Exciting 1979!

Chapter 252 I'm a Professional at Shortening Chapters

To facilitate his writing, Wei Ming set the protagonist's background in Zhili, so when the Jiang brothers first appeared, it was during the Second Zhili-Fengtian War.

In 1924, Jiang Chixia's eldest son, Jiang Lizhong, had already married and had children, but his youngest son, Jiang Limin, was over twenty years old and still unmarried.

Jiang Chixia, feeling powerless against the corruption in the political arena, is now retired and living a life of leisure with his grandchildren in his hometown, having long lost the vigor he once possessed.

Because the Jiang family had some businesses in the capital, in order to prevent them from being affected by the war, Jiang Chixia sent his eldest son, who already had children, to the capital to protect him. Unexpectedly, his mischievous younger son also secretly infiltrated his elder brother's cavalry and entered Beiping. Just then, Feng Yuxiang entered the capital and launched a coup, and the whole city was on high alert, with Cao Kun placed under house arrest.

In this part of the story, author Wei Ming focuses on shaping the personalities and ways of doing things of the two brothers. The elder brother is calm and ruthless, and acts decisively and ruthlessly, while the younger brother is intelligent, quick-witted, and full of a sense of justice.

But Li Bian could tell that Wei Ming focused more on his younger brother Jiang Limin, who should be the main male protagonist.

Moreover, Wei Ming's storytelling skills are extremely efficient. In just a few pages, the content is full of climaxes and twists and turns, without any unnecessary embellishment, making it impossible for Editor Li to stop reading.

The flavor of old Beijing in the 1920s was also vividly depicted by his refined writing.

So if someone peeks out of the guesthouse late at night, they'll see that only one room on the second floor has a light on, and someone who doesn't know better might think it's an author frantically working on a manuscript.

Li Xiaolin told herself countless times that she would stop reading after reading the last page.

Forget it, I'll stop reading after this chapter.

What will happen next? Maybe I should watch this part of the movie.

Then... it got light.

~
While Li Xiaolin was reviewing the manuscript, Wei Ming also paused his writing of the novel because he had to take two exams.

The first event was the adult college entrance examination for the correspondence course of the Department of Library Science at Peking University.

With his current level of knowledge, it wouldn't be difficult for him to get into university, but it would be very difficult to get into a top university like Peking University or Tsinghua University. However, it would be even more difficult for him to study there properly for four years after getting in.

So he took a shortcut and enrolled in a correspondence course to get a diploma, thinking he could get a master's degree later if the opportunity arose. After all, many of his old friends in the Chinese department were close acquaintances despite their age difference.

This test wasn't too difficult for Wei Ming. The other test was even easier: his driver's license test.

If he had already achieved his current level of fame and influence from the beginning, he probably wouldn't have needed to take the exam at all.

The results of the correspondence course didn't come out immediately, but the driver's license was given out on the same day. Mr. Liu accompanied him through the exam and helped him collect the license.

Holding the certificate, Wei Ming said happily, "Let's go, Master Liu, let's celebrate!"

Master Liu declined this time, as he had to celebrate his father-in-law's birthday that evening and couldn't accept Wei Ming's invitation tonight. They could only agree to meet another day.

Although he has a driver's license, Wei Ming is still some distance from actually driving on the road, not in terms of skill, but because he doesn't have a car.

I can't afford it. A Shanghai-brand sedan costs 80,000 yuan now. Even with the booming business at Oriental Plaza, I still won't be able to afford one until next year.

Moreover, being able to afford it doesn't mean you can buy it. Currently, the policy for private car purchases remains unclear. Basically, only government agencies and enterprises can easily obtain the qualification to purchase a car, while it is extremely difficult for self-employed individuals or individuals.

Instead of hoping to buy a car in mainland China, I might as well hope to buy one in Hong Kong next year to play with.

When Wei Ming returned home, Xu Shufen and her niece Yunyun were watching the television with great interest, and on the television was a group of American soldiers.

Just two days ago, an American TV series called "The Dirty Dozen" premiered on CCTV. This series is more watchable and more popular with audiences than "The Man from Atlantis" from earlier this year.

However, there's only one episode per week, and the rest of the time it's just reruns, but I still enjoy watching the reruns.

Yunyun and Xiaomei's new home also has a TV set, but because it is far from Xintiandi, she rides her bicycle back to the Overseas Chinese Apartment after get off work and waits for Xiaomei to finish her work before picking her up to go home together.

Moreover, after receiving her monthly bonus, Xiaomei bought a new motorcycle, which was shipped directly from the south by a large-scale trader. The original motorcycle had been returned to Biao's mother.

This smuggler's skills are getting better and better. Wei Ming feels that in a few years he will definitely be able to transport a batch of cars from Hainan.

After completing these two exams, Wei Ming finally met Li Xiaolin. However, it was only a little over 40 words long, and it took him four or five days to read it, which was a bit slow.

She managed to read it by making the most of her evenings, since she had work related to the book fair during the day.

"I heard from colleagues at Xinhua Bookstore that they've already held a meeting to discuss your proposal," Li Xiaolin said. The two arranged to meet outside the Cultural Palace, where a bustling book market was located, and it would be lively for several more days.

Wei Ming: "I hope this can help them, and also help the readers."

Then Li Xiaolin began to talk about "The Right Path in the World is Full of Vicissitudes".

“I saw the shadows of many people in the male lead Jiang Limin, especially General Chen.”

Wei Ming nodded: "This story is based on my own family. My grandfather once worked as a special agent under General Chen, but my grandfather's rank was not that high and he was also young. This design was made to make the story more legendary."

"That's so legendary. He's a third-term graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, and he even calls 101 his little brother."

“I didn’t write about this in depth, I just mentioned Biaozi, and we didn’t get to know each other well after that. Is that taboo?” Wei Ming asked, he was just joking.

"It's alright. My heart skipped a beat when I saw him, but he's a fourth-generation member, and with his talent and ability, he must be very outstanding in the fourth generation."

"Indeed, even Chiang Kai-shek praised him highly during his student days, and the scene of Jiang Limin hand-drawing a map was inspired by him."

"But why did you arrange for Jiang Lizhong to enter the third class of Whampoa Military Academy?"

"Because the third phase happened to be the time of the split between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, many of our talents were sacrificed in this phase, which also resulted in a low overall profile. There were almost no famous generals. So I chose the third phase. The less famous they were, the easier it was for us authors to create. If the classmates around us were all big names like 101 or Mao Renfeng, it would be easy to feel constrained."

Wei Ming explained his creative process: "Including the middle part, we brought the Jiang brothers into the intelligence field because this area has received little attention from the outside world, and the relevant content has not yet been declassified. We can make a lot of use of this and write more interesting stories by combining fact and fiction. If we write about the main battlefield, with this general and that division commander around, I am afraid that I will not write well and will easily make mistakes."

Li Xiaolin pointed at Wei Ming and laughed, "You're so clever! But I really didn't expect you to write about special operations so well. I feel like any random scene could be made into a movie that would be just as good as 'The Gunshots of the Secret Service'."

Wei Ming thought to himself, "After all, I've been through many of Mai Jia's masterpieces, so my skills in this area are indeed much better than those of people today. Plus, I have Old Wei to share his experience. It's just a pity I didn't have the chance to talk to Shen Zui about it."

Li Xiaolin asked many questions about the content of Wei Ming's novel. The last question was: "I see that it has already reached the second year of the Liberation War. When will the first draft be finished? Will it be in time for me to schedule it for publication in January next year?"

Wei Ming smiled; it seemed she was quite satisfied with the main storyline and it didn't require much modification.

Li Xiaolin was indeed very satisfied. Although Wei Ming used many popular novel techniques in his writing, making the story more readable than any of his previous novels, the core of the story was also very solid, giving a sense of grandeur and epic scale. Several times, Li Xiaolin was so moved by the characters' fates that he shed tears.

The most recent instance was when Jiang Lizhong's eldest son, from the Nationalist Army side, died unexpectedly in a conflict with the Japanese army the night before the Japanese signed the surrender document. Even though Jiang Lizhong was the villain in their eyes at this time, Li Xiaolin couldn't help but feel sad when he saw him both rejoicing at the victory against Japan and heartbroken at the loss of his beloved son.

It has been a long time since a high-quality novel like this has appeared in China. It is comparable to the million-word novel "Li Zicheng" and even has more obvious advantages.

Of course, this is all predicated on a good ending.

As for the ending...

After careful consideration, Wei Ming replied, "I should be able to finish the manuscript next month, but I don't know if a little over a month is enough time to revise it."

After all, he had to study on his own and have the editor review it, going through three rounds of review and proofreading. It's impossible for such a long story to be without any problems.

Li Xiaolin said, "Your novel is expected to be 50 words, no more than 60 words, right?"

Wei Ming nodded. He had initially planned for 40 to 50 words, but he couldn't keep it up.

Li Xiaolin thought for a moment: "Publishing it in two installments is a bit too crowded. How about this, publish it in three installments? Before January, you only need to complete the revision of the first 200,000 words or so. Remember to break it up neatly."

Wei Ming understood immediately. He was a professional at breaking down stories. That day, He Chengwei had even praised him for breaking down the story of "The Battle of Qin Terracotta Warriors" so well that Ning Xin, a student from Peking University, was in ecstasy and couldn't stop.

However, Ning had already seen the ending through her sister Hong's connection, so she was finally satisfied.

After retrieving his spare manuscript, Wei Ming first went back to the courtyard house, where he ran into Li Chengru on the way.

Wei Ming smiled and asked him how the exam went.

"Thanks to Teacher Wei, I passed the exam!"

"Congratulations! The Chinese film industry is about to gain another talented actor."

Li Chengru laughed even more heartily, completely oblivious to the fact that those words were a denial of his appearance.

However, after separating from Li Chengru, Wei Ming began to have doubts. He wondered if he could openly mention that he had bought a courtyard house when he was in class with Sister Lin.

Back at the Overseas Chinese Apartment, Wei Ming ran into Mr. Wu Zuoren again downstairs as he returned from his stroll.

"Xiao Wei's return is timely. I have something to pass on to you, so I don't have to go to your house."

"What's the matter, Mr. Wu?"

Wu Zuoren said, "Rongbaozhai will be holding its 30th anniversary celebration at the end of the month. I'm inviting you to attend on behalf of the manager. If you'd like to go, you can come and take a look. They might bring out some of their best treasures for exhibition."

Wei Ming was frustrated: The exhibition wouldn't let me buy anything.

However, he was puzzled: "Why is it the 30th anniversary? Aren't they a century-old brand?"

Old Wu smiled slightly, and then Wei Ming understood. 30 years ago was 1950, so it was the 30th anniversary of the joint state-private ownership. It did have some significance.

After confirming the exact date, Wei Ming said he would go when he had time, and that he could buy some high-quality writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones as gifts when he went to Shanghai to revise his manuscript and happened to visit the Gong family.

Thinking of Sister Xue, when he got home, his mother told him that she had the phone number for the Beijing Film Studio.

Wei Ming asked, "Male or female?"

Xu Shufen, with her back to Wei Ming, frowned slightly: "It's a woman. She said Section Chief Zhu is looking for you."

"Section Chief Zhu" is naturally Zhu Lin. The two had agreed on a code: if Zhu Lin was free the next evening, she would call Wei Ming in the name of Section Chief Zhu from the Beijing Film Studio, and Wei Ming would know that he should look for Sister Lin the next day.

However, Xu Shufen cracked the code the first time it was used. She knew that Wei Ming and Zhu Lin had an unusual relationship, and she also knew that Zhu Lin was filming at the Beijing Film Studio. In addition, she had heard Zhu Lin speak before, so even though the phone sound was a little distorted, she was 100% certain that Zhu Lin was looking for her son, and doing so secretly.

Wei Ming said "Oh" and didn't return the call, only saying that he would go to the Beijing Film Studio tomorrow.

"I guess it's because Biaozi's movie is almost finished filming."

After finishing his meal, Wei Ming immediately locked himself in his study to concentrate on his writing. Xu Shufen wanted to watch TV, so she turned the volume down to the lowest setting and even went to the door of Wei Ming's study to make sure she couldn't hear anything before she felt at ease.

Tonight and the next day, Wei Ming wrote nearly 10,000 words, exceeding his writing target, which allowed him to have more fun tonight.

How happy were they?

In Wei Ming's study, there is a desk, a Qing Dynasty Qianlong period rosewood painting table that he bought at a high price. It is a genuine top-grade antique that came from the Palace Museum, and it is incredibly sturdy.

After wiping her clean, Wei Ming placed Sister Lin on the desk. With his long legs, she was a perfect fit for him.

Later, he even painted a picture of a chick pecking at rice on Sister Lin's body to add to the romance of their time together.

Anyway, we have curtains at home this time.

After taking a shower, Sister Lin angrily punched Wei Ming lightly: "Look at you, you can't even get clean."

Wei Ming laughed and said, "It's okay, you can't see it anyway since you're wearing clothes. Just wash it a couple more times and it'll be clean. Have you ever heard of body painting? It's an art form."

Sister Lin spat lightly: "What kind of rogue art is this?"

Wei Mingzhen wanted to bring the Playboy magazine from the courtyard house to show her, as that issue featured body painting.

After they had used all their strength on each other, they calmly hugged each other and talked for more than an hour.

Now that the male and female leads of "Regret for the Past" have passed the honeymoon phase and are in the mundane phase of life, Sister Lin said that she is already a little tired of watching Da Shi Chang.

It felt like she was saying this specifically to Wei Ming to put his mind at ease; it was quite thoughtful of her.

~
Because the adult college entrance examination was small in scale and was being held for the first time, Wei Ming quickly learned his results: he had passed!

I'll probably study intensively for a while during the winter break, and then I can study on my own.

Wei Ping'an received the news just as quickly as Wei Ming. In the morning, he made an appointment with Wei Ming to have dinner at the Long March Canteen that evening to celebrate, and he also invited Qiao Feng, who had just become a father.

However, when Wei Ming and Brother Feng arrived, Uncle Ping An was not there yet. Half an hour later, he finally arrived late, and he was driven there by Master Liu. Wei Ming invited Master Liu to stay as well.

Although it was Uncle Ping An who wanted to congratulate me, how could I let him treat me? He only earns a few dollars a month.

However, Wei Ming was very curious about where Uncle Ping An had just gone.

Master Liu clicked his tongue and said, "Go... Director Wei, can I say that?"

Uncle Ping An nodded: "It's not that I can't talk about it. I went to Haizi with Professor Wang today."

"Wow!" Wei Ming and Feng Ge exclaimed in unison. Uncle Ping An has really made something of himself!

"Today, the chief designer and a leader from the import and export management committee met with us and talked about Founder Group. They are both quite concerned about this matter."

Wei Ming still pays close attention to the news. Recently, he saw that an old acquaintance had started to take on a major leadership role in the Import and Export Management Committee.

"Uncle, is the leader you're talking about surnamed Jiang?"

"correct."

Wei Ming understood. He really wanted Uncle Ping An to interact with that person more, but it seemed too obvious, so he held back and kept quiet. There should be other opportunities in the future.

It's true what they say, the driver knows a lot. After having a couple of sips of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor), Lao Liu revealed that Principal Zhou had written a resignation letter, something even Uncle Ping An didn't know.

But thinking about it, it's normal. He's too old, and because President Zhou is always going abroad, Peking University students jokingly call him the "Foreign Affairs President." Some people even reported that he brought back a lot of electronic watches to make a profit, which infuriated Old Zhou.

I was clearly helping with the purchasing, and there were no middlemen taking a cut, so how did I profit from it?

However, it can be basically concluded that the Zhou Peiyuan era at Peking University is coming to an end, and he has basically completed his transitional task as a transitional period, maintaining stability.

On October 21, the last day of the national book fair, Wei Ming noticed that there weren't many people left, so he went again and bought some books. He was guessing what Sister Lin liked and planned to put them at Tuanjiehu.

She had to film during the day, so although she had always longed to visit the book fair, she never had the chance.

The books are ready, but Tuanjiehu is still missing a suitable bookshelf. I need to take some time to visit those furniture factories.

The first National Book Fair, which lasted for half a month, came to an end. The results were very gratifying. Later, media reported that a total of 76 readers were received, 426 million books were sold, and the sales revenue reached 377 million yuan.

Wei Ming, Wei something, and Wei Kuangren's books all performed very well at this year's book fair. Wei Ming even saw the name "Wei Kuangren" in some tabloids, which is rare, since popular literature is not considered mainstream. But Wei Kuangren's martial arts novels and comics sold really well.

These reports also included many photos of the book fair, among which the group photo of Wei Ming with Ye Lao and Zang Lao is the most widely circulated.

Interestingly, the group photo initially showed four people, but after being reposted multiple times, only three people remained, probably due to space constraints.

When I got home today, Wei Ming called again. Wei Ming thought it was Section Chief Zhu again, but his mother told him it was County Chief Qin.

County Chief Qin stated directly that he wanted to come to Beijing to learn greenhouse technology so he could conduct pilot projects and verifications back home.

The next day, Wei Ming immediately went to the Sijiqing Commune to help with the contact. Now everyone is quite selfless. They don't hold back even when it comes to foreigners, let alone their own people. Can you imagine learning from Dazhai in agriculture, and then Dazhai not allowing people to learn from it?

Not only are they welcome to learn, but the visiting group will likely also leave with a wealth of food and gifts.

Afterwards, they called back to the county government to communicate with County Chief Qin and set a time.

Before that, Wei Ming went to Rongbaozhai again to participate in the anniversary celebration.

Before buying anything, you should definitely visit the museum. Today, Rongbaozhai showcased another of their prized possessions: Zhang Daqian's masterpiece, "Huashan Cloud Sea Map," measuring 46.3 cm in height and 586 cm in width.

Zhang Daqian only painted a few of these super-long landscape paintings, each nearly six meters long, and this "Huashan Cloud Sea" is considered one of the best among them.

Mountains take water as their lifeblood, grass and trees as their hair, and mist and clouds as their spirit.

This painting perfectly embodies this aesthetic concept, presenting the majestic and precipitous beauty of Mount Hua before him.

Wei Ming fell in love with it at first sight. Knowing they weren't selling, he told the manager, "If you want to sell, you must consider Chinese people first, especially me."

The manager assured, "Don't worry, we wouldn't bear to let a masterpiece of this caliber drift overseas. However, many great painters and collectors also want it. Since Mr. Zhang Daqian went abroad, there haven't been any more works of this caliber."

Wei Ming sighed, "After all, he will never see such a wonder again. It is impossible to achieve such a perfect natural beauty through imagination and memory alone."

Seeing this, the manager then started promoting other paintings.

“Zhang Daqian’s niece came to visit a while ago and asked us to sell two of her uncle’s paintings.”

"Oh?"

“Mr. Daqian is quite old, he is 81 years old this year, and his health has not been good in recent years. So his niece wants to take her son to visit him. Selling paintings is also to raise travel expenses, so Hong Kong dollars are preferred.”

Wei Ming exclaimed, "Good heavens! Zhang Daqian is in Taiwan! Do you think you can even go there? And if you do, will you even be able to come back? You're being too naive."

However, these are paintings that Zhang Daqian left to his relatives, so the quality should be quite good.

Wei Ming decided to take a look. The first painting was also a landscape painting, called "Autumn in Wuxia Gorge", with a size of 87×48cm.

Another painting, titled "Children at Play," measures 137 x 66 cm and is a figure painting.

Wei Ming, who paints figures, prefers the Western realist style. He had previously seen a painting of a lady by Zhang Daqian at the Friendship Store, but it did not suit his aesthetic, so he recommended it to Melinda.

However, the chubby little babies were very festive, which Wei Ming liked very much. Moreover, he didn't have this type in his collection, so he was somewhat tempted.

"How much?" Wei Ming asked.

The manager replied, "The other party hopes to raise 5000 Hong Kong dollars."

Wei Ming immediately shook his head: "How could that be?"

These two paintings are indeed outstanding, but in Wei Ming's mind, they can't compare to "Thousands of Mountains in Red," which only costs $300.

The manager smiled and said, "We know this price is too high, so we plan to make up the difference after we sell it, to fulfill her filial piety."

Wei Ming: "Then how much will you pay?"

The manager thought for a moment and said, "How about Writer Wei agrees to half of it?"

"Wow, only two thousand five hundred Hong Kong dollars, right? That's so cheap! If you don't want it, I'll take it."

A tall, middle-aged man with slightly dark skin appeared behind Wei Ming, speaking fluent Yanjing dialect.

Wei Ming: Who are you?

The manager immediately greeted him warmly: "Director Li, welcome! It's an honor to have you here! Please have a seat."

Director Li?
Oh, it's Li Heizi!

(Guaranteed minimum today~)

(End of this chapter)