The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

"Shi'an, not bad! You're even eating sesame cakes now? They smell so good, which shop is it from? Tell me, I'll try them sometime!"

In the classroom, Wang Zhijie, smelling the fragrance on Zhao Shi'an, asked curiously.

"Old Zhang's sesame seed cakes are located at the west end of the east entrance of the flower market! They're savory and delicious, with plenty of sesame seeds. They're best when they're fresh out of the oven!"

Zhao Shi'an smiled and made his recommendations, secretly amazed at how sensitive people's noses were these days!

He finished the sesame seed cake on the way and even wiped his mouth, but he didn't expect that the smell would be detected as soon as he sat down.

"Okay, I'll try it another day!"

Wang Zhijie nodded.

"Is it really that delicious?"

Hearing this, Chen Yongfu, who was sitting in the front row, turned his head and asked curiously.

"You'll know once you try it! It contains fennel seeds and five-spice powder. If you can't eat fennel seeds, you shouldn't try it."

Zhao Shi'an patiently explained.

"Okay! I'll try it sometime!"

"Together, together!"

The surrounding classmates were very curious when they heard this, and wanted to make plans to go buy sesame cakes together.

After discussing it for a while, the class bell rang, and the classroom instantly fell silent.

After the chemistry teacher entered the classroom, the students listened attentively.

As Zhao Shi'an listened to the teacher's lecture, he was secretly considering when it would be appropriate to ask the teacher to let him skip a grade.

Now, the textbooks for the second and third years of high school are available, as are the college entrance examination papers. All that's left is to find a teacher to prove my level and apply for skipping a grade.

He hasn't even started working on the college entrance exam questions yet, but he's confident he'll get a good score; he just doesn't have the time to do it right now.

It's not difficult to finish quickly. Just find a secluded place, enter the space, and complete two sets of test papers. Calculated at ten times the flow rate, ten hours of work in the space would only amount to one hour in reality.

However, there's no need to rush. Today is Friday, and even if you finish the college entrance exam, you'll have to ask your homeroom teacher for permission at the earliest tomorrow.

After the application is completed, you may still face assessments by the homeroom teacher and the school, and these processes all take time.

There was a weekend in between, so it won't be until next week at the earliest we can start talking to him about skipping a grade.

Zhao Shi'an thought that he was still penniless and thought that he might be able to do two things at once! He would write a letter and submit the article now. After all, submission, review and publication all take time. He would finish writing the article today and submit it directly. By the time he skipped a grade and entered his senior year of high school, the submission would have been approved.

This way, it won't interfere with skipping grades or earning royalties.

"Prodigy writer" Liu Shaotang's starting fee is 100,000 yuan per thousand words. He is not greedy. Even if he only receives half of the starting fee, it is still a considerable income.

Last night, after thinking about Liu Shaotang's deeds, he even came up with an article titled "The New Look of Longxu Ditch". The Longxu Ditch renovation project ended in 51, and the movie of the same name was released in 52.

It's worth mentioning that most of the scenes in the movie "Longxugou" were not filmed on location. When the movie started filming, Longxugou had already been transformed. In order to film the scenes before liberation, Beijing Film Studio specially dug a "stinky ditch" at the outdoor location near the studio. Along the ditch, based on photos and the memories of the elderly, a slum courtyard was built exactly as it was. The mud houses, dilapidated shacks, muddy roads, and sewage pits were all replicated, which is equivalent to recreating Longxugou one-to-one.

The ending of the film was shot on location in the renovated Longxugou.

Now, more than a year has passed since the movie "Longxugou" was released, and more than three years have passed since the renovation of Longxugou was completed. During this period, countless articles have been published in newspapers, comparing and contrasting various aspects dozens of times. Writing about it now is already somewhat outdated!

Fortunately, Zhao Shi'an knew his advantage. He planned to write about the changes in Longxugou over the past ten years from the perspective of a firsthand witness. No one had written about this angle before, as the vast majority of the original inhabitants of Longxugou were illiterate.

Previously, the people who wrote the articles were either school teachers, government clerks, newspaper reporters, literary and artistic workers, and writers, but there were no indigenous people among them.

He wanted to write not only about the temporary changes in Longxugou after its renovation, but also about the stable lives of residents on both sides of the strait three years later.

The before-and-after comparison of Longxugou only shows that the transformation was very successful. Subsequent follow-up reports further prove that residents on both sides of the strait are now living a much better life!

This is a good angle. I believe the newspaper editors will be impressed when they see it. More importantly, this way of writing allows for longer articles, which in turn increases the payment!

With these thoughts in mind, Zhao Shi'an quickly came up with ideas and would occasionally take out his pen to jot down his inspirations.

After school in the afternoon, he finished his homework, took out a clean sheet of draft paper. Although there is now paper with small grids, he was short of money and could only make do with draft paper. He wrote down the article that he had roughly conceived. After finishing, he counted it and found that it was about three thousand words long.

After finishing the article, he was still not satisfied and wrote another article on science tips to test the waters.

Among many options, he quickly chose to use vinegar to remove limescale.

The water quality in Beijing is poor, and the alkalinity is high. Even boiling the water doesn't help much, as limescale easily forms. While it's relatively easy to clean pots and pans, it's quite troublesome to clean the inner liner of thermos flasks. This is where vinegar comes in handy.

With these thoughts in mind, Zhao Shi'an picked up his pen and began to write. Soon, he had written a short popular science article titled "Using Vinegar to Remove Scale." To make it easier to understand, he also wrote down the chemical reactions involved.

The opening paragraph also gave many common examples of limescale removal. The article was written in just over a thousand words.

Looking at the two completed manuscripts, Zhao Shi'an was very satisfied.

Now that the article is finished, all that's left is to submit it.

I wonder if it's possible to submit the same manuscript to multiple journals in this day and age? Just to be on the safe side, he decided against it.

After much deliberation, I decided to try to submit my article to a higher-level newspaper, since I knew that higher-level newspapers would likely pay significantly more for articles without knowing their payment standards.

With these thoughts in mind, Zhao Shi'an first listed a list of newspapers from which he could submit articles.

Currently, there are five newspapers published in Beijing: People's Daily, Youth Daily, Guangming Daily, Workers' Daily, and Beijing Daily.

The first four are all national-level newspapers, and their names clearly indicate the differences: People's Daily is policy-oriented; Guangming Daily mainly targets cultural and educational workers and intellectuals, and belongs to the category of cultural development newspapers.

The Youth Daily primarily focuses on youth life and youth documentaries.

The Workers' Daily mainly focuses on workers' lives, factory construction, and stories of model workers.

As its name suggests, the Beijing Daily focuses on local topics.

As for other newspapers, most of them have not yet been launched, such as the Beijing Evening News. Currently, the Youth Daily and the Beijing Daily are suitable for him to submit articles.

Considering his previous thoughts, it would be best to continue submitting "The New Look of Longxu Ditch" to the Youth Daily, while he planned to submit "Using Vinegar to Remove Scale" to the Beijing Daily. Submitting the articles separately would also help avoid risks.

With these thoughts in mind, Zhao Shi'an made a decision instantly. He put the manuscript away, picked up his pen, and left the classroom.

After leaving school, I spent a thousand dollars at a nearby grocery store to buy two envelopes and two stamps.

After writing the address, stuffing the manuscript into the envelope, affixing the stamp, and passing by the green mailbox just as I was about to mail it, I encountered the postman who came to collect the mail.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Shi'an quickened his pace and approached the postman.

"Comrade! Please accept these two letters as well!"

"Fine! Give it to me!"

Upon hearing this, Li Haitao smiled and extended his hand to Zhao Shi'an.

"Thanks!"

Zhao Shi'an thanked him and quickly handed over the two letters.

"Impressive! They've even submitted articles to the *Youth Daily* and the *Beijing Daily*!"

Upon seeing the mailing address, Li Haitao praised Zhao Shi'an.

"Pshaw! It's just something I wrote for fun. Whether it'll be selected is another story."

Zhao Shi'an waved his hand modestly.

"Your article will definitely be selected!"

Li Haitao offered a word of encouragement.

"I hope so! I'll help you!"

Zhao Shi'an thanked him and helped carry the letter from the mailbox to a cloth bag in the back seat of the car.