Honkai Impact 3rd: Join Anti-Entropy at the start and dominate the entertainment industry.

Her slender, pale fingers deftly tore open the rope and wrapping paper. A cry of ecstatic joy followed, then a sudden, agonizing scream that transformed into a woman's nervous tears and wailing, requiring the apartment owner to do everything in her power to comfort her.

Her husband bought a whole set of combs as a gift for Della!

There's everything you could want for the temples and the back!

That was something Della had longed for for a long time, originally displayed in a shop window on Broadway!

However, this comb set was too expensive for Della to afford, and the family didn't have any extra money for her to buy things she liked later.

If Della hadn't sold her long hair, this comb set would have been perfect; the beautiful jeweled combs would have been a perfect match for her gorgeous long hair.

But Della's hair was sold, and the hair comb her husband bought instantly became useless.

Zhang Yucheng opened her mouth in surprise, her feelings were complicated.

Regret or shock?

It's clear that the couple truly love each other, as they both bought Christmas gifts for each other without prior arrangement.

Chapter 285 ends abruptly!

Della clearly liked the gift too, as the description clearly states: "But she still clutched the hair comb to her chest for a long time before she could lift her teary eyes and smile at Jim, saying, 'My hair grows very fast, Jim.'"

Upon seeing this, Zhang Yucheng smiled.

Yes, even though my hair is short, it will grow back someday.

Although I can't use the hairbrush now, it will definitely come in handy in the future.

There were some minor regrets, but they could be remedied, which made her feel pretty good.

Then, Della took out her own gift.

She eagerly extended her outstretched palm to him. The inanimate precious metal seemed to shimmer and reflect her joyful and enthusiastic mood.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Jim? I searched all over the city to find it. Now you’ll be looking at your watch a hundred times a day. Give me your watch; I want to see how it looks on your watch.”

It seems this is the real ending. Zhang Yucheng nodded with a smile.

That's how stories should be; a slightly regrettable ending is what makes them most memorable.

Moreover, this also fills the originally ordinary and simple ending with beautiful imagination, making people want to believe in love again.

Although Zhang Yucheng is already in her thirties.

She picked up her teacup and took a sip, feeling herself completely immersed in this beautiful article.

How should the last sentence, "Thousand Swords," be written?

It should be "From then on, the couple lived a happy and fulfilling life," right?

Her gaze drifted lightly to the last sentence—

In an instant, the teacup in her hand went out of control and smashed directly onto the floor with a crisp shattering sound.

Jim did not do as she said, but instead lay down on the couch, put his hands behind his head, and laughed.

“Della,” he said, “let’s put the Christmas presents aside for now. They’re too good to use now. I sold my gold watch to buy your hair comb. Now, please fry the steak.”

The article ends here.

Zhang Yucheng stared in disbelief and suddenly stood up.

She flipped through the pages in disbelief, hoping there was more to come.

But it was in vain.

There was nothing after that.

Stop it abruptly!

The story is truly over!

She never imagined this ending!

To match her husband's beloved gold watch with an exquisite watch chain, Della reluctantly sold her beautiful hair.

In order to buy a precious hair comb for Della's beautiful long hair, her husband tearfully sold his family's three-generation gold watch.

To express their deep love for each other, they lost their two most precious possessions on Christmas Eve, in exchange for a watch chain without a gold watch to match and a hair comb without a hairdresser to adorn them.

Momentary joy comes at a high price, and what follows is undoubtedly deep pain.

The bitterness brought about by this regret makes every kind-hearted reader tremble.

Zhang Yucheng was unable to let go of the matter; her hands trembled as she swallowed.

She sat down again, closed her eyes slightly, and carefully savored the whole story in her mind.

After a long while, a bitter smile finally appeared on her face.

"In a society where money is everything, their gift cannot be considered a wise 'Gift of the Magi.' However, they lost their wealth but deepened the most precious and sincere love in the world."

"Is this what you really wanted to say, Senken?"

"This is truly an enviable kind of love."

With conflicted feelings, Zhang Yucheng closed the magazine, but her emotions remained unsettled for a long time.

After a while, Zhang Yucheng finally came to her senses.

She is not only a seasoned reader, but also a professional editor.

After experiencing a good story, an idea suddenly popped into her mind.

Qianjian's achievements in short stories afterward were definitely not low!

With just this one story, "The Gift of the Magi," he is good enough to be considered a god!

A glint of light flashed in Zhang Yucheng's eyes!

She picked up her phone and sent a message to the editorial group of "Lin Yi".

"Let's have a video conference in half an hour."

As a magazine that focuses on short stories, one of the most important reasons why "Lin Yi" can maintain its leading position in the industry is that it has a large number of excellent authors. However, recently they have been facing a problem that they have to pay attention to.

That is, many authors have started to leave "Linyi" and choose to submit their work to other magazines.

The reasons for this are complex, but the most important one is that the payment for articles in "Linyi" was not paid in full, while many other magazines offered significantly more generous rates.

To attract authors, magazine publishers often offer very attractive benefits and compensation packages.

The original treatment of "Lin Yi" was quite good, but since becoming an industry leader, it has become arrogant. Not only is it unwilling to improve the treatment of its authors, but it has also changed and reduced the treatment many times, which has caused many authors to complain. This is one of the main reasons why authors keep leaving.

Although Zhang Yucheng was in charge, she had always opposed these decisions. She clearly understood the importance of excellent authors to a magazine publishing house, which could not be measured in money. Focusing only on immediate interests would inevitably lead to problems sooner or later.

But there was nothing she could do; the decision was made by a high-level meeting, and her opposition alone was useless.

There was no other way but to organize more events to indirectly increase the income of her authors.

However, this is just a drop in the ocean and far from solving the main problem.

She did want to make changes, but she just hadn't made up her mind.

She's a long-time employee of the company; she was there when the company was founded. It's fair to say that Lin Yi's success today owes a great deal to her contributions.

However, it takes a lot of courage to oppose the decision made at the high-level meeting, and she is still hesitating.

However, after reading Qian Jian's work, Zhang Yucheng finally woke up completely.

While their own company is still standing still, indulging in self-satisfaction with its so-called glory, other magazine publishers have already quietly risen to prominence. If they don't make changes soon, their dream of making "Lin Yi" one of the world's top magazines will be completely shattered.

While there's still time, she must do something to salvage the situation.

At this moment, the editors were also confused when they received the message. They felt that they couldn't even have a peaceful holiday. However, they didn't dare to disobey their superiors, so they could only complain while finding a quiet place, opening their phones and joining the video conference in advance.

They didn't dare not come. They knew Zhang Yucheng's temper; she was decisive and efficient, a typical strong woman. Anyone who dared to disobey her was guaranteed to be in trouble.

Half an hour passed quickly, and Zhang Yucheng entered the video conference on time. He glanced at the number of participants and nodded slightly—everyone was here; no one was absent.

Chapter 286 The Gate to the New World

Zhang Yucheng's way of saving him is very simple.

What were the reasons for the author's disappearance?

Not enough money.

Then add money!

Pay more to grab readers! Grab more stories!

The money doesn't need to be too much. As long as it's the same as the average price in the market, with the "Lin Yi" system, it will definitely attract a lot of authors. After all, for the same manuscript fee, everyone is still willing to go to a big platform!

Especially for outstanding authors like Qianjian, it's definitely worth trying to win them over!

He is still a newcomer. Although his works are quite good, he is still relatively inexperienced.

The author community is different from other communities. This community values ​​qualifications more. Even if you are exceptionally talented, many people will not recognize you if you don't work hard for several years. They will think you are just a junior and not qualified to be on equal footing with them.

In Zhang Yucheng's imagination, the main reason Qian Jian chose "Spark" was because there was no better option.

Before writing "The Gift of the Magi," he had only published one short story. Although people were surprised, they didn't think too much about it. Even if someone invited him to write, the offer wouldn't be very high.

If I suddenly appeared at this moment, extended an olive branch to him in the name of "Lin Yi", and promised him treatment that exceeded that of "Spark", he would most likely agree!

After all, the deepest area of ​​cooperation between Thousand Swords and World Serpent is long novels, and this is their first time working on a short story, so the foundation of their relationship is probably not very deep yet.

With this in mind, Zhang Yucheng started the video conference.

She started by posing a question:

"Why isn't our 'Linyi' magazine the preferred submission platform for authors?"

Although the question seemed abrupt, everyone quickly came up with the answer after a little thought.

One of the editors spoke first: "Is it because the compensation isn't good enough?"

Everyone knows Zhang Yucheng's personality; she doesn't like rambling or polite talk, so everyone speaks quite directly. The editor-in-chief's answer was also very to the point.

After all, authors are human too, and they need to eat; they can't keep generating electricity out of love forever.

Currently, the revenue sharing of "Lin Yi" is relatively low compared to other works on the market. If it were just a pitiful subscription revenue share and a full attendance bonus of 600, many authors would probably not even be able to afford to eat.

Zhang Yucheng nodded, looked at the computer camera and said, "I'm giving you a task now, which is to do everything in your power to bring that person back!"

Everyone looked at each other, and after a while, the same editor-in-chief spoke up again, giving an awkward smile and saying, "But our benefits are really not very attractive."