Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

Han Fei gripped his Hero brand fountain pen and wrote furiously on the manuscript paper.

After a moment's thought, he decided to focus on the rural theme. This "rural" theme is not traditional rural literature, but a subject exclusive to the new media era, with content that is lowbrow and focuses on the dark side of people's hearts.

When writing articles for new media, you have to grab people's attention right from the start.

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

The first three are easy to understand, but who is Li Yuanyuan?

She is a rural teacher.

After being laid off from her government job in 1994, she received a buyout fee and opened a small shop in town.

Rumor has it that she had ambiguous relationships with several principals, while I was the newly appointed principal who had just been assigned to the village primary school.

My predecessor, Principal Zhang, supposedly resigned because of an affair with Li Yuanyuan. The two were said to have been having illicit relations at the school, sneaking into the woods, and even booking a private room at the town's public bathhouse. They allegedly took advantage of the bathhouse being less crowded to engage in their debauchery. According to a bathhouse attendant, she even found used condoms in the private room.

I despise such gossip and scandalous rumors; I've always loathed this kind of salacious talk.

Until I saw Li Yuanyuan in person…

Han Fei painstakingly wrote over ten thousand words, telling the story of the entanglement between three men and one woman.

The plot can be summarized as follows: Li Yuanyuan is quite attractive, intelligent, and knows how to use her beauty.

After being laid off unexpectedly, she opened a small shop next to the school. Taking advantage of an inspection by education bureau leaders, she seduced one of them. Leveraging the leader's connections, she broke down the school wall and opened a window leading directly to her shop. With her boldness, meticulousness, and this relationship, she made a fortune.

Besides this leader, the school's principal, Wang, is an impotent patient who has lustful desires but lacks the courage to act on them. The sex scandals circulating outside are actually all false.

However, Principal Wang did steal Li Yuanyuan's underwear and was slapped twice by Li Yuanyuan.

Later, Principal Wang couldn't withstand the pressure from his wife and had to resign, so I took over his position.

During my frequent contact with Li Yuanyuan, I was also attracted to her and we had a relationship.

Afterwards, I, who prided myself on being noble, could not bear the inner torment and divorced my wife as a form of self-punishment.

Years later, I was planting peanuts in the field when I ran into Principal Wang, who was passing by. We chatted for a while.

Principal Wang spat, "That slut Li Yuanyuan is a vixen. If you slap her twice, she'll let you have whatever you want. All those scandalous rumors about me and her are true; she seduced me."

I smiled, because Li Yuanyuan had once told me that Principal Wang was an impotent man.

Han Fei put the manuscript in an envelope, intending to bring it to his subordinates in the editorial department the next day.

From now on, the entire magazine will need to transform towards this type of publication.

……

On the street, a young man with a punk hairstyle walked past Han Fei.

When they arrived at the traffic light intersection, even though the light was green, pedestrians hesitated to cross the road, and cars on the street seemed to ignore the red light and drove through on their own.

At the traffic lights, more and more pedestrians gathered, and only after a large wave had formed did they cross the road together like a tide.

Han Fei sensed the unique atmosphere of this era. His eyes were cloudy, with faint bags at the corners, and his eyeballs were bloodshot. He had been staying up late for the past few days, smoking pack after pack of cigarettes and drinking bottle after bottle of alcohol, so his mental state was naturally not good. He parked his old Xiali on the side of the road near the publishing house, turned off the engine, got out, and walked into the publishing house with his briefcase.

……

Zhang Meimei is a veteran of the publishing house, having worked her way up from Han Fei's father's generation. She is 35 years old this year and has elderly parents and young children to care for.

Her salary was the highest in the entire publishing house, reaching 2000 yuan in 2004. She was also the easiest to persuade, as she had a deep affection for the publishing house, and if the publishing house went bankrupt, it would not be easy for her to find another job as a magazine editor.

This position is so limited that it's difficult for anyone to fill it unless the person in charge leaves.

Han Fei sought her out alone.

"Boss, is there something you need?" Zhang Meimei asked.

Han Fei sighed: "Sister Mei, you're probably aware of the publishing house's situation lately. There are still 2 monthly magazines piling up in the warehouse. To be honest, the magazine publishing house is on the verge of collapse."

Zhang Meimei frowned and pressed, "Just how difficult is the situation right now? How much longer can we hold out?"

Han Fei took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly, and handed over the file folder: "Sister Mei, take a look at this first. I'm planning to go all in and transform the entire magazine."

Zhang Meimei took a deep look at Han Fei and realized that he was in a very bad mental state, like a gambler who had nowhere else to turn.

She took the file folder, opened it, and carefully read Han Fei's manuscript. After reading it, she exclaimed softly, "This manuscript is quite interesting. It's somewhere between 'Story Collection' and literary fiction, slightly more sophisticated than 'Story Collection,' yet more accessible than pure literary stories, and it even carries a hint of Shanxi rural style."

The subtext of the term "shadow of Shanxi rural school" is that it is written in a somewhat vulgar style.

There is a group of writers in Shanxi who specialize in rural literature. Their works are often filled with pornography and violence, similar to the content of the original novel "White Deer Plain" before its revision.

Han Fei's novels were inspired by the style of later new media, so it's inevitable that they would touch on certain aspects.

Han Fei explained, "Sister Mei, I've been thinking about this carefully lately. Why are other magazines' sales soaring while our Qingniao Magazine's sales are declining? It's because our market overlaps with 'Story Club,' and we simply can't compete with it. So we have to change direction. By the way, do you know about SP?"

Han Fei explained in detail what SP is and how he plans to use SP services to drive traffic.

After listening, Zhang Meimei looked hesitant and conflicted. She had worked at this publishing house for over a decade and had a deeper emotional connection to it than anyone else. She had watched Han Fei grow up, and now that the publishing house had fallen to this state, she felt a deep sense of sorrow.

Zhang Meimei hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'm not exactly well-off either, so I really can't help you much."

Han Fei pursed his lips, knowing that he had achieved his first goal. This was the "opening a window in a broken house" strategy. He first made it seem like he wanted to borrow money, and it would be much easier to bring up the issue of unpaid wages later.

After a two-second silence, he said, "Sister Mei, I'm not here to borrow money from you. To be honest, I only have a little over 40,000 yuan left, which isn't even enough for next month's printing costs, let alone to talk about transforming my business or testing the SP (Special Offers) model."

"So, Sister Mei, I'd like to discuss with you whether we can delay your salary for a few months? Just three months, at most three months. During these three months, I'll try to raise the money and make one last attempt. If that still doesn't work... then the publishing house will have to go bankrupt, and I'll sell everything I own to pay you back the salary I owe you."

Zhang Meimei breathed a slight sigh of relief when she heard it wasn't a loan. As for the three months' salary arrears, although she, as a woman, also had family pressures, the pressure was less than that of a man who had to support his family alone.

Besides, she had already politely declined once, and it was really hard to refuse again now, especially considering their years of relationship. So she nodded and said, "If it's just three months, I'll take the gamble with you."