1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 116 The Darkest Work

“【Writer】+【Love Letter】=Short Story “???””

Writer? Love letter?
The first thing that came to Jiang Xian's mind was Iwai Shunji's book "Love Letter", which was later adapted into a movie of the same name, but when he thought about it carefully, it didn't make sense.

There seemed to be no writer among the characters in "Love Letter". Jiang Xian's memory was rather vague. He couldn't remember the heroine's occupation, but he remembered several other characters, namely the librarian, the glass craft maker, and a deceased mountaineer.

After thinking about it for a while, I still had no clue, so I stopped struggling with it and turned my attention to the sequence itself.

The appearance of the fifth synthesis sequence made him miss the synthesis of "The Chess King".

The item "Writer" in the sequence has already been collected because his identity is satisfied.

Only the inspiration [Love Letter] still shows a progress bar of (0/10).

So it is the same as "The Chess King", where you only need to collect a sequence of individual inspirations.

Jiang Xian hardly thought about anything else, and immediately came up with a way to collect this inspiration in his mind, namely: write 10 love letters.

He couldn't think of any other way of collecting information that was related to love letters.

In short, no matter how you think about it, it is not a difficult sequence to synthesize.

"Teacher Wang Meng, I'll take my leave now."

"I'll give it to you."

Wang Meng stood up and insisted on seeing Jiang Xian off to the main door downstairs, said goodbye to him, and then hurried back to the office.

Colleagues who were more familiar with him were a little surprised.

Teacher Wang Meng, who is always calm and cautious, is so reckless today.

"Teacher Wang, this manuscript is not bad. Please review it." As soon as she entered the door, the editor-in-chief Chen Shichong handed a manuscript to Wang Meng.

Wang Meng took a sip of water and asked, "What length?"

Chen Shichong replied: "It's a short story about a rural family and the anecdotes that happened due to the changes of the times. The idea is very good and the content is very interesting. It's a very good subject. The shortcoming is that the first half is too slow."

"Put it here first."

"it is good."

Chen Shichong piled the manuscripts on the table, glanced over, and saw Wang Meng holding a manuscript in her hand.

Considering that Jiang Xian just appeared in the editorial department, it is not difficult to guess that the author of this article should be Jiang Xian.

After the handover was completed, Wang Meng sat quietly in front of the desk piled with books and manuscripts. She "dug" out a piece of table top from the manuscripts, holding "Fuxi Fuxi" and reading it line by line.

People were coming and going in the large office. Each editor was doing the work he was familiar with and trying to communicate in a low voice so as not to disturb the editorial board and leadership team who were reviewing the manuscripts.

Chen Shichong and several colleagues discussed in a low voice.

"Just now, I saw Jiang Xian handing Deputy Editor Wang a manuscript."

"How was the writing?"

"He hasn't finished reading it yet."

"Jiang Xian has written too much. He has published so many works this year. It's impossible for every one of them to be good, right?"

"I still hope it's a good article. After all, Jiang Xian is an old friend of our Beijing Literature and Art and has made contributions to it."

Everyone was silent and nodded. "That's right, don't make things like last time happen again. It's really embarrassing."

Some time ago, "Beijing Literature and Art" received a very ordinary manuscript, but the author was an old writer friend of the editorial department, and the editor was in a dilemma whether to publish the manuscript or not.

Finally, when asked about this, Li Qingquan made it clear: "Repaying the author can be done in other ways, but not in exchange for publishing the manuscript."

Wang Meng sat quietly in his seat for a long time. An editor came to find him and called him twice, but he didn't notice. The editor had no choice but to quietly put the manuscript in his hand on the pile of manuscripts on his desk and didn't disturb him anymore. He would naturally deal with it after seeing it.

After Chen Shichong finished his meal and took a short nap, he returned to his workstation and reviewed several manuscripts, all of which were of poor quality.

He found nothing. Recalling the manuscript he handed to Wang Meng in the morning, he stood up and planned to go and see Wang Meng's opinion.

Unexpectedly, Wang Meng was still maintaining the same posture as when he left, as if she was fixed there and had not moved at all.

"Teacher Wang, have you reviewed my manuscript?"

Wang Meng did not answer, but another editor nearby kindly told him.

"It hasn't been reviewed yet. Teacher Wang has been staring at his manuscript since this morning. He hasn't even finished reading it and hasn't even had time to eat."

"Really?" Chen Shichong was surprised.

The fact that he was reading it so intently shows that the article is well-written, otherwise he wouldn't have been attracted to read it for so long and so seriously.

As the two were talking, Wang Meng slowly put down the last page of the manuscript in his hand, savored it for a while, then looked up at Chen Shichong.

"Comrade Shi Chong, what's wrong?"

"I came to ask you about the result of the second review of the manuscript. It seems that you haven't had time to read it yet."

"Sorry, I just finished reading the last draft." Wang Meng looked apologetic, "I'll help you review it right away."

"Don't worry, don't worry, Mr. Wang, how is your manuscript? I see you are reading it very attentively."

Chen Shichong's words also aroused the curiosity of other editors. What is the quality of this manuscript that Wang Meng read so attentively?
Wang Meng said without hesitation, "It has a strong literary quality and a strong storytelling quality."

This immediately made many editors interested in this manuscript.

With Wang Meng's vision, he would probably be rather harsh and strict in judging any work. The fact that he could say that the work has excellent literary and narrative qualities shows that the manuscript must have been written at a very high level.

"However, there are certain risks if we want to publish it." Wang Meng immediately added, "Whether to publish it or not needs to be decided by Comrade Li Qingquan. Of course, I personally tend to publish it."

Is the tone of the manuscript rather dark?
The editors naturally understood what Wang Meng meant. This novel was a work that needed to be discussed by the leadership team.

The work of "Beijing Literature and Art" is very stable. Every risky work will be discussed in the editorial department first. Everyone will give their opinions, and finally the main person in charge, Li Qingquan, will make the final decision.

"Is this the manuscript written by Jiang Xian?" someone asked.

"It's him."

"Writer Jiang is so passionate about writing. Just this month, his work Lychee was published in Harvest, and he has already written another one."

"Comrade Wang Meng, how does the tone compare to his previous works?"

Wang Meng answered directly: "It is darker in tone than any of his previous works."

The other editors gasped and became even more curious about the manuscript.

What kind of story could make Wang Meng give such a comment?

(End of this chapter)