Chapter 234

"Because I caught them with Xizi before, I know a place where there are a lot of cicada monkeys." Wei Ming's brain turned quickly, and he fooled her quickly. Zhu Lin didn't doubt it.

Wei Ming breathed a sigh of relief. In the future, he must ban words like "again" and "also" in his life, and try to make sure that whatever Sister Xue has, Sister Lin also has, to save himself from being confused.

Straddling two boats is too difficult. I don't know if three would be easier.

It was still that small woods, but it was already August, and there weren't that many cicada monkeys. Many had already finished molting and flown away days ago. There were quite a few cicada molts on the tree trunks and under the trees.

However, Wei Ming's ambition wasn't in those few cicada monkeys. It was late at night, and there was no one around. Soon, Zhu Lin was pinned against a tree by Wei Ming, and the two leaned against the tree, hugging and kissing.

Maybe this tree was under relatively great pressure, and suddenly something fell from the tree and landed on Zhu Lin's head.

"Ah!" She was startled.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid," Wei Ming picked the thing off her head. "Congratulations, we're open for business!"

It was an unlucky cicada monkey. It was lying on the tree properly, but the two of them bumped into the big tree and shook it down.

However, in the end, they only caught twenty or so. First, the quantity had decreased, but the more important reason was that most of the time was spent kissing.

Zhu Lin wouldn't let him do anything more excessive. After all, this was outdoors, and her thinking wasn't that avant-garde yet, although she also wanted to.

This made Wei Ming even more eager to buy another house.

In addition, they also talked about the casting of "Regret for the Past." Learning that Da Shichang was playing the male lead, Wei Ming felt it was very suitable. Moreover, Teacher Da was a famously good husband, with excellent character and professional level, so Wei Ming wasn't worried about things like falling in love over time.

"Then are you still taking the amateur acting class at the Beijing Film Academy?" Wei Ming asked on the way to send Zhu Lin home.

The filming time seemed to conflict with this class.

"I consulted the suggestions of the director and Factory Manager Wang Yang. They both encouraged me to take advanced studies, which would be convenient for shaping more types of roles in the future. They also said they would leave time for me during the exams."

"That's good too. You can't always rely on playing yourself. There aren't that many educated young women left for you to play." Wei Ming smiled.

In this regard, Sister Xue was much more powerful. She looked like a little white flower, but she had already started challenging the role of a woman of the world. She was forcing difficulty on herself, and she had great ambition in acting.

However, they were both very excellent women. I really hope that one day the two of them can become good friends who wear the same pair of pants.

After Zhu Lin returned home, it was still early. Her parents hadn't slept yet and were still watching TV. Actually, they were also waiting for her.

Recently, her parents had looked at her with new eyes. Their daughter had actually become the female lead in the new film by the director of "The White-Haired Girl," and it was adapted from Mr. Lu Xun's work.

Even if they didn't really like their daughter being in the acting profession, being able to collaborate with such industry bigwigs and interpret master works made them feel honored, and it wasn't embarrassing at all to say it out.

Zhu Lin greeted them and was about to enter her room, but was stopped by her sharp-eyed father. He pointed at his daughter's hair and said: "What's that on your hair?"

"Is there something?"

Her mother walked over and picked a cicada skin off her daughter's short hair.

Zhu Lin immediately thought it must have been hung on when she and Little Wei were kissing against the tree trunk.

"It must have fallen from the tree when I was walking." Zhu Lin took it back and hurriedly entered the room. Feeling it was very exciting, she even placed it on the desktop as an ornament.

And her parents looked at each other, but a phrase popped into their minds: "drilling into the small woods"!

Wei Ming also had his mom waiting for him to come home. Seeing that he had actually gone to catch cicada monkeys, Xu Shufen didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"You're already a big writer and still so naughty."

"Mom, help me stir-fry them to eat. Grandma and the others haven't slept yet, right? Let's eat together."

With just these few, everyone tasted two bites and they were gone. However, Little Hong said this was the most delicious cicada monkey she had ever eaten.

Xu Shufen thought to herself, of course, because more oil was used this time. Now she was also willing to use oil. Although Wei Ming only had an oil ration for one person, he could buy extra tickets, which was enough for the whole family to use endlessly.

However, at this time, Xu Shufen suddenly thought of a problem. If she contracted the meals for the Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi staff, what would she do about the extra oil and meat usage? Would she have to exchange money with people too? How high would the cost be?

Xu Shufen, who didn't know the ins and outs of this, decided to take time to learn from Sister Liu of the Yuebin Restaurant.

For the next few days, Wei Ming continued to create. Sometimes he would go to the Peking University library to create, and at the same time, it was also to familiarize himself with the future work environment.

As for the work of accompanying his mother and grandmother, it was left to Little Hong.

Only on Sunday, because Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi was too busy, Little Hong wore casual clothes and ran over to reinforce them. Even Xu Shufen and her grandmother went over.

Xu Shufen could help maintain order. As for her grandmother, she found a place outside to sit on a small stool, staring intently at the people coming in and out to prevent anyone from stealing things.

This was the business of her grandson and grandson-in-law, and she watched it strictly.

No one could attend to Wei Ming this day, so he found Zhu Lin to eat lunch together, right at the Yuebin Restaurant they had been to before.

And Xu Shufen had also made that garlic elbow for him these past two days. Wei Ming compared them and could almost no longer taste the difference. His mom really had some talent.

The next day, Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi was finally not so busy. However, for the convenience of taking care of the business, Mei Wenhua still chose the Hongbin Building located in Xidan for both families to meet.

The Hongbin Building was known as the "Number One Halal Building in Yanjing," originating from Tianjin. It was invited to enter the capital by the Premier in 1955 and was one of the important venues for the country to entertain halal heads of state.

Wei Ming and the others first rushed to Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi, called Mei Wenhua and Yunyun, and walked to the Hongbin Building together.

On the way, Mei Wenhua deliberately walked behind with Wei Ming, unable to suppress his excitement as he told him the sales volume in the store yesterday.

"Brother Ming, it broke ten thousand! It broke ten thousand for the first time!"

Yesterday's sales volume was 11,080 yuan, selling hundreds of pieces of clothing. They had been constantly restocking, and the inventory was almost sold out.

And it was without any discounts. The profit was frighteningly high. Now Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi had entered a runaway mode.

Mei Wenhua said to Wei Ming: "Even if I'm sentenced tomorrow, as long as they don't confiscate the money I earned, I'll accept it!"

"It seems we still have to thank the China Youth Daily for taking the lead. But now someone should be imitating our model, right?" Wei Ming asked.

"Yes, recently many people who look like managers of state-owned clothing stores have come. They don't buy things, they just browse, just watch, and ask me about income. I also heard that several state-owned stores have ideas for reform models, but they have to hold meetings to discuss, report to leaders, and then dismantle the counters that block customers and clothes. This set of procedures will take at least a month or two to finish." Mei Wenhua analyzed.

The inefficiency of state-owned units was well-known. If it were an individual store, it could be changed as soon as it was decided.

However, there weren't many individual clothing stores in Yanjing now. Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi was considered the first batch and also the largest one.

And even if they wanted to imitate, unless they found a location with equivalent area in Wang Fujing, don't even think about replicating the popularity of Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi without sufficient customer traffic.

Mei Wenhua's first choice was actually Wang Fujing, but there were no suitable stores for rent there, so he decided on Xidan.

They also had a moat, which was the "Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi" signboard. Served by so many media outlets, these five characters had extremely high popularity in the capital and even the whole country, forming a brand effect.

"I now just hope the business license can be issued to us as soon as possible, at least to be more legitimate," Mei Wenhua said. "Otherwise, I'm always worried that I'll be banned when I wake up."

Wei Ming thought it shouldn't be that fast. Wenzhou's Zhang Huamei was known as the first individual business license after the reform and opening up. She applied for a year and it was only issued at the end of this year.

While talking, they arrived at the Hongbin Building. There were many inscriptions by celebrities in the store, and naturally, Guo Moruo was among them. Wei Ming had eaten at many old Yanjing restaurants, and there weren't many without Guo Moruo's inscriptions.

A few days ago, Mei Wenhua had already booked a private room. They were all neighbors, and Manager Mei's words were effective.

Not waiting long, Mei Wenhua's parents and eldest brother and sister-in-law also arrived.

Now it was five people from the man's side and five from the woman's side, ten people in total. Mei Wenhua arranged twelve dishes, fully displaying the local tycoon style.

Mei Wenhua's father, Mei Heping, and eldest brother, Mei Shengli, were both silent and reticent. They let Mei Wenhua introduce them. Hearing their names, Wei Ming knew their family's naming style followed the roots.

At this moment, he strengthened a belief: Yunyun's children must be named by him.

As for Mei Wenhua's mother and sister-in-law, their personalities were very active, and it could be seen that both were relatively strong-willed career women. Usually, the two should have some conflicts, but today they both held back and didn't explode.

They were considered small leaders in their respective units, and Mei Wenhua's sister-in-law's background was even more noble. Her father was a general, while Mei Heping was only a major. So this sister-in-law was inevitably strong-willed, making the mother-in-law, who previously had a great sense of superiority, very uncomfortable.

However, Uncle Mei was in charge of logistics in the military. After the military relaxes business restrictions in the future, this kind of person would become a hot commodity. Of course, it would also be easy to be corrupted.

Mei Wenhua was very glad that he didn't usually brag about Wei Ming in front of his family, and rarely mentioned his unit's affairs. So when he introduced Yunyun's cousin as the writer Wei Ming, the effect was very significant.

The silent father and eldest brother were clearly stunned, neither expecting that a country girl who popped out of the southwest mountains would have such a powerful background.

And the sister-in-law, Han Chun Chun, had an even more exaggerated reaction, her eyes shining.

"Comrade Wei Ming, I am your fan. I especially like 'Spring in the Sheep-Herding Class.' I heard 'The Herdsman' and 'Er Niu' have been made into movies. When will this one be filmed?"

Seeing the sister-in-law's reaction, Mei Wenhua was relieved. Under the table, he gently held Yunyun's hand. With this layer of relationship, he shouldn't be afraid of his sister-in-law bullying Yunyun.

Wei Ming also smiled and said: "Not yet. This is my proudest work, so I don't want to hand it over easily."

"Being cautious is right. I also don't want to see the works I like being messed up."

In order to chat with Wei Ming, Han Chun Chun even changed seats with her husband. Eldest brother Mei Shengli didn't say anything either.

Afterward, Mei Wenhua highlighted the 14-year-old Hebei college entrance examination science champion, making the Mei family once again make a new judgment on the strength of the in-laws.

Although they were only cousins, the Wei siblings were so outstanding, which showed that Yunyun wasn't bad either. The children she would give birth to for the Old Mei family in the future naturally wouldn't be bad. Mei Heping also rarely showed a satisfied smile.

At this time, the dishes were served one after another. Everyone chatted while eating. Braised tendon, braised oxtail, golden coin shrimp, and halal roast duck were all solid dishes. There was also the unique fish tofu, which could be called the store's signature. Making fish meat into the state of tofu was not only a novel method but also soft, tender, and smooth in taste, which was indescribably wonderful.

Wei Ming had been here to eat once before, but because there were only two people, the dishes ordered were limited. Today, he could be considered to have tasted all the famous dishes in the store.

Uncle Mei Heping knew that Yunyun was from Chuan-Yu, so he specifically brought two bottles of Wuliangye. Wei Ming didn't ride his motorcycle today, so he accompanied them to drink some, but the main force on their side was the grandmother.

Xu Shufen had said that when they were in Gouzitun before, it was always the grandmother and Old Wei having a small drink. The grandmother's drinking capacity was very high.

The grandmother's Mandarin wasn't good enough, and she didn't say much, so she could only express her respect for the in-laws in this way. And Mei Heping, who was in that position, also had a drinking capacity that couldn't be underestimated.

As a result, two bottles of wine weren't enough to drink. Mei Wenhua ordered two more bottles of Luzhou Laojiao, which was also a famous Chuan-Yu liquor.

In the midst of drinking, Mei Heping took the initiative to talk to her grandmother about the wedding date.

"How about we just get it done next year."

This attitude made Wei Ming's grandmother very happy, and she filled the wine again. But Mother Mei suddenly said: "Next year might not be very good."

Everyone was stunned. She added: "How about we just do it this year."

!

"Hiss!" Mei Wenhua was a bit excited. Can it be this year? Actually, he was also a bit impatient.

Mother Mei explained: "Have you seen the news? The Marriage Law is going to be reformulated. It's estimated that it will be officially launched next year. At that time, do you guess the legal marriage age will be advanced or postponed?"

The sister-in-law said directly: "It must be postponed. Now our unit is advocating late marriage and late childbearing."

And she was a typical example. She was twenty-five or twenty-six now and still didn't have children. This was also one of the conflicts between her and her mother-in-law.

The 1950 version of the Marriage Law stipulated that men should not be earlier than 20 years old, and women should not be earlier than 18 years old. This set of rules had been used for more than twenty years. However, in recent years, with the increase in population pressure, late marriage and late childbearing had begun to be advocated. Some radical places or units even forcibly required marriage after 25 years old.

So this revision of the "Marriage Law" would inevitably postpone the legal age. Mei Wenhua was 20, and Yunyun was 18. If they didn't get married this year, they might have to wait several more years when they reached next year.

So several parents discussed it, and it was decided: get married before the year ends!

The grandmother had no opinion either. In the hometown, they all met once through matchmaking. If they were sure, they could hold a banquet in a month or two. Yunyun and Little Mei had been friends for more than a month, and they were always together. If they didn't get married, she was afraid they would cause a "human life."

Only Wei Ming sighed inwardly. Little Mei is going to start a family? Is it this fast?

At the end of this meal, Wei Ming took a group photo for everyone, and also took one for Mei Wenhua and Yunyun. These photos had to be given to the uncle when returning to the Chuan-Yu hometown.

Little Mei actually wanted to return to his hometown to let his father-in-law see him in person, and at the same time, he wanted to experience what it felt like to be a big guy at 1.7 meters.

Unfortunately, Oriental Dongfang Dongfang Xintiandi was at a very critical moment, and conditions didn't allow him to leave for several days. He could only wait until they got married to go again.

And getting married required a house. He was basically living at his parents' house or his grandmother's house now, which wasn't convenient.

No, buy a house, I also have to buy a house!

Wei Ming originally thought about setting up a darkroom in the courtyard house. Having just received the dividend, he still had the confidence.

However, he still wanted to buy another house now, so this idea could only be shelved for the time being.

The photos taken at the Hongbin Building that day finally returned to the original unit's school journal office to complete the washing.

Afterward, thinking that Uncle Ping'an should be off work, he went to find him to ask about the plane tickets.

Uncle Ping'an not only opened a note for them but also directly let his subordinates buy the plane tickets for them, saving Wei Ming a lot of trouble. Of course, money couldn't be saved.

After knocking open Uncle Ping'an's house, Wei Ming first heard a burst of cicada chirping. This was naturally Xizi's doing. Not only did he eat cicada monkeys, but he also raised cicadas at home, making Aunt Xiaoyan furious.

Xizi also had words waiting for her: "Who told you not to let me raise a cat? I can only raise this."

However, seeing Wei Ming come, Xizi immediately put down his cicada pet and pestered him, asking: "Brother Ming, have you really seen a lion!"

"I've seen one in the zoo."

"What about a honey badger?"

"There isn't one in the zoo. I saw it in a book."

Although Xizi and Lele didn't know how to read much yet, Lü Xiaoyan would tell them stories. The one that had left a deep impression on them recently was "The Lion King."

Lü Xiaoyan also praised it endlessly. She didn't expect "Hamlet" could be adapted into a fairy tale, and it was so interesting. Especially the theory of natural circulation that the old king told Simba, she felt the realm was very high.

This novel also indeed drove the sales of "Youth Literature," which had increased by at least 30% compared to the previous issue.

Now "Youth Literature" was only serialized to one-third of the novel. At this time, Simba's father, King Mufasa, hadn't died yet. It was basically a panoramic display of the African animal kingdom, as well as the story of little Simba and his friends being naughty, just burying some foreshadowing.

The second part was the story of the father being killed, the mother being imprisoned, and the little prince going far away to prepare for revenge.

"Lele isn't home?"

Lü Xiaoyan served a fruit platter to Wei Ming: "Your uncle went to Teacher Gu's house to pick her up. Teacher Gu also asked recently why you haven't released any new songs."

"Actually, I wrote a few for Hong Kong recently, but they haven't been released yet. I'll give them to her to listen to after the tapes come out."

Wei Ming waited until Uncle Ping'an brought Lele back before taking the tickets and returning. There were three in total, and Little Hong stayed at home.

Then, not many days later, Wei Ming received a remittance slip from Amin in Hong Kong. "The Girl Who Slips Away" had achieved gold record status, selling 25,000 copies in the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions.

This was his lyricist and composer dividend, 3,000 Hong Kong dollars!

Not many days later, Amin's package also arrived. In the last reply, Wei Ming thanked her for the fashion magazine, saying it was very useful. This time she bought some more.

And this time it also included two boxes of the "Flower in the Water" album.

Having prepared for more than two months, Tan Tan Yonglin's first Mandarin album was finally officially released. It wasn't this name in the original timeline, but because these few songs by Wei Ming were too solid, especially "Flower in the Water," the album was named after this song. The other few main hits were also songs written by Wei Ming.

Tan Tan Yonglin valued this song "Flower in the Water" very much and even paid for two pieces of music, preparing to change "Flower in the Water" into a Cantonese version.

So Amin said to him on the tape: "Alan's manager found me and asked if you could change it into a Cantonese song for him. The time is still relatively generous."

Wei Ming planned to take this job. He directly replied with a letter, attached the Cantonese lyrics, and then had to go catch a plane.

Xu Shufen and her daughter were both excited and nervous, while Little Hong was only disappointed. She also wanted to take a plane!

But she also knew that a round trip was more than a hundred yuan, and a bicycle would be gone. This was too luxurious, so she didn't force it.

It was just that after seeing them off, Wei Hong didn't leave for a long time, until she saw a plane take off and fly over her head.

In order not to be bored on the plane, Wei Ming bought a few newspapers. Among them, the "Yanjing Evening News" mentioned the grand occasion of the second Star Art Exhibition being held.

This Star Art Exhibition finally officially entered the National Art Museum of China and was able to enter the hall, but this was also the last one.

In the "China Youth Daily," Wei Ming saw some news about the National Publishing Workers' Conference that had just been held recently.

Among them, there was a large section that Wei Ming read very carefully, which was about Qian Lao's view on science fiction novels. It could be said that it was a very direct disgust.

Wei Ming knew that the days of science fiction novels were going to be difficult, because this person's words had too much weight.

In fact, starting from last year, science popularization writers represented by Zhao Zhi, Lu Bing, Zhen Shuonan, and Tao Shilong began to use the "Science Popularization Discussion" column in the "China Youth Daily" as a position to systematically criticize the main science fiction authors and works at that time.

Because these people insisted on the theory of "artistic truth," the criticisms mostly revolved around whether the science fiction in the novels was established, such as "whether selfishness can be inherited," "whether dinosaurs can be resurrected," "whether clones have the psychological structure of the father," etc.

The theory of science popularization writers was: If you can't prove these are true, how can you write them? Isn't this misleading readers?

Wei Ming had also paid attention to it at the time. Science fiction writers and science popularization writers had a long-term debate. Because they were confined to the atmosphere of science popularization discourse, science fiction writers could only stay away from literature and refute the rationality of these fictions one by one. This would inevitably fall into a disadvantage.

Later, this debate developed into a debate about whether science fiction literature was surnamed "science" or "literature," that is, whether it was a literary genre or part of science popularization creation.

At that time, the authors engaged in science fiction creation on the front line almost all agreed that science fiction novels were a literary style. Wei Ming also had this view. If science fiction novels dare not fantasize, then what's the point of writing?

While science popularization critics, scientists, and relevant leaders judged science fiction novels as part of science popularization creation.

These people took this as a starting point, requiring science fiction novels to unfold more around scientific content, compressing the literary components such as plot, background description, and character portrayal, which in essence was denying the literary nature of science fiction novels.

Under this background, Ye Yonglie's "Black Shadow," Jin Tao's "Moonlight Island," and Wei Yahua's "Dream of the Gentle Land" were all heavily criticized.

Ye Yonglie, who participated in the editorial work of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" and wrote "Little Lingtong Wandering the World," was the one who turned to write character biographies at this time.

In the tide of literary revival in the 1980s, science fiction novels were only a very small category. This great debate was not important to the mainstream of the literary world. Perhaps the overall volume was not as loud as "Spring in the Sheep-Herding Class" published by Wei Ming at the beginning of the year.

However, Wei Ming felt melancholy after reading it. More than ten years later, when Hollywood opened the global market with one imaginative science fiction blockbuster after another, would the Chinese people regret that China didn't have world-class science fiction works?

And when we have world-class science fiction works 30 years later, would it be a bit too late?

At this time in Yangquan, Shanxi, a 17-year-old boy named Liu Cixin at Yangquan No. 1 Middle School was secretly reading a foreign science fiction novel called "2001: A Space Odyssey."

After reading this book, he felt that the starry sky in his eyes was completely different from the past...

(Yesterday's minimum two-in-one)

(End of chapter)