Literary Heroes of the Republic of China

Although Mu Qiong has cooked before, but the number of times is very small, and he seldom goes out to eat because of his health, so he actually doesn't know much about cooking.

The reason why he didn't come up with other ideas before was because he couldn't think of any other suitable western dishes... No way, there are too few ingredients available at this time, let's say fried chicken wings, make ten fried chicken wings Chicken wings, I'm going to buy five chickens!

But he thought about it later... In fact, Western restaurants don't have to sell pure Western food, do they?

Mu Qiong and Boss Chen came to the counter to discuss in low voices, and Mu Qiong's idea to Boss Chen was to let Boss Chen do barbecue.

Barbecue, which is as popular all over the country as hot pot, will definitely attract customers!

More importantly, at this time in Shanghai, except for foreigners, there are very few people who would eat grilled food, which is new enough to be sold as Western food.

Of course, this barbecue must not be as smoky as the barbecue at the night market... They can be baked in the oven used to bake bread in western restaurants.

Roasted chicken, roasted duck, roasted pork belly... should all be delicious?

Although Mu Qiong has never eaten barbecue, he thought that as long as the ingredients are fresh and seasoned, the taste of the grilled meat will not be too bad.

The ingredients for these things are easy to find. There is no saying that meat should be in season or not.

Of course, when corn or sweet potatoes are on the market, it’s okay to sell corn and roasted sweet potatoes. As for potatoes, he’s considered selling French fries before, so he asked Boss Chen specifically, and only then did he know that few people in the surrounding countryside grow potatoes. , so that potatoes are as rare as cabbage.

In addition, you can also try baking pizza, baking pies, baking cakes, etc., and you can also cook Peking duck.

Of course, he doesn't know anything about these methods. If Boss Chen wants to do it, he must find a way to get the formula first.

"To make a good barbecue, the seasoning is the most important. I know there is a seasoning called 'cumin', and it's very delicious to sprinkle a little on the barbecue." Mu Qiong said again.

Cumin is a common condiment in modern times, but at that time the Shanghainese didn’t even use chili, let alone cumin.At this time, the vast majority of people don't even know the existence of this seasoning.

But cumin is not uncommon. If you inquire about it, you should be able to buy it. If Boss Chen is smart enough, he might be able to use cumin together with other seasonings to create a unique recipe.

Mu Qiong talked a lot, and Boss Chen's eyes lit up when he heard it.

However, Boss Chen quickly discovered a problem: "It takes a lot of work to make this barbecue, so the kitchen needs to be filled with people, and the money it makes is definitely not as good as burgers."

Although hamburgers are not expensive, they are much easier to make and sell well. Boss Chen's daily net profit is more than [-] yuan these days. He hopes that Mu Qiong can continue to make such things and sell them.

"Boss, it's inevitable that food is imitated by others. Simple food like burgers is easy to be imitated by others, and it is difficult to keep it popular. I think that if a restaurant's business is to last, it must have more dishes. Of course, in addition to the variety of food, the brand of the store itself is also very important." Mu Qiong said.

Boss Chen was thoughtful.

Mu Qiong said again: "Boss, you should not be short of money now, why don't you renovate the restaurant and reopen it. In the future, the restaurant will continue to sell fried pork chops, hamburger bread, etc., and then sell barbecues, and you can also make some desserts Desserts...Of course, it would be better to order all these dishes a la carte."

It’s estimated that all the mid-to-low-end western restaurants on the side of the concession will sell things like hamburgers in a short time. They may still be able to make a little money from it, but they will definitely not be able to make a lot of money from it. Maybe one day, this The store is no longer open.

After all, their hamburger tastes the same as the hamburger next door. If he was a customer, he would definitely pick the cheap one...

If Boss Chen wants to do a good job in business, he still needs to have his own characteristics.

And the so-called characteristics are different.

In modern times, decorating an ancient restaurant with the Eight Immortals table used in Boss Chen's restaurant is unique.In this day and age... it is distinctive to decorate western restaurants in a modern way.

In fact, the people of the Republic of China at this time liked the luxury style the most, but with the financial resources of Mr. Chen, it is impossible to make luxurious decorations of the Republic of China like movies and TV shows.Mu Qiong has been here for so long, and he has never seen such a decoration... He must not be able to enter that kind of place now.

Therefore, Mu Qiong suggested that Boss Chen's decoration should be modern and Nordic.

These two decoration styles are definitely unconventional at this time, and they are cheap to decorate.

Of course, the helpers in the store must also take good care of them. When the time comes, all the young men will put on suits, and they will definitely look energetic.

In this piece, it is definitely the first one!

Boss Chen traveled all over the world when he was young, and he was very knowledgeable. He knew what Mu Qiong said was right, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Just do it like this! Throw all the money I earned these days into it, and I'm sure it will make money My western restaurant is well decorated!"

If you don't need those good woods to decorate the house these days, one or two hundred yuan is enough, and now he doesn't lack this money.

Mu Qiong smiled, and then talked about the decoration.

Restaurant decoration... the walls on the ground floor do not need to be moved, just replace all the tables and chairs. After all, the Eight Immortals tables used now are not only Chinese-style but also very old.

Also need to be replaced, as well as the cash counter and door, and then it is best to rearrange all these things.

In addition, the second floor of the western restaurant can also be cleaned up.

That's right, the western restaurant has a second floor.

It was an attic, and because there were no stairs, it was very inconvenient to climb up and down a ladder, so Boss Chen left it vacant.

In Mu Qiong's view, it is a bit wasteful to do so.The attic should be tidied up, and some open boxes can be separated and more than ten tables can be placed.

Of course, this table does not refer to the Eight Immortals table, but the narrow rectangular small table in modern times that can seat four people-this kind of table can be placed against the wall, which saves the most space.

"What does that attic renovation do?" Boss Chen was puzzled.

"The attic is very romantic after it is decorated, and in this way, dozens of guests can be seated on it." Mu Qiong expressed his thoughts. It must be very interesting to open a skylight in the attic and decorate it well.

Of course, the premise is to have a less steep, better staircase.

The stairs in Boss Chen's house...he didn't want to go down the stairs once.

Boss Chen agreed after listening to Mu Qiong's explanation.

"Our store is like what you said, it must be completely different from other stores! At that time, no matter what we sell, we can sell it." Boss Chen said: "Of course, the barbecue still needs to be carefully considered. , I know quite a few people, and I’ll go buy all kinds of seasonings tomorrow.”

At this time, the people who came out of the same place were all in groups. Boss Chen came from Guangdong, so he naturally knew many businessmen from Guangdong. He planned to find these people when he bought seasonings.

Speaking of which, his son was able to study abroad because he asked his fellow countrymen for help.

"By the way, what's the name of the delicious barbecue seasoning you mentioned?"

"Cumin." Mu Qiong took the pen and paper on the counter and wrote these two words on it.

Decoration and barbecue cannot be done in a short time. After measuring the size of the restaurant, Boss Chen plans to go to a carpenter to make tables and chairs first, and then try to make some barbecue.

Of course, the shop's hamburger and tonkatsu business must continue.

When Boss Chen had an idea, he calmed down and continued to direct his subordinates to work.

Although hamburgers are also sold next door, the business in their store is still good, but because they have recruited more people, the staff in the store is a bit too much now... Seeing this situation, Boss Chen simply said: "Xiao Mu , you go to draw the decoration plan!"

With Boss Chen’s words, Mu Qiong can sit comfortably again. However, Boss Chen doesn’t mind that Mu Qiong is idle, but he doesn’t like other people in the store doing nothing... There is no one in line this afternoon. After buying a hamburger, the two newcomers stood around and had nothing to do, so they were sent by Boss Chen to clean the attic.

They brought a ladder, put it on the wall next to the counter, climbed up, and pushed aside the wooden boards covering the hole left open, they got into the attic.

When they went to the attic, they continued to cover the hole with wooden boards to prevent the dust from falling, and then they cleaned up on it, and they took turns carrying buckets down the ladder to change the water.

Mu Qiong rarely exercised before, and he had never climbed a ladder before. Seeing them climbing the ladder while carrying a bucket was a little frightening, but the two helpers were used to it.

Moo-joon watches for a while, and suddenly realizes that he needs a good workout.

He knows better than anyone how important it is to have a good body, so after crossing, he has been working hard to maintain his body.

He has tried his best not to treat himself badly in terms of food, and he will run for a while on the way home from work every day, but it is obviously not enough.

In modern times, it is enough for ordinary people to have a healthy body, but in today's troubled times, it is better to be stronger.

Of course, if you want to be strong, you must first ensure nutrition, and to ensure nutrition, you must have money.

After the day's work was over, Mu Qiong asked Boss Chen for leave, saying that he wanted to take a day off.

The business in the store is expected to be even worse tomorrow, so Boss Chen immediately agreed: "Okay, you can take a good rest! When you are resting, don't forget to help me think about the drawings."

"Boss, I will." Mu Qiong said with a smile.

After returning home that night, Mu Qiong didn't write any more manuscripts, but took out the [-] words he had written before and read them again, and made some revisions on them with a pencil.

He did not go to work the next day, but took out a brand new manuscript paper after dawn and began to copy the articles he wrote a few days ago.

For a person who is accustomed to using a computer, writing is not easy. Mu Qiong copied only [-] words in four full hours.

Fortunately, to submit an article, [-] words is enough...

The New Culture Movement hadn't started yet, and Mu Qiong didn't want to attract attention, so he refrained from writing too much vernacular when writing the book, but what he wrote was still a little different from traditional vernacular, and he used punctuation.

This is not out of the ordinary at this time.

Nowadays, those new-school people, especially those who have returned from studying abroad, are already advocating the vernacular, and they have also begun to use punctuation, that is, there are only spaces in newspapers and other printed materials without punctuation.

The plot of Mu Qiong's novel is very compact, but in only five thousand words, the hero has already set foot on the European continent.

At the same time, because of being discriminated against on the ship, he has made up his mind to study hard to make his country stronger.

It's time for lunch.Mu Qiong put away the manuscripts he had sorted out, stood up and moved around, then opened the door and went out, intending to go to the kitchen to help Zhu Wanwan bring the dishes back.

As a result, as soon as he walked to the door of the kitchen, which was covered with straw curtains because of the cold weather, he heard an old lady say sourly: "Mu's family, your family is well-off now, just eat fish every day." , and eat meat from time to time.”

The old lady’s words seemed to turn on a switch, and other people immediately followed suit: “What’s the point of eating fish and meat? His son still brings newspapers home every day! Newspapers are not cheap, and they cost two copper dollars. The food money for a day is only two copper dollars."

"The Mu family boy is only so young. Even if he has studied, it doesn't make sense to earn so much in less than a month. I really don't know what he does outside."

"I'm afraid I'm doing something inappropriate!"

……

It turned out that when Mu Qiong was at home today, Zhu Wanwan specially cut a catty of pork back. The fat meat was boiled in lard, and the lean meat was divided into two halves. One half was kept for dinner, and the other half was used to fry vegetables. She also stewed a large bowl of the remaining oil residue with pickled vegetables and tofu.

These two dishes smelled delicious, and the people in the kitchen couldn't help being jealous when they saw them, and they spoke sour words.

Except for Aunt Zhao's family, the lives of the renters living in Yao's house are not very good.

When Mu Qiong didn't pass through, Zhu Wanwan's life was difficult, and they seemed to be unable to survive. They were sympathetic on the surface, but they were a little gloating in their hearts. Seeing Zhu Wanwan eating batter every day, they felt a sense of superiority.

But later, Mu Qiong recovered from his illness, and after finding a job outside, the Mu family's life improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Before, they thought that the Mu family was so poor that Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu probably didn't even have winter clothes. As a result... the two of them put on new cotton clothes before the weather cooled down!

Zhu Wanwan also bought a lot of things at home, cooking in different styles every day...

In fact, the food the Mu family eats is no better than the food they cook for their own family, but people are like this, and they will be unhappy when they see that they are far inferior to their own and catch up with themselves.

Mu Qiong understood their mentality and didn't care about what they said, but Zhu Wanwan in the kitchen was obviously furious: "My son works in a western restaurant, and it's a serious job."

"Can you bring back so much money in less than a month of serious work?" These people don't believe it at all.

"I only became rich when I became the jade pendant worn by my childhood friend." Zhu Wanwan said again, afraid of attracting jealousy, she had never told anyone about Mu Qiong taking money from home. The newspaper I took was also told that it was an old newspaper that the restaurant owner didn't want.

But no one believed it, or no one wanted to believe it.

"You have a valuable jade pendant, why didn't you take it out before?"

"That's right, I didn't want to be a jade pendant when I was starving to death before, but now my son has a job as a jade pendant... Tsk tsk."

"I saw your son go home to get something at night. It's food and white paper. There are a lot of things. I don't know where he got them."

……

Zhu Wanwan blushed when she couldn't tell them, while Mu Changyu said, "You... my brother is amazing, he can speak foreign language and write books, he can make a lot of money!"

"What a joke, the book is so easy to write?"

"In Shanghai, there are only a few people who can speak foreign language? You are too good at bragging!"

"that is!"

……

While everyone was talking, Aunt Zhao suddenly threw a knife on the chopping board: "Is your tongue itchy? Do you want me to cut it for you?"

Those people stopped talking for a moment.

At this time, a woman surnamed Tian who lived in the same yard also helped Zhu Wanwan to speak: "You just don't want to see other people living a good life, and you even describe their good children like this!"

With Aunt Zhao and Aunt Tian helping to speak, Zhu Wanwan's expression became much better: "My son...he is doing a serious job!"

No one spoke in the kitchen for a while, Mu Qiong took a few steps back and said, "Mother, is the meal ready?"

As he spoke, he walked over with a heavier footstep.

Mu Qiong has been copying books in the house since he got up today, and has never gone out, so that these people don't know that he is actually at home.

Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu were not counted in the kitchen, there were only six women, and the four who were gossiping about Mu Qiong all looked a little uncomfortable when they saw Mu Qiong.

As for Aunt Zhao, she was not as enthusiastic towards Mu Qiong as she was at the beginning. As for that Aunt Tian...

Aunt Tian came to Zhu Wanwan's side and said, "Xiao Zhu, my little treasure wants to eat scrambled eggs, but there is no oil at home...you can lend me some." of lard.

Zhu Wanwan is not very good at rejecting people, let alone Aunt Tian just helped her speak... Recently, she watched Aunt Tian scoop up a full spoonful of her lard with a porcelain spoon.

There is not much fat in a catty of pork, and the lard that Zhu Wanwan boiled is only a little bit. One-third of this spoonful is gone.

Mu Qiong glanced at Aunt Tian, ​​thinking that he must move away from here quickly.

People are easily influenced by the surrounding environment, and he didn't want Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu to stay with these people any longer.

Mu Qiong helped Zhu Wanwan take out the dishes, and when they walked outside, Aunt Zhao also followed, saying, "It's really stupid, to be sold and give away lard."

Aunt Zhao's words were almost referring to Aunt Tian by name. After thinking about it, Mu Qiong knew that Aunt Tian probably spoke ill of them behind their backs. She probably just fell in love with Zhu Wanwan's lard when she spoke for Zhu Wanwan today. , want to take advantage.

"Sister Zhao..." Zhu Wanwan wanted to talk to Aunt Zhao, but Aunt Zhao turned her head and left.

Mu Qiong and the others took all the lard kitchen utensils back to their own room. During the meal, Zhu Wanwan said with some disappointment: "Aunt Zhao doesn't pay attention to me recently, and she doesn't introduce jobs to me anymore."

"Mom, our family doesn't lack your money for washing clothes now, so it's better not to do it." Mu Qiong said: "And Aunt Tian, ​​you should stay away from her in the future."

When Aunt Tian "borrowed oil" before, he knew that this person was here to take advantage, and the reason why he didn't stop him was because he was afraid that his face would be torn, and Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu would be bullied when he was not around.

But in the future... they'd better keep such people at arm's length.

Zhu Wanwan was still very disappointed: "Oh..."

"Mother, Aunt Zhao doesn't like to talk to us, is it because of me... I told Zhao Qiuhai that I was learning to read and said that my brother has a pen, and then Aunt Zhao doesn't like us..." Mu Chang Yu was a little uneasy.

Aunt Zhao has two sons and one daughter. The eldest daughter is Zhao Chunjuan, the second son is Zhao Xiahe, and the third son is Zhao Qiuhai. Zhao Qiuhai is one year younger than Mu Changyu. They often talk together.

"Changyu, this has nothing to do with you, don't think too much about it." Mu Qiong comforted Mu Changyu, but she also knew that Aunt Zhao's behavior was probably because of this.

Aunt Zhao used to help Zhu Wanwan because she sympathized with Zhu Wanwan, but their family life has become easier recently. Not to mention he found a good job, he can buy pens... Aunt Zhao must be a little jealous, so naturally she is not willing to help everywhere With Zhu Wanwan.

"Shall we give her something?" Zhu Wanwan asked, "I gave pork before, and she was very happy."

To Aunt Zhao, Zhu Wanwan is just a neighbor she has helped a few times. She has family and friends, so she doesn't seem to care much about Zhu Wanwan.

But it was different for Zhu Wanwan. Aunt Zhao was the first person she talked to after leaving the Mu family, and it was very, very important to her.

She wanted to have a good relationship with Aunt Zhao.

"Alright. Mom, I'll bring a hamburger back tomorrow, so you can give it to me." Mu Qiong said, hamburgers are rare things, so it's good for Zhu Wanwan to give them away.

When Mu Qiong was speaking, he had already scooped several spoonfuls of tofu cooked with oil residue into his rice.

The cooked oil residue was soft, but still very fragrant. Mu Qiong ate three bowls of rice in one go, and then went out with the manuscript he had copied so hard.

He was going to contribute, and went to the editorial department of Dazhong Daily to submit directly.

At this time, submissions can also be sent by letter, but the vast majority of people will choose to come directly to the door.

This is because mail delivery is very slow, and secondly, at this time, many readers of the newspaper will write letters to the newspaper office. If you send your manuscript casually, if someone accidentally mixes it up, the editor may not read it at all. I can't find your manuscript.

Of course, the main reason everyone does this is that newspapers at this time are basically only sold locally.

Even a famous big newspaper like Shenbao News is mainly published in Shanghai, let alone a small newspaper like Dazhongbao... This kind of newspaper is only sold in Shanghai. Naturally, it is faster and more convenient than writing a letter.

Speaking of which, people at this time subscribed to newspapers directly at the newspaper office.

"Dazhong Daily" does not publish sensitive information, it is purely for entertainment and leisure, so they directly printed the address of the editorial department on the newspaper, and even advertised for themselves, saying that if they want to subscribe to the newspaper or advertise, they can directly past.

The editorial office of the newspaper was on Wangping Street. Mu Qiong took the tram there, followed the house number to look for it, and then saw the signboard of "Dazhongbao" hanging on the second floor of a western-style building.

Like the insurance company he had been to before, this newspaper was also on the second floor.

Mu Qiong went up the stairs, and saw many people busy in a room, some were arranging letters, some were copying something, and some... were dealing with nonsense readers.

Mu-joon's gaze falls on the rambunctious reader.

It was a young boy, he was very tall, with injuries on his face, and a very ferocious expression, but anyone with a discerning eye could tell that he was just a "child" who had never experienced anything... At this moment, this whole body The youthful young man was slapping the table: "You guys will publish the newspaper tomorrow, there is no way you haven't got Mr. Wenda's manuscript yet, why don't you show it to me?!"

"Sorry, our newspaper has a rule that in order to avoid leaking the content, people cannot read it in advance." A middle-aged man in his forties said.

"I don't know how to say it, so it doesn't matter if you show me in advance!" The boy was dissatisfied: "I wanted to see it before, but others showed me in advance. Why are you doing this!"

"We have regulations." The middle-aged man said again.

"Then tell me, whether Li Qinghu can win, is this the head office?" the boy said again.

"No." The middle-aged man's expression became more and more impatient.

Mu Qiong was also a little funny.This young man doesn't know where he came from. He doesn't need power to oppress others, and he doesn't give money, so he wants to know the content of tomorrow's newspaper...

After being rejected several times, the boy was downcast. He didn't continue to ask, but he still stood by the middle-aged man's table and refused to leave.

The people in the editorial department ignored him and let him stand.At this time, someone finally noticed Mu Qiong.

"What are you here for?" the person who was sorting out the letters asked Mu Qiong.

After thinking for a while, Mu Qiong said: "My young master asked me to contribute."

He felt that if he came up and said that he was going to contribute, these people might not want to read it, so he just made up a "young master".

However, it was all like this, and the man still said: "Contribute? Our newspaper has no shortage of manuscripts."

"You really don't want it? My young master wrote it very well. It's a love story of an overseas student." Mu Qiong said.

"International student?" The middle-aged man who was pestered by the boy to read Mr. Wenda's manuscript suddenly asked.

"Yes, this novel is about overseas students." Mu Qiong said.

Speaking of which, the reason why he wrote this novel about overseas students is to facilitate the drafting.

People at this time are very interested in foreign students, and they are definitely willing to read and write novels written by foreign students... As long as the editors of the newspaper are not stupid, they will definitely read his manuscripts, and as long as they read his manuscripts...

He has confidence in what he writes.

"Show me." The middle-aged man said.

Mu Qiong was also unambiguous, and directly took out the manuscript in his hand.

Although he writes slowly, his handwriting is beautiful, and his first impression is definitely not bad, and the above story...

Chinese literature developed rapidly after the New Culture Movement, and novels are the same.

The novels written by people at this time are not as good as those written by modern writers in terms of genre or structure.

And it's not that the people at this time are not good enough, it's simply that they have read too few novels, such as stream-of-consciousness novels, magical realism novels, etc. Even if modern writers don't like to read them, they have always understood them. What about people at this time? ?They don't see it at all.

Not to mention that it is difficult for people in China to read foreign novels at this time... The author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will not be born until more than ten years later!

All in all, the novels written by people at this time have certain limitations because of the times. For example, they often write about a large number of people, without a fixed protagonist, and basically have no psychological descriptions, so that it is difficult for readers to produce novels. empathy.

But Moo Joon's novel is different.

Even though he has tried his best to imitate the style of this era, what he writes is different after all... This novel of his is completely written from the perspective of the protagonist Jiang Zhenguo, with just the right psychological description and detailed description, which makes people look very substituting The feeling is also very real.

At the beginning of the story, the protagonist Jiang Zhenguo embarked on a ship bound for Europe with great expectations, but his life on the ship was very unpleasant.

The crew on the ship were obviously Chinese, and their English was worse than his, but they ignored him when he spoke Chinese to them. They would only talk to him if he spoke English.

When he was sitting on the deck with another foreign student eating dry bread, the British baron, who was enjoying the sea view on the third floor of the cabin, threw him a can of beef, saying it was a charity for him.

A lady from France on board did not want to be in the same cabin as him...

……

As soon as the middle-aged man got the manuscript paper, he laughed: "It used punctuation..."

After he finished speaking, he continued to read. At first, he was very happy and showed admiration on his face, but he became furious when he watched, and finally slapped the table: "It's so unreasonable!"

"What's the matter? The novel is poorly written?" The boy who had been pestering to read the novel written by Mr. Wen Da came over.

The middle-aged man didn't answer him, his eyes were still fixed on the manuscript paper.

Seeing this, the young man leaned over and looked at it.

A Japanese on board lost something. He firmly believed that it was stolen by the Chinese crew member who ignored the protagonist if he didn’t speak English.

The Japanese who originally shouted fiercely to throw the thief into the sea to feed the sharks did not blame the British crew member, nor did they apologize to the Chinese crew member who was injured by him.

The injured Chinese crew member was casually thrown in the cabin and left to fend for himself.

Jiang Zhenguo couldn't bear it, so he secretly went to the crew member and gave him some hemostatic medicine he brought, but the crew member still had a fever and died. Before he died, the crew member who insisted on speaking English cried and said in Chinese that he was homesick and missed his mother... …

In the end, the protagonist watches helplessly as his body is thrown into the sea.

"Those bastards, I'm going to kill them!" The boy who leaned over to read the novel and happened to see this paragraph roared.

The middle-aged man wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his hands.

[-] words is not much, and it ends when the protagonist and his party see the European continent.

Seeing that the destination is close at hand, the protagonist's heart is full of anticipation, but is it really as good as he thought?

"What about the back? Why is the back gone?" The boy shouted, "There's still the front, I haven't looked at the front yet!"

The middle-aged man didn't show the young man the previous content, he put the manuscript paper on the table, then pressed the manuscript paper with his hand, and then said to Mu Qiong: "This story is your young master's personal experience, right? very well."

"No, my young master said he made it up." Mu Qiong said, the content here was indeed made up by him through the materials he had read before.

But the middle-aged man obviously didn't believe it, and he said again: "This manuscript is very well written, we want it. How long is it in total? How much has it been written?"

"My young master said he wanted to write about [-] characters, and he has already written [-] characters," Mu Qiong said.

"Such a good story, it's okay to write it longer... How many words can your young master write in a week?" The middle-aged man asked again.

"My young master can write about [-] words a week." Mu Qiong said, he can write about [-] words a day after work, but he said less so that he can have more time.

"How about this, let your young master write out the rest of it quickly, and then we will start publishing this novel next week, twice a week, with about [-] words each time." The middle-aged man immediately made a decision.

"What about the manuscript fee?" Mu Qiong asked.

The middle-aged man was a little hesitant, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "I will pay one yuan per thousand words! Our newspaper office usually pays ordinary authors five cents per thousand words, and one yuan is already a lot."

"Yes." Mu Qiong readily agreed.He has read some information and knows that in the mid-20s, that is, almost ten years later, ordinary people who were not well-known published articles in magazines and newspapers, and the manuscript fee was only about one yuan. Even get seven or eight yuan.

But the price of seven or eight yuan is also for articles such as prose and essays. The price of novels is generally not too high, and three or four yuan for a thousand words is already very good.

Of course, if the novels were written very well... At that time, some people could earn six or seven thousand silver dollars a year by writing novels.

After all, in the Republic of China, authors of published novels received high royalties, and books were sold very expensively.

And that is the price ten years later, the current silver dollar is worth more than ten years later.

The middle-aged man decided that the writer of the novel was an overseas student, and he was worried that he would not value a few cents, so he gave him a price of one yuan per thousand characters.

"Hurry up and bring over the manuscript written by your young master, and bring it over as soon as possible after he writes the rest... When it starts to be published next week, I will settle the manuscript fee for you." The middle-aged man said: " According to the rules of our newspaper, we will pay for the manuscript after it is published.”

"Okay, no problem." Mu Qiong said.

The middle-aged man smiled: "By the way, my name is Li Rong'an, and I'm the editor-in-chief of Dazhong Daily... What's your young master's name? Where does he live?"

"My young master doesn't want to reveal his information." Mu Qiong said, "When you publish it, just use his pseudonym Lou Yuyu."

When Mu Qiong gave himself a pen name in his previous life, he was still young, and he happened to see "Qiong Lou Yuyu" at that time, so he simply gave himself a pen name of Lou Yuyu, and now he uses it together.

"This...we can't all know who the person who wrote the novel is." Li Rongan frowned: "Go and tell your young master, just say that we will definitely not disclose his information to the outside world, just let him rest assured..."

"My young master doesn't want people to know." Mu Qiong said: "My young master said that since he wrote it, he will definitely write it well, and he will definitely not cheat you, so you can rest assured."

Li Rongan thought about it, and finally agreed.

In fact, at this time, there are quite a lot of people who don’t want to disclose their real identities, and some big names often change their pseudonyms. Although their newspapers have never encountered them because they never publish sensitive content, but now they do... Get to the bottom of it.

Now that the matter has been negotiated, Mu Qiong left the manuscript and left.

He hurried back to copy the remaining five thousand characters.

And after he left, the staff of Dazhong Daily's editorial department immediately surrounded Li Rongan: "Editor-in-Chief, we obviously don't have a page, yet you still add this novel... How well is it written?"

"Very good." Li Rongan said firmly: "It's the first time I've seen a novel like this... It's indeed written by an overseas student."

"let me see!"

"I want to see too."

"And I!"

Everyone rushed to read it, Li Rong'an said: "Take your time, read one by one, be careful when reading, don't damage the manuscript... Wait, let Xiao Wang copy two copies first, and then Go see what Xiao Wang copied."

"Show me too!" The boy who hadn't left all this time begged to read the previous content.

Li Rong'an ignored him.

"You guys! One day I... I, Fu Huai'an, want you to look good!" the boy said angrily.

The author has something to say:

During the Republic of China, Zhang Henshui made a lot of money writing novels!Especially "The Family of Gold Fans"~ Then Mr. Lu Xun, he is worth a thousand words.