Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 511 The Spring Festival of 1990
Song Tangtang sent Li Li home. Fang Minghua made herself a cup of steaming hot Longjing tea. Just as she was about to drink the tea comfortably, she suddenly remembered that it was almost ten o'clock and the child should go to bed!
So I took care of the two little ones, washing their faces, feet and brushing their teeth.
After the child lay in bed, Fang Minghua would tell him a fairy tale. After finally coaxing the child to sleep, she tiptoed out of the room.

When I looked at the Longjing tea, it was already cold.

He changed a cup and then went to the study to look through the book that Li Li brought back.

"Selected short and medium-length stories of Minghua's avant-garde genre", "Selected short and medium-length stories of Minghua's realistic genre", "Collection of science fiction novels of Minghua", "Crossing the Guandong", "The Legend of Sun Wukong". In addition, two romance novels written in the United States, "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Ghost", are on the list.

Fang Minghua had not seen several English translations, so he picked up one and flipped through it. The paper and cover were pretty good.

At this time, Song Tangtang came back, tiptoed into the study, and asked quietly, "Is the child asleep?"

"Yes, did you send Lili back?"

"Well, it's a good thing I drove her there. It was windy and cold outside."

The child was sleeping, so naturally they couldn't make loud noises. The two went to their bedroom and closed the door. Seeing Song Tangtang changing clothes, Fang Minghua said, "Let me ask you something. How is Lili's relationship with that rich second-generation Chinese? Did she tell you?"

Song Tangtang rolled her eyes at him and said, "Lili was here just now, why didn't you ask him?"

"It's hard to say."

"You are her brother-in-law, so it is only natural for you to care about her lifelong affairs. Why is it so hard to ask?" Song Tangtang said angrily, but still said, "I asked him, and he said that the young man treated her very well."

"What about Lili?"

"How should I put it? I don't hate him, nor do I like him, but my second aunt is very persistent and often calls me internationally to ask about this. Lili said that once she got tired of hearing this and said, "Mom, if you like him so much, you should just marry him." My second aunt was immediately mad."

"The main reason is that Lili is not young anymore. If she were in China, she would have been married long ago," said Fang Minghua.

"Yes, Lili is only one year younger than me, but I am already a mother of two children, and Lili is still single. Alas."

At the end, Song Tangtang sighed softly.

Seeing his wife like this, Fang Minghua hurriedly comforted her: "Don't worry, Lili will definitely find a good home."

"Okay, let's not talk about her anymore, let's talk about your book signing this time." Song Tangtang changed the subject.

"Everything went smoothly. Shu Bin is indeed capable. Although he comes from a literary family, he has a good sense for business." Fang Minghua told Song Tangtang about the advertising in the newspaper.

"It seems that the person who managed Shengshi Publishing was right." Song Tangtang said, "However, some people have complaints about this kind of book signing and selling activity, saying that your behavior is no different from that of a businessman."

"Who?"

"It was a review in a newspaper. The author was not famous so I don't remember it."

"Don't worry about it. No matter what you do, there will always be people who dislike it these days." Fang Minghua said calmly, "Who am I? People like Lu Xun and Lao She are still promoting their own books. Who is criticizing them?"

"Lu Xun and Lao She are promoting their own books?" Song Tangtang was surprised.

Fang Minghua told Song Tangtang what her grandmother had said when they were having dinner in Yanjing a few days ago.

Song Tangtang giggled after hearing this.

"My grandma is really interesting and open-minded."

"The students of Jinling University for Women were absolutely first-rate at that time."

"That is."

"Okay, let's take a rest too. I'm tired today. I'll go wash up."

"Yeah." After finishing the book signing event, Fang Minghua's life became completely free. As for the script of "Ordinary World", let's talk about it after the New Year.

Fang Minghua's whirlwind publicity and promotion campaign set off a sales boom. This book, which is said to be the first serious literary novel in mainland China in the 1990s, portrays characters with a cold tone, double-line structure, realism, symbolism, contrast and other techniques, creating a group of vivid images of private teachers.

Famous critic Li Tuo commented in the Literary Gazette: In this book, the sublimation of human nature in hardship and adversity is like the poetic sound of piano and flute in ordinary days, witnessing the operation of conscience and morality in people's hearts. Realism, sense of destiny and confidence in the brilliant starry sky of human spirit make the meaning of Skywalker solemn and far-reaching.

"The contemporary poet Bei Dao has a famous quote in his "Answer": 'Meanness is the passport of mean people, and nobility is the epitaph of noble people.' Here, I have tampered with Bei Dao's famous quote to evaluate Minghua's novel "Skywalker."

Of course, there are also criticisms, mainly about his marketing methods, which adopt the activities of signing and selling books by writers in capitalist society, turning his works into "commodities."

Fang Minghua ignored such criticism.

His current task is to take care of two children at home.

The children are on winter vacation and cannot be left at my mother-in-law's house all the time. The elderly need to have a rest and my wife still has to go to work, so this glorious and arduous task is given to him.

Fortunately, having two children as playmates keeps them from feeling lonely. Fang Minghua prepares milk and bread for the children in the morning, rice for lunch, and noodles or porridge in the evening to eat together with his wife when she comes home.

When the weather is good, take the kids out for a walk. When the weather is bad, stay at home. Anyway, there is no homework in kindergarten.

One more thing.

It is a three-story building that I built on the land I bought in Nanfang Lane, Chaoyangmen, in the east of the city. It was completed three months ago and all that is left is preparation for decoration.

Fang Minghua has already contacted the plumbers, electrical workers and tilers and is waiting for the weather to warm up in the spring to start construction.

The Spring Festival in 1990 came earlier, and New Year’s Eve was on January 27th.

This year's New Year's Eve was spent at my sister and brother-in-law's house because my parents moved there to take care of my pregnant sister.

However, on New Year's Eve, my brother-in-law Liu Jianjun brought his sister Fang Mingli back to his hometown to celebrate the New Year. In fact, there were only the old couple and Fang Minghua's family at home. There were also two children and the house was very lively.

The Spring Festival songs in 1990 were unremarkable, but two skits were very interesting. One was "The Protagonist and the Supporting Actor" performed by Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao, and the other was "Blind Date" performed by Zhao Benshan and Huang Xiaojuan.

The “King of Sketches” of the Spring Festival Gala stage was born.

From then on, audiences all over the country remembered Zhao Benshan's name. However, they did not know at that time that in the next 20 years, Zhao Benshan would become one of the reasons and motivations for them to watch the Spring Festival Gala.

Of course, starting from the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qin Province TV began to broadcast the TV series Desire on the prime channel at 8 pm, and there were two episodes every Saturday and Sunday, which immediately set off a viewing boom.

The Spring Festival holiday is still only five days long and it passes quickly. Song Tangtang has to go to work and Fang Minghua has to continue working on the script of "Ordinary World".

In the words of my wife, the sooner you finish writing, the sooner I can go to Yenching to talk to Zheng Xiaolong.

Okay, listen to my wife.

Fang Minghua had no choice but to send the two children back to her mother-in-law's house and continue her writing plan.

"The Ordinary World" has over a million words, and Fang Minghua decided that the script length should be about 40 episodes. Any longer would be bloating, and the cost must also be considered, after all, this is the film era.

Each episode of the script is about 7000 to 8000 words, which is relatively small compared to other TV scripts.

Fang Minghua has always insisted that screenwriters write scripts only to provide directors with a reference template. A real director must do secondary creation. Writing too much detail will restrict the director's performance.

Of course, it's also laziness to some extent.

The spring of 1990 arrived late, and there were several late cold snaps in the middle. Finally, at the end of February, the script of "Ordinary World" was completed.

(End of this chapter)