The world of film and television begins with Zhou Bingkun in the human world.

The peaceful days passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, the New Year of 74 has arrived again.

This time, Zhou Bingyi, as always, had no intention of going home. Even though Li Suhua was still in a coma, he didn't think about going home to visit her.

Zhou Rong was the same way. If she could, she probably would never want to come back. After all, she ran away to find a stranger and angered her mother to the point of being in a vegetative state. This was really shameful. If Zhou Rong dared to come back, she would definitely be gossiped about and cursed by the neighbors in Guangzi District.

As for Zhou Zhigang—

Perhaps because of how Zheng Juan treated him when he returned last year, even though Zhou Zhigang really wanted to have a grandson, he ultimately felt it was too embarrassing and shameful, so he simply stopped coming back.

For Zhou Bingkun, the New Year, undisturbed by outsiders, was a very comfortable and happy one.

Shortly after the Chinese New Year, something else happened that surprised Zhou Bingkun.

"Excuse me, are you Comrade Zhang Ye?"

Around 10 a.m. on a weekend morning, a strange man came to Zhou Bingkun's house.

The man looked to be in his fifties, with some gray hair and glasses perched on his nose. He had a scholarly air about him and appeared quite refined.

"Zhang Ye?" Zhou Bingkun couldn't help but pause for a moment when he heard the name.

"Yes, it's Comrade Zhang Ye, who has been contributing articles to our newspaper." The man nodded quickly.

"Yes, that's right, it's me. My pen name is Zhang Ye. Are you from the newspaper?" Zhou Bingkun nodded. He used to write articles for the newspaper, and after his writing skills improved, he wrote about one article per month on average. The pen name he used was Zhang Ye.

"Yes, my name is Shao Jingwen, and I'm an editor at a newspaper. I've come to see you mainly to ask you for an article," Shao Jingwen said with a smile.

"A commission for an article? Editor Shao, what's this commission for an article you're talking about?" Zhou Bingkun's eyes lit up slightly; he had a premonition that good news was coming.

As for Shao Jingwen, Zhou Bingkun recognized him upon hearing his name. In the original story, Shao Jingwen was a great help to Zhou Bingkun, even securing him a government job. Some people even claimed that Shao Jingwen was Zhou Bingkun's biological father.

However, what exactly is the relationship between Shao Jingwen and Zhou Bingkun? Zhou Bingkun didn't want to investigate, because he didn't want to have another father out of nowhere.

Anyway, Zhou Bingkun had already figured out how to deal with Zhou Zhigang. He didn't want to cause any more trouble and have to create another father figure for himself, as that would only make things more complicated.

Zhou Bingkun simply intended to treat Shao Jingwen as an ordinary editor.

"Here's the thing, our newspaper is planning to launch a supplement. A supplement needs enough articles to support it, so I sincerely invite Mr. Zhang Ye to write a few articles for publication in the supplement. Moreover, unlike before, our supplement will not let you write for free; we will pay you for your articles."

"How much will the royalties be?" This was what Zhou Bingkun was most interested in.

Zhou Bingkun and Zheng Juan have earned some money over the past few years of work, but they have also spent a lot of money.

Bicycles, expenses during Zheng Juan's pregnancy, and so on—so in reality, they didn't have much money saved up. Now, their family only has a little over two hundred yuan left.

If possible, Zhou Bingkun would naturally want to earn more money.

Zhou Bingkun initially wrote and submitted articles solely to earn money, but back then, the policy didn't allow for payment for articles. Now that payment for articles was finally being made, Zhou Bingkun was naturally very interested in what kind of compensation he would receive.

When Shao Jingwen heard Zhou Bingkun directly ask about the manuscript fee without asking anything else, he was taken aback.

After all, a normal writer should have some sense of aloofness. Even if he really wanted royalties, he shouldn't have said it so directly. But Zhou Bingkun didn't play by the rules, which made Shao Jingwen a little uncomfortable.

"Editor Shao, how much will the payment be? What's the standard?" Zhou Bingkun asked again.

"Ahem, well, because our supplement is just starting to prepare for publication, and we don't have much funding, our newspaper's payment standard is between one and six yuan per thousand words."

"One to six yuan per thousand words. Editor Shao, how much are you planning to pay me per thousand words?" Zhou Bingkun pressed.

"Well, that depends on the quality of the article. Besides, the articles we publish in our supplement might be different from what you wrote before, Mr. Zhang Ye. Our supplement newspaper doesn't need those empty, grandiose articles; it needs to be substantial and, preferably, authentic. We don't need so much praise—" Shao Jingwen had to remind him.

Shao Jingwen was worried that Zhou Bingkun's articles, like before, would be nothing but praise or praise, or about passionate struggle. Those articles might be published in mainstream newspapers, but their supplement would absolutely not accept articles full of praise—or rather, full of flattery.

Shao Jingwen didn't actually have much confidence in Zhou Bingkun, or rather, he didn't believe that Zhou Bingkun could write the article he wanted so easily. He came to Zhou Bingkun just to give him a try and see if he could change his writing style and handle other types of articles.

Shao Jingwen even thought that it might take Zhou Bingkun a long time, half a year, or even a year or longer, to adjust his writing style.

Shao Jingwen was simply casting a wide net, hoping to catch the fish he wanted by chance.

"Haha, Editor Shao, don't worry about that. To be honest, I really don't want to write those kinds of articles. But I had no choice. Besides those kinds of articles, your newspaper didn't want any other articles, so I had to write in that style. Actually, I don't like those kinds of articles at all. You've come to the right person," Zhou Bingkun explained with a hearty laugh.

"Really? That's great! Our supplement will be officially launched around April, so you'd better finish writing your article before April." Shao Jingwen was pleasantly surprised. Zhou Bingkun's words made him have higher expectations for Zhou Bingkun, and then he quickly told Zhou Bingkun the launch date of their supplement.

"April, no problem."

"Comrade Zhang Ye, let me tell you what kind of articles we need. What we need is..." Shao Jingwen then carefully explained many things to Zhou Bingkun, including the standards, requirements, and trends of their supplement.

After listening to Shao Jingwen say so much, Zhou Bingkun realized that Shao Jingwen was still a bit timid, or rather, his requirements for articles and his control over public opinion were actually a bit conservative. He still had a certain framework, but it was still much better than the previous type that only praised others.