1978: A Literary Giant Who Began His Military Service

Chapter 141 Ha! Fame should be gained early (Seeking monthly votes)
May 25th.

Zhou Xu straightened his clothes; he was now dressed in a military uniform!

Other writers wear Zhongshan suits or Western suits to award ceremonies, so it's not unreasonable for me, a soldier, to wear my military uniform!

The key point is that military dress uniforms are not for training and combat. The design of military dress uniforms has always placed great emphasis on decoration and aesthetics, reflecting the soldier's temperament, status, the military's image, and cultural traditions.

Zhou Xu is 1.8 meters tall! Wearing a military uniform, he looks even more handsome with his major rank insignia now, since there's no military rank system anymore!
Pity!
Zhou Xu looked in the mirror, touched his chin, and indulged in a little self-admiration for a while.

Liu Jiaju knocked on the door and saw Zhou Xu inside. He immediately smiled and said, "You look really good! You're quite handsome!"

The word "handsome" has become popular in the capital and Shanghai, and it is said that it originated from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

"Here's your letter of introduction and work permit! These will be checked when you enter the Great Hall of the People!" Liu Jiaju led him out.

Zhou Xu accepted it.

The awards ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People! This shows the importance attached to outstanding short and medium-length novels nationwide.

Arrived at the venue.

Zhou Xu noticed that quite a few people had already arrived at the scene.

There were three types of people at the venue: newspaper reporters who wrote reports, award-winning writers like Zhou Xu and their editors, and members of the judging panel, as well as some invited artists and cultural officials.

Half an hour before the award ceremony, the atmosphere was already lively with conversation.

A slightly overweight man wearing black-rimmed glasses walked up to Zhou Xu and extended his hand: "Hello, are you Comrade Zhou Xu?"

Zhou Xu glanced at him, deep in thought: "Oh!? You're Comrade Lu Yao?"

Lu Yao looked delighted!

He was also a winner of the National Excellent Novella Award this year, but compared to a hot favorite like Zhou Xu, he was at the bottom.

The prestige of any award is vastly different between first place and last place.

"you know me?"

Zhou Xu smiled and said, "I'm very interested in your short stories. Perhaps we're destined to meet!"

Lu Yao was slightly moved!

Zhou Xu felt that Lu Yao was a person worth getting to know well, and that he was a person who valued loyalty and righteousness, but he was just too loyal and righteous.

Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" sold for a total of 20,000 yuan, but he was indeed living in poverty at the time! He had to support his adoptive parents and biological parents, and he also had to borrow money from various relatives, which could amount to several hundred yuan at a time!

In other words, his excessive generosity led to his poverty!
Lu Yao, with tears streaming down his face, said, "Thank you, Comrade Zhou Xu!"

Zhou Xu smiled and said, "There's no need to thank me. I'm also very happy to have met you!"

"Hey!? Lu Yao!" Wang Weiling from Youth Publishing House exclaimed.

Lu Yao turned around: "Editor Wang?"

Wang Weiling smiled and said, "Where were we?"

"About the novel!"

In May 1981, Lu Yao attended the first National Excellent Novella Award Ceremony in Beijing, where he met Wang Weiling, who was serving as a judge. Lu Yao expressed his intention to dedicate significant effort to writing a novella about life in the "intersection" of rural and urban areas. Wang Weiling was very interested in his concept and, on behalf of the China Youth Publishing House, commissioned Lu Yao to write the novella. Deeply moved, Lu Yao readily agreed. This was the initial commission for *Life*.

Zhou Xu decided not to disturb the two of them catching up, otherwise, this imperfect timeline might not have produced such an excellent work as "Life".

Lu Yao was truly a remarkable writer. Even though many people criticize him, Zhou Xu believes that if his works can inspire an era, then they have a reason to exist!
Zhou Xu met some more people.

Looking at him, Chen Rong couldn't help but sigh, "I wish my son could be as outstanding as you."

Zhou Xu said, "Your sons are all outstanding!"

Besides their daughter, both sons are outstanding. Liang Tian is an excellent person, while Liang Zuo is a comedic prodigy.

"I would be at ease if I were half as good as you."

"Senior Chen Rong is really making me feel ashamed!"

"..."

Wang Meng walked over and said, "If your two rascals are as capable as Comrade Xiao Zhou, then you're really lucky!"

Hey! Minister Wang! What about my becoming the department head?
Zhou Xu immediately shook hands with Wang Meng, thinking that maybe Wang Meng could give him a promotion in the future!

There were no young people among the award winners present, because the youngest was Lu Yao, who was already thirty-one years old. The rest were mostly middle-aged and elderly writers in their thirties, thirties, forties, and fifties.

Compared to the National Excellent Short Story Award winners, who are still in their late twenties, the National Excellent Novella Award winners are indeed relatively older!
After all, the National Excellent Novella Award selects novellas. The longer the novel, the more difficult it is for writers to write, so writers of longer novels are generally older... Young people are not as experienced in writing novellas and novels.

From this perspective, how strange is Zhou Xu's appearance?
And he's a twenty-year-old young man, and he's the top student!!
The group of elderly people were quite modest and had no objection to him winning the top prize!
Time passed quickly.

The award ceremony is about to begin, and the chairman and vice-chairmen of the judging panel are taking the stage one after another! The chairman is Ba Jin, and there are two vice-chairmen, Zhou Yang and Liu Baiyu. There are also Zhang Guangnian and others from the Writers Association.

Ba Jin began his speech: "The selection of this novella prize was delayed for more than a month due to the passing of Mr. Mao Dun. In fact, I also regret his passing, which is why I took over as the chairman of the judging committee."

Mao Dun did not attend this year's National Excellent Novella Award ceremony because he had already passed away. Mao Dun died in Beijing at 5:55 AM on March 27, 1981. He was originally the chairman of the judging committee, and Ba Jin took over later.

Of course, the current chairman of the Writers' Association is still Mr. Mao Dun, and Ba Jin is the chairman on temporary standby.

In March, Zhou Xu was not in the capital, so it really had nothing to do with him. Otherwise, he would have liked to come and meet the legendary Mr. Mao Dun from Lu Mao Ba.

Ba Jin continued, "Of course, many things on the judging panel were done by Guangnian and Chairman Zhou Yang, and I would like to thank them for their efforts, and even more so for the eight publishing houses that helped with the data collection! Finally, let me share my thoughts."

This year's National Outstanding Novella Award winners included many familiar faces, but also some young people, such as Comrade Zhou Xu, who, at the age of twenty, was standing in the Great Hall of the People for the first time—a unique presence among the award recipients!

"..."

The audience was in an uproar; no one expected that Professor Ba Jin would nominate one of them on the spot.

Ba Jin continued, "Mr. Mao Dun dedicated his life to finding successors for the literary cause. He must have been very pleased to see this. At least our Writers' Association has gained new blood, and it is a very powerful force!"

After Ba Jin finished speaking, Zhang Guangnian continued: "Mr. Ba Jin was a bit biased, caring more about young people and not about these older comrades! Of course, I would also like to encourage everyone to actively create!"

"..."

Lu Yao looked at Zhou Xu and exclaimed, "Comrade Zhou Xu, even Mr. Ba Jin said you are the hope of the future!"

Zhou Xu was taken aback, then smiled and said to the older comrades, "I'm just taking myself as an example. Actually, you are also a hope for the future. There are still many promising young talents in our literary world, such as Chen Jiangong and Wang Anyi, aren't there?"

"Alright, alright, the child is modest, don't keep flattering him." Chen Rong glanced at the group and said with a smile.

The speech is finished.

The awards ceremony began soon, and the writers took turns going up on stage.

Many literary awards in later generations did not have first and second prizes, but they do now!
There were only six first-prize winners: Zhan Rong in "Middle Age", Ye Weilin in "On a River Without Navigation Marks", Lu Yanzhou in "Hibiscus", Zhang Yigong in "Qingming", Wang Meng in "Butterfly", and finally, Zhou Xu in "Garland Under the High Mountain".

There are more than ten second-prize winners, but I won't list them all, otherwise you'll say I'm just writing filler.

Zhou Xu followed a group of writers onto the stage.

Standing right in the very center!
Whether it's based on the rules of promoting young people or ranking them by their works, he's number one!

Ba Jin came over and first presented the award to Zhou Xu: "Congratulations, Comrade Zhou Xu!"

Zhou Xu had only communicated with Ba Jin on paper before and had never met the old man in person, so he was slightly surprised to see Ba ​​Jin now.

He had a full head of silver hair, wore black-rimmed glasses, and had a gentle smile.

Hmm! Li Xiaolin and he really look alike. It's true what they say, women resemble their fathers and men resemble their mothers, right?

Zhou Xu accepted his award certificate, the award certificate, and finally the prize money of one hundred yuan, no more and no less.

Other authors also received their awards one after another.

So a group of people stood in line, and the camera started taking pictures of them.

"Next, please welcome Comrade Zhou Xu to give his acceptance speech!" Zhang Guangnian smiled and handed him the microphone.

Generally, the acceptance speech for these literary awards is given to two types of people.

Of course, the first place is for newcomers, and the second place is for the winner to give a speech. Zhou Xu fits both categories perfectly.

Liu Xinwu, whose work "Class Teacher" won first place that year, also gave an acceptance speech.

Zhou Xu took the microphone and walked towards the podium. He was aiming to become a military officer, and as a leader, he would inevitably have to give speeches!
"Thank you to all the judges and readers for recognizing and liking my work."

Of course, I am also very grateful to the military for giving me this opportunity to create works. Many of my works were written after consulting materials from the military region!

Zhou Xu once again expressed his gratitude to his old organization!
loyalty!!
“Looking back…” Zhou Xu coughed, as if he was only twenty years old and didn’t need to look back on his entire life? “I should say I’m looking back on my creative career—among which, my combat experience in the front-line hospital in Vietnam was what truly transformed me.”

"On the one hand, the sincerity and resilience of the soldiers on the front lines deeply moved me, giving me a continuous urge to create works on military themes; on the other hand, having personally experienced the smoke of war, I truly understand how precious peace is, and this realization has become the most solid foundation of my creations."

Zhou Xu's First-Class Merit badge shone brightly on his chest at that moment!

(End of this chapter)