Chapter 81

Wei Ming did not go through the campus; after tucking the magazine into his coat, he went out through the West Side Gate and followed the campus wall back to the South Gate.

Along the way, he could still see that newsstand, and the old man was just about to pack up his stall.

Wei Ming asked, "Master, do you still have *Yanjing Literature and Art* today?"

Although Mei Wenhua had bought ten copies, they were all already spoken for.

The old comrade said, "Today's are sold out too, but I've finished reading my own copy. If you don't mind it being second-hand, I'll sell it to you."

"That works."

Wei Ming paid and asked again, "Master, you've read it; which of these two novels do you like better?"

This master was also a man who loved to read, and he spoke freely, "That *Liberation* by Jiang Zilong—as soon as I saw the beginning, I thought, why is it that same old routine about a factory director taking office? Can't he write about something else?"

Immediately, he focused on *Er Niu*: "That novel written by Wei Ming is still the one worth reading. It made my tears flow. I'm also someone who lived through the War of Resistance; those devils were truly not human. Being able to survive was not easy at all!"

The old comrade did not analyze the ideological or literary quality, but intuitively expressed that he preferred *Er Niu* and felt panic and hatred toward that era.

"And quite a few students bought the magazine just for this novel," he added at the end.

Wei Ming nodded; it seemed his reputation had spread beyond his circle.

After returning to the dormitory, those brothers immediately surrounded him, curiously asking what good things he had eaten at the international students' place.

Wei Ming thought for a moment and took out a photo. It was taken with a Polaroid, so it developed on the spot. Wei Ming handed out a group photo of them gathered around the dining table.

Originally, he wanted them to see what he ate, but the result was that everyone's attention was on that fiery red mass next to Wei Ming—first, because the color was bright and eye-catching, and second, because she was truly beautiful.

"No way, Brother Ming, you hooked up with a foreign girl!" Seeing Biaozi shouted loudly.

Wei Ming: "What hooked up or didn't hook up? It's just taking a photo."

"Just taking a photo? Look at how close you are, you're practically stuck together, and she's even showing her arms!" Seeing Biaozi exclaimed with a fuss.

Wei Ming didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Besides, the reason they were close wasn't because of anything else, but because they were both tall. That foreign girl had to be around 1.75 meters; there were several boys who weren't even as tall as her.

Brother Feng's focus was on her hair: "How can it be so red? It couldn't be dyed, could it?"

"I asked; it's natural. She's from the north of England, where there are more red-haired people."

"Yo, yo, yo," Mei Wenhua made a strange sound, "You chatted quite deeply, didn't you? You even figured out where her hometown is, and you still say it's nothing!"

Wei Ming stopped refuting. That's how the male dormitory was; if they saw you walking close to a certain girl, it was impossible not to say some strange things. Let them be.

And soon, Seeing Biaozi shifted his attention from the person to the dining table.

Wei Ming introduced them one by one: what a birthday cake is, what Coca-Cola is, and what medium-rare steak is.

Seeing Biaozi had been completely shocked by the decadence of the bourgeoisie, while Mei Wenhua was still staring at the clothes of those foreign girls in the photo—so tight, revealing so much—it was too offensive to public decency!

Tsk tsk, if Sister Qingqing wore that outfit the red-haired foreign girl had on, it would definitely be super exciting!

Once in bed, Wei Ming hummed a line from the lyrics of "Country Roads, Take Me Home," "countryroadstakemehome……"

Foreigners would also feel homesick when gathered together, and later, several of them sang the song together.

"Brother Ming, what are you singing?"

"An English song, learned from the international students." Wei Ming raised his voice a bit and sang a few more lines.

"Can't understand it. What does this song mean?" Brother Feng asked.

Wei Ming: "This song mainly expresses the singer's homesickness."

Brother Feng nodded: "It does seem to have a little bit of sadness, huh."

Seeing Biaozi asked again: "Are there any other songs?"

"The only other thing is rock and roll, but I can't hit the high notes."

Mei Wenhua also joined the discussion: "I'm not used to listening to foreign songs, but I heard that foreign movies are very exciting. It's said that the male and female actors in them often perform kissing scenes."

Being an actor is that beautiful? Seeing Biaozi swallowed his saliva: "Where did you hear that from?"

Brother Feng: "Wenhua is from a high-ranking compound; he probably watched internal films."

Mei Wenhua: "That's not it. I saw it in a magazine."

Wei Ming knew that what he was talking about should be the May issue of *Popular Cinema* this year. The back cover was a still from the British film *The Slipper and the Rose*, with the prince and Cinderella embracing and kissing with eyes closed amidst lace dresses and bouquets.

This still caused huge controversy and discussion at the social level at the time. It was the first time the Chinese people saw such a scale in a magazine, and Mei Wenhua's impression of many kissing scenes in foreign films came from here.

"The international students did talk about some movies. I heard that the hottest movie abroad this year is called *Alien*." Li Aiguo, Li Kui, was an international student who had just arrived, so he had seen it and specifically told the other few people.

"What is an alien?"

"An alien is a type of extraterrestrial creature..." Then Wei Ming talked about how this extraterrestrial creature reproduces, which disgusted the few of them enough.

"What kind of taste do foreigners have!" Mei Wenhua was disgusted to the extreme. Wouldn't it be better to have more kissing scenes?

Wei Ming laughed until he couldn't close his mouth, but immediately after, he heard them ask, "What other movies are there?" "Tell us about the fresh foreign things you heard too."

It seemed that everyone was curious about the strange world outside. A major driving force for human progress is curiosity, right? Wei Ming talked about some things he saw at the dining table, then took out those few copies of *Time* magazine.

"How about you guys read them yourselves? I borrowed these foreign magazines from the international students. There are exactly four."

"Oh my!" It was already past ten o'clock, but the few of them were even more energetic and didn't want to sleep at all.

However, after getting them in their hands, they couldn't understand the text and could only look at the pictures, feeling very helpless.

"Brother Ming, this, is this the alien you were talking about?" Zhao Debiao pointed to a picture on a certain page and asked. He felt that this thing was too disgusting and once again despised the taste of foreigners.

Wei Ming took a glance: "Yes, yes, yes, this is it. It seems this movie is truly hot; even *Time* magazine has a report on it!"

Mei Wenhua sighed while looking at the novel photos in the magazine: "If only I could understand English. Brother Ming, why don't you take me with you when you go to class tomorrow!"

Mei Wenhua: I also want to learn a foreign language; he also wants to make progress!

Wei Ming: "Tomorrow I'm going to a History Department class. If you want to listen to an English class, I can tell you where to go. I have the course schedule here."

Hearing that Wei Ming wasn't going, Mei Wenhua immediately shook his head: "Forget it then."

He didn't have the guts to go alone, and his foundation was almost zero; even if he went, he wouldn't understand.

Wei Ming remembered one thing: "By the way, if you want to learn a foreign language, there's another place. The small garden in front of the Russian Language Building turns into an English Corner every Saturday night. International students, Foreign Language Department students, and those who want to learn a foreign language all go to that area to communicate and study."

!

Not in the classroom, Mei Wenhua was somewhat interested, but still wanted to drag Wei Ming along.

"My level doesn't need to communicate with them anymore; it's enough." After Wei Ming finished speaking, he started reading the magazine.

Then Mei Wenhua and Zhao Debiao started whispering to each other, seemingly somewhat moved.

Over the next few days, besides going to work, Wei Ming focused on the remaining half of *The Legend of the Heavenly Book*, occasionally going to audit classes.

Once, while attending an English class at the Russian Language Building, he even met a few international students he had seen at the birthday party, but he didn't see that fiery red mass.

During this period, under his guidance, Liu Zhenyun wrote a 2,000-word review article on *Er Niu*. Wei Ming suggested playing it safe; high-end games like *Literary Review* and *Literary Gazette* should be avoided if possible.

In the end, Liu Zhenyun analyzed it comprehensively and picked a magazine with a lower profile but a literary review section, *Shanxi Literature*.

Thus, a Hebei person wrote a Shandong story, which was reviewed by a Henan person and submitted to a Shanxi magazine.

Liu Zhenyun's choice not to go for high difficulty was correct, because the next day he saw the review article on *Er Niu* by the old master Sun Li in *Literary Gazette*, and this article was classified by him into his own *Notes on Reading Works* series.

After his comeback, Sun Li's energy was insufficient, so he rarely wrote novels; he mostly wrote essays and then wrote about his reading impressions, which could be considered as mentoring the younger generation.

In his *Notes on Reading Works* series of articles, one can see evaluations and affirmations of the backbone of the literary scene such as Liu Shaotang, Liu Xinwu, Lin Jinlan, and Zong Pu.

However, they were all writers over 40, while Wei Ming was only 18!

After reading the article, at noon, Liu Zhenyun excitedly ran to the faculty cafeteria to find Wei Ming to report the good news.

Then he saw Wei Ming dealing with a lunchbox of braised pork.

Liu Zhenyun wiped his mouth: "What day is it today? Why are you eating so well?"

Wei Ming: "I eat like this every day."

Liu Zhenyun was shocked: "You don't have meat at every meal, do you!?"

Wei Ming nodded. He felt that he still wasn't strong enough. Right now, he could only steadily suppress Mei Wenhua in the dormitory; he was still a bit behind Seeing Biaozi and Brother Feng.

Liu Zhenyun's Dao heart was shattered, and then he handed over the newspaper he had scrounged from his roommate: "Look, Master Sun wrote it so well!"

Wei Ming took a glance and saw the author was Sun Li, and the title was *Looking at Niu Er Through*. Wei Ming immediately wiped his hands on his clothes and took it over.

Master Sun analyzed this article from the typicality of the characters, highly praising Wei Ming's character shaping ability, and later wrote some of his own insights and feelings when portraying characters, all of which were solid content.

After reading it, Wei Ming said to Liu Zhenyun: "You still need to practice."

Liu Zhenyun nodded and was about to say more when he saw a woman looking around at the cafeteria entrance.

He poked Wei Ming: "Senior Sister Zhang Dening is here. You guys talk."

As soon as Liu Zhenyun left, Wei Ming knew the situation was wrong.

Sure enough, as soon as Zhang Dening came up, she said mournfully: "I heard you gave your new work to *Contemporary*~ Sigh, *Contemporary* is indeed on a roll now; they are the rising sun, while we at *Yanjing Literature and Art* are like the setting sun."

Who is it? Their mouth is too loose; it just slipped out like that.

Zhang Dening was the first editor to take the initiative to come to him, and she was generous with the manuscript fee. Wei Ming was very grateful to her and couldn't bear to see her disappointed, so he had a flash of inspiration: "No way, I've saved my new work for our *Yanjing Literature and Art*."

"Ah, then my information was wrong?" Zhang Dening was a bit embarrassed.

"I promised a novel I haven't started writing yet to *Contemporary*," Wei Ming admitted first, then immediately said, "But my other new work is reserved for *Yanjing Literature and Art*."

"Ah, is it finished writing?"

"Finished. I'll get it for you when I go back to the dormitory in a while."

"What is it written about? A short story or a novella?"

Wei Ming: "A poem."

……

(End of chapter)