Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 154 Now, You Are My Ancestor!

Carlson put down the phone with a pale face. His boss's roar almost made his ears ring.

The plan to win over Zhang Chao completely failed. He was not a typical third world writer who came from politically unstable areas, lived in fear every day, and even had no food to eat.

Nor are they like those Chinese writers of the past who experienced long periods of poverty and hunger and whose worldviews and values ​​were destroyed and reshaped time and time again.

Zhang Chao enjoyed the rich material living conditions in the United States but was not obsessed with them; he understood the American system and culture but did not believe in it.

He has an inexplicable self-confidence, as if he has seen a better lifestyle than New York and the United States in 2005.

If all the younger generation in China are like Zhang Chao, then what is the point of this kind of wooing?
Carlson recalled many details - for example, Zhang Chao was impatient with frequent use of credit cards when he was shopping in the United States. Is there a more convenient way to pay than this? He can only pay in cash in China, right?
Zhang Chao not only did not "fall in love" with America, but he also dissected America with his uniquely sharp eyes as a writer. The book "Gone Girl" can help many Chinese people disenchant the illusion of "attaching importance to family" and "fighting the whole world for family" that has been created by American movies for decades.

This is what annoyed the US House of Representatives. Money was spent and resources were invested, but Zhang Chao licked the sugar coating and immediately threw a cannonball back. How can the relevant departments involved in the plan hold their heads up in the future?
Therefore, the success of "Gone Girl" not only represented the failure of the plan to win over Zhang Chao, but also caused the U.S. House of Representatives to directly delete the relevant budget to continue funding IWP.

Carlson himself depends on this plan, so he is about to lose his job.

But he was not resigned to this, and he wanted to prove his worth to his superiors and try to be assigned to other projects. After thinking for a moment, he turned on his computer and sent an email with the same content to multiple mailboxes.

Then he picked up the phone again and dialed some number on the other side of the ocean: "This is Carlson. Old friend, long time no see..."

Carlson wanted to let Zhang Chao know that he couldn't get on or off this pirate ship as he pleased.

Zhang Chao naturally didn't know what Carlson was doing behind the scenes. As the end of the semester and the end of the year approached, it was his busiest time again.

First of all, there is Yanda’s “Writer’s Class” course. There are not many classes this semester, and most of my time in the next semester will be used to write my thesis. Now I have to decide on the topic of my thesis.

The educational philosophy of Yanda's "Writers' Class" and Yanshi University's "Writers' Graduate Class" is different. The former emphasizes theoretical literacy, while the latter focuses on creative practice. Therefore, graduates at Yanda must submit a thesis, not a literary work.

To be honest, he really wanted to write an article entitled "On the Literary Creation Concepts and Work Style of Young Writer Zhang Chao" to get it done, but after thinking about it, he felt embarrassed to be so shameless.

Finally, he decided to write about Wang Xiaobo. This is his favorite modern writer. In his previous life, he wrote his graduation thesis on Wang Xiaobo. At that time, he had two topics to choose from, one was "The Golden Age" and the other was "Wanshou Temple".

In his previous life, he chose The Golden Age, so he chose Wanshou Temple in this life. Wanshou Temple is the culmination of Wang Xiaobo's novel art, in which the use of "complex narrative" and "metafiction" techniques has reached a peak that has never been reached in Chinese literature before.

The second is the "Postgraduate Writers" class of Yanshi University. This is simple. All you need to do is submit a new work of no less than 3 words. Yanshi University will compile their graduation works into a book and publish it.

If I write something wrong and put it in the book and compare it with others, it will be a public punishment. So it is not easy to write.

In addition to his studies, Zhang Chao also has to deal with many matters related to "Midnight Tide", such as buying the houses that need to be bought and recruiting the people that need to be recruited.

With the success of "Gone Girl", Random House expects to pay Zhang Chao at least $500 million in royalties in the next year.

美国小说的销售习惯是第一年发售定价较高的精装版小说，大概20-30美元1本，像《消失的爱人》定价就是29美元。第二年开始会发布便宜一些的平装版，大概是10-20美金一本。

Usually the bulk of a novel's revenue comes from the first year, and this $500 million, even after deducting various taxes, is almost the total income of Zhang Chao in the past two years.

Zhang Chao sighed that it is still easier to make money in capitalist society!
Moreover, the Writers Guild of America has already sent an email, saying that more than one Hollywood company wants to acquire the adaptation rights to this novel. The royalties for such a popular novel start at at least a million dollars.

Zhang Chao felt that it was a pity to transfer these dollars directly back to his own account - it would be much better to keep them in the United States and use them to buy stocks of Google, Apple, Amazon and the like.

Take Apple for example. He found out that its current market value is more than 600 billion US dollars. By 2024, before his rebirth, Apple's market value had exceeded 3 trillion US dollars, a 50-fold increase.

As for the domestic "monster stock" Moutai, he had heard of it a little even though he did not trade stocks. However, he simply could not understand why the stock of a company that is not high-tech, not Internet, and not a mass consumer product company could rise to that level.

However, investing in the US stock market is also risky. If his impression is correct, the US subprime mortgage crisis that is sweeping the world will break out either this year or next year.

Zhang Chao actually had only a vague understanding of what the subprime mortgage crisis was all about, how wide the scope of its impact was, and how to avoid risks. After all, he was a pure Chinese major who had failed math in two lifetimes.

But when he tried to combine the terms such as the subprime mortgage crisis and Lehman Brothers as well as the fragments of various statements he had heard before and described them to Huang Jiefu, this top student from Harvard Business School immediately pricked up his ears.

He then spent half a month looking up information and had extensive and in-depth discussions with his classmates and friends in the United States. Finally, one day in mid-January, after Zhang Chao came to his office, he hugged Zhang Chao tightly with dark circles under his eyes.

Huang Jiefu shouted excitedly: "Boss, you are a genius! If we operate well, in 4 years - no, in 3 years, we can buy the whole world!"

Zhang Chao looked confused and asked, "I just asked you to go to the United States to set up a company, deal with stock investment, and avoid risks. Why buy the whole world?"

Huang Jiefu pulled him into an inner office, took a few deep breaths, and said, "After your reminder, I have conducted many communications and simulations with several analyst friends on Wall Street. I am sure that the subprime mortgage crisis will break out within a year, and there are already signs of it.

Since the United States is at the core of the world's major economies, we expect the subprime mortgage crisis to sweep the world in two to three years, a super hurricane-level financial storm. By then, many financial institutions in the United States, Europe, and Japan will go bankrupt, and stock markets will also be in turmoil.

If we operate properly, your $500 million will become $3 million, or even $5 billion or $10 billion in three years."

Zhang Chao asked suspiciously, "Aren't you an American? Wouldn't you be worried about such a financial disaster?"

Huang Jiefu shrugged and said, "I knew from the first day I studied business that periodic economic crises will always happen and cannot be stopped by human power. It is a systemic problem, a total outbreak after many problems in the operation of the economic system have accumulated. The subprime mortgage crisis is just one of its manifestations.

As a professional manager, I am thinking about how to maximize the benefits for the company I serve during the crisis.”

Zhang Chao paused and said, "America is your motherland after all..."

Huang Jiefu smiled and said, "America is my motherland; China is also my motherland. And Boss - although I don't know how you knew that the subprime mortgage crisis would happen - but you who predicted this crisis, now you are my ancestor!"

(End of this chapter)