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

This……

Those who have studied abroad in the US are very fashionable. The two sisters' coquettish interaction left Old Zhao speechless.

Old Zhao, who seemed to have realized what was happening, looked at Cheng Xuemin beside him and thought to himself, "You were the one who picked them up, and you haven't confessed your feelings at all the way here."
Cheng Xuemin shrugged slightly in response. This was all part of his mother-in-law's scheme. With his mother-in-law around, Cheng Xuemin couldn't very well expose her if he wanted to be honest!
After all, everyone in the family knows that this is her mother-in-law's usual trick.

They either don't give anything at all, or when they do, it's always a big surprise. My aunt is no exception now, even though she just came back from the United States and the sisters haven't seen each other for over twenty years.

So, this is such a big surprise when we meet, are you surprised or not?

"You've been treating Xuemin like a driver all this way, so what can I say?" Faced with her aunt's extreme surprise and coquettishness, her mother-in-law, Mrs. Feng, smoothed her stray hairs behind her ear and retorted with a sophisticated and understated remark.

"Did I...?" Gu Qiuna wanted to argue, but to be honest, that was indeed her guess as soon as she got on the bus.

But she didn't ask. How could her older sister be so perceptive as to guess what she was thinking?
Then he turned to Cheng Xuemin and asked, "Xuemin, did you really write 'Malèna'?"

"Auntie, I really wrote this. I never expected it to be such a coincidence!" Now that the matter was out in the open, Cheng Xuemin had no choice but to nod and admit it. He really hadn't expected it to be such a coincidence.

"So it really was you who wrote it!?" Upon hearing this, Gu Qiuna was truly ready to give her nephew-in-law a good beating. She said irritably, "So you and your mother-in-law teamed up to keep it from me!?"

"If we had known it was you who wrote it, Xuemin, we wouldn't have made this wasted trip; we could have just gone home!"

"No, no, Ms. Gu... Ms. Li Na, this trip wasn't in vain. Even if you are relatives and can meet privately, you still need to go through the necessary procedures at our Foreign Languages ​​Bureau!" Old Zhao didn't quite like hearing this.

Does this mean that once you know they're relatives, you can avoid their foreign language bureau?
How is that possible!

If Cheng Xuemin wants to submit his writings abroad, they must be reviewed by the Foreign Languages ​​Press before they can be submitted in the name of the Foreign Languages ​​Press.

That's how the national policy stipulates it!
Of course, now that it's Old Feng's sister-in-law who personally came back to talk to her nephew-in-law in person, it's none of their business if any manuscripts are taken out in private.

"Please come in, please come in. It is a great honor and a wonderful occasion for our Foreign Languages ​​Press to have an overseas Chinese guest here!"

"Professor Gu, Xuemin, and Ms. Li Na, our Foreign Languages ​​Press will be hosting a lunch today to treat you to a proper meal!"

When had Mother-in-law Feng ever seen Old Zhao so warm and courteous? She immediately waved her hand and said with a smile, "Director Zhao..."

"Old Zhao, Old Zhao, isn't it too formal to call him Director Zhao?" Old Zhao corrected his mother-in-law, Mrs. Feng, who kept calling him Director Zhao.

"Yes, yes, Lao Zhao, we're not strangers, don't be so polite!" Mother-in-law Feng nodded and addressed him directly as Lao Zhao. Before, when her husband Lao Feng was still working at this company, she wouldn't have dared to call him Lao Zhao directly.

After all, her husband was only a deputy director in charge of the Foreign Languages ​​Department at the State Administration of Foreign Languages ​​at the time, which was several levels lower than Director Zhao.

But now we can call him Lao Zhao, because, as I said before, her husband has been promoted.

Then, Feng's mother said to Lao Zhao, "Lao Zhao, you know what our family's situation is! Qiu Na has been away for over twenty years. Now that the national policy has been relaxed, she finally came back, but she didn't even go home to visit my parents right away!"

"So don't be so polite about lunch. You all hurry up and go through the necessary procedures so we can rush home and have lunch with my parents!"

"Ah, yes, yes, it was indeed my oversight!" Old Zhao suddenly realized and nodded repeatedly. "Then I won't say much more. Actually, there's no real procedure. It's just a matter of registration, and then arranging a meeting with the author to discuss things in detail!"

"But you've already met, so I don't need to write any letters of introduction or send any official documents!"

Upon hearing this, the mother-in-law and her sister-in-law nodded repeatedly, and Old Zhao quickly registered them together.

"By the way, I know it might be abrupt to ask in person, but it's a necessary procedure to register the inquiry. Ms. Li Na, is your magazine's payment for articles also handled by international drafts?"

Regarding the issue of royalties, the Foreign Languages ​​Press must strictly review them and know where the royalties come from and where they go.

After all, these are US dollars coming in from abroad; they are foreign exchange!

Now everyone, from top to bottom, is chanting the same slogan: "Creating foreign exchange, creating foreign exchange, and creating foreign exchange again!" The country is desperately short of US dollar foreign exchange reserves.

If you want to import any advanced equipment or technology, you can't do without US dollars!
Therefore, both outbound and inbound US dollar foreign exchange are strictly controlled through corresponding channels.

The relevant control points must be clear: where does the US dollar foreign exchange come from, and who gets it?

Old Zhao from the Foreign Languages ​​Press had already taken over Cheng Xuemin's submission and calculated the exact amount, which was over 60,000 US dollars in foreign exchange.

So when Lao Zhao was registering and going through the procedures, he definitely needed to know how this huge sum of US dollars was paid.
International bill of exchange?

Well, I'm sorry, but so far, their Foreign Languages ​​Bureau has not received any US dollars remitted from the magazine where Lao Feng's sister-in-law works.

So, how do we give it?
We can't just waive the gift because she's a relative, and Old Feng's sister-in-law at that, can we?

That won't do!

Putting aside the issue of whether it's a sister-in-law or not, this is foreign exchange earned for the country. We can't let personal matters interfere with public interests and harm the country's foreign exchange earnings!

"Director Zhao, it's like this, cash!"

"We originally planned to pay the author in cash in person, but we don't know if that's in accordance with the regulations?" Gu Qiuna replied to Lao Zhao while quickly filling out the registration form.

"US dollars in cash?" Old Zhao was stunned again upon hearing this, because it completely confused him!

Before, there had never been such a bizarre move by Lao Feng's sister-in-law, who actually returned to China and gave the author who used her work US dollars in cash.

Previously, this kind of thing had never happened at their Foreign Languages ​​Press, and there was no such provision in their regulations.

So when Lao Zhao heard what Lao Feng's sister-in-law said, he was completely stumped.

"Can I take a look first?"

Although I'm not very good at it, I still have basic coping skills. I should at least take a look and see what I've learned.
"Of course, I've been preparing all along. When I entered the country, the customs didn't have any other policy requirements!" After filling out the registration form, Gu Qiuna opened a shoulder bag slung over her shoulder in front of everyone and zipped it up!
In an instant, a glossy green light suddenly appeared inside, revealing stacks of brand-new US dollar bills. No wonder it was so green and shiny!
"This is... sixty thousand US dollars." When Old Zhao from the Foreign Languages ​​Bureau saw the stacks of brand-new US dollar cash, his eyes lit up and he swallowed hard as he asked.

Can you stop your saliva from turning green?!
Although he was the head of the Foreign Languages ​​Press, he had never seen so much US dollar cash before!
Although he had handled a considerable amount of US dollars in the past, those were all international drafts, just drafts!
What could be more impactful than stacks of brand-new, real gold and silver?

"There's a total of 100,000 here! Besides the royalties paid to Xuemin, the rest is what I'm saving for the family to improve our living conditions!" Gu Qiuna nodded, but quickly added with a bitter smile, "But it seems that you don't need me to come back to improve your situation anymore, sister. You've found a good son-in-law!" "That's right... but you're thoughtful too. Anyway... why talk about this? Let's talk about it when we get home!" Mother Feng wanted to be a little proud, but since we were out, she decided to finish the important business first. She then asked Old Zhao, "Old Zhao, is this just for you to register, or is there some other procedure?"

"Or should we keep this cash at the station for now?"

Although my mother-in-law was also involved in cultural affairs, she knew nothing about foreign exchange earnings and was therefore unclear about the procedures the Foreign Languages ​​Press followed for paying manuscript fees in US dollars in cash.

"This... you should take it with you. I'll ask my superiors and find out the details before you come back to see how to proceed!" Old Zhao wasn't so carefree as to actually leave the $60,000 in cash in his office.

If this gets stolen, who's responsible?
Fortunately, they were a family, so he pretended not to have seen so much US dollar cash today. He could ask his superiors for instructions on how to proceed and then call them all back later.

"That's all we can do for now! Qiu Na, you can keep the US dollars and cash for now!" Mrs. Feng nodded, thinking to herself that this trip had been a waste of time.

"Should I take it first?" Gu Qiuna's eyes gleamed with a mischievous glint as she teased her sister, Feng's mother, saying, "Sister, all this US dollars in cash comes from your son-in-law's royalties. Aren't you worried?"

"Why should I be in such a hurry? What's there to be in a rush?" Upon hearing this, Mrs. Feng raised an eyebrow. Could she really fall for her younger sister's act?
Besides, she's counted far more dollars than that before; it's not like she's never seen anything like it.

"Pretend! Sis, just keep pretending with me!" Gu Qiuna, as her own sister, knew exactly what kind of person her older sister was, even though they hadn't seen each other for over twenty years!

But old habits die hard, you know?

Gu Qiuna was sure her older sister was trying to hide her true nature in front of outsiders.

Otherwise, could we really just wait for Director Zhao to ask his superiors for instructions and wait for a reply before making a decision?
Believe it or not, the moment she stepped out the door and got into the car, she was asked to hand over the entire $60,000 in royalties that should have belonged to her son-in-law.

What a joke!
That's a whopping $60,000 in cash! If the apartments in the Overseas Chinese Apartments hadn't gone up in price, that would have been enough to buy three or four of them!
Back then, my older sister longed to own an apartment in an overseas Chinese apartment complex. But at the time, our family couldn't afford it, and national policy didn't allow it either, so we could only watch from the sidelines.

Gu Qiuna had always remembered her older sister's wish, so she brought plenty of US dollars with her when she returned to China this time, in order to help her older sister realize her long-cherished dream of buying an apartment in an overseas Chinese apartment complex.

So, don't be fooled by your older sister's calm and nonchalant expression; she's actually incredibly anxious inside.

"Fine, fine! You say I'm faking it, so I'll fake it!" Mother Feng thought to herself, "So that's it?"

The real show is yet to come!
As I said before, everyone has seen US dollar cash before.

Wait!
My son-in-law is coming today, and he's not just taking your $60,000 manuscript fee. There's a bigger part to it—a money order for over $200,000!
In retrospect, it's fortunate that Xuemin didn't come to collect the draft earlier, otherwise he really wouldn't have been able to keep up the act in front of her today.

"Okay, let's register it like this for now. If there's anything else to add later, I'll call Lao Feng and have him take it back!" Lao Zhao finished tidying up the registration form, still marveling at how coincidental it was.

"The manuscript that Old Feng's son-in-law submitted was received by his sister-in-law, who was located across the ocean!"

"If I didn't know that Lao Feng didn't know either, I would have thought that you two had discussed it beforehand and planned it out!"

"If we had known that our sister-in-law was the editor-in-chief of a well-known American magazine, we should have sent more articles over there, right, Ms. Li Na?"

Aunt Gu Qiuna also stood up, shook hands with Lao Zhao again, and said, "Director Zhao, please still call me Xiao Gu!"

"Alright, alright, then I won't stand on ceremony. Hello, Comrade Gu, welcome back home again!" Old Zhao rubbed his hair and joked with a smile, "Actually, calling you Ms. Li Na... that foreign name of yours is just too awkward to pronounce!"

"Thank you! Thank you, Director Zhao! Now we're all family. If you have any good articles in China, just submit them to our magazine!"

"I can't say for sure about other things, but as long as the manuscript is of good quality, we will definitely not let our fellow countrymen suffer any losses in terms of royalties!" Aunt Gu Qiuna replied politely.

"Absolutely! We're all family now, we have to look out for each other!"

"Alright, Director Zhao, then we won't bother you any longer!"

"Then I'll take you!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Aunt Gu Qiuna also said goodbye. Cheng Xuemin watched the whole time, and in his heart he wanted to remind Lao Zhao, "Where is my money order for more than 200,000 US dollars?"
But since Lao Zhao had already started seeing the guests off, Cheng Xuemin, being too shy, didn't quite feel comfortable asking for the money directly.

Cheng Xuemin was shy as a son-in-law, but Feng's mother, as a mother-in-law, was even more shy. She had this matter on her mind and was waiting for Lao Zhao to bring up the bill of exchange.

She was even planning to put on this for her younger sister!

But Old Zhao completely forgot that if her shy son-in-law didn't bring it up, she would be even less likely to.

"Uh... look at my brain, I forgot the most important thing!" Fortunately, after taking only a few steps, Old Zhao slapped his forehead and realized what he had done, saying, "Xuemin, you didn't even remind me, I forgot to give you that international draft!"

"Wait a minute, let me get it!" Old Zhao said, then quickly turned back. There was a safe under his desk, and the draft was kept in the safe.

"International drafts?!" Sure enough, Aunt Gu Qiuna was puzzled again when she heard what Lao Zhao said, and asked, "Xuemin, did you submit your work to other foreign magazines? How much did they pay you for your articles?"

My nephew-in-law is now quite well-known in the American literary circles.

Otherwise, Gu Qiuna wouldn't have paid attention and written the letter of invitation, so it's understandable that her nephew-in-law could have other US dollar foreign exchange coming in.

“Auntie, it wasn’t a magazine. I just tried writing a foreign language song and submitted it, earning some royalties!” Cheng Xuemin replied.

"Oh? Really? I didn't know you could write songs, Xuemin, and in foreign languages ​​at that?"

"awesome!"

"What's the name of that song? Has it been released in the US? Maybe I've heard it before!" Gu Qiuna's beautiful eyes blinked repeatedly upon hearing this. She had just gotten off the plane that day, and the surprises her family had given her one after another were too unexpected and astonishing.

"Hey, Xuemin, this is the international draft for $265,000 for the follow-up to that song. Just like before, you can go to the People's Bank of China headquarters to cash it!"

The international draft handed over by Lao Zhao, along with his words, shocked Aunt Gu Qiuna so much that she was completely dumbfounded!
What did she hear?
What did Director Zhao of the Foreign Languages ​​Bureau say?
Am I hallucinating?

……

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