In March 1981, Mr. Mao Dun, the leader of the Cultural Association, fell seriously ill, and he made a decision on his hospital bed.

On March 14, as dictated by him and recorded by his son Wei Tao, Mao Dun first wrote a letter to ZY requesting that he be posthumously recognized as DY after his death, and then dictated a letter to the SJ Office of the Association for Literary and Art Circles.

"Dear comrades, in order to promote the creation of novels, I will donate 250,000 yuan of my manuscript fee to the Writers Association to set up a literary prize fund for novels to reward the best novels every year. I know that I will not be sick for a long time.

Since then, I sincerely wish the cause of socialist literature in our country to prosper."

Two weeks later, on March 27, Mr. Mao Dun passed away at the age of 85.

On April 24, the Association for Literary and Art Circles held a leadership meeting, at which it was decided to elect Mr. Ba Jin as the new leader of the China Association for Literary and Art Circles and to establish the Mao Dun Literature Prize Committee.

In the past six months, the Literary and Art Association has been preparing awards in accordance with Mr. Mao Dun's last wish, and various news about the awards have already spread throughout the Chinese literary world.

"I mean your novel needs to be submitted for selection."

Lin Chaoyang looked at her with strange eyes, "Isn't it normal for one of my many novels to be shortlisted?"

His tone was calm, but Zhang Dening had the urge to punch him. But after thinking about it carefully, Lin Chaoyang seemed to be right.

The selection scope of the Mao Dun Literary Award is novels of more than 100,000 words published from 1977 to 1981.

Measured by this standard, "Parental Love", "Raiko's Summer", "The Death of Van Gogh", "The Master of Chess"... I don't know how to count them, but I was shocked to find that Lin Chaoyang actually had four novels that met the requirements.

Of course, these novels must first be screened by local literary associations, magazines, and publishing houses before they can be submitted.

Judging from the quality and influence of Lin Chaoyang's novels, they can almost certainly meet the submission standards and requirements.

Zhang Dening didn't know that later generations had a word called Versailles, which was usually used to describe Lin Chaoyang's state at this time.

She resisted the urge to complain about Lin Chaoyang and turned to Zhu Changsheng, "Old Zhu, aren't your Humanities Society going to submit his novel?"

"Well... there should be arrangements in this club. In the past few years, our club has published a lot of novels, so we need to sort them out."

Since the 1950s, the Humanities Society has been regarded as a literary temple by domestic writers and readers. What best reflects the authority of the Humanities Society is that in the past thirty years, many domestic classic literary masterpieces were written by them.

published.

From the 1950s, "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River", "Defending Yan'an", "Linhai Snowfield", "Song of Youth", "New Sons and Daughters of Heroes", "Wildfire Spring Wind Fighting the Ancient City" and "Great Changes in Mountains and Villages"

In the 1960s, "Sunny Day", "Song of Ouyang Hai", "We Sow Love", "The First Branch of the East Wind" and "The General Trilogy" were released.

Then to "The Fiery Age", "Shining Red Star", "Golden Avenue", "The Story of the Broad Sword", "Ten Thousand Mountains Are Red", etc., it is not an exaggeration to say that the Humanities Society carries half of China's contemporary literary world.

By the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the Humanities Society followed the excellent tradition of the previous decades and still published a large number of excellent works.

In the original list of winners of the first Mao Dun Literature Award, there were a total of six winning works, four of which were published by the Humanities Society.

The selection results of subsequent sessions are still similar to the first session, which shows the foundation and authority of the Humanities Society.

Listening to Zhu Changsheng's answer, Zhang Dening felt a little depressed as if he had shot himself in the foot.

They at "Yenjing Literature" counted for a long time and found "The Master of Chess" that could win, but as for Renjia Literary Society, they grabbed a lot of works that met the submission requirements. There was no need for awards, and they had to fight among themselves first.

It’s really hard to compare people to death, and you have to throw away goods when comparing goods!

Zhang Dening came to announce the good news with joy, but was hit one after another, making Zhang Dening depressed and unhappy, and his grief and anger turned into appetite.

Lin Chaoyang looked at her with disgust and whispered to Tao Yushu: "I just said she was using the excuse of announcing the good news to make a living."

Tao Yushu rolled her eyes at him, "Why don't you speak louder?"

After hearing Lin Chaoyang's words, Zhang Dening ate more.

All joking aside, Lin Chaoyang certainly understands Zhang Dening's good intentions.

His calmness is not an act, but stems from his confidence in his own achievements.

In the past few years, he has written four works with more than 100,000 words, and their influence is not small. It is impossible that he cannot even find one shortlisted work, right?

As for whether you can win the award, it depends on how the comrades on the awards committee operate.

"Chaoyang, don't you really consider joining the Cultural Association?" After dinner, Zhang Dening asked Lin Chaoyang while burping.

Lin Chaoyang understood what she meant. After all, he was not a member of the Literary and Art Association!

"So what if I join? If there is any favoritism, what can I, a junior who just joined the Literary and Art Association, do?

On the contrary, it only adds to the worries, so it is better to let nature take its course. Awards are just the icing on the cake. Lu Xun and Ba Jin didn’t have any awards at that time.”

Zhang Dening glanced at him upon hearing this, "It's like a toad yawning - such a loud tone!"

After Zhang Dening said this, she felt much better. It was a revenge for being laughed at just now. She immediately changed the topic to the main topic without giving Lin Chaoyang a chance to retort.

"But I think you still have a great advantage in this competition."

Tao Yushu asked curiously: "What are the advantages?"

"He has so many works! If you calculate it carefully, four of his works, "Parental Love", "Raiko's Summer", "The Death of Van Gogh" and "The Chess Master", all meet the criteria for the award, and their reputations are also good.

As long as the publisher or magazine is willing to submit it, it’s not too much to have two works shortlisted, right?

Is the chance of winning a prize greater than that of writers whose only one work is shortlisted?”

Tao Yushu sneered: "You still think so? Is this an award or a mathematics competition?"

Zhang Dening said anxiously: "Don't believe it, we Chinese are the most willing to do things like He Xini. If Chaoyang really has four works shortlisted, even if the four works do not reach the level of award-winning works, believe it or not, someone will take the initiative to give him

A prize?"

Tao Yushu looked at Lin Chaoyang with doubtful eyes, "Do you think this is really possible?"

Yes, very capable.

The loser MVPs in various competitions in later generations have proven that Chinese people can really do such things, and they are not ashamed of it, but proud of it. After awarding the award, they think they are a particularly humane leader, and openly show off this shamelessness to the media.

Lower bound behavior.

In the eyes of these people, fairness, rules, and the rule of law are just playthings of power.

Lin Chaoyang shook off the flashing thoughts in his mind and said with a calm expression, "This is what the judges considered. There is no need for us to trouble ourselves."

Seeing his calm and calm expression, Tao Yushu no longer hesitated.

Zhang Dening looked at Lin Chaoyang with suspicion, thinking, are you pretending too much?

The Literary and Art Association launched the evaluation of the Mao Dun Literary Award, which was like a sudden gust of wind ruffling spring water in a lake, causing a commotion in the Chinese literary world in October.

As for any writer who has published a long work in recent years and whose work is quite influential, no one will not take this award seriously. After all, this is the first long-form novel award event in China.

Moreover, it is named after Mr. Mao Dun, so the value of the award is self-evident.

However, at this stage, the awards office formed by the literary associations only sends letters to literary associations, magazines and publishing houses across the country to request recommended works. It will still be some time before the official awards, and no matter how concerned everyone is, they can only discuss it.

After late October, the autumn atmosphere under the bright sun becomes more chilling. Autumn in Yanjing is always short-lived and often dies in less than two months. This year it seems to be colder earlier than in previous years.

Early that morning, there was a thin mist outside, and Lin Chaoyang pedaled his bicycle out. He had recently found a good place to go.

These days, the state-owned cultural relics stores in Yanjing all have purchase points, which are similar to those trust stores. They are all about buying low and selling high.

Antiques are collected from ordinary people at low prices and then sold at high prices. It is best to sell them to foreigners to earn foreign exchange. Some cultural relics that are identified as more important will be donated to museums.

Today, unlike in later generations, firstly, antiques are not as valuable as in later generations, and secondly, there are not as many auction and private business channels for cultural relics trading as in later generations. If anyone has antiques, in most cases they can only sell them to cultural relics stores.

At these cultural relic shop purchase points, Yanjing citizens and surrounding farmers often come to sell things, including jewelry, diamonds, gold and silver ornaments, calligraphy, paintings, porcelain... There are purchase points for all kinds of antiques and cultural relics.

For example, Dongsi and Bamiancao have the jewelry, diamond and jade purchasing department of the foreign trade department. The Bank of China's purchasing point specializes in purchasing gold and silver jewelry. The purchasing points in Xidan and Liulichang collect calligraphy, painting, and porcelain.

Lin Chaoyang came to the Xinjiekou cultural relics store. The antiques he purchased were of various types, including ceramics, calligraphy and paintings, gold and jade, miscellaneous items and many other categories. Therefore, it was also one of the most popular of the many cultural relics store purchasing centers in Yanjing.

When he came to the door of the purchase point, Lin Chaoyang did not approach it, but looked at the door of the purchase point from a distance.

The purchasing point hasn't opened yet, and there are already several people waiting in line at the door.

Lin Chaoyang looked at the time, and it was only early seven o'clock. There was still more than half an hour before the purchase point opened, so there was still enough time.

There were not many people queuing up at the door of the purchasing point, just four people, some old and some young, but they all had the same characteristics, they were male and their clothes were simple. At first glance, they were from the countryside near Yanjing.

This situation is also very common in front of the purchase point. These people are basically in urgent need of money, their juniors are getting married, their relatives are sick, and they are in debt to pay off...

If you chat with these people carefully, you can see all the suffering in the world in front of this small buying point.

There have always been opportunistic cultural relic dealers around the acquisition sites, and even in the years when arrests were the most stringent, these cultural relic dealers were indispensable.

Some of them are serious collectors, while others are raking in side projects. They use all possible means to deceive and abduct. I don’t know how many people have been deceived over the years. The vast majority of them are from rural areas in the suburbs of Yanjing.

people.

At this time, the folk customs were simple and simple, and the rural people were not wary when they went to the city to sell things, so the cultural relic dealers targeted them.

Over time, the reputation of these cultural relic dealers has spread far and wide. The common people who come to sell things will immediately become vigilant when they see someone talking to them, and some people will not even talk to them.

At this moment, Lin Chaoyang stepped forward to talk to a few people, and the group of people suddenly looked wary.

"Comrades, don't get me wrong. I'm not a second-rate dealer. I just like collecting antiques."

Lin Chaoyang explained, and saw that the vigilance on the faces of several people still did not diminish. He did not make sweet words like those cultural relic dealers, but directly made his attitude clear.

"If you guys have any good stuff there, you can let me see it. You can sell it to anyone. What I give you at the purchase point is RMB. I have some remittance certificates and foreign exchange certificates in my hand.

As long as the goods are good, we will pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand, and we will not bully anyone."

After listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, several people's eyes lit up.

Overseas remittance coupons and foreign exchange coupons are hard currency and are much more valuable than RMB. The key is that ordinary people have no channels to obtain these things.

"Are you really going to exchange remittance vouchers and foreign exchange vouchers with us?"

The young man who spoke was wearing a washed-out military uniform and liberation shoes. It looked like someone in his family must be a soldier.

Lin Chaoyang did not speak, but took out a remittance coupon with a face value of 100 yuan from his pocket and waved it in front of several people.

Everyone felt relieved when they saw the overseas remittance coupons that were guaranteed to be replaced.

The young man was the first to approach Lin Chaoyang, "Look at this thing of mine, it was left behind by my great-grandfather."

The young man said as he took out a small, delicate object from his shoulder bag.
Chapter completed!