I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Sang Jingyun opened the door and went out, and saw Sang Qianshi and Sang Xuewen making breakfast.

Sang Xuewen was behind the stove, tending to the fires of two pots, while Sang Qianshi was cooking.

While frying, Sang Qian scolded Sang Xuewen in a low voice: "Since the porridge is already boiling, turn down the heat and don't waste firewood. Firewood is not cheap now!"

Sang Qianshi was originally a village girl who had lived a hard life since childhood. Now, she has picked up all the survival skills she had before she got married, and her temper has become more aggressive.

So, Sang Xuewen, who had rarely been scolded before, is now scolded every day.

Sang Jingyun took a look and saw that Sang Qianshi fried an egg, added water, and put in the chopped leeks. She cooked a large bowl of leek and egg without much egg. She also used a little bit of lard to stir-fry a large bowl of sweet potato leaves.

The highlight was the salted duck eggs. She cut three salted duck eggs and gave half to each of them except Sang Xuewen.

The actual fee was 90 yuan instead of 40 yuan. Sang Qian knew this, but no one else did.

On the surface, they only got back more than twenty silver dollars. A few days ago, Sang Qian returned ten of them to her younger brother.

Their family has money now, but not much, so their living standard has only improved slightly.

"Ayun, the porridge is still a little hot. You can eat it after it cools down a little." Sang Qian said.

Sang Jingyun agreed with a smile and went to wash at the well outside the door.

In order to look her best when going out today, she took a shower and washed her hair yesterday.

At this moment, Sang Jingyun washed her face, tied her hair, and changed into her best clothes.

Before, she was afraid that someone would stare at her, so she always wore old clothes when she went out. But this time she was going to the concession, so she had to dress better to avoid being disliked when riding the tram or entering certain stores.

After Sang Jingyun finished washing up, Sang Jingying also arrived.

Sang Jingying also changed into his best clothes, but he was in the period of growing taller, and he hadn't made new clothes for more than half a year, so the clothes were a little too short.

Sang Jingyun glanced at him and thought about buying him two new sets of clothes later.

It would be fine on weekdays, but Sang Jingying has to report to school tomorrow, so she has to dress nicely.

There is quite a lot to do today.

Breakfast is still porridge, but it is thick white porridge that is so thick that chopsticks cannot fall over.

Sang Jingyun scooped out the salted duck eggs with chopsticks and was drinking porridge when she heard Sang Jingxiong say, "Grandma, leeks and sweet potato leaves don't taste good. Let's eat pickles next time."

Sang Qian's dishes didn't contain much oil, and there was no MSG at that time, so the taste of the leeks and sweet potato leaves was indeed average, not as good as the pickled vegetables like zhacai they had eaten before.

Sang Jingyun said: "Only by eating fresh vegetables can you grow taller."

There is no shortage of salt here. Every household in the rural area pickles pickles, and city dwellers also buy pickles for convenience.

But eating too much pickles is bad for your health.

There are fewer pickled foods on the table recently, which is Sang Jingyun's request.

However, as food is difficult to preserve, they cannot completely avoid pickled food, so they eat salted duck eggs.

After breakfast, Sang Qian locked Sang Xuewen in the house, and then took Sang Jingyun, Sang Jingying and Sang Jingxiong out.

Before going out, Sang Jingyun secretly stuffed a peanut candy into Sang Jingli's hand.

On the day she received the royalties, she bought some candies and cakes and took them home.

A small portion of these things were distributed on the same day, and the rest were kept in the house by Sang Qian to be eaten slowly.

Others could not touch these candies, but Sang Jingyun could. She would give some to Sang Jingli and Sang Jingying every day.

It’s not much, but it keeps them happy for a long time.

As for Sang Jingxiong, since he didn't take the pastries he got from the pastry shop home, she wouldn't share any with him.

After the three of them arrived in the county town, Sang Jingxiong went to the pastry shop, Sang Qian went to the Lanxin clothing store, and Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying went to the Hongxing Paper Shop.

Last time, when Hong Yongxiang gave her the royalties, he also gave Hong Yue ten volumes of the "Journey to the West" script revised by Fei Zhongxu, and asked Hong Yue to draw at home.

Now that a week has passed, Hong Yue should have painted some, and Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying will take her paintings to the concession.

The two arrived early today. Manager Hong had not come yet, so the apprentice was the only one in the shop.

This man was a talkative person, and he chattered a lot with Sang Jingyun. For example, the day before yesterday, Hong Xu's parents sent Hong Xu to the county town to learn painting from an old gentleman who was good at painting.

Sang Jingyun was speechless. Could it be that Hong Xu's parents did this because they saw that Hong Yue made money by painting?
But the comic strips drawn by Hong Yue are not the same as the Chinese paintings drawn by those who are good at painting today.

Comic strips are to be printed, so you only need to draw the lines. Because the printing technology is not very good nowadays, the lines cannot be too fine.

Therefore, Hong Yue was able to draw without receiving any professional training, just like some cartoonists in later generations, whose majors when they were studying had nothing to do with drawing, but after a period of self-study, they were also able to produce excellent works.

Now Hong Xu is learning Chinese painting. It would be fine if he has talent, but if he doesn't, he may not be able to draw good comics even if he learns.

You have to know that before, when Hong Xu painted, he just followed the pictures drawn by Hong Yue and did not come up with his own pictures.

But that has little to do with them.

As they were chatting, Shopkeeper Hong came with Hong Yue and Hong Xu.

Sang Jingyun noticed that Hong Yue, who used to be plump and in good spirits, had particularly dark circles under his eyes today.

"Hong Yue, are you feeling unwell?" Sang Jingyun asked.

Hong Yue whispered: "No, I just didn't sleep well."

"What's going on?" Sang Jingyun asked.

Hong Yue said: "I don't know how to draw it. I keep revising it but it never gets better."

This was the first time that Hong Yue made money by painting. She took it very seriously and would think about each picture for a long time before she started. After she started, she always felt that she had not drawn it well and wanted to redraw it.

She kept revising the book, getting up early and working late for a week before she finished it.

This week, she couldn't eat or sleep well.

Hong Yue said: "Sister Sang, do you think I am not suitable for painting? I think if I continue to paint like this, I will be exhausted to death."

After listening to this, Sang Jingyun already knew why Hong Yue acted like this.

Before, this little girl didn’t think about publishing, she just painted according to her own feelings and she painted very quickly.

Now that I know I have to print a book, I feel pressured and doubt myself all day long. As a result, I can’t paint anymore.

Sang Jingyun looked at the book she had finished drawing. It was very well done and perfect, but if she continued to draw like this, Hong Yue would definitely not be able to bear it.

Sang Jingyun said: "Ayue, you got the situation wrong!"

Hong Yue was puzzled.

Sang Jingyun said, "After we submit our manuscripts and drawings, they will be reviewed by editors. If they cannot be reviewed, they have to be rewritten and redrawn. No matter how much you think about it, if it is different from what the editor thinks, it will be in vain. In my opinion, you should not worry about whether your drawings are good or bad in the future. Just draw them. After you finish drawing, submit them. If the editor is not satisfied, you can redraw it."

"Is that so?" Hong Yue felt suddenly enlightened when she heard Sang Jingyun's words.

Sang Jingyun smiled and comforted her: "That's it. Don't think about getting it right in one go. Draw it first. If you don't get it right sometime, it's okay. Submit it to the editor first and then revise it according to the editor's requirements."

She felt that if Hong Yue did as she said, there wouldn't be many paintings that needed to be modified.

This girl likes to paint Journey to the West very much. She is very skilled in painting Tang Monk and his three disciples as well as the white dragon horse. Any painting she makes looks good.

As for those monsters... the little girl likes to draw beautiful women, and she draws them well, that's enough.

For other strange monsters, even if one arm is missing, readers probably won’t care and will just think that the monster looks weird.

Thinking of this, Sang Jingyun said again: "From now on, you should only draw during the day, don't draw at night, and go to bed early."

"Sister Sang, I'll listen to you." Hong Yue nodded seriously.

After Sang Jingyun talked with Hong Yue, he took his own manuscript and Hong Yue's first volume of drawings and went to the concession with Sang Jingying.

The original owner of this body and Sang Jingying had both been to the concession.

Eight years ago, when trams first appeared in the concession, Sang Xuewen went to see and ride them for several days in a row.

A few years ago, when there was a tram from Shanghai County to the Concession, he took Lu Ying and their four children to take the tram to the Concession to play.

That time they went to the concession, took a horse-drawn carriage, ate Western food, and watched a play.

It only cost a copper coin to take the tram to the French Concession. Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying paid the money and got on the tram with everyone else.

The tram started to move with a "buzzing" sound, and then made a "clang clang" sound.

There were a lot of people on the bus, so the riding experience was not very good. Fortunately, the ride was not long, and soon they arrived at the French Concession.

There are many European-style buildings here, and the streets are very spacious. There are many people on the streets who look glamorous, but there are also people who keep their heads down, wear tattered clothes, and do various low-level jobs.

This world is quite divided.

Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying got off the car and, as they didn't know the way, they called a rickshaw.

The rickshaw took them to the entrance of the editorial department of the Shanghai Daily, which was a two-story building on the side of the road. It looked inconspicuous, and there was an old man guarding the door.

Upon learning that Sang Jingyun was looking for Hong Yongxiang, the old man called out to him and Hong Yongxiang walked out quickly.

"You came quite early." Hong Yongxiang asked with a smile: "How much did you write this time?"

Sang Jingyun said: "The manuscript of Journey to the West has been completed, and the other book has 20,000 words."

Hong Yongxiang couldn't help but sigh: "You guys are really good at writing."

Sang Jingyun smiled generously: "Who made us short of money?"

Hong Yongxiang said: "You work very hard, I believe you will not be short of money soon."

"Thanks for your good words," Sang Jingyun said, "Mr. Hong, are you free at noon? We'd like to treat you to a meal."

They had not touched the fifty-yuan note. The family had spent some money these days and paid off some debts, leaving them with ten silver dollars.

Sang Jingyun took all the ten silver dollars with him on this trip. Two of them were for paying the Zhang family's rent for this month, and the remaining eight were for spending, enough to treat people to a meal.

Hong Yongxiang said, "I have an interview appointment at noon, so I'm afraid I can't have lunch with you. It's still early, so you can leave your manuscripts and go for a walk in the concession."

Hong Yongxiang did not arrange any interviews with anyone, he just didn't want Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying to spend money.

With this in mind, he introduced some places suitable for sightseeing in the concession to Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying, and asked them to come back next Sunday, when he would pay them royalties.

Sang Jingyun thanked her again and again, and also mentioned that Hong Yue was slow in drawing and he had helped her to guide her.

"Then I want to thank you, your method is right." Hong Yongxiang said with a smile.

Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying chatted with Hong Yongxiang for less than half an hour before saying goodbye and leaving.

After the two left, Hong Yongxiang returned to the newspaper office.

Someone in the newspaper office was busy. When he saw him coming back, he asked with a smile, "Hong Yongxiang, who is that lady? You've been home more often recently. Are you going to get married?"

Hong Yongxiang said: "Don't talk nonsense, that's my niece."

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that." Hong Yongxiang's colleague apologized. Hong Yongxiang said, "I'll go out and see if there's any news."

After saying hello to his colleagues, Hong Yongxiang went to Nancheng Bookstore.

In fact, it would have been possible to let Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying send the manuscripts directly to Nancheng Bookstore, but Fei Zhongxu deliberately made people misunderstand that the author was a famous new-style writer, so it was not a good idea to do so.

South City Bookstore.

Today, several editors in the bookstore are compiling a Wu language novel.
The so-called Wu dialect novels specifically refer to novels written in Wu dialect, such as Suzhou dialect. This type of novel also has a market in Shanghai.

One of them was sorting through the text and sighed, "When I opened it, I saw '耐' and '离哆'. People who don't speak Wu dialect really can't understand it. I'm from Hangzhou and I can't read some parts."

"It is imperative for our country to unify its language. Right now, the language is different not only in each province, but also in each county and even in each village. This is really inconvenient."

"Our country is so united because of the unified writing system. If the language is unified, we will be even more united."

"The language should be unified and the characters should be easy to read. Classical Chinese is really not conducive to spreading knowledge to the people."

As these people were talking, someone suddenly said, "If you want to talk about the best book to read, the best one is "The Two-Faced Demon King."

The two talked about "The Two-Faced Demon King" and asked about Fei Zhongxu's follow-up.

They really wanted to know what happened to Meng You afterwards.

Fei Zhongxu said: "They haven't given me the manuscript yet, I can't go and urge them."

According to Hong Yongxiang, Miss Sang should deliver the manuscript to the concession today.

He couldn't wait to know what happened next.

Just as he was thinking about the manuscript of "The Two-Faced Demon Lord", Hong Yongxiang saw Fei Zhongxu coming in from outside.

He was overjoyed and stood up to welcome her: "Did you bring the manuscript of "The Two-Faced Demon Lord"?"

Hong Yongxiang said: "I brought it."

After Hong Yongxiang finished speaking, he took out the manuscript wrapped in the Shanghai Daily.

Seeing the Shanghai Daily being used as packaging, Hong Yongxiang sighed slightly.

His father subscribed to the Shanghai Daily for his sake, but he obviously did not cherish it.

The editorship of Nancheng Bookstore was not high, and all editors except Fei Zhongxu heard the conversation between Fei Zhongxu and Hong Yongxiang.

They all stepped forward: "Let's take a look together."

There were too many people to read it together. Fortunately, the manuscript written by Sang Jingyun was not bound, so after Fei Zhongxu finished reading a page, he could pass that page out to show others.

Sang Jingyun suppressed this novel at the beginning.

First Meng You's entire family was murdered, and then he was captured by the evil cult, which was actually quite tragic.

But she had laid a hidden clue.

Meng You has been practicing the "Nameless Secret", an internal skill that has its own special features.

In these 20,000 words, Meng You finally began to show his brilliance.

He saved the righteous people who the evil cult wanted to kill. He found an opportunity to kill the right protector who did not regard them as secret guards, and put the blame on the left protector.

Meng You, who has always been indomitable in the face of difficulties, began to show his claws against the Demon Cult. He hid behind the scenes and controlled everyone.

Fei Zhongxu couldn't help but slam the table.

He enjoyed reading this book very much.

Fei Zhongxu is like this, and so are others.
"This Meng You is really likable!"

"This book is so enjoyable to write! Meng You can't be written to die later."

"Don't be so talkative."

……

The editors from Nancheng Bookstore were chatting, and then I found out that they had finished reading the manuscript.

Just when Meng You was about to do something big in the Demon Cult, there was suddenly no follow-up.

These people were so intrigued by the plot that they wanted to find the author and force him to write it for them on the spot.

Fei Zhongxu sighed deeply and was extremely curious about Miss Sang.

Many of the settings in this martial arts novel were things he had never seen before. Miss Sang really had some ideas.

The protagonist Meng You is also really likable.

Sang Jingyun, who was missed by Fei Zhongxu, was preparing to take Sang Jingying back to Shanghai County.

She wanted to stroll around the concession, but there was no rush.

Sang Jingying will report to the enamel class tomorrow, so it would be best to buy him some suitable clothes, shoes and socks today.

Besides, she had told Alan before that she would go see her, so she also wanted to go and take a look.

Also, I have to go to Zhang's house to pay rent.

Last month, not only did Mrs. Zhang come to ask for rent, she also said some unpleasant words. Sang Jingyun didn't want to owe rent anymore.

She had planned to pay the rent on the first day of the new year, but she and Sang Jingying were busy writing a book at the time, so they did not go.

As for letting Sang Qian go, Mrs. Zhang was too mean and Sang Jingyun didn't want Sang Qian to suffer any injustice.

It was only noon when Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying returned to Shanghai County.

Sang Jingyun looked at the familiar street and said to Sang Jingying, "Aying, let's go eat noodles."

The Sang family eats rice every day. Sang Jingyun hasn't eaten noodles for some time and misses them a little.

The two went to a noodle shop and ordered two bowls of plain noodles and two braised eggs.

Take out the thin noodles and put them in a bowl, sprinkle with a handful of chopped green onions, then scoop in a spoonful of soup made with pork bones, and the Yangchun noodles are ready.

A bowl of plain noodles costs two copper coins, and a braised egg costs one copper coin, so the total cost for two people is six copper coins.

This is much cheaper than eating in the concession.

After eating and drinking, Sang Jingyun took Sang Jingying to the barber shop first, spent five copper coins to give Sang Jingying a haircut, and then took Sang Jingying to buy clothes.

"Ah Ying, it's too late to find a tailor to make clothes for you, so let's just buy two ready-made clothes, a pair of leather shoes, and a pair of foreign socks."

"Sister, I have enough clothes to wear. Leather shoes are uncomfortable and foreign socks are easy to break. There is no need to buy new ones."

Sang Jingyun knew that Sang Jingying wanted to save money, but she felt that these were necessary: ​​"Your clothes are too short, so it's okay to wear them inside, but you still need two outer robes. As for the leather shoes and foreign socks, they are for you to show off, and you can wear them when there is something important."

"It's too expensive." said Sang Jingying.

"You make so much money, it doesn't hurt to spend some."

Sang Jingying said: "I didn't do anything. It's all thanks to my sister that I can make money."

During this period, Sang Jingying was writing and copying, almost from morning to night, and it was very tiring.

Sang Jingyun felt that most of the royalties from Journey to the West should be given to him.

"Then just think of it as me wanting to buy it for you!" Sang Jingyun took Sang Jingying to the store to buy clothes.

The store sells ready-made clothes, which are not as fitted, but the price is the same as if you bought the fabric and had a tailor make them yourself.

Sang Jingyun picked out two sets of clothes that were a little loose for Sang Jingying and had long sleeves. "Even if you grow fast, you can wear these two sets of clothes for a year or two. If you can't wear them anymore, give them to Dad."

Sang Jingying had never lacked new clothes before, but now she was in a very good mood with two new sets of clothes.

After buying clothes, Sang Jingyun bought a pair of leather shoes and a pair of foreign socks for Sang Jingying.

I also bought some longer leather shoes. Now I put on some insoles and they should last more than a year.

Of all the items, the leather shoes were the most expensive, costing eight cents, the socks were five copper coins a pair, and the robes were made of ordinary fabric, so they cost four cents each.

After buying everything for Sang Jingying, Sang Jingyun bought a pair of cloth shoes with small red flowers embroidered on the uppers.

These shoes are for Alan. She knows Alan's size and also knows that Alan likes these little red flowers.

At this time, many people would make their own shoes, but she didn't know how to do it and didn't want to, so she just bought a pair and gave it to someone else.

Cloth shoes are much cheaper than leather shoes, only a dime a pair.

When Sang Jingyun gave the cloth shoes to Alan, Alan still refused to accept them. She could only stuff the shoes into Alan's arms and leave quickly.

"Really? Really!" Alan was old and his legs were not good, so he naturally couldn't catch up with Sang Jingyun. He could only stomp his feet on the spot.

After stamping her feet, she held onto the side door frame and looked in the direction where Sang Jingyun and the others were leaving.

After looking around for a long time, she returned to the kitchen and showed the shoes in her hand to the other servants: "This is the shoe Miss Yun bought for me. It is embroidered with flowers. How beautiful! I want to put it together with the shroud and wear it after I die."

Nowadays, older people will prepare a set of burial clothes for themselves so that they can be buried neatly.

A few days ago, Alan used the money given by Sang Jingyun to make funeral clothes, and now he has shoes as well.

Originally, she wanted to prepare a coffin for herself, but now it seems that her Miss Yun and Master Ying will definitely prepare one for her.

Realizing that he didn't have to worry about what would happen after his death, Alan became more energetic and his face was full of smiles.

After the Sang family fell into decline, what she feared most was that no one would collect her bodies. Now she doesn't have to worry about that anymore.

While Alan was planning his funeral, Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying arrived at Zhang's house and told the doorman about paying the rent.

They had come once before, and Mrs. Zhang obviously didn't like them, so this time the doorman didn't let them in, but asked them to wait at the door.

Sang Jingyun didn't care and found a place to stand out from the sun.

From time to time, Sang Jingying reached out to touch the new clothes and shoes in her backpack, looking as if she couldn't wait to put them on. It was clear that she was still a child.

But he pretended to be mature and talked about the Zhang family: "I never realized before that they were such people."

"It's enough to see it clearly now. When we stop renting their house, we will completely cut off all contact with them." Sang Jingyun said.

Sang Jingying nodded seriously.

At the same time, Mrs. Zhang was shocked when she heard the news that Sang Jingyun had arrived.

Her son is at home!
Her son asked her to take good care of Sang Jingyun, but she never did.

If her son met Sang Jingyun and learned from Sang Jingyun what she had done, he would definitely blame her.

Afraid that her son would discover the truth, Mrs. Zhang rushed out in a hurry, feeling a little regretful.

If she had known this, she would not have looked for rent in the first place!
Not only did he not drive the person away, he also lured him into his home.

(End of this chapter)