Chapter 17 I’m afraid that my brother will have a better life than me
“Wow, hairtail! Pork dregs!”
Fang Yan came out of the room smelling the smell and saw steaming food on the table. I ate the steamed hairtail fish, swallowed my saliva, and saw the crispy and fluffy pork residue. I couldn't help but grab a piece and stuff it in my mouth.
"Swallow. Use chopsticks!"
Yang Xia scolded angrily.
Fang Yan stuck out her tongue, picked up the chopsticks, and put one piece after another into her mouth, leaving her mouth full of oil.
Pork scraps are her favorite snack, and she only eats them a few times throughout the year. Once she can take a bite, she is extremely happy.
“Yaya, Yanzi, you guys can eat too.”
Yang Xia greeted Fang Yan and Fang Hong.
Fang Yan pointed at the oil on her fingers, "Mom, what day is it today? Why is it so rich? It's just in time for the Chinese New Year!"
"Your brother's job has been secured, and his royalties have also been paid. Do you think it's time to celebrate?" Yang Xia said with a smile.
Fang Yan thought to himself that there is another thing worth celebrating, that is, Yang Xia and Fang Hong did not agree to the Lu family for their own sake. The tragedy of their sister's previous life has taken a big turn.
This trip back to Beijing was well worth it!
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Fang Yan said with a smile: “It would be best if I could pay my publication fee every day, so that I can celebrate every day and eat pork scraps every day!”
Fang Yan pinched her nose and said, "You're such a greedy little cat, you're just content with eating pork dregs. One day when Quanjude reopens, I'll bring you a roast duck."
"Brother, this is... You said it, don’t lie to me!”
Fang Yan’s eyes lit up.
"You, you just earned two dollars and you don't know how to spend it. You have made this girl's mouth so naughty that she can still swallow stick porridge."
Yang Xia pretended to be angry. Stared.
"Mom."
Fang Hong gave some advice, and Fang Yan answered: "I will stay in Yanjing for a few more days before returning to northern Shaanxi. During this time, I don't have to work hard to eat. Okay, there is no such shop after this village. Yanzi can just follow me and drink some soup.”
“What, we’re going back to northern Shaanxi so soon!”
Yang. Xia and others were shocked.
Fang Yan said: "I made an appointment with someone to take a bus back to northern Shaanxi together once the closing ceremony of the Literary Congress is over, which is the 17th."
"I've only been back for a few days, why do I have to leave again."
Yang Xia couldn't help but feel sad. Fang Hong and Fang Yan were not much better. The originally cheerful atmosphere suddenly became solemn and sad.
Fang Yan waved his hand, "Hey, it's not like I won't come back. I've already obtained the quota. When "Yanjing Literature and Art" completes the necessary procedures, I can recruit workers and return to the city. ."
"Yanzi is right, Mom, It’s not like I won’t come back!”
Fang Hong held Yang Xia’s hand to comfort her and saw her calm down, “We’re leaving on the 17th, right? It’ll be just in time for the squeezed lard to solidify. , I’ll make lard rice for you.”
"Wow, lard bibimbap!"
Fang Yan's eyes flashed with "bulingbuling".
“You are a snack.”
Fang Yan touched her head and said, “Mom, sister, you just need to know about me, and try not to tell outsiders.”< br>
“Okay, don’t say it, don’t say it.”
Yang Xia put a piece of pork dregs into her son's bowl and said, "Yanzi, don't forget to take some time to go to the post office to get your royalties."
"I'll go to the post office to get the money tomorrow."
The day after Fang Yan finished saying this, he went to No. 7 West Chang'an Avenue as usual and stayed in the editorial office to revise the manuscript. Finally, these days were not in vain, and he successfully changed "Loess Plateau" into a reflective novel.
It was circulated and unanimously approved by editors such as Li Qingquan, Wang Meng, Zhou Yanru, etc., and it was finalized for publication in the next issue.
Still, the front page of the journal!
After finishing the last thing in Yanjing, I went to the post office, went to the money exchange window, took out the money, and put it into my underwear pocket.
With a huge sum of money, he carefully returned to Nanluoguxiang.
“Congratulations, Yanzi!”
Suddenly, Su Ya’s voice came from behind.
Fang Yan was excited. Looking back, he saw Fang Hong and Su Ya walking together after work, "Where does the joy come from?"
"Come on, Sister Hong told me that you are going to work at "Yanjing Literature and Art"." Su Ya was sincerely happy for her.
"Sister, I didn't tell you yesterday not to..."
Fang Yan sighed helplessly.
"Su Ya is not an outsider, we all grew up in the same courtyard."
Fang Hong smiled awkwardly, but saw Su Ya put her hands on her hips and looked at each other: "Yes Ah, you are so mean, you still want to hide this from me? We are in elementary school, junior high school, and high school, and we are all studying in the same school. What kind of friendship do you think this is?”
"Pure revolutionary friendship?"
Fang Yan raised his eyebrows.
“That’s right!”
Su Ya pointed to his satchel, “So tell me honestly, why is your bag bulging so much more than usual? What’s in it?”
"Just some letters." Fang Yan said.
"It can't be a love letter, right?"
When she heard it was a letter, Su Ya couldn't help but tease.
"What are you thinking about? They are letters from readers."
Fang Yan explained seriously that what was in the satchel were all letters sent to him by readers who had read "The Wrangler" because he did not know the author. The specific address is basically collected by the editorial department.
This is also one of my future jobs, sorting out letters from readers and forwarding them to the author, or answering them on my behalf.
"Is there anyone from our factory?"
Su Ya watched him take out a stack of letters from his satchel: "You don't know, many lesbians in our factory have written to you."
< br>At this moment, a voice echoed in the alley:
"Is Liu Jianjun at home!" "Coming! Coming!"
Liu Jianjun hurried to the door, took a stack of letters from the postman, and opened the envelope eagerly.
"People's Literature", rejected!
"Contemporary", rejected!
On each piece of paper, the reasons for rejection and the editor’s suggestions for revision are written, but the general meaning is the same.
It is divorced from realistic logic and difficult to resonate emotionally.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible..."
Liu Jianjun was hit and lost his mind.
Fang Yan sneaked up to him and said, "Jianjun, what's on the letter? I'm so fascinated by it!"
"Ah!"
Liu Jianjun was He screamed in fright, and when he came back to his senses, he noticed Fang Yan, Fang Hong, and Su Ya standing in front of him, and said angrily: "What are you doing, kid? You scared me to death."
"Then you have to blame yourself for taking it too seriously."
Fang Yan leaned his head over, "What does it say?"
"It's nothing, I met a few pen pals in the cram school. "
Liu Jianjun rejected the manuscript with a guilty conscience. The hand holding the letter was hidden behind her back, "No, this is the letter they sent me."
Su Ya was about to open her mouth, but was immediately interrupted by the postman's sentence, "Teacher Fang, there is a letter from you." Pay attention. Li Li was then attracted by the snowflake-like letters in the bag, bundle after bundle.
The addresses written are all kinds of.
Some wrote "The author of "The Wrangler" has a dialect collection", some wrote "Yanjing writer has a dialect collection", and some even just wrote "Yanjing dialect collection", no beginning or end, no Detailed address.
Thankfully the postmen in this area know the dialect.
Looking at the heavy letters from readers in Fang Yan’s hand, Liu Jianjun felt sad when he thought that these were only sent to him, and there were countless others across the country who had not been able to successfully send them here.
Wait a minute, I still have two letters to open!
maybe!
Suddenly, I felt energetic.
Liu Jianjun glanced at it, saw one letter from "China Youth Daily" and one letter from "Yanjing Literature and Art", and broke the seal.
"China Youth Daily", rejected!
The content of the rejection letter was very formulaic. It only said "Thank you for submitting" and so on. It didn't even bother to mention any suggestions for revision. The two novels were sent back exactly as they were sent.
In the end, only "Yanjing Literature and Art", which I paid the least attention to and regarded as a guarantee, was now the only glimmer of hope left.
My heart is trembling and my hands are trembling.
He didn't dare to open it anymore, especially when he saw the postman holding Fang Yan's hand and shaking it hard, as if there was a thorn in his chest.
“Hey, Jianjun!”
Su Ya caught a glimpse of him sneaking back into the courtyard quietly from the corner of her eye.
Fang Hong asked in surprise: "What's going on with him?"
"I don't know, Jianjun really just left without saying hello to us. This is not usually the case."
Su Ya was puzzled.
"I'm probably in a hurry to reply to my pen pal."
A smile appeared on Fang Yan's lips. He could see clearly just now that the pen pal was clearly a rejection letter!
"Isn't this still a rejection letter?"
Liu Jianjun was lying on the bed, reading the letter over and over, but he didn't break the seal, and couldn't make up his mind.
"Jianjun, who sent the letter?"
Wang Meili suddenly walked to his room and asked, "Is it a letter from the publisher? Is your novel about to be published?"
"Mom, why are you in such a hurry? How could it be so fast?"
Liu Jianjun straightened up.
"Can I not be in a hurry? Do you know that because Yanzi published a novel, he now goes directly to work at "Yanjing Literature and Art"."
Wang Meili's tone was full of emotion. Sour.
“What?!”
Liu Jianjun opened his mouth in shock.
"Didn't you see Yanzi's happy look when his mother was doing the laundry?" Wang Meili couldn't help but sigh, "I really didn't see that Yanzi was not serious when he was a child, and he didn't look like a scholar at all. Now he is serious. I have become a scholar."
"How...how could this happen..."
Liu Jianjun stared down at the letter in his hand, his Adam's apple squirming.
Wang Meili frowned and said: "Jianjun, you should work harder, you know, if the novel can really be published, even if you don't do well in the college entrance examination, you can still be like Yanzi and work as an editor in a publishing house."
"Don't worry, don't you have confidence in your son yet?"
Liu Jianjun perfunctoryly dealt with Wang Meili and sent her out.
I pressed my whole body against the wall, took a deep breath, and thought to myself:
Although "People's Literature" and "Contemporary" rejected my manuscript, dialects are not included in these. Published in journals.
It's just in "Yanjing Literature and Art".
If you can do it in dialect, you can do it yourself!
Finally, after mentally building myself up and regaining my courage, I opened the envelope and saw dense words written on each page. After reading carefully for a long time, I saw two words between the words——
< br>Reject!
No! ! ! ! ! !
Liu Jianjun's face was pale, his heart was broken, his back was pressed against the wall, slowly sliding down, and the rejection letter also fell from his hand.
Pages of paper are falling around.
Starting to enter the next stage, the drama between Liu and Lu came to an end.
Looking for collection, reading and investment.
(End of this chapter)