Siheyuan: If you ruin the reputation of the whole courtyard, I will move out
Chapter 140: A Good Book That Doesn’t Fit (Page 11)
It was a simple residential building with a shared kitchen and bathroom, limited space, and only two rooms, but the price was very moderate. The landlord was a warm and cheerful woman from Northeast China who kept promoting the advantages of her house, but Zhang Yu still disliked its smallness.
The third residence was a little further from the city, and they arrived by bus. The house was on the second floor, and the owner was an engineer from a large factory, and it was a welfare house of the factory. The landlady was about 40 years old, gentle and educated, wearing a pair of glasses. She must have been a college student when she was young, and her name was Li Wenxin.
Seeing this, Zhang Yu immediately fell in love with the house, but remained calm and did not show it directly. The house has four bedrooms and a living room, about 140 square meters, with a large distance between adjacent buildings, plenty of light and the building is suitable for Li Suhua, who has limited mobility.
Zhang Yu asked the landlord Li Wenxin: "Comrade Li, why do you want to rent out such a nice house? It looks like you don't live in it?" The tentative inquiry was filled with doubt.
Hearing this, Li Wenxin sighed and explained: "In fact, I rented out the newly allocated house because my family had no choice." Feng Huacheng shared the details: "Wenxin is my friend. Recently, something happened in her family. Her wife is seriously ill. The huge medical expenses forced her to look for additional income."
Regarding the details of the illness, Zhang Yu asked curiously, "What is the illness? Will the house continue to be rented out after you recover?" Li Wenxin quickly assured, "It won't be terminated. I plan to rent it for a long time, at least a three-year contract first. It would be better if we signed a formal lease."
Feng Huacheng told Zhang Yu: "Wenxin's wife's condition is quite difficult and she needs to take medication for a long time. The monthly medical expenses are not small."
Zhang Yu nodded in agreement. "I approve of your house. Since you are my brother-in-law's friend, let's talk about it directly. I plan to rent it for four years at 25 yuan per month. I will pay one year's rent first."
Hearing this condition, Li Wenxin was excited. 25 yuan was already a lot for ordinary working class people, and the prepaid rent for one year was equivalent to hundreds of yuan, which was undoubtedly a solution to the urgent need. "Sign it now!" he said hurriedly.
Zhang Yu took out a pen and paper, drafted a simple lease on the spot, and immediately handed one to Li Wenxin, and paid him the first month's rent of 300 yuan. Li Wenxin did not count the money, but quickly wrapped it up and put it in his inner pocket.
While collecting the rent, he also reminded Zhang Yu: "This house was originally a welfare allocation from my work unit. Logically, it cannot be rented out casually. If someone asks about it, just say that I am a relative from my hometown in Sichuan and they are temporarily staying here." After saying that, he felt a lot more at ease and felt that Li Wenxin was someone he could trust.
After confirming the rental, Zhang Yu was no longer anxious and began to plan to buy the necessary furniture and daily necessities. Li Wenxin's house was empty and no one had ever lived there, so he had to buy everything by himself. Fortunately, he brought enough money with him.
Feng Huacheng was willing to help Zhang Yu buy things, but he decided to go home first to get some personal creations. In this case, Zhang Yu asked Feng Huacheng to go straight to Quanjude in the evening to enjoy roast duck.
After getting the key to his new house, Zhang Yu wandered around the city alone. After leaving the Siheyuan world, he rarely came back to Sijiucheng. Although both places were considered capitals and had many similarities, Zhang Yu specifically visited the dilapidated courtyard where he used to live and found that it was full of strangers, and there was no one familiar to him.
Knowing that he could not expect to return to the familiar world, he went directly to the department store and bought many daily necessities and decorations. Seeing that the time was right, he went to Quanjude to taste the special roast duck. After asking in the store, he learned that colleagues from Wenhui Daily had arrived earlier and were waiting for him in the private room.
Zhang Yu told the waiter that if anyone was looking for him, he should take them directly to the private room.
The waiter asked Zhang Yu's name and then led him into the room.
There were two people sitting in the room, one was in his forties or fifties, and the other was in his early fifties. They were both wearing suits, which made them particularly eye-catching.
As soon as they saw Zhang Yu come in, they both stood up to greet him.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Zhou?" the older man asked Zhang Yu in a friendly manner.
Zhang Yu recognized the man: "You are Mr. Shao's classmate, Mr. Xia Chenglong, right?" He had helped Zhang Yu by helping his novel to be serialized in the Literary Newspaper, which made Zhang Yu very grateful.
"Mr. Zhou, I'm finally meeting you. I didn't expect you to have achieved so much at such a young age." Xia Chenglong hurried to Zhang Yu and shook hands with him eagerly.
Zhang Yu smiled and said, "I have always wanted to meet you, but unfortunately I have never been able to do so." Then they sat down together.
Xia Chenglong introduced his companion to Zhang Yu: "This is the editor-in-chief of Changjiang Publishing House, Wu Sanxing." Changjiang Publishing House and Wenxue Bao belong to the same group, and Wu Sanxing is Xia Chenglong's superior in terms of rank.
"Mr. Zhou, I have heard of your great name for a long time. I never thought that you could write such a magnificent work like The Legend of the Condor Heroes at such a young age." Both Xia Chenglong and Wu Sanxing were quite surprised at Zhang Yu's youth. They thought that one had to be at least 40 or 50 years old to write this novel.
"You two are too polite." Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Haven't you ordered yet? The roast duck in this restaurant is very famous, you must try it." He then ordered the dishes directly and said that he would host the meal and his brother-in-law would come over soon to taste them together.
Xia Chenglong and Wu Sanxing were originally planning to rush to pay the bill, but in the end they couldn't resist Zhang Yu's generosity. Zhang Yu was generous and ordered a lot of delicious dishes, and even prepared a bottle of Maotai liquor.
Before the food was served, Wu Sanxing got to the point - about the publication of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The contract terms proposed by the publisher were quite good, mainly based on copyright dividends, and promised that the distribution range would not only be in , but also throughout Southeast Asia would be sold through the publisher's channels.
Zhang Yu had no objection to this condition, but was somewhat dissatisfied with the specific profit-sharing ratio.
The publishing house proposed a 7% profit share, which meant that after deducting the cost of each book sold, Zhang Yu could only get less than one-tenth of the profit.
Wu Sanxing noticed Zhang Yu's idea and proposed: "Mr. Zhou, the publishing house provides two cooperation plans: one is to directly purchase the out-of-print version, and the other is to purchase it with a 20-year exclusive license."
"How much does it cost to purchase a discontinued version? How much does it cost to purchase the exclusive right to use the product for 20 years?" Zhang Yu asked immediately.
Wu Sanxing replied: "The first is to buy a discontinued version for 300,000 yuan, and the second is to buy an exclusive license for 20 years for 150,000 yuan."
Hearing these numbers, Zhang Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, but did not immediately express his agreement or disapproval.
Wu Sanxing was hesitant when he saw Zhang Yu was silent. Before he left, the bottom line the president set for him was 10% of the copyright share or a purchase price of yuan, both of which might be astronomical figures in the mainland.
Since Wu Sansheng saw that Zhang Yu was young and guessed that he didn't know much about the market, he intentionally lowered the price.
After thinking for a long time, Zhang Yu looked to Xia Chenglong for further advice.
"Mr. Zhou, please understand that 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' is your first work. Even if it is successfully serialized in newspapers, it is difficult for us to predict its sales after it is published as a book," Xia Chenglong reminded.
Zhang Yu nodded in agreement and continued, "Well, I will still choose the copyright sharing model, but I will make some adjustments to the proportions."
Hearing this, Wu Sansheng frowned and asked, "Mr. Zhou, what proportion do you want?"
Zhang Yu made a new suggestion: "I advocate floating sales volume. If the sales are less than 5 copies, I will take 10%; if the sales are between 15 and 20, I will take %; if the sales are between and million, I will take %; and if the sales are over million, I can get %."
After hearing this, Wu Sansheng quickly weighed Zhang Yu's request. At this time, the annual sales volume of the best-selling novels in the Hong Kong market was roughly around one million copies.
Zhang Yu's proposal was indeed beneficial to both parties. If the sales volume was small, the share ratio would be low, and the publisher could stop the loss in time; but if the sales volume was large, the share ratio would increase, and the publisher would still be the leader in profit. Wu Sanxing came to negotiate cooperation on behalf of the publisher, and it was obvious that he hoped to achieve the greatest economic benefits.
"Mr. Zhou, can we change the sales of single books into a whole set? We plan to publish the one million words of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" in four volumes, one set containing four volumes. It will be more advantageous to calculate the sales statistics based on the set." Wu Sanxing put forward his suggestion.
After thinking about it, Zhang Yu agreed and proposed a revision: "It can be counted by sets, but the sales statistics should not be limited to Hong Kong, but should include the entire Southeast Asian market."
Wu Sanxing and Xia Chenglong exchanged glances and weighed the pros and cons in their hearts.
At this time, Zhang Yu further revealed: "I have completed the second part of The Legend of the Condor Heroes and am currently writing the third part."
Xia Chenglong seemed extremely excited about this. As The Legend of the Condor Heroes was completed, Xiangjiang Wenbao immediately began serializing the sequel The Return of the Condor Heroes, and its sales almost doubled compared to the previous one, with most readers coming to read this sequel.
Thanks to his reporting on two best-selling works, Xia Chenglong was promoted to deputy editor-in-chief, achieving a win-win situation in both career and reputation.
Xia Chenglong thanked Zhang Yu very much and told the editor-in-chief Wu Sanxing: "I think Mr. Zhou's suggestion is good. Would you like to discuss it with the publishing house first?"
After thinking for a while, Wu Sanxing lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou, I need to call to confirm first. You guys eat first and don't have to wait for me." Then he hurriedly left Quanjude.
Xia Chenglong assured: "Mr. Zhou, the publishing house attaches great importance to the publication of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Your suggestion is likely to be approved."
Facing the invitation, Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Teacher Xia, how long will you stay here this time? Do you need me to take you around Old Beijing?"
"Forget about sightseeing. We're only here for three days and must return the day after tomorrow." Xia Chenglong reminded, "This trip will not be easy." But he is full of hope for the future.
While they were talking, the door suddenly opened, and Zhang Yu thought it was Wu Sanxing who came back. But he didn't expect that the visitors were Feng Huacheng and Zhou Rong. Zhang Yu was a little surprised to see Zhou Rong.
Seeing this, Feng Huacheng apologized and said, "Sorry, we are late!" Then his eyes were completely focused on Xia Chenglong.
After being dragged in unwillingly by Feng Huacheng, Zhou Rong introduced herself: "This is the editor of our newspaper - Feng Huacheng, and this is my sister Zhou Rong."
Hearing the identity of Zhang Yu's relative, Xia Chenglong immediately stood up and greeted politely: "Hello, I didn't expect that Mr. Zhou's sister is such a talented person!"
However, Zhou Rong felt that such praise was perfunctory, which had a very bad first impression on her. She questioned his true identity and whether he was really the editor of a well-known newspaper.
Feng Huacheng was unaware of his wife's mood changes. He still enthusiastically shook hands with Xia Chenglong and talked with him, hoping to use this intimate relationship to get closer to him.
Then Zhou Rong said to Zhang Yu coldly: "Bingkun, why did you find such a superficial fake editor?"
In response, Zhang Yu frowned, Xia Chenglong was stunned, and Feng Huacheng responded to Zhou Rong awkwardly. Her words displeased Zhang Yu, implying that Xia Chenglong was a performer who was bribed with a large sum of money.
Zhou Rong said firmly: "Just tell me the truth, how much did Bingkun pay to hire you to do this kind of performance?"
Xia Chenglong glanced at Zhang Yu and Zhou Rong, but did not get angry immediately. Instead, he remained restrained for the time being.
"That's enough, Zhou Rong." Feng Huacheng finally couldn't hold it in anymore, he stood up and yelled at Zhou Rong: "What did you say before? Have you forgotten it completely?!" Feng Huacheng had always been accommodating to Zhou Rong when getting along with her, not only because she was a dozen years younger than him, but also because he owed her something in their past emotional entanglement.
He once kept in touch with Zhou Rong through letters because of his marital affair. Although he believed that they were just a pure platonic friendship and had no real relationship, Feng Huacheng was deeply moved by Zhou Rong's trip to Guizhou for him, and felt that he owed her too much.
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