Mixed in 1980

Chapter 440 Trial

"Ah Ling, you're finally back!"

Chen Yanyin gave Ye Ling a warm hug: "The house is so empty, there's no one to talk to, I was almost bored to death."

Ye Ling rolled her eyes at her disdainfully: "Yan Xi didn't go out, go find her."

"Am I crazy? I need someone to take care of me."

Chen Yanyin pouted and linked arms with Ye Ling: "Back in Minxia, ​​I didn't get to stay with your aunt and uncle for more than a few days. Is this trip to officially start working?"

Ye Ling touched her nose and chuckled awkwardly, "I'll stay in Fujian for one night and then head back to Beijing."

Chen Yanyin was slightly taken aback, then said angrily, "I called you and you said you were in Fujian? Good heavens, you didn't even come back to Beijing to keep me company."

"I'm helping my parents move."

Ye Ling gave a brief explanation, then added, "They just moved into their new house and didn't want my sister and brother-in-law to know beforehand, fearing they would arrange the house for them."

Chen Yanyin rolled her eyes at her and teased, "Just you wait. When your second brother and sister-in-law come back and find out about this, they'll definitely deal with you."

Ye Ling scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed: "I won't tell anyone yet, so as not to affect their vacation. I'll rest for two more days and then go to Hong Kong to take over Starlight's affairs."

Chen Yanyin slapped her: "It would have been better if you hadn't told me. You could have just gone to Hong Kong and they would have definitely dealt with me to death."

"You owe me!" Ye Ling snorted.

Chen Yanyin blinked her big eyes, looking completely innocent: "Comrade Ye Ling, you need to have evidence for your words. How do I owe you anything?"

"You know perfectly well," Ye Ling sneered.

Chen Yanyin chuckled, refusing to admit it, and dragged Ye Ling out shopping. Around 3 PM, she went to find her older sister again, bringing gifts to Ye's house for a free meal.

I understand, I'll definitely go.

If you behave rudely, your parents will definitely scold you when they get home. They won't tolerate you when it comes to manners and upbringing.

After finishing their meal and leaving the Ye family home, Chen Yanxi picked up his phone and made a call: "Second brother, your father-in-law and mother-in-law have moved to Beijing and have already bought a house."

Chen Yanjin exclaimed in surprise, "Sis, are you kidding me?"

“I just came from their house.”

"I'll pack my things and go back tomorrow."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yanjin looked at his wife and said, "Mom and Dad sold their house in Minxia and bought a new house in Beijing. They've already moved in."

Upon hearing this, Ye Wan became angry, muttering to herself as she packed her luggage piece by piece into her suitcase.

The next day, upon returning to the capital, he went straight to the Ye family's residence.

Ye Wan caught her younger sister and gave her a good beating: "You brat, you dare to keep such a big thing a secret? I think you're just asking for a beating."

"My parents told me not to tell them," Ye Ling said, feeling wronged.

Hearing this, Ye Wan slapped him twice more: "You've grown up, now you know to listen to your parents? When I was little, I told you to fight less, why didn't you listen?"

Pushing her sister away, Ye Wan then launched into a tirade against her parents, complaining about how such a big deal it was to move without any prior notice, and how the house they bought was too small.

It's still far away, outside the Fourth Ring Road!

After muttering for a while, Ye's mother couldn't stand it anymore and slapped her daughter: "Alright, stop nagging and go cook."

As she spoke, she took her eldest grandson from her son-in-law's arms, showering him with affection. Ye Wan looked on with a pout, thinking that with a grandson, her daughter's status had plummeted.

Having no other choice, I had to call Ye Ling to the kitchen.

"Xiao Yuan, what are your plans for the future?" Chen Yanjin looked at his brother-in-law. From Fujian to the capital, there must be some development to be made.

"Brother-in-law, I'm planning to start a self-media business."

Ye Yuan scratched his head. He studied journalism in college and worked as an editor at a media company for a year after graduation, but he didn't make a name for himself.

"Becoming a popular influencer or something?"

Chen Yanjin frowned, then quickly shook his head: "Our family is a major shareholder of Weibo, but Weibo won't be popular for more than a few years. Last year, we started selling our shares in batches."

The future of social platforms lies in short videos!

This is what Chen Fan said.

When ByteDance raised funds last year, Spark Investment was the first to invest, acquiring a significant number of shares. At the same time, an agreement was signed granting them priority in subsequent rounds of financing.

In addition, Spark Investment has also invested in many short video platforms, but none of them have reached a certain scale yet. The only one that has achieved a certain scale is Weixiaoshi, which belongs to Tencent.

As for Weibo, Spark Investment's strategy is to sell a portion of its shares each year to gradually cash out, while retaining a certain degree of influence.

Analyzing future development trends for her brother-in-law, Ye Wan stepped forward and said, "Xiao Yuan, just register a short video company and we'll do it ourselves."

"You don't need to be the top in the industry. As long as the platform has unique advantages, reaches a certain scale, and has a sufficient number of users, you can sell it to other large platforms."

"I'll invest in you!"

After saying that, Chen Yanjin looked at her husband and nodded quickly: "That's a good idea. Seize the opportunity of short videos to make some money first, and I'll find a few people to help you set up a company."

It was decided in just a few words.

The investment was also very simple; Ye Wan just needed to provide the money. After she took over the foundation, Xu Jinqiu handed over the profits from the 198 stores of Xiangjiang Chinatown Supermarket to her.

The annual rental income is quite substantial.

Back in Ya'er Hutong, Chen Yanjin, without telling his wife, asked someone to find a real estate agent to see if there were any courtyard houses for sale nearby, intending to buy one for his father-in-law and mother-in-law.

It's better to live closer!
Two days later, Ye Ling set off for Hong Kong to familiarize herself with the work processes of Star Capital, and she was expected to be busy for a while.

"How boring!" Chen Yanyin said with a bitter face. Ye Ling had been by her side for the past three years of graduate school, and now that her best friend had gone to Hong Kong, she suddenly felt like something was missing.

Just as she was thinking about where to go for fun, Lu You's image suddenly popped into her mind. Chen Yanyin was slightly taken aback, picked up her phone and sent a WeChat message to ask him to have dinner with her.

Such incidents are becoming increasingly common.

During this period, a topic suddenly became popular on Weibo, or rather, a person's name and two books became popular, which was quite unexpected.

Chen Fan, Chen Fan's Editorial Collection, Chen Fan's View of the World!

A writer who was extremely popular in the 1980s, and his two books, suddenly became popular for no apparent reason, with jokes from the books constantly appearing on Weibo.

"It turns out that the older generation were the ones who knew how to have fun."

“Those jokes and memes, I never imagined they existed in the 1980s. I thought they were only popular in recent years. I never imagined they were things our parents had already used.”

"There are many references in the book. Are they new or old?"

"That's outrageous! Such an interesting book, why have we never even heard of it? It's so much better than those pee-filled books."

"I asked, and the older generation all read it."

"We are the hidden generation."

……

"Who dug up my book?"

Chen Fan was scrolling through Weibo when he saw today's headline. He looked at it strangely. The books had stopped being promoted a long time ago and had long been forgotten.

Now, not only has it been unearthed, but a group of people in their fifties have also posted about it on Weibo.

"Chen Fan, back in the day, was known as the rogue writer!"

"A cancer and a mudslide in the literary circle, known for its insults. Every time it insults someone, it turns into a social phenomenon that normal people avoid like the plague."

"But he was also one of the most popular writers of that era, especially his book 'Chen Fan's View of the World,' which broadened our horizons in looking at foreign countries."

"While a group of public intellectuals are frantically popularizing how great foreign countries are, we can see from this book that the world is just a big makeshift operation, and the outside world is not as good as we imagine."

"Back then, public intellectuals hated Chen Fan the most!"

……

Xu Jinqiu scrolled through the comments section and joked, "Decades have passed, and those old insults can still go viral again. Chen the Great Troll, what do you think about that?"

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow: "Teacher Xu, who did I become a critic for? Because of whom? Now, the way you're saying this... oh dear, it hurts my heart."

Xu Jinqiu blushed and spat, "At your age, why are you still acting all mushy? Stop being disgusting."

Why didn't you say it was disgusting back then?

"You were too young and gullible back then. Try it again, and see if I'll listen to you anymore." Xu Jinqiu said irritably, turning and walking away.

I've never seen him so mushy when he was young.

Chen Fan smiled slightly, picked up his phone and continued scrolling through the comments. They were quite interesting, more interesting than his own books. No wonder people say that talented people come from the comments section.

However, Weibo won't be around for many more years.

Every era has its own social media platforms. In just a few years, short video platforms will completely replace Weibo and become the new hot trend.

Chen Fan was not interested in these things.

In the internet sector, the main thing is to invest. There's no need to start a business. With the development of technology, how many more years can short videos sustain their success?

It will inevitably be replaced by new trends in the future.

Time quickly passed to the end of August, and Lu You invited Chen Yanyin to dinner: "Your father's book is very popular recently, and I heard that the publisher has already reprinted it."

Chen Yanyin smiled and said, "My dad is quite happy. After all these years, he still gets royalties, which is more than before. In the past, the royalties were 10 yuan per thousand words, and even with the print run fees, it wasn't much."

"That must have been quite a lot back then, right?"

"That's true. My mom once said that back then she only earned about twenty yuan a month, while my dad could earn tens or even hundreds of yuan for an article."

Upon hearing this, Lu You nodded: "That's already very impressive. When my father was discharged from the army, he was assigned to work as a truck driver in a factory. He could only earn a little over 100 yuan a month driving long distances."

Chen Yanyin laughed and said, "You must have had a good life when you were a child. Throughout the 80s, truck drivers were a highly sought-after profession and belonged to the high-income group."

Lu You nodded and said, "The 1980s and 90s were considered good, but after 2000, it was not so good. Incomes may seem okay, but prices are high, so it's just barely passable."

"If you can manage to raise three children, then you're already doing really well. In fact, for most people across the country, that's all there is to it: just getting by."

Upon hearing this, Lu You was somewhat surprised: "The way you talk doesn't sound like a rich girl."

"Does a rich girl have to abstain from meat porridge?"

"That's not it!"

Lu You frowned and pondered for a while: "It can't be called compassion for humanity. How should I put it? He knows the suffering of the common people, which is very rare."

In fact, Lu You had always had this feeling.

Among his classmates, there were many children of wealthy families, but few were like Chen Yanyin who understood the hardships of ordinary people.

They care more about how much their clothes and shoes cost, or where they eat and shop.

"Knowing the hardships of ordinary people, hey, I love hearing that. Don't you think it's pretty excellent?"

Chen Yanyin raised an eyebrow slightly and gently bit her lip: "I'm so outstanding, how about we consider giving it a try?"

(End of this chapter)