When Cao Zhiqiang pushed his bicycle and walked into the gate of the courtyard, he was immediately stopped by the third uncle Yan Bugui who was watering the flowers in the front yard.
"Cao Zhiqiang, wait a moment, don't leave yet!"
"Uncle San?" Cao Zhiqiang stopped and turned around, "What's wrong with you?"
"Hey, I'm buying meat again." Uncle San first looked at the strip of pork belly on the handlebars of the bicycle, "Isn't this at least three kilograms?"
"You are wise." Cao Zhiqiang smiled, "No more, no less, exactly three pounds."
"Alas." Uncle San sighed, "Zhiqiang, ever since you started working, I see you have to buy so much meat every time you come back from get off work.
I'm not talking about you, you're talking about you, ah, you just started working, how much income do you have, but you buy meat every day?
Even if your family is just you and your sister and the population is small, eating meat like this every day is still a huge expense.
You can't just eat meat, right? You still have to buy clothes, buy daily necessities, pay school fees for your sister, and you also have to save money to marry a wife, right?
If you want to live a good life, you have to learn to calculate. If you fail to calculate, you will be poor. You can't spend money randomly, otherwise you will have no money when you need money in the future. You will cry sometimes, you know? "
"Haha." Cao Zhiqiang smiled, "I understand the truth, but I prefer to eat meat. I am a meat-free person. If I don't eat meat for a meal, I will feel uncomfortable. There is nothing I can do.
What's more, when my sister is growing, she also needs a lot of meat to supplement her nutrition.
As for marrying a wife, I am still young and not in a hurry. "
"Okay, you can do whatever you want with your money." Uncle San nodded, and then when he saw the radio recorder in the back seat of the car, his eyes immediately shrank, "Hey, is this box unopened? The recorder? It's a Shanghai brand?"
Speaking of this, Mr. San looked up at Cao Zhiqiang, who was smiling: "This, can't it be a real tape recorder inside?"
"Of course it's true." Cao Zhiqiang said with an elegant and easy-going smile, "Brand new recorder, original from the factory!"
"Hiss..." Uncle San took a breath, "Real or fake? Where did you get it?"
"Of course I bought it from Gulou Street." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile.
"How much did it cost?"
"It's not expensive. I bought it from an Erdao dealer. I negotiated the price, three hundred and eighty."
"Three hundred and eighty is not expensive? Where did you get the money?"
"It's profitable."
"How do you earn it?"
"That's not something you should worry about, right?"
Upon hearing what Cao Zhiqiang said, Mr. San frowned, and then his face turned serious: "Cao Zhiqiang, I don't mean anything else. It's just that you are still young, have a formal job, and have a bright future. You can't do this illegal thing. , please don’t take the path of crime.”
"Uncle San, don't worry." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile.
"I have long since changed my mind, and I have drawn a clear line between me and the gang of bad friends in the past, and I will no longer associate with them.
As for illegal and criminal matters, of course I dare not do it.
Even if I don't do it for myself, I have to do it for my sister.
If something happens to me, what will my sister do as a child?
Anyway, the money I spent to buy the tape recorder was earned openly and cleanly, without any problems. "
Uncle San frowned again, then nodded: "You... forget it, since you think so, I won't say anything more, just take care of yourself."
"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang nodded, "Is there anything else? If nothing happens, I'll go."
"Oh, yes, yes, there is something else to do!" Third Master Yan Bugui said quickly, "Look at me, I almost forgot about business."
Speaking of this, Yan Bugui said: "There is your letter again, but you happened to be away when the postman delivered it. I signed for it for you just like before. Just wait, I will go back and get it for you. "
"Thank you, Uncle San." Cao Zhiqiang immediately smiled.
"It's okay." Uncle San put down the watering can, "I'll get it for you."
Soon, the third uncle, Yan Bugui, returned home and came over with a letter: "Then, your letter."
Cao Zhiqiang smiled and took the letter. A quick look showed that the envelope was intact and had not been torn.
How should I put it, although this third uncle is scheming, his character is still okay.
At the very least, he doesn't bother to do things like sneaking around and teasing people in secret, which is quite good.
Seeing Cao Zhiqiang receiving the letter, Uncle San came over and said with a smile:
"Cao Zhiqiang, by the way, you have received letters almost every day these days, and almost all of them are sent back from different magazines. Is this the royalties paid to you?"
"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang blinked.
"I understand." Yan Bugui said, "You eat meat every day with the royalties, but you also bought this cassette player with the royalties?"
"Yes." Cao Zhiqiang blinked again.
Uncle San frowned: "Then I just asked you where the money came from, why didn't you tell me?"
Cao Zhiqiang shrugged: "I'm too lazy to say it."
The third uncle said: "Cao Zhiqiang, I shouldn't ask originally, but today I see that you actually bought a 380 cassette recorder. I'm actually a little curious. By the way, how much did you earn in royalties?"
"It's hard to say." Cao Zhiqiang curled his lips and said, "I wrote a lot of articles and sent them to many magazines. I can't remember the specific fees."
"That's it." Uncle San rolled his eyes and said, "How about you open this letter and show it to me so that I can see how much your royalties are this time? This way I can get a lot. What’s the spectrum?”
"This..." Cao Zhiqiang hesitated.
"Don't worry, I'll just take a look. I'm not jealous, and I won't ask you to borrow money." The third uncle said with a smile, "Besides, let me take a look at your royalties. If someone asks you about buying a tape recorder later, I will I’d rather help you smooth things over, right?”
Cao Zhiqiang hesitated for a moment and then tore the letter open.
Sure enough, there was a text message inside.
The content of the text message is mainly a formulaic publication notification, informing you that your article has been included in the Science Illustrated magazine and will be published in the next issue of the magazine.
But this is not the point. The point is another remittance order.
When Cao Zhiqiang took out the remittance slip, Uncle San's eyes immediately widened when he saw it:
"This, this...2280.60 yuan?"
After saying this, Uncle San looked at Cao Zhiqiang with his mouth wide open, as if he were looking at a monster, and his body shook: "You, you, you..."
"Uncle San!" Cao Zhiqiang quickly supported Uncle San, "Don't get excited, Uncle San, please take it easy! I can't afford anything that happens!"
"Two, more than two thousand?" Uncle San took two deep breaths and held Cao Zhiqiang's arm tightly, "Is this really your royalties?"
Cao Zhiqiang sighed: "Of course it's true, Mr. San, isn't it clearly written on the remittance slip?"
"How could there be so many?" Uncle San frowned.
"Because this is a science pictorial!" Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile.
Indeed, Science Illustrated is undoubtedly the number one selling popular science magazine at this time.
In 1982 alone, the circulation of Science Illustrated reached one million copies, with a peak of more than 1,500,000 copies.
Perhaps many people don’t know how terrifying a magazine with a circulation of one million copies was during this period, but for most people, especially urbanites, few people don’t know about Science Illustrated, and few people don’t know about Science Illustrated. People have never read Science Illustrated.
Not only every household in this courtyard has subscribed to Science Illustrated, but at least one-third of the households have subscribed to this thing, and at least two-thirds of the people have read it. From this, we can see the importance of this magazine Popularity.
Of course, because this magazine currently ranks first in circulation and has a strong background, it can be called a giant in the magazine category. It has always been rich and powerful, so the manuscript fee of Science Illustrated is currently the highest among magazines in the country. one.
In the era when the manuscript fees of various magazines were generally between 3 yuan per 1,000 words and 10 yuan per 1,000 words, Science Illustrated could give manuscript fees of 100 yuan per 1,000 words or even 150 yuan per 1,000 words. This was simply unreasonable in China at that time. There is no opponent.
Even "People's Literature", which was also famous for its large circulation and high manuscript fees at the same time, had a cap of 100 yuan per thousand words at this time, and no royalties above 100 yuan per 1,000 words were available.
Those who can get one thousand words and one hundred yuan are very few great writers. They can count them on one hand, and ordinary people cannot get it at all.
At the same time, in the 1980s when the public's scientific literacy was generally low and the quality of manuscripts was generally low, the quality of Science Illustrated's manuscripts was among the highest quality among similar journals, and the requirements were also the most stringent.
To a certain extent, in the 1980s when domestic professional academic journals had not yet become popular, Science Illustrated's status could be said to be the domestic "Nature".
Even for a long time, many domestic scientists have directly used it as the most authoritative academic journal in the country.
At this time, many major academic leaders in universities were proud to publish their works in it, and even used it as an indicator to evaluate their professional titles. This shows the importance of this journal at this time.
Therefore, being able to submit and publish an article in Science Illustrated at this time is not only a source of money, but also a very respectable thing, and it is also something worth showing off.
Especially in 1983, the value of an article published in Science Illustrated was extraordinary.
"It turns out to be Science Illustrated." The third uncle nodded, "For Science Illustrated, the royalties are indeed high."
Immediately afterwards, Uncle San asked again, "Then what article did you submit to others?"
"It's nothing." Cao Zhiqiang said, "Just some popular science articles."
"The popular science article is good." Uncle San nodded.
“Nowadays, people who can write popular science articles are truly high-level cultural people. If you learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you will not be afraid of traveling around the world.
But even for Science Illustrated, the manuscript fee is relatively high, so it’s not so outrageous, right?
What on earth did you write that got you so much money?
This is almost as much as my salary for a year. "
Cao Zhiqiang smiled: "It's very simple. I just submitted a popular science article explaining genetic engineering before, and I hope to open a column explaining genetic engineering in their place to systematically explain what genes are.
They thought it was very good and hoped that I could continue to explain more about genetic engineering in simple terms, so they agreed to write a column.
So, they opened a special column about genetic engineering, and hired me to be a special writer for this column, with a remuneration of 60 per thousand words.
So I later submitted another manuscript, this time with a larger number of words, a total of more than 38,000 words, and they would publish it in three issues.
So based on the remuneration of 60 yuan per thousand words, wouldn’t it be 2280.60? "
"Genetic Engineering?"
Uncle San frowned and thought for a while.
"This word is so familiar...
Ah, I remember, there was indeed a new column in the last issue of Science Illustrated, specifically talking about genetic engineering and the future of mankind.
It talks about a bunch of DNA, chromosomes, paternity testing, viral vaccines, sheep cloning, etc. Are you the one who wrote them? "
"Of course." Cao Zhiqiang smiled and nodded, "That's me."
"Ouch!" Mr. San gave a thumbs up, "A great talent, how can he understand the most cutting-edge high-tech biology from abroad?"
"Where." Cao Zhiqiang smiled modestly, "I just read and wrote blindly and accidentally made money. There's nothing I can do about it."
"You are talented, you are indeed talented!" Mr. San nodded and sighed, "Sure enough, now that the policy has been changed, this cultural man is starting to have money. I didn't expect that you have this skill. You really can't be judged by appearance. .”
Hearing what Mr. San said, Cao Zhiqiang looked calm and calm on the outside, but he was very happy in his heart.
Sure enough, being low-key and pretending is great, second only to being slapped in the face.
Of course, the reason why Cao Zhiqiang was willing to show him the salary from "Science Illustrated" was not to show off, but mainly to let the other party spread the news, and then let everyone know that Cao Zhiqiang's extra money came from a legitimate source.
Now that Cao Zhiqiang is rich, he is destined to have a lot of food and fish in the future, and he also needs to eat, wear and use good things. His consumption expenditure is destined to increase, and he must have an explanation.
Royalty is the best way to put it.
Because in this era, there is no extra money that is cleaner than royalties.
But it won't work if you talk too much. Too much royalties can easily make others jealous.
The remuneration of two thousand yuan is just right.
"Uncle San, are you okay?"
Seeing that Yan Bugui was still sighing and dazed, Cao Zhiqiang asked again with concern.
"No, it's okay."
The third uncle, Yan Bugui, shook his head.
"That's good." Cao Zhiqiang nodded, "It's okay. I'll go back. I'm still waiting to cook."
After saying that, Cao Zhiqiang ignored the third uncle and pushed his bicycle home.
Only the third uncle Yan Bugui was left, still looking at Cao Zhiqiang's back and shaking his head and sighing.
"Earning more than 2,000 yuan a month from royalties? That's more than what I earn in a year!"
"This Cao Zhiqiang has really stood up. No wonder he eats and fishes all day long. He really can't be judged by his appearance."
After hearing this, Cao Zhiqiang, who was walking towards the middle courtyard, kept walking and curled his lips, thinking in his heart:
Where is this? It's just a small part of my many royalties.
If I let you know that the actual royalties I have received now are over 100,000 yuan, wouldn't that scare you into having a heart attack?
Yes, a royalties of more than 2,000 yuan, although very rare in this era, are undoubtedly a huge amount of money.
But this amount of money is nothing compared to the more than 100,000 yuan in manuscript fees that Cao Zhiqiang has received so far. Although I dare not say it is a drop in the bucket, it is really nothing.
A household worth ten thousand yuan is just for fun.
He is now a wealthy person worth 100,000 yuan!
It's just that he is low-key and doesn't like to show off everywhere.
