...

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed, and on December 29, there were only two days left until the first day of New Year's Day.

Before New Year's Day, Huo Yaowen finally completed all the basic affairs of the publishing house, and the rest was to hand over time to let the engineering team and the people of Yongxin Toy Factory slowly complete it.

At the same time, Huo Yaowen also contacted Director Huang and asked him to talk to some professors and teachers in the school about the preparation of cooperative extracurricular tutorial books.

Although it is not much, it is also an additional income, which has attracted the attention of many teachers, but at present, the extracurricular tutoring books that Huo Yaowen wants to compile are mainly mathematics, Chinese, and English, and other subjects are not very important, so no one has been found to compile them for the time being.

Early this morning, Huo Yaowen hurriedly rushed to Guizhou Street in Kowloon, and when he arrived at the "Oriental Daily", Li Daoguang had already waited for a long time.

Hearing the knock on the door, Li Daoguang shouted "Come in", looked up, and saw a clerk walking in with Huo Yaowen, his eyes burned for a moment, he bypassed the desk, and walked forward enthusiastically: "Huo Sheng hasn't seen you for a long time." ”

It is true that they haven't seen each other for more than a month, Huo Yaowen shook hands with Li Daoguang with a smile and said, "Editor-in-chief Li is fine." ”

"Huo Sheng, I've been waiting for you for a long time!!"

Li Daoguang sighed, since the first part of "Ghost Blows the Lantern" was officially finished in the newspaper in early December, the daily sales of Oriental Daily have been worse day by day, and in the past month, it has almost dropped to more than 8,000 copies, and there can still be so many daily sales, all thanks to the president's tips (grapevine) on horse racing and dog racing, otherwise, I am afraid that there will not even be 5,000 copies.

"Don't say that it's such an exaggeration. Huo Yaowen saw that Li Daoguang was still sighing and sighing, and couldn't help jokingly saying: "Is the sales of the newspaper very low now?"

Li Daoguang "shook his head" and said: "That's not true, it's just that readers write to us every day, let us publish Huo Sheng's "Ghost Blowing the Lamp" as soon as possible, you don't know, these book fans are crazy, there are almost hundreds of letters in the newspaper this month, Huo Sheng, remember to take them away before you leave." ”

"So much?" Huo Yaowen raised his eyebrows, and he didn't care too much, so he said, "Okay, I'll take it all away before I go." ”

"How many drafts did Huo Sheng bring today?" asked Li Daoguang enthusiastically.

"More than 80,000 words. ”

Huo Yaowen opened the briefcase he was carrying, took out the manuscript inside, and handed it to the other party.

Li Daoguang was surprised: "80,000 words?

Huo Yaowen was a fierce man who wrote 200,000 words in ten days before, which can almost be compared to Ni Frame, why did he write 80,000 words in this month?

Huo Yaowen's face did not change and said: "Editor-in-chief Li, the work of the school has been very busy recently, and I don't have much time and energy to write. ”

"It's still the work that matters. ”

Listening to it as a matter of work, Li Daoguang didn't complain about anything, after all, Huo Yaowen is a teacher at the University of Hong Kong, and he must focus on teaching.

When Li Daoguang sat down to read the manuscript, he only heard Huo Yaowen ask: "By the way, Editor-in-Chief Li, what about the manuscript I gave before?"

"It's all here, why do you want to go back?" Li Daoguang said casually.

"Well, a souvenir. ”

"Alright, I'll have someone bring it to you later. ”

"Hmm. ”

Li Daoguang read the manuscript quickly, and swept the content of the first tens of thousands of words at once, and when he saw that the level was the same as the previous one, he couldn't help but smile happily: "Not bad, Huo Sheng's writing is getting better and better, and a few strokes outline a terrifying atmosphere." ”

"Editor-in-Chief Li is satisfied. ”

Huo Yaowen smiled.

"Satisfaction is satisfaction, but the number of words is still a little less. ”

"Editor-in-Chief Li: You can only serialize 2,000 words a day in the newspaper. ”

"That's all I can do. ”

Li Daoguang sighed, and then said, "I'll arrange for someone to come over and settle the manuscript fee for Huo Sheng." ”

Huo Yaowen smiled: "Okay." ”

......

Come to Guizhou Street, it will be New Year's Day in two days, and Huo Yaowen is going to visit Teacher Zhang.

Out of the gate of the Oriental Newspaper, Huo Yaowen walked straight towards the residential building of Mr. Zhang's family, and along the way he was also looking for some shops where he could buy gifts.

Looking left and right, Huo Yaowen's eyes were attracted by an electrical appliance store next to him, and when he stopped to look, he saw that in the black and white TV set in the glass window, Jade Channel was broadcasting current news.

"Audience friends, we have just received temporary news that there has been a knife robbery in Wong Tai Sin District near Prince Edward Road East. At around 11:13 a.m., 13 young people about 15 to 18 years old rushed into the gold store with watermelon knives about 30 centimeters long and abducted three salesmen and a security guard in the gold store.

When the robbers robbed the gold and silver jewelry of the gold store and were about to leave, they were found by two plainclothes policemen who were patrolling nearby, and the two sides had a friction at the intersection, and then the Prince Edward Road Police Station sent a large number of police support, because the robbers had hostages and cowered in the gold store, the police did not dare to rush in to avoid the casualties of the hostages, and the two sides were deadlocked inside and outside the gold store for a while. So far, the police and the robbers are still in a stalemate, and this station will continue to track this knife robbery case, and we will insert the live footage later. ”

The sound of the television was loud, and some passers-by in the vicinity stopped to watch the host of the television broadcast the robbery of the gold store.

At this time, an old man watching the news next to him sighed: "The current offspring is really bold!"

"Who says it's not!" Another middle-aged man complained: "Now the flying boys are all ruthless, they will block the road and rob if they don't agree with each other, and when they went home two nights ago, they were stopped by a few people who hit the street, if I hadn't given all the money on my body smartly, I am afraid that I would have been beaten for no reason." ”

"Those bad guys don't do anything, they only know how to make money, I think sooner or later it will be over!"

"I told my son, fortunately, he dared to be a policeman, and I was the first to break his leg!"

Listening to the complaints and anger of several people nearby, Huo Yaowen didn't react much, but he was also more vigilant in his heart, now that this year is very chaotic, whether you go out at night or during the day, you must be more careful.

Before leaving, Huo Yaowen glanced at the TV in the glass window of the electrical appliance store, thinking about whether he should buy one for his family, speaking of which he was reborn to this day, he has not watched TV for half a year, although it is now a black and white TV, and the picture quality is almost slag, but at least it can be entertained.

However, when he saw the price marked under the TV, Huo Yaowen didn't even think about it and turned around and left, two thousand yuan a piece, although the price is still affordable, but now when he is short of money, it is useless to buy it.

After walking for a while, I finally saw a vendor selling raw fruits at the intersection, and there were quite a few varieties, in addition to apples, pears, winter dates, bananas and grapefruits.

Although it is winter, most of the fruits in Hong Kong are imported from Thailand, Malaysia and other places, so even in winter, you can buy some fruits that are only available in summer.

Huo Yaowen picked some casually and walked towards Teacher Zhang's house.

Walking upstairs and just knocking on the door, Zhang Chengyi was quite happy when he saw that the person who came was Huo Yaowen, but when he saw that he was carrying bags of things in his hand, he said with a straight face: "Come here, why did you bring things up again." ”

"Just a little fruit, dry in winter, I thought I would buy some fruit to hydrate my teacher and wife. Huo Yaowen grinned.

"Who's here, Lao Zhang?" asked the wife, who was cleaning up in the house.

"It's Yaowen. Zhang Chengyi replied, turned his head to look at the things Huo Yaowen was carrying, and said angrily: "Not allowed next time." ”

"Got it, teacher. Huo Yaowen smiled.

The two closed the door and entered the house.

The master came over, saw the items he was carrying in his hand at a glance, and said with a little anger: "Yaowen, why did you bring things up again, didn't you say that you shouldn't bring them in the future!"

"Haha, my wife is just a little fruit. ”

"I don't know if I don't know next time, how much is your salary this month, so it will cost a lot of money to buy so many fruits!"

"Not much. ”

Huo Yaowen snorted, handed over the fruit to his wife to deal with, and then sat down on the wooden sofa with Teacher Zhang.

Zhang Chengyi picked up the small teapot on the table and poured a cup of tea for Huo Yaowen, looked up and asked, "How has the publishing house done recently?"

"Basically, it's almost done, the printing equipment has been entrusted to get two sets of eighty percent new, the factory in Bofulam, I also arranged for the editor-in-chief of the printing department and the engineering team to go over to renovate, and it is expected that the construction will officially start around mid-February. ”

"What about the publishing house staff? ”

Huo Yaowen sighed: "The publishing house has just been established, so in addition to the editors, typesetting and reviewers, the people in the marketing department have not been recruited, these people are easy to recruit, and the editor-in-chief of the publishing house has no eyebrows until now, and there is not even a person to apply." ”

"Lack of an editor-in-chief?" Zhang Chengyi touched the beard on his chin that was gradually whitening, thought for a while, and said: "I have someone who can recommend it to you, but I don't know if he is willing to go out of the mountain." ”

"Who?" Huo Yaowen raised his eyebrows.

"Do you know Liangyou magazine?"

Huo Yaowen frowned, thought for a while, and asked uncertainly: "Teacher, which "Good Friend" in Shanghai are you talking about?"

"Exactly. ”

Zhang Chengyi nodded: "Wu Liande, the owner of Liangyou Book Company, was my friend in Shanghai in my early years, and after coming to Hong Kong for 47 years, he has been working as an art and screenwriting director in Daguan Sound Film Company, and later Daguan Sound Film Company collapsed, and he has nothing to do at home after retirement. ”

"Mr. Wu should be sixty or seventy, right?"

"What, do you think he's old?" Zhang Chengyi glanced at Huo Yaowen.

Huo Yaowen hurriedly waved his hand: "No, no, it's just that Mr. Wu is so old after all, and the publishing work is boring and tiring, I'm afraid he won't be able to stand it." ”

"Although he is four years older than me, he has a good body and bones, can jump and jump, and the last time I went out to drink tea with him, he walked with the wind. ”

Zhang Chengyi said with a smile: "I asked you to hire him as the editor-in-chief, it must be for your sake, Wu Lao is quite famous in the Hong Kong publishing industry, in addition to founding Liangyou Book Company in the early years, he also worked in the Shanghai Commercial Publishing Bureau for seven or eight years, and has a wide range of contacts. Nowadays, the owners of many publishing companies in Hong Kong used to be his subordinates or employees, and if you invite him to go out of the mountain, it will only be good for you to come, and there will be no harm in your visit. ”

Hearing this, Huo Yaowen nodded silently in his heart, if it is really as the teacher said, then it is a good choice to ask this old Mr. Wu to go out of the mountain to serve as the editor-in-chief of the publishing house.

"Will Elder Wu agree?" Huo Yaowen asked.

"I don't know about this, I can only ask you, but I think Wu Lao should agree, he now has nothing to do except walk birds and drink tea every day, and he complained to me not long ago, saying that I teach in school every day, which is much more enjoyable than him. ”

"Then I'll trouble you, teacher. ”

"It's okay, I also hope that you can do better and better at running a publishing house, although Wu Lao is old, he has been engaged in the publishing industry for more than 30 years, and the door is very clear. ”

...

Hong Kong Island, inside the Governor's Palace.

Governor Darin Trench is sitting in his office working on papers.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in. ”

David Abel, the Chief Secretary for Justice, and Commissioner of Police, Itashan, walked in together.

"What's wrong?"

Dai Lintoe couldn't help frowning when he saw the two of them coming in together.

"Just TV news. ”

David Able walked straight to a television diagonally across from his office and turned it on to Emerald News.

At this time, the host on the TV broadcast with a serious face: "Good afternoon, audience friends, just now this station received news from front-line reporters, it is reported that at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the robbers in Wong Tai Sin District, Kowloon, Hong Kong, near Prince Edward Road East, robbed gold with knives, and at present, the thirteen parties have successively walked out of the gold shop and surrendered under the persuasion of the police and the persuasion of their respective parents. Let's take a look at the scene at that time!"

In an instant, the host in the picture disappeared, replaced by a somewhat shaky image, only to see a small street nearby, surrounded by a large number of onlookers, a gold shop is guarded by more than 100 policemen, and at the same time, there are more than a dozen police cars on the left and right sides of the road blocking the vicinity.

"Hello everyone, we are now across the road from the Hongsheng Gold Store in Prince Edward Road East, and we can see that several young people in the gold store are holding machetes and holding hostages to communicate with the police.

According to the people I just interviewed in the vicinity, all the 13 people who hijacked the gold shop were from the nearby Tsz Wan Mountain, and often referred to themselves as the 13 Taibao of Tsz Wan Mountain.

Among the thirteen, the eighteen-year-old boy with the nickname Mao Baohua was the leader, and he was also the eldest of the thirteen.

These thirteen people have formed a group of friends and made a living by extortion, robbery, and protection money in the Wong Tai Sin District of Tsz Wan Mountain, and one cannot help but wonder why these are precisely young people in their prime who committed the criminal act of robbing a gold shop with a knife?

Dai Lintoe has lived in Hong Kong for almost 10 years, and he can speak and understand the meaning of Cantonese, and when he heard the reporter on the TV broadcast the news, he couldn't help frowning and looked at the police commissioner Yi Dashan next to him: "What the hell is going on? Thirteen young men with knives, you can't take them down? Now all the TV stations are broadcasting!"

Date Zen pouted in defense, "They took hostages, and the inside of that gold shop is so small that our police officers can't rush in!"

"It's not an excuse!"

Dai Lintoe shouted, it was not easy to stabilize the situation this year, and now such a big thing has been reported on the news, which makes him very headache, and he can't help but glance at David Able, the chief secretary next to him: "You two came here for this?"

"Here is the list and information of these robbers. "David Able's duties are equivalent to that of the Governor's secretary, and he is here to reduce the pressure of public opinion on Dai Lintoe.

Dai Lintoe took the document, flipped through it casually, and found that the thirteen robbers, the oldest was only eighteen years old, and the youngest actually had a twelve-year-old "teenager"??

David Abel said: "These thirteen young people, except for a few who have studied for a few years, have basically never gone to school, and there are many such people in Tsz Wan Shan, as well as in the whole of Hong Kong. ”

"What do you mean?" said Dai frowned.

"I think it is necessary to officially announce the six-year free education plan that we are preparing to the public, so that it will not only change your image in the minds of Hong Kong people, but also greatly help you to be re-elected as the governor of Hong Kong in the following year. You should know that because of last year's events, the parliamentary side is not very happy with you, and at the same time, Her Majesty wants Hong Kong to be stable and prosperous, not riots and panic. ”

"But we don't have that much money now, you have to know that there are 300,000 school-age teenagers in Hong Kong, and if you don't remove some of the older ones, there are at least 70,000 or 80,000 people, and the current schools simply can't afford so many people to go to school. ”

David Abel said: "You can come in batches. I recently conducted a survey with the Education Department and found that at present the New Territories has the smallest school-age population, and the school attendance rate of young people on Hong Kong Island is very high, but Kowloon is not only the most school-age youth, but also the area with the highest population density and the most triad harm; according to the triad file provided by Commissioner Itashan just now, there are currently more than 80,000 triad members on Kowloon Island, which is almost two-thirds of the triad members in Hong Kong.

According to the triad archives, a large number of young people between the ages of 12 and 18 have joined the triad in recent years, and I am afraid that the triad will become the greatest danger to the safety of Hong Kong if it continues in the long run. So I think we can give priority to the implementation of a compulsory free education scheme in Kowloon and order parents to send school-age teenagers to school on a mandatory basis, which I think will be of great help to improve the new members of the triad. ”

Listening to what David Abel said was reasonable, Dai Lintoe nodded slightly, thought for a while and asked, "Are you sure this has an effect?"

"Anyway, this policy will be promoted sooner or later, and I think this announcement is the best time. This will not only improve your personal public image to the outside world, but also minimize and avoid the increase in juvenile delinquency. I don't think there will be another case of a 12-year-old kid who should be studying in school dare to rob a gold store with a knife in a lawless manner, as reported on the TV just now!!"

Dai Lin frowned, thought for a long time, nodded and said: "Just do as you say, it will be Hong Kong's New Year's Day in a few days, and we will release this news on that day." I will ask the Ministry of Finance to allocate some funds to give priority to the construction of several large public campuses in the densely populated areas of Kowloon, and I hope that some students will be able to go to school for free before the start of the new semester next year. ”

"Yes, I'll take care of it. David Abel nodded heavily.

The current role of the Chief Secretary is almost the same as that of the Governor's secretary, and the relationship between the two is very close, so David Abel has always been on the side of Dai Lintoe. But because of last year's incident, the Congress was not very satisfied with Dai Lintoe, the governor, and if it hadn't been for the relatively quick resolution of the incident, I am afraid that the black gauze hat would have been taken off as early as last year. Recently, he received a message from an old friend in the United Kingdom that the Queen was concerned about the current situation in Hong Kong, and that the corruption and social unrest in the police force had given her the idea of reappointing the Governor.

David Abel can be said to be above 10,000 people in Hong Kong at present, so naturally he does not want to be transferred back to London as a bitter petty official, so he tries every means to make Dai Lintoe, the governor, sit firmly in the position.