Chapter 19: Old Zou's Crow Mouth
"My Brothers and Sisters" was published in the May issue of "Beijing Literature and Art". Liu Hongmin happily took the 5 yuan manuscript fee and waited for the arrival of May.
During this period, Liu Hongmin and Ge Chaoguang also published their papers. This paper contradicts the mainstream cognition of the history department of Peking University, but the arguments and evidence of this paper are impeccable. In addition, with the support of Professor Tao, it also gained the support of some people. These people also disagree with the mainstream cognition, but because they are in a weak position, they have no way to compete with the mainstream cognition and can only temporarily gather together for warmth.
Liu Hongmin knew the truth about this matter. Following Professor Tao, he learned some of the inside story.
That special period affected all parts of the country, including the Kyoto University campus. How could those mainstream people stay and teach at Kyoto University during that special period if they did not cater to the opinions of certain people?
It's not that Liu Hongmin killed a group of people with one stick, but that catering to the opinions of certain people is a problem in itself, even if he is pretending.
Although Liu Hongmin knew about it, he did not express it. In the history circle, he is a nobody, and no one would care even if it happened. On the contrary, if it happened now, it would attract the attention of some people, and he might be suppressed, and then Professor Tao might be implicated.
"The Mystery of the Hermit Village" was also published in "Unnamed Lake", and the contract for the single volume of "Blood Sacrifice Altar" was also signed. Because "Famous in the World" performed well, Jingda Press priced "Blood Sacrifice Altar" at yuan per thousand words, 50 cents more than "Unnamed Lake".
Liu Hongmin was very satisfied. He now had nearly three thousand yuan, which was almost enough to buy a courtyard house with full ownership, and it was near the Second Ring Road.
There are many problems with the current courtyard houses. Some people have ownership rights but not the right to live in them. The tenants who live in them all moved in before the special period and have permanent residence rights. They only need to pay two yuan in rent every month. However, the landlords suffer a great loss. The house is only worth more than ten yuan, but they have to spend two or three hundred yuan every year to repair the house. Not only do they not make any money, but they also have to lose money.
So many people want to sell their houses to the Housing Authority. Because there are so many people who want to sell their houses, they have to ask someone to find connections, or just wait!
I heard that a courtyard house like this can be bought for only about a thousand yuan.
Liu Hongmin knew that the problem would not be completely solved until after the millennium. At that time, the Olympic Games were to be held, so the relevant departments took action to solve the Siheyuan problem.
Therefore, Liu Hongmin didn't want to buy such a courtyard house at all.
But he was not in a hurry, because the craze for going abroad would soon rise, and he would definitely be able to buy a suitable house by then. He handed this matter over to Zou Shifang, because this guy had nothing to do all day anyway. He was only responsible for reviewing poems at Weiming Lake, and he could tell whether a poem was well written or not with just a few glances. Therefore, although there were a lot of manuscripts of poems, Zou Shifang was still very relaxed, otherwise how could he have the leisure to act as a matchmaker?
At the end of April, Liu Hongmin finished writing Shao Bao's fourth work, "Showing Off His Power in Front of the Palace", and "Wenming Lake" was scheduled to be published in June.
After publishing Blood Altar and The Mystery of the Hermit Village for two consecutive months, Unnamed Lake has accumulated a lot of manuscripts, filling up the pages of the May issue. Now, only Liu Hongmin is the author of Unnamed Lake who writes novellas, and the others are either short stories or poems, so it is difficult to fill the pages of the magazine every month.
If there was no shortage of money, "Unnamed Lake" would probably be a bimonthly publication. It can be said that Liu Hongmin holds up half of "Unnamed Lake".
Therefore, the remuneration for "Making a name for yourself" rose to 690 yuan per thousand words, and Liu Hongmin received 3500 yuan in royalties, which made his savings exceed 5000 yuan. If he had not bought a house before the summer vacation, Liu Hongmin's savings would probably exceed yuan.
However, Liu Hongmin is still looking forward to the publication of "My Brothers and Sisters" because it is his first novel submitted to a magazine outside the school. If "My Brothers and Sisters" can stir up some splashes, Liu Hongmin will focus on the outside world in the future, and the writing progress of the Shao Bao series will be temporarily suspended.
He no longer needs to put too much energy into writing Shao Bao. After writing four books, he feels more and more comfortable with it, and he only needs to do some minor polishing after finishing.
As Liu Hongmin was looking forward to it, May came quickly. When Beijing Literature and Art was published, Liu Hongmin immediately bought a copy for collection.
This made Zou Shifang very unhappy. "When Weiming Lake was first published, I didn't see you buying a copy."
Liu Hongmin looked at me like a fool, "You gave me the copy of Weiming Lake, and I bought it. Isn't that stupid?" Zou Shifang was speechless, "Is it wrong to give you a copy?"
"Yes, it saves me money."
Zou Shifang was so angry that he rolled his eyes, thinking that he would never send magazines to this kid again and would force him to buy a cup.
Liu Hongmin: "Hey, Lao Zou, Beijing Literature and Art said that My Brothers and Sisters might cause controversy. What do you think?"
Zou Shifang had long understood his thoughts and deliberately said, "As for your book, how much criticism can there be? Don't dream."
"Crow's Mouth!"
Liu Hongmin glared at him unhappily, "Can't you say something nice?"
Zou Shifang felt relieved and immediately felt better.
But he didn't expect that this time he would really be a pessimist.
"My Brothers and Sisters" did attract some criticism at the beginning, and some people did use these details to make a fuss. But soon, a writer familiar with the law spoke out, saying that the "Criminal Law" just promulgated this year added the crime of homeless blindness.
This made those who were looking for trouble disappear because they did not understand the law and did not know how serious the sentence for the crime of blindness could be. What if the death penalty could really be carried out?
When Liu Hongmin learned about this, he was so angry that he wanted to find the writer. He "politely" grabbed his collar and "sincerely" said: "Thank you so much!"
Although other controversial points still exist, their total value is not as serious as that of the blind man. It just caused a small splash.
By June, this small splash of water was submerged by a huge wave.
The magazine "Harvest" published Feng Jicai's "Ah!", which immediately became a new benchmark for scar literature. He did not describe the events of the special period in detail, but instead used a letter to describe the situation during that period when everyone was in danger and suspicious of everything, which caused a stronger sense of depression than "Class Teacher" and "Scars".
Feng Jicai is different from Liu Xinwu and Lu Xinhua. He has published two novels, the long novel "The Boxer Rebellion" and the novella "The Flower-paved Crossroads". He is already a mature writer. His writing skills are much better than Liu Xinwu and Lu Xinhua, so the response is naturally stronger than the two.
Compared with "Ah!", it would be strange if "My Brothers and Sisters" could make a splash!
(End of this chapter)
