Chapter 416

Before going to Jiangsu, Wei Ming also met a Yangzhou native at the People's Literature Publishing House.

Of course, given the actual situation in Jiangsu, he only acknowledged himself as a Gaoyou native.

Wang Cengqi was over sixty, a student of Shen Congwen, and had participated in writing the screenplay for *Shajiabang*. He had previously been treated unfairly, but later started creating again, writing the sensational *The Ordination*. Wei Ming had met this gentleman at some writers' association events, but unfortunately, he never had the chance to take a photo or talk in detail.

Seeing him today, Wei Ming took the initiative: "Old Wang, I'm going to Yangzhou on a business trip this time. Would you like me to bring you some salted duck eggs from Gaoyou?"

"Oh!" Wang Cengqi was indeed energized, pulling Wei Ming to sit down, "You're going to Yangzhou for a field trip? Then I must tell you about what's good to eat."

Wei Ming immediately adopted a listening posture. There were many writers in the literary world who loved gourmet food, but not many for whom gourmet food became a label. Lu Wenfu was one, and Wang Cengqi was another.

Last year, he had also made the salted duck eggs from his hometown of Gaoyou popular.

Of course, Wei Ming was quite famous in this regard. He had written dozens of essays about gourmet food, covering all major cuisines and involving both domestic and foreign food. Even the two seniors, Wang Cengqi and Lu Wenfu, couldn't keep up with him—who told him to be rich?

Although Old Wang wasn't as rich as Wei Ming, he had quite an imagination for gourmet food, liked to ponder, and often developed his own delicacies. He was a free-spirited old man who loved life.

"Meeting you is also my luck. Usually, friends from my hometown of Gaoyou come to Kyoto and bring me some salted duck eggs, but unfortunately, the last time a friend came to the capital was during the Spring Festival, and the salted duck eggs have long been eaten. When you return from Yangzhou, come to my home. You gift me duck eggs, and I'll treat you to a meal."

"Haha, it's a deal then. Perhaps I'll even harvest a small essay." Wei Ming made an agreement with him.

Wang Cengqi was about to leave. Wei Ming had just arrived, and he asked: "Are you here to revise a manuscript?"

Wei Ming: "Old Lady Wei Wei Junyi is looking for me."

"Oh, I just saw her. Then you should hurry."

In the office of the president of the People's Literature Publishing House, Wei Ming sat opposite the old lady.

"Little Wei, I'm looking for you today to talk about publishing an essay collection for you."

The People's Literature Publishing House had had this idea for a long time. Wei Ming's strength was beyond doubt, but his traffic was even higher than his strength. Every one of his novels was either independent or collected into a book, but he hadn't published an essay collection yet. There was a huge market for this, especially the overseas market.

Wei Ming had also heard about this and wasn't surprised: "Then I'll pick and choose later. Many of my essays are actually of average quality and aren't worth publishing."

This wasn't modesty. Many times, Wei Ming wrote essays as a diary, fearing that he would forget the origin, method, and taste of a certain delicacy in the future, so he wrote them down and casually submitted them to magazines, which also counted as maintaining relationships.

Generally, higher-quality articles were given to the four major magazines and major publications like *People's Literature* and *Yan Jing Literature*, while average-quality ones were submitted to local magazines like *Shanghai Literature*, *Zhong Shan*, *Sprouts*, and *Yanhe*, or local publications in Hebei.

"Don't be in a hurry. We're thinking of publishing an essay collection for you with gourmet food as the theme, and focusing on promoting it during the Frankfurt Book Fair this year," Old Lady Wei Wei Junyi said.

Last year, Chinese books had an eye-catching performance at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and they also learned about the needs of the overseas market. They had a great interest in Chinese gourmet food, and it just so happened that Wei Ming was proficient in this field.

"Gourmet food, that's fine too. I'll pick and choose later and list them out after I return from Yangzhou."

Wei Wei Junyi: "And then ponder a book title."

After leaving the publishing house, Wei Ming returned to Nanluoguxiang. It wasn't Sunday today, but both Gong Xue and Zhu Lin were there.

Thinking that they had only been reunited for half a month and were about to be separated from their boyfriend again, how should they put it—they felt relieved, and it also gave them a break.

The two of them were like mothers, urging Wei Ming to take care of himself while away, not to drink raw water, and not to kick off the quilt when sleeping at night. After all, they were still reluctant to part.

That night, Wei Ming held the two sisters and talked for a long time, and also made love for a long time.

Early the next morning, Wei Ming and Seeing Biaozi arrived at the Yan Jing Railway Station to meet with the members of the *Journey to the West* crew. Once the two of them left, the cat and dog would have to rely on Xiao Mei.

Actually, Wei Ming hadn't taken a long-distance train for a long time, and he was even looking forward to it a little bit.

Traveling by train alone was boring, but a group of people was quite interesting, especially such a group of talented people. At the very least, they wouldn't be lonely on the road.

The tickets were bought uniformly, and everyone was in the same carriage. Wei Ming saw Chi Ruirui and Yan Huaili for the first time.

Chi Ruirui had collaborated with Gong Xue on *The Painting*, while Yan Huaili was Zhu Lin's colleague at the People's Art Theatre, though certainly not a trump card of the theatre.

The pillar actors of the People's Art Theatre certainly couldn't be lent to a TV series that might take several years to film; it would be too much of a delay.

Chi Ruirui agreeing to play this role meant that he almost had no hope of performing on stage within the next year.

Although the Six-Year-Old Child would be a household name superstar in the future, the most famous person among this group at the moment had to be Comrade Zhao Zhao Debiao. Several sharp-eyed people in the carriage recognized him as the big villain Tie Biao in *Heroes Out of Youth*.

In this day and age, audiences would really bring their hatred for villains into reality and even commit some extreme acts, but after seeing Seeing Biaozi's physique, they easily distinguished the characters in the play from the actors.

Some busybodies even expressed their affirmation to Seeing Biaozi: "If you were to play the big villain in *Shaolin Temple*, Jet Li would definitely be beaten to death."

Seeing Biaozi was first proud, then sad. Now people already knew that Little Li was called Jet Li, but just now, everyone else was still calling him by his movie name, "Tie Biao."

Sigh, Little Li is too popular!

Another Little Li, Li Li Chengru, served as the production manager in the crew, responsible for all matters of the crew. Director Yang promised to let him play a role when the time came.

He was also the one who could talk the most, chatting non-stop along the way, making the whole carriage know they were the *Journey to the West* crew. Then, passengers in the carriage asked one after another who was Sun Sun Wukong and who was Tang Xuanzang.

Li Li Chengru laughed: "Everyone might as well guess."

The Six-Year-Old Child was afraid that others wouldn't guess that he was Sun Sun Wukong, so he secretly made a small scratching gesture.

"Him, it's him, right!"

Sun Sun Wukong was recognized, but there was a problem with Tang Seng. Chi Ruirui was wearing a hat and didn't reveal his bald head. Many people pointed at Wei Ming: "This is Tang Seng, right?"

Another middle-aged woman said firmly: "It must be him. With red lips and white teeth, no wonder the female demons all want to eat his meat."

Yang Jie looked at Wei Ming carefully. In terms of appearance, Wei Ming was indeed better than Chi Ruirui, but how could a great writer accompany them to act in a TV series? Being able to accompany them on this trip was already very rare.

Wei Ming waved his hand: "I'm not Tang Seng." But there were indeed many female demons who wanted to eat his piece of Tang Seng meat.

Moreover, the charm of Tang Seng in this version of *Journey to the West* seemed dull in front of Sun Sun Wukong. The Tang Seng that left the deepest impression on Wei Ming was still the version played by Jiang Hua in the TVB version of *Journey to the West*.

At noon, everyone went to the dining car to eat. After all, they were on official business, and part of the 3 million was for meal expenses.

Wei Ming had always been repulsed by train meals, but at such times, no matter how much good food he brought, it was useless. There were too many people, and eating alone was always bad.

So Wei Ming wronged himself a little and ate the same train meal as everyone else, only taking out the salted duck eggs he brought to share with everyone.

Hengzhou was also famous for salted duck eggs, but its fame was far inferior to Gaoyou's. But because Wang Cengqi had already written about Gaoyou's salted duck eggs, Wei Ming didn't want to repeat others' words and write about Hengzhou Lake's salted duck eggs.

Moreover, Hengzhou Lake was only one-tenth the size of Gaoyou Lake, and the duck egg production was naturally far inferior. Bringing salted duck eggs wasn't as good as bringing Hengzhou Hengzhou Lao Bai Gan.

Although Wei Ming thought the meal on the train was just so-so, others ate it very happily. There was meat and vegetables, which was much better than at home.

Seeing Biaozi was also rich and belonged to the type who ate big fish and meat at every meal at home. He felt a bit regretful eating the few shreds of meat in the dish and said to Wei Ming: "It would have been better to bring some canned meat."

Canned meat had to be bought at the Friendship Store. Wei Ming would exchange their foreign exchange certificates every month, so they had canned meat freedom.

Seeing Biaozi was regretting it, while Liang Liang Jiahui had already taken action, going to the Friendship Store to buy some canned luncheon meat.

It was really because the food in the Beijing Er Yingchang canteen was too bland, without oil or meat, making it hard to swallow.

Originally, these Hong Kong people could have had special meals, but Wei Ming had advanced experience in cooperating with Hong Kong teams. He told Factory Director Wang Yang and Director Li Li Hanxiang to let the Hong Kong staff eat and live with the Beijing Er Yingchang people, and directly exchange the meal standard for them into money. If they wanted to eat, they could solve it outside themselves, and not let the Beijing Er Yingchang employees see it.