1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 615 Yes, we have a child

new York.

Feng Xiaogang, like a rat in a sewer, peered up at the New York sky through a small basement window.

“This Day”

"When will this ever end?"

It's been almost half a year since Feng Xiaogang came to the United States, and he's almost forgotten why he came here. He's written letter after letter home, but unfortunately, after all this time, he still hasn't received any instructions from Jiang Xian.

Gradually, he got used to this kind of life in New York. The work was a bit dirty, and the conditions were a bit poor, but at least, at least he had a "beauty" by his side.

Having been a "casual couple" with Lü Liping for so long, it's impossible for Feng Xiaogang to say he had no feelings for her. Often late at night, he would hold Lü Liping in his arms on the makeshift bed in the basement, talking about their future life and the TV series they were about to film.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely make you a star." That's what Feng Xiaogang always said to her.

They were deeply in love at the time and made some grand pronouncements.

But as time goes by, repeating these words over and over again makes them seem like empty promises.

Recently, Lü Liping has been asking Feng Xiaogang whether he lied to her, whether he really came to the United States to experience life, and why it's been going on for so long and it's still not over.

Upon hearing this question, Feng Xiaogang felt a little embarrassed and could only repeatedly clarify that he was really there to experience life and gather material, not because he couldn't make a living in China and had come to the United States to make a living.

"Old Feng, come here quickly."

Feng Xiaogang was gazing up at New York when he suddenly heard Lü Liping shout. He rushed over and found Lü Liping sitting on the edge of the bed, clutching his hair and looking very uneasy.

"what happened?"

"Please speak?"

Feng Xiaogang asked twice, and after a long silence, Lü Liping handed him the pregnancy test kit. Feng Xiaogang already had children and was an experienced person, so he understood what it meant at a glance.

"who?"

"who?"

Lu Liping sat up abruptly. "Who else could it be?! Don't deny it now!"

“I mean, whose thing is this?” Feng Xiaogang pointed to the object in his hand, indicating that he wasn’t referring to what Lü Liping thought.

"Who would just hand over something like this to someone else?" Lu Liping roared even louder.

"Oh, me."

Feng Xiaogang, already a father, was in disbelief and felt extremely uncomfortable. "How could this be? I took precautions. Are you sure it's mine?"

"Otherwise what?! Otherwise, it would belong to someone else!"

Lu Liping grabbed Feng Xiaogang's sleeve as if afraid he would run away, "You have to take responsibility, you know that?!"

"I know, I know."

Feng Xiaogang pried her hands open and tentatively asked, "What do you think? Do you want to give birth or..."

"How could it possibly be born?!"

Unable to contain her hysteria, Lü Liping cried out, "I can't have a child! I can't have one with you! And I definitely can't have one now!"

"."

Feng Xiaogang breathed a sigh of relief. "Then let's get it done as soon as possible. Yeah, it has to be quick, since recovery takes time, and what if the TV series starts filming around this time?"

Lu Liping didn't speak, clearly agreeing with him, but just touched her belly with a worried expression.

Where should I get it done?

Since coming to the United States, she has never been to an American hospital, and she always endures minor illnesses and pains on her own.

"And that must cost a lot of money, right?"

Lu Liping brought up her biggest concern: "I didn't have much money to begin with, and the little I managed to save up has all been spent by you recently."

"."

Upon hearing her words, Feng Xiaogang immediately felt ashamed.

He doesn't earn money; he usually spends all of Lü Liping's money. The standard of living in the United States is high, and so is the cost of living. Lü Liping's little bit of money was almost gone in just a few days.

He said he was borrowing it, and that he would return it to Lü Liping soon after he had experienced the life.

But who knew that the experience would last so long?

"I'll borrow some money from someone first," Feng Xiaogang said. "No matter what, this child can't be kept."

"I blame you all!"

As Lü Liping thought about it, she became emotionally distraught and lay there sobbing.

"Oh dear, why are you crying!"

Feng Xiaogang glared at her, "I'll make it up to you later, I told you I would."

You have to make it up to me!

"I know, really."

With something on his mind, Feng Xiaogang went to borrow money from the wok maker and the head chef the next day, but neither of them was willing to give him any.

"What do you need the money for?" the wok maker asked him.

“I have an urgent matter and need it urgently. Don’t worry, I’ll return it to you soon,” Feng Xiaogang promised.

"Give it back to me?"

The man with the wok gave him a wary look. "You don't have much income. Tell me what you need the money for. My money is with my wife, and I have to discuss it with her."

"oops."

Feng Xiaogang hesitated for a long time, but seeing that he couldn't borrow money if he didn't tell the culprit today, he had no choice but to reveal it to the culprit.

"Then don't tell others."

"it is good."

"Actually... oh, actually... I accidentally messed up someone else's thing here," Feng Xiaogang said, gesturing with his hands over his stomach.

"Did you escalate this situation here?"

The man in the wok was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized what was happening. He stared at Feng Xiaogang in surprise and exclaimed, "You got someone pregnant!"

"Hey, hey, hey?"

Feng Xiaogang quickly covered his mouth, saying, "Keep your voice down, I already told you to keep it a secret."

"Keep it a secret, keep it a secret."

The wok nodded in agreement, then mysteriously leaned closer to Feng Xiaogang and whispered to him:
"Who is it? Who got you pregnant? Give me a hint, and I promise I won't tell anyone. I'm very tight-lipped."

"Never mind that," Feng Xiaogang said impatiently. "It's Lü, isn't it!"

The man with the wok excitedly guessed, "That woman has been smelling particularly bad lately. You can smell her stench just by standing near her. I bet you're the one who's been 'watering' her. You're something else! What's that saying again? 'Those who live near the water get the moon first.' You two live together."

"Alright, alright."

Feng Xiaogang blushed with embarrassment. "Never mind who it is, just lend me some money first."

"oops."

When the conversation returned to borrowing money, the man in the wok became very troubled again: "But I'm also short on cash. We just had a baby, and kids spend money so much. I'm afraid I don't have any extra to lend you."

"No surplus?"

Feng Xiaogang was furious. "Why didn't you say you didn't have any extra? I've been talking to you about this for ages."

"Don't be in such a hurry."

The man with the wok smiled sheepishly and added, "But my wife seems to have a friend who owns a clinic. If we get treatment there, it might be a little cheaper."

"Oh? There's such a place?" Feng Xiaogang perked up immediately. "Where is it? Could you tell me about it?"

Beijing.

"Oh dear, sister-in-law, why didn't you send these letters to me sooner?" Jiang Xian glanced at the letters Feng Xiaogang had sent from the United States.

"Oh dear, I just received this myself not long ago. It was shipped from the United States and traveled all the way across the ocean," said Feng Xiaogang's wife.

"Alright, alright, don't worry, I'll get Lao Feng back right away. He's been gone for so long, he must have suffered a lot. The organization won't forget him, he's a hero of our organization."

After calming Feng Xiaogang's wife down for a while, she took her leave.

After seeing her off, Jiang Xian finally had time to carefully examine the manuscript that Lu Yao had just given him—a manuscript neatly written on Yanhe manuscript paper:
After eating, Shaoping didn't let them see him off; he went out on the street by himself.

Ah, perhaps the worst is over!
Now, he walks down this bustling street, unfazed by the many complex gazes sweeping across his face. For some reason, he even feels his emotions gradually becoming heightened.

He bought a pair of dark glasses from a small stall run by a self-employed individual and put them on immediately—partially concealing the scar on his face.

Then, he went to a store and bought a dark gray raincoat to wear. This attire, combined with the scar on his face, strangely gave him a different kind of masculine charm—this was exactly the "new" image he imagined himself to have. In the last bit of time left in the afternoon, he also went to Xinhua Bookstore and bought several books. His favorite book was "The Impact of Some Raw Materials on the Future of Humanity."

That evening, he sat quietly in his small hotel room, writing two letters to his sister, Zhongping, and Jinxiu respectively. In the letters to Lanxiang and Zhongping, he explained why he didn't want to work in a big city now. He said he might spend his whole life dealing with coal. In a long letter to Jinxiu, he mainly explained why he couldn't be with her. He wished his dear sister Jinxiu a happy life with Gu Yangmin or some other man. The next day, Sun Shao-ping carried his belongings, sent the two letters at the train station, and quietly left the provincial capital alone.

Around noon, he returned to the long-lost Dayawan Coal Mine.

He got off the car in front of the mine headquarters, looked up at the towering coal preparation plant, the majestic gangue mountain, and the black coal piles, and his eyes welled up with tears. The warm monsoon wind blew across the green and yellow hills; in the blue sky, the sun smiled eternally.

He vaguely heard a vibrant song whistled in his ear. It was a song praising youth and life.

He climbed onto the second-level platform and hurried eastward along the railway line. In the distance, he saw Huiying with a red headscarf, Mingming with a red scarf fluttering on her chest, and a small dog with a jingling bell around its neck, all running towards him.

Actually, this isn't the first time I've read it.

But Jiang Xian was still moved to tears by these words.

The stack of manuscripts in front of him was the manuscript of the third part of "Ordinary World" that Lu Yao handed to him.

In the original historical trajectory, Lu Yao's manuscript for the third part would have been completed a little later due to his health condition.

But this time, he actually finished much earlier than expected. And when Jiang Xian saw Lu Yao, although he was still so haggard that he looked like he was about to die, he was not sick enough to fall into the hospital and be unable to live a normal life.

This is probably a difference in mindset.

"Ordinary World" originally went through a very cruel rejection process.

Back then, Zhou Changyi, an editor at the magazine "Contemporary", went to northern Shaanxi to solicit manuscripts. He happened to learn from the local writers' association that Lu Yao had just finished writing the first part of "Ordinary World" and had the opportunity to meet him.

At that time, the leaders of the Writers' Association solemnly said to this editor:

"Lu Yao recently completed a new work, which is about the struggle of young people in rural areas. Many people may not understand it. But Lu Yao believes that you can understand it. This novel has been completed for some time now. The reason why Lu Yao did not give this book to the magazines 'October' and 'Harvest', nor directly to the leaders of 'Contemporary', is because he was not only looking for magazine publishers, but also looking for kindred spirits. Lu Yao regards you as a kindred spirit."

If someone is truly interested, they should be able to understand Lu Yao's good intentions.

Zhou Changyi came from a coal mining family and should have a good understanding of coal miners.

Lu Yao trusted this editor.

However, Zhou Xiaobian failed to live up to Lu Yao's deep affection.

It can only be said that Lu Yao was unlucky in his choice of people, which led to the tragic fate of his masterpiece "Ordinary World" as soon as it was published, and triggered a series of butterfly effects.

Given Lu Yao's status and position in the literary world at the time, he could have easily invited experienced editors from prestigious magazines like "Contemporary" and "October" to his home to discuss matters related to publishing his novel "Ordinary World".

Lu Yao did not do that. He believed that Zhou Changyi came from a miner's family and was just a low-level editor. He would not be influenced by mainstream critics, or to put it bluntly, he would not follow the trend of the times.

There were countless people who wanted to commission Lu Yao's manuscripts, so Zhou Changyi was not in the running at the time.

It was Lu Yao who invited him.

Life is just like that—it makes you laugh and cry at the same time.

At that time, Lu Yao had already published "Life" and several other novels, and was famous in the literary world.

Zhou Changyi is an editor who has only recently started working in the field.

The difference in their status is just that great.

At first, Zhou Bian approached Lu Yao's manuscript with a respectful attitude and carefully read it at the hotel. However, to his surprise, given Zhou Bian's knowledge and taste, he found it increasingly difficult to continue reading.

The editor later recalled:

"The first book was over 30 words long. I couldn't get into it before I was even moved. It's not surprising. I felt it was too slow and verbose. The story had no suspense or surprises. Everything was predictable, which made it hard to read. No matter how classic a work is, if I can't read it, I won't read it. It's like eating. If you think abalone is expensive, but I find it unpalatable, I won't eat it. Later, I couldn't finish reading Chen Zhongshi's 'White Deer Plain' either."

Therefore, Zhou Changyi rejected the manuscript on behalf of "Contemporary".

This was completely unexpected for Lu Yao. The more he trusted the magazine back then, the more disappointed he was with it now.

And this is quite a blow.

A renowned writer poured his heart and soul into this work, spending three years preparing by going down into coal mines, visiting villages, and living in humble dwellings before finally beginning to create it.

They couldn't even meet the publication requirements of "Contemporary"!

Therefore, after Editor Zhou rejected Lu Yao's manuscript, the local writers' association kept urging him not to reveal that he had rejected Lu Yao's manuscript.

This was, of course, out of fear that Lu Yao would lose face if word got out.

Moreover, Lu Yao was known for being very concerned about his image; even if he didn't have money, he still had to smoke good cigarettes.

This shows how much of a blow the rejection could have been to him.

The butterfly effect of this incident was that, because Contemporary is an authoritative magazine, its rejection of Ordinary World not only hurt the writer's self-esteem but also his health. As a result, Lu Yao cried bitterly and fell seriously ill.

After the first part of "Ordinary World" was published in "Huacheng", it was met with skepticism. The second part could only be published in the even less popular "Yellow River".

Everything is a butterfly effect. It was this psychological blow that put a burden on Lu Yao's body, leading to his later misfortunes.

And this time, Jiang Xian, once again, was another butterfly of fate, quietly flapping its wings.
(End of this chapter)