pleading in his eyes. Lin Weimin did not hesitate and said: "No problem. I'll go back and wait for you to finish your work, and I'll pick up the manuscript."

Lin Weimin's full promise made Xie Sutai burst into tears, and she held his hand and couldn't help saying thank you.

After a few polite words, Lin Weimin said goodbye and left.

Agreeing to Jie Sutai to publish a book for Rong Shihui was not only a matter of personal affection, but also of public interest.

Rong Shihui has been an editor all his life and has handled many classic works, a considerable number of which were revised by his hands.

His editing style is different from that of many people. He often makes extensive revisions in order to make his works better. This approach is of course thankless. It has nothing to do with him if his works are popular, and other writers will not accept his favor. If you encounter a writer you don’t understand, you may even say nasty things to him.

Rong Shihui dares to modify the works of writers he handles, and his own writing skills are naturally unquestionable.

He created very little in his life, and only published "Five Fables" in "Contemporary". After the publication of "Five Fables", the Yanjing People's Broadcasting Station broadcast the soundtrack of this work for more than a year. In 1988, this work also won the National Outstanding Fable Award.

Lin Weimin knew that after Rong Shihui retired, apart from occasionally doing the final review of novels for Writers Publishing House, most of his time and energy were focused on creation, and he had created hundreds of fables intermittently. However, because he had relatively high demands on himself, Most of them were deleted by him, leaving less than half.

Lin Weimin believed in Rong Shihui's creative ability and attitude, so agreeing to solve Sutai could not be regarded as complete favoritism.

Two days later, Jie Sutai did not ask Lin Weimin to pick it up, but asked his son to send the manuscript.

The manuscript is very thin. Lin Weimin counted only 42 fables in this thin booklet. Each of them is short and concise, with a total word count of less than 50,000 words. However, it is the only work written by Rong Shihui in his life.

A pre-editorial meeting was held on the morning of the next day. The meeting was chaired by Lin Weimin and attended by the editors-in-chief of each editorial office.

"Ba Lao's collected works are now in the seventeenth volume. It is difficult to collect many of the lost essays, creative talks, letters and days, etc. The idea of ​​our editorial office is to advertise."

The speaker was Wang Yangchen. He was not a leader in the society, but he was experienced enough and diligent. He had been Balao’s editor for many years. Even though he was now over 70 years old, Balao’s works were still written by him. Responsible.

In the late 1950s, the Chinese Literature Society published Balao's collected works. At that time, there were only 14 volumes. Now, after so many years, Balao's creation is still continuing, so the update of the collected works has become inevitable.

Lin Weimin said: "Let "Contemporary" help send out a solicitation letter."

He Qizhi nodded, "No problem."

"I have reviewed the set of "Forest of Fairy Tales" in the Foreign Languages ​​Department, and there is nothing wrong with it. After the manuscript meeting, I will ask Xiao Zhang to send it to you, and seize the time to typeset and print it."

"By the way, Lao He, I see that many readers have said that this year's cover of "Contemporary" has lost its tradition, blindly using dark backgrounds, and gaudy patterns, which makes people uncomfortable. Your editorial department should communicate with the design department For a while, publications need to be changed, and it is a good thing to introduce new ones, but the readers’ feelings must not be ignored.”

Lin Weimin communicated with the chief editors of each editorial office in an orderly manner. When the meeting was over, everyone dispersed.

"Li Xin!" Lin Weimin called to Li Xin from the Contemporary Literature Section 1.

"Editor-in-Chief, what's going on?"

Lin Weimin handed Rong Shihui's collection of fables to him, "This is a collection of Teacher Rong's works during his lifetime. Please review it in your editorial office."

Li Xin immediately thought of Rong Shihui's death a few days ago, and knew that Lin Weimin must have been entrusted by a favor, "Okay, I'll do it as soon as possible."

After the meeting, during lunch, Cheng Wuchun and Lin Weimin sat together and asked, "Do you have time in the afternoon?"

"What's up?"

"The printing factory has been found. If you have time in the afternoon, come with me to take a look."

"Okay." Lin Weimin agreed.

Some time ago, the Xinhua Printing Factory wanted to eliminate outdated printing equipment, so the Chinese Language Society spent less than 50,000 yuan to buy the equipment.

But the Chinese Literature Society does not have a printing house, so the easiest way is to find someone to cooperate.

State-owned printing plants would definitely not work, so Cheng Wuchun set his sights on township and village enterprises.

After searching for almost a month, I finally found a large village-run enterprise.

After lunch, Cheng Wuchun and Lin Weimin took a few colleagues and drove all the way to Daxing.

Later, Daxing was a district of Yanjing, but that was after 2001. Now it is still a suburban county around Yanjing, located due south of Yanjing, more than 20 kilometers away from Yanjing.

Huangcun Printing Factory is a village-run factory with a small scale. Its main business is printing perpetual calendars, wall calendars, and travel brochures. The output is not high, but the factory building is quite large.

After inspecting the printing factory, Cheng Wuchun asked Lin Weimin: "What do you think?"

"The printing equipment is not so delicate. The space here is sufficient and the transportation is relatively convenient. The main thing is to set the rules for the joint factory."

Cheng Wuchun nodded, "I just like that it's small and we can take control."

Cheng Wuchun was the president of the Chinese Literature Society, and he was the plenipotentiary representative for the joint printing plant. After briefly communicating with Lin Weimin, he started chatting with the cadres in the village and town.

Huangcun Printing Factory is very small, with an output value of less than one million a year, and a profit of less than 100,000.

When Guowen News Agency purchased the scrapped printing equipment from Xinhua Printing Factory, it paid a scrap price, but when it was negotiated for cooperation with Huangcun Printing Factory, it was not at this price.

This large number of machines would be worth hundreds of thousands even after depreciation, while the total assets of Huangcun Printing Factory are only 500,000.

Finally, after some negotiations, Guowenshe became the majority shareholder of Huangcun Printing Factory with a price of 600,000 yuan for printing equipment and 100,000 yuan in cash.

Huangcun Printing Factory was no longer called Huangcun Printing Factory. From then on, it was renamed Yanjing National Literature Printing Factory.

Thanks to the blessing of a large number of printing equipment from Xinhua Printing Factory, the newly established Yanjing National Literature Printing Factory has increased its production capacity more than ten times compared to before, and its scale is comparable to some city-level state-owned printing factories.

It’s just that the hardware conditions have been shabby for a while, and both the factory buildings and printing equipment smell like “Xiaomi plus rifles”.

But as Cheng Wanchun said, first solve the problem and then talk about it.

At least the establishment of the Yanjing National Literature Printing Factory allowed the National Literature Society to take part of the printing business into its own hands.

In a short period of time, it can handle the reprinting needs of the Chinese Literature Society and the printing needs of the Tongwen Society, saving a lot of costs.

If development goes smoothly in the future, it may be possible to expand the scale and launch new equipment.

Even if the development is not smooth, it is only an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The printing costs saved in a year are all saved, and there is no loss at all.

Having your own printing house is a good thing for both the Chinese and Tongwen societies.

Setting up a joint printing factory is not something that can be completed in a day or two. Lin Weimin stopped caring about this matter after the inspection.

"Heroes of Kyushu" is the first pure martial arts novel publication in China. Since its first issue went on sale in mid-July, it has been enthusiastically sought after by readers.

In particular, the headline work "The Best in the World" serialized in the magazine, although the first issue only published 50,000 words, its grand story structure, twists and turns of the plot and plump and three-dimensional characters have gradually unfolded, and have been loved by countless readers. Many readers specially wrote to the editorial office, praising this work as a rare classic among domestic martial arts novels in recent years, no less than Jin Guliang's works.

Readers' love is not just an empty talk, it is reflected in sales. "Heroes of Kyushu" was reprinted three times in one month, with a circulation of 1.1 million copies, breaking the sales record of the first issue in the domestic periodical industry.

The sales ceiling in the domestic periodical industry is "Popular Films", with the highest circulation of a single issue reaching 9 million copies. The ceiling of popular literary publications is "Story Club", with the highest circulation of a single issue reaching 4 million copies.

Regardless of whether it is "Popular Cinema" or "Story Club", their sales are good, but no publication has achieved the feat of breaking one million copies of its first issue.

Tongwenshe, a little-known new publishing house, became famous in the domestic publishing industry with the first issue of "Heroes of Kyushu" and became the focus of countless peers.