The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

As soon as Zhou Hexuan walked into the room, Li Shoumin said to him happily: "Brother Hexuan, would you like to be a newspaper proofreader? The monthly salary is 36 yuan. I will be promoted to editor in a few days, and the proofreader happens to be vacant. The ability will definitely be hired. It's just a bit of a talent."

   "Congratulations to Brother Shoumin's promotion." Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists.

   "It's just a small editor, what congratulations are there." Li Shoumin waved his hand and smiled. He is really not uncommon to be an editor. The only thing he is happy about is that the salary has increased a little, which can ease the family's economic situation.

   Zhou Hexuan took out his own draft of the novel: "Since Brother Shoumin has edited it, please help me read it."

   "You must read the masterpiece." Li Shoumin took over the manuscript and was quite curious about what kind of work Zhou Hexuan would write.

   Mrs. Zhou had already put the food on the table and said, "Let's eat first."

   After everyone finished their meal, Zhou Hexuan chatted with Mrs. Zhou for a few words, then said goodbye and returned to his bedroom to continue coding.

  Li Shoumin read the manuscript while holding the manuscript. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" begins with a storytelling plot, which gradually leads to the loyalty of Guo and Yang, and then mixed with the feelings of the family and country of the Hulu invasion. Zhou Hexuan's more than 10,000 words only wrote about Qiu Chuji's appearance, and named his two unborn children Guo Jing and Yang Kang.

   After reading the manuscript, Li Shoumin felt a little interesting, but that was all. Because the storyline has not yet unfolded, we can only infer from the lines that Guo Jing and Yang Kang should be the protagonists of the book.

About four years ago, Ping Jiang Bu Xiaosheng (Xiang Kairan)'s "The Legend of Jianghu Qixia" came out, marking the birth of China's first true martial arts novel, which broke away from traditional chivalrous novels in terms of the content of the story and became popular in the south for a while. provinces.

  The northern martial arts novelist, at this time Zhao Huanting is the representative character, but his works are still the same as the three heroes and five righteousness.

   The two are also known as "South to North Zhao", and they are considered the top martial arts writers.

   In Li Shoumin's view, Zhou Hexuan's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" followed the path of the "southbound" Pingjiang. This kind of novel is very popular now, and it is definitely no problem to serialize it in the newspaper. He plans to wait for Zhou Hexuan to write more words, and then take it to the newspaper to find the editor-in-chief.

   The next morning, Li Shoumin practiced breathing in the yard on time. When he finished his work, he saw Zhou Hexuan walking over with a smile, holding a few manuscripts and saying, "Brother Shoumin, I went back last night to make up the first chapter, with a total of more than 26,000 words."

   "So fast." Li Shoumin was a little surprised.

   He didn't think much about it, and went to work at the newspaper office with the manuscript. By the time I finished the work at hand, it was almost noon, and I finally had time to read the next half of the chapter.

  Guo Xiaotian died fighting to cover his brother's escape. Yang Tiexin resolutely abandoned his pregnant wife with tears in order to save his sister-in-law. After being seriously injured, his life and death are unknown. This paragraph is written with great enthusiasm, and readers of later generations may have become accustomed to it, but it was particularly wonderful in the Republic of China in the 1920s.

  Li Shoumin felt a sense of pride after reading this, but at the same time he felt lamented for the characters in the book.

  The wives of the two righteous men survived, and each is pregnant with a child, which makes readers feel very much looking forward to it.

  Li Shoumin put away the manuscript and went straight to the deputy editor Tao Jincheng: "Mr. Tao, look at this novel."

  Tao Jincheng put on his glasses and read it carefully. He quickly read the manuscript and asked happily, "Which master's work is this? It's a bit similar to Pingjiang's Unusual, but with his own unique style."

  Li Shoumin said: "A friend of mine wrote it, he just returned from a study tour in the West."

  Tao Jincheng said: "The Thirteen Heroes of the South of the Yangtze River is about to be serialized, and this "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is just in time."

   "How is the remuneration determined?" Li Shoumin asked.

  Tao Jincheng thought about it and said, "The quality of the manuscript is excellent, what do you think about 800 characters?"

   "Less." Li Shoumin volunteered to help Zhou Hexuan negotiate the price.

  To publish articles in newspapers and magazines today, the manuscript fee is generally 1 to 3 yuan per thousand words. The manuscript fee for a master like Lu Xun can reach 5 yuan per thousand words, or even 6 yuan per thousand words. But that's the price of prose, poetry, reviews, essays, and novels are generally paid less.

   Tao Jincheng smiled and said, "Let the author come to the newspaper office, and I'll talk to him in person."

  …

   "New Tianjin News" was founded by Liu Mangong two years ago. The policy of running a newspaper is civilian. To put it bluntly, it is a newspaper for ordinary people to read, and it does not get involved in political and academic disputes.

  This newspaper has developed very fast. The sales volume has risen from more than 1,000 copies at the beginning to more than 20,000 copies. It is regarded as the largest newspaper in the Beijing-Tianjin area. Liu Ran Gong struck while the iron was hot, and successively launched New Tianjin Evening News and New Tianjin Xiaobao. The sales of the two new newspapers have reached 5,000 or 6,000.

   Of course, the "New Tianjin" series of newspapers has grown so fast, thanks to the "Ta Kung Pao" closing its doors.

   "Ta Kung Pao" was originally a royalist base, and the headquarters of the newspaper was located in Tianjin. Later, it was closely connected with the Anhui warlords, and it had a huge circulation in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

  Three years ago, the second boss of Ta Kung Pao was killed in the earthquake in Japan. In addition, the Anhui warlords were defeated in the Zhi-Wan War. Ta Kung Pao lost its financial sponsors and backers one after another, and finally stopped publishing last year. Taking advantage of this gap, the newspaper department of "New Tianjin" expanded rapidly and occupied the newspaper market in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

   It was already the fourth day when Zhou Hexuan came to the newspaper office, and he also brought the manuscripts of the second and third chapters, which added up to more than 70,000 words.

   "Mr. Tao, this is Zhou Hexuan, a young talent who returned from the West." Li Shoumin introduced.

  Tao Jincheng shook hands with Zhou Hexuan enthusiastically and said with a smile, "Mr. Zhou is really young."

   Zhou Hexuan's actual age is 28 years old. Due to his year-round trips around the world, he often experiences wind and sun in the wild, and his skin is dark and slightly rough. But for some reason, after crossing over, his skin became much whiter, and even a few wrinkles on his face disappeared, as if he had returned to his youth.

   "Hello, Editor-in-Chief Tao," Zhou Hexuan greeted, took out the manuscript he brought, and said, "This is the follow-up content, please have a look."

  Tao Jin saw that he went straight to the topic, so he smiled and said, "Then forgive me, Mr. Zhou, please take a seat, I will talk about it after reading the manuscript."

   After Li Shoumin brought people over, he went to deal with the work at hand, leaving only Zhou Hexuan and Tao Jincheng in the office. The secretary brought a cup of tea, Zhou Hexuan sat on the sofa and sipped the tea slowly, looking at the furnishings in the room.

   In the novel, the Seven Devils of Jiangnan and Temujin appeared one after another, and these plots made Tao Jincheng shine. After reading the manuscript, he smiled and said, "Mr. great talent, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is indeed innovative compared to the current martial arts novels."

   "Editor Tao is wrong." Zhou Hexuan said modestly.

  Tao Jincheng took the initiative to introduce the current situation of manuscript fees in China, and then said: "I hope "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" can be serialized in the "New Tianjin Evening News", how about 1 yuan per thousand words?"

   For martial arts novels, this is a relatively high price, not to mention that Zhou Hexuan is still a newcomer and has no reputation at all. He didn't bargain anymore, nodded and said, "Yes."

   As for the price increase after the novel becomes popular, that is for sure. Even if Zhou Hexuan didn't say it, the newspaper would take the initiative to mention it, because they had to use a high salary to trap Zhou Hexuan, lest other newspapers come and poach the author.