Chapter 42

Competition among peers is the most sensitive.

Upon hearing "Harvest" magazine, Chen Xiaomi had already reacted to what was going on.

This "December" must have submitted the manuscript to multiple places; she just didn't know how many in total.

Although she was very angry at the other party's shameless behavior, she had been in the industry for so long and this wasn't the first time she had seen it.

After all, new writers had no resources or channels and didn't understand some of the unspoken rules in the industry.

Moreover, the writing style of a new writer's first book is generally not very mature, and the probability of rejection is very high.

Therefore, driven by an urgent need to publish and a desire for fame, some new writers, in order to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket, would secretly submit to multiple places to increase their chances.

Chen Xiaomi hadn't thought about this possibility before, but she had still held onto a glimmer of hope.

And now, that glimmer of hope was shattered.

She didn't know how this phone call ended; her brain felt a bit stiff, and she was shrouded in a haze.

Zhou Chunlan, who had been pricking up her ears to eavesdrop, saw her standing there in a daze and immediately asked hypocritically:

"Xiaomi, what's wrong? Is it not going well?"

Chen Xiaomi suddenly felt a strong sense of disgust toward her and almost cursed, but in the end, she held it back. After keeping a smile and giving a perfunctory reply, she went straight to the editor-in-chief's office door.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

"Come in!"

Pushing the door open, Chen Xiaomi got straight to the point and said to Zhou Mingwei: "Uncle Zhou, I need to go to Shao Yang City."

Hearing this, Zhou Mingwei, who was burying his head in writing, looked up at her and then put down his pen:

"Have you encountered a difficult problem?"

Regarding a rare masterpiece like "To Live," Chen Xiaomi didn't hide anything and directly told him about "December" submitting to multiple places.

What kind of storms and waves hadn't Zhou Mingwei seen? Being able to reach the position of editor-in-chief today, his mindset was not something an ordinary person could compare to. After listening, his expression remained unchanged, without any ripples.

If it were any other work, he wouldn't even bother to care and would let his subordinates deal with it.

But this was "To Live"!

Even though he had been in the industry for decades and had read extensively, he couldn't find many works that could touch the depths of his soul, and "To Live" had done exactly that.

Rich experience told him that this was a work that could make a name for itself.

An intuition deep in his heart told him that if he rashly missed this opportunity, he might regret it for the rest of his life.

There is a black and white TV, a landline phone, a cloth sofa, curtains, a phonograph, and a radio.

There was even a sewing machine in the corner of the room, the famous Butterfly brand.

It seems that the old principal wasn't a person who was clean and honest before.

It is rumored that the old principal and his wife had been at odds for decades, arguing and arguing. After he was transferred to the Attached Middle School of Normal University, he developed feelings for a female teacher over there and formed a new family.

And this angered his wife, who turned around and got together with a state-owned factory director, and also got married.

In short, outsiders evaluated that this couple wasn't good people, their tempers were quite violent, and they couldn't distinguish who was right and who was wrong.

This made the English teacher suffer; her childhood was filled with parents fighting, scolding, throwing bowls and chopsticks, and smashing furniture. Her mother also committed suicide by cutting her wrists several times, although she was discovered and rescued, these made her completely suffer from marriage phobia.

For more than ten years, no matter how relatives and friends helped her introduce objects, she just wouldn't go.

The water boiled, and Wang Runwen also finished reading the last few pages of the manuscript, pondering for a long time, and asked with some sadness:

"Written really well, how did you write it?"

Damn it, this teacher hasn't walked out of the book yet.

Regarding how the book was written, Li Heng had a statement long ago, and immediately moved the life experience of the second grandfather and the hundreds of books of Comrade Li Jianguo.

Wang Runwen didn't raise questions face to face, although it felt like listening to a heavenly book, she was incomparably shocked in her heart, feeling it was incredible.

But the manuscript of *To Live* was in her hands; facts speak with evidence, and she couldn't help but believe it.

Looking at Li Heng pouring two cups of boiled water, one for him and one for himself, the English teacher was dazed for a while, then got up and found a can of tea, grabbed two handfuls and put them into the water cup.

She raised her head and looked at the wall clock, saying: "Time is almost up, one minute left."

Hearing this, Li Heng looked at the wall clock too.

12:19.

He reached out and moved the red landline phone to the front, then picked up the hot tea and urged it to cool down with one breath after another.

"Ding ling ling... Ding ling ling..."

Just as the two were waiting quietly, the red landline phone in front of them rang on time.

The English teacher said: "It's here."

"Hmm."

"You're not answering?"

"Not in a hurry, wait a moment."

In Li Heng's view, from the moment the phone rang, the two sides entered the negotiation stage; in order to get the chips he wanted, he couldn't show an urgent look.

The first phone rang 8 times, naturally finished the procedure, and hung up automatically.

The agreed time had passed, but no one answered. Chen Xiaomi in Beijing suddenly had a bad premonition; was this "Twelve Months" a difficult person to deal with?

However, she started to comfort herself next; communication was inconvenient in this era, and the other party was a teacher, maybe delayed by student matters.

After all, no one is a saint, right? It's inevitable to encounter things temporarily.

Thinking this way, Chen Xiaomi calmed down and waited for 5 minutes before dialing the second phone.

"Ding ling ling..."

The silent living room rang again. Wang Runwen looked at him calmly, and suddenly felt a trance: it seemed that Li Heng's mental age was more mature than her own.

Reasonably speaking, encountering such a big happy event, let alone her, even the older Teacher Wang Qi and the dean couldn't do it so calmly; shouldn't they have been overjoyed long ago?

This time Li Heng didn't let the other party wait long and picked up the receiver after the second ring.

"Hello, hello."

The three words "Hello, hello" made Chen Xiaomi stunned for a moment; why did the voice on the phone give her a sense of familiarity?

As if she had heard it somewhere before?

But thinking back carefully, she couldn't remember where she had heard it for a while.

Actually, it was normal for her not to think of Li Heng in a short time.

Chen Xiaomi was a college student in 1980, left her hometown early, and had been working in Beijing since graduation.

Furthermore, the Chen family father and son were rehabilitated at the end of 1980; since her father and brother came to Beijing, she had accompanied the two by her side during winter and summer vacations and rarely returned to her hometown.

And Li Heng had been growing taller these years, experienced the male voice change in junior high school, and was no longer the appearance of his childhood.

Although they had officially faced each other in a room during the summer vacation last year because of being caught "in bed," she had been outputting orally.

Facing Chen Xiaomi, who was as strong as the second sister, the country bumpkin Li Heng, who knew he was wrong and had no social experience, didn't dare to talk back at all?

At that time, he had always kept his head down.

Therefore, it was not bad that she could have a trace of familiarity through the phone; it was still because she was relatively sharp.

Of course, the main thing was that she wouldn't think of Li Heng subconsciously.

Ask, how spicy is the writing of *To Live*, how deep is the story and thought, and how old is Li Heng? He's not even 18, right? Younger than Zijin, it would be strange if she could think of him as a person for the first time.

Chen Xiaomi didn't recognize it was him.

Li Heng didn't distinguish it for the first time because the other party's throat was hoarse.

Chen Xiaomi felt that she was too suspicious because she cared too much about this opportunity, and immediately adjusted her mentality to reply: