1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Chi Zijian looked around the room and asked, "Didn't you guys come to report before?"

Yu Hua nodded and said, "Yes, I just got here today and just reported in downstairs."

"You're not leaving tonight?"

"It depends on the situation." Yu Hua smiled, "Did you see Han Shaogong or Su Tong when you came back?"

"I didn't see Han Shaogong, but I did see Su Tong. We both took the same bus back. He should be in his room now."

"Su Tong is back."

Hearing that Su Tong was back, Yu Hua became very excited and asked Chi Zijian again, "Do you know which room he lives in?"

"I know it's on the fourth floor, but I don't know the exact room number. What do you want from him?"

"Something big happened." Yu Hua said seriously.

"I know where Su Tong lives. He's in room 412." Liu Zhenyun said.

After getting the room number, Yu Hua immediately stood up and walked outside, saying, "I'll be back soon."

"Where is he going?" Liu Zhenyun looked at Yu Hua's back as he disappeared at the door, with a puzzled look on his face.

Shi Tiesheng rolled his eyes and said, "Maybe he went to ask Su Tong for poker."

Mo Yan nodded, "Something like he can do."

Less than three minutes later, Yu Hua brought Su Tong over, and he was holding two decks of cards in his hands.

When they met in the meeting hall, Yu Hua had already found out from Su Tong that Su Tong had playing cards.

That's why he asked Chi Zijian just now whether Su Tong had returned.

If Su Tong hadn't come back, Yu Hua would have gone to the front desk to ask for a deck of playing cards. His main purpose of coming to the hotel was to play cards.

"There are just enough of us to fill two tables."

Including Su Tong, there are now seven people in the room. If they play two against one, they can add one more person by forming two tables.

"I won't play anymore."

"You play."

"The six of you are just right for two tables."

After Yu Hua finished speaking, Zhou Yan, Chi Zijian and Shi Tiesheng spoke almost at the same time, saying that they didn't want to play.

Hearing what the three of them said, Yu Hua curled his lips and said, "If you three don't want to play, then we are not the right people."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Aren't you four just playing with tractors?"

"That's fine too." Yu Hua accepted the advice readily.

Su Tong smiled and said, "No, I recently learned a new way to play, which is also played by four people. I think it is more fun than the tractor."

"What's the gameplay? Is it difficult?"

Yu Hua was quite interested when he heard about the new way to play, but he was also concerned about its difficulty.

They don't have much time, and if the rules are too difficult, it would be a waste of time.

"It's not difficult. You will understand after playing two rounds."

Su Tong did what she said. She explained the rules to them while shuffling the cards. "This game is played by four people. Two people form a team. Those sitting opposite each other are in the same team. You need to start from 2..."

Zhou Yan only heard the first two sentences of the rules and knew that Su Tong was talking about throwing eggs.

He didn't expect that throwing eggs already exists now.

In his impression, throwing eggs became popular only very late. At least he had never seen anyone else playing it in Jinling, and he didn't know where Su Tong knew this way of playing.

After Su Tong finished explaining the rules, Mo Yan and the others were all confused. They felt that the rules were very complicated, much more complicated than two against one.

The key is that this game is a protracted battle, and every card needs to be upgraded, which makes them feel overwhelmed.

However, in the spirit of exploration, they decided to try playing a few games first. If they can't adapt, it won't be too late to try other ways of playing.

After playing two games, the others found that this game was not as difficult as they had thought, and the rules were easy to remember.

Moreover, this gameplay is not only easy to get started, but also very interesting. It takes some thought to fully play it.

Although Su Tong introduced this way of playing to them, he himself was not very good at it, so when the four of them were together, it was basically just a fight between two noobs.

When playing cards, I am afraid of a big gap in level, as that would be a very bad experience.

Either everyone is an expert and shows off their special skills, or like this, everyone is a noob and can still play together.

After playing a few games, everyone was quite confident and felt that they had mastered the technique. Yu Hua took the lead in suggesting, "Now that we've tried it, shall we get serious about it?"

Liu Zhenyun asked with a smile, "Teacher Yu, what do you mean?"

"With a little bit of color."

Yu Hua is addicted to gambling. He has to play cards with some gamble, otherwise he won’t have fun.

However, although he must have a prize, he has no requirements on the size of the prize, and it doesn't matter whether the amount is a lot or a little.

It doesn't even cost money, they have played the game of sticking notes before.

Others had no objection to the idea of ​​having a prize, but now there was a problem, which was how to calculate the prize.

"How do we calculate the money for winning or losing?" Yu Hua looked at Su Tong. After all, this way of playing was proposed by Su Tong.

Su Tong shook her head and said, "I don't know either. I just watched others play and didn't know how to calculate the money."

He had never seen anyone else playing this game with a stake.

"That's hard to calculate. After all, I have to upgrade every time. I can't always count the money after I win A. How long will it take to win?"

"Also, the teammates are the same in every game. Isn't this unfair?"

"It took us two times to reach level three. It will take at least an hour to reach level A."

Just when several people were frowning, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "This is not difficult. Just don't go up the ladder. Just play level 2 each time and pay according to the amount of money at level . As for teammates, you can also change them every round and just turn over the cards."

Liu Zhenyun thought about it and nodded, "Very reasonable."

Mo Yan smiled and said, "You are so knowledgeable about this, are you sure you don't want to come up and play a few rounds?"

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "I don't usually play cards."

Liu Zhenyun laughed and said, "Teacher Zhou, are you the type who plays dumb and tries to win? Although you are a master, you keep saying that you can't play, and then you will kill everyone after we pull you to the table?"

"I can prove that he definitely won't do that." Yu Hua laughed, "Besides, Zhou Yan is a rich man. He wouldn't even consider killing all four or all sixteen people, let alone killing all the four."

"That's true." Mo Yan nodded.

"Alright, alright, hurry up and decide how much the first level costs. We're going to eat soon."

"One dollar per level?" Mo Yan suggested.

"Row."

The others all agreed. None of them were big-card players, so one dollar at level one was fine.

To be honest, the four people at the poker table are not short of money.

In recent years, not many domestic writers have been able to make money. Prices are getting higher and higher, but writers' royalties have not increased.

In the past, even if writers were able to publish a single book, they could only earn a fixed amount of royalties, and the amount was not much.

However, thanks to Wang Shuo, the country began to implement a royalty system, and well-known writers were gradually able to profit from the sales of single books.

But even then, writers don’t make much money.

On the one hand, it is not easy to publish a single volume, and even if a single volume is published, it may not sell.

First of all, the market is indeed not very good. Secondly, there is a lot of piracy in the country, which has a great impact on the sales of genuine products.

Many books are selling very well on street stalls, but the writers don’t get a penny.

However, the few people sitting here should be among the most profitable writers in China.

The collection of works that Yu Hua made with Zhou Yan and others is enough to make him live a worry-free life. Moreover, as the sales of "To Live" are gradually improving, his royalties are also increasing.

Mo Yan and Liu Zhenyun didn't actually earn much in royalties, but they went into the script writing business for Wang Shuo and others in the past two years and made a lot of money.

It may not be the hundreds of thousands that Yu Hua mentioned before, but there are definitely tens of thousands of dollars. Nowadays, if you have tens of thousands of dollars on hand, even if you are not rich, you can definitely live a comfortable life.

The poorest may be Su Tong, but he earns a lot of money from royalties, and "Wives and Concubines" also brings him some income, which is higher than that of most writers.

Zhou Yan watched the card table for a while, then lost interest, mainly because the four of them were too newbies.

On the contrary, although Shi Tiesheng did not go up, later Yu Hua had a particularly bad card and lost confidence in his play. Shi Tiesheng went up and helped him to reverse the situation and win.

After Shi Tiesheng finished that fight, he didn't want to fight anymore and just withdrew, just like a hidden master in martial arts novels who only showed one move when he appeared.

……

They played until almost eight o'clock, when the four of them reluctantly got up and went to the restaurant to eat.

They thought that there wouldn't be many people in the restaurant at this time, but what they didn't expect was that when they arrived at the restaurant, there was still a large group of people.

Most of these people missed the previous bus and didn't want to take the bus by themselves, so they have been waiting for the bus at the hall until now.

Han Shaogong was also among them. As soon as he saw Zhou Yan and his companions, he came over with a plate.

"What brought you so late? Didn't you come back a long time ago?"

Yu Hua didn't answer his question at all. He just stared at the food on his plate and said with some disdain, "Is this all the restaurant has?"

Han Shaogong's plate was indeed a bit shabby, with just a little rice, some vegetables, some shredded potatoes, and a few pieces of meat that was either chicken or duck.

"At this time, it's good to have so many dishes. And there's no limit on the quantity, so you can order as much as you want."

"Unlimited is fine."

"You've picked it." Han Shaogong curled his lips and asked, "You guys aren't leaving tonight, right? Let's play cards together?"

Yu Hua laughed, "Old Han, you are late. We already have all the people. But you can find a few more people. I will teach you a new way to play."

"What kind of gameplay?"

"Two against two."

"Two on two? What kind of game is this? Is this a new trend in Yanjing? Is it fun?"

"It's fun."

Hearing that it was fun, Han Shaogong asked eagerly, "What are the rules?"

"I'll go get some food first and tell you later."

"The rules are simple..."

Seeing Yu Hua enthusiastically teaching Han Shaogong the rules, Zhou Yan smiled and said to Shi Tiesheng, "It seems that we can't leave tonight. Should we call sister-in-law to report it?"

Shi Tiesheng shook his head. "No, I knew I couldn't go back, so I told Ximi this morning. What about you? Do you want to report this to someone?"

"I'll report back later."

Hearing Zhou Yan say this, Shi Tiesheng smiled and whispered, "When can I drink at your wedding?"

Zhou Yan smiled and pushed Shi Tiesheng towards the place where they could get food: "Let's eat."

He found that Shi Tiesheng was becoming more and more gossipy.

It is true that birds of a feather flock together. Anyone who stays with Yu Hua for a long time will not be a good person.

The food in the restaurant is actually OK, that is, the variety is not particularly rich, but the quantity is sufficient and the taste is also good.

It is not easy for the Writers Association to organize a Writers Congress. It costs a huge amount of money. The food and accommodation of so many writers alone is a considerable expense.

After Zhou Yan pushed Shi Tiesheng back home after getting his meal, he found that Yu Hua and the others were already gathered around a round table. They got some white wine from somewhere, but it was in a small bottle, weighing only 250 grams.

Seeing Zhou Yan coming, Yu Hua handed him a bottle and said, "There is still some white wine. It would be a waste if you don't drink it."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "If you don't take advantage of this, you probably won't be able to sleep at night."

"Haha, it's a good deal, everyone can share it."

At the table, everyone except Shi Tiesheng was holding a bottle of white wine.

Although the quantity of this wine is small, its alcohol content is very high, at 65 degrees.

After taking a sip, I felt a burning sensation from the root of my tongue to my stomach.

However, although it is very strong, the taste is still okay, and it is undoubtedly a grain wine.

Originally, there were eight people at the table including Han Shaogong. After a while, Han Shaogong pulled Ge Fei and Shi Zhongshan over and listened to Yu Hua introduce the rules of throwing eggs with him.

Han Shaogong's purpose was obvious, which was to develop Shi Zhongshan and Ge Fei into evening card-playing partners.

……

Yu Hua and his friends finished playing cards at twelve o'clock. It was not because they did not want to continue, but because they considered that it was still the period of the Workers' Congress and had to be careful of the impact. Otherwise, they could have continued until tomorrow morning.

Zhou Yan took the key from Yu Hua and went to room 202.

His roommate did not come back all night. The next morning, he heard someone coming back in a daze. When he opened his eyes, he found that his roommate was already sleeping soundly next to him.

The roommate covered his face, so he couldn't see his face clearly. Zhou Yan looked at the coat on the back of the chair. There was a name tag on it with the words "Feng Yitong" written on it.

"It turns out to be Mr. Feng." Zhou Yan muttered softly.

Feng Yitong was the first secretary-general of the Jinling Writers Association and is now the vice chairman of the Jiangsu Overseas Chinese Literature Research Association.

He is also a director of the Jiangsu Writers Association and is considered Zhou Yan's leader.

It seems that the hotel rooms are arranged according to the region they belong to.

Although Zhou Yan did not take up the quota for Jiangsu Province this time, he was still included in the Jiangsu Writers Association.

He wanted to say hello to Feng Yi, but seeing that he was sleeping soundly, Zhou Yan did not say anything.

He just sighed that Mr. Feng was in great health and was not young anymore, yet he still stayed up late.

At this pace, I guess Mr. Feng played cards with others all night last night.

When everyone gets together at the Writers' Congress, not many people actually discuss literature. Instead, the main topic is playing cards. These writers are actually no different from ordinary people.

People who come to attend the writers' congress just want to join in the fun, just like visiting relatives during the Chinese New Year. (End of this chapter)