1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 7 "Fragrant Grass"

“Brother Sheng, after I mentioned in my last letter that you earned 280 yuan from writing a novel, my family was curious about what novel you wrote. This time, they wrote to say that they hope you can send them a copy of the magazine.”

Before Chen Fusheng could even speak after Liu Xiaoli finished speaking, his parents said, "Yes, son, when will your novel be released? Your father and I haven't read it yet."

"I'll go to the magazine office and ask tomorrow."

The next day, afternoon.

After finishing his work, Chen Fusheng left work early at four o'clock.

After get off work, he went straight to the office of Jiangcheng Literature and Art magazine.

"Old Xiao, I'm busy."

"Oh, Teacher Chen is here." Upon seeing Chen Fusheng, Xiao Xinghai immediately put down his work and warmly led him to the reception room next door.

"Teacher Chen, are you getting off work so early?" Xiao Xinghai poured a cup of tea and handed it to Chen Fusheng, thus starting the conversation.

"I'm just a teaching assistant. I'm very busy when I'm busy, and I'm also very free when I'm free. It's okay to leave work early sometimes, like today when I'm relatively free," Chen Fusheng explained simply, and then got straight to the point.

"Actually, I didn't come here today for anything important. I'm just curious about when my novel will be published. I wonder if your magazine has made a decision yet?"

"It's already decided, it was just decided this week. I have good news, Mr. Chen, your article 'Bullfight' will be on the front page of our next issue."

"So when is the next episode?" Chen Fusheng pressed.

"Around New Year's Day or two."

"Won't it be issued in December?"

“Our magazine is a bimonthly publication. We just released the sixth issue of the year this month. If your novel, Mr. Chen, had been sent earlier, it could have been included in this issue as well.”

Xiao Xinghai seemed to remember something, glanced towards the door, and suddenly said with a mysterious expression:

"Also, Mr. Chen, let me tell you some inside information. Our magazine may change its name next year. If it does, your novel may become the featured work in the first issue after the name change. At that time, I guess there will be a lot of publicity resources allocated to it."

"Really?" Chen Fusheng asked, feigning surprise. "What name should I change it to?"

"There were several shortlisted names, but 'Fragrant Grass' received the most votes, so I guess it will be that one."

'It really is "Fragrant Grass"!'

Chen Fusheng thought to himself.

He nodded in agreement: "Hmm, the name 'Fragrant Grass' sounds quite poetic, I think it's good."

“Right? I think it sounds nice too.” Xiao Xinghai continued, “And look at the nationally renowned magazines, they all have two characters in their names, such as Harvest, Flower City, October, Contemporary, Sprout, and Youth. The most important thing is that they don’t include the place name. This has an advantage, which is that authors from all over the country will give priority to submitting their work to them.”

Chen Fusheng hadn't thought of this before, but after listening to Xiao Xinghai's analysis, it made some sense.

To give a simple example, if he is currently from Hubei, and the magazine in neighboring Hunan is called "Hunan Literature," while the magazine in Sichuan is called "Youth," then he would subconsciously choose the latter rather than "Hunan Literature."

"By the way, I also wanted to take my manuscript back with me this time. My parents haven't read my novel yet, and they've been urging me to read it several times." After ending the previous topic, Chen Fusheng brought up his second purpose for coming.

"Sure, I also remember that the printing plant sent over some samples of the next issue of the magazine. I can take some back with you later."

"Do you have a sample of the next issue? That would be great."

"This is just the first version of the sample. It will be modified at any time. After all, as I just told you, our magazine may change its name."

Chen Fusheng nodded. In fact, whether or not this first version of the sample would be revised, or how much it would be revised, was not important to him. What mattered was that his novel was on it.

"Um, I might give it away as a gift when I get back, will that be okay?"

"May I ask who it's for?" "My father-in-law."

"That's no problem."

"Okay, thank you very much."

After chatting with Xiao Xinghai for another ten minutes or so, Chen Fusheng took the ten copies of the next issue's magazine sample that Xiao Xinghai had given him, along with his own manuscript, and left the soon-to-be-renamed "Jiangcheng Literature and Art," returning to Linjiang Community.

So Chen Fusheng cooked dinner that afternoon, because his parents had gone to read his novel.

As December progressed, the weather in Jiangcheng grew colder day by day. Chen Fusheng had originally planned to write another novel before heading to Harbin.

However, due to the cold weather, the busy work at the school at the end of the year, and various other reasons such as the need to make preparations for going to Harbin, his second work has been in a state of difficulty.

However, there was good news: his novel "Bullfight" was recognized by his father-in-law's family. In his reply to Liu Xiaoli, it was clear that their impression of Chen Fusheng, their son-in-law whom they had never met, had improved considerably.

This greatly reduced Chen Fusheng's pressure before he set off.

On the last weekend of 1979, Chen Fusheng and his family once again bought many gifts for their trip to Harbin.

After returning home, Chen Fusheng quickly sorted through the items and then confirmed with Liu Xiaoli:
"Now that you've bought gifts for your parents, brother and sister-in-law, sister, and two nephews, honey, please check if you've forgotten anyone else?"

"Should we send gifts to my aunt's family?"

"Is she your biological aunt?"

"Yes, my dear aunt."

Yang Hongmei replied, "Then we still need to prepare a gift."

Looking at the gifts that were almost piled up like a small mountain, Chen Fusheng said, "If that's the case, these gifts will have to be mailed over."

“Why mail it? It’s so far away, and who knows how long it will take to mail it. Besides, these things look like a lot, but if you really pack them up, there aren’t that many. There are five of us, so we can each take a little,” Yang Hongmei said.

"Where are there five people? Mom, did you include your grandson too?" Chen Fusheng joked.

"You've forgotten your sister, haven't you?" Yang Hongmei said irritably.

"What? My sister is going too?"

Chen Fusheng had indeed forgotten about his sister.

But to be honest, it's not entirely his fault.

After all, he had been in this world for more than half a year, and the number of times he had met his sister could be counted on one hand.

"Well then, since we're not mailing them, we'll only bring gifts for my father-in-law's family from here. As for Xiaoli's relatives, all those aunts and uncles, we can get those gifts locally after we get there. What do you think?"

Both professors were somewhat tempted by their son's suggestion.

However, they needed to consider their daughter-in-law's opinion on this matter, so the couple didn't express their opinion directly, but instead looked to Liu Xiaoli:

"What do you think, Xiaoli?"

"Let's listen to Brother Sheng."

Liu Xiaoli nodded, not thinking there was anything wrong with Chen Fusheng's arrangement.

The main issue is that it's quite a distance from Jiangcheng to Harbin, and it's really inconvenient to bring too much stuff.

"Okay, if no one has any objections, then it's decided. I'll book the train tickets tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)