Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 651 Chapter 650 About Manuscript Fees
Having a water tank at home is a kind of life wisdom. Obviously, people in America don't have this common sense. Such a large forest fire could not be put out.

If a fire of this scale happened to Lao Mao, he would be able to come up with an emergency plan in minutes.

No water? No fire extinguishing equipment? No problem, just use the ultimate weapon!
Once the nuclear treasure explodes above a big fire, any fire will be stopped.

It sounds like a fairy tale, but Brother Mao can really do such a thing.

Brother Lao Mao had a natural gas field that had been burning for more than two years. He tried every possible means to put it out, but failed. Finally, Brother Lao Mao used a small treasure with a 30-kilowatt equivalent and completely extinguished the fire in 23 seconds.

Not only that, nuclear weapons are not only a deterrent tool for Mao, but also a practical tool. They are not only used to put out fires, but also to build canals, build reservoirs, mine, and explore oil fields. Mao has used them all.

After cleaning the water tank, Tang Zhitong went out to fetch water with a bucket on his shoulder. While waiting in line, he heard some free gossip about the Liu family.

Liu Zhang picked a beautiful daughter-in-law from the countryside for her son. Although this solved the problem of her son being single and the problem of continuing the family line, it also laid the hidden danger for the current difficulties.

When Liu Chengzhi and Chu Chunxue got married, the household registration policy in Beijing had not been tightened yet, and one could settle down there as long as they got married.

However, Liu Zhang did not agree to move her daughter-in-law's household registration out of her parents' home because Chu Chunxue had land there!

Liu Zhang was very obsessed with land, and it was because of this obsession that she became a landlord.

Liu Zhang also had her own little calculations. She only cared about eating and not about being beaten. Her own land was divided, so she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of her son's marriage to preserve Chu Chunxue's land for the Liu family.

If one wants to preserve the land, the household registration cannot be changed, so Chu Chunxue's household registration has always been in his hometown. The Liu family gives some money to the Chu family every year, and the Chu family helps Chu Chunxue to farm the land and gives some output every year.

In fact, Liu Zhang was not the only one who had such thoughts and practices. At that time, there were a lot of people who stayed in the city in the name of "visiting relatives and friends". Among the 11.8 temporary residents, those who were "visiting relatives and friends" accounted for 60%.

Based on this, when Sijiu City carried out household registration in 52, Liu Zhang did not allow Chu Chunxue to settle down; when Sijiu City established population cards in 56, Liu Zhang still did not settle down her daughter-in-law and still registered her as a temporary resident.

The city of Beijing is naturally incomparable to other places. As long as there is no demand for more housing, no one, whether it is the workplace or the street, cares much about these things.

Before 58, although every household had a grain book, its implementation was not strict. Since there was no shortage of grain, people would sell it for money.

Although Chu Chunxue had no job at that time, Liu Zhang had her own private money, Liu Chengzhi had a salary, and Lu Dexian would find various reasons to subsidize the family from time to time. The Liu family lived a very comfortable life. Liu Zhang was very complacent for a time and was happy that she could get a small advantage.

The good times did not last long. Ever since the trial implementation of food coupons in the flower market at the end of 58, Chu Chunxue's life became more and more difficult. The land in her hometown became collective property, and food had to be bought from the commune. However, this was secondary. The real life-threatening thing was that since the autumn of 59, the commune had run out of food and could not buy any!

At this time, Liu Zhang was panicked. She wanted to settle Chu Chunxue down, but found that it was impossible now!

The population of the old city is increasing day by day. In order to control the population, the household registration card is becoming more and more strict year by year.

Although intermarriage between rural and urban areas was not prohibited, the old city added a rule to control the urban household registration, which stated that marriages between urban and rural residents could only be compatible downwards, not upwards.

Rural people can marry into the city, and the people can come here, but the household registration cannot be given to them. Not only will the people who marry here not be given a household registration, but even the children born there cannot be registered.

City people can also marry into the countryside. They can move there and their household registration can also be transferred there, but it is difficult to come back once they leave.

Liu Zhang cried and begged for mercy, and Lu Dexian also helped to plead for mercy, but Chu Chunxue's case was too clear, and the police station was unwilling to cause trouble for themselves.

In the past six months, Chu Chunxue's food rations were all saved from what Liu Chengzhi took from his own mouth, and the remaining part was bought from outside. He was really living off his savings.

Fortunately, Liu Jiaming had a city hukou, because at that time Liu Zhang wanted to use legal means to get a piece of land for her grandson. Chu Chunxue's village did not agree to settle down there, and if she did, she would have to be given land, and there was not that much land in the village, so this indirectly saved Liu Jiaming's life.

In order to compensate for the loss of their own chickens, the Liu family had to spend all of their limited assets and even borrow money, which immediately made the situation worse for the already poor family.

Now, since he had no money to buy food, Liu Chengzhi went directly to Lu Dexian to borrow money with confidence.

Liu Chengzhi had also heard other people's rumors, so he reacted so strongly when Tang Zhitong said "son and daughter" that night.

When Liu Chengzhi was borrowing money, his voice was a little loud, and was heard by the residents with good hearing. This further confirmed the relationship between the two men as "father and daughter".

However, Liu Chengzhi is very similar to Liu Zhang in both appearance and personality. It is impossible to determine his relationship with Lu Dexian based on appearance alone. The accurate answer lies with Liu Zhang who is in prison.

"There's still a lot of time to go. How long can Old Lu take care of others?"

"Hey, Liu's wife is pregnant with another baby. It will be even more troublesome when the baby is born. It's not certain that a chicken thief can get a permanent residence permit."

"Didn't Liu Zhang get a six-month sentence? What do you think she'll be like when she gets out? Her big son hasn't even been to see her once. By then, his brains will be beaten out, right?"

"How could she hit her own son? If she had to hit someone, she would hit her daughter-in-law."

"How pitiful! His good looks are wasted. If he finds a good family, he can live a good life."

"Hey~ How do you know that he is having a hard time? My son is in jail, so no one is disturbing him. You didn't hear the noise at night. Hey, that sound, tsk tsk..."

The discussion became more and more frivolous. Tang Zhitong pretended not to hear it and walked back with the full bucket of water.

When it reached the gate, the water was simply replaced.

In the past, I changed the water just to let my family experience the treatment of Kangmazi, but now I have to change it.

Tap water should be inexhaustible. Even though there is drought in Beijing right now, it is still far from the point of needing to transfer water from the south to the north. However, the quality of tap water has declined. Not only does it contain impurities, but it also tastes like rust when you drink it.

The rust taste is a bit sweet at first, but the aftertaste is not very pleasant.

Tang Zhitong didn't know whether Zhang Guifang would find out about his behavior of changing the water. If she did, he would try to fool her. After all, his family's health was the most important thing.

After carrying the water back and forth five times, Tang Zhitong finally filled the water tank.

After washing his hands, Tang Zhitong started to bask in the sun, stealing a half-day of leisure from his busy life. The best thing in the world is pure joy.

Although it was just plain tea and simple meals, Tang Zhitong loved such days very much.

The remaining four hens in the chicken coop were eating the chicken feed mixed by Zhang Guifang.

There are no more cabbage leaves to feed the chickens now, so Zhang Guifang uses corn husks from corn milling, which is more or less grain. And when feeding the chickens, she has to mix some sand and lime into the chicken feed.

The sand helps the chickens digest food, and the lime provides the hens with calcium carbonate.

If calcium carbonate intake is insufficient, hens are very likely to lay soft eggs.

The so-called soft egg is an egg without an outer eggshell, but only covered with a layer of egg membrane.

Whenever the hen lays soft eggs, it is Fengzhi's happiest day, because it means she can have some meat in the evening.

In addition, you have to control the degree of feeding chickens. You can't feed them too well, because if the chickens are too fat, the frequency of laying eggs will be reduced. You can't feed them too poorly, because if they are always hungry, how can they lay eggs?

This is a bit like the Qing Dynasty's 33 taels of silver theory.

According to scholars' research, the annual income of an average Chinese peasant family at that time was about 33 taels of silver, while the annual expenditure was about 36 taels.

The difference of 3 taels became a heavy burden for the people.

One tael of silver could purchase about 100 kilograms of grain. The lack of the three taels meant that they could never eat their fill, and their lives were filled with embarrassment and helplessness.

The people were trapped by the gap of three taels of silver. They were busy all year round just to make up for the deficit. They had no time to think about their own situation and rights, and they were powerless to resist the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

Once natural disasters, man-made disasters, diseases and famines occurred, ordinary families were often unable to cope with them, and selling children and becoming homeless frequently occurred, so the land began to be annexed...

Tang Zhitong's life was peaceful at home, while Jingmin was scratching his head at home, like an ant on a hot pot. He stood on the windowsill and looked down, and then walked back and forth in the living room, and from time to time he kept muttering like Xianglin Sao: "Why hasn't my brother-in-law come yet? Why hasn't my brother-in-law come yet?"

Jingying was annoyed by her brother: "Brother-in-law said he would take you there when he was free, but he might be busy today."

"We agreed to do it today, why don't you keep your word!" Jingmin went to the balcony again angrily after hearing this.

The next day, Monday, February 2nd.

When Jingying went downstairs to go to school, she saw Tang Zhitong and said, "Brother-in-law, our mother asked you to go upstairs."

"Oh, then wait for me for a moment." Tang Zhitong said without a doubt, and was about to stand up the bicycle.

"Our mother told our eldest sister to take us there. She has something to talk to you about and will need to stay for a while." Jingying finished her sentence upon seeing this.

"Then be careful." Tang Zhitong looked at Xiao Wang, hesitated for a moment, and instructed.

"Okay, don't worry. Hurry up and get on." Xiao Wang smiled, waved his hand to send people away, and rode out of the alley with his two younger sisters.

"Brother-in-law, you don't keep your word! You said you would take me fishing yesterday!" As soon as Tang Zhitong went upstairs, he was faced with the complaints from his brother-in-law.

"I'm fine now. I'll definitely do it next time!" Tang Zhitong wanted to touch Jingmin's head to comfort him, but he turned his head away angrily.

"Jingmin, don't make trouble for your brother-in-law." Ye Zhijuan was cleaning up the table after dinner. Seeing that her son was ignorant, she glared at Jingmin.

Since his mother had spoken, no matter how unhappy Jingmin was, he could only hold his anger in his heart and vent it on his schoolbag.

"Mom, is there something wrong?" Tang Zhitong looked at Ye Zhijuan and it didn't seem like it was something urgent.

"I had a meeting with Sister Li the day before yesterday, and there's something I need to inform you about." Ye Zhijuan put down the dishes in her hands and pointed at the sofa.

"You go ahead." Tang Zhitong sat down obediently. Although he didn't sit upright, his attitude was very proper at least.

"A while ago, I gave you ten dollars as a bonus for the handbook. Do you think it's too little?" Ye Zhijuan asked with a smile.

"It's not a small amount. How much effort did I put in? Besides, it's my honor to have my name on the inscribed manual. I don't need to be paid for it." Tang Zhitong immediately expressed his opinion. He was speaking from his heart. He had thousands of dollars and a lot of yellow croakers lying around in his own space. He didn't care about these melons and dates.

"You think so!" Ye Zhijuan first agreed with her son-in-law's idea, and then added: "In fact, the royalties are much more than this."

"Are you going to give out money?" Tang Zhitong became excited when he heard this. Although he didn't need these small amounts of money, the royalties were legitimate and could help fill up Xiao Wang's piggy bank!

"I guess so." Ye Zhijuan nodded and admitted, then continued: "I heard from Wenwen that you submitted articles to newspapers before and received royalties. Do you know how the royalties are calculated?"

"I didn't ask about it specifically. I just know that royalties have nothing to do with the number of copies printed. I take whatever people give me, and I can't bargain. Besides, I was just thinking about using the royalties to make some quick money for emergencies, and I didn't think about relying on it to live." Facing his mother-in-law, Tang Zhitong expressed his thoughts without reservation.

"Well, the manuscript fee for a newspaper or magazine has nothing to do with the number of copies printed. I made some inquiries the day before yesterday. Now I'll tell you about the changes in manuscript fees in recent years."

"Before 58, the method of 'basic remuneration plus fixed-quota remuneration' was adopted, and the remuneration was still considerable. People like Guo, Tian Han, Cao Yu, Ai Qing and others could receive more than yuan a year in remuneration, and many of them used their remuneration to buy courtyard houses.

In 57, some people said that pursuing high royalties was an unhealthy view of money and was backward. Pursuing high royalties would only make writers alienated from the working people and gradually become corrupt and degenerate.

After some discussion, in July 58, the cultural department issued the "Interim Provisions on Remuneration for Literary and Social Science Books", officially adopting the payment method of "basic remuneration plus remuneration based on the number of print runs".

For example, if you submit an article to a newspaper, it will not be affected, as only the basic remuneration will be calculated. "

Tang Zhitong nodded as he listened, not knowing what his mother-in-law's purpose was in saying this.

"While changing the payment method, the basic remuneration standard has also been lowered, from 4 to 15 yuan per thousand words for manuscripts and 3 to 10 yuan per thousand words for translations.

The payment method for additional print runs is also much lower than the payment method for fixed print runs.

Later, the cultural department found that the standard of remuneration was still a bit high, which would make the lives of some people special and alienate them from the masses of workers and peasants. Therefore, it once again issued a special document hoping that newspapers and publishing houses in various places would reduce the remuneration to half of the standard at that time.

Many people in the cultural circle supported it at that time. Mr. Ye Shengtao took the initiative to ask for no royalties. Cao Yu and several other writers jointly published an article and took the initiative to ask for a reduction in royalties. Bing Xin and others proposed to cancel their personal salaries and live solely on royalties.

Last year, the cultural department issued another document, affirming the lowering of the standard of remuneration for royalties, but requiring appropriate consideration for ordinary authors, which should be conducive to the ideological transformation of the authors and also take into account the authors' appropriate level of material living.

Have you noticed anything after I said this?" Ye Zhijuan asked after she finished explaining the changes in her royalties in recent years.

(End of this chapter)