After getting settled in An'an, Ren Zhouyuan made an appointment with Fan Wenfeng, intending to talk to him about work.
Fan Wenfeng is a freelance writer who is affiliated with a cultural communication company. The two met before when they were making an appointment for writing.
At that time, Ren Zhouyuan had just left the archaeological team, and was writing a thesis on the evolution of Chinese characters. He had some unpleasantness with the archaeological team, so he stayed at home and focused on finishing the thesis first.
An An was less than three years old at that time, and he had little money left. When he was inquiring about the publishing house with his college classmates, the classmates recommended Fan Wenfeng to him.
Fan Wenfeng also studies ancient Chinese history, and the two hit it off right away, and have become good friends over the years. He knew that he was alone with a child, and he didn't ask him about the child's mother, but he often helped him. Ren Zhouyuan also changed from being embarrassed at the beginning to helping each other like a family now.
He and Fan Wenfeng made an appointment at a coffee shop in the city center, and when they got there, the other party had already arrived.
As soon as he sat down, Fan Wenfeng said, "I ordered a latte for you. Would you like something to eat?"
Ren Zhouyuan shook his head with a smile, he has figured out his own taste, this feeling of being cared by others warmed his heart.
After all the drinks were delivered, Fan Wenfeng took out a few pages of materials from his briefcase, "Here are some recent drafts from the company, I copied a copy and showed it to you," he explained one by one, "This list is a list of solicited manuscripts from several companies. It includes the channels and general content to be submitted to. This one is the invitation to contribute to some recent journals and magazines. You have two pseudonyms on the invitation list, and the price is average. Ordinary, but it’s all your field of expertise, so it’s probably quite easy to write.”
He turned over two more pages, all of which were some common solicitations, until finally he found a page from the bottom, which listed a few simple lines, but one could guess what it was just by looking at the content.
Fan Wenfeng said: "This is the gun manuscript for this time. The first column is for the university, the second column is for the master's degree, the third column is for the doctoral degree, and the last column is for the professional title. "Write," he glanced at Ren Zhouyuan, "these are not urgent items, can you not touch... Hey, you can think about it yourself."
Ren Zhouyuan took over those pages and read them all. When he saw the titles on those manuscripts, especially the ones on the gun manuscript, he could tell at a glance that Fan Wenfeng really put a lot of thought into it.
He knew that Fan Wenfeng loves talents, and he has never stopped lamenting over the years that Ren Zhouyuan did not continue his studies. Although Ren Zhouyuan never said it, Fan Wenfeng probably guessed that he gave up studying for An An.
Ren Zhouyuan is 28 and will be 29 this year. Fan Wenfeng is five years older than him, but he has been immersed in society for a much longer time than him. Fan Wenfeng has been taking good care of him since he first met him, and now he is almost like his manager.
Ren Zhouyuan has several pseudonyms. He has never published articles under his real name. At first, he used those pseudonyms to write feature articles to earn some small manuscript fees. After several years of writing, he is also a little famous in the industry. It is affiliated with Fan Wenfeng's company and managed by Fan Wenfeng.
Writing gun manuscripts is the fastest way to get money. Ren Zhouyuan is really short of money recently, or he has always been short of money, but he hasn't reached the final step yet, and he doesn't plan to return to his old job to become a gunman for others. In the early years, for his livelihood, he did ghostwriting for a few days, but looking back, he always felt that it was a stain on his life. Even if it wasn't him, someone else would ghostwrite for these people, but he took over. The responsibility rested on him.
After picking it, he felt that the company's manuscript invitations and journal invitations were quite good, and some topics even made him feel very interesting.
He kept the first two pages of the document, returned the rest to Fan Wenfeng, and asked casually, "How is my other pseudonym doing?"
Fan Wenfeng put down his coffee and said, "As always, there were many draft requests, but I stopped them all."
"How's the quality?" Ren Zhouyuan nodded and asked.
"How should I put it, there are some who want to use your title to sell advertisements at first glance, but the prices of this type are very high, but the traces of advertisements are too obvious, so I rejected them all. A few of them are of poor quality. Yes, they are all invitations from some high-end academic platforms, but these are a bit like gaining fame, it’s okay to raise your reputation, but you don’t need to do these thankless things anymore with your current name.”
He paused, and Ren Zhouyuan felt that his tone was suddenly a little excited, "But there is one here, which I think is very good. The topic I sent is probably to study whether foreign culture should import cultural elements into China. It is recommended to discuss it from both positive and negative aspects. Write an article for each. This topic is a bit broad, but there are many angles that can be written. Isn’t there a dispute between STEAM and ASTEM recently? I think it’s good to start with this popular topic.”
Fan Wenfeng himself also studies Chinese culture, but he is also very interested in foreign culture, so when he saw this topic, he naturally wrote it down.
Fan Wenfeng said: "Write one article from the front and the other. I guess the other party wants to use the one that is beneficial to them to make a public manuscript, but I checked the person who asked for the manuscript, and the other party only provided a contact method, no more. information, so even though the price they offered was not low, I didn’t follow up in the end.”
There was a very obvious regret in his tone, and Ren Zhouyuan was a little bit dumbfounded.
To be honest, this topic is really challenging, not that the topic itself is difficult to write, but that if he is asked to write it, he will definitely not provide two articles as requested by the other party, but incorporate two angles into the article, but Derive a single point of view.
But it's interesting, just like what Fan Wenfeng said, the drafter whose origin is unknown, he doesn't have the intention to help others make wedding dresses now.
After marking the remaining two pages, Ren Zhouyuan's phone rang suddenly. He took out his phone and saw that it was an unsaved number. He gestured apologetically to Fan Wenfeng, and Ren Zhouyuan picked up the phone.
"Hello, is this Mr. Ren Zhouyuan? This is the personnel director of Weiqi Technology Education Co., Ltd. My name is Zheng."
Ren Zhouyuan was stunned for a moment, and replied: "Yes, hello."
"I am very pleased to inform you that after the first round of interviews, you initially meet the admission requirements of our company. I hereby invite you to come to Weiqi for a re-examination at 2 pm this Friday."
Ren Zhouyuan frowned when he heard the words, Fan Wenfeng sat opposite with a questioning expression, he said helplessly to the person on the other end of the phone: "I'm sorry, I have already decided not to go to your company."
When Fan Wenfeng heard it, he immediately guessed who was calling, and his expression instantly became serious. The personnel director on the other end of the phone didn't seem to expect him to refuse, there was a two-second silence, and then said: "Can you understand why?"
"I've already found another job." Ren Zhouyuan lied.
Hearing that Director Zheng was a little polite and a little arrogant: "Well, then congratulations to Mr. Ren for a smooth job, goodbye." After finishing speaking, he hung up the phone quickly.
"How is it?" Fan Wenfeng asked as soon as he put down the phone, "Is it Vicky? They told you to go to work?"
Ren Zhouyuan chuckled, "It's not that simple, just ask me to go to the retest." He didn't intend to continue on this topic, but Fan Wenfeng didn't seem to intend to let him go, and started lobbying again.
"Vitch is really good. There are not many companies that can do 9 to 5 classes now. An An went to kindergarten today, right? If you go to Vichy, the kindergarten I found for you is not far from there. How nice it is to pick up the kids after get off work."
Ren Zhouyuan shook his head, "I rejected them all."
"Such a good opportunity," Fan Wenfeng felt sorry for him. "I don't understand what you think. It's okay to say that people rejected it. They are now looking for you." He sighed, "I I heard from my friend that the boss of this company has been stationed overseas for a long time, and it is estimated that it will expand to the world soon, but their family is a foreign-funded enterprise... Hey, what a great opportunity you said!"
Fan Wenfeng babbled on and on, feeling really sorry that he didn't go to Weiqi. When Ren Zhouyuan heard him say that the person had been away for a long time, he was a little moved, but he was immediately rejected by himself.
Seeing that Fan Wenfeng still wanted to say something, Ren Zhouyuan shook the document in his hand, as if preparing to leave, "Thank you for today, I wanted to invite you to dinner, but I'll wait until next time, this time I invite you, I'll give you another meal next time, and I'll go back and look at the information first."
Fan Wenfeng showed a bit of reluctance on his face. It was rare that the two hadn't seen each other for so long. For today's agreement, he even postponed a few things. But Ren Zhouyuan quickly packed up his things and stood up with the bill. Fan Wenfeng hurriedly stretched out his hand to hold down his hand. stopped him.
"There's no friendship between us, and we're still talking about this," he slowly moved his hand that was pressing on Ren Zhouyuan to the bottom of the bill, and grabbed it with a little force, "I don't need you to invite me this time, wait until next time Bring An'an out and you can ask again."
Ren Zhouyuan paused, feeling a little weird in his heart, but when he touched Fan Wenfeng's kind smiling face, that feeling disappeared immediately. He pulled the bill lightly, but was crushed by Fan Wenfeng, so he could only shrug his shoulders with a helpless smile.
After parting from Fan Wenfeng, Ren Zhouyuan returned home, and after tidying up the dishes that were too late to clean in the morning, he sat down at the desk, took out the document Fan Wenfeng gave him, and read it carefully.
The contents of the invitations are varied, but those involving language and writing are mostly based on cultural communication. He remarked his thoughts behind each topic, and the two pages of A4 paper didn't look like much, and after he finished writing all of them, a few hours passed in a hurry.
When he saw the last question, Ren Zhouyuan smiled.
Although Fan Wenfeng said that his background was unknown, he still included the topic.
"Do foreign cultures need to do as the Romans do when they enter the country?" Ren Zhouyuan shook his chair lightly, biting the tip of his pen and murmured out the topic involuntarily.
In the afternoon of early summer, with a trace of tranquility in the heat, Ren Zhouyuan leaned over the desk and wrote a line of words—
Taking the entry of European and American cultures into China as an example, the evidence shows that foreign cultures must be "transformed" by Chinese culture.
The author has something to say:
*Behind the scenes jealous man theater*
Leonid: I have figured out what taste means, and I have also figured out your whole body!
Ren Zhouyuan: ...just once
Leonid (impatiently): When the hell am I going to come out!
Xiaomi: (darkly rubs the lid of the pot and escapes)