Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 321 A Harmonious Couple
Inside the rehearsal room, Zhu Lin and Lan Tianye were discussing something. But after watching for a while, they felt something was off; the actors' performances were becoming increasingly awkward!

Zhu Lin clapped his hands and called a halt to the rehearsal.

"Comrades, what's going on? Your practice is getting worse and worse? Everyone needs to concentrate on rehearsals. This is a rehearsal. If problems arise on stage, we'll let down the audience's trust," Zhu Lin stood up and said loudly.

Lan Tianye chimed in, "Director Zhu Lin is right. What's going on today? What? Is it almost New Year's Day? Everyone wants a holiday?"

"Comrade Yang Lixin, what are you laughing at?" Zhu Lin asked Yang Lixin.

"Hahaha!"

The actors on stage laughed even harder. Yang Lixin said with a smile, "Director Zhu, it's not that we want to laugh, look behind you!"

Zhu Lin quickly turned around and saw Liu Yimin grinning with his arms crossed.

"Oh my, Teacher Liu, when did you get back?" Zhu Lin asked in surprise.

Lan Tianye was startled and took a few steps back.

"Teacher Lan, I'm not a ghost!"

Lan Tianye's throat tightened a few times as he cursed, "You brat, don't you know that scaring people can be deadly? Little Zhu is young, but this old man is not young anymore."

The actors on stage laughed again, and Liu Yimin said to Lan Tianye, "Teacher Lan, I'll make it up to you another day!"

Zhu Lin stood to the side watching Liu Yimin grin foolishly, without saying anything more.

Lan Tianye said, "I'll remember that. One notebook won't do; you need two!"

"Teacher Lan, where is Teacher Wan?" Liu Yimin asked, changing the subject.

"Master Jiabao, Master Jiabao went to the Dramatists Association. It's almost New Year's Day, and everyone has things to do. Well, this old man knows you well enough; you don't want to see Teacher Wan right now."

"Xiao Zhu, I'll take the liberty of giving you a day off." Lan Tianye patted Liu Yimin on the shoulder, seeing through his true thoughts.

"Teacher Lan, I have a performance tonight!"

"Let A-list performer go. It's been a month since we last met, and I don't think you're in the mood to perform anymore."

Zhu Lin was still hesitating, but after meeting Liu Yimin's smiling face, he immediately made up his mind and nodded to Lan Tianye.

"Teacher Lan, here's a candied hawthorn for you!" Liu Yimin said with a smile.

The two were excited and wanted to leave the rehearsal room quickly, but they were afraid that the actors and Lan Tianye would see their anxiety, so they could only suppress their excitement and walk slowly.

When they reached the door, the two couldn't help but quicken their pace, and in their haste, their shoulders bumped into each other.

Lan Tianye looked at the candied hawthorn in his hand, shook his head and smiled, then said to everyone, "Let's continue rehearsing!"

Once outside, Zhu Lin abandoned her reserve and excitedly asked, "Teacher Liu, when did you get back?"

"I got off the plane two hours ago and went to the ministry," Liu Yimin said, holding Zhu Lin's hand.

Someone appeared in the corner, and Zhu Lin withdrew her hand.

“Let’s go to my parents’ place first, they miss you too!” Zhu Lin said.

"uh-huh?"

Zhu Lin blushed, lightly kicked Liu Yimin with her foot, and whispered, "Let's go back to the Overseas Chinese Apartment!"

"Hmm, the courtyard house is closer!"

"It's too cold in the courtyard!" Zhu Lin coughed, his voice even lower.

"Alright then, Comrade Zhu Lin, go to the courtyard to get your things first, then go back to the Overseas Chinese Apartment."

"Okay, Teacher Liu, what did you buy for me?"

You'll see when the time comes.

As Liu Yimin rode his bicycle past the entrance of the Beijing People's Art Theatre, Liang Sanhulu said, "Comrade Liu Yimin, here's your change."

"Put it on the tab, we'll eat there next time!"

"Great! That's generous!"

Upon arriving at the courtyard house, Liu Yimin tied the things he had brought back to the motorcycle and prepared to ride it, but Zhu Lin beat him to it.

“Let me sit here, Ms. Liu. You just got off the plane, and everyone says you're too tired and need to adjust to the time difference. You sit in the back, and I'll shield you from the wind.”

Zhu Lin took a fluffy hat from the study and put it on. It was a yellow and pink knitted hat, as if she had knitted it herself, and it looked especially cute.

He put on a mask again before starting the motorcycle.

Zhu Lin was riding an A50, which was relatively slow. Even with the throttle fully depressed, Zhu Lin's speed was still only around 40 km/h.

"No need to rush, be careful. Has anything happened in Yanjing recently?" Liu Yimin asked.

"Nothing happened. The country is prosperous and peaceful, and everything is thriving!" Zhu Lin said with a smile.

Liu Yimin patted Zhu Lin on the waist: "When did you learn to be so glib?"

"Hey, Teacher Liu, you asked me first. I'm just reporting the facts truthfully. You call me glib? Are you being sincere?"

"AUV, be serious! This taste of jajangmyeon (noodles with soybean paste) is choking me!"

Zhu Lin chuckled, oblivious to the fact that his teeth were chattering from the cold wind.

"My parents sent a letter from our hometown, asking when we'd be celebrating the New Year. I bought them some things and sent them back, along with 500 yuan. I told them I'd go back for the New Year during the holiday."

Secondly, the standalone edition of "Triumph at Midnight" has sold six million copies. Recently, many military-themed works have emerged, but apart from "Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain," the rest have received lukewarm responses.

Thirdly, Lu Yao sent a letter saying that his novel "Life" was going to be made into a movie.

Nothing else is wrong; the country is truly peaceful and prosperous, a picture of tranquility.

As the two were talking, the motorcycle stopped in front of the apartment building. Liu Yimin unloaded his things and carried them upstairs.

Zhu Lin's hands were red from the cold. Riding a motorcycle in winter is really tough; the cotton gloves couldn't keep out the biting wind at all.

Currently, some motorcycles lack adequate winter protection accessories.

The two went upstairs, and Liu Yimin closed the door and hugged Zhu Lin. Zhu Lin pushed Liu Yimin away and said, "Go take a hot shower to warm yourself up!"

The indoor heating temperature should be around nineteen degrees Celsius. After quickly filling a tub with water and roughly washing her, Liu Yimin carried Zhu Lin back to the bedroom.

The two of them fell onto the Simmons bed together, the springs bouncing back with difficulty. Zhu Lin placed her hand on Liu Yimin's chest: "Teacher Liu, to be honest, did you miss me while you were in America?"

"Of course I missed you! Just look at how travel-worn I am, coming straight from the ministry to the People's Art Theatre. Zhu Lin, did you miss me?"

Zhu Lin put her arm around Liu Yimin's neck and said, "Of course I missed you, Teacher Liu. You've been gone for 24 days, and in five hours it will be 25 days!"

"You have a good memory, Teacher Liu has to give you a good compliment!"

"That's because you're good at math!"

"Okay, now take notes!"

"Look at you, Teacher Liu, you're so unserious!"

Inside, it was like a wedding night; the red quilt billowed like waves, an inexhaustible source of warmth. The harsh cold outside could not penetrate the spring-like warmth inside; the imperceptible heat melted away the long-separated hearts of the two.

Unbeknownst to them, snowflakes were falling softly from outside the window, landing on the eaves and the steps.
When the two saw that it was snowing outside, the streets of the Overseas Chinese Apartment complex were already covered in white snow under the night sky.

"It's snowing this heavily before New Year's Day?" Zhu Lin, wearing pajamas, stood by the bed and pointed to the snow outside.

Many children were running and playing in the snow, but they were soon called back by their parents.

But they couldn't be stopped at all; after a while, he ran out again. His clothes were quickly stained with mud, and his parents cursed him in broken Beijing dialect, calling him a "little rascal" and a "mud monkey."

Zhu Lin's eyes revealed envy. Just as Liu Yimin remembered, Zhu Lin, who had drawn the curtains, pushed him down onto the bed.

In the dead of night, both of them were starving, but neither of them wanted to get up and get something to eat.

"Teacher Liu, please cook a bowl of noodles and some braised meat. Just make do with that!"

"Row!"

The two lingered for a while before finally getting dressed and leaving the bedroom. The noodles were ready, but the only vegetable was cabbage.

"Teacher Liu, tell me about America. Why did you come back so late? Why was it delayed again?" Zhu Lin asked impatiently.

"America has many tall buildings and many cars, but the people are not so great. They are not of our race, and their hearts are different! After all, we are yellow people and they are white people, so we can't see eye to eye."

"Oh dear, Teacher Liu, how can you be so rude? You're still eating! You're being punished." Zhu Lin tapped her cheek with her finger.

Liu Yimin chuckled and brought his mouth close to hers.

"So many cultural relics?" Zhu Lin was astonished by the sheer number of lost cultural relics after listening to Liu Yimin's explanation.

“Yes, so we stayed in the United States for a few days and published some articles calling for the return of the cultural relics. If our visas hadn’t expired soon, we would have had to wait much longer to return,” Liu Yimin said.

"America is indeed not beautiful! When we have skyscrapers and cars, people in our country won't have to fight tooth and nail to go to America."

Zhu Lin rested his head on his hand and watched Liu Yimin wolf down his food.

"Why don't you eat?"

"I'm full!" Zhu Lin murmured.

"This is what gay men usually say to gay women; their beauty is irresistible."

Zhu Lin chuckled and continued eating with her head down.

"Think about what our family is still lacking. I still have some US dollars on hand, which can be used to buy some duty-free industrial products at the Overseas Personnel Service Center."

Zhu Lin thought for a long time but couldn't figure out what his family was missing.

"Let's buy a washing machine too!"

"Can that thing be cleaned by hand?" Zhu Lin asked.

"Some hard-to-wash items still need to be washed by hand, but if there's nothing particularly dirty, you can use the washing machine instead."

“Alright!” Zhu Lin said, then ran back to the study, took out a piece of paper and handed it to Liu Yimin: “This is the contract for the courtyard house. Senior Brother Cui found a house, and they are in a hurry to sell it. Since you weren’t home, I bought it.”

"Fine, I'll buy it!"

"Thirteen thousand, I only paid three thousand, there's still ten thousand left!"

"Isn't the passbook in the study? Why don't you take it out?"

“You’re in charge, I won’t handle the money. Let’s withdraw the remaining payment and give it to them tomorrow.”

"I have a feeling it's because you're lazy."

The following morning, Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin, led by Cui Daoyi, settled the remaining payment for the courtyard house. The two-courtyard house next to Shichahai now costs 13,000 yuan.

"Yimin, how's America?" Cui Daoyi asked.

"Just like that."

Liu Yimin then spoke to Cui Daoyi again and gave him a scarf he had bought from the United States.

"Hey, I, Cui Daoyi, never thought I'd be scrambling for American goods too!" Cui Daoyi exclaimed excitedly.

"The Acacia Tree in the Minefield will be published in two days. The whole publishing house is very excited and is looking forward to a great start!"

Cui Daoyi rubbed his frostbitten face and said excitedly.

"I heard that 'Triumph at Midnight' has reached six million?" Liu Yimin asked.

"Yes, six million! I heard from Li Shu that the comic book version is coming out soon. Also, I heard that 'Green Book' has already sold 400,000 copies since it went on sale. I guess only the Commercial Press knows the specific details."

After Cui Daoyi finished speaking, he pulled Liu Yimin aside and asked, "You told me last time that money is becoming less and less valuable and that we need to invest. I've been thinking about it, and our savings definitely can't buy a house. So, how about we buy gold?"

"Sure, of course! You can't lose money on gold. What's the price of gold in Yanjing right now?"

“Right now, jewelry in gold shops costs 65 yuan per gram. If your sister-in-law and I save up, we can buy about a gram a month. Add in our savings, and we can buy quite a lot,” Cui Daoyi said with a smile.

"Sure, you won't lose out by buying gold!"

Upon hearing this, Cui Daoyi walked away with a smile.

In the early 1980s, the government began to liberalize the gold trade, and gold shops gradually appeared in Beijing. However, the selection was limited, and the shops sold whatever was available.

Even so, there was a buying frenzy!
Liu Yimin and Zhu Lin looked around the courtyard house, locked the door, and left, heading towards the Overseas Personnel Service Department.

I showed them my ID, went inside and picked out a washing machine and a television.

"Teacher Liu, why are you buying a TV again?"

"Of course, it's for my father-in-law and mother-in-law!" Liu Yimin said with a smile.

"Oh dear, this..." Zhu Lin felt embarrassed. Liu Yimin said in a low voice, "I spent all my salary on pigeons and turtles. I have to find a way to pay it back."

So Zhu Lin said nothing more.

Zhu Lin put the TV on the motorcycle and took it back to the Zhu family home. Liu Yimin and the salesman together delivered the washing machine to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

When they arrived at the Zhu family home, the television set hadn't been taken apart yet. Mr. and Mrs. Zhu declined, saying that it was inappropriate to give such an expensive gift.

"Yes, Yimin, we both want to watch TV, we'll buy it ourselves!"

“Mom, it’s a tax-free TV, so cheap. Why not take advantage of this opportunity? I didn’t use it last time,” Liu Yimin said.

“You can sell them to others too. I heard you can make several hundred yuan from buying and selling them!” Zhu’s mother was afraid that others would hear her.

Zhu Lin laughed and said, "Mom, both Teacher Liu and I have jobs. If we were caught reselling, we would lose our jobs. Don't worry!"

Liu Yimin then divided the gifts he brought back from the United States among the two of them, and the family ate a lively meal together while the TV was playing "The Flames of War in Beiping".

"I heard from the newspapers that they're planning to film 'Dream of the Red Chamber,' but I don't know if it will be any good!" Zhu Lin said.

Mr. Zhu immediately added, "It seems like all four classic novels are going to be adapted into films, and 'Journey to the West' is also in preparation!"

"I wish I could direct a TV series someday!" Zhu Lin said wistfully.

(End of this chapter)