1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 226 Fate! Ineffable! (Please subscribe!)

The editorial department of "Oriental Youth" magazine, which is affiliated with the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

27-year-old Zheng Yuanjie works as a poetry editor here.

Just then, he walked into the editorial department and found his colleagues discussing today's People's Daily. Curious, he asked:

Is there some big news?

A colleague glanced at Zheng Yuanjie and replied, "Comrade Fusheng wrote a letter to the readers of 'Under the Hawthorn Tree' in today's People's Daily."

"What did you say?"

Because *Oriental Youth* magazine subscribes to *People's Daily*, when he asked this question, the person had already turned around and gone to the place in their editorial office where these publications were kept to retrieve a copy of the newspaper.

"...A friend wrote in a letter that the story of Lao San and Jing Qiu made him believe in love again, which is the highest praise for me. We are living in a vibrant era where the country is changing rapidly and everyone is striving forward. While people are pursuing material abundance, the stars of the spirit also need to be illuminated. The story of Lao San and Jing Qiu is like telling everyone that no matter how times change, those most basic human emotions, such as sincerity, kindness, perseverance, and sacrifice, will always be worthy of our cherishing."

"Though the story I wrote has ended, it has gained new life through your reading. The understanding and tears you gave it are far more profound than the story itself. It is you who brought Lao San and Jing Qiu to life from the pages of the book, allowing them to truly live on in the hearts of millions of readers. The road ahead is long, and literature is our shared solace. This reply may not reach every reader's desk, but I hope that my gratitude and blessings can be conveyed through these words and seen by more people..."

Zheng Yuanjie read Chen Fusheng's letter to the readers of "Under the Hawthorn Tree" three or four times, and then sighed, "It's really well written, but I want to ask when Comrade Fusheng's 'The Adventures of Shuke and Beta 3' will be published."

His words were overheard by a colleague sitting next to him, who jokingly said, "Old Zheng, you're not out of inspiration for your next novel again, are you trying to find inspiration from Comrade Fusheng's works?"

In the past two years, Zheng Yuanjie has created works such as "Lu Xixi and the Bean Sprout Soldiers", "Blue Ear Spaceship", and "Lu Xixi's Side Story".

Because its style is very similar to Chen Fusheng's "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta", my colleagues often tease me about it.

However, Zheng Yuanjie was not annoyed. Instead, she smiled and said, "So what? I did borrow from Comrade Fusheng's 'The Adventures of Shuke and Beta.' In fact, his work inspired me a lot. But as Mr. Lu Xun once said, stealing books is not stealing, let alone borrowing from them."

Another colleague joined their conversation: "When did Mr. Lu Xun ever say that stealing books wasn't stealing?"

“What Kong Yiji in his writing said is exactly what he said,” Zheng Yuanjie said confidently.

"That's a fallacy. What if a character in Lu Xun's works said that murder is not illegal? Would that be equivalent to what Lu Xun said?"

"I was just joking, why did you have to take it seriously, Team Leader Wang?"

Zheng Yuanjie smiled awkwardly, then took out paper and pen, preparing to write a letter to Comrade Fusheng to urge him to write "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta 3".

In case this 'important person' is too forgetful and forgets in their busy schedule.

Chen Fusheng, of course, hadn't forgotten.

Moreover, he has already written out the framework for the third part and given it to Li Zhun and Liang Xiaosheng to try writing.

The problem is that one of them is good at writing rural novels and the other is good at writing novels about educated youth sent to the countryside. Now Chen Fusheng wants them to write children's novels. Not to mention that he is not confident, even the two people involved are at a loss.

"Old Li, have you finished writing it?"

"No, I'm still watching Director Chen's first two films. What about you? Have you written anything yet?"

“I tried writing a few hundred words last night, but it just didn’t feel right, so like you, I’m still studying Director Chen’s first two films.”

"Sigh, I originally thought that children's novels didn't need too profound principles and should be easy to write, but I only realized after actually trying that the simpler and purer the content, the more difficult it is."

"That's right, I don't know how Director Chen manages to handle so many different genres."

"We ordinary people can't compare to geniuses."

The morning passed quickly. Li Zhun put down the first and second volumes of "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta", stood up, walked over to Liang Xiaosheng, patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him, "Comrade Liang, this glorious task is entrusted to you. Keep it up."

Liang Xiaosheng looked up, bewildered. "What about you?" "I gave up. I simply can't handle this style. Even if I forced it out, it would be disjointed and would only damage Director Chen's reputation."

"I……"

In fact, Liang Xiaosheng also wanted to give up, but this was a task assigned by his superiors. Now that someone had already submitted a blank paper, he felt that submitting a blank paper as well would leave a very bad impression on his superiors.

So starting in the afternoon, he imitated the style of Chen Fusheng's previous two works, gritted his teeth and wrote several thousand words, and handed them in before leaving get off work.

As expected, it was rejected.

In the office, after watching Liang Xiaosheng leave, Chen Fusheng took out a letter he had received at noon that day from the magazine "Oriental Youth".

He thought the letter was a request for an article.

I never expected they would come to urge me to update.

They urged him to update his "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta".

Even more coincidentally, the person urging him to finish the work was none other than Old Zheng.

Looking at the letter again, Chen Fusheng couldn't help but sigh:
"Fate is sometimes truly wonderful and inexplicable."

With just over ten minutes left before the end of the workday, Chen Fusheng quickly picked up his pen and wrote a reply to Zheng Yuanjie.

Because they were both in the same city, his letter reached Zheng Yuanjie's hands just one day later.

"My goodness, Comrade Fusheng actually replied to my letter."

Although Zheng Yuanjie was worried that her letter wouldn't reach Chen Fusheng, so she cleverly used her workplace envelope, she never expected that her urging for an update would actually get a reply.

But when he excitedly opened the letter, he was immediately dumbfounded.

"I...I...I...Holy crap, I was just urging for more updates, and Comrade Fusheng actually sent me the outline for the third part! What am I going to do?"

After the initial shock subsided, Zheng Yuanjie read the entire letter again, nodding as she read.

"Well, Comrade Fusheng is not only a writer, but also a great director. He must be quite busy, so it's understandable that he doesn't have time to create."

"And how fortunate that Comrade Fusheng has actually read my novel and given it high praise, which is why he hopes that I will be a collaborator on 'The Adventures of Shuke and Beta 3'."

"More importantly, Comrade Fusheng sent me the outline of the third part without even meeting me. What trust and courage this shows! In that case, I must not let Comrade Fusheng down."

……

Chen Fusheng was unaware of Zheng Yuanjie's feelings and thoughts when she received his reply, but two days later, he received her draft work, which he found quite satisfactory.

All I can say is, he truly lives up to his reputation as the original author from the previous life!
Just then, the secretary came in and reminded him, "Director Chen, the Film Association's year-end meeting will start in two hours. You should leave now. Also, we have sent you an invitation to the Spring Festival gathering."

"Spring Festival gathering?" Chen Fusheng felt the term sounded familiar, but couldn't quite place it. He asked curiously, "Who sent it?"

"You didn't know?" Now it was Tong Jiang's turn to be surprised.

"Should I know...?"

Before Chen Fusheng could finish speaking, he suddenly remembered something and asked in surprise, "Is it that Spring Festival gathering?"

"That's right, it's that Spring Festival gathering."

(End of this chapter)