Chapter 505

The lead actress picked up the vegetables scattered on the ground and went to the kitchen.

Li Heng sat on the sofa, reached out to take the receiver, and called the "Harvest" magazine office without stopping.

He called the editor-in-chief's office.

"Knock knock knock...!"

Somewhat unexpectedly, the call went through on the first ring, and the voice of Editor-in-Chief Liao came from the other side: "Hello, who is this?"

Li Heng said: "Senior brother, it's me."

"Yo! Junior brother, you've finally appeared. Yu Laoshi called me back yesterday evening, saying you would return to Lushan Village around 11 PM. It made me go to Lushan Village to find you this morning, only to be met with a closed door." Editor-in-Chief Liao's tone was very teasing.

But these words made Li Heng's heart jump with fear.

He subconsciously glanced at the stairwell and asked tentatively: "You went to Lushan Village, did you see Yu Laoshi at home?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao laughed out loud, and after laughing for a while, he teased: "Is junior brother very afraid of Yu Laoshi?"

Li Heng said lightly: "Afraid? Afraid of what?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao guessed his inner thoughts but didn't point them out, saying: "The doors and windows of the small building at No. 25 are closed. Or rather, the doors of all four of your small buildings are locked tight; no one is at home."

Hearing this, Li Heng felt relieved and apologized: "I had some urgent business outside, and I came out early this morning. By the way, senior brother, you summoned me back in such a hurry, what for?"

Talking about business, Editor-in-Chief Liao put away his jokes and said seriously: "Didn't you reply to Mr. Jin Yong last time? He called me yesterday, asking if he could come to visit you tomorrow?"

Li Heng asked subconsciously: "Tomorrow?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "Yes, tomorrow."

Li Heng asked: "Has he already arrived in the mainland?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "Mr. Jin Yong started moving to the mainland after receiving your reply; he passed customs this morning and is currently in Yangcheng."

Hearing this, Li Heng said immediately: "Okay, tomorrow it is."

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "That's fine, I'll give the other party an answer immediately, and I'll notify you as soon as there is the latest situation."

"Eh, good!"

He responded, and after thinking for a moment, he gave him the landline number here.

Editor-in-Chief Liao wrote down the phone number and asked curiously: "This isn't the number for Lushan Village?"

Li Heng replied: "This is Huang Zhaoyi's home."

Editor-in-Chief Liao was stunned, looked down at the number on the paper, his heart shook violently, and then he lowered his voice and asked: "You and Zhaoyi...?"

Li Heng said "hey," and said: "Don't ask, curiosity kills the cat. You just need to return this call later."

Editor-in-Chief Liao suddenly felt the tea in front of him wasn't fragrant, his heart was itching, but no matter how he probed, this junior brother just wouldn't reveal any more.

After chatting for a while, Editor-in-Chief Liao gave up questioning, "By the way, junior brother, Mr. Jin Yong loves calligraphy and also has quite a bit of research on ancient history. You can prepare a little in these two aspects so that you have topics to talk about after meeting."

Li Heng waved his hand and said confidently: "Small matter, it's not like you haven't seen my handwriting; these are also what I am good at."

Editor-in-Chief Liao had indeed seen Li Heng's handwriting, which was truly excellent, even better than his own, so he felt relieved.

Li Heng thought of something and asked: "Did you reveal my age and identity to Mr. Jin Yong?"

Now it was Editor-in-Chief Liao's turn to chuckle: "Not yet, I plan to give the other party a surprise; I want to see his surprised expression."

Alright, this senior brother is also quite mischievous.

Li Heng asked: "Where is a good place to meet?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "He wants to come to your house and visit your study; what do you think? If it's inconvenient, you can also refuse and choose another place."

Li Heng thought for a while and agreed.

After finishing the Jin Yong matter, Editor-in-Chief Liao changed the subject and talked about "To Live" and "Bai Luyuan": "Junior brother, congratulations! After the overseas copyright of 'To Live' was authorized, it sold well in Hong Kong and across the strait; Hong Kong currently has over 100,000 copies."

"And across the strait, it has broken through 250,000 copies, highly recommended by the media there, and hailed as one of the top ten good books worth reading in 1988. I specifically asked a friend to pay attention to the news there; it is said that among these ten good books, 8 are foreign literary classics. The gold content is still very high."

Having gained another wave of fame and fortune, Li Heng was overjoyed, "How is 'To Live' doing in Japan, South Korea, Europe, and America?"

Mr. Jin Yong said: "These places need to be translated into local languages, which takes time; it hasn't been listed yet, but you can still look forward to it."

Li Heng nodded; "To Live" has a big name and good sales, but it hasn't won any decent literary awards. It must be said that this is a great regret.

Editor-in-Chief Liao continued: "Currently 'Bai Luyuan' is being printed in large quantities, and the first batch of subscription numbers from Xinhua Bookstore has come out."

Li Heng asked hurriedly: "How many copies?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao, who was in a good mood, sold a mystery: "Guess."

Guess my ass!

Li Heng was black-hearted inwardly, but asked: "Is there 100,000 copies?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao smiled: "Too little, guess again."

Li Heng asked: "150,000 copies?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "Can you be a bit bolder?"

Li Heng directly blurted out a number: "Could it be 300,000 copies?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao opened a page of the document and recited: "As of 11 AM this morning, the first batch of subscription numbers is 412,672 copies. Congratulations again, junior brother, you have broken the record again; these 410,000+ copies are enough to be recorded in the history of modern Chinese literature!"

Although he guessed, when he really heard this number, Li Heng only felt dizzy!

This is the first batch of subscriptions from Xinhua Bookstore, and there are 410,000 copies; for other writers, it might take ten years to sell this amount.

It can simply be described as crazy!

It also shows that "Bai Luyuan" is very popular in the market, showing that his writer persona "December" is a living golden signboard, and the vast number of readers are willing to pay for it!

After secretly rejoicing for a while, Li Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief; the market gave him confidence, he didn't encounter Waterloo at the first subscription, damn it, he lived up to the hype of the major media, and lived up to the title of "legendary writer."

After taking some time to digest this good news, Li Heng asked: "What is the price of 'Bai Luyuan'?"

Editor-in-Chief Liao said: "8 yuan."

Li Heng's first reaction was: "So much? It's a full double higher than 'To Live'!"

Editor-in-Chief Liao explained: "It is double higher. But 'Bai Luyuan' has nearly 600,000 words, while 'To Live' is only 300,000 words. At the same time, the market is also changing, and wages and prices have been rising; 8 yuan is a decision we made cautiously after discussing all aspects and conducting market research."

"Don't worry, it wasn't a high price set on a whim."

This reminded Li Heng of "Ruined City," which was initially sold for 12 yuan, but as it became hard to find, the price kept rising, reaching 18 yuan a copy at its peak.

With this connection, uh-huh, 8 yuan doesn't seem too high, and it's within an acceptable range.

Editor-in-Chief Liao told him: "'Bai Luyuan' will be listed on September 20th, remember to pay attention then. Also, how many samples of the new book do you need? I can bring them to you tomorrow?"

Li Heng estimated and said: "Give me 30 copies, just in case."

Editor-in-Chief Liao responded readily, saying no problem.

This call was relatively long, and they discussed various trivial matters of life and Old Man Ba's health for a while before hanging up.

Putting the receiver back, Li Heng, who felt like he was starving, checked the time and found it was already past 2 PM.

Damn it! I was clearly full last night, but a few rounds of output squeezed my belly dry, sigh….

After sitting on the sofa for a while, he called Li Wang later to ask about the situation at the shoe factory, which took another 10+ minutes.

At one point, he suddenly had a whim to contact Yu Laoshi, but when he realized his current location, he immediately gave up the idea.

Forget it, forget it, let's talk when I go back.

After two calls in a row, Li Heng ran to the kitchen, but just as he reached the door, he smelled a strong meaty aroma, and he felt refreshed and his taste buds opened up.

He entered the kitchen and poked his head in to ask: "How many dishes are left?"

Seeing him come over, Huang Zhaoyi smiled, picked up a pair of chopsticks, and fed him a piece of high-quality twice-cooked pork: "You must be starving, it'll be ready soon. Three dishes are already done, and there's one more vegetable left; come, taste if the saltiness is right."

It was because the relationship between the two had undergone a qualitative change last night; if it were before, she wouldn't have dared to feed him so boldly.

Li Heng looked at her and opened his mouth to give her face, ate the twice-cooked pork in one go, chewed it a few times, and praised: "Delicious, fragrant! Come, give me another piece."

Hearing this, Huang Zhaoyi was in a great mood and immediately fed him two more pieces of meat personally.

While eating, Li Heng said casually: "You have a certain talent for cooking, don't waste it; try to learn all the common home-style Xiang dishes, so I'll have a treat in the future."

Huang Zhaoyi kept these words in her heart, thinking about taking time to learn how to cook later.

She understood that such an opportunity was rare; he had never made requests of her before. Now that he could make requests, it proved that he really treated her as his woman.

For him, this might just be a small step.

But it was significant here; it was a big leap, making her ecstatic and full of energy!

Seeing her focused on stir-frying, Li Heng stared at her profile for a while; it had to be said, setting aside previous prejudices, this woman was still very beautiful. From figure, appearance to temperament, and even education level, no flaws could be picked out.

Especially in bed, she was truly a beauty, making people unable to stop.

In his cognition, the only one who could outdo her in intimacy might be Mai Sui; that girl, every time he hugged and touched her, he would have a huge reaction. Before going to the capital last time, he had spilled hundreds of millions of money on her through her pants.

It made Mai Sui so shy, ho! And don't mention it, it had a unique flavor.

He was comfortable, but in fact, Mai Sui had been living in fear these days, because her usually normal menstrual cycle had been delayed by 3 days this time, and it still hadn't come.

This couldn't help but make her worry, could she be pregnant?

For this reason, Mai Sui even ran to the library alone to look up information, and the book clearly stated that external discharge also has a certain probability of causing pregnancy.

Seeing Mai Sui in a daze on the chair, Zhou Shihe, who had returned from borrowing books at the library, put three books aside and walked over to ask with concern: "Sui Sui, are you feeling unwell? I've seen you looking preoccupied for the past two days."

"Yeah, yeah! You're always acting silly and dazed; I've never seen you like this before. You wouldn't be missing that bad guy Li Heng, would you?" Ye Ning, who returned together, also echoed.

Previously, the three of them went to the library to read together, but today Mai Sui didn't go and stayed in the dormitory alone.

Afraid of being seen through by her friends, Mai Sui came back to her senses and said: "I had a dream last night, dreaming that my father went to the north to do business."

Ye Ning didn't understand: "Isn't it normal to go to the north to do business? Your Shaodong goods have already been sold to our hometown town in Shanxi."

Zhou Shihe knew a little bit, "Are you afraid of accidents?"

Mai Sui said worriedly: "When I looked at my fortune at the beginning of the year, the fortune teller said that my parents shouldn't go north in the next few years, as it's easy to attract disaster."

"Ah? Is there such a thing?" Ye Ning's eyes widened.

Mai Sui nodded and roughly told them about going to fortune-telling with Li Heng and Editor-in-Chief Liao at the beginning of the year.

After listening, Zhou Shihe suggested: "Tomorrow happens to be the weekend, why don't we go back to Lushan Village to stay? You can call home."

The reason Zhou Shihe suggested going to Lushan Village was that she felt Li Heng should be coming back. The implication was to let Li Heng comfort Mai Sui.

As for how she felt it?

That was, of course, a dream. It was strange; she actually dreamed of Li Heng last night, dreamed of the two of them at a ski resort in the Northeast, dreamed of him pressing on her and kissing her mouth. It caused her to be startled awake in the middle of the night, and she stayed awake until dawn.

Mai Sui also wanted to call back and didn't refuse this proposal, so the three girls packed up and headed to Lushan Village.

Along the way, Zhou Shihe and Mai Sui had a very high head-turning rate.

Especially Zhou Shihe, because of the pure music album, her fame had risen another level, rising to a new height.

In Fudan University now, you might not know who the principal is? You might not know who the counselor is? But it's impossible not to have heard of Zhou Shihe.

Now the whole school is hotly discussing the affairs of Li Heng, Zhou Shihe, and Yu Shuheng after meals.

And among the three parties involved, Li Heng disappears from time to time, and has disappeared for several days.

And Yu Laoshi only shows her face in the School of Management when she has classes, and the rest of the time she is also elusive.

So, Zhou Shihe, who often appears in the library study room, bears all the eyes full of curiosity.

According to Ye Ning's words: whether it's in class or in the study room, every day there are seniors and juniors passing by Zhou Shihe in various ways, but they dare not get too close, let alone say hello; they just watch from afar, truly like some lecherous ghosts who want to die but are afraid of death.

Back in Lushan Village, Yu Laoshi was not at home, so Mai Sui had to go outside the school to make a call.

Ye Ning said lazily: "It's too hot, I'm dying of heat, I'm going to take a shower first, you guys go."

Zhou Shihe smiled gently and accompanied Mai Sui outside the school.

First, she called home, but the first one was not answered.

It wasn't until the second call that it was answered by her grandmother. Mai Sui first asked about her grandparents' health, then asked about her parents' whereabouts.

The result was a great disappointment; her grandmother didn't know where her parents went to do business either? She only said they went to deliver goods and negotiate orders, and would be back in two days.

After probing again, she still couldn't find the buyer's contact information, and couldn't determine whether her parents were in the south or had gone to the north?

Zhou Shihe was afraid she would think too much, and comforted her quickly: "It's okay, they'll be back in two days, and then you can call back and ask."

Matters having reached this point, Mai Sui had no other way; after all, it was just fortune-telling, and she couldn't use this as an excuse to ask for leave to go home, right?

Not to mention whether the school would approve the leave? She herself felt it was absurd.

When passing by a pharmacy, Mai Sui suddenly stopped, her gaze lingering on the pharmacy entrance.

Zhou Shihe was meticulous and noticed her best friend's small movements, asking: "Need to buy medicine?"

Mai Sui seemed particularly hesitant; after walking about 20 steps forward, she stopped again, pursed her lips tightly, and said: "Shihe, wait for me here, I'll be right back."

Zhou Shihe had a face full of question marks; buying medicine and still needing to leave her alone? However, she didn't point it out and said "good" readily.

Under her best friend's gaze, Mai Sui tried her best to stabilize her figure and walked into the pharmacy.

After a while, Mai Sui came out and said softly: "Let's go."

"Hmm."

Zhou Shihe hummed, but her gaze swept over her best friend's hands obscurely; both hands were empty, and she didn't take any medicine.

Later, her gaze moved without a trace and stopped at Mai Sui's pants pocket, but she didn't find any useful information.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind: buying a pregnancy test?

She didn't think about contraceptives, nor did she think about condoms. Because Li Heng hadn't been home for the past few days, contraceptives and condoms were useless, and there was no such urgency.

It seems Sui Sui's preoccupation wasn't just about dreaming of her parents going north, but also worrying about pregnancy?

Could it be that Li Heng and Sui Sui had already broken through to the final relationship?

With her gaze flowing over her best friend, Zhou Shihe thought so, looked up at the dim sky, and suddenly felt very stuffy, estimating that another rainstorm was coming.

Mai Sui's relationship with her was like sisters, and they usually said whatever they had to say, never avoiding each other. But today, Sui Sui's behavior of buying medicine revealed many doubts.

She subconsciously thought about pregnancy.

Entering the campus, Zhou Shihe asked tentatively: "Have you been in touch with him lately?"

"No." Mai Sui shook her head.

When Li Heng goes to the capital, he either goes to see Song Yu or Chen Zijin; Mai Sui had promised not to interfere in his private feelings.

Therefore, once Li Heng went to the north, Mai Sui would automatically cut off contact with him and not ask about any of his affairs.

Back at the end of the alley, Mai Sui looked at the small building at No. 26 and said to her best friend: "I'm going to clean up, you rest for a while."

Li Heng had been away for 3 days and would be back in the next two days; Mai Sui knew he loved cleanliness and wanted to clean the house.

Of course, cleaning was only one aspect; testing whether she was pregnant was the most urgent thing she had to do now.

Zhou Shihe said good, but her gaze swept over her friend's pants pocket quickly and inadvertently.

If she was only guessing at the pharmacy entrance before, she was now 70% sure that Sui Sui had bought a pregnancy test today.

Watching Mai Sui enter the small building at No. 26, Zhou Shihe stood in the middle of the alley for a while, then turned to look at the small building at No. 25, inexplicably thinking of the 8 maxims Shen Xin left in "Jane Eyre."

She was thinking: the women around him had fallen one after another, while Yu Shuheng was still standing still, and those 8 maxims were directly wasted.

PS: Published first, edited later. Double monthly tickets, big bosses, please cast your monthly tickets to help March rush the list!

(More to come)

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(End of chapter)