Chapter 161 A Grand Death

Chapter 161 A Grand Death

Chapter 161 A Grand Death

The smoke of "Great Harvest" rose up, and the lampshade covered it, turning the light into a retro style. The drizzle outside the window was hazy and sad, and the sight was endless in the autumn. I thought it should be a pool of broken duckweed, and the window glass was crying along with it, crying tearfully.

It was a rainy day and also the weekend, so he locked himself in the room and did the final polishing on his work which had undergone 22 revisions.

There was a faint rumble of thunder. He stood up and closed the blinds, as if that helped. Then he rubbed his forehead and sat back in front of the computer, his fingers hovering over the keyboard, pondering.

——He traveled through mountains and rivers, not knowing that old age was approaching. Ten years later, his hair was frosted and he had gained weight. In short, his life was becoming more and more unrecognizable. In the past ten years, he wrote 3700 emails, all of which were left in his mailbox and not sent out. The letters were written with all his talent, filled with his passionate desire and sorrow. The recipient was the same girl who smiled at him with a red lotus in her hand ten years ago.

Grandma died in a rocking chair. According to the last person who saw her, she was enjoying the afternoon sun as usual, with a smile on her golden face. No one discovered she was dead until the evening. On the day of her burial, more than 5,000 people came to see her off, filling the small village to the brim.

The staff refused to believe that she was born in 1900. “Then she would be 125 years old this year!” He answered firmly, “Yes, she was born in 1900.”

At his insistence, the following words were engraved on her tombstone: "A vivid and real history is buried here."

Then, ten years later, he finally saw the girl again. She had changed, and he found it difficult to put her in the same place as the one he had seen ten years ago. But looking at her features, he was absolutely certain that it was her, because the sadness that had been dormant in his blood suddenly erupted, beating in all the chambers of his heart. He would always remember her, because he could see her as long as he closed his eyes, and he could hear her breathing on a cloudy day with thunder and clouds. He closed his eyes, and then opened them again. It was her. It was undoubtedly her.

Jiang Baishi said that if the world doesn't last long, it will become sad. The question is how long is long? 125 years must be a long time. The memories from 1900 have just been buried, and some stories are still not cold, just like the yellow flag of the Boxer Rebellion still under the urn of my grandmother. The 10 years of waiting did not turn the wine into water, but brewed more sadness. He just stood there, in the crowd, looking at her alone.

But she saw him at a glance, walked straight towards him and said, I have been thinking about you for the past ten years.

For the first time in his life, he experienced his wish come true. But he couldn't express his excitement, and could only say with trembling lips, "Me too."

"I think we should celebrate," she said. "How should we celebrate?"

He said, “Let’s make love then.”

So she stared at him and said, "Is that what you think? Today? Here? I don't think it's a good idea to discuss this in front of my grandmother's tombstone, right?"
Ten years of questioning has turned him into a philosopher, and no problem can stump him. He said, I have thought about why I lost you countless times, maybe it was because of the stock market crash in 07, maybe it was because of the housing prices in 15, or maybe it was the various opportunities and crises of this era. But that is not the real reason. I once wanted to be a person who could predict the future, and my plans were flawless, but I never considered the true voice in my heart. I never said I love you.

So in the past ten years I have been learning how to be a fool, saying whatever comes to my mind and living only for myself. I told myself that if I see you again, I will never lie to you again, and never deceive myself. When I was the most foolish, the most hopeless fool, I finally saw you again.

She looked at him blankly and said, "Okay then. I apologize. Actually, your idea coincides with mine."

The gentle night enveloped the earth. The history hovering over this land has not disappeared, nor will it ever disappear. Part of it is buried deep in the land, and the other part flies to the sky with the light waves. This light carries countless evidences of human existence, passing through the netherworld and reaching the end of the universe.

……

After reading this, Wang Zixu stopped and rubbed his eyes hard.

He was not good at endings. The only endings he could think of were always a grand death, like in Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, where death buried everything equally. He was more compassionate, and added a grand sex scene to the ending. That was all the endings he could think of.

After struggling for a long time, he finally slammed the keyboard and said, "Fuck it, no more changes! That's it! Whoever wants to change it can do it!"

Save, rename, package, send.

After doing all this, he slumped in his chair, as if his soul had been drained out.

In the end, he only revised it 22 times, and although it was perfect, it was still a little short of the "ultimate" novel in his mind.

It was this little thing that made him feel empty inside. The novel was like his child. His former children cried and shouted that they didn't want to go to school, and he was like a devil parent forcing his children to learn little by little. He racked his brains to revise it little by little, coaxing and deceiving them to make the story more complete.

But this novel is different. The foundation of this novel is a child prodigy. It wants to learn on its own without being urged. This time, he is not a demon parent who pushes his child hard, but is being dragged along by the child. When he started to revise this work, he could almost hear the work silently shouting to him: Keep revising, I can get even better!
"sorry."

He said to the file named "Final Draft (22)" on the computer.

"I didn't let you reach your limit. I'm sorry."

He felt very guilty.

The chat message informed Editor Yang that he had received the file. Wang Zixu considered the words and typed in the chat box:

"Editor Yang, take a look. This is the new work I told you about before."

Editor Yang replied with an OK expression.

Wang Zixu rubbed his hands and typed again: "The number of words is a little too much."

It took a long time for the other end to reply: "You're not saying 'a little bit'."

Wang Zixu said: "If you are not satisfied with anything, I will revise it. If there are too many words to publish, please tell me as soon as possible."

Editor Yang replied: "It's okay. I just took a quick look and was impressed. Word count does affect publication, but honestly, as long as the quality is up to par, everything is fine."

He added: "We will take your manuscript seriously. I will go through it myself first. If it is really good, I will apply to the editor-in-chief to publish it as a long series."

Wang Zixu raised his head and shouted silently. This is what a professional editor would say! What kind of monsters were those before? He experienced what it meant to communicate smoothly and to communicate honestly. They were all editors, so why was there such a big difference?

He shouted and typed: "Thank you for your hard work."

"It's okay. I'll take a look first. It's impossible for me to read it all, so I'll just read part of it first. I'll try to get back to you today."

Wang Zixu shouted silently again. He felt great again.

For the next four or five hours, he experienced what it was like to be restless and hesitant. He wanted to review for the postgraduate entrance examination, but he couldn't concentrate at all and couldn't study at all. He simply turned off his computer and left for Nanjing University.

……

Yang Yin stared at the computer screen with a smile on his face. He then sorted out the document contents, adjusted the format, and printed out the first few chapters.

After binding, he took the manuscript in his hand and couldn't help reading it again. Then he stood up and walked towards the editor-in-chief's office.

"Editor-in-Chief Shen, here is a manuscript I'd like you to take a look at."

Editor-in-Chief Shen looked at the manuscript and narrowed his eyes and asked, "Whose manuscript is it?"

"Wang Zixu."

Seeing the puzzled look on Editor-in-Chief Shen's face, Yang Yin added, "It's the newcomer who published the front page last time, 'Wild Creepers'."

"Oh."

Editor-in-Chief Shen's expression brightened. He was very impressed with this man. "That manuscript was 3 words long. It was published for the first time, but it was turned into a long short story. It was even on the front page. It was very impressive. I heard that he won some award later."

Yang Yin nodded: "Yes, he won the first place in the Xihe Literary Association, and Li Tingfang gave him the award. He can also be regarded as an author cultivated by our magazine."

Editor Shin asked, “How old is he?”

"I think I'm about 30."

"Post-90s." Editor-in-Chief Shen nodded, "It's a pity, it would be better if it was post-00s, but post-90s are also good. There is a gap in the new generation of writers in our literary world, and there are very few post-90s authors." Yang Yin agreed. Editor-in-Chief Shen's considerations are very high-level. He not only considers the development of this magazine, but also considers the issue of the replacement of the old with the new from the perspective of the entire literary world.

Editor-in-Chief Shen put on his glasses and said, "Please leave it here first. I'll take a look at it later."

Yang Yin said, "Why don't you take a look at it now? I have something else to say about this manuscript."

"What do you say."

"I can only tell you after you've read it."

Editor-in-Chief Shen looked at him and laughed: "What are you up to now, kid?"

Yang Yin kept silent, his eyes rolling. He certainly had his reasons.

Editor-in-Chief Shen lowered his head and read. He read quickly at the beginning, but became slower and slower as he read further. In the end, he even read word by word repeatedly.

A smile appeared on Yang Yin's lips. This was exactly the effect he wanted.

He did not type out all of Wang Zixu's manuscript, but only the first 20,000 words. Therefore, Editor-in-Chief Shen finished reading it quickly. After reading it, he looked up and asked:

"Is that all? You haven't finished writing the rest yet?"

Yang Yin said, "I've finished writing it. It's a bit long, so I only typed out a small part for you to see first."

"I've finished reading it. It's very good." Editor-in-Chief Shen took off his glasses. "This author is really good!"

When he said the second half of the sentence, he couldn't help but raise his voice. He rarely praised people so directly.

He looked at Yang Yin with an unsatisfied look in his eyes: "Don't put this manuscript in other magazines, just keep it in our house. This time, we want to shock the literary world."

Yang Yin said: "I had the same thought after reading it. Such works should be kept in our family, not to mention that they are our own authors, so we should not let them go."

Editor-in-Chief Shen looked up at him and said angrily: "If you think so, you should submit it directly to the review committee. Why are you looking for me?"

Yang Yin said with a smile: "It's mainly because of this manuscript. It has a lot of words."

Editor-in-Chief Shen asked, “Have you finished writing the whole article?”

"It's finished."

"Isn't that better?" Editor-in-Chief Shen said, "3 words can be published, 5 words can also be published. If it's too much, then divide it into upper and lower. If that's not enough, then divide it into upper, middle and lower. What's the big deal? How many words are in this manuscript?"

Yang Yin said: "60 words."

"60 words?!" Editor-in-Chief Shen was furious. "Did you bring back a copy of Don Quixote?"

"Don Quixote" also has 60 words.

Yang Yin forced out a wry smile. He had spent so much time preparing for this because he had expected such an explosion.

"Editor-in-Chief Shen, I just received the manuscript today and haven't read it all yet. I took a quick look at the back and the quality of the text is good. Because the author is a newcomer, it is very likely to be rejected at the review meeting, so I wanted to discuss it with you in advance."

Editor-in-Chief Shen was silent. He thought about it carefully and said, "Write a few more chapters."

"it is good."

"I'll show it to the editor-in-chief."

"what?"

Yang Yin became nervous. This was going to be a big deal.

The editor-in-chief is the boss of the editorial department and is generally not responsible for participating in the specific decision of whether to publish a manuscript, unless the manuscript is very important and can affect the overall situation. Editor-in-chief Shen went directly to the editor-in-chief, which shows that he values ​​this manuscript more than Yang Yin.

The editorial department has five editors-in-chief: Shen, Wu, Luo, Wang, and Xu. Editor-in-chief Shen does not have the final say. He obviously feels that he is not cautious enough to make a decision alone, and he may not be able to save the manuscript at the review meeting, so he went directly to the editor-in-chief.

Yang Yin knew the importance of the matter, so he quickly started printing it. After sorting it out, he handed it to Editor-in-Chief Shen, and then watched Editor-in-Chief Shen enter the editor-in-chief's office.

About 20 minutes later, Editor-in-Chief Shen poked his head out of the editor-in-chief's office and called Editor-in-Chief Wu in.

When he saw Editor-in-Chief Wu, Yang Yin suddenly had a bad feeling.

This guy is notoriously harsh and is ruthless when it comes to rejecting manuscripts. How come this manuscript just happened to fall into Editor-in-Chief Wu's crosshairs?
About 20 minutes later, when Yang Yin began to feel the agony, Chief Editor Wu poked his head out:

"Yang Yin! Come in!"

Yang Yin quickly stood up and walked towards the editor-in-chief's office.

As soon as he entered the editor-in-chief's office, Yang Yin felt a sense of oppression coming towards him.

The editor-in-chief sat in his seat with the manuscript he had just typed spread out on the table. The papers were scattered, and it seemed that he had read it carefully.

Yang Yin nodded and stood aside timidly. The editor-in-chief spoke:

"Yang Yin, this author Wang Zixu submitted his work directly to you, right?"

Yang Yin nodded quickly: "Yes. His last work "Wild Creepers" was the manuscript that passed through my hands."

“Tell me what you think.” The editor-in-chief leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands together.

Yang Yin's brain froze for a while, then he said, "I immediately thought this manuscript was very good and should be kept in our magazine, so I told Editor-in-Chief Shen about it. After reading it, he also thought it was good..."

"I didn't ask you that," the editor-in-chief said. "I was asking you what kind of person Wang Zixu is as a writer."

"Uh……"

Yang Yin was speechless for a moment and felt sweat on his back.

“He is a very down-to-earth author… and very serious.”

He thought to himself: What kind of question is this? He is not familiar with the author, how can he know what kind of person the author is?
The editor-in-chief seemed satisfied with his answer: "Being down-to-earth is good, but I'm afraid of not being down-to-earth."

Editor-in-Chief Wu said, "Editor-in-Chief, you asked me this question because it comes down to the word count. Yang Yin, you came to me with a 60-word novel. You're quite brave. Let me ask you, where did you get the courage?"

(End of this chapter)