Chapter 108

The suggestion made by Teacher Gu Jianfen was very important; otherwise, this song would have been written two years later.

Wei Ming found out the address of *Lyric Journal* and submitted it the next day.

This was a music literature journal sponsored by the China Musicians Association, published once a month, mainly publishing lyrics. In addition, there were some research articles on lyrics.

At this time, copyright awareness was chaotic. An authoritative magazine like *Lyric Journal* was equivalent to confirming copyright ownership.

Wei Ming directly used his real name to publish. He could write poetry, so what was strange about writing lyrics?

However, this was a children's song, so he reckoned everyone would think it was someone with the same name.

Afterward, Wei Ming spent his days revising the script and learning to compose music from Gu Jianfen, starting from the most basic "Do-Re-Mi-Fa."

She hoped that Wei Ming could eventually complete the lyrics and music for *Where is Spring* himself.

At night, Wei Ming was on the night shift and also had to conduct diplomatic activities with Melinda. Life was quite fulfilling.

And before *Lyric Journal* received *Where is Spring*, *Storytelling* received Wei Ming's submission first.

Before submitting *Heroes Emerge from Youth*, Wei Ming had already called He Chengwei to ask if he wanted a manuscript for a martial arts novel.

"As long as you speak, I will send it to you."

"Yes, yes, yes!" He Chengwei was excited, and Wei Ming almost replied "Check it out."

A rising literary superstar was submitting a manuscript to his own small, broken magazine. Where was there any room for him to pick and choose? Wouldn't that be "climbing up the nose and onto the face"?

And what was wrong with martial arts novels? Although this type hadn't been seen in the country for a long time, the mass base was still very broad. *Water Margin* and *Three Heroes and Five Gallants* could be classified as such, and stories of martial arts masters like Huo Yuanjia, Dadao Wang Wu, and Du Xinwu had also been widely circulated.

Before receiving the manuscript, He Chengwei thought that no matter how it was written, he would accept it, and he would give the top-level manuscript fee.

Including the illustrations Wei Ming mentioned, he wanted them all.

The first time he got the manuscript was in the morning. He Chengwei directly canceled the morning meeting to read the novel first.

The novel's background was set in the Qing Dynasty, and the story began with the transfer and escape of the orphans of the Heaven and Earth Society by the river...

At the beginning, the scene was very tense. The two sides gathered at this small riverside pier, either openly or secretly, as if it were a spy drama.

Wei Ming was a master at creating atmosphere. With just a few strokes, he brought He Chengwei into it. Various professional terms and underworld slang were used with ease, and it indeed had that "riverside" flavor.

Shortly after the story began, a wealthy young master who called himself "Great Husband" appeared. He wasn't originally from the Heaven and Earth Society, but he had yearned for their heroic deeds since he was young, so he volunteered to follow. There was also another purpose: to get rid of the "mother tiger" at home.

When He Chengwei was reading, he thought "mother tiger" was his strict mother.

And when the villain Sima Li and others came looking for them, and when the knife was placed on his neck, this little guy who called himself a "great husband" who stood upright again cowardly said: "I haven't joined yet, have I."

Just when several children and an old woman were unable to do enough and were about to be captured, a strange woman with high martial arts skills and a cold face and cold words emerged, temporarily resolving the crisis.

And this woman was actually the wife of the "great husband" who was less than ten years old!

Seeing this, He Chengwei laughed out loud. It turned out to be a child bride.

And the "great husband" and the "little daughter-in-law" had a special chemical reaction. The originally tense story became more and more interesting after this special couple appeared.

And what was interesting was that Wei Ming also thoughtfully marked out the "chapter break points."

Considering the length of this novella and the capacity of each issue of *Storytelling*, he reckoned it would be serialized in three issues.

So Wei Ming broke the first chapter break point after the stunning appearance of the little daughter-in-law.

He Chengwei said to himself, fortunately, he wasn't reading the serialization, and continued to read on impatiently, comparing it with Liu Rulong's illustrations.

At 11 o'clock, after passing the Nanmen guard post, Wei Ming received a note from his colleague, which was from *Storytelling* in Shanghai.

"Brother Ming, I was afraid I wouldn't remember, so I wrote it all down for you."

"Thank you, Big Strong."

"It's nothing. I haven't smoked less of Brother Ming's cigarettes usually."

Wei Ming was a big cigarette buyer at the school canteen, often buying them by the carton, training all his colleagues into old smokers, while he himself hid in the Spoon Garden and didn't even smoke secondhand smoke, focusing on health preservation.

However, this was also a necessary investment. The phone at this Nanmen was almost becoming his exclusive contact number. Usually, there were many letters, and if someone tripped you up slightly, it was easy to miss very important information.

But Wei Ming also had principles: he only answered the phone here, and he spent money at the canteen to make calls.

The note said: Please convey to Writer Wei that this manuscript is very, very good and very suitable for our magazine. We will arrange for it to be serialized and published in the January 1980 issue. It is rumored that the manuscript fee standard will be changed, and it will be paid in a lump sum according to the highest standard by then.

Seeing the last sentence, Wei Ming smiled calmly. He knew he could earn a few hundred yuan again.

Immediately, he rode his bike and left Peking University.

Recently, he had been busy writing manuscripts and hadn't sent tapes to Sister Zhu Lin for a while. He reckoned she was itching again, so he prepared to go into the city to satisfy her this time.

Wei Ming also came at the right time; today was Zhu Lin's birthday.

Looking at the tape in his hand, Wei Ming was happy: "Then this is a ready-made birthday gift."

Zhu Lin refused: "This gift is a bit expensive."

Wei Ming: "I only brought this, and there's also my beloved car. Don't look at it as broken, but it's more expensive, and I'm even more reluctant to part with it."

Zhu Lin laughed uncontrollably and finally accepted the tape, then said: "What do you want to eat? Sister will treat you."

"Treat me on your birthday? Don't talk nonsense. If you don't eat, I don't want the tape either."

Wei Ming softened: "It's a birthday, just eat some noodles."

"Alright, I'll treat you to something good next time you come. Quanjude, Donglaishun, you can pick whatever you want."

When the two left, Mu Rong, wearing a white lab coat in the laboratory, was peeking through the window.

Oh my, they went to eat together, they went to eat together!

Zhu Lin was very happy to see Wei Ming. This little brother could always easily bring joy to people.

While eating, hearing him say he was learning music, Zhu Lin was surprised: "You are already a big writer, why are you learning music? Are you going to switch to being a musician?"

"I reckon being a musician is hanging, but learning more things is never wrong. If my writing inspiration dries up one day, there is another path to choose, so I won't be at a dead end."

Zhu Lin envied him very much. Now she, who was busy doing inspections every day, had almost forgotten how to dance. That was also a skill she once relied on to settle down.

"Then besides music, what else did you learn?" Zhu Lin asked.

Wei Ming: "Let me tell you, the classes I take at Peking University are very mixed. Once, I accidentally entered a physics classroom, and I learned a lesson on quantum entanglement."

!

"What is quantum entanglement?" Zhu Lin sucked a noodle and asked curiously.

Wei Ming explained: "The world we live in is composed of countless very, very small particles, small to the point of being invisible. When these two particles become quantum entangled, no matter how far apart they are, the behavior of one particle will affect the state of the other. If one particle changes, the other particle will also produce a corresponding change."

Zhu Lin tried hard to understand and digest, and then found that this sounded a bit like love!

"Then how do two particles become, uh, that quantum entanglement you mentioned?"

Wei Ming ate a big mouthful of noodles: "How would I know? Go ask Einstein."

Zhu Lin burst into laughter.

Wei Ming asked strangely: "Is Einstein a very funny person?"

"Nothing, just thought of a slogan from before."

"What slogan?"

"That one, Einstein, he who has milk is mother~" Zhu Lin laughed even more happily.

Wei Ming suddenly said: "Of course, no milk, that's father."

Then Zhu Lin hurriedly covered her mouth. No, the noodles were about to spray out of her nostrils. She had to maintain her image!

After leaving Zhu Lin, Wei Ming immediately went to the General Political Drama Troupe.

Wei Ming hadn't mailed the photos taken at the Summer Palace that day to her, just thinking about delivering them in person.

This was his first time coming to Gong Xue's unit. The guards were very strict, and Wei Ming couldn't get in at all, so he could only call Gong Xue out.

Then Wei Ming was happy. The two blushes on Gong Xue's cheeks hadn't been wiped off yet, and she was also wearing two very childish braids.

"Don't laugh, this is what the role requires." Gong Xue embarrassedly blocked her face with her arm. She was rehearsing.

Too shameful. She wasn't maliciously pretending to be young, but she was assigned to play a little girl. What could she do?

Wei Ming stopped laughing and handed over the photos. Gong Xue looked at them one by one in front of Wei Ming and praised him for taking them well: "It can be compared to my mother's."

"Can't compare. Auntie is a professional."

"No need to be modest. By the way, I've already read *The Herdsman*. It's written really well. When I was sent down, many of my thoughts were the same as Xu Shengfang's. That's how I survived those years," Gong Xue asked again. "Is your father really a person like Xu Shengfang?"

Wei Ming: "Don't have any misunderstandings about my dad. He is very unlike the novel character, but my mom is very much like Wei Fenfang."

"Hmm, a gentle and virtuous wife and mother." Gong Xue gave Auntie a thumbs up.

Because Wei Ming had to rush back to work, the two met in a hurry at the door and parted, agreeing to gather again when they had time.

And when the day's work ended, Zhu Lin couldn't wait to go home to listen to the music Wei Ming brought.

As a result, when she returned home, she saw several people in the house.

There were her partner, her partner's parents, her partner's aunt, and the introducer at the time.

Zhu Lin's father was a professor, and her mother was a doctor. Her father smiled, and her mother brought a bowl of hot longevity noodles.

Then, in everyone's chatter, she and her partner decided on the big event of getting married next year.

It was indeed not suitable to drag it on anymore. She was already 27 years old. If she dragged it on, she would be thirty.

The words of the matchmaker were piercing: Men can afford to delay; they can still give birth after thirty. The older a woman is, the higher the risk of giving birth.

In short, she was an older woman who couldn't afford to delay any longer.

At night, listening to the American music sent by Wei Ming in her room, Zhu Lin danced the dance she had performed in the Art Troupe, which didn't match the music, elegant and lonely.

The next day, when Zhu Lin came to the unit with dark circles under her eyes, a deputy director of a film crew happened to come to the Institute of Health, saying he wanted to find an actor to play the role of a medical research worker in his true colors.

Zhu Lin stood up abruptly~

(Brothers are so strong, continue to ask for tickets! Don't stop!)

(End of chapter)