Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

At nine o'clock in the morning, Han Fei notified the editorial staff to attend a brief morning meeting in the conference room. The meeting mainly covered work reports, work arrangements for the coming week, and welcoming new colleagues.

Zhang Ruiyi called to tell Han Fei that she might not be able to come to the publishing house until this afternoon because Zhang Qiming needed to arrive at the airport at 10 o'clock to attend the quarterly strategy meeting at the Kyoto Mobile headquarters. Although the company had sent a driver to take Zhang Qiming to the airport, he still hoped that Zhang Ruiyi would take him.

Zhang Ruiyi also said that Zhang Qiming was particularly concerned about Han Fei's project, and after waking up in the morning, he kept talking about reporting the case of new business growth to the headquarters.

"Please thank Uncle Zhang for me," Han Fei said. "Also, you don't actually need to rush over this afternoon. I have an appointment with Mr. Ma to visit his venue."

"Then I'm definitely going," Zhang Ruiyi said.

Why?

"I have to keep an eye on you, just in case..."

"What if what?"

"What if Mr. Ma arranges some special services for you? Okay, I believe you're not that kind of person. But... didn't you say you wanted to do scene segmentation? A woman's perspective is also important."

Han Fei couldn't help but chuckle: "Alright then, come over early this afternoon, and we'll go together."

He hung up the phone and walked into the conference room, where all the attendees had already arrived.

Han Fei shook hands with his two new colleagues.

Zhou Tao was a tall, thin young man wearing black-rimmed glasses. His hair was a bit long, covering half of his forehead. He wore a faded plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a section of his skinny, bony arm.

His hand was practically a claw; it was so large that it completely enveloped Han Fei's hand when they shook hands.

Han Fei introduced himself, trying to pull his hand back. Han Fei disliked physical contact with men, especially since shaking hands with Zhou Tao was almost like a hug. But Zhou Tao held Han Fei's hand tightly, as if his life hung in the balance.

"Hello, President Han. I really like the direction your publishing house is taking now, and I hope to learn something here," Zhou Tao said, his pronunciation quite clear.

Another new colleague, Sun Yue, gave a very ordinary first impression. She wasn't ugly; in fact, she looked a bit like a doll from a New Year's painting, but that was mostly because her face was a little chubby, and her features and body were quite petite.

Her most striking feature was her paleness; her skin and lips were completely bloodless, which reminded Han Fei of the 20,000 unsold magazines that had been piling up in the publisher's warehouse—the printing plant had reduced the paper weight too much to save money, resulting in each one looking pale and malnourished.

However, unlike the unsold magazine, Han Fei felt that he would forget Sun Yue's appearance if he turned his head away for a few seconds. But she probably wouldn't mind, because her self-introduction was vague, and she immediately withdrew her damp little hand after Han Fei had just grasped it.

"Lu Hai said you still have a few author resources with you?" Han Fei asked with a smile.

"Hmm," Sun Yue said in an almost whispered voice. Her gaze swept over Han Fei for a moment, then she immediately lowered her head, her face flushed red to the roots of her hair. "There are a few authors with whom we've always worked well, and we get along quite well. If the offer is right here, they'd be willing to come over."

"Okay, Lu Hai will discuss the compensation with you in detail later," Han Fei said, clapping his hands and walking to the whiteboard. "Alright everyone, let's start the meeting. Lu Hai, you go first."

Lu Hai opened his notebook and cleared his throat: "Regarding author contracts, we've signed 21 authors so far, 15 with first-level contracts, 5 with second-level contracts, and one with a third-level contract. Then there's the manuscript reserve. We received 34 new manuscripts in the last two days, bringing the total to 67 new manuscripts. Of those, 46 are ready for publication, so our current reserve is 151 manuscripts."

"Okay," Han Fei said, looking at Sun Yue, "Sun Yue, what kind of authors have you brought along?"

Sun Yue coughed and said, "Most of them are urban romance novels. There are authors who specialize in writing about mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts, and others who specialize in workplace themes. One author used to work in a private company for seven or eight years, and his writing about office struggles is very realistic. There's also an author who writes about midlife crises; he's in his forties himself, and his writing is particularly insightful."

"Did you bring the manuscript?"

"I brought it." Sun Yue took a folder out of her bag, stood up and handed it to Han Fei. "These three articles are what they wrote recently. The editor-in-chief can take a look and see if they are suitable for us to move in our direction."

Han Fei took the folder and quickly flipped through a few pages. The first story was about a conflict between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law over childcare, starting with an argument, then going back to a grudge from three years ago, then to the present, finally concluding with a seemingly reconciliation that actually concealed a deeper motive. The second story was about office politics, how a deputy director was manipulated by his subordinates and driven step by step to a dead end. The third story was about a middle-aged man who, after losing his job, dared not tell his family, pretending to go to work every day and sitting in the park all day, until one day his daughter caught him...

"Hmm, not bad." Han Fei handed the manuscript back to Sun Yue. "Have them try writing it in our current style."

Sun Yue nodded.

"Sister Mei, tell me about the situation with offline channels," Han Fei said.

"I spent three days visiting 27 different outlets. They were in bookstores, newsstands, and supermarket shelves. The situation is better than I expected."

"How so?"

Zhang Meimei chuckled a few times.

Han Fei thought he saw a hint of smugness on the face of this mature and composed older woman.

"In the past, we had to beg people to stock our products, and they weren't even guaranteed good placement. This time is different. When I showed them our online data, the distributors' eyes lit up. Five outlets signed purchase agreements on the spot, and thirteen others said they would try distributing the magazines there once they were printed. As for the entry fee, I discussed it with them as you suggested. Most agreed to a discount, and three even waived the entry fee, saying they just needed us to reserve a spot for them on the back cover of the magazine with the words 'Available in Our Store.'"

"That's great," Han Fei said with a smile. "They get free publicity, and we get free admission—it's a win-win situation. How many copies were signed?"

"The initial interest totals around 8,000 copies," Zhang Meimei said. "This is before we've even seen the actual product. Once the sample copies are released, the price should be able to rise further."

"Hmm, that's a good result. How about the printing side?"

Chen Jianguo looked up: "Last week I contacted the printing factory we used to work with. The factory manager was quite enthusiastic when he heard it was us. I asked about the price. If we print 10,000 copies, the cost per copy is 2.3 yuan, which is 0.2 yuan lower than the previous estimate of 2.5 yuan. If we print 20,000 copies, we can reduce it to 2.1 yuan. They guarantee that the quality will be the same as before, and they will use the same group of workers."

"Why is it so cheap?" Han Fei asked.

Chen Jianguo smiled and said, "The factory manager said that the print media market is not good right now, and nearly half of their machines are idle. As long as we can cooperate in the long term, he is willing to give us a preferential price to help us get things back on track."

Han Fei hesitated for two seconds: "Okay, let's use them. But we need to keep a close eye on the sample copies. After the proofs are printed, we should have our own people review them first, so we don't discover any problems after they're printed."

"Understood, President."

Han Fei looked at Cheng Xu, but before he could speak, Cheng Xu smiled and reported that the coordination with Boss Zhou was going smoothly, with nearly 100,000 new phone numbers being added to the database every day.

Han Fei nodded, summarized the meeting, encouraged everyone to continue their efforts, and then adjourned the meeting.