Chapter 657: A Serious Novel Turned Into a Pornographic Book

Fang Minghua was just about to say a joke: "Ximi, you used to be a teacher, how could you recommend such a book?"

But he saw the author's name.

Wang Xiaobo!

Wang Xiaobo's book?

Fang Minghua opened the catalog and saw:

"The Golden Age", "Thirty Years Old", "Like Water Flowing Years"!

It was indeed written by Wang Xiaobo.

In the 1990s, there were two outliers in the domestic literary world, one was Wang Shuo and the other was Wang Xiaobo.

Wang Shuo laughed and scolded in the literary world, and everyone knew that he was angry.

Wang Xiaobo was his opposite, unknown, and never interacted with people in the literary circle. In his words, "He was a maverick pig."

Before his death, he was unknown, but after his death, he gradually became known to the world and was regarded as a great writer by countless literary youths. Some people even called themselves "Wang Xiaobo's lackeys," and even published a book called "Wang Xiaobo's lackeys"!

His "Times Trilogy": "The Golden Age", "The Silver Age", "The Bronze Age", and the most famous one is "The Golden Age".

Fang Minghua had read this book "Golden Age" before he came to the era. It is a novella with about 30,000 words. It is a novel conceived by Wang Xiaobo based on his experience of "sent-down production in the countryside" in Yunnan Province.

The novel tells the passionate "love story" between Wang Er, a sent-down youth in the countryside of Yunnan Province, and a female doctor named Chen Qingyang through the two lines of light and darkness of the male and female protagonists.

Later, it won the "United Daily News" Literature Award for Novella, "the most influential novel in the 40 years of reform and opening up."

Fang Minghua still remembers a passage in it.

"It was getting dark, and lazy clouds were floating in the sky. The lower half was sunken in the darkness, and the upper half was still floating in the sun.

That day I was 21 years old, in the golden age of my life, and I had many extravagant hopes. I wanted to love, to eat, and to turn into a half-bright and half-dark cloud in the sky in an instant.

Later I learned that life is a slow process of being hammered. As people get older, their extravagant hopes disappear day by day, and finally they become like a cow being hammered. But I didn't foresee this when I turned 21. I felt that I would always be strong and nothing could hammer me."

He quickly opened the book and found this passage.

It is still very touching to read it now.

Wang Xiaobo also wrote a preface in this book, which mainly describes the creation process of "The Golden Age".

After graduating from university at the age of 30 in 1982, Wang Xiaobo taught at the First Branch of Renmin University of China. His teaching life was the writing background of novels such as "Standing at 30". During this period, Wang Xiaobo began to write "The Golden Age".

In 1984, Wang Xiaobo followed his wife Li Yinhe to the University of Pittsburgh to study. A history professor named Xu Zhuoyun met him and read the first draft of "The Golden Age". He found it very interesting and decided to give careful guidance.

It was not until 1992 that this novella was completed.

And this Xu Zhuoyun, who made Wang Xiaobo always grateful, was a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Pittsburgh. He later had another identity: the great-uncle of the famous singer Wang Leehom.

But why did the publishing house in Hong Kong give it this name?

"Ximi, I just flipped through it. Although there are erotic descriptions in this book, it seems to have nothing to do with the romantic culture of Hong Kong. Why did it give it this name?" Fang Minghua felt strange.

"Isn't romantic culture popular in Hong Kong now? I guess the publishing house is making a gimmick to make the novel sell better." Chen Ximi explained.

This?

Fang Minghua was immediately at a loss for words.

A serious novel turned out to be a pornographic book.

Chen Ximi said that Wang Xiaobo was also very unhappy after hearing the news, but there was nothing he could do. If he wanted to publish in Hong Kong, he had to listen to others.

"Ximi, how about this, I will take it back first, then show it to the editor of Shengshi Books, and then give you a reply in the end?"

"Okay, take your time to read it, anyway, no one will publish it."

After leaving Shi Tiesheng's house, Fang Minghua took the book away.

At night, Fang Minghua returned to the General Political Department compound and read it again while lying on the bed.

After reading it, he fell into deep thought.

"The Golden Age" is undoubtedly a work of educated youth literature, but it is completely different from the previous educated youth literature. The author did not reflect a lot of pain and distortion in the work, nor did he reveal resistance to politics. Instead, he used pure and absurd descriptions and "sex" as the intervention point to complete the thinking about individual existence and the essence of life.

But the problem lies in this "sex". It makes sense that Hong Kong Publishing House can classify this book into the "Feng Yue Series".

However, Jia Pingwa's "Wasteland" has been successfully released before, so this book is probably not a problem.

I don't know what Su Bin thinks of this book?

Fang Minghua suddenly thought of going to Shanghai to meet Su Bin.

Besides, Shengshi Book Company moved to Shanghai and acquired land in Pudong to build a building. Zhao Hongjun had always asked him to come to Shanghai to take a look, but he was too lazy to go. This time he agreed to Zhao Hongjun's request to avoid him nagging on the phone.

Since the decision was made, the next morning, Fang Minghua first called Song Tangtang to say that he was going to Shanghai and would be back a few days later, and then called Zhao Hongjun's mobile phone to say that he was in Yanjing and was ready to come to Shanghai.

"Haha, you finally came to see our Shengshi Building!" Zhao Hongjun was very proud on the phone.

It turns out that after the Spring Festival last year, Zhao Hongjun bought a 20-acre piece of land near Lujiazui, Pudong, and built an 18-story high-rise building as the headquarters of Shengshi Group Building, which is expected to cost 110 million yuan.

In Zhao Hongjun's words, except for a small part of the entire building used by Shengshi Group, the rest is ready to be rented out as office buildings.

Fang Minghua agreed.

It's not a big deal to have hundreds of millions in cash in your account, and domestic inflation has been severe in recent years. In 1993, the inflation rate was as high as 13.4%!

Money has depreciated so much that spending it is the right thing to do.

From the land acquisition to the start of construction, Fang Minghua never came to see it, so he went to see it this time.

Saying goodbye to Song Tangtang's grandparents, Fang Minghua took the travel bag and boarded the train heading south.

Fang Minghua took the express train 13/14, which was rated as a "national red flag train". The service attitude was very good, no less than that of later high-speed trains.

What's more important is that he bought a soft sleeper, and a 14-inch Venus brand color TV was installed in the carriage, which is a great deal.

However, Fang Minghua felt that watching those boring programs on TV was not as good as watching the scenery outside the window.

Even though it was an express, it took sixteen hours to arrive in Shanghai, and it was already two o'clock in the middle of the night.

The current Shencheng Railway Station is no longer the old one, but was newly built in the late 1980s. Although it was midnight, the station was brightly lit and people were coming and going.

As soon as Fang Minghua left the station, he heard someone calling him: "Chairman Fang! Teacher Fang!"

Turning around, I saw it was Jin Bo.

Jin Bo is the son of Lao Jin, the original editor of Shengshi Books. After being recruited, he has been following Zhao Hongjun from Xijing to Hainan. After establishing a real estate company, he was transferred to serve as deputy general manager. Now after the real estate company has been cancelled, he has returned to the group headquarters and served as the group's deputy general manager. The office director still follows Zhao Hongjun all day long, but now his home is simply in Shanghai.

"Teacher Fang, Mr. Zhao asked me to pick him up at the station." Jin Bo enthusiastically took the travel bag from Fang Minghua's hand.

"The room has been booked, I will take you to the hotel now."

Fang Minghua took the Crown car driven by Jin Bo and went straight to the New Jinjiang Hotel.