Why Did He Write "Dog Spy"?

Li Ye had sorted out Jin Peng, which meant the personnel accompanying him to the provincial capital was settled.

At this point, Hao Jian brought up a new problem: "If it's just the two of us going to the provincial capital, we'll need at least two bicycles! One bike has to carry goods, it can't carry people."

Qingshui County was forty kilometers from the provincial capital, a two to three hour bike ride, and even faster by vehicle.

But if you were carrying one to two hundred jin of malt candy on a vehicle, there would be many troublesome issues in this era; not only would it be exhausting, but there were also checkpoints along the way!

However, Li Ye was already prepared. Jin Peng had his own bicycle, and Li Ye could swap bikes with Li Dayong to ride. It would be enough for the initial phase.

After hearing Li Ye's affirmative reply, Hao Jian was mostly reassured.

But a smart person would naturally think things through more thoroughly, so he asked about Jin Peng's character, hinting that he might be a reckless brute who liked to fight.

Li Ye said, "You don't need to worry about that. Jin Peng is very shrewd. He's tough when he needs to be, and soft when he needs to be. He's got all sorts of ways to bluff people.

Also, he's very familiar with the county town. You can ask him when you buy raw materials. With him following you, many things will be much easier to handle."

Jin Peng's shrewdness was a conclusion reached by Li Ye's grandfather. The old man, having seen countless people, must have had a good judge of character.

Hao Jian nodded and asked again, "Bluffing, how does he bluff?"

Li Ye casually reached up to the wall and grabbed a brick. He held it in one hand and struck it with the other.

"Crack!"

The solid blue brick was split in two.

"He bluffs like this, sometimes he even smashes bricks on his own head."

Hao Jian finally understood. So the man was a street performer. Whether he could bluff others or not, Li Ye's display had certainly bluffed him.

Both Hao Jian and Jin Peng were very capable. Two days later, they had produced the first batch of malt candy, weighing about 180 jin.

The load limit of the "Er Ba Da Gang" (a type of heavy-duty bicycle) had always been uncertain. African uncles in Africa often carried 400 jin, and although that was a life-threatening task, it also reflected the design characteristics of such cargo bicycles.

Li Ye proposed to Li Dayong that they swap bikes. Li Dayong happily agreed.

Although his bear-like physique looked somewhat out of place on the 26-inch Phoenix bicycle, his old military bike clattered noisily, how could it compare to Li Ye's brand-new Phoenix?

After swapping bikes, Li Dayong rode around the main streets of the county town twice, feeling ecstatic even in the middle of winter.

Li Ye went to deliver the bicycle to Jin Peng. Jin Peng and Hao Jian had arranged to leave the next morning, so Jin Peng needed to go to Chenzhuang Township tonight to supervise Hao Jian weighing and loading the goods.

However, there was a slight hitch at the entrance to Jin Peng's small courtyard.

"Brother, let me go too! I don't want money. Just give me some candy. I won't eat much. One liang a day."

A child with broad shoulders, a strong build, but a simple-minded look, clutched Li Ye's sleeve, pleading with Li Ye to take him along.

Li Ye sighed, not knowing what to say.

This child was Wang Jianqiang, a childhood friend of Li Ye's. However, his mind was too "simple," and he wasn't cut out for business.

But he had been rejected after applying to factories several times. His parents and siblings didn't care for him, and even eating was seen as wasting food. His life was truly difficult.

Now that Wang Jianqiang was asking him, refusing would seem too heartless.

Li Ye had no choice but to ask, "Qiangzi, you want to follow Brother Peng to the provincial capital, I don't object, but do your family members agree?"

Qiangzi nodded repeatedly, saying, "They don't care about me. I've been eating at Brother Peng's place these past two days, and they haven't looked for me."

Jin Peng quickly said, "Xiao Ye, don't misunderstand. I'll take Qiangzi with me. All the meals and such will be on me. Anyway, it's two fen per jin, and it's enough for both of us to eat."

"What are you saying?"

Li Ye was displeased. He took out five yuan and stuffed it into Jin Peng's hand, saying, "Take good care of Qiangzi on the road. Don't try to be brave if something happens. We're going out to make money, not to pick fights."

"Xiao Ye, what are you doing? I haven't even started working yet, and you're already giving me money."

"Consider these five yuan as Qiangzi's meal money. You still get your two fen per jin. They are separate matters."

Jin Peng and Li Ye pushed and pulled for a while before Jin Peng finally accepted the money, sighing and praising Li Ye for his loyalty.

After Li Ye had arranged the affairs for Hao Jian and the others to "venture to the provincial capital," he returned to school to work on his novel.

Although the malt candy business was an "immediate" venture, with visible profits once it started, Li Ye was only indirectly in control of this business. Hao Jian was obedient now, but if the profits from wholesale malt candy reached a certain level, unexpected events might occur.

Money truly tested a person's character.

Therefore, for the sake of stability, Li Ye still planned to have two approaches. He needed to earn his first pot of gold as quickly as possible.

If he were to go to the Capital City to study next year, he would need to buy a place to stay there, wouldn't he?

Although Li Ye didn't plan to get rich through "hoarding houses," there was no reason not to profit from the readily available opportunity.

"An eighty-two Siheyuan, how much was it again?"

Li Ye activated his biological hard drive, searching for relevant clues and information.

In '82, houses in the Capital City were already legally traded. A Siheyuan, not large in size but in a good location, could be acquired for one to two thousand yuan.

What did one to two thousand yuan mean in this era?

Li Ye's grandfather's monthly salary was just over one hundred, and after supporting his large family, he could probably save twenty to thirty each month.

This meant that if they were frugal, it would take about five to eight years to save enough to buy a courtyard house, but that was assuming there were no major expenses during those years and that the price of courtyard houses in the Capital City didn't increase.

Was that even possible?

The train arrived, time to wake up.

By '86, a single unit had already jumped to ten thousand.

Ten thousand! Would a "ten-thousand-yuan household" take their entire life savings to buy a dilapidated house?

Most people definitely wouldn't be willing.

But to Li Ye, this price might not even cover the manuscript fee for a single novel.

Must pad the word count, and do it skillfully.

Li Ye made up his mind to adapt the short story "Latent" into a novella through reverse translation, aiming for at least a hundred thousand to two hundred thousand characters.

However, after Li Ye wrote a detailed outline based on the TV series' plot, he felt that if he were to write a hundred thousand to two hundred thousand characters, there wouldn't be much padding involved.

The TV series version of "Latent" added a lot more plot content compared to the novel version.

Furthermore, Li Ye found the character portrayals in the TV series to be three-dimensional, allowing him to clearly grasp the direction for describing the characters' personalities, making the writing easier and more precise.

Character portrayal is an unavoidable hurdle in a novel; it's the soul of a book.

As Li Ye wrote "Latent" and reached Yu Zecheng, Sun Honglei's image was all that came to his mind.

Perhaps his performance at the time wasn't entirely based on the novel's characters, but undoubtedly, he (Yu Zecheng) was successful, and Li Ye only needed to "peel the skin."

But conversely, if Li Ye had to create a Yu Zecheng from scratch on a blank sheet of paper?

Then Li Ye would have to constantly ponder in his mind, fleshing out this protagonist character stroke by stroke, and if any unexpected issues arose midway, he would have to revise it repeatedly.

One is peeling off an existing skin, the other is building from scratch. The difficulty is not just a few times greater, is it?

This is also one of the reasons why fanfiction novels of the same genre are easier to get into in later generations, but also harder to break through.

For example, courtyard house novels, which suddenly became hugely popular, attracting countless writers to flock to them, are a prime example.

In the era of precise targeting by short videos, many readers have seen exciting clips from TV shows and have some impression of Qin Huairu's alluring gaze and Sha Zhu's shrewd and XX plot snippets.

As long as it's a courtyard house novel, the opening only needs a few hundred characters to achieve or even surpass the effect of tens of thousands of characters in other web novels.

Qin Huairu, a shrewd little widow, a vampire clinging to Sha Zhu, who was so captivated that he lost his mind, willingly supporting Qin Huairu, her son, daughter, and her original mother-in-law.

Sha Zhu is marrying for the first time, with a level six salary plus side income, earning over sixty a month, living alone in three rooms... Qin Huairu is marrying for the second time, with three children, plus a mother-in-law, earning over twenty a month as a level two worker.

However, the elders in the courtyard house are enthusiastically trying to matchmake them, even advising Sha Zhu not to miss out on this great bargain.

After reading this passage, combined with the TV show clips in their minds, readers will clearly understand what kind of manipulative character the author is describing.

But what if there wasn't this TV series?

If an author wanted to build Qin Huairu's image in the reader's mind, stroke by stroke, through words, it would require more time, more ink, and more effort.

Moreover, Qin Huairu, as depicted by the author in this process, might not be the "brilliant" Qin Huairu from the TV series. She might deviate by miles, only to realize with annoyance, "What on earth am I writing?"

But if there was an excellent actor in mind, who portrayed a deeply ingrained and publicly recognized character image for the author, wouldn't that save the author a lot of trouble?

Of course, the difficulty of fanfiction lies in the challenge of breaking through. After all, the original characters are already established. If you want to make changes, it becomes incredibly difficult.

In '81, there was no TV series "Latent," but Li Ye had countless brilliant and successful character images in his mind. Isn't that what it's all about?

Li Ye felt he was too clever, so clever that no one could see through his efforts to save trouble.

He spread out a stack of stationery, poured his entire being into it, and began writing the first chapter of "Latent."

Yu Zecheng was responsible for the surveillance, deeply agreeing with the conversations of progressive individuals.

As Li Ye started writing, he vaguely noticed his deskmate, a young spy, habitually craning his neck to peek at his writing.

Is he really writing a novel?

Wen Leyu immediately filled with admiration for Li Ye. Although she didn't know how well Li Ye would write yet, daring to write a novel in '81 was already beyond countless peers.

But soon, Wen Leyu became surprised, then frowned tightly, as if displeased.

Why did he write about a damn spy?