Chapter 19 Chapter Seventeen

Liu Xiancong, a native of Dicheng, read my manuscript and asked me to see it.Born as a poet, he has a master's degree from a famous school, has been an official, has been abroad, and went to sea to work as a bookseller.A set of American financial books that taught people how to get rich and a small American fable that was like a children's book for the mentally handicapped were rejected by countless publishers.The two books have been the top bestsellers for a long time.Unlike Hu Meng, Liu Xiancong has become a veritable publishing myth. When I rushed to the "Beijing Bookworm" company in a skyscraper beside the third ring road, Liu Xiancong was surrounded by the media.One reporter came out, another slipped in, and there was another group in the reception room.There are many people from Dicheng in the company, and everyone marvels at how small the world is!

Liu Xiancong is in his early forties, well-dressed, gentle and elegant, with meticulously groomed hair. He has the uninhibited temperament of a rare poet, quite like a classic business elite.He is my high school alumnus, or a brother of the same school.He has been away from Dicheng for 20 years, and he speaks with a southern accent. He tried to communicate with me in Dicheng dialect, but soon returned to Mandarin with a Sichuan accent.Liu Xiancong explained that he only made financial books to cooperate with wealth training. Unfortunately, my book could not be published, mainly to get acquainted.Knowing that I didn't have a serious job and stayed in the cellar, he advised me to work part-time in his company, doing some planning, copywriting and so on.A part-time fee of 1,500 is not attractive, but the thought of free accommodation, a lunch and free internet made me give in.

At noon, Liu Xiancong summoned the staff of Dicheng to meet me in the restaurant, and appointed Vice President Bai to drive to move me on weekends. When they heard that I was moving, Shunzi and Yanzi were very happy for me, and they went to a Mala Tang restaurant outside to see me off.Qi Shunzi sighed: "In a flash we lived in the basement for half a year." I said, "It's time for you to move out too. You shouldn't be hanging out with us scum in the first place, you're just a white-collar worker." Qi Shunzi wailed: "Boss, you are used to making fun of me, why aren't we scum?"

"I'm not a scumbag!" Swallow protested. Although swallows give me a headache, I have some feelings after staying for a while.I said to her, "You shouldn't have moved here to hang out with us scum, you're also a beautiful woman, isn't your reputation clear?" "Who is the scum after all?" Yanzi was proud, "You are right, there must be a scum when three people go together. The boss will take a step first, and I will go out afterward." "Where are you moving?" "This is a secret!" Yanzi said mysteriously, we ignored her, but she couldn't help it anymore, "Boss, Shunzi, I'm going to make a movie soon!"

"Ah, who have you been lied to again?" I was taken aback, "I won't accompany you to the hospital!" Swallow argued: "Damn! Who was cheated? They are filming! What ears?" "Based on your pronunciation, we were deceived when we were filmed." I asked seriously, "Are you really making a film?" Swallow said: "Yes, I saw Director Yin." I was startled, looked around and said, "Hush your voice! What are you talking about?" Yanzi complained: "I'm talking about the director named Yin, referred to as Director Yin, what do you think?"

"How did you meet him? Was it my call?" Yanzi nodded as if she had made a mistake: "I was afraid you would tell me, so I didn't tell you." "It's okay, he doesn't know who I am either. When did you meet? With what capacity?" Yanzi beamed with joy: "It's been half a month, and I'm in a private club. I said first that I was an independent reporter, but he was gone; then I said that I was his admirer, and I wanted to have a good face, a figure with a figure, and acting skills." , want to make a film, he met." For the first time, I talked to Yanzi politely: "You are really good, even though you have a vagina—no, Director Yin is a director between second-rate and third-rate, so you don't want to see him just because you see him, who are you?"

Yanzi became proud: "I didn't hold out any hope, but I still met, and Director Yin even tested me." Qi Shunzi asked, "Why did you get tested?" Swallow said: "Recite Tang poems and lines, and he also asked me to make up a sketch within five minutes, containing emotions, anger, sorrow, joy... He said that I have great potential, unlike some people who always underestimate me." I felt a little guilty, but I said in my mouth: "It's not that the big brother looks down on people, but that this circle is not worthy of overestimation. I am no longer an idiot groupie. It's not like you don't know the reputation of this circle. It's a mess. Take care of yourself."

Qi Shunzi echoed me: "Boss is right, drug use, tax evasion, and gossip. If you were my sister, I would also oppose you doing this—unless you play a girl in Jin Yong's works, Huang Rong, Xiaolongnv—and Ji Xiaofu." I laughed: "She is more suitable for Miejue Shitai." Qi Shunzi immediately said authoritatively: "Ji Xiaofu is the female disciple of Miejue Shitai." The swallow made a ferocious grimace, stuck out its tongue, and asked us, "Do you think I look like me?" I said, "The acting is okay, no makeup is needed." Yanzi restrained her grimace and snorted.

keep drinking.I joked: "You guys still rent together." Qi Shunzi hurriedly waved his hands: "Farewell, she is a celebrity, and she might be the cover girl of your "Human Essence" magazine someday." Yanzi suddenly had tears in his eyes: "I said it long ago, sooner or later we will get out of the basement and live in the building. Cheers, we are the same people who have fallen in the end of the world." Shunzi, who never drank alcohol, drank recklessly this time, and soon became limp and incoherent. Yanzi and I carried him to "home" like a flour sack.

Mr. Liu asked me to go to work on time like everyone else, but I really didn't like the two best-selling books introduced by Liu Xiancong.It may be a little enlightening to put it in a society with a sound legal system and a high degree of integrity. If it is brought to us, it will only make those "people who get rich first" laugh out their big gold teeth.I became more and more hesitant to do a job I didn't like, just like falling in love with a woman who makes you feel cold.But looking around at the kennel-like shelter in the basement, I worry again.Winter is coming, and the unheated basement is getting colder and colder. I have woken up several times in the middle of the night, hugging the bedding tightly, and being invaded by damp again; my body, clothes and demeanor that have been soaked in moisture all emit a musty smell, and my knees are dull .Complicated tenants and endless security harassment made me often sleep with my eyes half open.When I think of skyscrapers, free Internet and free meals, seductive beauties coming and going, it is hard for me to refuse, anyway, it is a part-time job, and idleness is idleness.

Bai Lexus' car is not Lexus but Honda.He cautiously followed me down to the second basement floor, half shocked and half curious.This person who has traveled to many countries seems to have some blind spots in his own country. He said: "I also lived in a basement in Tokyo. It was smaller than this, but it was several times more comfortable and clean. You can see it when you go to Japan." Yes, that’s called clean. Little Japan has serious cleanliness, to the point of perversion.” I said, "Cleanliness is a good thing." Bai Lingzhi said: "I'm a medical student. It's not good to love cleanliness too much. It's fragile. What do you think is the most viable creature in the world?" I said, "Rats, flies, bacteria, etc." Bai Lingzhi said, "That's right." I laughed: "Haha, I am a mole living underground in Beijing—a mole from the south." "As long as it's not Lou Ashu." Bai Lingzhi picked up a stack of heavy books and joked, "Xiucai's house is full of books. You are an old mole who loves to read. You fell into the bookcase and chewed on words." Bai Lingzhi and I tremblingly moved a suitcase, a large cardboard box, and a pile of bedding out of the basement, and I emerged from the ground tremblingly like a field mouse that hadn't shown up for a long time.The sky is blue, the warm sun of early winter lazily beats on the face and body, a ray of light is projected from the cloudy and dusty heart, a faint white air evaporates from the wet sweater, and the bones are moist and cool, just like some spring seeds are about to emerge Roots sprouted in my body. At the barber shop at the door, the female boss asked me: "Let's go now, does Liu Jing owe you money?" "Bad debts are settled." I waved my hand, "It's not my bad luck, but her luck." The car cautiously drove through two long and narrow streets, merged into the third ring road with turbulent traffic, and sped up, leaving my miserable life behind.The long and narrow slab building with elevators in the Tuanjiehu community is the same as the huge tower building above the cellar where I live. It was built in the late 1980s and early 1990s and can be seen everywhere in Beijing; Lou Bi has an extraordinary momentum. There are three bedrooms and one living room, and two couples from Dicheng lived in the two rooms.I was assigned the smallest room, five or six square meters, and it was difficult to turn around except for the furniture, but it was also compact.What I am most satisfied with is the mattress. Although it is old, after all, it is a genuine spring mattress, which is very different from my simple mattress filled with black heart cotton or dog intestines.I happily took a free hot shower that I haven’t taken for more than half a year, threw a lot of dirty clothes and smelly socks into the free automatic washing machine, and boiled a pot of boiling water for free. I brewed a cup of free green tea, and then lay flat on this free mattress with Walkmans plugged into my ears. It felt like Huang Ama on the golden palace in the Forbidden City of F.M.D. The Beijing public transport during peak hours can squeeze men for impotence and erection; the subway during peak hours is even more powerful, it can squeeze women for abortion and pregnancy.Even if you try your best to squeeze up, there are more troubles waiting for you.The aggressiveness and ruthlessness of tourists has already made your sense of touch numb, and the rampant behavior of beggar gangs and vagabond artists will destroy your visual and auditory nerves again.He had just moved his stinky head embedded in his arms several times, and stood up straight in disarray, when suddenly the crowd moved away, and a beggar half-slid and half-crawled on a pulley plank, and his broken lower limbs It is exposed, inflamed and pus-filled, and the good morning mood you are trying to maintain collapses in an instant.Just as you dismissed this one out of kindness, there was another melodious sound of Huqin, mournful and mournful.Afterwards, a blind man in ragged clothes, with white and black eyes half-closed, sang Xintianyou in the carriage, with a grief-stricken expression on his face, and his bean-sized eyeballs were shaking.A dirty child led the old man to guide the blind with one hand, and stretched out an empty bowl to the passengers with the other.This doesn't matter, what matters is the high-pitched mourning singing, which makes your hair stand on end.A rough guy couldn't bear it any longer, and cursed: "Fuck you, is it over? Don't you want to be beaten? Cry and cry at home!" The old man immediately sang impromptu: "A Beijinger, bullying a disabled person in northern Shaanxi... A Beijinger, bullying a disabled person in northern Shaanxi... He wants to kill disabled people in our revolutionary holy land..." After singing over and over for several stops, no one dared to utter a word, and finally a woman couldn't bear it any longer: "Old man, stop singing! Are you annoying!" The old man continued: "Two Beijingers, bullying a disabled person from northern Shaanxi... Two Beijingers, bullying a disabled person from northern Shaanxi..." The men and women who got into trouble hurriedly declared that they were not from Beijing, and the old man was very spirited in correcting mistakes: "Two foreigners, bullying a disabled person in northern Shaanxi...they want to kill the disabled person in our revolutionary holy place... " No one dared to be a hero anymore, listening patiently, or dozing off with their ears covered.The folk artist sang until the big empty bowl was filled, and the child said "Grandpa, get off the bus", the old man took the curtain call, and the passengers seemed to have escaped from death. In fact, there is nothing to do in the "Bookworm" company. Those copywriters promote book review reader surveys, or website column design, upload content, etc. can be played and made a living.Most of the time either hanging out online or hanging out with colleagues. The publishing house that signed the contract with me was a few stops away from the "Bookworm" company, and I used the time for lunch to rush there.The conditions mentioned by editor-in-chief He Xin and Chen Ke are no different from those of other publishing houses, but they are required to delete those few plots with intensive descriptions. "I can't delete it, I can't delete it, I will delete it and become a eunuch." I cried sadly, "It's just a few streams of consciousness, it's also a selling point." "The eunuchs are safe." He Xin chuckled, "I, who have been here, think it's too nasty, and those few stream-of-consciousness techniques are not clever, and the final trial might cause extra problems." Chen Ke's statement is more convincing: "Since the protagonist in the book is a virgin most of the time, it's best not to damage his image, and don't make him look like Ximen Qing in a blink of an eye." Arguing in vain, agreed.The contract had been drawn up, and I lost even the interest in reading it, so I signed it numbly.They said that the period before the Spring Festival is the off-season, and the book will be released after the festival, and there will be an order meeting in Wuhan.My eyes lit up: "I have relatives there." He Xin said: "Then you can go with the people from the publishing department, it will be good for promoting your book." I said, "Will the travel expenses be reimbursed?" Chen Ke smiled: "You are really smart."