Chapter 30

Chen Rong didn't truly step into the literary world until she was 40, but she is most famous for her children.

She has two sons and one daughter.

The eldest son, Liang Zuo, is a famous screenwriter. The second son, Liang Tian, is a famous actor. The youngest daughter, Liang Huan, is a screenwriter and also the third wife of the famous director Ying Da.

When Wei Ming was standing guard, he had seen Liang Zuo and Ying Da. One was from the Class of '77 Chinese Department, and one was from the Class of '79 Psychology Department.

The key is that he was also very familiar with Song Dandan during his years at the People's Art Theatre, and he heard her scolding the couple Ying Da quite a lot~

"Disrespect, disrespect. I have read your *Evergreen*. Let me call you Teacher Chen." Because Chen Rong herself is also a middle school teacher.

"Don't, don't, don't, just call me big sister. I entered the industry late, and people say I am a young writer," Chen Rong smiled. She looked at Wei Ming curiously: "Then can I call you Little Wei?"

"Of course."

"Did you just arrive today?"

"Yes, how long have you been here?"

"A week, and I haven't finished revising it yet." She sighed, a little homesick.

"Then it seems I was optimistic. I even thought about getting it done within five days."

"Maybe it's because I'm a bit tangled. By the way, where are you from?"

"From Hebei, coming from Beijing."

"I am also from Beijing," Chen Rong felt close again and asked, "Are you a college student?"

"No, I guard the gate at the university."

"Really?"

"It seems that my personal temperament is indeed problematic. Everyone's first reaction is to doubt my identity." Wei Ming said helplessly.

Since he said so, Chen Rong had to choose to believe it and asked again: "Then which university do you work at?"

"Peking University."

"Peking University! My son is at Peking University!"

"Which department? Maybe I know him." Wei Ming asked knowingly.

"Chinese Department, Class of '77, named Liang Zuo. He is not tall, a bit chubby, wears glasses, smiles when he sees people, and has a very good temper," Chen Rong described her son and finally added, "He doesn't look very good."

Wei Ming smiled: "I have an impression. I should have seen him, but we are not familiar. I have only been on the job for more than half a month, and I am just a temporary worker."

"You are already going to publish a novel in *Harvest*. You don't need to worry about your future work. You definitely have a bright future."

"Haha, then I'll take your auspicious words, big sister."

Chen Rong had already finished eating. Afterwards, she exchanged room numbers with Wei Ming and agreed to speak up if they encountered difficulties. They both lived on the second floor.

After Wei Ming finished eating and went upstairs, he took a nap and didn't visit the *Harvest* editorial department for the second time until around four o'clock in the afternoon.

Li Xiaolin took out Wei Ming's original manuscript and the dozen or so revision suggestions she had listed. The first one was the title of the novel.

"*Donkey Five Donkey Six*, you are trying to satirize the educated youths for being pretentious, right."

"Yes, can't I satirize them?" He specifically changed the names of the two donkeys in the original version from Black Six and Black Seven to Black Five and Black Six.

In this day and age, educated youth literature mostly stands from the perspective of educated youths to express the miserable life of this group in the countryside. With so many such voices, Wei Ming wanted to write something different, to write about the educated youth life in the countryside of stealing chickens and dogs, which people hate.

Both of these lives exist and have extensive real cases. It's just that those who can write novels are basically returned educated youths. Their volume is loud enough, and what they write is naturally the pain of their own suffering, so it is rare to see this type of *Two Donkey Records* at the current stage.

Li Xiaolin took a fancy to this novel at a glance. One of the important reasons was that the angle was novel and different from the popular educated youth literature at the time.

However, she still didn't suggest scolding directly in the novel's name: "It's easy to expand the contradictions. After all, many young writers in the literary world now became famous because of traditional educated youth literature."

Wei Ming also humbly accepted this suggestion and changed it back to the original title *Two Donkey Records*. Then there was the sexual description in the novel, between donkey and donkey, man and woman.

Wei Ming might have been influenced by Northwest writers like Jia Pingwa and Chen Chuanshi, and the depiction of sex was relatively wild and primitive.

It might be better in a few years. Now that the reform and opening up has just started, Wei Ming is walking a bit fast, and ordinary people can't keep up with his pace, so he can only weaken it a bit. Several revision suggestions were because of that matter.

After arguing on grounds, the parts about men and women were deleted, and the parts about donkeys and donkeys were retained. These were his precious life experiences and also rural cold knowledge that city people would never come into contact with in their lives.

Have you ever seen the stuff that drags on the ground!

The subsequent conversation involved the more core things of *Two Donkey Records*: the oppression of individuals by the system, and the resistance of individuals to the system.

From this perspective, whether it is the educated youth Ma Jie or the donkey brothers Black Five and Black Six, they are all mules and horses and are worthy of sympathy. Instead, the greatest evil comes from Captain Da Lian.

This character is very symbolic. Wei Ming borrowed from Zhao Chunlai, the captain of Dog Village, when creating it, and he was more autocratic and domineering than the movie version.

Li Xiaolin hoped that Wei Ming would hide his intentions deeper and not reveal them so obviously.

Other revisions were minor problems. This was what Li Xiaolin wanted to say most. One cannot obliterate the author's thoughts, but one must also try to protect them and seek a method that satisfies both sides.

!

Wei Ming pondered: "Well, I'll think about it carefully when I go back."

After talking about the places that needed revision, Li Xiaolin started to praise again: "Your novel is very black humor, and the writing style is unique. It's said to be like Lao She's, but the style is closer to the masses than his. This kind of Beijing-style stinky poor text is very attractive. If it's not handled well, many people will imitate your style later."

For the praise, Wei Ming just smiled, as if he was still thinking about how to revise it.

"Don't rush. You should be in Shanghai for the first time. You can relax first. Maybe you can generate other creative inspiration."

"Let's do the work first, Editor Li. If I finish the revision quickly, can it be arranged for publication in the November issue?" Wei Ming asked.

"Why, are you in a hurry to use money?"

"This is one aspect. Another is that I don't have a representative work now, and I'm embarrassed to raise the price when facing invitations from other magazines. *Beijing Literature and Art* also accepted a medium-length novel of mine, and I don't know if it can be published next month. Sigh, it's really worrying."

"*Beijing Literature and Art* is a monthly magazine, and it is published at the beginning of the month. The publication time is definitely earlier than ours~"

Li Xiaolin added, and suddenly realized: "You mean, when *Two Donkey Records* is published, you will no longer be a newcomer, and the manuscript fee cannot be based on the newcomer standard, right."

Wei Ming smiled honestly: "I don't know much about this either. You can just give whatever you think is appropriate."

Li Xiaolin laughed. From the first time she saw Wei Ming accept the two-yuan bet without any courtesy, she knew that this kid was not the kind of person who regarded money as dirt.

Wei Ming thought to himself: If I had endless money, I would definitely regard money as dirt.

When sending Wei Ming downstairs, Li Xiaolin said: "I will argue with the editor-in-chief and give you a price worthy of this manuscript."

"And try to publish it as early as possible."

"Know, know, hurry back and revise the manuscript." Li Xiaolin didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Returning to the guesthouse, Wei Ming immediately spread out the paper and started writing.

Two hours later, someone knocked on the door.

Opening the door and seeing it was Professor Qu, she came to get her luggage.

"You finally came back. This is the key, next door 205."

Seeing that Wei Ming's desk was already set up, Professor Qu asked: "Started revising the manuscript already?"

"No, I wrote a little story," Wei Ming said, "It's about two thousand words. I'll ask you to help me submit it to *Storytelling* later, to see how many yuan it can be exchanged for~"

(End of chapter)