Wen Jianning had expected this.

She calmly said: "I have two billing methods here, one is timekeeping, I ask you to answer, I can pay you two yuan per hour, and the other is based on the number of questions you answer, I will do the calculation, you can choose one." ”

Meng Li sneered: "This young lady, you might as well go to the streets of Tangxi to inquire carefully, what is the value of the old lady, your little money, I'm afraid that no one will be willing to ask for food." ”

She picked up her handbag and gestured to get up and leave.

But Wen Jianning sat steadily in the seat, and had no intention of keeping her at all.

Meng Li walked out of a distance with his handbag, seeing that he was about to reach the door, but he didn't see Wen Jianning make a sound, he paused there for a few seconds, so he had to turn around and sit down again, leaning forward with his hands on the table: "Miss Wen, if you want to ask me about Tangxi, it's not impossible, but you have to add money." ”

Wen Jianning was unmoved, and said in a cold tone: "Although I want to ask you about the news, it doesn't mean that I am willing to be the wrongdoer. If you don't think the price I can offer you is satisfactory, you can turn around and find another customer to see if anyone is as interested in listening to the story as I am and paying for it. ”

She replied so neatly and neatly, leaving no room for bargaining for Meng Li at all.

Wen Jianning knew that the price he gave could not be compared with the prostitute's skin and meat business, but it was definitely not low. At present, the price of rice on Hong Kong Island is only six cents per catty, and she wrote one by herself, and she only earned ten yuan in total. Since she showed the greatest sincerity from the beginning, she would never add any more weight.

If Meng Li wants to ask for a sky-high price, he is afraid that he will pick the wrong object.

What's more, she can see that Meng Li should also be short of money.

Meng Li stared at Wen Jianning for a while, but she didn't see her loosen up for a while, and the whole person was deflated sharply, and raised his hand impatiently: "That's it, I should only do good deeds with kindness today." Now the way of the world has really changed, and the richer you are, the more you are picking. ”

In the second half of the sentence, Wen Jianning's cold gaze, his voice became lower and lower.

Wen Jianning already had the rough prototype of the story in his mind, and all he needed was to fill in the details. She was ready when she came, and when she saw Meng Li agree, she took out the notebook next to her and began to ask the questions she had prepared.

After sitting for almost two hours, Wen Jianning finished asking all the questions prepared in advance and took half a notebook.

She checked the list, tore off half of the page and handed it to Meng Li: "Here are some questions you answered in detail enough, you go back and take a good look, I will ask again next time we meet." ”

Meng Li was blocked by a little girl for a long time today, and she was already thinking about how to win back a game.

She glanced at the half-page, and a flash of inspiration flashed to her mind, and she quickly grasped something.

Meng Li stared at Wen Jianning, and suddenly smiled: "Although Miss Wen is young, I didn't expect that she is a talented girl." I don't know when I will see our Miss Wen's masterpiece in the tabloids. If Miss Wen becomes a famous writer, I wonder if she can make an advertisement for me for the sake of my help today, and everyone will get rich together. ”

Her tone was firm, and she actually guessed Wen Jianning's plan at once.

And Wen Jianning just took out four yuan from his pocket and put it on the table according to the previous agreement, and then packed up his things and got up: "I have already prepaid the money for the coffee, you drink it slowly, I'll go first." ”

It wasn't until he walked out of the café for a distance that Wen Jianning let out a mouthful of turbid breath in his chest.

Although she pretended to be calm in front of Meng Li, she also pinched a cold sweat in her heart.

If she hadn't agreed with Fang Minghe that she wanted to write about this subject, she really didn't want to deal with people like Meng Li. Moreover, even if Meng Li has a frivolous attitude, if she finds another person, she may be even more difficult than Meng Li, she can only take one step at a time.

When she returned to the villa, Wen Jianning wrote a letter to Wen Baiqing, asking him that if he had time to go back to Hong Kong recently, she would like to talk to him face to face. The last time she sent a letter, Wen Baiqing still hasn't replied, and I don't know what he's been busy with lately.

However, what she didn't expect was that after this letter was issued, Wen Baiqing still had no news for a long time. It wasn't until the end of the summer vacation that Wen Baiqing hurriedly called her, saying that he had something important to do.

Before he finished speaking, someone next to him urged him, and the phone hung up.

Since he was so busy, Wen Jianning couldn't bother him for a while.

For most of the remaining holidays, Wen Jianning hid in his room and was busy with his first novel.

After the framework was laid and the materials were collected, she finally began to write.

The one she plans to write is called "Ying's Cry Tired", which mainly tells the story of A Ying, a peasant girl in the mainland, who was abducted and trafficked to Tangxi when she was a child and became an aunt, and looked at the love and hatred of the happy woman from her perspective.

Due to her thorough preparation in advance, her writing speed this time was much faster than the previous book "Returning the Pearl".

After discussing with Fang Minghe, Wen Jianning changed his pen name-

White grass.

This name is taken from the article "Bai Hua" in "The Book of Songs: Xiaoya", and the first sentence at the beginning of "Bai Hua Kanxi, Bai Mao Shuxi" is the sentence that Mr. Qi once read to her.

Around the beginning of school, "The Warbler Crying Tired" was finally officially serialized on "Star Island Miscellaneous Talk".

"The Cry of the Warbler" is set in Tangxi, Hong Kong, and is written about such an eye-catching topic as prostitutes, which has caused a small craze since the first issue of serialization. Because Wen Jianning is well-prepared, the details about Tangxi are realistic, some people say that she is a shameless literati who is accustomed to the wind and moon, and some people say that she is a prostitute herself, so she can write so realistically.

Wen Jianning couldn't understand how she had become a shameless person in the mouths of others even though she had written this kind of subject, but there was nothing about Fengyue in it. But in any case, the sales of tabloids have increased steadily, and Fang Minghe was so happy that he gave Wen Jianning a dime for the manuscript fee.

During this period, there was also an incident that made people laugh and cry. Wen Jianning made up a prostitute named Yutangchun in the book, and happened to collide with a new aunt in Tangxi, and the other party's value rose sharply overnight, causing many prostitutes to write to the newspaper, willing to pay the advertising money to this Mr. Bai Mao, just begging him to mention his name in the article.

This kind of thing is not uncommon for newspapers.

More than 10 years ago, the popular "Jing Bao" in the mainland once opened a special column called "Yinghua Fandan", which was dedicated to advertising prostitutes to make money. Today, it has become a common practice.

Although this matter may not be very particular, after all, it is only a matter of changing a few words, so Fang Minghe specially wrote to ask Wen Jianning's opinion.

Wen Jianning was quite speechless about this, although she really wanted to make money, but she had not yet fallen to the point of living by advertising prostitutes, and immediately replied to refuse. When there were similar letters, she left them to the newspaper.

In the blink of an eye, the long summer vacation passed, and finally the day of the Wen sisters' start of school finally arrived.

Except for Jianyu, who is still in elementary school, the other three are all studying at Nanying Middle School.

Wen Jianning entered school at the age of eight, and when she returns from school this summer, she will enter the third grade of junior high school.

Jianwan, who has just passed the 16-year-old coming-of-age ceremony, is about to spend her last years in middle school, and by this time next year, she will be the first of her sisters to go to college;

The results of the three of them are among the best, which makes Wen Jingshu quite proud, and she has to boast about them every time she gathers. There is only one embroidery, although she also works hard, but it is still only at the midstream level.

After the start of school, Wen Jianning's life has not changed much from usual.

In addition to studying in class every day, she went back to hide in her room as soon as she got out of school, finished her homework first, and then prepared the manuscript for the next issue. It is only occasionally when there is an event in the school club that her schedule changes.

Nanying Middle School has a lot of club activities, but unlike Jianwan, who is keen to participate in various club activities, Wen Jianning only joins a literary club.

The name of the literary club of Nanying Middle School is "Wildfire", which is taken from Bai Juyi's popular sentence "Wildfire is inexhaustible, and the spring breeze blows and grows". In addition to this meaning, wildfire itself is the British name for a flower in Hong Kong. The flower is bright red, and when it opens, it is as fierce as a fire burning clouds, and it is so thick that it can hardly be dissolved. Every year after May, there are large wildparks blooming near Repulse Bay. The flowering season lasted until the end of July and August, and the wildfire burned through the entire summer.

Wen Jianning once found this plant in a botanical illustrated book, and knew that it also had a nickname called phoenix wood. I think that the predecessors who founded the Literary Club should have spent a lot of thought when choosing a name, so that such a simple name can contain their countless hopes and aspirations.

The Wildfire Club is one of the largest clubs at Nanying High School, not only has its own eponymous publication, but also has its own activity room within the school. Nowadays, there are too many teenagers and girls who love literature, and there are about 200 people in junior high school alone. Wen Jianning is mixed in, An Fen is low-key and inconspicuous, and no one will know that she is Bai Mao, a new author who has recently become famous on Hong Kong Island.

As is customary, every Friday afternoon is a reading exchange meeting for members of the Wildfire Society.

After the first reading exchange meeting after the start of school, only three people were left in the activity classroom to clean up. In addition to Wen Jianning, there is also a short-haired girl and a boy with glasses.

The short-haired girl is named Zhong Hui, who is Wen Jianning's classmate and has a cheerful temperament.

The boy with glasses is named Jiang Xuwen, the president of the junior high school of the Wildfire Club, and he is quite popular in the school. The talented women of the literary club are a little self-assured, ignore vulgar things, and have a bit of a literati contempt for each other, only he is good at communication and open-minded, and finally elected him as the president.

The three of them were sweeping the confetti on the ground, and Jiang Xuwen suddenly shouted: "Whose book is this, it actually fell in the club." ”

Zhong Hui glanced at it and said, "Ah, is it a book by a monk of Wangsui, or is it new?" ”

Wen Jianning listened and asked, "Is that the Wangsui layman who likes to write love triangles the most?"

Wangsui Jushi is the pen name of Zhang Liuyu, a new-school writer in Shanghai, who has always been the best at writing about urban romances, in which the emotional entanglements between men and women are usually triangular relationships. Someone once sarcastically said that all of Zhang Liuyu's works are a triangle. Despite this, it still did not prevent Zhang Liuyu from becoming popular in Shanghai, sought after by many noble ladies, and even spread to Hong Kong, and even Wen Jingshu and them were loyal readers of Zhang Liuyu.

Zhong Hui smiled: "In my opinion, this Mr. Zhang is too inflexible. The relationship between men and women is so complicated that he stubbornly only writes triangles, but he doesn't know that he can also write quadrilaterals, pentagons, and even polygons. If he had written it like this, he would not have been given the nickname Zhang Triangle. ”

Jiang Xuwen gagged on the side: "This is what you don't understand." The third is an extraordinary number, the ancients said, 'Tao gives birth to one, life to two, two to three, three to all things', mathematically speaking, the triangle is the most stable structure. Therefore, the relationship between men and women cannot exceed the love triangle at most, and once the number of three is exceeded, it will inevitably make people dizzy. ”

The three of them laughed for a while, and got together to watch Zhang Liuyu's new article called "The Weaver Girl".

After only reading a few pages, Wen Jianning was a little surprised.

is different from Zhang Liuyu's previous soft style, this "Weaver Girl" turned out to be an anti-Japanese article. The heroine is a rich lady who runs silk cloth in her family. Later, her family was in ruin, so she had to work as a female worker in a Japanese textile factory, where she was bullied and insulted by the Japanese. Although there is still a description of Zhang's love triangle, the style is much higher than his own pure love in the past.

Although many people look down on Zhang Liuyu's love affair and think it is vulgar, as one of the most well-known writers in Shanghai, he still has a strong pen power. Especially when I read about the Japanese militarized management of female workers in the workshop, the heroine was insulted and scolded, and then contacted the domestic situation, it made people angry and heartbroken.

Although it was only a quick flip through, it took a long time for the three of them to calm down after reading it.

Zhong Hui turned his head and asked, "Jianning, what do you think of Zhang Liuyu's story?"

Wen Jianning pondered for a moment before commenting: "It's a pity. ”

The idea of this article is very high at first glance, but it still fails to jump out of the small pattern that Zhang Liuyu is keen on love triangles, and the love triangle is matched with ethnic hatred, but it seems nondescript. Zhang Liuyu's portrayal of the Japanese only stops at their brutality and ferocity, but it seems that the characters are face-painted, and the criticism only stays at the level of blindly venting, which is more than indignant and not profound.

The other two listened to her opinion and nodded their heads, apparently feeling the same way.

The three of them chatted for a while about the gossip in the literary world, and saw that it was not early outside, so they hurriedly packed up their things and locked the door and left.

Before parting, Jiang Xuwen suddenly remembered something and reminded the two: "By the way, our literary club has an event this Sunday, you two should remember to go." ”

Zhong Hui turned his head and smiled: "You don't have to remind me, but you must come when you see Ning." I've known you for so long, and you don't like to participate in other activities except for the book club, so it's too embarrassing to give us face. ”

Wen Jianning is withdrawn and introverted by nature, and most of the time in the literary club just quietly helps with typesetting and proofreading, and does not like to be in the limelight. After a long time, her style of doing things silently made the members of the literary club have a good impression of her, and gradually they didn't feel that she was arrogant and difficult to get along with.

Zhong Hui is also one of the people who has a good impression of her. It's just that Wen Jianning rarely participates in club activities, and their homework is tight on weekdays, and they rarely have the opportunity to communicate in depth.

Wen Jianning wanted to refuse, but she came up and shook her arm, and finally nodded.

(End of chapter)