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

After the screening, I just have to wait for the release of "The Horse Herder".

However, we shouldn't have to wait too long. After all, the film companies in Yanjing will be the first to get the movie copies as they are close to the water.

And there is no need to delay on the road. After receiving the copy from China Film Group, it will be directly arranged for release in theaters.

There is no need to wait until National Day to start screenings.

Because there was no release schedule at that time, and there was no regulation on how many days the film would be shown, it would have to be withdrawn from the shelves.

At this time, as long as everyone likes to watch it and is willing to watch it, it will continue to be shown.

There won’t be a delay until around National Day before the film is screened.

However, what surprised Cheng Xuemin was that the movie "The Shepherd" had not yet started to be screened online, but the PLA Art and Literature's "The Garland under the Mountain" had finally set a release date.

About ten days after the start of school, it is Teacher's Day. Of course, there is no such thing as Teacher's Day yet.

The first Teachers' Day in China would have to wait several years.

On this day, Dong Ling, the editor-in-charge of the PLA Literature and Art Department, called Cheng Xuemin and asked him to come over to collect his royalties.

It was said that the manuscript of "The Wreath under the Mountain" had been officially approved and would be published this month, and Cheng Xuemin was notified to go there to collect his royalties.

Can I get my royalties now?!
Cheng Xuemin was shocked and told the good news to his wife Feng Jiayou immediately. Feng Jiayou was so happy that she jumped for joy.

You know, the only manuscript her husband submitted, "The Wreath under the Mountain", has not been officially published and he has not paid for it.

Feng Jiayou was of course happy to receive this good news today, even though she is now a wealthy woman with a net worth of hundreds of thousands.

"Congratulations to our great writer for publishing another masterpiece!"

He drove to the PLA Literature and Art Center and found the editor-in-charge Dong Ling with ease. She took out a sample issue of the PLA Literature and Art Magazine, handed it to Cheng Xuemin and congratulated him.

"No, no! I have to thank you, Teacher Dong. Without your help, this manuscript would not have been so smooth."

Cheng Xuemin took the sample issue and saw the cover of the magazine. It was a picture of a bloody wreath with the words "Wreath under the Mountain" and the author was Cheng Xuemin.

Yes!

This manuscript was a composition topic chosen by an old man from the General Political Department. Cheng Xuemin did not use any fancy tricks or use pen names like Lao Xu or Lao Qiao.

Instead, he used his real name, Cheng Xuemin.

"What is there to thank me for? We are all doing our job!" Dong Ling shook her head and said to Cheng Xuemin with a smile, "The wreaths under the mountains are all praised for being well written. They describe some of the heroic deeds of our frontline. The leaders also gave a lot of instructions."

"Our publishing house also attaches great importance to it and plans to spend two issues, or a month, to serialize your manuscript!"

"Thank you! Thank you! I'm flattered and honored that the leaders attach so much importance to my article!" Cheng Xuemin knew that the General Political Department indeed attached great importance to his manuscript.

After all, although there has been a temporary ceasefire in the south, minor frictions and conflicts are still continuing, and Cheng Xuemin knows that this is only the first phase of the ceasefire.

Behind……

At the end of this year, the war, which had just been suspended for less than half a year, broke out again, and it was much worse than the previous stage. It became a protracted war and did not end until 87.

Therefore, Cheng Xuemin will eventually kill the Vietnamese monkeys in the south and kill them again.

"What you said..."

Dong Ling smiled and nodded at Cheng Xuemin, then thought of something and congratulated him, "Oh, by the way, I forgot to congratulate you on getting admitted to Yenching University!"

"I heard from them that he is the top scorer in this year's national college entrance examination?!"

"awesome!"

"It was just luck!" Cheng Xuemin said modestly, and asked casually, "Who are they? Teacher Dong, who told you that?"

It seems that Cheng Xuemin's ranking as the top scorer in the national college entrance examination was not reported in the newspapers.

Originally, Lao Qin from the People's Daily had contacted Cheng Xuemin, thinking that since Cheng Xuemin had won the top spot in this year's national college entrance examination and was a pioneer in the reform and opening up, he must be reported on the front page.

However, Cheng Xuemin politely declined at that time, saying that one should not be too ostentatious.

Because this matter was also consulted with Mr. Wu in the department, the instruction he received was the same as Cheng Xuemin's request, that it was not appropriate to report it too enthusiastically for the time being.

So it was suppressed, and although people knew that Cheng Xuemin was the top scorer in this year's national college entrance examination, in fact, not many people knew about it except those around him.

So the people around him definitely did not include Dong Ling, with whom he had little dealings.

"Who else can I listen to?"

"Those girls from the General Political Department! They came here to submit their manuscripts at the beginning of the month, and they talked about you by the way!"

Dong Ling didn't think much about it and told Cheng Xuemin directly that they were the girls from the General Political Department.

As for which girls?
Needless to say, they must know each other. They are Gong Di, Han Qiaoyue and others who went south to express condolences at the beginning of the year.

"Have Gong Xi and others returned from visiting the south?" Cheng Xuemin asked quickly.

"They're back! At the end of last month, they sent us some manuscripts from their visit to the south, so we can arrange for them to be published in this issue!"

"Here, there are a lot of reports at the back of the sample issue. You can take it back and take a good look at it!"

"These girls in our General Political Department are really good, hardworking and talented in performing."

After Dong Ling said this, Cheng Xuemin actually flipped through the sample issue in his hand and found that there were indeed quite a few photos taken at the condolence site published at the back.

I flipped through it casually and happened to come across a report on condolences to Gong Xi.

The photo above should be of Gong Di singing solo on the stage. There are words below the photo: On July 1979, 07, in Kunming Military Region, Gong Di, a member of the General Political Department Art Troupe, sang "The Full Moon" solo.

"Xuemin, I heard that your song "The Full Moon on the 15th" was a great hit in this consolation performance, just like your song "Bloodstained"!"

"We at the PLA Arts and Literature Department are planning to republish the lyrics of your two songs. Do you think that's okay?"

"Oh, yes, there's also the song 'Farewell Comrades'. These three songs are very popular in our army. I think there's no one in our army who can't sing these three songs!"

Speaking of this, Dong Ling also thinks that this boy is really an all-rounder who can sing, dance and write.

Not only is she good at writing scripts, but she can also write and sing songs that can make all the good guys in her army cry. It's truly unbelievable.

"Okay, okay!"

"Teacher Dong, you can just repost it as you like. You don't need to say hello to me."

What could Cheng Xuemin say when the PLA Literature and Art Department wanted to reprint the lyrics of those three songs? After all, he had already published the lyrics once in the People's Daily and received royalties.

In fact, there is not much money for the manuscript, and now the PLA Literature and Art reprints it, and there is even less money, so just reprint it casually. "I still have to tell you in advance!" Dong Ling nodded, and after chatting for a long time, she said to Cheng Xuemin, "Xuemin, if our manuscript can be published by the end of the year, we can give you the maximum price of 11 yuan per thousand words!"

"But the new remuneration standard has not been officially implemented yet, and our manuscript is the focus of attention from above. The leaders have instructed that it should be published around National Day as a gift to the great motherland's birthday!"

"So I can only pay you 7 yuan per thousand words according to the old payment standard. You don't have any ideas, do you?"

It is said that cultural reform should be carried out first, so in terms of royalties, some people have been proposing reforms, but there has been no news.

However, this time the higher-ups were really serious about it, and after several meetings, they finally made a preliminary reform to the old standard of royalties, raising the original maximum of 7 yuan per thousand words to 11 yuan per thousand words. The official announcement will have to wait until the end of the year.

At that time, there was also a National Congress of Literature and Art, which convened literary and artistic representatives from all local cultural sectors across the country to attend this conference.

Finally, the implementation of the new version of the manuscript fee standard was decided at the meeting, which means it will take about three months.

Cheng Xuemin's article "Wreaths under the Mountain" is about to be published now, but it is obvious that he will not be able to wait for the maximum payment of 11 yuan per thousand words.

Good thing!

Cheng Xuemin now earns US$300,000 in royalties, so he doesn't really care much about the 7 or 11 dollars per thousand words he gets in China.

Anyway, he has given the highest salary, and no one has given a higher salary than him, so this is already OK!
So, after hearing Dong Ling's apologetic words, Cheng Xuemin shook his head and said, "No, no, Teacher Dong, please don't say that. You also know that I'm not such a mercenary person, right?"

"That is that is!"

Dong Ling nodded repeatedly. She knew Cheng Xuemin's character, but she still had to comfort him: "It's just an unfortunate coincidence this time, but next time we will definitely give the maximum price of 11 yuan per thousand words!"

"By the way, Xuemin, have we started writing about our novel Youth?"

"If you need any more references, we can open our library to you. You can go in and look through more past documents to change your mind and find some inspiration."

Sure enough, they started to urge for the manuscript!

When Cheng Xuemin came here, he knew that the PLA Literature and Art Department would definitely urge him to submit his manuscript.

When Cheng Xuemin submitted the first draft of "The Wreath under the Mountain" last time, he expressed to Dong Ling and others that he wanted to write another story about the war over there.

This time, we were planning to write about the story of our General Political Department Art Troupe. When Dong Ling heard about it, she had a lot of ideas and urged Cheng Xuemin to write the first draft quickly.

But I’m sorry, Cheng Xuemin hasn’t written a single word yet.

Moreover, he has received another military order and his focus has to shift to earning foreign exchange, so he may not be able to start writing "Youth" as promised to Gong Xi and others for a while, so he will have to wait.

"Thank you, Mr. Dong! But I have a cultural assignment on hand right now, so I may have to shift my focus there. I may not have enough time to write recently!"

"But don't worry, Mr. Dong. I will try to hand in the manuscript by the end of the year!"

"Any mission?"

"That's fine too, let's wait until the end of the year! Anyway, Xuemin, just take your time and write, we're not in a hurry!"

You're not in a hurry, but why are you urging me to submit my manuscript?
Cheng Xuemin muttered something to himself, didn't eat lunch here, received the manuscript fee receipt and left.

When passing by the General Political Department on his way back, Cheng Xuemin thought that since he was already here, he might as well go in and make some acquaintances. Coincidentally, Gong Xi and the others had already returned.

Although the guard at the gate was very familiar with Cheng Xuemin, he still had to inform the people inside to come out to receive him.

"Damn it! I heard when I came back that you, Old Cheng, got a car. I can't believe it. Old Cheng, what level are you at now? How can you meet the standards of a car?"

"Kekekeke... Old Cheng, you are not a full-time driver for your father-in-law, are you?"

"I heard that Teacher Feng was promoted to Haizili?"

Cheng Xuemin certainly didn't ask Gong Xi to come out to pick her up. After all, ever since Gong Xi knew that Cheng Xuemin already had a lover and a son, he had deliberately distanced himself from him.

Like this time, he had returned to Beijing at the beginning of the month. According to the past, Gong Xi would definitely go to the Yanda Library to find him first.

But in fact, it has been almost half a month since Gong Xi came back, and he has not visited Yan University once, and has not even made a phone call.

Fortunately, Cheng Xuemin has an insider, a close friend, in the General Political Department!

It’s just that this best friend was not very qualified as an insider. He actually returned to Yanjing and did not report to Cheng Xuemin.

"Come up, come up, I'll take you for a stroll!"

Cheng Xuemin looked at Ge You, who was acting too exaggerated, and told him to get in the car quickly.

"Deledele!"

"Sitting in the front, do you really think I'm your driver?"

Seeing that this kid actually sat in the left seat in the back row, which is usually the seat for senior leaders, did Ge You really treat him as a driver by sitting like this?
"I don't want to think about the front. Is that my sister-in-law's special seat?"

Ge You scratched his head, wondering where this kid learned this evil trick. In this era, is there a saying that the front passenger seat is for wives?

Bullshit, not at all!

On the contrary, the seat on the left in the back row is reserved for senior leaders. This is an unwritten rule.

"Get lost, there's no need to be so particular, it's not really a private car!"

Cheng Xuemin scolded the boy again and asked, "It's been almost half a month since I came back. If I don't come to your place, you have never thought of coming to my place to sit for a while, right?"

"Hey, hey, hey! Old Cheng, old Cheng, you are really wronging me. Who told you that we have been back for almost half a month?"

"We just got off the train yesterday. I was thinking of taking some time off this Sunday to go back and hang out with you!"

Ge You waved his hands repeatedly, his face full of injustice.

"You just came back yesterday?! But I just came from Teacher Dong from the PLA Arts Department, and they said you came back from a visit at the beginning of the month!"

Cheng Xuemin was stunned; the time didn't match!

"Teacher Dong, you are talking about Gong Xi and the other female comrades, right? They did come back earlier than us because they came directly from Kunming. We left about ten days later!"

That’s right!
"Old Cheng, you don't know how hard it is for us to go to the south for a consolation performance..."

Following Ge You, I started to play the victim.

"Alright, alright, other female comrades are not as delicate as you!"

"It just so happens that I have a rare trip into the city today. You go and greet Gong Xi and the others. I'll treat you to a meal at noon and give you some comfort. Isn't that enough?"

...(End of chapter)