Chapter 134: The Shepherd Class in Harmony: Monthly Ticket 4000 Bonus Chapter

Before returning home, Wei Ming borrowed five books from Peking University’s library, all for the sake of this new novel.

He placed great hope in this new work; apart from a few money-making screenplays, he would devote most of his energy to writing this long novel, researching materials and planning to visit Huangpu Military Academy if the chance arose.

As for “Black Cat Chief,” writing one installment every two months, each only a few thousand characters, required virtually no effort at all.

With the crackling sound of firecrackers, the ancestral worship ceremony ended, and the Spring Festival officially arrived.

Clearly, the firecrackers at the Wei family’s gravesite burned longer and louder, while even families struggling with hardship made some noise—no matter how little they ate, they ensured their ancestors heard the sound.

After returning home, they saw Xi Zi running around looking for ice holes and tree hollows to place small firecrackers; Xu Shufen and Lu Xiaoyan, the sisters-in-law, were preparing the New Year’s Eve feast, while Le Le stared at a small gray rabbit, captured during their “hunt” that day, only slightly injured.

What a harmonious and beautiful scene!

After returning home, the Wei Anping family ate at Wei Jiefang’s house; last night, they had left Le Le with Wei Ming and Wei Hong, enjoying their own shameless couple’s world.

Today’s New Year’s Eve dinner was especially lavish—the braised pork was so fragrant it filled the entire courtyard, and outside, many smoked cured meats hung, several of which had already been allocated to her.

Lu Xiaoyan greatly admired Shufen’s cooking; if she had been in charge, tonight might have been nothing but a pot of dumplings.

This year’s rural New Year’s Eve had no electricity, no television, and no Spring Festival Gala; Old Wei lit every candle and kerosene lamp to brighten the entire house.

Then he turned on the radio; the broadcast station also had a music program dedicated to the nation welcoming the new year.

This year, the Central Radio Station proudly premiered a new song, “On the Field of Hope,” performed jointly by four young singers.

Wei Ming only learned today who the other two singers were besides Le Le and Wang Fei; he hadn’t expected they were also future famous singers—one Cai Guoqing, the other Cheng Lin, who later became famous for “The Little Conch.”

Moreover, they explicitly credited the lyricist and composer as Wei Ming; Wei Ming hoped every future performer would remember his name.

“Our hometown / On the field of hope / Smoke curls over newly built houses / A stream flows beside the beautiful village…”

In the Magic City, a stone-lattice house on Chongqing North Road.

Listening to the song, Gong Ying’s younger sister began singing along, occasionally glancing at her sister.

Just now, they said the lyricist and composer was named Wei Ming—same name as that writer brother!

But Gong Ying didn’t think it was a coincidence; could it actually be him?

Because she also noticed one of the singers was named Wei Le—and Wei Ming’s cousin was called Le Le!

They had eaten together before; Le Le indeed had a wonderful voice.

Gong Ying believed she understood Wei Ming well; she knew that besides his real name, he had two pen names—one for fairy tales, one for popular literature.

The fairy tale writer “Wei What” made her nephew obsessed; the popular literature writer “Wei Maniac” was the author of “Story Weekly,” beloved by her elder sister and brother-in-law.

He had always been so open and unreserved with her, but now it seemed he’d held something back—this was the biggest surprise of the Spring Festival.

This year’s New Year’s Eve dinner, because Gong Ying had returned, her elder sister and brother-in-law specially brought their niece home to eat.

Since she went to the countryside, this was the most united the whole family had been; still, her sister-in-law and brother-in-law kept teasing her about when she’d bring home a partner.

They were all worried about her, this 27-year-old spinster.

Only her younger sister Gong Ying stood by her: “Sister is about to become a movie star—career comes first now; love and romance must wait!”

Thinking of Gong Ying’s upcoming collaboration with Director Xie Jin and her strong chance of being transferred to Shanghai Film Studio, the whole family felt a surge of excitement.

After dinner, the nephew looked around and finally settled on his second aunt, pestering her to tell him a story.

Gong Ying glanced—it wasn’t “Children’s Literature”; her interest waned, but she still picked up the brand-new “Youth Literature.”

Then, on the first line of the table of contents, she saw the bolded characters: “The Game of the Brave, Part One—Wei What.”

Oh my, he’s published a new work again! How fast this man is!

That name, “The Brave,” fit perfectly with her understanding of Wei Ming.

Gong Ying began telling the story vividly; soon, even the younger niece and adult Gong Ying gathered around, listening intently.

At the end of last month, the content of Shanghai’s “Youth Literature” February issue was nearly finalized when they suddenly received a submission letter from Beijing from the author “Wei What.”

The entire editorial staff was thrilled; since the first installment of “The Marvelous Book of Heaven” was published three months ago, they had been trying to contact this suddenly emerged children’s literature writer.

“Children’s Literature” kept his contact details secret, so they tried communicating through reader letters—but received no response.

Just as they were about to give up, Wei What sent them a highly original, creatively brilliant short story—and even included illustrations!

So they restructured the February issue, added the story, planned to serialize it over three monthly issues, and increased the first print run by ten percent compared to the previous issue.

The guard at Peking University’s south gate, on duty that day, had already received the sample copy and royalty slip from “Youth Literature.”

On New Year’s Day, Wei Ming and Xi Zi were woken by firecrackers; Old Wei had risen early and already started setting them off. Xi Zi stretched his arm comfortably out of Wei Ming’s quilt—he’d been too happy last night, listening to two more episodes of “Black Cat Chief,” which Wei Ming hadn’t even written yet.

Now he desperately wanted to bring home a Black Cat Chief to raise.

Wei Ming advised him to abandon the idea; their living conditions weren’t suitable for keeping a pet cat unless they lived in a villa with a courtyard or a private Sihe Academy like Professor Feng’s.

“If you miss cats, try your luck at Yannanyuan—there are plenty there.”

Cousin Qi Delong’s effort lasted only one day; when Wei Ming took Le Le and Xiao Hong to catch wild chickens, he happily ran out.

Meanwhile, his father Qi Kexiu’s novel had just reached: “Long, long ago, there was a mountain…”

For the next two days, Wei Ming took his younger siblings wandering around, fully experiencing early 1980s rural life; Wei Ming also used up two black-and-white film rolls, leaving behind plenty of firsthand photographic records.

He had his camera with him; he’d need to take more photos when they went to Sichuan and Chongqing.

They departed on the fifth day, returned the motorcycle to Old Yang in the county town; besides the pig leg Liu Rulong had taken earlier, Wei Ming brought back some of his mother’s smoked cured meats and sausages.

Since the whole family would be away for many days, they entrusted their home to Aunt Chunhua; many parts of the pig went to her, finally teaching her one truth: follow Brother Jiefang, and you’ll have meat to eat!

!

Throughout the journey, Wei Hong was extremely excited—this was her first time riding a bus, then her first time on a train, her first time arriving in the capital.

All eight members of the Wei family were returning to Beijing; then Wei Jiefang and the other three would take a train from Beijing to Rongcheng.

Before boarding the train, Uncle Anping bought a copy of “Hebei Daily”; he smiled at Wei Ming: “Your deeds have been reported; that young Sun writes well—simple and touching.”

Wei Jiefang quickly read it; delighted by the lavish praise, he was overjoyed—it was his son being praised, but the honor reflected on him too!

When you do good, let people know; otherwise, how will they know you’re kind?

Wei Ming deeply appreciated Uncle Anping’s thoughtful intent; he was young, earned money easily, and inevitably drew jealousy—even hatred.

Ordinary people’s resentment didn’t matter; it was the insiders he feared.

With this positive coverage, at least when negative rumors arose, the public would pause and think twice—and this made Wei Ming even more passionate about children’s education and charity; when he had money someday, he’d build schools!

They arrived in Beijing in the afternoon; Wei Hong gazed in awe at the towering buildings.

Wei Ming inquired at the ticket window, then decided to buy four hard-sleeper tickets for the night train to Rongcheng—still, his status as a formal Peking University employee helped.

He still had his official letter of certification from his workplace; it would be useful.

Though expensive—over two hundred yuan for four people—he spent freely; rare was the chance to splurge, and he planned to take sleeper tickets again on the return trip.

This journey was longer than the one to the Magic City—over thirty hours, two full days and nights; lying down was certainly more comfortable than sitting.

Seeing Wei Ming had bought the tickets, Wei Anping finally felt at ease and bid them farewell.

Lu Xiaoyan also wished her sister-in-law would soon find her biological family.

Wei Hong hugged Le Le: “Don’t worry—we’ll definitely get photos of giant pandas!”

Wei Hong wanted to explore Beijing, but time didn’t wait; Wei Ming took them for a quick dinner at the station and prepared to enter.

“Wait.” Wei Ming noticed magazines for sale at the station’s newsstand and asked, “Has this month’s ‘People’s Literature’ been released?”

“Yes!”

“One copy, then…” Wei Ming told his father and Wei Hong to pick whatever they wanted to read—over thirty hours on the train, they’d need something to pass the time.

“Brother, you’ve published a new work again!” While waiting, Wei Hong spotted “The Shepherd Class’s Spring”—Wei Ming—on the second line of the table of contents in this issue of “People’s Literature.”

The first line was Jiang Zilong’s “The Successor to Director Qiao,” a sequel to “Director Qiao Takes Office.”

A hot IP sequel; topping the list was perfectly normal.

Following “The Shepherd Class’s Spring” was Gao Xiaosheng’s “Chen Huansheng Goes to Town,” another major work of reform literature.

The literary strength of this issue of “People’s Literature” was truly formidable; its first print run reached a staggering 800,000 copies!

…

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