1987 My Era

Chapter 52, Great Talent

The sequel to "To Live" has about 9 words, divided into three parts.

Each stack contains about 30,000 words.

Chen Xiaomi didn't finish reading the first stack so quickly, so Zou Ping could only wait anxiously.

Seeing that the other party was bored, Li Heng took the initiative to chat with him.

There is no limit to the content of the chat, including astronomy, geography, economic current affairs, and even literature. The topic never stops and the conversation continues.

You wouldn't know until you started talking. As the conversation went on, Zouping felt more and more that something was wrong, and he became more and more impressed by Li Heng's profound knowledge.

Knowledge is something that exists and cannot be filled in at the last minute.

He couldn't help but wonder, is the other person really only 17 years old?
Why did Li Heng's manner, conversation style, and foresight on many things make him feel that the other party was an eloquent old scholar?
Why does an ordinary chat make me feel so stressed?

Will it make you feel ashamed of yourself?

Gradually, Zouping finally understood why Li Heng could write such a masterpiece as "To Live"?
Zou Ping, who usually considered himself a half-educated man, felt insignificant at this moment. Compared with Li Heng, who was very capable, he was like a newborn baby, so childish and ridiculous.

Zouping became more and more humble and less and less confident in chatting.

Chen Xiaomi, who was keenly aware of this, looked up at him, then looked at Li Heng, and slowly fell into deep thought: Could this be the real Li Heng? He had no chance to show it before?

She had also secretly listened to the conversation between the two just now, and the result was that Li Heng, who was eloquent, gave her a great shock.

She thought to herself: It turns out this bastard is really a versatile person.

Besides being able to coax women and talk, he is also very capable in pretending to be gentleman. No wonder Zijin still misses him.

Zou Ping carefully asked a question that Chen Xiaomi was criticized for: "Teacher Li, how many books have you read besides textbooks?"

Yo!
He even called me teacher out of courtesy. That shows he is very tactful.

Wang Runwen and Chen Xiaomi were also concerned about this issue and looked up at him.

Li Heng recalled and said half-truthfully: "I don't remember exactly how many books there were, but I have loved reading the hundreds or even thousands of books my father kept since I was a child."

What he said was the truth. Influenced by his parents' love of reading since childhood, he really read all the books that Comrade Li Jianguo regarded as treasures.

But these were things that happened in my previous life. In this life, the only books I have read selectively are about a hundred or so, and those were only during the winter and summer vacations to avoid working.

It is called a love of learning.

In fact, Tian Run'e knew all about his little thoughts, but she was patriarchal and her son was her life, so she couldn't bear to break him.

Hundreds or even thousands of books? Zou Ping was a little surprised and couldn't help but ask: "Excuse me, who is your uncle...?"

Li Heng understood: "My father used to be an educator."

Oh, so that’s how it is. That explains a lot of things.

This time, unlike facing Chen Xiaomi alone, he also openly told them about the deeds of his second uncle in his hometown. And told them that this was the source of his inspiration.

Chen Xiaomi and he came from the same place, so she was very familiar with the second uncle of the Li family. After careful recollection and comparison with the story in the book, she found that there were shadows of the second uncle in many places, but life was processed artistically.

At this point, she believed it.

She was sure that the book was really written by Li Heng.

I am sure that Li Heng is extremely talented and has a strong literary gift.

As she thought about it, for a moment, she didn't know whether she felt envy, sourness, or a hint of regret. All kinds of complex emotions mixed together, it can be said that she felt a mixture of various feelings.

Half an hour later, Chen Xiaomi's first stack of manuscripts appeared in Zou Ping's hands.

As Zou Ping couldn't wait to start reading, Li Heng was no longer idle. He took out the Chinese test paper from his schoolbag and started to practice questions.

His action confused both editors.

During this time, Chen Xiaomi noticed that the title of the test paper was Capital No. 4 Middle School, and he immediately realized that Zijin must have found a way to send this test paper to him.

At around 1:30 p.m., Chen Xiaomi and Zou Ping finished reading the remaining manuscript of "To Live" one after another.

Li Heng observed for a while, and when he saw that both of them were still immersed in the book, he had an idea in mind. He put away the test paper in time, straightened his body and asked Zou Ping: "Editor Zou, are you satisfied with the follow-up part?"

Faced with such a soul-touching literary masterpiece, Zou Ping, a senior editor, did not play tricks but raised his head and said sincerely:

"Good! I can't find any other words to describe its greatness except 'good'."

Li Heng nodded with satisfaction and said directly: "Okay, since both of you are satisfied, I won't come here for nothing.

Editor Chen and Editor Zou have come all the way here, so they must have made some preparations. I would like to hear how much you two can offer for the manuscript."

coming!

Talking about money again.

Hearing this, the English teacher who had been accompanying him turned his head away.

In her heart, this student has many attractive qualities, but he is obsessed with money, which really destroys the romantic beauty of literature.

Just as Zou Ping was thinking about how much to offer, Chen Xiaomi glanced at the other party and spoke first:
"The second half of To Live is even more exciting than the first 4 words, and it far exceeded my expectations. On behalf of People's Literature, I can give the highest remuneration standard in the industry, 30 yuan per thousand words."

Since the country restored the royalty policy, the royalty has increased several times in the past decade or so. Now, the average royalty for a new writer is 12 yuan per thousand words.

And as Chen Xiaomi said, 30 per thousand words is the maximum.

Even the top writers in the country cannot earn more than this amount in royalties.

The reason why Chen Xiaomi raised her royalties to the highest level in one go was that she had no other choice.

It is also the last and only way.

She knew that Li Heng disliked her and had a strong prejudice against her, but he still allowed her to stay here and didn't drive her away. His purpose was to use her to raise the price.

As he wished, Chen Xiaomi, who saw through his thoughts, reached the top in one breath.

There is no room for Zouping to bargain.

She wanted to see, since she was so sincere and had blocked all the roads before her competitors opened their mouths, would Li Heng give "To Live" to her under the same conditions?
She is checking the check!

Use your niece Chen Zijin to lead Li Heng's army!

You can have opinions about me, you can ridicule and mock me verbally, and I will tolerate it all.

After all, I have done the same thing before, and I was wrong first. So, as a mature member of society and a person with career aspirations, Chen Xiaomi accepted the humiliation with tears in her eyes to pay for her past mistakes.

However, public is public and private is private. The grievances between the two are private, while the publishing matters being negotiated now are public.

If Li Heng did not distinguish between public and private affairs, if Li Heng gave "To Live" to the other party at the same price of 30 yuan per thousand words.

Then she had nothing to say.

Then she picked up her bag and left!

Then she will use her entire life's energy and use this incident to mobilize all the members of the Chen family to stop Zijin from being with him.

Not only Li Heng holds a grudge, but she, as a woman, also holds a grudge, and always has.

In fact, to put it bluntly, she was just gambling, gambling that Li Heng had not forgotten Zijin and still cared about Zijin.

This is also her only remaining possibility and chance of winning.

Sure enough, Chen Xiaomi's powerful opening statement caught Zou Ping off guard.

He was still hesitating whether to play all his cards at once? Unexpectedly, the other party was more straightforward than him!

This made Zou Ping'an, who was one step behind, very upset.

Li Heng glanced at Chen Xiaomi and thought to himself that this woman was flexible and could endure things that ordinary people could not endure in order to accomplish a goal. She was quite a capable person.

……

……

(End of this chapter)