Chapter 72

Even if these newspapers didn't directly report on him, "Wei Ming," the person, this heaven-sent traffic, even if he only touched a little, even if he rubbed against a thread, was unimaginable wealth.

There was another point that could be verified, which was that Wei Ming heard "The Spring River Water Warms the Duck First" more than once when listening to passengers "discussing politics" in the train carriage.

He also heard the sentence "Brave people enjoy the world first" from the mouths of several young people who looked quite enterprising.

And when Wei Ming was reading the newspaper, he also saw the old man's National Day speech, which said: Economic work is the greatest politics at present, and the economic issue is the political issue that overrides everything.

This sentence also used bold and enlarged fonts.

Just as Uncle Pingan said, he really stepped on the wind of the era and rose with the wind.

He ate lunch on the train, arrived at Yanjing Station in the afternoon, and it was almost dark when he arrived at Peking University.

Wei Ming's luggage was much lighter than when he left, only bringing a few bottles of hometown white liquor, as well as some local specialties his parents asked him to bring to Uncle Pingan.

The car stopped at the South Gate. Wei Ming looked at the familiar signboard. He had only been gone for three days, and he actually missed it.

"Oh my, Wei Ming is back!"

A gatekeeper senior made a surprised sound, which summoned everyone in the dormitory downstairs.

"Brother Ming, I'll help you with your luggage!" Zhao Debiao was still as positive and upward as ever.

"I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, I'll continue telling you 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' tonight."

Zhao Debiao: "Brother Ming, don't you think martial arts stories and good wine are a better match?"

Wei Ming laughed: "Hengzhou white liquor, I remember, I remember."

After saying this, Wei Ming was about to tidy up the bed, but saw that the bed was covered with things.

"This is... letters?" Wei Ming was a bit puzzled.

Biaozi said: "That's right, they're all yours. I estimate there will be more later."

"How, how come there are so many!?"

Biaozi said: "Don't move yet, I've sorted them out for you."

He sat on Mei Wenhua's bed and pointed out to Wei Ming: "The smallest pile, they all say 'So-and-so Editorial Department.' This middle pile, naming names, is for the author of 'The Spring River Water Warms the Duck First,' Wei Ming. This biggest pile is for the author of 'Ideal,' Wei Ming."

"And another pile?"

"Oh, it didn't say which Wei Ming it was for, so I put them together."

"How many letters are there in total?"

"326 letters, I estimate they weigh about ten jin," Biaozi reported casually, showing he was very responsible.

What Wei Ming didn't know was that after the serialization of "The Spring River Water Warms the Duck First" ended, "Wen Hui Bao" published relevant commentary articles on the novel, mentioning in the article that the author Wei Ming was a staff member at Peking University.

And "China Youth Daily" also mentioned this situation when reprinting.

In addition, "Poetry Journal," which reprinted "Ideal" a few days ago, also briefly introduced Wei Ming's situation, mentioning that he was a young poet of only 18 years old and currently working at Peking University.

Looking at the three hundred-plus letters covering the whole bed, Wei Ming asked a soul-searching question: Where the hell do I put these!

The dormitory did have a personal cupboard, but it was already very crowded, and the space under each bed was also full.

"Brother Ming, what are you thinking about?"

Wei Ming: "I'm thinking about whether I should buy a house to put the letters."

"Brother Ming, you're really humorous. It's not that serious."

It really wasn't that serious now, but it was hard to say in the future. Originally, he only received ten letters for a fairy tale, so he really hadn't thought about this problem. He even thought he wasn't as charming as Old Zheng.

Seeing it today, it turned out that the ones he attracted were all adults.

"Brother Ming, do you want to open the letters now? I'm quite curious, what are these reader-writers writing to you?"

Wei Ming nodded and started with the smallest pile.

Just after opening a letter from a provincial literary journal, it turned out to be a request for a manuscript. Wei Ming put it aside and opened another one—another request for a manuscript. At this time, Qiao Feng returned, holding another handful of letters. "You're back, Xiao Ming. Here, brought by the brothers from the West Gate and East Gate after work, 35 letters in total." That made 361 letters in total.

Biaozi took them, "I'll sort them!"

"Guangzhou 'Works' Editorial Department, put it here. For Spring River... put it here. For Ideal... put it here..."

Soon the letters were sorted, Wei Ming continued to open the letters, and then he exploded with gold coins.

Haha, a royalty slip for a reprint!

I heard that some phenomenal novels that explode can get hundreds of reprints. How much royalty would that be!

And because "The Spring River Water Warms the Duck First" complied with the era and policy, it had been touted as a phenomenal work, with popularity not inferior to the pioneering work of reform literature, "Factory Director Qiao Takes Office."

Wei Ming had finished reading these dozens of letters from editorial departments, basically divided into three categories.

The first category was requests for manuscripts, which were also the most numerous, basically from local newspapers and journals in various provinces and cities. It seemed that the big names like "People's Literature," "Contemporary," "Flower City," and "October" hadn't made a move yet.

The highest-profile letter was from the mountain city journal "Red Rock," which had just resumed publication last month. The resumption issue had shaken the literary world with "Xu Mao and His Daughters."

The second category was royalty slips for reprints. There were about 11 of them, so Wei Ming earned another 200-plus yuan in royalties!

He really didn't expect that the one that made money the most fiercely was the short story "Duck First" that he wrote casually!

The third category was media represented by "China Youth Daily" that wanted to interview him about his personal deeds. Wei Ming wanted to discuss this with Uncle Pingan tomorrow.

!

Just finishing the smallest pile of editorial letters had already taken more than an hour, plus sitting on the train for a day, Wei Ming was a bit tired, and even his dinner was brought back by Biaozi.

It happened that Mei Wenhua came back from work, and he had long been eyeing these reader letters of Wei Ming.

"Why don't I help you open them and read them?"

So Wei Ming let him open the second pile, those written to the author of "Duck First," Wei Ming.

"Respected Teacher Wei Ming, have you eaten..."

When the editor introduced Wei Ming, he only said he worked at Peking University. People thought he was a teacher.

This was a confused young man who had no job. He heard that Guangzhou was developing very fast now and wanted to go and see if there were any opportunities, but his family felt it was too far, and there were no savory crepe sellers, so they firmly disagreed. So he wanted to ask Teacher Wei Ming if he should be brave for once.

Mei Wenhua asked: "Do you want to reply?"

"If I have to reply to every letter, I won't have to do anything for the next few months," Wei Ming said, "Not considering it for now."

He still had to earn enough money to take his whole family to Sichuan-Chongqing to find relatives. Since he was looking for relatives, shouldn't he also buy a camera? So the urgent task was creation.

And the cost of replying to a letter was ten cents. So many letters were also a not-small expense.

Mei Wenhua changed to the next letter, muttering: "If it were my readers, I would definitely reply to every one."

Biaozi: "That's because you don't have any, so you can say that."

Mei Wenhua didn't talk back, looking at them one by one. Most of them regarded Wei Ming as a life mentor, hoping he would help their confused selves decide whether to be brave for once. Actually, it was just finding someone to push themselves.

But Wei Ming really didn't dare to be this pusher. Going south in this era also had certain risks, and many people disappeared later.

There were also a few who purely liked the novel "Duck First" and discussed literature, although this novel wasn't the kind of profound literary work of the time, the writing style was quite unique.

Mei Wenhua was opening letters, and Wei Ming had also recovered, so he casually picked up a letter written to the author of "Ideal," Wei Ming.

As a result, as soon as the envelope was opened, a photo fell out, and in the photo was a beautiful girl.

Wei Ming quickly finished reading this letter. This, this was actually a dating letter!

The girl first expressed her worship for Wei Ming's talent, and then talked about her situation, including her family situation and age. As for her appearance, it was in the photo, and she definitely wasn't ugly.

Although Wei Ming wouldn't reply to her either, his interest in this pile of letters increased greatly.

When he opened the third letter, besides the photo, Wei Ming also found a local grain coupon inside.

And a five-yuan banknote!

(A preview, it will be on the shelves next Tuesday. I'll explode a big one then, everyone hold on for a bit~)

(End of chapter)