Exciting 1979!

Chapter 38 First Novel Published

Wei Ming stared at Li Xiaolin's facial expression nervously.

It was not until she turned to the last page, read the last line, and smiled with satisfaction that Wei Ming finally let go of the burden in her heart.

Later, he stopped being a screenwriter and became a boss. One important reason was that he was fed up with the investors ordering him around to change the script. They might revise it ten times and finally say: Let's just go with the first draft.

leave!
It is much better to write novels. After all, it is your own work and the editor has joint liability, so he must be responsible for the work. But if the editor finds fault with it, the worst that can happen is that you can just change magazines.

After reading all of them, Li Xiaolin said, "I have no problem with it now. In order to save you from having to make another trip, I will let the editor-in-chief take a look now."

Wei Ming was pleasantly surprised: "Is he here today?"

Li Xiaolin nodded, and then she took Wei Ming to the editor-in-chief's office. An hour later, Wei Ming came out.

Not only was his manuscript approved, he also got a copy of "New Life" signed by Ba Lao himself.

After Wei Ming said, "I like your novels the most, Mr. Ba," the old man happily chose a book of his own from the bookshelf, signed it and gave it to this rising star, and said a few words of encouragement.

The title of the book "Rebirth" also has a special meaning for Wei Ming, who has a big secret.

After leaving his father's office, Li Xiaolin hummed to Wei Ming, "I must tell him that your favorites are Lu Xun and Lao She."

Wei Ming: "Among all living authors, I like Ba Lao's novels the most. There's nothing wrong with that."

Although Wei Ming was trying to trick the old man, Li Xiaolin still said with concern: "The novel is scheduled to be published in the November issue. Although our rule is to pay the manuscript fee at the same time as the publication, I can apply for early settlement for you."

Unexpectedly, Li Xiaolin took the initiative to bring up this matter before Wei Ming even opened his mouth.

He excitedly shook Li Xiaolin's hand and said, "Editor Li, thank you so much. You are a good person!"

Li Xiaolin: "Just remember to submit more articles to Harvest in the future."

"Don't worry, I will definitely save the best manuscripts for Harvest, and give the average ones to other magazines."

Li Xiaolin couldn't help laughing: "Huh, that sounds nice. Come on, sign with me."

When Wei Ming was about to start writing, Li Xiaolin revealed one thing: "Next year, the national standard for manuscript fees may be raised. If you are willing to wait until next year to publish, you should get more by then."

Hearing this, Wei Ming signed his name without hesitation: "I will make next year's money next year. I will just live my life well now. And I will definitely have new works next year."

After all, he writes fast.

Afterwards, he went to the finance department to collect a huge sum of 160 yuan, and the standard for him was 4 yuan per thousand words.

160 today, 65 yesterday, and the 15 yuan from Story Club when he first arrived, that’s 240 yuan already, which is more than his annual salary as a temporary worker at Peking University!

Add the subsidy money, it easily exceeds 250!

Now I can arrange a car and a watch, and I still have some money left. I'll ask Zhang Dening later if he can withdraw his royalties in advance. He would like to go back to his hometown.

After all, if you don't return home when you are rich, it's like walking in fine clothes at night. He doesn't really care. The main thing is that Old Wei should be eager to act big.

Wei Ming, in a good mood, did not return to the hotel immediately. He strolled on the streets of Shanghai until he felt hungry.

Between the delicious but expensive state-owned restaurant on the roadside and the free and non-toxic restaurant in the guesthouse, he decisively chose the latter.

It turns out that I am not rich enough and I can’t bear to spend a few cents on that meal.

When he returned to the guesthouse, the waitress called him and said, "Writer Wei, someone just wanted to see you."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure. I waited for a while but didn't see anything so they left. But they left something for you and said you'll know after you read it."

Wei Ming took the bag and took a look at it. It seemed to contain several glass bottles, quite heavy.

After thanking him, he took it back upstairs and took a closer look. It turned out to be three bottles of wine. Two of them were the same as the Shengui Yangrong wine he bought before, and the other one had the same bottle, but no label and a different color.

There were also two notes in the bag.

One of them claimed to be Liang Lu, the sales manager of the Second Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory.

"That day when I went to Wenhui Daily on business, I learned that writer Wei had written a novel, "The Duck Knows When the Spring River Water Warms." Everyone in the editorial department was amazed. Liang was also very moved after reading it. I seemed to see my own shadow in Lao Wang. I thank writer Wei for his affirmation of our factory and our products. Thank you writer Wei for writing such an excellent work that makes people remember us. Today, on behalf of the entire factory, I specially present two bottles of Shengui Yangrong Wine as a token of respect."

After reading it, Wei Ming cursed: "If I had known I wouldn't have bought it!"

Then he looked at another note. The man claimed to be Wang Zhenxu, director of the medicinal wine workshop of the Second Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory. Wei Ming had an impression of him.

"Brother Wei, when I saw you that day, I knew you were extraordinary. It's a pity that I was busy with official duties and didn't take good care of you. Blame me, blame me. I specially took out this bottle of precious tiger bone wine from my collection. This is passed down to me by my master. It is made from the bones of a real male Siberian tiger in its prime. It has the function of strengthening the muscles and bones, waist and kidneys. Don't drink too much of this stuff, no more than half a liang a day, remember!"

Seeing that it was tiger bone wine, Wei Ming sneered and said, "Why would I, Wei, need such a thing?"
He was always confident in his abilities in that area and never used any medication until he was 60 years old.

Wei Ming opened the bottle cap of tiger bone wine and smelled it. He didn't know if this thing was really that weird. Anyway, he was a little worried that something might go wrong after drinking it, so he closed it decisively and then packed it carefully to prevent it from getting bumped.

The next day, Sister Chen Rong was ready to submit her manuscript, and Professor Qu's meeting was over, so they decided to return to Beijing together the next day.

The two cadres bought hard sleeper berths for the trip back home, and Wei Ming still took a hard seat. However, this time without the company of his pretty sister, Wei Ming instead read some books seriously.

When he stepped on the land of Yanjing again more than 20 hours later, Wei Ming held his waist, feeling as if he needed some strength from the mysterious tiger bone wine from the East.

When Sister Chen Rong saw the newsstand outside the station, she immediately ran to ask if there was today's Wen Wei Po. It turned out there was none, only yesterday's.

Professor Qu said to Wei Ming: "Xiao Wei, I think your short story will be published in the next two days, so keep an eye on it."

Wei Ming said indifferently: "Why are you staring at me? I've got the money anyway."

Chen Rong: "This is your first published novel, how meaningful it is!"

In fact, "The Duck Knows First When the River Water Warms in Spring" was actually published today. Due to limited space in the newspaper, it was serialized in three issues.

~
Magic City, on the second floor of a Shikumen house on Chongqing North Road.

When Gong Yuandong, who worked as an artist in a clothing company, got home from get off work, his wife Zhuang Che was cooking and the Wenhui Daily copy she bought for him was on the table.

"Is there any big news today?" He picked up the newspaper casually.

"It's better to have less big news and live a peaceful life for a few days," Zhuang Che turned off the fire and brought the food. "But there is a novel that is quite interesting. You can take a look."

"Oh, let me see, this one, 'The Duck Knows When the River Water Warms in Spring'..."

Gong Yuandong looked inside quickly, laughing from time to time. When his wife urged him to eat, he picked up the chopsticks and the newspaper at the same time.

"This novel is quite interesting, but it's a pity that it's not finished. You can continue to buy it tomorrow. I'm a little curious about how this duck prophet sells medicinal wine."

"It's a TV commercial," Zhuang Che said, "Isn't this the Shengui Yangrong Wine? Oh, you haven't seen it. I saw the commercial on TV at my eldest brother's house. By the way, my son-in-law also bought a bottle for our mother, but the old lady couldn't bear to drink it, and she hasn't finished it yet."

"what?"

After saying that, Zhuang Che took out the bottle of expensive medicinal wine and asked her husband to smell it: "There is ginseng in it."

"It smells good," Gong Yuandong chuckled, "Mom doesn't drink it, how about we drink some?"

"You, okay, then one small cup each~"

In addition to attracting a large number of passers-by readers with superb and sophisticated novel techniques, the greatest contribution of the first part of Wei Ming's novel may be that it awakened the memories of many people in Shanghai about the outdated internet celebrity Shengui Yangrong Wine.

After drinking a little wine, the old couple began to miss their second daughter who was not around.

Xueer passed away two days ago. She was the one they loved the most among their four children. She was so pretty and well-behaved.

But she was unlucky and couldn't stay in Shanghai. Besides, she still didn't have a partner at this age. She was so worried.
(End of this chapter)