The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

"Wow! Bro, how come you have so much money? Can you give me a hundred to buy some candy?"

Zhao Xiaoyue crept up to her older brother's side and saw a pile of colorful money in his hand. She had never seen so much money in her life, so she immediately hugged her brother's neck and started to act coquettishly.

Hearing her sister's voice, Zhao Xiaole quickly walked over, staring longingly at the money in her older brother's hand, clearly wanting some candy too.

"What are you going to eat? Eating sugar will give you cavities and make your mouth rot. Listen to me, we won't eat it!"

Liu Guiying scolded her daughter after hearing her words.

"Okay! Got it."

Overjoyed, Zhao Xiaoyue heard her mother's scolding, lowered her head and replied, then leaned against her older brother, sulking with a wronged expression.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiaole shrank back, thankful that she hadn't said anything, and quietly buryed her head in the sand like an ostrich, leaning against Sister Xiaoyue.

Zhao Shijie, who was tending the fire in front of the stove, chuckled upon hearing this!

Upon hearing his younger sister's words, Zhao Shi'an was about to say, "What? Candy is so expensive? It costs a hundred yuan to buy one piece?"

Before he could even speak, he heard his mother's scolding.

Seeing that his mother only forbade his younger sister from eating candy, but never mentioned the high price of candy, Zhao Shi'an instantly realized that prices in this era were different from those in modern times.

Thinking about the legal tender and gold yuan before liberation, it suddenly dawned on me.

Currently, the first set of RMB banknotes is still in use in China.

The largest denomination is 50,000 yuan, and it was only issued three months ago.

Thinking of this information, Zhao Shi'an looked at the large pile of money in his hand and immediately lost interest. He thought he had found a secret stash of money, but he found that according to the prices, he could not buy much at all. A pound of cornmeal cost 1,100 yuan, and this money could not even buy 15 pounds.

Based on currency value, the exchange rate for the first set of RMB and subsequent sets of RMB was 10000:1.

Looking at it this way, the 15,650 he had was only worth 1.565 yuan!

Wow! This is a real-life version of currency devaluation by ten thousand times!

Seeing that her daughter had taken it to heart, Liu Guiying noticed the money in her eldest son's hand and asked:

"Boss, what are you doing with the money now? It's already dark!"

"Mom, I want to go to the bookstore to buy books tomorrow at noon!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shi'an quickly offered an explanation.

"Buy books? Take them after you eat tomorrow, and buy them directly with the money. If you take them now and put them in your pocket, they'll be hard to find if you lose them!"

After hearing this, Liu Guiying gave her eldest son some advice.

"Mother, I understand!"

As he spoke, Zhao Shi'an put the money back.

Seeing her little sister looking so wronged, she immediately whispered in her ear:

"I'll buy it for you tomorrow!"

Zhao Xiaoyue's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and she looked up at her older brother with expectant eyes.

Seeing his older brother nod, he immediately became happy again. Just as he was about to cheer, he saw that his mother was still there, so he quickly covered his mouth and laughed to himself.

Seeing her sister's change, Zhao Xiaole was very puzzled and immediately asked her about it. Zhao Xiaoyue kept shaking her head.

Having successfully appeased his younger sister, Zhao Shi'an casually picked up a yellowed old newspaper from the side and noticed the dense annotations on it. Curious, he opened it and began to read.

Upon opening it, I found it was the Youth Daily, and unfolding it revealed an article titled "Green Branches and Leaves".

The article was covered with markings in pencil and pen. I glanced at the signature and found that the author was a person named Liu Shaotang.

Upon seeing this name, Zhao Shi'an was somewhat bewildered; he had never heard of it before!

Fortunately, the original owner did not disappoint him. In just a moment, he remembered everything, and he knew all the information about Liu Shaotang like the back of his hand!

Liu Shaotang, male, born in 1936, is from Tongxian County, Jizhou. He is 18 years old this year and studies at Luhe Middle School. He is known as a "prodigy writer".

In October 1949, Liu Shaotang's first micro-fiction, "Tai Baolin Has Changed," was published in the Beijing Youth Daily.

Liu Shaotang was 13 years old that year and was hailed as a "prodigy writer," a title that gradually spread afterward.

In 52, Liu Shaotang, who was just starting high school, wrote "Green Branches and Leaves" during the summer vacation, which was published in the Youth Daily. The Youth Daily devoted the entire fourth page to publishing this article.

"Green Branches and Leaves" mainly tells the story of what happens in an agricultural mutual aid society.

If that were all, it wouldn't have been so bad. Ye Shengtao, then president of the People's Education Press, even included a section of this essay, "Green Branches and Leaves," in the third volume of the senior high school Chinese textbook, making it a textbook for the second year of high school.

At that time, Liu Shaotang was only a junior in high school, which directly resulted in the original author of the novel learning about his own writing while in school.

It has a strong sense of modern-day déjà vu, where the original author of an article is asked to write their own reading comprehension.

When the school's Chinese teacher learned that the article was written by Liu Shaotang, he asked him to give a lecture to the students.

From then on, the title of "prodigy writer" spread throughout the country.

Even more legendary is that Liu Shaotang's novel "Green Branches and Leaves" actually earned him over a million yuan in royalties.

His legendary experience made him an idol for students across the country. After learning about the payment for his manuscript in "Green Branches and Leaves", a wave of manuscript submissions swept across the country.

During the period when Liu Shaotang became a national sensation, the number of submissions from teenagers reached an extremely alarming level.

The original owner was no exception. The yellowed newspaper in his hand was bought by the original owner for six hundred yuan, so that he could study and ponder the article "Green Branches and Leaves" carefully. The entire article was filled with annotations, all of which were the result of the original owner's painstaking research.

Logically speaking, with the original owner's hard work, as long as the article wasn't too bad, there was a high chance of it being selected. However, the opposite happened. The original owner submitted nine manuscripts in total, and apart from three being rejected, all the other manuscripts went unanswered.

He can almost recite the article "Green Branches and Leaves" by heart, but it still hasn't been approved.

A stamp costs 400 yuan in the city, an envelope costs 100 yuan, and nine submissions cost 4500 yuan. Add to that the 600 yuan for newspapers, and the total expenditure is 5100 yuan. This doesn't even include the paper and ink used for writing. Half a millionaire has been spent, and not even a ripple has been made.

The reason the original owner was so persistent was because he saw the family's difficulties. They were busy all year round, but they couldn't save much money.

Four years into the land reform, all of Liu Shaotang's family's wealth combined couldn't compare to his million-dollar royalties, and he could count on one hand the number of times he ate meat throughout the year.

Seeing Liu Shaotang's success, the original owner wanted to follow suit. So, when Liu Shaotang wrote about mutual aid groups, he also wrote about mutual aid groups. When Liu Shaotang wrote about farming, he wrote about growing vegetables. Unfortunately, every time he submitted his work with great confidence, he either received no response or his work was rejected.

Recalling the efforts the original owner made to write the article, Zhao Shi'an couldn't help but sigh!

I picked up the envelope next to me, opened it, and sure enough, it contained the rejected manuscript.

After reading it, Zhao Shi'an understood why his manuscript was rejected. The content was somewhat similar to that of "Green Branches and Leaves," and with the excellent work of "Green Branches and Leaves" preceding it, there was naturally no need for his manuscript.

Liu Shaotang's success can be attributed not only to his status as a "child prodigy writer," but also to his accurate timing in seizing opportunities.

It is now 1954. The primary agricultural cooperatives have begun to promote themselves extensively. Liu Shaotang wrote "Green Branches and Leaves" in the summer of 1952. The agricultural mutual aid cooperatives were first promoted in September 1951 and fully implemented in 1952. Liu Shaotang caught this wave.

The original author's article was not selected, firstly because the timing was wrong, and secondly because there were too many submissions, most of which were missed.

Writing about a mutual aid society now is a bit outdated. Writing about a beginner society would have a much higher chance of being published, and given the original owner's identity, it would have a natural advantage.

Thinking about the future, Zhao Shi'an felt somewhat relieved that the article had not been published.

The path of a writer is a dead end. These people are glamorous now, but they'll suffer later.

But the thought of Liu Shaotang's million-dollar manuscript fee made Zhao Shi'an extremely envious.

The entire piece, "Green Branches and Leaves," is less than 10,000 words long, yet it earned a royalties of over a million yuan, even if we calculate it based on the threshold of one million yuan.

The royalties reached a staggering 100,000 yuan per thousand words, which was still far too much, even though I knew it was the first generation of RMB.

In modern terms, that would be ten yuan per thousand words. Although that's a low standard, there are still many people who can't earn that much, and he used to be one of them.

This standard might not seem like much now, but it's definitely a high standard in this era. Zhao Shi'an is only calculating based on just meeting the threshold.

Liu Shaotang is a "child prodigy writer," and his royalties are only higher than lower. After all, one million is a million-dollar royalty, and nine million nine hundred and ninety thousand is also a million-dollar royalty!

With such high royalties, it's no wonder they had to cut them drastically later! They were really treating these writers too well.

No wonder the "scar literature" swept the nation. Although royalties were restored after the reform and opening up, they were nothing compared to the current era! With this comparison, it seems understandable.

Thinking about all this, even Zhao Shi'an, a modern man, was envious of the royalties of this era!

Being a writer isn't a good career path, but if it's just a transitional one, it's a decent choice!

Upon arriving in this era, he passed by the renovated Longxu Ditch every day. Based on the comparison between the before and after liberation, he immediately had an idea!

Lao She was named a "People's Artist" for his novel "Longxugou". He could have easily earned some royalties and improved his family's life by writing "The New Look of Longxugou", introducing the situation after the transformation of Longxugou and making a comparison between the past and present.

Zhao Shi'an is a science student, and his writing is not as delicate as that of humanities students. This kind of comparison does not require fancy writing skills. As long as the expression is clear, there is a high probability that the manuscript will be approved.

In addition, his status as a poor peasant and his upbringing in Longxugou make him a more convincing firsthand witness!

As for what happens after the manuscript is approved, we need to consider the potential crisis facing the writers as a group.

She could develop into a science writer, for example, introducing practical skills in daily life such as using vinegar to remove limescale and purifying crude salt, while explaining the chemical knowledge involved.

In addition, writing articles to dispel feudal superstitions is also a very good approach. For example, using scientific knowledge to explain the techniques of breaking a large stone on one's chest and walking into a pot of boiling oil with bare hands, as well as the exorcism of evil spirits in shamanistic rituals.

After publishing these articles one by one, you can compile them into a small booklet and earn two royalties at once.

After entering university, I switched to producing content related to my major, such as books on agricultural planting. Even if I stop writing in the future, I can explain it away by saying I don't have time because I'm doing research!

The more Zhao Shi'an thought about it, the more feasible it seemed! He couldn't wait to write "The New Look of Longxu Ditch" right now!