Chapter 54: The Quota to Go to Hong Kong

Ever since Zheng Fei had Zheng Shuyao deliver a cake last time, everyone had quickly grown fond of the little sister.
Old Man Sun often told her amusing stories about Zheng Fei's childhood, though Zheng Fei had absolutely no recollection of them.
Auntie Zhang even taught her how to knit, and the young girl would hide away in her little room, secretly practicing her stitches.
As a result, she was caught red-handed by Zheng Fei.
He gave her a thorough and stern lecture.
"After the Lantern Festival, you'll be starting junior high. Instead of studying hard and keeping up with the coursework, what are you doing knitting sweaters?"
Zheng Shuyao was scolded to tears right then and there.
Although Zheng Fei knew she was knitting the sweater for him, her academic performance had indeed grown slack lately.
Zheng Fei wasn't sure if this educational approach of his was right; after all, he had never been a father before. But one thing was certain: the concept of joyful education did not exist in this era.
The rod of filial discipline was the mainstream method of upbringing back then; if you weren't beaten at home, the teachers would certainly beat you at school.
After all, one had to distinguish between priorities, and when it was time to study, one ought to study properly.
Zheng Shuyao had never received a proper education in the first place, so she should be working even harder now, or else how could she ever catch up with the curriculum?
Zheng Fei still hoped that two years from now, she could pass the exams for a vocational college and secure an "iron rice bowl."
Come to think of it, back in his past life when he was thriving, there was a period when he looked down upon those slackers with their "iron rice bowls."
Yet after experiencing a severe economic downturn, Zheng Fei realized that having one or two family members with an "iron rice bowl" was like having a stabilizing anchor for the household.
Only by following the organization would one never truly starve, provided it was part of the regular establishment backed by "official duties."
If his little sister hadn't yet figured out what she wanted to do in the future, Zheng Fei intended to train her into a successor of socialism.
And her mixed-heritage identity would give her even more advantages along this path, which was why Zheng Fei would absolutely not allow her to slack off in her studies.
When the time came, if she really didn't test well, he would spend money to hire private tutors to give her intensive remedial lessons.
......
"Xiao Fei, Editor-in-Chief Mo is here to see you."
Auntie Zhang's shout came from downstairs. She had been exceptionally active lately, practically usurping Old Man Sun's role.
Old Man Sun was indeed rather displeased, but a gentleman doesn't quarrel with a woman, so he had no choice but to continue listening to his "One-Echo."
He and that fellow surnamed Jiang had already engaged in a "war of words" through the newspapers once—in the parlance of later generations,
the two of them had already trended on the hot topics. Logically speaking, the leaders of the relevant departments should step in to resolve the matter and give some sort of official explanation.
Mo Changshan walked up holding a fruit basket, smiling warmly as he said, "Teacher Zheng, Happy New Year! The leaders at the publishing house asked me to bring some fruits over for you."
......
"You're far too polite. Next time, just coming over in person is enough; there's no need to bring things. It makes me feel quite embarrassed."
Seeing that Editor-in-Chief Mo had brought fruit,
Zheng Fei turned to Zheng Shuyao, who was still standing in the corner as punishment, and said, "Go wash the fruit."
Zheng Shuyao, currently serving her punishment, froze for a moment. Just a second ago, her elder brother had said she had to stand facing the wall for three full hours.
If she went to wash the fruit, wouldn't that mean she was excused from the punishment? As expected, her older brother still cared about her after all.
"Brother, I'll go wash them right away."
Right at that moment, Editor-in-Chief Mo handed a kraft paper envelope from his pocket to Zheng Fei.
"This is the basic manuscript fee for the first volume of *Fung Wan*."
Zheng Fei took it and found it unusually thick. Written on the kraft paper envelope bearing the logo of the Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House was:
*Fung Wan* Manuscript Fee: 816 Yuan.
Yet Zheng Fei remembered the original agreement was five yuan per page: "Editor-in-Chief Mo, did you calculate this wrong? Isn't this too much?"
Mo Changshan replied:
"Not at all. This morning, the leaders held a special meeting to discuss your case. Everyone felt that your layout of three panels per page contains more content than traditional lianhuanhua, so they raised the original five-yuan manuscript fee to eight yuan per page."
"Oh? Such a stroke of good fortune."
After accepting the money, Zheng Fei counted out twenty bills and said, "Can you please pass this money on to Suisui for me? After all, a good portion of it was drawn by her."
Editor-in-Chief Mo thought for a moment, accepted the money from Zheng Fei, and continued, "Ah, right, there's another matter I should congratulate you on. After the discussions in today's meeting, the reprint run for *Fung Wan* has been increased from the original fifty thousand copies to one hundred thousand copies."
"Ah!"
Although Zheng Fei had expected to win this "newspaper war of words," he hadn't anticipated winning so thoroughly.
What did one hundred thousand copies even mean?
In his past life, best-selling books rarely saw initial reprint runs directly hitting one hundred thousand copies. On that novel platform called Qidian,
reaching one hundred thousand subscribed readers would firmly establish an author as a grandmaster. Zheng Fei felt he had truly chosen the right path by coming to this era to create manhua.
Zheng Fei made a quick mental calculation.
With the basic manuscript fee alone amounting to this much, if one hundred thousand copies were indeed printed, the print-run manuscript fee for the first volume of *Fung Wan* would come out to roughly two thousand yuan.
Combining the two, he would pocket around three thousand yuan from this comic book.
The thought of earning so much money didn't make Zheng Fei wildly happy; instead, it felt like a scorching potato burning his hands!
Because he knew very well that possessing too much wealth in this era was not necessarily a good thing—on the contrary, it was particularly prone to attracting trouble.
......
Throughout the entire 1980s, every step of the Reform and Opening Up was taken with extreme caution.
Yet Zheng Fei never imagined that his name had long since been jotted down in a little notebook by a high-ranking leader, who had even drawn a big circle around it with plans to keep a special eye on him.
At this stage for Zheng Fei, making money was truly not the most important thing, because even with money in hand, it was difficult to spend.
After all, the planned economy still dominated. To put it bluntly, even if you were wealthy, you couldn't go to that East China coffee shop every day to eat fried pork cutlets.
After all, you needed meat ration coupons.
As for buying things like a television set, Zheng Fei genuinely wasn't interested. Drawing was inherently a quiet affair; if he really bought a TV, wouldn't his home be packed to capacity every single day?
A bicycle, however,
was something he could actually use. Every time he went to the publishing house's art studio, Zheng Fei would always hesitate between walking or taking the trolleybus.
If he had a "Permanent" brand 28-inch bicycle, it would save him at least an hour of time every single day.
Just as Zheng Fei was thinking this, Editor-in-Chief Mo actually pulled a bicycle purchase coupon from his pocket and smiled.
"Teacher Zheng, this is a bicycle coupon issued to you by the publishing house."
Looking at the bicycle coupon before him, Zheng Fei froze for a moment. "The publishing house actually provides this kind of benefit?"
Editor-in-Chief Mo nodded.
"The publishing house has quite a few perks. After the first lunar month, we might have two apprentices joining the publishing house, and by then, we can arrange for them to be your assistants."
Zheng Fei blinked. Meetings really could solve problems; once this meeting concluded, the welfare benefits were simply maximized.
However, what Zheng Fei didn't expect was that this wave of perks hadn't even ended yet. Editor-in-Chief Mo continued by revealing an even more shocking piece of news.
"By the way, Editor-in-Chief Chen asked me to convey something to you: this year, our publishing system will organize an inspection delegation to visit Hong Kong for field research.
If *Fung Wan* sells well and receives a strong market response, the publishing house might reserve a spot for you on that trip."
Hearing this, Zheng Fei was genuinely thrilled. According to his original budget, it would have taken at least three or four years before he had any chance of visiting Hong Kong.
Yet he hadn't expected it to happen so much earlier.
In that instant, Zheng Fei suddenly stopped resenting Jiang Weishan; it felt as though, thanks to that fellow's fuss, he had achieved both fame and fortune instead.
"Please help me thank Editor-in-Chief Chen."
Mo Changshan patted Zheng Fei on the shoulder. "Actually, besides the inspection tour, we will also be carrying a specific mission. There is a fairly high possibility of your manhua being published over in Hong Kong. You should understand what I mean."
"I understand. I will work hard."