Chapter 156 The Secret of Three People
"Fang Wei——"
When Fang Wei heard Liu Zhiyi's voice coming from the gate of the yard, he didn't react for a moment.
If I remember correctly, this was probably the first time she had come to Donghua Village alone and to his doorstep alone in all the time they had known each other.
It looked like something big had happened and the girl looked quite anxious.
Before Fang Wei could walk over and open the yard gate, she parked her bicycle, reached her little hand through the gap in the gate railing, unbolted the bolt, and pushed the door open without any hesitation, completely losing her usual quiet and polite demeanor.
"I'm telling you, I'm telling you--!"
Liu Zhiyi ran straight to him and stood still, talking to him nonstop:
"I just got a call from the magazine!"
"It's the call from the editor of Sprout!"
“I’ve passed the draft!”
"Fang Wei, I really passed the manuscript!"
She was so excited that her language was a little confused, but luckily Fang Wei knew the whole story, so even though her explanation was so jumpy, he probably understood why she was so excited.
To put it simply, the manuscript she submitted to Mengya Magazine was accepted. It did not stop at the second round, but had passed the final review. The editor called to inform her that her article would be published in the April issue!
Liu Zhiyi ran over to tell him the good news as soon as possible.
Looking at the girl announcing the result with a blushing face, Fang Wei couldn't help laughing.
I was happy that her submission was accepted, but I was also amused by her overly cute excitement.
"Your article is going to be published! Congratulations!!"
"whee……!"
After getting Fang Wei's affirmation, her tense shoulders relaxed. She smiled proudly and straightened her back like a child, looking as if she wanted to get more praise.
Fang Wei didn't know how to praise her to make her more satisfied. Seeing her standing in front of him so cutely, he reached out and touched her head.
Unexpectedly, Liu Zhiyi enjoyed this intimate action very much. She squinted her eyes like a kitten, and her delicate body twisted as if it was itchy, showing that she was very comfortable.
"You are one step closer to your dream of becoming a great writer~!"
"Haha... He's not a great writer..."
"You can publish articles now! You're a great writer!"
"no……!"
The girl couldn't help but praise him unexpectedly. She didn't know whether it was the touch of his head or the three key words "great writer" that made her already blushing face even redder. She wanted to hide but had nowhere to hide. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to bury her face in his arms.
It was not until today that Fang Wei realized that Liu Zhiyi, who seemed calm on weekdays, could also lose her composure like this. Perhaps this kind of behavior is more suitable for her at this age.
I don’t know how other writers feel when their manuscripts are reviewed for the first time.
I thought that becoming a writer was a long and distant road, but I never expected that in just one morning, she had taken a big step towards her dream. Fang Wei was sincerely happy for her.
After a while, the girl's excitement finally calmed down.
When Fang Wei took his hand away from her head, she was still a little reluctant, but she was too embarrassed to ask him to touch her for a while longer.
Just as Liu Zhiyi was about to tell him in detail what happened on the phone, a voice suddenly rang out beside him -
"Zhi Yi!! Are you going to publish an article in a magazine?!!"
"Cai, Cai Ling?! Why did you suddenly appear?!"
Hearing this, Liu Zhiyi suddenly felt guilty.
It's bad! Cai Ling discovered the little secret between him and Fang Wei!
She quickly turned her head and saw Xu Cailing lying on the wall of her house, sticking her little head out, looking at her and Fang Wei in surprise.
"I've been here the whole time, but you didn't notice me!"
"Ah... I... uh... didn't see it for a moment..."
God knows! Liu Zhiyi really didn't notice that Cai Ling had been lying on the top of the wall. She was so focused on reporting the good news to Fang Wei that she rushed to his house without thinking about it and even ignored Cai Ling.
Xu Cailing pushed herself up with her hands and nimbly flipped over the wall. She trotted over to the two of them, looking a little angry:
"Hehe! You two actually kept such a big secret from me! I'm angry!"
"No, Cailing! I'm telling you everything!"
Liu Zhiyi quickly explained: "Before I knew whether my submission would be accepted, I was embarrassed to tell everyone..."
"Then how did Fang Wei know that?"
"Fang Wei insisted on seeing it, so he knew about it..."
Fang Wei: “……???”
Fang Wei wanted to say something but stopped, and yet he wanted to say something but it seemed to be the case...
"So, do Asheng and the others know?"
Xu Cailing asked again, if even Ah Sheng knew about it but she didn’t, she would definitely be very angry!
"No one knows. Even grandpa just found out about it. Now only the three of us know about it..."
"That is not bad."
Xu Cailing thought about it and stopped being angry. She said, "Now it's a secret between the three of us~~"
"Yeah!" Liu Zhiyi nodded.
"..." Fang Wei was speechless, what a pair of childish ghosts!
"So, Zhiyi, are you really going to publish an article in the magazine?"
"Um……"
"!!"
Xu Cailing was stunned.
That's publishing an article in a magazine! If it were her, she wouldn't even dare to think about it!
Although Cai Ling didn't read magazines very often, she knew how powerful people were who could publish articles in magazines. She had heard her father and others talking about it before. They said that someone from the factory next door had published a short article in the Xuanzhu Evening News and was praised by the factory for it.
"Which magazine did you submit your article to?"
"bud……"
"Mengya!!" Xu Cailing was even more surprised! As a journal with a huge circulation, many students in the class, especially the literary girls, read Mengya magazine. It was often circulated in the class. Maybe Mengya didn't have a wide audience like Story Club, but the articles published in Mengya were all highly literary!
"Zhiyi! You are so awesome!!"
"Lucky..."
"This is not just luck! Not everyone can publish an article on Mengya! Pepe loves Mengya the most. She said it is very difficult to publish an article there!"
"hey-hey……"
Liu Zhiyi smiled a little embarrassedly.
Xu Cailing said this from the bottom of her heart, she really thought Zhiyi was amazing!
If the person who published the article was herself, Cai Ling didn't know how proud she would be. The most important thing is that Pepei is a die-hard fan of Mengya. If Pepei saw that one of the articles above was written by her, he would probably be shocked!
At this point, Xu Cailing was confused again, and said in confusion:
"Then this is a happy event, why don't you want others to know?"
"Well... I'm a little embarrassed, and I didn't expect it to be accepted..."
Faced with such an honor, Liu Zhiyi just thought that the fewer people who knew about it, the better. If everyone knew that she had published an article, she would feel a little scalp-numbing just thinking about a bunch of people coming to her with her article and pen name to ask her!
Liu Zhiyi is Liu Zhiyi, Nanfeng is Nanfeng, they are not the same person! No, no!
"Well, that's a shame..."
Xu Cailing also sighed when she heard this. Although she didn't quite understand why Zhiyi did this, it was very consistent with her character. Zhiyi has always been like this and never shows off.
Liu Zhiyi smiled indifferently: "It doesn't matter if others don't know. Anyway, it's OK as long as my manuscript is approved. I'm already very happy!"
"Zhiyi, what is the content of the article you submitted?" Xu Cailing asked curiously.
"I, I'll show it to you later... It's a story about a junior high school girl who returns to an island to live because of family changes..." Liu Zhiyi said hesitantly.
Xu Cailing was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "You are writing an autobiography?!"
"No! No! Many of the plots are made up..."
"Oh, the story is fictional. Any similarities are purely coincidental, right? Hehe." Cai Ling understood.
Liu Zhiyi: “…”
I hope Cai Ling can say the same thing when she sees Xiao Lin, who is based on her in the article...
After listening to the two chatting for a while, Fang Wei asked her again: "The editor said on the phone that it will be published in the April issue?"
"Yeah!" Liu Zhiyi nodded.
It’s almost mid-February now, so I definitely won’t be able to make it to the March issue. It’s already very fast to be published in the April issue.
"Do we need to sign a contract or something?"
Fang Wei asked curiously. He didn't know much about publishing articles in magazines.
Although Liu Zhiyi is not very old, he still knows a lot about these things. After all, his father has published many articles and papers in the past.
"To a pure literature magazine or newspaper, you generally don't need to sign a contract to submit a single article, unless it's a special commission or something."
"How is the fee calculated?"
"Based on the word count, 100 yuan per thousand words, I got yuan this time!"
One hundred yuan per thousand words is a good amount! For an article of more than 3,000 words, I got more than 300 yuan, which is equivalent to half a month's income for an average person!
Of course, most people who engage in literary creation are poor and destitute. After all, not every article or novel can be successfully approved. Even many well-known writers were part-time writers before they became famous. If they really hope to support themselves by writing, they will most likely starve to death before they have any achievements...
Just like Liu Cixin, when he published The Wandering Earth in Science Fiction World in 2000, the remuneration was only yuan per thousand words, and he only earned more than yuan for one book. He had to work as an electrician while writing the book...
But Liu Zhiyi is different, she is only fourteen years old this year! At an age when she doesn't have to worry about her livelihood, the royalties are secondary. As a student, studying and creating at the same time is simply the perfect combination!
Of course, having said that, more than 300 yuan is a lot of money these days, especially for young boys and girls, it is definitely a huge sum of money.
Xu Cailing was stunned. She counted on her little finger and said, "One hundred yuan for a thousand words, and I made more than three hundred yuan for more than three thousand words. If I write 30,000 words, that would be more than three thousand yuan. If I write three hundred thousand words, that would be more than thirty thousand yuan! Zhiyi! I'm rich! Write more next time! Write a long novel, a novel of several hundred thousand words!"
There is no concept of online novels at this time. Compared with those online novels that easily have millions of words, novels with hundreds of thousands of words can definitely be called super long novels!
"Zhiyi! Write a novel!!"
"Hahaha, I can't write a novel yet..."
Liu Zhiyi smiled. It’s not that she has never thought about writing a novel, but she really can’t handle a piece that is too long at the moment.
The highest level in the field of writing is often writing novels, and owning a long work that condenses all one's talents and energy is the dream of every literary creator.
Compared with writing articles, writing novels is still too difficult. The length of a novel is much longer than that of an ordinary article, and it can take tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of words to complete. This difference in length makes the conception, writing, and revision of novels more complicated and time-consuming. Novels require the construction of complex plots, character relationships, and scenes. Writing an article can be an independent creation, but novels need to skillfully weave these elements together to form a complete story world, which places higher demands on the author's story construction ability and imagination.
Especially nowadays, there is no concept of online literature, and the literary requirements for novels are relatively high. This also requires the creator to have a certain amount of experience and literary literacy. In short, it is still a bit difficult for a fourteen-year-old girl to do this for the time being.
"I will consider writing a novel in the future. For now, I'd better practice writing articles and lay a solid foundation."
"Zhiyi, you are already amazing! You must be the first person in our school... No! You must be the first person in our town to publish an article in a magazine!"
"That's not the case..."
"Who else?"
"My father has published it before..."
"hiss--!"
A literary family?!
Well, Fang Wei admitted that the family atmosphere does have a huge impact on a person. Putting writing aside, there is no one among his peers who reads more than Liu Zhiyi.
"Come on, Zhiyi! You will definitely become a great writer in the future! When the time comes, I will use you to make you famous!"
Cai Ling bent her delicate arms into an L shape to cheer for her dream.
"Ok!"
Liu Zhiyi nodded vigorously.
The success of this submission really gave her great recognition and motivation, and Fang Wei and Cai Ling supported her so much!
"Would you like to have lunch together at my house?" Fang Wei asked.
"Ah, I can't. Grandpa has cooked dinner at home. I'm going back now!"
Liu Zhiyi rode over here in a hurry and rode back in full energy.
Fang Wei and Xu Cailing were left standing in the yard.
"how about you?"
"eat!"
(End of this chapter)
