Chapter 131 A frightening article

Chapter 131 A frightening article

Chapter 131 A frightening article

"Delivered successfully!" Zhu Twelve stretched lazily.

Zhu Twelve is 12twelve12 in the group, and Zhu Twelve is his pen name.

From the chat records in the previous group, it can be seen that he is not good at math, but he is really good at writing, especially "Exploration of Thirty-Six Kingdoms in the Western Regions", which has an excellent reputation.

"The Curse of Fox Country" was ranked 2010rd in the annual bestseller!

"Tsk tsk, what a waste to submit this manuscript to New Reading." Zhu Twelve submitted it to the "Misty" section. It's not that he wanted to compete with the double champion Gu Lu, but mainly because the genre he is good at is suspense.

His current expression is, can this "Yanqi: Wrath of the Dragon (Part 1)" defeat the champion Wen?

So can "Yanqi: Wrath of the Dragon (Part 1)" be defeated by adding "this"?

Yanqi was also one of the 36 kingdoms in the Western Regions, and annexed other kingdoms in the Western Regions. The king of Yanqi was named "Long", and the wrath of the dragon can be directly understood as the wrath of the king. In Zhu Twelve's opinion, with the brilliance of his own articles and the fame of the 36 kingdoms adventure series in the Western Regions, how can he lose with a flying dragon on his face?
When Zhu Shier went out for lunch, he bought a pack of cigarettes and two magazines at a newsstand near his home. He saw the horror book at first sight. [The first issue of the revised version of Xinrui Reading! ]

The cover is very different from the previous one, from a deliberately scary picture to a more youthful picture. The biggest difference is the price "will be reduced from 6 yuan to 4 yuan".

A drop in price but a rise in price! Zhu Shier once again complained about the insidiousness of the editorial department of Horror. Although the previous version was six dollars a copy, it was buy one get one free!
After buying it home, Zhu Twelve also saw the magazine’s promotion of the four champion articles on the cover—

[Tiezhu: Misfortune can kill people, but happiness can also kill people.

Detective Pu Songling: Pu Songling is actually a ghost official, and his master is Zhong Kui.

Ghost Girl: It opened its bloody mouth and roared angrily...

Listening to Moon Song in the White Room: I have a magical special ability. The souls of those who died with resentment or resentment can be purified through my body. 】

"Why does the introduction of "Iron Pillar" not fit in with the other three articles?" Zhu Twelve must have paid attention to the champion article in his own submission section first.

"There are no advertisements?" Zhu Twelve was particularly surprised after opening the magazine.

Why did Xiao Xue, the editor-in-chief, say that his magazine and Story Club are 50-50? Because they are similar in tone and appearance.

Various advertisements are printed on the back of the cover, such as weight-loss pills, knockout drugs, electric batons, height-increasing drugs, etc.

The champion article has more than 20,000 words, which is more than ordinary short stories. However, as a writer, Zhu Twelve can feel the author's writing skills. It is not lengthy and the plot "hook" is buried very deeply.

From "the most beautiful small mountain village" to "the happy and dead small mountain village", the mystery is revealed step by step, neither too fast nor too slow.

The grandmother died happily with the help of her eldest daughter. The wife also committed suicide happily, leaving a simple suicide note: Xiaoyan, thank you for this life. I am very happy.

As the protagonist, "I" has collapsed several times, so I want to destroy the iron pillar.

I didn’t think this story was that scary when I read it, but after finishing it, Zhu Twelve shuddered.

[But this iron pillar has no concrete foundation, but is inserted directly into the ground, as if it grew out of the earth. …] This sentence in particular made Zhu Twelve shudder.

The protagonist dug down for a whole day but still couldn't find the end.

"This sense of horror is very advanced. Wait, sense of horror? Why do I find this article scary? There is obviously no iron pillar in reality that can make people commit suicide." Zhu Twelve pondered the source of the fear.

He took out his phone and opened the group chat, and found that the discussion in the group was already boiling, because many group members went out early in the morning to buy "New Reading", and now a large number of people have finished reading it.

"Fuck, who the hell is Gu Lu? 'Moon Song' and 'Iron Pillar' are too good to be true. Are you going to get beaten for writing such a piece?"

"The iron pillar scared me. Why would he commit suicide? At first he said that his life was perfect, so he died happily. But later on, the village chief's wife felt that her husband would cheat on her, so she chose to commit suicide after getting married. At that time, the village chief was digging down like crazy like the protagonist, but this iron pillar seemed to extend from the center of the planet."

"The protagonist's wife probably committed suicide for this reason. After all, the protagonist did have an affair once, and his wife couldn't have children. Her future life must be miserable. It's okay for her to die at the happiest moment..."

Zhu Twelve saw the discussion in the group and he finally understood why he felt a chill on his back after reading it. This kind of thinking is not good. One should not commit suicide just because of the bad days he imagined in the future!
He objected in the group.

The group member immediately said, "Fantasy? Then how can you guarantee that it will not happen? Isn't it good to avoid harm and die at the best time? If only life could be like the first time we met!"

The iron pillar in the story seems to grow from the center of the planet, but in fact it is the "negative emotions" that grow from the human heart.

"There will definitely be bad things in the future, but there will also definitely be good things worth living for. If the Iron Pillar that everyone is accustomed to really appears, I might not be able to help myself..." Zhu Twelve sighed again, "What's the mind of this bastard author Gu Lu? He wants a good story, good connotation, and it makes people's backs cold."

"But - my collection of thirty-six detective stories in the Western Regions is not without its own strength." Zhu Twelve said, and then opened his email to send a message, "Editor, I've thought about it and the tone of my article is more suitable for the "Three Terrors in the Midnight" section, because I am quite good at creating a horror atmosphere. 】
It’s not that I’m afraid of Gu Lu, the main thing is that the article should be published in the appropriate section.

Since ancient times, scholars have looked down on each other. Even among the authors themselves, there is unanimous applause. One can imagine what the response is in other places.

"New Reading" was a success!

The quality of the stories in the publication is much higher than that of the horror period, especially the four champion articles, which have been widely praised.

Many literary bounty hunters (those who participate in various essay competitions to make money) are well aware that there are no easy targets among the four essays.

Sales volume is the feedback from readers. In the next two days, the sales volume of New Reading reached the upper-middle level before the revision.

Pretty good, after all, revisions are risky.

The proportion of mailed evaluation forms is much higher than before the revision. The main reason is that the audience has the right to vote on the articles for attacking and defending the challenge, and the sense of participation is very high.

“Why do so many readers leave messages saying that they can’t understand ‘Listening to the Moon Song in the White Room’?” Chief Editor Dong couldn’t understand.

From his personal point of view, Yuege is better than Tiezhu, but looking at the feedback from the first batch of readers, Tiezhu rated it as the best of the four champion articles.

107 evaluation forms, read them slowly...

"Xiao Xue is right. Gu Lu is the author who can change the fate of the magazine." Editor-in-Chief Heipi Dong said.

"There are many people who can write good novels, but there are only a handful of writers who can write good short stories." Editor-in-Chief Dong said, "Let's work together. If a famous short story writer emerges, we will all benefit."

Although the Lu Xun Literature Award has a best short story every year, how many years has it been since a memorable collection of short stories was published? "It's almost time to move on to the second step." Editor-in-Chief Dong glanced at the time and felt that if he didn't start, someone under his command would call and urge him.

The second step is to expand the publicity of the champion article a little wider, or to put it more bluntly, to find some people in the industry to praise it. Editor-in-Chief Dong has been in the newspaper circle for seven or eight years, so he must have connections, and he would usually praise people out of friendship.

Therefore, when it comes to whether the editor-in-chief or the president recommends a work, it is basically all about personal relationships and is no different from the recommendation of a chapter by an online writer.

Soon, the other party replied, "Iron Pillar and Moon Song? It's very simple. You can tell which aspect you want to be praised for. I need to find the angle for the other two articles."

"No problem. Remember to include the author's Weibo account when you recommend him, such as Guru Dawang, No Overtime Pay for Favorable Work, and the author Coffee himself."

Editor-in-Chief Dong nodded inwardly. Although Gu Lu received the highest royalty in the magazine, the money was well-earned. His work was really impressive!

Looking back at school, Thursday and Friday passed by in a flash, and the students were all working hard for the midterm exams.

However, this week, Gu Lu was left with a sigh, "Today's high school students are so reliable!"

First of all, there is Lu Ping. Since the last loss, he has been training hard and also urging his teammates.

Another reliable person is Li Guyuan. He was the boss of Gu Lu and had proposed the idea of ​​publishing a monthly magazine, but because there were too many difficulties and no solution was found for a while, no action was taken.

But Li Guyuan has already applied for a place in the school magazine from the school, even though the current members are only Li and Gu.

"I always think and find solutions while doing it. Otherwise, I would think for a long time but not make any progress, and my efficiency would be too low," said Li Guyuan.

Li Guyuan said, "My idea is that we should prepare hard first and see how far we can go in a year. After all, there are only two of us."

"Aren't we hiring new people? Proofreaders, editors, typesetters, etc." Gu Lu asked.

"According to the rules of No. 8 Middle School, clubs can only recruit members at the annual recruitment meeting - not at other times." Li Guyuan explained.

So there is such a rule? Gu Lu found that his ideas were very motivated, but he did not put them into practice at all. Almost all his time was spent on serializing magazines outside the school and publishing books.

"Why don't you be the editor-in-chief?" Gu Lu said. "I feel like you're the one who's busy all the time."

“No, no, no, although we are twin stars, which one is more attractive, the school magazine led by Gu Lu as the editor-in-chief, or the club led by Li Guyuan as the editor-in-chief?” Li Guyuan said, “They are not even on the same level.”

Gu Lu remembered that he seemed to be listed in the Model United Nations... He didn't know if there would be successors, but they would definitely not be as good as their predecessors.

It seems that the current situation is that some clubs in No. 8 Middle School, under the influence of Gu Lu, have developed to a level that exceeds their own.

That's not bad. Gu Lu quickly accepted his role. If he really had to spend all his time on club activities, it would conflict with his ambition to plagiarize. It would be good for him to be a spiritual leader and deputy like now.

"How's your idea of ​​a name? I really think 'Ancient Continent' is a good one, would you like to consider it again?"

Li Guyuan is reliable, except when it comes to naming!
I won’t go to the Paramount Grocery Store for a meal during the holiday this week, because the tutoring for geography, politics, and history is almost done. Gu Lu now feels that he is incredibly strong and even wants to find two papers to do right away.

"Why is there more than 10,000 yuan in the account?"

Gu Lu went to buy snacks and stopped by the bank to withdraw some money. When he checked his balance, he found that his assets had "exploded."

I retrieved the payment record at the counter and found that the payee was "Xinrui Reading".

But the price is wrong! Gu Lu's two articles are nearly 220 words, and the price is yuan per thousand words. The after-tax fee should be more than yuan, not yuan.

When a pie falls from the sky, you have to first consider whether it can kill someone.

He called the editor-in-charge Xiao Xue. Actually, he knew everyone in Xinrui Reading from top to bottom, such as Editor-in-Chief Dong, who was as dark-skinned as the dark-skinned gym student, and President Wang of the New Youth Publishing House. However, there was no need to mobilize so many people for such a small matter.

"Editor Xue, has our editorial department paid me my royalties?" Gu Lu started the conversation.

"My colleagues in the editorial department sent it out the day before yesterday. It should have all arrived yesterday and today." Xiao Xue replied.

"Isn't that the amount wrong? I received 13,000 yuan." Gu Lu said.

"Let me ask, Teacher Gu, please wait a moment—" Xiao Xue said on the other end of the phone. After two or three minutes of silence, a response came, "The amount is correct, there is a 5,000 yuan reward for the champion article."

Open and bright! That was all Gu Lu could say. According to the revised rules of New Reading, there was a 5000 yuan reward for a successful challenge, but as the first batch of champion articles, it didn't matter whether the yuan was given or not.

"Teacher Gu, have you selected the first draft of your short story collection?" Xiao Xue suddenly asked.

"Uh..." Gu Lu responded that he was still choosing.

Xiao Xue's tone on the other end of the phone became serious, "Hurry up, it's been more than half a month. Short story collections are not easy to sell in the domestic publishing market. If there is no good gimmick, it will be difficult to stand out even if the writing is good."

"With the support of New Youth Publishing, we revamped our magazine 'New Reading' and invested a huge amount of publicity resources. The publication of Teacher Xiao Gu's short stories had nothing to do with me. I just feel sorry that Teacher Xiao Gu missed such a good opportunity." Xiao Xue said.

Xiao Xue is the editor-in-charge of the editorial department of "New Reading", and the publication that he and Gu Lu talked about was the editorial department's parent company, New Youth Publishing House, which really has nothing to do with him.

"Thank you, Editor Xue. I will make sure to hurry up." said Gu Lu.

"It's no use just rushing. We are just friends, but we have to set a target time for everything," said Xiao Xue, "otherwise it's hard to beat procrastination."

After receiving a few minutes of positive energy from editor-in-chief Xiao Xue, Gu Lu hung up the phone.

It’s too dazzling. I didn’t notice it before. The light of struggle shining on Xiao Xue is a bit dazzling.

But from the facts, what Xue Bian said was not wrong. Gu Lu decided to figure it out today. It was finally Saturday again, and he originally wanted to go back to the rehabilitation training center in Dukou Park to have a look.

After all, he had eaten so many meals, even though each one was earned by the original body's labor, but Gu Lu still wanted to go and take another look.

(End of this chapter)