Compared to the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is much faster. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhou Hexuan took the latest clipper this time, and in less than half a month, he had already arrived on the west coast of France.

Port of Le Havre.

Zhou Hexuan stepped down the ship's suspension ladder and couldn't help but look towards the nearby beach.

More than 20 years later, the beach will be under fire. Allied soldiers who landed from nearby entered the city, and the entire city of Le Havre was shattered, leaving more than 80,000 citizens homeless.

Well, the Normandy landings.

Zhou Hexuan did not stay in the city, took Sun Yongzhen straight to the train station, and then hurried towards Paris.

The Goncourt Literary Prize is about to announce the winners and present them, and Zhou Hexuan has great hopes for winning the award, so he was hurriedly called over there.

In fact, the process setting of this award is unreasonable. Judging from the traffic situation at this time, if a writer from Asia or the Americas wins an award, he will not have time to attend the award ceremony in Paris.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is much more thoughtful, announcing the results early and leaving more than a month for the laureates to hurry slowly - the results are announced in October and the awards are awarded in mid-December.

But this year's situation seems to be a bit peculiar, and it dragged on until November, and the Swedish Academy was still debating.

Back in August, when five finalists were supposed to be selected, members of the Swedish Academy suddenly had a convulsion and a full 27-member roster was chosen. Until October, the winners were supposed to be selected, but four consecutive rounds of voting failed to pass.

The problem lies in the voting rules for the Nobel Prize in Literature, where only writers who receive more than half of the votes are eligible to win the prize.

Then a hilarious scene came along......

The results of the first round of voting: Thomas Mann (German novelist) 4 votes, Stefan Georg (German poet) 4 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Void.

The results of the second round of voting: Thomas Mann 5 votes, Stephen George 3 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Void.

The results of the third round of voting: Thomas Mann 6 votes, Stephen George 2 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Void.

In the fourth round of voting, the Swedish Academy eliminated the other candidates and voted separately for Thomas Mann and Zhou Hexuan. The result was: Thomas Mann 6 votes, Zhou Hexuan 6 votes, 1 abstention.

God abstained from voting, and this has not happened in the selection of the Nobel Prize in Literature. And the guy who abstained from voting has a good reason, that is, he can't judge which of the two candidates is better or worse.

It wasn't until Li Shizeng sent a telegram to Zhou Hexuan that the Swedish Academy finally held the sixth round of voting: Thomas Mann had 7 votes and Zhou Hexuan had 6 votes.

With more than half of the votes, this time there is finally a result.

When the Chinese side was overwhelmingly touting Zhou Hexuan, in fact, the Swedish Academy of Letters had already revealed the answer, but the news had not passed.

Winner: German novelist, Paul Thomas Mann.

Reason for the award: The Buddenbrocks for his great novel "The Buddenbrocks", which has become an increasingly consolidated classic in contemporary literature.

Although Thomas Mann won the award, he openly expressed his displeasure. Because he thinks that the best novel he has written is "The Magic Mountain", the jury actually said that he won the award for "The Buddenbrocks", which is an insult to a great writer!

Several members of the Swedish Academy of Letters were equally unhappy because they liked "The Goddess" very much and considered it an epoch-making and groundbreaking work. But because of the stubbornness of some people, it is a pity that the Nobel Prize in Literature cannot be awarded to Zhou Hexuan.

Later generations often joked that the Nobel Prize is a lifetime achievement award, and you are embarrassed to accept it without a lot of age.

Today's Nobel Prizes are slightly better, often awarded to young people, but still take into account the candidate's qualifications and influence.

Thomas Mann began writing literature more than 30 years ago, and his award-winning work is a novel that has been published for ten years. He is very famous in Europe, and his influence is also very terrifying, and several people who participated in the voting know him, and he can't win better than his connections Zhou Hexuan.

In addition, "The Buddenbrocks" is a novel about the bourgeoisie, which is more acceptable and understandable to Western judges, and the Chinese society shown in "The Goddess" is less attractive.

Therefore, after the announcement of the results of the Nobel Prize in Literature, no one questioned its impartiality, but it was considered very normal, and Thomas Mann deserved the award.

As for Zhou Hexuan, although he did not win the final award, he made a huge name in the European literary world. Because the grapevine has long been circulating, a young Chinese writer has postponed the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature by a month.

It is said that there are still two judges who are indignant about this, believing that "The Goddess" is far better than "The Buddenbrocks".

……

6 December, Paris station.

Before Zhou Hexuan walked out of the station hall, he saw hundreds of Chinese standing outside, holding up signs reading "Welcome Mr. Zhou", each holding a French version of "The Goddess", standing patiently in the cold wind.

Seeing this, Zhou Hexuan hurriedly walked over.

Li Shizeng was standing in front of the crowd, and when he saw Zhou Hexuan appear, he immediately came over enthusiastically and shook his hand: "Mingcheng, you gave us Chinese a long face this time." ”

"I don't deserve to be so loving." Zhou Hexuan said.

Li Shizeng introduced several people to Zhou Hexuan, all of whom were well-known Chinese in France. As for those who held signs to greet Zhou Hexuan, most of them were members of the student union studying in France.

Zhou Hexuan didn't dare to be arrogant and slack, and after greeting Li Shizeng and them, he immediately walked into the crowd to shake hands with everyone, and said again and again: "Thank you for your hard work, let everyone wait here for the cold." ”

"Mr. Zhou, sign it!" A boy with glasses held up "The Goddess" and said.

Zhou Hexuan took the pen, let go of the title page and asked, "What's your name?" ”

The boy replied: "My name is Fu Lei, and I am auditing literature courses at the University of Paris, studying art theory and art criticism at the same time. I especially like my husband's "The Goddess", and this time I will definitely win the Prix Goncourt! ”

"I hope so." Zhou Hexuan glanced at the student in front of him twice, and wrote on the title page: Fu Lei's classmate Huijian-Zhou Hexuan.

As soon as he saw that Fu Lei had successfully asked for an autograph, the students studying in France next to him followed suit, and Zhou Hexuan instantly fell into a wave of signatures.

Li Shizeng looked at it with a smile for a while, then came over and said, "You better let Mr. Zhou go, he probably hasn't had lunch yet." ”

Zhou Hexuan signed his name and said, "Mr. Shi Zeng, if there is any good restaurant around here, I will treat you and go to it all." ”

"I guess I can't sit down, there are too many people," Li Shizeng said with a smile, "I know that there is a Chinese restaurant opened by Chinese workers who went to France in Europe, and we can go there." ”