Chapter 552 This person can be trusted

Wang Shuo hosted the dinner today, and naturally the most people came from Haima Studio. When Lin Weimin and the other two arrived at Jimen Hotel, everyone had already arrived.

Having won the war of words, Wang Shuo was in high spirits today. He had a pager on his waist and a protruding belly. His face was already flushed even though he hadn't drunk any alcohol.

"We've gathered together today for no other reason than to be happy that we scolded those bastards so badly that they dared not talk back. Second, to thank you all for your great help in the past few days. Third, and most importantly, we who make a living by writing can finally get royalties from now on!"

Wang Shuo was holding a large glass of draft beer, his mood was excited and his voice was loud.

Everyone drank a glass together.

After drinking the first glass of wine, everyone stopped talking and focused on eating. They only raised their heads when they were half full.

When there are a lot of people, they chat in small groups.

Today's protagonist is Wang Shuo, and he is naturally the focus of everyone's discussion.

Now that the war of words is over, what everyone is most concerned about is naturally the royalties that Wang Shuo can get.

The price of a set of collected works is at least ten or eight yuan, and 100,000 sets would be one million yuan.

"Die After Having Fun" published by Huayi Publishing House sold 700,000 copies in half a year. Naturally, people would not think that Wang Shuo's collection of essays would only sell 100,000 copies.

"Mr. Shuo, you must be a millionaire now, right?" Feng Xiaogang complimented with a smile.

Wang Shuo drank a few glasses of wine, his face flushed, and he managed to stay rational, "How many sets do we have to sell?"

Zhao Baogang smiled and said, "Not much, one million sets will be enough!"

Everyone laughed. The number of one million copies was naturally extremely exaggerated. A collection of works was different from a single volume. It was still very difficult to sell such a large number.

"Out of 10 million yuan, Master Shuo can get 1 million, and the publishing house will almost become your employee." Zhao Baogang said.

Wang Shuo glanced at him and said, "You haven't seen much of the world, have you? Weimin gets 13% or 15% royalties abroad, so what's 10%?"

Everyone only knew that Lin Weimin earned a lot of royalties abroad, but it was the first time they knew the specific distribution of the royalties, and they couldn't help but sigh.

When a writer reaches Mr. Lin’s level, his life is almost over.

"Teacher Lin gets 15%, why do you only get 10%?" Yu Hua asked.

Wang Shuo's smug expression disappeared, replaced by a bit of annoyance. This kid kept talking about things that were not related to the topic.

Ma Dudu suddenly couldn't control his laughter, which confused the others. When they asked him, he didn't say anything and just kept laughing.

Wang Shuo was depressed by Ma Dudu's laughter and glared at Yu Hua fiercely. Seeing Lin Weimin also looking at him with a smile, he said helplessly: "I am too embarrassed to bargain."

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but laugh.

Zheng Xiaolong pointed at him and laughed, "No wonder Teacher Lin told you not to do business. You, you will never get rich in this life!"

Facing everyone's ridicule, Wang Shuo looked sullen.

So what if it’s 10%, I’ll still make a lot of money.

After the topic of royalties was over, everyone changed to a new topic.

Feng Xiaogang came over to toast Lin Weimin. It seemed that toasting everyone every time he had a meal was a compulsory course for him.

"I heard that the baby is about to be born?" Lin Weimin asked.

Feng Xiaogang has been married for several years. His wife is a nurse and she became pregnant at the end of last year.

When this topic was mentioned, Feng Xiaogang couldn't help but grin, "It will be soon. The doctor said it will be around the end of this month or the beginning of next month."

"Congratulations. I'll go and give a gift when the baby's one-month old." Lin Weimin said with a smile.

"Thank you, thank you!"

Feng Xiaogang looked grateful. He always felt equal respect and care from Teacher Lin.

When it was almost nine o'clock, Lin Weimin took Shi Tiesheng and left first. He was in poor health, and it was an exception for him to stay up until this time today.

There were three of us when we came, and only two left when we left.

Lin Weimin looked back and saw that Yu Hua had already entered the realm of "earthly immortal", feeling ecstatic. It seemed that he had been looking forward to such an occasion for a long time.

Lin Weimin pushed Shi Tiesheng out of the restaurant. It was already September and the weather in Yanjing had turned cooler.

It was night time now, and with a waning moon in the sky, it was even cooler.

"We've finally survived this summer!" Shi Tiesheng sighed.

He has been sitting in a wheelchair for many years, and summer and winter are not good seasons for him.

"When flowers are ready to be picked, pick them immediately," said Lin Weimin.

"We should go out more often during this period. The autumn in Yanjing is really too short!"

The two talked and got into the car.

Two days after the dinner, Lin Weimin received news from Shi Tiesheng that he and Cheng Ximi had discussed it and agreed to buy a computer.

Lin Weimin called Wang Xiaobo, and Wang Xiaobo appeared in the editorial office within an hour.

"Why are you here so quickly? It's not something important."

"I just resigned recently and have nothing to do at home," said Wang Xiaobo.

Wang Xiaobo is very efficient. After talking to Lin Weimin that time, he went back and resigned from his job. Recently, he has officially started his career as a freelance writer.

Wang Xiaobo has some knowledge in computers, and when Shi Tiesheng and Yu Hua want to buy a computer, he is the most suitable person to find.

Lin Weimin called Yu Hua down from upstairs and asked him to tell Wang Xiaobo the specific requirements for the computer. He couldn't tell, "It just needs to be able to run software, type, and save."

"Okay, you know nothing, but you pretend to be very knowledgeable."

Lin Weimin pulled him aside and said to Wang Xiaobo, "You can arrange a configuration for them."

Wang Xiaobo nodded, "No problem. So when are we going to Zhongguancun?"

Lin Weimin glanced at his watch and said, "Let's go now. We have time now."

The two were going to Zhongguancun together. Yu Hua was eager to go with them. Lin Weimin said, "Why are you going? I haven't finished writing my novel yet, and I've been thinking about going out to play all day. I can't even explain the configuration. Can you help me?"

Yu Hua was scolded and didn't dare to talk back. He was dissatisfied in his heart and spoke as if you could help if you went there.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were only about 20 farmhouses in Zhongguancun, and piles of graves stood in clusters. Later, eight universities rose one after another, and this road was finally named "Xueyuan Road". The first batch of scientific research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were also built here.

In just ten years, "Science City" and "University Town" coexisted, and Zhongguancun became the area with the highest concentration of knowledge talents in the country.

In 1980, a professor-level researcher named Chen Chunxian was so shocked after visiting Silicon Valley in the United States that he returned to China and established the first private technology enterprise in Zhongguancun - the Advanced Technology Development Service Department of the BJ Plasma Society.

Since then, more and more companies have been established in Zhongguancun, including Kehai, Xintong, Sitong, Lenovo...

By 1987, Zhongguancun Electronics Street had grown to a considerable scale, with up to 200,000 people coming to Zhongguancun for shopping every day, and hundreds of high-tech enterprises. The operating income of the technology companies on this street accounted for 37% of the total social income of the HD area.

Although they are called high-tech enterprises, except for a few key players, most of the high-tech companies in Zhongguancun are middlemen, importing foreign software and hardware and selling them to domestic companies and individuals.

There are very few individual customers in Zhongguancun nowadays, and most of them come for government purchases.

Due to the imperfect market economy regulatory system, Zhongguancun is in chaos and is even known as the "Street of Scammers" among the people of Yanjing. It was only two years ago that the government formed a joint investigation team to conduct a thorough investigation, and the atmosphere has improved. This is why Lin Weimin brought Wang Xiaobo along.

The two of them went around Zhongguancun and spent 24,000 yuan buying accessories for three computers.

"Just write 18,000." Lin Weimin didn't ask for an invoice, but a receipt, and explained it to the salesperson when he was writing the receipt.

The next day, Wang Xiaobo spent the whole day assembling three computers.

After some more debugging, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Lin Weimin, "Teacher Lin, it's all done."

Lin Weimin handed him the hot tea he had just poured. "You must have been exhausted today. Let's have dinner at home tonight."

Wang Xiaobo declined a few times, but finally stayed for dinner.

Of the three computers assembled by Wang Xiaobo, Lin Weimin kept one for his family.

Before, the only thing at home was the Toshiba T1000 that he brought back from the United States. Its main feature was its convenience, but it was not actually used very often.

After dinner, Lin Weimin got in the car and took Wang Xiaobo to the Shichahai courtyard.

Shi Tiesheng didn't expect Lin Weimin to be so efficient. He had just finished talking about something the day before yesterday, and he had already brought it today.

Shi Tiesheng and Cheng Ximi watched Wang Xiaobo install the computer with curiosity. He pressed the power button and the screen lit up. Both of them had big smiles on their faces.

After Wang Xiaobo introduced the computer to the two of them, Shi Tiesheng couldn't wait to get started.

He had used the computers of Lin Weimin and other friends and understood the basic operations. He tried typing on the computer for ten minutes.

Shi Tiesheng said with a smile on his face: "This is bad. I don't want to use paper and pen anymore."

Putting aside the ritual and habit of handwriting, computers are indeed very good tools for most writers.

After trying for a while, Shi Tiesheng gave the place to Cheng Ximi. Looking at Cheng Ximi trying very hard in front of the computer, Shi Tiesheng summarized the advantages of writing on a computer in a clear and logical manner.

"First of all, it is easy to revise. No matter how you revise it, the manuscript can always be clear, neat and pleasing to the eye. It's not like before, when I would feel annoyed for no reason when I looked at the manuscript that I had distorted beyond recognition.

Another advantage is that it facilitates preservation. The article is stored on the disk, and you can print a copy whenever you want, and it will never be lost.

The second thing is to make sure there are no typos. The characters you type are exactly what they are, and there are no typos in the font library."

Lin Weimin said, "These advantages are debatable. First, it is convenient to revise manuscripts, but without traces of revisions, many flashes of inspiration will disappear, which is disadvantageous for subsequent creations. Second, manuscripts can be lost or damaged, and disks can break. Third, if you type accurately, you will certainly not make mistakes, but you will not be able to type many uncommon characters."

Lin Weimin refuted Shi Tiesheng's remarks one by one, and Shi Tiesheng laughed and said, "According to what you said, there are indeed many disadvantages of writing with a computer."

"Everything has its pros and cons!"

While the two were chatting, Cheng Ximi finished testing the computer and looked delighted.

"This time, we have added a big item to our family!" said Shi Tiesheng.

Before the advent of the consumer age, things were not just things, but also important witnesses of people’s life journeys.

"Weimin, how much did this computer cost in total?" Cheng Ximi asked.

Lin Weimin took out the receipt and said, "I used the parts I bought to assemble three computers. I kept one at home. The total cost was 18,000 yuan, which means an average of 6,000 yuan per computer."

Cheng Ximi was surprised: "So cheap? Didn't they say it would cost 10,000 or 20,000?"

Lin Weimin laughed and patted Wang Xiaobo on the shoulder. "This is all thanks to Xiaobo. If it weren't for him, we would all be slaughtered."

Shi Tiesheng and his wife thanked Wang Xiaobo together. Wang Xiaobo waved his hands in embarrassment and said, "It's just a small favor, just a small favor!"

After leaving Shi Tiesheng's house, Lin Weimin drove Wang Xiaobo back home.

"Xiaobo, you've worked so hard these past two days, thank you!" Lin Weimin got out of the car and shook hands with Wang Xiaobo.

"It's nothing."

After Lin Weimin left, Wang Xiaobo stood there and looked at the back of the car for a while.

When he got home, he told his wife what he had seen and heard today. Li Yinhe exclaimed, "This man is someone you can confide in."

Wang Xiaobo nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)