Chapter 9: Writing articles.
He Susu took the matter of writing and submitting articles to magazines very seriously. After all, only if her articles were published by magazines and she had the royalties, she could take the things she redeemed from the shopping system back home.
Of course, it would be best if she could be selected. If unfortunately she was not selected, at least she had submitted the article, and as long as she slightly modified the results, she could hide it from her family and give a reasonable excuse for the things she brought back.
She made an outline on a piece of draft paper of the inspiration and materials that had popped up in her mind.
At first, she was a little awkward. After graduating from high school, she stayed at home for a while and was unfamiliar with writing. So He Susu simply found her favorite article from a family in the alley, imitated the framework structure, and put it into her own story.
After He Susu finished writing the beginning of the article with difficulty, giving pseudonyms to the key figures in the interesting stories in the village, her writing suddenly became smoother. The scenes from the past seemed to appear before her eyes, and she only needed to describe them in slightly vivid words.
Of course, she did not forget the main purpose of these articles to promote to readers. The final point of the articles is to show the positive life of rural people and their high-spirited and optimistic attitude.
It took He Susu two days to finish writing an article.
They say it’s easier to catch fish if you cast a wide net; you’ll always be able to catch one or two.
He Susu took a day off and started writing her second article. To this end, she took a walk around the village after dinner in the evening. The sounds of old women chatting, children playing, chickens crowing and dogs barking were intertwined, which was undoubtedly the most vivid rural picture.
She wrote three articles for the Alley People in a row, and then began to write articles for the Youth Magazine. The anecdotes about the lives of the people in the former were what she had seen and heard with her own eyes and ears, while the materials mentioned in the latter were mostly imaginary.
Every year, educated youth went to the Qinghe Production Team to work in the countryside. At the beginning, He Susu also went to watch for fun.
Those brothers and sisters were dressed in new clothes, their faces were full of youthful vigor and excitement about joining the rural construction, but of course they became dusty and shabby in less than a month, as most of them could not stand the hard working life. The educated youth I met later were even worse.
Of course, what was written in the article could not be so realistic. He Susu chose to capture the most beautiful and positive part at the beginning, and the rest was made up by imitating other articles in youth magazines.
Most of her classmates' parents were workers when she was studying in the county. She had heard them talk about their parents' work, and she had seen it with her own eyes, so the picture of workers' work and life was vividly portrayed on paper. Compared with middle-aged people, young people naturally have more selfless spirit of devoting themselves to work and more courage to fear nothing, and they strive to improve work efficiency and always reach new heights.
With these materials and giving full play to her positive imagination, He Susu wrote two articles in succession and was very satisfied with them.
Her articles were not too long, but not too short either, after all, the magazine paid her for her articles based on the number of words in the article. He Susu hoped to make more money, so she tried to make her articles longer without being criticized for being too exaggerated.
During the period of writing, the only way He Susu earned diligence points was to sweep the yard with a broom after dinner every night. Not only was it easy, but it also ensured that there would be no mistakes.
Guifang was quite unhappy, saying that sweeping the yard was her job and it was not good to always let her sister-in-law do it.
He Susu just said, "I stay in my room writing every day, and I want to move around at night. Sweeping the yard is just the right job for me, don't snatch it from me!"
He's mother laughed and shook her head. She really couldn't do anything about her daughter, so she told Guifang: "If your aunt likes to sweep the yard, let her do it. You can take a break and be lazy."
Seeing that her grandmother also said so, Guifang was relieved. So the job of sweeping the yard, which could easily earn hard work points, officially fell to He Susu.
It is not known whether He Susu can make money by writing articles in the room, but everyone knows that writing is a brain-intensive job. The He family members usually try to keep quiet at home, and speak and walk as quietly as possible to avoid disturbing her.
He's mother specifically told her grandchildren that if they wanted to play, they should go outside the house to play, so as not to laugh or shout too loudly and disturb He Susu.
The children naturally agreed obediently. They were also looking forward to the royalties their aunt earned so they could buy meat to eat.
It was a sunny day with a clear blue sky. He Susu packed several articles she had written into two envelopes according to the magazines she submitted them to, and prepared to take them to the post office to mail.
He's mother found out about this and came to her room the night before to give her some money: "It costs money to take the ox cart to the county town, and it costs money to mail the manuscript. Take some money first."
He Susu refused: "No need, mother. I still have some money in my hand, enough to go to the county town. You don't have to worry about not having money to send a few more manuscripts. Don't worry."
Previously, He's mother had given her money, saying it was for meat, but she had always firmly refused. This time, as she spoke, she stuffed the money that He's mother was about to put into her hand back into her pocket.
He's mother couldn't persuade her: "Is the money really enough?"
He Susu nodded: "That's enough, and I can make money very quickly."
Her words were full of confidence, which made He's mother happy: "Okay, then I'll wait."
He Susu went to the village to buy money and took a bullock cart as usual. This time she ran into a relative. She smiled and greeted him: "Hello, auntie!"
Wu Hua nodded and responded: "Hey Susu, I haven't seen you for a long time. Are you going to the county town to buy things?"
He Susu didn't say much: "Well, the salt at home is almost used up, and my mother asked me to buy some back."
"In this way, you can help go to the county town to buy things, and your mother will have an easier time." Wu Hua praised. Her family has a good relationship with her uncle's family, and they all live in the same village. Wu Hua also likes this niece. She has been beautiful since she was a child, but she is a little lazy. If her husband was not the team leader, and he took the blame for He Susu's poor health and inability to work, how could this girl not go to work?
But last time I ran into her mother in the field, I heard that Susu has been very diligent recently and even rushed to sweep the yard. Wu Hua smiled and said, "When you have time, come out to the village more often, or come to your house to chat with your sister Qiaoyi. She has been busy preparing for her wedding recently, so she didn't come to see you."
He Qiaoyi is her daughter. They got engaged at the end of last year and agreed to get married in April this year. In addition to working and doing housework, she is also preparing her dowry.
He Susu had a good relationship with this cousin since childhood. When she went to high school and she had to go to work, they had less contact, but they lived in the same village and often got together to chat and talk about personal matters. However, after she kowtowed, she was busy earning hard work points and recently she was busy writing articles, so she didn't think of looking for this cousin for a while.
She agreed: "Okay, Auntie, I will definitely go to see Sister Qiaoyi when I have time."
What happened when there were acquaintances in the same carriage was that He Susu basically spent the entire journey chatting with her aunt-in-law, even talking about the trivial matters of daily life.
He Susu responded vaguely to the other party's implicit advice that since she had not found a job in the city yet, she should do some work, even if it was just to earn a few cents to buy food for herself.
She didn't tell anyone that she had written an article and was going to submit it for publication. Given her aunt's talkativeness, she might let it slip at any time, and then everyone in the village would know about it.
When they arrived at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative, He Susu got off the cart as soon as it stopped, followed by Wu Hua, who said, "Let's go in together. I also want to buy something at the supply and marketing cooperative."
Having made up the excuse of buying salt, He Susu had no choice but to follow him into the supply and marketing cooperative. Fortunately, the things they wanted to buy were not at the same counter, so they naturally went their separate ways. She casually wandered around, and when she looked back and could no longer see her aunt, she quickly left the supply and marketing cooperative and walked towards the post office.
The person on duty at the post office window was the same comrade who had seen me buy magazines last time. However, she saw so many people every day that she probably didn't have much impression of her.
He Susu handed her two thick envelopes with the mailing address already written on them. After checking, the other party glanced at her, put stamps on them, and quoted her the mailing price: "10 cents in total."
"Thank you, comrade." He Susu took out a dime from her pocket and handed it to the other party. Fortunately, the two magazines were in the province. If no article was selected and no royalties were earned, she would have lost a dime.
Fortunately, the magazine is located in the province, so it should take a few days to know whether my manuscript has been selected or rejected.
He Susu left the post office and planned to go to her elder sister's place.
He arrived at the steel plant's staff quarters with familiarity, found the building where his eldest sister lived, and went upstairs and knocked on the door.
Haohao was the first to rush over and open the door when he heard the noise. When he saw the person coming, he happily shouted, "Auntie!"
Juejue followed behind, called someone and then shouted into the kitchen: "Mom, my aunt is here!"
He Xiuxiu came out of the kitchen: "Susu is here, it's a good time for us to have dinner together!"
He Susu explained: "I just happened to come to the county town today to mail some manuscripts, and I thought I'd come over to sit with you for a while. No need to eat, I'll hurry back to the supply and marketing cooperative and take the ox cart back later."
When He Xiuxiu heard about the manuscript, she remembered what her younger sister had said before about writing articles to make money. She knew it was not easy for an article to be selected and published in a magazine, and no matter how good her younger sister was, she couldn't have every article selected, but she didn't say anything discouraging, she just thought that after her younger sister tried a few more times, maybe she would give up and concentrate on finding a job.
At this moment, she smiled and said, "That's great. I'm waiting for your good news."
"Sister, just continue cooking. I'll follow you to the kitchen to talk for a few minutes." He Susu said.
He Xiuxiu was halfway through cooking when she was thinking about the work on the stove and agreed with a smile. This lunch was a light one, as her parents-in-law and husband were eating lunch in the factory cafeteria, so it was just her and her two children eating, so she just cooked one or two dishes.
After entering the kitchen, He Susu talked about the news she just remembered last night: "Sister, I just ran into a classmate I was very close to when I was in school. She told me that there is a person named Fang Zeqing in the meat canning workshop of the meat processing factory. Her husband works in the city's scientific research institute and is now being transferred to another city. She is going to follow him, so she has to sell her current job for about 600 yuan. I heard that the news has not been released yet, and my classmate and the other party are relatives, so we knew it in advance."
"Haohao and Juejue are grown up now and can be sent to a kindergarten. Big sister, you can consider buying this job so that you can work and earn money."
She suddenly remembered last night that in the plot of the novel she knew, the third sister-in-law Su Yu felt quite regretful when she heard her colleague mention that her family had bought Fang Zeqing's job at the meat processing factory. If Su Yu had known the news earlier, she would definitely have told her in-laws about it.
The eldest sister married in the city but had no job. She had been taking care of the children and doing housework at home. Although she had no worries about food and clothing, she was somewhat insecure in front of her husband's family. He Susu knew that the eldest sister had always wanted to find a job, but at this juncture she still actively asked her brother-in-law to help her find a job first.
After remembering the news, she couldn't wait to tell her so as not to waste time and miss the opportunity.
He Xiuxiu was indeed tempted. The meat processing factory was a good job. Not only was the salary high, but the benefits were good. Didn't you see that the workers in the meat processing factory didn't have to worry about meat to eat? This job was on the meat canning production line. The salary of more than 600 yuan was not expensive, and it would pay off in more than a year.
But my younger sister needs a job more now. After thinking it over, He Xiuxiu said, "Little sister, you finally have a good job. Go back and talk to your parents about buying this job. It's over 600 yuan. Your family should be able to take out most of it. As for the rest, I will talk to your brother-in-law and lend it to you first. You can pay it back slowly in the future."
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