1980 My literary era

After Laba Festival, the flavor of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger.

From spring to autumn, because of the country's liberalization of commodity prices, everyone was robbed for most of the year. The money in their family bankbooks was lost, and what was left was supplies that could not be used up in a year or two.

At the end of the New Year, we are not as willing to spend money to buy New Year's goods as in previous years.

Lin Weimin and Tao Huimin carried their things and went to Mr. Wan's house again. They hadn't seen Lin Weimin for a long time. Mr. Wan was very happy to see him.

"You have been in a lot of limelight recently!" Mr. Wan said.

"This should be considered a side effect of my good deeds."

After sitting down and talking for a while, Lin Weimin told Mr. Wan and his wife that they planned to get married in the next year. Both of them were happy after hearing this.

Li Yuru got up and went to the room and took out a jade bracelet to give to Tao Huimin. "As I get older, these jewelry are no longer needed. Xiao Tao will be a bride soon, so just think of it as a dowry, take it!"

This jade bracelet was worth a lot at first glance. Tao Huimin waved her hands in embarrassment.

"Master, how can this be good?"

Tao Huimin refused, and Mr. Wan said from the side: "Take it, treat it as a wedding gift for you, it is not expensive."

Seeing what Mr. Wan said, Lin Weimin asked Tao Huimin to accept the jade bracelet.

Mr. Wan looked at Lin Weimin and Tao Huimin sitting together with a smile on his face, "We are finally getting married. You should cherish your good years like this and seize the time to have a child as soon as possible."

Lin Weimin smiled bitterly and said, "Why are you also trying to induce pregnancy?"

"After this year, you will be thirty. Although the country emphasizes late marriage and better childcare, it cannot be too late. This is the right age."

Lin Weimin nodded helplessly. As an old man, what he seems to like most when he gets older is inducing marriage and inducing children. Now that the marriage is about to happen, all that remains is inducing children.

Two days later, Lin Weimin, who was at work, received a call from Cheng Zhongshi.

"Hey, Lao Cheng, why are you thinking of calling me? Are you going to wish me an early New Year?" Lin Weimin joked.

Cheng Zhongshi was not very good at joking, so he laughed a few times and told Lin Weimin good news.

"The novel is finished!"

"Is it finished?" Lin Weimin's voice was full of joy.

He then asked: "Is it really finished? When can it be mailed? No, no, no, it cannot be mailed. I will send someone to pick it up. Just wait over there..."

Cheng Zhongshi interrupted Lin Weimin's excitement and said: "It's just a first draft and needs to be revised."

"Come to Yanjing to revise it, and everyone can communicate together. The efficiency will be much faster, and there will be subsidies."

Lin Weimin's warm invitation was declined by Cheng Zhongshi. "I can write smoothly in my old house. Without such an environment, I'm afraid I won't be able to write anything." Cheng Zhongshi explained to Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin thought about it and understood that many writers are very dependent on the environment when creating, especially writers like Cheng Zhongshi who have been rooted in rural areas for decades.

"Then you can safely revise the manuscript in your hometown. Don't be anxious. If you need anything, just call or write me. If you can't find me, do the same with other people in the editorial department."

Lin Weimin gave some warnings and then asked worriedly: "Are you still financially comfortable?"

Cheng Zhongshi said quickly: "We are very generous. We haven't used half of the royalties we advanced last time. It's enough."

Speaking of this incident, Cheng Zhongshi felt extremely grateful.

Recently, he heard about Lin Weimin's feat of donating tens of millions. He would be lying if he said he was not envious, but he admired Lin Weimin more.

This is the real literati!

After chatting for a long time, Lin Weimin hung up the phone and found He Qizhi with some excitement, telling him to write to Cheng Zhongshi frequently to communicate about the progress of the creation of the work.

Most importantly, don’t let other publications get in the way.

This novel by Cheng Zhongshi, "Contemporary", has been maintained for several years. It would be a joke if it was censored midway.

Although I have a good relationship with Cheng Zhongshi and supports the manuscript fee, some editors these days do everything possible to compile manuscripts, so I have to be careful.

He usually had a lot of things to do, so he was worried that he would neglect this matter, so he specifically told He Qizhi.

He Qizhi also knew how much Lin Weimin valued the novel Cheng Zhongshi was writing, and he solemnly agreed.

On the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Ma Yuan, whom he had not seen for a long time, appeared in the editorial office of "Contemporary".

His child was born last year, and the environment in the snow area was difficult. For the sake of their child, Ma Yuan and his wife decided to transfer their jobs back to their hometown in Liaodong.

Earlier this year, his wife and children had already returned to Liaodong, but Ma Principle had delayed until now to handle the work transfer and all the trivial matters.

Ma Yuan's job in the snow area was as a reporter. Over the years, he had not been writing full-time. This time, in order to be transferred back to Liaodong, he embarked on the path of a professional writer and became a full-time writer.

"So, you will settle in Liaodong in the future?" Lin Weimin asked.

"Almost, after all, I have children."

Lin Weimin didn't take Ma Yuan's words seriously. He was born to be troubled, and he was not a master who could settle down easily.

After chatting in the editorial office for two hours, Ma Yuan proposed to go see Shi Tiesheng.

Lin Weimin got off work an hour early and took him to Shichahai Courtyard.

Passing by a roadside store, Ma Yuan asked Lin Weimin to stop for a moment, and he got out of the car and bought a roast chicken.

“You can’t come to the door empty-handed!”

The car stopped at the entrance of the courtyard house on Baimi Xiejie.

"Tiesheng! Tiesheng!"

Lin Weimin called Shi Tiesheng out, "Look who's coming?"

Shi Tiesheng was a little surprised to see Ma Yuan, but more of a surprise.

They got acquainted with each other at the PEN Club of "Contemporary". Unfortunately, they were separated and rarely had the chance to meet each other.

Shi Tiesheng enthusiastically invited Ma Yuan into the house. Seeing his thin clothes, Shi Tiesheng asked with a smile, "Aren't you afraid of the cold?"

"People from the Northeast, how can they be afraid of the cold?"

Ma Yuan smacked his chest, feeling that even if he was put naked in the North Pole, he would still dare to speak boldly.

Shi Tiesheng looked at Lin Weimin with a mocking expression, "Weimin might be a fake Northeasterner!"

Lin Weimin said: "The farther north you are, the more afraid of cold people are. Only animals that have experienced cold tend to be warmer. Just like those southerners who went north to see the snow, shouted and were very happy, but only us northerners know this." How troublesome it is when it snows.”

A few people were talking, and Cheng Ximi went out to buy vegetables. Lin Weimin and Ma Yuan came to visit today, and they must make two more dishes at home.

Due to several large-scale panic buying this year, Yanjing began to implement the vegetable basket project in order to alleviate the inconvenience of ordinary people in purchasing daily necessities. Buying vegetables is much more convenient than before.

After Cheng Ximi went out, several people chatted in the room. Ma Yuan had worked in the snow area for many years and only showed up occasionally. Naturally, he was most concerned about the current situation of his friends.

Ma Yuan was originally promoted by Lin Weimin's "Pioneer Novel Account", and his group of people such as Mo Yan, Yu Hua and others are now developing well.

When talking about Mo Yan, Ma Yuan was even more envious. Although he had been working for many years, he had been receiving subsidies to go to school in the past few years. He also had a rich output of works. The most important thing was that the movie adapted from his novel actually won the won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear Award.

Ma Yuan lamented that among their generation of writers, Mo Yan's development has become increasingly unique.

"Mo Yan has achieved good results now, and he has achieved them bit by bit. You are just impatient." Lin Weimin said.

Ma Yuan did not refute his words. Lin Weimin was the editor who first discovered him. He knew his character very clearly and was not wrong. Ma Yuan himself was also well aware of his problems.

He likes "The Scarlet Letter" by Hawthorne, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, and "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas.

These writers and their works all have distinctive personalities and characteristics, which are quite similar to his character.

Ma Yuan brought the topic back to the donations and Hope Primary School that had been a hot topic some time ago, and he was full of envy for Lin Weimin's lavish spending.

Reform and opening up has entered its tenth year. Rapid economic development and continuous social changes have made people more sensitive to money, and this is also true for the circle of writers.

Shi Tiesheng asked: "When will Hope Primary School be built?"

"We are already selecting places. People from the foundation are now going to Gansu and Ningxia, where the first batch of 10 primary schools will be built. After the construction of this batch of primary schools starts, the second batch will be built immediately."

"I see that your foundation has raised tens of millions in donations. It should be able to build thousands of primary schools, right?"

Lin Weimin shook his head and said: "It's unlikely. The construction conditions of primary schools in various places are different, and the construction requirements and costs are naturally different. Most of them should be between 50,000 and 100,000. The purchase of office equipment, desks and benches is also different. It’s also an expense. The most important thing is that we plan to provide lunches to the students, which is a huge expense. It would be good if the current donations can build about five or six hundred primary schools and maintain them.”

"Still providing food?"

Ma Yuan was busy dealing with trivial matters and traveling these days, and did not pay attention to the follow-up reports on the Hope Project in the newspapers. He was surprised to hear that the Hope Primary School was still providing meals.

"That's right. Our schools are not located in ordinary poverty-stricken areas. Many families can't even provide food and clothing. Providing a lunch for their children can not only greatly reduce the burden on families, but also give parents the motivation to send their children to school. Go to school." Lin Weimin explained.

When Shi Tiesheng heard this, he nodded and said: "I have read the newspaper reports. You are right to do this. This is something of practical significance!"

Ma Yuan said, "I'm just afraid of the appearance of a giant rat."

"You can't stop eating because of choking, right?" Lin Weimin asked.

There was some silence between the two.

In later generations, an Internet celebrity economist once made a shocking argument, saying that "low-rent housing cannot be equipped with a bathroom."

It was incredible when I first heard it, but when I thought about it in reverse, everyone was silent.

If the low-rent housing is really equipped with a separate bathroom and has all the basic living facilities, will it be the turn of the real poor to live there?

Human nature is selfish and greedy. Without systems and laws to regulate it, there is no way to guarantee the interests of vulnerable groups.

Lin Weimin said at the end, sighing slightly: "What we can do is to supervise as much as possible. We cannot give up such a meaningful thing just because of the possible negative effects of this matter."

Shi Tiesheng agreed: "You're right for the people. How can you be afraid of trouble if you want to do something? The more difficulties there are, the greater the benefits will be."

A few people were talking. Cheng Ximi came back from shopping for vegetables. Lin Weimin and Ma Yuan went to help with the cooking. Shi Tiesheng was rocking a wheelchair aside. Everyone was chatting and cooking, and the atmosphere was harmonious.