Chapter 97: *Two Donkeys* published, sales exploded (Guaranteed 2 updates)

*Huacheng* is a literary journal in Guangzhou. It was founded in March this year. The November issue is the third issue in total. In three issues, the circulation reached 370,000. It can indeed be said to be terrifying.

When Wei Ming was patrolling, he saw Chen Jiangong had one, so he borrowed it to read. Once he saw it, hey, there was another short story by this old boy, *Flowing Bends*.

This guy seems to have reached the peak of creation, and he can be seen in magazines every month, and they are all big journals.

However, the short story by Chen Jiangong is not the main reason for the high circulation of *Huacheng*.

Wei Ming saw the name of a future Nobel Prize winner in the directory. I don't know if he triggered the sales.

In addition, *Huacheng*, whether it is the cover design or the layout style inside, is much more fashionable than the ones in the north, which is very pleasing to the eye.

Besides traditional novels, poetry, and prose, there are also "Overseas Letters" and "Hong Kong Communications" units.

These overseas literary information and overseas consultations also have great attraction for domestic readers. This is the vision of an old open city.

Actually, after *Two Oxen* proved his hard power, *October*, *Huacheng*, and *Zhong Shan* all sent him invitation letters.

However, *Herdsman* was given to *Contemporary*. For the time being, he hadn't thought about what serious literature to write, and he felt he couldn't grasp the long novel he was brewing yet.

So he started writing popular literature to change his brain. Every day after writing a section, he would talk about it in the dormitory and listen to the opinions of the target group.

Zhao Debiao felt the protagonist was too cowardly and afraid of his wife, not as majestic as himself, but Brother Ming said the little wife was written according to Yanzi, and the martial arts used were what she was good at, snake fist and double swords, so he felt that was no problem.

Mei Wenhua felt that the martial arts of these characters were not as majestic as the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms or the Beiming Divine Art, but the depiction of details could make people's blood boil.

When Wei Ming wrote the fighting scenes, he borrowed the description method of the national art flow in online novels. It is indeed stronger in mobilizing emotions, and it is well-founded, as if ordinary people can really practice it, with a dreamlike feeling that is hard to distinguish between true and false, and...

"This is a low-martial arts novel. You can talk about what you said when writing high-martial arts novels in the future."

Isn't it just writing a bit mysteriously? It's not a difficult thing.

Northern Qiao Feng liked it very much. He liked stories like "overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming" the most, and several teenagers were very brave, smart, and righteous. He felt this was the quality needed by the younger generation.

The next day Northern Qiao Feng had to go to the city again.

Wei Ming felt a bit strange. When did you two become so sticky, wishing to see each other three times a week.

Brother Feng is the captain and doesn't need to work the night shift. Except for Sunday, if he wants to go to the city, he has to use his leave. Is this not planning to spend the New Year?

However, he couldn't manage the affairs of the couple. He estimated that the cassette Zhu Lin listened to was almost done, so Wei Ming entrusted Brother Feng to send a new music cassette to Sister Lin for him.

Two tapes a month for ten yuan, she should be able to bear it.

"Ah, can't bear it!"

With Southern Murong's shout, Northern Qiao Feng was completely calm.

After a while, they turned off the recorder that was still making sound.

The recorder was borrowed from a colleague. Hearing that Northern Qiao Feng brought a foreign music cassette given by Wei Ming to Zhu Lin, the two wanted to hear what magic this music had.

Then, accompanied by the passionate *Kung Fu Fighting*, the two passionately went to the base.

This is an annual divine song born with Bruce Lee's great popularity in the West, with sales as high as 11 million copies.

Although they couldn't understand what the lyrics were singing, Northern Qiao Feng felt he had more energy.

After Southern Murong gave the cassette to Zhu Lin when she went to work, Zhu Lin was overjoyed, thinking that the kid had forgotten her.

But listening to the first strange song in the cassette, forget it, you'd better forget me. This is what, I don't even want to pay.

Fortunately, except for the first strange song, the others were very gentle. This time I won't owe his account, but I will return the money when I have time to go to Peking University.

At this time, Melinda had returned the original manuscript of *The Tale of the Heavenly Book* to Wei Ming and gave a very high evaluation.

"You can let me see it when you have new works."

"Oh, soon." Wei Ming thought for a while, "There will be a medium-length novel published in a few days."

At this time, the November issue of *Harvest* had reached the countdown to release, but the number of first printing copies had not been finalized yet.

Little *Huacheng* has a lot of guts, 370,000 copies, can you sell them all!

The intention to step on the big brother to get to the top is too obvious.

After some discussion, it was finally determined, 400,000 copies for the first printing!

This is also the highest first printing number since the resumption.

As for why there is such high confidence, Wei Ming, who was still a newcomer, was an important reason.

Since September, Wei Ming had debuted for less than two months, and had already made a great name in the literary world with *Prophet of Ducks* and *Two Oxen*. Plus his two poems, he really possessed some die-hard fans.

And *Two Donkeys* is not only the hottest educated youth literature novel at present, but also Wei Ming's debut work in the true sense. It will definitely bring no small attention to the magazine.

And besides Wei Ming, the other authors in this issue of *Harvest* are not weak either.

In addition, there is a medium-length novel *Ah! * by Feng Jicai.

37-year-old Feng Jicai's time in the literary world is not long. He was a center for the Tianjin men's basketball team. After being injured, he transferred to the art world and engaged in painting work at the Tianjin Calligraphy and Painting Society. The first time he wrote was because he researched the history of the Boxer Rebellion and co-wrote a book *Boxer Fist*, which also laid the foundation for his later creation of *God Whip*.

This year, Feng Jicai can be considered a real writer. His scar novel *The Forked Road of Paving Flowers* was published in the March issue of *Harvest*.

And this *Ah! * with the same theme has even better skills, which can be considered his early representative work.

Besides Wei Ming and Feng Jicai, there is also a young writer Ye Xin, whose long serialized novel *Young People of Our Generation* will publish its grand finale in this issue of *Harvest*.

Wei Ming is not a professional in writing educated youth literature, but Ye Xin is the most representative figure of educated youth literature.

Next year, his *Wasted Years* directly brought *Harvest* to the peak of one million circulation, and it was later adapted into a TV series.

Although these three debuted not long ago and are not old guns in the literary world, the high circulation of *Huacheng* does not rely on old people.

The words and stories of the old people have been out of touch with today's readers. The literary world is the world of the new generation.

On November 25th, 400,000 copies of *Harvest* began to spread to bookstores, newsstands, and post offices across the country.

Although not all were sent out on the first day, 400,000 didn't last too long, and the explosive trend had already formed.

!

At the newsstand outside Peking University, the old man was prepared. Knowing Wei Ming's popularity at Peking University, he heard that this Wei Ming had works published again, so this time he prepared twice as many *Harvest* as the previous issue.

But when Dai Jinhua from the 78 Chinese department came to buy magazines at noon, it was already out of stock.

Fortunately, after returning to the dormitory, she saw a roommate buy one and put it on the table, so she read it while she was napping.

Of course, she read Wei Ming's *Two Donkeys* directly.

This is a novel that is very happy to read at first. Dai Jinhua couldn't stop laughing when she read it.

Ma Jie, an educated youth who went to the countryside from a big city, is a handsome guy who shouts slogans loudly but likes to be lazy.

Although the classic lines of *How Steel Was Tempered* are always on his lips, he doesn't do human things.

In order to be lazy, he wanted to be a breeder. In order to be a breeder, he stole several times the dosage of anesthetic from the health center and gave a shot to the breeding donkey Black Five, who was responsible for breeding in the production team.

Later, he pretended to be a god and "woke it up", thereby gaining the trust of the brigade leader and successfully taking the position.

These bridges are very life-like and very funny. Ma Jie gives people the feeling of being bad and likable. His words and deeds are very like those children in the Beijing courtyard, rogue-like.

And when Ma Jie and the breeder discussed why Black Five could be a breeding donkey, using toothpicks and chopsticks as metaphors, Dai Jinhua couldn't help but blush. This description is too rogue.

I don't know if Wei Ming is the first writer to use toothpicks to make such depictions.

However, as the plot continued, the funny elements of the plot decreased, and the conflict began to intensify. Dai Jinhua's expression was serious, as if she were thinking.

Because of Ma Jie, when Black Five lost its breeding ability, the attitude of the brigade leader Da Lian, who had loved it, changed abruptly. Because it caused trouble and didn't cooperate, he decisively ended its life, and everyone shared it to eat meat.

On the contrary, Ma Jie had a kind of pity for Black Five, but couldn't resist the threat of brigade leader Da Lian, and ended Black Five's life in the fastest and least painful way.

And all this was seen by Black Six, who was tied to the side.

Black Six is Black Five's brother. Because he doesn't have the ability of his brother, he is just a donkey doing hard labor.

However, this donkey doing hard labor is amazing next. It actually started to retaliate against Ma Jie for the sake of its brother.

Next, Ma Jie suffered all kinds of torture, and his ugly affair with the beautiful village girl Cai Feng was exposed to everyone in the village, so he had to choose to marry far away.

So the struggle between a man and a donkey began.

In Wei Ming's pen, Black Six is simply amazing, exaggerated a bit without boundaries, but Dai Jinhua knows that at this moment Black Six is no longer just a donkey, it is an imagery symbol.

A horse and a donkey, in fact, they are the same, they are the lowest producers. In front of the powerful, they kill each other and hurt each other.

But in the end, brigade leader Da Lian, who stood at the top of the production team's power and decided Black Five's life and death, sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, unscathed.

Finally, smelling the dried skin of Black Five's brother, Black Six seemed to know who to rush to. So it ignited itself, burning all the grain harvest of the production team for the year, and it burned until only a standing skeleton remained!

Dai Jinhua felt that this novel was too powerful, consistent with her consistent impression of Wei Ming.

So she immediately picked up her pen, preparing to write a novel review and submit it.

And at the same time, her classmate Liu Zhenyun had already finished writing the literary review and gave it to Wei Ming for correction.

"Can I earn this money?" After reading it, he asked cautiously.

Wei Ming: "There is progress compared to the last time, you can try larger newspapers and periodicals."

*Two Donkeys* is an atypical educated youth literature, and also created a distinct educated youth image, Ma Jie, who is completely different from the past or the great, glorious, and correct or tragic and painful ones. This novel quickly sparked a heated discussion in the literary world.

And unlike *Two Oxen*, which was almost praised and affirmed, *Two Donkeys* still had quite a few negative evaluations...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 98 =====