Chapter 153: She's Gone Mad! My Wife Feng Jiayou Has Completely Lost Her Mind! (Seeking Full Subscriptions)

"Xuemin, you're back? Have you eaten yet? Mom saved some for you in the kitchen, keeping it warm!"

As Cheng Xuemin pushed his bicycle into the courtyard, he found his wife Feng Jiayou and two younger children warming themselves by the fire in the front hall, watching television.

Seeing Cheng Xuemin enter, the two youngsters didn't even turn their heads, offering a perfunctory greeting of "Uncle," completely transfixed by the TV screen.

Feng Jiayou, however, immediately jumped to her feet and hurried over with a face full of anticipation.

"Wife, I haven't eaten yet. Where are Mom, Dad, and the others? I see all the couplets are fully put up?"

"It's cold outside, don't come out!"

Cheng Xuemin parked his bicycle to the side, took the briefcase hanging from the handlebars, and quickly pulled Feng Jiayou into the house to talk.

"You haven't eaten?!"

"I thought that coming back so late, Elder Wu would have kept you for lunch!"

Feng Jiayou rubbed her hands together, blowing into her palms to warm them, and said, "Dad, Liwen, and Liqin put up the couplets this morning!"

"Look, now that they have free time, they've all gone out for a stroll!"

"Xuemin, take a seat. I'll go get your food out!"

With that, she turned to head to the kitchen to fetch the meal kept warm in the pot for Cheng Xuemin.

"No, no, wife, I'll go to the kitchen to eat myself!"

How could Cheng Xuemin dare let Feng Jiayou move around carelessly? Given her current condition, if she could lie down, she must never sit; if she could sit, she must never stand.

Anything else that Cheng Xuemin could do for her, he did; whatever he couldn't do, he at least helped with.

Letting her run to the kitchen to carry food—he was afraid his clumsy wife might trip over the door threshold.

He smiled and added, "Elder Wu actually did want to keep us for lunch today, but knowing you must be waiting anxiously at home, I didn't stay for the meal and came back early instead."

Saying this, he handed the briefcase in his hand to his wife and walked toward the kitchen.

"Then I'll keep you company!"

Hearing that Elder Wu had genuinely invited her husband to stay for lunch—which was undoubtedly a good thing—she quickly followed behind.

At the same time, she took the briefcase Cheng Xuemin handed her, opened it, and flipped through the contents, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

There were basically just the materials she had prepared for her husband that morning, nothing else.

So she asked eagerly, "How did it go?! Xuemin, Elder Wu called you over today, what did he say?"

"Wife, and here I thought you could hold out a little longer!"

Cheng Xuemin brought the food out from the kitchen, teasing Feng Jiayou.

Given Feng Jiayou's usual personality, she should have peppered him with questions the moment he stepped through the door.

Yet unexpected as it was!

After coming inside, she hadn't first cared about whether he had eaten, offering instead to help fetch his meal, delaying any questions about what happened today.

He had even thought his wife had turned over a new leaf and truly gained some patience.

"Tell me, tell me!" Feng Jiayou urged with a giggle, "Xuemin, that smug look of yours—did you win Elder Wu's praise?"

"Yes, yes, yes. Wife, you're getting sharper and sharper, guessing right on the first try!" Cheng Xuemin shoveled a mouthful of rice, raised his thumb, laughed, and continued, "Elder Wu did indeed praise your husband today, though it was just a verbal commendation—not even a certificate was issued to your husband!"

"He really praised you?!"

"That means your articles are truly well-written, Xuemin. Even the Tianjin Daily hasn't made a peep lately!"

Feng Jiayou's plump, chubby cheeks curled into a smile as radiant as could be.

And let's be honest!

Though this wife claimed Cheng Xuemin was being worked to a shadow, she herself was growing rounder by the day.

Which was only natural, of course.

If a pregnant woman couldn't eat well and put on weight, that would truly be troublesome.

And just as Feng Jiayou said, ever since those four articles by Cheng Xuemin were published, the faction in Tianjin had beaten a retreat and fallen completely silent!

Furthermore, why did Elder Wu suddenly summon him today, not only arranging a collection of short works for him...

Of all the pieces he could have included, why did he specifically select *The Traitor*?

Did this carry some special meaning, or what?

Along the way back, Cheng Xuemin's mind had run through it again, feeling that publishing these four articles together must carry some profound implication.

Yet Cheng Xuemin didn't dare to think any further on it, nor did he intend to; it had nothing to do with him.

Now that things had essentially quieted down, once the People's Daily supplement published on the second day of the Lunar New Year, quite a few people would surely start guessing the intentions from above.

"Don't rush, don't rush. Let me finish my meal first, alright?"

Shortly after, his wife anxiously inquired about the details of Elder Wu's meeting today—what was said, and how the verbal praise was delivered!

Cheng Xuemin thought to himself that she was impatient after all; his wife was still the same wife, unchanged.

"Alright, alright, then you eat first, Xuemin, and listen to me!"

Feng Jiayou nodded repeatedly, two little dimples forming on her plump cheeks, truly adorable and endearing. Cheng Xuemin wished he could lean over and take a couple of bites.

Right after, Feng Jiayou told him, "Before you got back, thinking you were kept for lunch by Elder Wu, I called Mom and Dad at the post office to let them know you had been invited to Zhonghai for a meeting!"

"When Mom and Dad heard the news, they were overjoyed and excited, and the uncle next door was the same..."

His wife had already made the call?

Cheng Xuemin knew he had returned a little late; calculating the time, his wife must have been afraid his parents would wait anxiously, so she had called ahead.

"Alright, once I finish eating, I'll make a trip to the post office and call them back!"

Since his wife Feng Jiayou had already mentioned that the call was made, it was clear she could sense his parents' reluctance to hang up, longing to hear their son Cheng Xuemin's voice.

Thus, Feng Jiayou had taken it upon herself to tell the elderly couple to go ahead and buy their New Year goods first; once they finished shopping and prepared to return to the production brigade, she would call them back.

Knowing that his parents had waited all morning at the commune for this midday call without even going out to buy New Year supplies, Feng Jiayou had urged them to go shopping first, agreeing that at three o'clock, whether Cheng Xuemin had returned or not, she would call again.

Anyway, long-distance calls were billed on this end, so there was no need to worry about the old couple worrying over the phone bill.

Of course, whether receiving calls incurred a fee on the other end, Feng Jiayou wasn't entirely certain.

Post office telephone calls charged for incoming calls as well.

However, his parents were using the commune's telephone—a public line—and with an official uncle sitting right beside them, surely they wouldn't charge a dime or two for an incoming call fee, right?

"It's just that long-distance calls are so hard to get through. Who knows if we'll even get through when we go over later!"

"It took over half an hour just to get through earlier!"

Feng Jiayou added another remark to Cheng Xuemin.

And it truly was difficult!

Inter-provincial long-distance calls in this era were inherently hard to connect, requiring constant manual switching upward. Once connected to the switchboard in Shaanbei, it had to be continually switched downward.

The post office here in Yan京 was relatively fine, but in their rural commune in Shaanbei, just think how many hands it had to pass through to connect to the provincial switchboard!

This was precisely why Cheng Xuemin rarely called home, even though their commune had a telephone console.

Letter-writing remained far more common.

Telephones would truly become convenient only in another three or four years, once things fully opened up, foreign technology was imported, and automatic telephone exchanges came online. At that time, calls would be switched automatically without any need for manual, step-by-step plugging of lines.

By then, perhaps they could install a telephone console at home, making things much more convenient in the future!

"Wife, take a look at this!"

Returning to their backyard after finishing his meal, Cheng Xuemin finally pulled out the piece of manuscript paper bearing the four-character inscription from a stack of documents in his briefcase and spoke.

"What is it?! Is there a royalty payment slip?" Feng Jiayou's eyes lit up as she asked slyly.

"Wife, can you have a little more ambition?"

Cheng Xuemin was left completely speechless!

The little money-grubber was still thinking about royalty slips; she must have been hoping to find one when she rummaged through his briefcase earlier.

Yet all the royalties for his published pieces had basically been collected by now—where else would there be any royalty slips?

However, his little money-grubber of a wife wasn't entirely wrong!

Logically speaking, since the *People's Daily* had reprinted and published all four of his articles in a full-page supplement, didn't that count as republication, which also required republication royalties?

One or two pieces would be one thing, but this time it was four pieces at once!

The total length added up to over ten thousand words; even at the minimum rate of three yuan per thousand words for republication, that came out to over four hundred yuan.

If *People's Daily* really paid those royalties, Cheng Xuemin wouldn't feel the least bit ashamed to collect them.

Over four hundred yuan!

Enough to take back to the Shaanbei countryside as a filial offering to his parents, making the elderly couple immensely happy and excited.

Of course!

Before they planned to return home for the New Year, Feng Jiayou had already stated that Cheng Xuemin should bring a thousand yuan back for the old couple to spend during the New Year.

Thus, as a daughter-in-law, Feng Jiayou had long since prepared a thousand yuan in cash for her parents-in-law, waiting for Cheng Xuemin to take back for the New Year.

When it came to filial piety, his wife truly deserved zero complaints.

Of course, whether the *People's Daily* republication royalties materialized didn't really matter, but the collection of short works to be published by the People's Literature Publishing House would definitely come with publication royalties!

The royalty rate matched that of the magazine house, capped at seven yuan per thousand words.

The royalty slip for the standalone edition of *Factory Director Qiao Assumes Office* had already been collected, while the royalties for the subsequent three pieces—totaling over one hundred thousand words—had not yet been claimed.

Seven or eight hundred yuan!

However, Li Shuguang from the People's Literature Publishing House hadn't mentioned the royalty slip today, so it seemed it would have to wait until after the New Year!

"Yes, yes, yes! Xuemin, it's your wife who lacks ambition and is indeed too superficial!"

"Then hurry up and tell me, what on earth is it?!"

"Is it a certificate?!"

"Is it just like the certificates my mom, dad, and the others got?"

Feng Jiayou gestured excitedly.

Because it was the New Year, every work unit was handing out year-end certificates of merit.

Both of Feng Jiayou's parents had brought home a certificate this year, and even her younger sister Feng Jiamel had brought home a "Three-Good Student" certificate.

As for the two younger ones in the family, Feng Liqin and Feng Liwen, they had both brought home certificates upon the start of winter break.

At the time, each of them had traded their certificates with Cheng Xuemin—their uncle—in exchange for fifty cents of pocket money reward!

Moreover, her eldest brother, eldest sister-in-law, and second sister-in-law had all basically won certificates.

Regrettably, Cheng Xuemin's remedial class didn't award "Three-Good Student" honors, otherwise he surely would have earned one.

And Feng Jiayou's Yan University didn't seem to have handed out certificates this semester either!

So with everyone in the family collecting certificates to bring home, only the two of them—husband and wife—didn't have a single one.

This left the competitive Feng Jiayou feeling somewhat unbalanced; she was, after all, a high-achieving student and a strong-willed woman who loved to excel.

Therefore, if her husband could bring back a certificate from Zhonghai today, that would truly bring immense prestige to the Feng family!

"This is...?"

"Ah! This is, this is, this is... an inscription in the old leader's own handwriting?"

When Feng Jiayou eagerly, doubtfully, and expectantly took the manuscript paper handed over by Cheng Xuemin, discovering it wasn't a certificate, she felt a brief wave of disappointment and suspicion.

Yet once she clearly saw the four large characters on the manuscript paper, Feng Jiayou froze for a second: *Pave the Way for Reform*?

Was this praising her husband, offering him a verbal commendation?

But when she saw the signature at the bottom!

Feng Jiayou's eyes suddenly bulged fiercely, and she gasped in extreme, incredulous shock.

"How about it, wife? This single sheet of manuscript paper is far more impressive than the certificates Big Brother and Sister-in-law got, right?"

Cheng Xuemin flicked the tip of the young woman's delicate nose. She had only had eyes for royalty slips and certificates—wasn't that a bit vulgar and superficial?

"Really?! Xuemin, is this truly an inscription in his own handwriting?"

"Is this really written for you, Xuemin?"

Feng Jiayou's eyes shimmered with excitement, yet she still dared not quite believe it, as this honor was simply too earth-shattering!

"Could it possibly be fake?!"

Cheng Xuemin chuckled and retorted. How could an inscription like this possibly be faked?

"Good, good, good! When Mom, Dad, and the others get back later and find out he wrote an inscription for you, they are going to be utterly dumbfounded!"

Feng Jiayou agreed repeatedly, already forming an idea in her mind, and continued, "Mom will definitely insist on pasting this inscription right in the very center of where they put up all their certificates!"

"No, no, no, just sticking it up isn't enough; Mom will definitely frame it and hang it in the highest, most prominent spot. She will definitely do that!"

Feng Jiayou cradled the sheet of manuscript paper like a precious treasure, looking at it left and right, simply unable to get enough.

Then, with a hint of regret in her tone, she said, "Pity that it doesn't have your name on it, Xuemin, nor your pen name!"

"It just has the inscription alone, without saying who it was written for!"

Indeed, there were only four large characters plus the signature, without a shred of Cheng Xuemin's personal information on it, carrying more than a little regret.

"You're actually thinking of framing it and hanging it up?!"

Hearing this, the corners of Cheng Xuemin's mouth twitched directly. His own wife's reaction had turned out precisely as he had guessed.

Not only was she going to stick it alongside those certificates, but she even wanted to frame it and hang it in the most prominent place!

"Otherwise what?! What was it written for you for, then?"

Feng Jiayou cradled the paper protectively, casting a coy, alluring roll of her eyes at Cheng Xuemin. Even if it lacked Cheng Xuemin's name and information, it was still an absolute treasure!

"This is going to be used as the book cover for my collection of short stories!"

"Elder Wu called me over today precisely to inform me that the People's Literature Publishing House wants to gather all my pieces related to reform and opening up into a single collection of short stories, and this is the book cover Elder Wu requested from above!"

"Moreover, Elder Wu even invited Elder Mao to write the preface for this collection!"