Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 555 Redemption
Wednesday, September 4th.

Chen Fan spent the morning in Professor Xu's office learning classical Chinese with his teacher. ... This old man was not a gentleman. He had agreed to talk about the general history of China, but it turned into the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Records of the Grand Historian. That was bad enough, but later he even started talking about the Analects, the Book of Poetry and the Anthology of Classical Chinese Prose.

Is there any connection between *Guwen Guanzhi* and general history?

Fortunately, he had practiced before, and with his intense studying during this period, he could at least recite the chronicles of more than four thousand years of history. Combined with his previous learning, he was able to barely manage to cope.

Then I happily received three assignments.

Professor Xu asked him to choose three historical events at random and write a paper on each.

I studied literature, so why should I study history?
Chen Fan immediately said that he would definitely submit it before the end of the semester!
It's just three history papers, no big deal.

Have you seen the CCTV documentary "A General History of China"? He has!

The entire series consists of 100 episodes, recreating the history from the origins of Chinese civilization to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in a revolutionary fire, covering numerous historical events throughout history.

Before filming began, dozens of experts and scholars from institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, museums, and historical societies were invited to serve as consultants, ensuring the reliability of the content.

We can just copy three episodes and that's it.

However, even though he copied the information, he still needed to understand the relevant historical data of these three events, otherwise he wouldn't be able to withstand Professor Xu's questioning.

That being said, after studying with Professor Xu for a week, he has begun to grasp the structure of the learning process that the teacher has arranged for him.

Using history as a starting point allows us to learn about the development of classical Chinese texts and even Chinese literature, drawing inspiration from them to enrich modern literature. It also helps us to reflect on our own experiences.

History is the best judge of people.

Chen Fan achieved fame too early. Taking advantage of the gap in the literary world when there was a lack of new talent, he bombarded more than a dozen provincial literary magazines that had resumed publication with dozens of novels. Before any new talents had been cultivated, he had already established himself as a leader in the literary world, even surpassing ordinary young people who had achieved fame at a young age.

In addition, Professor Xu felt that his articles were somewhat scattered and lacked a core, so he used this method to help him slow down, calm down, and properly reflect and grow.

If I can successfully graduate from Professor Xu's class, it won't just be a matter of establishing myself in the literary world, but I will have enough confidence and prestige in the entire literary and artistic circles.

Xu Zurui's true disciples must possess such status and strength.

Most importantly, the three elders of Jiangda University are one, and the students they have educated over the decades, who are now spread all over the country, will be his solid support!

……

Chen Fan attended classes at school in the morning and then appeared at the Writers' Association in the afternoon.

The advertisement has been running for three days, and preliminary results should already be in.

In other words, a statement had already been made in the newspapers and at the entrance of the Writers' Association that only mail-in applications would be accepted; otherwise, literary youths from the provincial capital and surrounding areas would have had to travel to the site to apply.

Because it's fast.

Now there's no need to worry about on-site reception.

Chen Fan walked into a large conference room on the first floor, where a bustling scene was in full swing.

Packages of letters were piled up in the corner by the door, and a dozen staff members were busy opening the letters, registering them, and collecting money.

Some people send money orders, which naturally require them to go to the post office to collect the money. Others simply mail the money in a registered letter.

Almost no one sends regular letters; they either send money orders or registered mail because it's faster and safer, and generally won't get lost. Losing your registration fee is a minor issue compared to not registering at all, if you're trying to save a few cents by sending regular mail.

Bian Huifang was holding a notebook and tallying the statistics when she saw Chen Fan enter. She immediately ran over and said with a beaming face, "Director, as of now, we have received more than 12,000 registration letters, most of which are from our province, and the rest are from neighboring provinces."

I asked the postman, and he said that mail to more distant areas usually takes about a week to arrive, so there should still be a lot of mail on the way, and I can't estimate the exact number.

Chen Fan nodded slightly. "Have you reported this to Chairman He?"

Bian Huifang: "Chairman He just came by, and I reported to him."

"it is good."

Chen Fan nodded and then said, "Remember, once we receive 20,000 applications, immediately call Wenhui Daily and Jiangnan Daily to publish the application deadline notice."

Bian Huifang quickly wrote it down, and after finishing, she paused for a moment, a hint of hesitation appearing on her face.

Chen Fan looked at her and said, "Do you think that if we only recruit 20,000 people, by the time we receive 20,000 applications, there will still be many applications on the way that haven't been sent yet, and the number of applicants will definitely exceed the limit?"

Bian Huifang nodded immediately, looked at him with puzzlement, and asked, "Since you thought of this, why didn't you notify them in advance to publish the announcement?"

She was certain that by this time tomorrow, the number of applications she had received would exceed 20,000. If the publication was delayed by one day, wouldn't even more applications arrive by then?
Chen Fan laughed and didn't explain, simply saying, "Just do as I say, and you'll see when the time comes."

After saying that, he turned around and walked out.

Go up the stairs to the second floor, where Xu Qizhen and Tan Yong were both in He Qingsheng's office.

Chen Fan knocked and entered. He Qingsheng immediately stood up, laughing loudly, and said, "Do you know how many people have signed up?"

"I just went to see it."

Chen Fan walked to the sofa and sat down. "More than 12,000 people have already signed up."

Xu Qizhen immediately laughed and said, "Yes, more than 12,000 yuan, plus a registration fee of 10 yuan per person, that's more than 120,000 yuan."

Tan Yong laughed heartily, a cigarette between his fingers, "The letters will keep coming in, and there won't be any problem with filling the 20,000 spots."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Chen Fan and asked, "Should we notify Wenhui Daily and Jiangnan Daily to publish an announcement tomorrow regarding the registration deadline?"

He Qingsheng nodded and sat down, saying, "Any more would be too much. It's better to be conservative the first time."

Chen Fan shook his head, "No rush, it's okay if it's a little over."

He Qingsheng was taken aback for a moment, his eyes scrutinizing him. "What kind of mischief are you up to now?"

Chen Fan chuckled and looked at him, saying, "Uncle He, our correspondence course has caused such a stir this time, and we even advertised it in Wenhui Daily. Do you think the General Association and the other provincial branches will take it into consideration?"

A loud drum doesn't need a heavy hammer; a single sentence was enough to bring He Qingsheng and the other two to their senses.

Tan Yong, with a cigarette butt between his teeth and a furrowed brow, said, “That makes sense. These days, everyone is struggling. We suddenly made over ten thousand yuan, and the key is that it came so easily. No wonder they’re envious.”

Xu Qizhen frowned and said, "According to past practice, when the unit generates extra revenue, a portion must be handed over to the provincial leadership and a portion to the headquarters. These are all expected. After deducting various expenses, there is actually not much left for us."

However, our counterparts in other provinces won't see it that way. They'll only see that we set up a not-so-complicated correspondence center and made 20 yuan in one go..."

As she spoke, she looked up and turned to look at the three of them. "Who knows, our Jiangnan Writers Association might become the first to stick its neck out this time."

He Qingsheng took out a cigarette, lit it, and exhaled a puff of smoke. "It's certain that the first bird to stick its neck out will be caught, and there will be no shortage of others following suit."

He turned to look at Chen Fan and asked with a smile, "Are you planning to give away these extra students as favors?"

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "Anyway, after we stop recruiting, other provinces will recruit them, so we might as well just send these extra students to them."

"That way, the trainees will have places to go, those organizations will benefit, and we'll avoid becoming the scapegoats. Everyone's happy, so why not?"

Upon hearing this, He Qingsheng and the others burst out laughing.

No one asked why they didn't simply delay the announcement for a few more days.

That would seem too deliberate.

Based on the number of applications received, the deadline is 20000. At that point, issuing a notice to close the application period would be perfectly reasonable. As for the applications still in transit, those are just extra "favors," which can be distributed to the writers' associations of the students' respective provinces later—it's a token of appreciation.

Of course, if the provincial writers' association has no intention of setting up a correspondence center, then it has nothing to do with the Jiangnan Writers' Association.

At worst, we can just expand enrollment slightly to take in these students who are currently unemployed, and we can make more money that way.

As for whether there are enough students to go around since everyone is offering correspondence courses, there's even less to worry about.

You can never harvest all the chives!
Years later, with so many literature training classes across the country, they have trained at least a million students, and they are still thriving.

Besides, based on the prestigious reputation of the Jiangnan Writers Association, apart from Beijing and Shanghai, which dare not compare, other established literary powerhouses such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong are at most comparable to the Jiangnan Writers Association, and certainly not surpass it; some are even weaker.

Will we still be afraid of losing the competition then?!

Chen Fan leaned back on the sofa, grabbed the Golden Dragon cigarettes in front of He Qingsheng, pulled one out, and said with a look of disgust, "You're the chairman of the association, you just made 20 yuan, and you smoke this?"

He Qingsheng, who had been smiling, turned pale upon hearing this. "How dare you say that? You took my whole case of Platinum Dragon cigarettes! Do you know that was for entertaining guests? I had to find a way to cover the loss myself."

And also…

He suddenly remembered something, got up, walked behind his desk, opened a drawer, took out three pieces of paper, walked over and slapped them in front of Chen Fan, "Treat me to a meal!" Chen Fan picked them up and looked at them; they were a local check, a remittance slip, and a foreign exchange slip.

(A foreign exchange remittance slip from 73, showing 450 Hong Kong dollars, which is a bit low when converted to RMB.)
After He Qingsheng sat down, he explained to him, "Look, that remittance slip from Shanghai is the royalties paid to you by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House for your book 'Shanghai Spy Shadow'. It's 50 words, 7 yuan per thousand words, for a total of 3500 yuan."

Chen Fan looked up, his eyes filled with surprise. "This book hasn't been finished being copied yet, has it? It's being published so quickly?"

He Qingsheng shrugged. "Then you'll have to ask Mr. Ba Jin. Anyway, the royalties have been paid to you, so you can't go back on your word."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly. He put the remittance slip aside and looked at the second one.

The amount on this cash check is 2740 yuan.

(A 73 cash cheque, but only valid locally)

Upon seeing the amount on the check, Chen Fan frowned slightly. "Is this the royalties for 'Yunhu Love'? Why is there an extra 500 yuan?"

The entire novel "Love of Cloud Lake" is 32 words long. According to the highest standard of 7 yuan per thousand words, the manuscript fee should be 2240 yuan. What is the extra 500 yuan?
Xu Qizhen, standing nearby, said irritably, "Your salary? 125 a month, that's exactly 500 in four months!"

Chen Fan suddenly realized, "Oh right, I'm a deputy division-level cadre, and I haven't even received a salary yet."

He immediately put the check away with a smile, saying, "Okay, okay, it's on me."

Tan Yong's eyes lit up, and he looked at him, asking, "Shall we go to a wild game restaurant?"

Chen Fan's face fell. "Extravagance and waste are unacceptable. Let's stick to the company cafeteria!"

Tan Yong rolled his eyes. "Stingy."

He Qingsheng pointed to the last foreign exchange statement, "Look, look, 23 US dollars, more than 38 RMB, and you can't even afford to treat someone to a wild game restaurant?!"

Chen Fan picked up the check and looked at it, ignoring his question, and asked curiously, "Was there a remittance certificate when you received the money?"

He Qingsheng was speechless. He turned to look at Tan Yong and said, "Too stingy!"

Tan Yong nodded in deep agreement, "Agreed."

Xu Qizhen covered her mouth and chuckled.

Chen Fan stood up, clutching his pocket, and walked out, saying, "I'm going to get some money."

……

I picked up the checks and foreign exchange slips at the bank. It had only been a few days since I signed the contract with Hideo Takahashi, and the RMB had appreciated a little. So the amount I received was exactly 38 yuan, just over 5 yuan less.

Including my salary and royalties from Yunhu Lian, I received a total of 387,740 yuan.

And 57750 yuan in remittance vouchers.

A 15% figure is not bad.

After receiving the money, Chen Fan kept only a small amount for himself, exchanged the 38 yuan for a check, went to the post office to mail it to Master Zhang, and also picked up the royalties sent from Shanghai.

These days, there's no such thing as interbank remittances between different cities. Due to the lack of electronic networking technology, most intercity payments are made through the post office.

For large sums of money transfers, banks do have the capacity to allocate funds.

Unfortunately, it only works for business-to-business transactions, such as government-funded allocations to local governments or large transactions between organizations. These can be made through cross-regional bank transfers, but private-to-private transactions are not covered by the service. Therefore, Chen Fan had to go to the post office.

Such a large sum of money really startled the people at the post office.

Fortunately, Chen Fan had anticipated this and brought all the necessary documents, including those from the Writers' Association and the bank. The post office also patiently called both organizations to confirm everything before processing the remittance for Chen Fan.

Chen Fan wasn't worried about any problems arising.

The recipient's address was Mr. Zhang's workplace. Although he's retired, his workplace is still there—a military unit, and it's such a large sum of money, who would dare to be careless?!
After completing the formalities, Chen Fan returned to the Writers' Association, where He Qingsheng and the other two were already waiting for him in his office.

Chen Fan glanced at the three of them, then walked around behind the desk and sat down. "What are you doing here?"

Xu Qizhen smiled warmly, "You're back! Did the money withdrawal go smoothly?"

He Qingsheng didn't smoke Golden Dragon cigarettes anymore, nor did he open Platinum Dragon cigarettes. He simply tossed out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes with filters and said, "Smoke this."

Chen Fan picked it up and looked at it, then looked up at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

Tan Yong also came over, pulled out a chair and sat down. "Ahem, Comrade Chen, do you have somewhere to eat tonight? If not, let's go to a wild game restaurant, it's on me!"

Chen Fan glanced at him, then at the filtered Zhonghua cigarettes on the table, and then at Secretary-General Xu, who was smiling like an aunt. He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. "Just say what your purpose is. I'm scared by this."

The three exchanged glances, and finally He Qingsheng and Tan Yong focused their attention on Xu Qizhen's face.

Xu Qizhen's eyes twitched slightly. She turned to look at Chen Fan, her smile becoming even more exaggerated. "Um, Xiao Fan, am I still your sister?"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly twice, "Sis, just say what you have to say, or I'm leaving."

"Don't leave!"

Xu Qizhen slammed her hand on the table, startling Chen Fan.

She quickly put on a smile and said, "Don't be afraid, little brother. I just have something I want to ask you."

Chen Fan clutched his chest. "You tell me."

Xu Qizhen leaned on the desk, looked at him, and asked, "How many remittance certificates did you receive when you withdrew the money?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan finally realized what was happening.

So all you wanted after all was remittance certificates?!

He immediately shifted his position, coughed lightly, looked at the three of them, and smiled, "What's wrong, Uncle He, Uncle Tan, and Sister Xu? You all want remittance certificates?"

The three nodded in unison, "Yes!"

Chen Fan couldn't help but chuckle, "Uncle He, didn't you say before that it was easy for the Writers' Association to buy things? Why do you still need remittance certificates?"

Upon hearing this, He Qingsheng couldn't help but turn pale. "How dare you say that..."

She had barely begun speaking when she remembered she still needed to ask for a favor, so she quickly changed her expression and said with a beaming smile, "Xiao Fan, you really tricked me and your sister Xu last time. I told you to buy souvenirs yourself, but you weren't buying goods at the department store, you were buying supplies from the supply and marketing cooperative!"

You only buy the expensive things, not the cheap ones; you only buy imported goods, not domestic ones! To get these ration coupons, I had to beg and plead everywhere, and finally managed to get enough remittance certificates—several hundred dollars!

Chen Fan swiftly pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and looked at him, asking, "A few hundred?"

He Qingsheng stared wide-eyed at the remittance certificates in his hand. "Not much, only two thousand."

(Remittance certificates were issued by province. Foreign exchange certificates were issued nationwide.)

Chen Fan looked at him speechlessly, "Uncle, I know how much stuff I bought. The most expensive thing was two Titoni watches, with a date display and 25 jewels, which cost 430 yuan each. That's only 860 yuan in total. Even if you include other things, it won't even reach 1,000 yuan."

He Qingsheng's eyes widened. "No interest?"

Xu Qizhen suddenly slammed her hand on the table, "How can you be so selfish?"

Chen Fan turned to look at her, about to say something to thank her for speaking up for him, when he heard the woman continue, "Why do you only care about yourself and not us?"

Tan Yong nodded in agreement, "Exactly, you want 2000, but what about ours?"

Then the two of them looked at Chen Fan together and said, "Add two more of two thousand!"

He Qingsheng quickly tried to salvage the situation, saying, "This is the interest!"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue, silently counted out 6000 remittance certificates, divided them into three portions and pushed them in front of each person. He looked up and sighed, "If you take someone's money, you have to do their bidding. I've given them these remittance certificates. If others still want them, you have to help me turn them away!"

The three of them looked at each other in disbelief. Had they gotten it so easily?

The next second, Xu Qizhen grabbed the remittance certificates in her hand, looked at Chen Fan and said, "Good brother, take out another 6000 yuan in remittance certificates, and I promise no one will bother you again!"

Without saying a word, Tan Yong pulled out two bundles of banknotes and threw them in front of him, saying, "I won't take yours for free. I'll exchange them for you at a 1:1 ratio."

Xu Qizhen and He Qingsheng also took out their money and placed it in front of him.

Chen Fan blinked, looked at the six bundles of cash on the table, and thought to himself, "Is there really such a good thing?"
He immediately took out most of the remittance certificates from his bag, placed them on the table, and chuckled, "I have 50000 yuan worth of certificates here, anyone want them?!"

(End of this chapter)