Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

The *Shanghai Morning Post* has not yet officially appointed a culture editor. The previous culture editor was laid off due to downsizing and has already happily received his severance pay. Afterwards, culture news was simply categorized under the broader category of "news."

Last week, the newspaper's editor-in-chief approached Yang Zheng, hoping he would take over the position of culture editor, but the editor-in-chief did not mention a pay raise. This means that Yang Zheng is doing the work of a culture editor but is being paid the salary of a junior reporter.

Yang was sitting at his desk, a newly bought copy of "Story Club" magazine spread out on his lap. He had been staring at the magazine for five minutes, but hadn't turned a single page.

He looked out the window; traffic flowed slowly on Hankou Road, cars queuing up in the setting sun. His gaze fell on the clock tower of the old post and telecommunications building across the street. 4:37. The hands were motionless; the clock had been broken for a long time, but no one had bothered to fix it.

He wasn't thinking about this "Story Collection," but rather another magazine. Actually, it wasn't a magazine, but a publishing house: Qingniao Publishing House.

This name has been circulating quite mysteriously in the industry lately. Yang Zheng first heard about it from a friend who works in the SP (Service Provider) business. That friend had connections at the mobile company and said that a publishing house specializing in short-form fiction had suddenly appeared in Shanghai, with an astonishingly high conversion rate, shocking even those in the game-on-demand business in Guangdong. Zhou Zheng didn't take it seriously at the time. SP business, right? Isn't it just those "Your friend left you a message, reply Y to view" things? They might scam as many people as they can.

Later, two more author friends mentioned this to him. One was an editor who had worked at *Story Club* magazine, saying that several of their staff had been poached to a place called something like Bluebird, where the pay was supposedly much better. The other was a veteran novelist who, with a sour tone, said that some people were making a fortune writing lowbrow stuff, earning more in a month than he did in a year.

Only then did Yang Zheng begin to pay attention to Qingniao Publishing House. He asked someone to get him a few short news items pushed by Qingniao. The content was indeed lowbrow, with titles like "Borrowing Seeds" and "The Door Closed by Brothers," exuding a sense of raw power. Having been a reporter for so many years, Yang Zheng had seen far too many things claiming to be raw, only to find they were all pretentious. But with Qingniao's content, after reading three articles, he couldn't resist and continued reading five more.

Yesterday, the editor-in-chief called Yang Zheng into his office, saying the culture section had been too dull for the past few months and asked him to find a more interesting story. Yang Zheng went to cover the opening ceremony of an art museum specifically for this purpose. However, the procedures at those places were always the same: speeches by leaders, ribbon-cutting, and mutual flattery over wine glasses. He put that aside for now; it was good, as he hated writing reports about opening ceremonies. Then, Qingniao, a company followed by both the finance and IT sectors, popped into Yang Zheng's mind.

Yang Zheng swiped the mouse, his eyes fixed on a woman's smiling face. He had scanned her photo and saved it as his screensaver. At that moment, his mind was filled with thoughts of her. Wu Ying had already packed her bags and left Yang Zheng's residence on the outskirts of Qingpu District. He knew Wu Ying wouldn't be coming back; he had to move on with his life. He went to the control panel and deleted the screensaver. This was a beginning.

Yang Zheng reorganized the fragmented information he had collected about Qingniao Publishing House.

This publishing house is so strange. If you call it a traditional publishing house, it publishes newsletters, completely unrelated to magazines like *Harvest* or *Fiction World*. If you call it an internet company, it's tucked away in a dilapidated old building on Fuzhou Road, without even a proper sign. Yang Zheng tried contacting their young president yesterday, but a woman who identified herself as an editor answered, saying President Han wasn't there and he could leave a message if he needed anything. Yang Zheng left a message, but a whole day has passed, and nothing has happened.

Not surprising. Small companies that are currently in the spotlight are most afraid of the media.

Yang Zheng gleaned some information from a journalism intern covering financial news, learning that Qingniao Reading's first-day conversion rate was over 10%. Furthermore, according to rumors, people from Tencent's headquarters have been frequently seen in Shanghai recently. There are even rumors that someone resembling a high-ranking Tencent executive was spotted near Qingniao Publishing House.

These unverified rumors are always annoying. But on the other hand, they also give Yang Zheng and his colleagues more room for speculation. This is precisely the time to unleash their creativity. He thoroughly enjoys this creative process. Writing this press release should be a simple task. From every angle, it's an engaging story, possessing all the material a cultural journalist would love.

Yang Zheng took a sip of cola, mentally drafting a first title. What should he call it? "A Magazine's Short News Report's Comeback"? Too soft. "Bluebird Reading: A Small Player Targeted by Giants"? Too straightforward.

Ten minutes later, Yang Zheng placed his fingers on the keyboard and began writing the report.

Can you earn millions a month with short news articles?

—The rise of a small publishing house and the rumors of being hunted by giants.

[Introduction] A short message

"Li Wei and I are good friends, and we've both liked Zhang Xiaoli for a long time. It happened on the night we graduated from university."

What would you do if your phone suddenly received a text message like this?

Most people would probably mutter "spam text" and delete it. But a significant number of people would stare at the screen for a few seconds, and then, almost inexplicably, reply with a "Y".

This tiny "Y" deducted 10 yuan from the phone bill, but it also led to the story of a dying publishing house's comeback.

[Part 1] Starting with the "Four Whites"

"In my hometown, there is a saying about the 'Four Whites': the first snow, peeled eggs, refined white flour, and Li Yuanyuan's buttocks."

This text comes from a publishing house called "Bluebird." It was written by its president, Han Fei, a 25-year-old young man...

Yang Zheng began writing the conclusion, deliberately using phrases like "major giants have begun their hunt" in hopes of creating a dramatic effect. However, he discovered that the fact that Qingniao Publishing House had made a comeback with short-form fiction was already sensational enough that there was no need for further elaboration, so he deleted all the content he had already written.

He sat there for a while, his head in his hands, tapping the recycle bin icon on the screen twice, moving the cursor to "Clean Recycle Bin," then hesitating. He only had this one photo of Wu Ying. All traces of Wu Ying left in his house had been completely erased; he had even washed the pajamas he lent her. He liked those pajamas because they smelled like Wu Ying.

"Bye-bye," he said softly, pressing the mouse button.

He reread the manuscript and decided to remove the "hunting rumors" and only write about the rise of Bluebird Publishing House. Then he began to write, and this time he wrote very fluently.