1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

Chapter 129 Xuemin, how did you train your hand speed? (Please subscribe to the full version)

As "People's Literature" and "October" were put on shelves and distributed across the country, feedback from readers, government agencies, and various units and factories on "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office" continued to ferment.

At the beginning of New Year's Day in 1979, there was an outbreak!

Following closely on this, the People's Daily reprinted and published "Director Qiao's Taking Office" on the first day of the new year, pushing this article to its peak!
In the past two days, Cheng Xuemin has received 700 to 800 yuan in reprint fees alone. These include People's Daily, Yenching Literature, Workers' Daily, Yenching Evening News, Yenching Daily, China Youth...

Basically, they were given a reprint fee of three to four yuan per thousand words. This may be related to the promotional manuscripts specified above, or it may be related to the fact that the original author Cheng Xuemin has a mother-in-law who is an editor with deep knowledge in the industry.

We are all in the industry, so it is not easy to reprint for free. We just give some token of our respect and pay the reprint fee.

So these days, Cheng Xuemin has been running around to the People's Literature published by Renwen Publishing House, and he's almost running his legs off to collect the reprint royalties!

Feng Jiayou was so happy that he didn't even know how many celebrations he owed Cheng Xuemin.

And this is just the case in Yanjing. There are also many local newspapers and magazines that responded to the propaganda trend and reprinted the article.

However, up to now, Cheng Xuemin has not seen a single receipt for his royalties. Maybe it’s on the way, or maybe he is just pretending to be ignorant and getting it for free!

But it doesn’t matter. There is no regulation anyway that requires paying royalties to the original author if the reprint is made.

What he can give is basically what Cheng Xuemin earned for free!

On the Friday after New Year's Day, Cheng Xuemin spent nearly ten days to finish drawing all three volumes of the "Journey to the West" comic book.

At the same time, I have almost written 150,000 words of the novella "Parental Love", and it will be finished in about another week.

Cheng Xuemin has not started working on the 60 illustrations he promised to Li Qingquan of Yenching Literature. He plans to continue to work on two jobs, spending the morning drawing illustrations and the afternoon and evening finishing the novella "Parental Love".

It is expected that after all the manuscripts are completed in a week, Cheng Xuemin will focus on foreign exchange, and the foreign manuscripts that he has in mind to pay tribute to have also been finalized!
"Xuemin, what's the status of your novella now? How much have you written?!"

"Why don't you give us the first part of October? We've already started reviewing and finalizing the manuscript for this issue!"

Early in the morning, Cheng Xuemin prepared to send Feng Jiayou to Yan University for the exam, and then go to Renwen Publishing House to hand over the finished draft of the "Journey to the West" comic book to Lao Pan there.

But when he was leaving the house, he was stopped by his mother-in-law, Feng's mother, and asked about the situation of "Parents' Love"!

One thing to mention here!
When Ba Laosha came to the house that day, he originally wanted to let his mother-in-law take a look at this novella!

But Feng Jiayou, the rebellious daughter of Tian Gang, played dead and lied, and in the end, she didn't give it to him. Later, her mother urged her several times, saying that she would let her see it first, but she didn't give it to her.

Can you give it to me?
The love story between her parents is almost based on her mother's prototype, which is definitely to whet the audience's appetite and not to be read until the manuscript is finished.

Otherwise, if this isn’t written well in the middle, that won’t work either. Isn’t that annoying?

So with Feng Jiayou in the front, this novella was never given to my mother-in-law.

I’m urged to do it again today!
"Mom, it's almost done! Xuemin said that the manuscript will be finished before the 15th of the month. You can take a look at it then!"

"Otherwise I'm afraid you'll beat us both to death if you see it now!"

Before Cheng Xuemin could reply to her mother, Feng Jiayou rushed to reply, and then added this sentence. She is born to be rebellious. If she doesn't make her mother angry for a day, she will feel uncomfortable all over, right? ?

"No, what on earth did you write?!"

Originally, Feng's mother was quite happy to hear that the manuscript could be completed before the 15th of this month! But when she heard the debt collector's last sentence, she was speechless on the spot and asked quickly.

"No, no, I just said that. Anyway, you will know it by then, mom!"

"Let's go, we're going to be late!"

"Feng Jiayou Xuemin, tell me clearly, what did you write that's why you're afraid I'll beat you to death?!"

"You guys won't give up until you're pissed me off to death, right?!"

Who can stand this kind of saying that leaves something unsaid? !

Moreover, the debt collector said that if they read the manuscript in advance, he would definitely beat them to death. So what was written in it?

"Mom, I was just teasing you! I'll show you the manuscript later!"

The young daughter of the Feng family could rebel, but Cheng Xuemin, the son-in-law, did not dare to do so. The woman urged him to leave quickly, so he could only shout to his mother-in-law and then rode away on his bicycle.

About forty minutes later, Cheng Xuemin dropped Feng Jiayou off downstairs of her dormitory and asked, "Isn't she going to fail the exam?"

"Failed the exam?!" Feng Jiayou's eyes widened and he looked at Cheng Xuemin in confusion.

“It just doesn’t pass!”

Cheng Xuemin explained with a smile that Yanda has entered the exam week. Today is Feng Jiayou's first exam, and there will be another one in the afternoon.

With the three games tomorrow, women can officially have their winter break and go home to take care of their pregnancies!

"Failed? Are you underestimating your wife?"

Feng Jiayou glared at Cheng Xuemin unhappily and said, "After the exam, let's go and see that courtyard. If we agree, we can buy it!"

"This way, my parents will come from northern Shaanxi and have a home in Yanjing. Is that okay, Xuemin?"

After the woman made up her mind to buy the large courtyard house, Cheng Xuemin had been negotiating the price with the owner. Finally, the price was negotiated to 5,500 yuan. They couldn't lower the price any further after reducing it by 1,000 yuan!
Cheng Xuemin also knew that it was about the same. Five thousand five hundred yuan to buy a two-entry courtyard house was actually very cheap, so he basically accepted this price.

I plan to wait until this Sunday when everyone in my family is at home and go over to take a look and decide on a house at the same time.

"Listen to my wife!"

Cheng Xuemin nodded, and rode his bicycle to the Renwen Society!

"Xuemin, you've come just in time. There's another reprint fee invoice sent from Shanghai Literature and Art. Please come up and sign for it!"

As soon as I arrived at Renwen Press, I met Zhang Guangnian, the editor-in-chief of People's Literature, in the corridor on the first floor, and he greeted Cheng Xuemin.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang, do you have a payment slip for Shanghai Literature and Art?"

Cheng Xuemin was a little surprised. This should be the first manuscript fee bill from outside Shanghai, right? And speaking of the origin, Cheng Xuemin still owed Shanghai Literature and Art a manuscript!

The first manuscript I submitted to an external journal was "Female College Students' Dormitory", and it was submitted to the journal "Shanghai Literature and Art".

At that time, Cheng Xuemin acted so pitifully and cried so poor in his submission letter that he won the favor of the then editor-in-chief Li Xiaolin, who accepted his manuscript and applied for the maximum manuscript fee of 7 yuan per thousand words.

Now Li Xiaolin has been transferred to "Harvest" as the chief editor, and he also brought the manuscript "Chen Huansheng's Entry into the City" by the author Cheng Xuemin to "Harvest".

So to be honest, Cheng Xuemin owes a favor to Shanghai Literature and Art. After all, the royalties for the previous article were given by the editor-in-chief of Shanghai Literature and Art!

And it was very considerate that it was on the front page of the issue.

But I have never had time to repay this favor, and now he has been the first to send me the reprint fee for "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office".

Although it is unclear whether Li Xiaolin told her former unit explicitly that the author of "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office", Lao Qiao, is actually Kuang Yalan of their "Female College Students' Dormitory".

But since the other party was so kind, Cheng Xuemin planned to finish the manuscript in hand and then submit another manuscript to Shanghai Literature and Art under the pen name of Kuang Yalan.

"Yes! This may be the first reprint fee invoice from outside the province, and there will probably be many more to come!"

"We have paid attention to this, and many local newspapers and magazines have also reprinted our article!"

Zhang Guangnian nodded, led Cheng Xuemin up to the second floor, and asked, "By the way, Xuemin, do you have any new manuscripts? We will publish the first issue of the year at the beginning of the month, and we will soon finalize it!"

"So fast!?"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xuemin subconsciously asked, didn’t they just publish an issue of People’s Literature at the end of the month?

But I soon realized that People's Literature has "People" in its name and, like Chinese Literature, is a bimonthly magazine, published twice a month.

"Of course it will be fast! Our People's Literature bimonthly magazine publishes two issues a month!"

When mentioning this, Zhang Guangnian felt very proud, because up to now, there were only a few magazines in the whole country that were biweekly.

"Great, great!" Cheng Xuemin nodded and complimented, then smiled bitterly, "But I've been busy with Teacher Pan's comic books recently. I want to change my mind and look for inspiration. I haven't started writing any manuscripts yet!" "Forget it!" Zhang Guangnian didn't think so after hearing this, and said directly, "I heard that you only spent one night last week to write a manuscript for Ba Lao's "Harvest"?"

"And I have a novella that I'm about to finish. With your writing speed, you should be able to finish it in the next two days, right?"

"How about giving this novella to our People's Literature? I'll arrange the layout for you and try to publish it all for you in the first month of this year?"

The bimonthly magazine is so awesome and confident that even if Cheng Xuemin has a novella of 200,000 words, they are confident that they can help him publish it serially within a month!
Because they can publish two issues a month, it is just right to publish a manuscript worth 200,000 yuan in two issues and complete it within a month.

Unlike Cheng Xuemin's mother-in-law's "October", a bimonthly magazine, it would take at least two months to serialize the novella in Cheng Xuemin's hand.

If it is divided into three parts, it will take four months! With such a long time interval, even the best manuscript may be dragged down.

This is just like online novels in later generations. The most basic requirement is to have tens of thousands of copies every day to attract readers.

If you stop updating for three to five days, who will remember who you are?

Not to mention the two-month time interval!
So actually the most ideal way to serialize is to submit it to a major newspaper and publish it in serial form every day.

However, newspapers of this era do not seem to encourage serializing novels. They basically only publish short stories that are completed in the same issue.

"Teacher Zhang, you are well-informed. Last week, Mr. Ba came to visit me in person, and I did write a short story for him!"

"As for me, I do have a novella that is almost finished, but you also know that my mother-in-law is watching it. Teacher Zhang, do you think I dare to give it to you?"

Cheng Xuemin smiled bitterly and said that even though his mother-in-law's "October" had a long serialization period, its influence was not as great as Zhang Guangnian's "People's Literature".

But let me ask you, Teacher Zhang, if you were in my shoes, would you dare to submit the manuscript that your mother-in-law has set her eyes on to another magazine?

And Cheng Xuemin also emphasized one point!
It was Mr. Ba who came to my house in person to arrange for the manuscript. Is it okay for him to come to my house in person?

"That's true!"

Zhang Guangnian nodded awkwardly when he heard this. His mother-in-law was already very unhappy that People's Literature had snatched away the copy of "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office".

If he tries to pry open this novella again, his mother-in-law will definitely go crazy.

One hundred and twenty-one dollars!
Shanghai Literature and Art is as generous as ever, and the reprint fee is calculated at 4 yuan per thousand words.

Following Cheng Xuemin, he went up to the third floor and found Lao Pan, the director of the art editorial department at Renwen Publishing House!

"Xuemin, you're here. What's going on? Have you finished drawing the first volume of Journey to the West?"

Old Pan also estimated that Cheng Xuemin should have finished drawing the first volume of Journey to the West in the past two days. After all, he had come to Renwen Press several times before and asked about it.

The reply I gave is that I’m drawing it, it’ll be there soon!

"Teacher Pan, the painting is finished. I'll bring it over for you to see!"

After Cheng Xuemin knocked on the door and came in, he took out all three volumes of Journey to the West from his briefcase and placed them in front of Lao Pan's desk.

"Okay, then let me see how you draw, Xuemin!" Old Pan nodded, and when he saw Cheng Xuemin put three volumes directly in front of him, he couldn't help but ask suspiciously, "What's wrong? Can't you finish the middle and lower two volumes?"

If the middle and lower volumes cannot be drawn, then even if the upper volume is well drawn and usable, wouldn't it make them feel conflicted if the drawing style and the middle and lower volumes were suddenly changed?
But I never thought that Cheng Xuemin could finish all three volumes in just half a month.

After all, he estimated that even if Cheng Xuemin's hand speed was as fast as it could be, it would still take two months. If it were Qingmei's students, it would probably take three months or even half a year to finish the painting.

"Ugh?!"

"No, Xuemin, have you finished drawing all three volumes?"

But when Old Pan flipped through the three volumes of Journey to the West on the table, his eyes popped out of his head in shock!
What is even more incredible is that after flipping through them one after another, I found that all three volumes of Journey to the West, upper, middle and lower, were actually completely illustrated!
What’s even more outrageous is that Cheng Xuemin even colored the entire first volume of Journey to the West!
However, their comic book illustrations do not require coloring, just sketching is enough!
This monkey can actually draw like this?
So is Tang Seng!

What the hell!

After shouting “WTF” in his mind, Lao Pan’s mind was completely mesmerized by the lively monkey and the fat Zhu Bajie in the comic book!

Cheng Xuemin smiled bitterly. This is a painting for little kids. Old Pan, are you, an adult, so obsessed with it?
Fortunately, it was just a comic book with sixty or seventy pages, which didn’t take Lao Pan much time.

Then, Lao Pan flipped through the middle and lower volumes and found that the quality was the same as the upper volume, except that they were not colored.

But it doesn't matter, because they didn't plan to publish the first edition in color. If this edition is well received and sold, they can publish a color version later, and they can color it according to the previous volume, so the workload won't be too heavy.

"Teacher Pan, don't look at me like that. How's this painting?"

"If it doesn't work, forget it, you don't have to make it difficult!"

Seeing that Old Pan finished reading the first volume and then flipped through the next two volumes, then looked up at him without saying anything, Cheng Xuemin asked with a smile.

"I thought you would be able to draw quickly and well, but I never thought you could draw so quickly and well!"

"If you were to draw comic books exclusively for our Humanities Press, there would be no place for Qingmei and the others!"

Old Pan was really shocked. Cheng Xuemin's painting skills and hand speed... really made even a veteran artist like him speechless and dumbfounded.

It’s only about half a month, right?
He can finish all the drafts that Qingmei's art students have been working on for three months. Isn't that terrifying?

"So it's over?"

Cheng Xuemin asked calmly, "It would be best if it could be passed in one go. If it needs to be sent back for revisions, he would also accept that!"

After all, this is 1,300 or 1,400 yuan in royalties, so it's easy to take it. After all, it only took ten days to complete.

It's not sure. We can send it back for revision. Cheng Xuemin can also revise it. At most it will just take another three to five days.

"It's passed, it's passed. If you don't pass this draft, then you, Xuemin, will definitely not help me draw again in the future!"

Old Pan nodded repeatedly. Judging from the quality of Cheng Xuemin's comic strip, it would definitely become a classic.

Especially the image of Monkey King in the film, which directly breaks the traditional image of the Monkey King and achieves an unprecedented breakthrough.

Just based on this point, Lao Pan immediately approved the manuscript!
He immediately stood up and said, "Xuemin, I still have a few manuscripts that need to be completed. Please help me pick a few to take back and draw!"

"I'll send it to Lao Li for review right away, and I'll try to get you the manuscript fee today!"

Old Pan took out a dozen comic book and picture books from the filing cabinet behind him and asked Cheng Xuemin to choose a few. After giving the instructions, he took the three volumes of Journey to the West and left the office to find their editor-in-chief, Li Shuguang.

Originally, Cheng Xuemin wanted to decline the offer. In the next period of time, he planned to focus on the illustrations he had agreed to do with Li Qingquan of Yenching Literature, as well as his mother-in-law's novella "Parental Love".

But when he heard Lao Pan asking him to wait, he would go to submit it to Li Shuguang for review and try to get the manuscript fee receipt away today. What else was there to say?

Since I was waiting anyway, I picked out a few picture books to take home and start drawing slowly!
Cheng Xuemin took a look and found that the text of the white publication given by Lao Pan this time was much richer than the last time.

There are the other three of the four great classics, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber, as well as Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, The Biography of Yue Fei, The Rise of Tang, The Legend of the White Snake, Yang Qilang's Contest, The Thirty-Six Stratagems, and The Shining Red Star...

Among them, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has the most volumes, up to ten volumes, with about five or six hundred pictures! Cheng Xuemin, in line with the principle of quantity, directly chose "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to take home and slowly draw!
"Xuemin, there's no problem with Lao Li's manuscript, but the payment slip may not come out until the afternoon. How about you have lunch with us at noon, okay?!"

Since he was already here, and the payment slip would be out in the afternoon, Cheng Xuemin certainly didn't want to make another special trip, so he just waited here and made an appointment with Lao Pan to discuss "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

However, Cheng Xuemin was not in a hurry this time. He took the manuscript back to refresh his mind, so he did not agree to Lao Pan's wish to submit the manuscript as soon as possible. He only agreed to submit at least one volume every month.

Lao Pan calculated the time and found out that they only sent out one copy of the same book per month, so he agreed!
The manuscript fee was agreed upon in advance, and the second submission of manuscripts was settled at the maximum price of eight yuan per piece.

The ten volumes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms have five or six hundred pages, and the total royalties are as high as four or five thousand yuan. Cheng Xuemin can complete it by taking two months to finish it.

Unfortunately, this track was also discovered by Feng Jiayou, but he was unable to get hold of the secret treasury.

During lunch, Zhang Guangnian from People's Literature learned that Cheng Xuemin had not left, so he specifically informed him that Mr. Wu would hold a symposium on "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office" in the middle of the month, and asked Cheng Xuemin to prepare a speech.

Although it was sudden, Cheng Xuemin was not surprised, as he knew that this was a necessary procedure for the symposium.

In the afternoon, Cheng Xuemin successfully returned to Yanjing University with 1,386 yuan in manuscript fees for the comic book to pick up Feng Jiayou from school.

……

(End of this chapter)