Chapter 126 Chapter 126 Part 2

After Shen Shaoyuan's comic book draft passed the review, the publishing house never contacted him about publishing matters. But this is not surprising. The publishing house was basically in a state of suspension. It will definitely take some time for it to resume operations.

A few days ago, Shen Shaoyuan called the publishing house and changed his contact address to the small courtyard.

The person who answered the phone was a young man. Shen Shaoyuan didn't know who the other party was. After hearing that he would tell the editor-in-charge, he didn't care about the matter anymore.

I didn't expect that Editor Li would come to my door directly.

"I wrote to your old address and called your old workplace. They said you were coming to the capital. I thought you would contact me when you got here. But it's been so long since the Chinese New Year and I haven't heard from you. I've been so anxious these days."

Li Qingguo took a sip of tea to calm his smoking throat: "What a coincidence. When you called that day, we were in a meeting. The person who answered the phone was a temporary worker who was just hired after the beginning of the year. The young man wrote a note with your address and left it on my desk, and forgot to tell me."

"My desk was a mess and I didn't notice it at all. I only found it this morning when I was sorting out the manuscripts, so I hurried over."

Shen Shaoyuan poured him another cup of tea and asked, "Didn't they say there are still many procedures before the official publication?"

Li Qingguo quickly drank another cup of tea: "There are quite a few procedures, but it should be faster than previously expected. Now that the relevant policies have been relaxed, many procedures have been simplified."

He paused and said, "Most importantly, Mr. Shen, you haven't sent us the drawings for the second half of the comic strip yet."

Shen Shaoyuan raised his eyebrows: "Sorry, this is also my first time publishing a comic book. I thought it would be fine as long as I gave it to you before officially publishing it."

He thought that he had to come to the capital anyway, and when the publishing house was almost ready, he could just ride his bicycle to deliver the draft, so he never thought about sending the second half of the draft to the publishing house.

Li Qingguo had never encountered such a thing before.

Before the movement, he was an editor. He had been working as an editor for many years and had seen many people calling the publishing house to urge progress after the first draft was passed. This was the first time he had seen someone like Shen Shaoyuan who didn't care at all.

Li Qingguo had no idea that Shen Shaoyuan was not short of money, especially after coming to the capital, he found that gold and silver were much easier to sell than in Jiangbei County, and his son-in-law's family was not poor, so Shen Shaoyuan's ideas of working hard to earn money to support his family before coming to the capital suddenly disappeared.

He had been eating, drinking and having fun since he was a child. During the years in Yangliu Brigade, he had to work hard due to the situation. Now he suddenly found that he could live a good life without working hard, so naturally he didn't want to work hard anymore.

Just like Liu Yinshuang said, after working for a long time, you will smell like an office worker.

Although Shen Shaoyuan couldn't quite understand what was said, he could still understand the general meaning.

Going to work is indeed not suitable for him, and working hard is not suitable for him either. He still prefers to be a lazy person and do nothing.

So it doesn't matter when the comic book is published. As long as we don't wait for the royalties, just let them publish it whenever they want.

Li Qingguo: "Teacher Shen, we have discussed in the meeting that your comic book will be the first batch of books published by our publishing house, so the time is actually a bit tight. Otherwise, I would be embarrassed to come to your door directly."

Hearing him say that, Shen Shaoyuan was quite happy. His comic strip had already been completed, so it would be nice if it could be published earlier.

"Ping An, go get my drawing. It's on the desk in the room."

Zhou Ping'an responded and went to Shen Shaoyuan's room to get the draft drawing.

Li Qingguo carefully flipped through the drawings, praising them as he turned them over: "Exquisite painting and ingenious conception, Mr. Shen, I have a feeling that your comic strip will be very popular!"

Shen Shaoyuan nodded with a smile: "I think so too."

It is said that emperors all like flatterers. Everyone likes people who are obedient.

"By the way, Mr. Shen, when we were communicating before, I asked you if you wanted to work as an art editor at the publishing house, and you said you wanted to think about it again. I wonder how your thinking is going?"

Seeing such a beautiful painting, Li Qingguo immediately remembered the original invitation.

Shen Shaoyuan had originally considered the job of art editor, but as he said before, his son-in-law's family was not in financial difficulty and he had plenty of money, so he suddenly lost the motivation to strive. Going to work was tiring and not free, so he didn't want to go anymore.

Shen Shaoyuan refused and said, "Forget it, my granddaughter is still young, her parents have to go to school and have no time to take care of her, I have to look after her."

Li Qingguo: “…”

As he was flipping through the pages, he suddenly came across a picture of a baby.

Shen Shaoyuan's comic strips are in black and white, with black strokes simply outlining the characters. The overall style is a bit like ink painting, but this portrait of a baby is in color. Not only is it lifelike, the whole painting reveals a vigorous vitality.

“This painting…”

Shen Shaoyuan took a look and said, “Oh, this painting is of my little granddaughter, and they were accidentally sandwiched together.”

Shen Shaoyuan reached out to take the painting back, but Li Qingguo dodged it nimbly.

"Teacher Shen, this painting is well done. Do you think it can be used as an illustration for one of our children's books?" Li Qingguo held the painting as if it were a gold brick and was completely unwilling to let go.

But Shen Shaoyuan refused immediately: "No."

He was even somewhat glad that he had not agreed to work as an art editor in a publishing house. Not only would it be difficult for him to refuse if the publishing house asked him to draw illustrations for Xiao Liangliang.

Li Qingguo asked anxiously: "Why?"

He tried to persuade Shen Shaoyuan: "Teacher Shen, don't worry, I will apply for the manuscript fee from the publishing house and will definitely give it to you according to the highest standard."

Shen Shaoyuan shook his head: "It's not about the royalties. How can our little Liangliang be printed in a book and exposed to the public? No, no, it's unbecoming."

Li Qingguo: “…”

No, she is just a little kid, so what's wrong with her being printed in a children's book? How can it be inappropriate? Besides, how can a little kid have any sense of propriety? !

But no matter how he tried to persuade Shen Shaoyuan, he just refused to agree. After being annoyed to the point of a headache, he simply said that otherwise the comic book could be not published for the time being or find another publisher. After a series of threats, Li Qingguo finally gave up the idea.

After the two of them had reached an agreement on the next time they would meet, Li Qingguo stood up to say goodbye. Just at this moment, Xiao Liangliang woke up and was carried out by Fu Mingze.

Just as Li Qingguo was about to step forward to play with the child, Shen Shaoyuan immediately asked Fu Mingze to take the child back into the house, and his expression when he looked at Li Qingguo was full of scrutiny and vigilance.

Li Qingguo was stunned for a moment, and then he didn't know whether to laugh or cry after he figured it out. He explained repeatedly: "Teacher Shen, don't worry, I will definitely not mention the illustration again, and I will not harm your granddaughter. I just think the child is cute and want to tease her."

Shen Shaoyuan opened the door and sent the guest away indifferently: "It's okay, she doesn't lack people to tease her."

Li Qingguo: “…”

He shook his head and laughed. He had seen many people doting on their grandsons, but this was the first time he saw someone doting on his granddaughter so much.

Well, it's not a good idea to have your cake and eat it too. It's even worse to have your eyes on more. It's better to just focus on making the comic strip first.

*

The next day, Shen Moer got up early in the morning. After breakfast, Fu Mingze took her to school on his bicycle.

The bicycle was the one Fu Mingze rode from home, a brand new Phoenix brand. It was said that it was originally used by his father to go to and from get off work. No one knew how his father got to work after he rode it away.

They did not wander around the campus yesterday for nothing, at least they knew all the teaching buildings and cafeterias of each department. So they did not go to the dormitory today. Fu Mingze directly sent Shen Moer to the bottom of the teaching building of the Economics Department, turned the faucet, and rode to the Physics Department himself.

Shen Moer walked into the classroom on the west side of the third floor. The classroom suddenly became quiet, and all the boys and girls in the classroom looked at her.

Almost everyone lives on campus and came to the classroom early this morning. They sat together in groups of three or five and chatted. Shen Moer was the only one who came so late. She was good-looking and had a special temperament, so she naturally attracted attention.

People who have been factory managers are naturally not afraid of other people's eyes. Shen Moer walked into the classroom calmly, and after scanning the classroom, there was only one empty seat left on the right, so she walked over and sat down.

Soon, the classroom was filled with conversations again, but everyone was looking at her intentionally or unintentionally, and some people were asking each other: "Who is that female classmate? Does anyone know her?"

"Do you think this student looks, how should I put it, quite dignified? To be honest, I thought she was a teacher just now, and I almost wanted to say hello to her."

"She's from the capital, right? Look at her clothes, they're so stylish. The girls in the capital are different. She looks so elegant."

At this moment, two voices suddenly sounded at the same time:

"She's not from the capital. She said so herself. She came here from the southern province through examination."

"What do you mean she's from the capital? She's from a small mountain village in a remote county town in our southern province."

Shen Moer felt that the two voices sounded familiar. She looked up and saw that the person who said the first sentence should be Feng Manni. After she finished speaking, she lowered her head to read a book without looking at anyone, as if she just couldn't help but clarify the facts.

But the other person surprised Shen Moer a little.

It’s Zhang Jiaojiao.

Shen Moer knew before that she was from the Department of Economics at Capital University, and was a classmate of hers. She guessed that she might run into Zhang Jiaojiao on campus, but she didn't expect that Zhang Jiaojiao was in the same class as her.

She glanced at Zhang Jiaojiao and found that she was full of energy. It seemed that the drug used by the traffickers did not cause any serious harm to her.