For Lee, who had just become a high-school Chinese teacher, the award marked the start of an eight-year-long golden age for his short fiction. In 1968 alone, he published 20 short stories and novellas, a feat unheard of in Taiwan's writing community. Lee's incentive for working so hard at writing was the need to earn extra money.
這個重要獎項對當時剛取得高中國文老師資格的他而言，無疑是開啟往後長達 8 年短篇小說「全盛時期」的金鑰匙；同年他就一口氣發表了 20 篇中、短篇小說，創下台灣文壇難得的紀錄。