The headquarters of Asia Times is located at 17 Lee Garden Road, Causeway Bay.
In a corner of the printing workshop, Lao Liu's fingers moved mechanically on the heavy lead type.
The old hand who had been typographically working at the Hong Kong Evening News for nearly twenty years now touched the characters of these new newspapers with an inappropriate stagnation in his movements.
The shadow of the evening paper's collapse has not yet completely dissipated from my mind.
With meager severance pay and the fear of a uncertain future, they were eventually packed up and thrown to the Asia Daily like garbage.
When he first heard the name, he scoffed inwardly: "Hong Kong Island, a tiny place, dares to be called 'Asia'? It has no idea how high the heavens are and how vast the earth is."
It’s just that the young boss didn’t know the real situation and made a big promise.
Unable to find a new job, I can only stay here for the time being. I feel depressed. Looking at the excited young faces of these new recruits in front of me, I feel even more confused and depressed.
He made up his mind that once he found a new place, he would leave immediately without any regrets.
However, the turning point that day was silent.
President Gao Qiaohao accompanied an unusually young boss into the workshop.
The young man was not arrogant. He looked around casually and asked a few questions.
Old Liu was mixed in the crowd and didn't care at first, until Gao Qiaohao respectfully called him "Xiao Lin Jun" - Xiao Lin Jun?
Kobayashi Tenbo?
Is this the Kobayashi Tenmo who revolutionized the Hong Kong comics scene and turned Dragon Jump into gold?!
A shudder ran up Lao Liu's spine, and a small flame suddenly jumped up in his numb heart, which he had deliberately suppressed.
“So it was him?
Is it that upstart from Japan?"
Old Liu's cloudy old eyes brightened a little, and the speed at which he typed became a little faster, almost imperceptibly.
But this little excitement was quickly suppressed by inertia. After all, the content of the newspaper still matters.
What really shocked Old Liu, like an epiphany, was when he later got his hands on the proof of the first issue of the newspaper.
He habitually wanted to scan the front page of the news first, but his eyes accidentally swept over the supplement - "A Step into the Past"!
The name itself carries a strange magic.
For some unknown reason, after he finished typesetting the words at hand, he couldn't help but turn to the proof sheet and read it.
Special forces soldier Xiang Shaolong?
Time machine?
Back to the Warring States Period?
The bizarre idea struck his old-fashioned mind like an electric current.
The plot unfolded at such a speed that he couldn't breathe. Every suspense hooked him to continue reading, but between the lines, there was a sense of historical heaviness that he was familiar with, which was contradictory and fascinating!
He lost track of time until an old proofreader who had also been transferred from the Hong Kong Island Evening News leaned close to his ear and, in an almost mute voice, pushed up his thick glasses, which were as thick as the bottom of a wine bottle: "Hey, Lao Liu, this... this novel... is incredible!
It’s really… life-threatening…”
Old Liu woke up suddenly.
Looking up, the entire workshop was still busy. The cold and heavy lead type and the printing press that roared as it ran at high speed were no longer, in his eyes for the first time, cold coffins that consumed his life and waited for retirement.
They are now all coated with a layer of hot gold!
Kobayashi Tenmo takes action!
The unique work "A Step into the Past" has been published!
This "Asia Daily"...I'm afraid it's going to soar to the sky!
The previous gloom, numbness, helplessness and depression were instantly washed away by a kind of ecstasy and crazy expectation of almost surviving a disaster!
Even the numb fingertips felt that the lead type had an unprecedented weight.
His throat tightened, and he didn't turn around. He just said "hmm" in a low voice, but he could no longer control the corners of his mouth, and he struggled to pull it upwards into a deep arc.
The movements of his hands became faster, thorough, neat, and with a long-lost strength and rhythm!
In sharp contrast to Lao Liu and other veteran journalists who were forced to change jobs and "turn from gray to bright" is the core area of the editorial department where Deputy Editor-in-Chief Chen Hong is located.
At this moment, beneath the "excitement" here, there is another more complex emotion.
Chen Hong is a talented young man who was hired by Gao Qiaohao from Sing Tao Daily at a high price. He is in his prime and has made a name for himself in the Hong Kong newspaper industry for his unique planning vision and sharp and bold writing style.
He could be said to have taken the initiative to surrender, coming for the rising fame of "Kobayashi Tenno".
When Gao Qiaohao extended an olive branch to him, he agreed almost immediately.
In Chen Hong's opinion, Kobayashi Tenno made such a great name for himself with "Dragon Jump" when he first arrived in Hong Kong Island. Not to mention that "Dragon Jump" itself is already the world's most popular comic magazine with sales of over six million in Japan. The name Kobayashi Tenno itself is synonymous with miracle.
Being able to join his team and combine his intelligence and many ideas will definitely allow him to make a big splash in the newspaper industry. It is a godsend for him.
He was full of confidence and ambition. He even stayed up all night to carefully polish several plans for newspaper content innovation and marketing hot spots, ready to show his skills in front of his new boss and establish his core position in the Asia Daily.
In his blueprint, he would become Kobayashi Tenmo's indispensable right-hand man in building this newspaper, creating a brilliant record that would surpass the Sing Tao Daily and even the Oriental Daily.
That high-spirited demeanor was written in almost every confident movement of his.
However……
The turning point occurred when Gao Qiaohao spread out the complete strategy of the inaugural issue of Asia Daily and the proof of the first chapter of A Journey to the West in front of him.
Gao Qiaohao's tone was calm, but it was like a heavy hammer, hitting Chen Hong's heart again and again.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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