Training the Heavens

Chapter 46 I also want to learn a foreign language
I went out to eat some soy milk and fried dough sticks that morning, and as soon as I got back to the editorial office, the editor-in-chief called over. "Jialin, I finished reading your manuscript overnight! The revisions are excellent. I've already scheduled it for publication in the next issue, and I'll give you the payment today."

Gao Jialin suddenly woke up, and the drowsiness he had felt in the morning disappeared in an instant. "Thank you, editor-in-chief. How much will the publishing house offer me for my royalties?"

"You're not embarrassed at all!" the editor-in-chief joked. Nowadays, authors are always shy when talking about money. Even if they want to ask, they will beat around the bush. It's rare to find someone as direct as Gao Jialin.

"Sixteen yuan for every thousand words. You're lucky to have caught up with the good time to apply for royalties. If it were last year, I would have given you eight yuan at most! The full text of "Young Friends Come to Meet" has a total of 97865 words, multiplied by 16, which is 1565.84 yuan. Take this note to the finance office to get the money! Next time you have a work, remember to come to us!" The editor-in-chief had already calculated it.

In fact, "Mengya" would not offer such a high remuneration standard to ordinary authors, but Gao Jialin was only eighteen years old and his first novel was so excellent, so he regarded Gao Jialin as a key seedling.

If you give too little, they may not say it, but they will not consider "Mengya" next time when they have a good work. So it is better to give more to leave a good impression on them, so that they will come again next time!
"That's for sure. Our manuscript revision environment is so good, who else can I turn to if not you? Oh, by the way, I have something else I want to ask the publishing house for help. I can't write good articles just by staying in school, so I plan to go out during the summer vacation to see if I can find some inspiration. Can the publishing house give me a letter of introduction?" Gao Jialin asked.

The winter vacation is too short and it’s almost the holidays, so it’s not good to not be at home with my parents, so I stay at home now; the summer vacation is nearly two months, and it would be too boring to stay in Gaojia Village all the time, so I have to find a chance to go out for a walk.

"No problem, just come over when the time comes." The editor-in-chief agreed readily. It wouldn't take much effort and it would also be a favor, so why not agree?

I went out to get the money, and felt particularly at ease with the thick stack of bills in my arms. I borrowed a bicycle from Niu Xinliang and went to a nearby shopping mall to buy myself some clothes. The weather was about to get cold, so I had to have some thick clothes.

You need tickets to buy clothes. A few days ago, Gao Jialin asked Niu Xinliang to help him find someone to exchange some commonly used tickets. Fortunately, he met such a capable person. Otherwise, if Gao Jialin had to find a way himself, it would have taken more time.

After arriving at the mall and buying clothes, Gao Jialin bought a Yanwu L1520 portable two-band single-cassette recorder for yuan.

This is the most popular tape recorder nowadays, with both recording and radio functions. In the advertisement broadcast on CCTV, Miao Haizhong, a young man from Liaoning, holds an acoustic guitar and breakdances, finally shouting out Yanwu's classic advertising slogan, "Yanwu, Yanwu, one song brings a piece of love!"

The advertisement made the Yanwu tape recorder quickly popular across the country. People lined up with money in hand to buy it. Its popularity far exceeded the future release of Apple's new mobile phone. If it had not been sold in a large shopping mall in Shanghai, Gao Jialin was afraid that he would not have been able to buy it even if he had money.

Young people nowadays love to carry this tape recorder, call a group of young men and women, find a place to play music and dance. It was not until the crackdown last year that many dancers were arrested and this trend faded a little.

Gao Jialin didn't buy the tape recorder for dancing. His bright future didn't need this bad luck, so after buying the tape recorder, he went to the nearby Xinhua Bookstore and bought a set of English learning tapes.

A few years ago, Xu Xiongxiong, director of CCTV's Audio-visual Education Department, went abroad for an inspection and saw the English teaching program "Follow Me" produced by the British BBC. He was deeply attracted by the relaxed conversations between several men and women and the vivid and lively teaching model.

After much deliberation, he secured the rights to the program and collaborated with Beijing Foreign Studies University professor Hu Wenzhong and British teacher Kate Flower to adapt it into a television program called "Learn with Me." The program was later made into a tape and sold, becoming a premiere tool for listening and speaking English. Gao Jialin's English was clearly superior, making him a qualified school teacher.

But it is a bit strange that a student from a poor mountain village can speak standard English. It would be more natural if he bought a tape recorder and listened to it in the dormitory for a while to show his English level.

After changing cars and taking the bus back to school, Gao Jialin calculated his current savings on the way. After deducting the expenses during this period, he still had nearly 1,000 yuan in cash left, which was enough for him to get through this semester very comfortably.

However, the copying of books cannot be stopped, because Gao Jialin plans to help his family build a few new kilns when he goes home during the winter vacation. He can't enjoy a crab feast in Shanghai while his parents are still living a hard life in their hometown, right?
Gao Jialin planned to build three brick kilns for his family, which would cost a lot of money. Each kiln required at least six skilled workers; each skilled worker had to be served by four unskilled workers, so three times sixty-eight skilled workers and four times sixty-four unskilled workers; each skilled worker was paid five yuan and each unskilled worker was paid two yuan. This alone would cost one hundred and thirty-eight yuan a day, and the entire construction period would cost at least two thousand yuan.

Each set of doors and windows costs 150 yuan from purchasing the wood to the craftsmanship. There's no other way around it. The environment in northern Shaanxi is poor and wood is much more expensive than in other places. So three sets of doors and windows cost 450 yuan.

Thirty thousand red bricks, two cents a piece, a total of six hundred yuan; five thousand kilograms of lime, two cents a kilogram, a hundred yuan; three kilograms of grain per person per day, a total of six bags of flour; each bag is bargained for sixteen yuan, still a hundred yuan. Then there are cigarettes, alcohol, and other expenses...

After a rough calculation, it would cost at least 5,000 yuan to build a three-hole brick kiln. If Gao Jialin wants to complete this goal during the winter vacation, he will have to copy more books.

When Gao Jialin returned to the dormitory, he immediately caused a sensation. In those days, walking around the university with a Yanwu tape recorder was even cooler than driving a BMW into the school in later generations. Students from several surrounding dormitories all rushed in.

"Jialin, you bought it? Did you buy it with your royalties?"

"Yes, I'm not good at English, so I bought a tape recorder and some tapes, ready to study hard." Gao Jialin gave a warning in advance to avoid getting into trouble if someone borrowed it to go dancing. "If you also want to learn foreign languages, I can apply to the department and see if we can find a classroom in the evening for us to play the tapes together."

"Yes, yes, foreign languages ​​are very important. We must study them well. I also want to learn a foreign language."

"Jialin is so generous! He even gave us the tape recorder he worked so hard on to write the manuscript!"

The classmates responded one after another and regarded Gao Jialin as a great benefactor. For a while, no one mentioned the issue of royalties.

At this moment, Wang Weihua pushed through the crowd and walked in. "Jialin, you're a new official, and you're already thinking about serving everyone?"

(End of this chapter)