1978: A Literary Giant Who Began His Military Service

Chapter 95 Regret (Please continue reading)
Set against the backdrop of the period from the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan to the eve of the Liberation War, "Lurking" tells the story of Yu Zecheng, a Kuomintang military intelligence agent, who becomes an underground member of the Communist Party of China after his faith awakens and infiltrates the Tianjin station of the military intelligence agency.

The story begins with Yu Zecheng being assigned to work at Tianjin Railway Station. Although he is dissatisfied with the corruption within the Kuomintang, he still adheres to his duties as a member of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

The turning point came with his fiancée, Zuo Lan—who was actually an underground member of the Communist Party of China. It was she who made Yu Zecheng see the corruption and reactionary nature of the Kuomintang and strengthened his belief in dedicating himself to the revolution.

After that, under the guidance of the underground Communist Party organization, Yu Zecheng officially became an undercover agent, codenamed "Emei Peak," and began to carry out secret work at Tianjin Station.

To better conceal his identity, the organization arranged a "fake wife" for Yu Zecheng—Cuiping. However, Cuiping's arrival was quite unexpected; the original fake wife had passed away, and she temporarily took her place.

Cui Pingyuan is a guerrilla leader in the Taihang Mountains. She is straightforward and outspoken. When she first met Yu Zecheng, who is calm and reserved, they had constant conflicts: she was not familiar with the rules of city life and almost exposed her identity several times due to her reckless words and actions. Yu Zecheng had to clean up her messes at all times. The two gradually got along through their ups and downs.

As they went through one crisis after another together, such as joining forces to obtain intelligence on the Kuomintang's "Operation Yellow Bird" and thwarting the conspiracies of their rivals within the party, they gradually developed a deep affection for each other, eventually transforming from "fake couple" into true revolutionary partners.

The power struggle within Tianjin Railway Station is a key conflict in the story.

Station Chief Wu Jingzhong is cunning and calculating, with "making money" as his primary goal, yet he is always vigilant about the movements of his subordinates; the clumsy Ma Kui; Deputy Station Chief Lu Qiaoshan is ambitious and eager to climb the ranks, repeatedly plotting to frame his colleagues; Action Team Captain Li Ya is Yu Zecheng's most dangerous opponent—he is loyal to the Kuomintang, has a keen sense of smell, always suspects Yu Zecheng's identity, launches multiple investigations, and even sets traps to try to expose Yu Zecheng.

Amidst such complex interpersonal relationships, Yu Zecheng, with his wisdom and composure, repeatedly escaped danger: he exploited the conflict between Lu Qiaoshan and Li Ya to reap the benefits, deceived Wu Jingzhong by feigning ignorance and giving gifts, and passed on a large amount of crucial intelligence to the organization on the edge of a knife, including the Kuomintang's troop deployment and a list of spies.

With the Liberation War achieving successive victories, Tianjin Station was about to be evacuated. Yu Zecheng received a mission to continue his undercover work in Taiwan and cooperate with subsequent operations.

At this time, he and Cuiping were inseparable, but for the sake of the revolutionary cause, they had to separate. Cuiping was forced to leave early because her identity was exposed, and Yu Zecheng watched her car drive away from the station, unable to see her one last time.

What's even more heartbreaking is that Cuiping was already pregnant at the time, but she was unable to inform Yu Zecheng. After arriving in Taiwan, Yu Zecheng accepted a new mission: to form a new "family" with another underground party member and continue to conceal his identity.

At the end of the novel, he looks at his new "wife's" face, his eyes filled with both determination for his future mission and endless longing for Cuiping. The story ends in a slightly sad yet hopeful atmosphere, highlighting the underground workers' noble belief of "sacrificing their small families for the greater good."

……

"Lurking" is probably the highest-rated spy drama among the countless series that followed.

This TV series was a hit on television for several rounds, and later, in the era of short videos, many people edited related videos.

Like "Garland Under the Mountain," the popularity of "Lurking" is inseparable from its classic characters, whether it is the male protagonist Yu Zecheng's image of risking his life to protect his country, or the female protagonist Cui Ping's reckless personality contrasting with her undercover work.

These two seemingly incompatible characters, through a series of events, eventually become a couple who understand each other and see each other's charm.

Cui Ping was moved by Yu Zecheng's meticulous and selfless spirit. Yu Zecheng also saw that although Cui Ping was reckless, she was as strong as a man, had extremely accurate marksmanship, and possessed a capable spirit without the temperament of a little woman.

Two vivid characters leap off the page... Although many people in later generations dislike romance themes, it seems that screenwriters can't write a script without adding a love story, regardless of the genre...

Part of the reason for this is market selection; most genres, when combined with a well-written romance, tend to have higher ratings and viewership. It's just that some works have terrible romances.

The romance in "Lurking" is fairly standard, not overshadowing the undercover work, but rather serving as a supporting subplot.

The editorial department of People's Literature at this time.

Cui Daoyi opened the newspaper and was slightly surprised to see the various reader reviews.

Looking at the comments, which were mostly positive, Cui Daoyi frowned slightly: "Hey. Old Zhou, have you seen these new reader comments in the newspaper lately?"

"I saw it. You're talking about 'Lurking,' right?"

"Yeah."

Even Zhou Ming brought in several magazines, and some smaller literary magazines had already started publishing reviews of "Lurking".

Zhou Ming handed him a cigarette, and the two of them each took a puff.
"Not only these, but there are more in this article! They are all comments from critics, some positive and some negative, but there are quite a lot of them."

Although this novel is not particularly outstanding in terms of literary merit, it has a very good reputation due to its excellent accessibility.

To draw a parallel with Lu Yao, while Lu Yao's "Life" and "Ordinary World" are generally well-received by a wide readership, literary critics have consistently offered mostly criticism of him.

When "Ordinary World" won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, there was quite a bit of discussion. Of course, later generations proved that Lu Yao's works can be considered to be of the upper-middle level among the Mao Dun Literature Prize winners.

Zhou Xu's novel "Lurking" takes a popular approach, so there may be less literary criticism, but there are still quite a few reader comments and reviews.

Upon hearing this, Cui Daoyi was taken aback:
"Judging from the current public opinion trend, 'Lurking' is going to be a hit again! How many copies will it sell?"

"I don't know!" Zhou Ming shook his head: "Judging from this momentum, a million copies are definitely in the works."

People's Literature is the top literary magazine in China. Its monthly sales are around 400,000 to 500,000 copies. A sales volume of one million copies would be very tempting for them.

Of course, whether it's literary or popular magazines, isn't the goal to sell books and make money?

To write literature is to sell books with a touch of arrogance; to write popular literature is to please the audience and sell books...

If a magazine can produce a novel that sparks a trend of thought and influences an era, that is also their goal... For example, "The Class Teacher" sparked the "scar literature" movement, and "Ordinary World" inspired a generation of young people.

The novel "Lurking" significantly boosted the magazine's sales, and the literary reviews weren't too bad either.

"Perhaps I really misjudged him!" Cui Daoyi sighed helplessly.

"When I finished reading the novel, I did think it was very well written, but I didn't realize it would achieve such great success! If only I hadn't hesitated so much..."

If I hadn't submitted "Lurking" to "October" magazine, but instead persuaded the editor-in-chief to publish it, perhaps "People's Literature" would have achieved good results as well.

Hearing this, Zhou Ming comforted Cui Daoyi: "Old Cui, there's no need to be sad. The editor-in-chief and I both misjudged the situation back then, so it can't be said that it's entirely your fault!"

"Sigh! I just feel a little bad that I misjudged such a good work." Cui Daoyi shook his head.

This feeling is very painful. Even though I finished reading the novel, I always felt that its quality was not very good!

But then, someone else picked up this novel and published it, and it became an instant hit! Doesn't that just prove his review process was flawed? "Wait, I was going to check out 'October' magazine to see what was going on."

the next day.

The two arrived at the editorial office of "October" magazine, where they saw Liu Xinwu walking out of the room with a bag of letters in his hand.

"Hey! It's Old Cui and Old Zhou!"

Liu Xinwu found the two of them rather amusing.

Now, "Lurking" is a huge hit across the country, with sales exceeding 500,000 copies and countless letters from readers. Of course, all of this is thanks to "People's Literature".

"Ahem, Xinwu, what are you doing?" Cui Daoyi asked Liu Xinwu.

Liu Xinwu lifted a bag of readers' letters with a smile and said, "These? These are the ones readers sent to 'October' these past few days. It seems everyone really likes 'Lurking'!"

He bit down hard on the words "Lurking".

Hearing this, Cui Daoyi was heartbroken again. He asked, "Oh, is that so? How are the sales of this novel this month?"

Liu Xinwu counted on his fingers: "We've already sold 500,000 copies in the first half of the month. We'll also subscribe to the military later, and the response from the public is strong. It'll probably reach a million copies."

Five hundred thousand copies?

Cui Daoyi gasped, realizing they had guessed correctly: "Hehe, congratulations to 'October'! This must be your best-performing publication since its inception, right?"

Hearing this, Liu Xinwu looked at Cui Daoyi and said with a smile, "We still have to thank your People's Literature magazine. If you hadn't given us this novel, we wouldn't have known it could achieve such a remarkable result!"

Liu Xinwu glanced smugly at Cui Daoyi.

Cui Daoyi's voice was a little hoarse as he spoke: "That's...that's to be expected, but your 'October' magazine really has a good eye; you've managed to get this novel under your wing."

"Is there anything else?"

Cui Daoyi shook his head: "Nothing, just traveling around and visiting old friends, haha..."

After saying this, Cui Daoyi returned to his editorial department.

The two magazine offices weren't too far apart, or rather, the city center of the capital wasn't that big these days.

Back in the editorial department.

Zhang Guangnian came out, looked at Cui Daoyi and Zhou Ming, and asked curiously, "Old Cui! Old Zhou, is this the novel you two asked me to make a decision about last time?"

Cui Daoyi immediately nodded: "Yes...it's this novel!!"

Why does it always feel like everyone who asks about this novel is stabbing a needle into my heart? Cui Daoyi sighed helplessly.

"Oh!" Zhang Guangnian glanced at the magazine: "I think... our magazine sometimes needs to accept different opinions... I didn't expect that the rejection would become so popular?"

……

Liu Xinwu and Cui Daoyi waved goodbye.

Then he yanked open the door and walked straight into the house. Seeing his actions, Zhang Shouren glanced outside and asked:

Who was that just now?

Liu Xinwu said with a smile, "Who else could it be? The two elders, Cui Daoyi and Zhou Ming, from People's Literature!"

Zhang Shouren asked curiously, "What are those two doing here? Are they checking the sales of 'Lurking'? Or are they just envious of our magazine?"

Liu Xinwu nodded: "Did I tell you this last time?"

"whats the matter?"

“The novel ‘Lurking’ was rejected by People’s Literature after review, and was given to our magazine, so Cui Daoyi is quite concerned about this novel.”

Upon hearing this anecdote, Zhang Shouren even seemed somewhat gloating, saying:
"You seem to have mentioned it! But I never expected that People's Literature Publishing House would misjudge a novel! Especially since they're usually so arrogant and look down on everyone! Now that they've misjudged it, they're probably heartbroken behind the scenes!"

"Ahem..." Liu Xinwu became serious for a moment; "Don't say that, this work was given to us by them after all! Don't be so disrespectful to our old employer!"

The story of how "Lurking" was rejected and "October" picked it up quickly spread from there.

Inside the editorial office of "Beijing Literature," Zhang Deling leaned close to the elderly editor Zhou Yanru: "Hey! Old Mrs. Zhou, I'll tell you a little secret, but you mustn't tell anyone else!"

"What's the matter?"

Zhang Deling chuckled: "The novel 'Lurking,' which became a hit in 'October,' was actually originally rejected by 'People's Literature,' but 'October' picked it up, and it became so popular! I think 'People's Literature' must be furious this time."

Inside the editorial office of "Contemporary".

As Mr. Zhu Shengchang walked in from outside, a group of people looked at him with broad smiles and quickly asked, "Old Zhu, what are you laughing at?"

Only then did Zhu Shengchang say in a serious tone, "I'm telling you, you absolutely mustn't tell anyone, okay? The novel 'Lurking' was originally... I think this time, even 'People's Literature' is getting its comeuppance..."

In the magazines "Harvest" and "Zhongshan," a similar story emerged: "October" found a wildly popular novel in a garbage dump.

It seems that not only popular literature but also traditional literature is enjoyed by these older folks who appreciate stories of young upstarts defeating their editors.

Meanwhile, the piles of rejected manuscripts at various editorial departments have grown even larger. Who knows, maybe I can find a similar novel that I've already picked up?
(End of this chapter)