Chapter 124: The Chorus

Lu Xiaoyan smiled, "Actually, many children's and youth magazines in the country want to solicit manuscripts from you now."

Wei Ming nodded, "Right, they don't have my contact information, so they disguise as reader letters. After opening them, they are all solicitation letters. I have quite a few in my hands, especially those two 'Youth Literature' are the most active."

There are two magazines named "Youth Literature", and their fame is not weak. One is in Shanghai, one is in Nanjing, and the two have often sued each other for this.

Wei Ming didn't continue to choose to cooperate with "Children's Literature" because they are now a bimonthly magazine. The next issue is March. After serializing "Jumanji", it might take half a year, which is not conducive to the spread of fame.

So in order to make the gold content of the pen name "Wei Ming" higher, Wei Ming hoped to publish more children's literature works and become a force that SAFS could not ignore.

Out of the matter of SAFS wanting the screenwriting rights of "Tianshu Qitan", Auntie Xiaoyan supported Wei Ming's decision 100%.

If it were children's literature masters like Zhang Tianyi and Chen Bochui, SAFS wouldn't dare to have that kind of careful thought. She was just curious about what kind of story Wei Ming would write next.

Wei Ming smiled, "I'll let you see it after I finish writing in a few days."

"Alright!" Lu Xiaoyan agreed readily, although she felt a bit like colluding with the enemy, but after all, they were real relatives.

After returning to the dormitory, Wei Ming didn't rush to write the script

The next day, in the cold winter weather, Wei Ming rode his 28-inch Forever bicycle, preparing to deliver it to the *People's Literature* editorial department himself.

Going out, he saw a newsstand and thought that the January issue of *Harvest* should be on sale, so he went over to take a look. Sure enough, there were still copies, so he quickly bought one.

This issue featured Sister Chen's *Middle Age*, which was also a very excellent work; Wei Ming definitely had to support it.

In addition, Lu Yanzhou, the author of *Legend of Tianyun Mountain*, also published a new work, *Calling*, in this issue. He was quite depressed now; the script had already been favored by the great director Xie Jin, but then it was temporarily shelved.

Although it was said that it would be filmed next time, it was a wasted joy after all.

"Young man."

Wei Ming had just tucked the magazine into his bag when the old man at the newsstand called out to him: "Are you that Wei Ming?"

Wei Ming pulled his scarf aside to reveal his mouth and chin.

"You can still recognize me even like this?"

"It really is you!" The old man said somewhat excitedly, "Why didn't you publish an article this month!"

Wei Ming used to publish one article a month.

Wei Ming seriously reflected on why he had slowed down recently, and finally felt that Melinda should take the main responsibility.

Women really only affect the speed of one's sword-drawing!

"Don't worry, Grandpa; I'm slow and steady."

"Then when will your next work be published, and where will it be published?" The old man asked again.

He wanted to experience the feeling of readers lining up for hundreds of meters to buy magazines again.

Wei Ming: "Sooner next month, later it's hard to say; it depends on whether the editor likes it. I'm just about to deliver the manuscript; I'll tell you when I get back."

"Alright, then go quickly, young man! Pedal! Stand up and pedal!"

*People's Literature* is at No. 52, Dongsi Batiao, borrowing space in the building of the Dramatists Association, diagonally opposite to Mr. Ye Shengtao's courtyard.

Now, let alone the housing difficulties for ordinary people, even top domestic literary journals like *People's Literature* were struggling.

Because they were borrowing someone else's territory, there were only five offices—two large and three small. The novel group occupied a large one and had the most editors.

After Wei Ming knocked on the door and entered, he first found Mr. Tu Guangqun, the editor who had "passed by" Peking University last time.

When Editor Tu saw Wei Ming, his eyes lit up, and he shouted: "Wei Ming is here!"

The editors immediately looked at him, and some directly exclaimed, "So young!"

Wei Ming took off his hat and scarf, thinking to himself: Compared to his youth, isn't his handsomeness even more obvious?

Perhaps Editor Tu's voice was too loud; Zhou Ming, the head of the poetry and prose group next door, also ran over and got to know Wei Ming. He also wanted to request a manuscript from Wei Ming.

Xu Yi, the head of the novel group, laughed: "Old Zhou, he's here for our novel group; what are you doing?"

Zhou Ming: "I'm just making a reservation; what's wrong with that? It doesn't delay your business, and besides, hasn't he already delivered it to you? By the way, what's the name of the novel?"

Tu Guangqun, who received the manuscript, read it out: "*The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class*, haha, this time it's the sheep's turn to be written about."

Wei Ming specifically asked for a day off, so they could read theirs, and Wei Ming would just hang around and watch whatever he could find; he would spend the day with them.

There is no such novel or film/television drama as *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class* in the world; there is only one classic French film called *The Chorus* (*Les Choristes*), and Wei Ming's novel stems from this.

"Sheep-herding class" in Taiwan dialect refers to the class where students with poor grades who are considered to have no future are placed. Usually, students in these classes are marginalized by society and are in a state of being ignored.

The original name of this film, which has a score of 9.2 on Douban, actually means "The Choir." Taiwan translated it as *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class*, and the mainland used this translation directly. In fact, there are no sheep in the film.

But there are really sheep in Wei Ming's *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class*.

In the mainland, there is also a similar saying to "sheep-herding class," called "sheep-herding," which metaphorically refers to students who are unmanaged and free, like a flock of sheep driven into the fields to forage freely. The derogatory color is not as strong as "sheep-herding class."

Therefore, the children in Wei Ming's novel are not a group of people defined as "problem children," but a group of primary school students who have no teachers, are unmanaged, and have been "sheep-herded" for a long time.

Wei Ming watched this film often in his past life. In fact, he didn't like children very much at first, but his cousin Wei Xi divorced every three days, and after three marriages and three divorces, he produced seven sons.

Uncle Ping'an and his wife couldn't manage these troublemakers at all and often had to dump a few on Wei Ming. In order to better understand children, Wei Ming watched this film repeatedly and mastered some ways and methods of communicating with children. Later, the seven children had a very good relationship with him, calling him "Big Uncle" very affectionately.

Although he knew the film very well, Wei Ming only used the main framework of the film, and most of the content was original and adapted to the local context.

It tells the story of a music teacher and a group of students who went from being hostile to each other to becoming friends and confidants, healing each other and soothing themselves. Music was also an important tool for them to get closer to each other's hearts.

The first chapter of the novel, "Where Is Spring," is also the soul-searching question of the male lead. From here, one can see which era it is written about.

That's right, it's another scar novel, a hot category, equivalent to the Xianxia and urban genres on Qidian. Seeing this, Tu Guangqun felt that sales were stable. Wei Ming's most influential work, *The Herdsman*, was a piece of scar literature.

It's just that *The Herdsman* is not that kind of conventional scar literature, and obviously *The Spring of the Sheep-Herding Class* isn't either.

The story takes place in a southern village called "Tangdi," which has mountains, water, and forests.

Because several naughty children blocked the chimney of the village head's house, causing the village head's house to be filled with smoke and fire, the village head was furious and questioned the primary school principal about how he managed the students.

The principal was also very aggrieved: "Recently it's the busy farming season; how can the fathers take care of it? And I don't know many characters."

"Then why don't the teachers manage it?"

!

"You forgot, a while ago the rectification was too harsh; that Teacher Su had thin skin and threw himself into the river."

Seeing this, Editor Tu wanted to ask Wei Ming if he was alluding to Mr. Lao She.

However, Wei Ming was already gone. When he asked, he found out that he had been taken by Zhou Ming to see the editor-in-chief, Li Ji, who was also a poet. It was estimated that he went to make friends through poetry.

He continued to read; the dialogue between the father and son was absurd and carried a hint of coldness.

The village head asked: "Then, then can't you find another one?"

"Good heavens, where are there any usable teachers now? Even those with a bit of cultural foundation don't dare to admit they can teach."

"Teachers, whether they can teach things is not important; as long as they can keep this group of little brats in school and not let them come out to cause trouble all day, that's fine. You hurry up and solve it, otherwise I'll have my second uncle be the principal."

The old principal was in a difficult position, but just then a teacher fell from the sky—a university professor surnamed Zhong was sent down to the village to perform labor.

The principal took one look, and the candidate was found!

But Teacher Zhong was very confused: I teach music?

"Can you read? Can you do math? You can do both, then you can teach. If you teach well, you can do less work!"

Teacher Zhong was in poor health and had been injured; doing less work was too attractive, so he was forced to step onto the podium again and became the head teacher of a mixed class with students from first to fifth grade.

As a result, on the first day of roll call, 23 people were supposed to be there, but only 3 were present. The principal was anxious and told him to call all the students back to school immediately, otherwise he would be dismissed by his son.

However, Teacher Zhong was not in a hurry; he took the three children to play games at school, and soon, by the afternoon, the three children became five.

By the second day, ten children.

The third day, more than ten.

The fourth day...

And Teacher Zhong's teaching content, besides playing games, also slowly added reading and arithmetic.

Although he taught music, he was a university professor after all; primary school Chinese and math were easy for him to handle. He slowly regained the feeling of happy teaching with his classmates during his university days.

Although these students came, every time before school, the principal would stand at the door and remind them that this Teacher Zhong was a "Rightist" and that they should remain vigilant against him.

This was also the instruction of his village head son, so the relationship between their teacher and students was always somewhat confrontational.

When the number of students stabilized, Teacher Zhong discovered that three people never came.

So, while teaching, he began to make home visits, and the story unfolded from there...

At noon, Wei Ming directly found a restaurant outside to eat, then strolled around, spent some money, and returned to the editorial department.

By this time, Editor Tu had finished reading, and others were scrambling to read it.

Editor Tu had a sentence held in his heart for a long time.

He asked Wei Ming: "The song called "Little Grass" in the novel, you said it could sing Chen Pipi to tears, and although he held back and didn't cry on the spot, he sang the two little girls in the class to tears. Does this song really exist?"

Wei Ming: "Didn't I write the lyrics on it?"

"But no one knows how to sing it?"

"We are very curious about how this song is sung."

"That's right, that's right."

Wei Ming understood; the power of the lyrics was not enough; only by matching the melody could the tear-jerking effect be achieved to the greatest extent.

It also relied on the singer's emotional performance.

So Wei Ming decided to sing a segment on the spot, and explained in advance that this song would have a better effect on people with miserable backgrounds, such as Chen Pipi in the novel.

"No fragrance of flowers, no height of trees, I am a little grass that no one knows..."

(End of chapter)