Marrying My Bestie's Ferocious Brother - He Calls Me His Baby!-Chapter 295: Don’t Rush, Let All the Scientists in the Country Cry First!
After resolving matters on Jiang Zhou’s side, Lin Wan Yi didn’t stop for a moment.
She went straight to the editorial department of Renminhua Magazine.
Sun Ping was pacing anxiously in the office, and upon seeing her, it was as if he’d seen a savior.
"Comrade Wanyi! You finally made it!"
Lin Wan Yi placed a roll of illustrations on his desk.
"Chief Editor Sun, this is the draft of the first issue of the new series."
Sun Ping couldn’t wait to unfold it, the words of the title bursting forth with force.
"Hope of the Land."
He glanced at it, and his hand stopped.
"This... is about..."
"Agricultural scientists." Lin Wan Yi replied.
Sun Ping said nothing; he rolled up the artwork and walked into the meeting room with it.
"Meeting!"
...
The atmosphere in the editorial department’s meeting room was somewhat heavy.
All the editors had finished passing around the draft.
An old editor with graying hair and glasses cleared his throat.
He was Qian Zhenyu, the most senior editor in the department.
"Chief Editor Sun, I’d like to say a few words."
Sun Ping nodded slightly.
Qian Zhenyu adjusted his glasses and looked at Lin Wan Yi.
"Comrade Lin Wan Yi, your last piece was indeed well done and made a nationwide impact."
"However, this topic..."
He pushed the draft into the center of the table.
"Drawing farmers working the land or those bottles and jars in a laboratory, isn’t it too dull?"
"Readers want to see heroes, battlefields, military medals! Not muddy legs and bookworms!"
His voice wasn’t loud, but each word pierced like a needle.
"You can’t just run wild because you got famous overnight. The sales of the magazine require responsibility."
In the meeting room, several senior editors supporting Qian Zhenyu nodded along.
Sun Ping’s face sank.
He was about to speak.
But Lin Wan Yi stood up first.
She didn’t look at Qian Zhenyu; instead, her gaze swept across everyone present.
"Mr. Qian, I have a question."
Her voice was calm, but it silenced everyone.
"Soldiers bearing guns, defending the country on the battlefield, are heroes and worthy of our portrayal."
"Then those who use their sweat and wisdom in laboratories and fields, fighting desperately to feed hundreds of millions nationwide, are they..."
"Not deserving of being called heroes?"
"Are they not worthy of being depicted, for the entire nation to see?"
Qian Zhenyu’s face flushed red all at once.
He opened his mouth but was at a loss for words.
"Pa!"
Sun Ping slapped the table and stood up forcefully.
"Well said!"
He pointed to the draft on the table, announcing to everyone.
"We’ll go with this!"
"Front page! Use the best paper, the best ink!"
He surveyed the room, his voice allowing no dissent.
"Anyone with objections is questioning my judgment as Sun Ping!"
"Meeting adjourned!" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
...
At night, in the Gu Family Courtyard.
Lin Wan Yi sat under the lamp, her pen scratching on paper.
On the drawing paper, a scene gradually took shape.
In the pouring rain late at night, in a muddy trial field, an old professor with thick glasses fell heavily to the ground.
He was covered in mud, looking utterly disheveled.
But he didn’t care for himself; instead, he exerted all his strength to hold his hand high.
In that hand, he protected a fragile, newly-sprouted wheat seedling.
Rain and mud water ran down his cheeks, yet he grinned, baring yellowed teeth, smiling like a madman, like a child.
...
The next day, the first batch of sample magazines, carrying the scent of ink, was delivered to the Gu Family.
Gu Yanshen had just returned from the National Defense University, taking off his military coat.
He saw the Renminhua Magazine on the table.
He picked it up, sat on the sofa, and read through it page by page, very meticulously.
Lin Wan Yi poured him a glass of water, not interrupting him.
After a long time.
He finally put down the magazine and looked up.
The man’s eyes, always cold and hard, now shone with incredible brightness.
He looked at her, and instead of saying "it’s very well drawn" or "I really like it,"
he said.
"They will see themselves in this picture."
...
Dozens of sample copies, treated as the most urgent files, were swiftly sent by the magazine’s courier to major research institutes, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources in Beijing...
In the editorial department, no one had the mind to work.
Everyone was waiting.
Waiting for that sword named "market," hanging over their heads, to drop.
Qian Zhenyu, holding his tea cup, had a faint, elusive sneer at the corners of his mouth.
He was waiting to see how Sun Ping and Lin Wan Yi would handle the situation.
"Ring ring ring——!"
At three in the afternoon, the red telephone in Sun Ping’s office suddenly let out a piercing, sharp bellow.
Sun Ping jolted and grabbed the phone.
"Hello! This is Sun Ping!"
On the other end, a robust voice, tinged with obvious excitement, roared aloud.
"Sun Ping! It’s Li Changqing from the Agricultural College!"
It was Dean Li!
Sun Ping’s heart jumped into his throat immediately.
"Old Li, have you received the magazine..."
"Received!" Dean Li’s voice was even louder, like a thunderclap.
"I ask you! Did you intend for this magazine to make all us old folks at the Agricultural College cry our hearts out in the office!"
"Boom!"
Sun Ping’s mind went blank with a buzzing sound.
It’s over.
He’s here to lay charge!
His hand holding the phone was drenched in cold sweat.
"Old Li, let me explain..."
"Explain nothing!"
Dean Li’s voice suddenly carried a sob.
"I’m telling you! This isn’t just a piece of art! It’s a monument you’ve erected for those of us in scientific research!"
"A spiritual monument!"
"Do you know! Professor Wang! Our most rigid Professor Wang in the college! That seventy-year-old man held your magazine and cried like a child!"
"He pointed at the person who fell in the mud on that page and said, that was him! That was him in his youth!"
Sun Ping was frozen in place.
He heard Dean Li on the other end, using a voice that was nearly a howl, full of ecstatic joy, to order him.
"Two thousand copies! No!"
"Give me five thousand copies first!"
"I want every single person working in agriculture, every person who has spent sleepless nights in the lab, to have a copy!"
"If there’s not enough money, I’ll gather it! I’ll plead with the Ministry, risking my old face!"
Sun Ping, holding the phone, remained motionless, like a statue.
Outside the office, all the editors eavesdropping with bated breath were stunned.
The enamel cup in Qian Zhenyu’s hand clattered to the ground, shattering into pieces.
"Awoooo!"
Not sure who yelled first.
The entire editorial department erupted into cheers like a tidal wave!
However, amidst this euphoria, a statistical officer from the marketing department, holding a report, ran in with a pale face.
"Ch... Chief Editor..."
"The feedback from the newsstands... the first batch... general readers seem to... not be buying it..."
