Yu Dong is not a good tour guide.
He took Cheng Yanqiu out of the Jinjiang Hotel and walked along the Funan River for a long time. He spent a long time watching the reconstruction project of the Funan River.
During this time, the Funan River was undergoing renovation and there was nothing to see.
After walking a little further, they saw someone holding a small boat driving ducks in the river, and the two of them stared at it for a long time. It is rare to see such a scene in Jinling, after all, people do not raise ducks on the Qinhuai River.
In the meantime, they also went to Tianfu Square to go shopping, but there were too many people, so they squeezed through and squeezed out of the crowd.
Originally, Yu Dong wanted to take Cheng Yanqiu to visit the night market on Chunxi Road in the evening, but after asking around, he found out that the Chunxi Road night market was not open yet.
The Kuanzhai Alley has not yet been renovated. It is just two alleys with a somewhat historical atmosphere. Walking in the middle, you will have no place to hide from the sun.
Until late in the evening, the two of them dragged their four tired legs to the teahouse in People's Park.
It was a crowded time, but they still found a seat in the pavilion.
The teahouse was very lively, mostly locals. At the table next to Yu Dong and the others, a few old men were playing cards. However, the cards in their hands were a bit strange. They were similar in shape to the small cards played by the locals in Jinling, but they were also
It is much longer than the small card, almost a month long.
There are many people playing this card at other tables, which shows that this card is very popular in the local area.
Yu Dong originally wanted to study the rules, but the local language sounded too difficult, so he gave up after listening for a while.
After Cheng Yanqiu sat down, he gently hammered his legs with his hands. His face was red and there were a lot of sweat beads.
Seeing that she was very tired, Yu Dong said slightly apologetically: "It's true that I don't know much about Chengdu, so I took you on many unnecessary journeys."
Cheng Yanqiu smiled and shook his head, "I think it's good. Every step I took today helped me understand more about this city. It was not a mistake."
Hearing Cheng Yanqiu's words, Yu Dong was a little surprised. Cheng Yanqiu is really different now. Not only his clothes, but also his whole feeling is different. He is much more positive than before.
Yu Dong smiled and said, "In fact, in a few years, Chengdu will be more interesting. Everything that should be there should be there, and everything that should be left should still be there. This city has its own unique charm. This charm
It is created by thousands of years of culture.”
"In a few years..." Cheng Yanqiu looked at Yu Dong with bright eyes, "Will we still be here together then?"
Will it?
Yu Dong doesn't know, just like he doesn't know how he feels about Cheng Yanqiu. He has a good impression of Cheng Yanqiu, otherwise he wouldn't agree to go out with her, but this good impression is still at the stage of wanting to understand her.
As for going further, Yu Dong has not thought about it yet.
"Here comes tea."
At this time, the waiter came over with tea.
Yu Dong smiled and said, "Let's have tea."
After that, neither of them spoke for a long time.
After walking for a day, they were very tired. Now they took a sip of tea in this noisy teahouse to slowly drive away the fatigue from their bodies.
After my mind slowly calmed down, the sounds in my ears gradually became clearer and no longer seemed so noisy. The incomprehensible local accent also gained some interesting flavor.
But in this foreign land, everything around them seemed far away from them and had nothing to do with them. In this small world, at least at this moment, the two of them were squeezed together by everything in front of them.
When it got dark, Yu Dong put down the tea cup and said, "Let's go and eat. Come back when you have time."
Cheng Yanqiu smiled. She did not ask when she would come again, but followed Yu Dong with her hands behind her back.
…
After finishing dinner, the two of them strolled around the People's Park.
When they walked to an open area, a group of teenage students were playing football on the roadside. Yu Dong and the others stopped and watched for a while, when a student accidentally kicked the ball to their side.
They shouted in this direction, speaking in local dialect, but I could understand the general meaning, asking Yu Dong and others to help pick up the ball.
Yu Dong was about to pick it up, but Cheng Yanqiu stopped him and said, "I'll do it."
With that said, she walked over to the ball.
It wasn't over yet, she took a few steps back, then took a running start, raised her feet, and the ball drew an arc in the air and flew towards the group of students.
After catching the ball, the students gave Cheng Yanqiu a noisy thumbs up and then started playing again.
Yu Dong looked at Cheng Yanqiu who was standing still after returning the ball, and walked over strangely, "Are you okay? I just saw that you were using your toes..."
"It hurts!" Cheng Yanqiu supported Yu Dong and lifted his right foot.
Yu Dong felt angry and funny, so he helped her sit down on the bench next to him, "I thought you were a master, but I didn't expect you didn't know how to play football with your toes. Take off your shoes, and I'll give them to you."
Take a look."
Cheng Yanqiu took off his shoes and endured the pain while asking: "If you don't use your toes, what are you using?"
"You are still concerned about this kind of technical issue... hitting the ball with your toes too hard may cause a toe fracture, so you should still worry about your toes."
Yu Dong frightened her, then looked at her feet, which looked normal. He pressed his hand on the joint of her big toe.
Cheng Yanqiu took a breath, "It hurts."
Yu Dong raised his eyes and looked at her: "There shouldn't be any fractures. Go back and apply some ice and rest and you'll probably be fine. Will you still be able to do it in the future?"
"I just want to try more new things. I have never played football before, so I want to play football."
What this means is: Dare again in the future.
She put on her shoes and tried to take a few steps, but she ran back and sat down in pain.
Yu Dong sighed, stood up in front of her, and said, "Come on."
"What?"
Yu Dong pointed to his back, "Get on the horse and I'll carry it to the road for you. Let's find a car and go back. Can you walk now?"
Cheng Yanqiu burst out laughing, "Do you think you are a horse?"
Even so, she still obediently lay on Yu Dong's back. Yu Dong took a breath and stood up, "Hey, I can't tell, Comrade Yanqiu, you are quite heavy."
"That's lucky for you, Comrade Yu Dong."
Cheng Yanqiu was a little cautious at first, keeping a little distance from Yu Dong with his upper body, but then he relaxed and simply buried his head in Yu Dong's neck.
Fortunately it is very cool at night, otherwise we would be sweating very quickly if they were pressed together like this.
She put her ear to the back of Yu Dong's neck and listened to his breathing and heartbeat. Because Yu Dong was walking with someone on his back, his heartbeat gradually accelerated. After listening for a while, her heartbeat also accelerated, and the beating frequencies of the two hearts became more and more similar.
, in the end she couldn't hear Yu Dong's heartbeat or her own heartbeat, only the sound of a heartbeat was left.
At this moment, it seemed like the only sound left in the world was this heartbeat.
"Comrade Yanqiu, aren't you a vocal major? Let's sing a song." Yu Dong opened his mouth to break the silence between the two.
"What are you singing?"
"Sing what you're good at."
Cheng Yanqiu thought for a while and said: "My best thing is "Singing the Motherland", do you want to listen to it?"
"Uh... let's change it to another one. I'll listen to this song during the National Day."
Cheng Yanqiu smiled and asked, "Can you speak Cantonese?"
Yu Dong shook his head, "No."
"Then I'll sing a Cantonese song to you."
"..."
Cheng Yanqiu cleared his throat and spoke slowly——
"Passing by lightly
mysterious and beautiful
It's like a sudden rain
I can't help but look up at you
You keep your worries to yourself
Even if you remain silent
I remember it deeply
Your eyes
…”
From the beginning, Yu Dong felt that this song sounded familiar. When he heard this, he finally remembered that the tune of this song was exactly the same as Tsai Chin's "Your Eyes".
Yu Dong didn't know much Cantonese, so he couldn't tell that Cheng Yanqiu's singing was not up to standard, but her singing was completely different from Tsai Qin's, not as deep, and had a special flavor.
If Tsai Qin is speaking in a low voice, as if she is recalling the past, then Cheng Yanqiu's singing has more appeal, as if it is talking about the present.
She is worthy of being a vocal teacher. Lying on Yu Dong's back like this, she can sing very steadily.
After singing a song, Yu Dong felt that he still had more to say, "Can you sing it again?"
Cheng Yanqiu rubbed his face on Yu Dong's back and said softly: "Next time, I'm a little tired and I need to take a nap."
Yu Dong smiled and shook his head, then lifted Cheng Yanqiu up and walked towards the main road.
…
After returning to the hotel, Yu Dong asked the hotel for some ice cubes to apply to Cheng Yanqiu's toes, and then returned to his room.
After Yu Dong left, Cheng Yanqiu felt his face getting hot as he thought about everything that happened today.
She had never been so proactive as she was today, everything seemed like a dream.
Just like what is sung in the lyrics - even if I am silent, I will remember it deeply.
She touched the injured toe again. It hurt a little, but this unexpected injury brought them closer.
"Thank you, Miss Thumbelina."
After saying this to her toes, she felt like she was suffering from hysteria again and burst into laughter.
…
Yu Dong returned to the room, but Lao Hu had not come back yet. He was about to take a bath when Tan Kai knocked on his door.
"I was passing by and saw some light coming from the crack of your door, so I tried to knock on the door." Tan Kai walked into the room with a smile, "I was still wondering whether it was you or Teacher Hu who came back."
"Have you finished reading the manuscript?" Yu Dong poured two cups of tea, gave Tan Kai one cup, and kept one cup for himself.
"After reading it, you are developing in the direction of biotechnology again this time. However, it involves a lot of sensitive content. I can't make the decision. President Yang has to make the decision." Tan Kai said.
Yu Dong nodded. He had expected what Tan Kai said. This novel contained a lot of insinuations and was quite sensitive.
If it is not science fiction but pure literature, this sensitive content is nothing at all. Even for "Harvest" and "Zhongshan", these are not considered sensitive content.
But science fiction is not good. Having learned from past mistakes, the magazine will naturally be cautious.
At this time, Tan Kai said again: "Yu Dong, have you ever thought about not serializing it, but directly publishing it in a single volume?"
Yu Dong took a sip of water and looked at Tan Kai, "Does the company have this idea?"
Tan Kai nodded: "This is my personal thought. "Second World" has not been serialized yet. If I publish another 300,000-400,000-word novel, it may be okay now, but your other works will have to wait for a while.
It won’t be easy for the work to come out again.”
Yu Dong thought for a while and asked, "Does this condition exist now?"
It is not easy to publish a single volume. A novel of 400,000 words requires a lot of effort in the preliminary work. If you only print a few thousand copies, you will not even be able to recoup the cost.
In the past year, domestic science fiction has indeed received more attention, but it is still doubtful whether it can support the market for full-length novels.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's worth a try to take advantage of the remaining heat of the Galaxy Awards and the promotion of "Science Fiction World". If Chinese science fiction wants to develop, full-length novels are a must.
Let’s go.”
Tan Kai took a sip of tea and continued: "Jimmy told us before that the English version of "The Second World" was going to be published, and we were thinking of waiting until then to publish the Chinese version as well. But now that the new book is out, I think maybe
This plan can be advanced."
"If you want to publish a single volume, wouldn't you also go to Sichuan People's Publishing House?" Yu Dong asked.
"Well, that's right, but instead of going to the publishing house directly, if you cooperate with us, "Science Fiction World" will become your publicity channel. Currently, each issue of "Science Fiction World" has at least 70,000 to 80,000 readers.
When this book is published, there may be more than 100,000 or more than 100,000 science fiction readers. Such targeted publicity is definitely something the publisher cannot provide."
Hearing Tan Kai's words, Yu Dong smiled: "Editor Tan, neither of us are business people. And the final decision on the single book has to be made by Sister Xiao. How about this, I will bring my agent there tomorrow.
In the club, let’s sit down and have a good chat.”
"Agent?" Tan Kai was stunned for a moment, then realized, "Are you talking about Jimmy? He has officially become your agent?"
"That's right, so if you have any business matters in the future, it's best for you to talk to Jimmy. When we are together, we can talk less about business matters and just drink tea and chat." Yu Dong raised his hand.
Teacup, smiled.
Tan Kai also raised his tea cup helplessly. He knew that talking to Jimmy and talking to Yu Dong were completely different things. Jimmy was a businessman and there was no way he could play the emotional card.
There is nothing wrong with Yu Dong doing this. Although writers' agents are not common in China, Tan Kai and the others all know that there is such a profession. Having an agent who can help writers handle their mundane affairs can greatly free up the writer's own time and allow them to
They focus on creation.
Now that Yu Dong said this, Tan Kai no longer talked about business, but about his works.
There is no in-depth exploration of biopunk in China or even abroad, so Tan Kai is very interested in biopunk, especially the bioenergy described in the book.
After talking about bioenergy, he then talked about climate change and sea level rise...
At the end, he suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "By the way, does this book have a name? I searched for a long time and couldn't find it."
"Not yet. I came here this time to ask for your opinion."
Tan Kai held the teacup and paced back and forth in the room for a few times, and then mentioned a book title: "How about calling it The Last City?"
"The last city?"
Chapter completed!