Classmate 098, if you keep this up, I’ll have to silence you! (Please vote for me)

Principal Wan! Cheng Xuemin truly believed there was some urgent matter at school that required his presence. It turned out that Old Wan, the school principal, was struggling with writing a review for "The Mustang," the manuscript having been rejected multiple times by the Wen Hui Bao. He was quite distressed.

Then he heard that the author of "The Mustang," Old Xu—who was actually Cheng Xuemin, a student in their affiliated high school’s repeat class—was utterly dumbfounded. The principal was giving feedback on a student's work, yet the manuscript kept failing to pass? This left Old Wan emotionally rattled, anxious to meet his student. But since Cheng Xuemin was a habitual truant, he was rarely seen around the school during free time.

Therefore, Old Wan hurriedly instructed the homeroom teacher, Old Yang, to fetch him back. Good grief! Before even meeting the student, that morning’s newspapers were already plastered with coverage about him! This made Old Wan exclaim repeatedly, “Damn, damn, damn!”—how could a symposium for the author of "The Mustang" be held without inviting the school principal? Was Yanjing Literature getting too arrogant?

He sighed in frustration, regretting not taking the initiative earlier to meet his student. Had he known yesterday morning that Cheng Xuemin skipped class to attend the Yanjing Literature symposium, he would have shamelessly shown up to support his student, invited or not.

In the end, Old Wan pulled Cheng Xuemin into a small-scale internal symposium at their affiliated high school, gathering the dean of discipline, vice principals, heads of grade groups, and all homeroom teachers. Among those present, aside from Principal Wan, the most spirited was Old Zhang, the homeroom teacher of the repeat class.

The entire morning was thus spent. As the meeting ended, Old Wan instructed that Cheng Xuemin be arranged to give a speech to the whole school. Cheng Xuemin flatly refused, asking if the school’s girls weren’t already crazy enough! A whole-school speech? Without any pay? He simply didn’t have that kind of free time.

Had he known he was being hauled to an internal symposium just to satisfy Old Wan’s need to vent, Cheng Xuemin genuinely wouldn’t have come.

After the meeting broke for lunch, Cheng Xuemin left faster than anyone.

“Honey, after the meeting yesterday afternoon, Director Xie dragged me to his home again to discuss the script! Then we all got drunk at night, so I couldn’t come see you yesterday!” Cheng Xuemin met up with Feng Jiayou and promptly updated her on his whereabouts, then smiled and asked, “So, you didn’t see me all day—did you miss me?”

“I miss you, you big-headed fool!” Feng Jiayou shot him a glance. Could she not have missed him?

They had agreed that after the symposium, he would hurry back to report everything. Especially knowing that Cheng Xuemin was the author of "The Mustang" and that Old Qian and Old Liu were so supportive—what would their reaction be? The frustrating part was waiting the whole afternoon and not seeing him. Did she miss him or not?

“That means you didn’t!” Cheng Xuemin grinned mischievously, teasing the silly woman.

“Alright, alright, I admit it! I miss you!” Feng Jiayou retorted, poking her hand into his waist. Cheng Xuemin quickly surrendered and recounted everything about the symposium in detail.

“Oh, by the way, I snagged this newspaper from the affiliated school; take a look!” When he left Old Wan’s office, he had taken a copy of the paper covering the symposium. Now, proudly presenting it to Feng Jiayou, he said, “Grandpa Qian’s ‘Great Front Gate’ is to be deducted from your pocket money!”

Unexpectedly, the woman played along, happily flipping through the paper and casually remarking, “What?! Why me?”

“Wasn’t it you and your mom who kept it a secret? Why deduct from my pocket money?”

“Honey, I only get ten yuan a month in pocket money; you can’t keep deducting!”

Cheng Xuemin lamented the injustice of having to repay debts his mother and her owed. A disaster without reason!

“That’s your problem! Who told you to be so generous, promising Grandpa Qian a whole ‘Great Front Gate’ without my approval?”

Feng Jiayou shot him a glance, grabbed the newspaper, and headed straight to her dorm room, saying, “I already ate. You can go to the cafeteria and grab something.”

“Uh… wait a moment, watch out for the icy patches on the ground, don’t slip!”

This woman! Cheng Xuemin couldn’t help but worry leaving her alone in the dorm—what if she slipped and got hurt?

The housing matter needed to be handled quickly. Hopefully, Old Ge would come through.

Speaking of his deskmate Old Ge, Cheng Xuemin never expected that this little butterfly’s fluttering wings would bring Ge You to sit beside him as a classmate and deskmate. What a coincidence!

Though Ge You had indeed grown up in Yanjing, coming from a large compound, destined to be a key figure in the capital’s literary circles, it seemed a stretch that in 1978 he was repeating a year at Yan University’s affiliated high school to prepare for the next year’s college entrance exam. Still, regardless of his past, as long as Old Ge could help find a good apartment, who cared what he’d been doing in his previous life?

Now, watching Feng Jiayou ascend the stairs and appear in the third-floor corridor, she waved down at Cheng Xuemin to hurry to the cafeteria to eat.

Soon after, shrieks erupted from the women’s dormitory on the third floor.

Hearing this, Cheng Xuemin quickly mounted his bicycle and sped away.

Sure enough, barely pedaling a few strokes, the rowdy shouts from Feng Jiayou’s dorm echoed behind him: “Old Xu, you’re already here—why run?”

“I’m not running, just afraid you’ll eat all the bones clean!”

After racing off, Cheng Xuemin stopped by the cafeteria for lunch, then wandered around the reception office.

Indeed, the Shanghai-based magazine “Harvest” truly lived up to its reputation as a rival to “People’s Literature” in the country, with the venerable Ba Lao overseeing it. Its submission requirements were exacting.

Still, no response.

This made Cheng Xuemin doubt the manuscript he had submitted. Why was it that in his previous life, a prize-winning piece could suddenly sink without trace when submitted to “Harvest”?

But Cheng Xuemin comforted himself: no news is good news. Perhaps the acceptance notice and payment slip were already on the way and might arrive tomorrow.

For now, this was the only way to console himself. Only “Harvest” had remained silent; otherwise, the manuscripts he had submitted earlier had all been approved satisfactorily.

At the library, he couldn’t avoid chatting with Chen Shumin!

After learning that Cheng Xuemin had attended the symposium yesterday and been strongly supported by Old Qian, Chen Shumin was filled with confidence in their magazine “Today.”

“By the way, Xuemin, any news on the student submissions you solicited?”

Last time, the four leaders of “Today” magazine met briefly at the library and divided responsibilities.

Chen Shumin was the editor-in-chief, overseeing everything—there was no separate position of magazine president.

Mang Ke was the chief editor, responsible for final review and printing.

Cheng Xuemin, as deputy editor, was in charge of soliciting and reviewing submissions for his section.

Another poet known as Beidao, a misty poet, led the poetry section.

So aside from personally working on his own piece as initial investment, Cheng Xuemin had to solicit and review other submissions.

However, “Today” was still in preparation and received no funding from above.

Thus, submissions had to be obtained free of charge—no payments.

Beidao’s poetry section was another matter.

As for Cheng Xuemin’s section, he mainly targeted Feng Jiayou’s Chinese department classmates—Huang Beijia, Zha Jianying, Liu Zhenyun, Chen Jiangong, and others.

The quality need not be too high; as long as it met the school journal’s standards, it was fine.

If they could get two or three contributions for free, plus Cheng Xuemin’s own work, that would suffice.

“This Old Chen, don’t worry. Their enthusiasm for submitting is very high, and their fundamentals are solid.”

“Once I finish the initial review and provide revision suggestions, we should get a few good pieces.”

Cheng Xuemin nodded, feeling that the more he paid homage, the more insights emerged in his mind.

Now, he was self-taught—not yet a master, but enough to guide several student authors confidently.

“That’s good!”

Chen Shumin was very pleased to hear Cheng Xuemin was personally taking charge of mentoring student writers.

“Hey, don’t you recognize me? Fellow classmate from the Loess Plateau!”

After meeting Chen Shumin, Cheng Xuemin returned to his seat, preparing his next homage piece—a novella to send to Shanghai’s “Shanghai Literature and Art.”

Unexpectedly, as soon as he sat down, a female voice immediately exposed Cheng Xuemin’s other pen name, “Loess Plateau.”

The story began back on Monday. This issue of “Yanhe Literature” officially hit the shelves at major universities in Yanjing and caused quite a stir.

The excitement began yesterday afternoon!

The article “Female University Students’ Dormitory” by Kuang Yalan from “Shanghai Literature and Art” hadn’t yet been located when a major announcement came from the reception office.

The front-page headline story of this “Yanhe Literature” issue, “Loess Plateau,” authored by “Loess Plateau,” was also a student at Yan University!

Last week, the real “Loess Plateau” had gone to the reception office to collect the acceptance letter.

Don’t disbelieve it—at that time, “Loess Plateau” had even opened the acceptance letter, displaying the “Yanhe Literature” sample issue and payment slip right before the watchman’s eyes!

Damn!

Such a tale had become so common that the students of Yan University were numb, even suspecting the watchman was playing a prank on them.

How could there be one front-page headline after another, all by current Yan University students?

If that were true—

Stop hiding and folding your arms like Old Xu, the Mustang author. Why not step forward and show yourself?

No Yan University genius would refuse to believe it.

And sure enough, someone soon stepped forward to confirm: “Loess Plateau” was indeed a Yan University student; someone had even met “Loess Plateau” in the library last week and obtained that student’s copy of the sample issue!

Don’t believe it?

Soon, the “Yanhe Literature” sample issue was displayed again, throwing the skeptical students into renewed frenzy and confusion.

After Yan University produced Mustang author Old Xu, it then produced Kuang Yalan of “Female University Students’ Dormitory,” and now “Loess Plateau” by “Loess Plateau”!

The reception office had basically become a haven for Yan University submissions!

And the student who showed the sample issue to confirm this was the very female classmate greeting Cheng Xuemin now.

Looking up, Cheng Xuemin saw a female student dressed not plainly but strikingly, quite unlike typical university students of the era.

He also recalled this female student was the one he met at the library last Saturday afternoon when he received the “Yanhe Literature” sample issue and acceptance letter.

That day, thanks to her borrowing the “Yanhe Literature,” Cheng Xuemin’s secret stash was saved from Feng Jiayou’s discovery!

He owed this female student a debt of gratitude for safeguarding his private funds.

“Excuse me, are you talking to me?”

Now that all Yan University students were searching for “Loess Plateau,” Cheng Xuemin, eager to avoid exposure, feigned ignorance and asked.

For the sake of his secret stash, Cheng Xuemin even considered silencing her!

…