Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 86: One manuscript, two payments
On the third day after Zhang Dening came, Tao Yushu received the royalties for her review being included in the publication, still at the standard rate of 6 yuan per thousand words, a total of 18 yuan.

There is nothing more joyful than writing an article and making money twice.

That evening, Tao Yushu finished his studies and then sorted out the family's small treasury.

Since the beginning of this year, the family’s income, apart from Lin Chaoyang’s salary and her student allowance, basically comes from the royalties from the two of them.

Among them, she received 51 yuan in royalties for reprinting "The Shepherd" in "Xinhua Monthly", and another 36 yuan for publishing her comments twice. The biggest income was the publication of "Little Shoes", which brought the family an income of 408 yuan.

The couple earned 495 yuan from part-time jobs in the past six months, which is 500 yuan when rounded off.

Adding the surplus from this year's wages and subsidies, as well as last year's savings, the two had a staggering 1464 yuan in their hands.

This does not include the article "The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Scar Literature" that Lin Chaoyang submitted to "October". She has not received the payment slip for that article yet. She also did not include the payment for the novel that Lin Chaoyang is about to write.

Lin Chaoyang listened to Tao Yushu's account calculations and forgot to write his novel. He asked in surprise, "Do we have so much money now?"

Tao Yushu's face was full of smiles, but he still said rationally: "It should be 964 yuan. 6 yuan was given by my mother. I have to return it to them in the future."

"That's quite a bit. It's enough to buy a house, right?" Lin Chaoyang suddenly asked.

"buy house?"

Tao Yushu was stunned for a moment. In this era, no one had the concept of buying a house. They either lived in the company dormitory or waited for the company to allocate houses. Only when they had no other choice would they think of renting a house.

"Yes! Now that I have money, I can buy a house. Buying a house now..."

Lin Chaoyang wanted to say "a bargain price", but considering the current per capita income, it is not really a bargain price.

We can't be bad landlords. We buy houses to fight inflation.

Yes, anti-inflation!

“Isn’t it hard to buy?”

The Tao family of nine people are squeezed into a 9-square-meter house, which is already very good compared to the conditions of most people at this stage, but people are just not satisfied. When they don’t have something, they hope to have it, and when they have it, they hope it is better.

Tao Yushu also felt that the family was noisy because there were so many people in the house. It was fine for other things, but Lin Chaoyang needed a quiet environment for his creative work.

Lin Chaoyang stroked his chin and thought for a while. He had been in Yanjing for more than half a year, but he had never heard of anyone around him buying or selling a house. The word real estate had not yet been invented.

"It's really hard to buy." Lin Chaoyang also had a headache.

"Just wait and see what opportunities arise. Maybe there will be a chance in the future," Tao Yushuo comforted him.

"Ah."

After the couple finished talking, Tao Yushu turned to memorize English words. After a while, she said in a frustrated tone, "These English words are so hard to memorize!"

Tao Yushu was an excellent student in school. He was good at all his majors except English.

In her words, the word was like it had legs. As soon as she finished memorizing it, it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Lin Chaoyang always teased her that her background was too pure and her talent was too red to learn the foreign language.

When she watched "The Chase", she thought of Japan's post-war reconstruction; when she watched "Swan Lake", she thought of "The Red Detachment of Women".

You deserve it for your poor English!
However, as a man who loves his own wife, Lin Chaoyang has recently been considering getting Tao Yushu a tape recorder, preferably a portable one, so that she can take it to school and learn wherever she goes.

He remembered that the thing had been available in the past two years, but was rarely seen in the country.

The first thing Lin Chaoyang thought of was to ask the little foreigner Amao for help, but he hadn’t seen him recently and didn’t know where the little foreigner had gone, so he just had this idea now.

A few days later, as July was approaching, the atmosphere in the Tao family became tense.

The Ministry of Education issued a document early this year, and this year's college entrance examination is scheduled for July 7 to July 7.

With Tao Yumo, a senior high school student at home, everyone naturally became cautious at this stage, for fear of disturbing Tao Yumo's studies.

Even dogs dislike boys after they turn three years old. The two children of the Tao family are exactly at this age. There is no quiet time for them as long as they are at home. They have been beaten a lot recently.

That evening, Tao's mother and sister-in-law Zhao Li were cooking. In order to prevent the two children from disturbing Tao Yumo's studies, his elder brother-in-law Tao Yucheng and Lin Chaoyang took them outside for some fresh air.

Tao Xiwen was seven years old, and Tao Xiwu was four years old. They were old enough to play by themselves, so Lin Chaoyang and the other two only needed to watch them from a distance.

The two of them gathered together and smoked. Tao Yucheng suddenly asked Lin Chaoyang, "When are you going to ask Yushu for one?"

"Yu Shu is still studying, how can he have time!"

"You're right. You're studying now, but you'll have to work in the future. You can always find time if you squeeze it in."

There was a sense of wisdom in what my brother-in-law said, but if Tao Yushu heard it, he would probably say that he was talking without any concern.

"Objective conditions don't allow it. Let's wait two years." Lin Chaoyang said.

That morning, Lin Chaoyang went to the Chinese Department to take a class titled "Research on Chuci" by Lin Geng.

The old gentleman was full of energy in class, his back was straight and his head was always held high. He was wearing a rare Chinese silk shirt, which was neat and elegant. Lin Chaoyang could imagine how much attention the old comrade would attract when walking on the Yanda campus wearing this outfit.

Lin Geng likes to ask questions during his lectures. He suddenly asked, "Why did Qu Yuan, who created Chuci, become the pinnacle from the beginning? Why are there so few successors? Why is Qu Yuan almost equivalent to all Chuci?"

After answering three questions in a row, nearly two hundred students from the Chinese Department of the classes of 77 and 78 stared blankly with their eyes wide open, unable to answer a single question.

You haven't even listened to the whole class, how can you answer such difficult questions?

But in fact, Lin Geng didn't want everyone to answer questions, but just wanted to arouse everyone's curiosity and make them listen carefully. After he asked a few questions, everyone really paid attention.

"The emperor's son descended on the northern bank, his eyes were bleak and made me sad. The autumn wind was blowing, the waves of Dongting Lake were rippling and the leaves were falling."

When he got to the emotional part, the old comrade couldn't help but recite aloud, his voice full of sadness, bringing everyone's emotions into the situation. Then he talked about the forerunner of sad autumn literature, and how autumn wind and wooden leaves became recurring poetic images in later poems.

Everyone present was moved by his emotions and the content of his lectures, and felt the unique charm of literature from thousands of years ago.

When the get out of class was over, Chen Jiangong muttered, "We should let those who write modern poetry come and listen to Mr. Li's class!"

Lin Chaoyang agreed with what he said. It seemed that anyone could write modern poetry, but to write poetry and beauty in it was more difficult than writing regulated verse or quatrain.

Because it does not emphasize rhythm or parallelism, these requirements are not only constraints, but also make the creation regular within certain rules.

The most admirable thing about Lin Geng's lecturing on Chuci is that he can express the beauty of Chuci. This beauty has not yet undergone the rigorous polishing of regulated verse and is actually similar to the creation of modern poetry.

If you really understand the meaning of Chuci, writing modern poetry will not be that difficult.

In the afternoon, Zhou Yanru came to talk to Lin Chaoyang about the single volume.

Different from Yenching Literature and Art's plan to publish a collection of reviews for The Shepherd, Lin Chaoyang is enthusiastic about publishing a single volume for Little Shoes.

The reason is simple: give money!
The collection of reviews is all about other people's reviews, and has nothing to do with him as the original author. But it's different with a single volume. The novel is published first and then published. Kill two birds with one stone, and collect royalties twice. How can he not be happy? How can he not be active?
After knowing each other for more than half a year, Zhou Yanru has become accustomed to Lin Chaoyang's greed for money.

However, this matter is still just an idea at the moment and needs to be approved by Renwenshe. After getting Lin Chaoyang's support, Zhou Yanru asked Lin Chaoyang to wait for her news. Lin Chaoyang nodded in agreement.

Just wait and pay.

At the end of June, Lin Chaoyang finally completed the novel he had promised to Du Feng. He rode Tao Yushu's bicycle to deliver the manuscript to the military compound at the foot of Shijingshan Mountain. All that followed was waiting.

Of course, it's not just about waiting. He also has a novel to write, which is the one he promised to write for Li Xiaolin of Harvest.

This time he wrote under the pseudonym Wang Qinglai, so he could only write a little in his spare time in the library during the day. His progress was always slow, and he has not yet completed half of the creation.

Two days later, Du Feng came to Tao's house and when he saw Lin Chaoyang, he excitedly grabbed him.

"Brother-in-law, is the protagonist of your novel based on me?"

Lin Chaoyang was confused, "What do you mean?"

"Your protagonist, that young man!"

"Ah!" Lin Chaoyang understood.

He wanted to tell his brother-in-law that it was not the case, because that was how it was written in the original book.

Besides, if he said that Du Feng was the prototype of the young master in the novel, wouldn't that be equivalent to including his father and mother as well?
"Well...literary creations are all based on life. This character is created by mixing the experiences of many people."

"Is that so?"

A hint of disappointment flashed across Du Feng's face when he heard this, but he soon became happy again.

No matter what, that young man's experience is somewhat similar to his, which others don't have!
"Brother-in-law, I read the novel. It's so well written that my dad's eyes were red after reading it!"

"Boy, you observe carefully enough!"

"Well, I'm concerned!"

Lin Chaoyang asked: "When will the trial be completed?"

Du Feng shook his head. "I don't know. I just know that there is no problem at the military district. We still have to report it to the higher-ups."

It’s troublesome enough!

But it is understandable, after all, it is such a sensitive subject.

"Don't worry, I will be the first to tell you if there is any news."

Lin Chaoyang was thinking about buying a tape recorder for Tao Yushu and asked Du Feng if he had any ideas. After hearing Lin Chaoyang's request, Du Feng looked confused.

A tape recorder as big as a brick? He had never seen one before.

Seeing that Du Feng, the second-generation military boy, didn't know either, Lin Chaoyang felt a little disappointed. It seemed that he had been expecting too much.

"I haven't been here for a long time. Stay at home for dinner tonight."

"That's for sure."

While eating, Tao Yucheng pulled open Du Feng's clothes and glanced at him, "Did you come here empty-handed?"

Du Feng said helplessly: "Brother..."

"Just kidding!" Tao Yucheng patted his shoulder with a smile.

After joking for a while, Du Feng asked about Tao Yumo's college entrance examination.

The college entrance examination is approaching, and Tao Yumo is under a lot of psychological pressure. Her family members basically don't talk about the exam in front of her.

Du Feng kept bringing up things that were irrelevant, and the two of them started arguing after just a few words.

(End of this chapter)