Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Minghua, something big has happened!"

Fang Minghua was startled by Li Li's anxious tone on the other end of the phone.

"What big thing? Xinxin? Or aunt?"

"No, it's the book you wrote!"

Li Li told Fang Minghua in detail what happened in the United States around this book.

Ouch

It's so lively.

Fang Minghua had never expected it.

"Minghua, don't worry, there are many people who support you. Famous American writers Peter Heisler, Toni Morrison, and Emily have publicly expressed their support for you. The "Qiao Bao" and "Sing Tao Daily" have also issued statements of support for you. The team led by Professor Yu Rongyifang is already actively working to collect signatures and submit petitions to the California and federal governments, requesting a re-investigation of the history of Chinese railway construction." Li Li comforted.

"And it's a blessing in disguise. Your book is selling like crazy in the United States. This month's sales have even surpassed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and it has topped the New York bestseller list! Demi was grinning from ear to ear. Now the publisher is contacting the British publisher Heinemann Publishing House to prepare for publication in the UK."

This is the highest level of hype.

Fang Minghua sighed in his heart.

"I am now organizing a translation team to translate your novel into French, Spanish, etc. as soon as possible, and strive to publish it in these countries and regions to expand its influence." Li Li finally said.

"Okay, take care of yourself."

The two chatted for a while before hanging up the phone.

Fang Minghua left the living room and continued to drink tea and bask in the sun in the small courtyard.

Since the storm is so fierce, let it be even stronger. Anyway, it's none of my business now.

In the afternoon, Song Tangtang went home from work, and Fang Minghua told her the content of Li Li's call.

Song Tangtang was also very surprised. How could a book cause such a big wave?

"Great! The Chinese version will also allow Shu Bin to speed up the publication, and let the people of our country see this period of history!" Song Tangtang said.

Fang Minghua doesn't worry too much about the things on the other side of the ocean. Now he is concerned about the first Banyan Tree Online Literature Competition.

It is now early December, and the submission of the competition has ended. The next step is for the judges to gather in Shanghai for a meeting to select the winning works.

Fang Minghua and Jia Pingwa boarded the train to Shanghai together.

The meeting place was at Jinjiang Hotel, and there were Wang Shuo, Mo Yan and others. Shi Tiesheng came in a wheelchair accompanied by his wife Chen Ximi.

Everyone is familiar with each other and often meets in different occasions, but Ning Caishen, Xing Yusen, Annie Baby, Wu Guo, Liu Wu, SIEG (Seven Grids) and other online writers are the first time they have met.

In the conference room, looking at these young people in their early twenties, the always arrogant Wang Shuo was also a little surprised.

"So young?"

"Wang Shuo, when you published your first novel, you were about the same age as them, right?" The speaker was Su Tong.

A few years ago, Wang Shuo and his team had set up a Seahorse Studio, recruiting a large number of writers to write scripts, including Su Tong. The two worked together for a period of time, so they were quite familiar with each other.

Wang Shuo nodded, took a puff of cigarette, and then said, "My first officially published novel should be "The Story of the Seagull". I was 24 years old that year, but at that time we were all rookies in the literary world, and meeting the editor was like meeting an uncle. How could they be uncles at such a young age?!"

Everyone laughed when they heard it.

This guy still speaks so meanly.

But it does make sense. In the traditional literary world, magazines may have editors in their twenties, but have never seen literary judges in their twenties.

Except for Ning Caishen, Fang Minghua also saw it for the first time.

Everyone smiled and shook hands with each other.

Fang Minghua looked at the young faces.

These people are called the first generation of online writers, but in the eyes of later generations, their identity as online writers has long been blurred. They are writers rather than online writers.

People always think that they are not Tang Jia San Shao or Feng Huo Xi Zhu Hou, and the former is clearly different from the younger generations.

But when we look back and sort out the origin of online literature, which is not far away, we find that the "online literature" of later generations is actually more narrow.

Ning Caishen, Xing Yusen, Annie Baby and others grew up reading books by Fang Minghua and others. Now they are excited to see the real people.

Of course, I am still a little proud to be a judge with my idol at the same time.

This is online literature!

Dai Jiali, the organizer of the competition, briefly talked about the submission of this competition.

"Dear judges, this competition has received nearly 100,000 readers visiting the competition homepage, and received a total of 7,235 entries. After the editor's initial review, 2,302 entries entered the formal review stage, and were read and commented on by the judges. Among them, 320 works received the approval of more than half of the judges and entered the final review stage."

"Thank you for your hard work, judges. On behalf of the organizing committee of the competition, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks!"

Applause broke out in the conference room.

Ning Caishen and his team were excited that the website traffic increased dramatically in a short period of time.

Wang Shuo and his team were surprised that there were so many submissions? !

This is simply unimaginable in traditional literary competitions!

"Oh my god. I've been reading so much lately that I've only read one-third of the articles?!" Jia Pingwa was sitting next to Fang Minghua, and whispered after hearing this. "This job is simply not for humans, don't ask me next time."

"Okay, okay, next time I'll select the best, and the judges will read no more than three to five hundred articles." Fang Minghua replied.

Indeed, he was also dazzled during this period.

The next step is for the judges to read, discuss and score the 320 literary works participating in the final review within ten days, and finally determine the winning works through number theory voting.

This is also a hard job.

Sure enough, the article "Sexy Times Restaurant" scored quite high and was recognized by most of the traditional writers and online writers attending the meeting.

It seems that the award is certain, but it's just because of the prize.

During the day, everyone reads and discusses in the conference room, and of course they rest and wander around at night.

Tonight, Fang Ning and Jia Pingwa are going to help Chen Ximi push Shi Tiesheng to Nanjing Road for a walk. Both are not far away, so everyone is going to walk there.

As soon as I got out of the hotel elevator, I saw Dai Jiali hurriedly approaching.

"Jiali, are you going back to rest tonight?" Fang Minghua greeted.

"You are so busy, how can you have time?" Dai Jiali complained, and said to Fang Minghua:

"Minghua teacher, I have something to ask you. The drama troupe of East China Normal University has arranged a drama, part of which is adapted from "First Intimate Contact" written by you. I heard that we are going to hold an award ceremony for the online literature competition, so I want to perform it at the ceremony, but the adaptation has not been authorized by you. Look at this"

This is it.

"It doesn't matter, just let them use it." Fang Minghua was very generous.

This novel is not the first time that it has been put on stage by a drama troupe, and they are all drama troupes run by college students.

"The pioneering work of online novels", the first best-selling novel in the history of China's Internet, is well-deserved.