Yonghe Road

Chapter 57 Emergency

On the night of the Lantern Festival, Zhong Ziqi's mood was like a roller coaster. Sometimes he was so excited that he flew to the sky, and sometimes he was so depressed that he fell to the bottom.

The exciting thing was that Xie Anmin told him that she would continue to stay in Baile Village in the new year because she had received two cooperation tasks from local official departments. One was that Director Mei Wending of the National People's Congress, on behalf of the Tea Industry Leading Group, signed a cooperation agreement with Xie Anmin on the creation of a literary and artistic work reflecting the development of the local white tea industry; the other was that, with the recommendation of Director Mei Wending, Secretary Song Qinglai decided that Xie Anmin would serve as the screenwriter of the rural-themed TV series produced by the local government and CCTV.

Xie Anmin’s task as a screenwriter is to provide emergency assistance.

The original screenwriter had to temporarily put aside his work due to a sudden family change to devote himself to family matters, making it difficult for him to return to his creative state in the short term. However, with the filming funds in place, the filming schedule was tightly scheduled and no delays were allowed.

Finding another screenwriter, going to the local area, and re-recording the script was undoubtedly a time-consuming and laborious task. Xie Anmin had just lived in Baile Village for six months and was well-versed in the local affairs, especially the local rural customs and people. Building on the previous screenwriter's work, he was able to incorporate local rural characteristics into the script, which was a perfect combination of time, place, and people.

Director Mei Wending strongly recommended Xie Anmin to Secretary Song Qinglai. Song Qinglai was initially worried that Xie Anmin was an urban romance writer, which was not in line with her temperament for rural-themed works. He was concerned about whether she was capable of taking over the scriptwriting. In addition, Xie Anmin was a popular writer, and whether the royalties she would earn would exceed the budget.

Under the arrangement of Director Mei Wending, Xie Anmin and Song Qinglai met in the Municipal Party Committee Building. The two had a very pleasant conversation and almost hit it off.

Song Qinglai no longer doubted Xie Anmin's ability, and Xie Anmin no longer asked for an exorbitant price. The two reached a cooperation intention and signed a creative contract on a chosen day.

"I didn't mean to hide it from you." Standing at the entrance of Baile Village, Xie Anmin watched the car that brought them back from Shajiaqi leave, and then he said to Zhong Ziqi.

However, Zhong Ziqi's gaze was still drawn to the distant night by the back of the black car.

That is Secretary Song Qinglai’s car.

Wang Zian returned to Baile Village first. Zhong Ziqi and Xie Anmin had to take a taxi back by themselves, but they happened to meet Secretary Song Qinglai and his party.

Shajiaqi's "Iron Rod Moving" is a major event during the city's annual Lantern Festival. Due to the massive influx of visitors, maintaining safety and stability is a top priority, so city leaders always rush to Shajiaqi Town to oversee the event. In previous years, He Bing, the executive in charge of emergency response, was on-site to direct the effort. This year, however, Secretary Song Qinglai personally attended.

All the Lantern Festival folk performances, led by Santai Tiezhi, were completed. After watching the excitement, the people started to eat, drink and have fun. Secretary Song Qinglai could return to the city with peace of mind, but he unexpectedly met Xie Anmin.

So, Xie Anmin and Zhong Ziqi took a ride with Secretary Song. Secretary Song was so considerate that he asked the driver to take a detour to send them back to Baile Village before returning to the city.

Along the way, Song Qinglai and Xie Anmin talked about TV drama and novel creation. The two of them had creative ideas that collided and sparks flew. Zhong Ziqi could only listen and could not say a word.

Zhong Ziqi saw and heard Song Qinglai's respect and appreciation for Xie Anmin, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart that only a great writer like Xie Anmin could be treated with such courtesy by the officials of a city, and he was able to take advantage of Secretary Song because of Xie Anmin.

Zhong Ziqi watched Song Qinglai's car drive away, his thoughts in a mess. He didn't respond to Xie Anmin's words, but Xie Anmin thought he was angry with her and couldn't help but reach out and pat him: "Hey, Zhong Ziqi, you are not angry with me, are you?"

Zhong Ziqi finally came back to his senses. Under the street light, Xie Anmin looked aggrieved.

"What did you say?" Zhong Ziqi asked.

Xie Anmin said, "I didn't mean to hide it from you. It's because the contract wasn't signed yet and everything was uncertain. That's why I didn't tell you. I was afraid that if the cooperation didn't work out, I would have no reason to stay and you would be disappointed."

The reason she stayed was to create and to make money, but it couldn't be because of him.

Zhong Ziqi didn't dare feel disappointed, because he had already prepared himself for her to leave Baile Village. Now that she could continue to stay in Baile Village, it was an unexpected surprise to him. "Why would I be angry? I'm just happy that I don't have to be dumped by Writer Xie for the time being."

As Zhong Ziqi said this, he put his arm around Xie Anmin's shoulders and sent her back to the hotel and then home.

It was very late at night, but Huifang had not yet slept.

When Zhong Ziqi opened the door and came in, Huifang was still sitting in the room doing handicrafts.

Under the white light of the fluorescent lamp, her figure appeared somewhat lonely and resolute. She was doing a kind of handicraft commonly used by rural women in eastern Fujian to earn pocket money - polishing large gold paper.

In front of Huifang was a low wooden table, on which were neatly stacked a stack of papers and a box of tinfoil. Next to it was a small bamboo basket containing some finished large gold papers, which shimmered faintly under the light.

The paper is yellow bamboo pulp paper, which has been cut into the size of a first-grade elementary school student's homework book, but it is square. There are 100 sheets in a stack, and a small hole is punched in the upper left corner of each stack. Ten sheets are separated by bamboo sticks and tied with ropes through the holes. Then silver tinfoil is pasted on each sheet of gold paper.

Huifang's job is to stick tin foil on each piece of bamboo pulp paper. She soaks resin powder in boiling water, dips a brush in the resin powder and brushes it on the tin foil. Then she presses a new piece of bamboo pulp paper on it to make it flat. In this way, the tin foil is successfully stuck to the bamboo pulp paper.

Huifang has been doing this manual work since she was young and has become very familiar with it. However, as machines are gradually replacing human labor, Huifang doesn't know how long she can continue to earn money from this manual work.

When Zhong Ziqi opened the door and came in, Huifang's index finger was carefully removing a piece of tinfoil from the box. She was so focused that the sound of the door opening startled her. Her hand trembled, and the tinfoil was stuck crookedly on the bamboo paper. She wanted to fix it, but the tinfoil was fragile, how could she fix it? It had already become a mess, and she couldn't help but put down the brush in frustration.

"Why did you come back?"

"Why aren't you sleeping yet?"

The mother and son asked each other in unison.

"I went to Sha Jiaqi to see Tiezhi." Zhong Ziqi confessed honestly.

"You go alone and don't even take your sister-in-law with you." Huifang said angrily.

"I'm not alone." Zhong Ziqi explained.

“With that writer?”

Zhong Ziqi nodded, and suddenly found that his mother's face looked very unhappy.

Zhong Ziqi was tired and didn't want to say anything more to Huifang. "It's too late. I'm going to bed first. You should go to bed early too."

Huifang refused to let him go to sleep, "Mother has something to tell you," she said.

Huifang rarely spoke to Zhong Ziqi. Or rather, she rarely spoke to her children. As a peasant woman, she had little education, and she didn't know the ways of parenting that educated people used. What she called heart-to-heart talks were actually accusations and scoldings. Of course, she was mostly a good-tempered mother, rarely scolding her children unless she was truly angry.