"Dad, I'll go out in the afternoon!" After half a day's hard work, after lunch, Xu Zhi picked up half a month's results and prepared to go out.

Xu Hongbang put down the dishes and chopsticks and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Causeway Bay!" Xu Zhi shook the manuscript in his hand.

Xu Hongbang smiled in surprise: "Are you really going to submit an article? What newspapers are there in Causeway Bay?"

Xu Zhidao: "There are a few, but the main one is Ming Pao, so you should try your luck, you can't look at the others!"

Xu Hongbang shook his head: "Then go, if you don't succeed, just play over there, and come back early in the evening!"

His attitude towards his son's writing of novels is still supportive, in addition to his normal work for half a month, his son has basically been writing for the rest of the time, although he is a little too obsessed, but it is better than running out to eat, drink and have fun often before.

After Xu Zhi went out, he went to the vegetable market first, and had already asked Wu Peng to go to Causeway Bay the day before, of course, Wu Peng was mainly to play.

................

The bus travelled through the Harbour Tunnel to Hong Kong Island, where Causeway Bay was later known as a shopping paradise and began to take shape in the 70s.

The businesses on the street are obviously much more prosperous than in Kowloon, where Xu Zhi is located, with high-rise buildings rising on both sides of the road, restaurants, cosmetics, cabinets on the street, and bulletin boards. The road is also full of traffic, although it is not the same as the style of later generations, but the style of Xiangjiang in the 70s also has a unique flavor.

Wu Peng sat next to the window and said, "Every time I come to Causeway Bay and Central, I feel like a hillbilly entering the city!

Xu Zhi smiled: "It's already very good that you have a place to live, I haven't seen the environment where Uncle Wang lives!"

Uncle Wang is a vegetable market selling fruits, a few years ago from the mainland came to Xiangjiang, took refuge with a relative, but after all, it is not very convenient, the relatives are actually in average conditions. With some savings, he rented a stall on the edge of the vegetable market and sold fruits. The business is so-so, and he can support himself, but in order to earn more money to send back to his hometown, he can only rent a bed and crammed into a dormitory with a dozen people.

Wu Peng shook his head and said: "There are always poorer ones, and there are endless comparisons." ”

Xu Zhi nodded and did not continue to answer, the quality of life in this world can only be compared with his previous self, and there is no point in comparing with outsiders.

The bus soon arrived at the station, looked at the paper map, and finally found the headquarters of Ming Pao after going around for a long time and asking questions.

The reason why Xu Zhi chose Ming Pao is that he likes its fame, Jin Yong is in charge, plus the serialization of novels by writers such as Ni Kuang and Yishu who have been enveloped over the years, Ming Pao is not only one of the largest newspapers in Xiangjiang, but also a leader in the cultural field.

Of course, Xu Zhi doesn't want to be famous, he wants green Hong Kong dollars. But with fame, money will come over.

Xu Zhi led Wu Peng into the Ming Pao Building, the building was full of people, and the expressions of the two who did not know each other immediately attracted the attention of the security guards, and walked to the two of them and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Xu Zhizheng couldn't find anyone to ask: "I'm going to Mingpao, which floor is it?"

The security guard looked at Xu Zhi and the others, frowned and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Xu Zhidao: "I wrote a novel and want to submit it to Ming Pao!"

The security guard smiled: "Come here at such a young age? I advise you to go back! I don't know how many people come here every day to submit articles, they all want to be famous, but it would be good to report a few times a year!"

Xu Zhi said again: "No, we are all here, if we don't go on a trip, we won't run in vain!"

"Okay! I'll send you up, wait!" Seeing that the two of them didn't give up, the security guard smiled, he had seen a lot of this kind of thing, and he knew that if he didn't put it up, he would probably have to pester himself, and the other party was a young man, so it was better to leave it to the people upstairs to deal with.

"Okay, thank you!" Xu Zhi replied politely.

The security guard walked over and made a call, and after 2 minutes, he beckoned the two to pass.

Follow the elevator to the 8th floor, and after the door opens, the security guard says, "It's already here, you go directly to their front desk, and they will take you in!"

"Okay, thank you. ”

Xu Zhi walked directly to the front desk and briefly said the matter, the little girl at the front desk was naturally very familiar with this kind of thing, although she was surprised by the age of Xu Zhi and the others, she still took the two into a conference room.

"This tea is so fragrant! Why don't you drink it?" Wu Peng is still a teenager, and he doesn't know the seriousness at this time.

After waiting for a while, the door of the conference room opened, and a middle-aged man about 40 years old walked in.

When the middle-aged man saw the two of them in the conference room, he was stunned for a moment, and said, "You are here to submit a novel?"

Xu Zhi stood up and nodded, "Yes." ”

The middle-aged man couldn't laugh or cry: "How old are you this year, you are still in school, why did you come here to submit?"

"Can't students come to vote?" Xu Zhi replied embarrassedly, age is not a problem, the key is that he failed to go to secondary school, if this is known by the other party, it will be embarrassing.

The middle-aged man replied with a smile: "It's not that it can't be done, but it generally doesn't meet the requirements, and it is impossible for anyone to submit it to us, otherwise we won't have time to read it no matter how many of us are!"

"What requirements?" asked Xu Zhichai.

The middle-aged man sat down and said, "Generally speaking, our novels in Ming Pao only accept novels from famous writers, and the manuscripts of these writers can go directly to the editor-in-chief's office!"

After a pause, he said with a smile: "I haven't introduced it yet, my name is Ding Tianming, and I am specifically responsible for confirming the identity of the writer of the novel manuscript in Ming Pao!"

Xu Zhidao: "Except for famous writers, don't you read other people's manuscripts?"

Ding Tianming replied: "It's not that I don't look at it, this Xiangjiang is not big, and well-known writers have also been counted, and generally speaking, we all know each other." But there are also opportunities for newcomers, but there must be a few prerequisites!"

"What conditions?" Wu Peng asked beside him.

Ding Tianming took a sip of tea and said: "If it is not famous, then it must have a certain academic background, such as CUHK or those studying abroad, the priority is the Chinese department, but we will also accept other legal history and the like." Either you have published some articles in other small newspapers or books before, if you have them, you can bring them with you, and we can accept your manuscript after confirmation. ”

Xu Zhi fell silent after talking, he didn't expect that there were so many conditions for submitting a manuscript before!

Then he asked, "Is there no other way?"

Ding Tianming said: "Generally, there is no more, if there is a recommendation from other writers, it is okay, but this kind of general will go directly to the editor-in-chief, and I have never encountered it here." ”

Xu Zhi asked unwillingly: "Are you so sure that other people can't write good articles?"

"It's not that we can't write it, it's that we won't accept it. You should know how much a long novel consumes the resources of a newspaper, even if it is only 2,000 words a day, it will use up one page of newspaper, and how many pages is a newspaper? Ding Tianming saw that Xu Zhi refused to give up, and explained: "If you just wrote some short stories such as prose stories, we will have a special person to review the quality, or mail it from home, and we will also check it." But novels are not achieved overnight, and it is basically impossible for a person to suddenly write a novel with a good article, and there will always be experience in this area before. You don't have any premise, if I receive your manuscript today, let's not say if you can pass it, once the news spreads, I'm afraid that your classmates, I don't know how many people in the society will come to contribute. It's also because you're a student that I explained it to you, otherwise I would have left a long time ago. ”

Xu Zhi thought for a while and said with a smile: "Anyway, I'm already here, why don't you take a look, it won't take long." ”

Ding Tianming shook his head: "Rules are rules, it's not a matter of how much time, no matter how good you write in the front, but we can't see the content behind, who knows what will happen in the future?" And I'm only responsible for reception, whether the manuscript can pass or not I don't count, the editor-in-chief must have an introduction to the identity of the writer for foreign manuscripts, even if I send it over, he won't necessarily read it without this introduction!"

Seeing that Xu Zhi didn't seem to give up, Ding Tianming asked again: "How many novels have you written, and how many words are there in total?"

Xu Zhi replied: "I have already written seventy or eighty thousand words, and the total length should be 1 million words!"

Ding Tianming thought for a while and said, "That's it, in fact, there is another way, wait for you to have more words and then send it over, if you write enough words, the editor-in-chief will also read it!"

Xu Zhi asked, "How many words do you want to write?"

"At least 200,000 yuan! If it's not over, there must be a follow-up outline! The reason why we do it is because many people have spent a long time thinking about a good beginning, but if they really report, the daily writing task will force the quality to decline, if this kind of thing happens, how our newspaper handles it is not right, continue to let you write for poor quality will be scolded by customers, and I am afraid that you will be scolded more ruthlessly if you take it off the shelves. Ding Tianming explained: "In fact, this is also a test, after all, you have no experience, we are very cautious in novels, you write 200,000 shows that you really have this kind of perseverance, and you really want to do this business, but in the past, you may not be able to pass by writing so many words, maybe the editor-in-chief will throw away a thousand words, then you will write hundreds of thousands of words in vain!"

"Yes. Xu Zhi nodded and asked, "Do you have any other requirements?"

Ding Tianming replied: "There is nothing else, and you should pay attention to one more thing, even if the novel is favored by us, it will take a long time to report it!"

Xu Zhi asked, "Why?"

Ding Tianming said: "The serialization of novels has been a long time, and now there are only 6 articles in our Ming Pao newspapers, and the fastest will wait until half a year later, and there are already several candidate novels, so..."

Xu Zhi nodded disappointedly, he didn't expect things to be like this at all, he thought that he had come to submit the manuscript, with Kunlun's literary talent, he was more than ninety percent sure that the other party would take a fancy to him, and he was still struggling with what to do if he couldn't reach his psychological price before he came?

Unexpectedly, I didn't even have a chance!