Exciting 1979!

Chapter 138: Can I be commissioned to write an article just by riding a train? (Guaranteed 1 update)
Lv Xiaoyan returned to work. When she entered the office, a colleague asked her, "Was that song 'Where is Spring' sung by our family's Lele?"

She nodded proudly: "Not bad, huh?"

"Oh, you sing so well. My little grandson is singing it in my ear every day. I'll take Lele to meet him someday."

"I don't think this is necessary. My daughter is still young." Lu Xiaoyan immediately became alert. The little yellow-haired boy was not going to get close!

As they were chatting, the new editor-in-chief asked her to come to the office.

First, the sample book of "The Magic Book" came out.

“We plan to launch it together with the March issue, and by the way, we can also advertise it through the magazine.”

Lv Xiaoyan looked at the book, which was not too thick and had rich pictures and text, and said, "Okay, I'll tell Wei Xi later and I'll give him the sample book."

The new editor nodded and said, "One more thing. I heard that Shanghai's Youth Literature and Art has reprinted more copies, and the response to Jumanji is quite good."

Lv Xiaoyan smiled and said, "Novels written by Wei Xueyan are very innovative and unconventional, so it is normal that they are favored by readers."

In fact, the editor-in-chief was worried: "You said we swapped the two novels, didn't we make a mistake?"

This was the first decision he made after taking office, and it was because he listened to Lu Xiaoyan's advice.

He now feels that the creativity of "Black Cat Sheriff" is not as good as "Jumanji", and he doesn't want the replaced one to become a hit while the remaining one fails.

Lv Xiaoyan comforted him, "No, our readers are basically primary school students or even preschoolers. Black Cat Sheriff is more suitable for our readership than Brave. For example, the two in our family obviously like Black Cat Sheriff more. Now Xizi is even asking me to get a cat."

Hearing her say this, the new editor felt a little relieved.

"I have something to ask," Lv Xiaoyan said. Although the time has not been decided yet, she needs to give some precautions. "Our Xizi just auditioned for a role in a movie recently. I may have to accompany him to the crew for a while. Editor-in-chief, please approve my leave."

"What? Your precious son is so capable?" the editor-in-chief asked in surprise. "What movie?"

"The Shepherd, a new film directed by Xie Jin."

"Oh, that's amazing, amazing!"

"Oh, I'm just lucky." Lu Xiaoyan said modestly.

Editor-in-chief: "I mean, your nephew is amazing. He was able to get in."

Lu Xiaoyan: "It's not all my nephew's credit."

The main reason why this could be accomplished was the good cooperation of Gong Xing’s niece.

Thinking that Gong Xing was only four years younger than her but she had to act like an elder, Lu Xiaoyan couldn't help but feel happy.

Back at her workstation, Lv Xiaoyan continued to work. Because the publication had become a bimonthly magazine, the number of editors did not change much, so their workload was actually reduced a lot.

Just when Lu Xiaoyan wanted to take a break, a phone call came into the editorial office.

"Xiaoyan, I'm looking for you."

Lu Xiaoyan picked up the phone and found out it was teacher Gu Jianfen. They were the only ones who were in contact regarding Lele's musical development.

She just told Lv Xiaoyan: "Pacific Audiovisual Company in Guangzhou is ready to produce the tape. The royalties for Lele will be sent to your company when the time comes. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay, okay, when can I buy this?" Lu Xiaoyan was already prepared to buy a few more plates so that Lele's grandfather could also listen to them.

Gu Jianfen: "Well, it depends on their speed. If they are fast, we can see it before the end of the first month of the lunar year."

~
"Hurry up!"

In the recording studio of Pacific Audio and Video Company, a cassette tape titled "The Sheep Herding Class" is being busy recorded.

In addition to the five original songs written by Wei Ming, Pacific also found several local singers to cover five old songs, such as "Farewell", "Counting Ducks", "Catching Loaches", etc. Although they were not written by Wei Ming, they were also mentioned in the novel "The Sheep Class", making a total of ten songs.

It was just after the Chinese New Year and the employees were still a little lazy. General Manager Liao Mingzu couldn't help but urge them on.

Although he is less than 90 meters tall and weighs only kilograms, he has the final say in the company and is very authoritative. He comes from a technical background and suddenly took over the impoverished Pacific. Unexpectedly, he was a hit at first sight, and now he is starting to plan for the second shot.

There is also the latest copy of "People's Literature" on his desk. Now young literary people all over the country should be reading this magazine and reading Wei Ming's "The Sheep Class". They must be curious about what the songs in the novel are like. Now a tape can satisfy them. Is seven dollars too expensive?
It’s not expensive at all!
Liao Mingzu’s request was to start distributing the tape nationwide before the Lantern Festival and make it popular throughout the country before the end of the first lunar month.

The number of the first batch alone reached 100 million discs!

One million plates, 700 million in sales, if we work hard this year, maybe we can make 1000 million in profit!
Thinking of such high profits, and then thinking about the dozens of dollars of income for the songwriters and singers, Liao Mingzu felt a little bit reluctant, but this is the regulation, just like the royalties for writing, the country has standards.

However, Mr. Liao thinks that Wei Ming is truly a talent, as he can handle both novels and songs, and write them so well. Such a person should be befriended, and he can be invited to Guangzhou to play in the name of musical exchange.

~
After the train left the red base, Wei Ming and his party arrived in Xi'an. Section Chief Jia was reluctant to get off the train.

"Mr. Wei, if you have time when you come back, please come to Xi'an and visit us. If possible, please remember to write a novel for our Terracotta Warriors!" Chief Jia finally reminded him. Wei Ming waved his hand at him, and Chief Jia didn't know whether this meant "goodbye" or "no chance".

To be honest, Wei Ming is still interested in writing a novel about the Terracotta Warriors, but he doesn't have the time. He just wants to finish all the promised scripts as soon as possible and then concentrate on writing his own novel.

If you want to gain a prominent position in the literary world, you still need a large book that can be passed down from generation to generation.

So goodbye Chief Jia, goodbye Terracotta Warriors, goodbye mutton soup steamed bun and roujiamo!
Xi'an Station is a big station and the train stops for nearly half an hour. Wei Ming's family of four took turns getting off the train to get some fresh air.

When Wei Ming and Wei Hong returned to the carriage, they saw new passengers constantly getting on the bus. They both hoped that there would be no new occupants in their two sets of beds, as it would be fine for just their family of four.

In the end, a new guy came on board. He was young and well-mannered.

After the other party had put his luggage away, he began to look at the four people who were obviously a family.

When the young man's eyes fell on Wei Ming's face, he was obviously stunned, his eyes narrowed slightly with a curious look.

Looks like it, really looks like it!

"Comrade, is your surname Wei?" he asked Wei Ming directly.

Wei Ming was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

"Wei Ming?"

Seeing him reveal a subtle expression, the other party knew that he had guessed correctly.

He exclaimed in ecstasy: "It really is you!"

Wei Jiefang asked his son: "Do you know each other?"

Wei Ming shook his head, and the young man also shook his head: "Comrade Wei Ming doesn't know me, but I know you, a famous writer known all over the country!"

Old Wei immediately grinned. Is his son so famous now? Not only do people know his name, but they can even recognize him just by looking at his face!

The only writer whose face I can recognize is Mr. Lu Xun.

Soon the other party introduced himself. It turned out that he was not just an ordinary enthusiastic reader, but an editor and a poet.

"I'm from the Liangping edition of the Xingxing Poetry Magazine. I've long heard of the name of writer Wei." Editor Liang shook hands vigorously with Wei Ming. He had read Wei Ming's interview with the China Youth Daily, and because there was a black-and-white photo of him, he recognized him at once.

Wei Ming had a bad feeling and greeted him calmly.

Editor Liang will be the future editor-in-chief of the Xingxing Poetry Magazine, and Ideal was originally published in Xingxing. Although the influence of Xingxing Poetry Magazine is far less than that of Poetry Magazine, it is also considered to be the top of the second echelon, and has a huge influence in Sichuan, Chongqing, and even the entire western poetry scene.

Could it be that he wants to ask me to write an article for him?

"I came to Xi'an on a business trip to collect manuscripts, but the results were not ideal. Who would have thought that I would meet you on the train? What a fate!" Editor Liang said with a smile, "I like all your poems, but there are too few of them, only two. Has Writer Wei written any more poems recently?"

Here it comes, here it comes! It finally comes!

Wei Ming shook his head: "I've been busy writing a novel recently, so I don't have much poetic potential."

"What a pity! You should have gone to Xi'an. You would have definitely found some inspiration in this ancient city."

"I don't have time. Our family of four came to Sichuan and Chongqing to look for relatives, and we are not in the mood to travel."

"Oh, I remember now, your mother is from Sichuan and Chongqing." Editor Liang slapped his forehead. He had read all of Wei Ming's articles, so he naturally knew the background of the creation of "The Shepherd".

Then he began to communicate with Xu Shufen in Shancheng dialect.

I really envy places like theirs where the dialects are similar throughout the province. My mother's dialect is more Chengdu-style, but I have no problem communicating with people from the mountain city. In Hebei, however, it's difficult to communicate even if you leave the county.

The train continued to move southward. As the sky gradually darkened, Editor Liang had already understood the specific problems of Xu Shufen's family and the situation they had gathered.

Through the letters sent to Wei Ming by enthusiastic readers, we can roughly infer that the village where Xu Shufen's family lived had been buried underground due to mountain torrents and mudslides.

However, most of the villagers there had been evacuated safely and were later resettled in three nearby villages. So when Xu Shufen wrote to her hometown later, she couldn't find it.

"Next, let's go look in those three villages. We should be able to find it."

Editor Liang suggested, "Baoxing County is mostly mountainous, and it has changed a lot in recent years. I'm afraid Auntie can't find the way back then. How about this, when you get to Chengdu, you can come back to the Writers Association's guesthouse with me, and I'll find someone familiar with the local situation to accompany you on the trip."

Editor Liang has not given up on getting articles from Wei Ming, so he seems very enthusiastic about this matter.

I'm in this state now, how can it be justified if you don't leave a poem behind?
……

(Thanks to all the awesome readers! I will continue to update three times today, but the third update may be a little late. Please continue to ask for monthly votes!)

(End of this chapter)