A writer has arrived in the Chinese entertainment industry.

The weather in Shanghai in October was much more comfortable than in Chongqing. The clear, crisp autumn air made Su Liu's mind much clearer.

As I exited Shanghai Station, I heard two "beep beeps" from across the street. A white Volkswagen Tiguan was parked on the other side of the road. The woman in the driver's seat was dressed like a sophisticated urban lady; she was An Wenxiu, the head housekeeper of "Fuxing Culture".

"Sister Wenxiu." Su Liu jogged over and got into the passenger seat.

An Wenxiu looked at the young boss with dissatisfaction, "You really are living a leisurely life."

"Hehehe," Su Liu chuckled a few times, then immediately admitted his mistake, "So, what would I do without you?"

"Come on, what were you doing in Yuzhou?"

On the way back to the company, Su Liu told An Wenxiu the whole story of the Yuzhou incident. The two had worked seamlessly together for three years and had long trusted each other. Su Liu was lazy and had a youthful spirit, so he often did things haphazardly. He relied entirely on An Wenxiu to keep him on track, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that An Wenxiu was Su Liu's external brain.

"So, you rented a place for her near the school, bought her clothes and a phone, and then came straight back?"

"Yeah, what else is there to do?"

An Wenxiu looked at her with disappointment, "She's just a young girl, what she needs most right now is the company of her family, why don't you bring her to Shanghai?"

"You think I didn't mention it? It's just that she refused to come."

"Nonsense, who wouldn't want a better life?"

"Then you're wrong. Sometimes the bonds between people are beyond imagination."

"I think you just find it troublesome."

"I didn't!"

"Hmph, you probably started out thinking 'What's it to me?' and just wanted to walk away, right?"

"Hey, Wenxiu, are you trying to morally blackmail me?"

"I don't have time to deal with your business."

The car sped along and finally stopped in front of a small building on Huashan Road, which is where "Fusu Culture" is located.

Back in An Wenxiu's office, Su Liu stretched and collapsed onto the sofa.

"I'm exhausted."

"Xiao Liu," An Wenxiu called from outside the door, "bring those social security registration documents over for General Manager Su to sign."

Su Liu twisted his upper body like a catfish, looking at An Wenxiu as she walked in and asked, "Anyway, again?"

"We've hired a few new people to handle localization, and also an international PR person."

"International PR?"

"They're the people who help you manage your overseas social media presence and cultivate your image as a great writer."

"Oh," he gave An Wenxiu a thumbs up, "professional."

A little while later, Xiao Liu came in with several documents. Su Liu took them, glanced at them briefly, and then signed them. As Xiao Liu was about to leave, An Wenxiu called her back.

"Xiao Liu, please inform all departments in the company that everyone will have a day off tomorrow."

Xiao Liu's eyes immediately lit up. "Really? Mr. An?"

"It's true, of course! We're celebrating our great author's single book surpassing three million copies in global sales."

"Alright! I'll head out now." After saying that, Xiao Liu didn't forget to congratulate Su Liu, "Congratulations on the great success of Teacher Su's work!"

Su Liu was also pleasantly surprised after hearing this.

"Three million? 'The Wife-Hard Family'?"

"yes."

By 2011, Su Liu had already gained considerable fame in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan with "The Elephant Head Labyrinth," "The Mystery of the Gymnasium," and "13·67." Thanks to An Wenxiu's efforts, English versions were also published through Penguin Books, but sales in English-speaking countries were mediocre. Over the years, the three works had sold just over one million copies worldwide.

At this critical juncture, he desperately needed a new work to penetrate the global market, so he chose Kotaro Isaka's previous work, "The Wife-Hard Family." This book is the third installment in Isaka's Assassin series, which boasts the highest commercial value among all of Isaka's works and enjoys a wide readership in Europe and America.

If that were all, sales wouldn't have reached three million.

All of this is thanks to the high-ranking official An Wenxiu.

First, she partnered with Penguin Publishing to release the English and German versions, while in France she approached Hachette Group, a powerhouse in the thriller and suspense novel genre. Then, she took Su Liu to the United States to find TMG, a world-class copyright agency, authorizing them to handle the distribution of the novels in several countries with less common languages.

Following that came overseas book tours, appearances at book fairs like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair, as well as various literary festivals and bookstore events. Over the past two years, Su Liu has been constantly traveling to different countries.

She also shares her creative process, book reviews, and personal life on social media. This is why An Wenxiu hired an international PR person; Su Liu now has over two million Twitter followers, and it's impossible to manage without dedicated personnel.

The biggest benefit over the past two years has actually been establishing connections with booksellers in many countries. The reason why it was necessary to find a copyright agent was that booksellers in various countries almost only accept manuscripts from agents, and it is very difficult for editors to see manuscripts submitted by authors themselves.

These senior editors receive hundreds or even thousands of manuscripts every day and simply don't have time to read them all. Therefore, they trust their long-term partner agencies more, since these agencies have already helped with the first round of screening.

Furthermore, copyright contracts in various languages ​​are incredibly complex, and you have no idea what traps might be hidden within them. Therefore, you can only find an agent.

Over the past two years, An Wenxiu has also been recruiting to build her own localization department. As long as she has the ability to produce sample chapters and outlines in various languages, she can save on translation fees, which constitute the largest part of the agency fee.

Furthermore, it allows for market segmentation, enabling companies to control the regions where they have distribution channels and then delegate other regions to agents.

An Wenxiu, with an unknown source of confidence, treated Su Liu almost like J.K. Rowling.

Curtis Brown's enduring popularity is largely due to the Harry Potter IP, and the revival of Chinese culture also relies entirely on the export capabilities of the Suzhou culture.

Fortunately, Su Liu had a lot of knowledge in his mind, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to support this whole operation.

"By the way, what did the Phoenix Society say about the film/television adaptation?"

"Editor-in-Chief Liu still feels that original scripts are risky. I guess it's because the two Tiny Times movies released this year were very successful, which made him feel that a fan base is still necessary."

Su Liu rolled her eyes. "Please, what kind of fan base do I have in China?"

To be honest, although Su Liu has gained international fame, he is really just an ordinary person in China. The restrictions on detective novels in China are too great.

For example, writers like Yu Hua and Mo Yan—even if you haven't read their works, you've at least heard of them, because schools and official media spare no expense in promoting them. Detective novels, however, don't receive the same treatment. In China, they've always been considered subculture or genre fiction, not worthy of serious consideration. Even if a novel is exceptionally well-written, it doesn't enjoy the same level of recognition.

Science fiction has its own Galaxy Award, while mystery novels don't even have a decent award, which speaks volumes about their status.

Domestic mystery novelists are almost polarized: some focus solely on designing plots and sensational storylines, completely abandoning literary creation; others merely wear the guise of suspense, ultimately aiming for serious literature.

When Shimada Soji founded the Chinese Mystery Award, he wrote a complaint in the preface of one of the winners' books: "I don't know if it's because of the translation, but I can't see any literary creation in these novels."

That couldn't be more blunt.

"If they don't want to take the risk, then we'll do it ourselves."

With global sales of three million copies of "The Wife-Hard Family," bringing in at least five million US dollars in revenue for the company, Su Liu now speaks with great confidence.

Hearing his arrogant and ignorant remarks, An Wenxiu sighed helplessly.

"Forget about doing it yourself. If the Phoenix Society won't do it, we can find someone else to collaborate with. Speaking of which, when we started the company, you specifically requested to expand the business scope to include film and television production. You must have had this idea in mind all along, right?"

"Of course."

"You want to be an artist manager too?"

"Yes, that's what I think. Whether it's making a movie or a TV series, the actors' salaries always take up the majority of the cost. If we can use the actors under our own management, we can save some of that cost."

"Oh," An Wenxiu raised an eyebrow, "you actually have some foresight."

"Hey, standing in front of you is the 'demigod of the mystery world,' what did you think?"

"A demigod in the mystery genre"—that's the title Kadokawa Shoten bestowed upon Su Liu during their promotional campaign in Japan. These little idiots are just so exaggerated; if it weren't for the true god of the golden age of classic mystery writing looming over them, they'd probably blow Su Liu's name to the heavens.

Besides this, in the island nation, Su Liu has another title: "A beautiful young man who appears once in four thousand years in the literary world!"