“Brother Sheng, last time I wrote in my letter that you earned 280 yuan from writing a novel, my family got curious about what novel you wrote. This time their letter says they want you to send them a copy of the magazine.”
Before Chen Fusheng could respond to Liu Xiaoli, his parents jumped in: “Yes, son, when is your novel being published? Your father and I still haven’t read it yet.”
“I’ll ask the magazine tomorrow.”
The next afternoon.
After finishing his work, Chen Fusheng left early at four o’clock. He headed straight to River City Literature and Arts.
“Old Xiao, busy?”
“Oh, Teacher Chen is here.” Seeing it was Chen Fusheng, Xiao Xinghai immediately set aside his work and warmly ushered him into the guest room next door.
“Teacher Chen, off work this early?” Xiao Xinghai brewed a cup of tea and placed it before Chen Fusheng, using it as a conversation opener.
“I’m just a teaching assistant. When it’s busy, it’s very busy. When it’s quiet, it’s very quiet. Today happened to be a quiet day, so leaving a bit early is fine.” Chen Fusheng explained briefly, then got straight to the point.
“Actually, I didn’t come for anything important today. I’m just curious about when my novel will be published. Has the magazine set a date?”
“It’s been decided. Just this week, in fact. And I have good news: Cowherd will be the lead feature in our next issue.”
“So when is the next issue?” Chen Fusheng pressed.
“Right around New Year’s Day.”
“No issue in December?”
“Our magazine is bimonthly. We just released this year’s sixth issue this month. If your novel had come in a bit earlier, it could have gone in that one.”
Xiao Xinghai seemed to remember something. He glanced toward the door, then leaned in with a mysterious air.
“Also, Teacher Chen, let me tell you something on the inside. Our magazine might be renamed next year. If that happens, your novel could become the lead feature of the first issue under the new name. I expect there’ll be quite a bit of promotional support behind it.”
“Really?” Chen Fusheng asked with feigned surprise. “What’s the new name?”
“There are several candidates, but Fragrant Grass has the most votes. I think that’ll be it.”
‘So it really is Fragrant Grass!’
Chen Fusheng thought to himself.
On the surface, he nodded cooperatively. “Mm, Fragrant Grass has a nice poetic ring to it. I think it’s good.”
“Right? I think it sounds nice too.” Xiao Xinghai continued, “And look at the nationally renowned magazines. They all have two-character names. Like Harvest, Flower City, October, Contemporary, Sprout, Youth. Most importantly, none of them include place names. The benefit of that is authors from all over the country will prioritize submitting to them.”
Chen Fusheng hadn’t considered this before, but Xiao Xinghai’s analysis made sense.
Take a simple example: if he were from Hubei and the neighboring province’s magazine was called Hunan Literature, while Sichuan’s magazine was called Youth, he’d instinctively choose the latter over Hunan Literature.
“By the way, while I’m here, I’d also like to take my manuscript back. My parents haven’t read my novel yet and have been nagging me about it.” After wrapping up the previous topic, Chen Fusheng stated his second purpose.
“Sure. Also, I remember the printer sent over some sample copies of the next issue. I can get some for you to take home.”
“There are already sample copies? That’s wonderful.”
“They’re just first drafts. There will be changes later, since as I mentioned, the magazine might be renaming.”
Chen Fusheng nodded. Whether or not this first draft changed, and how much, didn’t really matter to him. What mattered was that his novel was in there.
“Um, I might give some as gifts when I take them back. Is that okay?”
“May I ask who they’re for?”
“My father-in-law.”
“That’s perfectly fine.”
“Great, thanks a lot.”
After chatting with Xiao Xinghai for another ten-odd minutes, Chen Fusheng left River City Literature and Arts, soon to be renamed, with ten sample copies of the next issue and his manuscript, and returned to the Riverside Community.
That afternoon’s dinner was made by Chen Fusheng, because his parents were busy reading his novel.
As December arrived, the weather in Jiangcheng grew colder by the day. Chen Fusheng had wanted to write another novel before heading to Harbin. But between the cold, the busy end-of-year workload at school, and the preparations for the Harbin trip, his second work remained stuck in a prolonged labor.
However, there was good news: Cowherd had earned the approval of his father-in-law’s family. And in their reply to Liu Xiaoli, it wasn’t hard to see that their impression of Chen Fusheng, a son-in-law they’d never met, had improved considerably.
This took a huge weight off Chen Fusheng’s shoulders before departure.
On the last weekend of 1979, the Chen family went shopping again for gifts to bring to Harbin.
After getting home, Chen Fusheng sorted through everything and confirmed with Liu Xiaoli:
“I’ve got gifts for your parents, your brother and sister-in-law, your sister, and your niece and nephew. Sweetheart, can you think of anyone else we’re missing?”
“What about my aunt’s family? Should we bring them something?”
“Your biological aunt?”
“Yes, my dad’s sister.”
Yang Hongmei chimed in, “Then we should prepare gifts for them too.”
Chen Fusheng looked at the gifts, already piled up like a small mountain. “In that case, we’ll have to mail these.”
“Why mail them? Sending all this so far, who knows how long it would take. And it only looks like a lot. Once you pack it up, it’s not that much. We’ve got five of us. We can each carry a share.”
“Five people? Mom, did you count your grandchild too?” Chen Fusheng joked.
“You forgot about your sister, didn’t you?” Yang Hongmei said, exasperated.
“What? My sister is coming too?”
Chen Fusheng had indeed forgotten about his sister.
But honestly, it wasn’t entirely his fault. In the half year since he’d crossed over, he could count the number of times he’d seen his sister on one hand.
“How about this: since we’re not mailing anything, we’ll only bring gifts for my father-in-law’s family. As for Xiaoli’s relatives, the aunts and uncles and everyone, we’ll buy gifts locally once we’re there. What do you think?”
Both professors found the idea appealing. But this needed their daughter-in-law’s input, so the couple didn’t state their position immediately. They looked at Liu Xiaoli:
“Xiaoli, what do you think?”
“I’ll go with Brother Sheng.”
Liu Xiaoli nodded. She didn’t see anything wrong with Chen Fusheng’s arrangement. The main thing was that Jiangcheng to Harbin was quite far. Bringing too much would be genuinely inconvenient.
“Good. If no one objects, then it’s settled. Tomorrow I’ll go book the train tickets.”
