Reborn in 1977

Chapter 585: Reviewing the Manuscript

After finishing the delivery, Chen Fan went straight to Old Ba's office.

Seeing Chen Fan, Old Ba, who was working, was quite surprised, "Oh, why are you here again today?"

According to the previous pattern, after being fleeced, this kid would not show up for at least three days. The most outrageous thing was that he would run away the next day, not generous at all.

Could it be that he has become generous now?

One must have the attitude of asking for help when seeking assistance. Chen Fan has always been very aware of this.

As if he wasn't the one who signed and gifted the book yesterday, he sat calmly opposite Old Ba, squinted his eyes, and smiled slightly, "I have something I want to ask you to help with."

Old Ba picked up his teacup, took a sip, and looked at him, saying, "Installing a telephone? I saw Little Zhang looking for you yesterday, didn't it work out?"

Chen Fan: "No. It's already done. What I'm talking about today is something else…"

Then he was interrupted by Old Ba, who picked up a pen and notepad, "What's your home phone number? It will be much easier to find you in the future."

Chen Fan: "…, 737775."

Now Shanghai's phone numbers are 6 digits. The first digit represents the telephone bureau, the next two digits represent the area location, and the last 3 digits are the telephone number. The number 775 was chosen by himself, not bad.

Anyway, every time Lili recites it, he will fulfill her wish, to the point that Lili doesn't even report the phone number now, she just writes it on paper and carries it with her, showing it to anyone who asks.

Old Ba recorded it and then asked, "Not installing a telephone, then what is it?"

Chen Fan cleared his throat, "It's like this, I have a batch of fragile items that I want to send to Beijing. I'm worried that taking the land route will cause a rollover, and taking the waterway will be bumpy and shaky, so I want to go by rail. Do you have any connections for this?"

"Fragile items?"

Old Ba was a little curious, "What kind of fragile items need to be sent from here to Beijing by rail? Is the quantity large?"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly, "If the quantity wasn't large, I wouldn't be asking you for help. I'd just pad it with more cotton and send it at the post office. Well… actually, it's not that much, maybe about the size of a four-door wardrobe."

1200 pieces of porcelain, counted in sets, a little more than 5 sets, not quite 6 sets.

The extra ones will be used as backups, or for individual use.

Chen Fan plans to send 5 complete sets directly… What? Old Uncle also has a set?

Isn't he away? We'll talk about it when he comes back.

In case he also sets up an office in Beijing, and then gets a courtyard, then he won't need to take it to the United States.

Even if he wants to take it, it's enough to pick a 56-piece tableware set for him from the loose pieces.

Frankly speaking, Chen Fan really can't bear to send this kind of thing abroad. If it can be kept in the country, he will try to keep it. Anyway, Old Uncle didn't say it had to be sent over, he just asked him to receive and handle it, so he will keep it and not send it.

In addition to keeping some loose pieces here for use, Chen Fan wants to send the complete sets of porcelain to Beijing.

The house in Beijing is big, and there is a large basement underneath, which can completely accommodate these things.

Most importantly, with Master Zhang and the others watching over them, these porcelains will definitely be as stable as a mountain, and no one can take them away.

Those that can be taken away don't need to be asked for. Those who want them are not qualified to take them, it's that simple.

But how to transport these porcelains is a troublesome matter, so he can only come to Old Ba to see if he knows any connections in this area.

Actually, he can send it himself, but he is mainly not at ease. Anyway, this kind of thing is not against the rules, the procedures are handled normally, and the freight is paid as usual. It just needs a trustworthy person to arrange it, and Old Ba has a wide network of contacts. Back then, the literary world had particularly fierce arguments and team formations, and he was the only one who was friends with all parties. It's definitely right to find him.

"That's not much."

Old Ba looked at him and said, "For something the size of a large wardrobe, wouldn't it be enough to wrap it in a few more layers? You say a rollover, what are the chances of that happening?"

Chen Fan shook his head repeatedly, "It's better to be safe than sorry, I want to be absolutely sure."

Old Ba raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at him with a smile, "Confess honestly, what exactly is it?"

Chen Fan coughed twice, "Uh… it's just a batch of porcelain."

Old Ba frowned slightly, "Antiques?"

Chen Fan shook his head, "I guarantee they aren't. They were made in the last two years."

Old Ba looked at him with a puzzled expression. They were made in the last two years, and you're making such a big deal out of it?

You want to be absolutely sure, do you think it's imperial porcelain?

Wait!

Old Ba instantly widened his eyes and stared at him, "Honestly, what kind of porcelain is it?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "Actually, this batch of porcelain isn't mine. It was bought by my Old Uncle from the Jingdezhen Porcelain Factory. He's going back to the United States early, so he's leaving it to me to handle. I just want to send the goods to Beijing. The house there is a bit bigger, which is convenient for storage…"

Old Ba was too lazy to listen to his nonsense and said with narrowed eyes, "Is it 7501 porcelain?"

Chen Fan's face suddenly froze, "You can even guess that?"

"Hmph hmph… hehe… hahahahaha…"

Old Ba laughed heartily, "Is it really?"

He immediately stood up and said kindly, "This kind of porcelain should indeed be handled with care. So, railway transportation, right? No problem, I'll help you contact them and guarantee it's foolproof. What do you want to transport?"

Chen Fan blinked, "Is tomorrow okay?"

When the ceramics factory sent it, there were 6 packages, 5 of which were complete sets, and the remaining hundred or so loose items were packaged separately. He has already unpacked the loose items, and the others are still intact and can be taken away at any time.

Old Ba didn't say a word, picked up the phone and dialed out.

After hanging up the phone, he smiled at Chen Fan, "At 9 am tomorrow, there will be a car to pick it up. You just wait at home."

After saying that, he rubbed his hands and smiled at Chen Fan, "Little Chen, what do you think of me?"

Chen Fan blinked, "Uh, you can just say what you want to say, I'm scared like this."

Old Ba's face darkened, "I'm not a bandit, what's there to be afraid of?"

He cleared his throat and said with a smile, "It's like this, I've long heard of 7501 porcelain, but unfortunately this kind of ceramic is not sold externally, and you can't buy it even if you want to. Since you have it here, can you talk to your uncle and transfer a few pieces to me? I can pay with the US dollar royalties I've recovered."

Chen Fan blinked wildly and asked hesitantly, "You, how many pieces do you want?"

Old Ba immediately said, "Not many, two teacups, two rice bowls, as for the others, it would naturally be best if you could spare a few, but if not, that's okay too."

Chen Fan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. After all that, that's it?

He immediately patted his chest, "No problem, don't even mention the word transfer, I'll send it to you tomorrow."

He can't bear to give more, but a few cups and a few bowls and plates can still be given, and he can also give away a set of wine utensils.

After all, he has fleeced him a lot, so let's just say there's give and take. However, it seems that he is the only one who dares to play with Old Ba like this, and Old Ba has never fleeced anyone else. Who told this kid to swipe that pen, and later somehow, he got a little addicted.

After a two-second pause, he said in a low voice, "But, Old Ba, you have to keep this a secret, I'm afraid others will ask me for it."

Old Ba naturally agreed readily, "No problem, if others see it, I'll just say it was sent by a reader, and no one will investigate anyway."

He learned this trick from Chen Fan.

In this way, the two parties happily reached a cooperation.

…

At 9 am the next day, someone really drove over to pick up the goods. Chen Fan carefully checked the work permit and confirmed that they were from the Railway Bureau. So, this batch of porcelain had just arrived in Shanghai and was sent to Beijing again.

At this time, Zhou Zhengdong had already returned to his home in New York. The matter of the porcelain had long been forgotten, and he was focused on finding personnel to develop the Chinese character card.

Zhou Yali also bought three Apple II computers as soon as possible and sent them out immediately.

According to Chen Fan's instructions, one was sent to the provincial capital of Jiangnan, to be received by him personally, and the other two were sent to Shanghai, to be signed for by Jiang Lili.

Currently, mail between China and the United States still needs to be transited through Hong Kong, as there is no direct mail service. On the one hand, there are no direct flight routes, and on the other hand, there is no postal agreement between the two countries.

Mail exchanged between residents of the two countries is done in Hong Kong.

As for the mailing time, if it goes by sea, it could take a month. If it goes by air, it can be received in as little as 8 days.

Zhou Yali wasn't short of money, so naturally she sent it by air.

Today is already June 7th, which means that Chen Fan will be able to receive the computer sent by Zhou Yali as early as June 15th, and start his computer coding career.

Just thinking about it makes him feel sad, coding is so difficult.

......

Watching the small truck leave, Chen Fan closed the courtyard door, turned around and looked at Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili, "Aren't you going to school yet?"

Jiang Tiantian looked at him, "Using and discarding, isn't that crossing the bridge after you've crossed the river?"

She had helped a lot in the past two days, cleaning and arranging the scattered porcelain. She didn't go to school today either, because she had to stay and take care of things. She didn't expect to be disliked.

Jiang Lili suppressed a smile, "He's not like this for the first time. At most, like yesterday, he'll be asked to cook a big meal."

Jiang Tiantian rolled her eyes at her sister, "You're just protecting him."

But she was already full of expectations for the dinner tonight. Although her sister's cooking skills are getting better and better, they are still far behind Chen Fan's. She really doesn't know how he, a boy, learned it.

Then she put on her backpack, waved to the two of them, pushed her bicycle out the door, and took Ba Liang to school.

Confirming that her sister had gone far away, Jiang Lili turned around, trotted to Chen Fan, gently hugged him, buried her head in his chest, and murmured, "Are you going to leave?"

Chen Fan hugged her, put his chin on her head, and said with a smile, "There's less than a month before the summer vacation. I'll come to see you then."

Jiang Lili pouted, "You must come. The teacher told me that my learning progress is much faster than my classmates, and my foundation is also more solid, so she decided to use the summer vacation to take me into the laboratory."

She said, raising her head, with some hesitation in her eyes, "This opportunity is very rare. Generally, only senior students or graduate students are eligible. The teacher has also made a lot of efforts to get this recommendation.

But if I go to the lab, I will have much less free time in the future, and I won't be able to go back during the summer vacation…"

She sighed almost imperceptibly, and then pressed her face tightly against his chest again, without saying another word.

Chen Fan tightened his arms and smiled, "If love between two people lasts for a long time, need they be together day and night?"

Jiang Lili's lips curled up slightly, and she couldn't help but hug him tighter.

The weather was already hot, and the two of them hugging each other naturally made them even hotter. Before long, Chen Fan's anger soared, and he picked her up horizontally and walked upstairs.

By the way, it seems that Jiang Tiantian will also join the student union next year, and will continue to intern in the Writers Association.

These two sisters are busier than each other.

It seems that he is particularly idle.

......

"Oh my god, I shouldn't have taken a plane back. It would be better to take a boat, four days and four nights, easy."

Chen Fan sat in front of He Qingsheng, looking at the manuscript that was almost a foot thick, "Do I have so many articles?"

After staying in Shanghai for two days and confirming with Master Zhang by phone that all five sets of porcelain had safely arrived at his home by the sea, he bought a plane ticket back to the provincial capital.

Of course, the sweet talk between the two people these two days is not enough for outsiders to know.

But he didn't expect that as soon as he returned to the Writers Association to report, He Qingsheng handed him a thick stack of manuscripts.

These are nothing else, but his own works, but translated into Japanese.

He Qingsheng leaned back in his chair, slowly smoking a cigarette, and snorted unhappily, saying, "How much have you written yourself? Don't you have any idea in your mind?"

He said, pointing to the manuscript, "These are only one-third of your works. It looks very thick, but that's because they are all manuscripts. If they are published, it will be the amount of two magazines, which is far from the total task."

Flicking the ash, he leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk, and said to Chen Fan, "This time, the Department of Culture has mobilized all the experts in the province who understand Japanese translation, and invited several translators who have studied in Japan to review the稿, to ensure that they are as accurate as possible before handing them over to you for final verification."

Chen Fan pressed one hand on the manuscript and said sternly, "Actually, there is no need, just send it to Takahashi, why bother letting me review it?"

He Qingsheng rolled his eyes, "I knew you wanted to be lazy. Isn't it still that Japanese, saying that you understand Japanese, if you let others translate, it is best to let you review it again at the end, to ensure that it is as original as possible.

Otherwise, why would we go to the trouble of waiting for you to come back to check?"

Chen Fan curled his lips, "That's really unnecessary. Anyway, they don't know if I reviewed it or not. When the time comes, I'll just say I reviewed it. How can they know the truth?"

He didn't really care about this batch of manuscripts.

In general, as long as the translated manuscripts are 70% to 80% accurate, it's about the same, and the sales in Japan will not be too different because of the 7-point level and the 10-point flavor.

It's still the same sentence, the potential readership is there, the sales of this serious literature, good, not very good, bad, not very bad.

As long as Takahashi doesn't lose money, it's best to earn a little bit more, and that's about the same.

The real money-making is still in the back.

But even so, Chen Fan still picked up a stack of manuscripts and browsed them quickly.

He read very fast, almost just passing by.

And these manuscripts, as he expected, were indeed almost the same.

It is not to say that translators must be very good, nor is it to say that living in Japan must be able to grasp the essence of translation.

In fact, the manuscripts translated by these translators still have a bit of domestic style.

To put it bluntly, it is "singing high-pitched tunes."

In addition to this problem, there is another shortcoming, which is "backwardness."

The literary style of any country will change with the changes in the social environment, and Japan is also the same.

Not to mention that from the 1950s to the 1980s, it was the period of the most rapid social changes in Japan, and the style of literary works during this period also changed greatly.

From the relatively serious in the 1950s, it became more and more relaxed later.

Especially with the rise of manga, some literary works have also been affected, and the writing style has become more and more relaxed.

When it comes to the new century, it is almost all of Japan that is "manga-ized". From top to bottom, there is nothing that cannot be transformed in all walks of life.

Although it is still far from that step, it is far from the serious writing style in China.

However, our translators still retain the writing style of more than ten years ago. As a result, it seems a bit outdated.

Chen Fan flipped through the manuscripts, repeatedly weighing between trouble and laziness, and finally sighed softly, "Then I'll change it."