It was in the Complex Characters Culture Publishing Company the next day.
“The manager looks a little different today.”
“Isn’t he always worrying about the future of the publishing company? To sign an A-list writer, he made calls every day and was so busy. But the writer still refused to sign with our publishing company.”
“Can he not be worried? The profits of our publishing company have decreased year by year. We have already been in the red this year. There are still many books in the warehouse that have not been sold. If we can’t sign the best-selling works, the publishing company will be doomed.”
“It’s very hard for our manager.”
“It had been very hard before and he always frowned, but today he is completely different. He just started to smile after arriving at the company, and it is rare for him to wear a suit and tidy up his appearance. Is there any good news in our publishing company?”
“What good news could it be? Yesterday, the manager inexplicably asked us to clean the office up. Judging from the current situation, it couldn’t be about best-selling works. I guess Mr. Zhang wanted to sell the company, so he asked us to clean it up so that he could sell it for a good price?”
In the publishing company, employees were gossiping.
In the manager’s office, Zhang Xingjie was sitting at his desk with a look of excitement. He watched the time while drinking water, and looked a little nervous.
Although he was in a high position, he was nervous at this critical moment of the publishing company.
It was because that the person he was about to meet was someone who really had a great impact on the future of the publishing company. He knew very well that if the talk went smoothly today, the publishing company would survive, and even continue to develop better in the future. After all, the person he was going to meet was Fang Qiu. If Fang Qiu could join them, then other A-list writers would definitely regard their company as their preferred publisher.
Fang Qiu was so popular now.
A-list writers and even A-list celebrities wanted to take advantage of Fang Qiu’s popularity now, which showed how much influence Fang Qiu had.
It could be said that Fang Qiu was now the only hope that the entire Complex Characters Culture Publishing Company could see. As long as they cooperated with Fang Qiu, the publishing company would completely get out of trouble.
But if they failed, the publishing company would be doomed.
For Fang Qiu, choosing a publishing company was an easy task, but for Complex Characters Culture Publishing Company, Fang Qiu was their only hope that they must hold on to.
Of course, only the manager, Zhang Xingjie, knew it. It was nine o’clock sharp in the morning.
Under the suspicious gazes of all the employees, Zhang Xingjie walked out of the office excitedly, and walked down to the first floor of the office building with a smile on his face.
Within a few minutes, a private car stopped in front of the office building.
A man wearing a mask got out of the car and walked over.
It was Fang Qiu!
“Hello there.” He walked to Zhang Xingjie, pulled down his mask under his chin, reached out his hand to Zhang Xingjie, and said, “I checked your publishing company on the Internet.”
“Hello!” Zhang Xingjie’s eyes suddenly lit up when he saw Fang Qiu and he immediately shook hands with him with excitement, and said, “I’m sorry you had to come all the way here. I should have gone to see you.”
“I haven’t been in contact with any publishing company before, so I want to stop by and have a look,” Fang Qiu said.
“Okay, please go this way.” Zhang Xingjie nodded, and quickly invited Fang Qiu upstairs.
After walking into the elevator, Fang Qiu took off the mask and put it in his trouser pocket.
When everyone was wondering what was going on, Zhang Xingjie suddenly came up with Fang Qiu.
The employees in the publishing company were stunned to see the visitor.
They stared at Fang Qiu in shock as he walked into the manager’s office.
They were dead silent.
When there came the sound of the door of the manager’s office being closed, they finally came to their sense.
“Was that handsome man Fang Qiu just now?” A female employee turned her head and asked the colleague next to her in disbelief.
“It looks like him.” In an instant, the entire publishing company buzzed.
“I think it’s him too!”
“I can’t believe it. Fang Qiu came to our publishing company?”
“It’s him. It seems that it is really him!”
“He is so handsome. I wasn’t sure it was him! I can’t believe I’ve just seen Fang Qiu so close!”
“It’s really Fang Qiu!”
At this time, all the employees became excited, but soon they were confused.
“But, why did Fang Qiu come to our company? We are a publishing company!”
“Could it be…Fang Qiu is going to publish a book???”
“Wow! It’s really possible! No wonder the manager asked us to clean the office up yesterday, and smiled today. It turns out that he knew Fang Qiu was coming!!!”
This inference instantly brought the lively atmosphere of the entire publishing company to another level.
Everyone unconsciously thought of the hot topic about Fang Qiu on social media. With his current popularity, if he was really going to publish a book, it would become a hit!
The book was sure to sell like hot cakes!
If it was true, then their publishing company would be saved! They would be saved.
Everyone was very excited, but they still suppressed the excitement. After all, nothing had been revealed yet.
Maybe Fang Qiu just paid a visit to their publishing company, and he might not actually publish books in their company. Although they knew it, they could not help but hope that he would publish a book. They kept peeking at the manager’s office, and they weren’t even in the mood for work.
In the manager’s office, Zhang Xingjie said, “This is a bag of good tea in my private collection, but I’m afraid I am not very good at making tea, otherwise I would definitely have made a pot of good tea for you.”
After making a cup of tea for Fang Qiu in the antique teacup, Zhang Xingjie looked at Fang Qiu and said immediately, “Mr. Fang, since you have read the proposal sent to you by our publishing company, then I will be honest with you.”
“Thank you.” Fang Qiu took the tea, smiled, and responded, “Please go ahead.”
“Since you came to me, you must have certain ideas. I don’t know if you intend to write an autobiography or prose, everything is all right in terms of the remuneration if you agree.”
Zhang Xingjie forced himself to calm down, but his heart was pounding involuntarily.
“You must publish a book, please! The fate of our publishing company depends on you!”
“Let’s talk about it later.” Fang Qiu smiled slightly, took a sip of tea, and said, “This time, I have an idea. I am going to find someone to write a few books.”
“Find someone to write books?” Zhang Xingjie was surprised because he hadn’t expected to hear this answer.
“What books would you like to have others to write?”
“Six books, Biography of Sun Simiao, Biography of Li Shizhen, Biography of Hua Tuo, Biography of Zhang Zhongjing, Biography of Confucius and Biography of Mencius,” Fang Qiu said.
On the plane to the capital, he had thought about it carefully. Confucius and Mencius had been included because Fang Qiu felt that children in these mountainous areas should also learn about the great stories of Huaxia’s most famous sage masters to build up their national pride since childhood and promote Huaxia’s traditional culture.
“What?” Zhang Xingjie looked at Fang Qiu, dumbfounded.
What was he going to do!
What was his purpose?
Although Zhang Xingjie didn’t understand, he still said truthfully, “The books you mentioned are actually available in our publishing company, but they’re not selling well.”
Speaking of this, he smiled wryly and said, “As you know, young people now like to read online novels, and students need extracurricular tutoring books or exercise books. Even if many people often look up this kind of books, they will only check the pages they need online, and they will not spend money to buy them. Now, these books are no different from scraps. What do you want these books for?”
“I’ll donate them.” Fang Qiu smiled and said, “If you have all the books I mentioned, I hope you can print one million copies of each and donate them all.”
Hearing his words, Zhang Xingjie was so shocked that he almost slipped to the ground.
How…how many?
A million copies of each?
“What, what are you going to do?” Looking at Fang Qiu, Zhang Xingjie asked with a shocked look, “Do you know how much money it will cost roughly if you do what you say?”
“I do not.” Fang Qiu shook his head and said directly, “You name a price!”
“All right, I’ll do the calculations for you.” Zhang Xingjie smiled, not intending to hide anything, and said to Fang Qiu, “Now the books are available, and the cost of a book is about 5 yuan. Of course, if it is pirated, it will be very cheap, but we can’t do so, can we?”
“There are six books that you just mentioned.”
“One million copies of each means a total of six million copies.”
“Based on the cost price of 5 yuan per book, at least 30 million yuan is required. This is not a small amount of money!”
Hearing his words, Fang Qiu nodded lightly, and said directly, “Okay.”
“What?” Zhang Xingjie was taken aback.
He was still expecting Fang Qiu to give up his idea.
He was waiting for Fang Qiu to change his mind and write his own book!
Yet Fang Qiu agreed without hesitation.
“Why did he so readily agree?
“I didn’t hear it wrong, right?” Zhang Xingjie wondered.
Zhang Xingjie asked with surprise and a wry smile, “Do you really want to do so?” Although these books were available in the warehouse of the publishing company, the reserves were certainly not enough. If one million copies were printed for each volume, large funds would be needed to support it.
Zhang Xingjie wanted to take this order, and the order was timely helpful to the company. But he felt that Fang Qiu would definitely not be able to afford it, so he thought that Fang Qiu would change his mind.
Unexpectedly, Fang Qiu nodded directly.
“I’m sure I do.”
“I need copies for children under the age of 15. How soon can you print it?”
“You really want to do so?” Zhang Xingjie asked in surprise again but still did not digest it.
“Yes.” Fang Qiu nodded affirmatively.
Now Zhang Xingjie was immediately excited. Although he had failed to persuade Fang Qiu to write his autobiography, this was also a big deal!
Even if Fang Qiu didn’t write an autobiography, this big order could bring in millions! In any case, he must satisfy Fang Qiu on this order.
After all, Fang Qiu hadn’t decided whether to write an autobiography or not. If the order was completed and the two parties cooperated happily, maybe Fang Qiu would really be interested in writing an autobiography.
“Good.” Excited, Zhang Xingjie paused again and said, “Now, the books in our warehouse are all for adults. Of course, we can change it according to your requirements. It is relatively easy to change, but if all these books are to be printed…”
He hesitated for a while.
Zhang Xingjie made up his mind and said, “It will take about half a month!” For a publishing company, it was terribly short.
It was generally impossible to print six million books in such a short period of time. But to close the deal perfectly with Fang Qiu, Zhang Xingjie planned to find several more printing houses at the same time and work overtime to print and modify the books. Anyway, one minute should not be wasted. The big order must be perfectly fulfilled.
He could see that Fang Qiu wanted these books very urgently.
With that, Zhang Xingjie looked at Fang Qiu expectantly.
“OK, alright.” Fang Qiu also felt that the time sounded reasonable, and the manager was sincere, so he immediately nodded and said, “Let’s sign the contract.”
Zhang Xingjie froze at first, but he immediately felt that the whole world suddenly became so lovely and he was so happy.
Such a big order had presented itself and it would be signed quickly. It was exciting.
“Okay, I will notify the Legal Department immediately to prepare the contract.”
Excited, Zhang Xingjie responded, then immediately got up and left the office.
