The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

"Boss, you're back late. Dahai delivered your letter; it says it's for your writing fees. Keep it!"

During dinner that evening, Liu Guiying handed the letter to her eldest son.

"Let me see!"

Zhao Shi'an took the letter, casually opened it, and took out the royalty notification and bank draft. He smiled when he saw the amount of 400,000 on the bank draft. After seeing that the royalty notification was still 100,000 per thousand words, he thought to himself that it was pretty much as he had guessed.

At the end of last month, he submitted two articles to the Beijing Daily and the Youth Daily respectively. Both articles were published. The Youth Daily paid 100,000 yuan per thousand words, while the Beijing Daily paid 80,000 yuan. Perhaps because the articles were too short, the Beijing Daily did not mention the payment standard, but only wrote 80,000 yuan on the notification.

The article he submitted to the Beijing Daily was a little over a thousand words long and earned him 80,000 yuan. That's 80,000 yuan per thousand words, which is 20,000 yuan less than the 100,000 yuan per thousand words in the Youth Daily. So when he submitted his article again, he naturally chose to submit it to the Youth Daily first. The difference of 20,000 yuan per thousand words means a difference of 80,000 yuan per four thousand words. That's enough to buy ten or so kilograms of meat for his family.

According to Zhao Shi'an, the newspaper usually refers to the payment standard for the first submission and will not arbitrarily lower it.

Seeing the royalty notification now confirms my suspicions.

"Boss, how much is it this time?"

Seeing her eldest son's happy expression, Liu Guiying couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Youtian looked over expectantly, while Zhao Xiaoyue and Zhao Shijie gazed at their elder brother with faces full of admiration.

"Auntie, the standard is the same as last time, but I wrote more words this time, four hundred thousand!"

Facing the expectant gazes of his family, Zhao Shi'an smiled and said.

"Forty? Good heavens! Is that all?"

"Wow! Writing articles can make that much money? That's more than selling vegetables!"

Zhao Youtian and Liu Guiying were speechless with astonishment. They knew their boss was capable, but they never expected him to be this capable. Last time, he earned 380,000 yuan from two articles, and this time he earned 400,000 yuan from just one.

The family works hard to grow and sell vegetables, but after deducting the cost of pesticides, fertilizer from the manure yard, and replacement of farm tools, they don't even earn this much in a month. Their eldest son earns more from an article than they do in a month of hard work.

"How can they be the same? Our boss is a cultured man; cultured men are bound to make money!"

"Yes, yes! Studying is really useful, eldest son. Study hard and try to get into a good university. Don't worry about things at home these next few months, just focus on your studies!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Youtian immediately realized its validity and began to have even greater respect for knowledge and culture.

"Big brother, you're right! What do you want to eat? Just tell Mom! Tomorrow, I'll go buy another pound of meat. Eat more, so you can study well..."

Liu Guiying agreed with her husband's words. Since the teacher's home visit, most of the flour in the house had been given to their eldest son. They had spent a lot of money during this period. The eldest son was very promising. He had earned 78 yuan just from writing articles, which was equivalent to most of the family's savings over the years.

"Brother, when are you going to withdraw the money? I'll go with you!"

Zhao Xiaoyue was overjoyed to learn that there would be meat to eat tomorrow. During this period, she felt like it was New Year's Day, as she could eat meat every few days. Sometimes she would even get eggs from her eldest brother. Especially these past few days, her eldest brother had been sharing the eggs that their mother cooked with her and her second brother.

"We're going tomorrow at noon! You little rascal!"

As Zhao Shi'an spoke, he pinched his little sister's cheek. The family's meals had changed a lot in the past twenty days. The remaining dozen or so catties of white flour and the four catties of flour coupons he had received were almost gone. Most of it was made into steamed buns and noodles. The family ate meat once a week. In addition, he would occasionally feed his younger brother and sister eggs. The two little ones' complexions had improved a lot, and their faces had become much rosier.

Of the 380,000 yuan in royalties I earned last time, I only spent less than 80,000 yuan.

He plans to give this 40 yuan to his family to improve their lives.

He originally planned to use the royalties he earned to fill the space, but after a quick calculation, he found that the shortfall was too large.

He plans to put common plants and animals into the space, let them reproduce freely first, and then slowly breed them.

Poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese are manageable. Last time I bought ten chicks and eight ducklings, including six hens and three female ducks.

Now, after raising them for more than ten days and more than a hundred days in the space, the chickens and ducks have started to lay eggs one after another. Although they have just started laying eggs, it is enough to eat. In addition, we are getting a little tired of eating the same egg every day at home.

These days he has been sharing the eggs with his younger siblings.

As for large livestock such as pigs, cattle, sheep, and donkeys, he is still far from having enough money. He could buy a pair of piglets first and raise them slowly. The same principle applies to cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

To cultivate a new variety, you need a sufficient number of samples, whether it's plants or animals.

With the little money they had, they couldn't even scrape together a pair of each of these pigs, cattle, sheep, and donkeys, let alone expand their population.

Even just buying a few pairs of cubs would cost over a million, and he's far from having enough money.

Instead of doing that, it would be better to give the money to the family to improve their meals first. When the melons are about to be harvested, we can go to Qianmen and Wangfujing to sell a few batches of early-ripening watermelons and melons. With the money we earn, we can go to the livestock trading market or the pig market to select piglets and various livestock.

"Hehe! Big brother, you're the best."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiaoyue chuckled, and even her meal tasted much sweeter.

The next day, after lunch, Zhao Shi'an took his things and his four younger siblings to the post office again.

"Hello sir, I'd like to withdraw some money!"

After settling his younger siblings in, Zhao Shi'an went to the counter and handed over the bank draft, royalty notification, and household registration booklet.

"Wait a moment, let me check the information!"

Sun Bing took the items and examined them carefully. The person in front of her seemed familiar, and when she saw Zhao Shi'an's name on the household registration book, she instantly remembered him.

When he came to collect the money last time, he asked about whether royalties were subject to taxation!

At the time, I regarded him as a bad element lurking among the people, since most people had no intention of paying taxes.

Although the farmers knew they had to pay grain to the state, they didn't consider it a tax, so Zhao Shi'an's actions seemed very suspicious to her.

After quickly reporting the incident, the Public Security Committee found out it was a false alarm. The young man in front of them was not only a member of the Communist Youth League and an activist, but also a student of No. 11 Middle School. It was not surprising that such highly educated people knew about paying taxes. When the district issued documents, they would ask these educated youths to help explain them.

After realizing it was a misunderstanding, she was somewhat disappointed but didn't take it too seriously. After all, this kind of thing happens often, and misunderstandings are inevitable.

Now that Zhao Shi'an's innocence has been proven, Sun Bing recalled that he had written a letter proposing to pay taxes, and wondered how the article was written.

So he asked:

"Comrade Zhao Shi'an, didn't you say last time that you wanted to write an article proposing that royalties be taxed? How's the article coming along?"

"I haven't written it yet! To my shame, I've already received royalties twice, but I still don't know how the royalty standards are determined. I can only hear about other writers' incomes through hearsay. I want to figure out the standards before I start writing!"

Zhao Shi'an was surprised that the teller in front of him still remembered him. It seemed that the suspicion that he was a spy had been cleared.

When asked about paying taxes on royalties, he gave a brief explanation. It wasn't that he didn't want to write, but he was worried that making a suggestion without knowing the royalty standards would make him look foolish.