Chapter 393 This Book Is Quite Interesting

Zhou Yan used the news broadcast to explain, and the effect was very obvious. Chen Derong immediately knew the importance of this meeting.

At the same time, Chen Derong was also curious about Zhou Yan's status in the mainland literary circle. She had not read Zhou Yan's works before, and thought that Zhou Yan was just an ordinary writer who had written a few articles.

Now it seems that her previous thoughts were not quite right.

In fact, Zhou Yan's position in the literary circle is very special. He is definitely not comparable to top writers such as Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng. After all, he has little output. In all these years, he has only published a few works in the past two years.

But compared with ordinary writers, he is very famous, and this part of his fame comes from his identity as a musician and director on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also because his works are very successfully adapted.

Zhou Yan has two novels adapted into movies. One is "Knife in the Clear Water" produced by Chang'an Studio. The movie is much less famous, the box office is average, and it did not win any international awards, but the industry reviews are good, and it also won some domestic awards.

The other is "Tree Hole", which is very successful. Wu Ziniu also won the Best Jury Award at the Berlin Film Festival with this movie.

Because it won the award, the box office performance was not bad, and the copyright was sold very well. Now there are still TV stations that often broadcast this movie.

From the perspective of film and television adaptation, Zhou Yan has surpassed most writers.

Among Zhou Yan's many fans, some are his readers, and these readers have always regretted that Zhou Yan has not published any new works in recent years.

Whether it is "Yanjing Literature" or "Huacheng", letters sent to "Zhou Chan" can still be received. Readers hope that Zhou Yan can publish some more works and not waste his talent in literature.

They believe that Zhou Yan can have better development in literature.

Hua Yang occasionally calls Zhou Yan to ask if Zhou Yan has plans to publish new works.

In recent years, Hua Yang has developed well in "Yanjing Literature" and has been promoted to the leader of the novel group.

When Hua Yang came to Zhou Yan to ask for the manuscript, he actually saw that Zhou Yan had other manuscripts in his drawer, so he kept calling Zhou Yan, because he knew that Zhou Yan could take out the manuscript from the drawer and publish it if he wanted to.

…

The group chatted for a while, and when it was time for dinner, they went to eat together.

When dinner was over, Yu Hua pushed Shi Tiesheng away, while Wang Zuxian and Chen Derong followed Zhou Yan back to Zhou Yan's office.

Chen Derong stood in front of the bookshelf in the office, looking up and down at the books on it, and asked curiously, "Are there any books by those two writers just now?"

Before Zhou Yan could speak, Wang Zuxian walked over and took out a copy of "To Live" and another copy of "I and the Altar of Earth", "This one is from Brother Yu, and this one is from Brother Tiesheng."

"Which one is better?" Chen Derong asked.

Wang Zuxian smiled, "I can't answer you this, everyone's aesthetic taste is different."

Chen Derong couldn't help curling her lips, "When you fall in love with a writer, your speaking style will gradually change. Which one do you like?"

Seeing Chen Derong asking questions, Wang Zuxian thought for a while and said, "When I'm in a good mood, I like "To Live" more. When I'm in a bad mood, I like "The Altar of Earth and Me" more."

Chen Derong turned to Zhou Yan and asked, "Brother-in-law, what about you?"

Zhou Yan raised his head and smiled, "To Live is more humorous."

"I guess so." Chen Derong raised his chin, looking confident, "That brother Yu Hua gives people a more humorous feeling. It's especially interesting to listen to him talk."

Looking at Chen Derong with a confident face, Wang Zuxian pursed her lips tightly and tried not to laugh.

Finally, she said, "You guessed right."

"Then I'll read this first."

Chen Derong put "The Altar of Earth and Me" down, hugged "To Live" and walked to the sofa and sat down.

Wang Zuxian was surprised, "You want to read here?"

"Well, I'll read here for a while, I won't disturb my brother-in-law's work."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and smiled, "It's okay, let her read here."

Wang Zuxian said helplessly, "Okay, I'll find a book to read too."

Then she looked up and searched on the bookshelf, and soon found a book "Red Rock". The reason why she chose this book was because it was placed on the far right of the first layer, and there was a bookmark in the middle of the book.

Usually, the books placed in this position are the ones Zhou Yan has read recently.

She didn't have any special books she wanted to read, so she chose to read the books Zhou Yan was reading recently.

Chen Derong said something right, dating a writer means paying more attention to the things in the literary circle, and she only started reading books gradually after being with Zhou Yan.

Seeing the two girls reading seriously, Zhou Yan didn't care about them, and focused on the storyboard in his hand. There was not much time left before the movie started, but the storyboard had not been completed.

But Zhou Yan was not in a hurry. For him, drawing storyboards was just a mechanical and time-consuming job, which could definitely be completed within his planned time.

Zhou Yan originally thought that the two girls would either read the book quietly and seriously, or put it down directly because they couldn't read it anymore.

In his opinion, the latter situation was more likely.

Chen Derong didn't seem to be a person who loved reading, and reading seemed to have a low threshold, but in fact, the threshold was higher than people imagined.

Most people think that as long as you know the characters, you can read, right?

But in fact, reading requires training. If a person does not develop the habit of reading, it is difficult to read books, especially serious literature.

Later, Yu Hua suddenly became popular. For a time, it seemed that everyone on the Internet knew Yu Hua and his "To Live". But in fact, how many of those people really read "To Live" from beginning to end? Not to mention Yu Hua's other works.

Some people just read a few minutes of novel interpretation or watched the movie, and they felt that they had read the novel, understood Yu Hua, and even understood literature.

As for Wang Zuxian, she likes reading books recently, but Zhou Yan thinks that "Red Rock" should not be her favorite type.

In the first few minutes, the office was indeed quiet. The two girls were reading seriously, and Zhou Yan was also drawing the storyboard seriously.

But soon, Chen Derong suddenly slapped the sofa.

"Pah!"

Zhou Yan was startled by the sudden loud noise, and the pen in his hand also shook.

He was drawing the last farewell between the male protagonist and his father. His hand trembled and he drew the male protagonist's father's nose crooked.

Looking at the crooked nose of the male protagonist's father on the paper, Zhou Yan frowned and looked up at Chen Derong, only to hear Chen Derong shouting with disgust: "How shameless!"

After that, Chen Derong also realized that something was wrong. She looked up and saw Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian looking at her. She also said a little embarrassedly, "Sorry, sorry, too excited."

After that, she closed the book again, "I won't read it, I won't read it, this book is not suitable for me."

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing, and lowered his head to draw the storyboard. He did not modify the crooked nose just now.

After Chen Derong put down "To Live", she sat on the sofa for a while, felt that it was boring, and ran to the bookshelf to find another book to read.

She did not pick up the book "I and the Earthen Altar" because she felt that she did not like the title of the book. It was like the title of an elementary school composition, like a narrative without nutrition.

She searched the bookshelf for a long time but couldn't find any books that interested her. She stood by the bookshelf and wandered for a while. Finally, she returned to the sofa and picked up "To Live".

When she picked up "To Live", she secretly glanced at Wang Zuxian and Zhou Yan again. Seeing that one of them was reading seriously and the other was working seriously, she was relieved.

After all, she just said that she would not read it, and now she picked it up again, which was a bit embarrassing.

The reason why she cursed just now was because she saw Fugui riding that prostitute to "pay respects" to his father-in-law.

Chen Derong had never read this kind of book since she was a child, and this part of the plot had a strong impact on her.

Not only had she never seen this kind of plot, she had never seen this kind of writing style. This book was different from all the books she had read before.

Anyway, it gave people a very strange feeling. She almost felt sorry for Jiazhen while cursing Fugui in her heart and continued to read.

…

Half an hour later, Zhou Yan first raised his head and looked at Wang Zuxian. She was still reading Red Rock seriously. This surprised Zhou Yan. He didn't expect that she could really read this book.

As for Chen Derong's performance, it surprised Zhou Yan even more. This girl actually started reading To Live again, and she had read a lot.

Many people say that reading To Live is more tearful, but for Chen Derong, it seems to be more tearful. She was gritting her teeth while reading, and her expression was terrible.

With her gritting her teeth, her cheeks would probably cramp after reading a book.

Zhou Yan didn't know whether he underestimated Chen Derong's reading ability or underestimated the appeal of To Live to ordinary readers.

Speaking of the appeal to ordinary readers, Zhou Yan thought of Yu Hua's self-mockery. He said that the reason why his novels were concise was because he had few words.

This was pure bullshit.

But many ordinary readers really believed this sentence, thinking that Yu Hua's writing was average, and extended it to the fact that writers didn't need writing.

But is Yu Hua's writing style really average?

What exactly is writing style?

Zhou Yan doesn't like to talk about writing style, he prefers to talk about the writer's sense of language and rhythm.

There are two and a half writers in contemporary China whose sense of language and rhythm impressed Zhou Yan the most, two of whom were in his office this afternoon.

The other half is Wang Xiaobo, who wrote "The Golden Age".

This sense of language and rhythm is not only a talent, but also requires a lot of reading accumulation. Many people only remember that Yu Hua said that he didn't know many words, and they took it seriously, but they didn't know that Yu Hua also said that he had read a lot of Chinese and foreign literary works.

Of course, this is also a problem of public opinion orientation, because it is not uncommon for writers to have read a lot of literary works, but it is uncommon for writers to know few words. The media naturally knows which news report can attract readers' attention more, and they don't care whether Yu Hua is talking nonsense.

Zhou Yan originally planned to finish today's work at nine o'clock, but because he saw Chen Derong and the others reading very seriously, they did not rush to get off work, but continued to work. He wanted to see how long Chen Derong and the others could read.

To Live is not long. Zhou Yan thought that with more than three hours, Chen Derong should be able to finish reading it, but she didn't expect that she didn't finish the book until half past ten.

Later, Wang Zuxian closed Red Rock first and said, "It's late, let's read it tomorrow."

Only then did Chen Derong come to her senses. She turned to the last page and looked at it, "There are less than thirty pages left to read. Can I take the book back to the hotel to read?"

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, "I suggest you read the rest tomorrow."

"Why?" Chen Derong asked strangely, "There aren't many left. It won't take long to finish reading."

Zhou Yan shook his head and did not persuade Chen Derong anymore. He just said, "If you like this book, I will give it to you. It also has Yu Hua's signature."

"There is also a signature." Chen Derong said in surprise, "Where is it?"

"Next to the title on the title page."

Chen Derong turned to the title page and immediately curled his lips and said, "It turns out this is a signature. I thought someone accidentally scratched it out with a pen."

Zhou Yan laughed, "His signature is indeed scrawled."

"As long as it's a signature, you're welcome. Thank you, brother-in-law. I'll read it when I get back today. The ending should be pretty good."

The place she saw happened to be where Erxi told the Fugui couple that their daughter Fengxia was pregnant.

From Youqing's death to now, the Fugui family's life seems to be moving in the direction of happiness.

After all, there are less than thirty pages left in this book. To be precise, there are still twenty-six pages left. Something must not happen again. If something happens, can we finish writing these twenty-odd pages?

The layout of this book is very loose, with more than 20 pages left and probably only about 10,000 words.

After hearing what Chen Derong said, Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian looked at each other without saying a word.

"I'll drive you back."

Zhou Yan took the car keys and stood up.

The distance from the studio to the hotel where they stayed was very close, and it only took less than ten minutes to drive.

Chen Derong originally wanted to go back to the hotel and read it again, but he couldn't help but open the book on the way and read down from the original place.

She originally thought that after Fengxia became pregnant, the Fugui family's life would get better and better, but what she didn't expect was that just one page later, Fengxia encountered problems in giving birth. The doctor came out and asked whether to keep the baby older or younger. , Erxi said he wanted to keep him alive.

But one page later, Fengxia passed away.

Seeing this, Chen Derong was stunned. She didn't expect bad luck to come so quickly.

She thought of Zhou Yan's meaningful expression before and his warning to look again tomorrow, and suddenly understood something. It turned out that Zhou Yan had already figured out where she had seen.

Thinking of this, she couldn't bear to look down, because she always felt that things were not that simple.

She no longer underestimates the next twenty pages.

Yu Hua only used two pages to write about Fengxia from her pregnancy to her death in childbirth. Who knows what he could do in the next twenty or so pages.

After that, she read two more pages in a daze, and the car arrived at the door of the hotel.

…

More than half an hour later, Chen Derong lay on the bed, covered his head under the pillow, and kept sobbing.

Wang Zuxian sat next to him and scratched his head, thinking that he would have known better and prevented her from looking down.

In the last section of the book "Alive", people die the fastest. It only takes twenty pages to write down Fengxia, Erxi, Jiazhen and Kugen. On average, one protagonist dies in four to five pages. .

Life seems to have become a running account, with vivid and eye-catching colors.

Chen Derong had never seen such a battle before. He was stunned by Yu Hua's swords.

She buried her head under the pillow and cried for a long time. Suddenly she sat up again and asked Wang Zuxian with tears in her eyes, "Is this the kind of novel my brother-in-law also writes?"

This kind of novel... what kind of novel is it?

Wang Zuxian thought for a while and said, "What he wrote is not the same. It is more interesting."

Chen Derong didn’t believe it at all, “Just now you said this book was humorous.”

"It's true this time, I won't lie to you."

Chen Derong stared at Wang Zuxian's eyes for a long time, and finally nodded, "Well, I'll look back at what he wrote." (End of Chapter)