Chapter 58: Receiving Royalties to Buy Tables and Chairs
Yao Xiaoyu glanced at the amount on the remittance slip. Haha, a full eighty-four yuan! She had always heard that magazines were generous with their pay, but seeing it for herself today, she realized it was truly amazing.
The short story I sent, written under a pink rabbit vest, totaled more than 12,000 words. The fee was seven yuan per thousand words, which was two yuan more than what Daping Daily paid.
Yao Xiaoyu restrained her urge to write a short story, carefully put away the remittance slip, and began to read the letter carefully. The handwriting on the letter was neat, and the content was neither long nor short.
First, she expressed her honor at receiving the manuscript from the magazine "Jinchai Xu". Then she praised the article highly. Next, she mentioned the remuneration and total fee they offered. The article will be published in the next issue. Finally, she hoped that Yao Xiaoyu could send them more manuscripts. They are rich and very sincere in their appreciation of good manuscripts!
The language of the entire text is concise yet elegant, but the style of writing looks somewhat familiar... Yao Xiaoyu flipped through the reply from Editor Lü of Daping Daily and compared it with the text, then fell into deep thought—do these editors have a unified letter-writing class?
If she writes another good short story and submits it to another publishing platform, will she receive a third letter from an editor that begins by praising her work, mentions payment in the middle, and welcomes her to submit more works at the end?
Yao Xiaoyu thought about it with interest, but this was just for fun. After all, editors only have a few purposes when writing to authors: to inform them whether the manuscript has been accepted or rejected, to evaluate and revise the manuscript, to inform them about the payment, and to urge the author to finish the manuscript. It is perfectly normal for all these contents to be somewhat similar when arranged and combined.
Pi Kangxiu also told Yao Xiaoyu an interesting story: Once upon a time, an editor at a major newspaper got tired of writing rejection letters, so he specially commissioned someone to carve a rejection letter stamp for him. He would dip it in black ink, press it onto the paper, and the rejection letter would be returned directly to the recipient.
Yao Xiaoyu marveled at the boundless creativity of humankind in the art of laziness. Newspapers and magazines had only been open for a few years, yet they already had reply templates, and she even joked that there might be standardized replies printed out in the future—and then she saw Pi Kangxiu's strange expression.
So, everyone's lazy approach is exactly the same.
...
Once she received the remittance slip, Yao Xiaoyu didn't delay. The next day, she made a simple disguise and received the money. She filled in the post office address, and her Pink Rabbit disguise was already semi-public. Going all over the place was a bit unnecessary; a little disguise was enough.
The money was collected in the morning after she took leave, the tables and chairs were bought in the afternoon, and the delivery person arrived at her doorstep shortly after Yao Xiaoyu.
"Little Fish, this is..."
Zhou Chunhua asked in astonishment, instinctively closing the door behind her—buying big items while in debt is not a good idea if people see it and it gets out. No one cares whether it's a personal matter or not, unless the woman is officially married, otherwise it's a personal matter and the whole family has to pay for it.
"My room is missing a set of tables and chairs."
Yao Xiaoyu calmly said while holding the kerosene lamp, "The Yao family does some handicrafts in the evenings. Now that I think about it, it's still more convenient to have our own lamp."
The same goes for the tables and chairs. When they were in debt, they sold everything they could. Yao Xiaoyu's room was like a snow cave. Apart from the bed that creaked at the slightest movement and the small bedside table next to it that had never been sold for some reason, there was no other furniture.
As for why Yao Xiaoyu didn't protest, it's mainly because all the rooms in the Yao family's house were empty, and Yao Xiaoyu even had an extra bedside table.
The Yao family's only set of tables and chairs was placed on the first floor, used for meals, homework by Yao Xiaoli, and handicrafts by the gentle Zhou Chunhua.
"Where did your money come from?"
Considering the situation at home, Zhou Chunhua waited until the people moving things left before asking. Yao Xiaoyu didn't say much either, and directly retorted with one sentence:
"Bought with royalties."
Ding Xian's biography is still at the printing plant, and the royalties won't be received until all the books are printed. But that doesn't stop Yao Xiaoyu from using it as an excuse. Anyway, without giving a specific number, no one knows how much royalties she received.
As for Zhou Chunhua going to ask... if the newspaper can't keep it a secret, Yao Xiaoyu can just move and change partners all at once.
That doesn't seem so bad, does it? There might be more dangers in her own house, but at least she'd have a wardrobe. She doesn't have many clothes now, and there's still room on the bedside table and at the foot of the bed. But once she leaves the hospital, it will be hard to find a place to put the clothes she secretly made for a treat, as well as all sorts of disguises.
"Grandma, if you see a suitable and good wardrobe, let me know and I'll give you a tip."
Once the desire to shop was aroused, it was hard to suppress. Yao Xiaoyu tried to resist, but she still couldn't resist the urge to buy more furniture. Electric lights weren't widely available yet, and although the people around her were always listening to Yao's family's expenses, if they were careful at night, they could still sneak into the village without firing a shot.
Neither your brother nor your mother has a wardrobe.
Upon hearing Yao Xiaoyu's words, Zhou Chunhua instinctively spoke up, but by the time she realized she had said the wrong thing, it was too late—since her granddaughter Wenrou went to the hospital, her rare smiles had disappeared, and her once warm tone had turned cold.
"I bought the wardrobe myself. If they want it, they can pay for it too."
Yao Xiaoyu calmly stated the facts, without much anger in her heart. She was nominally a family with the Yao family, but financially, apart from the ten yuan per month, they were completely separated. Would you ask a relatively familiar stranger to spend money for you?
"If you're not willing, I'll ask someone else to help you."
Little Fish has lost touch with her family!
Hearing these businesslike words, Zhou Chunhua realized the truth once again, and her face turned ashen.
But she agreed anyway.
The family is still in debt, so every extra silver dollar is a blessing.
The new table and chairs worked well. Yao Xiaoyu had another inspiration under the brightest kerosene lamp, but it was still a long novel. She could only fill in the outline a little first. Once Miao Wuni's story was finished, the female protagonist of the new book was found, and everything was ready, she would start the new story.
Yao Xiaoyu finished drawing the last smooth period, put the inspiration notebook in the drawer, locked it with a click, stretched her limbs a little, lay down on the bed and fell asleep in the blink of an eye. Yao Xiaoli didn't quite understand what had happened, but forgot about it in a moment and also slept well. Only Yao's father and son and Zhou Chunhua had difficulty falling asleep for a long time.
The next day, Yao Xiaoyu, who was washing up with cold water, thought that Yao Xiaoyu was going to use emotional abuse on her again because of what she had said the day before. But when she saw Yao Xiaoli, who was also confused, she realized that something was wrong.
"Grandma and Dad seem to go to bed quite late; I can't wake them up no matter how I call them."
As Yao Xiaoli wiped her face with a small cloth, she said somewhat dejectedly, "I was worried that she might be sick, but when I heard Yao Xiaoli say that she was just not fully awake, I felt relieved. I was just thinking of going outside to grab a bite when I heard my stomach growl."
"Gurgle—"
It doesn't look like her stomach?
Yao Xiaoyu's gaze shifted over, and Yao Xiaoli blushed with embarrassment.
The Yao family members are all good-looking. After being well cared for for several months, Yao Xiaoli has gained some baby fat on her face. Yao Xiaoyu looked at the pitiful and pretty little girl and naturally softened her heart.
"I'll take you to have a treat."
At Yao Xiaoli's age, she should be eating a balanced diet with both meat and vegetables, but even Yao Xiaoyu, who often eats out, is malnourished. So Yao Xiaoyu didn't force her sister to eat vegetables. Instead, she asked the restaurant owner to put a braised pork knuckle on a one-finger-wide flatbread for her sister. Afraid that the same flavor would get boring, she also asked the owner to chop up a few braised eggs and put them in.
"Is this really for me?"
Yao Xiaoli looked at the braised pork knuckle in her hand, then looked up at Yao Xiaoyu. She couldn't believe it after looking at it several times. Although her family could eat meat from time to time after her sister started earning money, and they ate a lot of meat during the New Year, this was the first time she had ever seen Yao Xiaoyu so extravagant.
"I'll take you home first, I have to go to work."
Yao Xiaoyu ended Yao Xiaoli's question with a single sentence. Seeing that her younger sister didn't eat on the way and didn't ask her anything, she just took a moment of kindness. It was like an office worker who had just bought a lot of sausages seeing a familiar-looking Sanhua with a flat stomach and casually feeding her. It didn't matter whether Sanhua planned to eat it all by herself or share it with the family.
Sending Yao Xiaoli to school is out of the question. Providing her with a meal is already a favor. Don't even think about letting her legs suffer any more!
"Boss, give me a leg kick."
After sending her sister home, Yao Xiaoyu returned and told the owner of the braised pork knuckle that "□□ leg" doesn't mean literal, but rather a method of braising chicken leg bones by inserting them into lean meat. The braised meat shrinks and wraps tightly around the bone, making it extremely satisfying to tear apart. Yao Xiaoyu had tried it by chance and had been thinking about it ever since.
After a satisfying meal, Yao Xiaoyu strolled leisurely to the pharmacy, just in time for her shift. She glanced at Wenrou, whose walk had quickened from a leisurely pace, and circled the date three days later on the calendar—the next issue of Jinchai Xu would be released that day, and the hellish jokes that the editors had been raving about would finally be put to the test of the market.
Yao Xiaoyu hoped it would perform well, because it was related to her next payment for the manuscript; but she also hoped it wouldn't cause too much trouble—this era really is one where the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. When there is danger, reputation may be a talisman; but when there is no danger, reputation itself is dangerous.
Putting aside everything else, even in modern times with relatively high moral standards, when have authors who expose their characters ever been less malicious?
In this era, people who don't like someone can actually take physical action!
Yao Xiaoyu waited anxiously for feedback on the article, but what arrived before the Golden Hairpin Magazine published it was the wardrobe that had been quietly moved in late at night.
Zhou Chunhua found an old-fashioned wardrobe from somewhere. It was a head taller than Yao Xiaoyu and looked like it had been used for a long time, but there was no dust inside and the panels were not bent. Yao Xiaoyu was quite satisfied and paid the fee for her trouble very readily.
Zhou Chunhua looked at the two silver dollars handed to her, hesitated for a moment, and then accepted them.
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Author's Note: In Chapter 58, Little Fish finally got her own desk, chair, and wardrobe. Let's give her a round of applause!
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