Chapter 35 Completed (Please read)

When Cheng Kaiyan wrote the word “finished”, she suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a bunch of ink-black hair hanging by her ear, with a faint fragrance lingering in her nose.

He subconsciously gathered up the manuscript and put it in his briefcase, then asked as if nothing had happened: “Aunt Jiang? What’s wrong?”

Jiang Ting pulled away and glanced at the manuscript that had been put into the briefcase. She frowned and said, “No, nothing. I just saw that you hadn’t made any movement for a while, so I was a little worried.”

“Is that so? Thank you very much, Aunt Jiang.”

Seeing that Cheng Kaiyan still had a gentle smile on her face, Jiang Ting was silent for a moment.

With her delicate mind, she could naturally see the expression on Cheng Kaiyan’s face when she put away the manuscript just now.

On the surface you can get along with everyone, but in reality it’s hard to get them to their hearts?
“Are you writing something?”

Jiang Ting was silent for a while and asked again.

“Just write something.”

“Do you want Aunt Jiang to help you? Or give you some advice?”

“Haha, no need, Aunt Jiang, I’m just writing casually. Oh~ It’s time to get off work, so I’ll leave first, Aunt Jiang.”

Watching Cheng Kaiyan’s figure slowly disappearing from her sight, Jiang Ting bit her lips lightly with her white teeth, feeling a little frustrated in her heart.

“You’re apparently very gentle, but if someone gets too close you’ll run away?”

After a while, there was a knock on the door.

Jiang Ting looked at him expectantly, “Please come in.”

What came into view was not Cheng Kaiyan who had returned, but Lin Xiaohong. A head poked in through the crack in the door and said, “Professor Jiang, I’m here to collect the manuscript. Cheng Kaiyan said it was on the table.”

‘He also wrote poetry? Oh, it was a poetry competition held by the school, and Director Fang said everyone had to write something.’

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ting turned around and saw that there was a yellow-brown envelope on Cheng Kaiyan’s desk.

She thought of the passage she had just seen and couldn’t help but become curious about the poems written by Cheng Kaiyan.

What kind of poetry would he write?

Jiang Ting had the urge to open the envelope and take a peek, but she straightened her chest and took a few deep breaths, suppressed the urge, and said, “It’s on the table, you can take it.”

Anyway, she is a judge and she will see it when the time comes.

“Oh oh… Hey, why are there oil stains on the envelope? What a fool this person is!”

Lin Xiaohong took the envelope and left, leaving only the sound echoing in the office.
–
“Dingling bell~”

Cheng Kaiyan rushed through the streets and alleys with a briefcase on his back. With a bicycle, traveling became much more convenient.

The reason why he ran so fast was because he was in a hurry to show Ye Shengtao the next content.

After a while, they arrived at the Ye family’s courtyard.

“Kaiyan, you’re here?”

Ye Shengtao sat in the yard admiring the flowers and taking a rest. As an old man at his age, he would easily get tired no matter what he did.

Is the manuscript finished?

Seeing Cheng Kaiyan pushing a bicycle in, Ye Shengtao had a guess in his mind.

“Mr. Ye, I have finished writing the manuscript. I will bring it to you for your review.”

Cheng Kaiyan knew that he was still just a newcomer in the literary world. Even though The Night Submarine had received good reviews in the industry, it was only children’s literature and could not be ranked in the current literary environment.

Serious literature, pure literature, and realistic literature are the orthodox ones…

This kind of subject matter can make a book become a masterpiece, just like Yu Hua’s “To Live”, Liu Xinwu’s “Class Teacher”, Lu Xinhua’s “Scars”, Lu Yao’s “Ordinary World”…

Not to mention anything else, when Cheng Kaiyan’s book “Fragrant Grass” was published, not to mention her status in the literary world, most people would not call her “Xiao Cheng Xiao Cheng” when they walked around, but at least they would call her “Teacher Xiao Cheng” or “Teacher Cheng”.

“Bring it to me and see!”

Ye Shengtao’s cloudy eyes lit up and he looked at him in surprise. He had only written a few hundred thousand words the last time he came, but now he had finished it? This was a huge work of nearly three hundred thousand words!

Young people still have faster hands!
Excitedly holding the manuscript in his hands, Ye Shengtao turned directly to the place where he had finished reading last time and continued reading.

These past few days, his mind was filled with images from this book, playing in his head like a movie.

Knowing the outline, Ye Shengtao translated very quickly.

More than an hour later, when I turned to the last page, tears couldn’t help but flow from the corners of my eyes.

The characters and plot were still reverberating in his mind. Ye Shengtao took a deep breath and said, “Huh… This is an epic work! Kaiyan, which literary magazine are you going to submit it to? People’s Literature or Contemporary Literature? I have acquaintances in both publishing houses. I can get your novel published in the next issue at the earliest!”

There is a sense of ambition in his words that this manuscript will definitely be passed.

“I’m not sure yet. I’ve been busy writing articles these days and don’t have time to think about these things.”

Cheng Kaiyan shook her head.

Pure literature journals such as “People’s Literature”, “Contemporary”, and “Harvest” are the leading reading materials of this era, with circulations reaching millions of copies.

The literary craze during this period swept across China, and literary journals became the spiritual carrier of a generation, attracting a large number of readers’ attention and subscriptions.

There are tens of millions of young literary people who have not read these journals!

Among them, “Harvest”, “Flower City”, “October” and “Contemporary” are known as the four famous actresses.

This title first appeared at a national literary journal discussion meeting in 1980, when an editor compared the four magazines to the “Laodan”, “Huadan”, “Daomadan” and “Qingyi” in Peking Opera respectively. The name came from this and has been passed down to this day.

The actress in “Harvest” is called “Laodan” because of her maturity and steadiness.

“Huacheng” calls the actress “Huadan” because of her gracefulness.

“Contemporary” called her “Zhengdan” because of her self-righteousness.

“October” is called “Qingyi” for its freshness and elegance.

These compliments are widely circulated and have a great publicity effect.

In addition, there are four famous young actresses.

There are quite a lot of these four little famous actresses. Ever since the four recognized famous actresses came out, each of them has claimed to be one of the four little famous actresses.

However, the four famous actresses recognized by everyone in the 1980s were: “Jiangcheng Literature and Art (Fragrant Grass)”, “Mountain Flowers”, “Mangzhong”, “Harbin Literature and Art (Novel Forest)” and so on.

“Yes, fragrant grass, fragrant grass…I seem to have heard it somewhere.”

Ye Shengtao frowned and fell into deep thought, unable to remember for a moment.

At this time, Ye Zhicheng walked in from outside the door with a man with white hair and beard, who looked to be in his sixties.

“Dad, I’m here with the editor-in-chief Zhang Guangnian from People’s Literature! Editor-in-chief Zhang likes Fangcao’s manuscript very much.”

Ye Zhicheng visited the People’s Literature Magazine today. During his conversation with the editor-in-chief Zhang Guangnian, he inadvertently revealed the news about Cheng Kaiyan’s “Fragrant Grass”.

After listening to the introduction, Zhang Guangnian was immediately excited, especially after learning that the author of “Fragrant Grass” was a young man in his early twenties. He wanted to follow Ye Zhicheng back to read the article together.

Zhang Guangnian greeted him warmly: “Mr. Ye, how are you?”

“Very good, Lightyear.”

Although Mr. Ye Shengtao is over 80 years old, he still has an extraordinary status in the literary world.

After 1949, he served successively as Vice Minister of Education, President and Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Education Press, Member of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Advisor to the Writers Association, Director of the Central Academy of Culture and History, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, and was re-elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for six consecutive terms.

If the old man stamps his feet, the literary world will tremble.

“This must be Comrade Cheng Kaiyan! I have been hearing your Fangcao mumbling in my ear these days during meetings. I want to see what kind of good work it is!”

Zhang Guangnian, editor-in-chief of People’s Literature, said loudly, looking intently at the thick stack of manuscripts in Cheng Kaiyan’s hand.

(End of this chapter)