Because the editors of River City Literature and Arts had pestered Chen Fusheng to discuss Cowherd‘s plot for quite some time, his original plan to pick up his wife after returning from the magazine didn’t work out.
Not that Liu Xiaoli expected him to. After all, from the River City Song and Dance Theater to the Riverside Community was only a few hundred meters.
But when Liu Xiaoli got home and didn’t find her husband, she was somewhat surprised.
“Didn’t he take the day off? Where did he run off to?”
She was just muttering when Chen Fusheng came through the door the very next second.
The moment he entered, he scooped Liu Xiaoli up and kissed her.
“Careful! I’m pregnant.”
“Right, right, right. I got too excited.”
“So what’s got you so excited?” Liu Xiaoli asked curiously.
“Want to guess?” Chen Fusheng teased.
Liu Xiaoli thought for a split second. “Your novel got accepted?”
“As expected of my wife. So clever.” Chen Fusheng rewarded her with another kiss, then continued, “Now guess how much the fee was?”
“How much?” Liu Xiaoli was curious too.
“Twenty-eight…” Chen Fusheng stopped stringing her along and pulled the fee out of the inner pocket of his clothes.
Liu Xiaoli had assumed it was twenty-eight yuan. But when she saw her husband produce a thick stack of ten-yuan notes, her pupils practically trembled. “You mean twenty-eight ten-yuan notes?”
“Yep. Two hundred and eighty yuan in total. Earned by your husband in one night.”
These words left Liu Xiaoli speechless with shock, and even Chen Fusheng himself was startled.
Of course, it came at a price. The price was that his right hand had been shaking since he woke up. When he’d signed the Manuscript Acceptance Notice at the magazine earlier, he’d used his left hand. He’d probably be eating with his left hand for the next couple of days.
After a moment, Liu Xiaoli recovered, stepped forward to wrap her arms around Chen Fusheng’s neck, and delivered a romantic kiss.
“Hubby, you’re amazing!”
She even followed up with an emotional boost.
Now, the terms “hubby” and “wifey” weren’t yet popular in China, so in daily life, Liu Xiaoli felt too embarrassed to call Chen Fusheng “hubby.” She always called him Brother Sheng. It was only during their intimate moments that Chen Fusheng would occasionally hear the word “hubby” from his wife’s lips…
And so, Liu Xiaoli’s words of emotional validation lit a fire within him.
Chen Fusheng was about to… when he remembered his wife was pregnant. He remembered the doctor’s instructions from yesterday morning. He remembered the ancient wisdom: Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Just as Chen Fusheng was about to suggest they go out to celebrate, the doorbell rang.
Chen Fusheng opened the door to find his parents standing there, bags of groceries in hand.
“Mom, Dad, what’s all this?”
“After you left yesterday afternoon, your father and I discussed it. We’re still worried that Fusheng is too young and inexperienced, that you don’t know how to care for a pregnant woman. So we decided to come over every afternoon to cook for you.”
“Every day?”
“Yes.”
“Mom, Dad, that’s too much trouble for you.”
“What trouble? We’d be cooking at home anyway.”
Though Chen Fusheng protested on the surface, inside he was secretly thrilled.
“Also, I heard you took the day off today and didn’t go to work?” Yang Hongmei was in the same college as her son, so she’d known about his leave immediately.
“Yeah, I accidentally stayed up last night…”
Before Chen Fusheng could finish, Old Chen patted his son’s shoulder and, in the tone of someone who’d been there, said: “The first time you realize you’re going to be a father, it’s normal to be too excited to sleep. Don’t worry. It gets better.”
Seeing her husband rendered speechless, Liu Xiaoli couldn’t help but smile. “Dad, he wasn’t too excited to sleep last night.”
“Then what was this boy up to?” Yang Hongmei pressed.
“Mom, you probably won’t believe this, but your son earned 280 yuan last night.”
“You’d have better luck dreaming about 280 yuan.” Yang Hongmei didn’t believe a single word of what Chen Fusheng said. Not even a single punctuation mark.
Liu Xiaoli stepped in to explain: “Mom, Brother Sheng is telling the truth. He really did earn 280 yuan last night. The money is right here.”
Seeing the real cash, Old Chen and Old Yang still found it hard to believe. They turned to their son and asked suspiciously:
“You went out and robbed a bank last night?”
Chen Fusheng shrugged. “You don’t believe me either way. Let Xiaoli explain.”
Liu Xiaoli didn’t keep them in suspense and described everything she knew to the two elders.
After listening, Old Chen and Old Yang looked at their daughter-in-law, then at the stack of ten-yuan notes before her. It still felt just a little unreal.
Then they turned to their son and asked for confirmation once more:
“You wrote forty thousand characters in one night?”
It was true, but Chen Fusheng felt it sounded a bit absurd too. So he thought for a moment before answering: “Actually, I’ve been working on it for two and a half years.”
“Forty thousand characters earns 280 yuan? Is writing novels really that profitable?”
“Because my story is well-written. River City Literature and Arts also believes in my future and hopes I’ll submit to them again next time. So they gave me a rate of seven yuan per thousand characters.”
Once Yang Hongmei accepted that her son was an author, she began to imagine: “Does this mean you can support the family by writing novels from now on?”
But no sooner had she spoken than her husband interrupted: “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Creation requires inspiration. Many writers may only produce one or two representative works in their entire lives. So Fusheng, don’t listen to your mother. You can write, but don’t give up your day job. Understood?”
“Don’t worry, Mom, Dad. I know what I’m doing.”
Chen Fusheng indeed had no plans to give up his position as a teaching assistant at River City University’s Foreign Languages College for now. But if the job ever became a burden, he wouldn’t be sentimental about leaving. After all, it was just a job.
Time flew. In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.
Harbin. The Oriental Rose Community.
This was a residential compound belonging to a government work unit. Liu Xiaoli had lived here before she was admitted to the River City Song and Dance Theater at age eleven.
Both her parents worked for government units. Her father was named Liu Yang, and her mother Wang Yun.
Among the three siblings, Liu Xiaoli was the second child. Her older brother, Liu Xiaojun, worked at a bank. Her younger sister, Liu Xiaowei, was currently in high school.
This afternoon, Liu Xiaoli’s letter arrived at the gatehouse of the Oriental Rose Community. It was picked up by Liu Xiaowei on her way home from school.
“Oh my god. No wonder my sister rushed to get married. She’s already pregnant!”
After reading the letter first, Liu Xiaowei’s imagination filled in a perfectly logical chain of events.
Before long, her parents came home from work. Liu Xiaowei announced solemnly:
“Mom, Dad, I have a big announcement. Brace yourselves.”
“What big news?”
“Big Sis sent a letter. She says…”
“What did she say? Stop dragging it out.”
“My sister says she’s pregnant.”
Crash!
