Literary Master 1978

Looking at her expression, Lin Chaoyang nodded, "It's indeed a lot less, but we are not making no money. I am writing novels now, and I can earn at least 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a year, so I can still afford to buy this house."

"But that's 12,000 yuan after all, and we only have more than 2,000 yuan in our hands, and the difference is almost 10,000 yuan." Tao Yushu said a little discouraged.

"Didn't I just say that the owner said that he could pay in installments."

"The key to the problem is not whether it can be paid in installments, but that we can't afford so much money now!"

"Listen to me and let me do the math for you." Lin Chaoyang held her hand.

Tao Yushu looked at him, but her eyes were not confident, "You tell me."

"Look, you have 2,500 yuan in your hand now. "The Wreath Under the Mountain" is about to be published as a single volume. This month, the Publishing Bureau has just issued new regulations on royalties, and restored the number of copies of royalties.

With the popularity of "The Wreath Under the Mountain", it is not a problem to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Conservatively speaking, I can get nearly 1,500 yuan in royalties, which is 4,000 yuan.

In addition..."

Lin Chaoyang's expression became awkward when he said this. Tao Yushu looked at his face. This expression seemed familiar. A scene from a certain day a year ago flashed through her mind.

"In addition, what?" She asked in a cold voice.

"Well, I'm going to buy a house. I just wanted to earn more royalties. I took the time to write one...two novels while I was at work."

"Is it one or two?" Tao Yushu's eyes widened and her eyebrows were raised.

Lin Chaoyang said honestly: "One short story and one novella."

"Good job!" Tao Yushu stood up suddenly, "How many things are you hiding from me?"

"No, really no, wife!" Lin Chaoyang retreated again and again, "Wife, I also want to earn... earn some royalties to buy a big house!"

Tao Yushu glared at Lin Chaoyang with a gloomy face, never speaking, as if brewing a thunderous rage.

Lin Chaoyang continued: "I just want to buy a house and give you a surprise. Unfortunately, my writing efficiency is not high, so I only wrote two articles. I didn't expect this house to be so expensive. I originally planned to tell you after I bought the house..."

He kept quibbling with a guilty conscience, and Tao Yushu kept looking at him until he was almost out of words. He showed Tao Yushu a flattering smile at his wit's end.

"Wife, hehe!"

With a "puff", Tao Yushu's face, which had been stern, bloomed into a smile like a peach blossom, and laughed like a silver bell. Her laughter made Lin Chaoyang at a loss.

"Wife, what are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at you, a big fool."

"I'm stupid?" Lin Chaoyang asked stupidly.

"Yes, you are stupid." Tao Yushu rolled her eyes at him, took out a copy of "Shanghai Literature and Art" from the bookshelf and opened it, "Is this written by you?"

Lin Chaoyang glanced at the magazine and was shocked. The page he opened was "Qiu Ju Goes to Court".

He was surprised and said, "How did you know?"

"Only a fool would not know. Only you can use the name of the male protagonist of the novel as a pen name." Tao Yushu said unhappily.

"That's not necessarily me. No one stipulates that others can't use the name of the male protagonist as a pen name." He defended himself.

"But this is not the first time you have done this!"

Tao Yushu's words were fatal, leaving Lin Chaoyang speechless.

He asked again, "When did you know about it?"

"Do you think you are good at pretending?" Tao Yushu did not answer his question, but laughed at him.

Lin Chaoyang looked at him depressedly, "Just tell me when you knew about it."

"Mom said that time you gave my eldest brother fifty yuan, saying it was money for TV tickets."

"Brother, you are too talkative." Lin Chaoyang complained.

"Don't blur the focus." Tao Yushu's tone became stern, "Look at you, it's been several times, and you don't change your ways, right?"

"I just want to give you a surprise!" Lin Chaoyang brought out his set of rhetoric again.

"Humph! Surprise? There is a surprise, but where is the joy?" Tao Yushu asked with his hands folded in front of his chest.

"That..." Lin Chaoyang touched his pocket knowingly, and took out only a few banknotes, then lowered his head to look through the sole of his shoe, took out four large unity banknotes folded into small squares, unfolded them, and gave them to Tao Yushu.

The banknotes just turned out from the sole of the shoe smelled of salty hairtail, and she pinched them with disdain.

"That's all? Is this the surprise you gave me?"

"This is the last manuscript fee, and the other manuscript fee has not arrived yet. This manuscript is long, with 120,000 words. It will be published in "Harvest" this month, and at least one thousand yuan."

Lin Chaoyang's smile was slightly flattering, and he said, "I didn't spend the manuscript fee indiscriminately, but occasionally improved my food. The money for the TV and air tickets for my eldest brother, buying gifts for you, inviting family members to watch performances, and buying things all came from here. After a year, there are still so many left!"

"I have to praise you for being frugal, right?" Tao Yushu asked sarcastically.

"No, no, no matter how frugal I am, I can't be as frugal as you, my wife! I think it's more reassuring for a man to have some money in his pocket when he goes out."

"Oh~ Are you complaining that I don't give you enough money?" Tao Yushu continued to be sarcastic.

"No, no, absolutely not. I'm..."

"That's enough!"

Tao Yushu interrupted Lin Chaoyang's nonsense, shook his head and sighed, "You, your cunning mind is not even one tenth of your talent in writing novels."

Lin Chaoyang was speechless. I seemed to be praised, but also seemed to be scolded.

"You won't do this again in the future, right?" Tao Yushu asked with narrowed eyes.

Lin Chaoyang shook her head like a rattle, "Wife, I'm doing this to surprise you!"

Tao Yushu snorted coldly, "Don't give me a lot of magic."

She said again: "Ten yuan will be gone in the future."

"Ah? Don't!" Lin Chaoyang was shocked.

The small treasury is gone, and the pocket money is gone. How can he live!

Tao Yushu looked at his expression of bereavement, suppressing a smile on his face.

"Twenty yuan for you!"

In a moment, Lin Chaoyang experienced a reverse bungee jumping journey from hell to heaven.

His face had a look of having survived a disaster, "Wife, can you please stop panting when we talk?"

"You deserve it!"

Lin Chaoyang saw that her expression had melted, so he continued the previous topic and said, "With this thousand yuan, we will have five thousand yuan."

Back to the previous topic, Tao Yushu's originally relaxed expression became tangled again.

"But it's still a lot short!"

"Think about it, how much money did we have at this time last year?

Du Feng said that the owner wants to sell the house quickly, so we can go and have a look first and negotiate the price! If we can negotiate to ten thousand, then wouldn't we still be short of five thousand?

Next year I will try to write more novels and try to fill this hole as soon as possible."

How much cheaper can I get by bargaining?

As for her husband's request to write more novels, she had no hope in her heart.

Novels are not that easy to write, and many writers may not be able to write a novel in one or two years.

Tao Yushu didn't say this out loud. Seeing her husband working so hard for their small family, she couldn't bear to burst his dream.

"Then go and have a look!" Tao Yushu gritted his teeth and said, at worst, he could just take some money from his family.

This weekend, Du Feng came to Yanda early in the morning, but did not enter the Tao family, but waited by the Langrun Lake Apartment.

After a while, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu came down from upstairs, and the three of them gathered and rode bicycles to the gate of Yanda.

The concept of the three rings of Yanjing was proposed in the 1950s, but at that time it was built in sections. It was not until 1965 that it took shape and was still called a ring road.

In the "Yanjing Tour Map" published in the 1960s, the North Third Ring Road was divided into North Ring West Road and North Ring East Road, the East Third Ring Road was divided into East Ring North Road and East Ring South Road, and the South Ring East Road appeared in the position of the South Third Ring Road. This is the first time that the word "ring road" has appeared in the history of Yanjing. At this time, the Second Ring Road has not yet been marked.

Huayuan Village Overseas Chinese Apartment is next to the Huayuan Bridge on the West Third Ring Road. The "Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" written in the Ming Dynasty said, "Ten miles south of Fuchengmen, there is Huayuan Village, the ancient Huayuan, and the village behind it is now Pingchou."

Hundreds of years ago, during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, this place was a private garden for dignitaries, and later it became a Pingchou suburb.

After the founding of New China, the construction of the Overseas Chinese Apartment changed the situation here.

Du Feng and Lin Chaoyang came to the gate of the courtyard. After the security guard asked them about their purpose, they asked them to register, and then picked up the phone in the security room and dialed the phone, which seemed to notify the landlord.

Du Feng whispered to Lin Chaoyang: "Did you see it? It's like joining a government unit, but it costs money."

Overseas Chinese Apartment is the first community in Yanjing to be equipped with property management, and each household pays eight yuan per month.

"Please come in, three of you!"

The three entered the courtyard and walked towards the unit door of Building No. 2. Tao Yushu whispered to Lin Chaoyang: "This courtyard is really nice."

Overseas Chinese Apartment has two four-story buildings in the north and south. In the front and back of the building, there are large areas of green plants except for the road. The environment is clean and elegant. Unfortunately, it is winter now, and the flowers, plants and trees in the yard are all withered.

If it were in the future, if such a large yard was to be built into a multi-story residential building, at least seven or eight buildings would be built.

But there are only two buildings in the yard of the Overseas Chinese Apartment. If it were in summer, it would be shaded by green trees, elegant and quiet.

Tao Yushu grew up in Yanda and liked this quiet environment.

The designer of the Overseas Chinese Apartment is Hua Lanhong, a well-known Chinese architect.

When he was young, he studied in France and studied in the Department of Architecture of the National University of Fine Arts in France. After graduation, he obtained a national architect diploma that very few people had at that time.

He could have enjoyed a life of worry-free food and clothing and a social status higher than that of ordinary people in France, but he resolutely returned to the then poor New China in 1951.

Hua Lanhong brought his modernist architectural ideas from France and tried his best to integrate them with Chinese traditions and reality.

Between 1952 and 1957, he designed the Yanjing Children's Hospital, which was listed as a classic work of Chinese modernism in the 1950s by Fletcher's History of Architecture. He also designed the Xingfu Village residential area in Chongwen District, the Jianguomen Interchange with separate lanes for cars and bicycles, the Guanting Reservoir Welcome Building, the Yanjing Friendship Store and other landmark buildings in Yanjing.

The facade of the Overseas Chinese Apartment is gray, with square lines, a simple beauty, and also very modern. Just looking at the facade, it is completely different from the Soviet-style houses that can be seen in Yanjing today.

From the outside, every household also has a large terrace, which looks very lively.

When they walked to the door of the unit in Building No. 2, they saw a young man with a broad forehead, high cheekbones and dark complexion standing there.

"Fugui!"

Du Feng greeted the young man and said, "This is my brother-in-law and sister, this is Lin Fugui. My brother-in-law's surname is also Lin, and you were still a family five hundred years ago."

After a few pleasantries, Lin Chaoyang learned that the young man's name was Lin Fugui, a third-generation Malaysian Chinese who went to Southeast Asia from Fujian. The apartment here was bought by his father to support national construction.

Lin Fugui is now studying abroad at the Foreign Languages ​​College. This house was originally given to him by his father to live in while studying abroad, but Lin Fugui has been living in the school and has never lived here for a few days.

Last year, the country began to reform and open up, and there has been no major changes in the atmosphere in Yanjing.

During the summer vacation this year, Lin Fugui went to Guangdong and found that the ducks knew the water was warm in spring, and the pilot work of selling commercial housing at full price has been implemented in Guangzhou.

These changes made Lin Fugui see opportunities for China's economic development. He referred to the experience of several Asian economies that took off after World War II and set his sights on China's real estate market, so he planned to sell this house and buy two Yanjing courtyard houses.

Lin Fugui is a warm and cheerful young man. His Chinese is good, but not so authentic. He did not avoid Lin Chaoyang and others, and talked about his views on China's reform and opening up and economic development.

Lin Chaoyang listened to him for a while and felt that this buddy really had something in his mind.

But he was mainly here to look at the house today, so Lin Fugui led the three of them upstairs.