In the distant capital, Jiang Yulou's manuscript was finally mailed to the editorial office of the magazine Contemporary.

The editorial office is located in the People's Literature Publishing House, No. 166, Chaonei Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing.

After years of wind and frost, a boxy five-storey building facing the street is quite old. This is evident from the gray façade, which has lost its original color, and the building is old.

The rows of windows on the wall are closed, the earliest iron windows, and the iron windows are rusty, showing the traces of time.

The courtyard wall of the People's Literature Publishing House is not high, it is a wall pier and a railing of wrought iron, and most of the buildings in the capital in the early years were in this style.

The outermost building that people can see is the main building of the People's Literature Publishing House, and if you enter through the back door through the corridor of the main building, you will find the backyard of the publishing house.

There is also a red brick building, which is newer and brighter than the previous building, but it has been built in recent years.

The red brick building is a four-story building, similar to most office buildings of this era, with offices in the north and south, corridors in the middle, white-plastered walls, and skirts painted with pale green paint.

On the wall of the hallway hung a blackboard with something written on it, and the blackboard newspaper was nothing more than what those people knew.

In the end, it is the editorial department, and we must pay attention to it ideologically.

The office of the editorial office of Contemporary, a south-facing room, has several desks by the window and wall, each of which is full of manuscripts, and even on the floor is a stack of thick brown paper bags with manuscripts tied with paper ropes, on which the names of the manuscripts are written.

Directly to the left of the office is a wall with portraits of faculty members, and on the right side there is also a wall with several pieces of paper, one of which is the name of the editorial staff, job title, etc.

On the other piece of paper is the editorial department's schedule and duty schedule.

At this time, there were not many people in the office, only two people, and the other editors were probably busy with other work.

After the editor Zhu Shengchang finished dealing with the reminders to the old authors, he turned out the manuscripts that had been submitted to the magazine "Contemporary" and carefully reviewed them one by one.

Since it is a newly established literary magazine and a large-scale literary journal sponsored by People's Literature, domestic writers have been actively submitting. Basically, I receive more than a dozen manuscripts every day.

However, the editors of the magazine are not sufficient, and there is no new blood pouring in at present, only these old comrades in their forties and fifties are holding up.

The number of people is small, the number of manuscripts that need to be reviewed is large, and the work intensity is very high.

However, in order for the first issue of the magazine to be published smoothly, the veteran comrades sacrificed their rest time and had to work every day, so they could only arrange two or three people to leave work on time every day.

He is only responsible for reviewing the manuscript for the first time, reading through the entire manuscript while paying attention to the structure, grammar, and quality of the article, as long as these can meet certain standards, it will be submitted to the reviewing editor for review.

Now is the era of literary renaissance, there are many enthusiasts who are passionate about writing, but there are not many really high-level manuscripts, and those manuscripts of uneven quality make Zhu Shengchang shake his head.

Suddenly, Zhu Shengchang sighed softly, his eyes lit up when he was originally leaning lazily on the chair, and his body couldn't help but sit up. He wiped his somewhat blurry glasses, put them on, and concentrated all his energy on the manuscript in his hand.

The handwriting of this manuscript is average, young but neat, and it is not difficult for him to read, unlike the manuscripts mailed by some authors, which are full of typos, and some of them require him to guess before he can understand.

After a cursory reading, he knew that the author was writing a novel, and he was still telling a story from the Qing Dynasty.

The content of the story is probably the growth history of Li Fanggui, a playwright who was later called Li Shisan. It is said to be a history of growth, but it can also be seen that he devoted himself to writing scripts after landing, and wrote eight plays and two excerpts in his life, which are called "ten books" by folks.

Later, in order not to lose his folk skills, Li Shisan did not hesitate to sacrifice his own life when the royal family sent chasing soldiers to encircle and suppress him, but also to preserve the script, so that the folk art could be passed on from generation to generation.

The whole three stories, about 20,000 words, the author through a few words, but Li Shisan's poor, but tragic life in front of the reader.

After reading through it, Zhu Shengchang read the name of the novel "Li Thirteen Tuimo".

This novel is very well written, organically integrating historical allusions and rural legends, and skillfully interweaving national customs and heroic complexes in his concise and bright narrative.

Such a good manuscript, I can't miss it!

After putting the manuscript in his hand on the table, Zhu Shengchang took a deep breath, and from this one he felt the unique breath from the Loess Plateau.

Full of generosity and sorrow, full of family and country feelings, full of heroic spirit!

This reminded him of an old writer who had passed away, that is, the famous contemporary writer of Shaanxi, Liu Qing.

The deceased veteran writer has always been deeply involved in life, living among the peasants for decades, with a rich accumulation of life, and most of his novels are based on rural life.

Isn't it, this author is a disciple of Liu Lao?

Even if it's not, it's probably a well-known writer in Shaanxi.

Shaanxi writers, he probably knows some of them.

Zhu Shengchang subconsciously flipped to the envelope, he guessed that it was probably the contribution of a writer who had been famous for a long time, but the address of the envelope denied his guess - Jiang Yulou, a third-year high school in Yangping County.

Zhu Shengchang was stunned when he saw this name, if it was a famous author, he would still understand. After all, although the manuscript text is a little immature, it is not something that ordinary literature lovers can control.

But it turned out that the author of this manuscript was a senior high school student in Yangping County, Shaanxi?

It wasn't even written by a teacher who worked in language education!

When will domestic high school juniors be able to write at such a high level?

Is it because he hasn't paid attention to domestic education for too long recently and doesn't know the level of education in China, or is the teaching level of a high school teacher in Yangping County too high enough to teach a high school student with the power of a writer's pen?

This unexpected discovery made editor Zhu Shengchang a little confused, could it be a mistake?

For example, Jiang Yulou is actually not a student, but a teacher, or a faculty member?

But no matter how he searched his intestines and scraped his stomach, there was no Shaanxi author named Jiang Yulou in his mind.

Zhu Shengchang scratched his head, put down the manuscript, stretched his neck and asked the old editor opposite, "Old Meng, do you remember that there is an author named Jiang Yulou in Yangping County?" Oh, or the whole province of Shaanxi can be called by this name. ”

Maybe the author from other parts of Shaanxi went to Yangping County to collect wind and take up a temporary job, just happened to teach the third year of high school, and then wrote this submission.

It is common for many authors to go out to collect style, and some authors have connections and can go to the province or county to take up temporary posts to facilitate writing. For example, there are those who are attached to the general office of the government, and there are also those who are attached to the factory, and it is not uncommon for them to work in schools.

Some of the authors are of a high level and it is not a problem to teach a third year of high school.

"Jiang Yulou? Not impressed? Why do you suddenly ask about this? The old editor Meng Guowei thought for a while and said, he had never heard of this name.

Meng Guowei is also an old senior, he worked as an editor in "Workers' Daily", and later as an editor in "People's Literature", and he knows countless authors, but he has no impression of the people mentioned by Zhu Shengchang.

Don't even Lao Meng have an impression?

Zhu Shengchang scratched his head, but still handed over the manuscript, "Lao Meng, this is a submission to our magazine, and the level is quite high." When I first read it, I thought it was a new work by a famous author. I don't think it's a problem, although it doesn't quite fit the style of our "Contemporary" magazine, but it's a good work. I think it's okay to be able to review it, and you're looking at it and giving your opinion. ”

The publication and publication of the novel must go through three reviews and three proofreadings, and the final decision for publication needs to go through a meeting of the editorial department, and the editor-in-chief will make the final decision.

If he passes the review, he needs other editors to approve it, and he will have to go to the meeting in the end.

Meng Guowei also has the right to review, and even because of his deep qualifications, if he has seen no problem, it is basically equivalent to passing the test, and he can directly hand the manuscript to Qin Zhaoyang, the director and editor-in-chief of the editorial department, and can pass his pass, as long as the editor-in-chief Qin does not object, the manuscript will basically be published.

After that, just go through the process at the meeting.

Zhu Shengchang's behavior is a bit irregular, generally speaking, after reading a batch of submissions, and then handing over all the manuscripts that have passed the review to him for review, but occasionally encountering very good manuscripts, it is not impossible to make an exception, Meng Guowei took the manuscript and read it carefully, and this look is fascinating.

After a long time, he raised his head and praised: "Lao Zhu, this manuscript is indeed a rare masterpiece, although the writing is still immature, especially the first and middle parts, but when I read the second part, the author has compassion for the spirit and temperament of the characters through the fierce reversal and mutation of the storyline, and interprets this tragic story into extraordinarily poignant. Although Li Shisan's fate is miserable, the warmth and pride that burst out of his body shine with the brilliance of human nature, which is moving to read. Throughout the whole text, the spirit and temperament of the Chinese rural people revealed in the novel are indeed worthy of our deep thought. ”

"That'...... Lao Meng, do you think this manuscript can be published? Zhu Shengchang added: "The manuscript is fine, but the style is ......"

The writing and story are not enough to be published, but the style of the novel is what he is worried about.

It would have been fine if he hadn't seen the submission, but he read it and thought it was good, and it would be a shame that he couldn't publish it.

Sometimes the editor is the one who knows the author best, and the author has a good story that he wants to crumple and show to the reader.

And what about the editors?

He understands what readers like and what kind of content is more pleasing.

Without such ability, how can we select really good works from thousands of manuscripts?

And when an editor sees an article that has been selected by himself published, he feels no less accomplished than the creator of those articles.

After Meng Guowei put down the manuscript, his fingers lightly tapped on the table, and he muttered: "In my opinion, it will definitely not be a problem, but whether it can be published or not depends on the editor-in-chief." ”

He then places the manuscript on a stack of manuscripts on the right-hand side, with the left-hand side being the one that failed the review and the right-hand side being where he stored the approved manuscripts.

"Since you've read it, it looks like this manuscript can pass." Zhu Shengchang laughed when he saw his movements.

However, there are quite a few drafts that have passed the second review.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Shengchang said again: "Lao Meng, you have a lot of manuscripts that have passed the review, why don't you take them to the editor-in-chief first?" ”

His heart was like a cat's scratch, and he desperately wanted to see the results soon.

It's been a few months since the essay contest was held, and it's time for the results.

"Don't worry, I still have some drafts on hand that I haven't read, maybe some of them can be passed. Let's go and hand in the manuscript tomorrow, it's not too late. Don't be anxious, as long as the manuscript is written correctly, none of us will deliberately get stuck. Meng Guowei knew that the old man was anxious, so he comforted him with kind words.

Zhu Shengchang thought about it, so he stopped urging.