Chapter 162: Audio Adaptation (Guaranteed Second Update)

The March issue is the first of this year's Contemporary, still a quarterly, featuring two main novellas: Chen Guokai's "The Cost" and Zhu Wenhua of Fudan's Chinese Department's "Resurrection."

Also included are one screenplay, several short stories, two translated foreign works, and a few brief essays and critical articles.

Among them is Wei Ming's travel essay about his trip to Yunnan to find his aunt, added at the last minute since it's not long.

A few days ago, Yanjing Literature also published Wei Ming's first essay on his quest to find family.

Given Wei Ming's current level of attention, even non-fiction bearing his name draws interest; and a young author exposing his family's private life satisfies some readers, especially female fans eager to know more about Wei Ming.

Now Wei Ming's parents and sister are no strangers to readers.

In particular, the previous Yanjing Literature piece, "Entering Sichuan," told a story and reflections of a family on a train, with substantial roles for all of them.

In this article, Wei Ming first revealed he has a younger sister in high school named Xiao Hong; when Wei Hong herself read it, she felt a bit embarrassed.

Her brother portrayed her too well—praising her beauty, academic excellence, diligence, and even showing her studying her sophomore textbooks on the sleeper berth.

This copy of Contemporary wasn't hers; it belonged to Teacher Zang. He saw Wei Ming's essay and thought it perfect for students to study, so he had someone read it aloud—effectively a public execution of Wei Hong.

Her desk mate nudged her arm: "You told me you were just playing all vacation—turns out you were secretly studying ahead of us!"

"Mainly I was playing—studying was just for show," Wei Hong replied, humble and awkward.

After the reading ended, Teacher Zang announced the rankings for the first exam after the semester began; as expected, Wei Hong remained top in the grade, and Teacher Zang added: "Wei Hong's score is fifty points higher than the second-place student!"

Her desk mate and other classmates gazed at Wei Hong with admiration—her lead over second place kept growing; next year's admission to Peking University was surely locked in!

They only hoped to pass the college entrance exam, but even that was a luxury: last year's admission rate was 6%, and Ping'an No. 1 High's rate was only 4%, meaning roughly one in twenty-five students passed—just two per class.

After the scores were announced, students were dismissed for the weekend.

Wei Hong went to see Teacher Zang Ke'fu.

Teacher Zang thought she'd come to borrow Contemporary—he'd already handed it over.

But Wei Hong waved it off: "Teacher Zang, I'm not here to borrow a book—I want to take the college entrance exam this year."

"What!"

Wei Hong pulled several test papers from her backpack.

"These are the entrance tests from the sophomore class—I've completed them. Could you ask the sophomore teachers to grade them and tell me my score?"

Teacher Zang took the papers in shock: "You can do all of these?"

"Most of them, though some I don't fully understand."

After careful thought, Teacher Zang said: "Wei Hong, you could easily wait until next year to take the exam—you'd be more prepared."

"I know," Wei Hong said, "but you don't understand how big and wonderful Peking University is—I stayed there two days and fell in love. I can't wait any longer!"

She'd nearly abandoned the idea after Wei Ming scared her out of it, but those two days at Peking University had reignited it.

Teacher Zang spoke at length, urging her to reconsider: "If you're taking the exam this year, you must decide on arts or science now."

"I'll take science," she'd already decided.

"Also, English's weight will rise to 30% this year—100 points will count as 30." Last year it was 10.

Wei Hong: "That's even better for me—I already score high in English."

Teacher Zang paused, then nodded: "Actually… you're right."

"Go home for now—I'll ask the teachers to grade your papers."

"Goodbye, Teacher Zang."

As soon as Wei Hong left, Teacher Zang went straight to the principal, asking him to organize the sophomore teachers to grade Wei Hong's papers. The entire school took this seriously—Wei Hong was the school's hope; they all waited for someone to get into Peking or Tsinghua so they could demand more resources from above.

Today, the person who came to pick up Wei Hong and the other students on the donkey cart wasn't Old Wei, but Uncle Fan—Qi Kexiu's father-in-law.

Uncle Fan grumbled: "Your dad's too busy with school matters to care about you anymore."

Since returning from Beijing, Wei Jiefang had taken up the honorary post of principal of the village school, spending days buying glass, repairing windows, replacing desks and chairs, and even planning to build a playground.

He said he got the idea from Peking University's playground—he planned to install three ping-pong tables and two sets of parallel bars.

Old Wei often repeated: "Our kids from Gouzitun must develop morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise!"

Just as Wei Hong was about to return to the village, Old Wei was giving a lecture at school—he'd caught several younger students sneaking out to play.

The current principal was too old—he could handle teaching but struggled with discipline; Old Wei now took on part of the vice-principal's duties, and even Qi Delong avoided him now.

Uncle Fan returned the donkey cart, then passed by the village school on his way home and saw Wei Jiefang still there.

"Aren't you going home for dinner yet, Jiefang?"

Wei Jiefang: "The students haven't eaten—how can I eat?"

Uncle Fan walked in and saw several fifth-grade students still studying after school.

Uncle Fan knew these kids and girls were studying for the prize money for the primary-to-middle-school transition exam.

Fifty yuan for first place—what a fortune! Last year's harvest was poor; many families didn't even have fifty yuan left by year's end. "Your little Hong is back," Uncle Fan said.

"Oh! Then I'll be off," Wei Jiefang gave the students a final reminder to go home if hungry, "Uncle, did you see? Our village students' spirit is completely different now!"

"What spirit?"

"Never mind—you wouldn't understand."

Uncle Fan snorted: "I understand perfectly—it's all about the money. That's why only fifth-graders work so hard; the younger ones are still the same."

Because Wei Ming's prize money was only promised for this year's primary-to-middle-school transition; other grades had promises of trips to big cities, but those didn't match the power of real cash, so their motivation wasn't as strong as the fifth-graders'.

Old Wei blurted: "Who says only graduating classes get scholarships? There'll be more next year, the year after, every year!"

"Really?"

Obsessed with his "principal" title, Old Wei nodded: "Absolutely!"

Even if his son ran out of money, he still had his father.

"Oh!" Uncle Fan slapped his thigh, "I'll go tell Qi Delong—if he doesn't study hard, I'll beat his ass!"

!

Uncle Fan had only one daughter, Fan Chunhua, no grandsons, so he poured all his hopes into his grandson.

Before leaving, Uncle Fan suddenly said to Wei Jiefang: "Jiefang, I dreamed about your father yesterday."

Wei Jiefang's heart lurched: "What did he say?"

Uncle Fan: "He said he's doing fine over there."

Wei Jiefang's heart pounded—he couldn't keep this uncle around!

Uncle Fan: "He also said the Wei family's fortunes are improving, but no one carries on the Fan family name. He feels guilty to your mother and your elder uncle. What do you think—should I ask Chunhua to have another child with the Fan surname?"

So that's what he meant. Wei Jiefang smiled: "I can't decide—this is up to Kexiu."

Uncle Fan: "I'll tell Chunhua first—get her pregnant, then tell Kexiu."

When Wei Jiefang got home, his mother-in-law was sewing, and Wei Hong was chatting with her cousin Yunyun about school—they'd planned to go see a movie in the neighboring village tomorrow.

Wei Jiefang joined in: "I'll take you both tomorrow—Mother, and Shufen too."

Xu Shufen asked: "What movie is it?"

"It's called 'The Prisoner with Handcuffs,'" Wei Jiefang said. "Old Ga from the next village has been promoting it—there's even our own Ge Cunzhuang in the cast."

Both Lan Tian and Ge Cunzhuang were local performing artists, but right now, Old Lan's reputation as a theater actor couldn't match Old Ge's fame as one of the "Four Evils."

He played traitors in "The Plain Guerrillas," landlords in "The Red Flag," Japanese officers in "Little Soldier Zhang Ga," and security commanders in "Little Flower"—all famous films, yet not one positive role among them; this new film probably won't be any different.

Wei Jiefang turned on the radio and told his wife: "I haven't seen the movie, but yesterday I heard the song 'Camel Bell' on the radio—it's from this film."

Xu Shufen: "That one—silent tears, the sound of camel bells in your ears?"

"Yes."

"That song really is lovely," Xu Shufen tidied the table, "Alright, let's eat."

Old Wei was about to turn off the radio when he heard something.

"Wait!" Old Wei turned up the volume, excited: "Is this 'The Herdsman'?"

Wei Hong: "Yes, it's 'The Herdsman'—this is a radio drama, right?"

Wei Jiefang laughed: "Exactly! Hey, they've already made a radio drama—your brother's going to make a fortune again."

What fortune? The Central Radio Station had bought the rights to adapt "The Herdsman" and "The Spring of the Sheep Herding Class" into radio dramas—for 100 yuan total.

Not just in this era, but even in 2025, audiobook rights remain the cheapest of all a novel's rights.

Wei Ming hadn't taken it seriously—he never expected it to be recorded so quickly.

He heard it on the train to Guangzhou—it was decent enough, and it expanded the IP's reach.

After two days and nights on the train, the three finally arrived at Guangzhou Station.

Next, Biaozi and Xiao Mei would head to Shenzhen to restock—the goods there were cheaper, being near Hong Kong.

Although the Guangzhou-Shenzhen line existed, train tickets from Guangzhou to Shenzhen were nearly impossible to get; but many small buses catered specifically to these traders and could get them there.

After parting with them, Wei Ming took a taxi to Pacific Audio-Visual Company.

These were the modern taxis you could hail on the street—just established last year as a joint venture with Hong Kong investors; Wei Ming marveled—if Beijing had these, why would he have bought a motorcycle himself?

No protection from winter wind, no shelter from summer rain, and always fearing theft or accidents.

In just ten minutes, paying one yuan and fifty fen, Wei Ming arrived—perfect!

(End of Chapter)