1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 35 The Editor Comes to the Door
dong dong dong...

Hearing the knock on the door, Chen Fusheng assumed it was his mother-in-law and sister-in-law who had gone out to buy groceries and were back so quickly.

When they opened the door, they found it was Xiao Xinghai.

Moreover, he was carrying quite a few things in his hands.

"Old Xiao, what are you up to?"

"We heard that you had a daughter, Mr. Chen, so the magazine sent me as their representative to come and congratulate you."

As he spoke, Xiao Xinghai handed over some canned fruit and other items that he was carrying in both hands.

Chen Fusheng accepted it without any qualms when he heard it was a gift from the magazine.

Since he and Lao Xiao had become familiar with each other, he even joked, "How can you possibly finish all this fruit at once? Remember to send less next time."

"Haha, okay, I'll think about it later."

"Just kidding, Lao Xiao, come in and sit down."

"convenient?"

“What’s inconvenient about it? You’ve come all this way to bring me fruit, do you think I’d not even let you in the door? If word got out, I’d be drowned in gossip.”

"It's not as serious as you make it out to be."

However, Xiao Xinghai didn't pretend to be polite anymore.

"What a beautiful baby! What's your name?"

“Girl, you said my name is Chen Qian, and my nickname is Qianqian.”

After Chen Fusheng finished speaking, he took his daughter from his wife's arms. The little one was much prettier than when she was first born. She was fair-skinned and clean, just like a porcelain doll.

Babies this young get sleepy very easily. Chen Fusheng hadn't even held him for two minutes when the little guy started yawning again.

With guests present, Chen Fusheng didn't hold her and lull her to sleep himself, but instead handed her over to her mother.

After Liu Xiaoli took her daughter away, Chen Fusheng and Xiao Xinghai changed the subject in the living room.

"When is your movie going to be released?" Xiao Xinghai asked.

"I'm not too sure. I guess they've only just finished post-production by now."

Chen Fusheng continued, "After I came back, my wife was about to give birth. Now that she has given birth, she has to take care of the baby every day and has no energy to inquire about the movie."

"Will it be released this year?"

"That should be fine, as long as there are no problems with the review process."

"Where is your film crew shooting? Are the conditions very tough? You seem to have lost a lot of weight since you came back."

"The conditions on set were alright. We didn't go to any particularly difficult places, just a rural area in Sichuan. As for why I lost weight, it's because I'm the lead actor. Every day, I had to do my makeup so I looked like a beggar, and I also had to get into character. I didn't have much of an appetite, so I ate very little."

"Aren't you the screenwriter? How did you become the lead actor?" Xiao Xinghai asked in surprise, having never heard this inside story before.

"Because when we auditioned at the factory, we couldn't find a suitable male lead. In the end, Lao Han and the others thought my acting skills were pretty good, so they let me play Niu Er."

"You're going to play Niu Er? Really?" No matter how Xiao Xinghai looked at it, he couldn't imagine what Niu Er would look like with Chen Fusheng's tall and handsome appearance.

"You'll see for yourself when the movie is released." Chen Fusheng understood the other person's doubts, but he didn't want to explain anymore, so he simply kept it a secret.

Xiao Xinghai still had some doubts, but seeing that Chen Fusheng didn't say anything, he didn't press the matter. Instead, he finally shifted the topic to the mission that the magazine had sent him for.

"Speaking of which, it's been about half a year since you submitted 'Cliff Walkers' to Northern Literature magazine. How have you been? Have you had any new inspiration lately?"

"I'm too busy to think about it, so where would I get inspiration?" Chen Fusheng said.

"Are you busy right now?" Xiao Xinghai felt that Chen Fusheng was lying through his teeth.

But actually, that's not the case.

Every evening, my daughter is either hungry and wants to eat, or she poops and I have to change her pants. After all that, I still have to coax her to sleep.

Chen Fusheng couldn't sleep well every day, so how could he have the energy to write novels?

"Is your magazine short of manuscripts again?" he asked rhetorically. "Yes, it's much worse now that it's a monthly publication. That's why the magazine sent me to solicit manuscripts from you, the great writer," Xiao Xinghai replied.

Chen Fusheng didn't respond to that question, but instead asked about the sales figures for their first issue of the magazine.

"As of last month, we sold about 360 million copies of your issue of 'Bullfighting' magazine. In the first two months, bookstores had a lot of orders, and the printing press was working so hard that the machines were smoking and still couldn't keep up. But starting from the third month, orders dropped sharply, and in the following months, they have become even fewer."

Chen Fusheng nodded. Actually, this principle is similar to movie box office. When there is popularity, buzz, and traffic, the box office will soar. But once the hype dies down and the market cools down, naturally not many people will buy tickets to go to the cinema.

"Since we've come up with this topic, Professor Chen, do you know how much sales your article 'Above the Cliff' brought to that issue of 'Northern Literature'?" Xiao Xinghai asked.

Chen Fusheng thought for a moment and said, "I remember they wrote me a letter before, saying that they sold 300,000 copies in the first week or something, but I don't know what happened after that."

He paused for a moment, then looked at Xiao Xinghai: "Do you know?"

"Their magazine sold 138 million copies in two months. I'm not sure how many copies it sold after that, but based on my years of experience as an editor, it should be around 150 million copies sold now."

Chen Fusheng asked, "Is this a good or bad result?"

"Of course it's good. The previous issue of Northern Literature only sold two or three hundred thousand copies. Your issue is equivalent to five or six of their previous issues."

After a moment's thought, Xiao Xinghai added, "And most importantly, your novel helped their magazine open up the market in the Beijing-Tianjin-Shanghai region, which increased the sales of their next two issues by at least 20% compared to before."

"I had no idea I was so amazing!" Chen Fusheng joked to himself, not thinking it was all his achievement. He believed that luck and the efforts made by the magazine "Northern Literature" to increase sales were also factors.

After chatting for another ten minutes or so, Xiao Xinghai said goodbye, and Chen Fusheng saw him downstairs.

When he came back, he bought a copy of "Popular Cinema" from the newspaper at the entrance of the community.

The issue he bought wasn't the latest one.

Because it contains the list of winners of the 3rd Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Films.

This is the third edition of the Hundred Flowers Awards, which was held 18 years after the second edition in 1962.

The higher authorities attached great importance to this, and an award ceremony was held on May 23 this year at the CPPCC Auditorium.

The main leaders present included Zhou Yang, chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Xia Yan, chairman of the Film Association, and some well-known figures in the literary and art circles, such as Bing Xin and Ba Jin.

As for the list of winners—

Best Feature Film: *Little Flower*, *Tears*, *Ji Hongchang*

Best Director: Xie Tian, ​​*Sweet Career*

Best Screenplay: Ji Hongchang

Best Actor: Li Rentang (Tears)

Best Actress: Chen Chong ("Little Flower")

Best Supporting Actress: Liu Xiaoqing, "Look at This Family"

……

Among them, "Little Flower" was the most popular movie in the first half of this year. It was produced by Beijing Film Studio, but the actors were all recruited from outside. For example, the female lead Chen Chong was an actress from Shanghai Film Studio, the male lead Tang Guoqiang was an actor from August First Film Studio, and Liu Xiaoqing, who was also from August First Film Studio, also starred in the film.

After reading the list of winners, Chen Fusheng suddenly thought of the movie "Cow" and the bet he made with Han Sanping when he came here.

He still felt that Han Sanping had little hope of getting "Cow" to go abroad, but perhaps he could still compete for the 4th Hundred Flowers Awards next year.

"By the way, I remember the Golden Rooster Awards are starting next year, right?"

Admittedly, the chicken from later generations was ruined by a bunch of men, and its reputation was terrible both in the industry and online. But next year's chicken will probably still taste pretty good.

So if given the chance, Chen Fusheng wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Meanwhile, Chen Fusheng was unaware that Han Sanping had traveled from Beijing by train to find him.

He also brought good news...

P.S.: It's a new week, let's aim for the new book charts! If you have any votes, please support us. Wishing all you book lovers great fortune!

Set out the bowls!

(End of this chapter)