Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 122: Snowy Skin Like Silk, Red Lips Like Flames

This article praised Zhang Chao for launching the Youth Magazine, which innovatively introduced an operational mindset that was different from that of traditional literary magazines and created a legend in the sales of literary journals.

[While Youth is extremely innovative in form, it maintains the purity of literature in content.]

【Attaching importance to the "external beauty" of magazines is not to curry favor with the market, but to guide more young readers into the palace of literature.】

【Zhang Chao was undoubtedly the leading figure of the young literary generation at that time! 】

Is this considered an official stamp of approval?
Zhang Chao called Zhao Changtian right after class. On the other end of the phone, Zhao Changtian's voice was beaming: "Zhang Chao, the first issue of Youth has sold 40 copies."

Zhang Chao was not too concerned about sales now, but asked: "Do you know what happened to the article written about me in the People's Daily today?"

Zhao Changtian was stunned and asked, "What article?"

When Zhang Chao told Zhao Changtian about the matter, he was also surprised. Usually, such articles would be reported to the author in advance. He promised Zhang Chao that he would help him find out.

The emergence of "Youth" brought enormous pressure to Xiao Si.

Xiao Si's "Island" is not a regular journal, but more like a collection of essays published under the name of a magazine, with less than two issues published a year.

The greatest significance of "Island" lies in setting the tone for the novel magazines and authors he will launch later!
Just like most car brands, the ones that really make money are the affordable and cheap models that sell in large quantities, but even if they make a loss, they still have to launch one or two high-end models and concentrate all the brand's technical and publicity resources on them.

However, Youth School has changed the ecology of the mainstream market of youth literature in China. Zhang Chao is using a very novel way to subtly reshape the tastes of young readers.

That is the "sense of luxury" that Xiao Si has always been pursuing but cannot get!
It’s just like in the 80s, when the young migrant workers who could barely read would pin a pen to the breast pocket of their shirts.

Spend 5 yuan to buy a copy of "Youth", put up a cover you like, and you can happily pass it around among your friends, or even put it on your desk without worrying about being scolded by your parents.

This is all thanks to the editor-in-chief Zhang Chao. He does not have the rebellious attitude of Han Han, nor is he non-mainstream like Xiao Si. Overall, he has always been a sunny and positive young man.

This understanding reached its peak after the People's Daily reported positively on Zhang Chao.

Therefore, this kind of "high-end feeling" cannot be imitated by Xiao Si's usual routine - a sad and twisted love story, a large number of luxury nouns, and gorgeous and exaggerated rhetoric.

Xiao Si realized that if he didn't change, he would be abandoned by the market.

The young writers who had gathered under him were also showing signs of instability. They did not have a solid agreement relationship, but only a loose alliance, and they were willing to provide him with works because Xiao Si could package them.

Now it seems that Zhang Chao is a better choice?

But who is Xiao Si? In the original time and space, among the post-80s writers, he ranks second in terms of market sense, business acumen and execution ability, and no one dares to rank himself first.

He quickly found his general Luo Luo and others and told them: "The content and style of the "Best" series of magazines need to be greatly changed! We are now starting a new plan and all the previous ones will be overturned!"

Then he instructed: "Find out every author who contributed to Youth Magazine, contact them all and ask them if they are willing to contribute to us.

We can double the amount Zhang Chao paid them for their writing.”

Zhang Chao didn't know yet that Xiao Si had regarded him as his greatest enemy in his life. At this moment, he was driving fast on the Fifth Ring Road.

There was only one class this afternoon, which ended at 3:. Zhang Chao originally planned to go to Panjiayuan to confirm the manuscript for the second issue of "Youth" with Ma Boyong, and to write some "The Great Doctor" by the way.

But after the car started, Zhang Chao still honestly turned the steering wheel towards Tiantongyuan.

Zhang Chao's mind flashed back to the scene from last night:
In the dark room, the snow-white skin is like silk, with the ebb and flow of the tide, sometimes draped on the sofa in the living room, and sometimes swaying beside the bed in the bedroom. The windows are occasionally lit up by the lights of cars returning late, and in a glimpse, there are either intoxicated eyes or bright red lips.

At first the sound was very small, like the sigh of someone watching the distant twilight from an open window; but soon it became clear and loud, startling the clouds that obscured the moon but making the stars hide themselves in shame.

"This damn decadent young body!" Zhang Chao cursed himself and stepped on the accelerator a little deeper.

In less than half an hour, Zhang Chao rang the doorbell of Song Jia's room. She seemed to have known that he was coming, and was not surprised at all, allowing this brother who was a few years younger than her to pick her up by the waist...

The next day, Tiantongyuan.

Day 3, Tiantongyuan.

Zhang Chao: "Zhang Chao, oh Zhang Chao, how could you be so depraved! Have you forgotten the work plan you set earlier? Confucius said: 'I examine myself three times a day.' You can't go on like this!"

Day 4, Tiantongyuan. Day 5, Tiantongyuan.

But Zhang Chao thought of a solution. He said to Song Jia, "Why don't you move to my place at Yanda?"

Song Jia refused: "No, I won't move. It's fine like this now."

Zhang Chao looked at him with some confusion.

Song Jia gently tapped Zhang Chao's nose and said, "You are still a college student, please study hard. Besides, do you really want to support me?"

Zhang Chao thought about it and realized that all the people coming in and out of his building every day were teachers from Yan University, which really didn't seem like a good idea, so he gave up.

On the sixth day, Zhang Chao finally showed up at the company in Panjiayuan Community. In fact, he had basically not missed any work in the past few days, and all the work he needed to do was completed online.

Now Midnight Tide has formed a structure where Huang Jiefu is in charge of business and daily operations, Ma Boyong is in charge of content, and Xia Da is in charge of art. Zhang Chao himself doesn't even want an independent office, and when he comes, he has to share a table with the prince.

Zhang Chao came to the company today mainly to make an important work arrangement with the prince——

He opened the "Midnight Tide" and his own Xinlang blog accounts, and operated the content.

The prince was confused. He didn't understand why this was so important. Shouldn't the company's official website be the one that should be run properly? A blog was just a record of my life. Even if it contained some professional articles, it was not worth investing in it.

Zhang Chao said: "You are wrong. The previous 'Blog China' can only be regarded as the 'pre-blog era'. Blogs are just toys for a small number of Internet pioneers. But the number of our Internet users is doubling every year, and their desire for high-quality content is endless.

That’s why Xinlang, Sohu and Penguin have only just entered the market. The ‘blog era’ has truly arrived. Blogs are not used to replace portals, but they can become the second face of companies and individuals…”

Zhang Chao spent more than an hour explaining in an easy-to-understand way the future self-media operations to the prince, which made his head swell.

Zhang Chao patted him on the shoulder and said, "Think about it carefully and come up with a plan. In the blog era, and the microblog era that will surely come, we must stand at the forefront."

Then we discussed with Xia Da about the design of the second issue of the author image stickers. Zhang Chao believes that some of the characters in the works of "Youth School" are also worth developing.

First try to design a part and see how the market responds. If it is good, then see if it can be derived into a comic product.

Especially Li Ruichao's "Temple Language", each piece is just a few dozen words, which is very suitable for conversion into a four-frame comic.

There is also Ma Boyong's comic "The Wind Rises in Longxi", which can't be delayed any longer. The first issue will be out next month at the latest. It is better to publish it in "Yanjing Cartoon" first to see the readers' response.

After a busy schedule, Zhang Chao received an unexpected gift in mid-May.

Invitation letter from the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa.

Zhang Chao asked Cao Wenxuan, the teacher who handed him the invitation letter, with a puzzled look on his face: "I didn't agree to their terms last time, so why did they invite me again?"

Cao Wenxuan said: "Professor Yan said that since when have students from Yan University been so easy to bully? If he wants you to go, you have to go. If he doesn't want you to go, you can't go. But he just didn't believe it... Then IWP directly sent an invitation to come to the school."

Zhang Chao considered it and decided to accept the invitation.

Cao Wenxuan said with relief: "Then starting from next week, the department will arrange for you to strengthen your spoken English. Although there will be a translator there, you can't always tie a translator to your belt for daily communication, right?"

Although Zhang Chao's English was very poor when he was just reborn, he has been attending classes over the past year or so and has recovered some of his listening and speaking skills. However, he is still far from being able to communicate with others orally.

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Thank you for the training from the department. Who else from China will go this time?"

Cao Wenxuan said, "I heard that Chi Zijian and Liu Heng will also go to the International Writing Program this year, but they are writers-in-residence at the International Writing Center at the University of Iowa. They will stay for three months just like you, so you should be able to meet them."

The main reason why Zhang Chao decided to participate in Iowa's "International Writing Program" was that he wanted his works to be published abroad and to have an ideological exchange with writers from different countries.

Chi Zijian, who is currently serving as a writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa, participated in the International Writing Program in the 80s. It was after participating in IWP that her works began to attract international attention and were frequently translated abroad.

He was always confined to a corner of Yanjing. No matter how many good works he had read in his previous life, they would all rot in his stomach.

My only concern is that three months is too long, as I need to arrange a lot of work and writing progress in China.

(End of this chapter)