Chapter 215 Beautiful World
Because of the impact of this incident, Lu Yanhe forgot to call Song Linxin. He was in a daze for a while before being startled awake by Chen Siqi's phone call.
Have you gone out?
"Not yet," Lu Yanhe said.
“Don’t be late. We have an appointment today with both Yemai.com and Jiangyin Publishing House to sit down and discuss ‘Jump Up’,” Chen Siqi said.
"Oh, right, okay, I'll head out right away."
Lu Yanhe hurriedly packed his schoolbag, slung it over his shoulder, and ran out.
The sun was shining directly on him, and he was thinking about when his skin would get a little darker, to reach Chen Lingling's standard.
Today's meeting place was neither in Yemai.com's office building nor in Jiangyin Publishing House's building. Instead, we compromised and found a coffee shop in a central location. We booked a large table and a relatively private area for discussion, without even finding a proper meeting room.
Chen Siqi did it on purpose, saying, "On the one hand, I'm reminding them that we are just poor students, so don't treat us like proper business partners. Otherwise, they'll argue with us later. What we lack most is this kind of experience. The more we talk, the more ignorant we seem. It's better to be willful and just say that we want both fish and bear's paw, and let them accommodate us."
"On the other hand, this is the only place we can choose. It wouldn't be good to hold today's communication with any other company." What Chen Siqi didn't say was that the topic of discussion today was something that couldn't give either party a sense of ownership or home-field advantage.
After hearing Chen Siqi's reasons, Lu Yanhe was a little stunned. He hadn't expected Chen Siqi to have thought of so much. He nodded and said, "You've thought of everything."
Chen Siqi curled her lips and said, "So-so."
-
Both sides sent more than one person. For Yemai.com, Liu Qiao accompanied Xin Zixing directly, while for Jiangyin Publishing House, Xu Xiaoyin invited Liu Cheng to come along.
Lu Yanhe and his group arrived fifteen minutes early, but both sides dragged it out until the very last minute of the agreed time.
"..."
This is not Xu Xiaoyin and Xin Zixing's usual style. It seems that this was the idea of the two people beside them. They both wanted to be the last to appear and outshine each other?
This alone made Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi realize that the negotiations this afternoon might not go so smoothly.
Upon meeting, the two exchanged pleasantries with smiles on their faces.
As soon as she sat down, Chen Siqi spoke up, saying, "Thank you to all the older brothers and sisters for supporting my and Lu Yanhe's sudden idea, which has allowed us to actually start making a book this summer. We originally thought it was just an idea that would never come to fruition."
Lu Yanhe was already somewhat familiar with her. Seeing her affected tone and exaggerated body language, Lu Yanhe couldn't help but ask her with his eyes, "What kind of act are you putting on?"
However, Lu Yanhe's trust in Chen Siqi was such that even if he didn't understand what she was doing, he would absolutely support her and not undermine her.
Chen Siqi looked gratefully at Liu Qiao and Xin Zixing on Yemai.com, and then equally gratefully at Liu Cheng and Xu Xiaoyin on Jiangyin Publishing House. She said, "I know that making a book costs a lot of money, and we're not sure if this book will make money. Actually, we just wanted to fulfill a dream we had in high school. So, Lu Yanhe and I discussed the production costs of this book. Otherwise, we'd rather just bear the costs ourselves. It's not good to ask you to take this risk. We're just recent high school graduates. Judging from the online opinions about our book, it seems that we've indeed gotten a considerable advantage."
Lu Yanhe was even more shocked, but his face remained calm, as if he had already discussed this with Chen Siqi.
“Siqi, didn’t we already say that Yemai.com would be responsible for the production costs?” Xin Zixing immediately looked at Lu Yanhe.
Chen Siqi said in surprise, "But at that time, there were no plans to publish a physical book. Yemai.com had an exclusive feature, which also helped you attract a lot of traffic. Now that you're going to publish a physical book, are you still willing to take on the responsibility?"
Xin Zixing was taken aback, then suddenly realized that she had been too hasty. Chen Siqi, the girl she had dealt with a few times before, was a very clever and proactive person. Why would she suddenly speak to her with such an innocent tone and eyes, deliberately trying to trick her?
She smiled slightly and said, "We will cover all the expenses. It's not that we're unwilling, but I think since Jiangyin Publishing House wants to cooperate with you, they probably won't agree to let just us pay for it, right?"
Xu Xiaoyin: "Of course, although physical publishing can't compare to your e-reading, paper, printing, and transportation are all costs, we will directly prepay royalties to Siqi and Xiaolu. It's not easy for two young people to make a book, so of course we will support them."
"How much royalty do you plan to prepay?" Xin Zixing asked. "We originally planned to provide 100,000 yuan in production funding directly. You guys in physical publishing know best that for an ebook that doesn't originally need to be published as a physical book, that should be a very high production cost, right?"
Xu Xiaoyin nodded, "Indeed, but based on what I know about the lineup of authors that Xiao Lu has invited so far, just putting these authors' names together might not be enough to make people willing to spend tens of yuan to buy a book. It should be enough to attract a lot of people to your Yemai website to check out free e-books, right?"
“The economic returns from 10,000 people reading a free e-magazine are worlds apart from 10,000 people spending tens of dollars to buy a book.” Xin Zixing widened her eyes and spread her hands. “Actually, making a book like this has never been our primary goal. Lu Yanhe is a partner of our Yemai.com and we will be creating the ‘City Travelogue’ documentary series together. So, we want to give him our full support in realizing this dream.”
“We really are on the same page. Xiao Lu has helped our publishing house sell nearly 300,000 copies of ‘Nineteen Years of Crime Records’ and ‘Star Orbit.’ He even managed to sell the film and television rights for ‘Nineteen Years of Crime Records.’ As a book-loving kid, he wants to be the chief editor of a book, so of course we want to get the opportunity to publish it in print,” Xu Xiaoyin said, not to be outdone.
Seeing that the two women were about to continue their confrontation, Lu Yanhe was starting to feel overwhelmed. Chen Siqi suddenly crossed her arms and sighed, "Alright, so you two are only willing to cooperate with us for Lu Yanhe's sake. We were just being presumptuous, thinking that it was because we could produce a good book and bring together such a creative team that you took the initiative to cooperate."
Chen Siqi is pretending to be ignorant when she knows the truth.
Of course, the primary reason why Yemai.com and Jiangyin Publishing House were willing to produce this book was because of Lu Yanhe.
However, once she said it, it made the intentions of both parties seem utilitarian and less pure.
"Siqi, you know that's not what I meant." Xin Zixing was a little confused about Chen Siqi's attitude today.
Why does Chen Siqi seem a bit unreasonable today?
She's not usually like this.
Chen Siqi: "Can we put Lu Yanhe's influence on this book aside for now and just focus on the content of the book itself? With the current lineup of writers, as long as the quality of the final manuscripts is not bad, this book should be able to sell, it's just a matter of how many copies it sells, right?"
Lu Yanhe could tell that she was trying hard to steer the conversation.
Neither side commented.
Chen Siqi said, "Actually, the production cost of a book is not much. What Lu Yanhe and I least want to see is two partners who we think are very suitable arguing over who should contribute more or less to the production cost. We also don't want everyone to argue over some interests. After all, it's just a book. No matter how big the profit is, it's only so big. A production cost of 100,000 yuan is nothing to me, let alone Lu Yanhe. I wasn't joking just now. If everyone is going to argue about these things again and again, I would rather neither of you contribute any money and I would pay for it myself."
After Chen Siqi finished speaking, the table fell silent.
-
At noon, Chen Siqi booked a restaurant and invited everyone to lunch together.
Chen Siqi was more familiar with Xin Zixing, so she rode in Xin Zixing's car and went to the restaurant with her and Liu Qiao.
Lu Yanhe stayed with Xu Xiaoyin and the others.
After getting into the car, Chen Siqi suddenly fell silent, staring quietly out the window, a stark contrast to her behavior in the coffee shop.
Xin Zixing more or less realized why Chen Siqi had acted that way just now.
She turned her head and glanced at Chen Siqi, who looked like this, with a smile on her lips, and then looked at Liu Qiao sitting in the back.
Liu Qiao was looking down at his phone.
She said, "Siqi, haven't you and Lu Yanhe considered being together?"
"Huh?" Chen Siqi suddenly came to her senses and looked at Xin Zixing in astonishment.
"You're being so unreasonable today, are you doing it on purpose?" Xin Zixing said with a hint of teasing, "You don't want us to argue and turn the blame to Lu Yanhe, so when we're at odds, you take the initiative to jump out and become the target, and your words are all aimed at removing Lu Yanhe from the center of the discussion."
Chen Siqi's face suddenly turned red, and she immediately turned to look out the window. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."
Xin Zixing: "You really are a recent graduate. Our confrontation is just to divide the pie. We're too busy trying to win over Lu Yanhe, why would we target him?"
Chen Siqi still maintains, "That's not what I thought."
At this moment, Liu Qiao, who was sitting in the back, still looked at his phone but spoke up, "She's worried that you two will use your past relationship to compete for Lu Yanhe's support. She doesn't want Lu Yanhe to be emotionally blackmailed by you two. Who's worried that you'll use Lu Yanhe as a target?"
Chen Siqi felt as if a thorn had grown on the chair and she had been pricked in the butt; she couldn't help but shift her position.
"Huh? What makes us think we have a relationship with Lu Yanhe that we can emotionally blackmail him?" Xin Zixing questioned Liu Qiao's statement with a mix of amusement and exasperation.
Chen Siqi thought to herself, "That's because you don't know how foolishly kind Lu Yanhe is."
Liu Qiao smirked, "Concern leads to confusion."
Chen Siqi denied it weakly: "I'm not, don't talk nonsense."
-
A similar conversation took place in another car.
"That little girl named Chen Siqi, is she Xiao Lu's classmate?" Liu Cheng asked.
Xu Xiaoyin, who was driving, nodded and said, "Yes."
Liu Cheng smiled gently and said casually, "Xiao Lu, you should cherish her."
Lu Yanhe immediately blushed deeply.
"Huh? What?"
"Keep pretending." Xu Xiaoyin continued Liu Cheng's words with a sarcastic remark, and then said something similar to what Liu Qiao had said.
Lu Yanhe was shocked to realize that Chen Siqi's unusual behavior just now was actually for this purpose.
He felt somewhat frustrated this morning, as if he had no one to talk to.
He managed to say a few words, trying to smooth things over for Chen Siqi, but was quickly interrupted by her.
So that was Chen Siqi's purpose?
Lu Yanhe was speechless, stunned and bewildered, and a complex emotion welled up in his heart that was hard to describe.
Xu Xiaoyin said with a nostalgic and envious tone, "Just think, working on a book together this summer after graduating from high school, this kind of thing is a romance that can never be replicated."
Liu Cheng laughed too.
"Why don't you travel back in time?"
“Never mind then, Editor-in-Chief Liu. Look at how Xiao Lu and Si Qi look, and then look at me at eighteen… Never mind, you can’t see it anyway, so it’s best not to look. Now I’m a beautiful urban woman, but when I was eighteen and had just graduated, I was just a country bumpkin who thought I was facing the ocean but was actually facing a sandstorm.” Xu Xiaoyin said, “I don’t want to travel back to that time.”
Liu Cheng: "That's what you think now. When you get to my age, you'll understand what it means to want to travel back to your youth. Xiao Lu probably won't understand at all."
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe snapped out of his reverie, not having heard the whole conversation.
"At your age, you can't possibly understand how we feel about wanting to go back to when we were eighteen," Xu Xiaoyin said happily.
Lu Yanhe opened his mouth, then smiled absentmindedly.
Time travel...?
Looking at the bright sunshine and clear blue sky ahead, Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "Yes, although my homeroom teacher always said that we are always in the best years of our lives, we don't know how to cherish them. Actually, I also think that things are great now, and I really cherish them."
He knew that Liu Cheng and Xu Xiaoyin must think that he understood what he meant, but he knew that only he knew what he was saying.
-
Ultimately, the initial agreement reached by the three parties regarding "Jump Up" is as follows:
1. The content production budget for Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi's team was 70,000 yuan from Yemai.com and 30,000 yuan from Jiangyin Publishing House. They were only responsible for the manuscript content. The layout design of the e-book was provided by Yemai.com, and the layout design of the physical book was handled by Jiangyin Publishing House.
2. "Jump Up" will be available for pre-order on YeMai.com at the same time as it is launched online. It will be officially released on e-commerce platforms and bookstores three days later. It will be free to read for the first three days, and then become a paid book. The price will be one-third of the price of the physical book. YeMai.com will then communicate with Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi about the revenue sharing.
3. YeMai.com's e-book listing page provides links to purchase physical books, and Jiangyin Publishing House also states in its promotional materials that e-reading is exclusively provided by YeMai.com.
...
The two partners did indeed take good care of Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi, or rather, they were willing to take care of them, ensuring they didn't suffer any losses and providing them with very good conditions.
During lunch, to Lu Yanhe's surprise, Chen Siqi gracefully raised her glass and offered a small cup of rice wine to everyone: "I don't drink much, so I can only drink this little bit. I apologize to all the teachers for my rude behavior just now. Although I know I benefited from Lu Yanhe's support, it would have been impossible to achieve such a dream without your help. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the teachers."
The others quickly picked up their cups.
Only Liu Qiao, Liu Cheng, and Lu Yanhe had rice wine in their cups.
Xu Xiaoyin and Xin Zixing didn't have any; they drank juice because they had to drive.
At this moment, Chen Siqi finally regained her usual poised and elegant demeanor.
She has a bit of a temper and a little personality when she's with Lu Yanhe, and she doesn't hold back her sharp edges when she's with Liu Wei'an, but in public, she's always the kind of girl who looks like she's received a good education since she was little.
Lu Yanhe felt that he was not as always aware of this as Chen Siqi.
It really is the difference between having someone teach you from a young age and not having one.
Be careful, Lu Yanhe.
(End of this chapter)
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