Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 87 Bargaining
Maybe it was because the conditions proposed by Cao Sheng were too outrageous, Zhu William, Wang Jing, and Lao Zhang were all speechless for a moment. The three of them looked at each other, just like the stupid fruits on the stupid tree, and you and me under the stupid tree.

The conditions proposed by Cao Sheng made all the arguments they had prepared in advance useless.

Zhu William winked at Wang Jing and Lao Zhang, signaling them to speak.

Wang Jing smiled bitterly and said to Cao Sheng, "Cao Sheng, we are here with sincerity this time, so we hope you can show some sincerity as well. We can give you shares and discounts, but you can't give us nothing, right? What do you think?"

Lao Zhang agreed: "Yes, Mr. Cao! Although you are still a student, we know something about your income. You are definitely not a poor student, right? Cooperation should be win-win, not one side laughing while the other side crying! How can you invest without paying?"

Zhu William tried his best to keep smiling and looked at Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng spread his hands, "If you think my conditions are too much and you can't accept them, then forget about the investment! I don't care."

Use retreat to advance.

This time, Zhu William and his companions came to Cao Sheng specifically to discuss the matter of investing in the company. It was they who wanted to tie him under the banyan tree, not him, Cao Sheng.

Cao Sheng knew very well who held the initiative.

Wang Jing: “…”

Lao Zhang: "..."

The two of them subconsciously looked at Zhu William.

Zhu William frowned and said nothing.

At this moment, Zhu William felt a little depressed.

He didn't want to agree to Cao Sheng's conditions. Who would like to give away their shares to others for free?
But he was very clear about the current situation under the banyan tree.

The original path of Under the Banyan Tree is no longer viable. The whole atmosphere of the website has been changed by Cao Sheng's "I Want to Become an Immortal". It was a good literary website mainly composed of essays, poems, short stories, etc., but now, because of Cao Sheng's "I Want to Become an Immortal", few people are writing those short stories.

Most of them began to follow the trend and write long serials.

However, few of the follow-up works written by these people can meet the publishing standards of publishing houses.

The authors of these novels can generate electricity with love.

But can Rongshuxia, as a website, generate electricity with love? Rent, water, electricity, staff salaries and other expenses must be paid on time.

Transformation and financing became his only options at the moment.

If Under the Banyan Tree cannot raise funds as soon as possible and find a financial sponsor to support it, it won’t be long before its funding chain breaks and it will be difficult to continue.

Therefore, the key issue now is to increase the financing chips for Rongshuxia.

The best bargaining chip he could think of was to tie Zhongyuan Yidianhui, the most popular emerging writer in China both online and offline, together with Under the Banyan Tree.

As long as he can bind Zhongyuan Yidianhui with Rongshuxia, he can use this bargaining chip to tell stories and paint a rosy picture to investors, so that they will believe that Rongshuxia has a bright future and then donate generously.

Therefore, the most critical step in his plan is to bind Zhongyuan Dianhui with the banyan tree.

Once the binding is successful, subsequent financing will be less difficult.

Otherwise, as an Internet literature website, Rongshuxia is a light-asset cultural company with too much volatility in its value. How many investors would dare to invest in it?

All kinds of thoughts flashed through his mind. Zhu William sighed inwardly, forced a smile, and said to Cao Sheng: "Mr. Cao, we will give you 15% of the shares at half the price. Do you think it's okay?"

Cao Sheng: “I really don’t have any money.”

Zhu William: “…”

Lao Zhang couldn't help asking, "If we can't reach an agreement this time, you won't leave the banyan tree right away, right?"

Cao Sheng shook his head. "That's not the case. Since I promised to serialize "I Want to Become an Immortal" on your website for free, I will definitely finish the serialization."

Lao Zhang asked again, "What about the next book? I remember that you asked us to help you contact a mainland publishing house to publish your book "I Want to Become an Immortal" and promised that the next book would also be serialized for free under our banyan tree. Will this change?"

Cao Sheng nodded, "Of course, a verbal promise is still a promise, and I won't break my promise."

After a pause, he added, "However, my next book will only be about 200,000 words, which is about the same length as "Living with a Flight Attendant". It should be completed soon."

His original plan for the next book was "God's Tomb", which would definitely be longer than just 200,000 words.

But it was not difficult for him to start a novel of about 200,000 words at short notice. Anyway, Rong Shuxia did not know that his next work was a long novel like "God's Tomb".

So, he can fulfill his promise.

What he is betting on now is Under the Banyan Tree, and what he wants is more than just the promise of serializing his two books.

Otherwise, there would be no need for them to come to him specially to discuss investing this time.

After all, if they didn't come to discuss investing, his previous promise would most likely not change, so why would they come to him to discuss investing?
Now it depends on what choice Zhu William makes.

Zhu William was silent for a moment, then asked, "Mr. Cao, if we give you 10% of the shares, how many words can you guarantee to write on our website?"

Cao Sheng asked back: "What do you think?"

Zhu William thought: He can probably produce two to three episodes of manuscripts in Taiwan every month, each episode has about 60,000 words, which means he can only write less than 200,000 words a month, and only about 2 million words a year. This should be his limit.

In three years, that would be six million words.

Five years is ten million words.

But the vast majority of all domestic writers cannot write 10 million words in their entire lifetime. Now should be his creative peak period. Once this peak period is over, he may not be able to write even 1 million words a year.

"Ten million words! If you can promise to continue serializing at least ten million words in Under the Banyan Tree from now on, I will offer you this 10% share without you having to spend a penny. How do you think?"

Ten million words?
Cao Sheng was a little surprised at Zhu William's appetite.

With a chuckle, Cao Sheng asked back, "Mr. Zhu, are you going to buy out my entire career? If that's the case, 10% of the shares won't do."

It would take him at least three or four years to write ten million words at full speed.

It will be 1999 soon.

Qidian Chinese website seems to have been established in 2002, and the VIP subscription service was launched in 2003, which is exactly three or four years ago.

Therefore, he felt that it was not impossible to promise to serialize 10 million words in Under the Banyan Tree.

Even if he goes to Qidian a year or two later, it won't be a big problem.

He could accept both the time and the number of words.

But 10 million words...

Apart from Cao, which other writer would dare to sign such a contract these days?
Who else can guarantee that they can write so many words in their lifetime?

"How many shares do you want?"

William Zhu asked.

If he could tie Zhongyuan Yidianhui's next 10 million words of work to Under the Banyan Tree, his subsequent financing success rate would be very high.

Cao Sheng smiled, "At least 20% of the shares."

"That's too much! No!"

Zhu William shook his head and rejected it.

Cao Sheng smiled and said, "Then reduce the word count, 500 million words, 10% of the shares."

"Five million words is too few! No! At your speed, it will probably take you two or three years to finish it. No! This is absolutely not possible!"

Zhu William objected again.

Cao Sheng laughed, "This won't work, that won't work either, let's just forget it! Come on! Mr. Zhu, Sister Wang, Lao Zhang, let me toast you again. It's a rare opportunity for you to come to Huizhou this time, so you must eat and drink well tonight! Come on! Cheers!"

He could see that Zhu William was determined to tie him down under the banyan tree for a few years.

In that case, why should he be in such a hurry?

At that moment, he raised his glass to toast, and saw whether Zhu William could keep his composure.

Can Zhu William keep stable?

(End of this chapter)