It didn't snow heavily on New Year's Day. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground that melted away that afternoon.
Going to work the next day after the holiday, Tao Yushu drove Crown to work for the first time.
Half a month after buying the car, she also practiced with Lin Chaoyang for half a month, and her driving skills have gradually become proficient.
The white crown appeared downstairs in Building 52, Dongsiba Tiao. It was time to go to work. After Tao Yushu got out of the car, he immediately attracted the attention of his colleagues.
"Ouch! Yushu, when did you buy the car?"
"I bought it a few days ago."
Tao Yushu had already prepared herself mentally when she drove to work, but after meeting her, she was still struggling to cope with the enthusiastic and curious attitude of her colleagues.
Within a short time, she and her white crown were surrounded by colleagues. Everyone was asking questions, including some people from the Theater Association who worked in the same building, who also came to join in the fun.
If nothing else, this white crown will become the hottest topic in Building 52, Dongsiba Tiao in recent days.
After finally waiting for Tao Yushu to enter the office, the enthusiasm of his colleagues gradually dissipated.
After entering working mode, she reviewed the manuscript without any distractions until noon. After lunch, she stood at the window and looked out to relieve the fatigue of her eyes.
Then I saw a few young men gathered around the white crown parked downstairs, and everyone seemed to be discussing something enthusiastically.
"From now on, your crown will become the iconic item of our editorial department!"
A voice suddenly came to Tao Yushu's ear. She knew without looking that it was Wang Fu, the eldest sister in the editorial department, teasing her. Tao Yushu responded easily.
At this time, other colleagues also came over. In addition to the car, everyone was more curious about Lin Chaoyang's royalty income.
In the second half of this year, the issue of the royalty payment system caused a stir in the literary world, and Lin Chaoyang was once pushed to the forefront by public opinion.
The popularity of public opinion has passed in recent months, but the reading craze set off by "Crossing Guandong" has never passed.
When the novel was published, it showed a popularity far exceeding that of ordinary literary works, which naturally made Lin Chaoyang the focus of everyone's attention again.
"I heard that the sales volume of "Crossing Guandong" has reached three million copies. Yushu, is this true?"
"It's not that exaggerated. It's only more than two million copies."
"More than two million copies! That's a lot. It's only been published for a few months! At this rate, even five million copies won't be able to stop it!"
"No wonder you two bought a car. The royalties Chaoyang received this time must be at least 100,000, right?"
When colleagues talked about the issue of royalties, Tao Yushu always pretended not to hear, and everyone understood her mentality. This kind of thing would definitely not be publicized on the stage, but this did not prevent everyone from discussing it with great interest.
A group of people used their fingers to calculate Lin Chaoyang's royalty income. Some said he could earn hundreds of thousands, and some said he could earn hundreds of thousands. Because they didn't know the royalty rate, everyone could only rely on guessing, and the guessed figures could be said.
It's very conservative.
This is understandable. After all, in the past, when you were paid based on thousand words, your novel would only cost tens of thousands of yuan if you wrote a million words and sold millions of copies.
Everyone knows that after implementing royalty payments, a writer's income will definitely increase, but no one can say how much it will increase specifically.
To sum it up in a simple sentence: poverty limits imagination.
Tao Yushu laughed inwardly as he listened to the discussion among his colleagues. What would their expressions be like if they knew that Chaoyang received 720,000 yuan in its first royalty settlement?
If calculated based on the royalties from the entire book, this figure would be even more exaggerated. Lin Chaoyang's income is likely to exceed 2 million yuan.
While Tao Yushu was thinking wildly, everyone's topic had shifted from "How much royalties can Lin Chaoyang receive" to "Should the publishing house implement a royalty payment system?"
Whether a writer gets royalties or gets paid for a thousand words, it has nothing to do with the editor.
Similarly, the amount of royalties or per-thousand-word remuneration paid by a publisher to a writer has nothing to do with the editor.
Anyway, what they get is a dead salary, with at most a little bonus, so everyone discussed it and found that more people supported the royalty payment system.
Because everyone understands that the biggest benefit of the royalty payment system is undoubtedly that it can greatly stimulate the creative enthusiasm of writers, which is definitely helpful to the work of editors and is also good for publishers.
Everyone benefits from each other and everyone gets what they need.
"But this matter is definitely not that simple. Looking at it now, Chaoyang will definitely continue to receive royalties in the future. Who keeps his works popular? The publishing house is also willing to pay this price.
But it is still not easy for ordinary writers to get royalties," Zhu Wei said.
"Nothing is achieved overnight, take your time, at least now you are off to a good start. When I communicate with my writers, they are all grateful to Chaoyang!" Wang Fu said with a smile.
Everyone couldn't help but laugh when they heard this. The implementation of the royalty payment system in China will be of great benefit to the majority of writers.
As the initiator, Lin Chaoyang naturally became the object of gratitude to writers.
In the afternoon, Tao Yushu went to discuss the cover design of the new issue of "Friends of People's Literature" with the bookbinding designer.
Since its launch in August, "Friends of People's Literature" has published five issues. As a supplement to "People's Literature", this publication belongs to the "rich second generation" who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
However, like the rich second generation, although it can enjoy the blessings of the previous generation, it is also shrouded in the halo of the previous generation.
After the first issue of "Friends of People's Literature" was launched, it quickly exceeded the sales mark of 100,000 copies. The sales volume of the subsequent issues of the magazine slowly increased with the passage of time, but seeing the increase made Tao Yushu a little anxious.
For a newly founded regional literary publication, this figure is already outstanding.
But "Friends of People's Literature" is different. It has the four words "People's Literature" on its head, and the sales volume of each issue of Big Brother is stable at between 14 and 50 million copies.
Regardless of sales volume, influence or official status, Tuodu ranks first in the Chinese literary journal industry.
As a supplement, "Friends of People's Literature" has achieved such results, which is really hard to satisfy.
As the executive deputy editor of the supplement, Tao Yushu was naturally anxious when she saw this situation. In order to improve the sales of the supplement, she spent a lot of thought and energy, but the results were never satisfactory.
Coming out of the binding design room, Tao Yushu met Wang Meng who was about to leave. He did not work in the editorial department and would only come over when there was something to do or a meeting.
After a few words of greeting, Wang Meng saw Tao Yushu looking sad when he mentioned the sales volume of the supplement, so he consoled him:
"Yushu, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Although "Friends of People's Literature" bears the name of our "People's Literature", it was founded to cooperate with the Creative Writing Correspondence Center.
There are inherent shortcomings and flaws in the content of the manuscript. It’s good that you can do what you are now, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
After listening to Wang Meng's words, Tao Yushu smiled and said nothing.
From the perspective of a leader, a supplement is naturally insignificant, but this publication was founded by Tao Yushu, so the feelings are naturally different.
If possible, she still hopes that "Friends of People's Literature" can move towards greater success.
But at present, it seems that her hope is too slim. A considerable part of the magazine's contents are lecture notes from correspondence courses and exercises by amateur authors. The audience of such publications is destined to be limited.
Oh, if only I could have the final say!
Tao Yushu suddenly had such an idea in his mind, and then laughed to himself. If he had the final say, he should at least be the editor-in-chief.
For a publication like "People's Literature", you can't become the editor-in-chief if you go through the qualifications step by step.
She put aside the unrealistic thoughts in her mind, returned to the editorial office, packed her things and left work.
Before she returned home, Liang Zuo, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, suddenly ran to Lin Chaoyang's house. As soon as they started chatting, Liang Zuo said that he was getting married at the weekend and invited Lin Chaoyang to attend the wedding when he was free.
"Okay, are you going to get married in silence?" Lin Chaoyang joked with a smile.
Liang Zuo looked silly and happy, and Lin Chaoyang asked again: "Who is the bride from? What does she do?"
"Her family belongs to Yanjing, and she works in Zong J Bureau."
The two chatted for a while, and Liang Zuo had to go to other relatives and friends to inform him about this, so he was ready to leave.
Lin Chaoyang sent him out, just as Tao Yushu came back. Seeing Tao Yushu get off the white crown, Liang Zuo's eyes sparkled, but he was too embarrassed to open his mouth. Between his hesitant eyes, Lin Chaoyang guessed what he was thinking.
"How about I drive this car and follow you to pick up the bride on the weekend?"
Liang Zuo didn't expect Lin Chaoyang to be so considerate. He was happy and said coyly: "Is this...appropriate?"
"If you feel it's inappropriate, forget it." Lin Chaoyang said happily.
"Don't..." Liang Zuo suddenly grabbed Lin Chaoyang's arm, with a pleading look in his eyes, "Master..."
"It's useless to clean up. Where is the bride's house? When will I pick her up?"
Liang Zuo said happily: "You can just come to our house at half past seven."
"Okay, got it."
Two days later, on Sunday morning, Lin Chaoyang drove Crown to the entrance of Cinder Alley. When he entered Liang Zuo's house, he found that many guests had come to the house and courtyard.
Most of them are Liang Zuo's classmates and friends since childhood. The older ones, except for their relatives who don't have time to get up so early to join in the fun, just go along with them.
Many of the people who came today are classmates from the Chinese Department of Yan University in ’77. Lin Chaoyang greeted everyone one by one.
Liang Zuo wore a black suit today. He was in high spirits on happy occasions, and his small eyes were so narrow that he could hardly see them.
After sitting at their house for a while, they went to pick up the bride. Liang Zuo was surrounded by everyone and left the hospital.
Only then did everyone realize that there was a white Crown parked at the entrance of the courtyard, with red fireworks thoughtfully tied on the car. This was a high-end car, and everyone was immediately amazed.
"Liang Zuo, you can do it. You quietly bought a Crown to pick up the bride. Whose car is it?"
The crowd circled around the car in excitement for several times, and only after they finished watching it did they notice that Lin Chaoyang had sat in the driver's seat.
Only then did everyone realize that this was actually Lin Chaoyang's car, and naturally they were amazed again.
Originally, everyone rode bicycles to pick up their brides, but Liang Zuo brought such a magnificent Crown. Isn’t this a break from the masses?
Everyone complained, but they couldn't delay the important event of getting married.
White Crown led the way out of Cinder Alley, followed by a group of more than 20 bicycles. The huge procession of brides and grooms left Dong'anmen Street and headed north along Beiheyan Street.
The bride's home is in Qianliang Hutong. The straight-line distance from Cinder Hutong is less than two kilometers. Even if we take a detour, the distance is only three kilometers.
After a while, the wedding reception team arrived at the woman's home.
The bride's name is Wu Lanqing. She is very beautiful, and her parents are also educated people. She is a good match for the Liang family.
After a lot of red tape, Liang Zuo picked up the bride. As soon as he got in the car, he knew that he was silly and didn't know how to introduce the situation to Wu Lanqing.
It was Wu Lanqing who took the initiative to ask: "Why did you find a car?"
Only then did Liang Zuo react and introduced Lin Chaoyang to Wu Lanqing, "Lan Qing, this is my master. I went to tell him about our marriage that day, and it happened that his old man had just bought a car, so this came in handy.
Well."
"Hello, Master, I really have caused you trouble!"
Wu Lanqing said hello to Lin Chaoyang respectfully, and Lin Chaoyang replied to her with a smile, "Hello bride, I wish you a happy marriage."
After exchanging a few words, Wu Lanqing sat in the back seat and curiously looked at Lin Chaoyang's back.
She has never met Lin Chaoyang, but she has heard Liang Zuo talk about Lin Chaoyang more than once. Liang Zuo's mother is a well-known writer, so it is not surprising to know Lin Chaoyang, a great writer.
But with such a great writer driving her car, Wu Lanqing still felt that her wedding had a special sense of grand ceremony.
The wedding was held in Fengze Garden. After the pick-up team started again, they did not go straight to Fengze Garden. Instead, they wandered around Chang'an Street and went to Liang Zuo's new residence - a single dormitory allocated by the Ministry of Education.
.
We didn't go to Fengze Garden until early ten o'clock. When we got there, the group of classmates and friends who followed to pick up the bride were already freezing and were complaining about Liang Zuo's chicken thieves.
I picked up the bride by myself, found a car, and carried her comfortably in my arms. The rest of them rode bicycles and endured the cold. They were really unworthy of a man.
Chapter completed!