1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 171 I'm going to give you a task

Xu Xiaoming was still immersed in the majestic and magnificent "The Great Wall Will Never Fall". He wished he could personally contain the foreign enemies and resist foreign aggression. He was so excited that he was choked by Jiang Xian.

"Mr. Jiang, you are really..."

"Xiao Ming, this is you being disrespectful."

Jiang Xian rushed to accuse him, "I just showed you the lyrics, but you composed the music for me. If I didn't ask you about this, you would have gone back to Hong Kong."

Jiang Xian seized the opportunity very cleverly.

Show the lyrics to Xu Xiaoming first. Once he has composed the music and is satisfied with the song, how could he not need the lyrics?
"That's true."

Xu Xiaoming laughed, "But your poem is really good, not inferior to Huang Zhan's!"

James Wong is one of the four great talents in Hong Kong. He is known as one of the "three great lyricists" along with Qiao Yu and Zhuang Nu. He is the exclusive lyricist signed by TVB and is very popular in the Hong Kong music scene. He has written songs such as "A Laugh in the Sea", "A Chinese Ghost Story", "The Bund", "A Man Should Be Self-reliant", and "My Chinese Heart".
I’ve written so many great songs that, well, I can forget the lyrics I wrote, the songs I sang, and the songs I sang.

"I just came up with it by accident, it just came out of my inspiration."

"But I'm afraid the remuneration for lyrics is not much." Xu Xiaoming looked embarrassed. "In the Hong Kong music scene, you can only get 10,000 Hong Kong dollars for writing a song."

The Hong Kong dollar is not as valuable as the RMB now. In the mid-to-late 70s, the RMB-Hong Kong dollar exchange rate once soared to 20:100. In the 80s, 33 RMB could be exchanged for 100 Hong Kong dollars. So the Hong Kong dollars mentioned by Xu Xiaoming are actually only more than RMB.

The more than 3,000 RMB was for one song. Jiang Xian only wrote the lyrics, so naturally he got less.

"How about this? I'll make the decision." Xu Xiaoming said enthusiastically, "I'll pay you 6,000 Hong Kong dollars for the lyrics of this song. What do you think?"

Six thousand Hong Kong dollars, which is almost two thousand yuan in hand, is enough to satisfy Jiang Xian. He only wrote a few lines and got two thousand yuan.

This money is as easy as picking it up for free!
"Xiao Ming, don't transfer the money directly to me," Jiang Xian warned.

Xu Xiaoming smiled, already understanding what he meant, "I know, I know, I'll change it into foreign exchange certificates for you."

"The one who understands me best is Xiao Ming." Jiang Xian laughed. What he really wanted was the foreign exchange coupons. He would be happy with even a hundred more, let alone a thousand.

Foreign exchange coupons are something you can only come across by chance.

"Mr. Jiang, I really don't quite understand this foreign exchange certificate." Xu Xiaoming said slowly.

During this period of time, after he learned about the foreign exchange certificates in the mainland, he was quite confused and even worried.

With foreign exchange coupons, you can buy high-end goods. Doesn’t that mean that foreign exchange coupons are much louder than money?
This is not just Xu Xiaoming's concern, even many foreigners are worried. This year, the People's X Newspaper published many letters from foreigners. They don't understand and think this is very similar to the privileges granted by the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century.

Of course, everything has its two sides. If a country wants to develop, it needs foreign exchange reserves, which in turn cannot be achieved without foreign exchange coupons.

Jiang Xian explained the pros and cons to Xu Xiaoming in a logical manner, which made the young man Xu Xiaoming admire him. It was a remarkable thing that people of their age could have such profound thoughts.

"Come on, I'll treat you to a meal."

It was late at night and the canteen at the Beijing Film Studio had already gone off work. Xu Xiaoming dragged Jiang Xian to Donglaishun to eat mutton hotpot. Donglaishun still had freshly-baked meat patties for sale, and the meat was said to be the leftover bits and pieces from the hotpot upstairs.

Xu Xiaoming's mouth was full of oil. "I still like this. It's easier to accept than bean juice."

"Soybean juice can only be drunk in Beijing."

"Next time, next time I come to Beijing, I must have a bowl of this." Xu Xiaoming set a small goal for himself. Mid-June.

Jiang Xian finally finished revising the manuscript of "Rice" and went to Renwen Publishing House to hand in the manuscript to Li Jingfeng.

"You are cocky, aren't you?" Li Jingfeng jokingly criticized him, "Why are you so slow in revising the manuscript? It's been almost a month."

"There's nothing we can do about it." Jiang Xian was helpless. He had been working on "Huo Yuanjia" with Xu Xiaoming for the past few days and had no time to revise the manuscript.

He knew that Li Jingfeng wanted to help him avoid taxes legally, but in comparison, the foreign exchange certificates from Xu Xiaoming were more attractive.

"Jingfeng, please hurry up and I'll treat you to dinner at Lao Mo after it's published." Jiang Xian made a big promise.

Li Jingfeng sighed, "You, you are such a devil."

He read it carefully first, and felt that there were no major problems, so he gave it to Wei Junyi to read again. He only looked at the places where modifications had been made, so it was much faster than reading the entire novel.

"Almost done." Wei Junyi poured him a glass of water. "Your novel must be discussed at a symposium. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Another symposium?" Jiang Xian's head became bigger when he thought of the symposiums that "Furong Town" had held in Beijing and Tianjin.

Wei Junyi smiled and said, "But since you are busy studying now, we will try not to waste your time. As for this symposium, let Jingfeng attend it for you. If the senior teachers have any opinions, I will let Jingfeng compile them and give them to you."

"Is this okay?" Jiang Xian was still a little nervous. It would seem irresponsible if he didn't go to his own symposium.

However, "Rice" was of publishable quality. Even if the second half was revised, listening to any opinions would just be formalism.

"I'll assign you a task," Wei Junyi said with a smile, "and find someone to draw the illustrations for Rice."

At present, all single volumes are equipped with illustrations. When "Furong Town" was published, an editor from Renwen Press was asked to help with the work. According to Wei Junyi's intention, he obviously wanted Jiang Xian to find a famous writer.

"Then I'll try to contact them." Jiang Xian recalled that among the people he knew, there should be many who understood calligraphy and painting, but there seemed to be relatively few famous artists.

Looking for Ling Zifeng?

His paintings are quite good, but it seems that he is still out of town shooting for "Li Siguang".

After thinking for a while, he still couldn't think of anyone, so he gave up thinking about it for the time being. Jiang Xian was considered a social celebrity in the literary and art circles, so it shouldn't be difficult to find someone who could draw to do the illustrations.

After saying goodbye to Wei Junyi, I chatted with Li Jingfeng for a while. After saying goodbye, I didn't leave in a hurry. I went to the building to get a stack of manuscript paper, put it in a net bag, and hung it on the handlebars of the bicycle.

As soon as he left the carport, Li Jingfeng followed him in big strides.

"The manuscript has been revised! Why are you still stealing our manuscript paper?!"

"Jingfeng, don't be so stingy."

Jiang Xian started from the side, got on the car, and fled quickly, with gusts of 1980 wind blowing around him.

“【Painting】+【Leaving Home】=Novel “???””

(End of this chapter)