Chapter 54

Tomorrow is October 1st, National Day. In the blink of an eye, Wei Ming has been reborn for a month. Time passes so fast!

On this day, all logistics staff of the entire school took action, making final preparations to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the motherland's birth.

Wei Ming occupied both height and flexibility, so he was mainly responsible for hanging the big red lanterns high.

After work, seeing there was still some time, Wei Ming didn't even change his clothes. Wearing his uniform, he ran to attend class with the 78-grade Chinese Department, learning modern and contemporary literature from Hong Zicheng.

The students in the classroom didn't mind this. Liu Zhenyun even enthusiastically greeted him to sit together and shared his own class notes.

Liu Zhenyun had already heard from the senior sisters that Wei Ming had been in the limelight in Professor Qu's classroom, and concluded that Wei Ming was knowledgeable and experienced.

So he pointed to the girls in front and brought up a question he had had for a year.

"Brother Wei, what are those girls doing? Are they ruminating?"

Wei Ming looked in the direction of his finger and saw several girls' mouths chewing and chewing, but he didn't see them swallowing, yet their cheeks were still using a lot of force.

Liu Zhenyun was puzzled. In his cognition, only animals like cows would have such living habits.

Wei Ming held back. He didn't laugh, and even told Liu Zhenyun: "They are eating candy."

"Shouldn't candy be held in the mouth?"

Wei Ming whispered: "This is a new type of candy called chewing gum. You chew and chew it in your mouth. Not only is it sweet, but it can also make your mouth fragrant. But there's one point: this kind of candy cannot be swallowed. When it loses its taste, you spit it out."

"Ah, there is such a magical candy in the world!" Liu Zhenyun's small eyes widened. He was also very grateful to Wei Ming for solving his confusion.

At the same time, he thought of an important question: if he could buy this rare item to give to Meizi, how good would that be!

Hmm, ask them where they bought it after class.

So after class, Liu Zhenyun and Wei Ming separated. When coming out of the teaching building, Wei Ming bumped into the editor of "Yanjing Literature and Art," Zhang Dening.

This big sister smiled and pulled Wei Ming aside. After waiting for no one to be around, her face changed immediately.

"Comrade Ma Xiaowei, it was agreed that our 'Yanjing Literature and Art' would be the platform for your first work to be published. How come you submitted to 'Wenhui Bao'!"

Hearing this, those who didn't know would think it was the "surrender" type of submission.

"Editor Zhang, what I said was the first publication medium. 'Wenhui Bao' is a newspaper, and I didn't say anything wrong."

Editor Zhang seemed to have expected this, taking out a copy of "Weiming Lake" that was still steaming from behind her.

"This is always a periodical, right? This poem 'Ideal' is always your work, right."

Wei Ming laughed again: "I didn't make it clear. What I said was that the first publication medium for my first novella would be your 'Yanjing Literature and Art'."

For the sake of caution, Wei Ming added some modifiers.

Editor Zhang was even more suspicious: "You wouldn't have submitted a short story to another periodical and published it before us, would you?"

"No, absolutely not. I haven't created much recently; I've been busy enriching myself."

Editor Zhang breathed a sigh of relief.

Wei Ming asked: "Did you come to Peking University just for this magazine? I could have sent it to you with one phone call."

"Stop saying nice things. You're very famous now; I wouldn't dare to order you around," Editor Zhang shook her head and added, "Actually, the main reason for coming this time is to send you the manuscript fee. This magazine is just a side matter."

"Ah, the manuscript fee came out so fast!"

Although Wei Ming already had a huge sum of over two hundred in his hands, he couldn't treat money as nothing. Editor Zhang could hear his sincere joy. Editor Zhang smiled: "After all, it's already finalized. And I heard from colleagues in Shanghai that 'Harvest' paid you the manuscript fee in advance. Our 'Yanjing Literature and Art' naturally can't fall behind."

Taking advantage of the fact that Wei Ming hadn't completely taken off yet, this was a good time for emotional investment. It was just a pity that Editor Zhang didn't ask how much "Harvest" gave, otherwise she would definitely have to deliberately beat them.

And precisely because she didn't know, Editor Zhang also tried her best to strive for a very considerable manuscript fee standard for Wei Ming.

She asked Wei Ming to sign on the form for receiving the manuscript fee, and Wei Ming also saw the specific number.

Two hundred and twenty-five yuan!

"Two Oxen" was 45,000 words, which meant "Yanjing Literature and Art" gave five yuan per thousand words, one yuan more than "Harvest"!

Plus the harvest in Shanghai before, Wei Ming now sat on a huge sum of over 400 yuan. I'm so rich!

With this little money, his whole family in the countryside would have to work for several years to earn it!

As for 400 yuan in cash, ever since Grandma stopped running the tofu workshop, the family probably hadn't seen so much money.

"Count it." Editor Zhang said.

!

Wei Ming shook his head: "No need. Touching the thickness, it's about the same as 'Harvest's'. There shouldn't be any problem, and I trust you."

Editor Zhang's heart skipped a beat. Touching the thickness, could it be that "Harvest" also gave five yuan per thousand words!

That couldn't be, right? At that time, "Ducks Know First" hadn't been published yet; he was purely a newcomer. Li Xiaolin was too wasteful!

However, the manuscript fee given by other magazines was a writer's privacy. Although Editor Zhang was curious, she didn't ask rashly. Maybe the word count of "Two Oxen" was high.

She actually had one more thing to say.

"Ma Xiaowei, your short story 'Spring River Water Warm, Ducks Know First' has had a good social response recently, and some newspapers have raised critical arguments. You don't have to take it too much to heart."

"Ah, I'm being criticized!" Wei Ming shuddered instinctively.

Editor Zhang was afraid he was young and hadn't experienced things, so she specifically reminded him when sending the manuscript fee, to avoid him being suddenly scared.

"Which article isn't criticized? If no one criticized, what would those students in the Chinese Department do after graduation? And although there is criticism, there is more praise."

Hearing there was also praise, Wei Ming breathed a sigh of relief and then focused on asking which newspapers were criticizing.

After Editor Zhang left, Wei Ming didn't even eat, first going to buy newspapers. He wanted to see how they were criticizing him.

Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory No. 2.

They didn't know about criticism or not. Liang Lu, the section chief of the sales department, only knew that the order calls from major shopping malls and pharmacies in Shanghai had been increasing in the past two days.

Director Chen of Wenhui Bao didn't deceive me. The effect of this novel was more useful than ten advertisements!

Looking at the inventory getting lower and lower, Wang Zhenxu, the director of the medicinal wine workshop, was happy but also a bit regretful.

He said to Section Chief Liang: "You gave them two bottles of wine, and I only gave one bottle of tiger bone wine. When he looks back, he'll nag that Old Wang is a stingy ghost."

Section Chief Liang laughed: "Writer Wei is in his prime; where would he need your tonic wine? Old Wang, you're worrying too much."

"I'm not afraid he's weak. I heard that those who write novels sit for a long time and are especially prone to being weak. Nine out of ten are weak."

Just as the two were talking, Section Chief Liang's phone rang again. He stood up directly while listening, his expression starting to fly.

"What's wrong, Section Chief Liang?"

After hanging up the phone, Liang Lu excitedly slapped the table: "Orders, orders from Beijing!"

(End of chapter)