1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When Zhou Yan woke up the next morning, Joey Wong was sitting in front of the dressing table putting on makeup.

Seeing Zhou Yan wake up through the mirror, Wang Zuxian smiled and said, "Third brother, you are awake."

Zhou Yan rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was not yet eight o'clock.

Getting up so early and putting on makeup is not Wang Zuxian's style. If nothing happens, Wang Zuxian can stay in bed for a long time.

"Are you going out today?" Zhou Yan asked curiously.

"Yeah, I made an appointment with Li Xiaoran to go shopping."

"You two are going shopping?" Zhou Yan was very surprised.

There were two things that surprised him. The first was when did Joey Wong and Li Xiaoran become so close, and the second was that Li Xiaoran could actually go shopping.

Although they filmed a movie together, Wang Zuxian and Li Xiaoran did not communicate much. After all, their living habits were completely different.

Li Xiaoran is the type of person who would rather stay at home than go out, and lives like a turtle.

But Joey Wong cannot stay stuck in the house at all. She tries to go out as long as she can.

Apart from filming, the two of them have no interaction at all and can't even play together.

"Well, what should I do? You have to attend the writers' congress today, and I don't want to stay home alone, so I'll just find someone to go shopping with."

"You two are still in touch?"

"No." Joey Wong shook her head.

"Then how did you guys make an appointment to go shopping together?" Zhou Yan was even more puzzled.

"Haha, it's not just the two of us. There's also Sister Hong and the others. I knew you didn't have time to accompany me today, so I called Sister Hong. She organized it."

"Oh, Manager Hong, she's not going to work today." Zhou Yan nodded. It was Manager Hong who organized this, so no wonder.

Wang Zuxian rolled her eyes, "As expected, all bosses in the world are equally black-hearted. Don't worry, she has asked for leave today, and she is using her annual leave."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and said, "Why use annual leave to accompany the boss's wife shopping? Just give her two days of paid leave."

"It still has some conscience."

In fact, even if she wasn’t accompanying Joey Wong to go shopping, as long as Hong Xin wanted to take a vacation, Zhou Yan would give her paid leave.

The studio hasn't been very busy recently, so giving them a break won't have any impact at all.

This is how their studio works. When it is busy, it is extremely busy, just like when they were filming "Time Traveler", Hong Xin and the others were very tired.

Although Zhou Yan would give them some vacation time when they were on the crew, it was not enough.

Often, even if Zhou Yan gave them a holiday, they could not rest properly. They might have to use their holiday time to sort out their tools or coordinate work with other groups.

"Have you had breakfast?"

"I've eaten. There's porridge in the rice cooker. There are also beef buns and vegetable boxes I bought on the table, but they may be a little cold. If you want to eat them, you can heat them up in the induction cooker."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "You even went out to buy breakfast by yourself."

"It's just breakfast, you make it sound like it's a big deal."

"It's really amazing that you even cooked porridge."

Zhou Yan got up with a smile, walked to the living room and touched the buns on the table, which were still warm.

He didn't even wash his face. He first served himself a bowl of porridge and started eating it with the buns and vegetable box.

He drank too much last night and didn't eat much, so when he got up, he felt very hungry.

After eating a bite of the bun, I felt like I was alive again.

Wang Zuxian sat in front of the dressing table and glanced at Zhou Yan, "Do you remember what you said to Uncle Wang and the others last night?"

"What did he say..." Zhou Yan was shocked. Did he drink too much last night and say something he shouldn't have said?

But he could still recall what happened last night, and it seemed that he had no memory loss. During the whole process, he didn't seem to say anything out of line.

He was a little drunk last night, but not to the point of blacking out.

"You said you would invite them to the premiere ceremony and give them twenty tickets," said Joey Wong.

Hearing this, Zhou Yan breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, I remember this. It was not until Aunt Chen asked that I said I would give it to them. There are a lot of tickets for the premiere this time, so it's no big deal to give them twenty tickets."

Wang Zuxian nodded, "It's good that you remember it. I was just worried that you didn't remember it and didn't give them the tickets. That would be bad."

"Don't worry, I didn't black out last night, and I still remember everything that happened. I'll talk to Sister Feng about the premiere tickets later."

"You are going to attend the writers' congress today, so you should dress more conservatively. Just wear that gray suit and a black coat on the outside, and match your tie with the brown one. I will get the clothes you want to wear before I leave." Joey Wong started to worry about Zhou Yan's outfit for going out today.

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded.

"As for shoes, just wear the pair we bought when we went shopping two days ago. Remember to put some shoe polish on it."

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded again.

"Would you like to wear a brooch... You should wear the party emblem today."

"You don't need to wear a party badge or a brooch, but you need to wear a name tag."

"Then don't wear a brooch. And don't wear an expensive watch. You already have a Seagull watch, so wear that one."

"Yeah." Zhou Yan continued to nod.

"How do you go?"

"I'll ask the driver to pick me up. How are you going to go shopping later?"

"I'll go to the studio first, and then Sister Hong will drive us out."

"Yes, Captain Hong has a car."

In the summer, Hong Xin spent more than 70,000 yuan to buy an Alto. After she bought the car, everyone else in the studio became eager to buy a car.

However, more than 70,000 yuan is not a small amount even for them.

Hong Xin can buy a car because her family is well off.

She now earns about 20,000 yuan a year, which is a high salary in Yanjing, but she still has to save for three or four years without eating or drinking to be able to buy an Alto.

If you want to buy a Santana, it will take longer.

These days, cars are too far away for ordinary people.

The main reason is that Hong Xin is now in the studio and doesn't have much money to spend. The pressure in life is small, so she has money on hand and can buy a car.

Zhou Yan actually thinks it is not cost-effective to buy a car now, after all, Hong Xin doesn’t use the car very often.

With more than 70,000 yuan, if I save a little more, it would be enough to buy a small apartment of 30 square meters near the East Second Ring Road.

However, a house is not a necessity for Hong Xin, so Zhou Yan did not interrupt.

When Joey Wong heard that Hong Xin bought a car, she felt quite regretful. After all, in her opinion, it is best to use the money to buy a house.

Now she has begun to target the real estate market in Yanjing and wants to buy a few houses in Yanjing, but she is not interested in courtyard houses, and is mainly interested in commercial houses. However, there are not so many commercial houses in Yanjing, unlike Xiangjiang and Pengcheng where the selection is wide.

Joey Wong went out at 8:50. Before that, she made all the arrangements for Zhou Yan's trip and laid out all his clothes on the bed.

After Zhou Yan washed up, he could put it on directly.

At about ten o'clock, Zhou Yan went out.

The writers' congress doesn't start until three o'clock in the afternoon, so Zhou Yan doesn't need to be in a hurry.

He went to the studio first, and asked the driver to take Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng to the studio. After lunch, they went there together in the afternoon.

When the three of them arrived at the venue, they attracted a lot of attention because of Shi Tiesheng's presence.

Because there was still a long time before the conference started, many people had not yet taken their seats and were just gathering in groups of three or four to chat.

The first person to greet them was Liu Zhenyun.

Liu Zhenyun has long hair that almost reaches his shoulders, and he has his hair parted sideways, making him look like a rock singer.

He was not wearing formal clothes, but a loose gray and white sweater on the upper body and brown corduroy trousers on the lower body. He stood there without any posture, like a second-rate person.

Liu Zhenyun first squinted at Shi Tiesheng, then smiled and said, "Tiesheng, you go out with great fanfare, even bringing two bodyguards with you. But this short bodyguard's outfit is a bit shabby, and his suit must have been borrowed from someone else."

The short bodyguard he was referring to was naturally Yu Hua.

Yu Hua wore a suit today, but it was very loose and not very fitting.

The suits that are popular nowadays are loose-fitting in style, and Yu Hua's suit is one size larger, making it look even looser.

This in itself is nothing, after all, many people are like this. It was only after Liu Zhenyun said it that Yu Hua's outfit became conspicuous.

Yu Hua and the others are old acquaintances of Liu Zhenyun, so they are naturally used to his talkativeness.

Shi Tiesheng smiled and said nothing, while Yu Hua smiled and said, "Why, are you going to sing a song today? Where's your guitar? It just so happens that we brought a musician today to check it for you."

Liu Zhenyun shook his long hair, indicating that Yu Hua's verbal attack could not cause him any harm.

He looked at Zhou Yan again, "I guess this is the musician Zhou Yan who is here to steal our jobs. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you."

"Zhenyun, you are joking. How can I take away your jobs?"

"Why not? I think Tree Hole is very well written. It may be difficult to take their jobs, but it is enough to take mine."

After hearing this, Zhou Yan felt that Liu Zhenyun was really interesting.

He seems to be reckless and likes to insult others, but he can also be very humble and put others on a high pedestal.

In fact, Zhou Yan didn’t understand Liu Zhenyun. He loved to praise others, even to the point of praising them to death.

Even Wang Shuo has fallen into his trap.

Once Ma Weidu organized a writers' meeting, and Liu Zhenyun would praise Wang Shuo every time he saw him.

"Teacher Wang, you write novels very well."

"Teacher Wang, how can you write such a good novel?"

At first Wang Shuo didn’t take it seriously. After all, it was normal for most people to be polite when they just met.

But for three consecutive days, Liu Zhenyun praised Wang Shuo every day when he saw him, and finally Wang Shuo was so flattered by his praise.

Liu Zhenyun probably wanted to praise Zhou Yan, but Su Tong and Wang Anyi came over.

Wang Anyi has a cheerful personality. He looked Zhou Yan up and down and said, "Maybe it's because of these people's contrast that I feel you are even more handsome than on TV."

Yu Hua rolled her eyes and said, "Sister Wang, you don't have to praise one and step on three."

"I'm just stating the facts. Don't be unconvinced. Zhou Yan is an actor after all. There's no comparison."

"Sister Anyi, please stop joking with me."

Wang Anyi waved his hand, "I'm not kidding you. There's nothing wrong with saying you're the best writer."

As she spoke, she looked around the venue again and said, "You are not only the most beautiful one here today, but also the youngest one."

Today, there are more than 800 people from the Writers Association attending the conference, all of whom have come from all over the country. If we distribute them among various provinces and cities, there are actually not many places available.

Those who can attend today's conference are basically famous writers with some experience, and naturally there are no young people.

"It's true that he can't be denied that he's young. Zhou Yan looks like he's a generation apart from many of us." Su Tong said with a smile.

He was absolutely right. Zhou Yan was in his twenties, and most of the people at the scene were over 40 years old.

Some of them are not only one generation apart from Zhou Yan, but two or three generations apart. For example, Ma Feng, who is standing not far away, is over seventy years old this year, but still insists on attending the writers' congress.

In terms of age, the oldest person in the Writers Association should be Chairman Ba ​​Jin, who is already over 90 years old.

However, Ba Jin is in poor health now and has no way of going out, let alone coming to Yanjing to attend the Writers' Congress.

The last time Ba Jin participated in an event of the Writers Association was probably the year before last.

Two years ago, the Writers Association, which had not held a presidium meeting for a long time, held the ninth meeting of the fourth presidium of the Writers Association in Shanghai. Ba Jin specially asked his doctor for two hours off and attended the meeting in a wheelchair.

Because of his attendance, that presidium meeting became very famous.

That attendance was probably Ba Jin's last time attending an event organized by the Writers Association.

Nowadays, he is more like a spiritual symbol in the Writers Association. As long as he lives on, he will still be the chairman of the Writers Association.

A new presidium will be elected this year, and the chairman's name will definitely not change.

……

After they chatted and laughed for a while, Su Tong suddenly asked Zhou Yan and the others, "Do you know about Mr. Xu Chi's affairs?"

Shi Tiesheng raised his head and looked at Su Tong, "What's wrong with Mr. Xu?"

Liu Zhenyun, Wang Anyi and Su Tong looked at each other, and then Su Tong sighed, "On the 12th, Mr. Xu left."

"gone?"

Zhou Yan and the others were a little surprised. Xu Chi was indeed old, probably over eighty years old.

Logically speaking, at Xu Chi's age, he could die at any time, but it is still sad that this happened at this time.

"I heard that Mr. Xu's illness was very serious. I didn't expect that he would not survive this year. The New Year is almost here. Sigh..." At the end, Shi Tiesheng couldn't help but sigh.

He himself was suffering from illness, so when he heard about Xu Chi's story, he was of course deeply moved.

"Mr. Xu did not die of illness. On the evening of the 12th, he jumped from the sixth floor of the hospital and committed suicide."

suicide……

Zhou Yan and the others were all stunned. They didn't expect that Xu Chi actually committed suicide.

It was very strange that Xu Chi suddenly committed suicide just when the Writers' Congress was about to be held.

"I heard that Secretary Zhu of the Hubei Writers Association went to Mr. Xu's hospital room to see him and personally handed him the meeting notice of the Writers Association. That night, he jumped off the building." (End of this chapter)