Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 409 Poverty Limits Imagination

The snow on New Year's Day was not heavy. There was only a thin layer of snow on the ground, which melted away completely in the afternoon of the same day.

The next day after the holiday, Tao Yushu drove a Crown to work for the first time.

Half a month after buying the car, she also practiced for half a month with Lin Chaoyang's company, and her driving skills have gradually become proficient.

The white crown appeared downstairs of Building 52, Dongsi th Street. It was time for work. After Tao Yushu got out of the car, he immediately attracted the attention of his colleagues.

"Hey! Yushu, when did you buy the car?"

"I bought it a few days ago."

Tao Yushu had prepared herself mentally when she drove to work, but after meeting her colleagues, she was still overwhelmed by their enthusiastic and curious attitudes.

After a short while, she and her white crown were surrounded by her colleagues, who asked them questions one after another, including some people from the Drama Association who worked in the same building.

If nothing unexpected happens, this white Crown will become the hottest topic in Building 52, Dongsi th Street in the next few days.

It was only after Tao Yushu finally entered the office that the enthusiasm of his colleagues gradually faded away.

After entering the working state, she reviewed the manuscript without distraction until noon. After lunch, she stood at the window and looked out to relieve the eye fatigue.

Then I saw a few young men gathered around the white Crown parked downstairs, and they seemed to be discussing something with great interest.

"From now on, your Crown will become the iconic item of our editorial department!"

Tao Yushu suddenly heard a voice in her ears. She knew without looking that it was Wang Fu, the elder sister in the editorial department, teasing her. Tao Yushu responded with a few words easily.

At this time, other colleagues also came over. In addition to being curious about the car, everyone was even more curious about Lin Chaoyang's royalties income.

In the second half of this year, the issue of the royalty payment system caused a lot of controversy in the literary world, and Lin Chaoyang was once pushed to the forefront of public opinion.

The public opinion heat has passed in recent months, but the reading craze sparked by "Crossing the Guandong" has never passed.

When the novel was published, it became popular beyond the average literary works, which naturally made Lin Chaoyang the focus of everyone's attention again.

"I heard that the sales of "Crossing Guandong" are heading for three million copies. Yushu, is this true?"

"It's not that exaggerated. There are only about two million copies."

"More than two million copies! That's a lot, it's only been published for a few months! At this rate, five million copies won't be stopped!"

"No wonder you two bought a car. Chaoyang must have received at least 100,000 yuan in royalties this time, right?"

Whenever her colleagues talked about royalties, Tao Yushu pretended not to hear. Everyone understood her mentality. This kind of thing definitely couldn't be publicized, but this didn't stop everyone from discussing it with great interest.

A group of people counted on their fingers to calculate Lin Chaoyang's royalty income. Some said he could earn hundreds of thousands, and some said he could earn several thousand. Because they didn't know the royalty rate, everyone could only guess, and the guessed numbers could be said to be very conservative.

This is understandable. After all, in the past, when payment was based on the number of words per manuscript, even if your novel was a million words and sold millions of copies, the writer would only get tens of thousands of yuan.

Everyone knows that after the implementation of royalty payments, writers' income will definitely increase, but no one can say how much it will increase.

To sum it up in a simple sentence: poverty limits imagination.

Tao Yushu couldn't help laughing while listening to his colleagues' discussion. What would their expressions be if they knew that Chaoyang received 72 yuan in the first royalty settlement?
If calculated based on the royalties from the entire book, the number would be even more exaggerated. Lin Chaoyang's income would most likely exceed 200 million yuan.

While Tao Yushu was daydreaming, the topic had shifted from "how much royalties Lin Chaoyang can get" to "whether the publishing house should implement a royalty payment system."

Whether a writer gets royalties or a fee per thousand words, it has nothing to do with the editor.

Similarly, how much royalties or per-thousand-word remuneration a publishing house pays a writer has nothing to do with the editor.

Anyway, they all get a fixed salary and at most a little bonus, so after some discussion, most people still support the royalty payment system.

Because everyone understands that the biggest benefit of the royalty payment system is undoubtedly that it can greatly stimulate the creative enthusiasm of writers, which is definitely helpful for the work of editors and is also beneficial to publishing houses.

Everyone benefits from each other and gets what they need.

"But it's definitely not that simple. Judging from what we see now, Chaoyang will definitely continue to receive royalties in the future, because his works have always been popular. The publishing house is also willing to pay this price.

But it is still not easy for ordinary writers to get royalties." Zhu Wei said.

"Nothing can be achieved overnight. Just take it slow. At least we have made a good start now. When I communicated with the authors under me, they were all very grateful to Chaoyang!" Wang Fu said with a smile.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh when they heard this. The implementation of the royalty payment system in China will bring only benefits and no harm to the vast majority of writers.

As the initiator, Lin Chaoyang naturally became the object of gratitude among writers.

In the afternoon, Tao Yushu went to discuss the design cover of the new issue of "Friends of People's Literature" with the book cover designer.

Since its founding in August, "Friends of People's Literature" has published five issues. As a supplement to "People's Literature", this publication belongs to the "rich second generation" who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

However, like those rich second generations, it can enjoy the blessings of the previous generation, but it is also shrouded in the halo of the previous generation.

After the first issue of "Friends of People's Literature" was released, it quickly broke the sales mark of 10 copies. In the following issues, sales of the magazine slowly increased with the passage of time, but the increase made Tao Yushu a little anxious.

This is an excellent number for a newly established regional literary magazine.

But "Friends of People's Literature" is different. It has the four words "People's Literature" on its head, and the sales of each issue of this big brother are stable at between 1.4 million and 500,000 copies.

Whether in terms of sales, influence or official status, TuTu is undoubtedly the leader in China's literary journal industry.

It is really hard to be satisfied with the achievements of "Friends of People's Literature", a supplement.

As the executive deputy editor of the supplement, Tao Yushu was naturally anxious when she saw this situation. In order to improve the sales of the supplement, she put a lot of thought and energy into it, but the results were always unsatisfactory.

Coming out of the bookbinding design room, Tao Yushu ran into Wang Meng who was about to leave. He was not on duty in the editorial department and would only come when there was something to do or a meeting.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Meng noticed that Tao Yushu looked worried when he mentioned the sales of the supplement, so he consoled him:
“Yushu, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Although Friends of People’s Literature bears the name of People’s Literature, it was founded to cooperate with the Correspondence Education Center. There are inherent shortcomings and defects in the content of the manuscript. It’s good enough that you can do it now. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

Listening to Wang Meng's words, Tao Yushu smiled and said nothing.

From the perspective of a leader, a supplement is naturally insignificant, but this publication was founded by Tao Yushu, so the feelings are naturally different.

If possible, she still hopes that "Friends of People's Literature" can achieve greater success.

But at present, it seems that her hope is too slim. A considerable part of the content in the magazine is handouts from correspondence courses and exercises by amateur authors. The audience of such a publication is destined to be limited.

Oh, if only I had the final say!

This thought suddenly popped up in Tao Yushu's mind, and then he laughed at himself. If he wanted to have the final say, he had to at least be the editor-in-chief.

For a publication like People's Literature, one cannot become the editor-in-chief by simply accumulating experience step by step.

She put aside the unrealistic thoughts in her mind, returned to the editorial office, packed up her things and left work.

Before she returned home, Liang Zuo, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly ran to Lin Chaoyang's house. During the conversation, Liang Zuo said that he was getting married at the weekend and invited Lin Chaoyang to attend the wedding when he was free.

"Okay, are we going to get married quietly?" Lin Chaoyang joked with a smile.

Liang Zuo was smiling foolishly, and Lin Chaoyang asked again: "Where is the bride from? What does she do?"

"Her family is from Yanjing, and she works in the Zongji Bureau."

The two chatted for a while, and Liang Zuo had to go and inform other relatives and friends about this matter, so he prepared to leave.

Lin Chaoyang saw him out, just as Tao Yushu came back. Seeing Tao Yushu getting down from the white crown, Liang Zuo's eyes sparkled, but he was too embarrassed to speak. While his eyes were hesitant, Lin Chaoyang guessed what he was thinking.

"How about I drive this car and go with you to pick up the bride this weekend?"

Liang Zuo didn't expect Lin Chaoyang to be so considerate. He was delighted, but then he said shyly, "Is this...appropriate?"

"If you think it's inappropriate, then forget it." Lin Chaoyang said cheerfully.

“Don’t…” Liang Zuo suddenly grabbed Lin Chaoyang’s arm, with a pleading look in his eyes, “Master…”

"It's all useless. Where is the bride's home? What time are we going to pick her up?"

Liang Zuo said happily: "Just come to our house at 7:30."

"Okay, got it."

Two days later, early on Sunday morning, Lin Chaoyang drove his Crown to the entrance of Meizhaha Hutong. When he entered Liang Zuo's house, he found that many guests had already come to the house and the yard.

Most of them are Liang Zuo's classmates and good friends since childhood. The older people, except for relatives who really have no time to get up so early to join in the fun, just go there and give their share.

Many of the people who came today were students from the Chinese Department of Yan University Class of 77. Lin Chaoyang greeted everyone one by one.

Liang Zuo wore a black suit today. He looked very cheerful and his eyes were almost invisible because of his narrowed eyes.

After sitting in their house for a while, they went to pick up the bride, and Liang Zuo was surrounded by everyone and walked out of the yard.

Only then did everyone realize that there was a white Crown parked at the gate of the courtyard, with red fireworks tied to the car. This was a high-end car, and everyone was immediately amazed.

"Liang Zuo, you are amazing. You quietly got a Crown to pick up the bride. Whose car is it?"

The crowd circled the car several times, and only after they had finished looking at it curiously did they notice that Lin Chaoyang had sat in the driver's seat.

Everyone then realized that this was actually Lin Chaoyang's car, and they were naturally amazed again.

Originally, everyone went to pick up the bride on bicycles, but Liang Zuo got such a fancy Crown. Isn't this out of touch with the people!

No matter how much people complain, they can't delay the important event of picking up the bride.

The white crown led the way out of Meizhaha Hutong, followed by a line of more than twenty bicycles. The huge wedding procession left Dong'anmen Street and headed north along Beiheyan Street.

The bride's home is in Qianliang Hutong, which is less than two kilometers away from Meizha Hutong in a straight line, and even if you take a detour, it is only three kilometers away.

After a short while, the wedding party arrived at the bride's house.

The bride's name was Wu Lanqing. She was very beautiful and her parents were both educated people. She was a perfect match for the Liang family.

After a lot of formalities, Liang Zuo picked up the bride. After getting in the car, he just smiled foolishly and didn't even bother to introduce the situation to Wu Lanqing.

It was Wu Lanqing who took the initiative to ask: "Why did you find a car?"

Liang Zuo finally reacted and introduced Lin Chaoyang to Wu Lanqing, "Lanqing, this is my master. I went to tell him about our marriage that day, and it just so happened that he just bought a car, so it came in handy."

"Hello, Master. I am really sorry to trouble you!"

Wu Lanqing greeted Lin Chaoyang respectfully, and Lin Chaoyang replied with a smile, "Hello, bride. I wish you two a long and happy marriage."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wu Lanqing looked at Lin Chaoyang's back curiously from the back seat.

She had never met Lin Chaoyang, but she had heard Liang Zuo mention Lin Chaoyang more than once. Liang Zuo's mother was a well-known writer, so it was not surprising that she knew Lin Chaoyang, a great writer.

But having such a great writer drive her car made Wu Lanqing feel that her wedding had an extra sense of solemnity and ceremony.

The wedding was held in Fengze Garden. After the wedding procession started again, they did not go straight to Fengze Garden, but strolled along Chang'an Avenue and then went to Liang Zuo's new residence - a single dormitory allocated by the Ministry of Education.

They didn't go to Fengze Garden until a little after ten o'clock. By the time they arrived, the classmates and friends who had gone with them to pick up the bride were almost frozen to death, and they all complained about Liang Zuo's cunningness.

He found a car to pick up his bride and held her comfortably in his arms, while these people rode bicycles along and endured the cold. They were truly unkind people.

(End of this chapter)