1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

Chapter 133: "Parental Love"? About my parents? (Seeking monthly votes

The second sister-in-law outside was roaring and crying. Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou, who didn't know what was going on, hurried out of their room and asked what had happened!

Feng's mother was also wiping her tears, which frightened Feng Jiayou so much that his face turned even paler.

"The situation in the south has become tense. The corps your second brother is with is heading to the border!"

As the saying goes, food and supplies must be sent before the war begins!

Although my second brother Feng Jiacheng is not in the front-line troops, his return to the city has been stopped and he may be called up to serve on the front line at any time.

When the news came from the south, my second sister-in-law Sun Juan was so frightened that she wailed as if she had lost her husband.

The same was true for Feng's mother, who felt sorry for her second son. She had been looking forward to receiving a letter from home, which said that it was almost their turn to return to the city!
But now, because the situation in the south has become tense, everyone is stranded and on standby.

Regardless of whether or not I can make it to the first-tier cities, it is definitely impossible to come back for the New Year as originally planned!
Although Feng Jiayou was also very sad and worried after hearing this, she still had to quickly comfort her sister-in-law.

"Juan'er, eat first, stop crying! Don't scare the child!"

Seeing her grandchildren coming back from playing outside, Feng's mother quickly wiped the tears from her face and persuaded Sun Juan from the second child's family.

The situation in the south!
After dinner, Cheng Xuemin returned to the house. He certainly remembered this war, but according to his memory, didn’t it break out after the New Year?
I thought that the Feng family's second youngest brother could come back to celebrate the New Year and that this could be avoided.

But who knows!

What I remember are the news reports. The real tension must have happened a long time ago.

In this way, my second brother was left there.

I just don’t know if I will be sent directly to the front line. If I am sent to the front line…

Cheng Xuemin could only say, "Let it be, the whole family will be glorious!" But it would be hard for my second sister-in-law and the couple in the future.

But that is the worst-case scenario. My second brother Feng Jiacheng is not in active service, so it would not be his turn to charge, unless he responds to the call and volunteers.

Cheng Xuemin planned to write the manuscript for his own magazine "Today" before returning to northern Shaanxi.

The subject matter he decided on was youth campus, and he tried to stick to "Female College Students' Dormitory", but after choosing and choosing, he couldn't find a suitable and influential manuscript.

After all, we have just come out of the 1989 boom, and our minds are not that open yet.

Otherwise, Cheng Xuemin really wanted to follow Guo Jingmin's path, leaving him with no way to go twenty years later.

Unfortunately, it’s a little too early!
After much deliberation, Cheng Xuemin finally chose a manuscript that could resonate with college students of this generation - "My Years in the Corps"

This is a long novel, with more than 300,000 words.

So in order to push his own "Today" to the top and surpass his mother-in-law's "October", Cheng Xuemin spent a lot of money.

Why did you choose a long story instead of the short story you agreed to at the beginning?

After all, Cheng Xuemin still wants to truly run the magazine "Today".

My Years in the Military Corps is a long novel, which covers the years when college students like Feng Jiayou went to work in the countryside as educated youth, and their return to the city after taking the college entrance examination.

And it's not just college students who are included here, but also young people returning to the city.

If Cheng Xuemin slowly serializes "My Years in the Corps" in "Today" magazine, it will not only catch the attention of college students from major universities, but also catch the attention of young people who have returned to the city, such as Bai Ling from Yenching Literature and Zhu Lin, the King of the Kingdom of Daughters next door.

Think about it, who has the most people in the entire Yanjing city right now?
Return to the city young!
There are three to five million young people returning to the city. Once Cheng Xuemin's "Years in the Military Corps" is published, it will definitely have a shocking effect and resonate with millions of readers.

You can imagine!

After a few issues, the influence and sales of Today will surely rise steadily.

And this time, the sales volume is no longer like "Yenching Literature" or "People's Literature", it has nothing to do with Cheng Xuemin!

The higher the sales of "Today", the greater the influence it accumulates, and the greater the benefit Cheng Xuemin will gain when it is privatized at its own expense in the future.

Therefore, we can’t just focus on the little bit of royalties in front of us, we have to take into account the overall situation for the next few decades!
From then on, "Today" became Cheng Xuemin's main base for public opinion.

In the next few days, Cheng Xuemin first focused on "Today" and wrote the first 50,000 words of "My Years in the Corps". At the same time, he went to his own yard and began to plan how to set up the bathroom and shower room first.

"Xuemin, do you want to connect this room and build a toilet?"

"Wouldn't that stink?"

When the brother-in-law who came over heard that Cheng Xuemin wanted to connect the small room where sundries were stored with his master bedroom and turn it into a toilet, he couldn't help but exclaimed!
"Brother, it won't stink!"

"I'm planning on turning it into more than just a toilet. I'd like to put a bathtub in it!"

"By the way, brother, have you ever been inside the rooms at the Qianmen Hotel?"

Cheng Xuemin nodded. He didn't know how to explain to his brother-in-law how he wanted to decorate it, so he just told him to renovate the bathroom layout of the suite in Qianmen Hotel according to that!
"Yes! I've been there before, accompanying the factory leaders and meeting the foreign exchange groups of senior leaders. I've been there before!"

Brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao nodded and said something in confusion.

"Then you must have seen their bathroom and shower room. I think we can renovate this room into a bathroom and shower room according to the layout of the hotel!"

"There's no need to open up all of this, just open a door and install it!" Cheng Xuemin pointed to the wall leading to the master bedroom.

It’s enough if my brother-in-law has been there. Even if he hasn’t, you can go and have a look for reference.

Then Cheng Xuemin continued to express his thoughts: "I plan to install a flush toilet here, and a bathtub should be just right here!"

"By the way, brother, the sewage from the flush toilet cannot be connected to the same pipe as the bathtub or bathroom."

"I'm going to dig a bigger septic tank outside and pour the sewage from the toilet into it! I'm going to make a hole here for the water from the bathroom bathtub and drain it directly into the creek outside."

"By the way, it would be best if we could lay tiles, but if we don't have tiles, that's what I think!"

"You can go to the gravel factory and buy some more smooth and round pebbles to lay on top!"

After Cheng Xuemin finished explaining how to deal with the ground, he pointed upward and said that a hole could be opened here to connect a pipe, and a large bucket could be placed outside...

Cheng Xuemin recounted his request in a long stream, and his elder brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao was frightened. He looked at his elder brother-in-law with a stupid face and asked foolishly, "Xuemin, these are all what Jiayou asked you to do after seeing the Overseas Chinese Apartment?"

The eldest sister Feng Jiayou went to see the Overseas Chinese Apartment first, and she has been entangled and resentful about leaving. The eldest brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao knows about it!
But the price there is 8,000 foreign exchange coupons, how can a family like theirs afford it?

So, after buying this large courtyard, Feng Jiayou asked her husband to renovate and decorate it according to the decoration style of the Overseas Chinese Apartment? !

"No, no! These are all my own thoughts. I haven't told my family yet!"

Cheng Xuemin waved his hands repeatedly and said, "By the way, big brother, my family probably won't come to see me while I'm away in northern Shaanxi!"

"So please, big brother, try not to tell Jiayou yet. Wait until we finish the decoration, and then let her come over to see the effect!"

This is exactly the effect Cheng Xuemin wanted, to let the woman Feng Jiayou know that after the toilet and bathroom in our large courtyard are renovated, it will be much more comfortable than living in that Overseas Chinese Apartment.

The reason why I don't want to live in a slum is that it's inconvenient to take a shower and get up at night in the winter, and it's uncomfortable to go to the toilet in the summer.

Now I can help women take care of the bathroom in my own suite, isn’t it wonderful!
"Whether to tell or not is a matter for the next step! But if you really want to pretend like this, Xuemin, I have to go to the pigeon market and ask a few bricklayers to come over and fix it. I definitely won't be able to figure it out even if I try!"

Brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao shook his head repeatedly. He was not a bricklayer. He could do odd jobs and tidy up the sundries. But asking him to take on such a big project was stupid!

"Yes, yes, brother, this is for sure!" Cheng Xuemin nodded repeatedly and continued to say to his brother-in-law, "Brother, you are familiar with Yanjing and have a wide network of contacts. It will definitely take a lot of effort for you to hire a bricklayer!"

"And when I'm not around, the supervisor here will have to trouble you to come check on me often!"

Cheng Xuemin nodded, this must be the case!
He just asked his brother-in-law to come over and help, but didn't really let him do it. Even if he really wanted to do it himself, Cheng Xuemin didn't dare to let him do it, after all, he was not a professional.

"It's easy to hire a tiler, but Xuemin, what you want is either a flush toilet or bathtub tiles, which are not easy to get!"

Simply dig a hole, put up two wooden boards, and a household toilet may be ready!
But this is either a flush toilet or a bathtub, all those capitalist things, which also gives my brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao a headache!

"Brother! Don't worry about this. I will get everything done before I go back and buy them in advance!"

The things my brother-in-law mentioned are basically not available for sale in pigeon markets or department stores.

If you want to buy it, you can only go to the Friendship Store and the Overseas Chinese Store.

It just so happened that the Overseas Chinese Store was not far from the Overseas Chinese Apartment and was originally a supporting facility. Cheng Xuemin had visited it before and asked about the price.

The one hundred foreign exchange coupons that his father-in-law secretly gave him were more than enough.

Once my brother-in-law has hired a bricklayer and brought in the sand and gravel, we can buy them and start work right away!
"If you can handle it, then there won't be any problem at all!"

Feng Jiazhao heard that if his brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin could handle the most difficult part himself, he could invite other bricklayers or something like that at any time.

"No, Xuemin, where did you get the foreign exchange coupons?"

Soon, my brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao also realized that the thing was only available in Overseas Chinese Stores or Friendship Stores, but all of them required foreign exchange coupons to buy.

Since my brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin said so, he can definitely get foreign exchange coupons!
Where is it?
"I had this plan before... and it just so happened that Mr. Zhang from the Humanities Press had a hundred yuan worth of foreign exchange coupons to exchange, so I exchanged a hundred yuan!"

I haven't sold my father-in-law yet, and I can't mention it to my brother-in-law. Who knows if this filial son will sell his father out!
"Zhang Guangnian!?"

Brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao nodded when he heard this, without much doubt about it.

"By the way, big brother, do you want to build one in your front yard too?"

"If you want to do it, I will buy it too?"

Cheng Xuemin thought that if he had to renovate it, he could just renovate both the front and back yards to avoid the trouble of going back again.

And it also makes it impossible for my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and second sister-in-law to find fault with me.

"The front yard..." Brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao was of course very tempted, but when he thought that these materials had to be purchased with foreign exchange coupons, he felt a little embarrassed and reluctant.

Also, there was no suitable space in the front yard!

Like Cheng Xuemin, take a storage room and renovate it?
Come on!
It’s not that luxurious, unless we build a small house in the corner of the yard, but that would be a much larger project!

"No, no! The front yard is too far from here, and it's hard to drain the sewage out! If it gets blocked, the whole yard will stink!"

Although the elder brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao was tempted, he thought of a fact and shook his head and refused.

"Uh...it's a little far indeed!"

Cheng Xuemin glanced outside and nodded. The front yard was indeed a little far away from the outside.

Under their current conditions, there is no pressured tap water at all, so the sewage cannot be flushed out at all, and will eventually block the entire bathroom.

It’s more direct to the backyard, which leads to the outside in just over two meters.

Dig a septic tank outside, take sealing measures, and hire someone to clean it once a year or two. The technical requirements are not that high.

"Then big brother, just keep this door. No need to seal it!"

Since the front yard is not suitable for renovation, the only option is to keep the original door leading to the outside yard. Originally, they wanted to seal it and only open a bathroom door for their master bedroom.

If you keep it now, it will lack privacy in the future. If you and your spouse want to take a bath together, you can only remember to lock the door leading to the front yard in advance!
Anyway, these are the general ideas. As for how my brother-in-law changes it, that’s his business.

To this!

Brother-in-law Feng Jiazhao also told Cheng Xuemin that after hiring a bricklayer, he would take them to Qianmen Hotel to have a look and seek some advice.

This makes Cheng Xuemin feel more at ease!

This Friday, the symposium on "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office" hosted by Mr. Wu will go on as scheduled. In addition to the original author Cheng Xuemin, who will be present.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law were also on the invitation list, representing their respective units.

Early in the morning!

The new Zhongshan suit that Feng Jiayou bought for Cheng Xuemin can finally be put to use!
"Not bad, handsome!"

Looking at the man she had picked up, Feng Jiayou's eyes rippled and she felt very proud.

But this time, no one asked Cheng Xuemin whether he was nervous when meeting a big leader. He got used to it after seeing it so many times.

"Xuemin, didn't you say you had finished writing that novella?"

"Old Liu is pressing me, please get back to me as soon as possible!"

On the way to Zhonghai with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, the mother-in-law, who was riding a bicycle, started urging her son-in-law to submit his manuscript!
"Yes, yes, Mom, I have indeed finished it! My son is helping with the proofreading, so it should be done soon!"

The manuscript is now in Feng Jiayou's hands, not in Cheng Xuemin's hands, so it's hard to guarantee when it will be given to him.

"What on earth did you write?"

She had been hiding it from everyone and not letting them see it, especially some time ago, when the debt collector even said something out of turn, saying that he would beat her and her husband to death if she saw it.

This made Feng's mother even more curious about what her son-in-law had written.
"It's just...similar to the Yellow Earth Plateau, the things that happened in your generation!"

This is all Cheng Xuemin can say. Any more can only be said later when you, mother-in-law, read it slowly and appreciate it slowly!
If you insist on putting yourself in the shoes of the heroine, then Cheng Xuemin, the son-in-law, can do nothing about it.

"Things about our generation?!" Father Feng also became curious and asked, "Is it still written about your parents?"

"That's not true!"

Cheng Xuemin shook his head. This time, it's about your mother-in-law and father-in-law! However, there must be some changes in their occupations, but it does not affect their substitution.

As for his parents?
Of course, Cheng Xuemin already has some preliminary ideas. After finishing all the outstanding manuscripts, he will submit a novel to Yanhe Literature!
This time it’s a true tribute to his father and mother’s generation, it’s “Ordinary World”, the Shaanxi Hammer King will beat you to death!
"Then you have to show it to me and your mother later, and don't proofread it for your children!"

"There are a few typos, can't your mother circle them for you?"

Hearing this, Feng's father also became excited! If it wasn't written about his father and mother, then it must be about them!
Now I understand why my daughter was so reluctant to hand over the manuscript to her mother!
"Is it about me and your father?"

Mother Feng also reacted, her face instantly turned shy, and she asked uncertainly.

When a son-in-law writes about his mother-in-law, how would he describe her?

All of a sudden, Cheng Xuemin successfully won the heart of his mother-in-law, and made her really itchy.

If it weren't for the symposium organized by Mr. Wu today, she really wanted to brake immediately, turn around and go back, and force her debt collector to hand over the manuscript obediently so that she could have a sneak peek!

"Not really... Anyway, it's about that era. Mom and Dad, don't put yourself in my shoes. I'm afraid if I don't write well, you might..."

Cheng Xuemin didn't dare to say any more. As he said, you can watch it and appreciate it slowly for yourself.

"It seems that you, Xuemin, are somewhat unsure!"

Father Feng originally wanted to make a joke that his son-in-law was feeling insecure, but he quickly changed his words.

Just from his son-in-law's reaction, plus his daughter's previous delay in submitting her manuscript, Feng's father had already guessed it!

Maybe the son-in-law described his mother-in-law a lot in the manuscript.

As for how to describe his mother-in-law?
I can only say that this son-in-law is really bold. Knowing that the manuscript of "October" would be handed over to his mother-in-law, couldn't he be more cautious?
Write about mother-in-law?!
No matter how you write, it will be a thankless task. Anyway, if Feng's father were asked to write about his lover, he would definitely not dare to pick up the pen.

So I can only say that my son-in-law is really courageous!

"What's there to be sure of? Since you've written it, just show it out openly. What can mom do to you?!"

Feng's mother also noticed her son-in-law's reaction and knew that he must have said a lot of bad things about her in the manuscript!

Maybe she was portrayed as a tyrannical, overbearing and mean mother-in-law?

If this is true, Feng's mother would really like to read it carefully.

"Yes, yes, you are right, Mom!"

Cheng Xuemin nodded repeatedly and didn't dare to continue. Feng's father and mother didn't say anything else either. They all rushed to Zhonghai with great intentions!
After riding for more than an hour, the three finally arrived at Zhonghai!
Liu Xinwu of October, Li Qingquan of Yenching Literature, Zhang Guangnian of People's Literature, Li Shuguang of Renwen Press, and many other main persons in charge of newspapers, magazines and media had basically all arrived and were waiting in the yard outside.

When they saw Cheng Xuemin, his father-in-law and his son-in-law come in, they all came up to greet him, leaving Cheng Xuemin overwhelmed.

……

(End of this chapter)