"Good morning, Xiao Su. Have you eaten?"

"Sending your daughter to school?"

Su Ting rode her bicycle, slowly passing through the alleys. During the ride, she met familiar neighbors. They greeted each other with a smile and said a few simple words before passing each other.

From the turn of the Chinese New Year to March, Su Ting has lived in this alley for four years.

People of this generation do not live their lives in seclusion like they did a few decades later. Even the most reserved person will become familiar with the relationships with his neighbors after living in the same alley for a long time.

What's more, although Su Ting is not a social celebrity, He Yan and Man Man are both extroverts. They basically know all the children of the same age in the alley. Once the children are familiar with each other, the relationship between the parents will not be too unfamiliar.

Just in the few minutes since she left the alley, no less than ten people have greeted Su Ting.

After leaving the alley, the street became wider. Su Ting walked along the sidewalk, turned right at the intersection, and soon arrived at the kindergarten.

After studying in the street nursery for a year and a half, Su Ting sent Manman to this kindergarten, from the small class to the large class. Now Manman is already a student in the large class!

After parking the bicycle at the school gate, Su Ting kicked off the footrest and let Man Man get off first.

Gradually, she turned six years old this year and grew taller, with longer arms and legs. She could hold Su Ting's waist and sit steadily on the back seat. So as early as the beginning of the year, He Dongchuan removed the seat fixed on the back seat of the bicycle.

Later, because people gradually felt that sitting directly in the back seat was too uncomfortable, He Dongchuan found a piece of wood and fixed it to the back seat, and then sewed a cushion with cotton and cloth. Now the back seat has no other problems except that it is a little hard.

Slowly he became flexible, placed his hands on the seat, and jumped back down.

As soon as she stood up, a little girl ran over and said, "Manman, good morning!" After holding Manman's hand, she greeted Su Ting, "Good morning, Aunt Su."

"Good morning, Yunyun." Su Ting parked her bike and said with a smile, then looked up at Yunyun's mother, "Good morning."

"morning."

After saying hello, the four of them turned and walked into the kindergarten. The two children walked in front arm in arm, while Su Ting and Yunyun's mother lagged behind half a step.

Yunyun's mother suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, are you going to graduate soon?"

Because Yunyun and Manman have been in the same class since kindergarten, Su Ting and Yunyun's mother have a good relationship over the past four years, so they know each other's situation very well.

Su Ting took the college entrance exam in the winter of 1977 and entered school in the spring of 1978. She will graduate this year. She nodded and said, "I will graduate this month."

Yunyun's mother continued to ask: "What are your plans after graduation?"

As early as last semester, Su Ting heard people ask this question, and many people asked the question, including school professors, counselors, classmates, and military wives in the compound.

Her grades had always been among the best during her four years at university. Although she did not participate in many extracurricular activities, she was better than many of her classmates just by holding a position on the school magazine.

What's more, she is also a well-known comic artist, and she published many articles during college. She just published a collection of articles during the summer vacation of her senior year.

Although the sales of the published collection of essays are far less than those of the comic books, there are hundreds of students in their two classes in the major. Others can only publish articles, but she is the only one who can publish a collection of essays.

Some people say that she is relying on her fame, but she also achieved this fame step by step, so her fame is well deserved.

In short, Su Ting can be said to be the best student among the seventh and eighth classes, so the teachers in the school all hope that she can continue her postgraduate studies.

The classmates asked her this question mainly because they wanted to understand her movements clearly, so that those who wanted to pursue graduate studies could make second-hand preparations. After all, there are only a few places for graduate students, and one more person means more competition.

Not to mention that Su Ting is a celebrity in the department, and if she wants to pursue graduate studies, it means she has directly secured a place.

As for the military wives in the compound asking these questions, it was purely because of gossip. Although He Dongchuan had been to the city quite often in recent years and the couple could see each other once a week, this was still considered living apart.

In recent years, there are many couples in the compound who have divorced because the wife went to college and they were separated.

Not to mention the distant past, Shen Xuan and Lin Weiyong, who lived in Room 201, Building 10, obtained their divorce certificate at the beginning of the year.

Although the two divorced at the beginning of the year, they had conflicts long before Shen Xuan received the college admission notice. During the summer vacation after the first semester of her freshman year, Shen Xuan returned to the compound and lived there for less than half a month before packing up and returning to her parents' home.

During the Chinese New Year that year, Shen Xuan simply did not come back and only made a phone call to inform Lin Weiyong about the incident.

It is said that Lin Weiyong's face turned black at that time, and he said loudly, "If you have the guts, don't come back for the rest of your life," and then hung up the phone.

After that, Shen Xuan rarely returned to the Navy compound, and the few times she went there were only to pick up her children to play. The couple was completely separated.

Therefore, when the news of their divorce spread, no one in the compound was surprised, but the discussion was quite heated.

Some people think that it was Lin Weiyong who was wrong. If he didn't want Shen Xuan to go to college, he shouldn't have agreed to the proposal in the first place. He regretted it after agreeing, and one wrong step led to another.

Some people also think that Shen Xuan has bigger problems. She is a junior college graduate, her education and job are both good, so there is no need for her to go to college. Now, her education has improved, but her family is broken. Poor two children!

In addition to Lin Weiyong and Shen Xuan, there are two other couples in the compound who are getting divorced. One of them, like Lin and Shen, has a long-standing conflict.

Another couple chose to divorce because the woman chose to work in a city government agency over a county state-owned factory when she graduated, and the man did not want to be separated from her husband, so he divorced.

Therefore, after Su Ting entered her senior year, many military wives were curious about where she would go after graduation.

The main reason is that her school’s reputation is too loud, and the Chinese major is a panacea. Although this concept does not exist now, everyone knows that she has many choices after graduation, and they are all very good units.

The military wives who divorced because of work only attended technical secondary schools and were unwilling to work in the state-owned factories in the county. How could Su Ting, a top student who graduated from Fudan University, be willing to give up a good unit in the city and return to the county?

If not, will He Dongchuan have to continue running between the two in the future?

Now he is willing to run between the two because college is only four years and he has hope in his heart. If he has to run between the two like this in the future, will he be willing to do so?

By then, will her relationship with He Dongchuan remain so stable?

There are many people in the compound who hold negative views.

Although Su Ting was upset when she learned from Meng Xiuzhen about the speculations of the military wives in the compound, she had to admit that she was indeed hesitant because of it.

However, what she was hesitating about was not whether to stay in the city to work or return to the county to work, but whether to pursue graduate studies.

Su Ting does not plan to work in the short term. She is now at the peak of her creativity and has many stories she wants to draw, but she lacks time, and work will take up a lot of her time.

If she felt that her talent was not appreciated and no one read the stories she drew, she would definitely have to focus on making money. However, her income was stable, so there was no need for her to force herself to go to work.

The above reasons may also cause one to hesitate whether to continue studying for a master's degree.

Because she was writing while studying, she hardly had a break in the first three years of college and was always very busy. If she wants to continue her postgraduate studies, this state will definitely continue for another two or three years.

Sometimes she wants to take a break.

In addition, in the past few years, it was basically He Dongchuan who accommodated her time. After four years, there were another two or three years. She didn't know what he would think.

But on the other hand, Su Ting also wanted to prepare another path for herself.

The decline of comic strips was inevitable, but in the 1990s, comics began to become popular among students.

Although she became famous for drawing comics in her previous life, and the style of the Sanhuo series also tends to be comics, she cannot guarantee that she will continue to be popular after the transformation.

If she is no longer popular, she will definitely find other ways to make a living, and in the workplace, education is very important. Although her status as a Fudan University graduate is already impressive, a higher education will always give her more bargaining chips.

On one hand, there is family life, and on the other hand, there is career future. Su Ting is in a difficult decision.

After half a month of hesitation, Su Ting decided to seek He Dongchuan's opinion.

Obviously, the problem that caused Su Ting to have trouble sleeping for half a month was not a big deal for He Dongchuan. He thought for less than three minutes and said, "If you can go to graduate school, go for it. Don't consider anything else."

Su Ting was afraid that he had not considered it carefully, so she said, "If you want to pursue graduate studies, we will have to continue like this for the next two or three years, and we can only see each other on Saturdays and Sundays."

In recent years, the holidays for universities, middle schools and primary schools have been adjusted. Classes are only half a day on Saturdays, and there is one and a half days off per week.

When she is not busy, Su Ting will take the two children back to the compound on Saturday and come back on Sunday night. If she and the two children have something to do and don't have time to go back, He Dongchuan will drive to the city on Saturday night and stay with his family for a day and two nights.

Although they took turns running back and forth, it was not as tiring as the first year when He Dongchuan ran back and forth alone, but the family still had very little time to spend together.

This is also Su Ting's concern.

He Dongchuan was very open-minded and said, "I've made it through four years, how can I not make it through two or three years?" After asking what he was thinking about, his tone became frivolous, "If you feel sorry for me, you can give me more compensation at night."

Su Ting glanced at him: "I want to talk to you about serious matters."

"What I'm talking about with you is not serious." He Dongchuan said calmly, but then turned to business, "I think since you want to continue studying and you have the opportunity, you should continue studying, so you won't regret it later."

"I don't know if I will regret it later if I give up now."

"I don't know if you will regret it if you give up now, but you will definitely not regret it if you don't give up." He Dongchuan said firmly, "If you are worried about not having time to take care of the children, I think it is unnecessary. They were so young when you just entered college, and now they are four years older. Can they be worse than they were then?"

Without waiting for Su Ting's answer, he continued, "If you are worried that I might have an opinion, frankly, I am not very happy."

Su Ting raised her eyes and looked at He Dongchuan.

He looked her straight in the eye and said, "Because it means you don't trust me enough."

"I believe you, but..."

He Dongchuan stroked Su Ting's cheek and interrupted her, "No buts. I'm not Lin Weiyong, who was narrow-minded and couldn't stand his wife's progress, but pretended to be magnanimous, and then regretted it when the time came, causing chaos for several years."

When he first arrived at the Shanghai base, He Dongchuan had a good impression of Lin Weiyong and they had a good relationship. But as Shen Xuan went out to attend college, he did one stupid thing after another, and He Dongchuan no longer thought highly of this man.

"I know exactly what I want, and I will not compromise myself or make decisions that go against my will."

"What do you want?" Su Ting looked up at him, her voice soft and floating.

He Dongchuan did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned over and pressed her under him, kissing her soft lips and saying, "I want you to love me, always and forever."

"I want you to laugh, a genuine, happy laugh."

"I also want to be with you forever and grow old together."

He didn't need her to compromise for him, he just wanted her to be happy and never regret. He didn't ask for daily companionship now, he just wanted to be with her in the future.

As long as she is willing to work hard with him, that's enough.

Life is long, he is in no hurry.

…

Recalling this, Su Ting smiled and said, "I plan to continue my studies."

"Still studying?" Yunyun's mother was surprised. "Didn't you graduate from college?"

“I plan to go to graduate school.”

Although they live near Fudan University, Su Ting is the one with the highest education among the people Yunyun's mother knows. The rest rarely even have a technical secondary school degree, and most of them have only graduated from junior high school.

So Yunyun's mother didn't really know what the postgraduate student Su Ting was talking about, and asked curiously, "How many years does it take to study for this?"

"Two or three years."

"You'll have to study for another two or three years?" Yunyun's mother was even more surprised. She lowered her voice and asked, "Does your husband agree?"

“Well, he’s very supportive of me.”

Yunyun's mother said with emotion: "Then your husband is a good person."

"Yeah, he's very good."

Looking at the sincere smile on Su Ting's face, Yunyun's mother felt a little envious, but her man was also very nice to her, so this envy did not last long.

As they chatted, Manman and Yunyun walked hand in hand to the classroom door. Parents usually stop here. They have been in this kindergarten for two and a half years and are familiar with the relevant regulations, so before entering the classroom, they stopped unconsciously and turned around to wave goodbye to their mothers.

Seeing this, Su Ting and Yunyun's mother stopped talking, said goodbye to them with a smile, watched them enter the classroom and find a seat to sit down, then turned around and walked out.

After leaving the kindergarten, Su Ting rode away on her bike, while Yunyun's mother walked to work.

The senior year courses are not as long as in previous years, and they were all completed in the last semester, so everyone has a lot of free time this semester.

Especially now that graduation is approaching, those who do not plan to continue their studies have found jobs and basically go to work for internships and rarely come to school. There are also a few students who have not yet settled down and are very anxious. They run around in the school leadership office every day, hoping to be arranged as soon as possible, and preferably to a better unit.

Well, they haven’t found a job yet. Most of them don’t have good grades and have high requirements. It’s not that the school hasn’t arranged jobs for them, but they don’t think highly of them and want to keep trying.

After all, I graduated from Fudan University. Even if my academic performance was not good, there would be no employer that wanted me.

Those who are still in school have basically decided to pursue postgraduate studies. They can be divided into two categories: those who continue to work hard and those who want to take advantage of the final period to have a good rest.

Su Ting is neither of the two, but her good friend Ma Yan is the former.

Not only did Ma Yan roll the curlers herself, she also asked Su Ting to roll them with her, and the two of them made an appointment to go to the library together.

It only takes six or seven minutes to ride from the kindergarten to the library. When Su Ting locked the car and went upstairs, there were still five minutes left before the agreed time.

She walked in slowly, looked around, and sat down in the empty seat next to Ma Yan.

Ma Yan was writing something. When she heard the voice, she looked up and asked in a low voice, "You're here. Have you had breakfast?"

“I ate it.”

Ma Yan smiled and said, "It seems Man Man didn't stay in bed today."

Whether Su Ting comes to school after breakfast or brings breakfast to school usually depends on how long she stays in bed. She said helplessly, "Yes."

Because the library had to remain quiet, the two of them didn't talk much after meeting and then went about their own business.

Ma Yan was busy looking up information and writing her paper, while Su Ting was drawing a new story.

At the beginning of this year, Su Ting sent out the martial arts short story she drew a few years ago.

When Wang Jingfang first received Su Ting's manuscript, she was a little hesitant. After all, their magazine had not serialized any martial arts-themed comic strips in recent years.

But thinking back to the fact that before the serialization of the Three Fires series, their magazine had never serialized similar children's literature, she agreed to serialize it with the attitude of giving it a try, but she didn't expect that this attempt would be successful, and the Three Fires series has been popular for so many years.

Maybe there will be a pleasant surprise this time.

With this idea in mind, Wang Jingfang agreed to serialize the book.

But this time, Su Ting wanted to change her pen name again. Wang Jingfang thought she wanted to use the pen name Yi Ke Durian, but when she asked, she said she wanted to choose another pen name, saying that her previous works did not match the martial arts style.

With the success of Sanhuo, Wang Jingfang was not very opposed to Su Ting changing her pseudonym, but she had a bad feeling in her heart and asked: "In the future, you will not change the subject matter, but just change the pen name, right?"

At that time, Su Ting replied: "Probably not. I can't paint all kinds of subjects."

Wang Jingfang thought to herself, you have jumped from realistic themes to children's literature and then to martial arts. Now you tell me this, do you think I will believe it?

But whether to change the pen name or not is not important. What is important is: "After changing the pen name, the Three Fires series should not stop updating, right?"

Wang Jingfang was not overthinking it. Ever since Su Ting started using her real name as a pen name, Yi Ke Durian has never been serialized again, and the pen name is almost covered in dust.

Although Su Ting has been quite busy in recent years, juggling studies and updating the Three Fires series has been very difficult, and she really has no time to draw anything else.

But there were two years between giving birth and resuming the college entrance examination, but how many works did Su Ting complete? Looking at this year, she had time to draw other things, but not to start a new series in the Sanhuo series.

Who knows if she will still remember Sanhuo after the new story is serialized? This series is the signature of their pictorial!

Su Ting's answer confirmed her concerns: "I am currently conceiving a new story, but if nothing unexpected happens, this will be the final chapter. The protagonist of the story has grown up, and if I continue to draw, the story will gradually lose its interest."

After the reform and opening up, the market has gradually become active. Many publishing houses have set their sights on the comic strip market. In recent years, many pictorial magazines have been launched, and the themes of their publications have also begun to expand.

Although the next few years will be the most prosperous period for comic strips, the competition will also become increasingly fierce.

Although the "Comic Book" still firmly holds the position of the big brother, its sales have indeed been affected. Although the Sanhuo series is still the most popular comic book nowadays, its popularity has declined compared to its peak period.

Because this story is based on their family, Su Ting inevitably feels a little more sympathy for the protagonist in the story. She doesn't want the story to fall into obscurity, nor does she want people to think of the story with highs at the beginning and lows at the end.

Let it stop at the best time.

After understanding Su Ting's thoughts, Wang Jingfang was silent for a long time and finally acquiesced to her choice.

This year Su Ting serialized two stories, one of which is the final chapter of the Three Fires series, which started serialization in July and ended in November.

Perhaps because it was the final chapter, readers were more enthusiastic than ever, and letters came in like snowflakes. Especially in the month of the finale, Su Ting received a full twenty bags of letters.

Thanks to the fact that she has purchased several properties in recent years, otherwise the storage of so many letters would be enough to give her a headache.

At the end of that month, Su Ting opened and read some of the letters sent by readers. Some were farewell letters, and some were begging her to continue painting.

She never thought of herself as a soft-hearted person, but she burst into tears when she read the letter.

He Yan was similar. In the past few years, Su Ting would show him all the letters sent by readers of the Three Fires series.

As he grew up, He Yan's naive and innocent personality gradually faded away, and he became more calm and sensible, even a bit like his father. He was fine in front of his family, but outside, he was a cold and aloof person.

Su Ting had never seen him cry in the past few years, but when he read the letters, he couldn't help but shed tears, and he might even have cried secretly. But he wanted to save face, so he went back to his room as soon as his eyes turned red, and refused to let others see them.

Having said that, although the popularity of the Sanhuo series has declined compared to its peak period, it has accumulated a lot of readers and sentiments after being serialized for so many years.

Therefore, after the final chapter began serialization, the sales of "Comic Book" began to rise steadily, and the popularity of the final chapter of the Sanhuo series gradually returned to its peak level, and there were even more stories.

After the final chapter was completed, the publishing house quickly arranged for publication and at the same time reprinted the previously published single-volume comic books and sold them as a set under the name of commemorative editions.

It's a really good idea, and with this momentum, not only did the final chapter sell well, but the commemorative edition sold as a set also sold very well.

The royalties from this reprint alone are enough for Su Ting to buy a house in Shanghai.

The second story is a martial arts theme that Su Ting painted a few years ago. The manuscript was handed over to Wang Jingfang at the beginning of the year, serialization began in April, and it was completed in June.

Martial arts themes have a very long history, but there was a break in the themes after the founding of the People's Republic of China. They became popular again in the 1980s, after the ban on novels by Jin Yong, Gu Long and others was lifted.

Therefore, martial arts is a relatively new theme nowadays.

Although the story drawn by Su Ting is relatively short, the plot is relatively simple, and it is not easy to read, and it did not become as popular as the Three Fires series, it has also gained a group of loyal readers.

After the serialization ended, the comic book was also published as a single volume. Because it was priced relatively cheaply, it sold tens of thousands of copies and had a very good start.

Wang Jingfang finally understood that Su Tiansheng was born to do this job - no matter what stories she drew, there would always be readers who supported her.

So after the Three Fires series came to an end, Wang Jingfang did not urge Su Ting to draw a similar story, but told her that as long as she could draw, any subject matter would be fine, and that it was okay if she wanted to continue changing her pen name.

Although it has been several years since she last painted a martial arts theme, Su Ting has been busy during this period and has not been able to spare the time to conceive a story on the same theme. She still has a passion for martial arts, so what she is currently painting is still the story of a chivalrous woman roaming the world.

The library is a great place to study and work. Even the most restless person can calm down and read for a few minutes here, not to mention that Su Ting has a focused attention.

After she immersed herself in her work, she forgot the passage of time. It was not until Ma Yan called her that she realized it was lunch time.

The two packed up their things and went to the cafeteria to eat together.

After eating, Ma Yan went back to the dormitory to rest, while Su Ting rode her bicycle home. When she entered the alley, she met the postman delivering mail.

The man had been a postman for more than ten years, and the mail delivery area had not changed much. He knew who lived in the alley and their names. At the first sight, he recognized Su Ting and shouted, "Comrade Su has a letter for you." He braked his bicycle as he spoke.

Su Ting stopped the car, said thank you with a smile, and asked who the letter was from.

By chance, the postman took out a letter from his bag, took a look and said, "It's from the publishing house, the name is Wang Jingfang."

Su Ting took the letter, thanked him again, put the letter in the bicycle basket, and rode into the alley. She rode all the way into the yard of No. 67, and took out the backpack and letter from the bicycle basket, and then took out the key from the bag to open the door.

After entering the house, Su Ting casually placed her keys and bag on the shoe cabinet and walked towards the sofa in the living room while opening the letter.

When she sat down, the letter had already been unfolded and she looked up at it.

The letter is not long. The first two paragraphs are polite greetings and the usual reminder of updates. The third paragraph gets to the point. The general meaning can be summarized as follows:

The Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio wanted to purchase the copyright of the Three Fires series to adapt it into an animated film. In order to avoid being too abrupt by approaching them directly, they contacted the publishing house to ask for her contact information.

If she is willing to sell the copyright, she can call Wang Jingfang and ask her to tell the production company her contact information, or she can directly call the production company's staff in charge of related matters to discuss the matter in detail.

Contact information for studio personnel is included below.

Su Ting was so shocked that she read the letter over and over again three times before she finally confirmed that the person who contacted her was the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio.

This is Shanghai and the United States!

In her previous life, she spent most of her childhood watching animated films produced by Shanghai and the United States.

Although the original novel is fictional, this world is not exactly the same as her previous life, but——

She is so beautiful at heart!