Chapter 184 Chapter 184
Not long after the beginning of spring, Ye Qing's debut novel "Beginning of Autumn" was officially published and received rave reviews as soon as it was released. Not long after, another publishing house contacted Ye Qing through Hang Tingfang, wanting to obtain the publishing rights for her children's story collection "The Adventures of the Smart Family".
This book was created completely by accident by Ye Qing. She just made it up to entertain her children. Later, Hang Tingfang came to her to ask for the manuscript of "Beginning of Autumn". After accidentally seeing this series of children's stories, she thought it was novel and interesting, so she asked Ye Qing to continue writing a few units. After Ye Qing had a complete manuscript of more than 100,000 words, she let Hang Tingfang take it away.
But Ye Qing didn't take this matter seriously at all. After Hang Tingfang took the manuscript, there was no news for a year or two. Ye Qing thought that this matter was hopeless and had long forgotten about the manuscript. He didn't even think of asking Hang Tingfang to return it.
Unexpectedly, after nearly two years, another publishing house suddenly came to the door and wanted to publish it right away. They even threatened to translate Ye Qing's story series into a foreign language and publish it abroad.
This shocked Ye Qing greatly.
You have to know that this was during a special ten-year period when the domestic situation was grim and overseas relations were strictly controlled. Yet, publications were still exported abroad. How could Ye Qing not be surprised?
But Ye Qing really misunderstood.
During this period, people in China were indeed afraid to talk about overseas relations, but that was based on the foreign relations of ordinary people. If it was at the national level, it would be a completely different matter.
During this period, the domestic economy was in a downturn, and various foreign technologies were blocked and excluded. Because there was no money and foreign exchange, it was difficult to import various machines from other countries to save the country in a roundabout way. Therefore, the country was very eager to create foreign exchange, no matter what means.
But at that time, people's mindsets had not yet been opened up and changed, technology was backward, and the methods of earning foreign exchange were still the old ways. Only things like tea, silk, and porcelain could interest foreigners, and there was nothing else to offer.
Moreover, by that time, the country had actually re-established diplomatic relations with quite a few countries. By 1975 alone, there were more than 20 Asian countries that had established diplomatic relations with China, more than 30 African countries, more than 20 European countries, and more than a dozen countries in America and Oceania. In short, it was definitely not the complete blockade that Ye Qing had misunderstood before.
In particular, among these countries with which China has established diplomatic relations, there is one country that has particularly frequent exchanges with China, and even organizes delegations to visit and inspect China from time to time. This country is Japan, which has a deep hatred for China next door.
This time, Ye Qing's collection of children's stories was favored by a delegation from Japan, who wanted to bring the manuscript back to Japan for publication.
This matter was of course not something that the publishing house could decide on its own, so the matter was immediately submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for review. When it comes to publishing, the state's review will naturally be extremely rigorous and meticulous, so Ye Qing's story manuscript was reviewed by several groups of people. This is why Ye Qing's manuscript was suddenly published two years later.
Ye Qing knew nothing about publishing, but since her superiors had agreed to publish her book abroad and she could also make some money from Japan, Ye Qing would definitely be extremely happy.
Ye Qing didn't care about the subsequent procedures and left it to the publishing house. However, when the publishing house asked her to write a preface for the book, she still rushed to write one overnight.
Considering that this is an international publication, Ye Qing thought again and again and decided to use a child's perspective to describe her daily rural life in the countryside.
So in this prologue, Ye Qing wrote about the lovely children in this village; about the countless animal and plant elves at the foot of Changbai Mountain; and about the group of kind-hearted educated youth who went to this remote and impoverished village to support construction and created a collection of stories for the blind class in order to teach the villagers to read and write.
In short, in Ye Qing's writing, Kaoshantun is a beautiful and desirable utopian world.
Of course there are some filters involved, but Ye Qing feels that artistic creation is not shabby, and the country is currently at a disadvantage in international public opinion, so it is necessary to brag about it and beautify it. Going to the countryside to work in a production team should not only be about the hardships and fatigue, but also see its good side.
The editors of the publishing house were delighted when they received such a manuscript. After submitting it, which of the officials of the Propaganda Committee did not give a thumbs up? Even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had some concerns at first, was quite satisfied with Ye Qing's work. This manuscript was too good. Who would not be confused by the policy of going to the countryside and mountains?
In short, Ye Qing's book was exported very smoothly. It was first successfully released in Japan. Unexpectedly, it sold out as soon as it was released. The stock in the bookstore was sold out. Even after reprinting two or three times, it still could not keep up with the demand.
So the publishing house translated the book into several languages and published it in Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. Unexpectedly, this children's book, which was originally intended to teach children knowledge and science, quickly swept the world and was unanimously recognized by mothers in dozens of countries large and small. Even the children were unable to extricate themselves from the series of stories in the book.
Ye Qing didn't know how much money this book finally made overseas, because when this book was a best-seller in Japan, several leaders came to negotiate with her, and mentioned the country's current difficult situation, trying to buy out all the foreign exchange that Ye Qing earned from this book overseas.
Ye Qing didn't take it. Originally, she was planning to donate the foreign exchange she earned directly to the country. She would not take a penny. Now that the higher-ups were willing to pay, there was no reason for Ye Qing to refuse.
However, Ye Qing did not really ask for money from the higher-ups. It was because the country was now really poor, the problem of food and clothing for the people had not been solved, and the amount of taxes that the national treasury could receive each year was also quite limited. These taxes had to be used to develop the military, science and technology, infrastructure, industry, and so on. There were countless places where money could be spent, and every year the old men in the State Council would be so worried about how to allocate the money that they could not eat or sleep.
So Ye Qing asked for a piece of land from the higher-ups.
A piece of land in a small fishing village in Baoan County, close to the bay, with an excellent location.
Ye Qing was still a little reserved and didn't dare to ask for too much. After careful consideration, he only asked for ten acres of wasteland.
She thought that ten acres of land would be more than six thousand square meters. Such a large piece of land would be enough for her to build a house or open a pharmaceutical factory in the future.
Who knew that after hearing Ye Qing say that he wanted to exchange for a piece of land in a remote corner, those leaders looked at each other in bewilderment. After confirming again and again that Ye Qing was right and that he wanted the land of that uncivilized fishing village, these leaders felt that Ye Qing's request was too petty.
Ten mu of land, is this looking down on the country or looking down on these leaders? If they really only gave ten mu, outsiders would laugh to death, it was too shabby, they couldn't be so stingy to the country's heroes, otherwise it would make the heroes very disappointed! So several leaders waved their hands and made the decision on the spot, indicating that Ye Qing would be allocated a hundred mu of land!
Good guy! Ye Qing couldn't help but take a breath and almost screamed on the spot.
She simply couldn't imagine how much hundreds of acres of special zone land would be worth in the future!
Seeing Ye Qing so excited, those leaders felt relieved. They didn't expect that this girl, who is now very famous both at home and abroad, could still be so down-to-earth. She was so happy just to live in a remote and poor village. Isn't she too simple and honest and easily satisfied?
If Ye Qing knew the mentality of these leaders, he would probably laugh like crazy.
Just wait and see, no matter how readily and casually you give the land away now, you will regret it in a few years, you will regret it to your heart's content!
These leaders kept their word and about a week after they agreed on the exchange terms with Ye Qing, they sent someone to personally deliver the title deed and contract for the hundred acres of wasteland. Seeing the contract covered with big red seals starting with the Chinese character "国", Ye Qing was very satisfied and signed his name on it immediately.
Less than two days after getting the land deed, Ye Qing received two big news.
One is that Wu Yueying was imprisoned for poisoning. Because the circumstances were serious, she was sentenced to death and executed immediately. When the news came back, it caused an uproar in Kaoshantun. It was said that Wu's aunt ran out of the military compound like a madman that day. When she was found, she was already unconscious and couldn't even say her own name.
The entire Wu family was dejected. Even though they had severed ties with this young lady, blood ties cannot be severed easily. In the eyes of outsiders, Wu Yueying would always be branded as a member of Kaoshantun and the Wu family. Now that she had committed a crime, no one in the Wu family could hold their heads up. They felt like people would stab them in the back when they walked in the village.
Wu Yongbing's hair turned white overnight. This time, there was no need for the people in the village to protest. Wu Yongbing took the initiative to resign from the position of team leader. He then called his two sons Wu Cong and Wu Min to bring back Wu Yueying's ashes. Also taken back to Kaoshan Village was the already crazy Aunt Wu.
Wu Yongbing was no longer the captain, and Kaoshantun was suddenly leaderless, and people began to become restless again.
However, this time the people in the village did not need to hold a meeting to vote, because Kaoshan Village is no longer what it used to be. Whether it is the health station, the sanatorium, the feed factory by the Yazi River, or the expanded pig farm, they are all key focus projects of the commune above. Now that such an important job change has occurred in the village, and the whole village is about to be in chaos, it is impossible for the commune not to intervene.
So Lai Guochang stepped in to calm the situation, and specifically asked Gu Zhenxing to be the captain, and he didn't even allow Gu Zhenxing to refuse.
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