Chapter 17
In her previous life, Jiang Ning passed the civil service exam and had a leisurely job. She began to create in her spare time. Unexpectedly, her first work was noticed by an editor and published. She also came into the attention of her superiors. When the leadership changed, she was transferred to the superior's office and became the secretary of the new superior.
Before, she wanted to go to the town to see if there were any old magazines or publications of this kind. After finding the address, she would copy it down and then submit her article to the address.
Now that she has money, she wants to buy a few more copies and, through the works in them, find the writing style that suits the publication and reduce the risk of rejection.
For example, an article in the Zhiyin style would definitely not be accepted if submitted to Youth Digest, and vice versa.
After buying the magazines and periodicals, Jiang Ning tied the rope of her straw hat tightly around her chin and rode her 28-inch bicycle away from the neighboring city at a rapid speed.
On the way, I saw some crayfish in a ditch in the countryside, so I caught two buckets and brought them back. By the time I got home, it was already evening.
Jiang's father had returned with the boat a long time ago. Seeing that she came back so late, he was already very anxious. While catching crayfish, he walked towards the city, all the way to the ferry, and kept looking at the embankment on the other side of the river. When he saw a figure riding a bicycle rushing back, he finally felt relieved. He didn't even need the ferryman to pull the boat himself, but got on the boat himself and shouted to the ferryman, "It's my daughter. I'll go pick her up, you go do your thing!"
The ferryman was fishing at the ferry, and he smiled when he heard this: "Okay, you pull it yourself."
Few of them who grew up by the river don't know how to row a boat. The ferry boat doesn't need oars. A long rope connects the two banks, and the people on the boat just have to pull the rope to get across.
Father Jiang pulled the boat to the other side and quickly went over to help her get the bike down: "What brought you back so late? Are you lost? If you are lost, just ask people. The way is right before your mouth. Don't be shy." He felt the weight of the bike was wrong and asked her: "Did you not sell the lobsters? It doesn't matter if you didn't sell them. We can eat them ourselves when we get home tonight."
Jiang Ning shook his head: "They are all sold out. The bucket contains lobsters caught on the road. There are also many lobsters in the neighboring city."
After selling them twice at the market, many people now know that lobsters are edible. It is estimated that next time, more people will go to sell them. Jiang's father was worried about what to do if all the crayfish were caught. Unexpectedly, there were also some in the neighboring market. He said happily, "That's perfect. If we sell them here for another two days, I guess someone will follow suit."
During the days when the hydropower station's pumping machines were pumping water, Jiang's father and mother had already finished planting the rice seedlings. Now that the double harvest season was over, not only did Jiang's father have free time, but everyone else had free time as well.
Farmers who don’t go out to work will try to find ways to earn some money.
It was still half a year away from the Chinese New Year. In previous years, he would have taken Jiang Ma out to work, but moving bricks and doing manual labor on a construction site was not a solution. After all, he graduated from high school and owed a lot of debts before. He had no choice but to do hard labor to earn money. Now that he had finally paid off most of his debts, he wanted to find a proper job.
Originally, he wanted to recruit a few laborers and become a contractor, but Jiang's mother was unwilling. Jiang's father saw that every household was building a house in recent years, which required pebbles, melon seeds, and stone powder. They didn't have a quarry here, so they had to go far away to get the materials by boat. So he wanted to open a quarry in his hometown.
I haven’t told Jiang’s mother about this yet, for fear that she would disagree.
After all, buying equipment costs money.
It is definitely not okay to just sit at home and not earn money, as I have three children at school.
Dad Jiang rode his bike with Jiang Ning, and all the way he was thinking about how to make money in the future.
Crayfish can only be sold until October at the latest, and there are still a few months to go. We definitely cannot sit idle at home, regardless of whether we can quarry later or not, we cannot stop making money.
When Jiang Ning got home, the first thing Jiang's mother asked her when she saw her was, "How much did you sell today? Let me see."
As long as Jiang Ma sees it, the money will belong to her.
Jiang Ning knows it too well.
She held a pile of books and said, "I used all the money to buy books."
Before, Jiang's father saw her holding a pile of books in her arms and thought she bought high school tutorial books to prepare for her high school studies. Now, as soon as he saw the colorful cover of the book, he knew it was not a tutorial book.
He reached for the book: "What books did you buy? Let me see."
Jiang Ning avoided his hand and turned back to the room.
Jiang's mother was surprised. She had no intention of letting her go to school, but she still went to buy books, which was a waste of money.
She couldn't help but mutter loudly outside: "You're not good at studying, but you know how to spend money. Selling so many crayfish should make at least a few dozen dollars, right? I don't believe there's nothing left!" She walked over and knocked on the door: "Take out the money, I'll keep it for you."
Jiang Ning's mother kept all the New Year's money she received since she was a child, saying that she would give it to her when she grew up. Anyway, she had never seen a penny.
Jiang Ning said: "I bought all the books!"
"Then give me all the money you earn from selling tomorrow, not a cent less!"
Jiang Ning remained silent.
After Jiang's mother went to take a shower, Jiang's father came over and knocked on Jiang Ning's door: "Ning Ning."
Jiang Ning opened the door, and Jiang's father came in and locked the door. Then he said to Jiang Ning, "What book did you buy today? Let me see it."
The books were on the desk. Jiang Ning had been reading one of them, studying the writing style.
Seeing that he was frowning so hard, Jiang's father lowered his voice and said, "I thought you would buy tutorial books, why did you buy these? Are these things readable? I won't say anything about you wasting money. You finally got into No. 1 Middle School this time. If you don't study hard, your grades will drop quickly." Jiang's father said, "Your grades are usually not very good. I was surprised that you got into No. 1 Middle School this time. You finally got into this good school. If you waste your time reading these miscellaneous books and waste those three years, you might as well listen to your mother and go to work."
Jiang Ning's grades in school are really average.
She did not live in the school dormitory during high school because the school was far away. She had to get up at four o'clock every morning and walk to school under the stars. When she came home from school, their dishes were placed on the table, waiting for her to come back and wash them.
While others were reading in the morning or studying in the evening, she was rushing back and forth.
But what is surprising is that she has always performed exceptionally well in several important exams in her life.
Middle school entrance examination, college entrance examination, and civil service examination.
Later, Jiang's father was often amazed by his daughter's performance in exams.
Every time relatives talk about her, they say she is lucky.
Jiang Ning took the book from Jiang's father and looked at him: "I won't go to work. I know what I am doing. I will study hard."
Dad Jiang was still worried when he looked at the books she bought.
What Jiang Ma said to him yesterday kept echoing in his mind.
Now that my three children are in high school, the pressure is really great.
Seeing that his daughter was still reading these miscellaneous books, he said nothing more and went back to the kitchen to cook.
The lights in the room were dim.
Jiang Ning sat at the desk, studying the writing style of the magazine in his hand under the dim light in the room.
She has some talent in writing. After she became the secretary of a leader, she became busier at work and wrote less. She wrote more work reports. But in her spare time, she never gave up her hobby of writing. She wrote some works intermittently, all of which were published. She also wrote an official article anonymously on the Internet, but it was censored because it was too popular and the subject matter was too sensitive.
For her, the easiest magazines to read are magazines like "Youth Digest" and "Readers". She hardly has to adapt to the writing style. She can just read a few articles, get a feel for it, and then start writing articles in the same style as these two magazines.
Jiang Ning read "Zhiyin" only after he finished writing two short stories suitable for these two magazines.
The magazine "Zhiyin" is very interesting. Its writing style had a special name on the Internet in the past - Zhiyin style.
This is what is called "read the cover first when reading a book, read the title first when reading a newspaper". The magazine "Zhiyin" can be said to have taken this point of "reading the title" to the extreme.
The first page Jiang Ning opened was titled "Selling Wife! A vicious divorce conspiracy! ”, and then translated, “Destroy the Son for the Sake of Justice! "A Mother's Inner Struggle between Love and Hate" fully captures the readers' desire to read bizarre stories. Not only is the title eye-catching, but the story content is also very exciting.
After reading a few articles, Jiang Ning finally found the feeling. He directly adopted the shocking style of the UC department of his previous life as the title and began to conceive a story that fits the style of Zhiyin magazine.
The light bulb in her room was only 20 watts, and the light was very dim. Jiang Ning was afraid that it would affect her eyesight, so she didn't dare to write for too long. After she had come up with the general outline of the story, she turned off the light and took a rest, and continued writing the next morning.
Jiang's father thought she was going to sell lobsters today, but she was writing something in the house. When he asked her, she said she was not going out today. Jiang's father said, "Then I'll go to the city to sell them. There's no market in the town these two days, so there's no one. There are so many lobsters at home. It would be bad if they die if I don't sell them."
He was talking about the lobster that Jiang Ning caught yesterday.
Jiang Ning knew what he meant, so he turned around and said, "Catch as many as you can for me, and I'll sell them in a couple of days."
Father Jiang smiled and said, "Okay, I'll catch one for you in two days!"
He also went to the fields in the neighboring city to see if there were many lobsters. If there were a lot, he would catch some there on his way back.
Jiang Ning spent two days writing manuscripts for various short story magazines he had bought, such as "Zhiyin", "Story Club", "Reader", etc. He prepared to send them all to test the waters to see which one would be easier to get his manuscript accepted and which one would pay more.
The day before she was going to send the package, Jiang Ning specifically reminded her father: "I'm going to sell lobsters tomorrow, don't forget to catch more today."
It happened to be a market day, so Jiang's father asked, "Are you still going to the city to sell? Or are you going to the town to sell?"
The city is really far away. It's not like going to town, where there are boats and it's more relaxing.
Jiang Ning said: "I'm going to the city."
There is only a rural credit cooperative in the town, so she has to go to a bank in the city to open an account.
Jiang's mother probably had the idea of letting her drop out of school and work a long time ago, so as soon as she finished her high school entrance examination, she took her to apply for an ID card.
Here, children can apply for an ID card at the age of thirteen or fourteen. In order to allow their daughters to go out to work, they usually write a few years older on the ID card. At that time, the ID cards were all old-style ID cards, and the information on the ID card was still handwritten.
She put her ID card away, copied down the addresses and zip codes of various magazines, took the lobster that Jiang's father had cooked early in the morning, got on her bike and rushed to the neighboring city, heading straight for the bank.
She had seen the location of the bank and post office the last time she came to sell lobsters.
She went to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which was the closest to the People's Shopping Mall. When she arrived in the neighboring city, it was a little after eight in the morning and the bank had not yet opened. She waited at the door for a while until the staff came and opened a passbook. She then deposited the money from the crayfish she had sold a few days ago and the bills her grandfather had given her into the passbook.
The number on the passbook was not much, even pitifully small. However, no matter how small it was, she no longer had to be trapped in that small village, unable to move, and dependent on others because of that dime for ferry fees.
Jiang Ning also felt a sense of security because of the money in the passbook.
This time, even if she was dragged onto the tricycle by Jiang's mother again, she could get off halfway and go to the school to register by herself.
But this amount of money is not enough!
After getting the passbook, Jiang Ning rode his bike to the post office again, where he bought stamps, envelopes and a stack of writing paper. He bought some extra stamps and envelopes so that next time he sent something, he wouldn't have to go so far and could send it in town.
She added the account numbers of her passbook after several manuscripts, put the manuscripts into envelopes, filled in the corresponding address and zip code on each envelope, and after confirming that they were correct, she put all the manuscripts into the mailbox.
She didn't expect all her manuscripts to be accepted. She just thought it would be good if two of them could be accepted. She would just keep writing and sending them in. If they were accepted, she would get some income in the future.
After sending these short stories, it was almost ten o'clock. Jiang Ning did not delay any longer and quickly rode his bike to the People's Shopping Mall to sell lobsters.
While selling lobsters, she kept thinking about the magazines that could be used to serialize novels.
Although there are many magazines that can serialize novels, the style of each magazine is different.
For example, Changjiang Literature and Art and Science Fiction World require works that are not only in line with their publications, but also in line with the correct values of the mainstream society.
Others such as "Science Fiction World", "The King of Mystery", "Boys and Girls", "Buds", and "Martial Arts" require works that are easy to understand.
Jiang Ning was originally considering writing a campus romance novel, similar to "Meteor Garden" with the timeless classic plot of Cinderella and several princes charming, when she suddenly heard a song being sung in the audio-visual store next to the mall: "There is a Bao Qingtian in Kaifeng, who is impartial and just in distinguishing between loyalty and treachery."
Suddenly it occurred to me that this was the time when the 1993 version of "Justice Bao" was at its most popular. Almost everyone in the streets and alleys would sing the line "Heroes of the Jianghu come to help, Wang Chao and Ma Han are by your side." Because of this popularity, Jiang Ning decided to write a detective mystery novel about a modern female forensic doctor who traveled through time to the Song Dynasty and became a female constable with superb martial arts skills.
The first work she wrote in her previous life was a modern detective crime drama. The leader of her unit was a literary youth. When he knew she was writing a novel, he supported her very much. He made a special contact with the public security unit and asked her to study in the public security agency for two months. She observed closely how the police investigated and solved cases, and also asked her to look through many past files. Later, her work was made into a criminal investigation drama. This was also the reason why the new leader transferred her to be the leader's secretary when he took office.
Because I already have a lot of cases in my mind, I just need to arrange them to make them more story-like and fit in with the ancient environment.
As soon as the idea came to Jiang Ning, his thoughts suddenly flowed like a spring. Several cases suddenly appeared in his mind, and he thought about how to link these cases together, and finally involve the big case of the prince's rebellion.
Martial arts style is popular now, so Jiang Ning decided to mix in some descriptions of emotions, the martial arts world, and martial arts.
Then comes the personality of each character.
By the time Jiang Ning had sold all the two buckets of crayfish, he had basically sorted out the basic outline of the novel in his mind. At this moment, he wished he could find a quiet place immediately to write down all his ideas and sort out the outline.
As he was in a hurry to write the outline, Jiang Ning did not go fishing for lobsters on the way back this time. Instead, he rode his bicycle very fast and returned home at around 1:00 p.m. He picked up a pen and began to write out the general structure of the ancient version of the criminal investigation novel he had conceived. He then wrote biographies of the characters, and wrote down the personality, life experience, appearance, iconic actions, martial arts styles, etc. of each character who was about to appear in a notebook.
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