Chapter 158: Big Courtyard Brother
The train is speeding on the Great Plains of North China.
It was already the next morning. Fang Minghua and the others were sitting on hard beds. After they washed up, they went to the dining car to have breakfast.
The food on the train in the 1980s was quite good. Yesterday’s dinner was grilled eggplant with dried shrimps and braised fish fillets. Breakfast was a porridge, pickles, and an omelette. I sat on the white dining table while eating. It is really a pleasure to look at the scenery outside while eating.
A variety of drinks are also provided - last night Fang Minghua opened a bottle of Danfeng wine, which is said to be a special product of the Xijing Railway Bureau.
Another advantage of eating at a food truck is that it only requires money and no food stamps.
Of course the price is not cheap, a portion of roasted eggplant with dried shrimps is 6 cents and 5 cents, and braised fish fillet is 1 cents and 5 cents. Spending several yuan for a meal is definitely a luxury.
But now we have money. All royalties from the publication of "The Legend of Wukong" in Hong Kong have been paid off. We have signed a contract with Baodao Culture Publishing House to print 300,000 copies for the first time. The royalties given are 13%, and ri The famous publishing company Kodansha is currently negotiating.
This does not include the royalties for the novel collection published last year and the "The Legend of Wukong" published in the mainland this year.
If you have money, you can't treat yourself badly. This is Fang Minghua's consistent principle, let alone with a girlfriend.
It was already afternoon when they arrived in Yanjing. They packed their luggage and piled onto the bus and went straight to the Huangsi Compound of the General Administration of Police near Andingmen.
There were guards standing guard at the door. Song Tangtang was wearing a military uniform and took out his military officer ID card. The other party looked carefully and registered at the door before letting him go.
"Minghua, I haven't been back for a long time. I used to live in grandma and grandpa's house, and everyone on guard knows each other, so there's no need to bother." Song Tangtang said with a smile.
Fang Minghua did not pay attention to the girl's words, but looked at this compound that was said to be very mysterious in the outside world. In fact, it is very ordinary inside. Most of them are buildings with gray walls and red tiles built in the 1960s and 1970s. There are pedestrians passing by and children playing on the road from time to time.
Of course there are young men wearing imitation 65-style green military uniforms, whistling and riding 28-meter bars, and some even have a beautiful girl behind them.
This reminds Fang Minghua of the movie "Sunny Days" filmed by Jiang Wen.
Seeing Fang Minghua walking and looking around, Song Tangtang asked: "Minghua, what are you looking for?"
"Nothing." Fang Minghua said: "I thought these courtyards were very mysterious, but When you come in, it’s actually very ordinary.”
“It’s very ordinary.”
Really?
The buildings are indeed ordinary, but the people who live here are not ordinary.
Including this compound, Yanjing also has the Air Force compound, the Navy compound, and the General Logistics compound
Fang Minghua had some knowledge about the mysterious group of the army compound brothers from the Internet before. This is a very complicated group, but one thing cannot be ignored. The disciples from the Beijing Grand Courtyard accounted for half of the capital’s cultural circle in the 1980s and 1990s.
From directors Jiang Wen, Chen Kaige, Guan Hu, Ye Jing, Zheng Xiaolong, to writers Wang Shuo, Hai Yan, to singer Cui Jian, media person Lao Cui, and antique collector Ma Weidu, including several female stars Xu Qing, Ye Jing, Xu Jinglei, Zhang Hanyu...the influence of these people in the cultural field in the mainland cannot be underestimated.
Of course the most powerful person in the literary world is Wang Shuo.
Has Wang Shuo published any novels now? Still doing business?
The two walked to a family courtyard. There were also rows of bungalows here, but they were obviously more spacious than the one where Song Tangtang's father lived, and the yard seemed larger.
Push open a door and go in. What you will see most is two rows of bonsai pansies, asters, and dwarfs on the edge of the yard. An old man with gray hair in casual clothes is pruning a pomegranate tree in the yard. .
"Grandpa." Song Tangtang put down the luggage in his hands, shouted happily, ran towards the old man, and threw himself into his arms.
"Tangtang, you finally came back to see grandpa." The old man said kindly.
"I've been a little busy recently." Song Tangtang muttered, then straightened up and introduced: "Grandpa, this is my boyfriend, Fang Minghua."
Fang Minghao quickly called out: "Grandpa, hello "
The old man looked him up and down and nodded with satisfaction: "The young man has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and he looks very talented. Where is his hometown?"
"My ancestral home is in Lu Province. I traveled through Guandong and arrived in Liao Province." Fang Minghua answered respectfully.
"Where is the Northeast? I have fought in the Northeast for several years!" "I heard Tangtang say that you are a troop from the Fourth Field."
"Yes, it's so cold. When I first went there from Hunan Province, I couldn't stand it."
The three of them were chatting when the door of the room opened and a man walked out. A very elegant old man with short ear-length hair. Although he is over seventy years old, it can be seen from his eyebrows that he was definitely a beautiful woman when he was young.
“Grandma.”
Song Tangtang called out and hugged her grandma’s shoulders affectionately.
"Grandma." Fang Minghua quickly shouted after him.
Grandma also looked at Fang Minghua, nodded, and said, "Come in and talk."
Fang Minghua quickly followed behind with his luggage.
"Tangtang, you haven't come to visit grandma and grandpa in almost a year, but Lili comes every weekend now." Grandma said angrily.
“It’s certainly convenient for Lili to study at Yanda. I’m busy, and it’s not convenient to be in Xijing because of the distance.”
"Then I'll simply transfer to Yanjing to work after I change my job, and live in my grandma's house!"
"Oh, what about my mother and second aunt? They said that Lili came to Yanjing to accompany you two elders, so they asked me to stay Xijing accompanies them."
"Accompany them?"
Grandma turned and glanced at Fang Minghua, who was following behind silently.
“Are you accompanying him?”
"Grandma." Song Tangtang Niu paused.
The house is very spacious, with a large living room in the middle, sofas and coffee tables, but they are all relatively old, but very clean.
Fang Minghua was sitting on the sofa, and naturally a nanny poured tea for him.
"Tangtang, how long do you plan to stay in Yanjing?" Grandma asked.
"There is nothing going on in the art troupe right now, so I don't care. The main thing is to see Minghua. He is here mainly to correct the manuscript." Song Tangtang replied.
Fang Minghua accepted the call and submitted the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong" to the Writers Publishing House. He was invited to revise the manuscript and briefly explained it. "The main thing is the progress of revising the manuscript. This can only be determined after communicating with the editor."
"The story of the Northeast you wrote?" At this time, my grandfather interjected: "The Northeast is a familiar place! One hundred thousand troops in 1945 Entering the Northeast, there is also "Three trips to the south of the Yangtze River, four protections to the river"
My grandfather was very excited when he talked about it, but he was glared at by his grandma: "You are talking about things during the liberation period, written by Minghua. It was in the early days of the Republic of China, so there was a gap of many years. "
Grandpa laughed after hearing this: "Pretty much, they are all in the same place anyway. ”
Fang Minghua felt happy when he saw this.
Grandma, a lady of the family, can take care of grandpa, a soldier.
At night, grandma and grandpa arranged a sumptuous dinner to entertain them, and they stayed at grandpa's house that night.
Of course they sleep in separate rooms.
The next morning, Fang Minghua was going to go to Shi Tiesheng's house and deliver the things Chen Ximi had brought there first, and then go to the Writer's Publishing House.
(End of this chapter)