Chapter 571: Signing A Contract
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian received a message from Masanori Suzuhara and was finally relieved.
He could figure out how difficult this matter was because the automatic dog washing machine company had no business in China. And unlike a smart toilet seat or a rice cook, an individual could not bring an automatic dog washing machine from Japan to China…Money was not the problem, but the transportation and shipping fees were the issues here. If not because that company happened to have brought some automatic dog washing machines to China to participate in the show, Zhang Zian couldn’t even get samples from the show. The details of the voltage differences in China and Japan mentioned by Masanori Suzuhara were also very good. He hadn’t visited Japan before, so he did not know that the standard voltage in Japan was different from that of China. When the machines were delivered to his shop, it would be tragic if he directly inserted the plugs into the power sockets.
When the company agreed to sell the automatic dog washing machines to Zhang Zian, the next step was to talk about some details. Zhang Zian would try his best to close the deal. After all, this was the seller’s market, and as the buyer, Zhang Zian must pay for the shipping fees in China.
“Eeek!”
Pi stuck its head out of the stairwell and gestured to him.
There was no customer in the shop currently. Lu Yiyun was drawing. Wang Qian and Li Kun were playing games on their mobile phones in various positions. The elves were either watching TV, playing, or taking a nap. Zhang Zian followed Pi and went to the second floor.
“What’s the matter, Pi?”
“Eeek!”
Pi excitedly pulled the lower hem of his sweater and pointed to the living room, motioning him to go there and look.
The laptop on the desk was open, and the screen was displaying the platform for the authors on the Qidian Chinese website. A new short message sent from the website was displayed on the center of the webpage. “Greetings, author. Your work has passed the review and has reached the standard to sign a contract. Please wait patiently for the editor in charge to contact you. At that time, please indicate the title of your book and your name.”
The QQ number of the editor in charge was also given at the end of the short message.
“It means that you can sign a contract with Qidian regarding your novel? Great, Pi! I know you can do it!” Zhang Zian said excitedly.
Pi was also overjoyed, jumping up and down in the room, dancing, and shouting, just like an ordinary monkey.
“It’s not easy…” This was the second thing that had happened to Zhang Zian today that deserved celebrating. He looked at the ecstatic Pi and was sincerely happy for it.
Since Pi began writing the novel, it had risen earlier than the roosters and slept much later than the dogs. Every morning when Zhang Zian woke up, he could see the vague fluorescent light from the computer screen. And every night, after everyone had gone to bed, he could occasionally hear the slight page turning sounds and Pi scratching its hair in the living room. He knew that Pi must have encountered some problems and had been struggling on how to write the plots in the novel.
The novel was not completely fictitious, but Pi did not copy its life in the pet shop into its novel either. Instead, it would choose and modify some aspects from real life, and even adjust the timelines of certain events to better serve the plots in its novel. Writing the novel would be very easy if Pi just copied everything from its real life. But in that case, no one would read its novel because it was not a novel but a diary.
Every day from the morning, while other elves were eating, Pi was thinking about the plots; while other elves were playing, Pi was typing; while other elves were taking a nap, Pi was looking up information in the untitled book. Even in the dead of night, when it was about to rest in the basket hammock chair, if it suddenly had a good idea, it would immediately get up and record the plot briefly in its document in case it would forget the next day.
The harder Pi worked, the more Zhang Zian worried that its efforts and diligence would not be rewarded. The rate of authors signing contracts with Qidian website was 1/9. Now that Pi had received the message to sign a contract, which meant that it had defeated the other eight authors. How could he not be happy for it?
“Eeek?”
Pi pointed at the QQ number at the end of the short message, not knowing what the number meant. For these minor issues, Pi tended to ask Zhang Zian directly rather than looking them up in the untitled book.
“Oh, QQ is an instant messaging tool. You need to communicate with the editor in charge via this. Come, let me teach you how to use it.”
He sat next to Pi to explain how to use QQ to add friends and chat with them.
Pi learnt how to use QQ in no time. It entered the QQ number of the editor in charge, and then clicked to add him as a friend.
A moment later, an icon with the avatar of a bald monk appeared in Pi’s QQ contact list.
Pi typed in the QQ chat box: Greetings, editor in charge, I am the author of Pet King, nice to meet you.
It was the first time for Pi to chat with people, a stranger even, on QQ, so it chose its words cautiously. After sending the message, it asked Zhang Zian by gesturing: Will he find out that I am a monkey?
“No,” Zhang Zian laughed, “How could he find out? There was a witty remark before – ‘You never know if you’re chatting with a person or a dog on the Internet.’ And certainly, the editor could not tell whether he is chatting with a human or a monkey…What’s going on, are you worried about people finding out that you are a monkey?”
“Eeek!”
Pi typed: It will be very troublesome if they know, right?
“That’s right.” Zhang Zian admitted that there would be a sensation if people knew that Pet King was a novel written by a monkey.
After a while, the bald monk sent a smile emoji.
“Eeek?”
Pi scratched its head, not understanding what this expression meant.
Zhang Zian explained, “This means that he has received your message. Pi, don’t worry. I heard that the editors are very busy because each editor is in charge of hundreds of authors. You just need to set your mind at rest and continue writing your book.”
Pi repeatedly nodded, and then looked at the interface of QQ for a few more times. After confirming that the other party did not speak again, it minimized the QQ interface.
“By the way, Pi, how many readers have added your novel to their libraries now?” Zhang Zian asked. This number indicated how many people were reading Pi’s novels.
Pi suddenly became dejected. It opened the work management section of the website to let Zhang Zian see.
At a glance of the number, Zhang Zian who was quite happy before became extremely upset.
Add to Library: 27
Pi had been uploading more than 50,000 words on the website, and it had written about 20 chapters, but only 27 people were reading its novel, which meant that on average, the novel could attract one reader per chapter. Besides, these readers might have only read the beginning of the book and added it to their library but have not read the latest chapters.
As evidence, there was no comment in the comment section.
Zhang Zian could not think of any useful words to comfort Pi. All he could do was pat it on the back to encourage it. In the past, he even scorned people when he saw at the Wang Haige Forum that 40 readers had added some novel to their libraries when 50,000 words of that novel had been uploaded, because he believed that when Pi had written so many words, over 40 readers would definitely have put Pi’s novel in their libraries. Nevertheless, the reality had smacked him ruthlessly in the face.
According to the instructions from the website, Zhang Zian used his ID to help Pi fill out the contract.
Now, he needed to go out, print the contract and mail it.
