1980 My Literary Era

Chapter 23
In future generations, it is hard to imagine that someone would stay up late and queue up to buy a book. It would be almost the same if they were queuing up to buy an Apple mobile phone or a figure.

But such a scene was quite normal in the 80s.The grasslands burned by the fire will not be barren, but will become more lush in the coming spring.

Among the people who stayed up late to buy books today, there were workers in factory uniforms, cadres in shirts, and public officials in uniforms.

Everyone sat, squatted, or stood, chatting with strangers or familiar people around them.

When it comes to buying and reading books, there is no difference in status. Everyone is a book lover.

Lin Weimin rolled up his bedding and lined up. In the middle of the night, he saw that some people couldn't stand it anymore, so he asked everyone to take turns to lie down for a while.

It was almost early morning, and there was still mist in the early morning air. Lin Weimin took Qu Xiaowei to the breakfast stall to buy something for the big guys and come back early.

People around swallowed their mouths when they smelled the soy milk and steamed buns that Lin Weimin and the others bought.

After a long queue all night, everyone was tired, hungry and sleepy.

"It's still reliable to do things for the people!"

As the saying goes, cannibals have soft mouths and short hands.

He slept in Lin Weimin's bedding last night, and ate the breakfast bought by Lin Weimin this morning. At least today, Lin Weimin is well-known among these people.

After wolfing down my breakfast, it was already 07:30.

At this time, the employees of the bookstore began to come to work one after another, and the crowd was restless.

As it approached eight o'clock, the restlessness of the crowd grew.

As the staff slowly opened the door of the bookstore, the crowd frantically rushed into the bookstore like zombies coming out of cages.

The staff of the bookstore have long been familiar with such a situation, and dealt with it calmly.

Lin Weimin and his party lined up early yesterday, and they were almost the first to rush into the bookstore.

After the founding of New China, people's living standards improved, and their enthusiasm for learning culture was unprecedentedly high.Since the 50s, every weekend, the major bookstores in Yanjing are always crowded with people who buy books.

But for a long time, people went to the bookstore to buy books, just like buying oily, sugary, rice noodles. They had to go through a thick counter, and often they couldn’t read the titles of the books and the names of the authors even if they stretched their necks. The salesperson helped to fetch the books.

The salespersons in bookstores are most afraid of people who have no idea what books to buy. They can only choose books one by one, and they can't tell which one to pick, which is very inconvenient.

The book buying procedure at that time was that customers first went to the counter to select books, and after the selection, they went to the cashier to pay and invoice, and then went to the counter to pick up the books. The procedure was cumbersome.

In 1978, in order to make it easier for readers to purchase books, Yanjing’s Xinhua Bookstore began to sell books on open shelves in the sales department. Readers can directly pick up books from the bookshelves and bookcases to browse and purchase.

This method of selling books was immediately welcomed by readers.A month later, the book sales of many sales offices doubled.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, and it didn't take long for some bookstores to sell books on open shelves and switch back to selling books on closed shelves.

The fundamental reason is that the damage cost of open-shelf books is too high. Since the change to open-shelf books, books in bookstores have been defaced and lost in large numbers.

Fortunately, Wangfujing Bookstore, as the largest in Yanjing and the largest in the country, is also the most representative bookstore of Xinhua Bookstore. It has always implemented the policy of selling books on open shelves, and still maintains selling books on open shelves.

Lin Weimin and the others rushed into the bookstore in a swarm, heading straight for the literature bookshelf.

Xinhua Bookstore divided the books into 17 categories, and compiled a formula so that the staff can memorize them, one horse (Marxism-Leninism), two philosophy (philosophy), three social sciences, four classics (economics), five armies (military), Six laws, seven religions (education), eight arts (literary arts), nine languages, ten best literature, eleven history, twelve places (geography)...

People who often visit bookstores these days are familiar with this set of formulas, and it is not difficult to find the bookshelves at all.

Several people came to buy books with a mission, and each of them carried several sets of books, and the bookshelf was more than half empty at once.

Lin Weimin was the worst, he hugged his chest full of books, and asked Qu Xiaowei and Abel to bring him two more sets.

"Do we have many people? Why do you buy so many books?" Qu Xiaowei asked.

People around him also cast strange glances at him, Lin Weimin said sternly: "Do you know a hammer? I love books like my life."

Qu Xiaowei gave him a look of "I believe you a ghost", he knew that Lin Weimin must have no good intentions.

Sure enough, he guessed it right, the queue was over and everyone was walking away, when he saw this kid running to the end of the queue with a pile of books.

"Take a look, the "Four Great Masterpieces" you just bought from the bookstore, are you old-fashioned? It's not expensive, so I'll charge you an extra [-] cents."

"I have other things, "Selected Poems of Pushkin", "Anna Karenina", "War and Peace"...the complete set will cost you [-] cents more, and the single copy will cost you [-] cents, which will save you from waiting for a long time Isn't your team?"

"Time is money. With this skill, you go home and read the book. Do you think that's the truth?"

……

Big Huyou went online again, just in time to catch the sore spots of those queuing people at the end of the line.

These people all came to line up early in the morning, and the line was stretched out for two miles. Looking at the endless line in front of them, many people were moved.

Anyway, it's only one or two cents, so it's just a matter of saving your feet.

Lin Weimin is not afraid of people, he just shoots and runs away, and if he tries to catch him speculatively, he will never catch him.

"Give me a set of the four great classics."

With the first one comes the second, "I want a copy of "War and Peace", "and me, I want "Selected Poems of Pushkin".

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the nearly one hundred books that Lin Weimin had just bought from the bookstore were swept away by the bookbuyers at the end of the line in just a few minutes.

Lin Weimin spat on his fingers and counted the scattered receipts in his hand, he was in a good mood and hummed a little tune.

"We ordinary people, we are so happy today..."

Zhang Lin stepped forward to interrupt him, "Okay, don't count, we have to go to class later, we have to go back quickly."

"Okay, my squad leader."

On the way back to the Wenwen Research Institute, several other people looked at the smiling Lin Weimin who was counting the money and murmured.

"This kid, he didn't forget to make some money when he came to buy books."

"Who says it's not? But don't tell me, Weimin really has an economic mind. All this can make him earn money, worth more than a week's wages."

"This kid, he is really looking for money."

……

The few people talked all the way back to the Institute of Literature and Literature, and were treated like heroes. After all, they stayed up all night to line up for everyone to buy masterpieces.

Qu Xiaowei vividly described to everyone the bustling scene of queuing in the bookstore, and everyone's enthusiastic colleagues were also moved by the contributions of several male students.

Everyone unanimously decided that today Lin Weimin and the others will be contracted by everyone for their meals.

(End of this chapter)